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Lucas McCabe (Wastrel Keyword) Discussion


HomelessOne

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8 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Also has anyone tried Bellhop Porter with the crew?

It can be carted around with Rough Riders, shoot scrap out of enemies, swapsies allies out of combat, and sometimes hand out shielded.

Virtually every bit of the card seems helpful!

I can see him work in the crew. Haven't tried him in Lucas yet, though he does wonders in Cooper crew, where he blocks charges, handles shielded and has potent combination of I've got your back and Accomplice, so you can move Cooper out of combat and then shoot at some poor lad who made worst decision in his life. I'm thinking you could do something similar with Sidir in Wastrels.

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5 minutes ago, Whut said:

I see. However, I'd consider FWC as a replacement for SS for cards, not as an addition to. Sure, you use one high card for Initiative but out of 8 cards drawn, the 3rd-5th worst have to be 3 weak cards to make this ideal.
Most crews have plenty of simple duels requiring 6's and 7's (if not lower) and I expect to fail at least a couple of those each turn so I'd be hesitant to toss midrange cards away, especially in a crew with already good card draw which can replace used cards.

Then again, I'm HEAVILY a control/attrition player so I just have a sickly reaction to wasting any potential value for the sake of aggression.

Well, for example, I had a hand that was something like 1/3/3/5/7/13.

Stone away the 1 and 3, cheat the thirteen. Worst case scenario I Flush 3/5/7, but odds are I'll draw at least one low card with the stone.

Definitely a judgement call!

Also I'm wondering just how powerful this line could be... If you have a Daeva in position, McCabe can use his bonus action for an extra Daeva attack + TN duel. So three attacks from Rollins, one from Daeva, and tons of TN duels.

1 minute ago, Cedar said:

I can see him work in the crew. Haven't tried him in Lucas yet, though he does wonders in Cooper crew, where he blocks charges, handles shielded and has potent combination of I've got your back and Accomplice, so you can move Cooper out of combat and then shoot at some poor lad who made worst decision in his life. I'm thinking you could do something similar with Sidir in Wastrels.

Hahaha, that's amazing.

I think between Archivist, Porter, and Daeva, we have some really unique options.

Sure we don't have min 3 minions. But utility has some massive value, and ES has tons of utility.

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1 minute ago, Cedar said:

I'm thinking you could use Mr. Ngaatoro or Mikhail as OOK beater - sure, they don't benefit from relics, but you can use ride with me on them to move closer to enemy lines

Yeah, I'm guessing ES McCabe doesn't need to jump through hoops to get relics onto too many things. Just building a strong team may be the way to go (besides, if you have McCabe +1-2 other targets, that is plenty of relic targets?)

Ngaatoro already seems nuts with Neurotoxins, but I just realised he can make scrap!! (With obey).

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6 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Yeah, I'm guessing ES McCabe doesn't need to jump through hoops to get relics onto too many things. Just building a strong team may be the way to go (besides, if you have McCabe +1-2 other targets, that is plenty of relic targets?)

Ngaatoro already seems nuts with Neurotoxins, but I just realised he can make scrap!! (With obey).

You can make other funny things with Ngaatoro as well - obey a model with cost 8 or less with Focused and injured trigger and make him Concentrate/Walk. Cryptologist can - with his trigger - end Injured to make the model take an action.  Ngaatoro Voice of the Society lowers TN's of Ride with me as well.

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22 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Ngaatoro already seems nuts with Neurotoxins, but I just realised he can make scrap!! (With obey).

I think he's too expensive. No Poison Synergy, fragile (for cost) like the rest of the crew, if he's Obeying for Scrap he's not Obeying the right targets for Focused which is his best job, and VoiceOfTheSociety isn't that great, only adding 4 success cards on a few actions.

Beebe+Calypso would be my Scrap Maker
Daeva as the best OOK minion like I went over before (best against DF-targeting Keywords)
Intrepid is really good if you're taking both RoughRiders since it heals them for 2 every time they trigger the Aura - although the Emissary can't be RideWithMe'd so you have have another way to push him or take Effigy w/ Upgrade. Also I'm not sure how often a RoughRider will be wounded and not outright killed.
Vernon&Welles protects friendly models, and is surprisingly Size2 so can be RideWithMe'd but isn't a minion

---

I think my most braindead tactic idea ever is to take Tidecaller and 2 Brocken Spectres, load the Brocken up with Faded Mirror, and then Toss them into the enemy crew. They both activate, concentrate once, and start attacking and cheating every opposed duel to draw a million cards, place enemies, stagger them, and spread Distracted.

 

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I like faded mirror on rough riders, as they can stay relatively safe while pumping out shots. I also don't like them with emissary since riders need to be darting around the board instead of sitting still with emissary. Ride with me on Vernon is hilarious though.

The Brocken seems super fun! I imagine will be a bit weak, though - they can die in a single activation. Much better to take Ivan for spamming Brocken's.

Beebe and calypso I was sceptical of spending a 12 stone model's AP to make scrap, but they have 4-5 actions so I guess it makes sense! Just seems de-facto best option.

I quite like Daeva, you've totally convinced me xD

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Overall we have much better scrap generation and card draw than TT McCabe, is my impression?

And access to some very cool versatiles/OOK, with different skillsets than the TT options.

So I feel like minion-based McCabe is for TT, and ES needs a bigger focus on powering up Wastrel with upgrades (particularly McCabe himself), getting fast on multiple minions, and enforcers/henchmen from OOK.

My impression of McCabe in TT is he isn't as worried about fast on multiple minions.

No idea what I'm talking about, of course, but that is where I want to try taking him xD

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27 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Beebe and calypso I was sceptical of spending a 12 stone model's AP to make scrap, but they have 4-5 actions so I guess it makes sense! Just seems de-facto best option.

Yea this one I'm convinced of, I think B&C are auto-take with McCabe.
They're roughly as fast as the rest of the crew without needing Ride, they make scrap much more consistently than Hucksters (and can use the scrap made by others in a pinch), they effectively have Min3 plus AoE damage, Injured is synergistic with all the Stat 5, and most importantly they're durable, which is something the Keyword lacks.
If things go wrong and Beebe already activated, he can be RideWithMe'd to safety or near Scrap
If McCabe is dismounted, he can be shoved inside Calypso (maybe in assassinate)
Cryptologists can bonus action Beebe to draw 2 Tomes and if they get their trigger, create additional scrap (although, getting a condition on Beebe could be tough so this might only be for Turn 1).
I wouldn't worry about the 12 Cost AP, they have the AP of two 6 Cost models anyway and even in melee it gives out a bunch of Injured+1 with no resist

One more: Calypso can be healed by Rough Riders even if it can't be moved by them, and heals on Armor+2 are ~stupid~

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Yeah, I played against B&C and it is just so stupidly good as a standalone model. Throw in the scrap synergies and it is quite over the top.

That said, one weakness of B&C is you dedicate so many soulstones to one part of the board, so that may be a concern in some matchups. When I played against B&C on Symbols, they just didn't have enough board coverage to deal with all my scoring (and Basse is a monster at denial, so that went well for me xD).

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55 minutes ago, Whut said:

If things go wrong and Beebe already activated, he can be RideWithMe'd to safety or near Scrap
If McCabe is dismounted, he can be shoved inside Calypso (maybe in assassinate)
Cryptologists can bonus action Beebe to draw 2 Tomes and if they get their trigger, create additional scrap (although, getting a condition on Beebe could be tough so this might only be for Turn 1).
I wouldn't worry about the 12 Cost AP, they have the AP of two 6 Cost models anyway and even in melee it gives out a bunch of Injured+1 with no resist

One more: Calypso can be healed by Rough Riders even if it can't be moved by them, and heals on Armor+2 are ~stupid~

These tricks seem so cool, but I can't understand how you get so many Tomes (trigger to create Scrap, trigger for extra dmg in close combat etc). Sorry for the stupid question but I'm back in the game after a while.

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2 minutes ago, ElPuto said:

These tricks seem so cool, but I can't understand how you get so many Tomes (trigger to create Scrap, trigger for extra dmg in close combat etc). Sorry for the stupid question but I'm back in the game after a while.

When Beebe activates, he picks up two cards from discard pile (and you grab tomes).

BUT it doesn't work turn one if you want scrap early, so be mindful of that.

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1 minute ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

When Beebe activates, he picks up two cards from discard pile (and you grab tomes).

BUT it doesn't work turn one if you want scrap early, so be mindful of that.

Ok but he draws low value cards, that he can use as 9s. So, with the upgrade, he can use Bleeps and Sweeps on 9 instead of 10, right?

But how is Cryptologist going to make him draw more Tomes?

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2 minutes ago, ElPuto said:

Ok but he draws low value cards, that he can use as 9s. So, with the upgrade, he can use Bleeps and Sweeps on 9 instead of 10, right?

But how is Cryptologist going to make him draw more Tomes?

Yeah, with the upgrade he uses any tomes as a 9+1.

Cryptologist has a bonus action to make a model do all of its start of activation stuff. So cryptologist can make Beebe draw an extra time.

BUT you can only do this if Beebe is unburied, or if the cryptologist is in base contact with Calypso.

Overall I'm not sure about it. It would have to be tested if the cryptologist could keep up (although I'm biased against them xD).

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2 hours ago, HomelessOne said:

Vernon & Welles are Sz2?! I can't believe I hadn't really registered that before.

Whut: How often are you taking 2x Rough Riders? As a further question, is it due more to their utility or relative squishiness?

I don't play Wastrel because they don't fit my style at all, I just like theorizing. So I suppose the literal answer to "how often" would be never, lol

That being said, I think always 2. Good gun range and good movement is good, they can drop 2 schemes per turn, they move the rest of the crew for free, they heal, grant concealment, and can use all 3 Artifacts better than most.

I think they should usually carry Faded Mirror to let them hold a Focused and cycle 1-3 cards per turn each while staying mobile and shooting (just cheat no matter what unless you're already winning against a high card). When against Armor/H2W/etc they can use Precise decently well and Injured is an underappreciated condition at +2 or more. Mask is least useful but heals 2 per enemy activation, so maybe good when chasing a schemer which won't kill them?

I don't like their squishyness in melee, but 7 Health means they'll never get one shot, they can stay in concealment pretty well (cover is often meaningless but that too), and can perfectly position 13+ inches away from what they shoot to stay safe.

Nothing about them is like WOW, look at THIS you can do in one activation! It's more about consistent sustained fire over time while preventing the enemy from doing anything back

Not sure how well any of that works out in practice.

--

Edit: Maybe only 1 when you're taking Desper for Breakthrough, but for schemes like SpreadThemOut I think they do Desper's job well enough while being more impactful for damage. I also think they invalidate Hucksters now that Beebe can generate your scrap, except when you need to drop Schemes within 4" of other Schemes but we have better options for that too.

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Personally I really want to use two so I can use both the Ramones, but I may go down to one. They feel a bit overkill on mobility in a crew that can take Desper and McCabe.

I definitely like Desper over a Rider a lot of the time, but I agree with Plaag's playstyle that Don't Mind Me is just stupidly good. Don't Mind Me and Leap are some of the best abilities in the game for me, so it is hard for me to imagine a scenario where I want to take Wastrel but don't want to take Desper.

I haven't played the crew yet either, of course!

I'm also wondering about the ideal artifact holders. You can safely produce 2 artifacts turn 1 I reckon, and then 1-2 after that? So it seems very easy to hit your limit on artifact holders. McCabe, Rider, and one other model (Sidir?) should be plenty for holding the upgrades.

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