Sa'Vasku help?

OK, I've just started tinkering with Sa'Vasku. My primary fleet is 
still FSE, but I wanted something different, and Phalon just 
seemed too similar to FSE, and Kra'Vak had already been 'picked' 
by someone in our group.

So I played the Sa'Vasku at the 20% less I have seen suggested 
everywhere, and I just got hammered. I don't mean lost after a hard 
fought fight, I mean hammered. And I'm just curious how people 
managed to do so well, that it justified the 20% penalty.

Granted, the ability for Frigates to fire out to 36" is not bad in the 
slightest, but when the SDN gets a maximum of 8 dice (only 6 
forward), up against a Maria von Burgand that can get 21 Dice, the 
numbers seem to just deteriorate. I originally thought that Stinger 
nodes could fire multiple dice, but the rules seem to actually 
dispute that.

As we play on a 72x72 MU table (our forays into using cm as the 
MU failed), is there anything anyone can suggest to make me want 
to put Sa'Vasku back on the table? Either Sa'Vasku players who 
know what to do to win, or other players who know what not to do 
to lose (seeing that perspective might help too).

Morgan Vening