#MetaMatters

Hola!

Not a new conversation I appreciate but, hopefully, a different point of, personal, view.

For any gaming system there is always going to be a prevailing Meta. The state of that Meta often seems largely out of the hands of those playing within it. Outside of the regular Meta debate it's always going to have an effect on the players within it.

It's accepted by most that Tier 1 X-Wing is currently about Ordnance, particularly Harpoons and Bomblets,  Rebel Jank and Palp Aces. There's probably about a half dozen top end build templates out there. Compared to previous eras that's pretty good.

For many the issue lies in the FACT that the gap between Tier 1 and everything else is currently more of a chasm. Stray away from Tier 1 and rather than the fight being uphill it's now a cliff. Factor in a much larger competitive playing base, within which there are a lot of players putting in a lot of reps, there seems to be little space left for the dirty casual flying a "fun" list.

For many gaming buddies this has become a negative play issue and a move away from the competitive X-Wing scene. That's a fair choice. Up until recently I had drifted away myself. In hindsight that was also for a number of real world issues. I was clearly in a place where I, subconsciously, wasn't prepared / able to make the necessary commitment to keep up.

Initially drawn to the ranks of the saline doom-sayers I decided to step back in to the game to form an informed decision. The short version of the results are as follows;
- X-Wing is still fun.
- I am now a fully committed Dirty Casual rather than the competitive player I once was.
- I can accept flying more Meta lists but draw a personal line at those I feel are a Negative Play Experience.

Having attended a couple of events recently I've confirmed that that I'm not alone in that approach. In fairness I never thought I was and my club-mate Ian is in that same place with me, which has been hugely appreciated.

Last Sunday I played five rounds at iBuy in a Quarter 1 GNK. I ran Dengar / Thweek that Ian and I found online and having been raving about ever since. I went 2-3 with two auto-losses, a close loss which was an excellent game, a decent win which was another excellent game and a walkover win which barely broke a sweat. I placed 21 of 28 which was outside of the alt arts. I had a decent day. Flying Thweek better would have helped but that's down to me and not the Meta. With all thing a few more reps wouldn't hurt.

I've accepted that that's how X-Wing is for me know. I'll fly what I'm prepared to fly as well as I can and take it from there. As a result I'm less likely to be rocking up to big weekend events but we'll see what happens ;)

Fly Dirty (Casual)