Sonnia in Black

So back in March I spent no small amount of blog space talking about Witch Hunter and Sonnia.  Equally I have dedicated some space here to talking about my love of Reva in M2E (so much irreducible damage) and also how much I’m enjoying Reva2s “there was an old lady who swallowed a fly” play style.

Well, Handy readers (such as you are) it’s time to tie that all together a nice neat little bow, like it was the plan all along. 

So you may remember there were things I liked about both Sonnia1 & 2. To quickly summarise:

Sonnia 1.

*Summoning through killing good.

*Fire good.

*Ignoring concealing good.

*Hazardous terrain good if you can use it.

Sonnia 2.

*More Soulstones good.

*Fire good.

*Pyre markers good.

*Pushes good.

And as an aside for the totem.

*Hovering Flame on significant model good.

*Giving friendlies burning can be useful.

I always felt that if you cherry picked my favourite bits from each version of Sonnia I would have a master I really enjoyed, but of course you can’t do that.

Do you see where I’m going with this yet?  

Essentially all the bits I like from both Sonnia’s form a significant part of what Reva2 does and how she plays.  Arguably, she does it better. 

Let’s take Sonnia’s summon-by-killing ability. 

So the target is going to take damage equal to the value of its current Burning Condition. (Note this wording means that Burning 5 does 5 damage, not 2 as some folks think. It’s not taking damage from the burning condition as if it was the end phase. It’s also an attack so incorporeal counts, again contrary to how some folk argue).  If it kills the target you can summon a Witchling Model of comparable cost to the target. So 3+ for a new totem, 5+ for a stalker and 8+ for a Thrall.  Kill a malifaux rat with this and you’re getting nothing.  The model does come in at full health but it’s going to be more on fire every turn as it gains burning +1 every time it activates.  This is a fine ability. It is not suit dependent, it is not once per turn. It is fine, and absolutely my favourite thing on Sonnia1s card.

However let’s take a look at Reva2s Immolate. 

This time around we’re vs Df instead of Wp. Wp has the reputation of being on average lower than Df so maybe targeting Wp is better? I suspect it’s situational all told. No target number though! That’s nice. Exactly the same dmg = burning style attack but this time on a built in suit I can summon a Lampad with hp equal to targets reduced burning. Regardless of target, unlike Sonnia there’s no need to consider the targets SS cost. Whether it’s a Master or a Rat I’m getting a Lampad either way. Yes the Lampad comes in slow and it can only be done once per turn. However, in case you’re unaware:

Yes they’re an absolute pain to build and paint but Lampad  >  any Witchling. Seriously, they’re an absolute pain to build and paint but it’s done now. I never have to do that again, I can just enjoy the fruits of my spikey spikey labour

Yes Unending Flame is only once per turn, but the quality of Lampads does make up for this, as does the fact that this is not the only way you want Reva2 spending her Ap each turn.  You absolutely do want to get it off each turn, don’t get me wrong, but there’s other things to do too.

Reva 1 Sonnias 0

Fire good.

Witch Hunter:

Some things in Witch Hunter hand out burning. Not everything. But most things. Between posflips, ignoring concealing, reducing ranges and the like Witch Hunter have a lot of uses for burning. More so now that Ashbringers can use it for healing. However it all feels a bit cute, rather than direct contribution to victory.

Revenant:

Absolutely bloody everything hands out burning in Revenant. Ok the Restless Spirit, Mourner, and Draughr don’t. But they kind of do because they’re either dropping corpse markers for you to turn into corpse candles to turn into 2 pyre markers or you’re making pyre markers so you kind of are. Also yes, strictly speaking Shield Bearers don’t make burning, but trust me you’re going to spend a delightful amount of time smashing people in the face with your shield and pushing them into Bonfires that it counts. So many things make pyre markers and Tear Back The Veil will promptly push the enemy into them for burning and dmg, or your own models are going in for healing. Somehow.

Reva 2 Sonnias 0

Ignoring concealing

Yes Sonnias are both better at this. They are, well kinda. They both have mechanics for ignoring concealing either by it being on fire or by pos flips. However with a Pyre marker, Reva can just straight up pull enemy models out of concealing, either by the phenomenal Tear Back The Veil ability or the utterly bonkers Traverse the Embers trigger (more on this later).

Whilst both Sonnias have direct abilities for this, Reva’s Tear back the Veil trigger can be utilised by any model in her crew as long as they drop a pyre marker and everything is within the appropriate auras. So rather than an ability that directly benefits a Master, it’s one that can be used by the whole keyword. So because of that…

Reva 3 Sonnias 0

Hazardous terrain.

Sonnia 1s personal aura of hazardous is solid enough. It does a good job of stopping a flurry model going on ham on her in theory. Truth be told you’re probably still doing it because a) you’re going to be sticking a ton of dmg on a df4 master and b) she can’t shoot when tied up. Sonnia 2s pure markers are pretty glorious especially given nothing can ignore them, you can then some time wiggling your opponent about them (everyone knows I love a good wiggle) and this is especially good given that Sonnia2’s push does Burning +2 as well!

However.

This has to be prefaced with any crew that ignores hazardous is a great counter to Revenant. It’s not a perfect counter, but it is a good one (as is laugh off). Now firstly you’re going to spend a lot of time on fire vs Revenant. Like an awful lot (screw you Flamebourne models! Screw you!) but here’s the rub: I am going to spend just as much time on fire as well. It heals me, it gives me shielded, I can use it for damage reduction. Being immune to burning or pushes or hazardous is all well and good for you but none of that stops me using it on myself. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to see any of those defences across the table from me but they won’t stop me entirely, they just change up what I’m doing. 

So right now we’re about even I think between Witch Hunter and Revenant. Possible Tear Back the Veil is edging it towards Reva as using master abilities outside of Master activations is big and clever.

But then. There’s this.

All hail Fan The Flames. Utterly insane action, such as it is. Firstly, any model this marker passes underneath is gaining burning, which is going to cause all the usual Reva effects. I’m going to heal, gain shielded as appropriate and you’re taking damage. THEN you’re having to make some simple duels to avoid further damage, hooray for hand pressure. And it’s not once per activation so these markers can be happily wiggled around some more. 

And then we come to the trigger. On a crow you choose two models in base to base contact with a pyre marker AS A COST. This is key. Because it’s a cost it MUST be done at trigger declaration to allow you to declare the trigger. 

What this key bit of italics means is that you choose two models in base to base (no really, two) push the marker 4” and then place the models in base to base with the pyre marker again triggering all the usual hazardous rules.

None of this is once per activation or turn.

This means you can slingshot multiple models from your crew forward significant distances to contest points or advance table positioning. Equally you have one of the most devastating kidnaps in the game, to which your opponent doesn’t get to flip a card against. You can see it used to somewhat devastating effect against Nekima here, where she was whisked away after making the mistake of taking one action to walk forward.

So whilst both keywords can make use of hazardous terrain, 

Reva 4 Sonnias 0.

and whilst we’re at it pushes and pyres I think we’ve covered off there too.

Reva 6 Sonnias 0.

Lastly, Soulstones. 

 This is a cracking little rule on Sonnia 2s card. My favourite thing about it being it doesn’t state either friendly or enemy. Any model that dies with burning +2 is giving up a stone. S2 doesn’t even need line of sight. That’s just aces. Nothing like that on Reva’s card.  

However this guy exists:

So he’s just going to be making you 1-2 Ghost lights a turn and they’re just fantastic themselves.

Pile of Ashes by itself is a fantastic attack due to the high likely hood your opponent will be stood in a pyre marker.  Or you can use it to heal your own models. Weirdly.  They of course count as soulstones themselves, but soulstones that hand out burning, have AP, can be used by Reva as defensive models to dump dmg onto or as a way of getting pos flips thanks to the Ghost Eater. Soulstones+

Reva 7 Sonnias 0

At least in the things I liked about playing either Sonnia, Reva2 does all those things better and there’s an important distinction to make here. I’m not saying Revenant > Witch Hunter, such comparisons are largely unhelpful. Direct comparison rarely achieves much as it fails to take in a great deal of other factors such as colour pie and the like. What I am saying instead is that I personally enjoy Revenant more than I did Witch Hunter because the things I liked about the later the former does better or more or on one card instead of spread across two. None of that is to say the way I was using Witch Hunter was in anyway the correct way of course. 

So in answer to the question “why aren’t you playing Witch Hunter anymore?” In many ways I am. Just Sonnia in Black. And maybe if you enjoy but struggle with a current project, identify what is you like or want to like about it and see if you’re able to see those same qualities elsewhere and give them a try? My friend, the improbably named Tarquin Sweetbiscuits, has done a similar thing recently swapping Ulix for Nekima. They still grow, they still have great big scary beaters, he’s swapped Stampede for Black Blood but kept the hooves and I think both of these changes suit us both very well.