In this article we will take a look at the top four lists for the recent legion tournaments at PAX Unplugged and New Orleans Open. Full results can be found here: PAX NOLA

Both these tournaments were held solidly in the new ruleset. It should be noted however that the Yoda/Wookiee ‘wave’ were not legal at the NOLA event, but were at PAX.

Also note that I didn’t personally attend either of these tournaments and there was no streaming. So how exactly players ran their lists I am not able to comment on.

PAX Unplugged

PAX had a total of 22 players. The tournament comprised of four rounds of swiss. This resulted in a lone 4-0 winner and then a second ‘tier’ of six 3-1 players. Tiebreaking appears to be completed with Strength of Schedule.

First

Congratulations to Mike Gemme, the winner of PAX, who you may know as BobbySapphire on The Legion Discord.

Mike decided to bring his own spin on a list that is seeing a lot of success recently.

There isn’t much to say here as Mike recently wrote a post for The Fifth Trooper that can be found here

Second

Second place at PAX went to Josh Prosser who brought a melee skew Empire list. Not too long ago a melee empire list would’ve seemed preposterous but they are rapidly becoming a very big deal in competitive play. This list has six really threatening melee units, one of those being Vader.

The recent buffs to Vader along with the points drops to other Imperial units have really helped lists like these find success. Vader is able to use New Ways to Motivate Them on melee units around him to get them into melee from a long way out. The only thing that seems to be lacking from this list for a true New Ways melee charge is a way to distribute more orders on that turn. Finding some points for HQ uplinks for a dewback or two and/or seize the initiative on Vader would really help to make New Ways even more impactful, with the added benefit of more order control.

If you come across a list like this be prepared to have a bunch of dewbacks charge at you followed closely by the guards and Vader. One thing to be thinking about with dewbacks is you really want to take them off the board quickly. You do not want to do just one would to a dewback as that will engage tenacity which really makes their bites hurt.

Third

Mike Syrylo, known as Ghostwalking on The Legion Discord got third place at PAX. This is another list that shows off a new archetype for legion. Super Tactical Droid + MagnaGuards + Dwarf Spider Droids = Good.

This list also incorporates four B1 units with E-5s Troopers, this gives the list incredible long range poke and plenty of Critical and Impact potential. Remember that those Magna RPS-6s have Critical and Impact. This list feels very much like an ‘all-comers’ list. It has the ability to compete with melee lists, both at range and in melee. It also has plenty of armor counters. Between these two things it has many of the skews in the game covered.

Fourth

John Lopez secured fourth place at PAX with a list that feels like a fusion of old GAR lists and new GAR lists. Combining a fair number of clone units with Padmé and Wookiees.

This list feels quite a lot like a ‘traditional’ force user list. A melee unit(s) backed up by a solid gunline. The biggest issue that this list could face is being nine activations, however that isn’t seeming to hurt a lot of lists, as we are seeing the average activation count seem to drop a little bit.

This list also brings with it a decent answer to most threats. Plenty of melee potential and some really good anti-armor weapons. Not to mention that you can still throw some wicked fire supports together.

This list also brings with it alot of vigilance to keep a lot of dodges on the board potentially making a tough nut to crack.

One possible weakness is that there is a lot of courage 1 units with only Padmé’s 1-pip for suppression control. Potentially swapping out a copy of vigilance for Strict Orders may be a possible change.

PAX Summary

Out of these top four lists we see two GAR, one CIS and one Imperial. This may give some hope to a GAR player-base that has been, at times, been feeling very burned by the latest errata.

All four of these lists at PAX are also exemplary of the most recent changes to the game and recent releases. Three lists only possible with the most recent unit releases and one list not possible under the old points, despite now being much better.

NOLA

The New Orleans Open had a total of twenty-six players. The tournament consisted of five rounds of swiss pairings. This led to one 5-0 winner and four 4-1s tied for second place. This tournament utilized Margin of Victory Tiebreaking.

First

Gus Smythe took home the top prize with a 5-0 record. Congrats!

His list was a Krennic-Vader Imperial List. This list or something similar will probably be seeing success at other upcoming events. Combining Vader with a solid red save gunline turns out to be pretty good now.

This list also has a decent amount of anti-armor tech in plenty of impact or critical. The red save tanks will probably pose a bit of a problem, but it still has some answers for those lists.

One thing to note about this list is that you should always be careful of cunning and turns in which Vader can activate twice. He obviously can activate twice on Implacable, but he can also ‘activate’ twice on Deploy the Garrison as he can be given a standby token. Anyone who has played with or against Obi-Wan will know how powerful this is.

A Pierce heavy list will probably be the biggest challenge for this list as pierce can pick apart the gunline, (ie Wookiees).

Second

The Fifth Troopers own Bushfacts got second place.

He ran a somewhat ‘herohammer’ rebel list. He ran a list that somewhat fits into the force user/gunline archetype but included Han Solo and Chewbacca. One thing this allows Bushfacts to do is the same effect you can get with Krennic/Vader/Seize. With Sorry About the Mess in your hand and Seize the Initiative on Luke. You can insure that Luke goes first, even before opponents with Cunning.

Another interesting addition is Rebel Vets with an extra trooper and an MKII. I believe this is to potentially open up some fire supports into any of the amazing ranged weapons available. The extra trooper for the vets is a cool addition as five black dice surge:hit should reliably punch through cover, allowing what would be just an objective grabber to actually throw some decent offense in a pinch.

Third

Zak Harbula, also known as FloorftheDwarf claimed third place at NOLA.

Floorf decided to just take a super heavy empire gunline and see how it did, and it obviously did pretty well. With the new points update you can just take so many loaded units in empire now. Combined with Aggressive Tactics on Krennic and a Comms Relay the Shoretroopers in this list should be receiving plenty of orders to give them and aim and a surge every turn. This raises their efficiency so much. Krennic also has Strict Orders, utilizing that double command slot. This allows the courage one corps to be somewhat resistant to suppression, not to mention that Krennic still has Compel in a pinch.

This list can easily erase an army off the board if it catches it flat-footed not behind cover.

As with any red save gunline though. It can crumble to pierce, especially melee pierce that reaches its lines.

Fourth

Scott Combs claimed a fourth place with a double AT-ST list with somewhat of a hodgepodge of other units along for the ride.

When first looking at this list you see 2 AT-STs with some astromech backup and think this looks ‘normal’ and then you see a naked Bossk, an E-Web and 2 Saboteur Strike Teams. This list is wacky and I wish I could’ve seen some games played as these units all have great potential, but usually not all in the same list. Scott must’ve been doing something right by going 4-1 though.

This list is also taking a bid that seems massive in the new 4-card flip world. Despite a 15 point bid seeming average just a couple months ago. You could probably add another thing or two to this list. A way to hand out some aims would probably be a good addition. The AT-STs and Bossk would all like to have as many aims as possible.

NOLA Summary

NOLA was run by Ryan Sliwoski of the STABcast. They did a complete rundown of the whole event on their podcast.

This event as mentioned earlier didn’t allow Yoda or new Wookiees. This probably helped in the result of three empire lists making the top 4. Generally Wookiees have a negative effect on red save gunlines.

The one non-imperial list we saw crack the Top 4 was a pierce heavy list which was probably aided by plenty of red save units to hurt. There were also fewer CIS lists in the mix at this event which often prevent Pierce heavy Rebel lists from doing well.

Takeaways

Both these events are showing us a few broad trends in the Legion competitive seen.

Lower bids. Due to the changes to turn 0 most players have starting bidding very low or not at all.

Lower activation counts. While not being super low, we didn’t see any super high activation lists in these eight lists and actually a few 8 and 9 act lists.

Empire is back (baby.) Empire has regained a lot of mojo after the last point changes and errata. It seems that this new found power isn’t just a fad and will remain for awhile yet.

Republic isn’t dead. GAR also saw an average weekend. 2/8 of the lists are GAR which is the amount you’d expect all else equal. Importantly, the event that saw two GAR lists make top 4 also allowed Yoda and GAR Wookiees. This is probably indicative of what GAR players should be doing to compete at the highest levels for the time-being.

Conclusion

PAX and NOLA were both successes by all accounts. It’s good to see the Legion community going strong and good competitive play happening. Hopefully you are able to attend an event soon if you want to and are comfortable doing so.

Cheers,

Timbo