Just threw this together, but I'm looking at trying something roughly along these lines to start with (with the caveat that the Arquitens probably has something amazing for Rebels in it...) :

Sato First Wag (396/400)

=======================

Nebulon-B Support Refit (51 + 46)

+ Commander Sato (32)

+ Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

+ Salvation (7)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 + 18)

+ Skilled First Officer (1)

+ Ordnance Experts (4)

+ Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)

+ H9 Turbolasers (8)

MC30c Torpedo Frigate (63 + 18)

+ Skilled First Officer (1)

+ Ordnance Experts (4)

+ Assault Proton Torpedoes (5)

+ H9 Turbolasers (8)

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 12)

+ Bomber Command Center (8)

+ Boosted Comms (4)

GR-75 Medium Transports (18 + 9)

+ Jamming Field (2)

+ Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

+ Bright Hope (2)

Jan Ors (19)

3 x X-wing Squadron (13)

2 x A-wing Squadron (11)

Solar Corona

Hyperspace Assault

Most Wanted

Sato Scout frigates don't stop being MC30s when they get into close range, they become crazy black dice machines, throwing as many as a glad with exp launchers. With added XI7/H9 goodness, and the option for blue dice.

They basically become better than torp frigs. That 6 points difference suddenly doesn't seem all that huge anymore.

Heh, Sato is Pseudo-Corona insurance too...

... just let me turn these dice to dice which don't have acc symbols before I roll.....

He'll be good with Most Wanted. That's a third black at long range, fourth with CF.

Sato Salvation with Most Wanted will be NASTY.

And never picked

Also, Sato makes Han Solo relevant.

Also, Sato makes Han Solo relevant.

\

Now now now, let's not go batshit crazy or anything....

I'm in the camp that he is already

And never picked

Feel free to take Hyperspace Assault or Solar Corona with that fleet instead, then.

Relevant might be too strong a word, I meant I would consider dumping points on him for a single use and the cool factor.

Can someone please sell me on Admiral Sato?

I like the idea of him and there are certainly some good combos that you can throw, but the more I think of it the less I think it will translate well to the table.

For example: an MC-30 Scout with Sato and APT. Assuming you have a squadron in position you can throw 2 black dice at long range potentially triggering APTs. Seems amazing. Seems really unreliable too. You have to get the crit on 2 dice, which is tricky even with OE re-rolls. If the target has an Evade token you need 2 crits on 2 dice to get the APT to work. Sure you can Con Fire for another die, but you might have needed a Squadron Command to get a squadron in position. It seems like a combo that looks good on paper, but will rarely work out on the table.

Aside from long range crit shenanigans what do you see Sato helping with on the table?

I suppose Sato will make it easier to one shot flotillas at long range with an MC80 battle cruiser.

Spinal armaments gives them 5 red die in the front.

Add h9 in second turbolaser slot.

Sato a blue and a black into your pool.

Pool becomes: 1 black, 1 blue (auto acc with h9s) 3 reds; you have 8 damage max without taking into account that pesky evade.

Add gunnery team and you are looking to pop 2 flotillas in one activation.

I've noticed that new units tend to exhibit one of a few different ideas. One of those ideas is attempting to create space for older units. Jerr-Jerrod will certainly help pick up the Victory. Sato certainly strikes me as being able to pick up the Nebulon-B. Again, Sato might fall in the way of some of the other less played commanders, or somebody might really strike up an idea for which he works well with. The previously mentioned combination effects with Leading shots is certainly one way.

I've also noticed that commanders tend to combo well with the ship that they are on. Madine is insanely good with the Liberty, but maybe so-so for some of the other Rebel units. Konstantine enhances the Liberty's speed manipulation abilities. So take the Pelta. You've got red dice and a ship that can potentially activate squadrons well on its on. It activates first, flings squadrons, and then takes a red range shot that activates Sato's ability on the Pelta itself. It's slow, but it basically only wants to take as many long range shots as possible, so it really doesn't care that it activates first, especially if it can make a red die shot and stay in red range from anything that could one-shot it. Now that the squadrons have activated, the entire rest of the fleet is set-up to benefit off of Sato's ability. Cue Salvation, cue anything else.

What you really want is a fleet that wants to stay at red range for as long as possible and throw as many Sato-boosted shots as it can. I'm thinking we're looking at a good number of small ships plus a very sizeable squadron force. You want to be able to win the squadron game as part of your game plan, while using Sato to boost your damage against ships. It takes a very specific build to get it to work, and its less plug and play than some of the most popular commanders, but its probably playable by a very smart player.

Of course, a good player can take about anything and make it good. Whether its good more generally is another story. My sense is that you're seeing a damage improvement of about a half a point per shot, if we're thinking red to black. From there, there's the question of how much damage improvement you get from combination effects. A good Ackbar or Rieekan list can end up with 15+ extra damage out of the commander's ability. Motti can end up the same way with a key ship living when it would have died. When you're only improving around half a point of damage per roll, Sato's ships are going to have throw a lot more shots than Ackbar's ships to get a damage difference, and recombination effects only work for some ships. So I'm really curious if the mathematical truth of Sato will really work out in the end. Like everything, I'll probably give him a try for a while and see if I can get him to work.

Does your rebel fleet have a critical-trigger upgrade card? Well, with Sato you can kick it at long range.

Everything from Overload pulse with a Flight Commander to massed APTs out of MC30s.

The way I see it the meta has shifted significantly to fighters. In the very least Sato upgrades the firepower of all capital ships used in conjunction with your fighter clouds.

Huh, my 1,977th post, and I'm talking about Rebels....

Everyone complains about the unreliability of red dice and the lack of re-rolls, yet I have seen not one mention of my favorite Sato ship (other than Salvation) in this thread:

AF2 with OE+TRC. That's 2 black / 1 red (guaranteed to be 2 damage), with rerolls for the blacks, at long range. And it's still cheap, and on something you can use as a mainline carrier at the same time.

I also think Salvation & MC30s have some interesting tricks with him; I think being able to swap a blue in for leading shots at range is going to be key for the MC80 battle cruiser (again, back to the re-rolling reds issue).

I also think my 12 combat refit GR-75 list throwing 24 black dice at medium range will be hysterical.

Everyone complains about the unreliability of red dice and the lack of re-rolls, yet I have seen not one mention of my favorite Sato ship (other than Salvation) in this thread:

AF2 with OE+TRC. That's 2 black / 1 red (guaranteed to be 2 damage), with rerolls for the blacks, at long range. And it's still cheap, and on something you can use as a mainline carrier at the same time.

I also think Salvation & MC30s have some interesting tricks with him; I think being able to swap a blue in for leading shots at range is going to be key for the MC80 battle cruiser (again, back to the re-rolling reds issue).

I also think my 12 combat refit GR-75 list throwing 24 black dice at medium range will be hysterical.

I'd love to see the math on that build vs an Ackbar AFB.

Basically 2 rerollable black dice plus a guaranteed 2 damage vs 5 random red dice.

Everyone complains about the unreliability of red dice and the lack of re-rolls, yet I have seen not one mention of my favorite Sato ship (other than Salvation) in this thread:

AF2 with OE+TRC. That's 2 black / 1 red (guaranteed to be 2 damage), with rerolls for the blacks, at long range. And it's still cheap, and on something you can use as a mainline carrier at the same time.

I also think Salvation & MC30s have some interesting tricks with him; I think being able to swap a blue in for leading shots at range is going to be key for the MC80 battle cruiser (again, back to the re-rolling reds issue).

I also think my 12 combat refit GR-75 list throwing 24 black dice at medium range will be hysterical.

I'd love to see the math on that build vs an Ackbar AFB.

Basically 2 rerollable black dice plus a guaranteed 2 damage vs 5 random red dice.

It isn't just the side arc. If you're going to run this set-up with Sato, you want the double-arc. Then the OE is boosting not only the damage from the side arc but also the front. Ackbar's two extra dice has always been deceptive, since in the case of the AFB, you're moving two dice from a front arc to the side arc. In some ways, Ginkapo's use of the MC30 (and secondarily with Corvettes) represented a key idea for Ackbar, since they set-up double-side arc shots so much more easily than the larger ship bases. An interesting contrast is between Sato and perhaps Rieekan, where Sato's double arc and the OE in this build gives you an extra point of damage on the front and you run about a half point more on the side. He's certaintly going to be interesting. The whole story on the damage bonus/mitigation offered by a commander is not merely how much total at the end of the game, but when you do it. He offers a surprising ability to concentrate fire on a single target between double-arcing and the effective use of your squads. I am certainly going to make some efforts to run him in a few squadron heavy lists when the wave gets released. This is going to be a fun experiment.

Everyone complains about the unreliability of red dice and the lack of re-rolls, yet I have seen not one mention of my favorite Sato ship (other than Salvation) in this thread:

AF2 with OE+TRC. That's 2 black / 1 red (guaranteed to be 2 damage), with rerolls for the blacks, at long range. And it's still cheap, and on something you can use as a mainline carrier at the same time.

I also think Salvation & MC30s have some interesting tricks with him; I think being able to swap a blue in for leading shots at range is going to be key for the MC80 battle cruiser (again, back to the re-rolling reds issue).

I also think my 12 combat refit GR-75 list throwing 24 black dice at medium range will be hysterical.

I'd love to see the math on that build vs an Ackbar AFB.

Basically 2 rerollable black dice plus a guaranteed 2 damage vs 5 random red dice.

Don't forget that unlike Ackbar, Sato ships can double arc. Welcome back Paragon.

And never picked

Feel free to take Hyperspace Assault or Solar Corona with that fleet instead, then.

Maybe put sato on Bright Hope? Makes corona devestating, and salvation is the softest target in the list.

Everyone complains about the unreliability of red dice and the lack of re-rolls, yet I have seen not one mention of my favorite Sato ship (other than Salvation) in this thread:

AF2 with OE+TRC. That's 2 black / 1 red (guaranteed to be 2 damage), with rerolls for the blacks, at long range. And it's still cheap, and on something you can use as a mainline carrier at the same time.

I also think Salvation & MC30s have some interesting tricks with him; I think being able to swap a blue in for leading shots at range is going to be key for the MC80 battle cruiser (again, back to the re-rolling reds issue).

I also think my 12 combat refit GR-75 list throwing 24 black dice at medium range will be hysterical.

I'd love to see the math on that build vs an Ackbar AFB.

Basically 2 rerollable black dice plus a guaranteed 2 damage vs 5 random red dice.

Sure, let's see if I can magic up some numbers on that.

5 red dice un-modified:

Hits 2.5

Crits 1.25

Accuracies 0.625

2 blacks with 1 re-roll on blanks, + TRC double-hit red:

Hits 3.875

Crits 0.625

Accuracies 0

So a slight edge in the expected damage output with Sato, but you're vulnerable to defence tokens since you've got no accuracy and your only other option is Intel Officer. That aside damage should be more consistent on the Sato version since you're not relying on the dice to roll "average". Getting a double-arc shot's also a bonus on Sato, and if you Concentrate Fire it's more useful as you're adding another re-rollable black dice. Then again, Sato requires more work to set up.

Seto looks pretty terrible to me. When they changed his card's wording, they should have eased the squadron condition.

If you want to maximise damage changing a red dice to a black dice, that is increasing your expected damage by only 0.25 (0.75-> 1.0 expected damage for each dice). You can change 2 dice in this way, for a boost of 0.5 damage. Meanwhile you are losing the 12.5% change per dice of rolling an accuracy. You can improve this with ordnance experts to 0.5 per dice (0.75-> 1.25 expected damage), or 1 damage with 2 dice, but noting this upgrade costs even more. With only 2 dice being up-gradable, I find the boost in power not worth the 32 point cost, and needing a fighter to activate.

To maximise accuracy, by changing a black dice to a blue dice, each dice has a 25% chance of rolling an accuracy, but at a loss of 0.25 damage. Changing red to blue results in a 12.5% improved accuracy change per dice with no loss to damage. Still this remains very unreliable, and just not worth the buying price of Sato.

What is interesting is his ability to fire black critical effects at long range. Currently only the scout MC30c and Assault Pelta can do this. However 2 black dice have only a roughly 44% chance of rolling at least 1 black critical hit. Furthermore, this is almost completely shut down by ships with evades. Captain Needa might be seen as a cheep upgrade to shut down this 32 point commander.

Long range blue critical effects are possible on the MC80 ships. NK-7 might be good to soften a ship's defences before moving to a closer range. I don't see any of the other ion upgrades as particularly noteworthy. Plus the expensive MC80 will want to be getting into the fight. It is a pity that the Rebels don't have a cheap ion cannon platform with red dice that could stay at long range. Dodonna's pride on a CR90A is a thought. Toryn Farr helps get the blue crits.

Meanwhile Sato has a heafty buy-in cost of 32 points, plus some commitment to squadrons. Not sure how people will be planning on getting the squadrons into range. If you are keeping your ships at long range for those amusing black crit moments, flinging your squadrons into the enemy is a sure fire way to get them chewed up. Making a single sacrifice each turn will effectively make Seto cost 32 points + 11 points (A wing) per turn.

With that cost, he's really only viable with ordnance upgrades. Triggering ACMs or APTs at long range might be effective enough of a strategy to give Sato a small niche. That means MC30 scouts and that's about it. I can't see a Pelta being worthwhile with Sato because it doesn't have the weapons team to ensure the critical effect. Maybe 3x MC30 Scouts with ACMs and OEs, 2-3x barebones flotillas, and however many A-Wings you can cram in there? That's the only list I can see making effective use of Sato right now.

I can't see that it has been mentioned, but Sato gives you a conditional re-roll of up to 2 dice, not just dice change. Say you attack with an af2 at long range. You roll 1 accuracy and 2 blanks. You can then choose to remove the two blank reds, and add 2 reds (or any other color combination), while keeping the accuracy from the original roll. That will help a lot with my fickle red dice, and helps the rebels to get those much needed re-roll options. Worth it in my book, if the list is tooled for it.

I can't see that it has been mentioned, but Sato gives you a conditional re-roll of up to 2 dice, not just dice change. Say you attack with an af2 at long range. You roll 1 accuracy and 2 blanks. You can then choose to remove the two blank reds, and add 2 reds (or any other color combination), while keeping the accuracy from the original roll. That will help a lot with my fickle red dice, and helps the rebels to get those much needed re-roll options. Worth it in my book, if the list is tooled for it.

He does not. We were all hoping for it, but the wording has changed since the wave 5 announcement. Any die change happens before rolling. Here's the new card for your reference:

The conditional statement is just for a squadron to be in Range 1. So you don't necessarily need air superiority.

Sure, we are thinking of long range bombs.

At closer range... replacing 2 black dice (+0.5 damage)...double arcing is (+1) damage.

Perhaps, it's best for the Big Ships... hitting like an ISD-1 at medium range is pretty devastating.

If you take Sato, take Tycho and keep him in your back pocket.