First of all hi! My name is Deathrain and I have been lurking here for a very long time. I am pretty active in the BGG X-Wing forum as FreeBird. My X-Wing carrier started shortly after the release of wave 4 and so far I played in 3 tournaments placing 2/8, 5/6 and 3/20. I collect and play all factions.

So I finally registered on the forums because I have an upcomming tournament on the 3rd of October and I am a bit confused about the post wave 7 meta. So far 11 imperial, 3 rebel and 6 Scum and Villainy players have registered, me being one of the Imps. My first try at a list looks like this:

Echo [VI, Sensor Jammers, Recon Specialist, ACD] 42

Deathrain [Enhanced Scopes, EM, Conner Net, Cluster Mines] 37

Scimitar Squadron Pilot [EM, Proximity Mines] 21

I might go for IA instead of Rec Spec on Echo or downgrade Deathrains Cluster Mines to Proximity Mines for 1 or 2 points of initiative bid, just in case of other Enhanced Scopes users who want to take my advantage away. But I am not sure about that. I also have some sidegrades from this build, one with Whisper, one with a Doomshuttle instead of the Bomber, but so far I like this one the best.

So what do you think? Is the bad wolf TLT real enough to justify Jammers? What are the likely squads to give me headaches apart from that? I would very much appreciate your feedback. Have a nice day!

Sensor Jammers are great on Phantoms irrespective of whether you're scared of the TLT, as they improve your defenses against anyone running a high-penetration list against you (lTLT, Autoblasters, HLC + Opportunist, et c.).

I love Deathrain with ES, but it would've been funnier if you had said "Me [Enhanced Scopes,....". It's also a fairly trim set-up.

One thing I will say: Practice the f[buy some Apples!] out of the list.
Mines are a natural counter to Phantoms, and typically don't care who brought them along. Echo in particular seems to want to commit suicide thusly until you have enough badges to train her.

If you're in a position where you're decloaking and can't remember where you'll be maneuvering, and there is a Mine there, you may be handing 45 points of "Oops" to your opponent.

Make sure that doesn't happen, and you've got a terror here.

I specifically went for a Phantom to soft counter mines, since they, especially Echo, can now avoid being easily hit. I played a lot of "Victory is mined", so I am capable of hitting people with mines (making someone say Bombers seem a bit OP to him made my heart warm). I did play a bit of old Echo, but that is were I, too, would locate the highest need for practice. Luckily I have a lot of matches upcomming.

Deathrain the Pilot and Deathrain me obviously are not the same person, what would an admiral do in a flying munitions dump?

I would keep the list as is. Intel Agent is useful, but TLT is real and I would be surprised if you don't encounter it some. Watch out for HWK's carrying TLT + Recon (which kind of counters your sensor jammer). Another alternative to help deal with that is rebel captive, but then, recon is better against the TLT lists that are not using recon, so kinda depends on your meta...

If I were to make a change, it would be to consider homing missile on the scimitar. Reasoning: your opponent is likely to ignore him to last, and so picking up a TL and firing it off might not be so tough in this list. However, if you feel comfortable with prox, then stick with what you are comfortable with

That is not a bad idea, but I prefer the mine. It also is cheaper by one point, so I would have to drop EM on the Bomber for Homing Missiles. Would also give me an initiative bid, but ultimately 2 Proxys > 1 Homing Missile by a lot. Him sticking around long enough will be as valuable with Proxys as it will be with Homing Missiles. I will keep the option in mind, though.

I know it's boring, but have you tried out whisper instead here? PS9 and better actioneconomy makes her a real pita to catch and kill. I have more fun flying echo, and more success flying whisper

That is another option I will test. For that list the Scimitar loses EM and gets and upgrade to a Conner Net while Deathrain and the Phantom stay the same. The thing is that I fear Whisper will do worse against swarmy lists after the nerf than Echo, while I might get away versus PS9+ opponents with Echo because I have Deathrain and the Bomber who can severly weaken those high value high PS ships. Right now I lean towards Echo, though.

So I played a few games and got utterly wrecked by TLTs. In theory SJ Echo should hold up, but the risk is too high. She is 11 points per hitpoint and that just doesn#t go well with 4 shots per round. I will play some more games, but I developed a backup plan:

2 * Bounty Hunters with Recon Specialist (36)

Cutlass Squadron Pilot with Enhanced Scopes, EM and Conner Net

Any thoughts on that? The BHs should provide more bulk and the Cutlass takes Deathrains place in murdering aces, but I don't have Echo as backup for fighting swarms anymore. I haven't played more than one Firespray at one time yet, but it shouldn't be harder than flying shuttles.

TLTs are wrecking everybody right now. There's not much you can do except pick one of the carriers and have your whole squad bolt to range 1 and shoot till it's dead, then move onto the next.

The BHs are tough, but there's only two of them, and every turn each TLT will go *plink* *plink* and kill them surprisingly fast. I'd add Deathrain back (your build is the one I prefer too) and run him with a mini swarm. Get a bunch of cheap guns focusing fire on one TLT carrier at a time.