This last week has seen a couple of the figureheads of our community flying in the face of the meta. There is a somewhat romantic notion of going back to the ships that you really want to fly, even if they aren’t competitive in the present environment. Sticking to the man or something like that…

How many of us wish for bygone waves and metas past?

What seems to be even more impressive is that people have started to do well with these backward lists. With our good friend Jesper Hills starting the call of #WHATMETA, he brought back a different version of the Hillbots that used to terrorize the tables back in 2015.

They’re back… Just as Arnie predicted

It all began with a call from Simeon Dellapina to the UK X-Wing community. ‘Give me something non meta to fly that you think deserves it’s time in the sun.’ The challenge was taken up by many people, including myself, as we posted list after list for the UK’s resident ‘evil genius’ to turn into something of merit.

The gauntlet is thrown down

It’s great to see people making an effort to improve the shape of the meta and make their own way. I would however issue a word of caution to any newer players attempting this feat.

Take a look at the list that Jesper used to win his latest store championship. At it’s core it is very similar to the old ‘Hillbots’, although it has some key changes.

Both IG B and C are identical — 50 points apiece

The amount of control in the list is genuinely terrifying. Two sets of debris clouds that can be released before or after the IG’s move. Combine this with a pair of double tapping ion cannons and ion bombs, any ship in front or behind of either of these death-bots is going to catch some very nasty tokens.

On top of all that, the two IG’s are still able to take a focus evade stack and provide a wall of defensive superiority to match any defender pilot.

You get a token! And YOU get a token! EVERYBODY gets a token!

At face value, what Jesper has done is fantastic. He’s taken a pair of IG’s (with two ion cannons at that) and won a store championship filled with Jumpmasters, K wings and Yt2400’s. I take nothing away from that achievement and it must have taken some fantastic flying, but that is exactly my point.

Jesper knows these two ships inside out. He knows exactly how they fly and where they will end up after their advanced sensor shenanigans. He’s also given them some upgrades that very few people have seen used on them, or will know how to fly against. This unknown quantity paired with his skill gives him a competitive edge.

Jesper flying his IG’s at the 2015 Nationals — He’s had some practice with them

Do not be fooled into thinking that no thought went into the meta he was expecting to fly against. Stress and ion control are extremely strong right now, with more and more low agility small ships being seen on the table. This combination is obnoxious when combined and when leveraged correctly, can catch a lot of people off guard.

In my mind, what has been created by this experiment is less #WHATMETA and more #COUNTERTHEMETA and I think that is much more important.

What I am trying to say to both Simeon and Jesper, in a rather long winded way, is well done! They have both taken lists that they haven’t used recently and made them work. For no other reason than they enjoy using them.

Sim flew these at the Weekend Warlords store champs because he wanted to

If you really really like flying a ship then you should use it. Work out a way to get it to work in the present environment. Maybe that’s filling it to the gills with control bombs. Maybe it’s down to what ships you’re pairing it with. The key is to keep trying, keep innovating and instead of trying to rail against the meta, use it to your advantage.

My inspiration from #WHATMETA

Take a look at Phil GC’s articles on Firesprays and X-wings for inspiration. Or try something new that nobody has thought of before!

Remember, don’t fly what’s good because it’s good. Take what you love and make it good!

Right, that’s enough inspirational talk for the day…

Fly casual all

Oli