In this crazy current meta of bombs and Harpoon missiles, it can be difficult to find super competitive lists that don’t include one of those two things. Thankfully for most of us X-Wing pilots, the game of X-Wing isn’t just about being competitive but also about finding more fringe squads.
Dead Man’s Switch Z-95 Swarms
My current list-building obsession. You can take four of these pilot skill 1 guys, all with Dead Man’s Switch for only 56 points. With your remaining 44 points, the sky’s the limit. This is what I’ve flown twice now, and while I’ll admit it’s not super competitive, I think with some changes to the list it has potential.
| Binayre Pirate — Z-95 Headhunter | 12 |
| Dead Man’s Switch | 2 |
| Ship Total: 14 | |
| Binayre Pirate — Z-95 Headhunter | 12 |
| Dead Man’s Switch | 2 |
| Ship Total: 14 | |
| Binayre Pirate — Z-95 Headhunter | 12 |
| Dead Man’s Switch | 2 |
| Ship Total: 14 | |
| Binayre Pirate — Z-95 Headhunter | 12 |
| Dead Man’s Switch | 2 |
| Ship Total: 14 | |
| Inaldra — M3-A Interceptor | 15 |
| Draw Their Fire | 1 |
| “Light Scyk” Interceptor | -2 |
| Ship Total: 14 | |
| Captain Jostero — Kihraxz Fighter | 24 |
| Crack Shot | 1 |
| Harpoon Missiles | 4 |
| Cloaking Device | 2 |
| Pulsed Ray Shield | 2 |
| Guidance Chips | 0 |
| Stygium Particle Accelerator | 2 |
| Vaksai | 0 |
| Ship Total: 30 | |
After playing it a couple times now with decent results, I’m going to need to modify this list. Currently I’m working on swapping out Captain Jostero & Inaldra for something else as Jostero has a tough time firing off her Harpoon Missile at only pilot skill 4. I chose Jostero because her ability seems to be tailor made for Dead Man’s Switch, and when it works it’s absolutely hilarious, but it can be difficult to pull off. There’s definitely some to be had with Dead Man’s Switch Z-95’s, though, when you watch your opponent either avoid shooting a Z-95 that’s at range 1, or take damage if they destroy it. Also, even if you screw up your flying and do damage to your own ships as they die you can still have fun laughing at your own demise!
Fly “Bad” Ships
There’s a decent amount of balance in X-Wing right now. The meta is better than it’s been for a while even with all the bombs and missiles wrecking faces, but part of the fun of X-Wing is the crazy amount of experimentation you can have with ships and pilots that most competitive players will tell you are straight up bad. Truth is, they’re right. There are some pretty bad ships & pilots out there out there, like the U-Wing, Arvel Crynyd, Imperial Boba Fett, or pretty much any Quadjumper pilot like Unkar Plutt. However, whether you’re playing against a newer player and want to try something crazy, or you’re just tired of playing competitive meta squadrons, trying some of the “bad” pilots and finding the good in them can make you a better player. It’s easy for people like myself who have been playing X-Wing for 4+ years now to only want to play what’s good.
This Imperial Kath Scarlet/Kylo Ren build is pretty off the wall and has multiple ways of dealing stress to your opponent (click on the pic to see the list)
Control/Token Removal
This is probably the most competitive option in this article. Stress is the most obvious candidate here, as there are plenty of hyper effective ways of dealing it out and it can reduce the ability of your opponent taking actions to drop bombs or take target locks for munitions like Harpoon Missiles.
TIE/D Defenders with the recently released Jamming Beam or Tractor Beam is pretty fun as well and may actually be competitive. However, what I’ve really had my sights set on for a while are ways to dish out Ion Tokens. It seems to me like this is an area where the developers have been super careful not to put a lot of power into. If you’ve ever been unlucky enough to have one of your ships repeatedly ionized, you know how un-fun it can really be. If the developers ever make giving Ion tokens super powerful strategy, I think that is when X-Wing may have some serious problems. With the recent release of Ion Dischargers and upgrades like Pulsed Ray Shield and EMP Device, upgrades and pilots like 4-LOM and (oh God I can’t believe I’m going to say this) Dace Bonearm might even be slightly playable, in a really fun, silly, or trollish sort of way. The next time a play a newer player I really want to try a list like this . Just don’t bring Dace Bonearm to a tournament based on my advice, expecting to do well at all. You’ll probably go home in tears.
There you have it! X-Wing is an extremely fun game, but it’s important to remember to not get too competitive for too long; that’s an easy way to burn out and lose sight of the exciting experimentation you can have. So get out there and fly new ships!
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