Here are my rankings. I would love to see everyone's thoughts on the wave 7 upgrades and what they see as the best, and what they see ending up in the back of the binder.

Top 5

1- Twin Laser Turret

2- Glitterstim

3- Connor Net

4- Extra munitions

5- Cluster Mines

Twin Laser Turrets, Conner net, Extra munitions, Alpha strike glitterstim (4 binayre w/ clusters and stim, + Ndru w/ clusters, stim, LoneWolf, and hull, or similar builds)... It all sounds good for the meta. But I can't help but be pessimistic and think it may all still fall short of making players look the other way to the advantage 2 ship builds have in MoV. I really hope I am wrong though and the wave shifts everything.

Twin Laser Turrets may be the upgrade most powerful from this wave, so much so that it could be "meta defining", and ships that run it may become just as hated as their Fatter, bigger turreted kin . I believe better players will find ways to deal with it, as is the usual case with cards which have a glaring weak spot.

Cluster Mines barely makes the top 5 over Bossk crew. While it's only 1 out of 8 on the die, not getting those crits rolled really makes Cluster Mines a head scratcher when you are thinking of taking it. Used with Deathrain w/ advanced sensors though, I've seen some pretty nasty usage. Drop in front- IG moves on top and bumps into Deathrain, rolls 6, 3 hits. Adv sensors next turn, drop the next set, IG rolls 6, 2 hits. Now only 3 hull to deal with on the nasty.

Middle 5- Time will tell

6- Bossk crew

7- Advanced SLAM

8- Twin Ion Engine Mk. II

9- Hound's Tooth title

10- Bombardier

This middle group of upgrades is a little harder to determine how useful they will be. I'm pretty high on Bossk crew, as it seems to be a better version of Luke crew when combined w/ gunner for the same cost (though 2 crew slots), especially on turns you are stressed. With future waves it may even find a niche without gunner on ships with crew, 2+ agility (so the focus is beneficial on defense) and more greens then the Firespray offers currently.

Adv SLAM sounds good in theory, but not sure there will be many people out there who will put in the time to really get it down and make it as effective as possible. The "move, move, drop bomb" idea is sweet though.

Engine is kind of boring to me, and not enough to really "fix" the defender, but it's a 1 point mod which will fit nicely to fill out tie heavy lists if there is nothing better or needed for the list.

Late game z-95 seems... I don't know? I feel like Hound's tooth title is being slept on a bit. For some reason 1 extra late game Z just doesn't excite much. It's probably better then it feels though. Really need to see this one on the table to figure out how good it really is.

Bombardier is cheap crew, and with ordinance carriers getting loaded up a bit heavier now for cheaper thanks to extra munitions, tossing 1 more point to drop a bomb further back isn't a bad deal. The ships that want to do that the most though, the y-wing and the Tie Bomber, who can drop bombs in a swarm, don't have the crew slot unfortunately.

The rest of the stuff- Hard to get behind

11- Lightning Reflexes

12- Ion Bomb

13- Crack Shot

14- Adv. Homing Missiles

15- Maneuvering Fins

16- Plasma Torpedoes

17- Ion Projector

While new ordinance is always fun to try out when it first comes out, pretty sure the likes of adv homing missiles and plasma torps will find little play in competitive tourney lists, although I would love to be wrong here as well. The same sentiment goes for the new Elite pilot talents. When you have the options of Push the Limit, Predator, Veteran instincts, and others in the slot, Lightning Reflexes and Crack Shot just seem too situational to make the cut. Perhaps with unnamed pilots with EPTs they can find a spot, as you wont want to sink an extra 2 or so points into the ship for Predator or Push The Limit. Even then, Reflexes will compete with Adrenaline Rush (maneuvering benefit) and Crack Shot with Calculation (attacking benefit) for the spot.

Navigator and Stay on Target, which are open to a much wider selection of ships, and which have similar "change your maneuver" effects to Maneuvering Fins, don't see much use. Even as a ship specific upgrade, not sure I believe we will see it much outside of the occasional combo with intel agent.

I might have bumped up Ion Projector if it gave 2 ions. Ion and a damage would've been really nice, but wasn't going to happen at the 2 point cost with the existence of Anti-pursuit lasers. With a list with Anti-pursuit lasers winning Nationals, maybe we are ALL (except the winner of nationals apparently) sleeping on this type of in game effect? With a game with enough dice rolls already, it's tough to play an upgrade card which places yet another portion of the game up to a dice roll. If anyone has got a list that uses this well, I would love to see it.

So how do you rank Wave 7 upgrades?

I'll rank the ones I'm most excited to use, but I've lost my competitive edge this year, so I'm not guaranteeing these are necessarily the best.

1) Extra Munitions. I have SO many squads with ships that double up on ordnance, and this may be the bit that pushes them into the "actually dangerous" category.

2) Twin Ion Engine Mk. II. I fell in love with the TIE defender generics, and this is both a great boon to their dial, and a reason to try out 3 Onyx Sq. Pilots.

3) Adv. Homing Missiles. I don't think these are a panacea against fat turrets. However, in a recent game against Miranda, it became challenging to get my damage to stick thanks to her ability to regenerate shields. Some early Adv. Homing Missiles could make it much easier to take her out in end game (or just before end game); when you finally break through the shields and land a damage, these missiles will make it more likely to finish her off. That range restriction though...

I think lightning reflexes could be useful for Hound's Tooth as it otherwise would not have any "turn-around" maneuvers.

Also, with Twin Laser Turret + BTL Y-Wing title, can I attack thrice in a turn? (Once regularly and twice with the twin laser turret) If so, that's crazy.

I'll let you know when they're actually on the table.

I think lightning reflexes could be useful for Hound's Tooth as it otherwise would not have any "turn-around" maneuvers.

Small Ship Only :-\

Here's my list in order

The strong cards:

Twin Laser Turret - the hype is real

Connor Net - Prox mines are good, Connor Nets are even better

Extra munitions - a lot of value for 2 points

Glitterstim -Inertial dampeners finally have some competition

Ion Projector - this is going to be really strong on Oicunn especially with Palpatine support.

Bossk crew - good with gunner on the YV

Situational Cards:

Advanced SLAM - too early to tell on this card, but seems okay

Lightning Reflexes

Crack Shot -both of these are solid 1pt epts, but it's hard to not just bring predator/lone wolf/ptl.

Adv. Homing Missiles - only really good on Blunt and Rhymer

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II

The Bad Cards:

Ion Bomb - few people run seismics and this seems even more situational

Hound's Tooth title - too slow

Maneuvering Fins - expensive YVs want engine, and cheap YVs probably don't want to spend the extra point when it does so little

Plasma Torpedoes - doesn't do enough to be worth running

Cluster Mines -too little damage and too easy to miss with one of the clusters

Bombardier - crew slots are valuable and this guy does very little

I think lightning reflexes could be useful for Hound's Tooth as it otherwise would not have any "turn-around" maneuvers.

Small Ship Only :-\

That's too bad. So, that would leave Hound's Tooth with no way of getting to "turn-around" except for maybe 2 banking maneuvers in a row + boost?

I think lightning reflexes could be useful for Hound's Tooth as it otherwise would not have any "turn-around" maneuvers.

Small Ship Only :-\

That's too bad. So, that would leave Hound's Tooth with no way of getting to "turn-around" except for maybe 2 banking maneuvers in a row + boost?

YV-666 doesnt have it nearly as bad as the Lambda. Also, the HWK and the K-wing both have no turn around maneuvers.

I tried out Crack Shot about a week and a half ago and it made all the difference for my Kihraxz in blowing up an A-Wing. It's a very nice card against tough-to-crack high-agility ships. Also probably is useful against Fat Falcons and Decimators running Ysanne. It's too bad it's a one-time-use card, but I guess then it would be worth more than 1 point.

In no particular order, the top 5 cards I expect to have the most long-term impact on the meta:

Twin Laser Turrets

After the initial hype it'll remain the go-to turret of choice.

TIE mk II

A dirt cheap upgrade that affects 8 out of 11 Imperial ships and allows Defenders to move, and it gives them and top Bombers and TIE Fighters access to PtL with easy stress relief.

Extra Munitions

With the new influx of mines and bombs having two for the price of one is very, very nice. Not enough to fix missiles and torpedoes (still too costly in ways of action economy), but it's a step in the right direction.

Crackshot

So, that evade token you were saving up, you going to use it Goldenrod? No? Okay. Hello Isard, allow me to take that token away from you, thank you!.

I can see this as an insurance against PWT's. Fill up a swarm of 5 BSP's and PtL Howlrunner mkII and go to town.

Advanced Homing Missiles

Dealing a face up damage, bypassing shields is just too good to not make a showing.

Conner Nets single-handedly take a big blue dump on the 2-ship meta. They are a death sentence to every vader/soonts/corran, a kick in the balls to every non-PWT fat ship, and at least something for PWTs to watch out for

Extra munis are conners for half price

everything else is irrelevant, but TLT is pretty nice for slapping fatties upside the head even tangos decently with Dash, turns out

the rest could probably be Stim's hilarious action economy (one-shot like ordnance, but actually useful!) and Plasma Torps for decently priced punch, which are currently only usable with redline, but once the jumpmaster comes out...

I can see this as an insurance against PWT's. Fill up a swarm of 5 BSP's and PtL Howlrunner mkII and go to town.

I'm going with:

Maarek+x1+ATC+Calculation+AdvHomMis+TIEMk2

4x BSP+Crack Shot

I think lightning reflexes could be useful for Hound's Tooth as it otherwise would not have any "turn-around" maneuvers.

Small Ship Only :-\

That's too bad. So, that would leave Hound's Tooth with no way of getting to "turn-around" except for maybe 2 banking maneuvers in a row + boost?

It does have a white 3 turn, but yes, it takestat least2 turns to about face.

Looks like K-Wing will be very useful, as it comes with the Twin Laser Turret, Connor Nets, and Extra Munitions.

Twin Ion Engine mk II, Twin laser cannons and extra munitions are going to be the only cards that will make a large enough impact on the game from what i can see

everything else will have its situational uses and i don't expect them to be meta changing

not sure how a couple more greens are supposed to compare to RAID traps that kill Soontirs instead of cockroaches

I think lightning reflexes could be useful for Hound's Tooth as it otherwise would not have any "turn-around" maneuvers.

Small Ship Only :-\

That's too bad. So, that would leave Hound's Tooth with no way of getting to "turn-around" except for maybe 2 banking maneuvers in a row + boost?

3-turn + Daredevil + Engine Upgrade equipped? A bit overkill, but it'll turn you around.

I think lightning reflexes could be useful for Hound's Tooth as it otherwise would not have any "turn-around" maneuvers.

Small Ship Only :-\

That's too bad. So, that would leave Hound's Tooth with no way of getting to "turn-around" except for maybe 2 banking maneuvers in a row + boost?

It does have a white 3 turn, but yes, it takestat least2 turns to about face.

At least it can get back to shooting again after one turn, unlike the shuttle.