Jordon

Trying to understand how the new errata has affected the CR7. Seems like the change to focus has the biggest impact (obviously a nerf). However There are other less obvious changes that will also affect this crew. Focus nerf hurts, but distracted buff is nice. Of the CR7, it seems like Pride and Lust benefit from this change. Envy/Sloth can no longer take Magical Training in Arcanists. I've mostly run Diesel Engine on Envy anyway but less options is still a nerf. Wanted Criminal is a new upgrade for a Pride led crew. I still don't think it's worth taking, is it better than what it was before? New summon rules seem like a buff for Greed. Can you even rip off a summon upgrade? Midnight stalker can no longer be an honorary CR7 member. Not sure people were taking him anyway I'm sure there is a bunch of other changes I'm not thinking of. Can anyone else think of any? Also, how does GG2 affect this crew?

Mainly because of the GG2 strats. She no longer has a strategy that directly opposes her core mechanics. She was exceptionally good in GG0 and this new set of strats and schemes seem to work well with her kit. Summoners all got hit so it's more of a level playing field and Tara probably fairs well compared to the hit to many other summoners. Even if you decide to never summon, she's still an exceptional scheme runner. Moving and interacting is sort of her speciality.

That Talos buff though... Hot damn that's a massive turn around for this model. He's definitely coming out of retirement for me. I haven't checked out all the new GG2 stuff yet but has Tara been release from her time out yet? I know the new summoning changes will affect her somewhat, however I do feel somewhat compensated with the Talos buff. I agree with others, Wanted Criminal is still pretty bad. However it does have me somewhat interested for what it can do with Tara. Given that she can activate twice, she can get two instances of Escape Plan. Also with Timeslip and Free Loot, she can obliterate scheme markers from across the board (pun intended). It's not much, but it has me intrigued

Honestly, I feel like these changes are pretty fair. Reactivate went away for a reason in M3E. Having such a powerful ability on Mech Rider was bound to create issues sooner or later. It's still exceptionally powerful IMO. I think we should be thankful that Sandeep got away unscathed thanks to the nerf to Kandara (summon nerf excluding). Card draw seems to have gotten hit across the board, and rightfully so. The replacement ability is still useful and falls more in line with the effectiveness of the other Mantras. Likewise, I think the change to Magical Training was really just addressing the soulstone miner interaction. Instead of nerfing the miner, we got a bit stricter with this upgrade. Seems fitting as we already have a "construct" specific upgrade, now we have a living one as well. Then we get to the big one with Colette. It was obvious this was coming. We just didn't know how hard it was going to hit her. My gut reaction is that she's still in contention as top arcanist. Giving her more direct synergy within her keyword is only a good thing in my mind. Presto is probably the biggest change to her card but even that got a little compensation with the loss of a required suit and a better trigger. I also appreciate the change to a ram as tomes should now be a bit more coveted for her defense. As others have pointed out, distracted got a bit of a buff. Now she'll need to rely more on distracted and less on bury, which feels right to me. With everyone else's boogymen getting equally cut down (explorers excluded for now), I don't think we'll really even miss her old card. Hopefully this allows for a bit more diversity amongst the rest of the masters. Now with the big bads out of the picture, hopefully we can focus on bringing up some of the stragglers (looking at you December)

Obviously no one should have this at the time of writing. However I'm interested in buying or trading for this model if someone has no use for it. Once they get it of course

Further expanding on Amina. I also tend to include her because she allows for a second "death bubble". This gives that little bit of added flexability and allows you to control more of the board as your able to break your list into two groups. One goes off to do the punching with Ironsides, the other can vary depending on what you've hired. I like escorting Anima with gunsmiths as they do not need to play as aggressive as Toni and are better suited taking pot shots from safety. Anima also lets you play Toni a little more loosely. Obviously can play Toni as an absolute missile (as I tend to do). However in doing so, your usually sacrificing efficiency with the rest of your crew as they try and catch up with Toni. With Anima, it lets you play Toni as an assassin, or simply to hold up large swathes of the opposing crew while Amina still delivers the goods to the rest of the crew via IWA. I think that's what I like most about running her. The freedom it grants to Toni.

So in my experience, Howard always comes as a package deal with a steamfitter, I wouldn't take one without the other. Amina is awfully difficult to leave without as her Injured Workers Act is pretty damn powerful. Fitz is good if your expecting some heavy hitters in the opponents crew. Super armour, H2W plus Unionized is a pretty amazing defence package (expect a target on his head). I personally love the gunsmiths. I usually bring two of them and I rarely regretted it. Easy target, resourceful and some excellent triggers on a 2/4/5 just melts models. The trick is keeping them alive... The rest are very scheme dependant. I don't really rate union miners unless you need to spam scheme markers somewhere (M&SU is pretty light on scheme placement). And as I mentioned above, I wouldn't bother with steamfitters unless I got Howard. Captain is fine if you like him but he doesn't really bring anything that you can't get elsewhere. So typically I'll start my list with Amina and Fitz. The rest are very much scheme dependant. None seem like a waste as long as you have a purpose in mind for them.

That has been my experience as well. They're quite capable to take a punch (certain members) and dishing it out (again on particular members). However, they're not good at getting around the board. You really want them doing things in pairs as their ability to generate focus from each other is pretty critical to their success. So keeping to schemes that allow them to play more central is likely where they'll shine.

Most of the issues I hear with Sandeep is actually Kandara. Card draw is by far the best mantra and often you'll see her make appearances in other gamin crews just for that ability alone. I like the suggestion of changing to instead look at the top card and discarding. Then it'd be good to leave it at that and re-examine the keyword again. Colette is powerful but I find her in-theme crew very challenging. I find that Manipulative works against them in some regards as it encourages focused shots, which often end up killing them in a single go. The Duet is powerful but holy hell if it isn't complicated to use... Try explaining to a new player how to "properly" activate a Duet and watch their brain seep out of their ears. It's also the most expensive, non-master, model in the game, so yeah, I expect it to do some work. Mech rider is interesting. I find most of what people talk about is that re-activate trigger. Honestly, Wyrd removed that mechanic for a reason so I wouldn't be sad to see it replaced entirely.

I’d be okay with reducing the range of presto chango. I caution any major changes. I remember when she got nerfed back at the tail end of m2e and basically made her irrelevant. Changes should be subtle and then given time to see if its enough. If not then you take it a step further next time around. Raspy gets my vote for one who needs a buff. Ontop of being below the power curve, she’s just not much fun to use due to her frustrating mechanics. Showgirls I find pretty bad. They just get focused and obliterated in a single shot. Mutations need adaptive evolution on the upgrades itself. This would open up his hiring options and again reduce frustration Cerberus could likely become an enforcer Ox mages just need to figure out what they want to be doing and get better at doing it Please give poison gamin the beast keyword 😁

I agree, it's probably unlikely to expect mass change amongst a single keyword. Gut feeling says your more likely to see nerfs than buffs, of which I can't expect any nerfs from December. However I feel like just improving Raspy herself would be a pretty massive change and bring up the whole keyword. So if we could only vote for one, then my vote is for Raspy!

The thing is that Sandeep doesn't really need anything in particular. Having cheap academics is useful for him to arc his spells through but it's not as though he needs another ranged/melee damage unit. The whole elemental transference theme is pretty unique and something I could see them lean into more. Unfortunately in my experience it rarely seems that I have a low tome when I need it and mid - high tomes get better value elsewhere (mainly summoning) I wish elemental transference was it's own ability, but expanded to affect all conditions. Basically remove a condition to gain a condition. Or maybe even to remove a marker to place a marker. This would give them a pretty unique role if balanced properly

Sounds like it boils down to "if your not first, your last" haha Well lucky for me I'm not a hyper competitive player and so I get to play with models outside the few "top tier" options that I have available to me 😋 I'm not looking for reasons as to why they aren't the best. I'm just trying to understand their strengths and weaknesses in order to make them playable. They don't need to be the best, they just need to work. In my experience, I've had some hit and miss success with Kudra and the Guards. Mainly because they are trickier to play than other models and thus gets punished harshly when misplayed. For me, it's the Ox Mages that completely allude me as to their purpose. They sound like they want to be support pieces but everything they do is kinda of hard or situational. They are frail and have support abilities, so I want to play them at range, yet their strangely better in melee for some reason. I liked their flavor more in M2E when they had a whole bunch of triggers (to signify their elemental mastery) and they could draw power from each other. All that was really cool, they just went a step too far and made them a little too good in the end...

I really enjoy Sandeep. More specifically, I really enjoy running elementals. They offer a large variety of play styles, they look cool and they are pretty strait forward. However it's the Academic side of things that I struggle with. When I say Academic, I'm excluding Kandara and Banasuva as they walk the line of both elemental and academic and both are exceptional models. I'm mostly talking about Kudra, Vidiya Guard and Ox Mages. I'll start with Kudra. I think she's just okay. She wants to be aggressive but she doesn't seem like she can take much of a punch. Due to her having built in onslaught, I find that I don't often concentrate, as taking two separate attacks (or charges) the better option. This makes her a good tech piece that is strong against certain models but generally I feel like I'd prefer to hire a golem at nearly the same cost. Elemental bolt looks terrible, as does her heal (since she wants to be charging models and not back supporting elementals). This leaves her with a good, but situational melee attack and admittedly a very good free action. Her Mantra is alright but as I mentioned earlier, I find that she's rarely in a good position for others to make any use of it and she doesn't often use it herself. Up next is the Vidiya Guard. Of the three academics outlined, I like these models the most. Unlike Kudra, I do see them playing pretty effectively as a ranged model, while offering some nice utility to other firendly models. Know the warrior is a bit tricky but can be great to cycle out some low cards - or replenish the ones you'd be cheating to hit with. Also unlike Kudra, I always seem to be taking the concentrate action to fuel the push AND know the warrior. I also find the Vidiya Guards to be a decent upgrade carrier. Either of the two upgrades works well on them but I'd probably take magical training most times. With the extra shielded, soulstone prevention and H2K, they can be surprisingly tough. I think I'd take an upgrade pretty much everytime as long as I could afford it. They are no tank, but they aren't squishy either. Their high DF/WP combined with Know the Warrior, makes it easier to spend high cards to dodge attacks. Likewise their attacks are decent but nothing special in terms of damage but the trigger to ignore armor makes them a strong counter in certain match ups. The only pain point is the 8ss price tag. A little more and you get a golem who is arguably tougher and almost certainly hits harder. So for me, I end up leaning more into the upgrade and support options as a reason to consider them. Also if I'm potentially facing armor, then they get an extra recommendation. Last and least, in my mind, is the OX Mages. I have a really tough time hiring these models. Everything about these models confuses me as to their purpose. They just seems like a mess of abilities that doesn't really come together into a cohesive package. Counterspell is just a bad ability in general, and especially so on a model who should be playing at range. Arcane Conduit is highly situational and very awkward in terms of timing compared to other condition removal abilities. Flaming Fury is decent, but you really don't want to be using it on a model as fragile as this. Elemental Bolt is as plain as it gets with the exception of the trigger. I do really like the trigger but I feel like it should be reversed with Elemental Transference being the action, and the damage being a trigger. Otherwise not having it built in makes this attack all too awkward, even if you can still use without needing to succeed. I will say they have one of the better Mantra's. A flat 2 heal is nothing to scoff at and is likely the reason into hiring at least one. However that alone doesn't justify their cost. So what is their actual purpose? Do they damage? (not really) Do they support the crew? (Outside of the Mantra, you need tomes to do anything of interest) Do they scheme? (hell no) I just don't see why I'd hire them when I have access to gamin who fulfill a definite purpose and are typically cheaper. Unless I'm missing something....

That's what I've been noticing as well and the reason why people tend to run Marcus elite heavy. Less AP spent on the master to support the crew and maximizing the effectiveness of each upgrade. It's interesting because Marcus is not the only master with this upgrade mechanic. Von Schill and McCabe both use upgrades in a very similar way to Marcus, but the major difference with those masters is that they give a lot more "abilities" instead of stat and triggered effects. A rocket launcher is a rocket launcher, regardless of who uses it. Now other abilities can still affect the action (easy access to focus, fast, ignoring cover etc.) but for the most part it's equal opportunity. Funny enough, it can also have the opposite effect in that if the granted ability is worst than the one the model already has, then your less likely to see it on that model. McCabe's feels like it's done the best with having built in abilities (good for cheap models) along with giving out fast (good for everyone, but especially on high end models). However even in his case, there still are more obvious choices for those upgrades but it seems to work out more universally than with Marcus' mutations. A Ruffian will benefit from a timeworn blade. A moleman will practically never benefit from Formidable Horns... Sadir will get some use from a faded mirror. A Cerberus will REALLY benefit from Feathered Wings. The balance just seems off with mutations

For me the Rattlers are the quintessential mediocre model for Marcus so I can understand how some people get it to work and why others don't. They are pretty fast, albeit in a keyword that doesn't really need it. Their attack is quite honestly subpar for 7ss and they don't really have much else going on. Defense wise, all they have is Df6, while good, doesn't tend to keep them alive when I play them. The best use I've gotten out of them is hunting down cheap scheme runners. Their speed enables them to hunt along the flanks and once engaged, it's almost impossible to walk away from them. Unfortunately that usually means it's better to attack them, which they're not very good at taking a punch. At 6ss I'd be quite happy with them. However I do think they (and all Chimera models) need adaptive evolution to allow them to adapt to the situation. Otherwise it's simply too risky locking up good mutations onto them.

Any suggestions for making Molemen worth taking for Marcus? My main issues with them They need to be taken in pairs/other models to drop scheme markers in order to make their gimmic work They're probably the worst target for mutations and not worth investing a masters AP into They can only bury via a DF trigger but in all likelihood they'll die before getting to use it since they are paper thin They're just not good at their role as a scheme runner SS miner does the work of two moleman but better

Just played a game with Kaeris last night. I find her interesting when compared to Raspy as both are ranged masters (Kaeris being more mid-range) that require additional resources. While by no means perfect, I do find Kaeris more complex but easier to use if that makes sense. I find Raspy needs her keyword models to support her while Kaeris is the opposite and has to support her own keyword models. Obviously Raspy has much more board threat than Kaeris, but Kaeris mobility and AP efficiency does close that gap somewhat. In terms of effectiveness however, there seems no doubt in my mind that Kaeris does it so much better. With a free action, Kaeris can setup a Pyre, use run and gun into that marker (for +2 burning) and from that point, take attacks at a positive that ignore friendly fire, with a built in min 3 damage (or add a blast + pyre marker to tag multiple enemies and setup herself/crew up with additional Pyre markers). There is just so much efficiency and all you really need is one pyre marker. Conversely to reach similar effectiveness with Raspy you'd need spend an action getting a pillar, spend cards to trigger onslaught and still need to flip way more cards to hit (without positives) in order to do what Kaeris does. It just feels like so many more hoops to jump through. I will admit that Raspy has a higher chance to spike but honestly the amount of cards needed to do so makes it unrealistic at best.

Frozen heart was pretty brutal against certain matchups in M2E. I heard it wasn't very fun for Pandora. I'm less interested in theme wide counters and more interested in theme wide buffs. If Frozen heart allowed friendly models to ignore ice pillars during their activation. That would not only help alleviate some of the issues of the crew, but would also be less "feels bad" against crews who mechanic relies on WP defense.

The Golem is a good model with bad counters but the Acolyte is just a bad model. I just don't get what they are supposed to bring to the crew. Tools for the job is a great ability but I don't find it all that useful for the Acolyte. It's best use is to score a high card for Raspy to greedily use. I've stopped hiring them entirely. I just don't understand their purpose.

Yeah I've gotten some serious work from the Ice Golem. Bear in mind that I also invest a lot in supporting him but in most my games, it's between the Golem or the Blessed that is typically my MVP. A 4" aura on a 50mm base is way bigger than you think and with the ability to give hazardous 2, it cannot be ignored. I always feel like I get my stones worth with him. Even if it's just in how it causes the opponent to react, it's often a game changer. That being said, I always bring Snow Storm to taxi him and I'll usually have 2 silent ones to keep him healed up. Silent ones work particularly well since they don't really care about the triggers when mirroring heals and there should always be a pillar nearby the golem to mirror from. Also I will typically run him with the SS cache upgrade. It gives a bit of added survivability and I can usually break even on its cost.

If you use the emissary to put the companion upgrade on the Nothing Beast, you can do a version of Tara's old beast bomb trick by unburying it via Aionus or Karina and immediately activating the Nothing Beast Midnight stalker in a Pride led crossroad crew gives him the crossroad keyword and thus will give focus to other crossroad models when they activate near him (so long as he's not in LOS of Pride)

As I have said previously, my issue is not with power. If Slow and Onslaught are problems with Ice mirror, then get rid them and give her something else. I don't care as long as its unique, thematic and above all interesting. My problem is that I feel punished for using her core mechanic, when I should feel rewarded. I want to use ice mirrors and have it do cool and interesting things outside of a 2/3/4 and potentially a blast. It gets old so fast.... Triggers are what make Raspy's actions interesting and currently I feel discouraged from using them in conjunction with her core mechanic.

Meanwhile the enemy crew just sits there and takes the same abuse turn after turn? If I got blasted and half my crew got slowed you can be sure that I wouldn't make that same mistake again. Those types of "big plays" typically only work once It's far too easy to theory out an amazing play for just about any model. However, getting it actually working on the table is another matter entirely. Yes she can do work, no question about that. It's just the matter in which she does it is the concern.

I get the sense that the issues are less about power and more about frustration. Personally I couldn't care less about where Raspy ranks against other Arcanists masters. As long as she's fair and interesting, then that's all I'm in it for. The point is that if you got no cards, you aren't doing much with Raspy. Even if you do have a healthy hand, then it's likely going to be completely depleted after her activation and it rarely feels all that special. A master activation should be high point of a turn and I rarely get that feeling when playing Raspy.