I have some rebel and imperial ships, but no scum. I was thinking about getting the starter set (i think it's most wanted) for scum, and then some other ships. I've heard firesprays or starvipers are good, but are there any other ships or squad recommendations? I'm not very good at the game yet by the way.

I think the most common way to start Scum is to buy the Most Wanted Pack. It comes with dials for the HWK-290, Firespray-31, and an extra Y-wing dial (in addition to the Y-wing that comes in the box). My suggestion would be to get that box and make sure you have the ships that correspond to the extra dials. In other words, a Rebel HWK-290, a Rebel Y-wing, and an Imperial Firespray-31. That means you'll have 2 Y-wings, 2 Z-95s, a HWK, and a Firespray.

With those 6 ships, you'll have quite a lot of variety in the Scum lists you can make. Looking at your signature, I think that would give you approximately equal list-building potential for all 3 factions.

Aside from Most Wanted, here are the other options for Scum ships and my thoughts on them:

StarViper - The named pilots are really fun! It's a neat little ship. Oh, and it comes with 2 Autothrusters which your TIE Interceptors will love!

M3-A Scyk Interceptor - One of my favorite ships. Basically a TIE Fighter with cannons. It's easily taken out, though.

Kihraxz Fighter - Crack Shot and Glitterstim are great upgrades. This pack comes withe the first Pilot Skill 9 Scum pilot -- Talonbane Cobra. This ship is likened to a Scum X-wing, but it's dial actually isn't too different from the Scyk.

Aggressor (IG-2000) - Some great Illicit upgrades in here (Feedback Array and Deadman's Switch go great on Z-95s!). Will also get you more secondary weapons and a Proximity Mine. I've only ever flown this ship with two of them on the table, but plenty of people report getting a lot out of it with just one (often paired with a Firespray). But if you get two of them, the pilots can share each other's ability while they're both on the table.

YV-666 (Hound's Tooth) - I haven't opened mine yet, but I'm super excited for it. Allegedly it flies like a brick, but hits like one too. It has some cool upgrades like Lone Wolf (N'dru, a Z-95 pilot in Most Wanted will love that!), and like the Kihraxz, it comes with Crack Shot and Glitterstim. You will see some repeated upgrades, though. K4 Security Droid and Outlaw Tech are found in Most Wanted, and you already have 2 copies of Engine Upgrade from the Falcon, so you probably don't need the one that comes in the Hound's Tooth. If you do get the Hound's Tooth, make sure you do have Most Wanted because otherwise you can't use the title that lets you deploy a Z-95 getaway ship when the Hound's Tooth blows up.

Like I said above, though, I think getting Most Wanted and the associated ships would be a good place to start. If you want to add another ship after that, I'd probably start small with a StarViper or a Kihraxz, but probably a StarViper because Autothrusters are just so good and Guri is a blast to fly.

Others may tell you to not lock yourself into Most Wanted, and I can see wisdom in that as well. After all, it was made to help people who already had decent sized collections to jump into the new faction relatively easily. But since you're new, you don't already have the Firespray and HWK-290. That means unless you want to fly those or you really have a thing for Y-wings and Z-95s, Most Wanted may not be for you. The IG-2000 is doing really well in tournaments, but I don't think that's a good place to start for 2 reasons: 1) you don't have all the upgrades yet that will make them super useful, and 2) you'll spend about $60 for them and will only have one Scum list you can fly. I mean, you can change the upgrades and stuff, but you'll only have those two ships, and if you don't end up liking the way they fly, that could be a bit of a regret.

But if you want the Firespray and HWK-290 anyway, go for Most Wanted!

You could make a YYZZ list with just a single Most Wanted but you would be quite limited. you probably want 1 more addition. Like Budger said above either a HWK because of MW or a Viper for Guri and AT. Aggressor is a good buy but fairly large investment without a lot variety. Good cards though.

Personally I love the ships (Y, Z, HWK, Firespray) that can be flown by multiple factions but YMMV.

I think I'll try most wanted and a get a firespray and starviper at some point. Also, imo, the HWK looked like a weaker version of a Y-wing. What's a good way to make it good?

People swear by Twin Laser Turret (TLT) these days, but you only get that with the K-wing. Personally, I like them with the Ion Cannon Turret for the control. The consensus seems to be that Blaster Turret was a failure (the requirement to spend a focus in order to even fire it is what killed that turret upgrade).

But a HWK is more than just a turret platform; it's made to be a support ship. The Rebel HWK pilots are designed to buff your friendly ships while the Scum ones are about de-buffing your opponent. To be honest, I think the Scum HWKs have the better abilities just because of their nature. Because the Rebel HWKs buff allies, they become less powerful as allies fall. Since Scum HWKs affect enemies, you can pretty much always get a use out of the ability.

Palob - steals a focus token from an enemy

Torkil - reduces an enemy to Pilot Skill 0 during the combat phase

Dace - takes a stress to deal an extra damage when an enemy receives an ion token

So I think the trick to making a HWK good is to position it right to take advantage of its abilities and keep it relative cheap so that when (not if) it blows up, you haven't lost too many squad points.

A favorite of mine is Dace Bonearm (23) + Ion Cannon Turret (5) + K4 Security droid (3). As the most expensive HWK pilot, this is not a cheap loadout, but it is rather fun. You attack with the Ion Cannon Turret, deal a damage and an ion token, and then take a stress to deal a second damage to the target. During your next turn you execute a green maneuver to clear the stress and K4 Security Droid will let you take a free Target Lock for executing a green maneuver. That means you can focus with your action and you now have focus + target lock for your next attack.

Palob is probably the most common HWK pilot, but I have trouble putting too much stuff on him and it isn't worth it. Maybe I should just fly him with an ion cannon turret. Usually, though, I end up putting Recon Specialist on there. The HWK-290 expansion comes with Recon Specialist which is a really good card. It's a 3-point crew that gives you an extra focus token when you take a focus action. It means you can have a focus for offense and defense on your HWK. Additionally, the HWK-290 comes with the Moldy Crow title which allows you to hang on to focus tokens at the end of the round instead of discarding them. If you start off the match slow, you can save up 4-8 tokens before your opponent exchanges fire with you.

Anyway, HWKs are there for their tricks, not their durability and damage potential. I think they make a good addition to a squad, but you may choose to pick it up later after you've fielded the other pilots.

I just saw the Most Wanted expansion for $90 on E-bay. Is there any place to get it cheaper?

StarVipers are worth it, even if its just for autothrusters. Most people hate on Scyks, but they can be good little ships in my opinion. Most Wanted is great, but most effective if you own a HWK or Firespray for your Rebels or Imperials respectively, as you get more ships for the price of one. Same with Y-Wings now that I think about it. Finally, in answer to your last question, you can always get good prices on X-Wing stuff at Miniature Market.

I just saw the Most Wanted expansion for $90 on E-bay. Is there any place to get it cheaper?

There has been a run on it, due to it containing cards that are very popular at the moment (World Championship results).

Either wait till FFG will restock or keep looking for a shop that still has a stock

Dont pay 90 dollars for it, FFG will produce new ones sooner or later and there is no reason you need it that desperately

A lot of people have pretty much mirrored my opinions, but I feel like tossing in my two cents cause I'm currently having the most fun flying Scum right now, ha.

Depending on how much you're willing to spend, I would go one of two ways:

More Expensive: 2 Most Wanted's, a Firespray, maybe a HWK, and your pick of Kihraxz or Starviper.

With the 4 Z's and 2 Y's, (plus the one you have from your rebels, because there's enough cards for 2 Y-wings per box), you can make a swarm list that's pretty fun to play. On top of it, when you add Firespray, which is solid all around ship that supports multiple playstyles on the scum side, you can create a multitude of squadrons that all feel different from eachother, to give some variety if you get too bored with one list.

I say maybe a HWK, because I think it's a fun ship to fly around, but that's because you can bully your opponents with the pilot skills that it comes with. If you're more a fan of flying around and shooting rather than irritating your opponent, this might be a pass for now, or forever.

When it comes to picking between Kihraxz or Starviper, I would keep the following in mind; I think Starviper comes with better upgrade cards overall, that play very nicely with the other factions, whereas Kihraxz comes with some really good cards for scum, that don't really apply to the other factions as much. Both are pretty good ships and bring some neat things to the table, with the Starviper being more maneuverable with s-loop and the boost and barrel roll actions, and the Kihraxz having a focus on jousting your opponents and coming out on top with the good pilot abilities and upgrades that come with it.

If you're looking for cheaper though, you can get a decent amount of play out of a Most Wanted, and a Starviper.

You can't quite do a whole lot with that setup, but it'll give you enough ships to play scum for a bit, Starviper comes with good upgrades for everyone and is a good amount of fun to fly, and Most Wanted gives you a good starting point to expand with a variety of ships, when you feel ready to drop some more cash.

I think another thing to keep in mind before you invest and whatnot, is just look up what the ships and cards are that you want to experiment with, proxy it, and see if you like it or not. That way, you don't spend money on a pile of ships that you don't have fun with.

Hope this helps you out!

The Starvipers and IG-2000 are great ships and each has at least 1 pilot with a fantastic ability. With IG his move dial is phenomenal as are his action bar and stats. His upgrade bar is great too. Star Vipers are a bit expensive for a small ship (points wise) but are totally worth it. Guri with auto thrusters and sensor jammer make a ship that is tough to hit and great to get right in someone's face with.

I actually only own Scum ships (my friends had been playing for a while when the new faction hit and neither wanted to invest in a third faction). I started with Most Wanted and IG-2000. I got some good mileage but eventually tired of running the same lists. I only play with my friends so owning specific upgrade cards didn't matter.

I now have pretty much 2 of all the small ships minus the hwk and 1 of all the large ships minus the firespray. However, I can borrow those off my friends anytime they don't use them and I might get a firespray anyways because it's a great ship.

What I suggest though is you check out the scum section of https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/and play around with pilots and builds and check out move dials and all that before purchasing. You might end up seeing some things you really want.