Working on some builds to get Mrs Deogg into playing X-Wing. To make things initially easy for her to jump in I figured the following:

100 point build (I wanted to do more than just the Core Set)
She gets to play as the Rebels
NO upgrades/special abilities/tokens (except for shields). Keeping it as simple as possible.
.....basically enough to get a feel of movment and shooting

For her build, here's what I went with:
-YT-1300 (Chewie)
-YT-2400 (Rendar)
-Core Set X-Wing (Luke)

To counter her, here's the build I quick whipped up for myself:
-Boba Fett
-IG88-A
-Kir Kanos

Both builds come out to 100 points on the nose. There's using both small and larger ships, learning about firing arcs, range, shooting, pretty much all the basics. Though I think with going up against TWO 360-firing arcs, I'm gonna get destroyed. But, all worth it!

Decent builds to start with?

I find that a build which exceeds 100 pts and includes both Rey and Corran works best.

Allows lots of flexibility and rerolls. Few decisions. And mainly fun.

For instance:

Honestly? Start with the lists as laid out in the core set. That is a very good way to dip your toes in the water. Luke, something like R2, and then maybe an EPT. That's not three ships to keep track of, which starting players tend to have trouble with, but you can do things like actions.

Then, let her build a 60 points list using any ships and upgrades. You fly a 40-50 point list. Then go to 100, again with her building her own list, and you flying something at 70 or so.

This way, she gets to look at cards, and assemble something that she'll understand, because she picked the cards. It'll be an easier start, and the games are still fun, but without being stripped to the bones, or just being dice throwing and maneuvers (a game of which she will likely lose dhe to your greater experience).

My wife started with TIEs and Fel. She's now flying RAC and Echo since she recently won a Decimator at a tournament. Keep things simple, don't overwhelm with action options, keep it fun. If she likes the game she will delve deeper on her own.

Xwings and Ywings are nice starters as they don't have a heck of a lot of options for actions and the dial is everything. It makes her choices important. Try not to use nasty card combos against her. The modern meta nearly made me wife quit flying entirely... I'd suggest keep it pure Empire vs Rebel as these two forces play pretty fair if you edge out certain play styles.

Well, we tried BOTH....first the Core Set, then my two build lists in my first post.

In the Core Set battle, Luke took out both TIE's pretty handily. It was over pretty quick.

When we jumped to the 100 point builds, I figured with two ships with 360 arcs, she wouldn't have to worry much about the firing arc, and she could eat my squad for lunch.

BOY WAS I WRONG!
The dice went totally cold on her (and they were lukewarm at best for me), she got the shields down on the IG-88A but that was about it. There were a lot of total misses on both ends of the table. Luke was chasing down IG while the other 4 ships were in an intergalactic traffic jam. Made for one heckuva dogfight though! By the time IG took Luke out, Boba and Kanos were able to wipe Chewie out, and then IG swooped in to help finish off Dash.

We're probably gonna play a couple more games tomorrow (Labor Day weekend, and we're BOTH off work Monday!), so I'm sure we'll try some other builds, maybe integrate the pilot abilities and upgrades.

Again, I'd suggest playing a list with slightly fewer points, until she is comfortable with the game. That should prevent the aforementioned situation where you wipe her and she does nothing, even if her dice do go cold.

Glad that it worked out though!

23 hours ago, Kreen said:

Again, I'd suggest playing a list with slightly fewer points, until she is comfortable with the game. That should prevent the aforementioned situation where you wipe her and she does nothing, even if her dice do go cold.

Agreed. Going from the core set to 60 point games is a nice one.

That way you get 5 x Academy Pilot (or 4 x Epsilon Pilot) versus 2 reasonably well equipped X-wing aces, which is a nice fight. Throwing in named pilots is nice, but you kind of need to add the pilots with their upgrades, in a careful progression, beacause there are some big jumps in performance (looking at the core set, the reason that the 'basic game' talks about 30 points for a limit for skirmishes is to prevent Luke Skywalker with R2-D2 versus 2 TIE fighters, because as noted it's not much fun for the TIEs!).

Rey with Finn Crew is great early on. There's a huge benefit to getting arc, but you'll still have a shot if you don't. YT-2400 with HLC but no title also work similarly.

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For low-point introductory games, I love Epsilon Ace on one of the sides. The game I introduced X-Wing to my brother with was EA + Comm Relay + Shield Upgrade against Blue Ace (but I think Red Squadron Veteran with VI would have worked cleaner). What I like about the duel is that Epsilon Ace has positional advantage, until they take enough damage to not, and then the X-Wing has the advantage. Since EA isn't so great an arc dodger to never take damage, it usually happens that there's a flip in pilot skills. I feel like a lot can be learned in such a game. Epsilon Ace with Comm Relay and Omega Squadron Pilot with Comm Relay vs Snap Wexley with R5/Primed Thrusters/Determination/Autothrusters I think would also be a fun match.

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Personally, I think it's probably harder to figure out what to fly against new players than what to give them to fly. There was a while when I was just bringing generic-pilot versions of my normal lists against new players at my FLGS X-Wing night. It worked OK, but it might have been better for me to have built proper lists at lower point values.