My thoughts on McCabe in Thunders

[Rygnan]

Hi all! I've been playing McCabe religiously for almost a year now, and now that Explorers are out we finally have his whole keyword and I can write about them as a whole. I really love McCabe and what his crew do and they're one of my favourites in the entire game because of it. 

 

Keyword abilities-

Looted Supplies- Pretty simple, if the model starts their activation within 1" of a corpse or scrap they draw a card. It's on the whole keyword, and you can generate scrap decently enough to set up a bit of card draw if need be but it's just a really nice incidental thing too. 

Artefact Upgrades- They all have Take This! As a bonus to pass it to another minion or Wastrel within 6” on a 4 and Paid With Trinkets to give Fast at the start of the models activation provided the upgrade was attached this turn. Both of which together can give you great Fast chaining but I think it’s a bit of a trap and Fast just happens to be something nice to give out when you need it to happen

Timeworn Blade- My favourite one, just cause it’s easy to use. Giving Precise (the important one) and Blade Storm it’s the most directly offensive of all the Artefacts and ignoring so much defensive tech can win games on its own. Blade Storm is ok but not amazing, and a lot of models in keyword have much better bonus actions already so it competes with a lot (Ride With Me, both of Sidir’s bonuses, Leap)

Phantasmal Mask- The defensive one of the lot, this gives Life Leech and Protective Spirits (pulse 3 Shielded +1 as a bonus action needing a 7). The potential for healing from this is great even if its initially low (Protective Spirits also has a ram trigger to heal 2 and choose to end a condition) but it is a great way to passively heal up if you’re in the middle of a scrum. This is what I give McCabe after the Blade because boy it makes him annoying to deal with.

Faded Mirror- My least favourite of the lot just because it doesn’t do as much as the rest, it’s very card draw focused in a keyword that can already get good amounts of card draw fairly incidentally. The bonus action it gives is just draw a card if the opponent has more cards in hand which is meh compared to almost any other bonus you already have, and Know the Warrior requires you to have Focus and not spend it while also cheating fate to draw cards. It’s a far worse Showboating and I would really only put this upgrade out if I already had 2 copies of Blade and Mask already out

 

Keyword models-

Lucas McCabe, Relic Hunter- McCabe is a really big bag of tricks, but they all lean towards one specific thing. He's quick with Mv7 and Unimpeded, plus he can move through other models and has Ride With Me for extra movement as a bonus action. All of this alone gives him potentially 26" of movement a turn, but with Make Way! this becomes huge amounts of damage and turns him into a shockwave-lite master. Tn13 Mv duels every time he moves through a model will happen a lot, and the 2 damage stacks up really quick if he runs around like he should be. He has a few tactical actions, digging up relics (and he can immediately dump it off on a trigger) is nice but Luna does it for less valuable AP, and he can force Wp duels that do 2 damage and Injured 2 if he discards Artefacts from friendly models. His attacks are where he shines though, because his Netgun blasts around Staggered and Slow (both of which protect him a lot and increase his damage potential) and his Bull Whip is just amazing. Low damage with 2/3/4 but it explodes into a bunch more duels to hurt the opponent a lot. 2" move built into the attack can clip plenty of things, plus the triggers to either move 5" (through more models for more duels) or the built in ram trigger to make enemies in pulse 2 take a Tn13 Df duel or take 2 damage. This means if you set it up well you can do absolutely massive amounts of damage to bunched up enemies and with the Timeworn Blade you can tear through most defensive tech on all of it except the Mv duels which is insanely good. McCabe tends to be a distraction piece for me in most games because of this potential, and he either gets focused (and still does a lot of work going down) or ignored and dominates the game. He's an amazing Ley Lines piece too because of the movement potential

Lucas McCabe, Dismounted Hunter- the 2nd version of McCabe, this is assuming the mounted version gets killed (which isn't out of the question playing trample McCabe, and honestly something I expect late-game). He loses a lot (Unimpeded, Ride With Me, Make Way! and Trample), but does pick up +1Wp, Swagger and Extended Reach plus swaps his attacks out for 2 different versions. Collier Revolver is a decent gun but not anything to write home about (especially compared to the Net Gun) but his Glowing Saber is insane, especially when you add it to the Timeworn Blade to ignore almost every main line piece of defensive tech there is. All in all he's really just a last resort for when he does get knocked off the horse, but he's still pulling his weight. 

Luna- Basically only a way to cheaply get more Artefacts out, but Luna does it really well. Turn 1 and usually 2 she just digs up a scrap and removes it for an Artefact before passing it off to someone else which is a little card intensive but not huge enough to not do, and you can reliably topdeck most of it anyway. As a totem she doesn't do too much but what she does is great

Sidir Alchibal- Sidir is the beater henchmen in the crew, and he is pretty damn versatile. Both his shooting and sword are stat 6, he has Analyze Weakness for Armour and Shielded and his triggers are all excellent. Crit Strike on his sword means he can spike damage far easier or he has the option for card draw/cycling, while his gun can either get extra shots or give the target Slow (both will affect the board state a lot). Swagger for free focus is amazing, Parry is a good defensive trigger when it works and Ruthless is pretty self-explanatory in how great it is. Mv4 isn't great, but Swagger is a nice compensation and Ride with Me from McCabe or Rough Riders (or both) do the job really well. His 2 bonus actions will both see play as well between having Juggernaut (keeping him really hard to put down when added to Artefacts and Silent Protector) and Blow It To Hell for ignoring cover on the guns in the crew which you can combo with things like Samurai for great effect. 

Desper LaRaux- Package everything you want in an ideal scheme runner and make it a henchman. This is Desper, absolutely worth taking every time you're playing anything needing schemes or interacts. Leap, super-Unimpeded and Don't Mind Me makes enough of a package that he's just amazing, but also Loot Their Corpse to generate Soulstones and a Df trigger that's basically better Butterfly Jump (albeit needing the suit). Plus he ignores Armour on his melee attack and can steal stones for if he needs to play aggressively, which he usually doesn't but it's hilarious when it comes up. If you can't tell already, I love Desper. 

Jessie Halliday- I think Jessie is good but she doesn’t really do much for McCabe in the grand scheme of things like Sidir or Desper offer. Archaeological Dig is a really great action McCabe gets a lot out of, but somewhat dependent on board state and it needs markers to exist first. Her front of card is amazing with her being unaffected by Severe, Hazardous, Shockwaves, Pulses and Blasts plus Hard to Kill, but a Harpoon Gun on one of the slower models in the keyword isn’t really needed (good in combo with Sidir but otherwise a bit meh to me) and the Soulstone Flare isn’t going to fire off as much as one would hope. The ways she interacts with Artefacts are also lacking to me and that's something I like to consider a lot in McCabe crews

Rough Riders- Fast shooters with Ride With Me, they can do a lot of work at a lot of different things. Their melee isn't strictly amazing but their gun brings a lot to a keyword somewhat lacking in shooting, and their 2 bonus actions both are helpful (although Ride With Me is what you want most to ferry around the slower stuff like Sidir and Cryptologists). They get nice bonuses off of Severe terrain (while ignoring the Severe trait) and the extra inch or 2 on deployment is ok as well (especially with RWM to pull everything else forward too). They're somewhat fragile so be careful not to overextend them, but with Survivalist they can heal a lot when they need to (and the trigger on RWM to heal is great too)

Hucksters- I love Hucksters, but who doesn't? Front of card is ok, and their attacks are nothing to write home about, but their tactical actions are amazing and the reason you take them. False Claim lets you get out obscene amounts of scheme markers mid-late game with some setup, and Secret Passage is huge amounts of movement is a little bit card intensive. Hucksters tend to be pretty card-hungry with TNs but it's lower moderates they need anyway so not a huge issue. 

Cryptologists- Really awesome design and fluff, but they're incredibly niche takes in Wastrel crews. Their big thing is being able to shut down enemy start of activation effects unless they discard a card first (Regen, Tools for the Job and Rig the Deck are the funniest interactions) or triggering friendly start of activation effects on their bonus action (all the Artefacts ability to give Fast is start of activation so one upgrade can get Fast for 2 turns on the same model). Otherwise they don't have anything especially fantastic but they're an interesting take in general. 

Ruffians- Looking at them compared to Hucksters for 1 less stone, Ruffians aren't worth taking. Sure they have Ruthless and Swagger which are both great, but they don't really play into the Wastrel game plan that much and Hucksters almost define that game plan, so I'd just eat the cost and take Hucksters almost every time

 

OOK/Versatile models-

Samurai- High cost high quality minion is something McCabe likes a lot, and the Samurai are exactly that. Good shooting and good melee on a tanky body that loves all the upgrades McCabe can give it (and all of the faction upgrades too) just makes for a safe choice in Wastrel crews

Terracotta Warrior- McCabe loves good quality minions. The opponent won't, and will probably try to kill those minions. Terracotta Warriors can bring those minions back, and can steal a whole bunch of actions from the crew (Hucksters especially). For 4 stones why not? I love fitting one in

Jorogumo- I know for a fact it will be mentioned by someone else if I leave these out, so here they are. I personally don’t use them, but they’re insanely good beater henchmen made better by McCabe and the relics (particularly the sword), the only issue with them OOK is Flicker management. But if they take down 2-3 models in the opponent’s crew before they die is it really an issue?

Wanyudo- Doubling down on forcing a bunch of duels on the opponent, Wanyudo works like McCabe but giving out Burning. Can't benefit from Artefacts but it doesn't need to when it burns the opponent's crew and especially their deck, and it also benefits from being a great 2nd option in Ley Lines, an already great McCabe strat. 

Katanaka Crime Boss- These guys are something I've learned to love a lot and McCabe works wonders with them. Artefacts do work and they can get sped up by Ride With Me access, plus they're tough fighters already. Expensive and in a contested price bracket, but well worth it when they suit the pool

 

Upgrades-

Trained Ninja- Not hugely useful in keyword because on a lot of things parts of the upgrade are somewhat redundant (From the Shadows when Hucksters are already insanely fast, Unimpeded on Desper) so I tend to give it a miss. Useful and hilarious on Samurai though especially with McCabe to hand out upgrades

Masked Agent- On McCabe it’s excellent (I love it on any beater master just for Relentless and With Me), but the keyword kind of lacks in melee beater henchmen so otherwise it’s mostly wanting you to take OOK and Versatile to get a lot of use out of. I usually just stick with it on McCabe

Silent Protector- A great way to keep Sidir alive for a bit longer, but otherwise I don’t really take it on anything else in keyword. The other upgrades just do so much more

 

Deployments-

Wastrel as a keyword have such obscene amounts of movement they don't really care about deployment type, more about amount of blocking terrain for Hucksters. Tables with less blocking means less movement angles but they still have a lot to give on any table. 

 

Strategies-

Reckoning- As a more scheme-based crew I don't think Wastrel are super geared towards Reckoning even though they can kill really well in certain situations. I wouldn't take them here unless the pool was scheme-heavy but even then, Thunders can do it better with other keywords. 

Turf War- Not a terrible take but I wouldn’t be reaching for Wastrel first in either faction for a similar reason to Reckoning. They’re decent enough but you’re not playing into the main game of Turf War with the game plan of most Wastrel crews

Corrupted Idols- With a crew that can relocate as easily as Wastrel they’re a decent take here, but be careful of taking wounds on your own stuff cause it’s a risk for late game.

Plant Explosives- Super easy. Chuck bombs on Desper and Hucksters, place where you need to and drop bombs. McCabe runs at the enemy carriers and him and Sidir play a kill game

 

Schemes- 

Detonate Charges- False Claim. That’s it

Breakthrough- A great scheme to take between Hucksters and Desper, it’s pretty easily achievable. I always take it when it comes up in the pool

Harness the Ley Line- Again, Hucksters. But with Wastrel it’s not difficult to do with literally anyone

Search the Ruins- Guess what? Hucksters and Desper. Terrain even potentially lets you Secret Passage right into position to drop the marker

Dig Their Graves- Actually pretty great. First point isn’t hard in keyword, but the 2^nd can be done purely with hitting triggers on False Claim and you can build it up throughout the game with good placement.

Hold Up Their Forces- I’m not a huge fan of this one just because if you deliberately engage more expensive models you’re probably going to lose what you have pretty quick. McCabe has tons of high-value models too both in cost and game use so the opponent probably won’t hesitate if you engage and this is in the pool

Take Prisoner- I don’t like this scheme mainly because your models are great things to choose as targets for it. You can pull it off pretty well with all the movement you have though so it’s not a bad choice, just something to be wary of.

Power Ritual- Corner or Flank then do it, Wedge or Standard it’s a tossup. Doable with Hucksters and Desper going deep but also not guaranteed early and hard to do other schemes at the same time

Outflank- Another easy one, you just have to make sure to survive

Assassinate- McCabe takes a fair bit of punishment, but he tends to be a bit of a magnet for hits so it’s a risky take. Depending on who is on the other side of the table though it can be good for you as long as you push hard and force as much damage as possible (max out simple duels plus Life Leech)

Deliver a Message- Huckster drops into leaders face, delivers message. 2^nd point is a bit more work but it still isn’t impossible

Claim Jump- Non-leader is the biggest downside here. It’s got game and I don’t dislike it, but it isn’t super scheme heavy like I like to play McCabe and it needs careful planning of placement and activation order to pull off

Vendetta- If you're taking good beater minions, great take (although they're usually still 9-10SS and targets are restricted) but most of the time you don't have high enough damage on the models you want to really guarantee it with in keyword. 

 

GG1

Strategies- 

Symbols of Authority- Really good take for McCabe. You can't put Hucksters directly on the Symbols unless the opponent puts them near blocking terrain, but between the crew you have enough easy movement to threaten almost every symbol placement pretty reliably. 

Recover Evidence- McCabe can do it pretty well but I'm not guaranteed to take him here because he isn't the only good option in either faction. It all depends on the situation I find myself in at the start of the game as to who I will go with. 

Corrupted Ley Lines- This is my favourite strat for McCabe. Chuck the lodestone on him or a Rough Rider (or Wanyudo) and you'll pretty easily score at least 2-3 points. The amount of movement you get from Ride With Me and native Mv7 is enough with McCabe. 

Public Enemies- Because McCabe isn't really a combat heavy keyword I don't think he's a great take here, I'd rather go for someone like Misaki, Yan Lo or Cooper 

 

Schemes- 

Breakthrough, Take Prisoner, Vendetta, Assassinate, Claim Jump- Nothing changed here, so my points from above are still my opinion on them. 

Hidden Martyrs- I'm not a fan, but you can choose 2 Hucksters as your Martyrs and it becomes a really tough decision for your opponent. Do they kill the Hucksters and score you this or do they leave it and risk scoring more off the other scheme and strat?

Sabotage- I take this often. Backfield scheming is something Hucksters and Desper can do really well and this just plays into that fact. Catch and Release- I really don't like it. It's doable, but I'm not a fan and I wouldn't attempt it with McCabe

Let Them Bleed- Not something I would ever take with McCabe. It's difficult to predict and a lot of the keyword don't want to be fighting (plus 3 henchmen all with little defensive tech makes it hard to deny for you)

Leave Your Mark- I’m not a huge fan of the scheme, but McCabe can do it easily enough. Having a Huckster in place can get you both points fairly easily, and in denying it will even gain you soulstones

Research Mission- Pretty great take between generating scrap, scheme and blown apart markers. 2nd point is harder but still doable, I like it a lot

Spread Them Out- Hucksters. They break off to get 2 markers down and whatever else places the 3rd, it's pretty easy to do with this crew. 

Runic Binding- With the movement and easy marker placement the keyword has, Binding is almost a safe take for the first point. If you start shooting with McCabe instead of trampling it gets even easier because you're slowing them down a lot. 

 

[DonQOT]

Just wanted to say thanks for this post. I normally don't take too close a look at guides and such (I prefer to stumble my way into understanding for fun and pride) but these thoughts helped me get a handle on 3e McCabe. Particularly your thoughts on strats and schemes, I am still getting a handle on that part when building my lists.

You also helped me nail down why I wasn't liking Jesse as well, I play into the artifact theme heavily and you're right, she doesn't mesh all that well with any of them. That's just a shame.

I wonder about your caution on planning your activations around artifact tossing being a trap though. I see that tunnel vision on that is never a good thing, but McCabe seems conducive to a more proactive plan and handing out Fast to most of your crew is awful tasty with just a little forethought.