Rebel Closers

By matt.sucharski, in X-Wing Squad Lists

I have heard it said that many successful lists are designed to either 1) alpha strike, or 2) stick around. This list is an attempt to build a list designed to achieve #2. I welcome any thoughts or suggestions.

https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Rebel Alliance&d=v4!s!196:18,-1,78,204:39:15:;222:11:46:5:U.201,U.145;161:16,135,199:-1:-1:&sn=Rebel Closers

Rebel Closers: 100 points
Poe Dameron (PS9)
Push the Limit (3)
Pattern Analyzer (2)
R5-P9 (3)
Autothrusters (2)
Black One (1)
Ship Total: 44
Ahsoka Tano
Targeting Computer (2)
Sabine's Masterpiece (1)
Expert Handling (2)
Rey (2)
Cloaking Device (2)
Ship Total: 26
Ezra Bridger
Elusiveness (2)
Twin Laser Turret (6)
Cassian Andor (2)
Ship Total: 30

Poe - pretty standard, moving on.

Ahsoka - Cloaking Device will never be as reliable as Captured TIE and Veteran Instincts. Between Cloaking Device, Targeting Computer and Expert Handling you added three possible actions to a ship with very little action efficiency.

Ezra - Cassian is an interesting combo with TLT. If you're good at predicting maneuvers, you should be able to negate the TLT donut. The most cockroach Ezra build I've encountered had PtL, Stealth Device and Jan Ors.

3 hours ago, jmswood said:

Poe - pretty standard, moving on.

Ahsoka - Cloaking Device will never be as reliable as Captured TIE and Veteran Instincts. Between Cloaking Device, Targeting Computer and Expert Handling you added three possible actions to a ship with very little action efficiency.

Ezra - Cassian is an interesting combo with TLT. If you're good at predicting maneuvers, you should be able to negate the TLT donut. The most cockroach Ezra build I've encountered had PtL, Stealth Device and Jan Ors.

Thanks for the input. I felt that Ahsoka's build might be a bit off. Here's what I was thinking: I wanted Ahsoka to have some options available to her if she were the last of my ships remaining. Rey crew and targeting computer allow her to get a double modified shot in the early or late game, and Expert Handling is a good counter to Omega Leader, especially in combination with Ahsoka's pilot ability which would allow her to execute Expert Handling at the start of the Combat Phase, after Omega Leader slapped the target lock on her. Cloaking Device was there to give her some unpredictability in her maneuvers in the end game.

This build may not be optimal, and I know Ahsoka won't get to use all of her upgrades each round, or even each game - but she has quite a few powerful options available to her, especially considering her low final cost of 26 points. I am thankful for your thoughts, but I must disagree about her lacking action efficiency; Rey crew allows her to store up extra actions and her pilot ability allows her to choose which of her options to employ after everyone else has made their choices, or to give that stored action to another friendly ship.

The Ezra build you mention does sound a lot more resilient, and in fact I'd love to fit Jan Ors crew into this list somewhere. That said, Poe couldn't really benefit from Jan because he wants his focus for his pilot ability and droid, while Ezra and Ahsoka each have the Evade action naturally. I do like the synergy of Ezra's pilot ability and Elusiveness, however. Here he does not need to get stressed in advance of defense in order to ensure his ability kicks in, he can decide at the moment of defense whether to trigger Elusiveness, gain stress and benefit from his ability. And with Ahsoka around, Ezra may occasionally get two actions in a round if needed anyway, somewhat mitigating the loss of PTL.

Omega Leader can't shoot Ahsoka if she has Captured TIE. If you're building to specifically counter Omega Leader, then it doesn't get better than that. If I'm playing Omega Leader against you, then I'm going to TL Poe or Ezra anyway to shut down their pilot abilities.

Ahsoka does have a lot of options. Your build makes her versatile. "Powerful options," as you put it, is excessively optimistic given the upgrades you chose. It's more like, "Some of these might be good sometimes, but they won't all be good all the time." That's just it: there are builds for Ahsoka that are good all the time. They all include Captured TIE. If your opponent is running PS9+, and opts to take out Ahsoka early, then Ahsoka isn't a terrible loss. An opponent leaving your Poe to his own devices is making a huge mistake.

Maybe Jan Ors isn't the best fit with Poe and Ahsoka, but paired with PtL she gives Ezra the ability to have 2 Evade tokens per round. Elusiveness has less than a 50% chance of negating one hit/crit per round. Against most attacks, an evade token works 100% of the time. Jan Ors lets Ezra evade twice, making the build at least twice as effective as Elisiveness.

I like Ezra with Autoblaster Turret. A little autodamage goes a long way, especially on a ship with consistent defense.

Good points, and I normally love Captured TIE on Ahsoka. This build of her was designed to give each ship a fighting chance if it were the last ship remaining. Captured TIE goes away if it's the last ship remaining.

My 2 cents-

If you want a closer, you still need an opener. Thought expietment: think about how you would play against this list. What is the biggest threat? If you want Poe to be the closer, need to put a juicer target out there for an opener.

I don't own Sabine's TIE yet, so my advice will be talking out my ___.

I've tried the run the Attack Shuttle by itself before, very unsuccessfully. You, most likely, are a better gamer than me and might make it work. If you want the TLT sniper out there I suggest the 'ol Y-wing.