Hey folks, been off the forum for a while. Come back and folks are irate about these new Ghost builds. I've searched "Maulzra" but I am not finding these lists. Can anyone enlighten me about the new builds? I understand there are a few. Many thanks.

@shaner The basis is that it's another Ghost with TLT with the original docked shuttle so it can double tap. Ezra and Maul are on board so that it can A) take a stress to re-roll a die, B) is stressed now so can change a focus to a crit, C) remove one stress because it hit. So it's painfully accurate. It's also got Sensor Jammer, which normally isn't so bad however they've been flying these days with Fenn Rau so that it de-buffs enemy attacks preventing them from having that focus for the Sensor Jammer. Fenn Rau also makes it so that the Ghost can boost at PS11 out of the most dangerous arcs of fire.

It's quite the combo...

Usually along the line of

Ghost pilot, TLT, Sj, Ezra, Maul, EU

Zeb, docked

Fenn, VI, Hotshot Copilot

remaining points as you see fit

25 minutes ago, shaner said:

Hey folks, been off the forum for a while. Come back and folks are irate about these new Ghost builds. I've searched "Maulzra" but I am not finding these lists. Can anyone enlighten me about the new builds? I understand there are a few. Many thanks.

List Juggler/Meta Wing is your friend.

Ok...wow...looks gross.

NEXT QUESTION--- When you have Zeb docked with the Ghost, can that combined ship benefit from all abilities on that ship (Crew and Pilots)? I don't use the Ghost so I do not know.

For instance...when defending with the Ghost, does it benefit from Zeb's ability to cancel crits before hits??

I assume that Fenn Rau in the Sheathipede is survivable? With only 2 defense dice, I would worry that he would go down quickly. I guess his roll is to strip tokens from Ghost targets?

8 minutes ago, shaner said:

Ok...wow...looks gross.

NEXT QUESTION--- When you have Zeb docked with the Ghost, can that combined ship benefit from all abilities on that ship (Crew and Pilots)? I don't use the Ghost so I do not know.

For instance...when defending with the Ghost, does it benefit from Zeb's ability to cancel crits before hits??

I assume that Fenn Rau in the Sheathipede is survivable? With only 2 defense dice, I would worry that he would go down quickly. I guess his roll is to strip tokens from Ghost targets?

Nope. Anything on the shuttle is basically not in plane while it is docked. There are some global effects maybe (say, Ezra is on it, therefor in your list, therefor you can have Maul in your list elsewhere) but otherwise the shuttle and all it's equipment and abilities are sitting on the bench in front of you waiting patiently for it's chance to play.

Fenn Rau on the other hand... He's... kinda? I mean, he's died spectacularly when I've used him previously - natties don't care - but it's a race to take him out before the Ghost does too much lasting damage to your own list.

IF you want to try out a good ghost list but don't want to be fully cancerous and lose all your friends, I humbly recommend flying my synced ezra maul list. I won the houston regional with it (had some favorable judges calls and dice rolls though lol).

=================================== Houston Regional Winning Squad ===================================
98 points Pilots
------
Kanan Jarrus [Ghost, Fire-Control System, Synced Turret, Ezra Bridger, Maul, Engine Upgrade] (54)
Fenn Rau [Veteran Instincts, Hotshot Co-pilot, Flight-Assist Astromech] (26)
“Zeb” Orrelios ["Chopper", Phantom] (18)
------

Fenn Rau is basically just Biggs, except he also shuts down token usage and can give the Ghost a free Boost action at PS 11. Just think of him as being an extra 5 HP on the Ghost that gets defense dice.

The list really hurts traditional lists that rely on spending tokens to modify dice, but it completely folds to anything that uses passive modifications on offense and doesn't need to spend tokens. Things like Expertise, Predator, Glitterstim, Chiraneau, and Accuracy Corrector don't care about Sensor Jammer at all, and things like Guidance Chips, Advanced Targeting Computer, Rey pilot, Boba pilot, Lone Wolf, Dengar crew, Linked Battery, etc. all bypass Fenn Rau's ability since they don't require you to spend a token, effectively turning him into a 26 point Z-95. Another good counter to Maul is Latts Razzi crew, since any use of Maul just gives Latts Razzi an extra evade.

3 minutes ago, AngryAlbatross said:

IF you want to try out a good ghost list but don't want to be fully cancerous and lose all your friends, I humbly recommend flying my synced ezra maul list.

At this point it doesn't really matter what version of the list you fly, in my experience as soon as you put a Ghost and Sheathipede on the table, you are immediately labelled as "Ghost Fenn" and have people calling you cancer and what not.

Because it's easier for the community to bully people and call them cancer than to adapt and figure out how to counter something that is so easily counterable. The meta has already adjusted to Ghost Fenn and it's no longer dominating the top tables, people who are still whining about it are just refusing to adapt, or maybe are incapable.

4 minutes ago, Tvboy said:

Fenn Rau is basically just Biggs , except he also shuts down token usage and can give the Ghost a free Boost action at PS 11. Just think of him as being an extra 5 HP on the Ghost that gets defense dice.

The list really hurts traditional lists that rely on spending tokens to modify dice, but it completely folds to anything that uses passive modifications on offense and doesn't need to spend tokens. Things like Expertise , Predator , Glitterstim , Chiraneau , and Accuracy Corrector don't care about Sensor Jammer at all, and things like Guidance Chips , Advanced Targeting Computer , Rey pilot, Boba pilot, Lone Wolf , Dengar crew, Linked Battery , etc. all bypass Fenn Rau 's ability since they don't require you to spend a token, effectively turning him into a 26 point Z-95. Another good counter to Maul is Latts Razzi crew, since any use of Maul just gives Latts Razzi an extra evade.

A lot of what you list aren't what I would consider counters! Chiraneau just folds against the ghost from 4 damage a turn minimum, Accuracy corrector doesn't do anywhere near enough damage. Re-rolls are well and good, but you still get those blanks and focus result you can't do anything with.

The big problem now is that people are flying with R3-A2 on Fenn, which shuts down a lot more of the counters and generally makes your life a lot more difficult. Sure it has counters, but as with most things, if you build to counter, it'll struggle against the rest of the field.

1 minute ago, The Penguin UK said:

A lot of what you list aren't what I would consider counters! Chiraneau just folds against the ghost from 4 damage a turn minimum, Accuracy corrector doesn't do anywhere near enough damage. Re-rolls are well and good, but you still get those blanks and focus result you can't do anything with.

The big problem now is that people are flying with R3-A2 on Fenn, which shuts down a lot more of the counters and generally makes your life a lot more difficult. Sure it has counters, but as with most things, if you build to counter, it'll struggle against the rest of the field.

Yes, I ran R3-A2 on my Sheathipede in Seattle and was the one in our group arguing early on for its inclusion, and while it made Fenn not completely useless, it wasn't enough when every ship in my opponent's lists had Expertise and/or passive mods, I was still spending 27 points to shut down a single 4 point upgrade in my opponent's list. I went 4-2 and the two people that beat me went on to Top 32, one of which was triple Wookiees and one was Thweek Fenn and a Scout, which tells me they weren't just anti-Ghost lists because I know they didn't only fight Ghosts all day.

And no matter how much we theorycraft on what does or doesn't beat the Ghost, the tournament results are out there for you to see for yourself. The metagame is evolving. At the beginning of the season we had a gunboat meta that was easily preyed upon by the Ghost. There were a ton of Ghost Fenn players in both Portland and Seattle, and the other lists triumphed over them by bringing the appropriate counters. It turns out Expertise is actually just a good card in general and not just against the Ghost. Pretty soon we'll see Ghost Fenn being pushed out by Wookiees and Expertise lists and the Gunboats will rise again to punish those lists, and then Ghost will comeback and punish Gunboats, and we see a beautiful cycle where every list has a natural counter that creates a system of checks and balances within the metagame.

Every list, of course, being the three you just named...

3 hours ago, shaner said:

I've searched "Maulzra" but I am not finding these lists.

I've literally never seen the term "Maulzra" before your post, so that might be part of your problem.

21 minutes ago, Estarriol said:

Every list, of course, being the three you just named...

And the 4th one he named too. Thweek, Fenn, Scout. I took Guri, Fenn, Tel to Seattle and took down a Ghost Fenn list. 2 autothruster aces and a 3rd efficiency ship is an effective counter too. The TLT will still struggle to do consistent damage against out of arc aces and if it's boosting to get them in arc, it's likely going to leave Fenn behind within a turn or 2 and he can get focused down.

That's, of course, assuming the 3rd efficiency ship isn't blocking boost lanes in the first place.