There has been alot of posts just recently about the state of competitive play at the top tables. I get that we have a new faq that reworks the rules a bit but thankfully it makes the entire attack step clear. R4 aggromech is no longer the pick for a certain top tier archetype, long live overclocked. Palpatine+aces is basically untouched. Rebels were affected by the faq, but mostly it took away little tricks like tactician+tlt which was widely unused in this meta anyway. Of course blaster turret is now effectively dead and buried, but again was largely unused in the current meta anyway.
Now that we're past that, can we each take a breath here? I can't claim to have read every topic that has come up recently, however I am taken aback by how angry some of us are.
The meta is a little stale right now and I get it. I'm not going to stand on a soapbox and say play what you want instead of the "meta", because the meta is only established because it works. Right now for those in competitive play is a higher tension time, people are trying to get their foot in the door for nationals rather than just regionals and for some that's going to be a huge deal.
Others of us just want to play this fun game without worry over the meta, and it's nearing the time of the season for the for fun local store kit tournaments. While we want fun, we also want that awesome swag ffg gives out, and that means we have to prep for the go-to "meta" anyway.
Right now we have the strong ships falling into effectively 3 catagories:
1) Hyper Efficient Aces - backed by palpatine and typically packing boost, barrel roll, and push the limit-- these guus have been the ire of many players for a long while because it's hard to line up shots on arc dodgers in the first place, and as many have complained a certaib soontir fel can take dice out of the equation, capable of turning three blank results into 3 evades. (palpatine->autothrusters->evade token).
2) Reliable Alpha strike lists. The key offender here is the u-boats everyone has been so up in arms about. Again the reason people get annoyed here is the ships effectively take dice out of the equation. Even after the R4 "nerf" they have a 70%((?) someone can check me for accuracy) chance of bringing up 4 hits/crits every time they fire a torpedo.
Before I go on I should say that currently I feel the worst for rebel players, since the "meta" squadrons within their faction have been scared away by the combination of the 2 aforementioned archetypes. If they build to combat one, they don't typically have the tools for the other. The previous "rebel regen" archetype is near completely removed from the meta.
3) Crack shot swarms. Here is where the rebels force their way back into the meta with the crack shot a-wings list that has been participating in "high level" play recently. The other typical squad is tie fighters of course. Between this "archetype" and ordinance, large fat ships just don't exsist anymore (another Rebel archetype).
So with all of this said, I can see where it would get tiring to play in multiple competitive events against these squadrons. However it doesn't excuse the way we as members of the community have been describing these methods of play. Honestly it has been a little sceptic recently. Arc dodgers are not maggots scuttling across the table. Ordinance boats are not this games cancer. The list goes on, but I don't see reason to mention more.
I get it, we are ready for our next meta. I think Imperial veterans will breath fresh life into the current meta for hopefully long enough that our next wave can come out and we will have even more toys to play with.
Till then can we all just calm down a little and try to play some x-wing?
Thanks for reading.
Edited by BleakSquadron
