Patrol Leader + Gunner + Vader + Engine Upgrade, 4x Academy Pilot

By ParaGoomba Slayer, in X-Wing Squad Lists

Maybe. I don't imagine that you'd be able to kill a Poe with it though.

Why not?

Lets take 'worst case scenario'---Black squad dies before he gets to shoot. 2 Omegas shoot at poe and thanks to crack, each knock off a shield. PL shoots but shot is evaded (spend your TL to make sure if you have to!). Vader knocks off the last shield. Gunner kicks in and you shoot again. Probably deal 1 damage and Vader for a crit. That's the worst case scenario and Poe is left on 1 hull. Its much more likely that black won't be dead outright, and that between your Ties, you will at least knock off all shields, and between Vader and gunner, Patrol leader is likely to take out 3 hull...

I tabled a very similar list with my Bossk + Khiraxz x2 list (back when I was using TBC with it!). Glitterstim let me basically shrug off everything the TIEs threw at it, meaning Vader couldn't fire until my shields were down without ripping himself apart (he went for TBC, naturally). Focus fired the Deci in the first turn of shooting, next turn I had TBC ram right into the Deci's path so Vader couldn't be used on him, and soon Vadermobile was destroyed and the TIEs on their own were easily cleaned up, especially once Howlrunner bit it (like I said, slightly different list).

And while it'll work against Soontir, I see this list struggling against a lot of builds. Your Decimator is basically doomed, and your TIEs fire after the Decimator which means against some squads you'll have to be dealing with shields for one or two critical turns where the Decimator is almost certainly being targeted first. I'd strip the Decimator of a few upgrades and upgrade your TIEs to more imposing pilots.