Mynock Open
Preface
I have been in the X-Wing competitive game going on four years now. Three of those have been spent podcasting, bumping shoulders online with the large and excitable X-Wing community at large. Thousands of people, from all over the world, whom I have talked to and discussed everything from gameplay tips to listbuilding to favorite beers, but never met in person. Throughout my X-Wing career, I always looked wistfully at tournament pictures, wishing I wasn’t prevented by finances and obligations from traveling to play, compete and chill with the community of people who make this game so amazing.
So when the Mynock Open was announced, and the possibility of super cheap tickets became a reality, I was over the moon to be able to finally travel to attend not only a major X-Wing event, but the first major X-Wing event of Second Edition! First, though, a couple major thanks:
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to Dee Yun for allowing me into his home to spend the weekend staying with him and his lovely family. Despite being told, “I never really liked Gold Squadron,” by his Krayt son Eli the second I walked into the room, he and his family are the epitome of graciousness and hospitality. Dee, I would not have been able to make it if it weren’t for you.
Thank you to my podcasting co-host, best friend and partner in nasty X-Wing crime Adam for being both a great travel partner as well as a sound mind to bounce ideas off of, and for being so much more adept at communication than I am, and organizing a party with our old high school friends in Los Angeles. Thanks for helping me figure out how to use Uber. I have never felt so much like a small-town boy!
Finally, a gratuitous shout-out to Ryan Farmer, Andrew Seeley, Dallas and Shea Parker, and all the rest of the Mynock Open organizers and volunteers who put together a one-in-a-million event, full of fun, excitement, and, most importantly, some damn good X-Wing.
So let’s talk about that, shall we?
The List
What’s the one thing every single competitive-focused podcast agrees on when talking about important ways to prepare for a tournament?
“Practice, practice, practice!”
So, naturally, I did not do any of that. I had been unable to attend X-Wing nights for the weeks leading up to the event (I would blame work but I’d be lying if I didn’t acknowledge the significant role Destiny 2’s Halloween event had on this) and definitely had no idea what I was going to put on the table. Tyson and I talked before the tournament and he had offered some very good suggestions as to what to fly based on loose meta assumptions – assumptions that would ultimately prove to be correct. However, with an unfamiliar archetype as well as unfamiliar ships for me relegated that list, although very well-reasoned, to the box and I ended up bringing a list styled upon Palp Aces lists of 1.0: Vader, Soontir, and a Lambda-Class Shuttle!
Darth Vader
Supernatural Reflexes
Afterburners
Soontir Fel
Predator
Lieutenant Sai
Advanced Sensors
Lieutenant Sai is an incredible asset to any Imperial list. His ability allows him to duplicate an action on his action bar to another pilot in the squadron (let’s be real though, it’s probably going to be a Focus) and therefore drives the action economy in the list. I have combined that ability with aces that can trigger abilities off of actions granted to them – Soontir’s Autothrusters, and Vader’s pilot ability.
With no expectations and no reps with the list itself, I entered Day 1 excited to have some fun!
Round 1
My first round saw me paired against Steven Ford of the Birmingham Barons podcast. Already defending my podcasting glory! Steven was flying a very strong list, too: Drea Renthal and Torkil Mux leading Binayre Pirates and Jakku Gunrunners – an exceptional Scum swarm and a tough match to start the day.
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I set up in the corner and attempted to use Soontir as bait to allow Vader to come from the flank. Despite good attack dice allowing me to put some true hurt into Drea Renthal on Round 1, Soontir’s green dice did not reward me and I lost my special arc-dodgy boy!
Enraged by his comrade’s demise, Vader turned up the heat and, with a couple clutch Afterburner moments, was able to clinch me the win on time. Sai’s Coordinate and his ability was extremely useful here, allowing me flexibility on Target Locks (Force’ing off the granted action from Coordinate) and evading blocks.
Round 2
I was paired against another Imperial list and, in fact, another Soontir as well as my first Whisper match! My opponent, Timothy Pollard, brought a larger Initiative bid that me as well, relegating Soontir and Vader to moving last.
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Going into this game, I was conscious of two things:
My strongest endgame option is an I6 ace without Soontir on the other side of the table. Therefore, cornering him and taking out the opposing Soontir Fel was my first objective.
Darth Vader crew on Whisper wouldn’t be able to exert his dark hold over me as long as I maintain green tokens. Sai is well-placed to help me here.
My opponent set up Whisper in a wide flank while I once again set up in the corner. I used the obstacle set up to create a pivot point, baiting Soontir into the bottom corner and allowing Vader to come in for a Range 1 kill that put me into an advantageous position. Soontir and Vader were able to quickly finish Whisper, then take care of the rest of my opponent’s list and put me to a sound 2-0.
Round 3
Chris Langland, my Round 3 opponent, is the most unflappable man I have ever faced across the table. He was undefeated as well at the time we were paired against each other, and he brought to the table an intriguing Rebel list, following the Ace + miniswarm archetype: Super Luke decked to the nines with R2D2, Supernatural Reflexes, mods, torpedoes, and the like; and a swarm of four Bandit Squadron Pilots to back him up. Formidable jousting power to be sure and an ace to match.
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I knew my aces were strong against his list: I6 beats I5 and, if I play my cards right, I knew I could have Z-95s chasing Fel futilely across the board. He set up in the center of the board, pre-empting an opposite corner placement for Sai and immediately turned his Z-95s to face Sai at the start of the game – an advantageous maneuver.
What I did not expect, however, was his aggressive Luke maneuvering, keeping his S-Foils closed to grab an early lock on Soontir. However, this meant that fast maneuvers from Fel and Vader meant to achieve a flank as he went for the shuttle instead allowed Fel to get to Range 1 of Luke’s less-effective primary weapon and Vader to get into range as well as the shuttle. My now-advantageous position combined with some incredibly swingy dice (Seriously, I rolled 10/10 paint on reds) saw Luke go down in the first round. From there, leveraging the maneuverability afforded by the aces and Sai, I was able to pick off Headhunters one by one until I won the game, 200-0.
Round 4
My round 4 opponent, Sean, came in with one of the boldest lists I saw at the tournament: 4 Kihraxz fighters (one of whom was Graz the Hunter) and L3-37. Similarly undefeated thus far, he mentioned at the start of the game how he loved Graz’s “Biggs Effect” and how, even though he lost Graz most games, his bulky K-Fighters did the majority of the work into the endgame.
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I set up in the corner opposite to his Kihraxz/L3-37 block and he deployed Graz right across the table from me. I figured I had a chance, if he didn’t move aggressively with his main force, that I could blitz Graz and still be in position to counter the Kihraxes as they came in against me. Of course, if I misjudged, I could be caught out of position. I dialed in maneuvers, therefore, that could hedge my bets: faster out of the gate than strictly necessary, but still able to turn out and slow down if given the opportunity.
This game was the first of the tournament that stuck in my head how L3-37 is a true winner for Scum lists. She was able to coordinate the Kihraxes to maintain actions and formation as they rounded the rocks. Graz came out to meet my force aggressively, though, and I knew I had him: Fel, Vader and Sai pounced and were able to get Graz in two rounds. The Kihrax’s lack of 3-hard turn made it difficult for the main force to join the battle in time.
Once the main force clashed, however, things became dicey. I was forced to use K-turns and sloops to get away with the aces and leave Sai to the retribution of Scum! However, he elected to chase Soontir around the center rock, giving Sai a brief reprieve. Although he did an excellent job of overlapping arcs and using L3 to maintain actions even while K-Turning, Soontir was able to boost/roll into a couple of key blind spots and range control to keep him chasing while Vader punked one K-fighter after another. Close to time, I made a risky maneuver with Sai to turn toward the edge of the board, maintaining his rear arc and forcing my opponent to choose to chase him if he wanted the kill (Sai was down to half at least with only a couple hull remaining). While this would have run Sai off the board with another two rounds, time was called with all my ships still alive and Sai’s rear arc having played a significant role in destroying the last couple ships.
Round 5
I played Round 5 against James, an Australian from Onyx Squadron who gave me the best alt-art card I have seen yet: a Trajectory Simulator with the “Cow Catapult” scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail! This was appropriate: two more copies of this card appeared on Redline and Deathrain, backed up by two Barrage Rocket Scimitars. A powerhouse of a list poised to ruin my perfect run if I made a mistake.
At the Mynock Open, 5 wins guaranteed you a spot in Day 2, so the stakes were high for both of us. I made the conscious decision to not allow the sudden pressure to affect my play – even though I was doing far better than I ever expected going into the tournament, choking now would be a death sentence.
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He set up his Punishers separate from the Bombers, closer to Sai than I anticipated, and I knew I had a chance to come in aggressively and gain the advantage against the Punishers. Indeed, I was able to range control Redline as he went in toward Sai and negate one torpedo. This Range 1 shot combined with the incoming reds from Soontir and Vader helped me ace Redline in one round, an exceptional early advantage.
However, he had correctly gauged Soontir’s engagement vector and Feché la Vache’d my Soontir with a well-placed Seismic Charge/Proton Bomb combo that forced me into the awaiting arms of a Scimitar, who promptly punked Fel and changed the rules of the game entirely. Vader now had to pull a significant amount of weight and fortunately, James’ dogged pursuance of Sai allowed Vader to finish Deathrain (with assistance from that amazing Shuttle rear arc) and then get into a dogfight with the Bombers – a dogfight that saw Vader, with the assistance of his Force, came out on top.
Round 6
Dion Morales comes up to me before pairings, pats me on the back and says, “You’re on stream next.” I fully anticipated that this was an attempt to shame me and Back to Dials in public, in front of the entire world (Just kidding, love you Dion!) but, now guaranteed a Day 2 seat the pressure was off once again and as I sat down in front of my next opponent, Doug Stone-Weaver, I was relaxed and joking and ready to have a good time.
I am so glad that what followed was one of the most intense games of my X-Wing career. You can watch the recorded game on Gold Squadron’s YouTube channel Here.
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The game began with the most important roll-off for First Player of the day. Doug brought Fenn Rau and Han Solo (Scum), both at 6, and Palob Godhali, and I3: all conflicting. I had joked with Ryan Farmer about being very lucky not to have faced a Fenn Rau with an aggressive bid yet today, and suddenly, as if it were a cruel joke, here he was! Fortunately, I won the roll-off (we were both at 199 points), gave First Player to Doug, and set off.
The start of the game was a tense cat-and-mouse of gauging each other’s approach vectors. Once Doug led into the center with Han, I knew it was now or never and turned hard in with Sai, bringing Vader and Soontir in from each flank. I was aware I had left Soontir in an awkward and aggressive position but Doug forced my hand. Fortunately, he only had one ship – Han – in range of Fel and after blanking on the attack roll, elected to go all in on Sai. By leading with Han and then turning Fel in slightly too quickly, he lost his actions and put himself in an awkward position.
The second round of combat saw my biggest blunder of the day. Sai was stressed, and I saw a juicy opportunity for Fel to be coordinated and then S-Loop behind my opponent’s entire list. In order to pull that off, though, I needed to de-stress Sai, so I dialed in a blue 2-straight. I then considered for a good long while – I anticipated a fast maneuver with Han, either a 3-bank of 4-straight, and a similarly quick maneuver from Fenn to bring him back in from downfield and put some hurt onto Sai. I saw that a 3-straight, although not de-stressing Sai, would block both of these maneuvers. Soontir could then turn out, a safer maneuver, and come around from the flank in a turn or two. I decided that, if I expected faster maneuvers, Soontir would be better served getting behind now, and elected to de-stress, coordinate the boost, and play aggressively.
I ended up boosting Soontir out of the position that would have blocked Han, then blocked Fenn into Han, leaving Fenn in the perfect Range-2 sweet spot for Vader and Sai to blast away with minimal retribution. Instead, Han shot through with a 4-straight, and Fenn 3-banked into his own sweet spot. Soontir’s S-Loop left him tokenless and vulnerable, and Sai died swiftly to Han and Fenn’s Range 1 shots. Soontir took an unfortunate Console Fire and I could have lost the game right then and there with that 2-straight alone.
My saving grace, however, was Han’s wide path. Being out of the fight for a couple turns allowed me to shift targeting onto Palob and, once he was down, be ahead (barely!) by two points. I just had to maintain or advance my lead as time ticked down. Doug turned Fenn towards my edge of the board, allowing me to regroup and put some serious damage into Han, putting him within striking distance. The last round of the game, on time, was incredibly tense: A R1 shot from Han put Vader to half hull and me behind, but Soontir was able to kill Solo with the last red die thrown of the game and put me, undefeated, through an incredibly tense final game and into Day 2!
Original Article by Asa Graf, November 14th 2018.
