I don't know about the rest of you, but the most exciting thing about 2nd Edition for me is the new, interesting builds that are viable now or that didn't exist before. The obvious one is that PtL and VI are no longer stapled to pilots like Soontir and Vader. It opens up variety we haven't seen before. This isn't a list-building thread, per se. It's just for brainstorming. What new builds look good or just interesting? I'll start us off:

Ten Numb with Elusive and Advanced Sensors for 61 points seems like it's worth exploring. Take an action, execute a red maneuver to replenish the charge on Elusive, spend the stress to change your focus results, do it all over again next round. Add just a liiiittle more survivability to ye olde B-Wing.

Kad Solus with Elusiveness also strikes me as an interesting proposition. At 57 points, he can T-Roll with 2 focus tokens and a defensive reroll. And the Fang Fighter dial is pretty conducive to shedding the stress next round.

Lone Wolf Soontir seems like he has potential as a cheap ace, given that I tend to use him as a lone flanker already.

Defenders are expensive, but I plan to try a pair of them with Juke and FCS as a couple of action-light speedboats that hit like a truck.

New Phantoms with Stealth Devices (and collision detectors?) seem downright mean if flown well.

Yup, I'm gonna be flying that exact Ten! Alongside an identical Braylen (who can't do his tricks every turn, but is still similarly functional) and a Horton, in a Brawlers list!

I think Soontir DEMANDS Predator, just works so well.

New Phantoms are glorious with Juke, also Vader crew or a reaper to get rid of tokens.

14 hours ago, Brianish said:

I don't know about the rest of you, but the most exciting thing about 2nd Edition for me is the new, interesting builds that are viable now or that didn't exist before. The obvious one is that PtL and VI are no longer stapled to pilots like Soontir and Vader. It opens up variety we haven't seen before. This isn't a list-building thread, per se. It's just for brainstorming. What new builds look good or just interesting? I'll start us off:

Ten Numb with Elusive and Advanced Sensors for 61 points seems like it's worth exploring. Take an action, execute a red maneuver to replenish the charge on Elusive, spend the stress to change your focus results, do it all over again next round. Add just a liiiittle more survivability to ye olde B-Wing.

Kad Solus with Elusiveness also strikes me as an interesting proposition. At 57 points, he can T-Roll with 2 focus tokens and a defensive reroll. And the Fang Fighter dial is pretty conducive to shedding the stress next round.

Lone Wolf Soontir seems like he has potential as a cheap ace, given that I tend to use him as a lone flanker already.

Defenders are expensive, but I plan to try a pair of them with Juke and FCS as a couple of action-light speedboats that hit like a truck.

New Phantoms with Stealth Devices (and collision detectors?) seem downright mean if flown well.

I've been having trouble deciding what to do with Soontir. I was thinking about his new ability and considered that Daredevil may actually be a good choice for the talent slot. It gives you more options for lining up your bullseye arc to get the extra token. But then, you don't have as many options for actions as Daredevil requires you make a white boost (so you can't autothrusters into it). Lone Wolf is an interesting option that's a lot different from how I'm used to using him (I enjoyed triple-squint quite a bit).

14 hours ago, Brianish said:

Ten Numb with Elusive and Advanced Sensors for 61 points seems like it's worth exploring. Take an action, execute a red maneuver to replenish the charge on Elusive, spend the stress to change your focus results, do it all over again next round. Add just a liiiittle more survivability to ye olde B-Wing.

For the moment, that's my second choice on Ten.

I think I prefer Debris Gambit. An evade token is better than a re-roll, and leaving the action red (weirdly, not triggering Debris Gambit's obstacle position is better) to give you you're attacking focus via stress sounds better to me than Elusive and the situational reliance on red maneuevers (what if your best maneuver next round isn't red?)

Advanced Sensors is there for when you do need to do a red, and lets you take a defensive focus instead, which isn't as good as en evade but is about the same as the re-roll anyway. Alternatively, barrel roll or target lock as needed/available.

11 minutes ago, Ixidor said:

I've been having trouble deciding what to do with Soontir. I was thinking about his new ability and considered that Daredevil may actually be a good choice for the talent slot. It gives you more options for lining up your bullseye arc to get the extra token. But then, you don't have as many options for actions as Daredevil requires you make a white boost (so you can't autothrusters into it).

It's boring, but I think Predator is best on Fel. It's cheap, and if you can land a bullseye it gives you really good, free mods when paired with his ability. Leaves you free to barrel and boost with impunity to get that shot, and probably represents his best action economy.

Other than that, I'd go Outmaneuver before Daredevil. Fel already has the best reposition ability in the game, Daredevil isn't going to help that a huge amount. Especially when, as you say, it forces you into boosting first (which denies you the option to focus or evade as well) and its stress cost means you're unlikely to want to red barrel roll after it either (if you even can? Are red actions blocked by stress the way maneuevers are?). Double stressed Soontir is dead Soontir.

Instead, you may as well make the most of his already excellent repositioning by getting rewarded for getting out of their arc while keeping them in yours.

Cost may be prohibitive, though.

Juke's not bad if you've got heavy hitting teammates and are happy for Soontir to act as token stripper. He's firing first, so they're probably going to be spending tokens anyway, but you may as well either guarantee it or really pounce on someone without them.

I suspect we'll see synergy between bowtie PWTs and ordnance. It gives them another arc of cover without needing to spend actions uselessly.

13 hours ago, Greebwahn said:

I think Soontir DEMANDS Predator, just works so well.

New Phantoms are glorious with Juke, also Vader crew or a reaper to get rid of tokens.

I have mixed feelings on Predator Fel. I think that doubling down on his desire to have his enemies in his BEA is viable, its probably unwise. Yeah, he should be great at repositioning, but at least half of the time he's going to want to use that reposition to dodge an arc, not just get BEA on the ship he's after. I'd argue that Fel will be more versatile with Juke so he can sometimes double token stack and have good offensive output or Outmaneuver to give him stronger primary arc attacks.

Whisper + Juke is a monster. Her ability is just too good with it to ignore. Juke increases her odds of hitting, getting another Evade increases her survivability for that round, then she is more likely to have an Evade at the end to recloak. On top of all that, you have a Crew on board (sometimes) doing something cool and she still has an action of her choice after moving. Even Echo will be no slouch with Juke, but I think Echo'll need serious consideration for the Crew slot to even remotely compare to Whisper. I came into X-Wing late to the party, too late for Phantoms, so now I'm psyched to throw either named pilot on the table.

FCS on Defenders will be nice, especially for Vessery.

Seyn Marana + Marksmanship is probably one of the strongest pocket aces. With it, she can probably hit a ship nearly every round.

Redline will love TS + Concussion Missiles + Misc Bomb, as will Deathrain.

Myep, new phantom juke is going to be the ****

Also probably the only place juke is worth a ****, given how expensive defenders are. Maybe Vess or Rex would be okay with it, but otherwise phantom just seems infinetly more reasonable