As the last hurrah of 1.0 I'm attending the UK National Championships in Birmingham next weekend and wanted some feedback as to which list I should take. I'm torn between the two below:
List 1
Whisper (OP) - Veteran Instincts, Director Krennic, Sensor Jammer, Advanced Cloaking Device
Countdown - Adaptive Ailerons
Quickdraw - Adaptability, Spec Ops Training, Fire Control System, Lightweight Frame
-99 points-
-or-
List 2
Whisper (OP) - Veteran Instincts, Director Krennic, Sensor Jammer, Advanced Cloaking Device
Countdown - Adaptive Ailerons
Scarif Base Pilot - Emperor Palpatine, Advanced Ailerons, Lightweight Frame
-98 points-
How it plays - List 1
The idea is simple, put out plenty of damage while trying to give my opponent as many tough decisions with their targeting priority as possible. Shoot at Quickdraw, get shot back. Shoot at Countdown, get all but 1 of your damage cancelled. Shoot at Whisper, be faced with getting through 4 agility dice with a focus token (and maybe an evade token and Sensor Jammer).
The list plays by trying to keep Countdown so that it's only ever within arc of 1 enemy ship where possible (or bumping) so that I can keep taking advantage of the pilot ability, however, it's no big deal if it uses the ability then gets shot again while stressed as it's only 20 points and is basically just a maneuverable distraction that's going to try to give my opponent movement headaches. Lightweight Frame will help keep it alive longer but is one of the points sacrifices I'm prepared to make. If they're focusing Countdown then they're likely to be getting wrecked by the other two anyway.
Whisper does what it does best and de-cloaks each turn in an attempt to block or outmaneuver the highest PS pilots, bringing the pain with 5 attack dice at range 1 and outright being a nightmare to predict and even worse to take down when flown efficiently. Krennic gives Whisper Optimised Prototype so that it's rocking an additional shield, effectively gets Fire Control System from Krennic, and strips a shield for free every time it fires at a shielded target.
Quickdraw does Quickdraw things, attempting to effectively maneuver into double-tapping position to fire out front and back, inviting incoming fire so that she can do it twice per turn. At worst, she flies at the highest priority target screaming "come at me, bro!", target locks early and hopes to not lose all of her shields in one round of shooting. If she gets to shoot back with her pilot ability twice in the game then she's done her job, any more are a bonus.
How it plays - List 2
Much the same as list 1 on the whole, however, Quickdraw makes way for Palpatine in the Jamming machine. I lose the potentially high damage output of Quickdraw but gain a Palp re-roll and the ability to Jam an opponent's ship. If I can prevent a focus token from being used (I'm unlikely to remove one since I'm going at PS1) I can further increase Whisper's survivability by guaranteeing that Sensor Jammer can't be focused. The Reaper stays at range and takes the odd potshot while doing it's best to keep Palp alive for as long as possible. PS1 and Ailerons will allow it to be one an effective blocker if needs be.
Hard counters
PS 9/10/11/12 - Any veteran player will know that it's really important to shoot Whisper first in order to take advantage of the focus/cloak before taking return fire, so ideally I need to make sure I have the best chance of gaining the initiative to get the jump on my opponent's PS9 ships, but I'm always going to struggle against lists with a PS10/11/12 ship in them. I'll struggle even more against lists with multiple PS10+ ships.
Stress lists - This list really doesn't cope with stress well, especially stress after the movement phase. It totally neuters Countdown's Ailerons and pilot ability, will make Expertise useless if it's taken on Quickdraw, and means that Whisper can't cloak. I'll struggle massively against any list that dishes out incidental stress.The cheapest list and therefore the one most likely to get me initiative.
Twin Laser Turret spam. Not good for Countdown. Two ships with TLT's take him off the board fairly easily in one turn without Lightweight Frame. Whisper doesn't like them much either if he's not cloaked.
Final thoughts
I've flown list 1 nine times at my FLGS because I'm a big fan of Quickdraw's potential damage output. The record is currently 9-0 against lists like Lowhhrick/Rey, Nymranda, Ghost/Fenn and Imperial Aces but I've never faced one of the aforementioned 'hard counter' lists. I'm also yet to face off against the dreaded 5x Renegade Refit X-Wings meta list and I'm not sure how well I'd get on. I also feel like with the amount of time Quickdraw is sometimes forced spend needing to do red maneuvers to stay in the fight against more maneuverable ships, it's probably worth considering dropping her in favour of a Palpmobile.
I've only flown list 2 once due to work commitments, but it felt good and I think it's probably the more competitive list considering the setting. I could add Lightweight Frame in on Countdown but I like the 2 point bid.
Thoughts?
Edited by Darth Pie