Hi guys,

Am still pretty new to the game, so have not been around when rebels were high and mighty, and totally OP, but it sure seems today, that Rebels are very much lagging behind, I have been to a bunch of tournaments, where Scum and Imperial are all over the place, but Rebels are very few and far between.

Are there any Rebel buiilds out there doing well?? The most I have seen, are the Dash and Ghost builds, apart from that, hardly anything to be seen.

I really like Poe, but again, you never see him around anymore.

And with wave 9 coming, with more Scum love, it seems Rebels will still be taking a back seat.

Which is all well and good, for the guys that were playing from the start, but us new guys, it really sucks that they are lagging so far behind.

I sure hope FFG, can bring a little love back for Rebels, at least make them viable.

Paul

Poe is EVERYWHERE! The Rebels are stronger than ever.

Check out this website:
http://xwing.miniranker.com/

Currently I'm on an all X-wing kick:

A Corran, Biggs and Wes Janson list won both Salt Lake City and Billings Regionals, flown by Dan Hars. "Rebel Regen" is still good against Imperials, but lacks the staying power against the Scum U-Boats, as do Rebel Control staples like the Stresshog. If you are going to attend a tournament, though, and don't expect to see lots of ordnance (Such as the U-Boats), then both of those things can still be very effective.

FFG had there chance to make rebels viable by introducing a torpedo scout (and dengaroo) hard counter in the form of R3 astromech that let you spend a focus to remove a focus from the attacker (before dice mod step)

alas, we got some utter garbage instead and now have to wait for Heroes of the Resistance

honestly, though, apart from Torp Scouts there isn't a list out there I feel is even a little unmanageable (including Dengaroo). Torp scouts just put too much pressure with an incredible damage output and health value for you to win reliably against them.

All FACTIONS are viable. All SHIPS are viable. All PILOTS are viable.

yet... not all PLAYERS are viable.

Super Dash is always a PITA to kill.

The 'standard' strong rebel archetypes are not as strong in the current meta. Slightly outside of the box lists have done well as mentioned above. I ran a triple T-65 list for fun at a FLGS a week or 3 ago. Lately I have been playing round with imperials because a favorite nostalgic ship got some love. If your not out to win at all costs rebels still have fun viable lists, but are not quite as efficient at the moment when paired against some popular Imp/Scum lists.

Well regardless of the many posts on this board it is nice to see that some like the old T-65 X-Wings.

[Edit] P.S. I don't really play in tournaments so I can't add to the OP. Just my happiness that some play X-Wings are are pleased.

Rebels are good to play. With PS 9 Poe coming down the pike, and Rey. there going to beast a lot of stuff. Fat Han is still a Term that is used and I believe the Falcon is still the best selling ship from FFG. We see people flying K-wings not to long ago. People in general like to play with what is newest but don't be surprised if we see some Rebel love at worlds.

It's an obvious reflection of US politics. I admire them for having the guts to do it really.

Sanders was the rebel candidate, he lost. So rebels are gone from the meta...

Clinton is the imperial candidate. Still stong, still slippery in the meta...

Trump is the S&V candidate. And they are brutal and rampant!

With wave nine and the scum help it's easy to see that FFG are calling a Trump win.

The funny thing is now the rebel leader is trying to get his supporters to back the Imperials so that the S&V don't take the crown. What card has yet to be spoiled that reflects this eh?

Please only reply in humour, this is parody! (But scary parody).

I have been running bombing K-Wings and have been seeing success. Miranda and a Guardian w/ TLTs, advanced slam, Sabine, bombaduer, and your choice of bombs. Conner nets into proton bombs have netted me a lot of damage.

Rebels are good, but have different tricks than Scum and Imperial. I personally love Lothal\Dash in this current wave.

Rebels are viable. Just not the gatekeepers anymore.

It's an obvious reflection of US politics. I admire them for having the guts to do it really.

Sanders was the rebel candidate, he lost. So rebels are gone from the meta...

Clinton is the imperial candidate. Still stong, still slippery in the meta...

Trump is the S&V candidate. And they are brutal and rampant!

With wave nine and the scum help it's easy to see that FFG are calling a Trump win.

The funny thing is now the rebel leader is trying to get his supporters to back the Imperials so that the S&V don't take the crown. What card has yet to be spoiled that reflects this eh?

Please only reply in humour, this is parody! (But scary parody).

And then there are those who support none of the above, represented by the...Jawa Faction, maybe?

...ok, now I actually kind of want to see a sand spacecrawler. Utinni!

Rebels are viable. Just not the gatekeepers anymore.

pretty accurate rendition of what rebels currently seem like

I love that people say a faction making up 5% of the top cut at nationals and system opens is viable. No, rebels are awful right now. They're in the worst shape any faction has been on since the game launched. This isn't whining, its reporting evidence

They apparently haven't been doing so well.

But your best bets are Ghosts (sometimes in multiples), the T-70, and funny enough, the T-65 Xwing.

If you're starting the game now. Those are the 3 I'd get. Core, Ghost, Old Core. Then wait for Heroes of the Resistance to come out to get you a shiny new Falcon and another T-70. Easily an extremely viable set of options.

Totalling about $100 if you buy online or in store with a little discount.

Rebels are at a disadvantage currently. They struggle versus Palp/Aces and Jumpmasters especially. Doesn't mean you cant win but they are at a distinct disadvantage.

Everyone saying the factions are all so balanced is full of you know what.

Part of it is Rebels are not in a great spot right now as they haven't kept up with the power creep as well as Imp/Scum and part of it is the increase in player base.

The increase in the player base means an increase in top tier players. If there is a top list archetype(s) and more people willing to only play such, it will continue to reduce the number of other lists present. The final cut isn't growing.

they don't struggle versus Palp Aces AND jumpmasters, they struggle versus Palp Aces OR jumpmasters

you can make a squad that is almost auto-win against one (i.e, conner nets v Palp aces or higher PS ordnance v jumpmasters), but which will get annihilated by the other

there's not a lot of middle ground for rebels to take

Rebels are not in a very good place right now. I was hoping the ARC would be better than is (actually the ship is fine, I'm just not super impressed with the pilot abilities and lack of EPTs on two of the pilots) and that the upgrades would be more useful, especially R3. I'm still holding out hope that HotR will be full of useful things and help bring Rebels back up to par.

You'd hope they'd make main character crew cards like Rey and Finn good so people want to use them but then I look at the existing crew cards for Han (only good in epic), Luke (costs too much. Only 1 less point than the Emperor!), Leia (not really useful anywhere and overpriced), Lando (very thematic and fun in casual but you can't count on him competitively), Chewy (actually, he has decent ability). Funny that R2 and 3PO have the best crew abilities of all the original trilogy rebel characters...

Hoping when they do X-Wing 2.0 that they revamp Han, Luke, and Leia to make them desirable to use. It's just sad to have a Star Wars game and have them sitting on the sidelines. Also, pilot card for Leia please.

Rebels are not in a very good place right now. I was hoping the ARC would be better than is (actually the ship is fine, I'm just not super impressed with the pilot abilities and lack of EPTs on two of the pilots) and that the upgrades would be more useful, especially R3. I'm still holding out hope that HotR will be full of useful things and help bring Rebels back up to par.

so this is something I want to address because I'm head over heels in love with the sexy thing that is the ARC, but it is basically exactly what the problem with rebels is currently in regards to torpedo scouts

Torpedo scouts present a very simple problem of an incredible amount of damage.

This is enough damage to push 1 or 2 points onto even the hyper defensive palp aces, but against most rebel ships especially those with 1 agility it's almost guaranteed death in a round

the counter to this is not R3's crappy evade, but stuff like Wes Jenson/Palob/Old Terry that removes the rather impressive amount of modifiers these ships are capable of producing

so it's not like Rebels are utterly ******, we're just missing an upgrade or two that gives high health with practically no damage mitigation a chance to survive an incredibly powerful alpha strike

slapping such a capability onto an astromech (When defending, before the "Modify Attack Dice Step", you may spend one of your focus tokens to remove a focus token from the attacker) would

1.) limit the impact of a torpedo scout list's incredible alpha strike

2.) force imperial aces to think twice about attacking your ships, as they risk losing their defensive focus

3.) give the VERY defensively challenged 1 agi Y and ARC a much needed bit of defensive tech (1 agi when focused is pretty naff; better to spend the focus to limit the enemy's offense)

that's all rebels need, really, a way to counteract the hyper modification of red/green dice in more ways than just "Wes Jenson." Guaranteed damage would be that way, if the incredible damage output and high health of the triple scout list didn't completely stone-wall you there.

we can hope to get it in Heroes (perhaps even on the one unique astro it's coming with), I suppose

It's too bad the ARC pilots seem so meh. I think it'll be fun to use, but not particularly competitive. as a particular downside they are basically the perfect target for U Boats.

honestly, relative to the grand scheme of things, Norra and Thane are pretty stellar. Norra gets the ability to punch way above her ship-class (or simply get more reliable rolls) while Thane is just straight good action efficiency or Bigg's ability, both of which are pretty **** spiffy

sure, Norra needs PTL (or kyle katarn with r3-a2), but needing PTL is the same "problem" soontir has

disregarding their deathly allergies to torp scouts, they're pretty great pilots

Shara's got some straight jank and Braylen's basically might as well not exist, but he's the "generic" of the pack and it's more of a nice bonus when using r3-a2 than anything

I really want to like the ARCs,I think it's a beautiful looking ship, but I think it's going to suffer the same problem that the B-Wing does which is that they cost a ton of points base and then you have to sink a ton more points into them (exception being Thane) to get the most out of them. Now you have a 30-40 point ship with middling pilot skill and poor defensive abilities that is prey for just about everything else popular in the meta right now. Palp Aces, Torps Scouts, Dengaroo, soon enough Protectorate Fighters, are all going to murder the poor ARCs.

Now obviously I haven't played with them, I intend to play them extensively just as soon as I can get my hands on a pair, and I sincerely hope I'm wrong and find some excellent build that makes me realize I was wrong all along, but on paper I think the ARC is going to have a real problem cracking this meta.

Edit: Also, maybe there is something in HotR that has amazing synergy with the ARC and then all of my doom and gloom will be for nothing.