Just thinking back on the meta of the game and how it's changed.

Core Set - Neb Bs are junk, Cr-90s are the only way to go for Rebels

Wave 1 - Neb Bs are awesome! Fighters suck! The only way to win is with Star Destroyers.

Wave 2 - Fighters are viable (especially rogue), but it's all about the activations. Cards that guarantee commands are pointless.

Wave 3-4 (initial) - Interdictors are broken. Those pointless command ensuring cards actually have a purpose.

Wave 3-4 (current) - Fighters are broken (no need to invest in rogue). The only lists worth flying are carriers, fighters, and Demo.

Did I miss any, or portray them incorrectly?

Here's to an amazing job of observing and responding to the meta, FFG!

Interestingly I went back and revisited the core set intro game with a new player .....when I started playing way back when the VSD just rolled over everything and I could not see how to win against it....... Now I can't see how the VSD has a snowballs chance in hell against the two little Rebs...

The problem is that it seems most players consistently ignore new upcoming meta changes and then when a fleet designed to exploit that passivity does well in a major event, everyone then overreacts and you get all this nonsense about how the ONLY KIND OF FLEET THAT CAN WIN is the kind that just won.

Wave 2, part 1: people didn't take Ackbar seriously enough and then he conga lined all over their faces

Wave 2, part 2: people didn't take high activation count Imperial fleets with Raiders seriously and then one designed to counter Ackbar just stomped these sluggish conga line fleets

Wave 3+4: people didn't take flotillas or squadrons seriously enough before Worlds. They kept teching for handling big ships or Demolisher. Flotillas and squadrons made them very sad.

I'm sure this process will repeat itself far into the future. People don't seem to feel comfortable trying out new fleet types until someone else shows them it can be done, and then they are all over it like it's the only thing that can win.

I'm just bored with all the "Squads are garbage" or "Squads take too long, go play X-Wing" or "I can't win without squads but when I take them I end up giving my opponent free points" type of comments.

Squads are common now. They weren't common before. This is what happens when you play a living game that is constanty being updated. Things change. Perhaps squads will not be as dominate in the next wave, or for Worlds next year. I do think FFG went a bit overboard with squad synergy however. Wave 3/4 had some amazing upgrades and carriers. Now Wave 5 and CC will bring another carrier, the Pelta, and a ton more squads.

In regards to the Interdictor, I don't think it was impactful as you say it was. It sucked up a lot of points and had some neat tricks, but I haven't really heard of anyone winning big with it in their fleet. Unless you mean broken as in "This ship sucks. All it can do is repair. Never use this thing."

I meant, when it first came out, everyone was complaining about how their opponent could change their commands etc. Just like when the tractor beams came out in x wing.

And the best part, in responding to the meta, FFG didn't go all GW and OVERcorrect everything. At least not to the point where things became broken. Yes there are dominant lists, but, how much of that is people putting on the blinders a SPECIFIC player dominates with a said list? Everyone remember the first worlds? When everyone said squads were useless? What FFG seems to be working towards, (and succeeding for the most part), is making the meta to be about a balanced list, (I am hearing more and more you need squads and flotillas, BUT, I bet no one is leaving the cap ships at home).

To be fair, the flotillas did a lot to help the rebel fighters that weren't 2400s out because they're dirt cheap squadron orders and they came with some nice buffs.

It's like that with new waves. The community is too experienced with all the known stuff and the possibilities introduced in a new wave always catch us off-guard. Therefor those who build an efficient fleet around the new releases are in advantage because the others are not used to deal with them. Now that Worlds is over I think we have plenty of data to analyze how CAGs work and we can find several ways to defeat them. In fact there are some lists that can be effective against such builds, some of the in fact are dusted-off and/or slightly modified versions of older successful builds.

I need to point out that I think the new 3/4 stuff was helped out tremendously by the complete domination of the triple Jumpmaster list in X-Wing. A lot of the new abilities are unique, but slightly restrained when it comes to outfitting upgrades that let players exploit a "does everything" design mechanic. For a little while, we saw that dynamic with Demolisher and the Assault Frigate Mk2. I was afraid we'd see it again with the Liberty, but so far it seems to be a lot more manageable than people expected.