The internet loves rating things, so lets rate the contents of the new Phoenix Cell expansion for X-Wing! Obviously, in order to rate something, we have to be on the same page for what a given rating means:
S Tier- This is reserved for elements that either mechanically break the game or elements that are costed far below their in game value. Anything in S probably needs either an FAQ or substantial cost adjustment
A Tier- This tier is for game elements that will rarely not be worth it and often end up being meta defining for one or more factions. A is usually the tier to beat in a competitive setting
B Tier- This tier is going to be comprised of things that can work, but have some limitations that keep them from being universally good. B tier is where a lot of the game is and these elements can still find homes in very competitive lists
C Tier- This is where we're putting things that are either not at a good cost point for what they do or are just too niche for the vast majority of lists. In specific situations, C tier can be competitive, but it's narrower in scope and they definitely don't fit in every list or even most of them
F Tier- This is the dumping ground. The "why does this exist?" tier. This is for elements that are significantly overcosted or are so situational as to defy any real explanation as to what the intended use by the designer was.
Let's get started!
Tierfon Belly Run (2pts) - F Tier
God, what a train wreck of a card to start with. I'm okay with situational or combo elements, but this card really does push that to a level that's pretty baffling and at a cost that makes no real sense. Let's assume that you have a Y-Wing in your list (already not great odds) that has a Talent slot (very few of those) that has a special attack (somewhat reasonable as that's all the Y-Wing really does) and took asteroids as an obstacle (many people don't). Well, if all of that applies and you take the time to set up your special attack (make sure you have a lock or your arc is rotated correctly), then for the low low price of lose your action and having a 50% chance of taking damage you get to use your special attack on an asteroid and also your opponent can't reroll dice (which only matters if they didn't just focus)...or, you could just take debris instead and still take basically the same shot with a lower chance of taking damage and not pay 2 points. I feel like there might have been an interesting version of this card in a playtesting changelog, but sadly we have a card that you would likely forget even existed at 0pts, much less its release price of 2pts. At 0pts it would earn C tier just because Y-Wings usually take special weapons and don't often use talent slots, so there's an off chance it may give you a shot your opponent isn't expecting, but alas, that is not what this card dropped at.
Sabine Wren Gunner (2pts) - C Tier
Good, our first Sabine of the day! The card is obviously situational because you have to equip and use a special weapon and have a gunner slot and land damage cards (so it doesn't work with Jamming Beam, Tractor Beam, Thread Tracers, etc) and the net benefit is being able to remove a stress or strain from a ship per damage card. There's isn't a lot in the meta currently running ships that she easily slots in and as a 2pt card and kind of inconsistent in terms of getting her effect and the effect not being that game changing, you probably aren't flexing carriers in just to get Sabine in a list. For her cost she's fine and probably wouldn't break anything if she went down to 1pt. Because she's more of an add-on to another existing element, her usefulness will be heavily dependent on the viability of elements that can take her, so it's possible she gets upgrade to B tier with either new releases or a meta shift, but A tier seems unlikely.
B6 Blade Wing Prototype (2pts) - C Tier
This upgrade is trying my patience and I'm tempted to give it F. 2pts for an upgrade that only lets you equip another upgrade is kind of trash. The upgrade type it's adding needs to be pretty exceptional to justify a 2pt tax (especially on a limited 1 upgrade), but there are only really 4 gunners a B-Wing can equip without being a complete waste of time (Ezra at 12 base for a force, Suppressive Gunner at 8 base, Weapon Systems Officer at 7 base and Sabine at 2 base). All of those except maybe Sabine would be a pretty weak pick at their current cost even without a 2pt tax. While I have a pretty negative opinion of this card, most of that is just due to how basically useless the gunner slot currently is on the B-Wing and Sabine at least has some synergy with B-Wings and stress removal. I feel like I'm being generous by not just giving it an F, but it does have potential to get a lot better with cost adjustments or new releases and isn't completely awful, just very list specific right now.
Hera Syndulla B-Wing (55pts)- B Tier
My thoughts on B-Wing Hera are kind of complicated. To put it simply (ha! Unlikely), she has an ace initiative along with the costing that goes with it, but also has a support ability that doesn't contribute at all to her potentially being an end game piece. The B-Wing, in general, is also not much of an ace chassis as it's maneuvering can be pretty limited in most cases and its strategy for dealing with incoming damage is just to face tank with its shields and hull. So you're paying an ace tax mostly just to shoot first and increase the likelihood of getting blocked. The B-Wing version of Hera does have one edge over the A-Wing Hera, in that, the B-Wing can take Fire Control System which is modestly costed at 2pts, and lets her shoot at her initiative of 6 with a reroll from FCS, then ship the lock to someone else for a full reroll. A-Wing Hera, outside of investing 7pts in Juke, doesn't really have a comparable gimmick. Overall, what hurts B-Wing Hera is that you're really not taking her as an I6 ace, but rather as a good support ability and the exact same ability is available for 13pts less on the A-Wing (that's arguably a much better chassis for an I6 to try and ace with). This doesn't make the B-Wing version unusable by any means, but the A-Wing version is easier to slot into more lists.
Netrem Pollard (46pts) - B Tier
Netrem Pollard has the unique feature in that he has a of ton of potential K-Turn/S-Loop/whatever turnaround maneuvers, in fact more than literally any other ship due to his ability to turn 180 off of any barrel roll. When I first read his ability, it didn't occur to me that he can just stress himself to rotate (granted he can't link actions if he's doing this) which means can turn around every turn with basically no penalty by just doing blue maneuvers and barrel rolling (bonus points if there's a friendly ship of higher initiative doing a blue maneuver at range 1 that he can give the stress to). There's a ton of potential, but really held back by initiative 3, although he would absolutely turn circles around a bunch of I1's and I2's. He not crazy situational or overcosted, but his initiative does cap his effectiveness. Give him a shot, I think this pilot is a sleeper hit, but I haven't tried him on the table yet.
Vectored Cannons (1pt) - A Tier
In exchange for being able to link any action to a boost and 1pt, you get a red boost or rotate in the system phase and an entire extra firing arc...wut? At first this seemed to solve some problems I was having with keeping A-Wings on target, so I tried it immediately after multiple games of A-Wings without it and it was such a night and day difference even in just the first engagement. It was such a stark contrast that I thought it would be a cold take to say A-Wings with this were just plain better. Adding an entire extra firing arc opens up your dial, allows for more time on target, more consistent actions, etc, you don't need me to tell you that "Turrets R Gut" especially when your rotate doesn't burn you perform action step. Additionally, your opponent doesn't know where your turret is when they're planning their maneuvers, only when they take actions, so the amount of information you're giving up is actually pretty limited and, you're not stressed when your opponent plans their maneuvers, so you aren't giving up information there either. If you think A-Wing pilot XYZ doesn't want this upgrade...well, I disagree on basically all of them because the versatility is just so high for 1pt. In fact, in a vaccum, this would be an S Tier upgrade, but because this is ship locked, I would hazard a guess that this is how the designers want this to work and a lot of the pilots are balanced around it working this way...although it wouldn't shock me to see this go up to 2pts.
Hera Syndulla A-Wing (42pts) - A Tier
A-Wing Hera has all of the actions she can pass from the word go (B-Wing Hera needs Stabilized S-Foils or Jyn Erso for the Evade), at 42pts, she's reasonably costed for having a support ability and the A-Wing is a pretty agile chassis for an initiative 6 to be an annoying end-game piece. She also plays well into the Rebel gimmick of buffing single targets. She might be a little overvalued right now, but she is definitely good and I expect to see her a lot in the coming meta.
Ahsoka Tano (49pts) - A Tier
Honestly, a 49pt A-Wing was not appealing to me when I first put her in lists. It wasn't that she or her ability or her initiative or her force seemed bad in any way, but that's a lot of points...and she has been consistently worth it. It didn't click with me how good it would be to have a force using ace with an evade action that could use their force to buff other ships when they didn't need it for themselves, but man is it good. Especially getting an action at initiative 5 that can be a boost or barrel roll. Much of the conversation has been centered around Hera and I certainly understand people balking at Ahsoka's cost, but I legitimately think she's a really strong character in early, mid and late game. She has everything she needs to be a meta staple. Check her out, you might be surprised.
Sabine Wren A-Wing (37pts) - B Tier
The pilot ability is good and plays into the chassis making it more consistent at the range where it can get the most value, but also where it's at the most vulnerable. The only real downside is 37pts for an I3 A-Wing which is a strong downside given that Green Squadron is currently 30pts making it a 7pt pilot ability. It's not bad enough to drop her into C tier, but I can certainly understand skipping her for the time being. Of note: Sabine's pilot ability only requires you be in the enemy ship's front firing arc and doesn't care about her own firing arc, so this does work fine with the config shooting people behind you.
Wedge Antilles A-Wing (35pts) - A Tier
Wedge overcomes one of the single biggest limitations of the chassis by allowing him to more consistently push through damage. At 35pts and with a respectable initiative of 4, he's pretty easy to include in a lot of lists and will always get work done. I've seen the misconception that the configuration turns off his pilot ability and that is 100% wrong. His primary ability works on any attack out the front arc even if it is a turret attack. While his ability won't trigger with back arc attacks, frequently those attacks are ones you wouldn't get at all without the configuration, so it's still better than no config and you still get the full ability effect when shooting out the front.
Shara Bey A-Wing (32pts) - B Tier
I waffled between B and C tier for Shara. On the one hand, her ability is very difficult to get anything out of without extra setup and, that's usually where I'd throw a pilot in C tier, but, in practice, the setup wasn't that bad, the payoff of +1 damage for you or -1 damage for an enemy shot is solid and her costing is really reasonable at only 2pts more than a generic I3. I wouldn't disagree with someone that put her in C, but she's been good enough in enough situations that I currently lean B.
Derek Klivian (30pts) - C Tier
I really want to drop this pilot in F tier because his ability is so head scratchingly bad. In 1.0, when he was an X-Wing pilot and there was a droid that gave you a lock for doing red maneuvers, he could K-Turn and focus + lock which was pretty fun. This version does not do that, in fact, for the input of trying to get a lock onto a stressed ship, the payoff is that he clears a stress from a ship that has really good blue maneuvers to clear stress already (and also probably doesn't have stress if you have the config). It's not crazy to get him a lock, but why bother? If he wasn't the same cost as an I3 generic, I would drop him in F tier in a god damn heartbeat even though he's not unplayable just on the whole principal of the thing. I would still be more tempted to take an I1 generic as a blocker over him, but he's not actually bad, just unremarkable to the point where he serves no real purpose.
Conclusion
Hope you enjoyed the (maybe) hot takes or at least got ideas to try something new next time you play rebels and feel free to yell at me if you think I got something wrong.