Are Shastar Vidiya Guards not worth their SS?

[Swagsamuel]

So I got SVG on the table for a few times now, always with the feeling that they're not exactly worth 8 stones. I always picked only one, the outcome was underwhelming every time, either they died quite fast or just played their role as beater not as efficient as a lot of other models in Arcanists which are even cheaper (Kudra, Kandara,..). 

Anyways, do any of you include SVG to your lists regularly, and if so how do you use them?

[Thottbot]

i usually play one in beater-heavy lists, i always try to give it armor because his main weakness is low health.

with armor he is great as a "threat" so sort of a pseudo tank in that people will move away him him. he's not the most damage dealing but he's great in that he's super flexible against whatever your enemy brings. Because i use a lot of 'discard a card' models i love that shastar can be saved with a cheating fate and also give me a new one so i replenish my hand.

in melee heavy crews his (0) is sometimes gold worth in that i've been the difference between a charge and double walks with no damage multiple times.  

[retnab]

I find they're great point holders with Well Rehearsed for essentially double HtK.  They don't regularly do tons of damage, but they can be a nuisance for your opponent to deal with (and the free Focus and card draw's nice too).

[dancater]

I've looked at them and they are an interesting selection.

An 8SS all-rounder kind of piece, tough enough, OK damage, reasonably quick with a few tricks.  But they are not overwhelming at anything.  Means they are a tough pick if you are looking for game 'winning' but they are solid for a gap filling all-rounder that can cover any gap your crew has or provide support for a more specialized piece.  Least that is how it seems to my list building.

[I'm a Teapot!]

I really like them with Ironsides. 

[MuMantai]

5 hours ago, I'm a Teapot! said:

I really like them with Ironsides. 

This. They are gold with Ironsides. She shores up their two weak points (low health does not matter when they cannot be attacked because Toni has Challenge up, and 2/4/6 on a positive damage is just so much more juicy), and lets their strong points shine. The push is great for Toni to get into position to pull something in turn 1, the Bull Style trigger, at the right time, can be devastating, and the other triggers are great as well. And the Chakram action is great to prime other models for Hand Picked Men.

Other lists I have used them are Sandeep (they can copy the place, which is great) and Colette, and they can do work there too, but never as much as with Ironsides.

[Frollo the Wordbearer]

I agree. With Toni they are golden. For the price of one card you have an attack with double positive to hit and damage (HPM and focus). The shadow Emissary shows how powerful an attack like this can be. 

It's nearly a guaranteed Severe.

And they give tomes to near mages..

[Fictor]

For me, te real problem is the box, really 3 miniatures? man, it must be a box with 1 miniature or 2 at maximun, none will use 3 xD.

But, out of Toni's crew, for 8ss IMO is a bad model, other models cost less for do similar things (6ss for Cojo or 7ss for the Bear) o 1ss more for do so much more (like Carlos)

[Swagsamuel]

3 minutes ago, Fictor said:

But, out of Toni's crew, for 8ss IMO is a bad model, other models cost less for do similar things (6ss for Cojo or 7ss for the Bear) o 1ss more for do so much more (like Carlos)

Yeah that's what I feel like when running them! All of your listed models miss the M&SU characteristic tho, therefore they won't profit of Tonys HPM. 

I could see them in a Ironsides crew more often if they were at 7SS, at 8SS i'd rather consider two 4SS models or one of Arcanists great 7SS Henchmen, I mean they got a few. But anyways I'll try them again for a killy schemepool if I got a gap to fill. thanks for all the advice!

[Ludvig]

32 minutes ago, Fictor said:

For me, te real problem is the box, really 3 miniatures? man, it must be a box with 1 miniature or 2 at maximun, none will use 3 xD.

But, out of Toni's crew, for 8ss IMO is a bad model, other models cost less for do similar things (6ss for Cojo or 7ss for the Bear) o 1ss more for do so much more (like Carlos)

You could also see it as a nice discount if you split it three ways instead of a single SVG costing like the single box models do.

[I'm a Teapot!]

I played three of them in an ironsides crew and they did fine. 

[KingCrow]

I ran a SVG with Well-Rehearsed with Sandeep using Unaligned Sage and Enlightened upgrades (+ a summoning one but irrelevant to this story).  After I gave the SVG incorporeal, the SVG got charged by Killjoy and took 5 hits from Killjoy and survived! The SVG then went and proceeded to hit Killjoy for severe and Red Joker damage, killing the bastard.  My opponent was running a Hamelin crew and was relying on Killjoy to be his beater but with Killjoy being taken out turn 2, and Nix being killed the turn after that, my opponent conceded the game. 

I see the SVG as a good all-rounder model.  One of the best ways I like to use them is if the enemy has lots of weak models grouped up. Have the SVG charge in and get the Ouroborous attack trigger to plink all those models to death.  This is really good vs Dreamer.  I've also used them to flank the enemy crew and charge a key model that sits in the back doing things (like Anna).  With the ability to give them armor now, they also have more survivability.  They are solid models that can be stellar with the right support.