Friday, 27 August 2021

Model Review- Tara, Timeless and Thirty-Three

 Skipping over Von Schill to go to the next Outcast title reveal, I am absolutely in love with this. Tara has always been one of my favourite masters, and this new card adds some really interesting dimensions to her gameplay while also giving her back a Death Marshal in her crew in the form of Thirty-Three. 

This new version of Tara is very interesting, as it allows some weird janky plays in true Tara form while being quite different to the original. From Nothing, Beyond Time and Stutter Time are all still what they were, although it's important to note Stutter Time at a high stat, with built in Glimpse the Void and now also with Fleeting Moments on it for Pass Token generation is really nice and plays well with some other tricks in the crew. 6s for her stats is great, especially on Mv which makes her pretty fast (although without her 2nd activation this time, a lower maximum distance). Lost in the Moment is very nasty and the ability to dictate the flow of the game is well worth the cost of 1 irreducible although that can stack up quite quickly if you abuse it too much (Regeneration +2 is a nice way of getting around it, but I would easily recommend the Emissary here for extra healing and even extra Regen to keep Tara going far longer than she should otherwise). Butterfly Jump also keeps her a bit safer depending on the table setup as it lets her escape when she needs to but also get into positions of cover or just flat out of line of sight, even working in some strategies to get her closer to where she needs to be faster (Symbols and Ley Lines) which will be very annoying for an opponent because trying to stop you can often help you instead. Looking at her actions, Stutter Time I've already mentioned is par for the course on Obliteration models but otherwise she is completely different to her previous form. Losing summoning is the biggest change, but she enables a lot in the crew and gives them some very good angles in terms of their movement potential in a few ways. 

Expedite pairs amazingly with Stutter Time for a way to unbury your own models further in position where you want them and then take a general or melee action. You can even use it with Tara to move up once turn 1, Bury something with Stutter Time and then immediately unbury it to get things further up the table far quicker (and she can do it more than on different models). Needing a 6 its pretty easy to get off and although it gives the target Slow it's in effect just taking that AP early, making it a bit of a worse (although still great) version of Obey. 10" range on it normally is also really great because it turns Tara into a lot more of a crew buffer, but I would mostly only use it as an alternative way to unbury your own models instead of From Nothing because it gives a lot more gameplay options. 

Obliteration's Claw is her attack and its mostly just ok to have (not having Glimpse the Void on it is really noticeable and the one thing I dislike a lot about this Tara) but being able to choose what it's resisted by (Df or Wp, whatever will put you at a higher advantage or avoiding defensive triggers) and Drag Through Time is really nice as well- it basically means you have another Unbury vector because of Lost in the Moment or the enemy gets Slow which is good either way. 

The last action to note, Rewind makes up the biggest part of her new card IMO and is the thing I love the most because of just how janky it gets. As a control action it is amazing, and it plays into the theme of zone control with Tara being able to choose any model (which I'll elaborate on later, because it has different applications) and drop an Echo marker in base contact. Stat 6 vs Wp is decent enough, and TN12 means when you're using it on your own models and relenting you need a 6 at minimum to get it off so it does need a little bit of card knowledge (which Obliteration has in some sneaky ways). After any activation, which means you can do it any and every time you choose should something move away from the Echo (or you just want to nudge things around it to get better angles), you can choose to place the model you targeted and put it back into base contact with the Echo and then give them the choice of 1 damage or removing the Echo (more of a choice for friendly models, because enemies will want to remove the Echo and stop you messing with them). When using it on your own models it works best as a means of being able to throw a beater forward in their own activation and hit things as much as possible before pulling them back to a safer position where they won't be overextended (a new twist on the classic Beast Bomb) or even just to relocate things across the board before they can activate to give you more angles on attack runs or reaching points on the table to score (and then you can pull them back anyway if you take the damage to keep the Echo on the table). Against enemies it's really mostly aggressive denial, because there are a lot of schemes and strategies that need careful placement to score and you can just put them away where they can't do anything to get back and score that turn. It's best in pools with Claim Jump, Catch and Release, Research Mission or even just scheme marker based schemes you can easily deny them with the right activation order. In terms of triggers, built-in Mend for a heal 2 is great for your own models if you need to heal them, and it's always just nice to have. Burn Out is amazing here in all ways, because Fast on your own models for the yoyo tactic is very helpful while offensively it can be a very easy 2 damage and then Unbury for another friendly model, and Alternate Timeline letting you drop the Echo anywhere within 4" of the target means you can use it to really mess with placement and it gives you some great potential reach in terms of slinging models forward and then bringing them back to safety, or forcing enemy models into positions where they can't get back to affecting the game how they want to. All in all it's a great alternate to the Bury mechanics of the rest of the crew, and it lets you really mess with the opponent through placement in a lot of ways. 

The fact that Tara has a Death Marshal in her crew again is something I love on its own, but Thirty-Three does some really funky things for the crew that I like a lot. Beyond Time and From Nothing are standard and I don't think they're really anything to write about here because they don't have any especially huge applications out of the norm, but the rest of the front of his card is really excellent in making her something that is a deceptively good scheme runner and just a pest in general with how hard to lock down and mobile she is. Mv6 Incorporeal is amazing and Slippery works very well too in keeping her able to move away from things that try and stop her (and if they do get into base contact, Pine Box) so she can most of the time be exactly where she wants to be, especially when you add it to From Nothing and the Bury shenanigans Obliteration have. Her Peacebringer is good but not an amazing beater track so don't expect her to be gunning down anything she touches despite the bonuses from Pass Tokens (which you have other and often better ways to spend), it's mainly just a way to stack damage onto Buried models with Finality (it also works on any undead that are on the table, but Obliteration want to Bury things anyway and it has more applications there) or be very annoying with Hole in the World to affect enemy placement in some nasty ways. Like Tara above you can play around with putting things where they really don't want to be and play a hard denial game by using Thirty-Three, enabling a gameplay style Obliteration were already good at but now benefit even more. Placing the enemy within 6" of where it currently is is a huge move, especially when you can stack it with Two Places at Once for an effective 8" place in the right setup making it very hard for things to get back to where they wanted to be (even more so if you stack it with Rewind to shove them back there again and really waste time). Pine Box is always nice and synergises really well with Obliteration, plus having that damage track from the Ram trigger is extra nice because you're usually Burying models with the intention they come back significantly weaker if at all, so being able to get it that extra step closer to dead on the action you're Burying is very nice efficiency. A Year in a Minute is the last thing 33 has and it really is just one last way to double down on making sure Tara's crew (or Lady J but that's not what has my attention here) have as much of an advantage on the table as possible be it in cards or AP. For a 5 of any suit and with the triggers built in she can force card discard when enemy models are Buried or he gives them Slow, forcing a choice from the opponent to either lose cards from their hand or lose AP on their models which are already being shunted around the table against their will. It's a great example of Obliteration forcing bad choices on the opponent, and if she can do this early near a large portion of the enemy crew you can use it as a way to not only make the opponent think as I mentioned, but increase the efficiency of Glimpse the Void drastically which is something that in turn helps this ability function a lot better. Decomposition is great to throw out some chip damage (in Marshal when you can make models count as Undead its even better) but I think Backtrack is the more useful one as it lets you fish out some fairly useful 6s and 7s for your own stuff as well as the Black Joker to avoid seeing it again. I will definitely be getting a lot of use out of Thirty-Three because I love this card and art a lot, and it'll see play with both versions of Tara I feel. 

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