Alot of people i know, keep mentioning a powerful stress list for the rebels, so what is this list? How does it keep up against current meta?

Could be anything I like 5 gold with flechette

Stress can interrupt allot of action focused squadrons (like ones with Tie Phantoms)

If you control or remove your opponent's ability to take actions you get an advantage. It is the same thing which makes Tie Swarms powerful. IT is hard to get all 6 ships all bunched around howl runner, so 3 ships are kept close as the damage dealer while the other 3 academy pilots speed ahead and block opposing ships thus denying them actions.