Stingers Vs Samurai Archers

[flameslayer93]

So, I was bored when I started to think more about the Tagawa Samurai Archers as being similar to the Marro Stingers. And then I wondered which unit is actually better. Now the consensus is that Stingers are better, but I'd like to challenge that line of thinking. With new tournament formats like Bring 2 and Cut the Cake, as well as new units if you do choose to use the C3V and SoV stuff, what was once good may now be a liability for competitive or casual play.

For reference, here are the cards for each unit.





On the surface, both units are similar. Their statlines, cost, and levels of effective synergy are around the same. The biggest difference between the two units are their attack and range. Samurai Archers has 6 range, while the Stingers have 3 attack. Oh, and the Stingers are 5 points cheaper.

Now, the Stingers do have more direct synergy options, but the Samurai Archers gift synergy to Sacred Band builds (a surprisingly decent bonding squad in formats where your opponent might have to use them). In my opinion though, the Stinger's best synergy options (besides more stingers) is the Marro Hive or maybe Torin who grants adjacent ones ranged counterstrike... Neither unit is particularly great in a competitive format, but neither are horrible when paired with Stingers either. For the Samurai Archers, neither official option is a great synergy piece. But maybe 1x of these guys with Kato will fill out your Kato+Ashigaru army. It's worth a thought. The C3V units (Raymond and Tomoe aren't too terribly much help either. At least Tomoe can get free activations from your damaged unique Samurai squads.

Both squads can "use" a screen, but neither really need it. The Samurai Archers can theoretically use said screen a bit better though, because they do have +1 Range to work with. Raelin remains a fantastic option for both squads to beef up their defense, but again, Samurai Archers use her benefits a bit better because of access to Counterstrike.

Now, I should get to the actual differences in the powers. For most competitive scenes, players tend to completely ignore Stinger Drain. This is not quite as true for Counterstrike, however. A good turn is turn in which your opponent suffers some sort of damage on your turn, or deals none or very little when it is their turn. A great turn is when your opponent loses something on their turn. Counterstrike gives you the chance to get a great turn, albeit rare.

Not using Stinger Drain means that you are using the Stingers for their stats only, which the stats are fine, but it does mean a good opponent can fight that turn easily with good defensive positioning (as Stingers have poor range and no easy way to boost it) and/or Raelin. Using Stinger Drain means that it can screw you with a 20% chance to outright lose a Stinger and lose your turn of attacks. That's a great turn for your opponent, and it's probably the main reason people will only use the Drain against things with superhuman stats (like Marvel characters). Unfortunately, losing a turn of attacks can cause the game to swing hard for your opponent, depending on when it was used. The flipside is getting a sweet +1 attack for the turn. This turns the Stingers into ranged units with 4 attack, and potentially 5 attack if they have height. Even good defensive positioning won't help too much against that level of attack score. But, most people have shyed away from that raw power to keep the Stingers consistent.

Counterstrike, on the other hand, is always active. Yes, there are units who get around it with ranged attacks of their own, special attacks, or by being samurai themselves, but that doesn't mean that the power ever stops working. For the Samurai Archers, it's a small bonus that can help swing a game or really screw up low attack figures (like Blade Gruts, Nagrubs, Spiders) when they have to attack the Archers. Or, that player can forgo attacking altogether, which helps you out too.

I'll try to add a bit more later, but I hope that I've started to convince folks to question old convention. There's plenty more to discuss again