Unexpectedly, I found myself free this past weekend to partake in the Mustafar Qualifier run by Gold Squadron Podcast. Since I’ve already earned an invite from Ryloth last week, there is no large amount of pressure to make cut. All the same, I would very much like to make it, especially since I’m fielding the list that I played in the BOTS Invitational. With this Hyperspace event as it’s first fielding in a large tournament, this would function as a major field test.
Kylo Ren (76)
Instinctive Aim (1)
Advanced Optics (4)
Proton Torpedoes (13)
Ship total: 94 Half Points: 47 Threshold: 3
“Holo” (53)
Proud Tradition (2)
Ship total: 55 Half Points: 28 Threshold: 2
Gideon Hask (Xi Shuttle) (40)
Commander Pyre (5)
Agent Terex (6)
Ship total: 51 Half Points: 26 Threshold: 4
Total: 200
View in Yet Another Squad Builder 2.0: https://raithos.github.io/?f=First%20Order&d=v8ZhZ200Z236X73W186W136WY382X319WWWY403XWWW320W324W&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=
There’s not much that I can add to this that I haven’t already stated in the post regarding the BOTS Invitational. It’s not as variance resilient as Kylo Holo Tavson, but it has some tricks, including being Hyperspace legal. I won’t be able to pull the Round 1 engagement trick with Kylo as often simply based on how high ship count is in Hyperspace and how fewer lists involve a central ship that can be decomissioned by it.
Round 1: Paul (he, like all of my opponents, is from the United States)
SEPARATIST ALLIANCE (192)
Petranaki Arena Ace Nantex-class Starfighter (32)
Marksmanship + Deadeye Shot
Petranaki Arena Ace Nantex-class Starfighter (32)
Marksmanship + Deadeye Shot
Petranaki Arena Ace Nantex-class Starfighter (32)
Marksmanship + Deadeye Shot
Petranaki Arena Ace Nantex-class Starfighter (32)
Marksmanship + Deadeye Shot
Petranaki Arena Ace Nantex-class Starfighter (32)
Marksmanship + Deadeye Shot
Petranaki Arena Ace Nantex-class Starfighter (32)
Marksmanship + Deadeye Shot
Bullseyes don’t have quite the bite they hold in Extended sans Predator and/or Crackshot, but it is still preferable to dodge them to avoid defending against higher dice counts. Pyre double-stresses Red to slow down the formation so that Kylo’s fast maneuvers and boosting can help him gain a flank faster. Meanwhile, Gideon and Holo perform the swirl-joust to catch the bugs in the middle of the field while Kylo hits from the rear.
Given that the Nantex cannot tractor itself with a banked template, the leftmost cloud is posing as an annoying obstacle for Paul’s squad. Red, Brown, Yellow, and Blue seem to be able to score some shots down the middle lane, but Pink and Green are in awkward positions that likely puts them out of position with the rest of the formation. Charging through the cloud can help engage, but leaves any bug that does so modless on offense or defense, and possibly strained: an unhelpful combo when stacked with the tractor should the roll or rotate be necessary. Best of all, literally no move + tractor combination can block Holo’s 2 forward next turn.
The gambit pays off! Granted, Holo has to roll to dodge the block of bullseyes facing her, but he has multiple obstruction points to the Nanteces, a calculate and evade token stack, and a Range 1 attack against tokenless and strained Red. Spending the lock and saving tokens, she 1-shot kills Red. Kylo’s Torpedo shot at Brown brings him down to 1 health. Gideon, using his ability on the structurally damaged and tokenless Brown kills him as well. Brown, Yellow, and Blue plink a shield off Holo. Pink and Green, with their bullseye shots on Gideon, punch through the damage concerningly. But all in all, it was a good engagement for me.
The following turn, Gideon moves 4 forward to block Pink and prevent it from engaging without making it de facto dead to Kylo. Holo is caught in a killbox, but a simple boost gets her out of all shots but Green’s. I couldn’t decide whether to give her Terrex’s calculate so that she likely wouldn’t get hit by Green, but since Gideon was taking 2 turreted shots, I was certain that he would need the calculate to hang on for just one more turn to be a damage sink and a support ship. Holo wouldn’t get too badly hurt by a 2 dice focus versus 3 unmodded, right?
A calculated risk it was, and it went bad. Green maxes out and Holo doesn’t generate the single evade that would prevent her from being 1hp away from death. At least she didn’t roll a focus result either, so I wouldn’t feel too bad about sending the calculate her way. On the bright side, combined with his Console Fire inflicted by Kylo, Pink is brought down to 1 health. Gideon is very likely to die next turn, but that calculate did keep him alive for 1 turn longer.
The bugs bump themselves around the blocking but still have a killshot on Gideon and pointed more or less to fire turret shots at Holo. Gideon swings out to throw a jam, Holo 2-Segnor’s loops out to her portside, and Kylo 2 banks, focuses, and boosts out of Blue’s arc for an unobstructed shot on Green. Holo saves her Proud Tradition focus on defense, which achieves…precious little. Pink, after fixing his Console Fire, slings 1 hit to Holo. On 4 green dice, she generates a single focus, so to live she is required to spend the evade. Green’s 2 hits sent her way, the final shot she would have to defend against that turn, are the death sentence without that focus to modify her 4 dice. Kylo takes damage from Yellow’s potshot, and Gideon dies.
Kylo has lost only a shield, but since things went so consistently sour with Holo’s defenses, I’m down. I have to escape from this position and score some points to regain the lead, but with only 1 ship that moves before it repositions. Kylo 5-forwards through the cloud, but after losing the last shield to Yellow, he gets half-pointed by Green’s gas cloud shot.
I was considering 3 banking out to get further up the board, but at this point, I just want my suffering to end. Any of my escape maneuvers can be blocked, so I turn in, get blocked there, and take more damage. Once more, I turn in and have a round of nattying all the missing evades from the game in the cloud, which is a small consolation for a game opened so nicely but massively swung by nearly blankless offense and nearly paintless defense. Thinking Paul would call the escape from the cloud to the top of the board instead of downward, I turned left, into bullseyes and death. 96 – 200 defeat.
Round 2: Mike
SEPARATIST ALLIANCE (198)
Trade Federation Drone Vulture-class Droid Fighter (24)
Discord Missiles
Trade Federation Drone Vulture-class Droid Fighter (24)
Discord Missiles
Trade Federation Drone Vulture-class Droid Fighter (24)
Discord Missiles
Trade Federation Drone Vulture-class Droid Fighter (20)
Trade Federation Drone Vulture-class Droid Fighter (20)
Trade Federation Drone Vulture-class Droid Fighter (20)
Techno Union Bomber Hyena-class Droid Bomber (33)
Plasma Torpedoes
Techno Union Bomber Hyena-class Droid Bomber (33)
Plasma Torpedoes
Double-stressing a single Vulture droid doesn’t achieve too much, but it allows me to get a flank going on early. However, I didn’t establish the flank. As the droids 2-turned starboard but rolled without linking a calculate, thereby leaving the stressed Yellow modless, the correct turn would be to obviously coordinate Kylo a focus, have him move 5 forward, then boost and roll to perform the Torpedo attack on Yellow. Yet, tilted by the very slanted variance from last game, I was overcome by a purely irrational fear of rolling only a single paint on my Proton Torpedo. I was so confident that it was bound to happen, despite individual probabilistic properties, that I tried to gain both the focus and the lock on Yellow. Thus, I coordinated the boost and roll to Kylo, but came almost an entire centimeter short. No Round 1 torpedo on this golden opportunity, all because I let my pessimistic paranoia go haywire and control me.
I may have let my past disaster of last game affect me irrationally, but I am still in a relatively good position. Mike has to guess where my pieces are moving and play accordingly, while I have reaction with coordinate. using these reactionary powers, I coordinate Kylo a focus linked to a roll to portside to catch Yellow with a hard 2 starboard and lock. Holo’s 1 turn to starboard is out of range of being shot without, yet in range to toss Kylo the evade token. Kylo 1-shots Yellow, a good start…that is immediately ruined. Defending against only 1 range 2 shot, a range 3 obstructed and a range 2 obstructed shot, with Terrex’s calculate, his force, and Holo’s evade, the odds of Kylo getting hit even once are very diminutive: barely 2% for the entire turn, as I have just calculated. On his first 4 green dice, Kylo blanks out.
Normally, as frustrating as that sort of variance is, I’d turn away with Kylo towards my end of the board and regroup for another torpedo strafing run. Holo would 2-Segnor’s starboard off to disengage, yet be able to engage the following turn in reaction to how the droids have to navigate about the obstacles. But I have tilted, and simply wish to engage. I dial in the 3-hard so that Kylo can be coordinated a boost and then roll out, but Green blocks that maneuver. Knowing that I will be blocked, I still perform it as I think it will dodge a torpedo sent Kylo’s way. Sadly, Kylo’s block keeps him in arc by less than a millimeter, and he takes a shield and 2 uncanceled results, bringing him down to 2 health. I turn in with Holo and engage with a calculate and an evade on top of a lock on a target. The setup, although ill-advised when fighting swarms, isn’t too bad considering Holo’s chances of dodging most of the shots. But when a token stack isn’t good enough to dodge a 2 hit attack, you then see why these engagements are not to be opted when the list has enough mobility to do otherwise. She dies in the engagement.
Well, there it is. I could have coolly regrouped after the initial attack and repeat until the swarm is whittled down, but I let myself get tilted. And as frustrating as that initial blankout is on top of what madness I witnessed in Round 1, it was still just a shield. I had let a separate, past, game influence my decisions this one for the worse on 2 separate occasions. Had I just chilled out and done the correct moves on either of those occasions, it would be a favorable matchup for me. Instead, as Gideon gets burned down and Kylo tries to avoid blocks and save mods for defense, it is a decisive defeat for me and my poor decisions. 54 – 153 loss, as I run and get lucky on defense.
Round 3: Joe
FIRST ORDER (193)
Major Vonreg TIE/ba Interceptor (64)
Daredevil + Hull Upgrade
Kylo Ren TIE/vn Silencer (81)
Adv. Proton Torpedoes
Gideon Hask Xi-class Light Shuttle (48)
Proud Tradition + Agent Terex
Pyre comes very much in handy in this sort of matchup. If he weren’t in my list, I’d be at 195 pt., still outbid, and still facing an I6. But including him and being more or less starting player agnostic, I can double stress a ship to slow down it’s maneuvering and to close its dial so Kylo can perform a fly-by behind it. Granted that each ship in this list is also kitted out to gain stress tokens, Gideon’s lifespan is expanded a la Kohska Frost’s ability. Given our setup, I use Pyre on the enemy Kylo.
Joe makes a cautious approach with each of his pieces, allowing him to react to the moves I make. Since this Vonreg has no Afterburners (they’re not Hyperspace legal) and since his Gideon coordinates at I4, before either of my aces, I can take advantage of the clunkiness of the TIE/BA’s ship ability. Gideon and Holo turn off to bother their almost mirrored counterparts, and Kylo with his Proton Torpedoes reaffirms the threat initially posed by Pyre.
The following turn, there are no shots for me as my Kylo 5 forwards and boosts past Joe’s Kylo while Holo and Gideon get into position. Joe’s Kylo zooms forward as well and focuses into a boost to give Gideon chase. Given his 3 hits and Gideon’s natural roll of 2 blanks and an evade, the shuttle would normally take 2 shields of damage, but since Pyre triggered on Kylo’s stress token, a reroll into a focus allows the shuttle to take only 1 damage. 1 damage for good positioning is a fair trade, I believe.
Holo and Gideon bank in, ready to do damage on the enemy Gideon but also area denying against Vonreg. Kylo turns round the cloud, and uses his focus + autothrusters combo to area deny against Vonreg, who is now out of good options. The enemy Kylo deals a shield to Gideon and Holo deals a shield to the other Gideon, but the real action is when Kylo’s torpedo takes advantage of a disastrous defensive roll to bring Vonreg down to 2 health.
The following turn, my Gideon turns in, the enemy Gideon stops, Holo 2 Segnor’s Loops to the starboard, and my Kylo moves forward and boosts with his focus. Unable to dodge a torpedo should my Kylo fire it his way, the enemy Kylo turns in, locks, and boosts into Range 1 for a 5 dice attack. Unfortunately, this blocks Vonreg and his escape vector. The dice aren’t giving Vonreg an easy time, as he deals no damage to Kylo in exchange for the rest of his health. The enemy Kylo cripples my Kylo, but it’s still a very favorable boardstate for me, especially now that I’ve shown the enemy Kylo the Dark Side, selecting Panicked Pilot.
My Gideon subsequently advances to give chase to Joe’s Kylo. Holo banks in towards Joe’s Gideon, and rolls and evades just in case the enemy Kylo comes around. My Kylo moves forward and double repositions to gain obstruction against the enemy Gideon. The Blinded Pilot crit can wait. Joe’s dice continue to beat him while he’s down as his Gideon barely pushes any damage into mine, while Holo punches a massive hole in his. It would only get worse for him. The following turn, Holo blocked his Kylo in pursuit of his Gideon while evading for my Kylo. Repairing the crit and boosting in, my Kylo takes the evade. In exchange for no further damage on my Kylo, I natty the torpedo shot to cripple and panic his Kylo.
It was an unfavorable matchup for Joe in the beginning, but things only spiral out of control. Unable to react with repositioning, even moreso every time he performs a white maneuver, his bid is only useful for preserving MOV. My Kylo and Holo merc his Gideon, while his Kylo has to hope for good results. Eventually he gets over his Panicked Pilot with enough blue maneuvers, but an inescapable killbox on top of the trickle of damage leading up to it do him in. As consolation to Joe for his poor variance, he is able to finish Holo. A 200 – 128 pt. victory.
Round 4: Tim
FIRST ORDER (192)
Major Vonreg TIE/ba Interceptor (63)
Daredevil + Mag-Pulse Warheads
Kylo Ren TIE/vn Silencer (94)
Instinctive Aim + Advanced Optics + Proton Torpedoes
“Scorch” TIE/fo Fighter (35)
Fanatical
Once again, I am outbid by a considerable margin, but once again, this is a favorable matchup for me. Sure, we have identical Kylos, except my Kylo can gain some force-extending calculates from Terrex and an evade from Holo. Meanwhile, my I4 shuttle is more durable and probably more supportive than the I4 3-dice base TIE/FO fighter, and Pyre is going to make sure that once again, Vonreg is a non-factor in this matchup. My opening is aggressive: Gideon coordinates a focus to Kylo, who 5 forwards, bank boosts, and rolls out to pose a significant threat to Vonreg. Vonreg’s 1 turn away dodges the opening engagement, but even with Daredevil, he is now irrevocably in a bad spot relative to my Kylo, especially with the obstacle placement.
If Joe’s dice were bad in a bad matchup against me and my list, Tim’s dice are even worse in an even worse matchup against my list. Holo tosses the evade to my Kylo while remaining strained with a calculate and a focus. She not only gets a lucky shield off Tim’s Kylo, but forces him to expend a force doing so, now making his Torpedo at worse single-modded. My Kylo generates full hits with his Torpedo and scores a Direct Hit!, which is fully exasperated by Tim’s once more single defensive paint. On the brightside for him, his Kylo’s Instinctive Aim torpedo generates full hits against my Kylo, but rolling only 1 blank, my Kylo loses merely a shield. He’ll lose the other shield to Scorch’s snipe, but things are still not looking great for Tim. Especially when his modless but not hopeless Kylo gets whacked down further by the vengeful dice gods as Gideon natties 2 hits, uses his ability to roll a crit, while Tim rolls only a single evade on his 5 dice: not even the gas cloud’s blank to evade and Range 3 obstruction bonus can save him.
Kylo and Holo give chase to Vonreg, applying the pressure to him. He can’t escape both arcs as a result of prior positioning, his dial, and the clunkiness of Fine-Tuned Thrusters without Afterburners, but the dice are starting to behave better for Tim. Granted, it’s not all that great since Scorch’s only shot or his only viable shot is at Gideon, who with Pyre and a calculate is able to negate Scorch’s 2 hits. This is a repeating pattern against Scorch.
Eventually, Vonreg’s bid to escape comes up short and he is going to take a torpedo whether he likes it or not. Thus, Tim turns in and hopes that Kylo’s mod stack is negated by variance extremely tilted against me with a lucky crit or so negating the torpedo. No such luck, and Kylo compounds on that by showing him the Dark Side, selecting Stunned Pilot. With the near-guarantee of the torpedo landing, turning a hit into a crit, and the cloud guaranteed to be clipped by Vonreg, it’s essentially a free Direct Hit! as damage. Spending the lock he obtained from an off turn on Vonreg to modify his dice, Kylo pushes in the Dark Side and a shield of damage on the Red Baron.
Vonreg cannot pursue Kylo given the area denied him by Holo, and Scorch still can’t get a good shot. Eventually, Scorch does line up a shot on Kylo, but with Range 3, obstruction, and gas cloud, it’s not going to land. Vonreg tries to punch damage as he engages, but the best he can do is a shield off of Holo in exchange for nothing. Yet, his position is such that Kylo can turn in and engage unretaliated thanks to Gideon’s maneuver, and Holo can get behind with a K-turn.
Pyre is once again useful as he prevents Vonreg or Scorch from halving Terrex. Kylo and Holo drop enough dice on the major to make him drop from the fight, leaving just a stressed Scorch alone. The single TIE/FO, even with Vonreg triggering False Tradition as he departs, is no match for two double-modding I5’s. 200 – 0 victory.
Round 5: Will
GALACTIC REPUBLIC (191)
“Hound” LAAT/i Gunship (61)
Seventh Fleet Gunner
Blue Squadron Protector V-19 Torrent Starfighter (27)
Dedicated
“Wolffe” ARC-170 Starfighter (50)
Obi-Wan Kenobi Delta-7 Aethersprite (53)
Calibrated Laser Targeting
Despite yet again moving first against a double-repositioning piece, I am glad that I counted to 200, especially considering how deep Will’s bid is! I was sort of tempted to split my forces in the traditional aceplay, but considering how Obi-Wan moves last and would benefit most from my aces being separated from each other and their support/area denial ring, I stayed with the Round 1 engagement opening. Besides, with Pyre double stressing Hound, the LAAT/i is guaranteed to take a torpedo this turn, regardless what it dials. And this is without a reinforce. Hence, Kylo is coordinated a focus, performs a 5 forward, boost bank, and then roll, and then takes a second focus from Holo as nobody’s taking any fire from the Republic this turn. The first focus is used to its standard effect while the second focus is used for Advanced Optics, generating the full hits that punch 2 shields and deals a crit.
Things only get positionally better for me as it starts to slip away from William. Kylo is able to sneak into Range 1 of Hound and still dodge the arc and thus Fire Convergence from the LAAT/i. Holo keeps a respectable distance from all the ships while getting all her mods to whittle the gunship down. She throws Kylo her evade while she takes a calculate from delightfully absent from the fight Gideon. Thanks to the evade, Kylo dodges Wolffe’s shot while punching in more damage to the gunship. Saving the focus for defense, Holo pounces on this trend while dodging Obi-Wan’s non CLT, but 7th Fleet Fire Convergence shot, the V-19’s shot, and the Weapons Failure shot of Hound.
Convinced that everyone will go hard in for Holo, I dialed the 5-K on her just in case the V-19 moved faster than a 1-speed maneuver. But if she bumps, she’s taking less heat. With Kylo, instead of 5 forwarding away, I dialed the hard-2 in. In case the V-19 tactically bumps Hound and Wolffe bumps into Hound, the 5 foward is easily blocked. Sure, the hard 2 would be blocked as well, but at least my arc turns. Furthermore, I can toss Kylo Holo’s evade regardless of block if Kylo hard 2’s in. Even with 7th Fleet Gunner and Fire Convergence, the odds of Obi half-pointing Kylo are slim.
Will outplayed me, however, and had the V-19 block the turn in, calling my cowardice on the 5 forward. It is a bit scarier now, but at least it still means that I only have to dodge 1 terrifying turn before I can be in a position to get away and recycle for the next strafing thanks to area denial by Holo and Gideon through arcs and blocks. The odds of Obi halving Kylo would probably be less if I took the continuous stream of Range 2 shots after getting away, as Obi was blocked this turn, but there is silver lining to this cloud. The odds of the V-19 helping Obi make it a little more of a nail-biter, but this volley is still moderately in my favor (I later calculated it out to 33% if Will spends one of Obi’s force to hold on to the V-19’s focus after Kylo’s attack and 24% if he doesn’t).
Kylo fires at the V-19, who spends his focus to dodge the incoming crit. Obi-Wan does not spend his force to preserve the focus as he wishes to better modify the dice, thereby improving my odds as the correct call is let Obi fire with only 2 force while the V-19 keeps a focus. Obi-Wan with 7th Fleet and Fire Convergence generate the expected 4 hits, but the evade token on the blank luckily lets Kylo take only 1 shield of damage. Now the engagement is turning heavily in my favor, especially when the V-19 is able to generate only a hit and a crit with Fire Convergence into Kylo. Literally the only thing that can halve Kylo is a complete blankout! Which is exactly what happened. Dang, I should have showed Obi the Dark Side, but I was too afraid of focusing out. Didn’t see the blankout, despite its ever-present precedent.
With a stressed Holo unable to be coordinated save for a Proud Tradition focus, I dialed the unblockable 1 bank with her to guarantee Kylo’s next evade. In case I should desperately fling a torpedo, I coordinate Kylo a repair to Blinded Pilot so the torpedo can generate a crit. In retrospect, I should have coordinated him and dialed something other than the repair and the 4-K. I didn’t know what it was, as I was too stunned by the unlikely, but unfortunate past turn. Sure, the odds of the bad outcome were rather high in terms of game-swinging outcomes, an entire 33% before it started to whittle down to 5%, but I did’t know what to do. In retrospect, the 2 forward with Holo is both unblockable and blocks the 1 hard from Obi-wan, but I was expecting the 1 bank out of him. In either case, after killing off the LAAT, Kylo is reduced to 1 health as a result of the Simultaneous Fire rule. It’s still a winnable game, but I’m out of position and demoralized.
Holo Segnor’s Loops and hopes for a good shot on Obi-Wan. Obi’s Segnor’s Loop gives him cloud protection. Feeling daring, Obi takes a crit to turn Holo’s talent into False Tradition. Gideon is sort of just there trying not to die while coordinating, and Kylo deals more damage to the V-19. Wolffe misses Kylo, fortunately.
As Kylo pursued Wolffe, I realized that the Koiogran Turn on Wollfe didn’t allow any space next to the board to arc-dodge, so I just boosted in and hoped to get out of Obi-wan’s range. Obi-wan was in range, but fortunately at Range 1 of Holo. Desperate for something fortunate, or even the 70% likelihood of a damage in possibly with crits, Holo uses her lock to generate only 2 hits on 4 dice, unable to punch past Obi’s defenses. That was a bit disappointing, but at least Obi doesn’t kill Kylo, nor does Wolffe. All the same, William still has a solid advantage.
Kylo was to be no more. Wolffe remained stressed and executed the hard 2 to guarantee arc on Kylo. Kylo double repositioned to get out, but was forced further down the board so Obi-wan’s fast maneuver plus the double reposition was able to catch him instead of overshooting. Holo was able to defensively stack and to put in more hurt to Wolffe, as consolation however. I did forget to show the Dark Side with Kylo as he died, as I was far too disheartened by the chain of events to focus. I would have shown Obi Blinded Pilot should he and Holo face off in a 1v1 and Holo kill him before Simultaneous Fire would apply, such that Calibrated Laser Targeting and any locks would be made irrelevant and make it more difficult to kill Holo in treturn. Furthermore, I should have just charged in and gone down guns ablaze with Kylo and take as much as Wolffe as possible to ease Holo’s job, not caring about the rear arc. But that’s all past.
Surprisingly, as Gideon dies, Holo is able to take out the V-19. Obi does pull a terrifyingly well-placed K-turn to catch Holo, and it brings her down to 1 health. She does maneuver to shake Wolffe, who fixes his Console Fire at 1hp, while locking Obi-wan and evading. She does get lucky, as Obi rolls only 1 paint on 3 greens but his positioning relative to the obstacles is such that he can’t generate bullseye and thus his 2 hits are dodged with the evade token. Following this engagement, she prepares to do in Wolffe, which she successfully does with some tense maneuvering.
Now successfully forcing 1 engagement at a time while juggling targets, I have generated a 1v1 with the Will’s Obi-wan. It is tough given that I have to safely put myself in a position to lock and evade, clear the deplete yet not get shot at, and then engage with a focus so I could have full mods just because Obi-wan has force. We dance back and forth unable to punch in the damage as a result of bullseye dodging while using the clouds or arc-dodging with the information that moving last offers. Eventually, I miscalled another Segnor’s Loop from Will that would have caught my preferred disengage. Instead, I got caught at Range 3 instead as Obi-wan hard 2’d in portside and boosted. 165 – 200 defeat.
Wow. If this list at IG-88 or even Kylo + Holo + Shuttle is an acclaimed book or an anime of similar prestige, this run has been the Netflix adaptation. Sure, I was unlucky, but I am a large part of my poor run. Granted, when the worse of Round 1 peaked at -11 greens for me and +7 reds for my opponent, I couldn’t do much as all calculated mild risks went badly. But I should have left that round remain that round only. Instead, I irrationally let it get to me and I botched Round 2’s highly favorable opening turn for myself. Despite that I had an OK setup, but I wasted it when I went full aggro and tilted after some very unlikely and bad variance which all the same only added up to a minor inconvenience. The bad variance punishing my impatient play was what I had coming, as I could have avoided it. And granted, Will did get a lucky 50/50 call on what my Kylo was doing and got an even luckier overall aggregate 33% outcome following that call, but had I simply played better I could have likely avoided those unfortunate outcomes. Will knew that he was flying the underdog list in our matchup and that he needed to generate the miracle turn and I let him set it up so chance could favor him. In other words, he outplayed me, even if luck was required. And thus the tables were turned, as now I was the one who needed to good luck to catch up but with fewer pieces and a less developed game state.
I did appreciate playing though, as this would be my last tournament before the Coruscant Invitational, and I do miss the social aspect of X-Wing. I’m not too upset about not making cut either as I already have my Coruscant invite and although I would have liked to make cut, I wasn’t expecting to be able to partake in the event. I’m sure this list would do well in capable hands, and that I just have to calmly think through my decisions more and not let absurd outlier variance affect me, especially in games well past their occurrence. In fact, were I to play in a future Hyperspace event in the current Hyperspace requirements, or even in the ones that Wave 8 will add, I would still field this list.
I could have made a bid to tie my record up or even just have another game, but I called it quits and joined the litany of Round 5 drops. When across 5 games, I have a grand total of 2 quad blankouts, 2 cases of rerolling a blank into a blank on a natural roll of double blanks, and 4 triple blankouts, I just can’t look at another set of blank dice again. Even if I would win Round 6, which I was getting dubious of, I just couldn’t look at another set of blanks. Even though 2 out of 3 of my losses I certainly could have avoided, I just refused to look at another set of blanks. I can’t say “muh dice” and leave it at that as the first domino can likely be stopped by removing any of the chain of dominoes that allow them all to fall over. But I still don’t want to look at muh dice.
As for meta stuff, it is unsurprisingly diverse given how Hyperspace tends to purge out the more egregious offenders. Case in point, only 1 Spamtex made cut and that was eliminated in the Top 32, as without their favorite bullseye talents, they lose much of their bite and are beatable by a higher number of viable lists than in extended, where counters to them tend to cannibalize each other. They are still undercosted and have the potential to dominate in Hyperspace, but better players have better chances of making cut by flying other things. Also, given that First Order does have some truly disgusting things in its arsenal (see, my list last week), its roster is filled with a lot of fair pieces that don’t require elimination from Hyperspace. Yet, a great many of these pieces are very viable and First Order squad building is very modular, and thus can be easily built to taste. With this relative deep roster and in a format that doesn’t require synergies, the worse extended faction becomes the best Hyperspace faction, as there’s a lot of FO out there as per previous Hyperspace results. Ace + miniswarm, swarm, ace + efficiency, triple aces, and double aces and support are represented multiple times. Though it isn’t First Order, I would be remiss to forget Megasilver making cut again with his Ryloth list. Although he was eliminated in Top 32, he only needed to swap Commander Cody for an R4-P astromech to make the list Hyperspace legal and still very viable.
Similarly according to precedent, the best pilot in Hyperspace is Boba: with his low variance susceptibility, high initiative, payload capabilities, good reactionary abilities, and consistent offense, so long as his dice aren’t canceled or diminished, he’s the strong favorite in any event to show up in the final and more often than not win. The Boba’s being eliminated either early or relatively early on doesn’t demonstrate that Boba + friend is a list that crushes people in Swiss but can’t progress through cut, for many of the Boba’s cannibalized each other as they were being paired up. This isn’t to say that Boba takes no skill, as each of the lists were tricky 2 ship lists and the winner was the trickiest list of all, but boasting the highest skill ceiling: Boba + Fenn. I was able to check in on the final and watch some good 2 ship play. And I know that vicarious living is dumb, but I couldn’t help but experience massive dopamine rushes when not only calculated risks payed off, but when Fenn got lucky and dumped buckets of not only paint, but pure evades. It invigorates me, hoping that I could play in the format again. I wonder if I’ll get some Hyperspace in soon, as a lot of local tournaments when they used to be run tended to prefer that format…
Dang, it looks like no Hyperspace in the forseeable future. In the meantime, however, I’m toying with Automated Target Priority as well as practicing for Coruscant. As I’m recording screenshots of Rush and/or Avenger with the upgrade, I noticed that noted Imperial 2I6 + I5 legend Dale Cromwell made cut with the card on Rush. Well, I can’t be unprecedented in saying that it’s good on Rush, but at least that backs the arguments that I’ll be making. As for Coruscant practice, it’s been a lot of fun practicing a list that has even stronger variance resilience than Kylo + Holo + Tavson: you can still have double digit negative dice results and still 200 – half of something a lot of things. You just have to make the correct decisions, even moreso than lists that can get a little help from outlier results. That and make enough sacrifices to the matchup gods.
That will do it for this time!
Screaming into the Void 