this is my army and i have used it in like 3 touneys. it has been extremely successful, i only lost against mechanoid armies(i hate those soooo much.).

varatrix
-giants wrath

maximillion
-relicbreaker
-cloak of shadows

dwarven forgemage

total 299

i won at fools vale because all i did was capture and kill, since you didnt need to roll the die for that effect. i killed a crack chroma army. all they had was chitterling with inferno and a loaded chroma.i came in 2nd at magestone eruption, because some one was playing a mechanoid army, and everyone else was swarming and i beat them.

Trix is my favorite unique, and the center of most of my armies, so I hope I know a thing or two about him.

That being said, first of all I don't really like the relic choise. Giant's Wrath offers a huge attack bonus, AoE damage, and a minute defense boost. Trix certainly doesn't need the attack, and there are better ways to get the other two. The best relics for Trix are relics that:

1) let him heal himself. This can save him from that lucky hit, or just allow you to push/surge more agressively. The best options are Souldrinker (waaaay expensive) or PoV (a staple for me in my Trix armies).

2)Relics that make him harder to hit rock because of his CA. My favorite is MS Shield, but others like Paragon's Shield and Cloak of the Dervish.

3) Magestone Armor- Invulnerability and a +3 speed is ungodly.

4) Scorch Hammer- better auto-damage abilities that Giant's Wrath, Sweep, and that awesome "bomb" ability. Easily the best one out there for Trix.

With Relic Breaker, Fumble, and Ley Drain out there, a relic may not be the best idea. Also, because of his already huge price tag, a relic just may not be economical.

Support is extremely important in a Trix army, and it will make or break the army. I'd say more than you need the healing of the Forgemage, (especially if you plan on using PoV) you need harassment. if there are 2 figures that can hurt Trix (ie 2 Sky Dragons) you'll need to tie them down so Trix can do his thing w/out getting killed in the process. It's great if these harassers can fight, as well. I'm partial to the *Blood Demon, but something like a *Orc Marauder will suffice.

You also need a secondary attacker. In your army you have Maxi, who is very potent against tricked out uniques, but of little use against anything else. My favorite secondary attackers are ***Ub-Khans, ***Orc Violators, Heartdrinker, Hazna (version e), or in a pinch a *Blood Demon.

However, with minimum change to your army, I'd use the following:

Varatrix-156
Scorch Hammer-30
PoV-20

Maximillion-38
Relic Breaker-25
CoS-8

*Orc Marauder-12
Marauder Gishki (a)-8

Just my $0.02.

With Giant's Wrath on Varatrix, he CANNOT capture because the relic ability is non-optional and is a "Give this" ability. So every time you give Trix a Close Combat Action, it has to go to activate the Giant's Wrath ability.

One thing to note is that you CAN NOT make capture attempts while wielding Giant's Wrath. Giant Wrath's ability is not optional. Since you can't turn it off and it starts with "give this warrior a close combat action..." it will always consume the cc action given to Trix. You would need to drop the relic and then capture.

Second, I agree that it may not be the best relic for Trix.

I prefer Pain. Scorch Hammer is nice, but the autodamage knows no friend. And the main thing about Trix is that if you bring a healer, you're better off bringing regular healing instead of magic healing because Trix sports GF for most of his dial.

In any case, Trix w/ Magestone Armor is definately a great way to go. He gains invul from the armor, so autodamage isn't a big issue. He get's +3 to speed which beats everything else out there. I'd throw in the MSB also, for another 10pts. However, the combo will cost you 230pts without the bracers. That doesn't leave much room for support. Though with the new MS, you can buy about 4 harrassers.

well i like the max and relicbreaker combo for dumb dumb dumb chroma, and you can capture with giants wrath:
Give the wielder a close combat action targeting a single opposing figure. If the attack succeeds, deal 1 damage to every opposing figure within a 3" area of effect of the target.
capturing is a close combat action and you just use the effect if the attack is successful. it does not say close combat attack, it just says action.

I have to say that my favorite Trix has become the "vanilla" version. With everything out there he becomes a huge laibility.

It must be understood that Trixsta is undercosted. Instead of adding bad relics, which would ultimately balance his "brokenness", I would rather have more utility (instead of Magestone Armor i would go a spellcaster).

I have had my good times with varatrix. In fact he allowed me to go undefeated on the first day of the 2004 Nationals (would have won too, thats if i wasn't dumb).

Overall what i'm saying is there is too much your opponent can do to hurt mr trix. His ghost has arcane sight and stone of scrying to balance it. There are new anti-big figure and anti-relic domains.

Thats what i think

Vanilla=plain

duckfusion - Capturing is a sword proficiency that requires you to give the wielder a close combat action. I.e. you have to give them an action with the sole intent of capturing. Giant's wrath has no (optional) text to its ability, so it superceeds any capture attempt. However, Trix with +3 attack and boosted defense and crazy splash damage is a nice way to get around being swarmed to death.