The NOVA Open is happening in less than 2 weeks and I’m finally taking the opportunity to head down and see what I can make of myself. I’ve discussed my Champions pair elsewhere in the blog, but I’m also participating in a Masters heat and the team tournament (in which I rely on JVM to carry me through). So what am I taking to this event? Read on and find out: It might be a bit unusual.
First, my “main” list that I hope will be fairly well positioned in the meta.
Denny1 Scourge of the Broken Coast
Denny1 +26
-Deathripper x2 12
-Stalker x2 16
Max. Satyxis Raiders + UA 20
Max. Satyxis Raiders + UA 20
Max. Blood Witches + Free UA 13
Gunslingers 7
Gunslingers 7
Severa Free
Axiara Free
Ragman 4
Misery Cage 2
Since Axiara came out, the idea of giving Denny1 Reposition 3 just makes me giggle, especially since her feat no longer makes her as invincible as she once was. Cute tricks aside, I actually tested her in Slaughter Fleet a bit too, but I settled on Scourge for a few reasons: More practice overlap with my Gaspy1 Champions list, a large quantity of Grievous Wounds, and its position as a mirror breaker. The current WTC statistics have Cryx dwarfing the field as the most popular faction, including 25 Gaspy3 BIs and 25 Skarre1 Dark Hosts. A large quantity of magic weapons for the Wraith Engines and 28 feedback models should put a crimp in popular styles. I’m planning on dropping this into most Warmachine pairs and it’s got reasonable play into Skorne as well. Still, as good as Denny’s armor debuffing is, sometimes I’ll need a list that hits hard without as much help, especially against Grymkin, armor-heavy Trolls, and of course Primal Terrors. Enter the secret tech!
Scaverous Dark Host
Scaverous1 +27
-Nightwretch x2 14
-Seether 13
-Skarlock 4
Min. Bane Warriors + Free UA 10
Min. Bane Warriors + Free UA 10
Min. Bane Knights 9
Min. Bane Knights 9
Cephalyx Overlords 8
Wraith Engine 15
Bane Lord Tartarus Free
Darragh Wrathe 9
Soul Trapper 1
I tried a lot of lists I wasn’t thrilled with. I did play Gaspy3 (he’s got game into most things), but it didn’t feel favored into the stuff I was really worried about about, mostly Anamag Primal Terrors and Dreamer Grymkin. I tried Gaspy2, which felt a little better, but no accuracy fixer hurt. Skarre1 is always a solid choice, but besides not owning a second Wraith Engine, I realized that if I didn’t build for armored WEs, I could build for threat range. Enter Scaverous. Primarily a Hordes drop, the intent is to always keep a threat on the caster and use TK to get that sweet extra threat range on bigger army elements that you might see in Grymkin and Bones. TK and Icy Grip also give banes that accuracy boost they so sorely need that’s absent with every other non-Skarre1 caster. Primal Terrors gives me a fair few souls and I don’t have to trade a Slayer for a Hellmouth every game, so that’s nice. While not an armor skew, this list does have some ranged resistance in the form of armor/tough/recursion as opposed to defense/stealth in Scourge, so it’s a nice compliment when one list can’t necessarily solve both problems (looking at Siege1). The 5 min units should minimize the impact of things like Rebuke and Enfeeble, even if it makes Death Ward and Soul Harvester feel a bit worse. It’s a bit snowflakey, but it should be fairly effective. Plus, Scaverous is super fun to play and that counts for a lot.
I’ll give things a rundown as I go here. I’m sure if I’m actually successful, it’ll be something to consider. At the very least, there are 239 Slayers in the WTC and I’m not using any, so bucking Cryx expectations at least. Although if I really wanted that, I’d run Infernal Machines.
Making Cryx Great Again 