Welcome to Competitive Innovations in a Galaxy Far, Far Away, a look into Shatterpoint events happening across the galaxy. We’ll explore top matches, the who’s who of Primary Units and what you can expect from the Shatterpoint meta.
If you haven’t checked out Part 1 yet, check that out here! Throughout part 1 we saw some early dominance from the newly-rebalanced Republic, while Rebels saw their fair share of wins backed up by the new release of Cassian. Who will take this corrupt Jedi Council down? Because from this point of view… the Jedi are evil.
Part 1
- UKGE 2025 Shatterpoint GT – United Kingdom
- GT- La menace Fantôme – France
- Atlantic City Open – United States
- Duel of the Fates – Australia
Part 2
- Grand Tournament Lodz EC1 – Poland
- GenCon – United States
- LoneStar Open – United States
- GriffCon Shatterpoint GT – United Kingdom
Part 3
- Evergreen Open – United States
- Nova Open – United States
- Smite Club Open – United States
Grand Tournament Lodz EC1
Check out full details on Longshanks.
The Showdown
Mission: Sabotage Showdown
CFLightning – General Obi-wan Kenobi / Ki-Adi Mundi
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| Sabotage Showdown | |
KvaN Lukasz – Princess Leia / Captain Cassian Andor
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| Sabotage Showdown | |
Thoughts
48 players and a 6 round Swiss is an incredible run, and one of these players is going to end 6-0!
CFLightning’s Anakin / Ki-Adi list here is one that was covered a few times in part 1. In this case, it takes Rex with Anakin and the 501st over the typical ARF Troopers and Padawan Ahsoka (those are both busy in the Mace squad). The gameplan stays the same; Ki-Adi and Shaak Ti are key displacement pieces and Ki-Adi keeps your force abilities affordable even with some wounds. Anakin is your big playmaker, combined with Ki-Adi’s identity ability to move your entire list outside of himself on a wound.
Knowing wounding would at least be a portion of the game plan, KvaN went for a revenge style list with Cassian and Princess Leia. Combined with Rebel Commandos and Pathfinders, this list has a ton of mobility. While the revenge triggers love how close the objectives are on Sabotage, it also means they’re close together for melee units to shine as well…
CFLightning – 1st Place
List – See Showdown
Thoughts
CFLightning only played Mace / Padme in round 1, and played Ki-Adi / Anakin for the rest of the event with an incredible 6-0 finish. We see another example here of little to no Never Tell Me the Odds presence at the event, allowing this list to shine with little disadvantage on mission. I’d personally be curious about the exclusion of ARF Troopers with Anakin, as they help a lot with his mobility… although Coordinated Fire: Strain on the 501st does help Anakin hit 8 damage more reliably on a single attack.
This is the Ewok Way – 2nd Place
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| Never Tell Me The Odds | |
Thoughts
This is the Ewok Way (A name like this and no Ewoks…) played Cassian / Kanan 5 out of 6 rounds, only playing Ki-Adi / Vader in round 1. This combination of revenge triggers either enables an incredible amount of movement on each wound, or Kanan to have a very long reach with his trigger. This version opted for Sabine over Kallus for additional mobility, while opting out of taking a Spectre support. Turns out being able to take two of the best supports in the game is good.
Piotr Swietlicki – 3rd Place
List
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| Sabotage Showdown | |
Thoughts
This version of Anakin / Ki-Adi opted for the ARF Troopers to help with mobility, while also going for Barriss in the secondary slot. I feel Barriss is slept on a lot of the time; this adds another displacement ability in Force Push, while losing an out of activation movement ability like Rex or Padawan Ahsoka. This can be a particularly effective choice when facing revenge style lists, as you can choose to displace rather than attack or move.
Szycha – 4th Place
List
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| First Contact | |
Thoughts
Rebels and Republic seems to be the theme! Szycha played Leia / Cassian 5 out of 6 rounds, continuing our trend of top finish players choosing one list they are very comfortable with for most of the event. This is also our second time seeing First Contact pop up, its an interesting choice here as Cassian can struggle with only 5 force. Clever Ploy offering force regen during struggle 1 can shore up some of that weakness for the early game.
Gencon
Check out full details on Longshanks.
The Showdown
Mission: Never Tell Me the Odds
Godlyness-Duncan – Grand Inquisitor / Commander Iden Versio
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| Shifting Priorities | |
Evan (Must Play Faster) Ritt – Grand Admiral Thrawn / Moff Gideon
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| Never Tell Me the Odds | |
Thoughts
GenCon played in two heats, which met up for a top 16 Swiss on Saturday.
You may have been thinking up until now that Empire may be struggling post rebalance as we’ve seen a lot of Republic and Rebels dominating through the rest of the world post rebalance. Back in the US, the Empire truly strikes back with three of the top four bringing an all Empire premiere list.
Duncan is here to remind us that Iden and the Inferno squad are alive and well. This combined with the updated Grand Inquisitor’s Clearly, You Were a Poor Student now providing a force refresh whenever a Galactic Empire character wounds an enemy unit (which Inferno Squad will do well) this last has the force to spare to add in Kenobi, Out of Hiding and have Mind Trick to Disarm any opposing threats. Fifth Brother here to round out the list with a tough body for keeping hold of a key objective.
Evan brings Thrawn / Moff, hoping to out move and out maneuver Duncan’s list. We’ve discussed this one before, and it truly is one of the more mobile lists in the game. It relies on keeping tough bodies active to get the most out of the mobility and against Inferno Squad that can be a tough requirement.
Godlyness-Duncan – 1st Place
List – See Showdown
Thoughts
Duncan’s list is anchored around Grand Inquisitor, ensuring every game had access to force refresh and Mind Trick. Paired with Krennic, this becomes a more control style list leveraging Your Concerns Are Hardly Warranted to control momentum gain and Peace and Secrurity for the Galaxy to keep force cost low on Arrogance, and control a point that would be otherwise out of reach on High Aspirations. A great first showing for Krennic and having this option alongside the Iden pairing played in the finals leads to a versatile premiere list with pairings ready for anything.
Nick (Blitzmonkey) Downing – 2nd Place
List
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| Shifting Priorities | |
Thoughts
Nick played an identical list to the one Duncan played above, also anchored around Grand Inquisitor.
Evan (Must Play Faster) Ritt – 3rd Place
List – See Showdown
Thoughts
Evan may have also played an all Empire premiere list, but a unique one compared to the top 2. Evan anchored around Thrawn for consistent mobility, and with Death Trooper Escort as the secondary adding Imperial Efficiency, this adds up to an incredibly mobile squad. Never Tell Me the Odds plays off that advantage. The Thrawn / Vader pairing is an interesting one, allowing the list to punch up in melee and make sure your melee threats can be where they need to be.
SerRusty – 4th Place
List
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| Sabotage Showdown | |
Thoughts
The lone Republic list in the top four, and our first appearance of Kit Fisto. Kit adds Supporting Fire: Dash, like the new ARF Troopers, but on a body that’s incredibly tough to wound and will likely not increase in force cost throughout the game. This paired with Hunter creates a very mobile squad, with Wolffe’s Wolfpack ensuring your clone supports get their Crits through on attacks. With both the 212th and Republic Commando reliably getting crits on their expertise, this builds out a surprisingly punchy clone squad backed up by Hunter’s The Leader of the Batch. Obi / Ki-Adi rounds out the list with a defensive displacement option.
Lonestar Open
Check out full details on Longshanks.
The Showdown
Mission: Shifting Priorities
SlothLVII (CT-9904) – General Anakin Skywalker / Mace Windu
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| Shifting Priorities | |
Dennisharlien (Darth Dainnes) – Jyn Erso, Stardust / Captain Cassian Andor
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| First Contact | |
Thoughts
Sloth won the roll off, opting for Shifting Priorities and taking Mace / Anakin. This Mace squad including Commander Ponds is a great take to help Republic with some difficulties it may have with missions like Never Tell Me the Odds or First Contact. Pond’s Forward Scout ability now provides a clone unit a near equivalent start as Infiltrate does and provides that to any Clone Trooper Supporting unit. This can also help take an early midline on Shifting Priorities. 8 Force, with potential refresh from Mace’s Shatterpoint ability means this list has plenty of force to play with.
Dennisharlien chose Jyn / Cassian and this is the first event seeing the newly released This Is Rogue One in action. Jyn’s This Is a Rebellion, Isn’t It? adds mobility or extra attacks to a supporting unit, and Rebels have some VERY strong options there including the introduction of Baze & Chirrut in this box. She is potentially the highest mobility primary in the game combining both her abilities and her attack trees, and The Time to Fight Is Now helps shore up one of Cassian’s weaknesses allowing you spend momentum for abilities when you’re out of Force. Baze and Chirrut continue to help in that area by simply refreshing force when they activate… not to mention Guardians of the Whills provides a free focus action when they flip their stance. Seriously… these guys are in the running for best Supporting Unit in the game.
Protection and Steadfast from Mace can be difficult for any list to get through, but Rebel Commandos and Baze & Chirrut are incredibly hard hitting supports especially when combined with Cassian’s Make Ten Men Feel Like a Hundred. Both supports have access to Focus through abilities and can be very dangerous in combination with Impact or Sharpshooter.
Dennisharlien (Darth Dainnes) – 1st Place
List – See Showdown
Thoughts
We were already seeing Cassian as a prominent part of the meta and the addition of Baze & Chirrut added a near perfect support for him. Cassian and Jyn boxes combined (ideally swapping the Rebel Pathfinders for Rebel Commandos) are an incredible out of the box list, which makes sense why they were taken here 4/5 rounds.
SlothLVII (CT-9904)- 2nd Place
List – See Showdown
Thoughts
The Mace squad with Ponds here is an interesting addition, shoring up some of Republic’s weakness on spread out missions like Never Tell Me the Odds. With Odds coming back into favour, especially as a potential Republic counter this is an effective way to combat that weakness. Overall a versatile list with multiple pairing options depending on match up across the table.
Cody Hawkins – 3rd Place
List
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| First Contact | |
Thoughts
Fellow Goonhammer writer and gentleman Cody Hawkins brought his usual Ewoks, now with the addition of Rebel Pathfinders. This is a very mobile list, and the Pathfinder add to that – with the addition of extra defense dice from Logray’s Protective Wards they can be a very tough unit. Freedom Fighter Leia is also one of our last sources of Coordinated Fire: Expose which puts a dent in defensive Expertise. On the other side we have a Republic list which Cody also played at Adepticon, this time featuring the updated Republic Commandos over Echo & Tech. Combining Ki-Adi’s Guardians of the Republic with Luminara’s Flow of the Force means you are dashing two characters (or one character twice) every time you wound… and it turns out Crosshair can reliably wound.
Kyle Jones – 4th Place
List
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| Sabotage Showdown | |
Thoughts
Another all Empire list, with Kyle’s favoured pairing being Iden / Grand Inquisitor… I think we can safely say at this point this squad is here to stay around the meta. Kyle’s only loss was against the winner and playing his CT-9904 list… I can’t say I’m a fan of what CT-9904 does on the table but the force refresh in this list combined with Kenobi, Out of Hiding is tempting to fuel Mind Trick shenanigans.
GriffCon
Check out full details on Longshanks.
The Showdown
Mission: Shifting Priorities
James Green – Darth Vader, the Emperor’s Servant / Commander Iden Versio
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| Shifting Priorities | |
Steven Williams – Cassian Andor / Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1
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| Shifting Priorities | |
Thoughts
James is running a list he saw plenty of success with in the previous meta, going for a full wound game plan with Iden and Vader. Gideon Hask may not be all that he was, but he still helps supports get one step further down their tree and for the ISF that can mean the difference between wounding their target.
Steven taking a proven option against these kind of list that James is bringing, pairing Kanan with Cassian for double revenge. James list is able to wound quickly though, and Cassian’s revenge gets less effective the more units that are wounded. James may have play here by wounding quickly and focusing on targets without the Spectre tag to avoid Kanan’s attack.
Gerard Ollerenshaw – 1st Place
List
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| Sabotage Showdown | |
Thoughts
The event ending with four player at 4-1 means neither of our Showdown ended up in first place, Gerard takes the win with a high Strength of Schedule (SoS). Gerard representing the first run we see of Delta Squad, this has been a highly anticipated squad with many players seeing them as a powerful option for Republic. Boss and team are very fast, with potential to shore up Republic’s weaknesses on spread out missions like Never Tell Me the Odds. Paired with Kenobi here we have a few ways to play with Hunker tokens and improve the effectiveness of Obi’s Knowledge and Defense. Boss’ Delta, Give Me An Explosive Solution allows Clone Troopers within range 2 of a selected objective to dash and gain Hunker, while Fixer’s Forming Up, Sir allows any Clone Trooper finishing a move action within range 3 of Fixer to gain Hunker. This keeps your clone units hunkered and able to respond to incoming attacks. Combined with some excellent defensive expertise (for clones) results in a list that is equally offensive and defensive. Be careful with 5 force here, but otherwise, Delta Squad is going to be one to watch out for!
Steven Williams – 2nd Place
List – See Showdown
Thoughts
Steven played his Kanan / Cassian list most of the day, with Delta and Hunter only seeing the table one game. There wasn’t much time between Delta’s early release here and the event, so I imagine this was the list he was comfortable with.
James Green – 3rd Place
List – See Showdown
Thoughts
You can find overall information of the Vader / Iden list just about anywhere (including event coverage on Goonhammer before the rebalance!) It’s nice to see the list still performing after nerfs to Hask, ISF and Dark Troopers which is a testament to both careful rebalance and how overtuned they were previously. I’m a big fan of the Obi / Mace list seen here even if James only played it once. Leveraging Ponds for the infiltrate-like ability, with the new support from Delta Squad, Sev & Scorch is a huge upgrade to the missions this list can play. This list offers plenty of force to provide additional attacks from both Rex’s I’m Always First Kid and Sev & Scorch’s Rule 17: Always Make Sure They’re Dead. A forward deployed support with built in Protection & Steadfast combined with Obi’s Knowledge & Defense can create some difficult situations for your opponent.
Frazer Eden – 4th Place
List
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| First Contact | |
Thoughts
Frazer get’s all the internet points that I can possibly hand out today. This Hondo anchor list pairs up some of the best Scoundrels the galaxy has to offer, fully leveraging Hondo’s Fair? What’s Fair? to pump up Scoundrel damage. So what if we’re handing out Strains to our own units (which can be avoided if the enemy model is shoved out of range 2 before the attack is resolved) we’re scoundrels! Two extra dice provides a lot of value to the units in these lists, and with tough models like Wrecker & Omega or Chewie, you can make sure you have a model engaged to trigger. Frazer ended the event 4-1 with a whopping 33(!) wounds.
Final Thoughts
We’ve seen the Empire strike back and show they are alive and well and Republic’s dominance slip in favour of a few different flavours of Rebels. With some new squad packs adding their own twists with the rest of Rogue One, Delta Squad and a Sharkman (who has yet to make an appearance) releasing, the meta is anyone’s guess. What we are seeing and continuing to see is familiar names popping up which tells me player expression and skill are overcoming list building – get your reps in!
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