We are, obviously, still in the very early stages of Second Edition X-Wing. But there have been a fair few tournaments that have already happened, and data about the squads and the factions that are rising to the top is becoming more readily available. List Fortress is now a thing, and we can tentatively begin to draw a few conclusions. In looking at the results of the tournaments I have either participated in or watched, the common element of the lists that tend to rise to the top seems to be control. Of course player skill and dice variance play their rolls in determining who makes it to the top and who doesn’t, but you don’t have to look too very closely to realize that a disproportionately small number of Rebel players are making it to the top cuts of these events. Granted, as a Scum and Villainy player who lived through the death throes of First Edition suffering through the likes of Ghost/Fenn, Nymranda, 5-X, the Firestorm Special, and the like, I can’t say that I’m too terribly heartbroken about it. But no one wants to see the game being unbalanced, and I do have friends who, despite my best efforts, refuse to jump ship from the Rebel faction. So I’m going to take this post and explore this issue.

I looked over the tournament results in List Fortress and found that it has four tournaments listed thus far that have been over fifty people. First was the Gold Squadron Classic at sixty-three. Then the Coruscant Invitational at eighty-two, followed by the Spanish Nationals with a whopping two hundred and twenty-four, and the Crossroads Classic at eighty-four. I looked over the top four lists from each of those tournaments and found that of the sixteen spots I was considering, the Imperial faction took seven spots, Scum took six, and Rebels took three.

As I was looking over the squads, I paid special attention to which lists had aspects to them that provided an element of control. For Scum, I was looking particularly for pilots and upgrade cards such as 0-0-0 or 4-Lom for stress control, Palob or Old Teroch for token denial, or Quadjumpers for some literal control over your opponent’s ships. For the Empire, 0-0-0 again, along with Admiral Sloane for stress control, Darth Vader crew for token denial, Tie Punishers with trajectory simulator for area denial, or Tie Bomber swarms with munitions again for area denial. What I found is that every single Scum list contained at least one (but usually more) of these cards, and of the Imperial lists, all but one were built to include at least some measure of control in the list. As for the Rebels… well, they brought X-Wings with proton torpedoes. Each of the three Rebel lists all had two proton torp X-Wings, plus one other ship. Granted, proton torp X-Wings are good. Wedge with a proton torpedo is nothing short of a holy terror, but Admiral Sloane will happily plop a three hull Tie Interceptor right in front of a Wedge and triple dog dare him to go ahead and kill it. Luke is really solid and Thane is situationally as scary, or even scarier, as Wedge. But that seems to be the one trick the Rebels are currently bringing to the table. The Rebel faction is now the Alpha-Strike faction.

This guy here is shaping up to be one of the best control pieces in the game.

If you compare that to what used to make the top tables, you’ll find that they previously had some of the best control effects in the game. They were the only faction with access to the best weaponized stress in the game, R3-A2. Because of the stress bot they had both the Stress Hog and Strezra. Also, Tactician carrying Wookies could spin in circles and hand out stress all over the place. Rebels had the best area denial in the game with Nymranda, the Firestorm Special, and Ghost/Fenn. And to top all that off, they also had the only ship in the entire game that literally forced a certain target priority on their opponent in pre-nerf Biggs. Throw him in with some crazy good defense and some damage dispersal and it’s no wonder that the sarcastically named Fair Ship Rebel was such a force to be reckoned with for so long.

I’ve heard a few different theories about what it will take to “fix” the Rebel faction. Points adjustments, new ships or pilots, new upgrade cards, et cetera. But I’m not convinced that those things are wholly the answer. They might be part of the answer, but I also think that either FFG or competitive Rebel players will need to make an adjustment to the way that that view the Rebel faction identity. If FFG doesn’t change their view on the factions identity, it seems unlikely that they will reintroduce many of the control elements that defined the competitive side of the Rebel faction. A lot of what had defined the Rebels as a faction in first edition made the jump to second edition, like the token passing, the helpful synergies from friendly ships, and the self sacrificing nature of many pilot abilities and Rebel specific upgrade cards. The issue is that those aspects of the faction weren’t typically the ones that got players to the top tables. All of those elements either got significantly nerfed like Rex or Lowhhrick, or simply disappeared from the game entirely like Rebel Nym or Tactician. Which leaves it up to the competitive player to make the necessary adjustments to the way they view the faction.

If you are a dedicated Rebel player who refuses to jump ship, I get it. Remember what I said about being a Scum only player at the end of first edition? I’ve been there. The only advice I can offer is this: there’s a reason you love the faction you have chosen. Focus on those elements, fly the stuff you love and keep flying it no matter what. Embrace the faction identity that FFG has envisioned. Eventually you will get so good with it that you’ll see positive results. And if FFG sees fit to drop the prices of the things you love to fly, that will only make you all the more powerful. Or simply embrace being the X-Wings with proton torps faction.

Congratulations, you are the new harpoons. Well, maybe not that bad…

For those Rebel players who only loved the faction for the broken control elements it brought to the table… well, you might want to rethink your choices. There are better factions out there for you.

If you are in the St. Louis area or coming to visit, reach out to Arch Alliance X-Wing on Facebook to find out where we are playing on any given night.