Polishing Some Turds

Following up from last year (no crutch 2012) there is a new challenge to try and shake up the tournament scene with new lists. This one the Paradox Plunge (Paradox is the forum name of the player who suggested it) is trying to get players to bring less common warlocks and warcasters to competitive tournaments. It is also known by the title of turd polishing 2013 by those who are less enthused about the idea. I don't know how much competitive play I'll be doing in 2013 but if I do end up at a tournament for me it will always end up being the casters I am fastest with as I play too slow for much else. I'm not entirely sold on the concept, some of the lesser played casters are actually hidden gems but some really are just less competitive. The hidden gem casters are generally only less played because they are more difficult. Hopefully though it will work and I'll be putting up some weird but very competitive lists, I don't see there being much chance of a competitive Zerkova or Morghoul2 list though. Here are the casters from the "Paradox Plunge" as of now.

The idea is not necessarily to play the worst casters but the ones that are just very rarely seen. I am going to have to use my executive privilege to veto Venethrax and Ashlynn, they simply should not be on this list, Venethrax may not be as common as Terminus who does a very similar shtick but both are pretty common tournament casters. I also think since nothing is known about Makeda3 that she does not count. Calaban should also be up there with the minion casters.

So lets go through the factions

Minions
Minions need more stuff, that's the biggest failing of the faction. Put Barnabas in any other faction and he's one of the best in the game, in minions he struggles for lack of choice. Arkadius and Calaban have a common hordes problem, they are squishy casters with short range offensive spells. Without a way to channel they either do nothing or go forward, cast their spells and die. With some more options in faction when Gargantuans comes out they may find a new lease on life.

Cryx
Witch Coven - They have a lot of potential with the release of the Kraken. They also have a new theme force that looks interesting
Goreshade1 - Has always been a fantastic caster and has won tournaments. That said he's not as ball breaking as Cryx's top tier as Cryx probably has 4 of the best 5 casters in the game.
Scaverous - New and hurt by colossals. Otherwise he has the same problem as Goreshade1

Khador
This is literally just a list of the Khador casters without iron flesh (excluding the two original Vlads). Sadly this is also literally a list of the most rarely seen Khador casters. Strakhov in particular I think is good and has a lot of potential and Karchev and Harkevich are much improved with the advent of colossals, I expect to see more of them.

Menoth
This one isn't that simple, I may write a post about what I think of the Menoth casters at some stage as I have been seriously looking at the faction for a while now. The high reclaimer I think is really good and Amon has a jenky list that can be fun.

Cygnar
Kraye is really good and Stryker1 got a big boost from Colossals, those are two casters I have high hopes will benefit from the challenge. Before colossals I would have rated Darius among the worst casters in the game (with me maybe being still a little sore over the change from MKI to MKII) but now I think he's playable. The Sloan list with pirates is also a thing that I like but is less common because of character restrictions (if you take her you can't take Caine2 or Seige). The reason you don't see these guys so much is because Cygnar's big4 are just too good. That's Haley1, Haley2, Siege and Caine2 (also maybe Stryker2). Only Haley2 is as ball busting as the top Cryx casters but the other ones are still a cut above the rest of the faction.

Retribution
Garyth is a bit predictable and the Vyroses are jack casters in a faction that up until recently had poor jacks. I expect them to see more of them.

Mercs
The Magnusses are assassination casters in what is becoming an attrition meta, hopefully this will change with the new steamroller package and the two Magnuses will be back with a vengence. Fiona is still missing some pieces, she has this great feat and some neat abilities but they just don't quite pull together right. She is someone who could do really well once someone works out a good list for her or a new release comes out that complements her abilities. Of all the casters I think she will benefit most from this challenge as she really does have a lot of good abilities but just doesn't quite work. I think someone will figure her out. Ossrum is good but new and uses the same characters as Durgan who is very popular. I don't like MacBain but he's not bad and once the Galleon is out his major weakness is gone. Bart and Shae are actually pretty rare at the moment. Shae is possibly the best caster in the game if you could take him with anything other than pirates or his theme force, the Galleon will help him as it helps pretty much everyone but the dwarfs because they can finally hurt things at ARM 20+. Bart goes from one of the worst Merc casters to one of the best with the release of Galleon. His Galleon + Snapjaw list is kind of skewed but will require you to plan for it.

Legion
Kallus is actually really good as is Thagrosh1, they just tend to be beaten out by Legions fantastic top tier casters (Saeryn, Lylyth2, Vayl1 and Vayl2, this is becoming a theme). Jake Van Meter (Neutralize) has won events with Thagrosh1 and with Kallus (but Jake is the top Legion player so I don't think he counts). Lylyth1 is seeing a resurgence with colossals and is actually pretty good now (with Parasite and the Naga she can effect -6 ARM to a stormwall and let a scythean charge it for free). Thagrosh2 is always a bucket of fun but has a tendency to die especially with all the guns at the current tournament scene. Rhyas has an assassination list which may get a lot of advantage from the new scenario rules encouraging warcasters forward, she will probably benefit most from this especially as JVM has a been spruiking her with Proteus.

Circle
Morvhana is currently suffering from the glut of purification casters currently on the scene but she is otherwise very, very good. I put up a tourament winning Cassius list just recently, he's definitely one of the hidden gem casters I mentioned. Grayle I'm not sure about and Kaya tends to be overshadowed by her epic version but is very solid. Moshar is pretty good too but colossals hurt him a bit and Cassius does most things he does but better.

Trollbloods
Jarl should maybe be here as well. Again I posted a tournament winning Gunnbjorn list recently but I think most people are like me and just don't like him. If you want to play a gunline you play Cygnar, Menoth or Legion and it's a lot more fun. I also think he is a bit of a trap as people tend to take Sluggers with him and he doesn't do enough to make them worth it. Grissel2 won at superseries in Sydney too, she's really good. I wrote recently about attrition and she is fantastic for that because she does so much work herself. She does suffer from some bad matchups though, Legion in particular.

Skorne
All these guys are pretty good (except Morghoul2 who I think is the worst caster in the game) but again are overshadowed by Skorne's best casters. I've seen some great Rasheth lists and his theme force is fantastic. Naresh is still a bit new.

As for me I have a particularly stupid Nemo1 list that I think will be a lot of fun which I'm planning on running a bit. Expect to see my Magnus2 in bad seeds theme force as well. Other than that the only caster you can be sure you won't see me play is Gunnbjorn.