Learning to use Reva

[TheTrans]

So had another game last night and tried making use of the screaming death. Shit got pretty scary then, I was in the back line of my opponent turn 1 with Reva killing his Austringer (it was close deployment).

Went something like this, he had summoned a guild guard in contact with my carrion emissary which had bolted up the board.

Reva discards a card, summons candle 5" away then (0) teleports to other side of it (so her reach is now 11" from the her start line), I then hit the summoned guild guard and cheat in a tome, she then bounces 10" away and starts wailing on the Austringer with her 'free' charge. Kills it with the 2 attacks, then uses her remaining 2AP to charge captain Dashel, and put him down to 3 wounds (after a stone) with a red joker damage flip (and a miss). 

She then did this each other turn as well, she probably moved a total of like 40-50" over the coarse of the game, with no drop in damage output...

So god damn mobile!!

[#Maxi]

Had my first game with Reva last saturday.. WOW!

My first impression is damn good, she's definetly scary, so many dmg with so many range, good mobility, really fun and totally new from other master's gameplay.. love her!

I ran:

Reva (Guises of Death, Blood Mark, Maniacal Laugh) - 6 SS

Vincent (My little helper)

Yin (My little helper)

Emissary (Carrion conflux)

2 x Shieldbearers

Belle

 

Some considerations:

- Though I surely want to try Beyond Death, I went with guises 'cause I feel it more fittable with my playstyle, and I found it great! Reva eliminated Lazarus at first turn (Vincent 0 + 3 Reva's shots and 3 VP gained from quick murder scheme): brutal.

- Vincent seems to be dramatically important because of his 0 (surely I have to practice and enjoy all his other features): it's like Litany of Fallen + Decaying Aura for Reva, at a good range and for 2 turns everytime (till Vince's next activaction).

- My little helper is damn good: card + 0 action + untargetable over 3" seems to me like auto include 2 x everytime I can

- Shieldbearers: great! Had little confidence I would have loved 'em but I found them to be so reliable, tough and fast.. very well!

- Emissary is the negative note of the day: everytime I play it I find myself unsatisfied about his performance.. I never capitalize from it being in play. This match before to die at the end of turn 2 his only achievement was 2 x mindless zombies with his 0 actions, the first popped just beside a corpse marker (so no benefits gained for Reva's attacks source point) and the second targeted by Wong to blast behind him at Yin and Vincent . I thought it was nearly a must for Reva because of zombie production but I found that it's not that important: candles and guises provides what you need in turn 1, Blood Mark's trigger can always help, and from turn 2/3 there will be more corpse on the table than you need. This said: does emissary worth to pay 10 SS? I'm going to think it doesn't. Maybe another beater could be better, Dead Rider and Archie being my next tries.

[Kadeton]

 

This said: does emissary worth to pay 10 SS? I'm going to think it doesn't. Maybe another beater could be better, Dead Rider and Archie being my next tries.

Definitely try other things to see what works best for you. Personally, I've found the Dead Rider to be consistently disappointing, and the Emissary to be its superior in every way, but that's with the previous waves of Masters who all get their little personalised boost from it - I haven't tried it with Reva. Archie looks very promising, though.

[jonahmaul]

I love the Emissary with McMourning but he's the only Master I've run him with. His Conflux is pretty good though Ive rarely used it. However being able to close off parts of the board with shards to protect McMourning going off on a killing spree is great and the free MZ that Seb can Destroy to turn inot a card and SS is really strong. Plus the Emissary itself has min 3 damage and tends to attract a lot of attention which means that your opponents models are focusing elsewhere. Not a lot of that is much use with Reva but it's a decent beater and a good distraction.

[TheTrans]

I've had 2 games with the Carrion. I've found more so his walls are great for protecting either reva or vince if they've activated early and went deep. That and the fact he has a 1 action that goes off turning a corpse marker into a scheme marker is fantastic (given all the corpses we start spitting out with shieldbearers, candles, mindless zombies and just killing stuff!), works really well, and his Ca is bloody solid and doesn't randomise. Factor in MLH on him to keep him alive at range on the turn you need him to, as well as either 2 Kythera shards, or even on turn 4, shards and a minion. 

Also....managed to kill a 1 wound scribe with a mindless zombie the other night (-ves to hit, red jokered) and summoned another mindless zombie.. that stumbled over to a wastrel, that reva then opted to hit...who then Tome charged a wastrel on the other side of the board contesting an objective...muahahahaha!!

#RevaisloveRevaislife

[MalifauxMartin]

I love the Emissary with Reva. Give it My Little Helper. Now it scores for Show of force, does TWO shards in turn 1 18" from deployment, and drops a Zombie when it dies. Your opponent will not thanks you for 2 Zombies in his face at the top of turn 2 for Reva to punch through.

I find Reva's biggest weakness is actually her mobility. It lures you into over extending her and she as no defenses what so ever. Once people have played her a few times I think we'll start to see strong alpha strikes against her. I've already played a list that was built purely to kill Reva. She was dead by the end of turn 1. If that will work again is a different story of course.

[#Maxi]

Ok, second game with Reva yesterday and feelings are even better.

This time (vs Shenlong) Vincent was the MVP (activating him later in turn, with the opponent having no good cards still in hand, means bad things coming for an enemy henchman ), bearers confirmed first impressions about versatility and toughness,

AND

finally the emissary made me happy! I gave it another chance, and for the first time I could enjoy it being in the game.

I just switched carrion conflux with MLH, granting it more survivability (at least in one key-turn) and the two shards, definetly great both for cover, scheming/strats obstacle and 2 zombies in.. Also the wk bonus reveals more useful than it seems.

Overall, the more I play Reva the more I love her

[Cedar]

7 hours ago, #Maxi said:

I just switched carrion conflux with MLH, granting it more survivability (at least in one key-turn) and the two shards, definetly great both for cover, scheming/strats obstacle and 2 zombies in.. Also the wk bonus reveals more useful than it seems.

Shards rule is "At the end of the Turn, remove all friendly Shard Markers. Before removing the Markers, a Mindless Zombie may be summoned in base contact with them.", so I think that you can get only one Zombie regardless of number of this action you took this turn, since the summoning doesn't stack(but I may be wrong, so maybe someone more experienced with rules could tell us).

 

I like taking Anna with Reva to summon Zombie or Seishin(less often) as both these models are nice support, providing activation, healing, blast protection and range for Reva. I sometimes take Datsue Ba with her just because I like this henchmen- Denial of Sanzu is great against mobile crews while summoning Gaki and Onryo gives nice models.

[TheTrans]

Love all the Reva love people have at the moment.

Just jotted up some theory-faux thoughts on Reva's use under GG2016

 

http://fools-of-fate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/gg2016-application-of-reva-for-murder.html

[Kadeton]

6 hours ago, Cedar said:

Shards rule is "At the end of the Turn, remove all friendly Shard Markers. Before removing the Markers, a Mindless Zombie may be summoned in base contact with them.", so I think that you can get only one Zombie regardless of number of this action you took this turn, since the summoning doesn't stack (but I may be wrong, so maybe someone more experienced with rules could tell us).

Yeah, that interaction is really murky. I mean, just on the base Action, some people assume that you get two Zombies because they read it as "a Mindless Zombie may be summoned in base contact with [each of] them", while others read it as "a Mindless Zombie may be summoned in base contact with [both of] them" (so only one Zombie, but it has to touch both Markers which means only two possible places). I think the general consensus is more like "[one] Mindless Zombie may be summoned in base contact with [any of] them".

In this case, my gut feeling would be that you're right - you only get a single Zombie, regardless of how many Markers you remove. It could be argued the other way, but that feels a little tenuous to me. Feel free to bring it to the Rules forum.

[TheTrans]

2 hours ago, Kadeton said:

Yeah, that interaction is really murky. I mean, just on the base Action, some people assume that you get two Zombies because they read it as "a Mindless Zombie may be summoned in base contact with [each of] them", while others read it as "a Mindless Zombie may be summoned in base contact with [both of] them" (so only one Zombie, but it has to touch both Markers which means only two possible places). I think the general consensus is more like "[one] Mindless Zombie may be summoned in base contact with [any of] them".

In this case, my gut feeling would be that you're right - you only get a single Zombie, regardless of how many Markers you remove. It could be argued the other way, but that feels a little tenuous to me. Feel free to bring it to the Rules forum.

Honestly, it was built around not being allowed to do it twice (MLH), I'd imagine you could summon 2 zombies if you had 2 lots of shards IMHO, not that it will break the game. But look at is as you cast Shards (1) and Shards (2), when you remove the ones entitled (1), summon a zombie, when you remove (2) summon another. But in all honesty, I don't think it will come up alot and I'll imagine someone isn't going to really care if you summon another zombie. That and I'd try and hold it until turn 3 for a minon and a shard marker placement

[jonahmaul]

I'd interpret it as only one MZ regardless of how many markers you have too as it uses markerS plural but states 'a' MZ singular. It's probably one that should be clarified in the FAQ though seeing as MLH will throw this up quite often I'd imagine.

[Absolution Black]

17 minutes ago, jonahmaul said:

I'd interpret it as only one MZ regardless of how many markers you have too as it uses markerS plural but states 'a' MZ singular. It's probably one that should be clarified in the FAQ though seeing as MLH will throw this up quite often I'd imagine.

Oi, you are supposed to be on holiday! 

[SurreyLee]

16 minutes ago, jonahmaul said:

I'd interpret it as only one MZ regardless of how many markers you have too as it uses markerS plural but states 'a' MZ singular. It's probably one that should be clarified in the FAQ though seeing as MLH will throw this up quite often I'd imagine.

I'd actually go with one zombie for each marker for two reasons;

When you place shard markers normally (ie once) you actually place two shard markers touching each other. I think casting it twice, which is only allowed once per game, would therefore allow you to create two MZ's. I think the fact you are using two 7's, plus the actual upgrade in the first place, should mean that at least one card from your hand would be required. It's hardly overpowered. 

My feeling is that the intention is certainly to allow 2 MZ's. 

Not played Reva yet, but this is certainly how i'd interpret the use of a one use action (the 2 zero actions).

[TheJoyInGaming]

Has anyone tried a Reva list without Vincent?

[Kogan Style]

26 minutes ago, SurreyLee said:

I'd actually go with one zombie for each marker for two reasons;

When you place shard markers normally (ie once) you actually place two shard markers touching each other. I think casting it twice, which is only allowed once per game, would therefore allow you to create two MZ's. I think the fact you are using two 7's, plus the actual upgrade in the first place, should mean that at least one card from your hand would be required. It's hardly overpowered. 

My feeling is that the intention is certainly to allow 2 MZ's. 

Not played Reva yet, but this is certainly how i'd interpret the use of a one use action (the 2 zero actions).

I would interpret it as two MZ, simply because you are casting two separate instances of the spell, not casting the spell once and gaining 4 markers from it. 

[Terad]

Hej,

I am starting Ressers with Reva and asking myself which models to get. I don't like proxy-town, so I lean towards Yin, Rotten Bells and maybe Crooligans, although I have Necropunks already (they are fun if you summon them with Karina). Forgotten Marshall, the Emissary and Anna also seem pretty cool, when they are out where I live.

Any suggestions for a Resser noob?

Thanks!

[Fetid Strumpet]

Just as a quick question, how are you summoning Necropunks with Karina? They aren't Horrors, and Karina can only summon Horrors.

Carrion Emissary, Rotten Belles, Yin, Canine Remains, Crooligans, those are all good ideas.

[Terad]

12 minutes ago, Fetid Strumpet said:

Just as a quick question, how are you summoning Necropunks with Karina? They aren't Horrors, and Karina can only summon Horrors.

Carrion Emissary, Rotten Belles, Yin, Canine Remains, Crooligans, those are all good ideas.

Yes, you are right. I mixed Necropunks and Punk Zombies up. So I got Punk Zombies  *toomuchpunk*

[Adran]

42 minutes ago, Kogan Style said:

I would interpret it as two MZ, simply because you are casting two separate instances of the spell, not casting the spell once and gaining 4 markers from it. 

But it doesn't matter how many times you cast the spell, you remove all the markers at the same time, so when you go to remove them the second time, there aren't any markers left for you to put the zombie in base contact with. 

[SurreyLee]

58 minutes ago, Adran said:

But it doesn't matter how many times you cast the spell, you remove all the markers at the same time, so when you go to remove them the second time, there aren't any markers left for you to put the zombie in base contact with. 

This then comes down to rules as written as opposed to intended. I clearly think the intention would be to allow 2 mindless zombies.

Because the original wording of the spell stated markers (plural) because 2 markers are in fact put down, this is being used as the reason NOT to give two zombies. Now, it may well be the intention of the game developers to to only allow the one MZ, but I feel for the cost of s 7 cards and the upgrade that the intention is to allow one MZ for each casting of Shards. 

 

[Cedar]

30 minutes ago, SurreyLee said:

This then comes down to rules as written as opposed to intended. I clearly think the intention would be to allow 2 mindless zombies.

Because the original wording of the spell stated markers (plural) because 2 markers are in fact put down, this is being used as the reason NOT to give two zombies. Now, it may well be the intention of the game developers to to only allow the one MZ, but I feel for the cost of s 7 cards and the upgrade that the intention is to allow one MZ for each casting of Shards. 

 

The ability says that you remove ALL Shard markers, not THESE markers. These may refer to "the markers you summoned with this ability", while all refers to all markers with certain trait. It has more sense because in summon shards ability it is written "At the end of the Turn, remove all FRIENDLY Shard Markers.". If this ability would just remove markers summoned with it why would you put word friendly in that sentence, since even if both players would have their own Emissary, the remove part of ability wouldn't affect markers placed by opponent.

The wording should be more clear in my opinion, like "At the end of the Turn, remove all friendly Shard Markers placed with this ability".

[entropolous]

Some clarification is definitely neededneeded on the Emissary. RAW it would be hard to get even one MZ if you cast it twice, as the the summoned MZ has the be in contact with all of the markers with the current wording.

[Fetid Strumpet]

No one I know has interpreted that in that way. Not saying you're wrong at all, but at least for the events I moderate the Zombie can be placed in contact with any of the shards, and if you use My Little Helper with the Emissary you get 2 Zombies. Word has in the past stated this is an intent driven game and barring an official clarification on all the abilities in question, that's how I personally will rule it. I totally admit it's in nebulous RAW territory, but it is what makes the most sense to me, and doesn't break the game, so that's how I'll rule it.

Like so many other things if you go to an event, it's probably a good idea to get your particular T.O.s opinion on this before committing to using it, as they may interpret the rules differently than you.

Of Course we are in the Aaron led world now, so we will have to see how he handles these issues, and if it remains true that only the FAQ and official errata are the place to get official answers.

[Paddywhack]

6 hours ago, TheJoyInGaming said:

Has anyone tried a Reva list without Vincent?

I'm debating it as I haven't had much use from him yet. Or not as much as I feel he should give me. He's also died relatively easily as he has to get pretty close to the action. This could just be me misplaying him though. 

If I don't take him I'm probably going to take Decaying Aura or the one that ignores armour on Reva though. I might try this this weekend. Thinking Anna Lovelace instead of Vincent.