I'm trying to find a way to listening my way to the next competitive tier, starting with my current best list (9/5 record competitively, top 8 in system open)

LeePoe

(43) T-70 X-Wing: •Poe Dameron, ps9 (33)
Autothrusters (2)
•Black One (1)
Veteran Instincts (1)
•R2-D2 (4)
Advanced Optics (2)

(55) YT-2400 Freighter: •"Leebo" (34)
Smuggling Compartment (0)
Counter-Measures (3)
•Outrider (5)
Expertise (4)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
•Rey (2)

Total: 98/100 Coming in with a 2 point bid, this list was largely created as a "Plot Armor" variant designed to counter other Poe+ lists just by having a bid. I have only missed having Dash's ability in a single turn of a few games(same for ps7 over 5), but have always loved the bid for super Poe against other aces (especially other Poe).

Where I've struggled is the rise of Ghost+Fenn where I have a slightly below 50/50 record in practice and competition, including getting knocked out in top 8 of my one system open this year. It takes good flying for me to get Fenn in 1-2 turns then it just depends on whether Leebo is still healthy enough to contribute and how out of position I am to fully re-engage the ghost. With those disappointing losses in mind I've turned to tweaking my list to get an edge, but time has gotten tight for me lately so I'm not doing much testing

my latest variant is:

(42) T-70 X-Wing: •Poe Dameron, ps8 (31)
Autothrusters (2)
•Black One (1)
Debris Gambit (2)
•R2-D2 (4)
Advanced Optics (2)

(57) YT-2400 Freighter: •"Leebo" (34)
Smuggling Compartment (0)
Counter-Measures (3)
•Outrider (5)
Expertise (4)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
•Rey (2)
Glitterstim (2)

Total: 99/100 the idea here is that I've tried to tailor for Ghost-Fenn with Debris Gambit giving Poe 1-2 evades to mitigate damage to a more manageable level and the Glitterstim on Leebo hopefully gives him one more round of HLC before he goes down.

Do you think these little changes will work to get me more than 50/50 odds against Ghosts?

Have I given up too much with the bid and pilot skill level to maintain good odds against the rest of the field?

6 hours ago, nitrobenz said:

Total: 99/100 the idea here is that I've tried to tailor for Ghost-Fenn with Debris Gambit giving Poe 1-2 evades to mitigate damage to a more manageable level and the Glitterstim on Leebo hopefully gives him one more round of HLC before he goes down.

Debris Gambit is nice; the problem with intensity would be recharging it if you spend your evade. It'll take some smart flying (I doubt you'll get two evades in practice that often, but one shouldn't be too hard to maintain).

Poe's own ability is a nice counter both to sensor jammer and Fenn Rau, so he's able to at least pull his weight against the ghost.

Leebo....I don't know.

Against Maul/Ezra or similar stupidity, you're still not going to avoid a 3-hit-Twin Laser Turret pounding with two dice, no matter how modified they are, and packing Rey, Expertise and Glitterstim seems like an exercise in overkill on focus results.

Countermeasures/Glitterstim is a nice combination, but even with both together there's only a so-so chance of dodging a three-hit-strike.

If you can learn the art of when to fly together and when to split up, some of the best Leebo/Poe players I know fly Leebo with Lone Wolf.

• Leebo
  • Outrider
  • Lone Wolf
  • Rey
  • Heavy Laser Cannon
  • Scavenger Crane
  • Smuggling Compartments
  • Countermeasures

Gives you much of the benefits but more sustainably. If you're turtling up, you can tank two attacks with focus + green reroll + temporary agility 3, and a 4-dice attack with an un-fenn-able reroll is no small beer either.

Glitterstim is arguably better - pop countermeasures and glitterstim together and you can reliably cut the worst of the Ghost's turret shots.

Thanks for the input @Magnus Grendel , I had forgot about my practice with LW aback when I was working on the original list. At that time I decided I liked the more consistent damage and ability to fly together to shed the target lock from alphas. If I can get some good practice in, and I can check out the meta... maybe my new focus means I should reevaluate that.

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Leebo with Lone Wolf.

• Leebo
  • Outrider
  • Lone Wolf
  • Rey
  • Heavy Laser Cannon
  • Scavenger Crane
  • Smuggling Compartments
  • Countermeasures

This Leebo is back down to 55 points. Would you suggest returning Poe to the PS9 version? Or I could give Proton Rockets to Leebo to give him the occasional r1 shot...

I didn't register it was the PS8 Poe!

• I dunno. This is actually a good argument in favour of Intensity vs Debris Gambit (which was a suggestion I was see-sawing over making) - whilst Intensity has to deal with the Exhausted side if you actually spend the evade, you can trigger both Intensity and Black One with a single boost action, whilst with Debris Gambit shedding target locks and picking up evade tokens is an either/or prospect.
• The value of Black One is heavily tied to your pilot skill because you really want to activate after your opponent. At PS9 with a decent initiative bid, that takes out non-veteran instincts Quickdraw and Vader, and means you don't have to worry about initiative to break a lock from Miranda Doni.
• The value of Proton Rockets is directly tied to how often someone is going to be at range 1 and in your firing arc. It's a nice-to-have but it still only fills in 1/4 of your blind spot, whilst you can often clear your guns more effectively with a barrel roll.

If you are going to run Poe with Intensity I recommend using Comm Relay for the tech slot. That way your evade is on hand and Poe can always boost for black one/Intensity focus. Most times you can hold on to the focus with Poe power and use it to recharge Intensity You get the most efficiency with BB-8 but you'd lose the regen

1 hour ago, Mightybeard13 said:

If you are going to run Poe with Intensity I recommend using Comm Relay for the tech slot. That way your evade is on hand and Poe can always boost for black one/Intensity focus. Most times you can hold on to the focus with Poe power and use it to recharge Intensity You get the most efficiency with BB-8 but you'd lose the regen

I've flown quite a bit of Poe w/ intensity, BB-8, CR in practice games and found that my arc dodging is not on point enough to have an advantage over Regen. Over a long tournament day I'd rather have the simplicity of Regen instead of the constant recalculation of double reposition.

I wish I was more plugged into my current local meta to know if PS 11 and/or lock shedding is still as necessary as it once was. If there's still a bunch of gunboats out there the double move and lock removal might be worth another look since it could keep Poe in better positions if I can practice up with it.

@Magnus Grendel I agree that most of the time a barrel roll will do the job with either a block or making range for HLC. It was more a question of what to do with the leftover points from dropping back to 55 point Leebo. It seems like ps9 Poe will be more generally valuable, but a one point bid means I'd expect to only get a positioning edge over other 8's and will need Leebo to make up the difference against other ps9+.

BB8 is the one true astromech.

Debris Gambit seems crazy. The best thing about Poetensity with Primed Thrusters and BB8 is that he gives absolutely zero Fs about stress.

So with Debris Gambit, when you face Wookie tacticians you aren’t getting your Debris Gambit action and it’s a wasted EPT.

2 hours ago, BlodVargarna said:

De bris Gambit seems crazy. The best thing about Poetensity with Primed Thrusters and BB8 is that he gives absolutely zero Fs about stress.

So with Debris Gambit, when you face Wookie tacticians you aren’t getting your Debris Gambit action and it’s a wasted EPT.

Hmm... Stress is a legitimate concern coming from stressipede and Wookies, but I'm not so sure primed Thrusters gives me anything against other lists without stress generators and those hard hitters (who are even more stress resistant) are what I'm more worried about. Against a Ghost list in particular I think I'd prefer either the token stacking+maneuverability of BB-8+CR or the Regen durability of R2-D2+Optics.

With PT I'd have to choose between boost or token if I want to stack it. Also it's not immune to stress, only resistant; I have seen ships get dog piled with 3 stress in a single turn or 4 stress in two. I've even done it myself using a stressipede with tactician.

Alright, I got a few games at a monthly tournament this past week with the LW version:

(44) T-70 X-Wing: •Poe Dameron (HotR) (33)
Autothrusters (2)
•Black One (1)
Debris Gambit (2)
•R2-D2 (4)
Advanced Optics (2)

(55) YT-2400 Freighter: •"Leebo" (34)
Smuggling Compartment (0)
Counter-Measures (3)
•Outrider (5)
•Lone Wolf (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
•Rey (2)
Glitterstim (2)

Total: 99/100

And now I remember why I went Expertise over LW+Glitter during the last season: Sensor Jammer on the Ghost makes Leebo a sad robot

The good news is that Poe with Debris Gambit is pretty awesome!

Seeing no alpha lists made not flying together reasonable with no need strip target locks. Against everything non-SJ I enjoyed the defensive bump of LW and felt like I was still comparable in offense.

i guess my question now is this: what is the meta now? That's really going to determine which load out I take to my next big event.

I would rather have VI on Poe, and maybe Dash rather than Leebo tbh. This kind of list takes a LOT of skill to fly, but it is strong.

On 5/21/2018 at 6:59 PM, Greebwahn said:

I would rather have VI on Poe, and maybe Dash rather than Leebo tbh. This kind of list takes a LOT of skill to fly, but it is strong.

Originally I was flying exactly that, but I found the 2 point bid just by switching to Leebo was worth way more to me than Dash's pilot ability (or any of the illicits that I could have picked up). Especially against other +Poe list where the turrets take each other out and then the winner is decided by initiative. Having a 2 point bid first gets me choice of initiative in a majority of matches where it matters, and then it increases Poe's end game value to 45 points (43+2 bid) so I don't need to kill other Poe's for the win.

This is less good and more fun, but I've gone 2-1 at a semi-casual store tournament with a leebo+determination+R2-D2 crew

Flip crits, get rid of them, use leebo to get a pilot crit

14 hours ago, Roller of blanks said:

This is less good and more fun, but I've gone 2-1 at a semi-casual store tournament with a leebo+determination+R2-D2 crew

Flip crits, get rid of them, use leebo to get a pilot crit

I don't think that works out... Leebo and Determination both trigger on "When you are dealt a faceup damage..." but Artoo is flipping a card, not dealing one.

With that aside, I have flown Leebo+Determination as a spoiler list when Kylo was more popular, and I know how much it can frustrate an opponent. Right now though, I'm not looking for a list that wins games for my last system open and upcoming store champs.