I think it's fine for "competitive casual", except for the fact taht you are at 96pts for some reason. Go for at least 99. There is really no reason not to. Consider sticking Veteran Instincts on Echo. If you do that, it can make sense to put an Advanced Cloaking Device on Echo, though that is far from a requirement.

Lower point cost means he shoots first in the event of equal pilot skills. It's in the squadron building rules. There's a lot of PS4 B-Wings in Rebel these days. (He moves first as well but it's debatable whether or not that's bad).

That's not quite right. Lower point cost total for his squad means he gets to choose who has initiative for the game. In the event of a tied point cost, it's a coin flip to determine who chooses who has initiative. The player with initiative both moves and shoots first, which with a Phantom is a toss up as to which you want: moving and shooting first means you don't know where an equal-skilled pilot is, but get to re-activate cloak before he shoots, whereas moving and shooting after equal pilots means you don't have cloaking for same-skill shots, but know exactly where your opponent's ship is before de-cloaking. I think the second might be the more powerful benefit, TBH, and would probably choose that way in the event I am able to

I think it's fine for "competitive casual", except for the fact taht you are at 96pts for some reason. Go for at least 99. There is really no reason not to. Consider sticking Veteran Instincts on Echo. If you do that, it can make sense to put an Advanced Cloaking Device on Echo, though that is far from a requirement.

Lower point cost means he shoots first in the event of equal pilot skills. It's in the squadron building rules. There's a lot of PS4 B-Wings in Rebel these days. (He moves first as well but it's debatable whether or not that's bad).

That's not quite right. Lower point cost total for his squad means he gets to choose who has initiative for the game. In the event of a tied point cost, it's a coin flip to determine who chooses who has initiative. The player with initiative both moves and shoots first, which with a Phantom is a toss up as to which you want: moving and shooting first means you don't know where an equal-skilled pilot is, but get to re-activate cloak before he shoots, whereas moving and shooting after equal pilots means you don't have cloaking for same-skill shots, but know exactly where your opponent's ship is before de-cloaking. I think the second might be the more powerful benefit, TBH, and would probably choose that way in the event I am able to

It's correct in standard rules. In tournament rules the lowest cost gets to choose who has it. In standard rules, the lowest cost has it.

Proton rocket swarms are one time where I can see moving first to be an advantage. Bumping your target is really bad when you need range 1 to attack.

I think it's fine for "competitive casual", except for the fact taht you are at 96pts for some reason. Go for at least 99. There is really no reason not to. Consider sticking Veteran Instincts on Echo. If you do that, it can make sense to put an Advanced Cloaking Device on Echo, though that is far from a requirement.

Lower point cost means he shoots first in the event of equal pilot skills. It's in the squadron building rules. There's a lot of PS4 B-Wings in Rebel these days. (He moves first as well but it's debatable whether or not that's bad).

That's not quite right. Lower point cost total for his squad means he gets to choose who has initiative for the game. In the event of a tied point cost, it's a coin flip to determine who chooses who has initiative. The player with initiative both moves and shoots first, which with a Phantom is a toss up as to which you want: moving and shooting first means you don't know where an equal-skilled pilot is, but get to re-activate cloak before he shoots, whereas moving and shooting after equal pilots means you don't have cloaking for same-skill shots, but know exactly where your opponent's ship is before de-cloaking. I think the second might be the more powerful benefit, TBH, and would probably choose that way in the event I am able to

It's correct in standard rules. In tournament rules the lowest cost gets to choose who has it. In standard rules, the lowest cost has it.

Proton rocket swarms are one time where I can see moving first to be an advantage. Bumping your target is really bad when you need range 1 to attack.

True, but that being said, it's a portion of the standard rules that is seriously out of date. Originally they thought initiative was good, but later they realized it wasn't. There are plenty of lists that don't want initiative, and I know for me, the Phantom is one of them (though it's close, I typically prefer maneuvering advantage to shooting advantage).

But really, letting the person with the lowest total choose initiative is something most people should do even in casual games.