I, like everyone else in the X-Wing world, have been working on trying to figure out what is good in second edition and what I want to fly. In first edition, I flew almost all scum. So moving into second edition, I have only converted my Scum and Villainy fleet. In the games I’ve played thus far, I have come to one definite conclusion:

Guri is ridiculously good.

Given that Thweek had been the center point of my lists for the past year, Guri was my starting point in second edition. And it’s been a non-stop love affair since then. Because she’s incredible.

I’ve built a number of second edition lists that don’t have Guri in them, but when it comes time to put ships on the table, she is invariably there. I can’t help myself. I initially started with a build for her that looked something like this:

(62) Guri

(8) Shield Upgrade

(3) Fire-Control System

(6) Outmaneuver

Total points: 79

Falling back into old habits, I started out with Fire Control System on her (it?), but in the games I played with FCS, I found that I never once took a lock action, as repositioning was always a better action. Then I tried Advanced Sensors. And it is SO GOOD. The first game I played with Advanced Sensors on her, I lost everything in my list except Guri before any of my opponents ships had died, and then she proceeded to solo the entirety of his list. I distinctly remember looking at the board state during one planning phase, trying to figure out what maneuver I could dial in that wouldn’t get blocked by one of the three ships my opponent was flying. Then the light bulb clicked on in my brain, and I realized the answer was… any of them. As long as she wasn’t stressed, I could dial in anything I wanted, then use her wonky microthrusters barrel roll or a boost to redirect the maneuver to land in any one of a multitude of locations. During the entirety of that game, Guri had a single arc on her once. And that only happened because time was running short, I needed to kill one more ship to win on points, and I realized that it didn’t matter in the slightest at that point in the game if she took a point or two of damage. I felt bad for my opponent. It didn’t register with him until after the game that no matter what he selected on his dial, Guri wasn’t going to end up in his arc. He talked about his bad decision making, but it wasn’t at all his fault. Advanced Sensors Guri is just stupid good against anything that moves before her… provided there aren’t too many arcs. I would say that she is flat out broken, but she isn’t an I6 and if you do screw up while flying her, she can die fast, so there is counter play.

The next upgrade to be tossed aside in favor of a better option was the shield upgrade. At first I took a bit of flack from my compatriots for my choice to replace shield upgrade with afterburners, but after a single game of seeing what a four forward, afterburners boost, followed by a wonky barrel roll could do on an outmaneuver Guri, they came around quite quickly. With that combination of maneuvers and actions, Guri can end up slightly beyond range three of her starting position, facing ninety degrees to either ship left or right. It can be fairly mind blowing the first time you see it happen on a table. Getting the ability to ensure that you don’t get shot twice per game is significantly better than an extra shield. As any good Soontir player will tell you, you don’t need lots of shields or hull if no one is shooting at you. Just don’t screw up.

My favorite build for her ended up being this:

(62) Guri

(6) Outmaneuver

(8) Afterburners

(8) Advanced Sensors

Total points: 84

It’s a bit more expensive, but well worth it. I don’t think it’s generally worth putting much more into her; indeed an argument could be made that there are already too many points invested, but that seems to be a matter of differing playstyles. I’ve played around some with adding the Virago title to her and while at ten points, it is a value for what you get out of it: a shield, an extra mod slot, and an end phase red boost, but in practice it doesn’t seem to be worthwhile. The end phase boost is extremely situational at best, I’ve never actually used it in any of the games that I had Virago equipped. The only value I could see out of it would be an end phase boost to get a block, but at the cost of a stress token and a more predictable maneuver the next turn, I can’t see that it could be worth it. As to the extra modification slot, the only mod that makes any sense to me is a shield upgrade. And while flying a Guri who at four hull and three shields rivals the hit points of a Tie Defender is a lot of fun, at 102 points, it simply isn’t worth it in my opinion. So the title largely is a ten point shield upgrade, and if you want that extra shield that badly, you should probably drop afterburners and get it cheaper.

Once I was settled on a build for her, I started working towards finding the wing mates that would be best suited to fly alongside her.

With the recent success both Matt and I had with Boba Fett as her wing mate at the Gold Squadron Classic, the Firespray pilot is the obvious starting point for this discussion. Truth be told, I really should both begin and end the discussion with Boba. Because he is amazing. He can hit like a tank, and his ability makes him a range one monster. He is largely, in my playstyle at least, a hulking, flamboyant distraction from Guri, and he does his job superbly. At the GSC, not a single opponent (aside from Matt) focused in on Guri even though she is the primary late game threat. Boba literally becomes weaker as the opposing ship count drops, but Guri becomes significantly stronger as the number of arcs diminish. Other than my lingering belief that two ship builds aren’t optimal for second edition X-Wing, I can’t say for sure what is putting me off from flying him, but I am not settled on this pairing quite yet. As Matt has said to me, he flies Boba with Guri, and I fly Guri with Boba. The Mandalorian Mercenary doesn’t quite feel at home with me.

Currently, I’m leaning right now towards this build:

(70) IG-88A

(2) IG-2000

(5) Collision Detector

Points 77

(62) Guri

(8) Afterburners

(8) Advanced Sensors

(6) Outmaneuver

Points 84

(22) L3-37

(4) IG-88D

Points 26

Total points: 187

As I said before, Advanced Sensors Guri is incredibly maneuverable and hard to pin down. But when she is stressed, her maneuverability dramatically decreases. Phil GC wrote an excellent blog post on the subject, and you can find that here: Such An X-Wing Hipster . So a real key to flying her well is proper management of your red maneuvers and your linked actions. With weaponized stress being significantly reigned in, the chances are that if she is stressed, it was as a result of a conscious decision on your part to get her stressed. And sometimes it is absolutely the correct decision. You have turns where you have to reposition, and you need dice mods but won’t be getting her free focus token. So you link into a calculate. But what if you had a ship that could throw her a calculate from up to range three away? Then she could get that calculate without the stress. And what if the ship that threw it to her got to keep one for itself? Enter IG-88A, the Aggressive Automaton.

Aggressive Automaton? Advanced android aiming to assassinate.

That seems pretty good right? A solid addition. But what if you could add another ship that could do the exact same thing? That’s the gap that L3 fills. IG-88D riding shotgun with her (it?) allows either the calculate toss or a coordinate to a squadmate, increasing the flexibility of this list even more. With this build, I can potentially have a pool of five calculate tokens per turn, two of which can get passed to whichever ship needs them the most on that particular turn. This leaves Guri free to reposition, and not bother linking to the red calculate action while still getting the dice mods she needs. This leaves her unstressed and free to do her Advanced Sensors shenanigans again the next turn. In some ways, it is reminiscent of the Attanni Mindlink days, pre-nerf. It’s a Fembotanni Mindlink. You can get this same synergy with other IG-88A and Guri builds, but I haven’t seen another that leaves enough points free to have them built out the way I want them.

Getting the Squad together.

On IG, I really like Advanced Sensors much better than Collision Detector, but I’m very uncomfortable running just a ten point initiative bid. Because of that, I’m trying out collision detector instead, but I’m really having a hard time adjusting my thinking to take into account the fact that I don’t always need to avoid obstacles. It might take me a bit to get used to, but I’ll get there. We’ll have to see which is actually better. L3-37 is barebones aside from IG-88D because loading any more points into that ship is largely just a gift to your opponent since she is the most likely to die out of the three ships.

My love of Guri is well known, and certainly not unique to me. All you have to do is listen to the Birmingham Barons or read Phil GC to know that. If you devote the time to her, she will help you accomplish amazing things. If you love her, you don’t have to say a thing. She knows, and will treat you accordingly.

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