Slate ridge mauler

[Joachim]

Hi all,

I asked this when his upgrade came out. Every time I look at his card and I see a lot of potential, though I agree he needed ml6 to be a more reliable offensive piece but he was overcosted.

Now at 7ss he actually seems pretty ok to me. 10 wounds, impossible to wound, hard to kill and no damage from pulses and blasts, I think that's hard to ignore at 7ss, that actually becomes an interestin package.

When looking at rasputina, she has a lot of good frozen heart options, so I'm not gonna pretend that the slateridge mauler is superior to any of these options. But I do see some nice synnergies.

You can easily give him armor and frozen heart for a turn with the wendigo, which is just 1 ap from a 3ss totem, if you need him to tank. And the ice gamin can then really easily give him +1 damage, giving him ml6 3/4/6 damage, which is respectable. And the opponent either has to not touch it, or risk not putting it down in one activation and then it can go to town for 5/6/8.

Whenever a 7ss model has a potential to do min damage 5 thats respectable. Now he also has an easier access to healing, as he can use a (0) from raspi's wave 5 upgrade to eat a corpse for a heal, which is always nice on a hard to kill model.

In conclusion, I don't think raspi needs him, but I think at 7ss and the earlier upgrade he's now in a spot where it is a reasonable investment for the potential payoff you can get. If the mauler can get 1 activation when he's low and frozen heart he can dish out a lot of damage. And he has a lot of defensive abilities for his cost that will take a decent amount of ap to put down. It'll at least be fun and I might try him out in the near future in a friendly game.

[Rillan]

Slate Ridge Mauler can be picked by any master now and looks very well for its cost+upgrade. But if u need solid tank for Rasputina there are better ones cause Slate Ridge Mauler is made to be in engagements and its waste of AP to give it Frozen Heart unless u fight Resurrections. Its not  considered to stay somewhere and look what's happening and often u will find yourself that Raspy cant Mirror on Mauler. Also u need someone who can push Raspy on the table since her WK is very low. If u exchange this model for Mauler u will find out that Raspy is too far behind.

[Mxbedlam]

I can see it being a good source for Marcus to Defend me, especially with a steam fitter in play. 

[WWHSD]

7 hours ago, Rillan said:

But if u need solid tank for Rasputina there are better ones cause Slate Ridge Mauler is made to be in engagements and its waste of AP to give it Frozen Heart unless u fight Resurrections.

I don’t know, Armor +2 on a 10 wound model that is Impossible to Wound and Hard to Kill is mighty tanky. I don’t know that there’s a beater in the game that could take that out in a single activation without getting very lucky on the damage flips or hitting an execute trigger that the Mauler either can’t or won’t spend the cards or stones to avoid.

Add in the ability to ignore  and  damage and he can stand next to exploding ice critters without worrying too much. Frozen Heart also lets him heal when Silent Ones targets what he is engaging.

He’s got a Ml7 attack with a 4 inch reach that pushes the target in base to base contact with him and gives it slow. That’s perfect to go with Rasputina’s paralyze attack. Hope to randomize onto the bear (so he can relent) and if you don’t he’s got Frozen Heart to keep him from getting paralyzed.

I can’t think of a better thing for the Wendigo to do than to keep Frozen Heart on the Mauler. After writing this, I kind of want to get a hold of a second Mauler just to paint like a polar bear.

[Jinn]

4 hours ago, WWHSD said:

I don’t know, Armor +2 on a 10 wound model that is Impossible to Wound and Hard to Kill is mighty tanky. I don’t know that there’s a beater in the game that could take that out in a single activation without getting very lucky on the damage flips or hitting an execute trigger that the Mauler either can’t or won’t spend the cards or stones to avoid.

Vik of Blood, as always. Two min damage (with sisters in fury) hits ignoring armour and H2K would kill it.

[Joachim]

4 hours ago, Jinn said:

Vik of Blood, as always. Two min damage (with sisters in fury) hits ignoring armour and H2K would kill it.

Indeed, there's not a lot that vik of blood won't take down in an activation. I think you need some defensive triggers to pull that off.

[Freman]

Blood should probably be taken as the default "of course she'll kill it, what else?"

McMourning ignores armour and hard to wound, but not hard to kill and he'd need some decent flips to kill it in one activation. Min damage 2 doesn't help him. On the other hand, with the Evidence Tampering upgrade, he can do 4 attacks at Ml6 and if he does bring it down to 1 wound poison damage will kill it when it activates near him.

Leveticus ignores most defences but his damage track is appalling.

Your best bet is something with an instant kill trigger like Misaki or Madam Sybelle.

[WWHSD]

42 minutes ago, Freman said:

McMourning ignores armour and hard to wound, but not hard to kill and he'd need some decent flips to kill it in one activation.

Slateridge Mauler is Impossible to Wound. I don’t think there’s anything in the game that ignores that.

[Freman]

That's true. That minimum 2 (3 when poisoned and within 6" of Rafkin) really bites.

On the other hand I have flipped double severe on negative flips (6 damage on a Scorpius) so sometimes your deck is hot.