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Episode 12: A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy (Featuring Alex Merrill)
107 Plays11 months ago
Description
A long time ago… in a windy city, far, far away… Your hosts Nick, Andrew, and guest host Alex Merrill, discuss a struggling faction we all love: Scum! Alex, host of the Bespin Benchwarmers podcast, self declared masochist and Scum fanatic, won his World’s invite with a unique Scum list.
Check out Alex’s Invite-Winning list: https://yasb.app/?f=Scum%20and%20Villainy&d=v9ZhZ20Z458XWW234WW389WY534X125W470WWW92WWW472W47WY398X120W125WWWY117X120WWWW441W92WW159W8Y612XWW45W63W80W93W416WWW150&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron&obs=
Check out Alex’s podcast, The Bespin Benchwarmers: https://bespinbenchwarmers.podbean.com/
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Transcript
Introduction & Host Background
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to the 312 Squadron podcast. My name is Nick Sperry. And I'm Andrew Kuba. I'm a guest host, I guess, Alex Merrill. Alex, thanks so much for being with us. I'm excited to have you on. I had your co-host Matt Courser on quite a while ago now. And we got a couple of the Bespin Benchwormers here. So Alex, you are kind of, I feel like you are the host of the Bespin Benchwormers podcast. I want everyone to check them out. We'll link in the description as well. But is that correct? Is that an apt thing to say?
00:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I sort of made it and I talked the most. So I think by default, you're the host at this point. There you go.
Scum Faction Deep Dive
00:00:40
Speaker
Yeah, we got Alex on today to talk about scum. We've we've alluded to scum and kind of, you know, joked about scum a lot. But I think it's important to talk about the seventh faction, the game that I think people sometimes write off or forget about. And Alex is a special guest, not only because, you know, he plays scum a lot, but he has won a world's invite with scum, which obviously in this matter is not easy to do and I think is impressive and cool to talk to him about.
00:01:07
Speaker
I was gonna say, couldn't think of anyone better to come and talk about scum on the show. I appreciate that. Yeah, I won a couple star champs with that list. It's super fun. You know, before we go into talking about X-Wing, so how was your guys' weekend? Any highlights? Anything fun to talk about? Anything to brag about? I can go first on this one. I got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Field Museum's aviary division.
00:01:34
Speaker
And I got that because my mom and I volunteer with an organization called the Chicago Collision Bird Monitors. So we go around the city and we rescue injured birds or we collect, unfortunately, birds that are killed when they hit buildings and windows during their migratory routes. We're also working with them in the Audubon Society to do things like make the McCormick Place
00:02:03
Speaker
have bird safe glass or to just turn off lights or close their blinds. Same thing with hotels at night so that migratory birds don't hit the windows and die. So as a thank you for the field museum though, because we do deliver the specimens there, they stuff them, they catalog them and they record
00:02:23
Speaker
genetic differences with the birds, they track migration patterns, they count the number that they receive for migration data. And all of that, even though the birds unfortunately passed on, the data that they can collect from that helps them learn more about the environment migratory bird routes and the birds themselves and changes to their environment diet, things like that. So as a thank you for part of our volunteer work, they invite us every year to
00:02:50
Speaker
give us a behind the scenes tour of everything that they're working on and all of the information they were able to get from the birds that we've turned in. And I feel bad. I was going to say I saw dude. Yeah, I saw dude. I didn't do that. Wow. That's cool. I'm reading the book. I'm going to see it when I'm done. Yeah, I just I just I just we did Alex and I probably didn't do anything remotely close to that. So I don't.
00:03:14
Speaker
We did do that. Alex, did he do that? I didn't do that. Oh, man. Oh, that's well, that's cool, Andrew. The shout out to you for that. I'm ripping off. I didn't even I didn't even think about it. I thought that you would first. I think it's better that you would first.
00:03:30
Speaker
I thought that because we were kind of talking before we started the show about what Alex is doing. So I was like, well, Alex has got something cool and relevant to the podcast that, you know, I know we can talk about that and that would be cool. I can get my thing out of the way. Wow.
00:03:47
Speaker
Alex, what did you do? Oh, boy.
Pre-releases & Cinematic Discussions
00:03:50
Speaker
How do I follow that up? I went to three pre-releases for Star Wars Unlimited and hosted one. That is a big game right now, isn't it? That's cool. It's like the helldivers of card games. Yeah, it's a lot better game than it is on the Red, to be honest. That's awesome. That makes me excited here as a new Star Wars game that's really fun that everyone's excited about. I don't play card games. It looks cool, though. This is the first card game I'm getting into, and it's pretty fun.
00:04:17
Speaker
I was gonna say it sounds really neat like I have a history playing Magic the Gathering so there's some elements of it that are similar like you use resources up from your hand but it has like the you were telling me it has like the really cool base and like leader mechanics so your deck always kind of has a theme yeah yeah like your deck is uh
00:04:39
Speaker
the color of your leader and the color of the base. And that's kind of the cards that you can bring without occurring some sort of penalty. So what were some of the cool decks that you saw over the weekend? Well, it was all sealed. So basically they give you six packs and tell you to make a deck out of it. So if you happen to get like a legendary like Ryan Sandozewski did, sitting right next to me pulls a Hyperfoil Luke.
00:05:08
Speaker
You make a really good deck with Luke in it. I managed to get a Vader and that was really cool. That's cool. Over the course of those three tournaments though, I basically played every style of deck just between what I had. That's awesome. Did you ever get to play with Vader though? I did. Because that's going to be some of the... Okay, good. In every game. That's awesome.
00:05:33
Speaker
Because that's some of the issues with sealed access. Sometimes you can open a really cool deck, but then nothing else goes with it or a cool card and nothing else goes with it in your deck. Yeah, I just like I'm building this deck around Vader because Vader is really good. So nice. You are listening to the official podcast of Star Wars Unlimited, the card game brought to you by Alex. I mean, I can I can definitely get into this if I want to do a spin off. Yeah. Hey, I want Alex Merrell answer a podcast for what it's worth. I went undefeated the whole weekend, so.
00:06:03
Speaker
Damn, Alex, Jesus. Right. That was that's that's incredible. That's great. See, that's something that might that might actually trump Andrew doing, you know, all that amazing work with birds. That might be just more impressive somehow. I just thought that this was more relevant to Star Wars.
00:06:25
Speaker
and the podcast that we all love. To be fair, I did ask what you guys did this weekend, and we're not only ever playing X-Wake, so I think it's my, I'm just giving you shit as always. I'm not always doing the bird thing. You're all, yeah, you live and breathe the bird thing, clearly. Nothing else in your life. Only birds. Only, only birds. Speaking of birds, scum.
00:06:49
Speaker
This is Sam Hawks. They have hawks, which is a type of bird. So that was nice. Well, I was going to say Nick. Yeah. And I didn't know if you wanted to talk about your weekend. Oh, I saw a dude. I had nothing else going on in my life. Dune Dune Part Two is an epic that is going to make a lot of money and that a lot of people are going to say amazing things about. It is going to go down is probably one of the most exciting, entertaining and
00:07:17
Speaker
impressive cinematic displays in the last 20 years. That's incredible. It's very, very good. Anybody that, you know, anybody that hasn't seen the first one should definitely watch the first one and then follow up with this one. It's going to be in theaters probably for another like six weeks at least. Yeah.
00:07:35
Speaker
It's one of the best movies that I've seen next to Oppenheimer. That's a good year for movies last year, and we're off to a good start, I think, so far this year. Yeah, I know. Denis Villeneuve, if you look at his filmography, I'm a pretentious cinema fan, he has a really successful resume of movies that are critically acclaimed, and he has a very great eye for making a good movie and telling a good story and adapting, in this case adapting a good one.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think you'll be very happy if you go and see it. It's one movie that I think you kind of have to see in a movie theater. And if you don't see it in a movie theater, you need to buy a surround sound system to watch it at home because it's just that good.
00:08:15
Speaker
That's cool, that's really great. I was hoping that it was gonna continue the trajectory and be as good. I would also say one thing that's in everyone's mind, did you get the popcorn bucket? Matt Gibson, one of our locals, did. I did not. I heard a rumor that it was like $40. What? I think it was closer to like $30.
00:08:34
Speaker
OK. Oh, no. And it has a very so I met Matt. Let me like check his out because he like after the movie, obviously brought it with him. And it's really funny because like the spores or whatever you call it, the mouth, the worm, like the popcorn bucket are really rigid. It's like it's like a firm rubber.
00:08:52
Speaker
Oh, so that if you were to like actually use it to eat popcorn, you wouldn't actually be able to like get popcorn out of your bucket because it just pulls back and like drops all the popcorn. It's really hard. It's like it's so it was very impractical. And I think it was really all for show. And I don't know how that got approved because you can't actually eat popcorn with it. It's really funny. That's really disappointing. Also, at the price point, like I would pay six dollars for it. But wow, that is that's a shame.
00:09:20
Speaker
because I thought it would actually help with the eating the popcorn. I didn't know it would be like as rigid of a rubber where it would be light enough where like it would prevent you from spilling popcorn everywhere in the theater as you like pulled it out. It has no practical use it even the cast of Dune even the cast of Dune was talking about it and Zendaya was like you can't even actually get your popcorn at your bucket because it just drops all the popcorn when you try to pull it out.
00:09:44
Speaker
That's awful cast Josh Brolin said he'd rather starve Wow Okay It's very funny I'd no longer have that much FOMO about it. All right, you definitely did not good to know But a for sure I'm having more FOMO now. I want that it's great. Yeah, it's like
00:10:07
Speaker
Oh, it's a great segue. So, Alex, that's great. Well, we have plenty of time for me to rant about Dude. You know, we have a separate podcast for that. That's right. Alex, you entered a story champ season, played a lot of it, playing scum.
Strategic Insights on Scum Lists
00:10:22
Speaker
And you had a list that you built that had a lot of success for you and obviously enough success to get a world's invite. We'll start with just the list if you want to break it down. And then I'll kind of ask you a few questions. Andrew and I will talk about maybe the why and how.
00:10:36
Speaker
So if you want to just start with the list itself, I'll show our viewers that are listening, they're watching on Twitch. The Yasbee link here. Go for it. This is going to be like the jankiest list you'll ever see. It's scum, scum, purest scum. So my only I5 and my ace is Lima Kai. With Glasgow Torfs and R4B11. R4B11 is such an underrated droid.
00:11:05
Speaker
It allows you to spend an orange or red token on your opponent to reroll any number of the green dice. And then Blast with Tarps are just a valuable torpedo, and Lima is three points. Yeah. You will notice the theme of removing orange or red tokens in this list. That's kind of the whole point. So up next is Cad Bane.
00:11:24
Speaker
It's got marksmanship, proton cannons, contraband, cybernautics, the title, and lots rozzy. Lots rozzy allows you to pull a stress from your opponent to change one of your dice to innovate. I've also played basically CLT Jedi since they came out. So bullseyeing things at a lower initiative is totally fine for me. I don't have problems ever getting their proton cannons off.
00:11:45
Speaker
Up next is Bosque, marksmanship, expert handling. It's just a two point filler ship. Yep. And I use them actually to target lock a lot because that's a red token and I need those red tokens. Fair. Yeah.
00:11:59
Speaker
Up next is Manaroo, the best five points I'm going to say you can spend in SCOM. She just hits so hard. This has expert handling because I played 1.0 and I know how to run a Bumpmaster. And it's got a contraband Gar-Sakston, the title, and R5P8.
00:12:17
Speaker
Gar Saxon lets you pull a red token or an orange token to roll an extra die to the maximum of four attack die. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, last one is Afra. My girl, she is, uh, she has triple zero in order to force people either to give me calculate tokens or take stress. I've got Lando, so I can reroll probably my reinforced token, but also my calculate token that they choose to give it to me.
00:12:45
Speaker
re-roll the two dice by spending green token. I got Dangar Gunner. Basically, when someone shoots me, I can use Dangar and roll a die. Well, they can either spend a green token or let me roll a die. On a hit crit, they take one damage, and I can re-roll that with Lando, because Lando is just after rolling dice instead of rolling attack or defense dice, which makes no sense. It's like Han in that way. Yeah. Then I got Deadman.
00:13:14
Speaker
because a lot of people huddle around her and then Babu Frick who is incredible and it is a great anti-jam tech because they're not gonna jam off your reinforce because you just throw it on Babu and you can stop multiple turns in a row and still reinforce so it's a it's a whole list of a bunch of shenanigans and red token passing a generation
00:13:37
Speaker
How often are you using manner is ability and like CAD's ability right CAD's abilities after form an attack that hits you may spend a charge which is of Two or sorry two charges that are referring to transfer one of your non-lock red or orange tokens to the defender How often are you using those two abilities start with CAD and then I'll read manner is yeah, so I reposition with CAD almost every turn just to line up that bullseye with proton cannons and
00:14:02
Speaker
So I am constantly stressed. So anytime I hit people, I love to transfer that stress over because that facilitates manoroo. Actually, if they're lower initiative to me, I can then spend that stress that I gave them to flip a die to innovate. I've done that against like jags typically. But yeah, just passing stress is really, really good in this list. For sure. Reminds me of like Palpatine crew, Separatist, right?
00:14:30
Speaker
in the sense that you can throw stress on people when it comes to you attacking. Or actually, I think Palpatine is when you defend. But either way, it's that mechanic of during the engagement throwing stress on people. It's strong. I've double stressed Hans before, too, for doing that. Oh, man. Sometimes I don't even have to pull the stress. Just double stress something.
00:14:50
Speaker
Maneru's ability is at the start of the engagement phase. You may choose a friendly ship at range of zero to one. If you do, transfer all green tokens assigned to you, to that ship. How often are you using Maneru's ability, do you think? Much more rarely than like Cadbane. I use it if Maneru doesn't have a shot, like in the opening engagement. I'll pass, like I'll focus off to Hefra.
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah. Or if I'm not getting shot at. Seems like good anti jam tech. Yeah. Yeah. So I've I've unfortunately just witnessed when things in this list don't go right for you because of crossroads. Just because you happen to play on stream just twice. But I believe in the I see everything and how it can unfold. How easy is it for things to fall apart? Like if, for example, if Cad Bane's ability doesn't happen, do things already start falling apart there or like where where do you think
00:15:42
Speaker
things break down for you because it seems very contingent on certain things happening. Well, I try to put in a lot, as much redundancy as I can. I don't have to always re-roll my Reinforce with Lando. I can pass it off with Afro's ability, spend the green token, give someone near me a stress, and then that could facilitate Manuru because they're both the same initiative.
00:16:08
Speaker
um it's just it most actually this list just suffers in chance um much less so now that they've tweaked things but uh it's mostly just in chance um
00:16:24
Speaker
They take half half damage and they get out, they give out half points and that's kind of what kills the list. Cause generally they're just so bulky and you have to invest two more trees or points to kill Africa. So that's, and actually what ends up stalling the list is a chance, which is, uh, both the, the games you watch me play on stream.
00:16:45
Speaker
I'm sorry, Alex. No, it's fine. Don't everybody. Don't go back and watch those games. Watch every other crossroads game unless Alex Merrill is playing. You know, don't watch this. I mean, it's still hard to find a list that's like really good at every at every scenario.
00:17:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's well chance is good, just not against something like Han or like triple arcs. No. Oh, my God. I love triple arcs on chance. I. Yes, I kill an arc every round with this list. Yeah, I mean, it's still more initiative. And then it like you said, with Cad Bane, it makes it even harder to kill your list. And they generate their own string tokens, which I used to hit harder.
00:17:27
Speaker
Uh, no, I, I kill an arc every, every turn with this list. I killed the seventies every turn with this list. It's just really like, uh, mostly it's like that Han list. If they have like a really high agility and I can't crack it or sometimes it's just, uh, getting really weird with like rack and stuff.
00:17:46
Speaker
And some of the Aesir Empire list too, maybe. Yes, but those large bases with big firing are still pretty scary for imperialists, I would think. Yeah, like Afra and Manuru still do a lot of work against them, especially if they get stressed, which is not what they want to do. Yeah, I would say that the biggest, the biggest, I mean,
00:18:08
Speaker
This is goes for ever anything and everything, I guess, but especially this list where things can really break down. It's just like being lower, lower initiative is how many opportunities is your does RNG have an opportunity to land crits into the whole of Manaroo and Afra, you know, like very likely that you could be taking blinded pilots.
00:18:27
Speaker
or weapons failures, stuff like that. Again, the damage deck can be very punishing in any game for anybody. But one of the reasons why the stock on high initiative pilots is so high is because.
00:18:39
Speaker
you're less likely to suffer from the effects or the penalties of taking crits because you've already shot. Yeah. Yeah. But most people, they look at the list and then they're like, well, that's a lot of upgrades. It's like 24 upgrades. I'm not reading all those. And then they're just like, I'm going to joust this list. And I'm like, that's great because this list is harder than pretty much every other list I've gone against.
00:19:04
Speaker
OK, so that leads to my next question, like, why? Like, what made you build it specifically? Like, what were you looking for? What were you looking at? And just why? So I'm like an extreme masochist when it comes to X-wing, right? So I like when I love flying scum.
00:19:22
Speaker
because they just do a bunch of stupid things. And I enjoy that kind of stuff. And I wanted to create a list with the most amount of triggers I could. And then notice that scum has a lot of triggers based around red and orange tokens, and then actual payoffs to that. And then I tweaked the list a little bit to like kind of make it a little bit more viable like by putting in Babu Frick so I don't get my reinforce jammed off.
00:19:50
Speaker
and stuff like that until it's just become oh man this list actually hits really hard and also it's one of my most fun times playing it because there's just a whole bunch of random stupid bullshit that's just happening and
00:20:05
Speaker
Uh, I enjoy that and it's just pure chaos. So, so TLDR is because you're a masochist. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've, I've flown somebody just random stupid lists and do well enough with all that. I'm just like, cool. This is what I'm flying this year.
00:20:21
Speaker
It's good mental training, being able to go like five plus rounds, playing a list that has the most triggers. Oh, yeah. It took me like two games to get used to it. It's it's really just that's just how my head works.
00:20:36
Speaker
So Alex, how how does the list hold up today? We've had this meta, you know, besides the tweaks that were made by AMG recently that shook up a couple of things, but not a lot. How how is it held up maybe six months ago versus today?
00:20:53
Speaker
It actually got a little bit better. Those tweaks really helped out with his main problems of Han and Chance, and some saturation salvo sometimes caused some issues. Oh, sad salvo, yeah. For sure. I mean, most people didn't use it because I'm rolling one die anyways, but Manuru didn't like that.
00:21:16
Speaker
So it does a little bit better. I haven't really played against too many like BOE pilots with it. But those bee wings love stress, and I like it when those bee wings have stress and like the wedge. A lot of torpedoes though, Alex, like taking a ton of damage to be taking, though, in exchange for like rolling an extra die or something. Right. Like I'm curious how BOE factors into this matchup for you.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, again, most people just see Afro and they're just like, oh, that's really big. I'm going to, you know, kill it. And then they just bump this. I played this list.
00:21:58
Speaker
Not like very aggressive, but I am always looking to bump. So I normally have a lot of just like places where no one can move. And that's when this list shines because I move first and also, yeah. And then they have red focuses. So then I just hit even harder. Yeah. So it is very much designed around just area denial and blocking. So after the initial, like the initial like torpedoes coming in.
00:22:27
Speaker
It gets a lot better. And, you know, the I'm not serving up, you know, a lot of ships just to all the torpedoes like they're only going to get one or two shots coming in. Yeah. And it's not. Yeah, again, it's just exposed whole is like the plasma torpedo is so scary for one agility shield, you know, ships that rely on that first engagement with their shields. Obviously, she has reinforced and stuff like that.
00:22:53
Speaker
But like you said, it's a lot of health. So as long as you're avoiding massive spike damage, you can withstand it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Even even then, massive spike damage on Afra and Manaroo, they can just tank it for a little bit like it's that's kind of why I fly them. They can handle that a lot better than like an arc would. Yeah. Yeah. So it's I haven't played very many
00:23:21
Speaker
Like pure alpha strikes they didn't really exist a lot when I was playing this and like store champs and that crossroads and stuff So I'd be interested to try it When I'm playing playing Republic right now in NCX. So That leads me to is this your world's list Alex. Are you bringing this to worlds? Unless you don't feel comfortable saying it, but I don't think it's that big of a deal to say this I don't care. It's just it's between this one and Ray and
00:23:48
Speaker
I have to do a little bit more testing with just some of the newer lists that are kind of emerging. See how this does against them.
00:23:56
Speaker
Uh, but I do love, I have a Ray list and it just hits super hard. So, Oh man, Ray will do that for sure. Spike damage is massively important in X-wing, just in general, but especially right now in this meta. So, uh, Ray tends to just delete things. I also have Merle in there. So if you get caught with Merle and Ray, you are gone. Yeah.
00:24:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's a fun combo. So I'm curious, like we talked about you talked about the why you're you like scum like is is scum your number is scum your favorite faction or, you know, you said you're playing other things like resistance, right? But it is your number one faction. Yes, comes my favorite, followed by like resistance in Republic.
00:24:44
Speaker
Okay.
Scum Faction Evolution & Challenges
00:24:45
Speaker
So I think that's a good segue to continuing on this path talking about the faction. I like to refer to Scum as having an identity crisis in the game right now. And I want everyone's opinion on this. I feel like Scum has really had a rough transition from being a pretty strong and unique 2.0 faction that always sit kind of middle of the rankings of being a competitive faction to being where it's at now in 2.5.
00:25:12
Speaker
What are you guys takes on you know scum being less suited? We'll talk about list building in a moment, but more so specifically to objectives for objectives as a faction so Yeah, just
00:25:29
Speaker
they kind of took a hit going into 2.5 right by just having limited loadouts. That's what kind of killed them because traditionally scum was just like, bring these bunch of crazy random upgrades together and then make it work from there. And then when you put a cap on that,
00:25:52
Speaker
Then things, their flaws and the designs of the ships themselves start to emerge. And also, Fang Fighters used to be one of my favorite ships to fly. But right now they are rough, to say the least. It's just the amount of ordnance and offense have dramatically increased since 2.0. So things like Fang Fighters might, you know, they tend to suffer a little bit just from the increased offense out there.
00:26:21
Speaker
and then putting objectives out there means people are more likely to split their lists and then they can surround fang fighters and that's really not what you want.
00:26:32
Speaker
Yeah, I know just to chime in, I find that scum was always like really they thrived on being like a faction of a bunch of lone wolves. Like they like to I mean, you have you built a list that can be like kind of like a Rube Goldberg machine of like self serving and helping each other at the same time. But typically it's not really what scum is known for.
00:26:53
Speaker
They're not known for having abilities related to friendly ships. It's about doing something silly with an enemy ship or doing a lot of damage. In the case of Fenrao, five dice at range one, four dice for defense. Sure, you can go for dealing damage, but when your opponent is like, I have these relatively cheap pieces that are just farming points and still dealing damage.
00:27:19
Speaker
One side is doing one of those things in most other, in most other cases. The other side is doing both. Yeah. Scott, you have to like get some real convoluted ways just to get what normal factions have. Like just even like your normal basic double mods, like even our five P eight, which is just one reroll, it hits you on a crit. Like I've dropped so many crates just carrying it with manner because I ate the crit myself.
00:27:45
Speaker
So they just struggle to do what other factions take for granted. And that's just rough to play in. I would say when it comes to objectives, Scum does have more large bases than some of the other factions, like relevant large bases. So it's good. It can be really good depending on what the scenario is. The one thing that I think Scum is suffering from too is that there's not that many high initiative
00:28:14
Speaker
ships that are relevant in scum, the number of I fives, I six is, is a lot more narrow than I think a lot of the other factions have. And especially today's like offense forward high initiative climate that is hurting scum a little bit. The second thing is scum is one of the factions that does not have a lot of force users in it.
00:28:37
Speaker
So they're missing out on some abilities to do scenario actions and be protected by that force. Has force. Has anybody else besides the size of like force built in? Am I silly? Am I a dummy? And I just can't think of it right now. I can't think of anybody else. Yeah. And that's extended. Right. I mean, you just have basically the child crew is your kind of then mall is your own options. Yeah. Yeah. Some options. That's a good point, Andrew, the mentioning force because
00:29:08
Speaker
Every well, everybody with separatists. Separatist as Dooku. Separatist has Dooku and Aura, Aura and Grievous. And yeah, Grievous is a force, but oh yeah, I just think about force users. Separatist is close second. And I always think Grievous is. But they still have some maul. So you mentioned Dooku. We have all Dooku. Oh, I guess. Ora. Yeah, I guess maul does in scum on the in the gauntlet. Yeah, the gauntlet.
00:29:38
Speaker
Yeah, you just don't want that much. Yeah. Oh, that's true. Yeah. All exists. That's man. That's how that's how little he gets played at that price points. Points used to be nine. He was really in jail. Now he's he's you know, he's halfway out of jail. But he's really good. I mean, this is this. This is the hard part. We're going to get to that. I know later in the episode. Hard part about scum is that it's hard to balance because it can be it can become too good real quick if you mess with some of the points.
00:30:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think the problem is kind of twofold is that they lack sort of like just double mods or inherent mods in a way. And then also all their chassis were designed around. Certain upgrades are always available to scum. And now when you take away those upgrades, then that the chassis are flawed, like that, that Falcon is useless. Yeah. Yeah, it's rough. Yeah. I mean.
00:30:34
Speaker
extent in terms of going and looking at like the other options and it's like scum is like the most to me when I think of extended I think of scum there's so many ships in scum that are extended the Lancer yes the G the G1 was the G1 a that's for lumps ship suck us a ship the star viper is an obvious one that we should have in standard yeah yeah it's really for sure
00:30:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's and there's there's obviously I'm excluded. Captain Nim's ship, the Skerg.
00:31:06
Speaker
And many more. I know I'm excluding a few, but those are the ones that come to the top of my mind. The Curaxes fighter. The Curax fighter. Yeah. The Lancer class pursuit craft. Yeah. Got that one. Do you know how many dirty things you can do with like Katsu and also having the setup with R4B11? Oh, my God. Katsu is so strong. It's super silly. Yeah. Just pulling people's tractors to force them to reroll dice.
00:31:32
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like no other faction is starved more for having their extended counterparts under standard or like having one of them then scum like I Empire is so strong as they are rebels have been and are so strong as they are.
00:31:49
Speaker
And then obviously Republicans have just never had extended. Resistance is fine. There isn't really much. I think it's a star fortress. Is that it? Then they're doing it much. And first order is fine. They're balanced. They know Upsilon exists. Yeah. But you know, it's about the scum. It's just like to me really stands out in terms of extended options. Mm hmm.
00:32:12
Speaker
And I don't know about you guys, Andrew, you've been playing extended recently at the game store just because, one, you can, and two, because it's a change of pace. But I don't really practice extended because I know I can't apply it or use it anywhere. For me, because I'm so competitive minded, I don't see the point. But it is fun. And I don't blame anyone for bringing extended stuff to the game store. I can't practice with it. I bought all these ships. I want to get them on the table. Gosh darn it, I'm going to use it. I'm going to use it.
00:32:40
Speaker
But yes, right. There's no there's no like relevant reason to use it. Yeah. And CX has extended ships.
00:32:48
Speaker
Then that's yeah about it just in terms of like I mean, but yeah, that's playing that's you're playing that for free, right? Which is nice. So, you know, there's no there's literally nothing to lose. But when you bring it to the game store, you lose your time playing it. If you are trying to practice for something, you should, you know, be practicing with stuff you can actually practice or play with if you go to a store, champ or tournament worlds, whatever, you know, whatever scale of event you go to that, you know, it's legal. Yeah, I mean, it's.
00:33:15
Speaker
When I think of extended, I definitely do think of this faction. And I am curious how different the faction would look if they kind of aggressively introduced the Star Viper into the game. I feel like that would be kind of exciting. We'd see a lot more people maybe playing scum again.
00:33:31
Speaker
Honestly, if they had the cure X, I think the star Viper would be a little bit too expensive for this kind of loadout for the rule. It is expensive right now. Yeah. It's actually my fix for scum is they need a small base ship that has, they need like an X wing or a B wing. I was thinking that ship that doesn't have to live at range one. Yes.
00:33:54
Speaker
Yeah, or doesn't need like a torpedo, you know, like the Y-Wings and like the Sikhs like Sarasu, you know, like, yeah, they naturally have a three die gun. I need four dice and range one. That's all I need. Yeah, I mean, exactly. That's the X-Wing of for the scum faction. There's not that many small base options for scum that are relevant.
00:34:17
Speaker
Is predictability an issue? Alex, like you mentioned that you need to be at range one. Like when I'm playing against the Fenrao or a Tarak, I know exactly what they're trying to do from the first turn to the last turn. You can kind of counter that because you're like, well, you want you need to clear your stress, the too hard. You need to get a range once you need to do at least a three or four speed like. Yeah, if you feel the predictability hurts, Boba right needs to be close stuff like that.
00:34:40
Speaker
Also the new bump being able to be shot at a range zero really hurts them too. Yeah. Yeah. Fang fighters are very, very predictable. Um, like you can catch people out the home with them, but once people learn what to do against fang fighters, they're really not a huge threat. Like there's so many times where I just dumpster a fang fighter. Cause I have an RC too. I'm just like, I'm just gonna shoot you out the rear. Have fun. Yeah.
00:35:09
Speaker
Yeah, what would be if you guys could identify if you had to pick, you know, I think we already started this conversation, one fix. You know, to improve the faction, what would that one fix be? Yeah, I think it really needs some sort of X-wing, just a small base three die gun that's on a fang fighter. Doesn't have to be super fancy like Star Viper. Give me some sort of just jousting ship, and I think that solves a lot of problems with them.
00:35:38
Speaker
I was going to say the Caraxas is kind of for me solves two versus one stone too because they have an i5 in there as well. So it does bump up some of the initiative that they have access to as well. Yeah.
00:35:52
Speaker
I'm going to bring up some data. Shout out to to our our Twitch community helped me link to this pattern analyzer page here that kind of breaks down factions and faction victories, average initiatives, chassis use, stuff like that. And this is from looks like it's June 1st of 2023 to just a couple of days ago this year. Really interesting that the faction
00:36:19
Speaker
the faction breakdown, you have Rebels Empire and Republic taking up a big piece of the pie. But when you look at SCUMM and Separatists, SCUMM is at, let's see, it's about just under 10% usage in faction distribution and Separatists are lower.
00:36:45
Speaker
just under 7%. And that's rebels for, you know, point of reference for those listening who aren't seeing this right now on Twitch are at 25%.
00:36:57
Speaker
That's a big leap from, you know, the two factions combined to to one of the most played factions, Empire at eighteen point seven. And then Resistance Republic, 13 percent for Republic, 14 percent for Resistance FO at eleven point seven. Yeah, I love the pattern analyzer site. It's so useful. And it really is so pretty to it. Really, it's these charts are really all these colors. It's so nice.
00:37:25
Speaker
And they added a new tab. I'm not sure if you notice it's got pilots and compositions and upgrades. And it breaks down like which pilots are good with other particular pilots and everything. It's very well done. Yeah, analytics site.
00:37:40
Speaker
It is highly recommend. Shout out to pattern analyzer looking at the faction victories, which is this to me, this is kind of wild. A rebel alliance with 994 like the Galactic Empire with 76. It looks like sorry, the Texas super small for me to zoom in a little bit resistance at 73. So just behind Empire is interesting. Republic at 55.
00:38:05
Speaker
Again, this is a, you know, this is a relatively, I would say relatively small sample. Obviously, a lot of games are being played this game every day. Not everything's reported. But what really is crazy, so Galactic Republic known as one of the strongest factions in the game still at 55. And then you take scum at 27 and separate just at 25.
00:38:26
Speaker
and you combine the two and that's still less wins than Republic. So balance wise, what's interesting to me is that the meta looking at this data skews heavily towards four factions.
00:38:39
Speaker
And then FO is on the outside looking in and then you just have, you know, as Billy Bean would say in Moneyball, there's the good teams, there's the rich teams, there's the poor teams. Then there's 50 feet of crap. And then there's us. And I feel like the 50 feet of crap separates CIS and SCUM from the other factions. What do you guys think?
00:38:59
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, one, I think CIS is they don't have as many pieces to play with that are relevant, which is also hurting it. I also think that, I mean, even in 2.0 and in the beginning of 2.5, they were not a widely played faction. So I think there's just also less people out there that are interested in, in playing Separatist.
00:39:24
Speaker
And I think that's one thing. You are, ironically, more scummy now than they've ever been in 2.0. They were very swarming in 2.0 versus where they are now. Yeah, that's for sure. Alex, I'm sorry, Andrew, keep going. Oh, no. I mean, yeah. I mean, I was going to say that I think this is this list that Alex has brought. And I think it's been proven to have an outside success compared to most of the scum field.
00:39:51
Speaker
in a lot of people have been having a very hard time making this faction work and I don't think, I think that's an open secret. Yeah, a lot of it's just...
00:40:00
Speaker
I can bring Fenrao, who's a solid piece. But the other 14 pieces or the other 14 points that I'm bringing around Fenrao aren't going to carry him. Like, they're not going to hide his weaknesses enough to do that. So I think a lot of people are trying a lot of things in scum, and they're like, this is not effective, or this is really difficult to play, or like, this is just not how I want to play X-Wing.
00:40:26
Speaker
So they're just kind of bail on it after a while. Yeah. And then you just get masochists like me who are just like, no, this is great. Yeah. And it is it is the faction for players that want to hit their head against a brick wall till either they or the wall break. Yeah.
Meta Influences on Scum Performance
00:40:44
Speaker
58 percent of recorded games here in this data set are with an average of count of five, which overall is the average of count is four point eight round up to five. It's five.
00:40:56
Speaker
I thought that number would be a little bit higher than 58% for some reason. It's still high. It's very high. It's high. It's very high. It's K2S, I would say.
00:41:06
Speaker
I feel like average ship count also hurts because just with an average ship count being higher, that means the average number of shots taken is higher. And you have ships that can't afford to get, you know, Y-wings, I-4s and below, ships that just can't really afford to be taking that one extra shot. In the last iteration of the meta, we had the average ship count was closer to four. We still had people bringing five ship lists, but it was, you know, we had plenty of people just bringing four ship lists. It was very common.
00:41:32
Speaker
Now it's uncommon to see four ship lists. You're expecting at least you expect five. Do you feel like average ship count plays a role in scums, you know, struggles? Yeah, the the warships on the board, less less those fang fighters like being out there. Really, it's just more of a chance to get surrounded. I mean, you can't be range one of
00:41:53
Speaker
five ships at once, right? So even if you are, you still die. Yes, I mean, you still die. Yeah. That is the thing, right? Is that unless you're Fenrao, you can't afford to be at range one of several ships over the course the entire game, like unless it's isolated instances where like four or five times in one game, you're taking one range, one shot, two, three, like, you know, if there are four or five dice attacks mathematically, you're taking damage even with Concordia. It's even that is tough.
00:42:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the meta before this one, the ship counts, I think, were even higher. Like, it was usually five or six ships. I don't think so. I disagree. You thought it was less? It was less, for sure. The ship, that's the main thing with... Yeah, back then I was flying Empire, so... Yeah, maybe it was less before... Yeah, I mean, to be fair, in your case, you were playing lists with a lot of three-point options and some four-pointers.
00:42:48
Speaker
Yeah, now it's like it's like oh you have five is the number for sure then you go three three Yeah, or whatever. Yeah, five is definitely the number now. There was just way it made sense to see four shipless last meta now It's very unless you have a large base
00:43:05
Speaker
The problem with SCUMM two metas ago was that they were over-costed. I mean, then you had Fenrah who was at seven. Alterok was six points. And it just didn't make sense to take. Boba's still nine. I think you could make a case for him being eight, to be honest. Yeah, I think he's in jail a little bit, too. For sure. Yeah.
00:43:28
Speaker
Let's talk about the list building side of things now that we're kind of sorry to mention points because it's a really important Aspect of scum that is a really frustrating for scum players. I'm a scum player as well I mean, I'm you know, not playing scum right now just because I can't really practice with it for obvious reasons as we're talking about right now, but scum crew
00:43:49
Speaker
got hit with a lot of nerfs in terms of cost. A lot of the crew is, you know, the good crew is expensive, as good crew should be. But simultaneously, I'm going to use the Mandalorian as an example. You had a seven point, you know, crappy chassis I-5 pilot and the Mandalorian with like 20, I think it was 20 or 22 loadout, go down to six and get his loadout more than halved. And he wants to take that crew and stuff to make him good.
00:44:16
Speaker
But he can't because all that stuff is expensive and he has 10 loadout. So they're like hey scum We made things cheaper, but we took almost everything away from you in the process
00:44:25
Speaker
Alex, I'll ask you first, how do you feel about just like loadout is, I think, a really frustrating aspect of scum list building. But overall, how do you feel about the list building in general? Yeah, I mean, as I mentioned before, it's like when you cap their loadout, you cap a lot of the other options you have. That really hurts very many, many of their ships. But also, scum list building is just really awkward. The points don't line up very well.
00:44:55
Speaker
like you have one two pointer, which is fine. But like your three pointers are like Lima and then like it drops immensely to like our lease. Maybe it might be your second best three pointer. I mean, because the other ones are like Z 95 withdrawal garbage and like mining guilt ties, which are also garbage and like the escape raft and no one's ever find that anymore. So
00:45:21
Speaker
You don't have multiple threes. Like you're not filling, you know, you don't have a Keo and like a Gammer and a wedge, right? You're not right. You don't have three, you know, you just have Lima. And then your four points are like, well, cool. You have like dirge and CAD and some of the fang fighters. And then five is like Maneru and kind of Terok. And six is where you start getting all like your, your bigger, better ships here, like Fenrao.
00:45:48
Speaker
But like you have like Dangar and Aphra. So and like Mando and it's just like the points don't cobble together very well and you can't bring Boba. So yeah, yeah, you can.
00:46:02
Speaker
You know, Boba, it's interesting because Boba really was such a medicine 2.0. He's so difficult to deal with. He's just these rerolls are so good that fire spray, we all agree, is probably probably I mean, if not one of the best, if the not the best, maybe one of the best chassis in the game. And, you know, he's in this place where he's at nine points. You have to build like a kind of a mediocre four ship list that is built completely around him. Whereas when we see other four ship lists like Ray or Poe and some T-70s, for example,
00:46:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the centerpiece of this list might be Ray or Poe, but you still have these strong assets accompanying it that, you know, that make out a good composition of the list with like Boba, you know, but you can do Boba, Lima, Sarasou and Gamut if you wanted like a silly double, you know, Alpha Strike double modded Torps list, which I used to play when Gamut was cheaper. Lima was more expensive.
00:46:56
Speaker
That list is worse now because Lima can only take a plasma torpedo and Gamut Key went up in price with no more loadout and is incapable of dealing damage and very easy to take off the board.
00:47:07
Speaker
I don't know, I'm not saying Boba, you know, should be, must be eight, but I feel like if you, they already cut his loadout, cut it a little bit more, make him eight, and like, just do something, I guess, in the future when we get a next points change. I'm really hoping that AMG, you know, kind of makes a statement with being like, you know, we hear that you guys say that we hate scum. It's been the running gag for a long time. We don't completely hate them. We just don't care about them as much. Here's a few changes that are actually good for the faction.
00:47:35
Speaker
That would be nice. Or standard loadout cards. Those would be cool, too. Yes. An SL card gives you easy double mods, as is the trend these days. Just do anything you want. Get what you need for cheap is what a lot of these over-designed SL cards have been able to do for people.
00:47:50
Speaker
I mean, right. I was going to say, if any faction is right for a standardized pack, it would be it would be scum. It'd be an easy way for them to introduce meta relevant pieces and control it to where the faction itself wouldn't be completely broken like overnight. Like you could have if you, you know, theoretically Boba Fett going down to seven, you know, seven. Oh, my gosh. I mean, that would be. Yeah.
00:48:15
Speaker
That'd be great. I mean, yeah, eight would be good, but I mean, but like seven now, is it too good? Is that an auto include? We just see Boba Fett lists everywhere. If you made like a SL Boba kind of have an action bar, like an SF, right? So it actually has to physically rotate that turret, but it could be like white, right? Like a focus link into a rotation, I think would be kind of interesting. Yeah. You still kind of get like the boost. I mean, maybe don't link it off boost. Who knows? Um, that way you can.
00:48:45
Speaker
So it's only a single arc, but it can rotate, but it's not bad to rotate like an SF. But if it starts bumping, then you're not going to rotate it. That might be pretty interesting. Yeah. Or is it going to feel like charge based? It's definitely it's definitely I feel like the easiest way to tackle this issue is for them to be brought into relevancy by being made relevant by the people who are choosing what is relevant, what is not. Right. They yeah, they're just ignored kind of for the most part, just kind of ignored.
00:49:14
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know, I still want to reiterate it is I feel of all the factions because their theme has been individuality. One of just the harder factions to balance because of that. Yeah, exactly.
00:49:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's a good conversation. It's easy to kind of, I think, chase our tails and go in circles about this. But I think we're all on the same page about the core issues that we've been able to identify them and and bring them to light.
Scum's Future & World Championships
00:49:42
Speaker
I feel like scums faction identity could be more of a punching above their weight, like come from behind faction if you want them to make to make them like the faction of large bases.
00:49:57
Speaker
Um, going down with some of like the, the jump master introducing the Lancer class patrol craft messing with some of the points there. Um, you know, reducing maybe the loadout, but then bringing down the actual ship value so that they become more of a large base, you know, based faction and being able to, to field more with the lower initiative. So they're not being as punished.
00:50:24
Speaker
Yeah. And they, they kind of seemed like they were like high risk, high reward for a while with the fang fighters. Uh, but that doesn't really, that was just high risk. Yeah. That was just like, what are you doing? High risk folks. It's just high risk. Yeah. So yeah, I think, are you guys, any last words on, on the scum discussion before we go on to the questions from our audience section?
00:50:47
Speaker
I hope people bring scum to the world to be interesting what they bring. Yeah, I'm kind of at a loss for anything that's not really this list. Yeah, I will say I'll give a shout out to Jaman in NCX, who has been playing a scum list that has been really good for him. I'm not going to dive into it too detailed, but I'll just it's two fangs. It's the four point fangs tour fun, which is a lower initiative thing that has a chance to bonus attack.
00:51:13
Speaker
When I think when receiving damage cards, right? If he kills another ship, he gets a performance bonus attack. Yeah, sure. So not with dealing damage cards and killing a ship. And then he also has trying to the other four point. It wasn't CAD. It's it's not joy. Who am I missing?
00:51:33
Speaker
Well, it's kind of one of the other two. I mean, it could be like a Mandalorian guard, but those. No, no, it's one of those joy wreck off skulls. I think it I think it is cat solace. So it's two fangs. And then he has the three two three point why wings. He's got our leaves and Drassian and Lima Kai. And they have Lima has plasma torpedoes. Our leaves has missiles. I think it's a cluster missiles. That makes sense.
00:52:02
Speaker
And then he has Basque and then he has Dace Bonarm with like Lando and Overtune Modulators and Multi-Crow obviously and basically what he does is he just puts everybody in one lane and then Dace holds on to tokens and uses Lando to spend, he re-rolls his dice every single time he shoots or gets shot at.
00:52:25
Speaker
There's a lot it's just very efficient for a very cheap price because days and the fangs are all worth four points You have two three-point y-wings and then you have boss Our Lisa has plasma. Sorry not it's not cluster missiles, but
00:52:42
Speaker
Yeah, so our Lise and Lima have the plasmas. There's just a lot of tech. It's versatile, it's cheap, it's flexible, and he's bringing that to worlds. I think he's bringing it to the LCQ. Well, cool. Yeah, he basically tried to make an efficiency list with that, just taking all the most valuable, small, you know, cheap ships. Yeah. Which I can respect, and it's kind of difficult to fly being a six-ship list and all kind of like,
00:53:09
Speaker
I force. It'd be interesting to see which list would do better mine or his if we just straight joust each other. Oh, that would be fun. I got it. I got to talk to him about getting that game on. That would be kind of straight joust. I honestly, it seems like it seems like the thing list, it has to have a good first pass because after the initial joust that that will determine the game basically.
00:53:38
Speaker
Because after that, then I think that your list has the advantage because they're not able to take something down. Also eats fang fighters like crazy. He makes really good use of Mandalorian optics too on both of them. So he sets up a lot of double modded shots with the fangs as well, which is really nifty. I would say that is a way that you get around that double mod.
00:53:58
Speaker
Yeah, and if you're a little lower initiative you get your Mando optics and if you even if you get blocked or just you can just afford you can afford to just run right into somebody and take a red focus anyways If they're in the way, it's cool. It's a good place Yeah, I just wanted to give him a shout out as well because you know a list that could turn some heads a little bit for scum for a faction that is struggling
00:54:16
Speaker
But yeah, let's move on to the next segment. So questions from the audience. We had some folks today asking the Discord. You can go to our Discord to the 312 Squadron podcast section, and there's a 312 Squadron podcast chat. You can ask questions, talk about the podcast, whatever you want to do. And so JJ asks, which faction will reform worst at Worlds, SCUM or CIS, if you had to make a prediction?
00:54:40
Speaker
how to see the hard thing is what does he mean? Worse, worse in terms of like it. Let's let's let's let's go by. It's going to be obvious for OK. Well, let's go by cut rate. Like who's you know, which which faction is appearing more in the in the in day two. Let's just say that day two. There's always some very dedicated CIS players. Yeah. Always do super well and make cut.
00:55:04
Speaker
This is a tough one because CIS does have some lists that just are able to output a ton of crits like the FO and they can trick some people up because they just, you know, it's one of the factions that you just don't play against that often. Yeah. I am going to vote. I'm going to say that CIS, though, will do worse in terms of day two. Huh. I'm saying I think I'm saying scum. I'm thinking about like Django and dirge and these things that are like tough to kill that are pretty grievous. Alex.
00:55:32
Speaker
unless everyone just auto concedes to me, I think separatists will be doing better. Unfortunately, it's just because the people who are very dedicated and very good with separatists are very, very good at this game. Yeah. And they can go pretty far with that.
00:55:51
Speaker
Sandy asks, what what pilot will make final table? I said and I added, you know, for both sides. So if you had to make a prediction named two pilots, that would be a cornerstone of each each list. What would your predictions be? I am going to say Kylo Ren and then on the other side. Let's bookmark this, by the way. I'll go to remember this Darth Vader with which chassis on.
00:56:21
Speaker
Both of those, I guess. Whisper or silencer? Oh, I'm going to go silencer Kylo. And Vader defender. Yeah. X1. I'll do X1 Vader. Yeah. As far as that Vader. Sure. OK. Alex, what about you? I set a cop out to say, boy, Luke. He kind of is, but.
00:56:42
Speaker
It feels like I feel like SSP Vader, if that's a cop out, I mean, like, I guess it all. Yeah, honestly. Boy, you can't fall for saying SSP Vader. So can't fall for saying it. So I can't fall to you for saying the most popular. I'm going to say no. No, I'm going to go say hello and Mallory's. We'll just have fun. Oh, I like that. Oh, OK. I'm going to say battle over Endor Wedge and
00:57:10
Speaker
Mallory's was the safer pick for sure. Yeah, I'm going to go. I'm going to go with like, I think I'm going to predict that we're going to get rebel versus empire. So I'm going to say I'm going to go with, yeah, battle over under wedge. And then as I mean, it's if you want to talk about an ultimate cop out, guys, SL to Max.
00:57:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's the ultimate cop-out for sure, but I'm not gonna say I'll say I'll say I'll say I'll say soon to your battle over under soon to your battle over and or wedge Oh, that's spicy. It'd be really wild to see battle over and or make final table Yeah size AMG would love to see that for sure. That would be a dream for them. I love they've set it up
00:57:50
Speaker
to almost be very possible. I mean, I've been playing BOE suit here. He is incredibly strong. Yeah, I was like, those cards just seem so strong to being able to throw yourself right in the belly of the beast and be like, OK, I've got a barrel roll out of the arc now. Yes. Like, no matter where you put suit here. In a lot of cases, it's wild. How would BOE soon to do against my list?
00:58:14
Speaker
Well, you got big fire. You got. Well, I think it would be sincere would be really easy for students here to get three or four hits every single time he takes a shot. Sure. That's one thing he does need Palpatine, though, or Vizier to coordinate both. In that case, he he he can't do anything with his blanks. He's still three hole. So if he is taking shots. Yeah. Yeah. He's got to be mindful of that, but he will be getting a full string when he gets no escape and his own reroll. Watch out for danker. Yeah.
00:58:44
Speaker
Check gunner and also when he takes it to pleat like he has to be mindful that he takes it to pleat to do his ability. You can spend that token. So yeah, that would be interesting. I would I would definitely pay to watch that for sure.
00:58:57
Speaker
Charlie asks a very serious question. Should dice cups be legal? Jokingly, because Nicholas God, who is the current world champion in his infamous final salvo, a.k.a. road roll to break the tie. He, you know, he was using his dice cup the whole game and revealed the winning role to win with his dice. It was very dramatic.
Humor & Anecdotes
00:59:17
Speaker
No, I don't think they should be illegal at all. I think they're fine. I hate ice cups. Honestly, it should be a felony. Really? They're loud.
00:59:26
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I mean, they're loud. I kind of like them just because they're they keep the dice contained in one area and you're less likely to accidentally hit ships and stuff. But how am I supposed to cheat if I can't get my opponent ships with dice? There you go. Yeah, I use my old J.R. Tolkien. Well, would I spot this trend? I love that thing.
00:59:47
Speaker
So that answers that one and then I don't know somebody anonymously asked why is Nick so handsome which I thank you makes me blush I didn't I didn't write that in myself at all It was really just something that I got an anonymous email asking about and so just as genetics Yeah, it's it's I think of my mother and my father for that one. That's why I am just so handsome apparently Thank you for that
01:00:12
Speaker
so much, thank you so much, not me that wrote that. The question is why are, the real question is why are Alex and Andrew so handsome? What's about me, more about them, that luscious beard that Alex has and Andrew just being the handsome devil he is. Oh, thank you. I was going to say, yeah, just our parents and genetics as well. Come drop a line in the chat.
01:00:36
Speaker
Alex, you still got the same beard that I know from Crossroads? Yeah, it's pure laziness, really, is what that is. Two years now, I think, actually. Oh, nice. It's funny, Andrew, when I was streaming with Matt Carey at Crossroads, and we mic up the players, right?
01:00:55
Speaker
Alex has this big beard. You know, it's it's it's a it's a legit beard and it completely covers the loft mic. Yeah. So like it does sound like Alex is very far away when he talks and it's right next to his mouth. But it's the beard. The beard is a great, you know, way to block off sound.
01:01:15
Speaker
I was gonna, and also, I mean, at least it wasn't like hitting the mic. Otherwise you got to clip the lav mic into the beard. Into the beard. Yeah. That would be really not comfortable for any, for Alex at all. We did not have to do that. Oh man. All right. Well, guys, before we do the outro, any last words here for episode 12? Oh no. Thanks for inviting me on. You know, it was exciting. It's fun to talk about Scum. Fun to be on other podcasts. Yeah. We're so happy to have you.
01:01:41
Speaker
Yeah, it was a long time coming. We talked about this a while ago. I guess, is there anything that you want to plug Alex before we moved to the outro? Um, well, I have my own podcast. That's the best with bench warmers. We have, we, we update when we update. It's, um, I'm actually, I liked the podcast a lot. We talk a lot about, um, like why people are building lists and how, how would they're use it's more of a philosophical kind of look at.
01:02:12
Speaker
Like the thought process behind why people are bringing what they're bringing. Yeah. And I should probably also shout out the other podcast I'm on, Planting Face Indicate. Yeah. Every Sunday. JJ and Tanner. Nice. Yeah. Be sure to check that out.
01:02:27
Speaker
The last thing that I want to say is that if you are going to Worlds or if you have ideas that you think can fix Scum, come onto our Discord and let us know what you think. Absolutely. Because I'm really interested in hearing what our community has to say as well.
01:02:45
Speaker
And come say hi to Andrew and I will be at Worlds who won't miss us because we'll be wearing our Worlds 312 shirts. That awesome swag we got. All right. Thank you, everyone, for listening to this episode. I do want to really quickly thank our proud partner and sponsor Strata Strike. You can check them out on Etsy. They make a ton of incredible gaming components. My favorite thing that they do are these awesome wood carved templates and tokens. I have an amazing set of scum wood templates and an amazing magnetic template tree that they are in that I use whenever I play scum.
Community Acknowledgements & Farewell
01:03:15
Speaker
which I try to do from time to time. You can use discount code three one two squadron that's three one two capital S lowercase Q U A D R O N for 15% off your entire purchase on anything on strata strikes Etsy store. Also as Alex shouted out.
01:03:30
Speaker
You guys should check out the best of edge warmers and planning phase syndicate. We'll link both of those in our description here for the episode. But be sure to follow us on Twitch. If you want to catch us live, you can catch edited content on our YouTube channel. You can like us on Facebook for updates. Jump into the Discord for conversations, talking about the podcast.
01:03:48
Speaker
And lastly, this would not be possible without our patrons. There is a running meme about us being called $31 sign. So here at $31 sign, we want to thank Martin, Jesse, Benjamin, Kevin, Mike, David, Dean, Digicind, William, Dale, Matthew, Adam, Brendan, Michael, Justin, John,
01:04:12
Speaker
Also, Mark from Strata Strike, Joshua, Daniel, Alex, Steven, Matt, Peter, Andrew, and Scott. That is a lot of names. And because of a lot of those names and all of you who have supported us on Patreon, those of us who, those of you that support us in our Discord, watch us here on Twitch, YouTube, everything. We cannot do this without you. Thank you so much. And thank you to our patrons, especially. All right, my name is Nick Sperry.
01:04:39
Speaker
And I'm Andrew Kuba. And I'm Alex Merrill. And we will talk to you all and see what some of you very soon see at Worlds.