Sensor Jammer is an interesting idea, Bio. You're forcing the attacker to make a choice between forcing damage through, but compromising their own defence against the Quickdraw double-tap. I like the idea of that, coupled with another ship in the list equipped with Juke, just to double down on that situation. Maybe a Ryad or Omega Leader in that role. Carnor Jax could also maybe do some work here, if you can park him in the right place.

I've tried the Rage/Baffle build a couple of times now, and it's a lot of fun but I don't know that it's ultra competitive. Taking one solid hit eliminates almost all your tricks in one fell swoop, and if you're having to barrel roll to dodge arcs, then you're not Rage'ing. Still a bit early to make a final call on that though.

I've been building lists that have Carnor Jax accompany Quickdraw into that range 1 dogfight. Not only can it help Quickdraw get damage through negating both focus and evade tokens, but also help her defensively when the opponent can't spend focus tokens on offense. It will take some testing getting them to fly/converge together, but I like the potential.

What are you flying in addition to those two? A third ace ship? A Palp shuttle? I can't make up my mind what fits best so I'll have to try a few different things out and see which I like the most.

I haven't actually flown it yet, been itching too though. I don't have Palp, so I just don't run Palp shuttles. I'm honestly not sure how well QD would do with a Palpshuttle because at that point with Carnor, I feel like the opponent has even more of a reason to just nuke QD first. Ideally I want to give my opponent something else to be worried about. With that in mind, I don't really want to run Carnor with Stealth Device since I don't have the Palp back up for it. I normally look to spend the extra point for shield upgrade to lesson those potential game changing crits in the early game. If I'm strapped for points creating the build, then I consider Hull Upgrade vs Stealth Device in a Palp-less build, which I haven't figured out yet.

• I've thought about Countess x7 for the late game and the strength of the x7 defender either with Juke or Crackshot depending on points.
• Tomax Bren with Crackshot/Homing Missiles and toying with GChimps vs LRS for a really strong alpha strike between Tomax's missiles and QD double tap although I suffer late game.
• Could go with the Inquisitor standard build, although personally I'd rather see him with Vessery instead of QD, but that's just me looking for more synergy. With the extra points you can swap Rage for PTL or eventually give QD one of the new tech options incoming in HotR.
• Omega Leader is always a nice include to partner with Carnor for max annoyance, but you're left with a decent amount of points to just sink into each ship, could work, but you'll have bloated ships.
• Backdraft for double the TIE/sf could be interesting. I've wanted to try the Outmaneuver/FCS build that has been suggested a decent amount. Still most likely leaves QD as target #1, but that does leave Backdraft to just keep farting out crits against opponents with mostly -1 agility to them.
• 2 Crack Blacks could be nice if you want 4 ships in this squad instead of 3, but meh.

I'm mainly looking at Countess x7 right now, Tomax Bren 2nd, and Backdraft 3rd. Backdraft isn't too likely since I only have 1 TIE/sf anyway, and I want to test them out further to see if I like them before buying a 2nd one.

3 SFs with Youngster and Expose? Not quite enough I suppose but I'd be interested to hear it...

Ssh! It's supposed to be a secret and meta-defining! Anyway good guess:

Quickdraw+Adaptibility+FCS+Title

2 Zeta Specs + FCS +Title

Youngster+Expose

First things first, I won't have anyone lecture me on how bad expose is. I roll blanks on my greens all the time so I could care less.

Expose is bad because you only get to shoot once. not so with SFs. Hence SFs shall expose when the opportunity arises. Stick the TL to where it matters.

Youngster do whatever you think is best. He's the Biggs/Manaroo of this build.

Exposed, Quickdraw shoots at least 6 dice to different/same targets, and can dish up to 16 dice to multiple targets in a single round. He's Dengarer than Dengar. He's the Dengarest.

Quickdraw/SFs generally are also incredibly squishy and it's something I hope "Lightened frame" can help with when it comes to making a more "serious" list.

Thats kinda why i like backdraft so much. His elusive flight pattern since he primarily uses his aux arc anyway makes up for the SF lack of defense.

Think im going to give QD another try though tomorrow, only this time a more standard build rather than the self-damage one. I like the jammer idea, would be hilarious if you could get juke on her somehow on top of that.

Sensor Jammer is an interesting idea, Bio. You're forcing the attacker to make a choice between forcing damage through, but compromising their own defence against the Quickdraw double-tap. I like the idea of that, coupled with another ship in the list equipped with Juke, just to double down on that situation. Maybe a Ryad or Omega Leader in that role. Carnor Jax could also maybe do some work here, if you can park him in the right place.

I've tried the Rage/Baffle build a couple of times now, and it's a lot of fun but I don't know that it's ultra competitive. Taking one solid hit eliminates almost all your tricks in one fell swoop, and if you're having to barrel roll to dodge arcs, then you're not Rage'ing. Still a bit early to make a final call on that though.

I've been building lists that have Carnor Jax accompany Quickdraw into that range 1 dogfight. Not only can it help Quickdraw get damage through negating both focus and evade tokens, but also help her defensively when the opponent can't spend focus tokens on offense. It will take some testing getting them to fly/converge together, but I like the potential.

What are you flying in addition to those two? A third ace ship? A Palp shuttle? I can't make up my mind what fits best so I'll have to try a few different things out and see which I like the most.

I haven't actually flown it yet, been itching too though. I don't have Palp, so I just don't run Palp shuttles. I'm honestly not sure how well QD would do with a Palpshuttle because at that point with Carnor, I feel like the opponent has even more of a reason to just nuke QD first. Ideally I want to give my opponent something else to be worried about. With that in mind, I don't really want to run Carnor with Stealth Device since I don't have the Palp back up for it. I normally look to spend the extra point for shield upgrade to lesson those potential game changing crits in the early game. If I'm strapped for points creating the build, then I consider Hull Upgrade vs Stealth Device in a Palp-less build, which I haven't figured out yet.

• I've thought about Countess x7 for the late game and the strength of the x7 defender either with Juke or Crackshot depending on points.
• Tomax Bren with Crackshot/Homing Missiles and toying with GChimps vs LRS for a really strong alpha strike between Tomax's missiles and QD double tap although I suffer late game.
• Could go with the Inquisitor standard build, although personally I'd rather see him with Vessery instead of QD, but that's just me looking for more synergy. With the extra points you can swap Rage for PTL or eventually give QD one of the new tech options incoming in HotR.
• Omega Leader is always a nice include to partner with Carnor for max annoyance, but you're left with a decent amount of points to just sink into each ship, could work, but you'll have bloated ships.
• Backdraft for double the TIE/sf could be interesting. I've wanted to try the Outmaneuver/FCS build that has been suggested a decent amount. Still most likely leaves QD as target #1, but that does leave Backdraft to just keep farting out crits against opponents with mostly -1 agility to them.
• 2 Crack Blacks could be nice if you want 4 ships in this squad instead of 3, but meh.

I'm mainly looking at Countess x7 right now, Tomax Bren 2nd, and Backdraft 3rd. Backdraft isn't too likely since I only have 1 TIE/sf anyway, and I want to test them out further to see if I like them before buying a 2nd one.

I have been flying Carnor, QD, and Ryad. Still not happy with Quickdraw, other than being an expensive Biggs allowing Carnor to get in close. Ive tried two games with rage/baffle combo and one with Shield Upgrade, FCS, DTF.

Carnor + PTL + AT + MK.II

Ryad + Juke + x7 + MK.II

Quickdraw + rage + baffle + sensor cluster

Two games with this build, one vs Ventress and Brobot C (edited, had B originally), Quickdraw double tapped Ventress taking half her health. They got Quickdraw down to two health (going for QD instead of Jax), got her the PS0 crit, so she became my blocker, blocking Brobot on a asteroid. Ventress went fast, Carnor and Jax ripped apart brobot apart after that. Carnor with Juking Defenders is nasty. Second game was Kavil, Fenn Rau, Party Bus. Quickdraw did double tap on Fenn and did no damage. Kavil TLT quickdraws last two shields. This is her Biggs quality, as Kavil went for Quickdraws shields instead of Carnor Jax. Kavil got focused and killed, Party Bus got Jax, Ryad took out bus. Then Ryad and Fenn danced for about 40 minutes not doing a single point of damage. It was Ryad blocking Fenn, Ryad Kturning, Fenn getting out of arc or in range 3. Then Ryad blocking Fenn, rinse and repeat. Tourney setting I win with Ryad being 35 and Fenn 34 or else Fenn would have to take chances meaning to broll and boost into her range 1 arc with no tokens.

Carnor + PTL + AT

Ryad + Crackshot + x7

Quickdraw + DTF + FCS + Shield Upgrade

This game was against Ndru with Lonewolf, and then mindlinked 2 concord dawn aces + kad solus. I tried QD with DTF + FCS, trying to get the scare tactic like Dengar, maybe they wont fire at her knowing they have another coming back. Well...she was still the first target of the game. QD b-rolled one CDA, and fired at Kad, setting up FCS. Kad fired, then QD double tapped Kad taking two hull off. CDA fired and QD had 1 shield remaining (Shield Upgrade worked!). Next round Quickdraw did another double tap, but from her rear and did no damage, then died. Ndru and Kad went down. Lots of flying and scrambling until game was called. This game was harder then it should have been cause early in the game Ryads first 3 shots at range 1 with a focus went hit, blank,blank,blank. UGH! Couldnt even use crackshot until that third shot taking out Ndru. DTF did not come into play on QD. Still like the concept of it though. Will probably be taking the shield upgrade off Quickdraw and go to PTL Ryad or Juke Ryad.

Well it's good to hear that Carnor is working for you without the need for a second mod slot. I guess using the DTF with FCS since both Carnor and QD are likely going in together is a good combo to keep the crits I was worried about off of Carnor. Got some things to test overall.

I've been meaning to try out Quickdraw, as I've only given Backdraft a couple of runs (pairing him off with Omega Leader, and TIE/D Vessery). That seemed to work pretty well, and I liked the way they flew together. Went against a mini-swarm of Protectorates and against Lt Blout+Jan+Corran. This was the list:

Backdraft - Outmaneuver, Fire-Control System, Twin Ion Engine MkII and SpecOps Training

Omega Leader - Juke, Comm Relay

Col. Vessery - Adaptability, Tractor Beam, TIE/D title and Engine Upgrade

I liked the idea mentioned earlier of Quickdraw providing bomber escort support and came up with this:

Escort Service

Quickdraw - Draw their Fire, Electronic Baffle, Sensor Cluster, Twin Ion Engine MkII and SpecOps Training

Gamma Sqd Veteran - Crackshot, Extra Munitions, Homing Missiles, Conner Net, Guidance Chips (x2)

I'm not that used to Bombers and ordnance. I quite like Tomax and have mostly flown him, alongside a couple of strong wingmen that allowed him to dump his load (sorry...) and then wander around until getting killed.

He who undermines TIE/sf pays the ultimate price. See my sig.

And oh, I have this super secret list with TIE/sf that can dish out 26 modified dice at R2 in a single round. Should I call it moreroncon?

See? People just needed to find the "RonCon" within. It's inside all of us!

3 SFs with Youngster and Expose? Not quite enough I suppose but I'd be interested to hear it...

Ssh! It's supposed to be a secret and meta-defining! Anyway good guess:

Quickdraw+Adaptibility+FCS+Title

2 Zeta Specs + FCS +Title

Youngster+Expose

First things first, I won't have anyone lecture me on how bad expose is. I roll blanks on my greens all the time so I could care less.

Expose is bad because you only get to shoot once. not so with SFs. Hence SFs shall expose when the opportunity arises. Stick the TL to where it matters.

Youngster do whatever you think is best. He's the Biggs/Manaroo of this build.

Exposed, Quickdraw shoots at least 6 dice to different/same targets, and can dish up to 16 dice to multiple targets in a single round. He's Dengarer than Dengar. He's the Dengarest.

Hah, good fun! I had Quickdraw with rage, baffles and experimental interface and Youngster with Expose. I would move, rage, experimental interface to expose, baffle a stress shoot 4/5 Dice from the front and 3/4 from the rear, with the a ability to reroll 3 Dice, and then do it again in the combat phase. It was brilliant, though taking two rounds to drop the other 2 stress sucked; it would be great if you could baffle away stress at any time.

Quickdraw/SFs generally are also incredibly squishy and it's something I hope "Lightened frame" can help with when it comes to making a more "serious" list.

3 SFs with Youngster and Expose? Not quite enough I suppose but I'd be interested to hear it...

Ssh! It's supposed to be a secret and meta-defining! Anyway good guess:

Quickdraw+Adaptibility+FCS+Title

2 Zeta Specs + FCS +Title

Youngster+Expose

First things first, I won't have anyone lecture me on how bad expose is. I roll blanks on my greens all the time so I could care less.

Expose is bad because you only get to shoot once. not so with SFs. Hence SFs shall expose when the opportunity arises. Stick the TL to where it matters.

Youngster do whatever you think is best. He's the Biggs/Manaroo of this build.

Exposed, Quickdraw shoots at least 6 dice to different/same targets, and can dish up to 16 dice to multiple targets in a single round. He's Dengarer than Dengar. He's the Dengarest.

Hah, good fun! I had Quickdraw with rage, baffles and experimental interface and Youngster with Expose. I would move, rage, experimental interface to expose, baffle a stress shoot 4/5 Dice from the front and 3/4 from the rear, with the a ability to reroll 3 Dice, and then do it again in the combat phase. It was brilliant, though taking two rounds to drop the other 2 stress sucked; it would be great if you could baffle away stress at any time.

Quickdraw/SFs generally are also incredibly squishy and it's something I hope "Lightened frame" can help with when it comes to making a more "serious" list.

How are you raging and exposing at the same time? Wouldn't you rage-> baffle one stress, but you still have one stress so you shouldn't be able to use experimental interface to expose. Is there something I'm missing?

He probably meant exposing first then rage. You will be left with 3 stresses though, one of which may be baffled for Quickdraw shot.

Do you guys believe TIE/sf + PTL + TIE Mk.II is good company?

I really like the idea of TIE/sf being able to barrel roll or TL and have focus, and then getting rid of stress thanks to TIE Mk.II.

I'm sure that somebody has noticed it before, but PTL Baffle Quickdraw would be a perfect wingmate for an Upsilon Shuttle, which is able to coordinate.

Imagine this - shuttle flies at PS 2, while QD parks in fron of a target in range 1. Shuttle coordinates QD, she takes focus, PTL to target lock, gets stress, baffle reduce stress and take damage, fires before activation. After that she takes s-loop, baffle, shoots again, and then usual actions and usual shot. Maybe slightly possible to pull off, but theoretically could happen

5 minutes ago, Jedu said:

I'm sure that somebody has noticed it before, but PTL Baffle Quickdraw would be a perfect wingmate for an Upsilon Shuttle, which is able to coordinate.

Imagine this - shuttle flies at PS 2, while QD parks in fron of a target in range 1. Shuttle coordinates QD, she takes focus, PTL to target lock, gets stress, baffle reduce stress and take damage, fires before activation. After that she takes s-loop, baffle, shoots again, and then usual actions and usual shot. Maybe slightly possible to pull off, but theoretically could happen

Quickdraw only gets 1 extra attack trigger per turn not per shield.

1 hour ago, nigeltastic said:

Quickdraw only gets 1 extra attack trigger per turn not per shield.

It's still potentially really useful. Coordinate is a great action, and having extra options for when you trigger Quickdraw's shot is always nice. You could trigger a shot and then run-away, for example. If you did Inspiring Recruit on the Upsilon, you could Rage, pull a green move, and then get your Focus, stress free, while still having your own action, and not triggering Baffles unless you had a specific need to make the shot. Rerolls on everything and 2 Focus tokens for cheap.

Quickdraw:

- Stay on Target

- Fire Control System

- lightweight frame

- Title

- Pattern Analyzer

High pilot skill with repositioning in stay on target + barrel roll. You can either take lightweight frame or ion engine to increase options after stay on target. FCS works nicely with his ability to keep your extra attacks modified, but you could choose baffle to trigger the pilot ability off stay on target (I don't think you want to be giving health off him on purpose though).

Yes it costs 35+.... Defender territory. It stacks up with defenders capably. I'd much rather face Ryad than this. Stay on target at ps9 protects it better than any token stack could, especially since you aren't trying to create scenarios where it arc-dodges everything. You want it taking a shot from 1 ship.

Your opponent is left with the option of committing their fire-power to QDraw or ignoring him entirely to deal with the other ships of you list. Anything in between reeks of jousting Dengar. With that understanding, you can play QDraw back a bit at first and once your opponent commits to another ship be hyper-aggressive with him.

3 hours ago, Biophysical said:

It's still potentially really useful. Coordinate is a great action, and having extra options for when you trigger Quickdraw's shot is always nice. You could trigger a shot and then run-away, for example. If you did Inspiring Recruit on the Upsilon, you could Rage, pull a green move, and then get your Focus, stress free, while still having your own action, and not triggering Baffles unless you had a specific need to make the shot. Rerolls on everything and 2 Focus tokens for cheap.

I don't disagree that it's useful or that coordinate is good, I was just clarifying the rules misunderstanding the post I quoted has.

Expertise Quickdraw with baffle is actually quite vicious. 34 points hits hard without being forced to self damage or worry about being less impactful once shields are down.

6 minutes ago, nigeltastic said:

I don't disagree that it's useful or that coordinate is good, I was just clarifying the rules misunderstanding the post I quoted has.

Expertise Quickdraw with baffle is actually quite vicious. 34 points hits hard without being forced to self damage or worry about being less impactful once shields are down.

When I was running Baffle-Quickdraw pretty extensively running up to regionals, I found Baffle to be useful for a whole host of things. Among the most fun was a QD vs Asajj fight I was in. Asajj stress Quickdraw, I Baffled it , took a shot, then took her PS 9 shot. It was awesome.

4 minutes ago, Biophysical said:

When I was running Baffle-Quickdraw pretty extensively running up to regionals, I found Baffle to be useful for a whole host of things. Among the most fun was a QD vs Asajj fight I was in. Asajj stress Quickdraw, I Baffled it , took a shot, then took her PS 9 shot. It was awesome.

My friend took Expertise baffle draw and predator Vader palp aces to a regional win in Rochester. In the one game he played Parattani the asajj made the mistake of stressing Quickdraw. Ventress died without firing a shot.

Baffle is quite honestly the core piece for QD. Expertise does seem good, and I wish I had one to play around with.

However, I still like her as a guided missile; I've been experimenting with a Lt. Dormitz list where you pitch her with Rage/Baffles into the enemy's face turn 1 with an extra Focus or Evade (thanks to HCS), but the rest of the list is still eluding me. It leaves 37 points, which is a LOT, and my latest incarnation is EU+Darth Vader on Dormitz, with an HCS on QD herself (to give me that PS12 deployment) and a standard OL + Stealth Device. The basic idea seems to be that QD removes the endgame threat turn one, Dormitz expends himself via Darth Vader (and has EU to make sure he's not as MUCH of a space whale), and then OL cleans up.

I'm also trying to find a fourth ship in a QD, OL, Scimitar Shuttle w/ Kylo Ren build. I think that once I finally lay hands on a TIE Striker Countdown is a shoo-in. Thus far I am... less than impressed... with the performance of the other wingmen I've tried.

I made a very nasty list centered around Quickdraw today. I was looking at Swarm Leader and noticed it didn't say 'Once per round', and that got me thinking....

Quickdraw: Swarm Leader, Baffle, Pattern Analyzer, title

Youngster: rage

4 academy pilots

99 points

Quickdraw gets a 5 dice primary in the activation phase, and another 5 dice attack in combat, then you still get to roll 10 more dice in the combat phase with the 5 fighters! Can you tell me a list that can throw 20 attack dice (without range modifiers) in one round? This one can get 22 if QD gets to shoot front and back... Rage gives QD rerolls on all attacks, so you can attack multiple targets and still be lethal. I'm going to fly this list soon and share my findings.

3 hours ago, Gersun said:

I made a very nasty list centered around Quickdraw today. I was looking at Swarm Leader and noticed it didn't say 'Once per round', and that got me thinking....

Quickdraw: Swarm Leader, Baffle, Pattern Analyzer, title

Youngster: rage

4 academy pilots

99 points

Quickdraw gets a 5 dice primary in the activation phase, and another 5 dice attack in combat, then you still get to roll 10 more dice in the combat phase with the 5 fighters! Can you tell me a list that can throw 20 attack dice (without range modifiers) in one round? This one can get 22 if QD gets to shoot front and back... Rage gives QD rerolls on all attacks, so you can attack multiple targets and still be lethal. I'm going to fly this list soon and share my findings.

I was thinking FCS over Baffle in that build. Throwing 5 or 6 dice seems like it would draw enough aggro that you don't need to self damage.

Quickdraw, Swarm Leader, FCS = 34

4 Academy Pilots = 48

1 Black Squadron Pilot, Draw Their Fire = 15

97 points.

This gives you 3 points to upgrade Quickdraw, maybe with Lightweight Frame. The DTF BSP keeps her safe from Kylo for just a bit while she drops mad damage.

6 hours ago, Gersun said:

I made a very nasty list centered around Quickdraw today. I was looking at Swarm Leader and noticed it didn't say 'Once per round', and that got me thinking....

Quickdraw: Swarm Leader, Baffle, Pattern Analyzer, title

Youngster: rage

4 academy pilots

99 points

Quickdraw gets a 5 dice primary in the activation phase, and another 5 dice attack in combat, then you still get to roll 10 more dice in the combat phase with the 5 fighters! Can you tell me a list that can throw 20 attack dice (without range modifiers) in one round? This one can get 22 if QD gets to shoot front and back... Rage gives QD rerolls on all attacks, so you can attack multiple targets and still be lethal. I'm going to fly this list soon and share my findings.

This looks pretty **** funny, but what happens when QD dies?

That's how I like it

1 hour ago, kris40k said:

This looks pretty **** funny, but what happens when QD dies?

I agree.

IMHO, ships in X-Wing divide into damagers, controllers, or closers - either they dish out a lot of damage, control an opponent's choices and enhance your own (Palp, Manaroo, stresshog), or are the last ship you want to see on your side of the table. Miranda with Homing Missiles, EM, and Cluster Mines? Damager. Miranda with TLT and C-3P0? Closer.

Quickdraw is at heart a damager. She dives in, guns blazing, and kills things DEAD - and usually winds up dead herself, but trading a 31 point model for a 56-point Super Dengar or his regen Corran Horn is worth it.

With a Swarm Leader list, you'd HAVE to make sure whatever you traded her for could be taken by an Academy swarm, and there are too many meta things like Triple Defenders or Paratanni that would just laugh at Academies even if you use QD to remove one of their threats, and there's no guarantee that she'll survive long enough to remove two.

That's really why I feel like her and Omega Leader are perfect wingmates; they compliment each other. QD is a massive early game threat, and OL is a massive late game threat. They can't just ignore QD in favor of hunting down OL, because then she'll get two or even three double taps off; but if they spend too much attention on her they won't be able to kill OL.

Plus those two together leave a fair whack of points for a third or even fourth ship.

I've had some problems against quickdraw eating down the health of some of my squads and I find that she forces you to focus fire at her immediately to knock out shields. In this sense aces do very poorly against her if they cant manage to stay out of both arcs. The inquisitor, bombers, Dash, and swarms do really well against her. Anything that likes to shoot range 3 or can output a lot of damage fast beats her, so she isn't bonkers, but she is still a problem whenever you see her on the board. I'm also glad she is a hard counter to X7 defenders as those tokens get stripped fast against 6-8 die a turn.

In short, she is good in the current meta and real bad against certain lists.

7 hours ago, Biophysical said:

I was thinking FCS over Baffle in that build. Throwing 5 or 6 dice seems like it would draw enough aggro that you don't need to self damage.

Quickdraw, Swarm Leader, FCS = 34

4 Academy Pilots = 48

1 Black Squadron Pilot, Draw Their Fire = 15

97 points.

This gives you 3 points to upgrade Quickdraw, maybe with Lightweight Frame. The DTF BSP keeps her safe from Kylo for just a bit while she drops mad damage.

FCS makes you much more susceptible to fickle dice though. Rage gives you freedom to use your ability at will, and attack any target and still get rerolls. FCS means that if you blank out on your first roll, or had to do a red maneuver that round, you're not going to have reliable damage. At this point it is just potato potato though I guess, as both builds have Quickdraw doing an insane amount of damage.

3 hours ago, iamfanboy said:

I agree.

IMHO, ships in X-Wing divide into damagers, controllers, or closers - either they dish out a lot of damage, control an opponent's choices and enhance your own (Palp, Manaroo, stresshog), or are the last ship you want to see on your side of the table. Miranda with Homing Missiles, EM, and Cluster Mines? Damager. Miranda with TLT and C-3P0? Closer.

Quickdraw is at heart a damager. She dives in, guns blazing, and kills things DEAD - and usually winds up dead herself, but trading a 31 point model for a 56-point Super Dengar or his regen Corran Horn is worth it.

With a Swarm Leader list, you'd HAVE to make sure whatever you traded her for could be taken by an Academy swarm, and there are too many meta things like Triple Defenders or Paratanni that would just laugh at Academies even if you use QD to remove one of their threats, and there's no guarantee that she'll survive long enough to remove two.

That's really why I feel like her and Omega Leader are perfect wingmates; they compliment each other. QD is a massive early game threat, and OL is a massive late game threat. They can't just ignore QD in favor of hunting down OL, because then she'll get two or even three double taps off; but if they spend too much attention on her they won't be able to kill OL.

Plus those two together leave a fair whack of points for a third or even fourth ship.

I often play, and win, with 8 Tie fighters. In vassal league in the past 2 matches I have beaten Rey and R5P9 Poe, and Miranda Corran. You block, focus fire, and kill ships. This becomes much easier after Quickdraw has nuked half of their points, and you still have 5 ships on the table, and the ability to rage if you need to. I agree Omega Leader is a better closer, but I really don't think it is needed.