Unit of the Week: Magnus the Red

[Xenith]

So Magnus has received a 30pt drop in the latest Field Manual, while good, I don't think it's enough to really make him seen onthe table- however I have no experience using him. Any other frater care to weigh in on whether this is enough?

[Ahzek451]

Hate to bring it up as it's a thread about Magnus, but currently Abaddon as an ally or chaos knights have seen some play as contenders to our "big heavy" I.E. Magnus. Which is kind of sad. I need to do more testing myself. I run a few squads of rubrics in my lists, and with the points drops on equipment certainly being a decent boon, I may give running big red a go again. Although, this may change if/when they update our predators/land raiders. T8 and better lascannons along with points drops for those units would certainly help with our lack of anti-tank ranged fire power. Again, IF GW decides to put out a FAQ for this kind of update. Not counting on it. So until then, I will give Magnus a whirl. 

[Xenith]

I totally missed that rubric weapons got cheaper, thanks! 

MtR still suffers from being a bit vulnerable - As I said, I don't think it makes him competitive, however this is a mindset I'm trying to break out of. He's definitely worth a throw now!

[dice4thedicegod]

I’m toying with idea of bringing him… along with a knight abominant (and a mutilith) to spread around some targets… take some of the heat off him.

[Skywrath]

I've seen 2-3 TS lists that came first that ran him, although finding them in my history tab eludes me currently. However..

I think it's more of a case of: high risk, high reward scenario, and there is a certain skill cap with running him. Personally, in my 2-4 games of playing with TS and running him (i.e. my Telemon as a proxy), I found that deepstriking him has some positive results, but a 3CP investment, in this format is significantly detrimental. Of course, we do have 2 ways (3 if you count the relic) to generate CP, but you would be using CP on other things such as Phalanx. The other alternative is using the psychic power of perplex on something that's likely to kill him (e.g. eradicators), but I'm not sure that will work against the other million of things that is likely to kill him. Then there is the issue of melee, and I don't think I need to explain the thought process there. Because of the above, I'm sad to say competitively, bringing either Abaddon or maybe even a Tzeentch Chaos Knight is far more efficient. 

[Ahzek451]

Granted, it's all still rumors, but a LoC might be a more viable choice instead of Magnus oddly enough. The lord of change has seen a few upgrades, and is a monster that can tank ranged attacks and is fairly mobile(as well as self-healing). Mind, he is much weaker in melee. This is still something Magnus does much better. However, the biggest to take him (besides a good bullet sponge) is access to another spell list. We are limited to smite, and 1 use per spell rule. Adding in a LoC would add 3(possibly 4 depending on stratagems) more spells/mortal wound output. We will have to see once the book comes out.