Now that the YT-2400 upgrade cards are spoiled, the big question for me, as a phantom player, is whether VI or Lone Wolf is better for Echo/Whisper.

VI still helps you move later so you dodge arcs, but with the amount of 360 turret ships out there that can shoot before or move after Echo/Whisper (now adding Decimator and Outrider), Lone Wolf may be the savior and replacement for VI on a Phantom?

For 2 points, you get a mini TL (so FCS is not as required, but still nice to have) with focus when you do your R3 attacks on turret ships, and it's a cheaper and more controllable (conpared with Flight Instructor) ability (besides Ibitstam) that lets you reroll defense die.

What do all the phantom flyers out there think?

No. VI is about more than moving last. It's about shooting first. Lone Wolf would be absolutely horrible.

Sadly I don't think there's much incentive to take Lone Wolf over VI unless I know I've beat my opponent on PS or it's impossible to beat my opponents PS. Lone wolf looks like a good card but i think VI is going to remain the go-to EPT with phantoms

Phantoms are fairly locked in to VI for EPTs. There is a reason the basic pilots are 3 and 5, and the uniques at 6 and 7 with EPTs. This is because ACD is so important for Phantoms to operate at maximum power.

That said, Lone Wolf might be the best alternate. It fits the role of the ship and gives it an amazing increase in firepower. If you try to "tank up" a Phantom with Sensor Jammers and Rebel Captive or other effects, forgetting about ACD and take Stygian, then maybe this will be the appropriate EPT. Right now it is probably still better to go VI ACD route but we'll have to see what the future holds or if it fits a rogue build.

To be fair, just because the VI builds are the dominate builds now doesn't mean they will stay that way. Falcons and high PS list are seeing so much more play that the stigium might need a second look, and lone wolf added to the jammer might be a good counter for fewer ships that can go higher than your PS. More Enemy PS means fewer ships to shoot at you so the 2 extra permanent evade aren't as needed. Evade tokens and rerolling blanks would be enough against most high PS lists. Since lone wolf buffs offense and defense it is pretty good both ways. Not saying that the VI phantoms aren't the dominant type out there, but there may be a niche for this.

I think we would be seeing Stygian + Advanced Sensors if the latest ruling hadn't nerfed it. I understand why it makes sense rules wise but it pretty much shut down the only other viable phantom build we had and made the generics even more generic.

From the latest results the phantoms lost the PS war. Not only is there a hard counter to their manueverability but that hard counter can tie or out PS them with no difficulty or loss to their build.

No. VI is about more than moving last. It's about shooting first. Lone Wolf would be absolutely horrible.

Sadly I don't think there's much incentive to take Lone Wolf over VI unless I know I've beat my opponent on PS or it's impossible to beat my opponents PS. Lone wolf looks like a good card but i think VI is going to remain the go-to EPT with phantoms

True for all the phantoms except Echo. For Echo, unless I'm up against a turret ship, I care more about moving last so I can be out of arc for a safe shot rather than moving first. Against a turret ship, right now only Han (and Lando+VI, but I don't see those as often) threatens Echo if she doesn't shoot first, and in those cases, I just avoid the Falcon and go for the escorts while the rest of my army focus on the falcon.

I do agree that VI is probably the most important, as the few times I chose not to take VI, it was a tough guessing game to predict where the opponent was going to be. But I think Lone Wolf is definitely an EPT I will try out a few times with Echo just to see if it works. Maybe with Decoy on Vader or something.

Phantoms are fairly locked in to VI for EPTs. There is a reason the basic pilots are 3 and 5, and the uniques at 6 and 7 with EPTs. This is because ACD is so important for Phantoms to operate at maximum power.

That said, Lone Wolf might be the best alternate. It fits the role of the ship and gives it an amazing increase in firepower. If you try to "tank up" a Phantom with Sensor Jammers and Rebel Captive or other effects, forgetting about ACD and take Stygian, then maybe this will be the appropriate EPT. Right now it is probably still better to go VI ACD route but we'll have to see what the future holds or if it fits a rogue build.

That's an interesting thought to use it on a Stygium build. In that case, it would probably have to be Whisper since it's so important for Echo to have the ACD not as much for the agility dice (which I do not trust and never put much weight on) but for the ability to use the decloak every turn, now that we can no longer AdvSensor cloakl/decloak on the same turn.

I can absolutely see Whisper + Lone Wolf + Recon Specialist/Rebel Captive + ACD as a build. 2 dice with focus and Lone Wolf isn't as good as 4 dice with focus, but it will mean she effectively always has TL + focus for her attacks.

And against a ship that would have shot first anyway--PS9 with initiative, or anything with PS10-12--Lone Wolf is a huge boon to your defense.

Basically, I think it depends on your tolerance for risk, and on what's shooting at you. If you're up against a Han + Headhunters list, this build might be the way to go: Lone Wolf means the Headhunters are going to struggle even more to hit you through your cloak, and Han probably ignores your VI anyway. But if you're up against a list with Wes and Corran instead, you'll probably really regret not cloaking on PS9.

Basically, I think it depends on your tolerance for risk, and on what's shooting at you. If you're up against a Han + Headhunters list, this build might be the way to go: Lone Wolf means the Headhunters are going to struggle even more to hit you through your cloak, and Han probably ignores your VI anyway. But if you're up against a list with Wes and Corran instead, you'll probably really regret not cloaking on PS9.

Very true, but going against Wes, you're most likely going to be out of his arc if you guess correctly (unless you're me, where my Echo fell into "Wes the Stresser's" (VI+R3-A2+Flechette) trap TWICE and got killed - fool me twice, shame on me...).

Against Corran it'll be tough, but a Corran that can keep up with Whisper/Echo costs 40+, and since he doesn't have turret, just stay the hell away from him and focus on his escorts. Let the rest of your army deal with him. He's a LOT easier to kill than Han with C3PO and MF title.

The problem with Lone Wolf on Phantims is that, in the event that they find themselves within Range 2 of a friendly, you lose the ability.

In general I think not getting shot at all is preferable to re-rolling a die every attack. But Vorpal Sword paints a nice picture.