98 points

PILOTS

“Whisper” (42)
TIE Phantom (32), Recon Specialist (3), Fire-Control System (2), Veteran Instincts (1), Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

Backstabber (16)

Dark Curse (16)

Academy Pilot (12) x 2

And yes I am aware of the Phantom cloak changes

would have preferred to see howlrunner if youre going for 98 init bid, which isnt useful anymore cuz PS9 Phantom vs Phantom isnt that common anyhow.

So. no at this point, this build isn;t preferable to Whisper 5tie.

I actually like it. I have played against a similar Whisper with the post-"nerf" rules and find it to still an effective ship. As long as you can cloak, the phantom is still a tough ship to hit. You just need to take more care in flying to so you have a target for the attack for ACD to trigger.

Regarding the TIEs - hopefully the PS6 plus special abilities of Backstabber and Dark Curse and a Recon outweigh the benefits of having 1 less TIE, as suggested by Blail Blerg. If the 2 (or 3 with damage) focus tokens is important to you, Recon is a good choice. As alternatives, I would consider Rebel Captive or Mara Jade for some stress options.

I was thinking maybe Mara...Howl with swarm and 3 ACs. Just not sure how that might fair in the meta at the store I play at. There are a lot of PS 10 players