Let's see if I can remember the list I came up with. Havnt made a command deck for it yet.

Under duress 2

IG-88 12

Prey upon the weak 1

(Dunno name, but the only troopers available on the scum faction) 6

Trandoshan hunters 7X2 (they cost 7 ya?)

Hired guns 4

So, 5 activations, some fairly speedy models, guaranteed strain, 1 "super" model to make them scared lol Any thoughts? I havnt played with ANY of these squads, not sure how they'll hold up, let alone how they'll work out when all together. But the idea is the hunters will be forward, wanting to get close for the strain. Guards will be behind them, throwing out strain to whoever attacks the hunters. IG-88 engages whoever looks scary as the other squads get objectives done. I'm inexperienced, but from what I've seen, command cards win games lol! I want to give my opponent an incentive to throw it away. And if he does your, well then his models die faster. Win win I think

FWIW: Scum Trooper are called "Wing Guards"

IA Armies is always useful when trying to remember these things.

I'd drop IG-88 for Bossk personally

If you want to do a strain list I'd be tempted to get at least 3 squads of trandoshans like:

Bossk: 8

Elite Wing Guards: 9

Trandoshan Hunters x3: 21

Under Duress: 2

You lose a little mobility and numbers but you will absolutely wreck your opponents command deck.

Regular Trandoshans are great.

Bossk is better than IG-88 in that list.

Hired Guns are great for ojectives and Terminals.

Try to fit Gideon and 3PO in your list.

You don't need Wing Guards for a strain list.

Under Duress will make your opponent take damage more often instead of dropping cards. This is not bad, but maybe not what you're intending.

Gideon

3PO

Alliance

Hired Guns

Bossk

3 x Trandoshans

Devious Scheme

or

Gideon

3PO

Alliance

Hired Guns

4 x Trandoshans

Under Duress

Here's the primary problem with Strain builds: the choice is your opponent's. (Now, this post is written from a tournament, bring-your-top-game-and-try-to-win perspective. Are strain decks tons of fun? Absolutely! Are they a top tier list? Absolutely not! --Yet, at least.)

Zillo Technique is considered one of the best 1-point upgrades in the game atm. Partly due to being able to negate 2 pierce once per turn, but primarily because it allows you to discard any command card for +1 block on an attack. Usually used either on attacks against your linchpin unit (Inquisitor, Champion, Vader), or on a unit that will survive the attack only if you add the block. In that scenario, it often (not always!) means that a unit that would have died otherwise lives to activate, or at least requires another shot to finally finish off--a shot that would have gone to a different unit. And you might even get lucky and discard-survive that next attack too!

Most tournament games last 3-4 rounds, and you can usually expect to hold one terminal the majority of the time. This means that you can usually mill between four and eight cards without losing any draws. (Depending on quite a number of factors, including speed of play, cards with draw effects like Rebel High Command and Planning, how often Leia is shuffling command cards back into the deck, and so on.) Even with Duress, that's still 2-4 damage that can safely be negated. Without Duress, strain works almost exactly the same as Zillo, except your opponent doesn't have to discard from their hand (which actually has both advantages and disadvantages)--so they can then follow the same rules as Zillo on whether to mill or not. Their choice, and any competent opponent will make the choice that's best for -them-, not you. As their cards are milled, they'll also have an increasingly accurate idea of what's left to draw, and therefore be able to more accurately decide whether the remaining cards are worth milling. Even better, they can often hold off on the last 2-4 cards milled until the final round (when they can't draw any more cards anyway), which will leave those cards available for strain prevention right at those key final minutes of the game.

Therefore, strain-dealing units need to be -better- than similar units that instead deal actual damage. But most of the units that are best for dealing strain are...not quite top-tier, even if your opponent has no cards to mill to prevent damage. Bossk (and -sort of- the Nexus) is the only exception, although an argument can be made for Ugnaughts and their Junk Droid bleeding everything out. Of the other units that commonly deal strain, Trandoshans and rWing Guards aren't quite good enough for their cost, Fett is way overcosted, the eWing Guards--while great units--deal you strain as well, and Keep the Peace triggers from your opponent's choices (who do they attack?) again.

And finally, after all that, Under Duress costs 2 points for its at-best dubious returns. If I see a strain deck on the other side of the table, I smile inside because quite frankly? Statistical outliers aside, I've probably already won.

I loved battling my friend using my strain squad. It's been awhile but I believe I used

Gideon

C-3PO

TA

Bossk

E. Wing Guards

E. Trandos

Hired guns

Under Duress and another skirmish upgrade card to round out to 40

Per Indy's post, my squad works for fun/casual play where you don't mind playing to the end but I'd probably bring something else if I wanted to play competitively

Im trying a strain list right now and it seems pretty effective.

My opponents almost always take damage instead of milling which leads with quick kills.

Bossk

IG-88

Wing Guards

E. Trandoshans

Under Duress

+ some cheap upgrades