5 hours ago, Lightrock said:

The problem with Rexler (even with expertise) is that taking a focus and spending it on his ability is almost always the worst use of his action. Basically you've got the following options:

1. Take target lock - this will almost never be wasted, unless the target dies first. Will directly increase your damage output.

2. Barrel roll - to get a better position defensively or offensively or to give you better options for next turn. If you need it, doing it is almost always better than his ability would give you.

3. Take focus and save it for defense - if ANYTHING is going to shoot you after you attack with Rexler, it's almost always better to save focus for defense rather than use Rexler's ability. Unless you just managed to put 3 or 4 facedown cards on an otherwise healthy Decimator - then... maybe?

Last but not least - in most cases there is a very limited window of opportunity when using Rexler's ability makes sense. The target must be: 1) shieldless and 2) get hit by your attack but 3) not dead yet, 4) cards assigned to him must be face down (if they're face up it's great but you don't need Rexler for that) and 5) they must have effects that will have a significant impact on the situation. That's a lot of conditions - too many for it to be practical. Many of these issues are the reason why Maarek doesn't see much play either, but with Rexler it comes with an additional cost of having to spend a token for an uncertain benefit.

IMO there's only one vaild reason for wanting to field Rexler over the other defender pilots - to put VI on him and fly him at PS10. And even that is a questionable choice considering that PS10's advantages are significantly reduced by TIE Defender's inherent predictability.

Rexlers window of opportunity is :

1) target must not have shields 2) you hit them with at least one damage card

3) you have a focus to spend.

also with x/7 the need for a focus token on defense is reduced. Personally I'd drop RAC for patrol leader and try to squeeze in palps to capitalize my defense off not having a focus but eh.

Rexler doesn't have a bad pilot ability, just a situational one. And it doesn't cater to everyone's play style. Same with marek stele.

16 hours ago, FlyingAnchors said:

Rexlers window of opportunity is :

1) target must not have shields 2) you hit them with at least one damage card

3) you have a focus to spend.

also with x/7 the need for a focus token on defense is reduced. Personally I'd drop RAC for patrol leader and try to squeeze in palps to capitalize my defense off not having a focus but eh.

Rexler doesn't have a bad pilot ability, just a situational one. And it doesn't cater to everyone's play style. Same with marek stele.

The difference between Maarek's ability and Rex's is the cost tanking it's reliability. Rex's ability has a bunch of hoops to jump through to trigger it. Sure, once in a blue moon Rex will deal 2-4 face-up damage cards and it will be amazing (I put 4 crits on Miranda once, none of them the Direct Hit I needed), but those opportunities will be few and far between. Maarek on the other hand, just has a passive bonus. Once or twice a game you'll get to filter through 3 cards for the crit you need at the time (usually DH). It's not as sexy as Rex's ability, but it does the job.

IMO you're buying Rex for his PS8, which you're paying a huge premium for. It's not necessarily a bad buy, as PS8/10 are both excellent cut-offs for certain popular ships you're likely to play against.

I actually used to play both Rex and Maarek as TIE/Ds in a list, and I always found Maarek to have the more useful pilot ability, though Rex's PS8 was occasionally clutch.