Dhis Track: Playing around with some former Imperial Legends

Sup Nerds.

Its been a long, cold, march, but hell if it wasn't fun. Time for part 3 of...

~~~Jank Shop~~~

This months list is probably one of the more competitive lists I'll run this year. Even though most of its components are outdated, it was still a fun one. It was originally named Dhisper, but I eventually ended up going with

Dhis Track.

"Whisper" (32)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Fire-Control System (2)

Rebel Captive (3)

Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

Delta Squadron Pilot (30)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE/x7 (-2)

Delta Squadron Pilot (30)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE/x7 (-2)

I ran one thing I was very familiar with (Whisper) and decided to experiment with Defenders for the first time casually. I used to play Triple Defenders back when I was learning to git gud, but I dropped them after about 2 weeks because they were just brain-dead boredom. Whisper I wanted to pick back up in this high PS meta to see how she performs, and she did not disappoint.

Whisper was a massive surprise this month. Not only did she pull her weight in normal games, but she regularly did well against higher PS aces, beating out PS 10 or 11 Poe 3 times and never losing to him once. PS 10 RAC and PS 10 Rey also ended up defeated against the PS 9 ace. Rebel Captive was a massive assist to her as well, and probably won several games simply from fear of shooting her. Expertise Rey was almost hard countered by PS 9 Stress-whisper.

But Whisper was almost always used in reserve. The brunt of the fighting was placed upon the twin Deltas, two PS 1 x7 defenders used with standard point-and-shoot jousting tactics, absorbing fire with their token stacking, durable frames and dishing out whatever they could with their 3 dice and (hopefully) left over focus token. TIE Mk. II was okay at best on them, only actually clearing stress for them about 3-4 times over a course of about 11 games. But for 1 point, it pulled its weight.

Everything in the list complimented each other, while not necessarily being synergetic, a reason I favor the Imperials over most other factions. Whisper serves as a hard-hitting flanker that you really want dead but don't want to shoot at, and the Deltas are lightning fast token stacking blockers that just so happen to be incredibly efficient jousters.

With a win-loss ratio of 2.33, Dhis Track is actually kind of... competitive. Back before the x7 nerf and before bombs we're a widespread thing, I wouldn't be surprised if this list would win a tournament or two. Its definitely B-tier but not quite S-tier, so I'd say its a solid... ohhhh... B+ list in today's meta? There are things out there that eat it alive *cough* bombs *cough*, but other lists that it performs surprisingly well against.

Below is a game that was mostly won by luck against my brother, but a win none the less.

Macro of the best model in the game

Awfully shot picture of opening engagement
Delta's jousting and Whisper flanking.
Beautiful piece of my childhood in the background

The first round of actual action. Whisper is off to the left, about to die to PS 10 Rey.
Brother was insistent on killing her first, but that left dancing Poe open to shots from both Defenders.

Whisper is dead, as well as a single Defender.
Rey dies in this shot, and Poe gets wrecked by an asteroid

GG. Poe lands on the Asteroid and is promptly annihilated by the remaining defender.
100-71 victory with a 2 health Defender

This concludes march's edition of Jank Shop. Stay tuned next time for another classic ace revisited, as well as some other forgotten imperial treasures.

As always, this is Echoblammo. Add me on Snapchat and follow me on Reddit for more janky monstrosities!

No Tokens for You... an exploration into janky scum denial.

What's up nerds.

Almost March, time to talk about February and boy was it a rough one. Time for part two of...

~~~Jank Shop~~~

This months list was something I like to call, as the title says...

No Tokens For You

Torani Kulda — M12-L Kimogila Fighter 27

Adaptability - 0

Harpoon Missiles - 4

Unhinged Astromech -1 

Black Market Slicer Tools -1

Guidance Chips - 0

Enforcer - 1

Ship Total: 34 

Dalan Oberos — StarViper - 30

Veteran Instincts - 1

Advanced Sensors - 3

Autothrusters - 2

StarViper Mk. II - -3

Virago - 1

Ship Total: 34 

Binayre Pirate — Z-95 Headhunter - 12

Scrambler Missiles - 2

Dead Man's Switch - 2

Guidance Chips - 0

Ship Total: 16 

Binayre Pirate — Z-95 Headhunter - 12

Scrambler Missiles - 2

Dead Man's Switch - 2

Guidance Chips - 0

Ship Total: 16 

The list pushed me out of my comfort zone and remained in it all at once. I'm very familiar with flying Scum Z-95s, almost all of my lists use them, both epic and standard. Whether they are just there as naked blockers and fire dispersers or low-PS missile carriers, they always pull their weight, and this list was no exception.

The Z-95s were surprisingly efficient, even with their shitty card loadout. DMS performed much better than I expected, almost always serving its purpose of punishing an enemy who killed it, and rarely damaging its allies. 

Scramblers, on the other hand, were disappointing. There is rarely a situation where you'll want to use them, as they don't do damage, the splash damage is rarely useful, and a single jam token rarely hinders most ships nowadays. Sacrificing your attack to maybe cause your opponent to lose mods next round is hardly worth it. This is a card I wouldn't mind seeing buffed in the future, maybe to discard Reinforce tokens at the least.

Dalan Oberos was the Ace of the list and was the first pilot I've ever flown in a Starviper. Originally meant to be Xizor, Dalan was... okay. Some games he didn't do anything but die and some games he carried the team to victory.

His ability is very niche and only good against certain lists. The ability to turn almost any maneuver on his dial into a talon roll, combined with Advanced Sensors and a 1-bank barrel roll, makes him one of the most maneuverable ships I've ever flown. He's so complicated and mobile the developer of Echolocation outright said he's too complex to put in right now. As such, he is very unforgiving, more-so than Soontir or Whisper in my opinion, and a single slip-up is basically game over for him, which happened on more than one occasion. 

At PS 8, VI was a practically worthless card on him, which makes me hate this PS arms race even more than I already do. Not going to be PS 10 or 11? Don't even bother putting PS-uppers on other ships. It really makes other EPTs useless, as if you don't Out-PS the opponent, you eat a Harpoon or 3 turns 1 or 2. Simple as that. It was a pointless card and would've been easily replaced by any other EPT, Adrenaline Rush even.

Finally, we have the heavy hitter, Torani Kulda. Torani was also the first pilot I've flown in the Kimogila, and she gave me... mixed results to say the least. First off we have her ability. I'm glad other people are having success with the Kimo, because I fucking hated it. I know my build is B-tier at best, but god was it difficult to line up with. Not only this, but it rarely had an effect on enemies because, again, PS 9 barely cuts it anymore, she's easily outmaneuvered, or they just don't give a fuck and have a reinforce token. And not only do we have the bullseyes crappy and difficult ability to trigger, we have Torani's herself. The few times she got a shot off in her bullseye arc, the opponent would almost always discard 0 tokens. Her ability is literally useless in 60% of the situations you get into. Not only this, but there was a single game I played where more than 1 ship was affected by her ability, a game against triple defenders, in which I ended up discarding 4 tokens, and still ended up losing that game by a longshot. Not a fan. Enforcer procced a whole 2 times when I played her (14 games) and the downside was minimal, to say the least. The title should be free or non-unique, IMO, but it was not worth the point. Everything else on her was fine, Harpoons are still broken as fuck, BMST helped me kill Corran, and Unhinged Astromech is a godsend for her.

With a final win ratio of 0.56, 'No Tokens for you' was a thoroughly average list. Definitely never going to win anything, but not something that's unplayable. A game that stood out, in particular, was one where I thought I was certainly screwed, with Torani and the Zs dying turn 2 and 3, leaving only Dalan to fight off dying Rey and near full health Wulff. Rey died very quickly, leaving me to deal with Wulff in the endgame. 

It was stunning. Beating him out by just 1 PS, VI won the game for me that day. Staying behind the Auzituck the rest of the game and just plinking away at its health until it got corralled into a corner and pushed off the edge. One of my greatest games I've played to date. Another particularly decent game I've chronicled below.

Looks like its going good right? A single Z has detonated, damaged all the Defenders, another is getting ready to shoot, Dalan is closing in, Torani finally used her ability on more than 1 ship...

Yeah wrong. Torani gets incinerated. The Z-95 harmlessly pops out in the middle of space. Only 1 defender dies. Dalan takes a hard hit from the last turn, and I'm sure you can tell where it ends up from there.

And those two games sum up my experiences with this list. You either win epicly or just die ungraciously out in space at the hands of some elitist tryhard imperial space jockeys.

This concludes this months issue, but I do have some special mentions to give out to my so-called 'Prophets of Jank'. Tag me in some weird ass lists and I'll have them featured on here at the end.

KKZZZ

Fel's Wrath!

As always, this is u/Echoblammo, signing off. Add me on Snapchat for more jank shit!

Jank Blog: The first one. Featuring: Aces and (Beta) Strikes!

How do you do, my dudes.

So I figured its close enough to February that I can put out the first edition of the new blog I promised...

~~~Jank Shop~~~

Well... there's not really much to say that I haven't already said in the Introduction, but here's how I think this series will go (or be formatted):

So every month I have a list (or two if I feel like changing up Epic). I'll blog about the list after a whole month of playing it, and whenever I can for epic. I'll post random little screenshots I've taken of the list on vassal, and just talk about the pilots and its strengths/weaknesses, and my overall opinion of it.

So let's dive right in.

So this months list was something I call 'Dual Threat'. If you can't click on the link for whatever reason, its down below;

(Excuse the formatting I'm too lazy to change...)

[b]"Duchess" (23)[/b]
[i]Veteran Instincts (1)[/i]
[i]Lightweight Frame (2)[/i]
[i]Adaptive Ailerons (0)[/i]

[b]Turr Phennir (25)[/b]
[i]Veteran Instincts (1)[/i]
[i]Autothrusters (2)[/i]
[i]Stealth Device (3)[/i]
[i]Royal Guard TIE (0)[/i]

[b]Sienar Test Pilot (16)[/b]
[i]Cruise Missiles (3)[/i]
[i]Guidance Chips (0)[/i]
[i]TIE/v1 (1)[/i]

[b]Scimitar Squadron Pilot (16)[/b]
[i]Extra Munitions (2)[/i]
[i]XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (1)[/i]
[i]Harpoon Missiles (4)[/i]
[i]Long-Range Scanners (0)[/i]

[b][i]Total: 100[/i][/b]

This is the first time I have actively used a Striker. I've used Pure Sabacc here and there with subpar builds for fun, but this is the first time I actually tried to accomplish something with one, and it was an interesting experience.

If there is one thing I learned, its that they live or die by their maneuverability, and are extremely unforgiving to newer players. Especially VI Duchess, who almost always died first or last.


Turr, on the other hand, is an old favorite and I know how to handle him. In my opinion, he is the superior arc dodger in this game, but with the PS 10 to 11 wars going on lately he just doesn't really cut it anymore at PS 9. He can definitely pack a punch still an be a slippery fucker to kill, but with all the bombs and turrets going around lately at a higher PS than him, even with AT and SD, initiative or not, he just doesn't sparkle as much as he used too.

And then comes the alpha, or what I like to call beta strike because of the low-PS, aspect of the list. 2 Ships I'd never tried before, the base generic for the TIE Bomber carrying the accursed harpoons, and the STP carrying Cruise Missiles. They carried their weight but since they aren't gunboats fuck them right?

The list as a whole performed about as well as I thought it would. With a record of 4-8-0, going against several top tier lists, like Nymranda, Fenn'Sync and Plot Armor, it did better than I personally thought it would.

The list did surprisingly well against 2 ship lists, probably due to just overwhelming numbers. RAC-Vader, Nymranda, and this weird Double-Defender list I went against (Maarek and Rexler loaded to the max) were all 100-0 victories, maybe losing a single ship on my end occasionally. Everything else it did thoroughly meh against. Some Poe lists it destroyed, and several others it died hard against, particularly Plot Armor. Also, aces that could just straight up out-efficiency my own also did well against it, so Palp Aces, Triple Defenders and several scum aces lists definitely wiped the floor with me from time to time. Including the one I decided to chronicle below:

Yesterday's Tragic X-wing Butt-raping

After rounds and round of kiting and fancy setup maneuvering, the first round of combat begins, and this list I'm going against is the perfect counter to my own. Bombs and High-PS ordnance... this isn't going to go well.


So yeah, next round, it didn't go well. Bomber is dead, Turr got one shotted through a rock at Range 3, and I just got the shit bombed out of me. In other news, I did 2 damage to Nym, so I've got that going for me.




Got Bombed again, Jostero literally stabbed the STP in the back, and that just leaves 3 Hull Duchess to tackle half health Nym, dead Jostero and Full-Health Torani, so this isn't looking too well... I managed to kill Jostero pretty easily, but obviously going against 2 High PS heavy hitters without initiative, I'm pretty much screwed. But hey, can't lose them all.



I think that will conclude this blog! I'm looking forward to doing these more often, and I'm open to ideas, what I should add to these, what I should do differently or remove, and as always add me on Snapchat, same username as above.

An Introduction

Sup Dudes


So at the end of last year, I did a year in review post. 12 Months worth of sweet sweet janky shit that was either weirdly successful or hilariously garbage. You've probably heard of me but you might not've. That's a word now.

So anyway, in that post, some dude in the comment section suggested I make a blog or something. I have no idea how to do that, so this is my best attempt at it right now. No idea how it'll look with absolutely no special art or terrible memes to sprinkle around.

This will probably be a monthly blog, appearing towards the end of the month. I'm sure I'll be doing other things that a typical X-winger does, like meta discussions and stuff, but I'll do some fun stuff as well like Epic blogs, and how new stuff ties into the format, custom formats, custom cards, CCL stuff, just everything casual.

I'm sure as hell open to suggestions and expect my first jank post to appear towards the end of January. Shouldn't be more than 2 weeks. Gotta get screenshots from vassal and such.

So until then, may the jank be with you always, and I'll see you on vassal (I'm down for Epics and weird formats) and Reddit. 

Now enjoy this beautiful sketch of an Imperial Firespray.

54th Place 👌

Oh, and add me on Snapchat if you haven't already (same username as my Reddit account). Screw every other form of Social Media besides Reddit, because I'm different and want attention. Beware, a glimpse at modern high school life may show up on my stories from time to time.