Ainous Shenanigans

[Mxbedlam]

So there's been a lot of attention on 2 different models the past couple weeks: Aionus and Bishop. Now I know Arcanists love to run Bishop in Marcus lists for Alpha. How can we fully manipulate the Time Bandit so that his 13SS fits into a list and you don't automatically think 2 coryphee, howard or the Mech Rider don't fit that slot better. 

He can hand out slow with his melee, give slow out with his Ca. He can make models fast. He can hit buried models. He can bury models and have them pop up at the end of the turn. Any ideas on how to fully utilitize him? 

Off the top of my head, Colette prompting him seems a bit silly, especially when combined with Acolytes for extra slow, that's a lot of AP down the drain for your opponent. 

 

[Jordon]

So the one thing that comes to my mind is with Sandeep and his academics. Sandeep's "action through inaction" ability allows friendly academic models that discard cards to take a point of damage on Sandeep and draw a card. So with Aionus you can trade in those middle cards to make one of your cheaper models fast, and the card draw may potentially allow you to draw something better to allow a higher cost models to go fast (who can also draw a card and so on).  

So this can allow a model such as the oxfordian mage to walk and furious cast without loosing a card from your hand and maybe even allowing you to cycle in better cards. Obviously this comes at a cost to Sandeep so you wouldn't be able to abuse this without putting Sandeep in extreme danger (the intention i'm sure). 

However I feel like since we have access to imbued energies and have no real burry abilities, there is less of a reason to hire Aionus. He seems like one of those models that demand a list be built around him and his mechanics and with the exception of the aforementioned above, I don't really see his appeal in arcanists. Especially since he's competing with some already top tier competition such as Langston and Mech Rider.

[Mxbedlam]

I disagree though about one thing. He is not a model you build a list around simply because of how easily he can be taken off the board. Instead you should look at what synergies he can offer to a list. For instance, if I prompted him 3 times with colette just to send a barrage of slow into my opponent's crew, that's worthwhile to me, especially if its on hard hitting models. Giving Envy Fast could mean 2 focused shots with Envy, which can get pretty ridiculous if you have the cards in your hand. 

Could the list work without Aionus, absolutely. Does it work better with him in it though? I don't know. It would really depend on a lot of factors as to whether I'd bring him over the other 13 slots. Which is why I haven't brought him out yet. 

I do feel like, if you build around him, no matter what crew in any faction, you are asking for him to die. Malifaux doesn't do well with Lynchpin strategies as there is not a single model in this game that can't be taken down in a single turn if your opponent wants them dead. 

[Mxbedlam]

I disagree though about one thing. He is not a model you build a list around simply because of how easily he can be taken off the board. Instead you should look at what synergies he can offer to a list. For instance, if I prompted him 3 times with colette just to send a barrage of slow into my opponent's crew, that's worthwhile to me, especially if its on hard hitting models. Giving Envy Fast could mean 2 focused shots with Envy, which can get pretty ridiculous if you have the cards in your hand. 

Could the list work without Aionus, absolutely. Does it work better with him in it though? I don't know. It would really depend on a lot of factors as to whether I'd bring him over the other 13 slots. Which is why I haven't brought him out yet. 

I do feel like, if you build around him, no matter what crew in any faction, you are asking for him to die. Malifaux doesn't do well with Lynchpin strategies as there is not a single model in this game that can't be taken down in a single turn if your opponent wants them dead. 

[Jordon]

5 hours ago, Mrbedlam said:

I disagree though about one thing. He is not a model you build a list around simply because of how easily he can be taken off the board. Instead you should look at what synergies he can offer to a list. For instance, if I prompted him 3 times with colette just to send a barrage of slow into my opponent's crew, that's worthwhile to me, especially if its on hard hitting models. Giving Envy Fast could mean 2 focused shots with Envy, which can get pretty ridiculous if you have the cards in your hand. 

Could the list work without Aionus, absolutely. Does it work better with him in it though? I don't know. It would really depend on a lot of factors as to whether I'd bring him over the other 13 slots. Which is why I haven't brought him out yet. 

I do feel like, if you build around him, no matter what crew in any faction, you are asking for him to die. Malifaux doesn't do well with Lynchpin strategies as there is not a single model in this game that can't be taken down in a single turn if your opponent wants them dead. 

I don't know. I just feel like you can accomplish the same thing using Colette and an Acolyte for much cheaper and in most circumstances better. In fact you can almost afford two Acolytes for the price of Aionus, which will put out more slow, eat an opponents hand and potentially drag a key model or spike damage with their amazing damage track.

[angyi]

Aionus is a good fit IMO, only you have to be sure you can capitalize on his abilities. If your opponent most likely hires a buried Killjoy, Aionus is much better than 2 acolytes. If the scheme pool is full of marker tossing, Aionus is much better than 2 acolytes. Etc. In any other case, 2 acolytes are much more useful than Aionus.

[Mxbedlam]

That's another aspect I hadn't given consideration to. Colette drops so many markers that Aionus can play around with.  Makes set up, search the ruins, etc that much easier. While I agree that often a single acolyte and colette can do a lot of the work here, I think it'd be worth the try to see if Aionus brings anything to the list

 

[spooky_squirrel]

It looks like you'll have some order and number of activations stuff to worry about as well.

For buffing your own crew and attempting to debuff the opponent's crew, he needs to activate early. Slow on something that has already activated only gives Aionus a benefit. It does nothing at all to models/crews that are immune to conditions, immune to slow, or were just summoned in. To get any benefit from fast, it has to go on early.

Late activation of Aionus can get you scheme points. Tossing scheme markers that extra 2 inches for Set Up or Detonate the Charges would net you 3VP in a heartbeat if the opponent cannot do anything else in response. To do this, you need to:
1. move workhorse models into position and drop the schemes (Colette and Kaeris have no problem here)
2. activate Aionus to bump the markers the last couple of inches needed

...without being so heavily out-activated that none of your markers are in position to score. This is where I look at the 13SS cost and wonder if I cannot get a little more mileage out of something else.

I know (having run the spider factory myself, played against ressers, and witnessed the rat apocalypse) that summoning/swarm lists will out-activate non-summoning lists, so I know that bringing in 1-2 more models won't help with activation attrition and control there. But in an elite crew vs elite crew, or elite crew vs normal crew, those models might give me an edge that makes a difference. Just one more activation before I airburst the setup target into middle of a cluster of scheme markers might be what I need to guarantee that the target won't be Shown the Door back to safety before the end of the turn (actually happened to me).