crossroads 7 Blue with Envy (Arcanists Crossroad tactics)

[dannydb]

With the new crossroad 7 box coming out, I'm just wondering what people think of crews lead by envy lord of the dakka? 

 

Envy seems to be one of the better leaders as the extra AP means more dakka and the crossroad 7 seem a great opportunity to play something unexpected in arcanist 

 

So has anyone tried this. Is envy now a better gun line leader than raspy? Do you take the full band or drop 1-2 (I'd be tempted to drop sloth for a silent one with magic training) 

 

Tell me your thoughts 

[CD1248]

Sloth is an easy drop, Greed can be dropped if you think the opponent won' t be bringing many stone users and/or a small cache, Lust can be dropped if they aren't playing a crew with much access to card draw.

Arcanists have some fantastic Versatiles, and you want Magical Training on a minion, so I'd say somewhere in the 4-6 Crossroads range is optimal.

[Ogid]

This faction seems very good for C7 imo. Envy is one of the best beaters of the crew, so an extra AP for him is really nice; the pool of versatiles of Arcanist is very good and the Rider support the C7 very well.

Revel in Creation corpse marker can be used by Gluttony or Envy. The crew rely partially in the crow trigger to stack extra sin tokens in the other crew, the innovation trigger may give that suit to the entire crew; or instead for much more dakka the Revelation trigger. That trigger is very strong with a Henchman leader because it may let Envy activate twice (so 6 AP and 2 Free focused from turns 3 to 5; or even from turn 2 using the Soulstone Cache, stonning and cheating a 6+ in turn 2). For this Envy focused strategy, a essence of power boostering his 5 to 6could be good.

Plus the arcane emissary is a good beater avaliable from turn 3+ for only 2SS and the magical training with a Soulstone miner for extra SS and cards (plus other good synergies I'm probably missing for not being that familiar with Arcanist)... C7 here seems solid.

[cbtb11235813]

I've run Arcanist CR7 3 or 4 times, and I really think they do well here. Giving Envy the 3rd action really makes your opponent think twice about how close they want to get before he activates. 

As above, the Mech Rider is fantastic in this crew. You know whats better than a 3 action Envy? A 6 action Envy! I brought the rider originally to try to give everyone a crow for Sin Spiral, but that never worked (Rider ended up way apart from the crew to score points). 

As for who you bring, I always bring Pride. I would almost always bring Wrath and Greed. I usually bring Sloth. I rarely bring Gluttony, and almost never bring Lust (though she is good counter tech against someone drawing a lot of cards, like Zipp or Lucius). Gluttony is good counter tech vs a Marker Master (Kaeris, Raspy, Mah) and good in certain scheme pools, but I have never had him perform for me. Sloth is pretty good with Envy as the leader, since you have condition removal built in with your free effigy. This crew is squishy, so you need at least one healer. Don't underestimate a 10" flip-less heal 3. Even if you have to take the slow, honestly most of this crew does most of their work with their auras, more than their actions. Slow is certainly better than dead. I generally try to bring at least 4 band members, to help hit that saturation point of Sin and Resonance. Any less than that, and I think you'll be missing them.

CR7 in general struggles with spreading out to score, luckily Arcanists have some amazing versatile models to help with this (SS Miners, Arachnid Swarms, Saboteurs, Mech Rider)

Some of the Arcanist upgrades may be interesting takes for the band. SS Cache is generally not great because everyone is already a Henchman, but the 3 of getting soulstones back might work out, since you already want enemies within 6 for Sin, and even closer for Destructive Performance. Maybe put this on Wrath? Magical Training is probably only really worth it on Envy, shielded ontop of armor 2 is nice, and counter spell makes anti armor triggers a bit more costly. The one I want to try though is Diesel Engine on Envy. Envy shouldn't be charging often (though a  on damage is nice if you have to), what you really want is the concealment. 3 on a 50mm is a decent chunk of board, and it may make it harder for you opponent to shoot your crew off the board/lure them out of the bubble, and instead come and play in your overlapping auras. 

[bluepanther]

Played my first game with the crew today. 
 

My Crew

Faction - Arcanists 

Leader - Envy (Magical Training) 6ss
Arcane Effigy
Wrath
Sloth
Gluttony
Pride
Soulstone Miner (Magical Training)
Soulstone Miner

So my list looks like this for a couple reasons. I didn’t have the Emissary (on the paint table) or any of my other versatile models. I was more concerned with learning the workings of the band vs trying to really take the best list possible. Also, I was there for a planned demo day and was playing on the side between demos. I chose not to take Greed and Lust because I felt they are not as strong. 
 

The scenario was...
Wedge - Plant Explosives
Search, Dig, Take Prisoner, Power Ritual, Outflank. 
 

I completely Goofed and thought we were playing Flank, so I selected Outflank and Power Ritual. 
 

So my opponent was playing Mei Feng as TT and he stuck to keyword. He didn’t have everything available and was also just messing around since I told him at the beginning that I was trying something new, mostly just to learn the models. He is my best opponent locally though and usually beats me. 
 

I was able to pick off the Forgeling turn one due to my opponent forgetting that Envy had a 12” reach. I had Pride up at point and with the Solo Aura up. That really hamstrung my opponent. He tried to attack and do some things and realized he should have just left them alone. 
 

Gluttony wasn’t in the group and ran off to drop a bomb. 
Both miners were grabbing stones and doing their thing. One was able to get a marker in the corner for a Power Ritual point. The other miner went to an Outflank after my opponent started to move away since he had gotten his first point for Outflank.

Gluttony was able to drop a bomb and then pick up an opponents Bomb a couple turns later thanks to his Mv6. Him and Wray having Mv6 is very useful.
 

The main take away from the game was how oppressive the Manipulative, Solo Aura, and Armor was. Granted my opponent didn’t plan for dealing with any of that. 
Also, the massive amount of Focus and being able to use SS on most of the models was very nice and hard for my opponent to deal with. 
At first, I thought I shouldn’t have started with so many SS. Once in the game they became very useful. 
I ended up with the Black Joker in hand it was just a huge benefit to shoot with Envy, spending a focus, and know I wasn’t going to flip the BJ. 
Envy was able to pick off a bomb carrier the activation after Gluttony had picked up a bomb on turn 4. My opponent just conceded at that point because I had killed a few models and effectively denied his ability to score anymore points in the Strategy. 
Even though this wasn’t the greatest “test game” for determining how good the crew is; I definitely see play with them given the right Scheme Pool. I think that taking Envy as leader was very good because of the option for the miners. I also think that the Effigy of Fate upgrade is a good take with Envy as Leader. 
I like the idea of taking Wrath as Leader and using a Hinamatsu in the crew, or the Hooded Rider.  
 

*copied my post from another thread. 

[bluepanther]

I think Gluttony, Wrath, and Pride are must takes. The others are situational takes. I also think that if you aren’t taking 4+ of the band then you  probably shouldn’t bother running them. 
Unless there are absolutely 0 scheme markers schemes I would always hire Gluttony, his Mv6 and marker removal is just too good. 

[Ming]

I'd say Pride and Lust have good synergy.

[Jordon]

Ressing this thread.

I just played a game with Envy and the seven. I was a surprised with how well they can hold their own against other masters. I'm not convinced they are highly competitive but I do think they offer a unique play style that I'm very much enjoying. 

I wanted to talk about Sin tokens as I find they vary wildly from how they are generated to how they are used. They don't seem to be a focal point of the crew but they are a really interesting aspect of the crew.

 

Generation (how to get sin tokens on enemy models):

Envy: Mediocre. His aura rarely came up but given that a large portion of the crew has manipulative, I do think that you can catch people wanting to focus to attack particular members of the seven. I did find myself getting it much more from his ranged attack trigger. Envy as a leader will be shooting lots and is this is one of the best ways to apply sin at range. 

Wrath: Good. He won't be triggering it from his lure often but his aura is the second best in terms of applying sin. Getting him stuck in will almost guarantee some sin tokens. 

Sloth: Poor. His aura is highly situational and you'll rarely ever use his ranged attack, which has the trigger. Perhaps if you manage to tag regen models, otherwise you'll have a really difficult time getting sin from Sloth. 

Greed: Good. She has the most ways of generating sin. She has an aura, a Df trigger and has it built into both of her attacks with a trigger to generate more on her ranged attack. Her aura is pretty bad for getting it since there are a limited amount of soulstone users and they don't use them often. The Df trigger is not bad and you might be able to snag a couple from it. However her attack is the most reliable method of generating sin. If you tag a master/henchmen, you can really put out some serious sin on key models. Guitar bash is super annoying with it's bizarre 0" range but guaranteeing sin makes it the best ways to get sin out.

Pride: Good. His aura is the best of the seven and can easily catch multiple models a turn. He also has a trigger on his ranged attack which you'll likely utilize as its a good attack. Lastly he has guitar bash which as I mentioned on Greed, is the best way to get sin out in mass.

Lust: Poor. Her aura is probably the most situational of the bunch and her only other method of generating sin is on an ability that you're not likely to ever use. I believe Lust to be the worst at applying sin. 

Gluttony: Mediocre. His aura is less situational than both Lust and Sloth but still not something you'll rely on. Its very scheme pool dependent and thus Gluttony will vary on reliability. The only other way to get sin is from his ranged attack. Luckily the attack is pretty good so it's possible to expect to trigger it a few times a game.  

 

Sin use (who is getting the best value from sin):

Given how the aura's work. Most enemy models will simply opt out of using sin triggered effects over giving it to the crossroad crews. So for the most part we're talking about shutting down the various effects rather than what you'll get from using said sin. 

Envy: Mediocre. He's most likely to be out of range and thus not really making use of sin often. This might change depending on if you're running Diesel engine and you're having to stick closer to the rest of the crew. So we're mostly shutting down fast, focus and shielded, which does have a bit more variety than most of the other seven. It's certainly going to be situational but in the right matchup's, you may be able to get some milage from it. 

Wrath: Good. Pawning off enemy attacks onto other enemy models can be extremely powerful. I feel like his aura is likely to have the biggest impact of all the seven. He's also a really good candidate to use destructive performance given his role as a melee model. I found sin to be a very big deal for wrath and genuinely terrifying for the opponent.

Sloth: Poor. Most heal effects are voluntary and rare and so there likely won't be a ton of opportunity to use this effect. Shutting down healing is a good effect but one that is not likely to be relevant most of the time. Mainly your going to get work out of models with Regen but in all likelihood you will prefer to use sin tokens on better abilities. 

Greed: Mediocre. Soulstone usage is uncommon but I rate it a bit better than Sloth since turning off soul stone usage is going to be more relevant and decently effective. If your able to snag say a summoner, then this could be powerful indeed. 

Pride: Good.  Cheating happens a lot... Being able to burn an opponents high card gives some serious survivability to the crew. It also does well to shut down strong abilities that usually require cheating. I would classify this as the most effective use of sin tokens along side Wrath and it is what I ended up using the majority of my sin tokens on. 

Lust: Poor. She is one of the only seven who can force her sin aura via her free action. Aside from that it's a pretty situational aura. It's neat that she can draw multiple cards from a single sin token but overall card draw is not exactly common and usually an optional effect. 

Gluttonny: Mediocre. Shutting down scheme markers can be powerful but you really need to know its coming. If you're able to predict what model is the scheme runner and manage to get it sin on it and then have Gluttony nearby. However that is a lot of stipulations which makes it difficult to use. It's one of those effects that will likely only happen once per game but can win you games with that one instance. So overall it's a good effect but very difficult to use, which is why its mediocre overall. 

 

So overall, in terms of sin, there are clear winners and losers. Pride and Wrath seem to be the sinners of the bunch with decent ways of generating and effective use of sin. Envy Gluttony and Greed and more situational, they are mainly there to trap particular models and generate small amounts of sin for Wrath and Pride. Then we have Sloth and Lust who for the most part don't interact with sin at all outside of the occasional destructive performance. 

Thats not to say that Sloth and Lust are bad, however. Sloth has a really great heal and one of the better melee attacks of the crew with some powerful triggers. Sloth is a bit more tanky then the other seven so I use him on the front line. Lust is a bit more tricky as she has short range, no melee and poor defences. However her ability to disrupt is quite good and can mess up schemes, charges and aura's. I do also like that she has a free action to generate her own sin aura, which comes in handy. I do find her the most difficult to use of the seven.

[Jinn]

Envy can apply sin unopposed with his bonus action, which has come up pretty regularly for me to finish off a model with a guaranteed 3 damage.

[Jordon]

Some other synergy was having the effigy remove slow from models healed by sloth. Also just in general having the aura up along side Pride to basically neuter cheating completely  

I also played against a ranged heavy crew and diesel engine + manipulative did some real work. I think I’d bring it most games if I expect to see any amount of ranged 

I’m still finding tough to know when/if I should be spending soulstones. This crew can be pretty fragile and soulstones are one of the only defences once manipulative is gone.