One of the less talked-about aspects of the current meta has been the stratespheric rise in control builds. While attempts at Rebel Control have been tried since the original Y-Wing, the last three waves have seen a dramatic explosion in both power and viability, thanks to three common ship builds:

Tactician Blues: A B-Wing with Tactician in an E2 mod costs 25 points. Unlike prior attempts at control builds, this ship is able to maintain control through massive stress tokens while still dealing full damage. These stress tokens restrict movement options, and also reduce the defender's damage output while also increasing their damage taken through token deprivation.

Y-Wing with R3A2 and Ion Turret: Originally a lynchpin of the Panic Attack list, it offers 360-degree control while also giving a R1-R3 stress option against targets within your firing arc. The combination of depriving movement through ion tokens while depriving actions through stress makes it deadly.

Y-Wing with Ion Turret and BTL-A4 title (aka "Warthogs"): Much like the E2/Tactician gave the B-Wing control without losing damage output, the BTL-A4 title grants that same trait to the Y-Wing. It's available to both the Rebel and Scum & Villainy factions, who each have droids that can enhance the combo's effectiveness. Its only weakness is its reliance on the R1-R2 firing arc. The Rebel variant is especially potent, as it can combine R3A2 to deal double-stress at the cost of Ion coverage.

The most brutal element of these builds are that they all clock in at 25 points or less, making it fairly easy to build a 4-ship list with 32 health and redundant control options. Two or more Y-Wings can easily escort large ships off the board, while triple Tacticians can create overlapping fields of stress that can almost completely shut down a ship.

So how to counter it when it becomes strong in your meta?

1) Swarms. Ironically, the rise in the meta presents an opportunity for a resurgence from the original dominating build. Swarms don't care too much if you manage to lock down one or two of them, and the amount of red dice they throw at range 1 will quickly burn down a B-Wing or Y-Wing.

2) Predator. As control lists typically feature four PS2 pilots with one agility die, Predator offers you a lot more bang for the buck than it will against a high-PS meta. It does not care if you are stressed or not, which provides strong value.

3) Arc-dodging. Of somewhat questionable value. One of the strengths of the control list is the ability to overlap firing arcs, so a dodge out of one will put you into a control zone of another. However, you may find yourself with opportunities to put yourself in situations where only one ship will have a shot at you, at which point your high agility (because most arc-dodgers have 3 evades) will help you avoid an ion hit. Above all else, you need to ensure you do not get double-stressed. A double-stressed Soontir Fel will not survive against a control list. The ability to boost or barrel roll may still an Ioned ship if you can avoid stress, as you can adjust your facing to possibly avoid an escort off the board.

Anything I'm missing here?

Non-action modifiers in general.

Predator is an example, but many abound.

Wingman

I wanted to underscore the fact that against ions, Agility makes a huge difference. My Warthog is almost certainly going to hit your B-wing or Decimator, but against a TIE fighter it's a different story entirely.

I'd also add range control to the list of counters. It's the same tactics and techniques as arc-dodging, but with a different goal: staying at Range 3 negates Ion Cannon Turrets, and staying out of Range 2 negates Tactician.

I had great luck with an r3a2 title Goldie at last tournament. It's super-effective against Soontir, aggressors and other ptl-based ships, but I found it not overly effective against whisper. The number of places she can land with the same dial are just too dispersed to get her in that double-stress sweet spot.

Non-action modifiers in general.

Predator is an example, but many abound.

Wingman

Tycho. He's an arc-dodger, certainly, but even if he's caught in the open, he gobbles up the stress without slowing down.

Non-action modifiers in general.

Predator is an example, but many abound.

Wingman

Wingman is interesting, but I'm actually unsure how well it works as a counter. Since it works at the start of Combat, it doesn't help if you accrue multiple stress effects from Tactician. You'll still start the Activation phase stressed, so you still can't use red moves. For all intents, Tactician/stress is still dictating what you can do that round.

That round, yes.

Getting multiple stressors normally relegates you to performing that many green maneuvers before actioning.

Wingman + Green cancel out 2 per turn, mitigating the number of rounds you have to not be under fire from tactician to get your actions back

Multiple Wingmen cancel out even more, possibly matching the incoming stress.