In my other thread,

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/228025-wave-9-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

I summarized Wave 9 as the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, with each faction playing one of these, specifically with Scum, Rebels and Empire respectively.

In this thread I will explain why I feel that Scum is the Good. First I will talk about the ships in terms of miniatures and then in terms of gameplay.

So the two Scum ships, The Fang Fighter and the Shadow Caster are both beautiful miniatures. I particularly like the Fang. It was awesome in the Rebels cartoon and I think it looks really good and the colors go good together. I think I might paint one of mine with the diamond color scheme in the card art though. The Shadow Caster, while it looks good, might need a repaint because it looks kinda "cartoonish" and mine isn't painted particularly great either. Also i feel like the scale is off. As it is now, it is as big as, if not bigger than, the Ghost, and I don't feel like that was the case in the show. Overall though, both models are pretty good.

As far as gameplay goes, the Fang Fighter is just what the doctor ordered for the Scum faction. Finally a true arc dodger with an awesome dial to boot. But wait that's not all! The title and new EPT make you almost want to forgo arc dodging and boosting into Range 1 arc for the extra bonuses. In my experience so far, I think the best way is the take advantage of the title until you are down some health, then arc dodge to stay alive. So far it has been very effective and Rau is an utter beast at Range one with Title and Fearlessness! Just be careful because with no shields, crits hit hard. I lost Old Teroch in one game pretty quick when I made one bad roll at Range 2 followed by a second bad roll at Range 1. It happens. The naned pilots for the Fang all have pretty good abilities, and of course Rau stands out as a slightly better Talonbane(at least at Range 1) but don't discount Old Teroch and Kad Sollus. Taking a focus can really shut down Uboats and getting 2 focusses after a red is awesome with a 2 taking roll or if/when you take the crit that makes your turns red. Anyways, in case you can't tell, I really enjoyed playing with the Fang. As far as the Shadow Caster goes, at times it almost seems too good. It's dial bothers me with all green 3 maneuvers and white 5 straight. My inner fan boy is screaming that no ship should be faster than an Awing or Interceptor anyway, but definitely not faster than the Falcon! But it is. Give it Engine Upgrade and it can go 10 spaces on turn one! Pretty crazy! I really feel like the 5 straight should have been red. Then at least you could not boost afterwards. Anyway, the new IG crew is pretty cool. It will make alot more "Brobots" lists. The mobile arc is very fun and brings new challenges to the game instead of just moving and using your PWT, you really have to anticipate your opponent's move. The new pilots abilities are ok, but Ventress will find a place in the meta I think. Anyway the Shadow Caster is good, but not game breaking, just good fun.

That's my initial thoughts on the Scum ships for Wave 9. What do you think? Have you used them yet, or are you still theory crafting? Let me know.

Fangs have been food for r3-a2 braylen

so I guess they are "a true arc-dodger" in the sense that they're utterly ****** without actions

after yet a another couple more round v Rau, I gotta say it's probably the least interesting and easily the most overrated ship in the wave

The problem IMO with Fang Fighter is that it's a high risk medium reward ship.

It's significantly less survivable than an Imperial Ace (due to no Evade and no Palp it has almost 0 protection vs. bad dice) but it doesn't provide a big enough offense boost (apart from Fenn Rau maybe) to compensate.

The problem IMO with Fang Fighter is that it's a high risk medium reward ship.

It's significantly less survivable than an Imperial Ace (due to no Evade and no Palp it has almost 0 protection vs. bad dice) but it doesn't provide a big enough offense boost (apart from Fenn Rau maybe) to compensate.

The generics are a point too expensive and Fenn is about two waves too late.

I mean, he still has a place, but the timing is not the best... and nor is the design space, in the sense of "It's a wave II ship with a couple fancy reds" at a time when dials are getting increasingly diverse and funky. I'll say it again: They could've been a little less conservative (My own money was on 'scyk greens, with hard green 1s') and the ship would've been all the more interesting for it - and with very little balance risk.

Instead we've got an agression-loving Soontir Fel. We kinda already know how he flies, eh?

Still the wrong wave for such a hull, though. Shrug.

it's not really a bad ship, it's just more of the same

and given how palp aces remain one of the dominant archetypes, you're going to have Rau pegged and countered by changing pretty much nothing in your playstyle or squad composition

changing the dial around or adding an evade or anything wouldn't have mattered at all, it's still a low health high agility arc-dodger that we already have plenty of

in a wave containing the lovely ARC and the fascinating shadowcaster, imo it's pretty bland

So the Shadow Caster pilots do have decent pilot abilities. But the ship has the stats and price of a firespray, which is lackluster. So far I am unconvinced about its capabilities. Boba Fett can win a store championship, but he's not going to make top8 at worlds. Why won't Shadow Casters fall into this same category?

mobile arc and more interesting pilot abilities basically

it is a lot more flexible to fly than the spray; if you can abuse that flexibility you can make it do a lot more work

So the Shadow Caster pilots do have decent pilot abilities. But the ship has the stats and price of a firespray, which is lackluster. So far I am unconvinced about its capabilities. Boba Fett can win a store championship, but he's not going to make top8 at worlds. Why won't Shadow Casters fall into this same category?

As a competitive X-Wing player myself, I have to say that this reasoning does not work.

The Shadowcaster looks like a fun ship to fly. It also looks like it leaves room for interesting and dynamic combos.

Every ship does not have to make it to the top mat at worlds... which is good, considering how few have . Not to mention that the ones that did might not be considered "Worlds" class ships...

Fang Fighter just needs one thing to help it out.

Biggs.

I think there are a number of things in Scum that will impact Soontir Fel enough to make some people not fly him so much. If PTL Arc Dodgers are less of a thing, it actually helps Rebels out significantly. So, while I think Wave 9 is great for Scum, I think it also opens a lot up for Rebels, too.

rebels always had anti-soonts tech

r3-a2 Ys and pre-errata tactician ks took care of him no problem, not even counting how sabine conners are basically auto-win against aces. hell, autoblaster ghosts already ruin his ****

what we need is anti-scout tech

The old Rebel anti-Soontir tech still had to get a shot at him to work. That's been the hard part. Soontir can take the long way around to come in mid game.

I think once Soontir isn't a huge counter then Rebels will be able to use options to burn down U-boats. Just get a number of ships that fire before PS 3 and burn down a U-boat before it fires.

range 3 isn't really hard to draw on soonts

not to mention A-slam conners neither has to shoot, roll dice OR give a crap about arc dodging

Fangs have been food for r3-a2 braylen

so I guess they are "a true arc-dodger" in the sense that they're utterly ****** without actions

after yet a another couple more round v Rau, I gotta say it's probably the least interesting and easily the most overrated ship in the wave

It is a true arc dodger because it has a high PS option, both Boost and Barrel Roll and a pretty good dial with lots of green to make good use of PTL

The problem IMO with Fang Fighter is that it's a high risk medium reward ship.

It's significantly less survivable than an Imperial Ace (due to no Evade and no Palp it has almost 0 protection vs. bad dice) but it doesn't provide a big enough offense boost (apart from Fenn Rau maybe) to compensate.

The generics are a point too expensive and Fenn is about two waves too late.

I mean, he still has a place, but the timing is not the best... and nor is the design space, in the sense of "It's a wave II ship with a couple fancy reds" at a time when dials are getting increasingly diverse and funky. I'll say it again: They could've been a little less conservative (My own money was on 'scyk greens, with hard green 1s') and the ship would've been all the more interesting for it - and with very little balance risk.

Instead we've got an agression-loving Soontir Fel. We kinda already know how he flies, eh?

Still the wrong wave for such a hull, though. Shrug.

This is true, but not everything has to be as good as something else to be good.Also fun and playability is as important as competitive edge in my book.

it's not really a bad ship, it's just more of the same

and given how palp aces remain one of the dominant archetypes, you're going to have Rau pegged and countered by changing pretty much nothing in your playstyle or squad composition

changing the dial around or adding an evade or anything wouldn't have mattered at all, it's still a low health high agility arc-dodger that we already have plenty of

in a wave containing the lovely ARC and the fascinating shadowcaster, imo it's pretty bland

Fair enough, but at least Scum has an "aces" style option now. Two Aces with one of the plethora of Scums superior large ships might be different enough to be a winning combination. Time will tell.

So the Shadow Caster pilots do have decent pilot abilities. But the ship has the stats and price of a firespray, which is lackluster. So far I am unconvinced about its capabilities. Boba Fett can win a store championship, but he's not going to make top8 at worlds. Why won't Shadow Casters fall into this same category?

As a competitive X-Wing player myself, I have to say that this reasoning does not work.

The Shadowcaster looks like a fun ship to fly. It also looks like it leaves room for interesting and dynamic combos.

Every ship does not have to make it to the top mat at worlds... which is good, considering how few have . Not to mention that the ones that did might not be considered "Worlds" class ships...

This is my take exactly!

Fang Fighter just needs one thing to help it out.

Biggs.

Again not everyone needs a Biggs or Palpatine to be good or viable or just fun to fly.

I think there are a number of things in Scum that will impact Soontir Fel enough to make some people not fly him so much. If PTL Arc Dodgers are less of a thing, it actually helps Rebels out significantly. So, while I think Wave 9 is great for Scum, I think it also opens a lot up for Rebels, too.

This is a good point

rebels always had anti-soonts tech

r3-a2 Ys and pre-errata tactician ks took care of him no problem, not even counting how sabine conners are basically auto-win against aces. hell, autoblaster ghosts already ruin his ****

what we need is anti-scout tech

This is a better point. Although I did do ok with Old Teroch and Fen Rau boosting into Range one, stealing a U-boats focus token, then blasting the crap out of him.

Terry and rau are good anti scout but theyarentv rebel scum

They're just scum