Last night, my buddy and I were dicking around with the new Rebel Aces stuff, and we both built similar squads using Keyan + Jake + Other Ship. His list used PTL on Keyan and Jake, and Super-Tycho with PtL and Daredevil, obviously among other upgrades spread throughout the squad. Mine focused a bit more on synergy:

Keyan Farlander

-Push the Limit

-B-wing E/2

-Jan Ors

Jake Farrel

-A-Wing Test Pilot

-Predator

-Outmaneuver

-Proton Rockets

Kyle Katarn

-Recon Specialist

-Moldy Crow

-Ion Cannon Turret

Keyan was a lone operative, each turn target locking and/or barrel rolling and/or focusing evading to gain a stress, then shedding the stress on the attack. Jake, meanwhile, would borrow Kyle's focus token and focus himself to get 2 tokens, a boost, and a barrel roll each turn, using predator for re-rolls and outmaneuver to drop the opponent's defenses. Kyle does what he does best, passing out focus tokens to the team and controlling the board.

Obviously, no plan meets contact with the enemy, and Kyle didn't fire a single shot, dying in the first round of combat, but I traded him for my opponent's Jake. My Jake and Keyan tried to get eyes on Tycho for a moment, but quickly gave that up in favor of easier shots on Keyan. The trap worked, and as soon as it looked like I was ignoring Tycho, he flew into range 1 of Keyan and got blasted. That left Keyan vs my Keyan and Jake, and a proton rocket to his face dealing 6 damage (4 hits and a double-damage crit with no green dice to save him) spelt Keyan's end.

This isn't a battle report though, this is a list building thread. Here's what worked well in the list:

Keyan can basically K-turn like a defender, flipping a 2k every turn so long as he keeps having a target, This allows him to flip around opposing B-wings much easier than they can follow him. On turns he doesn't do that, getting to target lock and evade (while still spending a focus on the attack) was terrifying. Evade tokens make B-wings much beefier, and I think for 4 points Jan on a B-wing will become a staple for me, especially on ships that don't need their focus token or can get one from elsewhere.

Jake is a maneuverable monster, and his single 5-dice shot is a thing of beauty if you wait for opportunist to kick in. With the focus from Kyle, it's possible for him to boost and barrel roll, slinging a focus on his attack and still having one for defense. The Jan Ors being nearby to allow Jake to take a focus action for the free boost/roll while ending up with an evade token at the end of the action was also pretty nifty to use.

Kyle... well, he didn't do anything but let Jake rapidly re-position in the first round of combat and get shots on Jake instead of pointing off into where I thought Tycho was going to be. The ICT would be beneficial, if it had shot, but that's the risk of taking a relatively middling pilot skill guy in this meta.

Clearly, the squad has a couple of issues:

High-PS phantoms would take it apart pretty easily, as I've only got a single 5-dice shot and otherwise only a 3-dice primary and a 2-dice primary as my damage dealing. Falcons might be dangerous to deal with, but if Jake can get out of arc and into range 1, and survive the shot (a focus/evade swap from Kyle and Jan can help with that) he can plant an unanswerable 4-5 damage on the thing, which is a good headstart for Keyan to work down.

Low total attack value is probably the squad's biggest issue, and dropping the ICT for a blaster turret might be a good answer. That'll also give me a single point to use for vet instincts on Kyle, bumping him to an 8.

Any advice / changes anyone would make to this?