Ivan 1 - Help building list

[Count Zero]

Good afternoon,

 

Returned to Mali and Ivan catched my eye. Yesterday i was trying him and the list looked the following:

 

-Ivan1 with hidden agenda

- Mordrake

-Eva

-Gibson

- 2 nocturnes

-Emmisary with flush with cash

-Prospect with flush with cash

-5SS

 

Played against Damian 1

-----------------------------

 

Used nocturnes as scheme runners, they worked as expected.

Gibson pread out fast + focus to nocturnes 1st turn. After that, every time was too far away from enemy. Not moving too muich, attacks bringin him too close to enemy (RNG6, charge distance) so i felt he didn't compensated their cost.

Eva died turn 1 one hitted due to Lohith boulder to face, so i need to test her further. (Wyrd needs to change the soulstode geode wording asap, theres no sense neutral damage flips at cost of 1 life per attack)

Mordrake was completely outplayed due to Lohith no demise auras.

Ivan  summoned 3 daevas did a lil damage, but Daevas with stat5 dmg2min looked too weak for me.

Prospect will be removed. Bringed him due to heal, but realizing is just a trigger i think is not worthy at all.

Effigy adding SS using the flush and tanking worked pretty good

Game ended up 4-7 (Covert operation, leave your mark and Hidden martyrs).

 

I'm not totally sure how to make it work. Seemed for me they do a little bit of everything but they don't really pack a punch, Gibson costing 8SS he don't do too much, Eva being 7SS being one-hitted, Daevas not doing too much...

 

Any tip? Maybe adding Corvis, or something OOK will make it work better.

 

Thanks beforehand.

[hydranixx]

14 hours ago, Count Zero said:

Eva died turn 1 one hitted due to Lohith boulder to face, so i need to test her further. (Wyrd needs to change the soulstode geode wording asap, theres no sense neutral damage flips at cost of 1 life per attack)

Yeah, Lohith is... fair. Honestly not sure what Wyrd was thinking releasing him like that, considering Soulstone Geode also features a very powerful heal trigger Hopefully they do tweak it eventually. 

14 hours ago, Count Zero said:

Ivan  summoned 3 daevas did a lil damage, but Daevas with stat5 dmg2min looked too weak for me.

Bare in mind they reduce the opponent's Df by 1 by being in base to base so they're more like stat 6. They really want to mimic a good attack with the  trigger to place in base contact, which gives them a free attack with Made to Kill, especially if they grabbed a good attack. Also don't forget Made to Kill gives you a free hit when you are summoned in.

They can't get the trigger for Mimic on the turn they are summoned as they come in Stunned, but if you ever summon one late in the turn, then activate it early the following turn, you can go nuts with it. It's particularly savage with Trampling Hooves, so if you hire a Rough Rider take full advantage. As you place your model as part of the action, it triggers yet another Made to Kill attack, and it stacks Injured each swing which combines with the -1 Df to really shred an opponent's Df in no time.

14 hours ago, Count Zero said:

Effigy adding SS using the flush and tanking worked pretty good

If you mean Emissary using Take The Hit just bare in mind that the common understanding is that you can't do this and use Bribery for the same enemy attack. It's still decent, though I'm more of a fan of Hidden Agenda on Emissary if you find yourself with 2ss to spare

[Count Zero]

1 hour ago, hydranixx said:

If you mean Emissary using Take The Hit just bare in mind that the common understanding is that you can't do this and use Bribery for the same enemy attack. It's still decent, though I'm more of a fan of Hidden Agenda on Emissary if you find yourself with 2ss to spare

Yes, emmisary, sorry. No, it wasn't for bribery. I used him to take hits directed to Ivan or any key model, while gaining SS as Daevas and other non-key models died in the middle of the table.

 

Okay, i have to test the Rough rider combo. Thanks!

 

What about Hench/enforcers? Overall thoughts about Eva/Gibson/Rook or any other "key" mini who can be useful to Ivan?

[Silas Cordell]

Jin Baccara is in keyword and very good.  The only real catch is that he's in the title master box with Ivan2 and Misaki2, so he's $35.

Popular opinion is that Eva isn't very good (and I admit I've never gotten her to do much myself), and Jin could be a straight swap.  Same ss cost

[im_open_to_suggestions]

My usual list includes 3 noctures (2 with flush) and rook with treasure map. 

one nocturne i will keep beside Gibson as free card draw.

I love Eva personally but you need to respect her squishiness.  Her Lock away action can be devastating to the enemy if deployed right. 

[hydranixx]

On 12/4/2022 at 9:11 PM, Count Zero said:

What about Hench/enforcers? Overall thoughts about Eva/Gibson/Rook or any other "key" mini who can be useful to Ivan?

DUA

As you know, Jin is auto hire, even against Tara/Lady Justice, where you still hire him and just deploy him in Concealing terrain.

Eva is fine if you have specific schemes that you want her to score for you. She's also nice if there are specific places where a well placed Markers with Lock Away cast on it is an absolute menace. She's squishy and very card hungry though.

Corvus looks potentially dangerous at Stat7 with lots of triggers, but a 0" melee with a 2/3/4 for 9ss is pretty mediocre. I usually feel that if he's not hitting Shove Aside at least once every turn, and ideally also Execute, he's just not getting in enough hits to be worth his price tag. You can spend wounds to ensure you hit those triggers, but he's already very squishy as he needs to be up close to do his thing so if you're using your wounds aggressively to hit your triggers he can die very quickly.

Gibson is, to me, a grudge purchase. I don't really want to spend 8ss on him, considering support models with Tools for the Job usually cost 5ss or 6ss - think Hog Whisperers, Scavengers, Engineers, and Lawyers. Still, he does feel necessary because he enables the crew in a variety of ways. As mentioned, Tools for the Job is very good, the Firefly is useful during your unpack and if enemy models bubble up, and Chromatic Aberration hitting the Burnout trigger on Mordrake who gives the Focus to Ivan is a nice way to get extra value. 

5 hours ago, im_open_to_suggestions said:

one nocturne i will keep beside Gibson as free card draw.

Card draw is good, and it's very, very good when it's free. From time to time Gibby will get a free card when he Charges up the board and swings at an Umbra minion, and this will feel great.

But, outside of Charging, I'm not convinced Gibby hitting a Nocturne is free. You're spending Gibby's meaningful AP to do it and you need to cheat or discard Tomes for Tools for the Job which won't always line up. If you have a 1 of Tomes in your Control Hand, you'll feel great pitching it for built-in Surge, but if you only have a 10 or higher of Tomes, well, that's a pretty big cost to bake-in Surge. 

Operatives are situationally good. I like them vs Pandora, Jack Daw and Dreamer since Infiltrator gets around Terrifying, and they're immune to Misery, Betrayal, Torment, Feed on Fear, On Your Heels, Waking Dream etc. But most importantly they can replenish your hand by shooting enemies near Scheme Markers, which is very important since Jack forces you to discard if you do basically anything and against Pandora and Dreamer as you'll need cards to power through those crew. But, they are flimsy and they can die in one swing so you have to play carefully with them.

Umbra

I like hiring a single Nocturne to push Ivan up the board turn 1 and give him Distracted (if I'm not giving him Focus via the Gibby->Mordrake Burn Out play) and potentially drop Shadow Markers if I'm bringing any Botanists. He can then run off to score points. You can hire 2-3 Nocturnes depending on the pool and the opponent. Some crews will struggle to handle Df6 with permanent Concealment, but other crews will target that Wp3 or hit you in melee, and your little shadow mantises will just melt. Of course, if they're off running schemes, it won't necessarily be easy for the opponent to catch them so it might still be fine to hire them even in less-than-optimal match ups. 

 

Other considerations

I'd hire a Lamplighter before I hire a single DUA or Umbra model 😂. Those lamps give Ivan a  for the Concealment and then another  once per activation when it's lit, and it's also a place for Ivan/Mordrake to teleport to. 

I hire 1-3 Botanists with Ivan. The raw quantity of Shadow Markers you produce means they'll grow easily enough, and once they hit two grow tokens they'll be sturdy enough to run your schemes, contest strategy points or push enemy models around. 

Emissary or Effigy are both fine hires from time to time. 

Calypso is pretty fun since you're hiring Jin, as he can hop inside Calypso, then Unbury himself again using his own unbury mechanic to launch minions back to their deployment zone multiple times. It's only good when you know your opponent is going to hire good minions, but when it works, it's so satisfying (for the Jin player, at least 😂)