I'm heading to a Store Championship this weekend and wouldn't mind a little help in finalizing my squad.

So far, I have this.

Maarek Stele (TIE Defender) (35)

"Mangler Cannon" (4)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Twin Ion Engine Mk. II (1)

Total - 41

Rear Admiral Chiraneau (46)

Engine Upgrade (4)

Ysanne Isard (4)

Gunner (5)

Total - 59

I'm thinking about replacing the Gunner with Krennic, and possibly giving Maarek an Ion Cannon with TIE/D instead of the Mangler. Am I doing anything wrong? Are there blatant errors that I should fix? Is it just a horrible build? I'm not claiming to be very good at this game, so there's almost certainly things I can improve on.

First off, any cannon that cost more than 3 cannot be used with Tie/D, and if you really wanna use cannon on a Tie-Defender, you basically need to use the Tie/D title, it's 0 points.
Switch to a tractor beam, and you can more easily control the board, make someone come to you, tractor someone on an asteroid, and just be a general ****.
Also, I would also personally always put Kylo instead of Ysanne on chirpy. A free evade starting from turn 2 of engagement is great, but Kylo is WAY better, preventing opponent from shooting at you at all for 2 turn, dropping nymranda do ps0, and passing crit under the shield of B-wings, e-wings, k-wings, and other fat ships with few hull or shield regen.

Also, there's no EPT on chirpy. Either go adaptibility and put both ship at 9, still letting marek shoot first but now you can move both of them at the same time, or use your 3 points to put predator as it is super good on chirpy, or VI if you wanna dodge, but then tractor beam is less usefull because chirpy shoots first.

Maarek Stele is a tricky pilot. It's not easy to force crits outside using Emperor Palpatine, and even then, it feels kinda bad. An Emperor/Decimator/Defender list can probably just use Kylo and pick a crit out of the deck, and then you might as well not even run Maarek but someone else. Mangler Cannon is wicked pricey and doesn't double-tap. A Score to Settle isn't too bad on Maarek, but only works against a single ship. Maybe Marksmanship... Hrm. Let's see.

• Maarek Stele (Marksmanship, Tractor Beam, TIE/D, TIE Mk.II) 40
  • or Marksmanship, TIE Mk.II, and TIE/x7 for 37
• Rear Admiral Chiraneau (Predator, Tactical Officer, Gunner, Engine Upgrade) 60
  • or Predator, Tactical Officer, Gunner, Dauntless, Engine Upgrade for 62

So Marksmanship is generally bad. Might even still be bad here. However, if it's attacking twice, maybe it can be justified. Tractor Beam lowers agility, and can put someone onto a rock. However, since Tractor Beam only benefits Maarek's own attack due to PS, it'd be fine to just run a TIE/x7 for a tankier ship. A free evade will go a long way, since Marksmanship doesn't do anything defensively. Certanly, I think Marksmanship/x7 is going to work a lot better than Mangler Cannon.

RAC can coordinate a defensive focus to Maarek, or a TL to maximize his attacks. Since RAC has Predator and his own pilot ability for passive red-dice mods, that allows him to spend his action coordinating or boosting. I figure Gunner over Ysanne Isard, due to matchups. X-Wing Swarms will be hard, since they'll just burn through the Decimator, with or without Ysanne. Against other aces? The evade is nice, but I think I want RAC to push more damage through. Against something like a Nym/Miranda list, neither will matter that much. I guess the Dauntless in the version with an /x7 Maarek could be Moff Jerjerod. Tactical Officer will be useless if RAC is the last ship alive, and probably can be sacrificed anyhow to stop a really nasty crit.

In general, I'm kind of down on Maarek, but if I wanted to run him, like I was a big fan from the video games or such, I'd run him like this.

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Another attempt at a crit-tricks Defender/Decimator list:

• Rexler Brath (Expertise, Tractor Beam, TIE/D, TIE Mk.II) 43
• RAC (Predator, Tactical Officer, Dauntless, Engine Upgrade) 57

At the same PS, either can shoot first (RAC if it looks like he can get a few shields, Rexler if the shields are already down). Rexler needs a focus for his ability to work, but would also really love a TL to make his attacks hit in the first place. RAC has to be pretty lean to accommodate such a pricey defender, but this version still should work OK. A bit squishier than the other lists, however.

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For a Krennic-Defender/Deci list:

• Countess Ryad (Lone Wolf, TIE/x7, Hull Upgrade or Stealth Device) 37
• RAC (VI, Director Krennic, Dauntless, Engine Upgrade) 58 + 5 wiggle points
  • Ysanne Isard could work, Gunner, or Rebel Captive + Tactical Officer... giving Ryad a PS 10 Barrel Roll could be huge. Maybe just Tac Officer and skip Rebel Captive, since Ryad should be quite good at protecting her points. LW + Focus + Evade + 8 HP isn't going to be easy to bring down in time, and you'll have 40 points protected if RAC dies. Not super high, but decent.

Countess is probably the best Defender pilot overall, IMHO. Having green K-Turns frees her up to take a mod upgrade other than Mk.II, and I really like Hull over Stealth... I don't think Ryad is reliable enough to keep it active long enough. Vessery might be tempting, but he doesn't really work too well with Krennic in a 2-ship list, since OptProt doesn't give Krennic the TL until after the Defender is through attacking with a primary weapon. Lone Wolf (as much for the endgame as anything else) and Krennic are a bit at odds, but don't worry too much about triggering either, particularly RAC won't be able to use Krennic's TL this turn. I'd just fly like I want to fly, and not worry too much about it. If they're close, RAC gets free TLs for next round (freeing him up to coordinate or boost), and if they're far apart Ryad's rerolls can do work.

This one is probably my favorite, but it's also the furthest from the original idea.