So there are only 8 magic items per book now. I'm curious how many of the new army book's items were in a previous edition of the army book and how many are new alogether. The few books I've looked at seemed to be biased towards high cost magic items. I'm just curious how they are slicing that.
Most of the ones that get to stay seem to be recycled from previous editions. Or at least the name stays but the rules change a little bit.
It looks to me like they are giving armies just a few powerful items (high point cost) to kind of push the feel like your army items can swing the battle and make it seem like these legendary item have renown amonsgt your enemies. I do feel like our items are cluttered and I end up using the same few items all the time so I don't mind a trim. On another note. I noticed that VC got a more powerful version of our Diadem of Power. It does the same as our Diadem but it also saves dispell dice for use as power dice in the next phase. I like diadem and seeing this new item makes me feel like we will lose it :/.. hopefully for something better!
Most of my favorite magic items are cheap. Venom of the Firefly Frog, Dragonfly of Quicksilver, Bane Head, Itxi Grubs, Plaque of Tepoc and the like Cube of Darkness, Cupped Hands, and Stegadon War spear (barely) are all the only big magica items I'd miss if they were gone. The Divine Plaque of Protection is in the awkward middle (I prefer it over ethereal for lone Slann)
I think you might be the first person to say that they have actualy used the Dragonfly of Quicksilver.
I used Dragonfly of the Quicksilver extensively in 7th edition. Not as much this edition. I still will occasionally use it. It is a useful item if your opponents always (mostly) have scouts.