[Shatterpoint] Competitive Innovations in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: January 2025

Welcome to Competitive Innovations, our weekly feature for a number of game lines across the tabletop wargame space. Each week (or each month, for some games) our army list and tactics experts canvass the top tournaments for their game of specialty, looking at the week’s top match-ups and how they played out on the tabletop to let you know what’s hot, what’s not, and what might be coming next as the competitive meta evolves year-round.

Kicking off 2025 with a bang, we have the largest Shatterpoint GTs to date for United States, Australia and Canada all taking place in January!

LVO Grand Tournament – 56 Players

Cancon 2025 Shatterpoint Grand Tournament – 47 Players

Torchlight Games Official Shatterpoint GT – 26 Players

LVO Grand Tournament

Nevada, United States. 56 players 5 round Swiss + 3 round top cut. Check out full details on Longshanks. For a deeper dive into the LVO event, take a look at Goonhammer’s full LVO meta breakdown here.

The Showdown

Mission: Never Tell Me the Odds

The Players

Scott Nielsen: Commander Iden Versio / Moff Gideon

Commander Iden Versio Gideon Hask, Inferno Squad Imperial Special Forces	Moff Gideon Death Trooper Escort Dark Troopers	Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1 Ezra Bridger, Spectre-6 Rebel Commandos	Hera Syndulla, Spectre-2 Agent Kallus, Inside Man “Chopper” (C1-10P), Spectre-3
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

Kenny Brown: Kanan Jarrus / Hera Syndulla

Commander Iden Versio Gideon Hask, Inferno Squad Imperial Special Forces	Moff Gideon Death Trooper Escort Dark Troopers	Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1 Ezra Bridger, Spectre-6 “Chopper” (C1-10P), Spectre-3	Hera Syndulla, Spectre-2 Agent Kallus, Inside Man Rebel Commandos
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

Bagelbot’s Thoughts

For those new to the competitive Shatterpoint scene, this won’t be the last time you’ll see these primary characters across from each other in a top event. With Scott and Kenny bringing identical lists, Scott chooses his Empire list, which he has played in 7 out of 8 rounds, and Kenny opts for Rebels to avoid a mirror match.

Scott’s Empire list brings Iden and the Inferno squad, providing a heavy aggro presence with unparalleled movement and the ability to consistently wound models at range 5. Moff Gideon and the Dark Troopers add some tough models to take objectives when Inferno Squad can’t just wound (which, frankly, isn’t all that often).

Kenny’s Spectre list aims to counter the aggression coming from the Empire with Kanan’s revenge ability alongside Hera’s We Will Not Stand Down ability, allowing Hera to bring a wounded model back into the action. Rather than just out-of-the-box squads, Kenny opted to add Agent Kallus for some crucial dice rerolls and Rebel Commandos to add an additional body to the list and gain access to Infiltration.

Both players brought Never Tell Me The Odds, each with an Infiltration unit, which helps compensate for the distance between objectives and deployment on this mission.

Overall win rate data would point to Kanan being favorable here, but looking at Scott’s games throughout the event, he has confidently taken his Iden / Moff list into a Kanan / Leia list round 3, and his only loss of the day was playing his Kanan / Hera list. Scott’s Inferno Squad will come in fast and hard here, and a win for Kenny will come down to positioning. Getting Kanan in the right spot for his revenge attacks to deny points, using out-of-activation (OOA) movement to make sure of Ezra’s tiebreaker, and activating Rebel Commandos at key points to swing a struggle will be needed for Kenny to take the win here.

Scott Nielsen – 1^st Place

Neither Kanan nor Iden is surprising in a winning list, but you don’t often see them in the same premiere list. The showdown covers why these lists are great, and both play very well on Never Tell Me The Odds. Over the event, Scott took Iden / Moff into Kanan twice, who is often looked at as the counterplay to the Empire’s aggression. If a ragtag group of Rebels can’t take down the Empire’s reign, who can?

Kenny Brown – 2^nd Place

Kenny and Scott brought the same lists. It’s Worth noting that Kenny played his 2 lists equally, with 4 games of Iden / Moff and 4 games of Kanan / Hera.

Blokanator (Blake) – 3^rd Place

Lando Calrissian, Galactic Entrepreneur Gideon Hask, Inferno Squad Imperial Special Forces	Clone Sergeant Hunter Wrecker and Omega Elite Squad Troopers	Lord Maul Jango Fett, Bounty Hunter Bounty Hunters	The Mandalorian Bossk, Single-Minded Slayer Han and Chewie, In It For The Money
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

Blake brought a 2 by 2 Premiere list of Lando / Hunter and Mandalorian / Maul.

Lando / Hunter sees Iden dropped in favor of Lando, with the rest of Inferno Squad. This build allows Gideon Hask’s Defiance Will be the Death of You ability to provide an additional hit to Scoundrel units through Lando’s Conflicting Responsibility. To take advantage of this, on the other side of the list, we have Clone Sergeant Hunter, Wrecker, and Omega with the Elite Squad Troopers to provide Coordinated Fire: Expose to the list. Achieving a similar amount of aggro to your standard Empire list, you have multiple ways of manipulating dice rolls here and condition stacking through Lando.

Maul / Mandalorian provides a force-efficient control list, which I imagine would be effective in Spectres or full Mandalorian lists. This list has three instances of diceless displacement (the ability to move an opponent’s model without relying on a dice roll) with Mandalorian’s Clan of Two, Maul’s There is No Place to Run, and Jango’s Capture Wire. Diceless displacement allows you to take control of objectives easily and, in many cases, swing more than one point in a turn. These abilities can be key to winning a struggle against lists that have tough-to-attack models or have movement on their defensive expertise.

Matt “Daimyo Matt” Cerino – 4^th Place

Princess Leia, Charming to the Last Dengar, The Demolisher Rebel Commandos	The Mandalorian Luke Skywalker, Daring Hero Han and Chewie, In It For The Money	Darth Vader, The Emperor’s Servant Stormtrooper Sergeant Dark Troopers	Commander Iden Versio Gideon Hask, Inferno Squad Imperial Special Forces
Never Tell Me The Odds

Matt had a fantastic run, going 5-0 in the Swiss, and his first loss in the semi-finals into Kenny’s Spectre list.

Matt’s Princess Leia / Mandalorian list takes two Primary Units with strong revenge abilities to counter aggro-heavy lists; add in some tough to wound models like Dengar as well as Han and Chewie, and you get a list that’s hard to take down.

Darth Vader, Emperor’s Servant with Iden, doubles down on the aggro strategy with one of, if not the most aggressive list in Shatterpoint (it still gives me nightmares). This list has one goal: to make sure no model stands alive to contest an objective – and for the rare model that can withstand the pressure, you have Dark Troopers to put bodies on points.

Best of the Rest

Wildstar – 5^th Place

The Armorer Paz Vizsla Covert Mandalorians	The Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze Clan Kryze Mandalorians	Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1 Ezra Bridger, Spectre-6 “Zeb” Orrelios, Spectre-4	Princess Leia, Charming to the Last Agent Kallus, Inside Man Rebel Commandos
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

Jakester – 6^th Place

Clone Sergeant Hunter Wrecker and Omega 212th Clone Troopers	General Obi-Wan Kenobi CC-7567 Captain Rex Echo and Tech	Jedi Master Luminara Unduli Crosshair Republic Clone Commandos	General Grievous Jango Fett, Bounty Hunter Bounty Hunters
Shifting Priorities

 

J Chav Atlas – 7^th Place

Jedi Master Luminara Unduli Jango Fett, Bounty Hunter Fifth Brother	Moff Gideon Death Trooper Escort Dark Troopers	Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1 Ezra Bridger, Spectre-6 Rebel Commandos	Princess Leia, Charming to the Last Agent Kallus, Inside Man “Chopper” (C1-10P), Spectre-3
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

APringleBM – 8^th Place

Lord Maul Gar Saxon, Merciless Commander Mandalorian Super Commandos	Mother Talzin Savage Opress Nightsister Acolytes	The Armorer Paz Vizsla Covert Mandalorians	The Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze Clan Kryze Mandalorians
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

Cancon 2025 Shatterpoint Grand Tournament

Capital Territory, Australia. 47 players 5 round Swiss + 3 round top cut. Check out full details on Longshanks.

The Showdown

Mission: Sabotage Showdown

Luke “DurAlvar” Thompson: General Solo / Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter

General Solo Obi-Wan Kenobi, Out of Hiding Rebel Commandos	Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter Ezra Bridger, Spectre-6 Lando and R2-D2, Inside Job	Moff Gideon Death Trooper Escort Dark Troopers	Grand Admiral Thrawn Stormtrooper Sergeant Stormtroopers
Sabotage Showdown

 

Tobias “DesertSpiral” Ford: Leia Organa, Freedom Fighter / Kanan Jarrus

Leia Organa, Freedom Fighter Wicket, Intrepid Warrior Ewok Hunters	Lando Calrissian, Galactic Entrepeneur Bossk, Single-Minded Slayer Han and Chewie, In It For The Money	Hera Syndulla, Spectre-2 Ezra Bridger, Spectre-6 “Chopper” (C1-10P), Spectre-3	Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1 Sabine Wren, Spectre-5 Rebel Commandos
Shifting Priorities

Bagelbot’s Thoughts

We’ve got Rebels vs. mostly Rebels for the finals, with a couple of unique lists facing off in the finals – I’d expect nothing less from our friends down under!

Luke’s Han / Vader list takes advantage of Vader’s Your Hatred Makes You Powerful to add 3 dice to a melee attack in exchange for taking 2 damage. In most cases, this is a fair trade-off, allowing units like General Solo, Ezra, Lando & R2, and Obi-Wan to punch above their weight class.

This is my first time seeing Han paired with Vader this way, and I like what I see.

Han has an excellent attack tree and decent melee expertise but often doesn’t have the dice to back it up – Vader changes that math.

Tobias opted for Leia / Kanan, providing a significant amount of out-of-activation movement, with 4/6 having an ability that moves either an Ewok or Rebel Alliance unit. I suspect that Tobias was expecting Luke to bring his Moff / Thrawn list here, and was attempting to combat the strong movement of that list. Leia provides Coordinated Fire: Expose to the list, while the Ewok Hunters add Coordinated Fire: Pin – conditions that will be valuable in this match-up. While Kanan’s revenge trigger is typically useful against a model like Vader or Jedi Hunter, Tobias’ list only takes 2 Spectre units, which diminishes the return on Kanan’s ability and instead relies consistent attacks and conditions.

Luke “DurAlvar” Thompson – 1^st Place

Frankly, I love Luke’s list. We’ve seen Moff Gideon / Thrawn a few times, and this version opts for Stormtroopers over Fifth Brother. It’s a fun and strategic swarm-style list with constant movement given to the Support Units through Thrawn’s battle tactics and other abilities. The General Solo / Jedi Hunter Vader list is new to me, and I hope to see it again. Secondary Obi-Wan Kenobi is a great choice here that has lost a bit of favor within the meta but is an extraordinary unit under Vader – Mind Trick can be a struggle-winning ability when positioned well.

Tobias “DesertSpiral” Ford – 2^nd Place

Freedom Fighter Leia is an excellent Primary Unit that is under-explored in the current meta. She adds the best Coordinated Fire in the game and excellent movement to any Rebel or Ewok list she joins. Tobias uses her as an anchor in this list, pairing her with Lando or Kanan, depending on the match-up. Lando takes advantage of heavy conditions and a tough as nails Support Unit in Han and Chewie. Kanan provides a tougher squad and Infiltration on the Rebel Commandos.

Thomas “Kildare” Wyse – 3^rd Place

General Grievous Kraken, Super Tactical Droid B2 Battle Droids	Count Dooku, Separatist Leader Jango Fett, Bounty Hunter MagnaGuard	Jedi Master Luminara Unduli Kalani, Super Tactical Droid B1 Battle Droids	Mother Talzin Savage Opress Nightsister Acolytes
Shifting Priorities

We’ve seen a comeback of Separatists lately, with the Grievous / Luminara pairing showing up a few times. This doubles down on the all Battle Droid playstyle, leveraging Luminara’s Flow of the Force ability to add additional movement to the list and using the allied wound part of Flow of the Force to add healing to the droid’s general tough units. Grievous, Kraken, and Kalani keep the droids moving and attacking, aiming to overwhelm the opponent. When more finesse is needed, Count Dooku / Mother Talzin comes in with multiple diceless displacement abilities and a ton of Force to use them.

Jason “Promethious7” Brown – 4^th Place

Commander Iden Versio Gideon Hask, Inferno Squad Imperial Special Forces	Darth Vader, The Emperor’s Servant Death Trooper Escort ISB Agents	Grand Admiral Thrawn Stormtrooper Sergeant Dark Troopers	Moff Gideon Boba Fett, On Contract Fifth Brother
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

Ah, yes, the Empire special. This premier list was run as two lists, Thrawn / Moff and Iden / Vader. Jason only ran Iden / Vader once, opting for Thrawn / Moff 6/7 games. I spoke about Thrawn / Moff in Luke’s list, and the same applies here. It’s interesting in an all-Empire list, as Thrawn / Moff offers a list style to Empire that is not heavily focused on wounding the opponent but outmaneuvering. With Thrawn’s Battle Tactics and We Must Wait and Watch ability, Moff Gideon’s Long Live the Empire combines for an incredible movement-focused list that can surprise the opponent by taking objectives most lists couldn’t reach.

Best of the Rest

Alexander Norton – 5^th Place

The Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze Covert Mandalorians	Lord Maul Gar Saxon, Merciless Commander Mandalorian Super Commandos	Leia Organa, Freedom Fighter Wicket, Intrepid Warrior Ewok Hunters	Logray, Bright Tree Shaman Chewie Rebel Commandos
Sabotage Showdown

 

Josh “The Revanchist” Parkes – 6^th Place

The Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze Clan Kryze Mandalorians	The Armorer Paz Vizsla Covert Mandalorians	Princess Leia, Charming to the Last Sabine Wren, Spectre-5 “Zeb” Orrelios, Spectre-4	Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1 Ezra Bridger, Spectre-6 Rebel Commandos
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

Jordan Madgwick – 7^th Place

Clone Sergeant Hunter Crosshair Echo and Tech	Jedi Master Luminara Unduli Wrecker and Omega ARF Clone Troopers	The Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze Clan Kryze Mandalorians	The Armorer Paz Vizsla Covert Mandalorians
Sabotage Showdown

 

Adam Payne – 8^th Place

Leia Organa, Freedom Fighter Wicket, Intrepid Warrior Ewok Hunters	Lando Calrissian, Galactic Entrepeneur Bossk, Single-Minded Slayer Han and Chewie, In It For The Money	Hera Syndulla, Spectre-2 Ezra Bridger, Spectre-6 “Chopper” (C1-10P), Spectre-3	Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1 Sabine Wren, Spectre-5 Rebel Commandos
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

Torchlight Games Official Shatterpoint Grand Tournament – 26 Players

Ontario, Canada – 26 Players 5 round Swiss. Check out full details on Longshanks.

The Showdown

Mission: Shifting Priorities

Icemyn – Dean B: General Veers / Iden Versio

General Veers, Tactical Genius Death Trooper Escort Snowtroopers	CT-9904, Elite Squad Leader ES-04, Firebrand Elite Squad Troopers	Commander Iden Versio Gideon Hask, Inferno Squad Imperial Special Forces	Moff Gideon Boba Fett, On Contract Dark Troopers
Shifting Priorities

Kyle “Bagelbots” Russell:

The Armorer Paz Vizsla Clan Kryze Mandalorians	The Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze Covert Mandalorians	Clone Sergeant Hunter Wrecker and Omega Echo and Tech	General Obi-Wan Kenobi CC-7567 Captain Rex ARF Clone Troopers
Shifting Priorities

Bagelbots Thoughts

We have Dean’s Empire facing off against my Mandalorians for the Canadian GT finals. I’m genuinely shocked this is my first full Mando list write-up here, and equally, on the other side, it’s a first for General Veers.

Dean’s Iden / Veers list is built for Shifting Priorities. Veer’s Prepare For a Surface Attack ability allows you to start the game with a Stormtrooper Unit in reserve, which will be Death Trooper Escort. The forward deployment of the Imperial Special Forces allows Dean to take all three middle points on Shifting Priorities on his first activation. This can be a very difficult maneuver to come back from (Spoiler Alert: As I experienced). Inferno Squad then keeps that momentum going into Struggle 2 and 3.

My Armorer / Mandalorian list is here to compete with lists like Dean’s. The Armorer’s Our Survival Is Our Strength. This is the Way ability makes Mandalorian Units not increase their force costs when wounded – this allows you to play longer attrition games where your opponent’s force costs are going up, but your Mandalorians stay efficient. On top of that, the Mandalorian’s This Is The Way ability provides the Mandalorian healing and movement whenever an allied model is wounded.

You have a tough list ready to take on an aggressive opponent.

Both Dean and I are taking Shifting Priorities, as our mission heavily favors Dean here. Dean’s list is specifically built to win this mission quickly. If I can prolong the struggles and score some early wounds, I may win the efficiency race in struggle(s) 2 and 3.

Icemyn – Dean B – 1^st Place

Dean brought a full Empire premiere list, including some primaries that haven’t been seen in the competitive meta. General Veers holds the award for the worst win rate in the game, while CT-9904 isn’t too far ahead. Inferno Squad carries those primaries to new heights. Veers enable a reliable, strong start for the list, while CT-9904 brings Elite Squad Troopers, allowing a hard-hitting to list even more reliable attacks with access to Coordinated Fire: Expose.

Sean Peconi – 2^nd Place

Commander Iden Versio Gideon Hask, Inferno Squad Imperial Special Forces	Darth Vader, The Emperor’s Servant Bossk, Single-Minded Slayer Stormtroopers	Grand Admiral Thrawn Stormtrooper Sergeant Fifth Brother	Moff Gideon Death Trooper Escort Dark Troopers
Never Tell Me The Odds

Sean ran his Iden list in 4/5 games throughout the day. Iden / Vader is available for the all-in aggro style, Iden / Moff for a combination of aggro and board control, and Thrawn / Moff for a heavy movement list that helps to counter some of Iden’s weaknesses, mainly Kanan. Long live the Empire.

Kyle “Bagelbots” Russell – 3^rd Place

I covered the benefits of Armorer / Mandalorian above, so I want to focus on General Kenobi / Hunter here. This list has seen its successes outside North America and continues to be a strong meta contender. Kenobi takes Hunker tokens from a nice-to-have to a list-defining feature with Knowledge and Defense. Hunter provides attack consistency to Bad Batch and Clone Trooper units with The Leader of the Batch. This leads to a list with solid offensive power and defensive tech, alongside the ARF Troopers bringing Coordinated Fire: Expose, which helps to match-ups like Kanan or Mandalorians. Admittedly, this list struggles into Empire, specifically Iden Versio.

Riley Maxwell – 4^th Place

Grand Admiral Thrawn Stormtrooper Sergeant Storm Troopers	General Veers, Tactical Genius Snowtrooper Lieutenant Snowtroopers	Commander Iden Versio Gideon Hask, Inferno Squad Imperial Special Forces	CT-9904, Elite Squad Leader ES-04, Firebrand Elite Squad Troopers
Never Tell Me The Odds

Riley has another flavor of Empire here, this time opting to leave Moff at home. Thrawn and Iden were each played 4 times, giving me the sense this was all about leveraging Empire’s high mobility.

Best of the Rest

Titus Kosloff – 5^th Place

General Obi-Wan Kenobi CC-7567 Captain Rex Echo and Tech	Clone Sergeant Hunter Wrecker and Omega ARF Clone Troopers	Princess Leia, Charming to the Last Chewie Rebel Commandos	Jedi Master Luminara Unduli Crosshair Republic Clone Commandos
Sabotage Showdown

 

Greg Piskosz – 6^th Place

Hera Syndulla, Spectre-2 Agent Kallus, Inside Man Rebel Commandos	Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1 Ezra Bridger, Spectre-6 “Chopper” (C1-10P), Spectre-3	The Armorer Bo-Katan Kryze Covert Mandalorians	Lord Maul Gar Saxon, Merciless Commander Clan Kryze Mandalorians
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

Robert Koughan – 7^th Place

General Grievous Kraken, Super Tactical Droid MagnaGuard	Jedi Master Luminara Unduli Kalani, Super Tactical Droid B1 Battle Droids	General Obi-Wan Kenobi CC-7567 Captain Rex Republic Clone Commandos	Jedi Master Mace Windu CT-411 Commander Ponds ARF Clone Troopers
Sabotage Showdown

 

Brandon “Nio Darkwind” Enta – 8^th Place

The Mandalorian Boba Fett, On Contract Dark Troopers	Commander Iden Versio Gideon Hask, Inferno Squad Imperial Special Forces	Lord Maul Gar Saxon, Merciless Commander Clan Kryze Mandalorians	The Armorer Bo-Katan Kryze Covert Mandalorians
Never Tell Me The Odds

 

The reign of the Empire is clearly upon us, but at each event, we have a glimmer of hope, whether that be stalwart Mandalorians, smug Scoundrels, or ragtag Rebels standing strong. 2025 is an excellent year for Shatterpoint, and with more releases, including a pair of Rogue One boxes, I’ll let Jyn Erso see us out… “Rebellions are built on hope.”

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