Are rebel fleets still top 10 competitive?

It's shard dependent, but Rebel fleets are on the decline, being muscled out as people get Negotiator and Malevolence fleets going.

I would not recommend going all in toward a Rebel fleet right now unless your guild is not doing Geonosis TB. By the time you're ready, Rebels will be significantly less reliable in arena.

You can still get to the top with a Rebel fleet. How practical It is, how many battles you need, will depend on your shard. I can get through 7 star Negotiators and 6 star Malevolences with:

Home One - AA G12+3
Han's Falcom - r4 pilots
Biggs XWing - G12+0
Bistans UWing - G9 Pilots
--
Phantom - G12 pilots
Ghost - G12 pilots
Cassians UWing - G12 pilots
Houndstooth - Bossk G12

Your mileage may vary...

It really depends on your shard more than anything else.
My current lineup, start:
G12+3 AA, HMF with relics, G12+3 Biggs, G12+3 Bistan/SRP
Reinforcements:
G9-11 Phoenixes
G10 Wedge
G11+5 Bossk

Well-geared Biggs is pretty much mandatory for this setup. You also want AA geared so Home One didn't fell too much behind enemy capships.

If I had well-geared R1 I'd switched one of reinforcements to Cassian but my fleet works even as it is so I don't see the point to gear them right now.

It's enough to consistently beat even 7* Negos with full relics so I can finish 1st every day with no trouble. Usually I don't fall below top 20 over day and can climb back without refreshes. HMF is crazy rng-dependent so sometimes I still need to do refresh or two. But my shard have a very low competition (top 30 Negos+occasional HMFs, many Tarkin/Thrawn below) and, on top on that, I don't share payout time with anyone in the top 20 as I can see.

There are one Nego setup which I can't beat yet (with 7* Y-wing as reinforcement). Maybe I could figure something out if/when more such players will arise (raise up Cassian, for example) but right now I'm not in the mood for experiments and just avoid it.

On highly competetive shard you probably will fall too low.

Be selective about the gear at first. SRP and Cassian are the two that are key for the U-Wings. Work on the others as you go, but their crew abilities are absolutely necessary to max.

Start collecting Carbs and Gold Balls like crazy.

Still a couple dudes running rebels in my top 10. I don't think it's reasonable without a really strong Bistan, though.

"Jarvind;c-2044966" wrote:
Still a couple dudes running rebels in my top 10. I don't think it's reasonable without a really strong Bistan, though.

See post 2.

I do it without Bistan:
HMF (R5)
HT (R2)
Biggs (G12+3)
Reinforcements:
Phantom
Cassian
XB
Gauntlet

Like others said, it’s not too hard, mostly RNG dependent. I probably average 4/5 wins, half the losses are timeouts, which gets old real fast. If you’ve got the GET2 for GR, I’d put your gear on those pilots as there way fewer to gear, and they are better in squad battles.

I have nego7 but I prefer using rebels against other nego. Basically it’s an easy win.
HMF(R7,6), UWings(R5,4), AA(R3), Biggs(g12.5)

I would think it is more of how well your Rebel fleet does on defense. The top 100 in my arena are almost all Negotiator fleets now. I see an occasional Rebel or Separatist fleet. If I were to switch back to Rebels, I would probably get attacked constantly, thus eventually losing positions. No matter how good the defense is, someone is going to beat you at some point. It isn't that hard to drop 20 places in an instant just due to two consecutive loses on defense.