Game 97: Ravyn vs Magnus2

Game 97 – Vs Mark Ellis – Mercenaries – 27/09/17

My list:

Ravyn, The Eternal Light (Defenders of Ios)

-Helios

-Helios

Arcantrik Force Generator

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Stormfall Archers

Stormfall Archers

His List:

Magnus the Warlord

-Gallant

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Renegade

Anastacia di Bray

Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Harlan Versh, Illuminated One

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

Dannon Blythe & Bull

Still waiting for new themes to land I decided to try a list I enjoyed in the lead up to the Nationals, but didn’t feel was quiet up to making my pairings. Ravyn can catch people out and with her feat and double Helios can get a pretty strong alpha strike. Mark was trying out his Magnus list again, which on paper feels like a pretty good match up for me. I win first turn and we get moving.

If there were such a thing as a standard first turn for Ravyn this would be it. Snipe out on the AFG and everything else runs up into aggressive positions, with the Stormfalls flanking to potentially score on the circular zones later in the game.

Mark does Magnus things. Escort on Magnus to speed everything up and increase his armour, and Bullet Dodger on Gallant to improve its already impressive Def. Everything runs up taking positions granting Cover where possible.

Time for Ravyn’s Alpha. She feats and tries to land a Blaster AOE on Ragman, but scatters away. The AFG knocks down Gallant on the second shot, before the right Helios advances, pulls it in and destroys it. On the left, Helios pulls in a Nomad with boosted shots, but fails to kill it. The Stormfalls finish it off before Repositionning to safety.

Ravyn’s threat ranges are impressive enough that even with Escort Mark is unable to get too much onto me. One Nobad can get onto the left Helios, and with a combination of Rust Bomb, Hunter’s Mark, and Calamity does an impressive amount of damage, leaving me on roughly 20 boxes. Mark also makes a play for scenario, Feating to stop me moving towards his flag and killing all the Stormfalls in the right zone. He scores both to take a 2-0 lead.

With Mark’s counterattack blunted it is time to start cleaning up. I consider moving Ravyn up into a position to use Vortex of Destruction but quickly forget the idea. Between the AFG’s shooting, and the attacks from both Helios, 3 Nomads go down, leaving me in a very strong attrition position. I am able to score the left zone but cannot contest Mark’s flag, so the score moves to 3-1.

Between being so far down on attrition and my having the AFG in the right zone, Mark knows he needs something significant to happen to get back into the game. He takes a chance and the Renegade goes into the AFG, hoping to do enough damage that some spikes on other shots can take it out to clear the zone. Unfortunately the dice don’t go his way and the Battle Engine lives on around half boxes. Despite moving to 4-1, Mark realises that he has no way to get back in the game and concedes.

VICTORY

A rough one this for Mark, as the matchup is very against him. Ravyn is by no means a top tier caster, but this list into a jack spam list with no way to stop Pushes is always going to be extremely strong. I feel like I played the game pretty safely, and other than not contesting his flag earlier (I should probably have sacrificed an Arcanist to stop him scoring a point) I don’t think I made any mistakes. I wish this list were available around November 2016, where Jack spam was everywhere. In the current meta I fear there are just too many counters around.