I have been a squadron build based on a phantom and defender combo. It has worked well against my home group but I am wondering how it may fair against the wider world.

Here is the build:

Whisper (phantom) + VI + ACD

Onyx squadron (defender) + HLC

Academy (Tie) x2

I ran a phantom + defender list on VASSAL for a while. Went 7 - 4 (new decloak rules), but I don't think it would do as well in the new meta. Twin laser turrets and conner nets are going to make things even harder on a phantom I think.

My list was:

Whisper w/ VI, FCS, gunner & ACD = 44

Rexler w/ lone wolf, HLC, shield upgrade & ion pulse missiles = 53

I started with proton rockets, and only fired them once in 11 games (the first game in fact). I also tried it with Vessery and while I liked the slightly more reliable damage, it was nice having PS8 for dealing with Dash.

At the time, whisper was usually the ship that was last to die (in my losses) and I think Rexler died in most games, but under the new meta, I think more lists will have tools to deal damage to Whisper and foresee her struggling (especially based on my experiences at Gencon/US nationals---she died quite easily in all three of my losses and that has definitely coloured my perception of Whisper's capability at the moment).

The Defender is okay vs Twin Lasers thanks to being able to take 6 damage before dying, but will usually be rolling naked green dice vs those twin lasers, so will not last much longer than a phantom. For that reason, I don't feel the Defender is in a great place in the new meta neither. This is all based on my own experiences though, so YMMV of course.