Adepticon: A Shatterpoint Preview

For Atomic Mass Games, winter break is a time of rest and recovery. Shatterpoint players around the world wait with bated breath for the next release and major event. Adepticon is the kick off to multiple games starting their competitive season and a teaser for new and exciting models to play with. There are a plethora of things we are hoping for as a community and we should expect to receive however, not everything is guaranteed. Go into the release notes with low expectations and you will leave excited! Adepticon certainly deserves its own recognition. If you have yet to travel to a large-scale event, you should seriously consider this one which is now called “Worlds”. No, the Shatterpoint event at Adepticon is not a collection of all the best players in the world but it certainly holds the top echelon of players in North America! There were even a few standout players from across the sea such as Matt Bronson from Norway who placed 2nd overall last year. The simple fact is that Adepticon is the event of the year for AMG fans and we want YOU to be prepared! The first thing on our list is to check out the schedule.

Throughout the entire week we have multiple small pod events such as the Battle on the Sand Sneak Peak which shows off a new 4 player free for all mode. There are also Key Operations and Legendary Encounters events and all of these will likely give excellent prize support with minimal commitment. Each day will also have one major event you can sign up for that will likely eat up most of your time. Here are the options!

Thursday - Team Premiere
Friday - Worlds Championship Qualifier
Saturday - Worlds Top 64 and Standard Premiere
Sunday - Worlds Top 8 and Adversaries to Allies

Some of these events might seem unusual to you and if you want to know more information, check out the events list here.

As for the Championship Qualifier, this is a 128 person event where half will make it to day 2 and the top 64! Your goal on Friday really is to just do better than about half the player base and that’s an easily achievable goal! There will be a handful of Grand Tournament winners that are already qualified for Day 2 which just makes the path to winning day 1 even easier. This year feels much more accessible for newer players to get in there and reach new accomplishments. But even if you don’t make it, there is a full premiere event on Saturday to still give you plenty of gaming over the weekend. But in order to win Day 2, you will need to bring your “A” game and consider the dreaded Meta. We should start by crunching some numbers and figuring out what the dangerous models are based on previous events. We are going to take a few liberties here as there were a large collection of events last year and some new releases plus balance changes during the middle of the competitive season. This means what won at the start of the 2025 competitive season shouldn’t really impact what won at Cancon in January. It would take a while to consider each of them as a whole so instead, we have picked out the following events to compare.

The first stat we want to look at is simply, “who's winning?” Cassian is the clear favorite and seems to get paired with a variety of other models. Jyn Erso and Princess Leia, Charming to the Last are the most common but you should expect to see The Mandalorian and Kanan from time to time. Let’s be real here, The Mandalorian is an easy addition to most lists. He is tag friendly to most of the stronger models, has a universal identity, and diceless displacement. If you are ever unsure what model to add to your premiere, the Mandalorian should always be considered. Another winning model looks to be Ki-Adi Mundi who was paired with Mace Windu, Anikan, Obi Wan, and Darth Vader, Jedi Hunter. This is just a versatile model who can help elevate any other Galactic Republic Jedi. There was a single Boss winner as well out of the list we pulled, but we will get to the Delta Squad soon since they came into the competitive scene a bit later. Next, we need to look at the most consistent Top 8.

The most played primaries in top 8 are in order: Cassian, Ki-Aid Mundi, Obi Wan, Boss, Princess Leia, Charming, and Hunter. All of these primaries were played over 16 times at top 8 events and have some very obvious pairings between them. There were some noticeable shoutouts with Kanan, Mando, and Jyn, who also all pair well with Cassian and each having between 10 to 13 plays. Empire had a poor showing overall with Vader 1 only gaining a little help thanks to his Galactic Republic tag allowing for some fun Ki-Adi Mundi pairings. Now that we have our data, let's look at the meta predictions for 2026 Worlds in Adepticon! 1.) Cassian + Princess Leia Charming

Why does this list work?

At this point, Shatterpoint players are likely aware of what a “revenge” list looks like but in case you aren’t, these lists take advantage of wound triggers to slow your opponent down. The name of the game is to score points and wounded models don’t score points. Wow! But what if wounding a model moves another model that isn’t wounded onto the point? Cassian is a mess of a model to deal with and will punish you for not paying attention to what he has going on.

What should you look out for?

The biggest thing to look out for is lockdown and tiebreaker models. Lockdown works at any elevation so if K-2SO gets pushed onto a point you thought you were flipping, then it doesn’t matter HOW many models you have or what elevation he is on. You will not get that point.

Princess Leia can also get pushed across the map to shoot nearly anyone with her revenge trigger so don’t assume you are safe from her.

What is it weak against?

When dealing with any list that likes to move other models, your best friend is the ARF trooper style of attacks with a pin/push on 2 successes. Don’t stress about the wounding until later in the game. Instead, do what you can to keep them off point!

2.) Obi Wan + Boss

Why does it work?

Obi Wan has always been a high skill cap character with a unique gimmick. If you attack his units with a hunker token, they will heal and dash afterwards. This makes an Obi list obnoxiously difficult to deal with but at least they didn’t hit very hard. Right? Insert Boss and the Delta Squad who LOVE having hunker on them and will easily punch your face in. This list is both offense AND defense now so be prepared to see it!

What should you look out for?

If you don’t know how to play against Obi Wan, then make sure you pay attention to what models have hunkers and don’t get distracted. It will be easy to think you can handle a situation but then forget that they will just pop back on point. Clone Commandos have scale too so pushing them off elevation simply won’t be enough. Boss has moves like Jager and will double reposition across the field before killing whatever he glares at, especially supports. Don’t leave your models at less than 2 health or else he can just bomb that point and get an easy force refresh.

What is it weak against?

Fortunately, all Obi lists are weak vs a simple concept and that's damage. If you can climb over their defenses, then the dash doesn’t matter much. This isn’t as easy as it used to be since Sev and Scorch have crit mitigation and the Clone Commandos have decent defensive expertise. Not to mention, both units have protection and steadfast!

There are still some strong aggro teams that don’t give a crap about all that defensive tech and will just blast them anyways. I’m especially looking at Crosshair or other models that ignore hunker and can potentially strip it away. Shout out to force push too since it’s a way to displace without attacking!

WakeDrannor: This is indeed a good strategy. I'm a longtime Obi-Wan enjoyer, and he and his models really don't love being hit with diceless displacement- it gets around the steadfast many of them get from being Hunkered AND his identity.

Though I'm loathe to undercut my man Obi-Wan, I should point out that one thing we Obi-stans love is when people think they can go over the top of our defensive tech and then fail to do so. The list has a surprising amount of healing/recovers available to it if you want (Obi, Rex, Fixer, and Boss all have recover abilities or results on their trees, and even Sev and Scorch can hit a recover 2 if they full tree, though they sacrifice a little offensive power if they take that branch). The last thing you want to do is waste an activation only to see your hard work undone. Going over the top with violence is a strong counter to Obi-Wan, but don't take the shot unless you're sure you can get there!

3.) Ki-Adi Mundi + Anakin

Why does it work?

Speaking of force push with a killy list… Ki-Adi has been a strong contender all year for number 1 primary simply because he gives Jedi such a massive boon. Every wound now lets them heal and dash in addition to the force reduction he offers if units start getting wounded around them. This makes models like Anakin able to attack twice for potentially only 1 force. You don’t want Anakin attacking you twice. It doesn’t really matter what model you are. Out of the three lists to be worried about, this has the most kill potential but it doesn’t need to rely on that. Force push and force repulse are strong options to keep people off point. Yes I’m assuming that where Ki-Adi Mundi is, Shaak Ti isn’t far behind.

What should you look out for?

The main trick to playing against this list is to be aware of what Anakin can reach. ARF troopers can easily offer Supporting Fire: Dash to Anakin with his ranged attack and then suddenly he is in your face for the second punch. Every wound Anakin does will dash several models and potentially give extra points. You have to play cautiously around the chosen one.

What is it weak against?

Never Tell Me the Odds and First Contact are wide spread scenarios that punish slower lists. Ki-Adi only really has access to a single dash on his turn and is limited in what models he can dash with his tactic. If you want to punish slow melee lists, then play on one of those two missions. Revenge lists could also punish a greedy kill team, especially if they are melee focused and can’t keep up with the mobility that someone like Cassian offers. That being said, while Cassian doesn’t mind the Anakin parts of a Ki-Adi list, he could struggle vs the force push and pin option that Ki-Adi and something like ARF troopers can provide.

WakeDrannor: Wounding Anakin is also a pretty viable counter here; while Ki-Adi-Mundi helps to mitigate Anakin's force costs to some degree with his identity, Anakin's overall effectiveness can be seriously hampered by increasing the cost of his abilities.

4) Hunter and Boss

Why does it work?

WakeDrannor: Pure, unmitigated aggression. This is a list that can get up the table very fast and hit very hard. Delta Squad does Delta things (zipping around and piling on damage) and Hunter fixes dice for your Clone Troopers (i.e. everybody). Even the not-Delta parts of this list punch above their weight class because of Fixer's String 'Em Along and We'll Mop 'Em Up. Finally, if the player is running the Wolffe variant of the list, it cancels out crit mitigation effects, which brutally changes the defensive math for some units. If you see this in a premiere list and have squads in your own list that rely on mitigation to stay alive, I would not put them on the table against this list unless they're spectacular into it for other reasons.

What should you look out for?

WakeDrannor: This is a list that generally goes where it wants and hits who it wants. It can be very hard to protect your models from its output. However, it does have a few weaknesses- it's not a great defensive list, for example. If you can hit back and not fall too far behind on aggression, you can start stacking up wounds that will hamper the list's ability to function. You're also probably going to get a lot of revenge triggers while playing against this, if that's your game, but are also unlikely to have as many effective models to take advantage of them as you'd like (as your stuff is going to be wounded!)

What is it weak against?

WakeDrannor: Delta Squad's primary weakness is losing efficiency from being wounded. Fixer is a high priority target if you can find a way to put high quality attacks into him- making Forming Up, Sir and String 'Em Along cost Force (instead of being free) is a big help, and as he's a tiebreaker, you don't want him slinking along to tip points, either. Do watch out for the fact that he's surprisingly resilient to low-quality attacks, however- his defensive expertise is very good for a clone (2 blocks and a crit to hit on 2+).

Let’s wrap up this article with a couple of new release predictions! Baylan Skoll and Morgan Elsbeth have been teased for a while and we know they will get released soon. It is unfortunate they aren’t out before Adepticon but I think it’s safe to say you can pick them up at the event! Last year, Cassian was released there but unable to be played in the main. There will be an exciting new 4 player free for all variant tested at Adepticon which could mean a release this year! Who doesn’t want a new way to play your favorite game? We have already been teased on some Naboo based models but the biggest hope of all is for droidekas to finally make an appearance. If Qui Gon and the Naboo security force is going to show up, why not put out the trade federations bread and butter? Besides, the Separatists could use an extra hand in their build options.

Final Thoughts

At this point, we have all seen the news on Shatterpoint from AMG. This game is taking a backseat to MCP and Legion. It's important to consider what a miniatures game means to you in moments like these. We shouldn't jump to mob mentality and start doom saying about the end of the game. There are a plethora of miniatures games out there that are no longer supported and still seem to find life in their communities.

Do you enjoy playing this skirmish game? Then don't stress about what AMG is doing right now. They will still release new models and still host events for us to play in.

Come to Adepticon. See for yourself why this event is so great. Be the World Champion of a beautifully made game.

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Tags: competitive | Meta Analysis | star wars | prediction | Star War Shatterpoint