I decided to retitle this better in the hope that I could get a discussion going. There's a TL;DR paragraph to explain it all at the bottom for those of you not interested in reading all of this but still want the gist of it.

I'm a huge fan of Star Wars Rebels. I've been theorizing ideas and squads for the Ghost+Phantom since the information on them started trickling in. I would like to discuss my favorite idea thusfar, one that is untested because I do not currently own the expansion (soon to change).

100pts

VCX-100

Hera Syndulla

Kanan Jarrus

"Chopper"

Engine Upgrade

Autoblaster Turret

Fire-Control System

Ghost

Attack Shuttle

Ezra Bridger

Push the Limit

Autoblaster Turret

Phantom

2x Z-95 Headhunter

Bandit Squadron Pilot

Similar to a lot of the builds out there but different in some fundamental upgrades. Namely, Engine Upgrade, Kanan Jarrus and "Chopper" on the Ghost.

For a breakdown of what this combination does, we start with Hera's pilot ability:

This allows Hera to change her maneuver after seeing the current gamestate, following the maneuvers of all Pilots at PS 0-6. This allows her to outmaneuver a ship with lower pilot skill than herself, getting into the position desired. Blocking her is a lot more difficult than a Pilot without her ability. Seems pretty good. You could turn a red 1 turn into a red 3 or a k-turn. You could also turn a 1 straight into a 2 straight or 2 bank.

Next take a look at "Chopper" crew:

With "Chopper", Hera goes from performing any red maneuver on her dial to doing so *and* still taking an action. Yes, it requires 1 damage to be suffered but the options are pretty useful when paired with an Engine Upgrade. This allows Hera to make the best red maneuver available given the current state of the game and then boost to cover further ground/get out of arc as needed.

Assuming you have just done this combo you're looking at the Ghost with 1 damage and 1 stress for a fairly unblockable large ship that is likely to get out of some firing arcs. It's the next round, however and you're stressed.

This is where Kanan comes in:

On the following round, with Kanan Jarrus crew, Hera has 12 maneuvers that will remove stress from her, 4 of which work with her Pilot Ability. Normally you just have 1-2 straight and 2 bank for removing stress... this gives you 3 times the amount of options for removing stress, which is usually the the round you will get blocked the most.

I've seen talk of using Intelligence Agent and Nien Nunb on Hera. Personally it seems too predictable still and if you guess your opponent's maneuvers correctly then Intelligence Agent is not at all that useful. Nien Nunb will certainly get you 6 green maneuvers to work with but only 2 of those aren't straight maneuvers, meaning it's still fairly easy to tell where the Ghost will end up.

"Chopper" and Engine Upgrade, in my opinion, give you a wider coverage of area and Kanan Jarrus makes you much more difficult to predict on the round you need to recover stress.

Ezra is really good at survival and deploying him at the right time can mean either a well placed 4 dice attack at Range 1 (against a low agi ship) or an uncancellable Autoblaster attack (against a high agi ace). He likely won't get deployed until the Ghost is nearly destroyed.

The Z-95's are good at blocking and decent flankers... My opponent is likely to focus on trying to take out the Ghost & Phantom instead of bothering with them. If my opponent instead focuses on the Bandits then the Ghost stays on the table longer.

I built this squad to be really good at escaping firing arcs, to be challenging to block and difficult to predict. It will likely take some skill and practice to use correctly, especially against Imperial Aces that move at a higher Pilot Skill but I think it can be good.

TL;DR version: Hera pulls a red maneuver, uses Chopper+EU to boost, next round uses Kanan to choose from 12 different maneuvers to recover stress. Makes the Ghost a lot more difficult to predict but likely takes a lot of practice. Ezra pops out when needed and does his thing. 2x Bandits are there for blocking shenanigans.

This is the squad I intend to practice with when I pick up a copy of the expansion and my reasons for building it. What are your thoughts?

I will add this: I flew Hera once (mostly fly Chops), and the entire time I wished I put Kanan as a crew on her, instead I had Dash and Ezra, and was trying frantically to stay within a Scouts range 1 so she didnt get blasted with Protons. Luckily I was able to, but I was attacking with naked dice the entire time since she was stressed. Chopper + EU is interesting as suffering 1 damage to get out of arc of a possible 3 damage is worth it.

Just know that Ghost is always priority number one with that 4 primary. After you lose the ghost (and you will lose the ghost), you dont have much going for ya. Ezra also needs Kanan crew or Hera crew to be maneuverable, otherwise he is just limited to those 4 greens after PTL. Maybe switch him out for Sabine, who is more maneuverable. Her with IA (lets Z's block or she can get range 1), Lone Wolf/Juke, and Autoblaster Turret could be nice.

Another note: You may want to think about Accuracy Corrector + ABT on Hera, since she can change maneuvers, and you have Chops + EU, you should be able to get range 1 of most, then its an instant 4 damage.

I like the Chops + EU combo with Hera, I might try it out.

Speaking from experience, ANY Ghost with Accuracy Corrector and Autoblaster Turret plays pretty brutal; using Hera, I've used that combo (with support ship, of course, and other upgrades) to shred a few Palp Aces lists.

I run Ezra on my shuttle also but I like to use him with elusiveness and Hera for his crew. I've had some decent success with him.