Hi everyone! I am curious what people's thoughts are on the MC30. I find the ship terribly interesting and potentially super deadly (with proper flying of course), but it seems to be expensive to upgrade it to the point its full potential may be realized. To that end, I have tried making a bunch of lists on paper that use it in combo with other ships, but each list seems to have a significant weakness that I am unhappy with (and I don't have the time to play test them all). So does anyone have an opinion on the ship based on practical experience?

Took me a while to get the hang of these vicious bulldogs. You can't fly them like regular ships with the idea that you need to keep 'em around until turn 6. A MC30 either survives to kill its prey or doesn't. You need to burn everything from the start to keep incoming damage down. Once you're in close, the black die do the talking.

My current MC30 build:

Hug Monster

Admonition

Wallex

Ordinance Experts

APTs

TRCs

She's under Mon Mothma, so those evades kill damage even at medium range. Close is rerolls but by then I'm filling your face full of proton torpedos. I can kill five dice total with Admonition and Wallex makes it easy to start using that earlier (who cares if I toss a token now, I'll get it back next turn).

Also, they make it easy to pick Hyperspace Assault as one of your objectives.

Love them.

Took me a while to get the hang of these vicious bulldogs. You can't fly them like regular ships with the idea that you need to keep 'em around until turn 6. A MC30 either survives to kill its prey or doesn't. You need to burn everything from the start to keep incoming damage down. Once you're in close, the black die do the talking.

My current MC30 build:

Hug Monster

Admonition

Wallex

Ordinance Experts

APTs

TRCs

She's under Mon Mothma, so those evades kill damage even at medium range. Close is rerolls but by then I'm filling your face full of proton torpedos. I can kill five dice total with Admonition and Wallex makes it easy to start using that earlier (who cares if I toss a token now, I'll get it back next turn).

Also, they make it easy to pick Hyperspace Assault as one of your objectives.

lol, hug monster.

I've done some horrible... unspeakable things to Imperial players using the MC-30.

I usually fly a pair of them as:

MC-30 Scout (69 points)

Assault Proton Torpedoes (5 points)

Ordinance Experts (4 Points)

Total: 78 Points.

Yes! I am not using the Foresight upgrade!

And yes, a pair of these cuddling up to an Imperial Class Star Destroyer is like setting off a tactical nuke on-top of a stick of butter!

I also plan on toying around with the Torpedo Frigate variant. I think i can get a more reliable damage output.

Thanks for the quick replies! What lists have you used them against?

The only game I have gotten to play them in, I had Foresight and an untitled, both with APTs and ordnance experts under Dodonna who was flying an MC80 Assault Cruiser. The MC80 had projection experts to help my MC30s maintain their shields, but the MC30s were doing all the work.

One hyperspaced in and took down a naked VSD-1 with help from a single broadside by the MC80, and Foresight survived a direct assault from the front arc of an ISD so that it was able to put 2 broadside into its front arc and the MC80 helped a little too.

My concern is that my opponent didn't have Intel Officers, XI7s, or many squadrons, so I am wondering if it was a fluke.

Thanks for the quick replies! What lists have you used them against?

The only game I have gotten to play them in, I had Foresight and an untitled, both with APTs and ordnance experts under Dodonna who was flying an MC80 Assault Cruiser. The MC80 had projection experts to help my MC30s maintain their shields, but the MC30s were doing all the work.

One hyperspaced in and took down a naked VSD-1 with help from a single broadside by the MC80, and Foresight survived a direct assault from the front arc of an ISD so that it was able to put 2 broadside into its front arc and the MC80 helped a little too.

My concern is that my opponent didn't have Intel Officers, XI7s, or many squadrons, so I am wondering if it was a fluke.

Intel officers aren't going to effect the MC-30 very much.

And your ship is faster, and can handle those squadrons! (Look out for Luke though!)

The MC-30 is a surprisingly tough little ship! Just be wary of any ability that does damage through shields!

I guess my concern with Intel Officers is that over two turns they can get rid of your defense token redundancy as long as they roll an accuracy and the MC30 doesn't have ECMs (which is usually the case). And XI7s on an ISD are deadly. The only reason Foresight survived the close range front arc shot in my game was because I was able to redirect to two other hull zones and was therefore able to drain all my shields from the sides and bow. If I hadn't been able to do that because of XI7s, Foresight would have been dead and the ISD would have had another turn or two to focus on my MC80. But I see your point. I guess that's more on me for setting up in bad positions, haha.

As far as lists? There have been a few!

A Motti + 2 Imperial w/ squads list. It was tricky, but I ended up stalling his squadrons long enough to place the two MC-30s between the his Star Destroyers for 2 turns; and tabled him. (With a shout out to my flanking ships! You stripped those defense tokens and shields so well!)

A Motti Imperial w/ 2 Victories and a token Fighter force. I kinda bullied him in this game. I was using two MC-30s, two Assault frigates w/ Gunnery teams and Ackbar.

A mirror match with an Assault Frigate and two MC-30s upgraded to an insane degree (Later we figured out he didn't have the upgrade slots for some of his upgrades. Oops!)! He ended up brutalizing my ships due to me being cocky! I won... only by drawing his ships into a position where they all flew off the board (It was a clever move... but he was new...).

I hope that helps!

It took me a long, long time to get the hang of them. But now that I have them down, man they are awesome. In my experience, almost every command I give them is navigate as the token is really nice to have on turn one in emergencies and the extra click makes them so maneuverable, and tolerable at speed 4 I started out running them with Rieekan, but I think Mon Mothma is a much better general and have had some great success with them. I run 3 of them with only ord experts and APTs, along side two TRC CR90s and one CR90 carrying Mon Mothma.

They're amazing. My current MC30 build is Ackbar on Home One supporting two of them, with 6 A-wings flying CAP. The MC30 build in this list is:

Torpedo Frigate

TRC

ACM

Ordnance Experts

I've had these guys kill ISD's and MC80's from 100% to dead in one activation. Between Ordnance Experts, TRC on Ackbar's dice, and Home One, you have very reliable, very high damage with almost no dud rolls--usually about 8 damage with an accuracy plus 2 more from ACM. That's TEN pretty reliable damage per shot, with an accuracy guaranteed if you need it. They're very high risk, very high reward, though: if you find yourself weathering a heavy shot, you have pretty good chances of dying straight out.

I love them and have two or three in every fleet I build. They are one of my two favorite ships from the franchise to make it into the game so far.

I also love the MC30. They are my favorite ship released so far! As a Rebel player the ability to throw black dice excites me. I prefer more aggressive strategies usually, so the MC30 fits right in. I have tried several builds, and found a few I like. I still need to try them cheap and thus don't care as much if they die, but so far my strategy has been reliant on one costly MC30 and innitative. The MC30 is built to take 1-2 big hits, thats usually enough to take down whatever it is hunting. So far my MC30s have maybe a 10% casualty rate with 1-3 enemy ship kills per game.

MC30 Scout Frigate: The Hunter

Turbolaser Reroute Circuits

Assault Proton Torpedoes

Ordnance Experts

Lando Calrissian

Admonition (or Foresight depending on admiral)

Pick a target, maneuver in close taking a hit if need be. Then blow the frack out of whatever you marked for death. I'm still working on pulling it off, but getting both side arcs on target optimal; however a front and a side is nothing to sniff at either. I have yet to use ackbar (The horror!!!!), since I'm trying to be "un-meta," but at some point I will see if it significantly improves the firepower or not. I feel like unless you get both side arcs on target, you would lose damage from not taking a front and side arc shot.

Second setup I liked used 3 of these along with a CR90 holding Dodonna. It was mainly for giggles, but it was fun to fly. Maybe there is a place for this build as well.

MC30 Torpedo Frigate: The Hammer

XX-9 Turbolasers

Ordnance Experts

Expanded Launchers

I had the two titles as well, with Lando on Admonition. This was definitely a fun build. I'm not sure its as good as the other, but dealing 4 damage cards face up with Dodonna is just crazy. Obviously you lose out on APT damage, but hopefully the 2 extra dice make up for that, depending on your luck 4 damage is better than 2, or with EO you usually break even at 2. This also makes it easier to line up a big shot without trying for the difficult double side arcs. The only problem I had with using 3 was it's hard to avoid losing one or maybe two ships, which with their loadout, means a handy chunk of points.

Funny note, this list was made just because I was trying to build a list to use cards I don't normally use, specifically XX-9s. I think this is one of the best setups I've seen for them for sure.

Just beware the Fireball, as even a small one can melt an MC30.

That said, I love the little guys! Foresight is an auto-include in a Mothma fleet, & Admonition is the most brutal fast flaker to answer the Imps GSD.

Love to fly em hate to face em

Best ship of Wave 2.

I love to hate them.

Mon momthma is OP

So yes, two if possible in every fleet.

When you start using these, Just watch your attack run, if you go at speed four and don't have movement commands you will be off the play area before you know it.

I do love these, had great fun with two torps in a doddona list.

Took me a while to get the hang of these vicious bulldogs. You can't fly them like regular ships with the idea that you need to keep 'em around until turn 6. A MC30 either survives to kill its prey or doesn't. You need to burn everything from the start to keep incoming damage down. Once you're in close, the black die do the talking.

My current MC30 build:

Hug Monster

Admonition

Wallex

Ordinance Experts

APTs

TRCs

She's under Mon Mothma, so those evades kill damage even at medium range. Close is rerolls but by then I'm filling your face full of proton torpedos. I can kill five dice total with Admonition and Wallex makes it easy to start using that earlier (who cares if I toss a token now, I'll get it back next turn).

Also, they make it easy to pick Hyperspace Assault as one of your objectives.

Hmm.. Admonition states that you can discard a defense token to cancel an attack die. Can you during the same attack. first use the defense token for its effect (for example evade) and then, still during the same attack discard that same defense token?

Took me a while to get the hang of these vicious bulldogs. You can't fly them like regular ships with the idea that you need to keep 'em around until turn 6. A MC30 either survives to kill its prey or doesn't. You need to burn everything from the start to keep incoming damage down. Once you're in close, the black die do the talking.

My current MC30 build:

Hug Monster

Admonition

Wallex

Ordinance Experts

APTs

TRCs

She's under Mon Mothma, so those evades kill damage even at medium range. Close is rerolls but by then I'm filling your face full of proton torpedos. I can kill five dice total with Admonition and Wallex makes it easy to start using that earlier (who cares if I toss a token now, I'll get it back next turn).

Also, they make it easy to pick Hyperspace Assault as one of your objectives.

Hmm.. Admonition states that you can discard a defense token to cancel an attack die. Can you during the same attack. first use the defense token for its effect (for example evade) and then, still during the same attack discard that same defense token?

Absolutely.

I did get one shot by a gladiator at the weekend, which is a bit upsetting as its the best ship we have for taking on Demolisher.

My salvation was distracted by a vunerable vsd and i didnt give the glad the respect it deserved. Plus i forgot to use lando.