As my local area begins its big push of Store Champs events, I'm Fearing the Reaper a little bit. It's got a great dial, and its Jam action is awfully potent (especially with ISB Slicers on board). I'm expecting a good number of them in the local meta, so I'm wondering: Should I just join in and fly them myself, or try to build something to deal with them when they come? What's your take:

• Would you rather fly with a Reaper as part of your squad? How would you use them effectively?
• What are your flight tactics when you see a Reaper (or two) across the table from you?
• How would you build your squad to best address the problems that Reapers represent (speed, action denial, and crew options)? Does it make you vulnerable to other strategies?

I’ll address your third question. I’ve run Bob’s Builders lately http://meta-wing.com/ship_combos/6558? and I’ve never lost to a reaper + 2 aces list. None of the games have been close. Infinite bombs placed anywhere you want combined with stress and TLT is murder on Reapers and their arc-locked ace buddies. The rise of the Reaper correlated with Bob’s Builders becoming one of the most successful lists according to meta wing.

I don't fly token ships lol, and I stress them. That generally puts them in their place. Its a little lower damage list, so it can be hard to outpace a stress-resistant, hard hitting list like QD, HLC LB Alphas, etc

The ISB Reapers are very strong. Put Krennic on there and a couple aces and it’s tons of fun too. I ran the archetype a bunch on Vassal, and won fewer games than I expected. The issue, I think, is that an archetype of 3 Imp Aces just isn’t strong enough against other meta lists. Bombs and stress eat it alive. The Reaper is awesome, but you still have the challenges you face in any trip ace list.

That said, I expect a bunch of folks running it to win store championships. If you’re good at it and avoid the most brutal matchups then you can do very well.

18 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Would you rather fly with a Reaper as part of your squad? How would you use them effectively?

Reapers are powerful. I am giddy for Vermeil. At PS8, with ailerons, its hard to pin him down if you arent higher PS. I've had 5 X-Wings try and get him and he dodges them and survives. Also he was great versus 7 Z-95s. Dial in that 3 bank, and he can end up in many different spread out places. Using them for control is how I like them. Tactician,Mara Jade, Rebel Captive, and Intel Agent (blocking is control) are all good crew. Stressing the enemy means they arent k-turning and shooting your weak agility reaper, and it also keeps the enemy close distance to continue jamming them.

18 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

What are your flight tactics when you see a Reaper (or two) across the table from you?

Depends on your list.

I recently flew Vader along with double HLC crackshot gunboats w/ linked battery versus double reaper Whisper. Reapers went hard for Vader, he flew away and brought the enemy to my gunboats. Reapers continued on at vader, jamming him, but vader can dodge arcs pretty good, so he was jammed but hardly being fired upon, and gunboats where doing their thing. I couldnt bring Vader into the fight until the end of the match, when he could get the kill shot on Whisper. Was a lot of dancing that game and a really fun match.

Repositioning is HUGE versus reapers. They have to get in close to jam, making dodging their arcs much much easier. My gunboats were almost never in danger cause I can just slam passed/into the reapers if they are every in trouble.

18 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

How would you build your squad to best address the problems that Reapers represent (speed, action denial, and crew options)? Does it make you vulnerable to other strategies? 

I would get reposition ASAP. You dont want reapers jamming you then getting range 1 shots. Get out of their arcs. Work on having some passive mods: Expertise, Predator, etc. If you fly an ace that survives off tokens, be sure they can get two tokens per turn. Lower PS reapers can only give you 1 jam token, so for instance vader can evade (jam removes it) then can actually take a focus. Where as someone like VI Nym can only take 1 token action and jam removes it.

BB8 Intensity Poe can be good in reaper meta. Reapers jam him. He can b-roll to take an evade (jam token removes it), then can maneuver and take a focus. At end of round, pay off intensity.

A ship like Fenn Rau can coordinate to remove a jam token from a friendly.

Wookiees dont care much for jam. Something like Low/Rey can be strong against reapers (and many lists).

Rey (45)
Expertise (4)
Finn (5)
C-3PO (3)
Engine Upgrade (4)
Millennium Falcon (TFA) (1)

Lowhhrick (28)
Expertise (4)
Magva Yarro (2)
Kanan Jarrus (3)
Multi-spectral Camouflage (1)

Total: 100

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