After a bit of time, how good are they in the current meta?

I have seen a lot of good games with Duchess, Pure Sabacc and Countdown. All of them had a lot of great (and not so great) moments. I just want to ask experienced player what they think. Experience regarding playing with and against them.

Thank you

I don't know about tournament level, but I've had some fun with them. I'm looking forward to trying them out some more, too.

I don't find the low-level generics difficult to face at all. They are about the same as TIE/ln's. Pure Sabacc hits hard but goes down pretty fast. Countdown is reasonably tough to face if flown right; When facing her, you really want to kill her as early as possible so you can focus fire against her. Duchess, IMO, is a really good arc-dodger—not even she knows where she will be at the end of the activation phase—but she's easy to kill if you can catch her.

My play-style is a little more deterministic rather than probabilistic, so they don't really appeal to me. That said, I really like how they can fill a lot of different roles in a build. I like that a lot.

Pure Sabacc is probably the best out of all of them in terms of this meta or at least for now. Putting the Title, Lightweight Frame, and your choice of EPT. Generally VI is the considered best EPT and it might be, but I've had friend play Sabacc with Predator to great effect. The key is putting Sabacc in a list where there are 2 more ships that your opponent will also want to kill in the early game. Giving them a difficult target priority is what will keep Sabacc alive. Teaming Sabacc with Quickdraw is a great choice and then your 3rd Imp Ace of choice that is another source of damage output has solid results. As much as you want to throw Sabacc into the fight to get his ability in the fight, you have to be careful and using him as a flanker is a great use. Getting him in the fight after your other 2 ships have engaged is a good strategy and if your opponent turns their ships towards Sabacc, you have to be able to flank with your 2 other ships and make them pay for trying to nuke Sabacc.

Love pure sabacc

It's an interesting question because it's mostly answered by what they're fighting. If they are fighting 1) something higher pilot skill or 2) a turret ship they are in a ton of trouble and rarely are worth their points. If they are fighting arc locked ships they have the ps to arc dodge (especially duchess) they are pretty neat little ships.

I haven't yet figured out how to keep the ship from melting, but I'm inexperienced with it and the game. It needs three agility to overcome my incompetence.

They are a heck of a lot of fun to fly, and if you don't get them wiped out in the first couple rounds they can do a lot of damage quick. They are also amazing in the end game, especially Duchess. Personally my fav is Sabacc with Snap Shot, Title and LWF.

I love me some Pure Sabaac with swarm leader. Strikers are fun to fly, not the flashiest out there, but they are pretty **** cool.

From a meta point of view, Sabaac is pretty solid for the points in many lists. Sort of like an early game Omega Leader, in that Sabaac is a monster until 2+ damage is suffered, after which the threat isn't quite so prevalent (although, not to be sniffed at either). It can act as an early game bullet magnet (laser magnet?), which you can actually be played to your advantage if you want to draw heat off a higher value target.

From a personal gameplay point of view, they're amazingly fun to fly. Deceptively fast (sometimes too fast), but they really encourage you to think ahead, and reward both clever flying, and good prediction. Probably the most fun ship to fly in the game right now.

I really want to fly five of them. I'm not sure I really want to buy five of them.

39 minutes ago, NakedDex said:

From a meta point of view, Sabaac is pretty solid for the points in many lists. Sort of like an early game Omega Leader, in that Sabaac is a monster until 2+ damage is suffered, after which the threat isn't quite so prevalent (although, not to be sniffed at either). It can act as an early game bullet magnet (laser magnet?), which you can actually be played to your advantage if you want to draw heat off a higher value target.

From a personal gameplay point of view, they're amazingly fun to fly. Deceptively fast (sometimes too fast), but they really encourage you to think ahead, and reward both clever flying, and good prediction. Probably the most fun ship to fly in the game right now.

It's worth noting that it's 2+ damage CARDS, since Direct Hit doesn't actually shut down his ability. But yah, he's definitely less of a threat once you shut his ability down.

They are a blast to fly versus arc-based ships but any form of turret will kill them immediately and there's nothing to be done about it even with Lightweight Frame.

40 minutes ago, VanderLegion said:

It's worth noting that it's 2+ damage CARDS, since Direct Hit doesn't actually shut down his ability. But yah, he's definitely less of a threat once you shut his ability down.

Direct hit does shut his ability down, it's technically two damage cards to your hull

5 minutes ago, DeathstarII said:

Direct hit does shut his ability down, it's technically two damage cards to your hull

No, the card counts as 2 damage, but is still one card.

33 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

I really want to fly five of them. I'm not sure I really want to buy five of them.

I have 3. I'm tempted to get 2 more, but given the price of them in Ireland, I'll wait until I can get a deal. They're close to €20 these days for small ships here.

56 minutes ago, DeathstarII said:

Direct hit does shut his ability down, it's technically two damage cards to your hull

Nope. Counts as 2 damage, but only 1 card. And Pure sabacc specifiesmore than 1 damage card, not more than 1 damage.

Love flying them, but as a ship overall haven't been that impressed.

To be fair I've only flown them without LWF since I didn't have the points. That would certainly make them a bit better.

They're brilliant fun to fly, but melt to turrets/TLT

11 hours ago, VanderLegion said:

Love pure sabacc

I've found all the strikers are really good, but Sabacc is just amazingly good. She's easily the best flanker in the game. So far I've tried;

25 Sabacc w/ Predator, Title.
25 Sabacc w/ VI, LWF, Title.
25 Sabacc w/ Crackshot, LWF, Title.

They were all excellent.

1 hour ago, CRCL said:

I've found all the strikers are really good, but Sabacc is just amazingly good. She's easily the best flanker in the game. So far I've tried;

25 Sabacc w/ Predator, Title.
25 Sabacc w/ VI, LWF, Title.
25 Sabacc w/ Crackshot, LWF, Title.

They were all excellent.

I've only run adaptability and VI so far. I'm intrigued by intensity when it comes out for the ability to still get a token when you want to barrel roll. I tend to br a lot on sabacc, so...

Quote

how good are they in the current meta?

Horrible, they die to the same thing as other arc-dodgers do, only faster/easier, due to the lack of thrusters and poor action economy.

But!

They are so incredibly fun to fly that I can't stop.

Mediocre.

I went a bit nuts and got four of them, but I usually only fly one, as a third ace. I've alternated between Pure Sabacc (can be incredibly frustrating to roll 4/5 dice and end up with one hit or blank out but hey...) usually with Predator or Lone Wolf.

I'm also partial to Duchess with VI or Lone Wolf. Always had them with both title and LWF.

As most have said, incredibly fun to fly, but not really forgiving. They explode tremendously well.

They're nice to paint, so... there's that going for them.