So my smallish and somewhat inbred meta seems to have been dominated by a single pilot flying our own SableGryphon's (the BlackCatbird) 'Murder of Crows' (the black birds) list (basically Palob and a bunch of Zs with Feedback Array, for those unfamiliar). He keeps winning the local tournaments, so there's a target on his back - that's just how these things work, right?

So, unsurprisingly, my question is a simple one: is there a 'hard' counter for this list?

There's really only one other pilot in the area that concerns me, but he tends to fly non-standard lists and we playtest against one another often. He's strictly better than I am and tends to lose only to the guy wearing the bull's eye, likely because he favors builds in the neighborhood of three ships.

So basically I'm looking for a suggestion for a list that has a very good chance of murdering some crows and isn't completely useless against random lists and TIE swarms.

Thanks!

TLTs munch on Zs...A Squad of 4 TLT Ys could reliably drop 1 Z per turn and damage another

Assault Missiles are your friend and the bane of any low-agility swarms.

TLT's do eat Z's, but not that many. That many Z's against y-wings or hawks will do the same and remove 1 per round. Then the TLT's start shedding points faster than the Z's.

But you know, a proton bomb has a 21% chance to instagib a Z. Maarek has a 50% chance with an adv homing missile.

So the Murder of Crows is using Palob instead of Torkil Mux with Greedo? It's a bit different from what I saw as the effective original list, but I'm with treybert on this. A few choice munitions to make him split up or fly differently (or suffer the consequences) and some durable ships should be able to do the trick. Also, perhaps a few Hired Guns with TLTs with a heavy anchor would work? With the right modification, you could probably pop two Zs per turn, one for the two TLTs and one for the heavy anchor (Thinking of a Bossk, or HLC IG-88). Emon Azzameen slinging Cluster Mines?

AOE is massive.
Single-Target Removal is massive.

Cheap HP is important.

So the Murder of Crows is using Palob instead of Torkil Mux with Greedo? It's a bit different from what I saw as the effective original list, but I'm with treybert on this. A few choice munitions to make him split up or fly differently (or suffer the consequences) and some durable ships should be able to do the trick. Also, perhaps a few Hired Guns with TLTs with a heavy anchor would work? With the right modification, you could probably pop two Zs per turn, one for the two TLTs and one for the heavy anchor (Thinking of a Bossk, or HLC IG-88). Emon Azzameen slinging Cluster Mines?

Crap I think you're right! My bad! I wasn't even correct about what the guy in my area has been using - he uses Torkhil.

AOE is massive.

Single-Target Removal is massive.

Cheap HP is important.

These statements seem axiomatic, but I'm a little too dense to understand the "what, so what?" in this particular context...

AOE is massive.

Single-Target Removal is massive.

Cheap HP is important.

These statements seem axiomatic, but I'm a little too dense to understand the "what, so what?" in this particular context...

The fleet we're counterbuilding has 6 ships.

Area-Of-Effect damage (like Bombs and Assault Missiles) will deal far more damage than usual, and will also force your opponent to play non-optimally to avoid the damage, netting you an advantage even if the upgrades in question never get used.

The fleet we're counterbuilding has a single ship with a potent ability to destroy our fleets

If you can remove Torkil Mux very very early in the game, he loses that glorious ability and the turret, removing most of his counter-play options and enabling your fleet's Pilot Skill bid and/or Arc Dodging to fly unmolested

The fleet we're counterbuilding has quite a lot of damage per round, and a high finishing rate with the Feedback Arrays

Having a high Health to Cost ratio is particularly important, as having a low one will render you very vulnerable to his fleet.

Excellent analysis and explanation, thank you.

Taking all of that into account...

...seems like pretty good advice, right?