Our local area put on a List-O-Nator tournament for the top 16 players from Store Champs season. In previous years, it was just a standard tournament. This year, the group decided to mix it up so we don't have 5 Dengar/Nyms, 4 Poetensity's, 3 Mirandas, 2 Dash Rendars, and a partridge in a pear tree (crazy OP).

I was lucky enough to be 13th and got my first invite to this tournament. After some discussion of what to do (hangar bay,Coruscant System Open format, etc) someone suggested List-O-Nator, from Slingpaint crew. If you are bored of the meta, this is a way to freshen things up. It forces you to get stuff on the table that never sees play. And **** is it fun!

This format is awesome, and my new favorite, as it is strategic listbuilding and although you can see meta ships like a Poetensity, it all but kills meta lists.

So, our idea was to do a List-O-Nator for all three factions. Then we have three rounds of swiss, and it's like Hangar Bay, only you can use a faction only once. So round 1, you present all three lists, see your opponents list, and choose your list to fly just like Hangar Bay. But in Round 2, you only present the two factions you didnt fly in the previous match, and Round 3, you fly the faction you haven't flown. So all three lists must get flown.

Our List-O-Nator was as follows:

Rebels

REQUIRED SHIP: U-Wing

REQUIRED UPGRADE (anywhere in list): Cassian crew [or can be Cassian Pilot]

REQUIRED SUPPORT: Decoy [cannot be on any U-Wing's]

ACCESS DENIED: Biggs & TLT

Imperials

REQUIRED SHIP: Tie Advance Prototype

REQUIRED UPGRADE (anywhere in list): Cruise Missiles

REQUIRED SUPPORT: Intimidation [cannot be on any TAPs]

ACCESS DENIED: Veteran Instincts & RAC

Scum

REQUIRED SHIP: G1A Starfighter

REQUIRED UPGRADE: (anywhere in list): Outmaneuver

REQUIRED SUPPORT: Unkar Plutt ship or crew [cannot be on any G1A's]

ACCESS DENIED: Nym & Attanni

Wow, this presented some fun and challenging lists to build. Imperials was pretty easy, I made three lists, tested just one, won both matches with it convincingly, and moved on to other factions.

Rebels I danced around with a billion ideas. Decoy makes it SOOOO hard. You have to have a Uwing, and then another ship with decoy. After that, it doesnt leave a lot of room for an ace. I initally had Primed Thrusters Poetensity along with a GSP A-wing w/ Deadeye, Decoy, Cruise Missile. Awing decoys to PS9 to fire that cruise missile. Worked good the two times I tested it, but if I ever lose Poe, I lose the game cause a Uwing and GSP wont win. So I went a completely different direction.

Scum I thought was gonna be easy, but that **** G1A (which I never even put on the table before) is awful. After testing some Zuckuss and other builds, I found it was a points sinkhole, so I wanted to keep it under 30pts. 4lom + Stay on Target + Intel Agent was fun as **** though, and was a leading candidate for my G1A.

So, my lists are below, but before you look at them, create your own (one faction or all three!) and post em on this thread! Lets see what others in the community can come up with!

My Rebels

My Imperials

My Scum

Overall, tournament was really fun to play and seems like everyone had a good time flying those G1As, and were surprised at the Uwings versatility. The lists were way more varied than I thought it would be. I think only two people even brought a scout and I was expecting a lot of Poetensity's but again, only two there were.

I ended up in the finals, and took 2nd place overall.

My rebels list was definitely my favorite. In the finals, my imperials went up against a Snap Shot tactician Rhymer and holy ****, Rhymer just would not die. I threw everything I had at him, and after two rounds of combat, he had 1 damage and Vader was dead. Awesome match, and my opponent out flew me big time, but it was so fun watching Rhymer being like the Terminator.

My matches were:

My Scum vs Scum (win 100-37)

My Rebels vs Rebels (win 100-0, opponent flew almost full health Nym off board, so that helped)

My Imperials vs Imperials (loss 34-100)

Lol, no cross faction battles, just the way we picked em I guess!

Top 8 cut

My Rebels vs Scum (win 100-29)

My Scum vs Imperials (win 69-37)

FINALS: My Imps vs Imps (loss 0-100)

I really wonder why FFG doesn't do something like this for tournaments to keep things fresh.

6 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

I really wonder why FFG doesn't do something like this for tournaments to keep things fresh.

To be fair, as much as I love the List-O-Nator, for events with more than like 10 people it would get VERY repetitive only having 3 'lists' to choose from. And FFG have always said they don't want to go the 'MTG' route where certain events remove/ban certain cards (and I wouldn't want them to).

It is a very cool exercise in list building and flying though. Makes you think about choices and how you'd fly them way more. Just doesn't really scale up very well for multiple people. I think you'd still end up with a load of the same build coming top 8 like you do in most metas, would just be a (comparatively) weird top 8 lol

I love the concept. My only problem with this is access to all ships. You have to own all the ships then you have to take your entire collection with you?

3 hours ago, Sk3tch said:

I love the concept. My only problem with this is access to all ships. You have to own all the ships then you have to take your entire collection with you?

How is that different from all the regulars you see at the LGS?

Possible slight change to this format, as awesome as it is.

You can't play a list back to back.

eg.

game 1 you pick between the 3 factions (rebel, scum, imperial)

game 2 you pick between the 2 remaining factions (scum, imperial)

game 3 you pick between the faction you haven't played and the faction you played in the first round (rebel, scum)

If you really wanted to you could say every faction needs to be played at least once in the day.

1 hour ago, AcexShadow said:

Possible slight change to this format, as awesome as it is.

You can't play a list back to back.

eg.

game 1 you pick between the 3 factions (rebel, scum, imperial)

game 2 you pick between the 2 remaining factions (scum, imperial)

game 3 you pick between the faction you haven't played and the faction you played in the first round (rebel, scum)

If you really wanted to you could say every faction needs to be played at least once in the day.

That is exactly what we did. Round 1 pick from any of your three.

Round 2, pick from the two left.

Round 3 you flew your only remaining list left.

If you made top 8, then it starts over with all three lists.

So, when I made the finals, I had to fly my Imp aces, but if I had my choice I woulda flew my scum if I saw Rhymer.

6 hours ago, Sk3tch said:

I love the concept. My only problem with this is access to all ships. You have to own all the ships then you have to take your entire collection with you?

Yes and no. We said proxying upgrades was okay to do, and people with multiple ships offered to lend em to anyone in need. Its a 16 person tourney and we all fairly knew one another.

I flew nine ships in total and they all fit in my backpack I always take. Wasnt an issue.

6 hours ago, InterceptorMad said:

It is a very cool exercise in list building and flying though. Makes you think about choices and how you'd fly them way more. Just doesn't really scale up very well for multiple people. I think you'd still end up with a load of the same build coming top 8 like you do in most metas, would just be a (comparatively) weird top 8 lol

I dont think it scales very well either. 16 people was perfect. The only thing repetitive was Inquisitor. I think only one person brought double Sienars or Barons. Rebels were all over the place. The Uwing became a blocker, or sabine carrier, or op spec support, or attacker with fcs gunner. Scum was very different. All four G1A pilots were used, asajj was around, torkhil, jostero, sunny blounder, black sun ace, ps1 and 3 scurrgs. Lots of variety in builds. I faced a Juno eclipse with outmaneuver, cruise missiles, and advanced sensors in the top 4!!

Also, there are still people taking collections to LGS's and just choosing there and then? No time for that.

Our local club where we play, we get time for 2 games, sometimes less if people need to leave early. No time to sit about making squads. I always have a bunch ready to go in baggies with everything I need minus the models. Then I choose the 1 or 2 I want to fly that night, grab the models and pack my shoulder bag.

When I go to a System Open and take multiple lists for a Hanger Bay, I'm already annoyed at how much I've made myself take lol I wouldn't want to go to an event and basically have to take EVERYTHING.