I tried a very, very simple build yesterday for the first time:

Ketsu: VI, Dengar, Title and engine upgrade

4 x Z-95

(97 point bid)

One tractor beam token makes another player wary of those Z-95... two makes them very, very serious threats... and when you also managed to push the offending ship on an asteroid, then that can really ruin your opponent's day.

I found it interesting that my opponent had to deal with my Z-95s instead of focusing on Ketsu because suddenly, these guys became competitive!

Yeah, I ran Ketsu yesterday as well. My build was even simpler - Ketsu, VI and Dengar (I didn't have enough points left over for any of the extra tricks).

The ability came off more often than I expected, and it was pretty effective all round. I'm looking forward to trying out some other builds with it.

Given that Ketsu doesn't need to actually fire to trigger her ability, once Heroes of the Resistance comes out, I think a Burnout SLAM might be a good buy, too.

I tried a very, very simple build yesterday for the first time:

Ketsu: VI, Dengar, Title and engine upgrade

4 x Z-95

(97 point bid)

One tractor beam token makes another player wary of those Z-95... two makes them very, very serious threats... and when you also managed to push the offending ship on an asteroid, then that can really ruin your opponent's day.

I found it interesting that my opponent had to deal with my Z-95s instead of focusing on Ketsu because suddenly, these guys became competitive!

4 Z-95 are way understimate!! They simply rock. You can even fit a PS9 Dengar with 4Z

Given that Ketsu doesn't need to actually fire to trigger her ability, once Heroes of the Resistance comes out, I think a Burnout SLAM might be a good buy, too.

I didn't even think of that. Since it's a maneuver, you can just ram your ship straight into something else that's already moved for a free tractor.

(err - nevermind)

I like it, sooo scummy, how about some slicer tools on thoose Zs !!!

Ketsu: VI, Dengar, Title and engine upgrade

4 x Z-95

(97 point bid)

Given that Ketsu doesn't need to actually fire to trigger her ability, once Heroes of the Resistance comes out, I think a Burnout SLAM might be a good buy, too.

You could drop the EU for 2 B-SLAM (is it Limited?) and a TJ (just for the off-chance it might screen the Zees a couple of times)...

No, it's not I don't think. Two Burnout SLAMs would be hilarious, not to mention obscenely expensive to acquire unless they are reprinted in another set at some point...

No, it's not [ Limited ] I don't think. Two Burnout SLAMs would be hilarious, not to mention obscenely expensive to acquire unless they are reprinted in another set at some point...

Yeah, but I realised once I re-read the card, that after you do the first SLAM, you'd probably have to discard BOTH upgrades - so you couldn't do it twice (this has no doubt already been discussed in a thread about that reveal?)

Yeah, I don't think two Burnout SLAms would work together, you're right.

Ketsu: VI, Dengar, Title and engine upgrade

4 x Z-95

(97 point bid)

If you could trade up to Black Sun Soldiers AND still afford to outbid a U-Boat list, you might even stand a good chance in that match-up too.

Looks nice for surprising your opponent but somehow I'm not sold on a ship with 2 agi that pretty much has to position itself so that the enemy is right in front of her at range 1. Don't get me wrong, if it works, it can be devastating. But off the top of my head I can think of at least several lists that would just roll over Ketsu+Zs. Like, say, Dash + Ghost, triple u-boats, Biggs+Kanaan, even good old Crack swarm. Well flown arc-dodgers might be able to avoid either the primary arc or R1 entirely. Poorly flown arc-dodgers would get trashed obviously, but that's just the thing with poorly flown arc-dodgers.

I flew Xizor with 5 Z-95's and I appreciate those ships. They are hard to one shot kill and they can dish out the shots en mass. The concentrated firepower is pretty good. If you are trying to block with Ketsu, you can always position the other Z's to be behind her so that it's hard for a ship to get past her. Have the bump train so that they bump a Z and get pushed all the way back to in front of Ketsu. If you are able to subtract the green dice, the Z's have a much easier time.

You can go with 3 Z-95's with Concussion Missiles and GC for the same price. This way, you just need to get a ship to bump once and you can then light it up. Well, as long as you had the TL first. If you can get -2 green dice on the target and then light it up with Concussion Missiles, not much would be able to stand that.

I watched a Ketsu build with 4 Z's with Black Market Slicer Tools absolutely demolish a Dengaroo list. I think that might be the best Dengaroo counter out there. Once the fight started, I think Dengar was dead in a couple turns from BMST's and only 1 agility on every turn. To make matters worse for the Dengaroo player, he pulled the crit on Dengar that reduces agility by one. So on the last turn, Dengar had zero agility . All of his focus tokens and Lone Wolf re-rolls mean nothing if he doesn't actually roll dice in the first place!

Ketsu is even better as you cannot block her from her front if her mobile arc is forward. Enemy ship moves, Ketsu moves and is blocked in both arcs (mobile arc forward). ketsu uses ability on blocking ship to tractor beam it and move it away from her. then she shoots it range 1. Now this only works on small base ships but its still soooooo good.

My Ketsu build is this:

Ketsu; VI, EU, Dengar, Shadow Caster Title

N'dru: Concusion missile, GC

Old Teroch; Fearless, title, AT

Ketsu applies a TB token and Old Teroch strips your focus and evade right off the bat. Then Ketsu shoots and gets another TB token. Then N'dru drops his missile at range 3. The Old Teroch drops 4 dice for his range one shot and adds a hit. Devastates any ship in the game that it does not kill. So far in testing it has been very deadly. It can take Kanan/Biggs apart 1 ship at a time. Love it so far.

Looks nice for surprising your opponent but somehow I'm not sold on a ship with 2 agi that pretty much has to position itself so that the enemy is right in front of her at range 1. Don't get me wrong, if it works, it can be devastating. But off the top of my head I can think of at least several lists that would just roll over Ketsu+Zs. Like, say, Dash + Ghost, triple u-boats, Biggs+Kanaan, even good old Crack swarm. Well flown arc-dodgers might be able to avoid either the primary arc or R1 entirely. Poorly flown arc-dodgers would get trashed obviously, but that's just the thing with poorly flown arc-dodgers.

The thing about dodging a ship with a PS bid of 97 and a mobile arc; arc dodging is not all that easy to do (unless aces want to PS bid all the way to 97 or lower).

You run this thing double front?

I've been running Ketsu with Latts Razzi flying the yv.

Ketsu with VI, dengar, title, engine and some illicits (currently dampeners and glitterstim)

Latts with Bossk, Gunner, K4, Burnout SLAM

Leaves me at 96 points right now, haven't decided if I want something else in there. I originally had rigged cargo on both ships, slcicer tools on ketsu and APL on latts. Never dropped the cargo, since ketsu wants stuff in front of her (and cargo generally seems easiest to use by moving first and dropping it on someone's head), and latts doesn't really want stuff behind her if at all possible. Dropped slicer tools since they're mostly useful against aces and dengaroo, which the list is already designed to be good against. Figured ID are good if there's a raound that someone ends up right in front of me, I can just park and blast em again. Glitterstim since I'm frequently gonna be right in someones face so I can get some focuses. Dropped APL since I'd never triggered it since again, I don't fly latts to be in the thick of things, I try to keep her back and slow-roll as long as possible. Burnout slam gives her the ability to turn around once at least.

Basic strategy Ketsu jumps into range 1, tractors someone, blasts them with 4 attack dice while latts drops their agility so they're at -2 agility. Ketsu (generally) hits, gives them another tractor token so latts also gets to shoot against -2 agility. If she manages to miss, she gets to try again with focus/TL.

You run this thing double front?

I initially set her down with double front, but if you gave your opponent the initiative then one of two things will happen: they'll forget about the ability and meet you head on (which hurts them a lot) or they scramble away from your range 1 forward arc. When the latter happens, Ketsu can just shift her arc to shoot them in the back.

Hence why the PS bid is important; you want to make that decision after your opponent moved.

Given that Ketsu doesn't need to actually fire to trigger her ability, once Heroes of the Resistance comes out, I think a Burnout SLAM might be a good buy, too.

Very nice tip!

Hmm, I happen to think z-95s are really easy to one-shot, that's why you take so many of them.

I think ketsu is one of the harder ships to fly and with VI, difficult to get action economy.

Ketsu Onyo (38)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Dengar (3)

Inertial Dampeners (1)

Inertial Dampeners (1)

Shadow Caster (3)

Binayre Pirate (12)

Black Market Slicer Tools (1)

Binayre Pirate (12)

Black Market Slicer Tools (1)

Binayre Pirate (12)

Black Market Slicer Tools (1)

Binayre Pirate (12)

Black Market Slicer Tools (1)

Total: 99

This list would be much nastier with Ventress (possibly with Tactician if you want to go all out for stress!). You can still have the title for tractor funtime.

Although now you've got me wondering about G1As with slicers and tactician...

Hmm, I happen to think z-95s are really easy to one-shot, that's why you take so many of them.

You need to do 4 hits and they get zero evades on dice (usually with a Focus). There are only so many 4 red dice native attacks. Otherwise, you have to be in range 1 to bump it to 4 red dice. I wouldn't really call that "really easy to one-shot". It's not impossible, but I wouldn't say really easy.

Ketsu Onyo (38)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Dengar (3)

Inertial Dampeners (1)

Inertial Dampeners (1)

Shadow Caster (3)

4 x Binayre Pirate (12)

Black Market Slicer Tools (1)

Total: 99

This list would be much nastier with Ventress (possibly with Tactician if you want to go all out for stress!).

I agree that you can go with Ventress for the Stress generation and the BMST, but I don't think it's necessary. I think I like Ketsu bumping into someone to reduce the Agility and then the Headhunters blasting away. The BMST works if you happen to face off against self stressing ships, but you don't necessarily need to have a stress causer in your list. Also, Ketsu can go with PS 9 while Ventress can only do PS 8. That can be well worth it when you want to catch the other PS 9 ships in arc.