Tyranid Tactics: The Parasite of Mortex

Old School here with a brief respite from the harder Tactica Articles on the Tyranids I have been writing so far to bring you the Parasite of Mortex.

Fun and Killy: Let's start this off by saying the Parasite is a big ball of fun if you enjoy conversions and if you own enough ripper swarms - Why not, this model boasts W5, S6, I6, four attacks and a 3+ save. Independant Character status means you can hide this guy in squads of gargoyles, shrikes or skyslasher swarms (if you own those). Implant Attack plus rending means that multi-wound characters and models will go down quickly before the Parasite (not to meantion other Nids).
.
Aside from that, the Parasite can breed rippers from enemy casualties and from outflanking units using toughness tests - added to it's other abilities, lack of invul and T4, you can pigeonhole this model into a troop hunter role - perfect for hunting down those space Marine squads where the Librarian is hidden and killing the Libby before he strikes (or any other cheap squad with a hero or lone MC). The Parasite can also be a means for cracking vehicles and then dissuading the enemy from charging, though depending on his squad, the parasite may get punished badly for this.
.
The weaknesses of the Parasite include his T4 and his breeding ability makes him a liability in kill point games.
.
I would use the Parasite in a list with a lot of other big units to distract from it - Tyrgons, MC spam, Zoanthropes ect. This way, it can make it up the board to get it's job done - the Parasite really needs a hearty squad to protect it - Gargoyles can lead to a lot of death through majority T3 and their 6+, but Shrikes on the other hand can provide a heartier unit that flies, can stand on its own and can also put up a fight along side the Parasite - I would go with boneswords, adrenal glands and toxin sacs to allow you to out inititiative most enemy units and to compliment the abilities of the Parasite. You just need to run a nasty list that stands aside from this unit, understand that it may not make it to the end and keep the squad in cover as it advances.
.
When you breed rippers, push them out to be speed bumps, so the enemy either has to assault them to get to you or you can play leapfrog with them - playing against guard, if you can push into a flank with this unit, you can break out with a ton of rippers and distract his whole board edge, allowing the rest of your army to advance and dominate - the same goes when fighting any other mid to low toughness armies.
.
In Conclusion, I would say that in general I wouldn't take the Parasite of Mortex in a take-all-comers list or a competitive environment, but I won't rule out that the Parasite can be really nasty in the hands of a good player and competitive if he really plays a lot with it and understands its tactics, but in general, I would leave it for the fun, pick-up games.
.
As always, feedback is appreciated!