The State of the Collective

Welcome to the Carolina Holochronicles! I'm returning this week with an article on the “difficulties” of listbuilding within the Shadow Collective battleforce and my general reflections on their internal balance. I'm going to start with my personal tier ranking and my reasoning for those rankings. I’ll then discuss the difficulties the battleforce presents as well as my conjecture as to why it has such low performance and play rate.  Once I've finished that I'll close out this article by explaining how I ended up choosing my NOVA list and where I think the battleforce's trajectory is headed.

By the way, if you’re new here, thanks for reading.  If you’d like to know more about this blog click here, and if you like to watch battle reports click here.  If however you are already familiar with my ramblings, then thank you for returning.

I may in this article occasionally refer to this battleforce as a faction.  This is in some ways an oversight on my part but given the state of the Collective it feels fair.  This battleforce has three entirely unique units (four if you wanna count the Raider’s AA-5) that aren’t available for recruitment in any other faction as well as having official “Top #” prize support in tournaments.  I’m not saying Shadow Collective is a faction, but if you squint it’s easy to mistake it for one.  Without any further wandering, let’s return to my ramblings and get into my personal tier list.  

The Pyke Syndicate - ‘S’ tier

For those of you unfamiliar with tier lists, then please note that S tier is the best rank available. You’ll see the other ranks in due time in descending order, but just know that we are starting at the top of the mountain here and the peak is all Pyke.

If you haven't already, then feel free to read my article on the Pyke syndicate here.  I feel it’s appropriate to state that these fishman are the core (pun intended) of the faction.  While they get the least screen time in Clone Wars they sure get the most table time in Legion.  They’ve got Independent:Dodge, Danger Sense, Outmaneuver and a solid dice pool to boot.  The flexibility provided by their personnel slot options gives them strength and survivability in the corps slot that is only rivaled by Clones and Shore Troopers.  When it comes to listbuilding you’ve gotta have a darn good reason to not include these fellows in your Shadow Collective builds.  For the sake of this article, i’m including the Capo unit in this tier because one seldom runs the corps without their leader.  

For the points the Pykes can’t be beat.  Sixty eight points get you a squad with the Disruptor Rifle that takes one of your precious corps slots while costing only 8.5% of your total 800 building points.  I don’t want to get ahead of myself too much, but I wish I could take more than six of these guys.  Their Capos also make flexible commanders that while relatively weak are still better than the Imperial and Rebel officers.  From my viewpoint (strikethrough hopefully), the best way to spend your points in this army is with Pykes.  No other unit in the force will offer you the same range three firepower for the low price that they are asking.  It’s admittedly an unexciting unit to play and one that’ll annoy your opponents, but that is the nature of winning competitive events.  

The Black Suns - ‘A’ tier

These crocodile boys have had a tumultuous ride of tournament results.  At Gencon of last year Nathan Nicholson showed that they are viable en masse.  But then, everyone kind of forgot about it until they lost their collective chill when Lyla Claire made the final table at the World Championship.  Traditionally fielded as a “one-of” unit in varied lists, folks forgot their firepower when brought in bulk.  A great many Shadow Collective lists included Black Suns, but for the roughly six months between Gencon and Worlds bringing them in great numbers was unpopular and scarcely talked about.  

Unfortunately, the ensuing notoriety of Lyla’s result gave this corps unit an unnecessarily heavy nerf.  Clearly the implications of Pink Suns needed addressing, but once players knew how to beat the list it ceased to place well.  Even Lyla struggled to perform well with the list once everyone knew to stay at exactly range three or greater from them.  A 3-3 finish at the UKGE is not a knock against player skill, but rather the unpleasant and flattering result of everyone studying how to beat your list.  Furthermore, the ensuing nerfs to force users has brought down the power level of Maul who has been the lynchpin in almost every great placing Shadow Collective list (notably those with an abundance of Black Suns).  It’s unlikely that AMG will rollback their nerf, but if they do I’ll be here fistpumping the air.  

Yours truly prefers to bring the Scatter Gun version of the unit instead of the popular Mags-and-Frags combo, but either build type is competitive and a good bargain.  The Mag-Det is an excellent weapon, but relies on a Speeder Truck to be effective over the course of multiple tournament games (don’t worry, we’ll get to the bus soon).  Like their fish allies they also have great personnel options that boost their potential for only a small bump in price.  My favorite build with this unit includes a Vigo, the Scatter Gun and Prepared Supplies for 103 points.  I’m also a fan of swapping the Vigo for the fifth trooper and bringing a stand alone Vigo unit with Vigilance instead.  This gives the cheesy result of allowing your six man Scatter Gun team to surge forward towards your opponent with at least three dodges and a devilish gleam in their eyes. 

While not the menace they used to be, one or two of these units in your army is an excellent addition.  I’d love to see the Scatter Gun become a point or two cheaper, but as buses dwindle (due to impact) its popularity slowly grows.  

Bossk - ‘A’ tier 

One of the most affordable and valuable units in the battleforce and maybe the second best bounty hunter in the game, Bossk has grown to become my homeboy.  Bounty, Enrage, a decent melee attack, seven regenerating health, and a Suppressive piercing range four rifle as well.  What’s not to love?  Couple all of that with a command hand that doesn’t necessarily need to bring a 1 pip and you’ll quickly realize that Bossk is the first unique unit I'm inclined to add to every list.  

The threat of Bounty can influence your opponent’s strategy/deployment for your benefit and Bossk’s rifle is valuable even if you never consider bounty hunting.  Both his two and three pip command cards double down on his ability to force your opponent to roll saves and I dream of the day I can Fire Support “Lying In Wait.”  Bossk can melt if exposed to fire, but the long range capabilities of his Relby Rifle means you shouldn’t have to expose him unless you’re seeking that Bounty.  

The most common build for Bossk is the combo of Targeting Scopes and Hunter, but adding something like Seize the Initiative is great to ensure he gets an order token when you need order control.  Offensive Push is also a solid choice for a bounty hunter since oftentimes the game itself can swing depending on Bossk’s ability to collect that bounty.  Tenacity is a “neat” choice that makes your melee even stronger but also incentivizes a playstyle that is the opposite of Bossk’s weapon profile.  

Awkwardly enough, Bossk has no range 1 weaponry; so be sure to either charge your opponent or throw your Dioxis grenade when they get that close.  Neither of these options are as powerful as a Suppressive range four rifle, but sometimes your opponent puts you in weird spots.  Also, don’t be like me and forget to roll for Regenerate every freaking time.  You can even time it so that you suffer poison token damage before or after Regenerate, ensuring you stay alive or alive-er.

Maul - ‘A-’ tier

The big man or cyborg himself is a threat to be reckoned with.  With six good command cards at his disposal and an army that actively doesn’t want orders you’ll seldom find yourself wishing for a better command hand.  The ability to infiltrate a force user is just bonkers and when utilized against a list that can’t respond effectively the game will often be over in turn zero.  Couple this with Juyo Mastery and you can be nearly paralyzed with the decision trees that open up before you once you grasp the implications of taking 50% more actions than other units. 

Viable as either a commander or an operative, Maul brings a vengeance to the table in order to seize what power you can in a matter of a single activation.  The Darksaber is one of the weakest lightsabers in the game, but it’s still a friggin’ lightsaber that’ll wipe half an activation or more in a single chop.  His double-bladed saber brings a larger and slightly better dice pool to the table, but Cunning is so strong that I've honestly never had the stomach to leave the Darksaber at home.  I do believe though that bringing Maul without the saber is a viable option.  However if you’re given the chance to infiltrate Maul with Cunning command cards the game will typically be resolved by round three; it’s just that powerful of a combo.  Be careful you don’t infiltrate into armies containing other force users or the Immoblilize keyword, because those guys’ll really rain on your parade.  

Were it not for the variety of nerfs that force-users have suffered over the past year, Maul would still be S-tier.  It's hard to imagine a world where he isn’t the starting point of your Shadow Collective list, but sadly that’s the world I've found myself awakening to.  Between Deflect, Force Choke, Force Push, Burst of Speed, Vigilance and Tenacity (I firmly believe Maul was designed to take this upgrade) the nerfs are just piling up around him.  The more expensive Maul becomes, the harder it is to pack in units around him and justify his cost.  Frankly Maul has slid down a notch (along with most force users) to an A minus in my book; he’s no longer the starting point of my lists.  It’s not that he’s bad by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just that Maul is not the glass cannon he used to be.  The caliber of that artillery has been reduced, and the panes are made of thinner glass now.  

A skilled player can still run circles around an opponent who is unfamiliar with Maul’s capabilities, but when playing against a similarly skilled opponent the match is much harder than it used to be and Maul’s kit is no longer as influential in the overall battle.  

Gar Saxon - ‘B’ tier

I’m not going to linger here for long, because I'm actually working on a comprehensive listbuilding article for him.  I truly wish Saxon were a better unit, but he’s just one keyword away from being good.  Whether he gained Tactical, Steady, a command upgrade slot, a buff to his rifle or even something as mild as Contingencies Saxon would probably jump up to ‘A’ tier.  His biggest issue is the lack of impact he has on the game.  Compel is a great keyword, but it seems like perhaps an oversight to give him the keyword when Black Suns already have Dauntless and it’s relatively cheap and a good idea to equip your corps with Courage 2 personnel anyways.  He costs 100 points base, and begs for you to take multiple of his truly fun upgrade cards.  However Saxon is a bit of a sunk cost fallacy; you can pour more points into him but those upgrades won’t increase his effectiveness as much as they might on other units.  

If you take any one of his weapons he becomes objectively a better soldier, and his shield is nearly an auto-include.  A typical Saxon build comes in around 115 or more, but then he costs too much for his small dice pool.  For the points I'd rather have the aforementioned Black Suns team at 103, Bossk with Hunter and Scopes at 115, the typical Super Commando build at 116 (I’ll discuss this in a moment) or even a unit of Pyke Foot Soldiers with the rifle and a naked Pyke Capo for 116 points.  Heck, if you aren't bringing other Mandolorians then the bus with a medic and tactician is a better buy at 103 points.  Saxon just needs a little something to make him better and until then he is overshadowed in terms of firepower and sheer math by other units in the battleforce.  He’s just one keyword away from becoming a great unit.  

Mandalorian Super Commandos - ‘B’ tier

While we’re talking about dudes and dudettes in armor, let's jump right into another unit that is thankfully just one keyword away from going crazy.  The Super Commandos have come a long way in the past year and I'm very content with where they currently sit in the faction.  It’s a little disappointing that the Shadow Collective doesn’t feature Mandolorians as prominently as they do in the show, but I think over time Mando-centric lists could possibly be just as popular as Pyke gunline lists.  If Saxon gets the help he needs, errata and not just a points cut, then this is all a given in my mind.  

Defend 1 makes Mandalorian Super Commandos the only unit in the faction that actively asks for orders.  Such a keyword is further enhanced by Outmaneuver and that makes them a bit of conundrum if you aren't playing Saxon.  This further points out the neat interplay between these units; Saxon answers the questions that the Super Commandos ask.  Even with Saxon on the battlefield, Supers benefit greatly by having a Backworld Medic present.  The extra suppression gained by this upgrade is less consequential when Saxon can compel you to fly away at speed three.  

The option to take four units of these guys is not only fun, but also darn viable.  Their typical build for myself and most of the community includes the marksmen, rockets and their shields.  It’s a pricey build to hide behind four models and six health (counting shields) but these fellas can really shellac your opponents when played right.  The Jetpack Rockets can vanquish armored targets and strike teams alike and are of only more value now in the new CRB world.  

It would be nice to see some upgrades become reciprocal with the Rebel Mandolorian Resistance, (the Beskad Duelist would be a nice addition) but only time will tell if AMG shares my enthusiasm for errata.  Before I finish I'd like to state that Rook Kast deserves to be re-released as an operative because she deserves better and there aren’t enough Mando-centric command cards in the Collective.  It would be super fun to run Rook and Saxon with a full command hand of six Mandalorian cards that allow you to zip all over the battlefield doing exactly what the Clone Wars shows them doing.  Until then, include these homicidal Beskar-clad “political idealists” in your army knowing that they are a viable and defensible choice.  

Ye Olde Bus - ‘B-’ tier

The AA-5 Speeder Truck is yet another unit in this battleforce that has had a tumultuous history.  Initially the menace that deployed the Wookies at the fore of the galactic front, now this clunker is occupied dropping her Suns off at the pool or giving out band-aids for your Pykes boo-boos.  This truck is seeing less action not only because of the current Impact heavy meta but also because of Maul’s waning popularity.  It was once a common strategy to send the bus forward to drop off your Black Suns and support Maul with both LOS blocks and heals.  In these lists the Speeder Truck was an absolute force multiplier that helped get the job done.  But now as of fall 2023 I’m seeing almost no one taking the bus in these lists.  The reason I've given up the bus has less to do with Maul and more to do with my growing appreciation with the Pyke’s “extra man.”  Be warned, I've got some long-winded opinions here.  

The bus offers access to the best medic in the game as well as the Unorthodox Tactician.  Over the course of multiple tournaments taking these two upgrades became my preferred build and was what I took to Cherokee this year.  At the time it was crucial to my list because it allowed me to drop off my Mags-and-Frags Black Suns in range of Dark Troopers who were the scourge of the meta.  But that was eight months ago and now Dark Troopers have waned while the Impact remained. The result is that we are in a trooper heavy meta where Black Suns are best when toting shotguns and scattering buns.   In light of this I had to take a serious evaluation of the bus and come to the sad conclusion that it’s not the best buy in the Collective.  

The Speeder Truck with a Backworld Medic and the Unorthodox Tactician comes in at 103 points.  For 103 you’re getting the potential for six heals and approximately twelve aims assuming the bus survives all six rounds and is positioned appropriately.  This build is still capable of delivering Black Suns, but as we’ve discussed already you really don’t want to be too close to your opponent with all the Impact floating around right now.  The natural conclusion then is to stick with your gunline and power them up for the fight ahead of them.  This is actually a good idea and one I like, but the fact of the matter is that the Pyke “extra man” offers most of the same value but for less points. 

Once again we have discovered a sunk cost fallacy within this faction.  Taking the bus naked feels bad, taking these two upgrades grants it a HUGE boost in versatility and function.  But once you’ve gone this far it feels bad to not always have something to do with your second action.  You could of course take one of the guns offered, but neither of these are a good expenditure of your points.  Since the change to cover/LOS it’s now almost impossible for the bus to ever get a shot off that isn’t going to be fired through heavy cover.  Equipping either gun will then require further upgrades/actions to make them effective.  Your bus should be using the Backworld Medic during each activation and giving its aim tokens to the gunline surrounding it.  If you’ve gotta move in order to reach medic range you won’t have the actions left to shoot.  Likewise moving to get a shot will take your ability to heal away.  

The Heavy Laser Retrofit offers Critical 1 and range 4 which could help you punch through cover while also remaining stationary; but you’re guaranteed neither a Surge or Critical result.  Furthermore, everybody’s got themselves Outmaneuver and Force Barrier these days.  This gun makes the Speeder Truck aim hungry and those aim actions/tokens would be better spent on your Pykes/Black Suns who will not only have a larger dice pool, but can get additional aims from their respective commanders which will further help them punch past cover.  The AG-2G Quad Laser offers the larger dice pool we are seeking but without any surge conversion your bus will find on average 3 hits which hardly makes it through heavy cover.  An aim token helps, but it’s not the savior of this build.  The cost of this gun is just too high (and used to be even higher) for its performance.  The Speeder Truck with nothing but the Quad Laser is 100 points.  In comparison a Pyke team with a rifle costs 68 points and throws one more die, and a red die at that.  Either weapon option becomes more powerful with upgrades like Linked Targeting Array or Frenzied Gunner; but again, it’s a sunken cost.   

Enter the Pyke Syndicate Foot Soldier personnel upgrade.  Costing only nine points the Pyke Syndicate Foot Soldier grants you an extra wound, Cache:Aim 1 as well as an additional attack die.  If you have the maximum of six Pyke corps then taking this upgrade on every squad will only cost you 54 points.  For roughly half the price of the bus you’ve gotten the same amount of wounds/heals, half the expected value in aims and an extra attack dice.  Now obviously getting to choose exactly where those heals and aim tokens go on a turn-by-turn basis is better than “equipping” them, but the sixth trooper offers value in a third way as well.  That extra black attack die is, practically speaking, worth half an aim token each time your squad fires.  If you assume your squads will get to shoot at least four times in each game, then this means the “extra man” is giving each squad roughly two aim tokens per game (three if you can’t his cached aim!).  If each squad then gains one wound/heal and three “aims” per game then it’s hard to see why you’d bother with the bus in a Impact prevalent gunline meta such as we’ve got.  It’s for this reason that I’ve put my bus back into my drawer for now.  It’s still a fun unit, but neither Maul nor Black Sun spam are popular and so it suffers.  

There is of course a single way in which the bus is currently competitive, the raiding party.  I’ll discuss this later in my article, but please note I don’t hate the bus.  It’s just suboptimal in a very, very tough meta.  

Cad Bane - ‘C’ tier

It’s both strange and neat that Cad can be an absolute monster in one faction and a terrible choice in another.  Unlike the Confederacy, the Collective has very little order control through the ordering of tokens.  Most Collective lists have a bag full of corps tokens and one or two commanders.   Throwing an operative like Bossk into this mix is “ok” because he’s shooting from range four and usually embedded within your army or running a flank against a single enemy unit.  With Bossk it’s relatively easy to be timing neutral in your activation, but with Bane timing is everything.   Since everyone wants to be Independent, Cad’s token is often floating in a sea of uncertainty while you hope that you can pull his token when you need it.  

Playing multiple operatives alleviates this issue, but it by no means removes it.  Similar to Saxon, Cad likes to bring a few upgrades with him and these upgrades really boost his power level.  Steady combined with range two guns means that Cad wants to dodge, dip, dive, duck and dodge his way around line of sight blocking terrain in order to harass your opponent and chip away at their army.  When played well Bane will hamstring the units that could respond while distancing himself from the rest of your opponents army.  The issue that remains is that Cad needs order control to dance this jig but also needs to retain Independent: Dodge 2 to survive those hamstrung units.  Without being able to guarantee the timing of his activation Bane could just get rekt in the manner of two or so activations.

For the points, there’s so very many other units that I’d rather take.  If you’re comfortable engaging at range two, then Black Suns will hit harder because their dice pool is much larger.  If you’re looking for a mobile harassing unit that’ll plink a few wounds here or there, then Saxon is more durable under fire and can Compel other troopers.  If you’re bounty hunting, then you should start and stop with Bossk.  And if you’re simply looking to shoot your opponents then Pykes will do it cheaper.  Cad Bane is a really fun unit to play, but outside of a singular list type he’s not viable in the Collective.  

Swoop Bike Riders - ‘C-’ tier

The last unit to rank is obviously the one that struggles the most.  Through a combination of release errors, rules changes and meta changes it’s very tough to make this unit viable.  The points adjustment they received earlier this year was probably the points value they should have shipped with last summer upon release.  Nowadays they need more than just a points reduction. Since their release they’ve also fallen prey to the same issue every vehicle has: a cover system designed with almost exclusively troopers in mind.  The result is a unit that almost never gets out of cover shots and doesn’t have a dice pool designed with this issue in consideration. 

Best utilized in a Raiding Party build, these aliens of varying ethnicities love to swoop amongst their enemies displacing, shooting, overrunning and generally distracting them while your more powerful units close the gap.  The Raiding Party Leader allows them to hand out three suppression per activation while also dealing a small amount of damage.  Against a white save army you should expect to deal 3-4 wounds across two to three different units.  Against a red saving army this number drops drastically to maybe a wound or two while also probably costing them their lives.  If it’s a clone ball then their death is almost a certainty.  

They’re still a fun unit to play that is very thematic in its gameplay experience, the problem is that from a competitive standpoint they aren't good.  For only 3 points more you can buy a Pyke unit with the Disruptor rifle and stand up against the gunlines of today’s meta.  Admittedly Pykes aren't speeders and it’s not a fair comparison, but these two units are at the opposite ends of my tier list while only separated by three points.  It’s simply too difficult to redeem the value of the swoops when they’ll typically get shot apart before they reach your opponents lines.  Range three weapons allow you to put your units alongside others and not expose them more than the rest of your gunline.  Swoops must close to literal melee range in order to be effective.  

If the Vibro-Ax became a melee weapon as well as an Overrun weapon, or if the Overrun keyword was changed to allow for both units to contribute to a single attack then the Swoop Bike Riders could have a sizable dice pool that would not suffer from their silhouette issue.  The opportunity to deal more wounds at one time to the same unit would minimize the impact of returning shots and give swoops the strength to take meaningful chunks out of an opposing army.  Until then, I’ll continue to enjoy them from a purely casual perspective.  

The state of The Shadow Collective

At this point you’ve probably sniffed out the point I'm trying to make.  The best units in this faction are its corps.  Whether Pykes or Black Suns, nothing else is delivering quite the same gunline capabilities for the price point.  If I could take more than six corps I would because I believe that’s the best bang for your buck.  Obviously gunlines are not the end-all be-all of Legion play (thank goodness) but currently the meta is dominated by this style of play.  It’s not by chance that red saving gunlines are the hotness, so don’t expect that you’ll stumble into victory without a gameplan to beat them.  Good players can buck the meta (looking at you successful Rebel players) but the Shadow Collective has a very limited roster that doesn’t offer enough tricks to surprise your opponents with cleverness. 

So then, whatdoes that leave this battleforce in terms of competitive list variety? In short, not much.  I personally believe there are three archetypes a player should consider if they want to find success in a store championship level event.  When attempting a higher level event, I think only the first option has the legs to go far enough.  So let’s discuss these archetypes in order of most viable to most fun.  

The Pykeline 

This archetype is not terribly original, but that’s because it’s an obvious recipe.  Start with the best unit in the faction, take as many as points will allow and then insert a playmaker.  This playmaker has historically been Maul, but recently Bossk has risen to take the place of his downtrodden warboss.  Saxon is also a choice I’ve seen folks try, but I myself have struggled to get the value out of him that I want to see.  One or two units of Black Suns are also a welcome addition to this archetype because they can play linebacker and shore up holes in your gunline that are opened by melee threats or bounty hunters.  This archetype is not too difficult to learn and has a track record of being dependable.  It’s rather disappointing to say, but I believe this is the best a Shadow Collective player can do in the present state of the game.  

Beskar Spam 

Super Commandos are on a delicate knife’s edge where the dice can either hand you the game or take it away without a moment's notice.  Surging red saves can weather all kinds of storms with the right luck.   Shields and Outmaneuvering dodges only further bolster your ability to shrug off attacks.  This archetype will bring Saxon, at least three units of Mandos and then a mediocre gunline to back it up.  It’s going to rely on Jetpack Rockets to crack out a mean alpha strike and then surging red saves to carry the day through what remains of the game.  A Speeder Truck with a Backworld Medic is a welcome addition to keep those pricey units healthy and occasionally drop off Black Suns to further bring that alpha strike smackdown.  If however the red dice (offense or defense) give you blanks, then the game is probably over.  Statistically they shouldn’t, but when an entire unit gets wiped in a single shot it’s hard to win when you’ve lost 116 points or more in a flash.  

Raiding Party

Did you just finish rewatching a Mad Max film?  Then boy do I have a list for you.  Take as many vehicles as you’re allowed, beef up the war wagons with guns and goodies and then drive over your enemies.  Transporting either Black Suns or double bounty hunters will mean that you’re going to crash into your opponents like a tidal wave and try to roll over them with sheer momentum.  You’re not going to have much in terms of longevity, but if you suppress the other guys enough then hopefully they won’t have the actions to swing back with enough efficiency.  This list does extremely well with Bombing Run, Payload and Breakthrough but will struggle with trooper based objectives and surviving to the end game for Key Positions.  It’s a lot of fun to play, but you’ve really gotta watch out for bombardment/orbital strike cards that’ll hamstring your swoops before they get close enough to fight.  You’re also going to have little to no order control, so be sure to bring your rabbit’s foot with you.  

NOVA Reflections

If you’ll humor me, I’d like to briefly discuss the tier list above and how it played into my choices for NOVA.  My NOVA list was the culmination of playing Shadow Collective for a year straight and figuring out what worked for me and the meta.  The list is clearly a Pykeline and I’m not going to claim originality for that.  I would argue though that this list is the most efficient/powerful way to count to 800 in the Shadow Collective.  Like most competitive lists the emphasis is on fixing my dice.  

I built this list immediately following this summer’s point change and had the privilege of playing it at an event that same weekend.  I began with “the core” of most successful Collective lists: Pykes.  Two Capos with the most common upgrades available and four squads of soldiers with the Disruptor Rifle.  Obviously the final list includes five not four and they’ve got other upgrades besides, but this was the foundation of the list.  I am very familiar with this “core” and it has served me well in a handful of tournaments.  

Upon this foundation I then added an old favorite of mine: Black Suns with a Scattergun.  I touched on this unit already but I think its relevance has only increased as of late.  The Mags-and-Frags combo has fallen to the wayside as its points have been increased and the presence of armor in the meta has dropped due to everyone’s response against Dark Troopers.  With the Scattergun this squad becomes a “linebacker” that can shore up the holes in your line or charge forward to stop melee threats or other aggressive units.  A twelve die shot can put most units on their backfoot in a single blow and snuff their wick before they explode.  The prevalence of red-saving units means that Pierce is a valuable keyword for the Black Suns.  If you’re closing to range two, you better hit hard enough to ensure your blow cripples the return fire or else you won’t be around to activate again.  To this effect, Prepared Supplies is just straight cash money on such an expensive corps.  Five points buys you another “wound” in a unit that’s price-per-wound is 16.3.  It’s just a no-brainer in my eyes.  

After combining the two previous ingredients we now arrive at a conundrum in Shadow Collective listbuilding.  Points increases and nerfs to Choke crippled Maul in the summer update and while he’s still good, he’s not good enough in my eyes for the points he costs.  Once you’ve decided to leave Maul at home, you quickly realize no one else in the faction is truly a playmaker.  Saxon is also too expensive for what he does and the Mandos just crush my soul when I roll blanks.  Cad is a disappointment in this battleforce due to the reasons I listed earlier, so the only option remaining is Bossk.   

Bossk isn’t a playmaker like Luke, Maul or Yoda, but his potential “spike” damage can shift the battle in critical times similar to a force user.  Best of all, he can do it from range four.  Shadow Collective really needs to bring a hero since without one you’ll be forced to play cards that are issuing orders to Independent units.  Merciless Munitions is not a popular card, but it’s the only reasonable choice for my second 1-pip.  Over the last few months I’ve actually come to love this card because it’s the only tool I've got.  Poisoning Jedi is great, and I can definitively say it allowed me to win at least one of my NOVA games by poisoning two separate unit leaders on Key Positions. So then, Bossk with the typical bounty hunter loadout is the place to start.  I elected to bring Seize the Initiative as well because Bossk cannot be issued orders by anyone else and I need to control his activation timing.  Seize also pairs well with Aggression since Bossk shines brighter the more aim tokens he has.  

Now that we’ve got Bossk, Black Suns and a core of Pykes we’re left in a weird place where there’s nothing else good to spend your points on.  Swoops, Speeder Trucks and other heroes are all lackluster compared to our corps options.  I included a fifth Pyke and maxed out my corps slot, then a third Capo to max out my hero slots.  I opted for Lead by Example on this third Capo since a second copy of vigilance is superfluous and all of my corps (outside of the Black Suns) are courage 1.  Furthermore, Inspire 2 is also helpful in ensuring your fellow Capos get to Aid as many tokens as possible when they activate.  

After these last two additions we’re left with 68 points that can’t be spent on more A tier units.  Ironically, 68 points is the exact price for a Pyke team with the rifle.  Once again, if I could take a seventh corps unit I would.  I considered many options before realizing that no new unit would offer me the same value as beefing up my already purchased A tier units.  So in the pursuit of counting to 800, I simply took as many extra Pykes bodies and Prepared Supplies as points would allow.  The result are Pyke squads with both Cache:Aim and Cache:Dodge who do a pretty good job of fixing their bad dice.  The finalized list allows for a modest three point bid and ten activations.  Both of which are slightly larger than average in today’s meta.  

In short, “Cache Me Outside” does well against most other gunlines and has a solid matchup into the current Republic Exemplar castle.  It doesn’t have quite the dodge utility the Republic does, but with Outmaneuver it can ignore any sniping they bring since ARC’s don’t have high velocity.  In short, Clone lists need to close to range three in order to win the gunfight and in the course of this movement it’s easy for them to hang a unit too far out and lose them before the rest of the castle catches up.  I’m not saying this list is a perfect counter to the Republic meta, but until we get some errata it’s the best thing I can think of.  I’ve really enjoyed this list, and unless there are serious updates before the World Championship I don’t see any other Shadow Collective list worth taking.  (Hopefully the proposed single-elimination format gets overhauled beforehand.)

Now that we’ve briefly touched on the three most common archetypes, why don’t we see more of them?  I waited until after Pax Unplugged to publish this article, and while there were a handful of Shadow Collective players no one bucked the trend we’ve seen all year.  It’s no secret that Shadow Collective is the least played of the factions and it hasn’t won any major events in quite some time.  I think there are four major reasons for their low play rate and success rate. 

The first is most obvious, most players don’t own enough Shadow Collective units to build viable lists. Many players have one to two boxes to serve as mercenaries, but aren't interested in dropping the cash for more.  Few people are gonna buy into Legion to play an army that existed for maybe three episodes of Clone Wars before being dissolved in a comic.  Most units in the faction have never seen any live-action representation.  Pykes are neat, they look unique and they’ve gotten some decent live-action screen time, but the problem is that they’ve only appeared in shows that were received poorly by audiences (Solo and Book of Boba Fett).  Regardless of your personal opinions of those shows, they were unpopular.  Folks don’t wanna buy an army consisting of niche units from media that they’ve likely never seen that has no known characters.  Maul and Bossk have basically no live action lines and Cad Bane is merely a wild west archetype that appears after several rough episodes of Boba flashbacks. Most players don’t own enough Shadow Collective units because they aren’t iconic.  Furthermore, painting five or more units of Pykes is horrible.  Competitive Shadow Collective lists require a load of troopers and it’s exhausting to paint them.  My NOVA list had forty trooper models and I only enjoyed painting the first dozen before it became a chore.  

The second reason for the lack of representation is their limited archetypes.  The Independent keyword is thematic and gives the battleforce an entirely unique feel, but it also limits the types of lists you wanna build.  Good lists have an order pool that is largely comprised of corps because they are not only the best units you can take, but the more of them you bring the “cleaner” your order bag becomes.  This incentivises players to not mix it up with other units because a strategy game that relies on chance feels meaningless.  Despite the small size of the faction, it still manages to offer units of each type. You’ve got speeders, transports, special forces, range three corps, range two corps, bounty hunters and a force user.  However, there’s only one unit of each type and after you’ve played a few games you’ve seen all that unit has to offer.  If that unit isn’t good (and let’s be honest, half of the faction isn’t) then you’ll put it away and go back to what is.  

Thirdly, it’s kind of a dead end battleforce.  We’ve no expansions on the horizon, no hints about more and terrible prize support to boot.  Each time AMG releases a “Top #” alt art card it’s literally just the full size version of art that exists elsewhere.  Heck, every Worlds Open Qualifier promo card was new-to-Legion art except Maul.  It’s hard to incentivize players to play the niche faction when you’ve already released a Maul promo previously and you’re not offering anything new.  If they had at least offered Bossk or Cad Bane promos, folks would have played Shadow Collective just to utilize these cards elsewhere.  People play board games because they are fun, playing the same units over and over again isn’t fun when you’ve got no changes coming and nothing good on the line to fight for.  

We come then to the last reason for its commonality, it’s not fun to play against.  I try not to play Shadow Collective much in my local scene because I don’t want to burn out my friends by bringing a meta Pykeline all the time.  I do play the suboptimal units occasionally, but personally I’d rather play other suboptimal things in Republic (Fluttercrafts and Kenobi).  Playing against Independant:Dodge is tiresome and I believe players are correct in pointing out the power creep on the Pykes and Black Suns unit cards. Good sportsmanship requires you to not table your locals every week.  Playing against competitive Shadow Collective time and again is just as bad as playing against Blizzard Force or Exemplar clone balls.  It’s true that these units are downright better than the corps offered in Rebels and it feels bad to know your opponent brought six of them.  However, they are literally what is holding the battleforce together.  Any further nerfs to Pykes or Black Suns will cripple the faction and cut it off at its knees.  Corps units are literally the faction’s identity.  If they release new units to shake things up, then perhaps these units could get turned down a little.  But if AMG doesn’t and Pykes find themselves in the crosshairs again, expect this faction to be DOA.   

This concludes my ramblings and thoughts about the Shadow Collective.  I won’t discourage anyone from trying out the battleforce, but I would by no means tell a new player to buy into it.  Playing Shadow Collective is playing Legion with a subset of rules that wouldn’t help a new player learn the fundamentals.  If you’ve got a fifth or even sixth reason as to why the Shadow Collective isn’t popular I’d love to hear it in the comments below.  Or if you’ve placed well in a large event using an archetype outside of the three I listed above then I will gladly eat my words when provided proof.  I’d love to see something new in a faction that is chafing for originality.  

Be on the lookout for my Holochronicle on Gar Saxon listbuilding as well as another guest article on Wookiee Defenders written by our own Richard Lavery!   Until next time, thanks for reading!