Ever since Wave 8 was released, I have been intrigued by Dengar. His ability is fantastic, as he is able to fire back at a ship that shoots at him if that ship is inside Dengar’s arc (limit once per turn). It’s as if the designers of the game are trying to encourage those players who love turrets to spend a little less time on the fringe, outside of arc, and at range 3, and spend more time in the guts of the battle, jousting and tearing each other to pieces.

However, I believe the best thing about Dengar is Pilot Skill 9 . The only other Scum pilot with PS9 is Talonbane Cobra, and as fun as he is, he dies fast and his dial leaves much to be desired.

The second best thing about Dengar is that he is PS9 with a barrel roll . Barrel roll on a large base ship is powerful. Super Dash became a thing because of that barrel roll.

So I personally believe that Dengar’s ability is a trap. If you try to joust with Dengar before the end-game , you are going to lose him in two-three turns, depending on what you’re playing against. Instead, I think Dengar is the super arc dodger that Scum has needed! And because I loathe imperials, and especially Soontir Fel, I have spent hours trying to develop the perfect arc-dodging Dengar list I can possibly create to out-arc-dodge all of the arc-dodgers.

*CAVEAT: I’ll be the first to say that anything above PS9, like Darth Vader, VI Carnor, Poe, VI Han, and VI Corran is a completely different story. But if we’re being honest, Darth Vader is the only one I’m really worried about in today’s meta, and Vader w/o Autothrusters is not that much of a threat to Dengar.

So to start, I knew Dengar needed Push The Limit and Engine Upgrade. An arc-dodger is nothing without boost. What makes those little Interceptors so good is the ability to boost + barrel roll out of any arc. So we begin with:

Dengar w/ PTL, Engine Upgrade (40 points)

Immediately we know that this won’t be a cheap arc-dodger. But with a little more hull and shields, he should stay around long enough if you dodge arcs well. But of course, if you’re boosting & barrel rolling every turn with a 2-dice primary turret, you’re not going to do a lot of damage. So we need to add a little bit of OOMPH to him. This led me to:

Dengar w/ PTL, Engine Upgrade, Punishing One, K4 Security Droid, Unhinged Astromech (56 points)

The title is a given with Dengar. The key to this build is K4 + UA. There is a lot of green on the jumpmaster dial, and UA gives you 3 more options (including a crucial 3-right-bank option), leaving you with 9 greens . You’ll be able to PTL almost every turn without concern, unless you’re forced to do right turns.

So in theory, you should be able to do a 3 green bank, get the free target lock from K4, then boost/BR out of arc, and if you haven’t used both of those actions, grab a focus for extra attack efficiency (or for defense if you couldn’t get out of every arc).

Still with me? Okay. This is where it gets tough.

I really don’t think you can take any upgrade out and still have a true arc-dodging Dengar (though, feel free to disagree in the comments). You could of course go with VI or Adaptability, but you lose a lot of action efficiency if you guess wrong with your dial.

At PS9, though, you’ll be competing with other PS9 builds that really, really want to decide the initiative. Soontir Fels and Whispers will be eager to decide what happens at the beginning of the game. Well, as recent Hoth Open winner Ryan Fleming says, if you’re going to make a bid, make a real bid for the initiative . Taking a cue from him, I decided to shoot for a 97 point list . Not many people go that low for initiative bids. You frequently see 99’s, and a lot of 98’s, but 97 is a real risk. I think it’s absolutely mandatory for this version of Dengar, otherwise he will fall prey to Whisper and Soontir Fel quickly.

So that left me with one task: How do I fill 41 points in a SCUM list? I popped open the list builder app once on a 3 hour flight, and came up with 12 options, only a few of which I really like. Here are some of those lists with the positives/negatives:

Dengar w/ PTL, Engine Upgrade, Punishing One, K4 Security Droid, Unhinged Astromech (56 points)
Guri w/ Lone Wolf, Virago, Autothrusters, Sensor Jammer, Glitterstim (41 points)

Positives: Guri can be a jousting nightmare for some lists. Lone Wolf + Sensor Jammer gives her a little bit of help for when she comes under focused fire. Glitterstim for emergencies. If ignored until the late game, she will make them pay.

Negatives: Guri is in a Starviper. 1 shield and 4 hull just make you feel like you’re a waiter trying to stack 10 glass plates and not drop anything. One small bump and you feel the pain. I’ve had specific issues with any type of Crackshot lists against Guri. They will Crackshot any evades you get quickly, and then you’re dealing with crits. I personally feel Dengar’s mate in this list needs to have a little more life in them so Dengar can do his thing longer.

Dengar w/ PTL, Engine Upgrade, Punishing One, K4 Security Droid, Unhinged Astromech (56 points)
Bossk w/ VI, K4 Security Droid, 4-LOM, Zuckuss (41 points)

Positives: Bossk will hit like a truck. He’ll most likely have TL + Focus for the first engagement, and can easily use the bounty hunter crew to negate any blocking of his attack. At PS9 with Dengar, you can really mess with ace builds that want to fly around you. You can feel free to use Zuckuss crew often, because K4 will make sure you always get that TL.

Negatives: Scouts. A triple U-Boat player will likely destroy Bossk in 2 turns, and it’s even possible to kill him in 1 engagement with some good rolls. Also, without Feedback Array on Bossk, he is always susceptible to guys getting behind him and wreaking havoc. (On a side note, Bossk will benefit tremendously from the ilicit SLAM coming in Heroes of Resistance!). Bossk probably won’t last long against a good player, so you’ll need to be aggressive with Dengar and making sure you’re getting a lot of attacks in.

Dengar w/ PTL, Engine Upgrade, Punishing One, K4 Security Droid, Unhinged Astromech, Inertial Dampeners (57 points)
Tel Trevura w/ Deadeye, EM, Proton Torps, Boba Fett, R4 Agromech, Guidance Chips (40 points)

Positives: Good ole’ alpha strike! Tel will be able to scare an opponent with the torps + Boba Fett. It may make them be so aggressive with Tel, that Dengar is free to sneak into range 1 behind them. At 40 points, this allows you to throw Inertial Dampeners on Dengar, which could be vital for any turns that would place Dengar under multiple guns.

Negatives: As with any U-Boat with this build, Tel won’t offer you much after the torps are gone. She’ll probably be most valuable as a blocker if they have PS8’s or higher.

Dengar w/ PTL, Engine Upgrade, Punishing One, K4 Security Droid, Unhinged Astromech (56 points)
Kavil w/ VI, TLT, Unhinged Astromech, Bomb Loadout, EM, Thermal Detonators, Engine Upgrade (41 points)

Positives: I’ll admit this is a weird one, but I’m intrigued by a boosting Kavil at PS9 with a 97 point list. I toyed between Thermal Detonators or Prox Mines, but ultimately I think having Kavil’s action open for boosting is important, so that eliminates Prox Mines. But the idea is you have two PS9 boosters, who will be unloading a lot of dice at the other ships. TD’s will discourage aces from chasing too closely. (*** I posted this article on Team Covenant first, and Theorist gave a great idea to switch out UA and TD for "Genius" and Ion Bombs, which then gives me points for Glitterstim on Dengar. This sounds very fun as well.)

Negatives: Scouts again! Even if you avoid the Scout arcs, their 2 dice turrets with R4 Agromech will burn Kavil down quicker than you want. You would have to really keep Kavil on the fringe so no more than 1-2 of them can hit you with their turret.

So there you go . I have a few other ideas, but I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you can come up with a 41 point Aggressor build that pairs nicely, I’d love to see it! So far I haven’t been able to crack that code. If you're all about running Dengar as an arc-dodger, I'd love to hear what you're running and enjoying!

I like Dengar + Bossk best.

1) If someone does get behind Bossk, Dengar can help him out.

2) If the downside is Scouts, that's only 1 list.

3) Illicit Slam.

I vote for the Bossk Build. While scouts may be tricky, they're very winnable with this build, IMO. Even if after two rounds, you've traded Bossk for only one scout, Dengar should be able to be able to stay out of their arc and have a fair chance of taking them down before their 2 red primaries can whittle him down. Some fancy maneuvering will be key to maximize Dengar's ability.

Most lists without a good Alpha strike will struggle against this list as Dengar will be hard to hit and Bossk will take a long time to burn down, meanwhile, both can hit pretty hard.

An old goodie like BBBBZ might actually be one of the harder list for this to handle.

What about Dengar, title, Stay On Target, Outlaw Tech, and K4? At PS 9, you can go a lot of places after everyone has moved, but still get your re-rolls

The reason the boosting and Barrel rolling worked so well for dash was because he ignored obstacles. A good player is going to make you fight in the rocks where you don't have much room to arc dodge.

Guri has been my go to buddy but in the back of her potential fragility I've also had some interesting times with a light IG-C alongside Super Den.

Predator, AT, Sensors seems viable but you do sacrifice any kind of bid. Only VI/Adaptability 10s and 11s along with Whisper where that's really an issue though. Switching to Crackshot and FCS is good and gets you back to a 3pt bid but I personally miss the adv sensor slooping then. I'd be tempted to run Adc sensor still and just take the 2pt bid.

This is how I've been running Dengar since I got the JumpMaster. I've been trying to get Boba Fett to work with him, but there really aren't enough points left over to be effective.

I'm thinking a TLT Y-Wing and Kihraxz or two Cartel Marauders with Glitterstim may be better.

Ignore this. Sorry, don't know what happened and can't erase.

I'm not sure if this is a "Dengar for dummies" topic, but you could've just said you wanted to discuss wingmen for Super Dengar (the nickname given to the Dengar focused on arc dodging, that relates to Super Dash). These forums are well aware of the archetype and this particular discussion has been going on for some time now, although scattered across many topics in the past.

(not trying to be an ass, just saying you could've saved some trouble)

Aside from Guri, who is the natural Super Dengar wingwoman, I like two very specific partners for him:

Kavil (24):

• Deadeye (1)
• Proton Torpedoes (4)
• Extra Munitions (2)
• Guidance Chips (0)
• Blaster Turret (4)
• R4 Agromech (2)

Total: 37 pts

First of all, Extra Munitions can be replaced by Bomb Loadout/bomb of choice, as you may not shoot the 2nd torp in most games.

Now, this Kavil is a threat in nearly all ranges and arcs. Deadeye/Blaster Turret/R4 Agromech get him covered in all zones and synergize beautifully. The only thing to look ou for is to not allow him to be blocked. Other than that, he's a fantastic partner for Dengar, on which you can add Glitterstim now.

Manaroo (27):

• Opportunist (4)
• Proton Torpedoes (4)
• Extra Munitions (2)
• Guidance Chips (0)
• K4 Security Droid (3)
• Unhinged Astromech (1)

Total: 41 pts

A Manaroo with teeth. Lots of teeth.

Looks weird. But it's easier to fly and more effective than it seems.

Low PS allows her to abuse that Opportunist, since Dengar will likely force the opponent to spend whatever tokens are left for defense. Suddenly, turret attacks are no longer lacking and torps attacks can actually 1-shot lots of stuff.

K4/Unhinged sync is well-known now, same engine Dengar uses for action-economy.

After torps are gone, unlike Scout, Manaroo still hits hard enough and can support Dengar, if need be.

This is how I've been running Dengar. I've been trying to get Boba Fett to work, but there really aren't enough points left over to be effective.

I'm thinking a TLT Y-Wing and Kihraxz or two Cartel Marauders with Glitterstim may be better.

Super Dengar (56):

Boba Fett (39):

• Adaptability (0)
• Engine Upgrade (4)
• 4-LOM (1)

Total: 44 pts

Try this. 4-LOM compliments Boba beautifully, more so when hunting aces.

Guri has been my go to buddy but in the back of her potential fragility I've also had some interesting times with a light IG-C alongside Super Den.

Predator, AT, Sensors seems viable but you do sacrifice any kind of bid. Only VI/Adaptability 10s and 11s along with Whisper where that's really an issue though. Switching to Crackshot and FCS is good and gets you back to a 3pt bid but I personally miss the adv sensor slooping then. I'd be tempted to run Adc sensor still and just take the 2pt bid.

Love it. I actually started with a 100 point version with a 44pt IG-C w/ Predator, Adv Sensor, AT. It was a lot of fun, but I hated losing the initiative bid. Tried it with Lone Wolf on IG-C and had some success, but it's still 99pts.

@K Genesis: I appreciate your thoughts here. I decided to lay it out the way I did while thinking of newer players. I think us veterans on this forum can make a lot of assumptions about what new players know and understand, so I wanted to explain how and why I made the list the way I did. We do the same thing on the Stay On Target podcast, because we hear from new players all the time that feel like they get lost easily. In any case, really liked your take on Manaroo. Manaroo can play a lot of different roles, and you can tailor it to the list you're flying against. May have to give that a try!

@K Genesis: I appreciate your thoughts here. I decided to lay it out the way I did while thinking of newer players. I think us veterans on this forum can make a lot of assumptions about what new players know and understand, so I wanted to explain how and why I made the list the way I did. We do the same thing on the Stay On Target podcast, because we hear from new players all the time that feel like they get lost easily. In any case, really liked your take on Manaroo. Manaroo can play a lot of different roles, and you can tailor it to the list you're flying against. May have to give that a try!

I stand enlightened. Solid points.

Also, on your IG wish, I change Dengar a bit to fit in.

Dengar (33):

• Predator (3)
• Recon Specialist (3)
• R5-P8 (3)
• Punishing One (12)

Total: 54 pts

IG-88C (36):

• Predator (3)
• Sensor Jammer (4)
• Autothrusters (2)

Total: 45 pts

Not the ideal bid, but gets the job done.

This setup makes Dengar's ability not-so-much a trap, as you can still rely on BR to arc-dodge and have two powerful shots (or solid defense) on Dengar with action-economy.

IG-C is lean and mean. Tough to break and a really undesirable target, pairing up very well with Dengar's deterrent.

I ran a game against double ghosts using a slightly different dengar (rec spec and k4 to maximize offense) alongside Xizor with VI, fcs, title, autothrusters, hot shot blaster. Still a starviper, and less defensive ghan guri without sensor jammer, but ps9 lets you arcdodge some, albeit only with one action instead of two like soontir, etc. worked beautifully that game, won 100-0 (dengar had 1 shield left, only got shot at a single turn I couldnt dodge my opponents rear arc torpedo a d ghe ofher ghost at the same time), xizor had 2h left(direct hit after losing shield) and got shot a couple more times but avoided any more damage.

For next time Im planing to change out xizor's hsb to cloaking, glitterstim, or ID (something cheaper for initiative bid, was at 99 last nigt), and go to standard super dengar with k4/unhinged, but I also added a feedback array (had that last night, didnt use it because ghosts). Gives me an extra bonus against dodgy aces if I need it

The reason the boosting and Barrel rolling worked so well for dash was because he ignored obstacles. A good player is going to make you fight in the rocks where you don't have much room to arc dodge.

While I agree that Dash's ability is a huge part of what makes him work, I'll counter with 2 points:

1) Rock placement. While running this list, I don't make a bunch of tight asteroid triangles, like one may do with Dash. A good player can push me toward the rocks, but if they're setup the way I want them to, it shouldn't end Dengar at all.

2) What is the "good player" flying? Theoretically, a good player should be able to do anything he wants, but that's why PS9 and a 97 point initiative bid is so crucial. You can react with Dengar to their ship movements, as long as they're not PS10 or higher.

@K Genesis: I appreciate your thoughts here. I decided to lay it out the way I did while thinking of newer players. I think us veterans on this forum can make a lot of assumptions about what new players know and understand, so I wanted to explain how and why I made the list the way I did. We do the same thing on the Stay On Target podcast, because we hear from new players all the time that feel like they get lost easily.

Not just new players, but old players that don't live on the forums, too. I feel like I've read a fair bit of Dengar lists, but this is the first time I've seen a list dedicated to Dengar as an arc-dodger, so I appreciate the detailed walkthrough of how you put the entire list together.

EDIT: My one piece of advice: this should probably go in the squad-building sub-forum since at its heart, this is a topic about building a certain squad.