Before I took a year's break from Trem and started sucking hardcore in-game, I'd spend 80% of my time simply playing games until HS3, then ending it all with Mara RC hops. Pretty damn fun to hunt down the survivors.
But honestly, the mara is one of the most useful S1 tools the aliens have. Basi is a little too difficult out of the box.
I gotta agree with that. Especially in 1.2, a well-timed Mara hop can be just as devastating as any psaw rushing the OM.
There was a round last night where the Aliens were slightly out-stacked and had to move their base like 3 separate times because the Humans kept rushing so effectively. Still, we were able to hold them off until SD at which time I promptly Mara-hopped their RC and the humans, who were once again in mid-rush, were caught completely off guard. Despite being out-stacked, we won simply because one Adv. Mara flanked the RC in the middle of a human rush.
Also, in my experience at least, it's a bit harder for a psaw to get all the way to the OM than it is for a wall-bouncing Mara to get to the RC.