Well, I didn't go to Worlds, so why not go to one of the first Regionals of the season? That was the thinking, anyway; so me and a couple of other Coloradans made the trip out to Omaha for what ended up being one helluva tournament.
Now, I can't really say how I expected to do, but I was at least hoping to do well. I ended up in second at Denver last year, and Top 8 the year before; but 2016 had been a pretty poor tournament season for me so far. Up until this year, I'd never failed to make the cut; but I missed out at all three tourneys I went to (a store champ and two Regionals). Long story short: I had no idea what would happen.
I ended up taking a variant of the Worlds runner-up. I'd been running Miranda and Esege for a while, but simply couldn't find a way to deal with TLTs. The Thursday before Worlds, it hit me -- Corran! So the squad I ended up taking was:
Corran Horn (49)
Advanced Sensors (3)
R2-D2 (3)
Push the Limit (3)
Engine Upgrade (4)
Miranda Doni (50)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Extra Munitions (2)
Sabine Wren (2)
Proton Bombs (5)
Conner Nets (4)
Advanced SLAM (2)
TOTAL: 99
49-point Corran was a given for me. In my mind, there are exactly two Corran builds: Budget Corran (42 points, with VI and FCS) and Good Corran. The PtL + Sensors combo is fantastic, and if you haven't tried it out, I highly suggest you give it a shot. It gives you insane maneuverability, especially in a meta that's largely below PS 8.
For Miranda, I wanted Proton Bombs to deal with regen, which I expected to be fairly common. The Homing Missiles weren't as important to me -- they struck me as a Defender counter, in a list that has two ships which can easily deal with Defenders.
The one-point bid was mostly a happenstance, but I thought it would come in handy if I saw anyone flying the Worlds list -- having Miranda move first and bomb first can be pretty important.
ON MY TOURNAMENT
Game One
My opponent brought two ARCs (Norra and Shara) and Snap in the T-70. Norra had Determination, Vectored Thrusters, Tail Gunner and the title; Shara had Trick Shot, Vectored Thrusters, Tail Gunner, and the title; and Snap had VI, BB-8, Primed Thrusters, and Autothrusters.
I gave away the initiative; I wanted to react to Snap's positioning more than I wanted to Conner Net him. The rocks ended up clustered in the center, with a nice corridor running parallel to the player edges of the board. He put his ships down near the center of the table; I put Corran and Miranda in the left corner (Miranda being a bit more central). I flew Miranda into a jousting setup, while Corran strayed behind; right before the first turn of combat, I turned Miranda hard to the right and SLAMed to get out of everyone's arc but Snap's. Corran was still lagging, so Snap had the only shot; he scraped a shield or two off.
After that, the rocks became a major stumbling block for my opponent. He decided to split the squadron, sending Snap to chase Miranda, while Norra hard turned to catch Corran if he fled down the board edge and Shara banked in to catch him if rolled into the center of the board. Miranda promptly dropped a proton bomb on Snap, which gave him a Thrust Control Fire. I played it cautious and kept her out of arc. Corran, meanwhile, had dialed in a three-straight; I used Advanced Sensors to boost to the right and evade, and then took myself right through a rock. Fortunately, there was no damage; more importantly, I was out of both of Norra's arcs.
That was the deciding moment; past that point, it got fairly one-sided. Corran took minimal damage and the ARCs peeled off, unable to keep the E-Wing in range with his insane maneuverability. Mr. Horn shot through the center to deal with Snap, but Miranda had just dropped another proton bomb on him, which (happily) was a Direct Hit. After that, both ships circled around to meet the ARCs; but the 170s were out of formation. They tried chasing Miranda, but I was able to SLAM, drop a Conner net, and get out of arc; Corran pushed through damage and arc dodged; and the ARCs quickly melted under TLT fire.
Win, 100-0.
Game Two
This time, I was facing two scouts and a party bus. The scouts had Trick Shot and Rigged Cargo Shoots, alongside Overclocked Mechs (and maybe K4?); the bus had the usual goodies, but no 4-LOM. This was going to be a tough one; those Plasmas were bad news.
This time, I tried to keep the rocks fairly loose, to give myself a way to deal with those cargo chutes. He set up with the party bus on the far left and the scouts closer in; I deployed in the right corner.
As with last game, Miranda went closer to the middle, while Corran shot down the side. His party bus shot down the left edge, while the scouts stayed near their end of the map. Miranda took a couple of early shots, but luckily no torpedoes; and then we got into the scrum. I brought Corran around (he was now circling the far side of the board). More crucial was Miranda; in one huge turn, he brought the party bus crashing onto a rock and dropped a debris cloud (on his own ship, no less!) while setting up a trap for Miranda. She just managed to miss the party bus, but ended up barely on the debris, bumping a scout. I was okay with all of that, except for the stress. Worse, Trick Shot triggered, and left Miranda bleeding while I tried to put some damage through on a scout. The next round was a tricky one for him -- he had to decide to either turn in to face Corran (an easier torpedo shot) or keep taking turret shots at Miranda. He ended up turning the ships in, but keeping his locks on Miranda. Corran did some Advanced Sensors shennanigans to bump the party bus; Miranda tried to run, but could only get so far. She died, but a ballsy (and very lucky) double tap meant that one of the scouts went down too.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Corran could deal with this.
Next round, I took a hard turn out of the fight -- unexpected, sense I had lost a shield previously. The scout shot a plasma torp, but Corran had focus and evade while the scout had only Chimps; I managed to dodge it. After that, I ran away for a round or two while he brought the party bus around. Then I K-turned to force an early engagement with the remaining Scout, and brought some shields down.
At this point, I probably should've asked him how many points each ship was worth; but I didn't want to seem to eager to play the clock, so I did the math in my head and figured we would be tied if I got the scout to half health. The reality? I would've been one point above what he had. Knowing that, I would've played differently (mainly by double-tapping).
As it was, I didn't want to put all my money on a crap shoot final salvo, so I flew cautiously. He ran away with his scout; I bumped the party bus to keep it from shooting me; and so we danced for a while. But he did an excellent job of playing keep-away, and the clock was ticking. I didn't quite manage to put half health on the slaver; so, last turn, I went balls-in. Three straight, focus, target lock; shoot the Scout. I brought him to half health; but the Slaver promptly annihilated a tokenless Corran. Sad day.
That loss was a tough one, seeing as it had come so close. I also knew that, if it hadn't been timed, the odds were in my favor -- but I was playing Rebel regen; could I really complain about that?
Loss, 50-100
Game Three
Alright, one loss down -- keep it that way. I sat down across from a Miranda Dash list, with standard SuperDash and a Miranda with C-3P0 and Cluster Mines. I took the initiative so that I could bomb first -- that was a terrible idea.
I kept the rocks pretty lose, just 'cus Dash. I put both my ships in the right corner, and he put Dash and his Miranda a bit more central. We moved slowly forward, and I immediately regretted giving away the initiative since I had no idea where his Miranda would be. Nonetheless, I was at least confident that Corran could solo either of his ships, if only I could take down one before my Miranda bit the dust.
It didn't quite work like that. I played it fairly cautiously, especially with Corran; but even moving second, his Miranda managed to lay some Cluster Mines on mine. They did little damage, but after that, we both split our ships. Dash went after Corran, and the Mirandas circled away from the fight. I was lucky enough to Conner Net his onto a rock; but that was only a temporary respite. Corran was pretty happy with hismatchup, dancing in and out of Dash's donut hole and shrugging off the couple of shots he did get; but before they got too far away, Dash managed to put some hurt on my Miranda. I started SLAMing away from his Miranda, but she beat me out on the TLT + regen battle. C-3P0 proved crucial; when I dropped a die to regen, he was usually able to auto-evade my roll, while I couldn't do the same. Both Mirandas started hurting, but mine was worse off.
Eventually, we all circled back to the middle of the board. It wasn't looking great; but some clutch SLAMs kept my Miranda around for a couple extra rounds. Unfortunately, that didn't do too much in the end. It came down to one round where I decided to get aggressive with Corran -- always a mistake. His Miranda made a one-bank, which caught me off-guard, and dropped a set of mines right on top of Corran, stripping his shields. Then his Miranda dropped mine with TLTs, and his Dash finished off Corran just like that.
Well, crap.
Loss, 100-0.
Game Four
At this point, I was pretty much out; and, to add insult to injury, I was matched up against one of the guys I drove there with. Dave wasn't having a great day either, especially seeing as he'd already played at least one other Colorado player. He was flying Bossk with Zuckuss, Greedo, K4, Crackshot, and Dampeners, I think, alongside Dengar with R4-B11, K4, Lone Wolf, Countermeasures, Punishing One, and Glitterstim. This list had already annihilated mine once; Bossk is brutal.
There were three rocks in corners and a nice line down the middle of the board. He put Bossk in the right corner, so I plopped both of my ships down on the left side, with Miranda a little more towards the center. Dengar went down middle-right.
I approached cautiously; he floated Dengar in and shot Bossk forward with a four-straight. Next round, I SLAMed Miranda away from the center of the board and forced Bossk to come flying in with a three-bank. On the first round of shooting, both of my ships were facing down Dengar on the far side of the little line of rocks on the center, while Bossk was on the other side of the rocks. Next round, he brought Dengar in, and Bossk was out of range. We exchanged some fire and both chipped a couple of shields off. Next round, I SLAMed to drop a Conner Net on Dengar and, thanks to good ol' tournament fatigue, Dave turned Bossk right onto a rock. That was the break I needed. The lizard couldn't shoot; I focus-evaded against Corran and landed about two millimeters in front of Dengar. He popped Countermeasures and Stims and shot me at Range 1 for one or two shields. Next round, Miranda dropped a Proton Bomb and did her best to get out of the fight. Corran focus-evaded and did a one-straight, bumping Dengar -- but, more importantly, bumping an ionized Dengar and keeping him in range of the bomb. Both his ships got hit. Dengar stripped a couple of shields off of Miranda, and then Bossk wiped her off the table with his insane offense. Fortunately, Dengar went down pretty quick after, and Corran got on Bossk's tail. A few more rounds, and the YV was down, too.
Win, 100-50.
Game Five
This time, I was facing a Rey and Ghost build. This was going to be a problem. Rey had Adaptability, Luke, Kanan, and the new title -- but no Finn, which was fortunate for me. The Ghost was a Lothal Rebel with Lando, Experimental Interface, and Kyle Katarn. Weird build, but he showed me by round two how powerful it could be.
He cornered a few rocks, and I put mine in a cluster in the center. Rey went down far left; the Ghost, middle left. I deployed in the middle. He rolled his VCX in and showed me the power of the setup he had; first round, he evaded as an action, and then used EI for Lando, getting two focus tokens. Round two, he cleared the stress -- getting a focus from Kyle -- and did it all over again. And that's about when I realized what kind of super-tank I was facing.
We traded some shots at Range 3, with Corran out of the fight so far. Happily, however, his options for next turn were narrow; thanks to the rocks, the Ghost would have to bank in to face Corran, while Rey would have to turn the opposite direction, chasing Miranda. I turned tail with her and dropped a Proton Bomb on the Ghost, and drew what might just have been the luckiest crit possible -- Damaged Sensor Array. Next turn, the VCX turned to chase Miranda and I guessed Rey's move, dropping another bomb on both of them -- ANOTHER Damaged Sensor Array on the VCX, and Damaged Cockpit on Rey: absolutely the best set of crits I could've hoped for. PS 9 Rey is scary. But PS 0 Rey? Either of my ships could solo her.
At any rate, his Ghost was facing Corran at this point, while Rey shot at Miranda; both did negligible damage thanks to some good dice on my end. Next round, I figured he would turn the VCX in to chase Miranda, so I dialed in a two-hard with Corran (who was off in the corner) and, gritting my teeth, did the same for Miranda. Rey swung in; the Ghost turned to go after Miranda. Miranda turned into the Ghost, rather than away from it (I figured I could brave one round of fire); and Corran's hard turn put him right on the VCX's flank.
After that, the Rebel went down quickly. At one point, I made a mistake by K-turning Corran into Range One of Rey. He had a focus from sensors; but I also bumped Miranda into Rey in order to protect her. A good thought, but it meant that Corran ate four dice, stripping his shields. It got sketchy for a second, but the two aces were able to finish Rey off before she took either of them down.
Win, 100-0.
Game Six
Well, even with that last win, I was just about out of it. Maybe if I got great MOV and a win here . . .?
Anyway, I was going against an Omaha guy who was flying Bonar's Thunderdome list (Dengar and Bossk, both with VI; Bossk had missiles). My initial thought was simple: use SLAM on Miranda to bump Bossk. Keep Corran out of range of his missiles, and then bomb him, swing Corran in, and kill him to death. He even made it easy by setting Bossk up right across from Miranda, and Dengar off to the left side.
For whatever reason, I didn't do that. Round two, I decided to turn and run with Miranda, which was a terrible idea, and shot Corran five-straight across the board to avoid Bossk's arc. Also a terrible idea. He rolled up and shot Miranda as Dengar swung in from the opposite side. Miranda spent the whole rest of the match SLAMing away. Bossk chased her, while Dengar turned in to head off Corran. Granted, Miranda lived way longer than she should have; but he still caught her eventually. I did my best with Corran, forcing a couple of bumps to allow myself regen time, but it wasn't enough. He's pretty green-dice-dependent, and the combination of Crack Shot, Zuckuss, and 4-LOM was vicious. I got Bossk down to half hull before Dengar finished it.
Loss, 50ish - 100.
So that was that; I finished 3-3, which is probably the worst I've ever done at a tournament. Weirdly, though, I didn't feel that bad about it. I flew some great games, and my losses were all fairly close. The Dash-Miranda game came down to my inability to focus fire; I should've chosen a single target as early as possible and focused all my efforts on that ship. The two scouts and a bus list was a tough matchup, but I played well; that said, had I thought through the endgame a bit more, it might have ended up differently. I also regret not running with Miranda. I was afraid of torpedoes, but I think with SLAM, I could've limited it to one torp per round, which isn't as scary when you can regen; and I could've got some bombs off and denied him board control. And the last game . . . well, I was just plain stupid. I knew what to do, and then chose not to do it.
The list is obviously pretty solid, but I might have to tinker a bit. I really don't want to go down to FCS on Corran, but I have a bit of a dilemma: Miranda needs missiles. There were a few games where I just couldn't put damage out quick enough, and a five-die attack would have really helped. My mistake was in assuming that they were only good against Defenders; really, they're good against everything. Proton Bombs were the MVP of some games, but I might be convinced to drop to Detonators or Seismiscs . . . we'll have to see. There's not as much regen as I expected, so the damage through shields isn't as important.
ON THE CUT
After that, I stayed to watch the cut. Some notes:
Asajj + Two Thugs
This list, piloted by Kyle (one of the other guys I'd driven with), took Top 4. He had Fearlessness, Dengar, and two Glitterstims on Asajj, which was a brilliant build. Fearlessness compensates for her relative lack of offense, and the Glitterstims are get-out-of-jail-free cards. More importantly, he mentioned that there were several times when they let him purposefully make a "stupid" move that would bump another ship -- just bump, pop stims, and light someone up with fully-modified offense. He lost in the semis to three bumper scouts, which was a really tough matchup -- they kept denying TLT shots. Kyle ended up turning his thugs away from the scouts while Asajj went down the board edge. Ideally, I think, the Y-Wings should've approached head-on, to keep the scouts from dodging into their donut holes; but even then, it would've been a tough game.
Ghost, Miranda, TLT Y
Also a nasty list, which the above one managed to beat twice in a row (once in Swiss, once in Top 8). The Ghost is key; it's the offensive juggernaut. You have to take it down, but you'd better do it quick; otherwise, Miranda's regen becomes really powerful.
Blue, Norra, Miranda
This was a goofy list and I loved seeing it in the cut. The Blue had FCS; Miranda had Extra Munitions, Concussion Missiles, and Guidance Chips; and Norra had Tail Gunner (I think? Maybe 3P0?) and Vectored Thrusters, but I think R2-D2. Everything has fantastic offensive output. However, this list hit Chirpy Echo in the Top 8, and that list tore it apart. Chirpy managed to shoot past most of his squad while Echo flanked; and without any focused fire on either ship, they just didn't go down in time. Norra and Chirpy died at about the same time; the Blue followed. At one point, Miranda did line up a fantastic missile shot on Echo, but the Phantom was cloaked, had an evade, and Kallus; his green dice didn't fail, so only one hit got through. After that, it the game was over, as much as Miranda tried.
Three Scouts
It ain't dead. This guy flew three scouts with Mindlink, Intelligence Agent, and Feedback Array. A couple had Agromechs; one had R5-P8; at least two had APLs; and there were maybe a couple other upgrades in there. It had fantastic board control; he could use Intel Agent, and then Barrel Roll without fear (especially with Atanni to give him another action). The kinds of ships that laugh at two attack dice are murdered by Feedback, APLs, and Painbot; others get that, and the two attack dice. It's also disgustingly difficult to focus fire on these guys, because any time you start to chip away at one, it just runs up and bumps you, so you can't shoot it.
If you face this list, don't joust it. Don't get closer than Range 3. Once you do that, not only does Intel Agent proc, but you're entering the ships' area of control -- within Range 1-2, they can pretty well dominate all the real estate on the board and force the bumps they need. Stress tech could be sorta effective against them to at least stop the barrel roll, but you need to force them to turn right if you have that kind of build--to the left, their dials are just too good.
Chirpy Echo
This guy had a great Chiraneau build: Hot-Shot Copilot alongside Gunner (plus VI and Engine). Echo had Kallus, FCS, ACD, and VI. He flew Echo expertly through each match and made excellent use of that banked decloak to keep him in the fight. Chirpy's loadout was awesome, too. Usually, Defenders and the like can choose to spend just enough tokens to take one damage on the primary shot, and make Gunner a waste; and one damage isn't too bad when you have six health. But with CoPilot, they no longer have that choice; instead, they have to spend the focus, often triggering a Gunner shot against a weakened target. Heavy hitters also suffer, losing the chance to spend the focus on offense -- which was particularly powerful against Norra.
The finals match was really well-played, with Chirpy Echo facing the triple scouts. It was tough to call from the start; but Echo managed to put out a powerful punch, and more importantly, wasn't too overzealous. There was at least one round when he remained cloaked and fled the battle, rather than risking the bump. Chiraneau was a zombie Decimator by the end, cruising around for several rounds with a massive stack of damage cards. It didn't help that neither APLs nor Painbot triggered for the entire match; but Echo and the Decimator came away with a solid win.
ON THE META
This was the first Regionals after Worlds, and there are some definite surprises in the meta, namely:
· A conspicuous lack of TLTs. I don't know if this was a tourney-specific oddity, but they might just be scared of Dengaroo.
· Less regen than I expected. Moreover, most of the regen ships were the heavy hitters, Norra and Miranda; they were played as much for their offensive output as for their defensive capabilities. They're also less susceptible to things like Slicer Tools.
· PS 9 Poe is legit, even without regen. If you see Poe with BB-8, Push the Limit, Autothrusters, and Primed Thrusters or Pattern Analyzer across the table, don't laugh. This guy is like a Soontir or a Defender; sure, no regen, but he's super slippery and action-efficient. On the one hand, he only has two green dice; but on the other hand, he's also got a fantastic trick up his sleeve: bumping. He can barrel roll, push for a focus, and then bump into you and not care. You can't shoot him; he's got his action; he's happy.
· Rey, as expected, is a thing. Watch out for her. If she has Finn, be terrified. That's five dice at Range 1.
· Trick Shot is good. Seriously. It's like Zuckuss (pilot), but you can put it on a chassis that doesn't suck. And the combo with Cargo Chute isn't just a gimmick; it's really good. An extra red die is better than an extra green die, and the fact that the debris cloud is persistent makes a huge difference.
· For some reason, people still aren't playing too many K-Wings. If this describes you, try them out. Put Sabine, Advanced SLAM, and a Conner Net on a K-Wing, and observe the carnage that can follow. SLAM can put you practically anywhere. The Net alongside Sabine is better than just shooting a TLT would be.
· Scouts are still real. Board control is now their greatest strength; don't treat them like you used to treat them. Shooting into Range 1 might not be as good an idea as it used to be.
Edited by Ailowynn
