Hi Folks! Reports of my retirement are greatly exaggerated.

I could go on and on as to why we’ve been on such a long hiatus, but rather than that, let’s go over the highlights of the past few months, primarily how you can buck the meta and play something you like, and get away with it (because I sure did).

Systems Open in Chicago

As those of you who follow our Facebook feed know, while I did bring Palpatine to Hoth (my first time flying him – more than a little difficult), I flew one of the most underflown pilots in the game in place of Omega Leader – The Illustrious Kir Kanos! (apologies for the below poor formatting, still getting back into the swing of things)

[UNLIMITED AGGRESSION]

100 points

PILOTS

“Wampa” (14)

The Inquisitor [Push the Limit, TIE/v1, Autothrusters] (31)

Kir Kanos [Autothrusters] (26)

Omicron Group Pilot [Emperor Palpatine] (29)

Yes, that’s right, I flew Kir Kanos at a major competitive event! Now while I didn’t fare well (3 and 3), I learned a LOT from the experience, the most important thing being that people do NOT expect things that are outside the meta. Out of all the ships in that list, I would put the most value on Kanos. Not only were people unsure on how to handle a non-PTL Interceptor, but when they weren’t focusing on him (the biggest fear is that of the unknown), they were leaving him alone too much, letting Kanos push through his insanely high damage output from a safe distance.

So what happened next? I began designing odd lists no one was thinking about in preparation for regionals. I also noticed that my flying at Chicago left a lot to be desired, meaning I had to be sure that when I went to regionals, I had practiced with the list extensively. This led to…

Disruption Deci

Me ignoring the second half of my own advice in favor of completely honoring the first half. After toying with several ridiculous lists involving two or more Lambda shuttles with Tractor Beam (because why not?), I settled on a bomber-deci list a couple days before regionals here in New England. Now I hadn’t flown a bomber since my first ever tournament, and hadn’t flown a Decimator since regionals the year before, and this was before Imperial Veterans landed, leaving me without the saving grace of Long-Range Scanners. I came out of day one with a single loss and a spot in top 16.

[THE CAVALRY]

100 points

PILOTS

Captain Oicunn [Intimidation, Mara Jade, Navigator, Intelligence Agent, Tactical Jammer] (52)

Gamma Squadron Pilot [Proton Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Guidance Chips] (24) x 2

The biggest advantage I had all day was that no one had any idea how to handle anything I was throwing. Who runs Mara Jade? Navigator Deci? What in the WORLD is Tactical Jammer? Not to mention that bombers have that unexpected 5 K-turn if you aren’t prepped for it, and the Gammas in particular get PS advantage over Jumpmasters, not to mention Oicunn (who can now also adjust to be certain he bumps).

So what was my plan with all this? To prove that you can play something different and enjoyable, and still be relevant. And I wasn’t the only one. Another local player brought Bombers (Captain JONUS!) and Barons to the event and also made top 16, and the final tally of ships that attended the event confirmed that out of 91 players, Paul (whose last name escapes me) and I were the only ones to bring bombers. The only four bombers in the entire field made top 16 (Paul continued to Top 8 if I remember correctly), during a time when Bombers were considered obsolete.

The Lesson

So where am I going with this? Well, I played that list because it seemed fun. I tweaked it slightly to prepare for the meta, but overall flew ships I just wanted to fly because I just like them. Despite what some may say, for the most part you can fly anything, with a couple mindful tweaks, and have it be effective in a competitive environment.

If you have any wonky lists that defy the meta but have landed strong places competitively, let me know! Moving forward, We’ll be highlighting these “Meta-Defying” lists as often as we can.

That’s all from me for now! Apologies for the poor formatting this time around, as noted before, still getting back into things!

Until next time, Fly more Missions!