1 hour ago, SOTL said:

Jesper's Ionbots are great though. So many of the things I think are good right now gathered in one place where I hadn't even considered they could be assembled together.

Yeah but like the author said: " Jesper knows these two ships inside out. He knows exactly how they fly and where they will end up after their advanced sensor shenanigans "

It's like Tyler Tippett who was the only Imperial player to make top 16 at World 2017. He's been flying the same combo of RAC + X for years. Of course hes going to be good with it.

It doesnt say anything about how good the ships are. We would need to know how those 2 would perform with a meta list if they had played it for years to compare. Where would Tyler have ended with the same lvl of practice on a meta list?...

Does it matter?

On 7/11/2017 at 3:34 PM, ViscerothSWG said:

A nice reminder that the meta is what you make of it.

16 hours ago, FlyingAnchors said:

Someone needs to edit this and make it Red & Green lasers.

There are four approaches to choosing a squadron to fly.

1. Play the meta

Advantages:

-relatively easy to pick up

-proven in combat

-can learn from others' experience

Disadvantages:

-Good players know how to play against it

-risk of coin-flippy mirrors, unless you are very experienced with what you're flying

-some players will shame you for it

2. Counter the meta

Advantages:

-Unless netlisting, you know all the quirks of the list

-a bit more creative freedom

-lower likelyhood of getting countered

-others probably don't know have strategies against you, unless you fly it a lot

Disadvantages:

-Requires a lot of skill, a bit of luck and A LOT of time to do right

-Likely to lose a lot of games along the way

-Complete understanding of the targeted local metagame neccessary

3. Put together some good stuff and hope it works

Advantages:

-Easy to do for most players

-Fun

-Not very time-consuming

-A tiny chance to create a new monstrocity

Disadvantages:

-Likely to struggle against meta squadrons (they're meta for a reason)

-very hit or miss for parings against other squadrons

4. Fool around

Advantages:

-You will probably have a fun even if you lose every game

-A lot of creative freedom

Disadvantages:

-Likely to require a lot of borrowing/buying a lot of not-very-useful expansions

-barring lottery-winning level of luck, you are unlikely to do well

This was a fantastic read, thank you for posting!

Article was good.

I don't understand the insistence that Jesper's brobots are a "minor" tweak of a meta list.

1. Brobots aren't really "meta," they're just a squad with a name at this point
2. THAT sure as hell wasn't even "meta" for brobots.

Good on him.

On 7/12/2017 at 9:44 AM, ArbitraryNerd said:

Being able to win a tournament, even a major one, with non-meta lists, does not mean anyone can do it.

Player skill on both sides of the table, for the entire tournament, must be considered.

Dice variance, for the entire tournament, must be considered.

Meta lists are the "meta" because they start off bridging the gap for those two elements as much as possible - they don't generally have bad matchups, meaning the ship performance suffers less in the hands of less-experienced players. They also, for the most part, have an answer for dice variance, either through excessive token stacking, hyper action efficiency, whatever.

They are absolutely NOT the only thing that can win, they just start off in a better place. Anyone willing to put the time and practice in a list has the ability to outperform a less experienced/capable player... But they're having to put more work into it because they're not following the meta. The best players, imo, tend to go off-meta, but they have to work harder to win. They have the benefit of surprise, or a reasonable expectation to build a counter to "hot" lists, but it's definitely more work.

Honestly, this whole movement seems more geared to shaming net-deckers, which is something I've always found disgusting, in any game. Let folks play what they want, net-decked or otherwise.

Congrats and all, the winners 100% deserve their wins, but meh on the "fly what you love" message. The real answer is, "fly what you have time to learn." And you're going to learn the "intricacies" if Rau Boats or DenTel long before you learn Brobots.

Also, this - very well said.

While I do not think the article was trying to shame 'netlisters' at all, the weird idea of "don't be meta!" is.

Literally, fly whatever the hell you want, and stop worrying about what everyone else is flying (unless you're trying to strategize the tournament meta, but then you only care relative to the list you're flying, not as a moral decision).