I've just started out my journey in this game, been playing a few games with my resistance A-wings (which I really like). After having discovered fly casual I've tried lots of lists and one of them kind of stuck. Before I invest in new ships I would like to ask if this list is viable irl?

(41) Serissu [M3-A Interceptor]
(3) Tractor Beam
Points: 44

(25) Cartel Spacer [M3-A Interceptor]
(6) Ion Cannon
Points: 31

(25) Cartel Spacer [M3-A Interceptor]
(6) Ion Cannon
Points: 31

(25) Cartel Spacer [M3-A Interceptor]
(6) Ion Cannon
Points: 31

(25) Cartel Spacer [M3-A Interceptor]
(6) Ion Cannon
Points: 31

(25) Cartel Spacer [M3-A Interceptor]
(6) Ion Cannon
Points: 31

Total points: 199

Hi there. There are others more qualified to answer this than I am, but just to get the ball rolling...

As far as I can tell, Cartel Spacers with Ion Cannon are fine and there's nothing inherently 'wrong' with your list. I'm not sure what threshold you're setting for 'viable' but a quick look at MetaWing suggests that it should be at least pretty good. People are flying Serissu swarms and Ion Spacers and doing well with them.

Honestly, I think there's lots of stuff that's viable in real life. It's mostly down to how well you fly it!

I'm assuming you're tending to fly it as a swarm, in a block?

In real life you can expect Serissu to be targeted, and you can expect aces to be difficult to catch. That said, you have a lot of arcs. And ion.

• Cartel Spacers are ship with a lot going for it, mathematically speaking. With an Ion Cannon, it's tied for lowest cost 3-dice ship, with the toughest defensive statline at that price point. Just really efficient. Both Ion Cannon and Tractor Beam are great on them, and some folks enjoy Autoblasters.
• It's always possible to hasten slowly. 6 of a single ship is a pretty big investment, but getting a smaller number of Scyks first, combining with other ships, can be solid.
  • For example, Fenn Rau + 4 Scyks (4 Ion? 3 Ion + Sunny Bounder with Autoblasters?) is a favorite of mine. Fenn Rau adds a lot of pure damage hitting power.
    • Too many Ion Cannon attacks can often feel counterproductive, only able to do a small amount of total damage, and inflicting more Ion tokens than you need. A balance between Ion and not-Ion damage feels really handy to me. Having a diverse set of weapons (within reason... you don't want 5 different cannons on 5 Scyks or such) enables you to make the most of the strengths of each particular kind of attack.
  • An efficiency list I've seen folks describe on here is 2 Zealous Recruit Fangs, 2 Ion Cartel Spacers, 2 Tractor Beam Cartel Spacers. That's a lot of control, and Fangs are also sweet ships: vulnerable outside of Range 1, but at Range 1, they've got a really potent defensive ability.
    • What's great about the two lists above (Fenn + 4, or Fang-Fang + 4) is that they kind of teach you two ships at once.
  • SOTL had a great blog a little ways back talking about Scyks. http://stayontheleader.blogspot.com/2020/03/guns-lots-of-guns-taking-scyks-to.html
    • His particular list was 6 Spacers (3 Ion, 2 Autoblasters, 1 Tractor) + 1 Mining Guild TIE; just a lot of guns.
• As much as I'm talking these up, on the actual table, Init 1 ships can be hard to succeed with. Init 1 always moves first, always shoots last. It can be hard to beat folks who are quite mobile, and doing well with Init 1 takes a lot of practice in anticipation of where opponents can go, and making sure your ships will stay relevant.
  • Again, unless you've got an absurd deal on the ships, hasten slowly. Get 2-4, and mix them in with other Scum (or borrow stuff from a friend). Give them a shot. Maybe you love them as much in person against other people as you do in FlyCasual, maybe you don't.
  • I think they're great ships, but I've got friends who regret buying too many of a ship they don't enjoy flying in the end.
  • Your squad above seems like the kind of thing which would be a *lot* better in FlyCasual than against people.
    • The mathematical joust value of your list is really good, but flying it as one block, it could be hard to track down opponents who aren't trying to joust.
    • I've noticed FlyCasual bots often split fire, and that's going to make Serissu amazingly good. I think Serissu is great, adding a tonne of Evades and saving a lot of health over the course of a game. I've had a lot of fun flying her with 3 Kihraxz aces (Talonbane, Viktor Hel, and Graz going for a flank), but if an opponent isn't properly focusing down a ship, that's going to magnify her strength. Having a Focus token makes the reroll a lot better.
  • Don't get me wrong: the squad has potential. Most squads like this of efficient generics have a lot of potential, if well piloted.
    • My only concern is that you lay out $120 for a squad you don't exactly like in the end, when you could easily start with 2 of these, borrow a Fang and a Firespray, and get a good sense of stuff in person. Maybe you love these, or maybe you love the Fang and Firespray more.

Ion scyks make good complements to other ships that can capitalize on ionized ships, but they're a bit too damage anemic to fly by themselves IMO, since they do more than 1 damage at once(unless using their primary instead).

Aside from above fang+scyk lists, I like 2 fearless skulls, 2 ion spacers, and genesis red with tractor.

Welcome to the game! Welcome to the forum! Welcome to Scum, the red-headed stepchild of factions!

I love me some Scyks. I've got four of the little buggers now, grabbing one here and there as the budget allows. The thing that strikes me most about them is...well, there are two things, actually.

The first thing is that they suffer from "Interceptor Syndrome." They are liable to be one-shotted. I mean, it's not common; probably pretty rare if I'm honest. But man, when it happens - and it will happen - you will remember it. And when it happens three times in one game? Wow. Yer gonna take that one to the grave. Dice will be dice, of course. Bastards. And this isn't an argument against using Scyks; it's just about managing expectations.

The second thing that strikes them is that while they can sometimes die like Interceptors, they don't actually move like one. No linked actions, extremely limited blue maneuver selection, no hard-3 turn. Those factors can be extremely challenging. It sometimes keeps me up at night - "You call that an 'Interceptor'?" Especially if I've recently flown RZ-2 A-Wings, I can get a little cranky about that.

Strategically, there are basically two ways to fly massed generic Scyks. One is full swarm, with no two flying exactly the same direction. This has the advantage of covering *a lot* of the board with arcs; and they become significantly less predictable; and you can swap damaged ships in and out, trying to influence and rearrange your opponent's target priority. There a couple of difficulties associated with this style, though; Serissu becomes much less meaningful, and there is a significant mental drain with managing that many dials and that many vectors. The second flight style is the one you are attempting. It's basically one ship with six dials and bodies. Fly them in a block, concentrate fire, maximize Serissu. This strategy's weaknesses have, I believe, been covered.

As others have said, yes, this can be a viable list and archetype. But you are likely better off using a mixed squad. Having that Ace, or a tanky hammer, can make all the difference. Serissu *will* get focused down - especially if there aren't any other named ships on the board. It's probably a good idea to have another threat out there to take some heat off her. Everyone loves to hate Fenn Rau. Hint hint.

Of course, so much of this comes down to playstyle. It may be down to the fact that for the longest time I only had two Scyks, but I've sort of come back to the conclusion that, generally speaking, two is the magic number. A single Scyk will struggle to contribute meaningfully - outside of a few named pilot builds and strategies, particularly involving Serissu and occasionally involving Sunny. And as noted above, four or more can occasionally struggle to punch hard enough, even if they do manage to exercise significant board control. But two, or sometimes three, used to set up something for a heavy hitter; that's pretty sweet. Now, do you practice a lot with swarms, and are you better about managing their survival expectations, you might get a lot more mileage out of the swarm than I saw. Ha ha. Before the lockdowns, I was practicing with and seeing some decent results with two Ion Scyks, a Firespray, and a Fang. For example.

tl;dr: Sure, it can work. But maybe work your way up to it? No matter what, you do you, and you'll find success. That's the beauty of Second Edition.

Wow, thank you so much for the extensive replies and the options you present. What a solid community!