Conventional wisdom seems to be that Triple Jumps have prevented Rebels from using the stresshog effectively, letting aces run rampant in the meta. With the recent FAQ eliminating the Deadeye/R4 combo while preserving the overclocked option, Jumps seem a bit more vulnerable to stress control. The issue of surviving the alpha strike still remains, but could a PS 4 Gray squadron stresshog find a place in the new meta? Perhaps paired with Biggs and Wes, who are proven against both aces and triple jumps. I'm envisioning something along the lines of:

Gray Squadron Pilot (28)

Twin Laser Turret, R3-A2, BTL-A4 Y-wing

Wes Janson (32)

VI, BB-8, Integrated Astro

Biggs Darklighter (26)

R4-D6, Integrated Astro

Tala Squadron Pilot (13)

What do people think?

If i didn't think rebel control were dead forever thats what I would play.

There's two problems with that list as presented. One is damage output, i think you're asking way too much from wes and biggs who will only ever attack with 3 dice and focus. The second is likley game flow, you're very likley to have stresshog on the board as your last ship, that's not a great place to be. I'm not saying that the list concept is awful, but as somone who prior to wave played exclusively rebel control, i didn't like that list enough to bring it to bring it to regionals or nationals and i don't like it enough to bring it to gen con.

The biggest danger with bringing the stress hog back is the new Defenders. Tie/D's will eat 1 agility ships alive while x7's won't care. Ryad in particular won't care.

Very true. Damage output would definitely be a problem... which is why I should probably stick to scum. Could Biggs and the Tala be swapped out for a 40-pt ace?

I'd probably take Hobbie with R3-A2 over a Y-Wing there, allowing you to self clear the stress each turn and keeping your dial open.

Scouts are still there though

The loss of r4 aggro didn't remove their TLT slaying alpha; just the late game potential (full mod pwt + 4lom kills even whisper), boba synergy and near guaranteed 4 hits via proton Torps

Conventional wisdom seems to be that Triple Jumps have prevented Rebels from using the stresshog effectively, letting aces run rampant in the meta. With the recent FAQ eliminating the Deadeye/R4 combo while preserving the overclocked option, Jumps seem a bit more vulnerable to stress control. The issue of surviving the alpha strike still remains, but could a PS 4 Gray squadron stresshog find a place in the new meta? Perhaps paired with Biggs and Wes, who are proven against both aces and triple jumps. I'm envisioning something along the lines of:

Gray Squadron Pilot (28)

Twin Laser Turret, R3-A2, BTL-A4 Y-wing

Wes Janson (32)

VI, BB-8, Integrated Astro

Biggs Darklighter (26)

R4-D6, Integrated Astro

Tala Squadron Pilot (13)

What do people think?

I'm thinking that the single biggest deterrent to the stresshog would be Ryad. Especially x7 Ryad. Moves later, since the Y-Wing is not traditionally a blocker it means she's safe, and also can take whatever distance kio is necessary. Has the speed and dial to converge quickly on the Y-Wing, and staying power to last the fight. If you seed initiative to your opponent, it's possible you could barrel roll to avoid being drawn to Biggs if your main target is the stressbot first, and honestly Biggs gets his ass handed to him by Defenders anyway. In fact your entire list is seriously threatened by new Defenders, and that includes Wes. With the action economy granted by the x7 and TIE shuttle squads, even his ability to strip one token doesn't pull its weight if ps 5-8 Defenders all get to outfly him. He just becomes an X-Wing with a big bull's-eye on his back. And with the various EPTs like Juke and Predator (and to a lesser extent Outmaneuver), the Defenders can seriously stretch their action economy.

Now it's possible that I haven't played anyone who really really knows the Stresshog's ins and outs, but from what I've seen of them they try to do one of two things: weave slowly through a fight (lasting about long enough to really put the hurt on one action dependent ace before being either killed or out of the fight too long to prove useful mid-game) or k-turning: neither of which is very helpful against a Defender. And against two of them, you may as well park the thing, power down, and flip on the radio. Also, as some others have pointed out, damage potential means you're not likely to punch through their many tokens. After all, Wes only gets to shoot at one ship per turn.

But yeah, in summary: against this list specifically and the Stresshog in general, Ryad is terrifyingly deadly.

Oh man, I haven't had a chance to play since veterans hit. I completely forgot about how monstrous defenders are now.

...I wonder if Ion Stresshog might make a comeback.

It's got a smaller zone of doublestress (R1-2 vs R2-3) but if it can hit it, even a Y wing dial can outmaneuver that target.

Scouts are still there though

The loss of r4 aggro didn't remove their TLT slaying alpha; just the late game potential (full mod pwt + 4lom kills even whisper), boba synergy and near guaranteed 4 hits via proton Torps

The biggest problem I think that this list is going to have against triple U-Boats is that the it has low enough agility that the U-Boats would stand a decent chance of winning just by trying to stay out of arc and using nothing but their turrets.

...I wonder if Ion Stresshog might make a comeback.

It's got a smaller zone of doublestress (R1-2 vs R2-3) but if it can hit it, even a Y wing dial can outmaneuver that target.

Without a second source for ion tokens, I think it will be weaker compared to the TLT version in a meta where large ships are common.

Oh man, I haven't had a chance to play since veterans hit. I completely forgot about how monstrous defenders are now.

They absolutely are. My favorite squad at the moment has been this, a slight modification of one I posted in a different thread.

Squad: Super Diddly-feet.

Maarek Stele (TIE Defender) (35)

Predator (3)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE/x7 (-2)

Countess Ryad (34)

Predator (3)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE/x7 (-2)

Gamma Squadron Veteran (19)

Determination (1)

Fleet Officer (3)

Mara Jade (3)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

TIE Shuttle (0)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

From the original, it tosses out Juke for Predator, and ditches Systems Officer for Fleet Officer (since the Defenders are already given some rerolls, it was redundant). However, it loses its initiative bid. In most of the games I've played with it, the Bomber never even needed to fire but I still won them. If the opponent focuses it down, then it still leaves two healthy Defenders with good action economy. And of course, everyone who flies bombers knows they sometimes have that turn where they magically evade everything somehow anyway, and if that happens, your opponents are likely to be very stressed out. Or wait... that's because you've just flown Mara Jade straight into their formation. Sometimes the Bomber becomes a heavy priority to your opponent because leaving it on the board means no k-turns, but if they kill it you don't actually suffer much of a reduction in combat effectiveness (especially if you weren't flying with the intention of getting to shoot with it in the first place).