Time flies when you’re having fun! It wasn’t that long ago I was recapping the first Shatterpoint World Championship. Now we’ve doubled that with the second coming to an end March 29 in Milwaukee. Similar to last year, this will be the first of two worlds-related articles. The other will be a data deep dive for the top 64, so stay tuned for that!
Before we begin, let’s do a quick recap of the format. A top 64 event was held on Saturday. Players qualified either by winning a GT during the 2025-26 season or by competing in the Friday qualifier event. If I was good at this, I’d remember exactly how many GT winners there were. However, I’m not, so let’s just say high single digits. As such, most of Saturday’s players came through the Friday qualifier. All 3-1 and 4-0 players from Friday made it, plus a number of 2-2 players. Four rounds were played on Saturday, after which the field was cut down to a top 8. This approach meant four 4-0 players made it through plus four 3-1 players, based on tiebreakers. Each of them won a struggle in their loss, so it was essentially decided by Strength of Schedule (SoS). The top 8 was a seeded elimination bracket on Sunday, culminating with the third and final round.
Players are shown below with their Longshanks name and listed in no particular order within each grouping. The link for Saturday can be found here and Sunday here.
Top 8
Matt ‘Daimyo Matt’ Cerino
What better place to start than one of the many Matts in this top 8? The Cerino variety rocked a 2×2 style list with Cassian on one side and Boss on the other. This was a common approach at the tournament and gives a good mix of movment, aggro, and revenge. Luminara’s outsized presence at worlds may have been a surprise to some, but we’ll dive into that a bit more in the future. Matt preferred Cassian/Leia, running the pair in three of his four games on Saturday en route to a perfect 4-0 record, including a win over the defending world champion.
Sabine is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Her tactic moves a friend, which can be very useful, I’m just a little surprised to see her in a list with only one other Spectre. She probably wasn’t getting her free focus much, but hitting stuff hard isn’t really why she’s there. The vertical element she brings to the revenge game, being able to turn an advance from Cassian into a jump, should not be underrated.
Kenny Brown
Kenny was 4-0 and actually beat the eventual champion on Saturday, but lost the rematch on Sunday. As such, he surely earned some special bragging rights. Hunter is another common pairing for Boss, upping the offensive consistency of an all-clones list. Kenny started the event with back-to-back Republic victories before switching to rebels for the rest of his games.
Luke is a spicy inclusion here, offering various condition immunities to his team depending on whether he’s in the deck or discard (or double immunity when in reserve). Pin immunity keeps the rebels mobile and can protect them from extra damage (units like rebel commandos can often double up pins across their two attacks) while expose immunity can be particularly effective against Republic lists, which like to expose the target before a Rex or Sev & Scorch follow-up.
Redwolf6879
Dan was 3-1 on Saturday with his only loss coming against fellow-top-8-cut-maker Duncan. This list operated as a Cassian anchor; he featured in all games while the other primaries took turns pairing up. Luke seems to be Dan’s preferred option since he was picked twice on Saturday and in Dan’s lone Sunday game.
Like Kenny, Dan went a little off the beaten path bringing Luke. What are the odds they were talking before the event? I bet C-3PO could tell me. The other two pairings bring extra revenge in a couple different flavours: Leia gives hunkers and extra attacks while Mando gives condition removal and better movement. Lobot is a secondary I love with Leia to let her advance, focus, and dash before attacking.
L4mbCh0p
On Friday night AMG teased that Kit changes are incoming, and it’s clear now they must be nerfs because Liam is too good with Kit! (I joke, I hope it’s buffs) Liam played a tough schedule on Saturday, emerging with the best SoS of any 3-1 player after using Kit in every game. I asked him at one point if the list was meant to be a Kit anchor and I didn’t really get a clear answer. Whether it was the plan or just kind of worked out that way, it certainly was successful. Obi was played once while Boss and Ki-Adi joined Kit twice each.
Kit is sticky and defensive, which aren’t bad qualities to have in a meta where offense is so strong. The Ki-Adi version of the list boast three dice-less displacement effects and two useful Coordinated Fire abilities, allowing for some decent control options. All Delta Squad members have tactic dashes, meaning the extra flexibility available from Kit’s Supporting Fire: Dash ability can be super useful.
Top 4
Godlyness-Duncan
Duncan brings his own twist on Cassian double-revenge with the inclusion of Count Dooku. It loses out on some rebel tag synergy but open up some new tricks. I’m curious how often he used the Cassian advance on Dooku to get within range 2 of the defender, triggering Double the Pride, Double the Fall for a nasty clapback. Cassian/Dooku was the preferred pairing on Saturday, appearing three times as Duncan went 4-0. On Sunday it was Boss time, starting with Boss/Hunter against Liam and ending with Boss/Dooku against his brother, Dean.
In the Hunter squad we see Wrecker as a bit of a defensive pick. His Protection/Steadfast bubble is still handy and I Wasn’t Sneaking provides a bit of anti-Kanan tech, though the latter is less useful now if the opponent also has Cassian. Clone Commandos are a solid choice for maneuvering around elevated terrain with Scale.
Matthew Bucher
We now meet our second Matt and winner of the first Matt-off, Matt Bucher. He did the classic “play one list first round and never again” premier move, starting with Anakin/Boss before five straight games of Leia/Cassian. Anakin isn’t a pairing we’ve seen as much for Boss, but holy moly can it pack a punch! Unfortunately, into heavy aggro-Anakin can lose a bit of steam; dashing everyone is less useful if everyone is wounded. As such, it makes sense Matt leaned into the revenge list.
We’ve seen a lot of Kallus so far and some may find that surprising. After all, Cassian lists only bring five force. Well, Baze & Chirrut refresh some force and all the revenge movement means units might be able to get away without paying for their active movement abilities, freeing up force for rerolls. To state the obvious, rerolls with perfect information are really, really good. As someone who played against both Kenny and Matt Bucher, ain’t no feeling like thinking you got the results you need only for them to reroll into more blocks or hits.
Runner-Up
Icemyn – Dean B
Dean was 4-0 after Saturday and the top ranked player based on SoS. He carried that momentum through to Sunday with two more wins and a strong second place finish, rocking Ki-Adi across all seven games. Vader was the slight favourite for pairings on day 1, appearing twice, but day 2 it was all Plo Koon.
Ki-Adi is a strong piece for the republic and Dean’s two main lists showcased his flexibility well. Vader turns on full murder mode with some defensive Kenobi Mind Tricks while Plo & Co. double down on the control elements. Against revenge lists, three sources of dice-less displacement allow Dean to move units around without wounding. Of course, wounds are still important, but it’s about timing them properly. When he does get a wound, Ki-Adi dashes a jedi which can help offset revenge movement.
Ultimately I’d say the weakness for Ki-Adi/Plo is strong aggro, which will hopefully be tuned down in the upcoming balance pass. I took a similar list to a GT before Cassian and Delta Squad were released and had a great time with it. I think Dean may be a trendsetter here as we move into the next meta.
Champion
Matt Bronson
Sometimes, due to the premier format, it can be tough to say what really drove success. In 2025 did Armorer/Dooku win worlds? Kind of, they were in Scott’s list, but Vader/Iden is ultimately what sealed the deal. In 2026 there is no ambiguity. Boss/Lumi went 0-1 (the aforementioned loss against Kenny) while Cassian/Kanan went 6-0 and never lost a struggle. We may have shiny new revenge toys, but Kanan is the OG and still a beast.
Cassian is great, but good players are also quite skilled at mitigating him. That gets much harder when Cassian is paired with a second revenge trigger. We’ve seen quite a few double revenge lists in the top 8, but Cassian/Kanan is my personal favourite because, as I like to say, “my revenge go up!” Even if the rebel wounded isn’t a Spectre, Kanan’s ability to heal and jump allows him to access plays that Mando and Leia simply can’t. If he also gets to attack, then watch out! If the opponent tries to prioritize displacement without wounding, then the list brings lots of movement to get units back onto objectives.
Overall Thoughts
You no doubt noticed a lot of repetition in these lists: lots of Cassian, Baze & Chirrut, and Delta Squad. These are generally viewed as very strong pieces and lived up to the hype at Worlds. As someone who used them, I will state unequivocally that they are too good, and I hope they get nerfed in May. There is some good variety bubbling up just below the surface (Kit, Ki-Adi, Luke, Luminara), which gives me hope for a diverse and exciting meta if/when the top stuff is brought in line.
When it comes to list composition, 2×2 is still king, but I was pleasantly surprised to see three anchor-style lists in the top 8. I don’t have anything especially clever to say here, other than I hope we see more variety in the future, too.
Mission choice will be a big focus in my upcoming data deep dive, but for now, there are some quick observations to be made from the top 8. Shifting Priorities and First Contact are noticeably absent, while the recently released Strategic Positions had a big showing. Not only is Strategic a fun mission, but it also combos well with both Cassian and Delta Squad. Sabotage Showdown remains a popular choice. One big advantage it has is that it isn’t especially punishing for the player who goes first. I still think building around Never Tell Me the Odds gives the best chance to win, but I am interested to see what the data says.
That’s is for our first worlds recap article! If you are looking for recordings of the games, Momentous Struggle streamed the event and Omnus Protocol recorded some battle reports which are already starting to get posted.
