Star Wars X-Wing: Boba Fett – Why You Can’t Have Nice Things
X-Wing Players – Get ready to lose your toys. Boba Fett is coming to town…
Hey X-Wing Pilots, Dengar’s arrival is bringing another famous bounty hunter with him. And this is the guy you never bet against. If you haven’t seen the news – Boba Fett is getting a new card exclusive to Scum & Villainy.
This card is pretty sweet. It was designed by none other than World Champion Paul Heaver – and you can see his outside the box thinking with this card. It’s the first card that allows you to actively go after upgrades. Why is that such a big deal? Because it can reliably kill your combos! Boba Fett: Meta-Slayer!
This card will make an impact on the meta. If you loved running a big ship (like me) get ready to have your toys taken away. I think this is a great card to give to scum as it really rounds out their faction’s big ships nicely. He really gives their ships with crew some mean “Teeth” to add. With the addition of the Jumpmaster 5000 they now have 5 ships that have crew slots. Three of those are big ships. And two of those ships can have some really mean tricks thanks to extra crew or astromech slots! Boba Fett really fits in well with the Scum theme – this card plays dirty!
Why is this such a game changer? Aside from pure luck and player skill – list building is a huge part of X-Wing. In fact, that’s part of my 4-pillars of winning theory (the 4th being Sportsmanship, but that is another article). This upgrade card doesn’t just attack a player on the table (player skill) it actually attacks a players list. Boba Fett can de-rail that winning combo in your list faster than you can ask “Who shot first?” And when you suddenly don’t have your magic game winning combo – are you prepared to win bare-bones? Some players will be fine. Some lists won’t care (like a swarm). But if you’re a combo player (aka “Timmy“) then you’re going to have to watch your back! Boba Fett is coming for your lunch…
VS Rebels
Dash, Han, Poe and anyone who ran R2-D2 – get ready for a wake-up call!
As an example lets take a look at Dash Rendar.
VS Dash – really there are lots of good options here. Taking out the HLC (or Mangler Cannon) might seem like a good choice for the trade in points (1 pt for Boba to remove 7 points) – but that’s not really the combo. Taking out Kyle pulls the rug out from the focus factory. Removing Push the limit also puts a damper on that as well. And if he’s just too slippery you can drop the engine upgrade. If you wanted to get really weird you could also take off the Title…(according to pg 20 of the rules Modifications and Titles ARE upgrade cards…)
You can apply that same line of reasoning to Fat Han or Poe’s shenanigans. Just pick the Lynch-Pin combo card and take it out.
VS Imperials
Any list with the Emperor or a TIE Advanced List with Adv. Targeting Computer – Heads-up, Boba is coming for you!
I really think the Decimator may be getting hit unintentionally hard with this one. It’s such a big ship and it was already a crit magnet to begin with. Boba just became a really big reason to run that TIE swarm list your buddy has been so excited about…
VS Huge Ships
Don’t think that Epic Play is immune from the wrath of this bounty hunter – oh no! I don’t see any restrictions on ship sizes! Oh and what happens if Boba takes out your docking clamps…
How About Some Examples:
I think Boba Fett is a really powerful card if used cunningly. He is a combo killer but (perhaps ironically) to get his effect to go off you need a combo that will reliably cause crits. So here is an example of a few cards I think will pair nicely with Boba Fett:
This card just screams “CRIT MACHINE” – I’ve found it to be very effective! For only 4 points you’ve got a crit every time you get a hit…Not bad!
If you want to stay back the Merc Copilot is a great option to generate those crits. This can be very effective if you manage to strip those shields off with another higher pilot skill ship before Boba Fett gets used.
Greedo is a gambler’s card. But that could be a super effective trade! And that’s only 2 points to get that combo off!
Here’s another 1 pointer that’s a great way to help you get your Crit chance up.
Hey – if you need an effective way to snipe a card out what about Adv. Homing missiles?
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
How about an example list:
Boba Fett Wants Your Toys – 100pts
Bossk – YV-666 (48 points)
- Boba Fett
- Mercenary Copilot
- Greedo
- Glitterstim
- Marksmanship
- Mangler Cannon
Black Sun Ace – Kihraxz Fighter (26 points)
- Glitterstim
- Veteran Instincts
Black Sun Ace – Kihraxz Fighter (26 points)
- Glitterstim
- Veteran Instincts
Bossk is loaded up to cause crits (hopefully from Range 3) but can also cause consistent damage once Boba Fett has dropped his precision strike on the chosen target. Between Greedo, The Mangler Cannon and Merc Copilot he’s got a TON of ways to generate crits. Marksmanship is a good all around card as well.
Why Black Sun Aces? Well With VI they are all pilot skill 7 – including Bossk. Why is that important? So they can go first if needed to drop the target’s shields! The Glitterstim on everything is just an old habit I picked up…
Is this the best setup? No. I’d like to run it a few times to get a better feel for what is overkill. I’d love to free up some points so the Black Sun Aces could get cluster missiles just to put that extra insurance on dropping shields. Cluster Missiles+Guidance Chips+Glitterstim= OUCH! I’d love to optimize it more but then I’d be giving away ALL my tricks and that’s no fun! Besides It won’t matter what I write – some armchair quarterback will poke holes in it because this is the internet!
I’ll show you how to K-Turn!
And I’m okay with that!
What do you think? What Crazy stuff can you come up with for the new Boba Fett: The Anti-Combo? Anyone else think it’s funny that we’re building a combo to shut-down other combos…
