(I originally posted this as a blog on Team Covenant HERE.)
Palp-Aces are running wild in the X-Wing meta these days. When the Jumpmaster hit the scene with Wave 8, and Torp-Scouts became a thing, one of the few lists that seemed to weather the ordnance storm without much concern was Palp-Aces. Several factors played into this:
1) The aces could boost + barrel roll out of arc with ease, forcing a 2-dice primary turret shot instead.
2) Even when they couldn’t get out of arc, they could easily evade 4 hits/crits with some combination of focus, evade, Authothrusters (range 3), and Palpatine.
3) Autothrusters basically made them impossible to hit with a Scout late game when the torps are gone.
At US Nationals I ran 2 torp Scouts and a Bumpmaster. My only loss of the tournament was against the eventual winner Duncan Howard, running Palp Aces w/ Soontir Fel and the Inquisitor. Even though the Bumpmaster managed to kill Soontir by himself (R5-P8, Feedback Array, APL), there wasn’t enough juice left to take down the Inquisitor.
But now Wave 9 has some new toys. I personally never play Imperials. But with the addition of the Fang Fighter, I am intrigued with new possibilities. Specifically, Scum has a dodgy ace… Maybe even two.
On our Stay On Target podcast this week, I made a quick comment about a list I’m excited to play, but I felt it needed some more explanation. So let me introduce a concept I’m working on: ScumP Aces.
ScumP Aces is the Scum version of Palp-Aces. Will it be as good as Palpatine? No. Is this completely and utterly dependent on the dial, which is still to revealed? Yes. So let this be a disclaimer: If the dial sucks, this blog becomes null and void.
But dang it, I love Scum, and the idea sounded fun. Here’s the list:
ScumP Aces (98 points)
Fenn Rau w/ PTL, Concord Dawn Protector, Autothrusters (34)
Old Teroch w/ VI, Concord Dawn Protector, Autothrusters (30)
Manaroo w/ PTL, Recon Specialist, Unhinged Astromech (34)
In this list, you have two PS9 aces with a support ship. Manaroo plays the role of Palpatine. In other words, stay out of the fight, run on the edges, while sending double focus and possibly Target Locks to Fenn or Old Teroch. A complete and total support ship. We’ve seen what Manaroo can do for Dengar. Let’s see what she can do for old Terry and Fenn. Again, not as good as Palpatine, but still helpful.
Old Teroch has a great ability to strip tokens, but most of the time you’re going to want to use your actions to boost or barrel roll into that range 1 to trigger some abilities… or quite honestly, to dodge some arcs when it’s more advantageous. Old Teroch needs VI to get up to PS9, so Manaroo just sits back providing the help with modifying tokens.
Fenn is a little more dangerous because he’s a natural PS9 with PTL. He’ll be able to boost, barrel roll, and still potentially get 2 focus tokens from Manaroo. With the 2 point initiative bid, you’ll have a good chance to pass the initiative to a Soontir player.
By no means am I anticipating this to change the meta. I think the Fang Fighter will take some getting used to. But I’m ready for Wave 9 and the new possibilities!
What would you change? What are you excited to play? We can’t let the Imperials have all the fun, people!
Edited by davidhaus