Blackhide Wrastler

Overview

The Blackhide Wrastler is a giant alligator beast bound to the will of Gatorman warlocks. He likes nothing more than death rolling and eating people. At 9pts though, he does cost a pretty penny for what he brings to the table compared to similar (and better supported options) in other factions. Here's an overview of his rules:

• Wrastler - This is the Wrastler's signature unique ability. Essentially it means that while KD, he can still function as normal, except he cannot move, has DEF 5 and does not block LoS. This applies even if he is knocked down during your turn. Note he will still be auto-hit by melee attacks, and can still engage people while KD.
• Man-Eater - Charges living warrior models for free. Saves a bit of fury.
• Amphibious
• Snacking - heals d3 when he kills a living thing and RFPs it.

Note the lack of Bloodthirst!

He also has a special attack named Death Roll on his bite. Death Roll is a bite attack which KDs both the Wrastler and his target. If both targets are KD, then the damage roll is boosted.

 

Damage

This beast is the hardest hitter in Blindwater (alongside his cousin Snapjaw) with a meaty P+S 17 bite and 2x P+S 14 open fists. At MAT 6, he also hits respectably well for a heavy beast.

Keep in mind that a few P+S 17 attacks without external buffs are just not enough to reliably hurt high ARM heavies. You are cutting it quite fine against ARM 19 heavies, assuming you hit every attack (usually needing 6s, unless you KD it first) and require at least  a little above average damage rolls to do the job. So while he is our hard hitter, he is far from the hardest hitter.

Survivability

27 boxes (over half in Body), with ARM 19. Good, but again not great compared to faction backbone beasts like Woldwardens or Gladiators. He does have easy access to Spiny Growth, which can make a huge difference. With Maelok especially, achieving ARM 25 on feat turn is no joke.

Utility

I think this is where the Wrastler makes its name:

• Two open fists and STR 12 means 'very good at two-handed throws'.
• Being able to KD targets with Death Roll is fury efficient and throws in good chunk of damage over the more conventional Headbutt.
• His animus, Rise, is cost 1 RNG 6 and allows a friendly Minion to stand up immediately. Note that Rise dispels any other animi currently on the target, even though it does not remain in play.

Tactica

There are quite a few cool things you can do with the Wrastler.

1. First and above all, he is your heaviest hitter. This means he is good at counter-charging heavy targets that is tied up with Gators, or killing casters.
2. Secondly, there is the Rise Gator missile trick. This essentially means that you can throw something forward, case Rise on it, then it activates as normal except that it is now much closer to the enemy (and may have flown over a clump of jammy small or medium bases on the way). The simplest execution of this tactic for me has been to throw the Wrastler forward using a Spitter (who also has two open fists), casting Rise with either my Wrastler or warlock, then moving forward and chomping down an enemy caster. However, you can also execute the throw with your Wrastler on another target, throwing the target at a well positioned Feralgeist, and then casting Rise on that. If you do it this way however, you risk deviating more than 6" away from the Wrastler, thereby not being able to Rise the thrown model. I've heard of people throwing their casters this way, and thinking they either trust dice a lot more than I do, or have monster balls.
3. Third, he excels at two-handed throw power attacks. This means he can throw things at the enemy to knock multiple things down at once or throw warjacks in Barnabas's Swamp Pits.

He benefits greatly from Barnabas' Warpath to make up for his slowish SPD 5 and lack of Bloodthirst. He also works quite well under Maelok, partially because he can reach very high levels of ARM, and partially because throwing enemy models through your own in a grind situation can be very useful.
On the damage side of the equation, Calaban's Parasite and Rask's Fury make all the difference between life and death (for the Wrastler's target). These effective make him 1xP+S 20 and 2x P+S 17. Ouch.

Conclusion

The Wrastler is decent (ie. not great) as a beatstick heavy beast, but his animus and Wrastler rule add on to his cost pretty heavily and makes him more than just a fighter. At present however, he is the best we have in the damage department, so I take him in almost every list I make.
If you treat him solely as a damage dealer, you will be very disappointed in his performance without proper use of buffs and debuffs. Keep Death Roll, throws and Rise in mind, and the Wrastler will win you many a game.