Well, some will say that is too soon to know where is going the meta, but I like to analize and anticipate to have some control with my squad building. And I may be wrong, but here we go with my thoughts:

-RAC+Kylo everywhere: it may go with Palp, Hux, Vader... Annoying as hell.

-To mitigate Kylo, we may see the return of Old Chewie, and with the popularity of Rey, it implies the rise of the falcons again.

-Hux: autodamage

-Quadjumper: the main target are little ships, large ship are mostly unnafected. And it will die veeery soon.

-Expertise: it favours the high damage scene

I know that there may be more elements in that list, but it is enough to point to what I'm thinking:

-Meta shifting to large ships again

-Return of stress: to avoid Kylo, Hux and Expertise. This will make Assaj great, and tactician may reappear (Dengar+Expertise+tactician? Bossk+Determination+Gunner+tactician?)

-Builds of 2 ships, mostly on Imperial side

-Possible return of torpscouts: large base+mindlink, good Kylo hunting platform, don't care about beeing PS0.

-Scum and Rebel Aces disappearing (Imperial?): your Ace blinded or PS0 or tractored on a rock or dying to Hux... Shall I be better if I invest on generics?

Your thoughts?

18 minutes ago, Albertpalma said:

-Scum and Rebel Aces disappearing (Imperial?): your Ace blinded or PS0 or tractored on a rock or dying to Hux... Shall I be better if I invest on generics?

I think this is only true about Rebel Aces (although Corran might still be ok, as he's the only one with enough greens).

For Scum (Fenn Rau being the only really popular Scum Ace) and Imperial Aces, they're ships with a ton of green dice and a token stack.

In order to get the Kylo crit on an ace, you first need to hit him, and RAC is only a 3 dice attack. 3 dice attacks don't really cut it anymore to reliably hit 3 greens+token stack aces.

Hux might be a problem, but if Gunner/Vader Deci didn't make aces go away, I doubt Hux will.

Tractor beams might negatively affect aces, but looking at the current meta, where the Lancer made a bigger splash with Ventress and stress than Ketsu, the title and Tractor Beams, I don't know how game changing the Quadjumper will be.

Wave 10 will shake things up like never before. Here's what I anticipate:

1. Swarms

Snap shot gave life to the ATT 2 swarm again - especially on juking A-wings. Then operations specialist comes along and gives those snap shot swarms very nice action economy. It's possible to fit for Snap+Juke A-wings into a list with Zeb+Operations specialist. They're coming back.

2. Tractor Beams

The quadjumper will die fast, no doubt about it. However, the present a way to make tractor beams absurdly accessibly (heck, Unkar can reliably put 2 tractor tokens a turn down). This is the beginning of the fall of the untouchable ace - AGI 1 Defenders are laughable. Vizago (In the CROC) will give access to a permanent cloak on the Quad,greatly increasing its durability.

3. Large Base Ships

They've always been really good in tournaments, but with the rise of both tractors and Swarms, you can expect to see a lot of the AGI 2 large base ships making a comeback. The Firespray might return with a fix, but you can bet on an increase in jumpmasters (perhaps not Dengar!) and Lancers, plus a superdash comeback in retaliation to the resurgence in swarms.

4. Hammer and Anvil

The two ship meta continues to get better, but cards like Kylo and Hux present tools with which it can be defeated. I'd again expect a fall of all ships with 2 or less agility in response to Kylo, and an increase in high hull ships to combat Hux. Huh. Defenders kind of fit the bill there...

5. The Fall of High Damage

It's always going to be good, but so many ships are being created that just don't care. Upsilons can tank damage on Falcon levels, Captured TIEs can't even be shot, and Quadjumpers make you point the wrong way. It's going to be difficult for Norra, Corran, Rey etc to reliably get those game-winning shots nowadays.

Conclusion

People said it in wave 9, and wave 10 confirms it - the metagame is wider than it ever has been before. You've got swarms that really threaten the tank aces, shenanigans that mess with positioning-dependent aces, large base ships seeing a bit of variety, hard counter tools against the prevalent two ship meta and a significant decrease in the dominance of red dice over green. Overall, this is one of the best times so far to start playing the game, and I look forward to wave 11 and beyond.

The fear of Quadjumpers might push the meta back into large ship only. It doesnt really do anything to large ships, except maybe the Aggressor or JM5Ks who usually are pretty evasive anyway (Lancers to an extent but they usually lack the ways to solidify their defense outside flatout adding evade results from Latts). And even then, its just -1 agility not thrown on a rock or off course. Ive both been on the receiving and delivering end of that thing against various high PS arcdodgers, dear god that is annoying lol even approaching really slow trying to not get range 1 it still manages to sneak into range1 before i can blast past it. Ive yet to see any non large ship hit by that thing not hit a rock, either directly or with their maneuver afterwords.

I highly doubt anything will change

And i think people are severly overestimating quads

I love what they bring to the table, but theyre absolute dogcrap statwise and not easy to bring to bear with speed 3 max and range 1 requirement

"Problem" with wave 10 is the ships require considerable skill to leverage effectively

When you compare them to x7s and parawhatevet, ships which are moreforgiving AND maneuverable, it becomes difficult to anticipate change

Also tbeams ruin dengaroo so quads affect large ships very well

Also rey and anything running c3po

Quadjumpers are slow enough and squishy enough that ships that are afraid of them should have a good chance of avoiding them until they can be removed from the table.

Even though I initially thought that Sarko's ability was crappy, I'm beginning to think he may end up being one of the more viable Quadjumpers. I'm planning on trying him with Serrisu. He slots into a Mindlink Scyk list perfectly. There's 4 points left over to play with.

Sarco Plank (18)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
Spacetug Tractor Array (2)

Serissu (20)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
"Mangler" Cannon (4)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Tansarii Point Veteran (17)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
"Mangler" Cannon (4)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Tansarii Point Veteran (17)
Attanni Mindlink (1)
"Mangler" Cannon (4)
"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (Cannon) (2)

Total: 96

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Also Quads are one of the worst multiple ships. Faced one guy that decided to bring 3 of them for...some reason. Yeah...tractored my Striker onto a rock initially and then i just outgunned him with the rest of my list. And out maneuvered.

If tractors still chain-moved ships it would be useful as you could easily chain roll someone to the board edge and have them activate off the map. Kinda glad thats changed now lol

4 hours ago, Astech said:

Wave 10 will shake things up like never before. Here's what I anticipate:

1. Swarms

Snap shot gave life to the ATT 2 swarm again - especially on juking A-wings. Then operations specialist comes along and gives those snap shot swarms very nice action economy. It's possible to fit for Snap+Juke A-wings into a list with Zeb+Operations specialist. They're coming back.

2. Tractor Beams

The quadjumper will die fast, no doubt about it. However, the present a way to make tractor beams absurdly accessibly (heck, Unkar can reliably put 2 tractor tokens a turn down). This is the beginning of the fall of the untouchable ace - AGI 1 Defenders are laughable. Vizago (In the CROC) will give access to a permanent cloak on the Quad,greatly increasing its durability.

3. Large Base Ships

They've always been really good in tournaments, but with the rise of both tractors and Swarms, you can expect to see a lot of the AGI 2 large base ships making a comeback. The Firespray might return with a fix, but you can bet on an increase in jumpmasters (perhaps not Dengar!) and Lancers, plus a superdash comeback in retaliation to the resurgence in swarms.

4. Hammer and Anvil

The two ship meta continues to get better, but cards like Kylo and Hux present tools with which it can be defeated. I'd again expect a fall of all ships with 2 or less agility in response to Kylo, and an increase in high hull ships to combat Hux. Huh. Defenders kind of fit the bill there...

5. The Fall of High Damage

It's always going to be good, but so many ships are being created that just don't care. Upsilons can tank damage on Falcon levels, Captured TIEs can't even be shot, and Quadjumpers make you point the wrong way. It's going to be difficult for Norra, Corran, Rey etc to reliably get those game-winning shots nowadays.

Conclusion

People said it in wave 9, and wave 10 confirms it - the metagame is wider than it ever has been before. You've got swarms that really threaten the tank aces, shenanigans that mess with positioning-dependent aces, large base ships seeing a bit of variety, hard counter tools against the prevalent two ship meta and a significant decrease in the dominance of red dice over green. Overall, this is one of the best times so far to start playing the game, and I look forward to wave 11 and beyond.

1. I don't think swarms will make a comeback. Sure they made snapshot widely available so you could try a snap swarm but jukesnap A-wings is still the better build for that upgrade. Thing is A-wings are more of a blocker and not a swarm unit. The jousting has gone up quite a bit but not at that >100% efficiency that the classic Academy pilot was.
2. When tractor beams first came out with the mist hunter they weren't so hot obviously because other than the move opponents ship shenanigans they were only good on high pilot skill ships (I think the FFG devs learned nothing from proton torpedoes). I mean put a tractor beam on a cartel spacer and watch everyone laugh as you reduce agility for maybe one other attack. FFG has worked on fixing it with the Shadow Caster keeping the tractor beam tokens on in the next round and the quad jumper which gives them out in the activation phase or start of the combat phase. However the QJ durability is highly in question which is a big factor in determining its viability in the meta.
3. Large base ships haven't really left. Sure the old point fortress of 60+ points in a large ship and the rest in starfighter or two might not be the meta but the flexibility, and stats has often made them present. Sure there is a greater variety than the whole Falcon vs Decimator vs Outrider vs Aggressor of Wave 5 and 6. Which makes variety better in the game. As far as large based ships go I think the UpS will be chauffeuring Palp around in many games.
4. I don't think two ship meta is coming back. The meta is very kill heavy and large based ships aren't the lock box of MOV anymore. Sure there are cards like Kalus but much like Flight instructor those cards were made to counter a meta that was 2 waves back.
5. I wouldn't say the fall of high damage. Most ships you see in the meta are rather tanky and you will still need that high output of damage. Now sure the meta might be shifting back to the tank side of things where the meta goal is no longer table the opponent before you get tabled but rather don't lose as much as your opponent by the time the match ends. As it has been said before back in the days of Wave 6 while this might make for good win-loss in the swiss it doesn't do so well on the final table.

So the only big change I see is Palp now has a two car garage instead of one. He traded in that dusty old Deci for a new sleek Batmobile. He'll still keep the Lambda as a classic hot-rod. Rebels not so much. I don't see the "spy" making that big of a splash. Same for scum, I think the QJ will sit in the scrap yard next tto the Klingon and Viper once the shenanigans have wore off and players don't fall for the cheese.

3 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

I highly doubt anything will change

And i think people are severly overestimating quads

I love what they bring to the table, but theyre absolute dogcrap statwise and not easy to bring to bear with speed 3 max and range 1 requirement

"Problem" with wave 10 is the ships require considerable skill to leverage effectively

When you compare them to x7s and parawhatevet, ships which are moreforgiving AND maneuverable, it becomes difficult to anticipate change

Also tbeams ruin dengaroo so quads affect large ships very well

Also rey and anything running c3po

I'm not sure about that. The QuadJumper will give tractor you as an Action. So at PS1 I can tractor you PRECISELY as I wish, no need to premeditate nothing. Just moving before you, then tractor, that's all.

And with Unkar crew I can do it even if I bump.

I mean, those buggers are 20 points like, totally free to play even 2 of them if one will be focussed too easy.

2 quads is 40 points of no offense in a list

Only dengaroo can get away with that

Also severly overestimating ease of range 1 tbeam on that dial

I'm finding fun and thematic uses for the list (nice to have a full "Rebels" list) but don't know that I'm seeing much in this Wave that will be truly dominant.

which is a GREAT thing. The "meta" is still wide open, as it should be once balance in the Force has bee achieved

3 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

2 quads is 40 points of no offense in a list

Only dengaroo can get away with that

Also severly overestimating ease of range 1 tbeam on that dial

You don't need offense when the enemy lost his defence. That is a thing to consider.
+throwing into rocks, move the enemies etc...this still a game of movements.

Dunno, we will see

1 hour ago, Cerve said:

You don't need offense when the enemy lost his defence. That is a thing to consider.
+throwing into rocks, move the enemies etc...this still a game of movements.

Dunno, we will see

Throwing onto rocks etc are by no means guaranteed esp since, as you say, it is a game based on manuevering

Planning ahead is a part of that, such that there arent rocks in rolling distance

Not to mention tbeams dont remove defense. They remove ONE green die per token

Doesnt do shit to generated evades

Tug life aint easy