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Episode 4: Stay on Courser!
132 Plays2 years ago
A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Nick and Manny are joined by Matt Courser of The Bespin Benchwarmers Podcast as we talk about Golden State Games, underrated T-65 pilots, glaring needs in the game of X-Wing, and more!
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Transcript
Introduction of Hosts and Special Guest
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to the 312 Squadron podcast. My name is Nick Sperry. Hi, I am Emmanuel. And I'm Matthew Courser.
00:00:13
Speaker
There are a lot of Matthews. We got to make sure we know, although I know if they were to just say my name. No, it's Matt Courser, but maybe the folks at home don't know Matt Courser from the Bespin Benchwarmer's podcast will give them a proper shout out later is with us. And we have a fun episode.
Producer Role and Birthday Celebration
00:00:29
Speaker
Manny is finally back. He is out of the doghouse. We decided to let him have a little bit of sunlight for a moment. So he's back. Andrew birthday today. So we're just giving him the night off. And I'm stepping in with a partial.
00:00:42
Speaker
producer duty. So if you run into Andrew or have the chance to send a message to say happy belated birthday, of course, when this comes out, it'll have been a couple of weeks, but that doesn't matter. There's no statute of limitations. You can wish him a birthday in six months. Happy birthday. That's fine.
Worlds Open Qualifier in San Francisco
00:00:56
Speaker
Guys, we had another Worlds Open Qualifier I was actually at in San Francisco. We'll talk about that. We have a lot of exciting things to talk about in this episode, though, beyond me just somehow playing well at Worlds Open Qualifiers for some reason.
X-Wing Points Changes and Balancing
00:01:12
Speaker
We were going to talk about the points changes, our thoughts on just the overall
00:01:18
Speaker
idea and outlook on points changes and balancing the game. And we're going to break down the T65X swing in our second edition of Break It or Buy It. That and much more to come. Let's buckle up and get going.
Las Vegas Open Announcement and Experiences
00:01:33
Speaker
Upcoming events, X-Wing news, Las Vegas Open has been announced as an official Worlds Open qualifier. That's going to be in January towards the end of the month. I will get exact dates for you guys and post it in the description for you. But that is... I've done LVO. Manny's done LVO. Manny, you know, Vegas is your first time there. It's an interesting place. Slipped to the tournament. He played one round. It's a good experience. Matt, you ever been to Vegas before? I've never been to Vegas.
00:02:04
Speaker
Honestly, X-Wing has a cool excuse to go to a place like Vegas, but Manny and I are on the same page. It's kind of a... It's an unsettling place to be for more than a couple of days. Also, the fact that we stayed at the Bellagio means that I can no longer stay at any other hotel that's on the Bellagio.
00:02:25
Speaker
But um yeah like Las Vegas is a place where if you get just wiped out by an asteroid and I Know that the value would be lost That's my personal
00:02:39
Speaker
Well, not to be dark, but I don't know if you guys notice I just want to want to give everybody a really a perspective on why I feel this way about Vegas is that the horrible Mandalay Bay shooting you guys remember that that happened. I want to say almost a decade ago. It's been several years, but you guys remember that concert that shooting in Vegas. Yeah, I remember that vaguely.
00:02:59
Speaker
So the Mandalay Bay, which is one of the oldest properties on the strip of Vegas, they didn't close for more than a couple hours after that incident. In fact, the next morning, the casino was up in Adam and open, despite them hosting a mass shooting. So if you want to know why Vegas kind of grinds my gears and doesn't sit well with me, it's just I thought I'd give you that anecdote as to why.
00:03:28
Speaker
But hey, go to the Las Vegas Open. You should do it. Play some X-Wing. Yeah, when Las Vegas got hacked like a week or two ago, I was like, huh, that's like pretty good
Recommendation for Las Vegas Open
00:03:39
Speaker
news. I was like actually kind of like rooting for it. Just seeing all those like slot machines just like big, like complete down and having like people wait in lines to get to their hotel rooms. Like, yeah, I have no sympathy for that city.
00:03:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I certainly would want to wait at like an eight hour line to just get into a hotel, an overpriced hotel that I already paid for. But yes, it was one of those Jerry Seinfeld memes like, ah, it's a shame.
00:04:08
Speaker
Yeah, so I believe the big thing about the Las Vegas Open, I've done it three times now, and I have had a great time. So I definitely do recommend it, especially if you can hang out with some
Upcoming X-Wing Qualifiers
00:04:19
Speaker
friends. It's a cool experience. You're there for a couple days. You get to play X-Wing in Las Vegas. I mean, that's kind of cool. But it's one of the... The big deal is it's one of the last World's Open qualifiers before Worlds, which will be at Adepticon, of course, in March, the third week of March.
00:04:34
Speaker
If you're gunning for world's invite or just that awesome swag those cool AMG prizes That'll be one of your last opportunities to do so in the United States Yeah, please go after we've trashed all over precious. Yeah Matt's just like I haven't been there. I don't know you're not missing much
00:04:54
Speaker
So let's talk about the Golden State Games.
Golden State Games Event Overview
00:04:57
Speaker
So I want to give a shout out to Foundry and Lux and Mitch Hurst and Daryl McMillian and a couple of other folks in the Bay Area for putting together, honestly, what probably the nicest event for X-wing I've ever been to. We played in a full restaurant and bar. I had the whole place set aside for us. They had. Yeah, they had a bartender for us. I didn't really take it. I don't like to drink while I play X-wing. I don't know about you guys, but there's a lot of stuff going on.
00:05:23
Speaker
one day just like every time something happens we just like take a shot of something or we take a sip of a drink. No! Every time we have to mark a ship. It would progressively get worse throughout the entire stream.
00:05:41
Speaker
How about, how about you play a game of scramble and there's a shot glass on each one at each point. And then when you scramble, your opponent has to take this shot at the point you scrambled. We'll both be passed out by the, the game and the stream would just be you and me just like sleeping and like violate. Oh yeah. Just terms of service. Yeah. You're right. I forgot about that. What do you think Matt, would you join us for that? Oh yeah. For sure. I love to drink. Give me the commentary. Yeah. You can narrate.
00:06:12
Speaker
Oh, my God. Yeah, we had it. We had a great time that when you were when you were here, we had a we had a good time. I got to see adult water version of Matt Courser. It was a good time. It was a good time. I had a good time. It was. Yeah. Looking forward to doing that again. Round two coming up in a few months for sure. But back to GSG.
Golden State Games Tournament Structure
00:06:30
Speaker
So Foundry and Lux was the name of the venue. It was in South San Francisco. It is, again, the nicest venue that I have had the pleasure playing X-Wing in.
00:06:39
Speaker
And it was same structure. It was day one of Swiss, five rounds, and then it was two additional rounds of Swiss for those who played well enough who went X and one. You could go three, one, and one or better, and you would be able to play in day two of Swiss. And then it was a cut to top eight, not top four, like at Jetcon.
Empire's Performance at Golden State Games
00:06:59
Speaker
And I was able to make top eight. I'm actually looking at List Fortress right now. Apparently, I'm number four overall. Yeah, I saw that. Good job. Thank you. I mean, I was like, OK. I mean, I didn't.
00:07:09
Speaker
I mean, I lost in my top eight game, but Empire with some really good representation. I think this is the, we might not spend too much time talking about Golden State games, but it's clear that Empire made a very strong showing at this event and all the way to winning the entire thing.
00:07:29
Speaker
Not a surprise, but I think we were surprised to not see Empire represented as much in their earlier going. Right. You know, with the bombers and everything, I think people were saying, oh, Empire is going to be super good. And they're showing up, but they didn't perform to this level until now. Yeah, I'd agree with that. Yep. Yeah. Same. Yeah. So we'll just do the top eight lists real quick. I just want to make sure you guys have this pulled up on your end before I call one of you out to read off the list.
00:07:59
Speaker
So do you guys have list fortress open? I do. Awesome, cool. Manny, why don't you just really quickly, number eight, we got Doug Stoneweaver, if you want to just quickly read off his list with some standardized. He played Empire. I'm seeing the Darth Vader, Tom X Bren, Sigma-6. I haven't seen those guys in a while. Yeah, the interceptors. Yeah, Sigma-5 and Deathfire. These are all the standardized,
00:08:28
Speaker
Loadouts, no custom builds. Yeah, so I'm trying to decipher what just Darth Vader on its own means in list fortress because on mine it's what's the core set Vader, the new one. Oh, yeah. It's SZZ 105. So this could be build your own Vader or battle of Yavin, one of the two. I would think. Yeah. Well, I mean, if it was.
00:08:50
Speaker
build your own the
Creative Player Lists in Tournament
00:08:51
Speaker
upgrades. We would have seen upgrades, right? So it must be one of the two battle of Yavin. I would think it maybe it is battle of Yavin. That's going to just infer the one from the stars.
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, but the one from the starter set mine was one from the starter set and on my list it says dark fader SWZ 105 so I wonder if like that's the distinguishing yeah, but Either either I don't think either are a bad choice and clearly Doug did well so congrats Doug
00:09:22
Speaker
key, bringing the sigma as they they both don't they both have access to slam? Is that right? They can I'm going to pull up the sigma checking five and I can tell you what those guys do. Yeah. Sigma five, sigma six, sigma five. After you perform an attack that hits, you may spend one charge to perform an evade action and they have two charges.
00:09:47
Speaker
with a sensor jammer while defending if there's a friendly lock on the attacker. You may change one of the attacker's hit results to an eyeball result.
00:09:55
Speaker
Yeah, I know one of them is the ability to slam. I thought they all did, but clearly I'm wrong. I think that's actually Sigma six has that ability. After you fully execute a speed three to five, may spend one charge to perform a slam action. OK, two charges of non-recurring with your devil and
Competitive Ships Analysis
00:10:11
Speaker
after birth. So I mean, good for him. These are some pretty like fragile ships and some gutsy pilots to choose to fly to. Absolutely. Yeah. This is like a good good for you. This is really. Yeah. It's like a really fun list to.
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not brave enough to fly this list. No, me neither. Yeah, absolutely. And speaking of fun, I mean, we get a Wes Jansen and Nora Wexley sighting if you want to do that next list by Mason Tanner. Yeah, sure. So I'm assuming this is Boy Luke. And then like you said, this is kind of an unusual Rebel list. A little off meta. Wes Jansen with Endurian R4 shield upgrade. Nora Wexley in the Y-Wing with Ion Cannon turret, veteran turret gunner R4 and afterburner is interesting.
00:10:52
Speaker
Lieutenant Blount with Predator and Shield upgrade, and then Sabine Ren with Beskar Reinforced Plating. This was like a fun list to fly. Yeah. Blount? I mean, this is awesome. Nora, Wes, and Blount? I don't really ever see him on the board. Oh, my God, Manny. Manny, I love having Manny on this because he's such a... He's like the normie, the cash. I'm a dirty casual. What's so filthy? You need a bath, you filthy boy.
00:11:22
Speaker
Which ship does he fly? Which ship does he fly, Z95? Z95, all right. His ability revolves around. So basically his ability is like while he performs an attack, if there is a friendly ship at range zero to one of the person he's attacking, he gets an extra attack die. Okay, cool.
00:11:40
Speaker
So he was really
Scum Faction's Tournament Performance
00:11:41
Speaker
good in like rebel swarms because he would just throw people at your opponent and Blount would just take pot shots, re-attack Dicer, you know, four attack Dicer, range one. Oh my God, he has 11 loadout. That's ridiculous for a Z95. Yeah, it is. He has a shield upgrade, so he dies in two shots instead of just one.
00:12:01
Speaker
Oh, it's it's fine though, man. You're basically like a N1 starfighter at that point. Yeah, I get good for you. Mason, I'm proud of you, Mason. Yeah, good for you, man, for doing really well with this. That's pretty, this is a fun rebel list. Yeah, congrats. Wes Janssen with Enduring. I think Wes Janssen has fallen out of favor because of the weirdness. We'll talk about more of this at Break It or Buy It, but how a lot of the T-65s have lost access to a torpedo or they just load out, doesn't support it. Yeah, and also because Luke is like the same cost as him.
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah, and his ability is really good, but you jam after, you know, everything is Spencer has the chance to be spent. So it's a little sometimes it doesn't, you know, it's not as powerful as it could be, but still a good ability for sure. I'll take number six, because I got to give a shout out to my boy, Joe Churchman. Joe, out of Portland, is one of our OG discord locals, as I like to say, he joined our leagues very early on when we first started doing them like two years ago.
00:12:58
Speaker
He is a league champion. He's a great guy and a very good excellent player. And he is a scum player through and through. And my man not only brought scum, but he made top eight with scum. And so I was joking with him. I said, you I said,
First Order (FO) Gameplay Dynamics
00:13:13
Speaker
before this tournament started, Joe, there were six factions in the game and you prove that there is a seven.
00:13:21
Speaker
So, he brought Fenrao and the, you know, the good, good Fenrao, the rebel Fenrao was very good these days, but this is Stonks Fenrao with the extra dice with Beskar, Reinforce, Plating, Mandalorian, Optics, Fearless, and Predator. He's got old Terok, old T has always been a fan favorite.
00:13:37
Speaker
X-wing players, especially scum players, we level T with best scar, crack shot, and fearless. And then we've got dirge. You know, we often forget that there is a scum dirge, but there is with all transponder codes, proton cannons, and marsmanship. Lee Makai with R4, B11, and plasma torps.
00:13:54
Speaker
And then Basque in that Z95 with Lone Wolf. The five-ship list. It's the it's honestly the Swiss Army Knife list and that's Swiss Army Knife Blade can get real long and hurt real bad. And he proved that he's, you know, in the right hands that these guys can do a lot of damage. Matt, what are your thoughts on this list? This is like a fun list and one that I am like, man, two fang fighters. I'm not brave enough for that.
00:14:19
Speaker
Yeah. It's awesome. It looks like a lot of fun, though. That's scummy in appearance. They've had it rough. So, yeah, take what you can get.
00:14:28
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. You have you have good initiative coverage. You have the only low initiative is Boskin. I mean, define low initiative, but I for is like middle initiative. He's really like what? Two points and two points. He's worth nothing. Who cares? Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what helps Joe. Yeah. Joe is helped a lot by not he's kind of initiative kill proof with this list. A lot. Not a lot of.
00:14:51
Speaker
There are plenty of I6s in the meta right now, but there's not enough for you to be worried about you bringing a bunch of I5s. I mean, I did it and it was fine. And he's got Fen, so it's got that I6 piece in there anyways. Yeah. So, yeah. I believe he lost to Casey Kenneth Lyon, another really great player in the community, too. He lost to five T70s. So it knocked him out.
00:15:20
Speaker
Yeah, he's like, oh, man, he shut up. Your list is boring. Matt, why do you take Joe Vinson? Joe, I played Joe top eight and I lost by just a couple of points in the last round. Great, great guy. Great player for
First Order's Competitive Edge
00:15:36
Speaker
sure. So we have blackout, sensor scramblers, profits, lone wolf, Kylo Ren.
00:15:41
Speaker
in the whisper with jamming sweet instinctive aim predator magpals and optics will use in the SF with proud tradition pattern analyzer special forces Gunner Mallaris in the F.O. with cluster missiles and then Gaelic in the F.O. with heavy laser cannon in proud tradition. So it's like a fun first oral is good. It was good. Yeah. And it was tough, man, because I basically had to ignore Kylo and blackout and just go after
00:16:08
Speaker
Malris Gaelic and La Hughes and La Hughes was rolling paint every time I shot at him and malris was yeah It was just it was a tough game and I I was down by like six or seven points and I came back and almost beat him it was a great game he had didn't have his world's invite and He didn't have you know, so I honestly I made a calculated decision in the last round and
00:16:30
Speaker
It was just a it came down to a single dice roll. Didn't fall my way. And I just shook us and I said, you deserve it. Like, you know, it's all good. It was a great game. So Joe making it to number five overall. He made it to top four. He was just one went away from final table. First order, not as strong as the the meta where we had a world champion win with it. Right. But I'd still say it's it's still very competitive. Right. That's how I define this faction right now. Yeah, there's still a solid faction and you have to watch out like this is a really solid list. And there's like
00:17:01
Speaker
the fun thing about FO is, I like this list, but I'm also like, oh, if I don't want blackout, I can have another, there's a lot of options in first order. If I don't want it, yeah. I could split a couple of these ships up and make them scorch and DT, and it would still be a viable list. There's a lot of flexibility and play styles in FO right now.
00:17:21
Speaker
Yeah, and if you are a big F.O. player, then it is nice to have that. I think some factions, even if they are good, struggle with that plug and play opportunity. You're either doing it right or doing it wrong. But with F.O., I don't think you can really do it wrong. Yeah. Per se. Yep. Yeah. And it's nice that they're they're they're in a place to where they not every competitive F.O. list needs a Kylo Ren like they can do well without Kylo. Yeah.
00:17:49
Speaker
Next we got the biggest tool of the tournament an absolute hack. Let's see on Nick Sperry sounds like a complete jerk The biggest douchebag ever snuck foot in the x-wing tournament. See I'm chugging the notes of the show Empire wins and Nick is cool
Nick's Tournament List and Performance
00:18:16
Speaker
I brought the same list, the exact same list I brought to Gen Con, Startershead Vader, Merrick Steel with Fire Control Shield upgrades, Homax with Satsavo, Barrage Rockets, Bomblet Generator, and then the boys, Backstabber and Mauler. So all I-5s and I-6s. It's a good list, Nick. Yeah. Oh, it's weird, is it? The TIE Fighters just kind of...
00:18:38
Speaker
Sometimes, you know, they're just there and then they like show up and you're like, whoa, like, oh, like I, uh, I rolled a natural three hits at a crit into, uh, oddball the arc with like baller. And I was like, oh, it's a high fighter. Just did that. All right. For some reason, those two, they just rolled paint. I was playing with Frankie like a week ago and he just got to the bell of Yavin pack and, um,
00:19:06
Speaker
Those two ties, with no mods, just rolled crits and hits. I'm just like, why? Why? These ties should only be shooting two ties. And they're just rolling paint every time. It's like the interstellar meme when he's like banging on the back of the bookshelf. He's like, no! No! It's like trying to stop breaking for Bi Battle if you haven't.
00:19:27
Speaker
I blame you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's your stuff. You let me borrow. Maybe let me borrow backstabber baller. I'm still holding onto it. It is a good it's a it's a I think it's a list that on paper you're like, oh, it's fragile. It's it's dice dependent. And here's the thing. I like both of those things. I like the challenge of having to you know, the high risk high reward because the ceiling with this list is very, very high. And I think the floor is pretty elevated as well. It holds up and it's proven itself.
00:19:56
Speaker
Um, and, uh, Merrick, I really just love being able to play Merrick. He's great. Four points. He's awesome. So yeah, there's the douche himself. Number four overall.
Rebel Faction Strategies and Impact
00:20:05
Speaker
I got my range rulers back. I gave away my first set. All I wanted at the event was to win them back. And I made, I made that happen. So I'm happy. Good job. Lost in top eight. Yep.
00:20:16
Speaker
I'll do Kenneth's list and then I'll throw it to the YouTube for the last two. So Casey, he brought 5T70s. I like the build out. I'm curious, Manny, what your thoughts are on this. So I'll read it out for you. He's got LO with R68 and Crackshot.
00:20:31
Speaker
Timon, uh, uh, Timon Wexley. This is the boosty Timo Wexley with shield upgrade marksmanship. Karakoon with afterburners. You don't see Kara a ton. Jessica Pada. So there's Jess with BB Astromech and paint. And then we get Nimi with Ferrosphere paint and M9G8. Oh, Manny.
00:20:51
Speaker
Yeah, so I kind of ran this list when the recent points update came out and I'm a fan. The upgrades are basically what I would use as well. I did swap Amy with
00:21:12
Speaker
With, oh my God, I'm completely forgetting that one pilot's name. The one that jumps over people. Yeah. I did, uh, due to the higher initiative, but I mean, yeah, I saw a list. It got third place. So what do I know? No complaints here.
00:21:30
Speaker
It better not be. I'll find you. I know where you live. I'll let Casey know. Matt, what did you think of this? I mean, 5T70s I think has always been maybe something that is viable but hasn't wowed anybody, really. I can't say that I've looked at every single tournament on List Fortress, but what are your impressions of this? Yeah, I mean, it's a solid resistance list. It's something you have to kind of anticipate being there. It's kind of like a gatekeeper list for sure.
00:21:57
Speaker
but it's been performing top four is pretty good. I mean, I would personally probably cut some of these T-70s for maybe like Lula or Kaz or Zori, but in five T-70s is still pretty, it's a pretty solid resistance list. Lots of three dice guns. Yeah. And not relying on heroic. So Casey really hoping, hoping is his greens are solid.
00:22:19
Speaker
Yeah, I totally forgot about that. You need heroic because you saw it. Yeah, I was scared to get heroic on everything. So that's why I swapped Nimi out with Kai because Nimi can't take heroic. That's why. Yeah, gotcha. I'll do.
00:22:38
Speaker
Okay, so Manny, why don't you do number two, Jordan Madrid, who brought a couple generics? Yeah, Black Squadron Aces, they're the I-4 TIE Fighters, correct? They're I-3. I-3, yeah.
Empire's Dominance and Key Pilots
00:22:52
Speaker
I do that. Okay, so yeah, so two Black Squadron Aces, then you have Darth Vader, not sure which one, then- I think, I believe I was next, I think it was Starter Set Vader.
00:23:06
Speaker
All right. I believe then Eric steel with shield upgrade and the power control system. Ooh, good build. Good build. Yeah. Uh, to make spread brush rockets, uh, such addition salvo and then the almond generator. So the typical, I think, uh, then, uh, a major rhymer with the center little as well. So, so brush rockets, saturation, salvo, uh, seismic charges and daily fuses.
00:23:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, so Tomax, there's a there is a little bit of a debate, I think both are very good, but there's a new standardized Tomax out with the plasma torps. And he can barrel roll in every other turn and spend his ability charged to gain a focus for a double modded plasma torpedo. But the downside to that version of Tomax, even though he's the same price, is that if he gets bumped or blocked,
00:24:00
Speaker
He can't do anything with his with just focus. That is true. It is nice. Yeah. Barrage rockets is kind of foolproof when it comes to getting blocked by an enemy ship. You still use them.
00:24:10
Speaker
That's why I prefer him. Yeah, Jordan made the final table. He brought a couple of black squadron aces. So people in our podcast chat were like the return of generic. So they're good again. Like, well, they're always there. You just he opted for a six, you know, six person or six body field in his list instead of five, as most imperialists are right now. So you just wanted to get those an extra body on his in his squad. And he did know good list. I actually really like it. That's solid.
00:24:38
Speaker
All right. Take it away with the. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Show that AMG's out here saying is like, why are you trying to make your next happen? They're not going to happen. And yet they will. Defoe is like, wait a minute. You can't do this to me. Yeah, exactly. John Witherspoon winning with rebels.
John Witherspoon's Winning Rebel List
00:24:54
Speaker
Matt, what did he bring? He brought rebel Fenrao with predator crack shot. Best car reinforced plating.
00:25:02
Speaker
botica in the fang fighter with predator best car reinforced plating and mando optics Harrison doula in the a wing with marksmanship and thread tracers Sabine Ren with lone wolf and then benthic two tubes in the you wing with hopeful per cop gin and pivot wing There is not a boy Luke or Han Solo in sight in this list. Yeah
00:25:26
Speaker
That's kind of refreshing. Yeah, there was a bunch of Hans in the original initial field, but I don't think we in the top eight, we didn't see one and cut, which is pretty dope. Getting a little tired of seeing the same stuff. Also, I don't believe we didn't. We didn't read off a single Republic list. Nope. That's right. Yeah. They were almost there. Yeah.
00:25:52
Speaker
Guys, I played against some really interesting squads, Day of Lights and Swiss. I played against a five tri-fighter list. It was a six ship, no, it was a seven ship list. It was a seven ship list with five tri-fighters. That was a lot, just because it's just so many ships and a lot of three dice attacks. I played at day two of Swiss. I played against a guy who was a fan of us, who he's like, oh, he like knew who I was. And I'm like, wait a minute, am I getting the Mandy treatment? Like somebody knows who I am.
00:26:21
Speaker
It was I believe his name was Eric is really nice guy. It was his first time making day two. And he brought he brought four of the rogue class starfighters and Volandos, which was kind of awesome. I'm like, wow, that's I thought that was kind of cool. Live your best life, man. Right. Absolutely. And he did pretty play pretty well. Good.
00:26:42
Speaker
But yeah, John's list, he's got it. You got a you wing in there. You've got your cheap piece and Sabine for the objectives. Hera with thread tracers is solid. You can set up those target locks. You have that I six for the good objective play as well. Vodica with the bonus attacks. And of course, another I six and Fenn, who is actually kind of like the grim reaper in the rebel list right now. I know Han consistently pumps out damage, but Fenn just seems like it's impossible to avoid getting in his bullseye if somebody knows what they're doing.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah, solid Fenrao play is scary, whether it's Rebel or scum. Right. Yeah, absolutely. So John taking it all. Congratulations to John. See him at Worlds. Congrats. He's the winner of the Golden State Games. Congratulations. Rebels continue to be on top. I think they're edging out over Republic and kind of distancing themselves a little bit from the number two overall faction in the game right now. So at least my thought.
00:27:37
Speaker
All right, let's move on.
'Break It or Buy It' Segment Introduction
00:27:39
Speaker
It's time for X-Wing Break It or Buy It. What is Break It or Buy It? Well, it's a segment we do here where we pick a chassis in the game, usually a ship that doesn't get a whole lot of love. And we pick a few pilots who you don't see very often and we either break it by changing their ability like an errata or their loadout or we buy it at a different cost. So let's say that that pilot is too expensive at five, but I'd buy it at four.
00:28:07
Speaker
So, guys, I'm going to start off with Thane Kyrell. Matt, I'm going to have you do Thane Kyrell. I am going to pull up his ability to read it while you pull it up on your end. So Thane is an i5, he's four points in the T65 with an abysmal eight loadout.
00:28:25
Speaker
His ability is while you perform an attack, you may spend one eyeball hit or crit result to look at the defender's face down damage cards, choose one and expose it. Matt, are you going to break it or buy it? Thank Kyrell. I'm going to buy a thank Kyrell. I like thank Kyrell a lot.
00:28:42
Speaker
Okay. And what would you buy it? Would you buy him at the current price or would you lower him down to three points? I would love to lower him down to three points, but I think I'd take him at four.
Thane Kyrell's Viability in X-Wing
00:28:52
Speaker
I think there's, I think he's a sleeper hit that nobody's using very often because I think Boudica is nice, but I think Boudica and Thane, I think you could start building lists there too.
00:29:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree with him at four points, but I do disagree with the loadout. I would be more inclined to break it and make give him like almost double the loadout, maybe like six more points. But that's just me. Six, like 14 loadout for four points seems pretty good. Yeah, but just you got to remember what's popular for the same price these days, right? I think you're just trying to get people more options in a faction that seems to be limiting
00:29:30
Speaker
It has so many options, but it's a faction that seems to really only have a narrow kind of tunnel vision mindset on what you should be taking right now. Yeah. And Rebels. I think it'd be nice if he could get like a shield upgrade, like if he had a mod slot. Yeah. There's also a chance that like he might just play through a game and I even use his ability. Like it might die beforehand. Like I don't think you'll be activating his effect. Yeah. And like the first or second round.
00:29:58
Speaker
So the challenge is pretty cool. He was often compared to Merrick.
Biggs Darklighter's Competitive Viability
00:30:01
Speaker
He was often compared to Merrick when they both had a route, but now that Merrick, Merrick's three agility and you can put a shield upgrade on him, he's more likely to get his ability to proc than Fane. Yeah, I mean, marksmanship magpulse R3, I don't think that's a bad start to him. I'm like, he's high five, which is pretty good. High five's a pretty good pilot ability.
00:30:22
Speaker
The question is, would you take him over, let's say, corn horn, which is also the same cost?
00:30:29
Speaker
Yeah, and corn is not featured in our list here just because corn is actually I'd say one that you will be more likely to see if it's not Luke on the table. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I mean, we can all agree he really doesn't get played much on at least the tournaments. So, yeah, I'd say by I think I agree by Manny, would you like to take bigs or leave on tens? I think bags bags dark letter build your own. All right. Gonna try to find them.
00:31:00
Speaker
Wow, I had no idea he is five points five points in loadout That's a very hard sell when Lucas at when like Lucas also the same cost Right his ability while another friendly ship at range zero to one defends before the neutralized results step if you are in the attack arc You may suffer one hit or crit to cancel one matching result
00:31:23
Speaker
So his shtick is like helping out his teammates, right? But he's i3. He's the one that's going to need help, I feel. I mean... He's a sponge for five points. It seems like a massive waste of points. Yeah, so give your opponent 25% of their win condition. And even with AT loadout, I don't know if I would ever pick him. All right, well, this is why we do this segment. So break it or buy it. Are you buying him at a cheaper price or are you going to break it?
00:31:53
Speaker
Um, God, I would break him. I would maybe put him down to four, but like, it's, it's kind of hard, right? With I three, I mean, what is the appropriate cost of a ship that might not be able to shoot in the first round because it, because it just gets destroyed and, and like, so you would buy it at four points, maybe, maybe, but like, it's still kind of hard because
00:32:22
Speaker
I know, I took a pretty good chance that he might die in the first round, and what's the correct cost for that? I don't think there's one. What do you think Matt? I'd throw up at the trash. Biggs is still suffering. Biggs is suffering from first edition. There's a few pilots in this game who are paying for the sins of their first edition, and he is one of them.
00:32:46
Speaker
So why don't you enlighten the folks that maybe don't know didn't have to deal with the health of first edition. Yeah. So first edition bags was just if you could shoot bigs, you always had to shoot bigs. And that doesn't sound like a problem, but there was like a million ways for bigs to not die. And for his friends to just wipe you off the board. Pleasant. Yeah, he's he's been I think even in two point. Oh, I barely ever saw him. Yeah. I don't think he's he's never made a splash.
00:33:12
Speaker
It's too bad. I mean, I think now, especially when you have selfless are a selfless arc 170 and oddball, I think it would be OK to see him get a little bit of play. Yeah. But he's at four points. But with with an ability like that on a T-65 chassis, it's like Manny said, he's just I three. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, hey, you see, like you recently asked your opponents like, hey, here's 25 percent of your points right here. Yeah. I was the first round is why you play him.
00:33:38
Speaker
I don't know at what price and at what loadout value is optimal. I wouldn't be opposed to them making standardized loadout cards for every single pilot in the game.
00:33:56
Speaker
like coming out with packs like that. Oh gosh, my head is exploding. I think that'd be cool if they were just like, hey, you know, standardized loadouts or how we're doing this, there's going to be a standardized loadout for every pilot. I think doing that, that's a lot of work though, to like spend time to do that. And also every squad builder has to be filled with like a bunch of duplicate names.
00:34:20
Speaker
Big's needs like a complete rework of his ability to be anything relevant. Yeah. So maybe we're we'd be kind of leaning towards break it for Big's. Yeah. Just a complete redo redesign. Also, I know that we passed. We were already done with Thane, but I wanted to just throw out there that Thane doesn't even have a torpedo slot. Oh, wow. Yeah.
00:34:43
Speaker
Yeah, but bigs does so the 18 loadout you can definitely do something with that. So hey, here's a five-point protorp carrier at i3 instead of just taking Luke What are you doing taking bigs for some reason? Yep? Yeah Yeah, I guess I guess he can negate dropping crates though, right?
00:35:02
Speaker
I guess, yeah, that's extremely situational. Yeah, I know, it's just one of those things. Like, you're trying to find the one pass the pain. It's worth it. It's worth it, you bastard. I'm not touching this pilot with a 10-foot pole.
Levon Tenza's Cost Efficiency Debate
00:35:16
Speaker
All right, I'm going to do Levon Tenza, our last pilot here, our Break It or Buy It segment. The T65X swings. Levon Tenza is an I3. After you perform a barrel or boost action, you may perform a red evade action.
00:35:31
Speaker
So, you know, a chassis that would have loved to be able to evade sometimes now has a really bizarre way to get one. You have to do a barrel or boost and then you have to gain a stress to get the evade token for that action.
00:35:48
Speaker
Uh, let me let me think here eight loadout You have a talent an astromech and elicit in a missile slot You know what i'm gonna say buy it at three points keep everything the same and make levon tensa three points for a while I I agree with that three points four loads. I think is fine. So she can take debris gambit
00:36:10
Speaker
Right you could think honestly that keeping her at eight loadout doesn't really see no. I really what is it gonna do right? Like what's the big deal? Yeah Again, I three I threes unless your name is Sabine Ren. Yeah And maybe and then maybe in other situations, you know other a couple other pilots who just whose names escape me But I just think of Sabine when I think of I three I think let's recipe afra, right? I probably not a call to be taken an I3 or see vor I guess I
00:36:41
Speaker
before it's decent at three points, but not getting played, so. Yeah, so that was X-Wing. Break it or buy it, the name of the game is X-Wing, so god damn it, give me some X-Wings and make it somebody that's not Luke sometimes. Yeah, the T-75s are not in a good place right now other than Luke. The T-70s are four points and they're so much better. Oh yeah. I know this, yeah. If the T-75s are four points, I feel like almost every T-65 could go down to four.
00:37:08
Speaker
Well, most of a lot of them already are four points. It's just that. Why? You know, it's like, why would you? You you that's the issue with rebels is that I like the idea of being aggressive with pricing pilots like leave on because.
00:37:21
Speaker
If you do start to insert three point swings in the conversation, maybe just one pilot, two maximum, then you start to just have people look at things like there's more options. It's a little bit. You might actually see some variety. Yeah. Instead of just Han fan or Han Luke and a wing like there's like two or three variants of the same type of list. Yeah. So unless you're unless you're the winner of the entire GSG, then it's a it is a little different, but still.
00:37:47
Speaker
Yeah, I would like to see just more options and through every faction is a good thing. It just means that we get more variety that I think we're kind of sorely lacking right now.
Rebel X-Wings Pricing Strategies
00:37:56
Speaker
Variety is the spice of life. Yes. Beautiful. That was gorgeous. Almost as gorgeous as you, my friend. Thank you.
00:38:05
Speaker
Yeah, of course. I would never say anything like that to Manny's got too big of an ego, but to you, Matt, I try to stay humble. You know where I can. What was that joke, Manny? What's your joke? Oh, yeah. I'm so humble that if I was the Olympics for helpfulness, I would I'd probably come in second. So good. That's just a humble. That's just a humble brag. It's like Drax. I am extraordinarily humble.
00:38:34
Speaker
Oh, man. All right. Well, we've got our main topic of the show here.
Frequency of X-Wing Points Changes
00:38:38
Speaker
We're talking about points changes. And Matt's dear friend, Mark Robert, a.k.a. Biddy Bumbo. What a name. Imagine losing a game of X-Wing to a guy named Biddy Bumbo. This kid can't get over it. I think I will quit the game at that point. Well, yeah. He asks, how long do you think should pass between a points changes? Like how much time should pass between points changes?
00:39:02
Speaker
So, you know, I think it's time to talk about points and points changes. So a couple questions for you guys to ponder here. Well, let's just start with the first one. So, how often do we think points changes should be in the game? Manny, I'll throw it to you first. Yeah, I feel like a good number could be like three to four times a year. So like, I guess... Every three or four months? Yeah, exactly.
00:39:28
Speaker
I think that's a good pace to kind of refresh the format and get new blood into the game. Also, the more important thing to me is just them letting us know when they're planning to do a points update, just so if there's something extremely stupid in the game, I at least know that there's going to be a point in time that stuff is going to change. It's kind of disheartening to
00:39:57
Speaker
play a game where you're not really sure when the next large change is going to come up, especially if there's something that's like not that healthy. Right. It's being played. Matt, what do you think? I'm with you. I'm with three to four months. I am already tired of this current matter. Yeah, like how long has it been? It's what?
00:40:18
Speaker
I guess the right time. Right after Depticon, I want to say it was a month after Depticon. May. May. It was the end of May, early June. So five months. OK. Yeah. And I agree with you guys. I'd say AMG has mentioned. I don't remember exactly what stream it was or whatever, but I do know this for a fact. They've mentioned that ideally they'd like to get the game to a point where they maybe even don't have to do points changes anymore. I don't like hearing that. I don't think that's the way that you should approach this game, whether or not you plan them.
00:40:48
Speaker
in selling new product for it or not. I think it should always be supported at a baseline level of at least just some tweaks and some meta shaking things. In our interview with AMG, Will Schick mentioned that he liked the idea of kind of reshaking up the meta and kind of, you know,
00:41:05
Speaker
really just making it different and making people have to think about how they list build. So not sure if that's still something that's realistically achievable for them. I hope not, actually. I hope that isn't something that they can do. Because I think the game will be solved by that point, and it will no longer be supported from an OP perspective if they don't change the points anymore.
00:41:27
Speaker
Yeah, I totally miss the fact that they brought up, they're like, yeah, I mean, the optimal goal is not update points. I get what they're trying to say, but it's a little alarming. I think they don't realize what the actual, like, their intent in saying that. I feel at that point, they're kind of like, hey, guys, the game is on life support. We can't support this anymore.
00:41:53
Speaker
You know, like I think they were just trying to say like, oh, we'd love to be able to balance the game where everything feels balanced enough where we don't have to go in and shake everything up. But it didn't it doesn't come off that way when they say it the way they kind of
Future of X-Wing Meta and Community Outlook
00:42:05
Speaker
did. Yeah, it's just like, OK, like if you don't want to like if you don't want to balance the game, then like why did you create a whole new?
00:42:13
Speaker
Like then why two point five, I guess. Which which to say to everybody listening, it's not to say they haven't said they don't want to balance the game, but it's yeah. Yeah. There's some uncertainty as to what the game looks like in a year from now. Just is just the way it is right now. Yeah. Not a fan of the implications. I am just I'm kind of just having to wait and see attitude about it. You know, I don't I don't want them to stop doing point changes because I think I agree if they did stop doing that, then.
00:42:42
Speaker
there's less incentive to play. Like if it's, if it's going to be like double tapping Hans in X-wing for the rest of eternity. I mean, it's not like, you know, I want some of these pilots to be good, but it's like, it's not going to be fun to fly against at these tournaments.
00:42:57
Speaker
No, no, and I think that's you'd have to resort to just shaming people. I jokingly shamed all the arc 170 players at GSG. I was like, I was like, look at us over here, not playing arc 170. It's like the losers who decided to bring three of them. You know, just like, you know, everyone knew I was joking, but there was a little bit of truth behind that sentiment when I was saying that. Yeah. Maybe just shame people.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yeah, not doing points updates. Like, how would you, like, make the game feel fresh? Other than, like, release new product? Unless they don't... I think that'd be pretty heavy with the ban hammer. Because I think... I think if they get to that point, guys, the game is... They're done. Yeah, at that point. Like, because if you release new product, they have to do points adjustments to accommodate it. And then there'll always be power creep.
00:43:46
Speaker
And I think if and when we say this, when we say that they'd be done with the game, I think the optimistic side of that would be, OK, they'd be done with the game because there's another edition of X-Wing coming out. That would be the optimistic side of it. Some people are more in the rabbit hole of despair where they're like, oh, the game is just going to be dead. I think the game has a lot more life than some people are giving it credit for right now, just because of AMG, you know, doing some wacky things recently. But yeah.
00:44:13
Speaker
We'll see. I will wait and see, right? There were a bit too much weight on that statement. Perhaps it was like an off-the-cuff thing. Because I can't see it. Yeah. Not anytime soon. That's for sure.
00:44:28
Speaker
Obviously, we all agree the game warrants changing the points or sorry points changes. But what do you guys think about have you lent more thought to changing the points needed to win games from 20 or building with more than 20 points or half points across all scenarios? Where do you Matt? I'll ask you first those three things. What do you think? I feel like if you did have points across the board that games would end a lot quicker.
00:44:54
Speaker
Yeah, you have to completely. Yeah, it goes hand in hand for sure. If you were to do that, because then even if you went up to like 30 points, then chance encounter is essentially that that mode is going to take forever to get 30 points off. Yeah.
Potential Changes to Half Points System
00:45:09
Speaker
Right. I don't I don't know. I think 20 is a good is a good spot. I'm I don't know what kind of points I would change with. It'd be it'd be nice because there there are a few pilots who would be good
00:45:23
Speaker
at like a five and a half and not a six. I think the boy and pay to win Vader are good six and a half ships, maybe not six, but then that's a lot of extra re-tweaking to the points format. Yeah, it kind of comes down to the fact that there's a lack of granularity.
00:45:46
Speaker
It really comes to me as just list building. I think it just, it's hard to balance things nowadays with the moving the Albion people who know me and have listened to my bullshit rants know that that is one of the things that I firmly, you know, Andrew and I firmly disagree on this. I do not like 20 point list building in comparison to the types of balancing opportunities that you had.
00:46:06
Speaker
with 200 pointless building. Yep. But we know AMG and I don't see eye to eye on that. And I think a lot of people probably are in the same boat where they're like, oh, I, you know, I would prefer being able to do soft tweaks versus more hard nerfs to things versus kind of having to just.
00:46:21
Speaker
Basically decide oh, even though this maybe not doesn't deserve to be increased by a point We're gonna do it and it's gonna be out of play for a while Yes, what else what other choice do you have? I've only played 2.0 Like like for a week before 2.5 came out, but it feels as if as in 2.5 there is less viable pilots and chassis Am I wrong about that?
Effects of 2.5 Edition on Pilot Viability
00:46:45
Speaker
People disagree on that one. I actually think that you're correct with that assessment. Some people will say, well, no, it's just more obvious what's good and what's bad. I think that can be true while also I think that what you said can be true.
00:46:58
Speaker
Cause like a bad pilot in 2.1, I mean, 2.1 in a 2.0 would be okay if it was like, extremely cheap, right? But if it's the same price as other compared to pieces, then like, why would you ever choose it? I mean, there's like, there's definitely some 2.5 losers out of the fact, out of the ships, like scimitars are only ever good.
00:47:27
Speaker
when there was double Dooku degeneracy. Sith infiltrators have not been on the table in a long time. There's a couple other ships that just struggle. I know a lot of people hate the Nantex, but Nantex are very obviously a 2.0 ship, and they do not make the transition to 2.5. Scum is a 2.0 faction. Yeah, Scum is a good example. They've struggled real hard with the entire 2.5 transition.
00:47:54
Speaker
Cause they've always been good about being kind of solo, you know, lone, lone wolf type mercenary faction. And that was great for 2.0, but you can't really have that kind of a synergy work for you in 2.5. Nope. Yeah.
00:48:10
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So what would you guys think needs the most attention of the three when it comes to the winning threshold, list building or half points?
High Initiative Spam and Balance Issues
00:48:21
Speaker
If you had to pick one of them, which one do you think should be worth at least looking at more, even if they don't change it?
00:48:27
Speaker
I would pick the, the, uh, high initiative spam. I feel like that is what needs the most amount of attention right now. So, so going to the option four. Okay. That's funny. I was like, I list three and then like, which one of the three you're like, I'm going to pick the one he did. Totally fine. No, I think that's fine. I think a high initiative spam is actually a worth a worthy topic of conversation though. Yeah.
00:48:55
Speaker
There's definitely a lot of high, I mean, Rebels don't spam as much high initiative with the A-Wings and Sabine, but it's kind of an outlier because they just aren't so cheap. Yeah, I was going to say, the only outliers are extremely cheap ships or the Saranized loadout ships that have pretty good loadouts and are competitively priced.
00:49:17
Speaker
Anything that's like custom usually leans towards i5 and i6 unless the chassis is extremely good, like 270. It's like that list that got a side or a third. Seven health in total, right? Yeah. Matt, what's one thing you had to pick? Be like, focus on this. I think they do need to do something with half points. What is, I don't know,
00:49:46
Speaker
But I do think that because that there's a lot of games where man, like Luke, what Luke squirreled away on like two points. Like I feel like I earned something from that, but there's just I, but I don't know what to do because it seems weird to have three scenarios, have 30 points to win.
00:50:05
Speaker
And then one scenario is only 20. So I don't know what the right balance is, but I'm not a game developer, so I don't have to worry about that. Right. Yeah, we don't have to worry. It's not our job. Yeah. Points for interesting was a topic when you had a bunch of eight pointers, you know, and you know that which is a lot of points to build a list with. But now that they're seven with the same loadout, I think that points for interesting is it might be even worse just because.
00:50:29
Speaker
if you do finally kill them, you get less points than you would have a few months ago. Yep. And it'd be one thing if like only the eight pointers had went down, but it's like, no, we lowered all their friends to and then that's where it kind of started becoming the problem. Now it's the you know, the Hans are a problem. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I I would agree. I mean, if I had to pick, I think
00:50:52
Speaker
I'd say, you know, new content be damned for the time being and just focus on a combination of of making more, making more opportunities, more lanes for variety in the meta right now with just be more aggressive with the things that just don't get any love. And also, yeah, addressing high initiative spam and making oddball five points again, because this is ridiculous that there are three, four point arc 170. Like we don't need three of them. Two is fine.
00:51:20
Speaker
That's why you have to support AMG and buy Shatterpoint products. Yeah, well, I think Shatterpoint looks cool. I haven't played it, so I can't speak to it. Get into a whole nother game to support X-wing. Yeah, come on. Be selfless, like Oddball. Yeah, the course has only, it's only under 60 bucks. It's only under 60 bucks. It's only under 60 bucks. It's only under 60 bucks. It's only, only under 60 bucks. Yeah.
00:51:43
Speaker
Yeah, nothing's cheap though these days, man. I feel like 160 bucks buys me a shawarma these days, I don't know. I mean, at least it's a really good shawarma. I don't know where you're getting your shawarma, Nick. Yeah, right? It's true. It better be. You've got a solid gold wrap. Yeah.
Andor Season 2 Trailer Discussion
00:51:59
Speaker
Anyways, moving on from shawarma and other food-related things with X-Wing. Let's talk about a couple of things in the Star Wars media. Manny, you shared a leak of Andor's, the new Andor trailer. Yeah, apparently it's a pretty old leak. It came out like... A new old leak? Well, apparently this leak came out like six months ago, but it was extremely good at scrubbing it from the internet. That's pretty great, but it's wild.
00:52:27
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if we're going to post the link. We shouldn't. We probably will not, but it's the internet. You will find it. And we found it. It rhymes with Bennett, is where you can find it, if you want to find it. You can say the website. That's fine. I read on Reddit. We're not going to get sued by Disney. They're not going to have legal lower funds. I mean, dude, I'd be like, oh my god, Disney, let's start a podcast? Oh my god. That's cool. Honestly, yes, we're a compliment. Oh, you're suing us?
00:52:57
Speaker
We're honored. We're that famous. You have heard of us. You know who we are? Do you know who I am? You are the worst podcasters I've ever seen. Did you see the trailer? I did watch it.
00:53:12
Speaker
Yeah. Honestly, it's kind of the formulaic trailer, like it's the inception with the music kind of swelling and showing these moments. Small clips. Yeah, exactly. Small clips. It's a teaser trailer. It's got the vibe though, man. It's got that vibe, that like the same Andor vibe from season one. It felt like a lived in universe, like the first season of Andor.
00:53:35
Speaker
And I started to get a little worried because a few, you know, about maybe a third of the trailer and I didn't see my boy Skarsgard and then I saw Skarsgard. I was like, all right, the show's going to be good. We got Stella back. Best part of the series. Oh, yeah. It's just so good, man. It's just insane. That cast is wild. Yeah.
00:53:52
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so really and or season two already better than Ahsoka confirmed is and or only plan for two seasons or are they open at the door for more nuts too? No, it's two. All right, which is awesome. You know that that inspires lots of confidence. I like when a show knows, Hey, it's all going to be two or three seasons and that's it. I think this is going to end and yeah, no more. This season is going to cover like three years of the rebellion.
00:54:19
Speaker
And I think the season two finale they said ends like days before Rogue One starts. Nice. Yeah. So we will see a K2SO. We'll have a K2SO sighting for sure. Yep. Absolutely. Great. Yeah. I mean, I'm excited. I don't know. I don't think there's any info on a release date yet, but I would expect probably I think it was August of next year. But the recent strikes might push that back. Gotcha. So I could totally be wrong at some point. I just I think you're right about that. Let them let them cook.
00:54:49
Speaker
Yeah, let him cook is what he would say. Let them let us get the best product possible. I'm willing to wait for Andor. Yeah. And meanwhile, on the other side of things, Ahsoka is almost done.
Critique of Ahsoka Series
00:55:02
Speaker
Have you guys, are you guys all caught up on the seven episodes of Ahsoka? I am. Yep.
00:55:06
Speaker
Well, so spoiler alert, folks, we are going to briefly talk about Ahsoka. If you are one of those people that likes to get angry, well, you should get angry somewhere else while we talk about this. Spoiler alert. We will talk about some spoilers. The most important thing is that Thrawn looks like Elon Musk. It's really the summary of the show is that you can't unsee it once you start to think about it. Oh, I hate you, man. I'm like, he looks like Elon.
00:55:36
Speaker
He's it's it's michaelson too. It's it's like a lot of you blue voice of ron from rebels He sounds great. I mean he's definitely got the voice down a lot of the writing is good
00:55:50
Speaker
I don't know if he necessarily like, I feel like when I envisioned Thrawn in live action, I thought at least like the overall like build of him would be a little different, but it's whatever. It's really not a big addition. Yeah, that's fine. He's old. Yeah, like his character was pretty old at this time, right? I guess his species has a similar lifespan to humans. Yeah, I wasn't sure how long Chiss lived for, but yeah, I think it's the same as humans.
00:56:17
Speaker
I would say, honestly, Ahsoka feels like two seasons in one. Like the first half of the show was a little bit more of a lull, like it's building up, it takes a good while, and the second half has been a completely different vibe for me. Which, I mean, I was fine with that when Andor had 12.
00:56:32
Speaker
episodes, but I'm like, it's going to end tomorrow. And I'm like, I feel like there's like four episodes worth of content. Oh yeah. There's so many plot threads that like, we're not going to get like, I hate you. Let's give you in the second season. I mean, um, Bailum scroll, right? We don't know ways after it's the last episode and he's got weird intentions, man. He's sending, he's sending more mixed signals and girls beyond dating apps. He, uh, he basically told us a print. It's like, Hey, later.
00:57:01
Speaker
Go deal with us if we're on your own. Well, yeah, I don't think we're going to get a conclusion to his character. I would just sad because the actor passed away. And, you know, if I had a nickel for every Star Wars actor that passed before the story of their character actually got resolved, I would have two nickels, which is not that much. But it's where that happened twice with Ray Stevenson. I love that joke. And Carrie Fisher.
00:57:31
Speaker
but they have to recast them. I don't see, yeah, they have to recast them. I actually think they should just use outtakes from season one and just build scenes around his outtakes like they did with Carrie. Oh boy. Matt, what are your thoughts on Ahsoka? I've liked it so far. I wasn't a big fan of the first two episodes. And then season three, I started to enjoy it more, kind of just like,
00:57:59
Speaker
have to compartmentalize it from and or now because I really did enjoy that a lot.
Comparison of Ahsoka and Obi-Wan Series
00:58:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's it's it's a little unfair, I think. Yeah. So to get and it's what I've been doing and I know that it's probably not fair, but I hold Dave Filoni to a pretty high standard because he is the Lucas protege and he's been you know, Star Wars and love Star Wars more than anybody else at his film. And it feels like the show is a lot of passion, but it also feels like it's a Dave Filoni project because he's not as good with live action as he is with the animated stuff he's worked on. So.
00:58:34
Speaker
I agree with that. Sure, that's an opinion of mine, but I actually do think that there is a bit of a lost translation between his work with rebels and Clone Wars and translating over to the Mandalorian and with this show.
00:58:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean some takeaways. I think this show is probably for me battling for second overall with Obi-Wan and Obi-Wan had a lot of problems for a lot of people, but it's really not that bad of a show. I think I'd put it in the same ballpark as Obi-Wan as one of the better shows that we've gotten. Those last two episodes really do carry Obi-Wan.
00:59:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of sentimental vibe. I mean, there's really only, I think, one episode worth of stuff in Obi-Wan that people really dislike, like really hate. And I think that's passable for an overall show that I think executed its goals and made people feel like, you know, like they were watching Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan and Hayden Christensen as Anakin again. Like it did take it did capitalize on those things.
00:59:40
Speaker
And yeah, there's some great moments. There's some I think the high the highs are higher than the lows are low for Obi-Wan. All right. I agree with that. I didn't like it. You did not like it. No.
00:59:54
Speaker
Yeah, I'm trying to remember. It is more forgettable than I would like. I can't remember. The chase scene with Leia, that was kind of bad. And then the trench coat. Yeah, that was like, what are we doing here? For me, it benefited a lot that Boba Fett had come out months before that. And I'm like, oh, well, at least it's not that bad. It's like, that's the lowest it could go.
01:00:18
Speaker
Yeah, there was some stuff I did like an Obi Wan, but overall as an overall product, I was not the biggest fan. It did. It did. It did. I did shed some tears by the end of the show. Like I literally my dad, you know, was crying a little bit and my dad is not does not have the same love affair with Star Wars that I do.
Importance of Rebels and Clone Wars Knowledge
01:00:35
Speaker
But he, you know, my dad is the one that got me into Star Wars and he had some, you know, an emotional response to the end of that.
01:00:42
Speaker
The nostalgia and sentimentalism was on Obi-Wan's side in that show. You didn't get the same kind of thing with her luxury with the Book of Boba fat. And you definitely don't get it with the Soka because even though, sure, we loved watching Clone Wars and Rebels and stuff, most people haven't or a lot of people haven't seen.
01:01:00
Speaker
those shows. And I just don't have the same kind of connection to Ahsoka that I do with Obi-Wan and Luke. I just... Anyone who argues that you don't have to see Clone Wars or Rebels to understand Ahsoka, you're completely wrong. You kind of know, too. Oh, yeah, absolutely. 100% wrong. You go like, oh, space whales. Where'd that come from?
01:01:22
Speaker
This is not a show for Star Wars normies. And it's disappointing because if it was a show for Star Wars normies, I think it would be doing a lot better. I mean, I think it's doing the Mandalorian is the Mandalorian season three is the most normal. Yeah. But this is like a lot. It's like really lore heavy. And I'm like, I'm a huge Star Wars Lord, but I'm like, oh, not everybody like geeks out about this stuff as much as I do.
01:01:47
Speaker
That's true, but I also like the attention, because I would count myself as like a lore nerd. So, I mean, I've been satisfied.
Standout Moments in Ahsoka Series
01:01:56
Speaker
There was one episode that I was extremely excited for, which is like pretty obvious, which one. We watched that one together. Yeah. We were literally screaming, went like Anakin, transforming Darth Vader. But yeah, no, I feel like that was the high, and it's just kind of slowly gone back down to its like constant state.
01:02:16
Speaker
So really hoping that I was all right kind of blows me away. Can we agree that Sabine could have at least been better written in this show? Sabine? Yeah, she is a very frustrating character. We don't know what she's been through since the end of Rebels. It sounds like her family died when Moff Gideon classed Mandalore. Matt, why are we doing anything with this? Isn't that more important to at least mention in the show beyond once at the beginning of the show? I mean, you would think so.
01:02:47
Speaker
But it seems like he doesn't really know what to do with her in live action. It's yeah, her character has probably been one of the biggest downsides to the show, I think. I mean, it's probably expensive for her to jump around and blow up ships with thermal detonators a lot.
01:03:05
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean like her character can change it in a season two because an example would be Ahsoka in the Clone Wars, right? Like when she was introduced, she was pretty annoying, pretty likable. And then as the series went on, everyone loves Ahsoka.
01:03:22
Speaker
Um, so, I mean, they're so, I mean, my criticism has just been dullness. It's not so much like, Oh, this person, like, I mean, to me and I actually dislike how much of a traitor she has been in this show. Oh yeah. Like to me, you should basically through times. Yeah. Like you basically throw the entire galaxy under the bus for a booty call. Uh, I don't, I don't, I can't, I don't think I get behind that. I'm sorry. But she thought a circle was dead. So it was okay. I don't think she was able to destroy that thing anyways though.
01:03:51
Speaker
But I don't know if that's a good enough reason. She just wanted to see Ezra, and I can understand the motivation to be hesitant, but she had already taken the map and left when Ahsoka asked not to, and that really was super unnecessary why she felt the need to do that. She could have looked at it with Ahsoka. Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to depend on that at all. Yeah, right. And I think Hera, too, Hera's a little dull. She's just there. Really? I actually like Hera. I think she's good.
01:04:20
Speaker
She's fine. I mean she's just she's fine. She's basically like her I like rebel self, so I can't complain about that
01:04:30
Speaker
Yeah, but either way, I think, I mean, even with the characters that I've criticized, I think they've all improved the last
Anticipation for Ahsoka Conclusion
01:04:36
Speaker
couple of episodes. And I'm curious to see, by the time this episode comes out, I'll have been about a week and a half removed from the final episode of the season. But we'll see kind of how it finishes. I think the show has, you know, picked itself up and gotten to a higher point than the first few episodes. Kind of kicked into a second gear and really kind of excited people and has done a good job with that.
01:04:58
Speaker
Also, we had to see, like, Thrawn be an actual threat. Instead of just talking about eliminating targets. Yeah, yeah, because, I mean, like, the entire purpose of the show was like, hey, we cannot let this guy come back to the galaxy, right? Like, you gotta show us a reason why he's so threatening, especially to those who don't know anything about him. I think he's gonna kill Huyang, and I don't want to think that. But, like, someone close to them has to die.
01:05:24
Speaker
I think he's gonna come back to the galaxy and those three capital ships that were on CTOs, I think it's gonna be like a 3v1. Everyone's gonna think like, oh, it's like I have destroyed Star Destroyer. This should be easy. And then he does some strategy that totally wants him of the entire day.
01:05:50
Speaker
You know what's gonna happen? The last episode he's gonna be like, I think I have a new name for my empire. I'll call it X. And then he's gonna pull out his sink and he's like, let that sink in.
01:06:10
Speaker
Just ruin the franchise right there with just like five seconds. Oh, man. It's the season eight finale is directed by your favorite, Rick. Oh, Rick. You know, bro, it's already bad. Who? Rick Fami. He was like the worst director of like the Mandalorian. Watch episodes. Did he do? He did. He did the prison break one. He did the the Jawa one. He did the ones that people are like, I didn't like this.
01:06:40
Speaker
Alright he did season three he did like if he did one episode that was actually not that
Upcoming Star Wars Content
01:06:45
Speaker
bad that I like I was in denial when I saw his name pop up like that's not actually there's no way he actually did this you know what at least at least it's not the spy kids guy yeah maybe he's gotten better maybe he's been coached yeah yeah but yeah we'll see I'm excited for uh
01:07:03
Speaker
We're gonna have another bit of a lull between shows, but Ahsoka's been fun. It was just a little slow for me, but again, yeah, if you haven't seen Rebels or Clone Wars or you don't like it, you just, I don't even know why you bother just because it's just so reliant on, you feel taken care of if you're a fan of those shows. Oh yeah, yeah.
01:07:24
Speaker
All right, real quick, guys, before we wrap up here, we've got a couple
Windy City Trials Announcement
01:07:27
Speaker
upcoming events. The Windy City Trials Turkey Trot store champ is November 18th at Good Game Chicago. Come and join us. We'll be there streaming and it will be a lot of fun. And then PAX Unplugged December in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It's the first through the third. That will be a world's open qualifier before the year wraps up. Matt, want to give a shout out to the best bench warmers here?
01:07:49
Speaker
Sure. I am a co-host of the Best Bementalmer podcast. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, just a meta analysis, tournament analysis, just a general fun shenanigans over there. Absolutely. Thank you everybody for listening to this episode and thank you Matt for joining us tonight. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it, man. Always. Anytime.
Closing Remarks and Appreciation
01:08:12
Speaker
When we return, Andrew will be back with us and we'll continue our meta discussion. We'll offer some new player advice and much more. Be sure to follow us on Facebook. Check out our YouTube channel for edited content that we post there. We have our Twitch channel, of course, 312 Squadron. And be sure to continue to enjoin our Discord so you can continue to follow us on updates with our podcast here and much more.
01:08:36
Speaker
We appreciate you all, as always, for listening to the 302 Squadron podcast. My name is Nick Sperry. I am Emmanuel. And I'm Matthew Courser. And we will catch you all on the Flippity Flip. All right. Goodbye.