By Matthew Cary.

This last weekend I abandoned the Scrub crew to head out to Titan Games in Springfield, Illinois to hit up the first store championship in the Saint Louis area. Anticipating a day filled with Bobas and droid swarms, I did what every sensible X-Winger does and took… XBB? Three ship lists are good right now, right!?!

As is Scrub tradition, I had to be my own beautiful, unique snowflake, so I couldn’t fly the anticipated meta. That meant no 5X, no FOcho, no droids, and worst of all no Boba. Self-imposed restrictions are stupid. Boba is my bread and butter, but because I’m silly, I’m not gonna fly him. I toyed around with an alteration of 5X and some Resistance 4X, but they all felt a little… meh. So I decided to try out the new B-Wing foils from the Hot Shots and Aces pack.

I made a psuedo-Rebel beef to start with – a XBBA list, using the A-Wing to block and the other 3 to punish the blocked target – but I didn’t care for the list. So I dropped the A-Wing because I’m a glutton for punishment. That allowed me to put some munitions on the ships, and as some added insurance for anyone trying to deny my actions, both Ten and Braylen got Intimidation. So here’s the list:

Luke Skywalker – T-65 X-Wing

Proton Torpedoes, Servomotor S-Foils

Braylen Stramm – A/SF-01 B-Wing

Ion Cannon, Stabilized S-Foils, Intimidation

Ten Numb – A/SF-01 B-Wing

Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Stabilized S-Foils, Intimidation

The basic idea is that Luke gets double modded torps naturally, and Ten can use his foils to get a lock and stress which is basically lock/focus for him. Braylen can either do his normal focus into roll to get double mods, or can roll to lock to get a double tap that gets rerolls. Seems straightforward, so merrily I started my matches at Titan Games.

Round 1

The first round was against Piotr Biegaj flying Vonreg, 2 SFs, Muse, and 1 generic FO. I had played against Piotr at GenCon last year, and he’s a super cool gent from the Chicago area. Honestly, many of my matches blur together as I flew against similar FO lists 4 times, but from what I remember Vonreg went for a hard flank with Muse, while the no-names faced down my entire list, I alpha’d an SF before it shot leaving only one SF to return fire. Luke scared Vonnie off with a lock while the B’s finished off the other SF. With the exception of Ten’s defense, dice tended to roll in my favor, starting my luck streak. In the end, I lost Ten Numb and half on my remaining ships, but pulled out the victory, W 159-129.

Round 2

My second round was against fellow Arch Alliance member Tim Wertin, flying Kylo and 4 FO’s. Luke scared Kylo off with a lock. Apparently, Aces are afraid of double mod Proton Torps. The B’s took out the FO’s while Luke kept Kylo honest using a zone defense threatening the torp. After two torps and a range one shot, Luke got three damage into Kylo, which is below average, but it kept Kylo scared. I lost half on all my ships in exchange for destroying his entire list. W 200-100

Round 3

Johannes Steber had the misfortune to be my third opponent. The last time I played against Johannes was at GenCon last year, and he lost with his abysmal defense dice which he apparently decided to use again today because his dice abandoned him. He was flying Outmaneuver Vonreg, Rivas, and 3 SFs. Luke and Ten nuked an SF while Braylen solo’d Rivas (seven defensive blanks for Rivas). I locked Vonreg in a corner near the end taking him off with a Proton, but I drove 75 points worth of Luke off the board because I got a damaged engine while pointing directly at the board edge while stressed. W 200-137

Round 4

Finally, I wasn’t going to fly against FO! Hooray! It’s 5X flown by Bob Kreitler. 5X gives me less hooray. I was able to range control 2 shots from my B’s into one of his X’s with no return, but also with no damage done… I was counting on that damage. Next round it took a fully modded range 1 shot from Luke, Ten’s fully modded APT, and Braylen’s range one shot to kill one X-Wing. Not good. Perhaps my dice luck was out. Then the return shots from the 4 X’s rolled a total of 4 paint. 4 PAINT. Dice luck was still intact despite two rounds of lackluster offenses from my list. I lost Luke to two range 1 X-Wing shots in exchange for two X’s. Intimidation put in work in this game after Luke became space dust, as I’d purposely drive into an X to not take a shot while the other B would double mod shoot it. W 200-107

That ended Swiss, making me 4-0 at the top of the of the board with 1086 MOV, and Jeff Wake (this store’s previous Hyperspace winner) as the only other 4-0 at 1024 MOV. We cut to top eight with Me, Jeff Wake, Will Barnickel, Tim Wertin (Arch Alliance, woo!), Johannes Steber, Tyler Tippett, Michael Peterson (Arch Alliance, woo!), and Marcel Manzano in the running. Here’s a link to the results if you don’t mind spoilers for the cut.

Cut Round 1

Marcel and I drew the match against each other which is cool since I’ve yet to get a game in against him. He was flying Tel Trevura with Proton Torps, 2 Contracted Scouts with Autoblaster and Nom Lumb with Dengar and Autoblaster. I never got to launch any munitions as Jumpmasters just block actions, but luckily as long as the B’s stay stressed, they get mods even when blocked, and Luke’s force doesn’t care either. The other thing that went my way was the Jumpmasters only shot at Ten Numb who rolled an evade every single time. EVERY SINGLE TIME. An 8 health ship that always rolls an evade lives forever.

I killed Tel twice and got half of both of the Scouts in exchange for Ten. I finished off a Scout with both Braylen and Luke still at full health, so Marcel called it. W 200 – 59

Cut Round 2

This round was going to be a “Curse of Swiss” round no matter who had won the last one as both Johannes and Tim were squaring off, with Johannes taking the win. The game started similarly to our Swiss game, except I never got my APT off, and his dice actually decided to participate in the game. I dropped an SF and Rivas, and half of Vonnie and the other SFs for Ten Numb and half of Luke. Vonreg regen’d. Luke squared off against the Baron but an unfortunate Fuel Leak meant a single crit from Vonreg killed Luke. Braylen finished off an SF, but I could never put an arc onto Vonnie ever again. Loss 91-200

Johannes went on to face Jeff Wake, who deftly defended his Hyperspace title by taking this Store Championship, as well. Congratulations, Jeff!

All in all, the lists feels okay. It’s missing something, but I cannot decide what. I have another Store Champ before Adepticon, so here’s hoping I figure it out by then.

For more Midwest Scrub content, you can also find us on our podcast: The Midwest Scrubcast. A more conversational take on X-Wing topics, featuring all the same scrubs, but in your ears!

If you enjoy our content, like and follow us on the Midwest Scrub Facebook Page to keep up with the latest. Click on the events tab for info on tournaments and events around the St. Louis area. To support us even further, head to our Patreon page.

For other Arch Alliance content, check out Arch Alliance’s YouTube channel, Facebook page, and Biophysical’s Starfighter Mafia blog. If you are in the St. Louis area or coming to visit, reach out to Arch Alliance X-Wing on Facebook to find out where we are playing on any given night.