Cryx Warjacks Deep Dive (Update for 10/2021)

Well, that was quite a shakeup in October! I figured that my deep dive wouldn’t necessarily be an “evergreen”, but I had no idea that so much would change so quickly! There haven’t been a lot of rule changes beyond point cost, but it’s still worth re-rating all the jacks in light of these updates and in context with the rest of the changes. This should be read as a companion piece to my prior article and will be mostly focused on the changes, not overall abilities. There’s also going to be a bit more granularity with this update. Away we go!

Cryx Warjacks Deep Dive (July 2021 Edition)

Cryx warjacks are pretty misunderstood these days.  Considering the incredible warjack benefits afforded by Black Industries and Scourge of the Broken Coast and the many ways Cryx casters interact with warjacks, it’s no exaggeration that Cryx has morphed into a jack-focused faction in Mk3.  I do see a lot of fundamental misunderstanding about what makes Cryx jacks good and in what situation, however.  There’s a lot of talk about Slayer spam and Karchev2 with whatever jacks (Slayers?  Stalkers?  Something else?) generally, but there’s such a wide variety of jacks and I feel most of them have a place in one position or another.  Thus, I’m taking this opportunity to go through the entire faction’s warjacks jack-by-jack.  Talking about what makes them good or not good, where they fit in, and if they have any special casters or other attachments that get the most from them.  I’m going to be going from least to most expensive and generally ranking them via the following categories and grades.

NOVA Blast! (My adventures in mediocrity)

Soooo, NOVA went well, but not quite well as I’d hoped.  I had a great time at the team tourney and missed getting into Masters by the skin of my teeth!  It was rough, but I definitely diversified my play a bit compared to my normal meta.  So, here we go!

Mah Secret Tech! (NOVA Open Masters Lists)

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.

WiTC Faction/Caster Breakdown (and how it relates to Cryx)

The Wisconsin Team Championship is coming up at the end of this week and it’s actually a fairly well-documented event (as opposed to Lock and Load).  By documented, I mean the lists are all submitted and categorized to the point where we can get a fair cross-section of the North American meta.  This’ll just be a quick breakdown of some common casters and themes to watch for in the future as things change and shift.  Away we go!

Champions Season 8: Part 2

One thing I’ve noticed a bit in this Champions setting is there’s often, but not always, a single list/theme pair that’s largely dominant and the other list can be a few different options.  I’ve found this to be the case in many factions and Cryx is no exception, so I want to talk about the casters I’m picking, why, and then break down what we’ll probably see on the other side.

Dojo: Champions Season 8 Part 1 (And Site Update!)

So it’s been… over 1 full year since my last post.  It’s funny to come on back here and see most of the stuff written here be almost entirely irrelevant now.  Storm Lances?  Nerfed!  Ghost Fleet?  Old news!  In-depth Infernal Machines?  Remember when that was a thing?

I originally started this blog to argue that Cryx was still good after the post Mk3 era.  Now Cryx is at the top of heap… again, so mission accomplished, I guess.  I wanted to wait and see how things shook out with the rapid changes.  Also boring real life stuff that kept me from playing as much as I wanted.  But I’m back, practicing for NOVA, and I think things have stabilized enough in the Cryx sphere that we can go back to doing what we do.  And I’ll probably do some re-reviews of older content stuff too.

TLDR: I’m back, baby!  And ready to talk Cryx Champions!

Dojo: Infernal Machines (Part 2)

In which I go through the list of casters.  I’m not going to be doing what I did with Ghost Fleet with a “yes”, “maybe” or “no” ranking this time.  Because of the options associated with the theme and there not necessarily being an “ideal” way to build it, I’m going to go with a 1-5 scale of how a theme fits a particular caster.  Roughly as follows:

5 – Unless something outrageous comes out in the future, I will only play this caster competitively in Infernal Machines and nothing else.  It’s a perfect match.

4 – This caster derives significant benefit from most aspects of Infernal Machines and it contains enough elements this caster likes to be a strong consideration.

3 – This caster would prefer to have models that aren’t allowed in this theme, but the free points and other benefits make it perfectly workable.

2 – This caster would do far better with a different set of tools.  The free points and theme benefits are a barely acceptable substitute for missing models.

1 – I will never play this caster in Infernal Machines.  It’s anti-synergy.

Dojo: Infernal Machines (Part 1)

Back from the dead!  Yes, I know it’s been a while since I posted last and I’m going to try to be a bit more active, but I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to play many games until actually pretty recently.  Plus, I wanted to talk intelligently about Infernal Machines!  This theme has a ton of options and there are really several different ways to use it (as opposed to Ghost Fleet, which tends to look pretty same-y even if it’s one of the most effective forces in the game).  What the theme might lack in power compared to some of the boogeymen out there (Heavy Metal, Oracles, Ghost Fleet), it makes up for in flexibility.  It’s fun, effective, and powerful enough to play around with while interesting enough to not get bored with it.

Spotlight: Carrion Thralls

It always fills my heart with delight when I put my birds on the table and my opponents ask “what do they do?”  Carrion Thralls are a highly underrated unit.  They’re highly mobile, have surprising hitting power and survivability for their cost, and are completely expendable.  I always liked the birds even before Infernal Machines came out, but now I use them all the time.  Gotta fill up those Thrall points somewhere!  Give them a try and see how this unit that surprises everyone can surprise you and your opponents as well.