X-Wing: Leaning towards Brobots

Does not compute.

After thinking about taking Boba Fett with the IG-88, I've decided to just roll with Brobots in the upcoming tournament season.  The reason why is really quite simple:  3 agility and Autothrusters.  Even with 6 hull and 4 shields, I don't think the Firespray is in a really strong position right now in the meta.  He's basically a larger X-Wing in terms of defenses, and concentrated fire will bring him down in no time.  With the IG-2000, you have a larger assortment of different manueverbility options and plenty of ways to clear off inflicted stress while staying outside of danger.  The Firespray?  Not so much.  I've played a couple of Vassal games to warm up for the season so far with both Broba and Brobots, and I think I'm convinced that in the current meta, Brobots will be stronger.  When you examine the world's results as well, I think it pretty much speaks for itself.

This basically brings me to two potential lists.  The first one being..

100 - Tricky Crabs

IG-88B — Aggressor 36
Crack Shot 1
Advanced Sensors 3
Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Inertial Dampeners 1
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 50
 
IG-88C — Aggressor 36
Crack Shot 1
Advanced Sensors 3
Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Inertial Dampeners 1
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 50
 
Keep a sharp eye on this list right here because it has Advanced Sensors and Inertial Dampeners.  I personally have a hard on for Advanced Sensors because I think its the best System Upgrade in the game.  There's just so much you can do with it.

The next list is this..

100 - Shooty Crabs

IG-88B — Aggressor 36
Crack Shot 1
Fire-Control System 2
Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Glitterstim 2
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 50
 
IG-88C — Aggressor 36
Crack Shot 1
Fire-Control System 2
Heavy Laser Cannon 7
Glitterstim 2
Autothrusters 2
Ship Total: 50

Look familiar?  That's because you also saw the list in Worlds.  It's not the first time I've seen it played, but it's definitely got a lot more popular since then.  This list sports the same upgrades and layout with double Crack Shot, HLCs and ATs, but it comes with FCS and Glitterstim.

Now that the cat's out of the bag, let's talk about the similarities first.  Both lists have B and C as their IG-88 variant because B offers a free Gunner to each ship for fire consistency, and C offers the free Evade action off the boost.  I've decided against the D variant for the breakneck 3-hard S-loop, mainly because I found myself doing standard S-loops and 4-Ks instead in most of my matches.  ATs are pretty much a no-brainer and is arguably the best upgrade in the game for the points.  It just negates so much damage and offers an insane amount of value for such a cheap upgrade.  Crack Shot is the upgrade that everyone is excited about these days and for good reason:  It offers you burst potential, and gives you a sure way to push damage.  This can mean the difference between a dead ship, or a ship that can get away next turn and/or put damage onto you.  It also allows you to pick off Stealth Devices from the likes of Fel and other aces.  If there's anything minis games have taught me over the years is that a sure kill is the best kind of kill.  Then there's HLCs, but we don't really need to go into that.

Here comes the fun part:  Advanced Sensors + Inertial Dampeners vs. Fire-Control System and Glitterstim.  Let's check out the pros and cons really quick:

Adv. Sensors + Inertial Dampeners
Greater movement potential (boost + evade, then move)
Greater defensive potential (being able to move out of arc and being able to action before being blocked)
Weaker vs. stress elements (action before movement is still an action)
2x Inertial Dampeners (for area denial or being able to stay at range 3)

FCS + Glitterstim
More consistent damage (big damage boost)
Have no defensive benefits
Ignores stress elements (since the target lock requires no actions)
2x Glitterstim (huge burst in damage and defenses, for one round)

So pretty much:  FCS offers big damage and burst potential at the expense of defense and movement, but Adv. Sensors + ID gives you greater control on how you move on the battlefield.  Both give you block immunity because one can Focus before move while the other just rips into targets in front of them with re-rolls on re-rolls.  Focus can obviously be used defensively, while FCS and no actions, so that basically means the IG-88 is stuck there shooting at whatever he can get his crabby hands on.

Before we go any further, let's look at the meta really quick:
Dash + Bs/Ys
4 YTLTs
Poe - Heaver's list
R3-A2 Stress Hog
Imperial Aces + Palpshuttle
Chirpy + Whisper/Fel
Howl + Crackswarm
Howl + regular Swarm
Other Brobots
..etc

Out of all of these lists, only the stress induced ones give the Adv. Sensors a lot of problems.  Not being able to take actions will mess you up regardless, and will pretty much negate your 3 point upgrade.  That's also one of the reasons I decided against PTL, and that's because it's better 3 points be negated than 6 points.  Anyways, damage is almost always welcome, and that's probably why you saw the FCS variant in Worlds.  However, the movement opportunities offered by Adv. Sensors and being able to Focus or move out of arc can be seriously good against almost all the lists here.  For example, if you can boost + evade (through IG-88C) and then do a 3-sloop, you can get some serious HLC time on target while taking almost no damage in exchange.  The FCS variant will be forced to K-turn if S-loop options are blocked, or just 3-straight because it's the furthest they can go.  However, against the likes of Crackswarm, Glitterstim is pretty amazing when they want to go hard on that one good turn and you just say no.

I don't know, I'm in a pickle.  Both setups are really good and they have their pluses and minuses, so I'm going to do some more research and analyze the lists in respect to the meta a little harder.  This is a pretty difficult decision to make for sure.