Interfering with your opponent's ships as opposed to simply melting them with red dice has long been an important part of X-wing. Whilst not quite having the level of meddling that characterises Scum, Rebels have a few useful tools in the box for this line of work, the most popular of which is probably R3-A2 (aka, Stressbot). There seem to be at least 3 fairly popular builds that revolve around this little guy to some extent or the other listed below.

26 Gold Squadron Pilot (18), TLT (6), R3-A2 (2), BTL-A4 (0) (Optional)
32 Wes Janson (29), VI (1), R3-A2 (2) IA (0)
32 Braylen Stramm (25), Gunner (5), R3-A2 (2), AO (0)

The old Stresshog has been a favourite since the arrival of the BTL-A4 title. You can either run it with the title for double-stress or without for the improved fire-arc.

Pros: Cheap, Can double-stress with title, TLT is good against big ships and Defenders

Cons: Vulnerable to Predator, Double-stress loses you 360-degree turret which is not great given the Y-Wing's dial.

For an extra 6 points, Braylen Stramm looks pretty good. Gunner means your worst case result is 2 Stress or 1 Stress and 1 Damage. His rear arc and better dial make it easier to keep lining up shots and his stress-removal rule make him a good option. He also has an extra point of hull which is always welcome.

Pros: Can double-stress from both arcs, 50% chance to remove an extra stress each turn

Cons: More expensive,

Neutral: Better fire-arc than BTL-A4 but not as good as full turret

Lastly there is Wes Janson . While he can only lay down a single Stress token per turn, he also combines it with the ability to strip a token of your choice from the target which can really mess with certain builds. His high PS allows him to do this before most opponents shoot. The downside is the comparatively poor T65 that he flies. He has a single fire arc and as soon as he gets Stressed, turning around sharply becomes a problem. Also he lacks a native repositioning ability to help take advantage of his high PS. You can buy him Vectored Thrusters but that then means no Integrated Atrsomech which makes his X-wing even more fragile.

Pros: Token-stripping, high PS

Cons: Single-stress, poor platform.

conner K!

Looking at what is big in the meta, Degaroo and mindlinked lists are strong for Scum while /x7 Defenders are flavour of the month for the Empire. Rebels like big ships and Regen.

Stressing a ship in a mind-linked list is always going to be a pain for the Scum players but most mitigate this as far as possible. Even so, constraining their actions wherever possible is always good. Stress does little to Dengar but really cripples Manaroo, the problem is that none of the ships listed above are well suited to actually catching her. Wes is better for taking on Dengar as he can strip his Focus which breaks the OCR cycled that keeps him powered. Some Scum players compensate but giving Manaroo a Recon Specialist but that in turn cuts down other options.

On paper, /x7 Defenders don't look to be too bothered by Stress with White K-Turns and free Evade tokens. However in practice it is slightly different. The 2 most popular pilots are Ryad and Vessery. PTL Ryad really doesn't like extra Stress as it shuts down her EPT. Vessery doesn't like it is Wes strips his wingmate's Target Locks before he can fire and without them he is just an overprices Glaive.

Rebels are probably the faction that are most vulnerable to Stress so matches against other Rebel players are often where these pieces shine the most. Kanan and Super Dash both hate extra stress as they rely on their actions and stripping Poe's Focus token with Wes really neuters this pilot.

Going to add one more (unpopular) build for stressbot consideration.

Nien Numb (29)

R3A2 (2), Snap shot (2), Pattern Analyzer (2), Integrated Astromech (0)

It's 35 points, on an X-Wing, so a bit maligned... It's also not as easy to use since Nien Numb really only comes to life at range one. That said, with Pattern Analyzer you can do a red maneuver (talon rolls) and boost into range 1 to clear the stress before it happens... You can stress ships at range one before they get their action, and locking them in place at range one for a bigger hit (and more stress.)

Edit: I've actually caused a LOT of disruption to a list with this ship alone.

nien is fun, just way too expensive to be worth it

not to mention he only really matters at range 1

Snap might be a better choice with primed, but even then only double stresses at range 1

the advantage of the gold squad or the ARC is if you have any points left over you can add bombs as well making them even more dangerous

Ion control needs a boost beyond K-wings with Connor Nets.

Imagine if Mindlink also shared ion tokens ...

nien is fun, just way too expensive to be worth it

not to mention he only really matters at range 1

Snap might be a better choice with primed, but even then only double stresses at range 1

Not going to disagree. It's an option as a control ship. Not the best option, but it's there. Was hilarious though catching Miranda as she tried to fly by and bomb though... range one - snap shot... locked in place with no slam or conner net.

I keep thinking that Baze Malbus on a stress ARC is somehow worth exploring, but especially in the current meta single stressing two ships is nowhere near so useful as double stressing one ship.

I can't get it out of my mind that it will be useful in some sort of weird list somewhere someday. One of those lists that tops a regional and you sort of shake your head and go "I don't understand how that happened. What did that top table even look like?"

Ion control needs a boost beyond K-wings with Connor Nets.

Imagine if Mindlink also shared ion tokens ...

But ION affects the ship ..... not the mind of the pilot

Wes works better on the key targets if you chuck a Flechette Torp on him.

The added benefit to gunner on braylen is being able to possibly hit hardened targets that might otherwise not care about stress like dengar defenders or mindlinked ships, thats why tactician braylen doesn't see much play.

Also, if you wanna talk rebel control, no discussion is complete without biggles.

The added benefit to gunner on braylen is being able to possibly hit hardened targets that might otherwise not care about stress like dengar defenders or mindlinked ships, thats why tactician braylen doesn't see much play.

But given that the smart thing to do when youre too stressed to joust ARCS is to gtfo, youll be getting a lot of range 3 where gunner becomes real **** helpful

Gunner goes on braylen specifically because multistress shuts down every other ARC pilot

Also, if you wanna talk rebel control, no discussion is complete without biggles.

I think the Stache goes without saying.

Dengaroo and Shadowcasters are both really nasty against most forms of Rebel control. Wes can neuter OCR4 Dengar, but stress does very little to him. A stress hog would make it easier to catch Manaroo, if it wasn't one of the slowest ships outt there...

And, of course, Ketsu and the title both murder most of these ships thanks to their small bases and low agility. They're slowly edging their way toward viability, but there's still quite a few predators out there.

I'm convinced ion control is the best form of control in this meta. The only problem is that you need to be able to A) assign at least 2 ion tokens a round and B) get past green dice. That means bombs.

Although I'm pretty sure I saw someone did well with ion y-wings. IPM might also work in certain builds.

Funny thing is the way the factions were designed compare to the way the faction meta actually works.

The Devs said that the Rebels were designed for synergy, Imperials were designed for damage, and scum were designed for control.

Instead Imperials have the best control and synergy in the meta, Rebels have the best control and damage, and scum have the best synergy and damage.