General Rieekan
The rebel boogieman of the early waves: General Rieekan! Rieekan is one of the most powerful and fun commanders for the rebellion. He has a bunch of worlds wins under his belt and even more when it comes to small tourneys, though as of late his popularity has seemed to decrease. He was my choice for Admiral during the Vassal World Cup in 2022.
34 Points! He clocks in as the second most expensive rebel admiral after everyone's favorite Orange Amphibious Humanoid. Rieekan's ability is pretty straightforward. "Once per round, when a friendly ship or friendly unique squadron is destroyed, it remains in the play area and is treated as if it was not destroyed until the end of the Status Phase." So your Hammerhead just got one shot by an SSD hoping to move past it? Oops, guess it'll have to ram. Did Demolisher just last-first your Mon Karren? Nah, let's keep it around. The short of it is that Rieekan turns your ships or unique squadrons into zombies for the rest of the turn after they die.
Using him is pretty easy. He likes lists with lots of ships and/or lots of unique squadrons. MSU is usually my go-to with him, maybe with a small group of unique fighters. Just make sure to keep his flagship safe and in the back to keep his ability around. He is phenomenal in so many cases. Keeping pivotal pieces around for long enough to throw more dice can be huge. There are very rare reasons to keep a ship around that has already activated, unless they're in the way of your opponent.
Rieekan loves MSU. There's a reason he comes with the Mc30 expansion... Keeping Admonition around to blast a double arc into Chimeara and then ram for extra damage is great fun. There are ways to sorta cheese his abilities, though after some recent card errata they're less effective.
CR90 Corvette B (39)
• Engine Techs (8)
• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
• SW-7 Ion Batteries (5)
= 57 Points
This used to be a very annoying little ram machine. With the change to Engine Techs, it's less annoying. Now Engine Techs is unnecessary, so just take SW7s, RBD, and park your little butt right in front of your opponent.
Overall, I love General Rieekan. He's great fun, easy to use, and super powerful. Take lots of ships and unique squads and go to work. Be careful not to save a squadron if you have a ship that could die later in the turn.