X-Wing Practice Playlist

By Boom Owl, in X-Wing

What are 10 Fundamental Hyperspace Matchups that a player could play 2-5 times from both sides of the table to learn the nuances of X-Wing?

Some examples just to get the topic started:

  • XXXXX vs FOCHO
  • Boba Fenn vs 4 CLT Knights Broadside
  • CIS Ordinance Swarm 7-8 Ship vs 4 BA Rivas
  • 5 Nantex Greivous vs Vader 5th 7th Countdown
  • Luke Han Braylen vs Zizi Kaz Rose Bastian Yager
  • Kylo Holo + 2 vs Obi Plo + 3
  • ...need 5 more

Basically create a X-Wing Hyperspace Syllabus that would force players to see the game from every archetype's perspective across all factions. Key would be to get players to stop thinking in terms of protagonist vs antagonist lists & archetypes. Do not repeat any 1 list as this is not intended to be testing of a specific list you like. Feel free to repeat archetypes a few times though to mix/match various archetype matchups. This is not strictly intended for new players since every last one of us is bad at X-Wing. Yes you. You are bad at X-Wing. Also not looking for a Meta Matchup testing list (that would look very different).

More specifically interested in a set of fundamental "practice" matchups that would be useful to learn from both sides of the table as a group one at a time to digest core archetypes & in game tactics in extreme detail. Curated set of matchups to be practiced thoroughly in an intentional order. Goal is purely to learn about the game in a structured way for the sake of learning. No results will be tracked. Win/Loss is irrelevant. Not intended as tournament prep.

If we all had to agree on the 10 matchups to include what would they be?

Edited by Boom Owl

LAAT + Beef seems like something that is going to pop up and be decent in Extended and even more so in Hyperspace. It's a good generic efficiency beef to work against as a general archtype, and the Warthog variants present an interesting targeting priority challenge.

Sloane Swarm?

Great idea.

I like your first 5 options too.

I did something very similar for teaching my friends to play. (Though we play Extended).

If people would like to do this for Extended I'd welcome it too.

Malarus (xi) w/terex crew and six epsilons would be good.

LAAT + Beef and Malarus +Gang are definitely useful archetypes to learn. I am mainly interested in matchups though not just the lists.

Looking for specific matchups in a particular order.

The difficulty is to a) agree on archetypes, and then b) not have two lists facing off where the detailed specifics are more relevant than the archetype they should represent.

I feel like Four Fearless Fang Fighters ought to be there.

Seems like nothing is going to teach the difference between luck and position as much as Fangs. It's going to feel really lucky if you're range 1 and getting your Fearless and Concordia Faceoff triggers, and it's going to feel really unlucky if not. So range control on both sides will make a huge difference in the match. By ramping up the contrast on position, I feel like it'd be a good learning list.

More broadly, stuff like LAAT + Beef, and Malarus + 6 are great lists, sure to be popular and something someone ought to play with and against to understand the meta. But are they important teaching tools for understanding the fundamentals of X-Wing? Not to the level of Fangs, IMHO. Of course, Fangs aren't exactly meta. Maybe that's important actually. There are lists you can play to understand the meta, and there are lists you can play to understand the game of X-Wing regardless of meta.

On 10/15/2020 at 4:38 PM, Boom Owl said:

LAAT + Beef and Malarus +Gang are definitely useful archetypes to learn. I am mainly interested in matchups though not just the lists.

Looking for specific matchups in a particular order.

Well, I'd probably say 5X vs Fangs. But 5X is already there. Maybe 5X vs FOCHO isn't part of the list, and FOCHO is better paired against something else.

On 10/16/2020 at 6:44 AM, GreenDragoon said:

The difficulty is to a) agree on archetypes, and then b) not have two lists facing off where the detailed specifics are more relevant than the archetype they should represent.

This.

It the overall playlist project about archetypes? Is it about matchups? Is it about fundamentals? Is it about the metagame at some point in time?

Not all these things can be combined.

I realize now that I should just talk about this idea somewhere else.

Agreed on the Fangs though. Single reposition low init ships are very instructive since your opponent does not decide your actions for you.

Edited by Boom Owl

You need to add those dishonorable non jousters.

Thinking mainly Bistan centered double Falcons or Dash Falcon.

Also super Kylo?

Dash/Han/Lando+Luke/Wedge. 2 ship lists are now A Thing That Exists (TM), and worth learning to play against.

Edited by Npmartian

Order66

Triple Jedi vs either Sinker Swarm or LAAT beef?