Gotcha. I should read those expansion inserts more closely, it seems. =)

Is this explicitly stated somewhere in the rulebooks? I haven't been able to find it.

I also like the idea of a defensive Guri build. Something like: Guri, Autothrusters, Virago, Sensor Jammer, EPT of your choice (Lone Wolf, perhaps). The idea here is to give your opponent two bad targets to shoot at. If he shoots at Dengar, he's giving you free shots in return (assuming that you have positioned Dengar well). If he shoots at Guri, he may or may not get damage through against all of that defensive modification.

Danke. I dunno about being superior to AC Tempests. I could see you mixing it up with both, if for no other reason than to offer an opponent a different type of threat (different dial, different action bar). Perhaps something like: http://geordanr.github.io/xwing/?f=Galactic%20Empire&d=v4!s!165:140,13:27:25:;165:140,13:27:25:;20:14:23:25:U.107;20:14:23:25:U.107&sn=Unnamed%20Squadron

STP?

Also consider that very rarely does the version of pilot/upgrade "X" that was playtested end up being the actual, final version of that card. I could show you old-school Star Wars CCG playtest sheets from 20 years ago that would bear absolutely no resemblance to the cards that were actually printed.

I like the idea of a TAP swarm with Vader, but I have to warn against playing Vader without EU. I've done it, and he's just not the threat he needs to be without that boost action. You might consider trading up to three (3) of the PS4 TAP with Crack Shot.

You pretty much have to rip the peg off the ship to do this well. It's a permanent mod (but an awesome one). I can't recommend enough that you rough up the steel balls somehow. That polished finish they come with guarantees that your ships will slide all over the place. Use some sandpaper or a file or whatever to scuff that up pretty well and you'll be in much better shape.

Ultimately, this is all that was necessary. No one needed to be told they had been accused of loaded dice or similar; all the TO had to do was to ask all players to share a dice pool for the Top 4 games - probably not a bad policy anyway, honestly - and not give any particular reason for doing so and I suspect no one would have complained. There's no way you can complain about loaded dice when you're rolling the exact same bones as your opponent.

"Opposing ships may not regenerate shields while <Pilot Name> is in play."

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/181031-4x-tempest-accuracy-corrector-and-dark-curse-squad-name-acdc-and-strategy-discussion/?p=1669571

That's practically saying that their main weakness is dealing with about half of the common competitive lists.Empire: pretty much everything flown competitively but Palp shuttle and Decimators has 3 dice. Scum: only 2 really competitive lists, Brobots and 4 TLTs, one of them has 3 dice on all ships. Rebels: here it's getting better for AC Tempests. Corran has 3 dice, A-wings have 3 dice, Poe has almost 3 dice, but then you have k-wings, Y-Wings, Dash and even Fat Han. Still, a ship that struggles with 3 green dice enemies will have difficulties to be competitive IMO, even without TLTs. Hell, probably even more so without TLT, as a fair bit of the 1 agility ships would be gone too. True. 2-dice attacks versus 3-dice defenses - especially from lower PS - rarely ends well. Hence the Cluster Missile concept. A list of pure AC Tempests was never a super-awesome idea, anyway. They should have been the kind of ship that you could mix in as a solid blocker who was hard to kill and had mediocre offense you could rely on. They may yet get back to that point, but it's hard to imagine now.

Juno's ability is amazing. It does truly wonderful things for the Advanced. I would much rather have her than Carnor (though probably not Soontir). Omega Leader wasn't even spoiled at the time, so it's hard to say. These days? Eh, maybe not. Maarek is one of those budget aces whose ability is really awesome in the right list. AC Tempests are, IMHO, better than Crack Blacks. They are tough little bastards with guaranteed offense, meaning all their actions can be spent on defense (evade) and positioning (barrel roll). Getting them off the board can be a real chore. Their big weakness is 3-agility ships, which is partially where the Thunderstruck variant of that list came from (4x AC Tempest with Cluster Missiles). They are far, far more survivable than TIE Fighters. I do so wish there was a generic Advanced with an EPT. I get that there will typically be a mathematically "best" option for generic filler in lists; what I don't understand is why that filler has to have a 360 degree firing arc out to range 3 without granting extra defense dice. That's pretty over-the-top. B-Wings were good filler, but you had to know how to fly them, and their dial meant that they did have drawbacks. TLT Y's don't suffer from nearly the same restrictions for only a few more points.

Sure, you see Vader. And... who else? Accuracy Corrected Tempests are some of the most cost efficient ships in the game for what they do, but they were basically dead on arrival. How often do you see Juno? 1 game in 100? Maarek? Colzet? Vader is pretty much it, because he can afford to keep up his offensive output while token-ing up each round and hoping for good green dice while he tries to squeeze inside the TLT bubble. Given some of the other Advanced pilot abilities, it's just a bloody crime. Y's came back in vogue as soon as the BTL title was released with Most Wanted. Recall that original Stresshog variant was ICT and R3-A2; they were all over the place last regional season. (I had to kill a lot of them with my Brobots.) Even regular Warthogs with ICTs were popular. Rebel control lists had to start making choices between B's and Y's, ICTs and Ion Cannons, R3-A2 and Tactician. Some folks mixed everything into one list; some went all one way, some the other. I saw a lot of variants across the different regionals I attended.