LVO GG 2018

[DrayZed]

Hey everyone, here's my battle report for LVO. I came in first place, and a few people on A Wyrd Place wanted to see what the list I ran was and which masters I used, as well as my thoughts on what to do against the power of the Sandeep. First, I'd like to talk about the list I use and why it it works the way that I need my lists to work.

Sandeep Desai + 6/7 Pool

- Unaligned Sage (1)

- To Command Another Plane (1)

- Arcane Reservoir (2)

The Valedictorian (10)

- Warding Runes (1)

The Firestarter (7)

- Warding Runes (1)

Oxfordian Mage (5)

- Temporary Shielding (0)

-Doom Ward (0)

Oxfordian Mage (5)

- Temporary Shielding (0)
- Blood Ward (0)

Oxfordian Mage (5)

-Temporary Shielding (0)

- Nemesis Ward (0)

Sanctioned Spellcaster (5)

Sanctioned Spellcaster (5) 

Sandeep has a ton of power in sharing his abilities to other models, as well as the actual models themselves being powerful themselves. One of the main ways to defeat lists such as these is to either:
A. Displace Sandeep (Difficult, because he can teleport away)
B. Destroy his control hand.
C. Counterpick Against Arcanists with models such as Sue, Mei Feng, Aionus, Hannah, Anna Lovelace.

During LVO, A few of my opponents entered with the mentality that they might play Sandeep, but none save for the last commited to really the counterplay needed to go against him. As everyone says and agrees, He's strong, this however doesn't mean that He's an unstoppable beast with no way around him, as we'll get into come round 4 (Despite my enormity of misplays that game.)

Key: Me=Green      Red=Opponent


Round One:
Close Deployment

• Public Executions 4 0
• Eliminate the Leadership 3 0?
• Hold Up Their Forces
• Undercover Entorage 3
• Recover Evidence 0
• Vendetta

List: See Above

Arcanist Declared: Rasputina 

 

My opponent was returning player to malifaux after a three year Hiatus. We had fun talking about the game before the match and he said that he'd like to play some new things. I chose to play this list as I don't need to think about specifically building against Sandeep with Mei, and ended up helping him get comfortable back into the game while making sure my VP differential was huge.

 

Round Two:
Standard Deployment

• Ply for Information 4 0
• Covert BreakThrough  0
• Set Up 3
• Surround Them 2
• Inescapable Trap 
• Take One for The Team 0 (Performer)

 

List: See Above, change Sanctioned Spellcaster for Performer

Neverborn Declared: Zorida

Notable Models: 2 Will o the wisps, Mysterious Emissary, Doppel, Leilu, Nekima

This one was a silly one, as he decided to Hem my Performer Turn 1 and cause it to cease to exist with a condition. Putting the Voodoo Doll forward however gave me plenty of room to take advantage of a large bridge in the center of the board as a choke point to constantly have models plying that poor doll for information. Some difficult shenanigans with having to use the firestarter and an ox mage to just barely squeeze in the extra markers to Nekima let me choke out the 3 points. Finally, I made sure to light his possible models for Take One, on fire, and run away with the firestarter to make sure they died to conditions.

 

Round Three:
Corner Deployment

• Ours 4 0
• Guarded Treasure 
• Dig Their Graves 3 
• Search The Ruins  3
• Take Prisoner 3 Low River Monk
• Recover Evidence ?

List: See Above

Ten Thunders Declared: McCabe

Notable models: Joregumo, Luna and Dogs, Yamaziko (No upgrades) Shadow Emisary (conflux), Graves

Some interesting choices this game occurred with my opponent initially planning on doing Reactivate Joregumo Shenanigans without smoke bombs from Yamaziko. Running sandeep forward into the mixer and placing banasuva in a fashion that made it impossible for Joregumo to make it into the squishy parts of my crew ended up being a huge savior because of his dedication to kill Banasuva and Gamin baby that was summoned along with him. With him swapping Loot Bag almost immediately for the Glowing Sword, I knew that I could take advantage of the fact that no model was going to be able to regenerate off Hard to Kill. Putting all of my resources into killing his 7+ stone models allowed me to take control of the table quarters, ( Including using Valedictorian as just a 10 point anchor) made it pretty simple once he decided to run headfirst into firing lanes for the squad.

 

Round Four:
Standard Deployment

• Symbols of Authority   3 3 
• Punish The Weak 1
• Covert Breakthrough 3 
• Show Of Force 3
• Public Demo  1  Soulstone Miner, Arcane Effigy, December Acolyte
• Recover Evidence ?
  Notes: I think we tied 7-7, but we recorded it as 6-6. Same difference.

List:

Mei Feng +3 Pool

- Vapormancy (1)

- Tiger Claws (1)

- Arcane Reservoir (2)

Anna Lovelace (9+1)

- Imbued Energies (1)

Sue (8+1)

- Imbued Energies (1)

Emberling (3)

December Acolyte (7)

Soulstone Miner (6)

Arcane Effigy(4)

Steam Arachnid (4) 

Arcanists Declared: Marcus

Playing against local and friend Michael, we both spent a lot of time discussing what we would do when faced against Sandeep. Myself understanding that other Arcanist masters are powerful casters despite Ironsides and Marcus being terrifying beatsticks, I thought that I could go toe to to with Mei Feng. Boy, I sure made a ton of misplays, and managed to scrape by this game by luck, and misplays on his part as well. My list shows its error with failing to take Rail Lines instead of Tiger claws in order to shuttle the slower Sue and Ana lovelace. I set up the acolyte in a fantastic spot overlooking the entire board with little chance of repercussion, and I decided in my infinte wisdom to walk him off his sniper nest, into the path of a flaming, unactivated Carlos. Turn 2 Rolls around, and i decide to make the most agressive play I can in an attempt to deny him Show of force for the remainder of the game, using the Infinite Trigger Tiger Claw attack. Instead of doing that, and killing Carlos, I bring the effigy down to hard to kill on a . Ouch. Due to some incredibly great luck, and skill, I manged to kill the Cerberus with the steam arachnid, only giving up points on punish the weak with the effigy. Sue and the Miner managed to make the Blessed vanish, and All I had to do in order to win was score full points on my strategy and scheme. With a fatal misplay on his part, he defended his last Symbol but gave me the chance to score 2 more points on covert breakthrough, tieing us the game, and securing my victory. (The other 3-0 had lost).

Thanks for reading.

[Ludvig]

15 minutes ago, DrayZed said:

(snip)

During LVO, A few of my opponents entered with the mentality that they might play Sandeep, but none save for the last commited to really the counterplay needed to go against him. As everyone says and agrees, He's strong, this however doesn't mean that He's an unstoppable beast with no way around him, as we'll get into come round 4 (Despite my enormity of misplays that game.)

(snip)

Thanks for reading.

Thank you for sharing!

It kind of sounds like you are saying he is beatable - if you counterbuild heavily to handle him at the list stage. I would think a beatable master is beatable with a list designed to handle all comers, maybe a model or two who are faction counterpicks? Or are you talking more about tactics during the game? Not trying to diminish your win, just sort of asking for a clarification if that is what you meant or if I misunderstood you.

[DrayZed]

8 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

Thank you for sharing!

It kind of sounds like you are saying he is beatable - if you counterbuild heavily to handle him at the list stage. I would think a beatable master is beatable with a list designed to handle all comers, maybe a model or two who are faction counterpicks? Or are you talking more about tactics during the game? Not trying to diminish your win, just sort of asking for a clarification if that is what you meant or if I misunderstood you.

What I’m saying isn’t that you need all the stuff to beat him, but you need to consider the fact that he’s coming. If you just say that you’ll let him do whatever, and you’ll do your own plan, you might find yourself overwhelmed by his versatility to shut him down. Aionus has always given this list massive headaches, and should give any list running triple oxfords a huge blow. The particulars of my list in the last game were just kinda stuff that I liked and that I thought would be good against my friend. Let’s not ignore the fact that I played poorly and should have been able to at least not relied on his own misplay.

[BFOmega]

I think I remember seeing something like strategy before, using firestarter as a battery for the spellcasters when he's not scheming. Is that what you were doing, or was he mostly just for the scheme running?

And can you comment on why you use a second spellcaster instead of the effigy? He generally seems to be the first thing in most Sandeep lists I see/make, just for the shenanigans you can get from him, and how just generally useful he is for his cost.

The lack of Imbued Energies is also interesting to me, but that could be a personal preference thing.

[Ludvig]

Thanks! I get that, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy you can just ignore and let do his thing because his thing is everything.  I've only faced a player that was still learning him but he really gets stuff done. Oxfordian mages also seem ridiculously efficient after their buff upgrade and with The sight beyond.

[DrayZed]

7 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

Thanks! I get that, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy you can just ignore and let do his thing because his thing is everything.  I've only faced a player that was still learning him but he really gets stuff done. Oxfordian mages also seem ridiculously efficient after their buff upgrade and with The sight beyond.

(I actually kinda forget to use the no-randomization action on the upgrade way too often.) I’m usually using it for Action through inaction.

12 minutes ago, BFOmega said:

I think I remember seeing something like strategy before, using firestarter as a battery for the spellcasters when he's not scheming. Is that what you were doing, or was he mostly just for the scheme running?

And can you comment on why you use a second spellcaster instead of the effigy? He generally seems to be the first thing in most Sandeep lists I see/make, just for the shenanigans you can get from him, and how just generally useful he is for his cost.

The lack of Imbued Energies is also interesting to me, but that could be a personal preference thing.

Preference on IE. It is good and it definitely has its place. I just tend to be very soulstone intensive for prevention. The Second spellcaster is really just there for the redundancy. Once you’ve got yasunori or Nekima unable to charge your opponents start to hate the poor collared people.

[KingCrow]

As an avid Sandeep player myself, I've realized that the toughest matchups I've is when the opponent focuses straight on to Sandeep.  Cut off his resources (cards and stones) or cut him with a heavy beater.  Yes, it's possible for Sandeep to escape with the teleport and heal but he's honestly a semi-fragile master that has a majority of his actions dictated by his hand.  

Thanks for the write-up man.  Glad you were able to lead the Arcanists to victory. 

[jerhien]

Sandeep has been a consistent problem since he came out - if your opponent counter-builds hard enough to deal with him you can always play another list and side-swipe them.

It's probably not healthy for the game for him to exist as he currently does. They've tried altering the faction around him, and I don't think it's working.

[Colonel Sanders]

The standard Sandeep crew is a mobile gunline with summoning. It out activates and outranges most crews and is way too hard to put down with all the shielding. 

[DrayZed]

28 minutes ago, jerhien said:

Sandeep has been a consistent problem since he came out - if your opponent counter-builds hard enough to deal with him you can always play another list and side-swipe them.

It's probably not healthy for the game for him to exist as he currently does. They've tried altering the faction around him, and I don't think it's working.

I mean like later in the comments I literally state that you should probably take goodstuff against Arcanists IE Sue,Aionus. It’s slightly different than taking say, Ronin (before, a fantastic choice). But, like I said, you’ve got to commit to the idea that he’ll be able to do some things and you need to play against them 

[jerhien]

Sure, I agree - but do you think they can solo list that stuff and just beat the field like you can with 'deep?
 

Also, Annah is good, but they can still place out of the aura so it's not terrible for them. I agree with Colonel Sanders - it's a mobile gunline with summoning that swings plenty hard in melee when it allows melee to happen.

Deep just pushes too much stuff in too many directions.

[Stonewall78]

Thanks for the write up, some interesting insight there. Could you format it different in the future please, reading grey text on black is next to impossible.

[BFOmega]

3 minutes ago, Stonewall78 said:

Thanks for the write up, some interesting insight there. Could you format it different in the future please, reading grey text on black is next to impossible.

I'm not sure what you're reading, all that I see is white letters on dark grey, with a couple red and green things for differentiating crews.

[WWHSD]

3 hours ago, Ludvig said:

Thanks! I get that, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy you can just ignore and let do his thing because his thing is everything.  I've only faced a player that was still learning him but he really gets stuff done. Oxfordian mages also seem ridiculously efficient after their buff upgrade and with The sight beyond.

Make sure you're playing Temporary Shielding correctly. It needs to be discarded along with a card from the control hand to reduce the damage by 2. I was playing it wrong for quite a while and no one called me on it. At first glance it seems like it works like Imbued Protection. I find that the discard requirement in a crew that's already very card hungry makes it tough to cash in Temporary Shielding some times.

[Stonewall78]

1 hour ago, BFOmega said:

I'm not sure what you're reading, all that I see is white letters on dark grey, with a couple red and green things for differentiating crews.

Must be firefox. A lot of the later part of the write up is all grey on black.

[SuperFly TNT]

Same format problem on Chrome for me. 

[Clement]

I think the selective viewing problem is due to theme.  This thread reads really easily in the default theme, but is VERY hard to read in either of the other two (Pale or Classic).

[WWHSD]

51 minutes ago, Clement said:

I think the selective viewing problem is due to theme.  This thread reads really easily in the default theme, but is VERY hard to read in either of the other two (Pale or Classic).

It's pretty unreadable in Classic. I need to high light the text to read it. 

[tomjoad]

5 hours ago, WWHSD said:

It's pretty unreadable in Classic. I need to high light the text to read it. 

I'm on Chrome and switching from Classic to New Taste fixed it.