Ugh. I need a break of life. Here goes:

DAREDEVIL!

Everyone's heard of the Oicunn + Dauntless + EU + Daredevil build. For the double smash for double stress.

I've theorized about this a lot, and in general, I think its not viable: Not being able to catch whatever you hit the next turn and still having no action is just not very good. You lose wayy too much efficiency for the 10 points you attached to Oicunn. And honestly, only the 4 EU points are really good. Oicunn also honestly just doesn't add up to the power of Kenkirk and Chiraneau. Especially now that Injured Pilot isn't in the damage deck anymore!

I know I've heard of some people in NOVA I think who had a Oicunn meta, but I haven't heard enough to make a decision on that.

This is the best build I Can think of. But its not good. Honestly, I'd rather have the much easier to fly Palpkirk Vader/Soontir

Captain Oicunn (42)

Daredevil (3)

Emperor Palpatine (8)

Ysanne Isard (4)

Engine Upgrade (4)

Dauntless (2)

Darth Vader (29)

Wingman (2)

Advanced Targeting Computer (1)

Engine Upgrade (4)

TIE/x1 (0)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

--

Tycho with Daredevil is actually modestly good. Preferably with PTL. However that PS* will hurt you in a real tournament, not being able to shoot everything that outdodges you at PS9. I would go with VI on Tycho. So... MEH.

--

Vader with Daredevil

Now one of the funnest ones I can think! I personally think VI is better over even Predator. But Predator or Daredevil... That is a good debate! Predator gives you mobility to even compete with Soontir! You can Boost AND Daredevil. Or BR and Dare. Or BR and Boost still.

Vader doesn't need both actions really, so he's a good option for Daredevil.

If you see a lot of Soontirs or PS9s only in your meta, try bidding for 2points and Daredevil! Its also fun to fly!

However, I do think VI is simply better. Although, You'll have to be a better flyer than die roller to beat Predator Vader mirror.

Also VI Vader tends to be decent against Soontir. But Soontir has more mobility. But the cost here is 4 more points +1 from VI or included in Daredevil: A PS bid of 2 is recommended currently.

Before you undersell Daredevil too much, I have something I have been tossing around in my mind lately. Something expensive and silly.

Green Squadron Pilot

Test A-Wing Pilot

Push the Limit

Daredevil

Proton Rockets

x2 (or more?)

Now, imagine this load out on Arvel Crynyd.

Which brings me to my own topic. Instead of discussing an upgrade, and finding a better substitute, I'd like to find a rarely (if ever) flown pilot, and see if it can be made viable. I've always been curious about Arvel.

Sadly, you can't take both Daredevil and Push the Limit, since the poor fool was only given one EPT. He'll have to take Daredevil, and bypass Autothrusters (he was never meant to survive for very long anyway, was he?) for Experimental Interface, so you can kick Daredevil on after you've focused.

One of the major shortcomings of Arvel is that he isn't impervious to the bump-into-a-ship-and-lose-your-action rule, which has meant that he'll almost always be attacking with three unmodified dice, and he isn't a low-enough PS to allow him to move in front and let other ships bump into his focused self. He's always been a gamble in this regard. Daredevil changes that. Now, you don't need to actually bump into someone--you just need to stop in front of them. Take your focus, and if they've already activated, you can use Daredevil's unique card text interpretation to allow you to use your EI action to bump. If facing a higher PS pilot, then nothing has changed; you just have to predict your opponent and wait for them to bump into you. Now you have a focused Proton Rocket to deliver into an enemy that can't shoot back at you (and you can continue the formula for focused 3-die attacks for the rest of the game). Should work well against PWTs, TLTs, low-PS B-Wings, Kirhaxz, and X-Wings. Avoid arc dodgers like the plague, and have a more tempting target (or a Biggs) to draw away fire from other TLTs/PWTs/ships.

But when it comes down to it, what do you have? A 31-point PS 6 A-Wing that blows up jousters and does very little for the category of arc dodging (you've got nothing against Soontir, Phantoms, even Fat Dash and the brobots). What else could you get for 31 points? I'm mentioning Tycho with Autothrusters and Push the Limit only because I want to mention again that Arvel isn't in the same category--he's not your PTL arc dodger (or at least, he's not meant to be very good at it. He couldn't even dodge a Super Star Destroyer, guys). But you don't necessarily want to count him as a jouster, because he's not meant to go head-on (unless you pull the five-speed maneuver to bump your victim). But, I guess let's consider him a jouster, because I just don't know.

For 31 points you could give Luke Skywalker Lone Wolf and a one-point Astromech (and, later, Integrated Astromech to make it even better). You could have a Push the Limit Ibitsam. With both of the previous options, you get an extra attack die, more action economy for both defense and offense (Arvel would have nothing for defense in the situation you're supposed to use him), which translates into so much more survivability, as Arvel will never be re-rolling or modding his defense dice the way PTL Ibitsam and LW Luke will.

Finally, if you make a single mistake, you lose these 31 points in a single round of fire, even before launching your Proton Rockets. You need to be an expert A-Wing veteran, you need to fly him around back, patiently. Or cover him with Biggs and other, more tempting targets. The one store tournament I took Arvel to, I loaded him with Intimidation (which was new at the time) and Proton Rockets, not really sure of what I was doing. I sped him right into battle... only to have underestimated the length of the table and to stop a mere hairs-breadth away from a shiney new Decimator that had already activated. He was destroyed in a single round of fire. (I don't think I've included any A-Wings in my squadrons ever since).

So, in my estimation Arvel is probably still not worth it. Daredevil situationally makes him better, and you can definitely give him a Proton Rocket to make your opponent sweat and get a little paranoid. Maybe you want Arvel to be your distraction while your more devestating ship is unbothered for a round or two. But for the combined offensive and defensive power, I'd rather take LW Luke or PTL Ibitsam.

[38] Major Rhymer (Extra Munitions, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Push the Limit, Twin Ion Engine Mk. II)

...[39] Nera Dantels (Extra Munitions, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Deadeye, B-wing/E2, Recon Specialist)

I think Rhymer is the much better build of the 2.

I'm just not sold on Nera, Range 1 is tough to get to unscathed, I just don't see spending 4 (B2 + RecSpec) more points to get get the 8 (APT + EM) you've already spent to be effective. It's the Expose + EI problem, only more expensive and you can only use it twice. There is some use for RecSpec after the torpedoes are fired, but for a 1 agility ship, not much.

Rhymer, by comparison, only spends the 8, as PTL + TIE mkII are still very useful after the Torpedoes are fired, and he has a better chance of getting them where they need to go due to his pilot ability.

Another idea would be Keyan Farlander with Advanced Sensors (+APTs). AS are still good even when the APTs are spent.

Not a bad idea.

The 2 gears needed to make the machine work are a way to reliably stress yourself, and getting around the range restriction of the APT.

Stay on Target is a good way to stress Farlander, and it's realtively cheap, and has application outside of the munitions, so that's good. PtL is another, and while some don't like TL + Focus on Farlander, having the focus token for defense is hardly a bad option.

The R1/in arc restriction kills him here, unless you have some reasonable control in your list as well.

I think I would prefer him with no System and PtL instead of SoT, so he can still use the barrel roll to change his final position, giving him a better chance to get into R1. Still pretty expensive though, and I think Rhymer is a better overall choice for about the same cost.

Total: 40

Okay, I'll have a go.

Countermeasures.

A 3-point upgrade that eats up your precious modification slot and is a one-time use card. It's a pretty good defensive ability, increasing your agility value for the round and allowing you to discard a target lock on your ship.

• For 2-ship squads, increasing the agility of the Large ship can be extremely helpful against many incoming shots (unless you ask ficklegreendice)
• In an ordnance-heavy meta, removing Target Locks is very good (go see what Toryn Farr can do in Epic play!)
• Against ships with Fire-control system, you turn their TL+F into just Focus for the round, which is nice.

But there are some pretty big drawbacks

• Against 2-ship squads the cost may not be worth it
• Discard-to-use cards are iffy, especially when they cost 3 points. Even the awesome Adrenaline Rush is hard to justify at 1 point (see ParaGoomba Slayer's post above)
• It's Large Ship only, and we all know that large ships usually want Engine Upgrade. And at 3 points, you only need one more point to get the Engines, so Countermeasures is a tough sell.
• Ordnance-heavy meta? What in the galaxy is that?

However, I found a use for it that was pretty good. Before the most recent FAQ, ships could bypass Captain Kagi's ability by taking a lock on Kagi, and then attempting to target lock the next turn. Since Kagi was no longer a valid target, they were then free to lock onto my powerhouses such as Soontir Fel and Carnor Jax (especially Carnor). But with Countermeasures, Kagi could be target locked, and then at the start of the combat phase discard a lock, increase his agility value to 2, and laugh because now they have to target lock him again before they can lock onto my elite starfighters. It worked perfectly, and my opponents would often grumble at their lack of effective actions.

But now Kagi doesn't need the help of Countermeasures, and I can't justify the 3 points there when I really want him to have Sensor Jammer and Palpatine. So where else could it go?

• I could see it on Scum Boba to survive those Range 1 encounters, especially combined with Glitterstim (but Engine is so good on a Firespray)
• Kenkirk may like it to go from a 0 agility ship in the beginning to a 2 agility ship later on...But not too much later because 3 points for one extra defense die against a single attack is not worth it -- much better to be used when the swarm is strong and trying to bring you down.

Nothing else is jumping out at me. I mean, you can throw it on any large ship, but the above possibilities have some potential.

Edit: spelling

[38] Major Rhymer (Extra Munitions, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Push the Limit, Twin Ion Engine Mk. II)

...

[39] Nera Dantels (Extra Munitions, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, Deadeye, B-wing/E2, Recon Specialist)

I think Rhymer is the much better build of the 2.

I'm just not sold on Nera, Range 1 is tough to get to unscathed, I just don't see spending 4 (B2 + RecSpec) more points to get get the 8 (APT + EM) you've already spent to be effective. It's the Expose + EI problem, only more expensive and you can only use it twice. There is some use for RecSpec after the torpedoes are fired, but for a 1 agility ship, not much.

Rhymer, by comparison, only spends the 8, as PTL + TIE mkII are still very useful after the Torpedoes are fired, and he has a better chance of getting them where they need to go due to his pilot ability.

While I agree on the assessment I also used a similar Nera loadout to one shot a TIE Defender...

I encountered Nera with APT only ONCE.

It happened that she got into range 1 of one of my Interceptors, which was my own fault, and she scored 5 hits; because thats what you do if you attack with APT.

But then I happened to roll 3 natural evades.... and I survived.

Flight Instructor. All I can currently think of is an anti-TLT list and put him in a Phantom.

Kagi + Palpatine ^^

After reading the write up on improving Avrel present in this thread, my mind turned to an upgrade I had forgotten existed, never used and never seen on the table:

Intimidation.

On paper it seemed solid, I actually personally said it would be a key to beating C3P0 Falcons but I've never actually seen it used.

After reading the write up on improving Avrel present in this thread, my mind turned to an upgrade I had forgotten existed, never used and never seen on the table:

Intimidation.

On paper it seemed solid, I actually personally said it would be a key to beating C3P0 Falcons but I've never actually seen it used.

I have found Intimidation on Captain Oicunn to be pretty fun and effective as he wants to hit other people. I have paired him with a couple of generic interceptors and they can usually clean up pretty good.

Flight Instructor. All I can currently think of is an anti-TLT list and put him in a Phantom.

"Whisper" (32)

Outmaneuver (3)

Sensor Jammer (4)

Flight Instructor (4)

Advanced Cloaking Device (4)

Darth Vader (29)

Outmaneuver (3)

Advanced Targeting Computer (1)

Engine Upgrade (4)

TIE/x1 (0)

"Dark Curse" (16)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Because those Phantom flying elite aces really need someone to teach them how to fly a starship

In my book, if you've got a decimator and you're not rifling though your cards for expose, you're doing it wrong. With the impossible loss of agility, there's absolutely no reason not to.

It's called losing your action.

Corran Horn gives some reason to use expose, and Gunner. With Experimental Interface, it might be doable on Keyan Farlander...but an HLC is cheaper.

But Gunner doesn't make Expose that much better. Savvy players know to let 1 hit pass when being shot at by a ship that has Gunner. Expose has more value if you do two attacks and both attacks can do damage, but that is impossible with Gunner.

So we're left with Corran. I like Marksmanship and FCS on him. That's deadly and expensive enough.

After reading the write up on improving Avrel present in this thread, my mind turned to an upgrade I had forgotten existed, never used and never seen on the table:

Intimidation.

On paper it seemed solid, I actually personally said it would be a key to beating C3P0 Falcons but I've never actually seen it used.

Intimidation on him is real nice. Problem is that you aren't allowed to overlap with a boost should you face an opponent that moves before Arvel. So I'm thinking Daredevil on him, as it allows you to say, be adjacent to an enemy ship but also turn around and still get a shot while bumped.

Problem is that you improve his ability to bump things and then you're not buffing the rest of your list with Intimidation. And then you go Intimidation and miss out on opportunities to bump.

My fix: Just fly him with two EPTs anyway, no one will notice. If they do, play dumb. There is a player that conveniently wasn't aware that pilot Bossk needed to hit first before he could do a crit to 2x hit conversion until it was pointed out to him a round or two into the event. If players are going to do that then you're okay flying Arvel with 2 EPTs haha.

After reading the write up on improving Avrel present in this thread, my mind turned to an upgrade I had forgotten existed, never used and never seen on the table:

Intimidation.

On paper it seemed solid, I actually personally said it would be a key to beating C3P0 Falcons but I've never actually seen it used.

Intimidation on him is real nice. Problem is that you aren't allowed to overlap with a boost should you face an opponent that moves before Arvel. So I'm thinking Daredevil on him, as it allows you to say, be adjacent to an enemy ship but also turn around and still get a shot while bumped.

Problem is that you improve his ability to bump things and then you're not buffing the rest of your list with Intimidation. And then you go Intimidation and miss out on opportunities to bump.

My fix: Just fly him with two EPTs anyway, no one will notice. If they do, play dumb. There is a player that conveniently wasn't aware that pilot Bossk needed to hit first before he could do a crit to 2x hit conversion until it was pointed out to him a round or two into the event. If players are going to do that then you're okay flying Arvel with 2 EPTs haha.

Or keep an intelligence agent close by.

That R2-F3 is it? Droid. The one that's an action to add an agility. Seems like a waste but since it's an 'action' header card that doesn't take the EPT slot you can use it and PtL another normal action out. I could see some sort of gimmick build where you put him on Biggs with a stealth device and feed him an evade with Kyle focus battery hand off with a conversion to evade via Jan Ors crew, and a Squad Leader Experimental Interface Wedge that feeds Biggs a focus haha. Now you have Biggs at 4/5 agility with both a focus and evade token. XD

Oh, it gets better. Here's the squadron:

Biggs + R2F3 + Stealth Device

Kyle Katarn + predator + TLT + Jan Ors

Esege Tuketu + Recon Specialist + TLT

Biggs has 4 dice, 2 focus tokens and an evade token, so is in essence turtled like PTL soontir. The list does not have a huge damage output and manouvers like a herd of fat cows, but good luck shooting it down.

In my book, if you've got a decimator and you're not rifling though your cards for expose, you're doing it wrong. With the impossible loss of agility, there's absolutely no reason not to.

Reasons were given in the original post.

That R2-F3 is it? Droid. The one that's an action to add an agility. Seems like a waste but since it's an 'action' header card that doesn't take the EPT slot you can use it and PtL another normal action out. I could see some sort of gimmick build where you put him on Biggs with a stealth device and feed him an evade with Kyle focus battery hand off with a conversion to evade via Jan Ors crew, and a Squad Leader Experimental Interface Wedge that feeds Biggs a focus haha. Now you have Biggs at 4/5 agility with both a focus and evade token. XD

Oh, it gets better. Here's the squadron:

Biggs + R2F3 + Stealth Device

Kyle Katarn + predator + TLT + Jan Ors

Esege Tuketu + Recon Specialist + TLT

Biggs has 4 dice, 2 focus tokens and an evade token, so is in essence turtled like PTL soontir. The list does not have a huge damage output and manouvers like a herd of fat cows, but good luck shooting it down.

Something like that list was what I first though of when I saw Esege. Unfortunately, his ability only lets you borrow focus tokens on attacks. No help for keeping Biggs alive there.

Another idea to get Arvel + intimidation working is to run him alongside a chardaan proto pilot. That's a minimum 40 pts (assuming no other upgrades on either a-wing, but prockets on arvel and autothrusters on the proto adds +5 pts to the combo). Now you just have to carefully line up your approaches. Arvel on a bit of a flank, approaching the target ship at least 45 degrees or from the side (so he doesn't bump into the proto instead of the target ship!). Use the proto to get the block on the target ship and have arvel's move overlap where you expect the block to happen. Not easy to set up and if you consider the proto is there only to enable Arvel's idea then its lavishly expensive for questionable gain, but still! With 60 points left to round out the list, it could be decent.

Saboteur? Looks more attractive next to SLAM or Palpatine and the increased ability to land damage on Hull early in the game through Proton Bombs and Advanced Homing Missiles. Not yet "Good", but can actually be used.

Ill take Sab.

I might actually run this build. IDK about how good it is... but seems like fun nonetheless.

Imperial Fett (even tho he's sh*t)

Outmaneuver (or PTL, or predator)

Sabotuer

EU

Vader

Squad Leader

Adv Homing missiles

title ATC

Scourge

The theory there is Vader and fett tickle each others bums with goodies stick together until vader pulls a crit for Sabotuer to flip then Fetts job is to stay close and reflip it, while Scourge reaps all the glory of free interceptorgoodness at tie costs.

I played a game with Sab and the Emperor on a decimator. I flipped a hit on Whisper and it was I Direct hit. I was so happy I actually did something with Sab, I played "Sabatoge" by Beastie boys on my phone at the store. My opponent just looked dumb founded

Dace Bonearm.

I know a lot of people who consider scum hawks better deals than their rebel counterparts, this guy included, but I have not seen another person play him.

I don't want to focus too much on him vs Jan ors, but a couple differences should be noted: dace doesn't take his stress after he is 100% sure the opponent will take extra damage. His point cost is slightly cheaper. Distance wise, he only needs to be range 1-3 of the target.

I fly him with two upgrades, ion cannon turret and veteran instincts. I do not see need for other upgrades.

In a list with other ion equipped ships, he can be a small force multiplier by improving the chances of dealing extra damage on top of the ion control, which typically would sacrifice damage for tokens.

As for squad pairings, I stick to 2 btl-a4 ywings and 2 z-95s. The list is fairly spartan on upgrades, but keeps a significant bulk with 5 ships total. When all 3 ion cannons have firing opportunities each round, dace will get almost guaranteed use of his ability. Add another 4 primary weapon attacks and this list deals surprising damage. Seeing this list, many players will see dace as either a point pinata or a real threat, so sometimes it is worth having him 1 range band back.

The worst matchups are going to be long range damage dealers that can slip ion cannon range. Outriders and ig88s can be a threat if they can't get tagged by enough ions. I have not tried this against mass tlt, yet, but it could be a tough matchup in some cases.

Despite the drawbacks, dace bonearm has been very successful in my lists.

Dace is amazing, kind of similar to TLT where your opponent takes those two hits if just one got through. I like him with Moldy Crow title and K4, which synergizes well with his ability. That makes him a lot more expensive than your version, though.

I basically thought of having other shops with ion as upgrades for bonearm. And I didn't want all my eggs in one basket, which is also why I go with 2 z95s instead of another y-wing.