Imperial Aces no longer satisfy me. Defenders kind of fly like bricks and everything else explodes without Palp (who I refuse to use). Rebel aces are a joke, with only Corran and Miranda remaining competitive at the moment. Scum, however, has been given a lot of great tools for Aces:

Fenn Rau (34)

Push The Limit

Autothrusters

Concord Dawn Protector

Talonbane Cobra (35)

Predator

Cloaking Device

Stygium Particle Accelerator

Serissu (31)

Heavy Laser Cannon

Heavy Scyk

Lone Wolf

Totalling 100 points.

I'm 2-0 at the moment, having just started using it. Both wins were against a more experienced opponent flying double X7 defenders and Quickdraw (accuracy corrector loadout).

Serissu's lone wolf triggered a total of 1 turn throughout both games, so I'll be swapping that out fairly soon. I'm thinking either go for Veteran Instincts on Serissu, or drop Talonbane down to VI and give Serissu Predator.

Talonbane underperformed in both games. The scum cloaking device - while brilliant - is awfully unpredictable. In the second game it failed at the end of turn 1, leaving Talonbane in a terrible position. I think I'll replace the Stygium Particle Accelerator with Vectored Thrusters, just to give him some more adaptability after the cloaking device fails.

Fenn was the MVP of both games. The Protectorate title is possibly the best defensive upgrade in the game, and coupled with Fenn's extra agility at range 1, he's nearly untouchable. With autothrusters equipped, the only place Fenn is vulnerable is at range 2, yet with his PS 9 he easily avoids that danger spot.

It's a very unpredictable list (I once barrel rolled Fenn into range 1 of two tokened Defenders, simply because it was safer for me there then out of arc on one of them...), with a forgiving amount of health (one-shot kills on any of them are extremely unlikely) and a high damage output (5 dice Focus + target lock from Fenn and Talonbane). The only major vulnerability I can see is against auto-damage lists (autoblaster Ghosts), but I'll deal with that just like every other ace list does.

What do you think? Is it semi-competitive?

Try mindlink on all three, then you can add hull or shield to Serissu. I use VT as well on TC. Instead of TC, Zuckess with mindlink and FCS is worth a try as well, can fill with title or crew of your choice.

I thought about going with Mindlink, but the trouble with it is that the list is pretty much based around maneuverability, and I don't want to be too dependent of green maneuvers on Serissu and Talonbane.

Zuckuss is cool, but I might go with a party bus instead. It does the same things but is harder to kill:

Trandoshan Slaver (36)

Dengar

Zuckuss

4-LOM

Tractor Beam

Inertial Dampeners

I thought about going with Mindlink, but the trouble with it is that the list is pretty much based around maneuverability, and I don't want to be too dependent of green maneuvers on Serissu and Talonbane.

Zuckuss is cool, but I might go with a party bus instead. It does the same things but is harder to kill:

Trandoshan Slaver (36)

Dengar

Zuckuss

4-LOM

Tractor Beam

Inertial Dampeners

I've used Kavil as my 3rd along with Talonbane and Fenn. Fun, but very dependant on the dice.

Im testing a scum Aces build (still refining currently, also 2:0) I chose to use Fenn, T-Bane, and Zuckuss. The idea being zuckuss tractors something into r2 of himself and r1 of fenn and T-bane, then they pump 10 dice into it. Then if miraculously it survived, Ketsu crew triggers and they keep the token. Worked well so far (funny moment with fenn shooting against Vader who has 2 beam tokens on, also a surprising amount of 5 dice 1 hits...)

No wonder that Talonbane underperformed. I've found that having great expectations from him often ends in failure, as his fighter just doesn't cut it. The Kihraxz is simply lacking in the repositioning department to make Talonbane, who requires constant range management, work competitively on his own.

I would keep him cheap with only Crack Shot and Glitterstim or simply Predator (31 pts in both cases), and drop Serissu. Instead, you can get the Trandoshan Slaver with Dengar, Zuckuss, 4-LOM and ID. The Party Bus is a huge threat, and to get rid of that firepower, the enemy has to try to get behind it, which leads him right into the arms of Talonbane and Fenn. If worse comes to worst, Fenn's Fang fighter is at least maneuverable enough to get into his Range 1 sweet spot without a Tractor beam on the field.

The thing about Mindlink is that you don't need to clear stress from all of them to get actions. Just clear it from 1 and focus. Voila focus for everyone. This way you can perform the green when it is most effective instead of being tied to it.

But that limits my actions to focus only, which in and of itself is no better than just taking the focus action. Additionally, Fenn really needs PTL for boost + barrel roll, so Attani Mindlink really limits him.

Im testing a scum Aces build (still refining currently, also 2:0) I chose to use Fenn , T-Bane, and Zuckuss .

I saw your build on the forums. It's got a lot of damage potential, but getting Zuckuss to trigger with a focus/target lock on offense is going to be extremely difficult against the meta pillars:

1. X7 defenders laugh at your tractor beam, 99% of the time, it will do nothing.

2. Dengaroo on his countermeasures turn will laugh at you, and on any other turn he has lone wolf and a focus on AGI2, so still fairly strong.

3. Corran Horn. Focus and Evade. Done. Could also boost/barrel roll out of arc.

4. Miranda Doni. Yeah, this is a good use of tractor beam, but is it worth a third of your list each turn?

I would keep him cheap with only Crack Shot and Glitterstim

I might go with Crack Shot, Cloaking Device and Vectored Thrusters. Predator on 5 die attacks is decidedly underwhelming.