Save the Rebellion! Save the dream.

In the wake of Worlds and the build up to the Euros, I’ve been considering a switch to Rebels. Looking at the stats, is it worth it?

It seems like only yesterday that Nand Torfs took the title of Worlds Champion with his Dengaroo variant, and here we are again with another champion in Justin Phua — Well done!

Justin’s list was:

Jumpmaster 5000 Dengar (Expertise, Plasma Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, K4 Security Droid, Unhinged Astromech, Punishing One title and Guidance Chips)

Jumpmaster 5000 Tel Trevura (Veteran Instincts, Plasma Torpedoes, K4 Security Droid, Unhinged Astromech and Guidance Chips).

Nand Torfs came in second place flying

T-70 Jess Pava (M9-G8, Pattern Analyser, Integrated Astromech)

T-65 X-Wing Biggs (R4-D6 and Integrated Astromech)

K-Wing Miranda Doni (Autoblaster Turret, Plasma Torpedoes, Extra Munitions, Rey, Ion Bombs, Cluster Missiles and Guidance Chips)

You can watch the final here if you haven’t already

Watch the crowd, you can see our very own Jesper Hills in the background.

Yep. A Rebel list in the final, what’s more, there was another one in the top four with Gerry Russell flying Jess, Braylen, Captain Rex and Biggs. You want more? How about another Hwk in the top four in the form of Palob?

So that’s two Rebel lists in the top 4 of Worlds

I’m not sure it’s worth going on a crazy Rebel jaunt just yet, but it does seem like a good time to give it a go.

Has the FAQ made a difference?

It’s hard to find a comparison of the data from before and after the FAQ on the same scale as Worlds. For arguments sake, although more out of interest rather than an actual data comparison, I am comparing Day 2 of Worlds with Yavin.

Manaroo there are still 13 uses of Manaroo (3 of those in top 16). Manaroo was used 36 times at Yavin.

Zuckass crew only appears on Bossk. There are five Party Bossks and four of these used Zuckass crew. In comparison, Zuckass was 11 times at Yavin. There were no Trandoshian Slaver Party Busses at Worlds Day 2.

The Tie Defender /X7 card was used 6 times (twice on Deltas, three times on Colonel Vessery , once on Countess Ryad). The /X7 card was used 47 times at Yavin.

Tie/D used 6 times (all Vess with twice on Glaive). There were 6 uses of the Tie/D card at Yavin. If anything, there is a massive drop in Defenders, whereas I might have expected to see a rise in Tie/D #Nickdraw

There were five Emperor Palpatine cards used at Worlds(one in top 16 used on Deci, with Tyler Tippet’s RAC build that also had Kylo crew and Whisper). The Palpatine card was used 15 times at Yavin.

Initially, the FAQ seems to have made a big impact but the major factor that you must take into account here is my comparison. My data is skewed by comparing Wolds Day 2 to Yavin, not only because of the type of tournament (System Open Vs Worlds); a European Meta vs an American meta; number of players in each tournament. At the time of writing this, List Juggler only has day 2 of Worlds.

I’m sure there are points I’ve missed. My comparison was much more out of interest on a factor of large scale tournament vs large scale tournament.

Well what about the Worlds top 16 lists?

• Jumpmaster 5000 appears 14 times within the top 16 lists at Worlds
• Fenn appears 8 times (22 across day 2)
• Contracted Scout 7 (20 times across day 2)
• Only two Triple Scout lists
• Attanni Mindlink card used 30 times (72 across day 2)
• Only 1 Imperial List
• Mishary Al-Faris played a variant of Parattanni (swapping Roo for a Scout, allowing room for Unhinged Astromech and Inspiring Recruit)
• Only one traditional Parattanni
• Only two Rebels lists
• TLT only used twice (24 across all lists)
• 186th Special used four times
• Miranda appears twice, she is the only form of Rebel-Regen (10 in total), R2-D2 was used only twice

The most interesting thing to me was the lack of Warden Squadron Pilots on the K-Wing. Double bombing K-Wings were one of the major reasons I felt like giving up on the Fangs. What about bombs though?

• Cluster Mines used seven times
• Proximity Mines used once
• Ion Bombs used twice (all on Miranda except one Lothal Rebel)
• Seismic Charge used three times (once on Ahsoka by Nathan Eide)
• No Proton Bombs
• Conner Net used twice (both on Miranda)
• Thermal Detonators used five times (all on Miranda)

Let’s not forget the use of the Extra Munitions card (listed as being used 39 times) and Scavenger Crane used only once (Nathan Eide’s Ahsoka again).

There are no Imperials listed as carrying Bombs. Tomax Bren is only listed as used once.

Where do we go from here and is Stress-controll the answer?

Don’t forget that Justin’s list uses Expertise, with enough stress, that’s four points of EPT that becomes really difficult to prioritise.

Are we surprised to see that there were no stress-hogs in top 16? Heaver finished 49th on day 2 using his Hoth list.

• R3-A2 only appears once in the top 16 (6 times across all lists on the List Juggler website)
• Asajj appears four times — that’s 5 lists in total that can give out stress (9 in total)
• Rebel Captive used only once
• Black Market Slicer Tools was used five times

In comparison, Push the Limit was only used 10 times and Unhinged Astromech was used 18 times. Expertise was used 8 times.

If you’re looking for any more correlative based fallacies (as if my Worlds vs Yavin wasn’t enough), you might look at the above and think there’s a link.

So why am I thinking about Rebels?

If you’ve read my report from the Daventry Regional, you’ll know that after flying the 186th Special for almost an entire wave, I’ve chosen a break from Fang fighters.

I’ve dabbled with A-Wings (you can read about this here), but even with the possible decline in Defenders, I’m still cautious that they’re lacking in bite.

There were, however, two lists in the top 4 from Worlds that really caught my attention. Along with Nand’s finals list, there was Gerry Russell’s list:

T-70 X-Wing Jess Pava (R2-D6, Integrated Astromech, Pattern Analyser, Adaptability)

Arc-170 Braylen Stramm (Gunner, R3-A2, Allliance Overhaul)

Tie Fighter Captain Rex

X-Wing Biggs Darklighter (R4-D6, Integrated Astromech)

100 points

One similar list that really caught my eye was:

T-70 X-Wing Jess Pava (R2-D6, Integrated Astromech, Swarm Leader)

Tie Fighter Captain Rex (Operations Specialist)

Hwk-290 Roark Garnet (Twin Laser Turret, Jan Ors crew)

X-Wing Biggs Darklighter (R4-D6, Integrated Astromech)

This also comes in at 100 points, but I cannot credit who flew it as it doesn’t appear on List Juggler. It’s the sort of list that gets my Special Snowflake Senses tingling. I’ve already disappeared down my own wormhole of trying to get Swarm Leader to work with Jess (you can read it here). Although I liked each of the ideas that I came up with, I’ve made a shift towards this

With some refinement and finally accepting that making Swarm Leader work was at the risk of my other ships, I seem to have built quite a joust worthy list. I like it a lot. When it works, it works exceptionally well and it has the capacity to take down a Jumpmaster in a single round.

It’s not perfect, by any means and it’s a completely different style of flying to that I’m used to.

I took it to the Store Championship at Aldershot on Sunday 12th May where, after only having practised with it three times beforehand, I went 2 and 3. I came 30th, but I still got my Engine Upgrade card.

What did I learn from the first competitive outing of the list? I’d forgotten just how different each faction can be in their style of play and approach to each match up. Whereas Scum can be much more aggressive, Rebels require more cautious movement and waiting for given opportunites. Oliver Pocknell has been writing some stellar articles about approaches to the game and his most recent one about target priority is no exception.

My first match up of the day was against fellow blogger Ian Courtney of Zombie Squadron — it was a blog off! (you can read Ian’s write up of it here). His list was:

Tie/SF Quickdraw (Swarm Leader, FCS, Light Weight Frame, Targeting Synchroniser, Special Ops Training title)

Tie Striker Pure Sabaac (VI, Light Weight Frame, Adaptive Ailerons title)

Tie Fighter Scourge (Adaptability)

Tie Fighter Howlrunner (Draw Their Fire)

Where is your target priority in that? Quite rightly, it should be Quickdraw, which is why Ian kept it at the back of the formation. Failing that, Howlrunner. My biggest mistake was how I set up my own formation — as I turned in for our initial engagement, hoping to get Quickdraw at Range 3, I bumped Jess, leaving her without an action and unbale to fire the super accurate Protons into my foe. It was pretty much over from there. Ian was able to continue swapping target priority for me and I simply spread the damage as opposed to focussing fire. Silly.

My other two losses of the day were both against Double TLT Ghosts. The Cal Jones variant of the build, using Ahsoka instead of Biggs, is much harder to hit as Ahsoka is continually offering free actions whilst my ships are unable to attack her (thanks, Captured Tie).

Would I refine the list and would I take it to the Euros? It is a fun list to fly. I can’t help but think that the inclusion of Nien Numb would help as it would offer me the opportunity to break target locks (Hi, Omega Leader! Hello heavy ordinance builds). If you look at recent Store Championships in the UK, there has been a spate of Rebel lists ranking rather high despite the still present threat of Jumpmasters. Andrew Wallace took a Snap, Nien and Jess list to the final at Warez Games in Bournemouth. Daniel Prewitt won the Store Champs at A Fistfull of Dice in Portsmouth with Wedge, a Warden Squadron Pilot and a stress-hog.

This Nien build is 38 points, that’s an awful lot for a T-70 without Autothrusters or Integrated Astromech. To make it work when combined with Jess and Norra, you would have to drop R2-D2 for BB8 on Norra and the Protons and VI from Jess. Without Biggs, Nien and Jess have a massive target sign painted above them (it’s an imaginary sign, I’m not going to actually make one. I could do. I’m not about to).

Is there still room for some sort of stress control? If I could find an extra point for R3-A2, I could put this on Biggs. I’ve seen a Norra build that uses R3-A2 and Wired, I’m not convinced that it’s as strong as the Kyle Katarn/PTL/R2-D2 incarnation I already have.

What was that about Rebellions and hope?

For now, I’ll leave you with the droid and his loot.

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You can also read some of my older posts at https://itsgettinghothinhere.wordpress.com