Specifically for the rebels. I know such a question is open to many, many different opinions. I'm just curious what you think the ones that NEED to be in the collection are.

Like you said, opinion. Especially for rebels as they dont really have that one ship that regardless of what list you slap it into it will do work. Poe with the regen strat would be the closest to that, but even he doesnt fit in a lot of lists.

I actually dont even have a "go-to" rebel ship. I kinda use the majority of them equally lol.

Biggs.

Naboo N-1 Starfighter

Hmm. Depends on what you mean... if you are wondering what stuff is good right now you can fly a bunch. Take a look at the regionals results and you should get an idea!

Off the top of my head at the moment I am seeing a lot of...

Rey in the falcon

Miranda & other K-wings

Dash

Arc-170

As for needs to be in the collection - all of them of course!

As far as 'must buy' the Ghost covers a lot (Sabine and Kanan).

Well for me, I must have them all...

At the moment...

Biggs

The ghost for sabine

Miranda

R2-D2 and R3-A2 are your go to astros

also Biggs is pretty huge, so r4-d6 in the transport is also great

K-wing is **** solid as a bomber or as Miranda, so that's probably a must

and ARCs, because they're so **** pretty

(also use r2-d2 and r3-a2 really well)

I'm going to treat this as must have expansions, because that's probably more useful. Unfortunately, moat of the best stuff for Rebels comes in expensive boxes, but at least it's all largely self contained to the faction - not like Imperial players more or less needing the Scum Starviper.

Anyway:

The original core set, for Biggs and R2-D2.

The K Wing, for TLTs and Miranda, who might just be the best overall ship in the game right now.

The Ghost, for a bunch of crew - Sabine, Kanan, Hera and Chopper primarily.

Id say those are the three tier one products that Rebel players absolutely should own. Each o e provides key cards and ships for the Rebel meta, and at least one of those ships (Biggs, a K Wing or a Ghost) is close to mandatory for a Rebel list to do well at the moment.

Tier two I would say would be

Heroes of the Resistance, for solid crew and multiple copies of IA for Biggs. You could get away with a T-70 blister though for one IA.

The Rebel Transport for R3-A2, R4-D6 and Wes Janson.

The ARC-170, for some very solid pilots that are doing well right now, and probably a better astromech platform than the T-65.

Those six will give you a very, very solid rebel collection. It'll be a long way from complete - things like Y Wings remain key in rebel builds (the Stresshog is still around, and as a general TLT caddy), and you'll eventually want BB-8, Fire Control Systems, maybe Gunner, Auto blaster Turret - probably lots of things. But those six are probably the must haves right now.

Heroes of the Resistance box is pretty popular at the mo and there seem to be some pretty good lists you can make from it with limited other ships and cards.

If you want to be competitive for the cheapest price, a K-wing and E-wing (plus original core set) would go a long way towards that (all you're missing is Push the Limit for Corran and Sabine for Miranda). It takes a great deal of skill to fly well, but gets great results. In terms of order of packs though, I'd go with:

0. Original core set. It has superior cards to the Force Awakens core set (Biggs and R2-D2 vs Poe).

1. Rebel Aces. It gives you two great ships and plenty of great cards.

2. E-wing. Corran horn is truly amazing.

3. K-wing. Miranda with TLT is fantastic straight out of the box.

4. Ghost. Kanan gets a lot of mileage, as does a Lothal Rebel. Recon specialist was a tournament prize a while ago (I have six...) so you will probably be able to find someone willing to donate a spare to you for use on Kanan.

5. Heroes of the Resistance. It gives you the good Poe (Pilot skill 9, and Rey+Finn for the Falcon). this synergises well with Kanan from the Ghost.

That's a fair few purchases ($250 where I live), but bumps you to near the top of the competitive scene with several very forgiving lists.

my must have y-wing, ARC, Ghost

Must have? Rebels?

Of course Falcon, X wing and Y wings. Besause this is a game about Star Wars.

If you want to be competitive for the cheapest price, a K-wing and E-wing (plus original core set) would go a long way towards that (all you're missing is Push the Limit for Corran and Sabine for Miranda). It takes a great deal of skill to fly well, but gets great results. In terms of order of packs though, I'd go with:

0. Original core set. It has superior cards to the Force Awakens core set (Biggs and R2-D2 vs Poe).

1. Rebel Aces. It gives you two great ships and plenty of great cards.

2. E-wing. Corran horn is truly amazing.

3. K-wing. Miranda with TLT is fantastic straight out of the box.

4. Ghost. Kanan gets a lot of mileage, as does a Lothal Rebel. Recon specialist was a tournament prize a while ago (I have six...) so you will probably be able to find someone willing to donate a spare to you for use on Kanan.

5. Heroes of the Resistance. It gives you the good Poe (Pilot skill 9, and Rey+Finn for the Falcon). this synergises well with Kanan from the Ghost.

That's a fair few purchases ($250 where I live), but bumps you to near the top of the competitive scene with several very forgiving lists.

I have a k wing and I LOVE flying it. I use Miranda in a Poe/han list that I'm thinking of changing up. My next purchases I've been eyeballing have been the e wing and ghost.

Specifically for the rebels. I know such a question is open to many, many different opinions. I'm just curious what you think the ones that NEED to be in the collection are.

HWK-290

TIEs.

Without a doubt:

K-Wing

Ghost

I have a k wing and I LOVE flying it. I use Miranda in a Poe/han list that I'm thinking of changing up. My next purchases I've been eyeballing have been the e wing and ghost.

If that's what you're looking to get next, you'll probably be pleased.

Defenders.

The ghost for rebels.

I only play Imperials, however I have a friend who's been rebuilding his rebel collection since an unfortunate occurrence. He has at least 1 of every ship save the ghost, heroes of the resistance, u-wing, and the rebel transport. He has many times stated he really needs something from each of those packs, especially the ghost.

I have a k wing and I LOVE flying it. I use Miranda in a Poe/han list that I'm thinking of changing up. My next purchases I've been eyeballing have been the e wing and ghost.

If that's what you're looking to get next, you'll probably be pleased.

I'm just not sure how good the ghost ship is to fly. I'm very new to the game, but the idea of flying a ship with zero defense did seems to me to make it the number one target of enemy fire. Does it not die quickly?

I have a k wing and I LOVE flying it. I use Miranda in a Poe/han list that I'm thinking of changing up. My next purchases I've been eyeballing have been the e wing and ghost.

If that's what you're looking to get next, you'll probably be pleased.

I'm just not sure how good the ghost ship is to fly. I'm very new to the game, but the idea of flying a ship with zero defense did seems to me to make it the number one target of enemy fire. Does it not die quickly?

Not at all, because it's a tank. It will take multiple turns of focus fire to bring it down, and while that is happening that means nobody is shooting at something else in your list, which means if you play it right all your ships get to attack and they're not removing incoming red dice from the board.

The ghost also has a great dial, especially using Hera as a crew member because it can go and do anything you need it to.

As my handle suggests, I play rebel and scum. Ghost is one of my favorite options right now.

I'm just not sure how good the ghost ship is to fly. I'm very new to the game, but the idea of flying a ship with zero defense did seems to me to make it the number one target of enemy fire. Does it not die quickly?

The Ghost is actually really good to fly and there are several ways to keep it alive. The most obvious is to run Kanan as pilot on the Ghost and pair him with Biggs in an X-wing. Opponents will have to shoot Biggs first and Kanan can reduce the strength of firepower aimed at Kanan by spending Focus tokens.

The other option is to run a very cheap Ghost (probably Lothal Rebel) and just use it as a big brick of firepower to hammer at the enemy for as long as possible until it goes down. By that point, the enemy should be sufficiently battered that the rest of your fleet can mop them up.