Cryx mirror: is it always Denny2?

So the primary strength of Cryx as a faction right now is not the raw power of one specific list, it’s the raw diversity available. Cryx has 5 really powerful themes with multiple strong ways they can be built. This makes planning for Cryx extremely difficult since each build requires different tools to beat.

Asphyxious3 Slayer Spam straight loses to any Dark Host list that’s built around Bane Warriors & Knights as well as Scourge of the Broken Coast. Deneghra2 is great into the mirror because Hellmouth & Venom are amazing spells into Cryx infantry builds & her feat is great into Black Industries since the only Cryx jacks with magic weapons are Deathjack & Malice. Personally the only BI list I would consider dropping tinto the mirror is Deneghra2, & I think there’s builds of Dark Host, Scourge, & Slaughter Fleet that can be built to play into the mirror as well.

The lists I’d avoid in the mirror are nonDeneghra2 Black Industries, Ghost Fleet, & Infernal Machines. Cryx has never had a problem smashing jacks off the table so most Cryx lists will have little trouble crushing Black Industries. Deneghra2 can at least grant a turn of safety into nonScourge lists that don’t have magic weapons everywhere as well as some of the best Infantry clearing on a caster. Other BI casters likely just get smashed in easily by anyone who can swing armor by 4 points. Ghost Fleet is a poor choice in the mirror because Cryx has tons of RFP options, many of which are seeing regular play. Deneghra2 brings RFP on Hellmouth, Terminus brings RFP with Annihilation, and Cryx has 5 Casters with Hellfire and 4 of them, Asphyxious1&3, Skarre1, & Terminus currently see regular play. Even if they’re not playing a caster with an RFP effect, Cryx still has casual RFP on models that are seeing a decent amount of play like Darragh, Barathrum, Corruptors, & the Kraken. Infernal Machines is a poor choice into the mirror because the options are simply outclassed. Whatever troops you build your IM list around are going to be worse than the troops of someone playing in Scourge, Slaughter Fleet, Ghost Fleet, or Dark Host. If you built your IM list around jacks, they’ll be worse than jacks in Slaughter Fleet or Black Industries. IM pretty much straight loses to Scourge & Slaughter Fleet because those lists mulch infantry like Crazy & have no issues crushing Cryx jacks.

So yea, for the mirror you want Scourge, Slaughter Fleet, Dark Host, or Deneghra2 BI. Which one you want to drop into the mirror is heavily dependent on what your opponent’s brought. I wouldn’t really want to drop Dark Host into Scourge, but I’d windmill slam Dark Host into nonD2 Black Industries, and I’d even drop some specific Dark Host lists, like Skarre1 DH with 4 Stalkers, into D2 BI.

Just gessing here, speaking from theory, not from experience, but I would say that skarre1 DH is countered by slaughterfleet and scourge from our faction, and I think haley3 trenchers would also do the job... probably the new exemplar theme too, or makeda2 and madrak infrantry spams.
As a general rule I dont find DH beeing a good drop against infantry lists