Dear FFG, please make the Scum faction fearless and inventive again. Jabba must be hiding his head in shame somewhere in his Palace right now because Scum are a shadow of what they once were when 2.0 launched.

Scum has plenty of ships to choose from and a handful of awesome individual pilots.

• Guri, Fenn, Ketsu, Old Teroch, Captain Seevor and Talonbane are great...
• Asajj, Kavil, Boba, Cartel Marauder, Zealous Recruit, Black Sun Assassin, Torani, Trandoshan Slaver, Bossk, Emon, Palob, 4-LOM, Han's YT-1300 and Nym are all good...
• Dengar, Graz and pretty much everything else make up a list of probably not competitive pilots (Dengar might well be the exception there)

Summary: Scum has many good options and a few great ones. Too many sub par for my liking but you can still build a competitive squad here.

Dig a little deeper and look at crew available for scum and many of your options narrow. Han gunner is dead. Priced out of the game. He was too cheap at 4pts but at 12pts?, Id rather take Maul crew for his single force token. I've been testing with Greedo on Bossk and its actually pretty good. Just be ready to get auto crits from anything with init 5-6 that shoots at him once his shields are gone. I'd make Han Gunner 8pts. Its a free red focus at engagement. That stress is significant on Scum's crew carriers (YT-1300, YV-666, Shadowcaster, Jumpmaster5K, Firespray, G-1A starfighter and even Y-Wing... none of these ships handle stress well with the exception of the Shadowcaster). Bossk gunner costs 10 and isn't seeing any play at all.

• With a few exceptions, scums generics are actually very cheap for what you get but they are not seeing much play just now. I expect Cartel Marauders will start to show up as the filler ships of choice soon. Sad how Drea got nerfed hard when these guys got cheaper because that might have been a good squad pairing Drea with 4 Cartel Marauders.
• Scum has the most large base ships of any faction. YT-1300, YV-666, Shadow Caster, Jumpmaster5K. Feels like they just need a little help.
• Making Contraband Cybernetics 3pts was a great move by FFG and a definite step in the right direction. Illicits are one of the things unique to the Scum faction and they should be worth playing. Well done FFG!

Summary: Scum's illicit and some gunner crew need to be cheaper (Bossk & Han Gunner at 8pts). Contraband Cybernetics was a step in the right direction to balance Scum, FFG could make the other illicits a point cheaper too (except Intertial Dampeners, thats been nerfed out of the game).

Boba Fett (85)
Marauder (6)
Han Solo (Scum) (12) (8)

Ship total: 103 99pts

View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=Scum and Villainy&d=v8ZsZ200Z103XWWWWWWW153W85&sn=Unnamed Squadron&obs=

Han Solo gunner is an easy mode card. Keep it at 12. Keep it out of the game.

Jumpmaster & Lancer are permanently broken. Reason; dial & 2-attack mobile arc respectively.

With the latest points, I think you'll be surprised how well Scum can do. Like you say 3-point contraband is just right.

Sadly some of the star pilots are currently out of luck. Fenn Rau wants -2 & 2-point Fearless. Guri doesn't work in this meta.

Scum are in a pretty good situation now.

I'm glad that Drea Loks have been nerfed - they weren't fun, merely the scum version of rebel beef, which has also been nerfed. I also think Han Gunner needs to be pricy. 'Free' mods which can't be stopped by eg blocking or other control should not be easily obtained.

One of my local stores held a tournament using the new points last Sunday. Half of the 13 players chose to try out new Scum lists, including myself. 1st and 2nd place were taken by Scum.

Ketsu is very good, the turret is irrelevant to her, and won me two of my 4 games almost single-handedly by tossing T70s and T65s onto rocks and then shooting them to pieces.

Boba is still good, other strong lists being squashed makes him relatively stronger. If Fenn Rau drops in price, he'd become ubiquitous - other I6s going up a bit more to match him would be good.

Overall, don't pine for the initial mis-pricing, instead rejoice that the other factions are catching up with their nerfs. This makes Scum relatively stronger. Guri is one of the very best pilots in the game, and her high cost is actually one of the factors that make her strong - if you play better than your opponents!

@Da_Brown_Bomber

What are the most recent scum lists that you tested?

18 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

@Da_Brown_Bomber

What are the most recent scum lists that you tested?

Bossk/greedo. Dengar/title. Fenn Rau/predator. 199pts.

7 hours ago, Dengar5 said:

Han Solo gunner is an easy mode card. Keep it at 12. Keep it out of the game.

Can't agree with this at all. No card should be left of the game or being made/priced purposefully bad; that's Hearthstone way of thinking and it was one of the reasons I've stopped playing that game. Han Solo Gunner at 8-9p would make him useable, but not paramount. Heck, even 10p first to test waters.

1 hour ago, Da_Brown_Bomber said:

Bossk/greedo. Dengar/title. Fenn Rau/predator. 199pts.

And others? How did it go?

1 hour ago, Vector Strike said:

No  card should be left of the game or being made/priced purposefully bad 

Why?

Sometimes developers make mistakes.

I have wondered whether Han gunner is deliberately overpriced because it's the kind of nonsense that was such a problem in first edition. Extra actions that can't be stopped even with a bump have been very problematic in the past.

That said, with PTL built in to some ships via linked actions and Force users (mostly in non-Scum factions) who also get free unstoppable mods , I'm not convinced it's that problematic. Is taking a stress to get a focus better than just having a Force every turn from Maul? Often the answer is no.

• 3 Illicit Upgrades
  • 1 Quick-Release Locks
  • 1 Saboteur's Map
  • 1 Scanner Baffler

wonder if these new illicits from Epic expansion are playable in 2.0 extended/Hyperspace??

8 hours ago, Ysenhal said:

I have wondered whether Han gunner is deliberately overpriced because it's the kind of nonsense that was such a problem in first edition. Extra actions that can't be stopped even with a bump have been very problematic in the past.

That said, with PTL built in to some ships via linked actions and Force users (mostly in non-Scum factions) who also get free unstoppable mods , I'm not convinced it's that problematic. Is taking a stress to get a focus better than just having a Force every turn from Maul? Often the answer is no.

I guess that - apart from most Illicits not worth it, and Jabba not fitting - the problem of Scum is that their self sufficient ships are all pretty balanced and fair poibts wise. And do not have tons of linked actions and unstoppable force (Teroch, Genesis, Palob etc look sad) or are undercosted (looking at the june version of you, Lulo). So FFG's last point update did go in the right direction of nerfing the powerhouses in all factions. Although Drea probably got hit slightly too hard, Scum overall was not affected much (guess they want to see effect of autoblaster before doing discount in Scyks, which really could use some slight reduction).

So there is the hope that FFG culls the excesses in the other factions and hits balance and Scum is thusgood....

but looking at examples like Ric Ole cost and the sudden discount of Mace and Obiwan makes one full of doubt again.

9 hours ago, Ysenhal said:

I have wondered whether Han gunner is deliberately overpriced because it's the kind of nonsense that was such a problem in first edition. Extra actions that can't be stopped even with a bump have been very problematic in the past.

That said, with PTL built in to some ships via linked actions and Force users (mostly in non-Scum factions) who also get free unstoppable mods , I'm not convinced it's that problematic. Is taking a stress to get a focus better than just having a Force every turn from Maul? Often the answer is no.

You mean things like force? Because im starting to think its problematic. Aces with 3 force and sometimes multipel tokens is insane. We are coming back to 1.0 nonsens.

There are some excellent scum players at the club and they truly fly some filthy lists that kinda destroys any joy I get from xwing. The firespray is one such filth ship that I don't think needs any help. 3 firepower forward and backwards at all times without the need for an arc like the tie SF? A pilot who can throw bendy bombs or boba with all his passive mode and bring able to change the direction of the ship... How about the shadowcaster that gets to throw free tractors around and use force.

Leia crew was rediculously undercosted at 2 points. No wonder so many rebel lists ran her. Leia was your definition of easy mode. At that time contraband cybernetics was 6pts. Laughable when you consider the Leia worked on your entire squad and could recharge.

Han gunner adds stress. Thats significant. Compared to force users who can mod using force tokens even when blocked or stressed. You have to make a decision about whether you can take a stress. Thats not an automatic decision especially on ships with a good amount of red on its dial.

Think of Han gunner as a linked focus action that can trigger during engagement. Is that good. Yes. Very strong but remember other ships firing before you do so before you engage. Scums large ships that can abuse this are really a small sample size. Boba fett, Kavil and Bossk. Any other crew carriers have too low initiative to matter.

Will ffg reduce han gunnrs cost? Probably not but they should. Even by 2pts.

4 hours ago, william1134 said:

There are some excellent scum players at the club and they truly fly some filthy lists that kinda destroys any joy I get from xwing. The firespray is one such filth ship that I don't think needs any help. 3 firepower forward and backwards at all times without the need for an arc like the tie SF? A pilot who can throw bendy bombs or boba with all his passive mode and bring able to change the direction of the ship... How about the shadowcaster that gets to throw free tractors around and use force.

Sorry to hear you are not enjoying the game. Scum has some nasty tricks for sure. Only one force user with asajj but maul crew on ketsu is also really strong. What faction are you playing against them?

11 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

And others? How did it go?

2-0 with this vs other scum lists. Guri with Emon and two kimos with fenn. Not standard meta squads but bossk performed well both games. Dengar waz so so. Fenn was Fenn.

A new faction-limited Modification and a new Illicit could make Scum a completely new faction.

6 hours ago, william1134 said:

There are some excellent scum players at the club and they truly fly some filthy lists that kinda destroys any joy I get from xwing. The firespray is one such filth ship that I don't think needs any help. 3 firepower forward and backwards at all times without the need for an arc like the tie SF? A pilot who can throw bendy bombs or boba with all his passive mode and bring able to change the direction of the ship... How about the shadowcaster that gets to throw free tractors around and use force.

Tractor tokens can be annoying. First time i played against jakku gunrunners i got smashed. Ended up flying off the board because of the tractor token repositioning me closer to the edge. Takes some games like this to figure out a good strategy. Versus ketsu you try and keep away from range one of the front arc. Easier said than done i know. Engaging head on is dangerous. Think about your approach relative to obstacles. Ketsu wants to shoot at you when u r close to obstacles.