Cracken's ability can be used to feed focus to Porkins who can use R5-P9 to regenerate shields. Both have Swarm Tactics so it's either two shots at PS8 and two at PS7, or three at PS8 and one at PS2, depending on the formations flown.

Porkins is interesting for fluff reasons but also because he's the cheapest X-Wing pilot who can get an EPT. Combined with Integrated Astromech, I'm exploring to find out if there are strong X-Wing -centric builds beyond the Three Amigos paradigm.

Jek Porkins (26)
Swarm Tactics (2)
R5-P9 (3)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Airen Cracken (19)
Swarm Tactics (2)
Hull Upgrade (3)

Rookie Pilot (21)
R2 Astromech (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Rookie Pilot (21)
R2 Astromech (1)
Integrated Astromech (0)

Total: 99

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Solid...Im thinking that rookie + integrated R2 might just be better than a naked blue

In the games I've played using it so far, Integrated Astromech, and when to choose to use it, has proven interesting.

I think it's a pretty nice buff, just wish it was possible to get one more ~25-26pt X-Wing pilot with EPT so it would be possible to build a really viable XXXX list that wasn't relegated to shooting at PS 2.