A Change Of Plans

Change of plans.  I'm not going to do the worst of yet because as many of you know MKII rules hit the scene in only a matter of days.  I just can't justify writing a critique for each sub par fig when everything I say could possibly be debunked after this weekend.  

So what I do have which is relevant is my LGS is sponsoring yet another Warmachine/Hordes tournament starting next week.  The game set up is about as simple as it gets.  350 Mangled Metal (MM).

MM is frustrating for me.  Mostly due to the fact that Cryx isn't known for its amazing jacks and equally powerful jack casters.  The one jack caster we do have, Mortenebra, is nigh useless vs other jacks.  Her two most powerful spells, death race and terminal velocity either activate or proffer bonuses to the jacks when targeting living models.  

Ultimately I'm left with a decision between four casters:

Asphyxious- Parasite and hellfire are the two spells I'd plan on using the most. I'll use the jacks to block Gaspy's advance towards the caster for an assassination run.  Part of my problem with him is that he doesn't have a ton of synergy with the jacks.  Sure the cankerworm has an affinity for him but with no bile thralls there is an apparent lack of corrosion.  I could toss in a defiler or two but that leaves me lacking sufficient points for anything but nodes.  I could omit the worm and toss in the Deathjack with a bunch of nodes.  Of course this leaves me vulnerable to anything which can take out the DJ.  Mostly anything which can screw his cortex.  I'm looking at you Haley and Darius.

The Coven- These ladies have quite a lot of synergy and I am really thinking about running them.  My main theory is to use imprison to keep them safe wile I advance forward to unload some auto-boosted Stygian abyss's.  Cheese you say?  Well I say "Dammit I want to win!"  Ahem, back on topic.  They can boost a jack's speed, block charge lanes and make jacks stealthy.  Auto lose to Haley though. Hmm.... Next.

Deneghra- She doesn't boost the jacks but she sure as heck knocks our opponents down a level. 

She's stealthy, the cankerworm is stealthy and the nightmare is stealthy, the only jacks left for the other guy to shoot at are my def 15 bone jacks.  I like them odds.  Feat turn will be sick and if the caster isn't killed outright most his battle group is worm food.

Mortenebra- She rocks! I love her and I want to run her so badly.  But death race and terminal velocity are only effective vs. living models.  She does have a nifty spell which keeps jacks from being allocated focus, that'd be helpful.  I'd also get to bring a Skarlock which would be hot.  The problem is that at 350 I don't have a decent combination of jacks to put together an effective battle group.  We'll see. 

See my problem?

Here's what I'll be dealing with.

• Kraye or Haley (because he's scared I'll bring the coven lol.)
  
• Grim Angus or Borka (I hope Borka, Grim is tough and the Borka-bomb can be avoided.)
  
• Deneghra or Goreshade (I hate mirror matches.)
  
• Legion - Not sure who but most likely Thagrosh.
  
• Kaya and her stupid yo yo and teleport assassination. 
  
• Khador is a wild card, probably Vlad though.
  
• Menoth will be a no show because he's out of town. 
  

This will be a great tournament, fast paced and furious.  I'm not sure if the TO will try and set some scenario conditions, either way I plan on going for the throat.  We're Cryx after all and that's what we're good at.