Trying out Rasputina lately. Really liking her!

[Maniacal_cackle]

I've been trying Rasputina lately, and having pretty decent success with her.  In the most recent game I tried her on Flank Cursed Objects in the Balancefaux format.

New Rasputina Crew (Arcanists)
Size: 50 - Pool: 3
Leader:
  Rasputina
Totem(s):
  Wendigo
Hires:
  Silent One
    Magical Training
  Silent One 2
  Snow Storm
  Joss
  Envy
  Soulstone Miner

Felt really good! Rasputina seems awesome on Cursed Objects, but can see how she'd not hold up to some S tier stuff.

The ability to sit in my deployment zone nuking him all game, with snow storm and joss threatening melee devastation, was really good. Having effectively 10 cards to work with every turn was very potent, and the constant repositioning with Rasputina's bonus 1-2 times a turn was huge.

Snow storm was initially ice golem, but then I wanted SSC on it and that wasn't a viable list, whereas snow storm can already use stones which felt real good. I probably could have utilized him a bit better, but basically he did some skirmishing, killed Beebe, provided protection against a few guns, and just deterred the enemy from diving me too hard.

[LinenMusician]

Hmm, interesting. I usually play her hardly into keyword with Blessed of December and Ice golem, maybe should try adding some OOK and versatile stuff! The best thing about December is that your master can make 0 walk actions and still has impact on game blasting faces off, stacking slow and staggered and making opponent to discard cards.

From strats perspective cursed objects are great, but sometimes she can play well on Covert Operations with acces to pushes from attacks (also Deadly Pursuit on Blessed and hoarcats with steath are nice in it). 

The one thing I REALLY dont want to play her is Pandora (especially 2), Rasputina is ruthless, but swapping conditions from slow and staggered to fast and focus are nasty, and this Poltergeist removing markers is terrible!

[Maniacal_cackle]

3 minutes ago, LinenMusician said:

Hmm, interesting. I usually play her hardly into keyword with Blessed of December and Ice golem, maybe should try adding some OOK and versatile stuff! The best thing about December is that your master can make 0 walk actions and still has impact on game blasting faces off, stacking slow and staggered and making opponent to discard cards.

Yeah, when I look at her I see a crew that is generally working with 10 cards a turn... So has a lot of space to experiment with OOKs. Generally most models power up if you funnel cards into them!

3 minutes ago, LinenMusician said:

From strats perspective cursed objects are great, but sometimes she can play well on Covert Operations with acces to pushes from attacks (also Deadly Pursuit on Blessed and hoarcats with steath are nice in it). 

Yeah seems good! And on Guard the Stash you can block LOS to the markers with pillars potentially xD I had a sneaky play where I killed the enemy master near a take the hit model by just blocking LOS using pillars.

4 minutes ago, LinenMusician said:

The one thing I REALLY dont want to play her is Pandora (especially 2), Rasputina is ruthless, but swapping conditions from slow and staggered to fast and focus are nasty, and this Poltergeist removing markers is terrible!

I feel like Pandora 2 is a defining matchup if you're declaring into Neverborn, that's for sure xD

Although she's not in the Balancefaux format until next year, so I think Rasputina will find a good home in the format.

[Jinn]

53 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Although she's not in the Balancefaux format until next year, so I think Rasputina will find a good home in the format.

She still has a lot of rough matchups in balancefaux IMO, especially Outcasts and Rezzers.

[Maniacal_cackle]

4 minutes ago, Jinn said:

She still has a lot of rough matchups in balancefaux IMO, especially Outcasts and Rezzers.

Would love to hear more about that!

In ressers, the main thing I can think of that is a nightmare would be Archie since he gets so many free heals, but at the same time ruthless Raspy can nearly single activation Archie with good setup.

Mad dog gets the blow it to hell trigger... But mass marker removal is just something to work around I feel like.

Or am I missing things?

[Jinn]

15 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Would love to hear more about that!

In ressers, the main thing I can think of that is a nightmare would be Archie since he gets so many free heals, but at the same time ruthless Raspy can nearly single activation Archie with good setup.

Mad dog gets the blow it to hell trigger... But mass marker removal is just something to work around I feel like.

Or am I missing things?

How in the world is Raspy one activationing Archie through 11 wds and Hard to Wound? Maybe with Ice Golem hazardous? Not saying it couldn't happen, but there are masters with easier ways lol, I'd say Ironsides has a better chance.

Yes it's Blow it To Hell, but Mad Dog also destroys the Golem (and Gamin, lol) with ease using anti-armour, and Bandit in general have a similar threat range to Raspy via Run and Gun. Most of Outcasts can exceed your card quality/draw using Yannic, and a lot of them hire MDB OOK. Jack Daw, and Tara are also rough matchups, as they can sort of ignore your markers and make your life hell. The crew has some low Mv stats and quite a bit of OOK movement these days so Staggered is rough, with Hanged especially being a nightmare. There isn't a good cleanse in arc that you'll feel great about adding to your list. The effigy is okay, but not the best.

Rezzers just has big threat ranges that can ignore your walls, with things like leap and flight from Archie, Manos, and the Valedictorian, or mass incorporeal from Kirai with models that hit back with Vengeance when you shoot at range. 

Guild can also blunt a lot of the scary Hazardous + Movement combo Raspy has with LLC.

None of it's impossible to deal with, and I've won with Raspy into those factions. But my instinct is she wouldn't be my first choice in pretty much any pool into those factions, especially because I prefer to play in keyword if possible.

[Maniacal_cackle]

1 hour ago, Jinn said:

How in the world is Raspy one activationing Archie through 11 wds and Hard to Wound? Maybe with Ice Golem hazardous? Not saying it couldn't happen, but there are masters with easier ways lol, I'd say Ironsides has a better chance.

She's min 3 with good setup, so she almost one-activations him with good setup.

2 hours ago, Jinn said:

especially because I prefer to play in keyword if possible.

Ah I think we've found the biggest difference. I ook most of my lists xD

But all good points I'll keep in mind! Still learning my way around OOKing arcanists and what they can handle.

[Jinn]

16 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

She's min 3 with good setup, so she almost one-activations him with good setup.

Even with that she's only getting three min 3 hits against hard to wound 11wds, and the setup to get to min 3 is so telegraphed. Even with Focused +2 (not exactly free in Arc) I would never count on killing him, you'd need 3 mods, or two weaks and the red. And as you said, if he doesn't die he heals so easily. Archie is definitely a problem for her, but so is Manos and the Valedictorian. Raspy's just not a model you can rely on to consistently blast your way to victory, though she can certainly soften the enemy up if they're short on healing, and her disruption through conditions can be devastating.

I've had some great fun with her using Snow Storm and two Kaltgeists to bus the whole crew like 15+" up the board in Corner, just very surprising movement out of the ice crew. Got destroyed by Reva2 that game, not an issue in BalanceFaux though!

[Trimasel]

I'm also agree that it is not consistent. If you try to get this min 3, you need one activation before create ice pillar (or use raspy action). This is so telegraphic, that good opponent will just adjust plan & activate your target (or other model) to destroy ice pillar. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

1 minute ago, Trimasel said:

I'm also agree that it is not consistent. If you try to get this min 3, you need one activation before create ice pillar (or use raspy action). This is so telegraphic, that good opponent will just adjust plan & activate your target (or other model) to destroy ice pillar. 

I'm finding that this tax has a huge effect though.

But yes often I'm happy with min 2 as I'm usually focused on control.

[James Dyson]

I find it's less problematic to set up if you save Wendigo or a Silent One for your last activation turn 1, then drop Ice pillars next to your main targets.

You can bank severes turn 1 from Glacial surge/ Tools for the Job on Acolytes and cheat to go first, followed by now nuking said target.

[Maniacal_cackle]

22 minutes ago, Diceman87 said:

I find it's less problematic to set up if you save Wendigo or a Silent One for your last activation turn 1, then drop Ice pillars next to your main targets.

You can bank severes turn 1 from Glacial surge/ Tools for the Job on Acolytes and cheat to go first, followed by now nuking said target.

yeah, definitely feels important to get a turn ahead with the pillars, so that when they remove them you can place them again.

[DuBlanck]

Why Joss over Golem?

[Maniacal_cackle]

3 hours ago, DuBlanck said:

Why Joss over Golem?

Oh sorry, was against Maxine and wanted someone who could deal with calypso.

He came forward to eat pillars, so joss one shot him 🤣

[Trample]

I tried her for the first time tonight (well, since the errata) and had some fun with her. The min three damage doesn't really seem like its that hard to set up with the amount of ice pillar generation you can have with two silent ones. The opponent really has to do some work to get rid of the four you're likely dropping on the first turn and her free action can move any of those 4" (and you can target this through another ice pillar - or Kaltgeist). So it isn't really too terribly difficult to get 3 min 3 attacks off with her. 

Speaking of Kaltgeist, they seem to do pretty well. The movement tricks they have through icy winds and shattering surprise seem pretty good. I didn't use the latter, but the former was a regular action for me. They're great for the unpack and as bodyguards for Tina to turn on her card draw, move her around, and be there for sub zero shield. It's tough to imagine a list without at least one. I took two to try her out. 

Rounding out Tina, Wendigo, 2x Kaltgeist, and 2x Silent Ones (one with MT) I took the golem with SSC and the Blessed (Carve). I'll probably trade him for Snow Storm next time and maybe a Silent One for a third Kaltgeist. We'll see. The Silent Ones are pretty crucial for getting the pillars out. 

[Trample]

I swapped out the Blessed and a Silent One for Snow Storm and a third kaltgeist last night. I don't think it was a good trade. Maybe it was because I lost this game by a point while I won the first! Really though I don't think Storm's movement tricks are necessary in with revised Raspy and kaltgeists in the mix. He's just a beater. Cheaper than the golem with SSC, but not as good.