I'm still procrastinating on assembling my own tournament report from the Iowa tournament staple MuseonCon (also known as the Schemes and Stones Open) which occurred a couple weekends ago. In the meantime, however, I've begun reaching out to some of the luminaries of the Malifaux word to discuss crews in the M3E era. What better way to start than with the crew that won the 22 person tournament on Saturday? And the fact that it features my favorite crew in terms of theme in all of Malifaux, the folks from the Honeypot, is icing on the cake. Also, it means I get to dust off this old chestnut.
Keyword Models:
Jacob Lynch
Hungering Darkness
Gwynneth Maddox
Kitty Dumont
Mr. Graves
Mr. Tannen
Illuminated
The Depleted
Beckoners
Keyword Ability:
Rig the Deck +X- Allows most models (not Hungering Darkness) to draw X cards off the top of the deck when they activate, and then place X cards from their hand back on top of the deck in any order.
Without further time wasting on my part, take it away Landon!
How Does the Crew Work?
For reference, the list I played all 3 rounds of MuseOn Day 1
Lynch, Huggy w Silent Protector, 2 Beckoners, 1 Illuminated, Mr Tannen 1 Shadow Emissary, 1 Kabuki Warrior. 6 stone cache.
In my style of play, Jacob Lynch is a kill-oriented crew
which can either play aggressively turn one and two, or play for a later game
by taking advantage of brilliance tokens. The early game version works by using
beckoners and Tannen to move big beaters such as Huggy and the emissary up the
board. These models have excellent damage tracks and triggers to tear apart a
few key models on the first turn, and are tanky enough to cause a lot of
disruption on subsequent turns as enemies try to deal with them while slowed,
engaged or both. The key is to use stones appropriately to keep Huggy alive
while not wasting his large amounts of healing, and to take advantage of the
emissary’s place trigger or Huggy’s obey to move dangerous models out of
position after you have crashed into them.
If you decide to play a longer game, Huggy will usually be
using obey to place tokens/disrupt your opponent until you build enough tokens
to kill their most dangerous pieces with Lynch’s nuke. The Kabuki Warrior is
most helpful for this style, as the – to WP lets you place tokens and land the
nuke much easier.
How Has the Crew/Keyword Changed Since M2E?
In M2E Lynch lacked excellent options for mobility, and
beckoners were extremely overcosted. In addition, the crew was much easier to
kill. Now with beckoners being much cheaper it is much easier to move your own
pieces around. The tradeoff is lures have much lower stats so it’s harder to
use them to move your opponents out of position. Additionally, the card
filtering mechanic of rig the deck is new to M3E, and gives lynch a quality
over quantity of cards approach to card advantage, whereas before you were
usually drawing aces to improve your hand.
Who are the Key Pieces in the Keyword, and What Are Their Roles?
Huggy, who is your totem, is a key piece. He can either put
out tokens or consume them for +flips, healing, and slows. Beckoners allow you
to place brilliance tokens before the game even begins, which lets your t1 and
t2 with Huggy be incredibly aggressive. I take an illuminated model because the
2” shockwave is quite helpful for softening their hand as well as being another
activation to rig the deck with brillshaper to throw away a dead card. Tannen
is key to your survivability, as his auras can all but disable melee beaters
trying to attack your models as they have to pass 2 simple duels which cost
double to cheat before they even try to attack a terrifying model.
Rate the Keyword
-Killing Power
The crew that I
run has incredible output when the lowest damage model is essentially your ‘min
2’ beckoners. I say min 2 because they have a trigger built in to put out a
brilliance token, which in combination with other models essentially adds one
to two points of damage to the attack. After your 2 beckoners everything is
either min 3 or potentially min 3 with +flips. I rate it lower than 14 because
it lacks consistent ranged damage, and a lot of the killing power comes from
the card manipulation mentioned later which allows you to land your hits.
Terrifying or
–flips on all of your important models makes it very hard to kill this crew,
especially if you are in Tannen’s bubble. I would push this mark higher if you
know you are against a crew with lots of melee and lower if you are against a
crew of near exclusively ranged attacks. Ruthless and +flip ranged attacks get
through a lot of this crew’s defensive capabilities but they won’t fold
immediately if this is the case.
I rate them
slightly above average in this department for the list that I run. He’s no
McCabe (although I would certainly consider hiring some of his models in this
crew out of keyword) but beckoners and Tannen help you maneuver enough that you
shouldn’t have any problems getting your schemes done.
This needs little explanation, but with rig the deck and
the emissary you will regularly cheat or flip 4-6 severe cards a turn at
exactly the right time. Including your starting 6 cards, you will see a total
of 19 cards a turn without spending soulstones. That’s over a third of your
deck.
Which Keyword Models (Outside of the Master) Are The MVP and the LVP?
Ignoring Huggy and Lynch, Mr Tannen is both the MVP and the
LVP depending on the game. If you can position Mr Tannen correctly such that he
does not get charged/shot off the board he makes your opponent’s turn near
impossible within his 6” bubble. His df 4 6 wounds however can easily make him
a wasted model if you let him get shot off the board, and with walk of 4” he
sometimes gets left behind if you are playing aggressively.
Are There Versatile Models and/or Upgrades You Take
Routinely?
I routinely take silent protector on either Huggy or the
illuminated. HTK gives both of these models a ridiculous amount of survivability
with their built-in healing. Sometimes it goes on the illuminated because the
minion clause for the upgrade lets it take the hit for other models which can
be relevant if something like vendetta or assassinate is in the pool.
The upgrade for stealth should not be overlooked as a
potential take on either Tannen, Lynch, or both depending on the pool and
matchup .
I always take the Emissary. His 0 to pitch your hand for a
new 6 when your hand is garbage can be used either early in the turn as an
alternative to stoning for cards or later after you’ve used rig the deck to
place your high cards on top of your deck. That in addition to his high
mobility, survivability, and min 3 damage track synergizes well with the
keyword. (Editor's note: sometimes in the Honeypot Casino, the dragon chases you!)
Lastly I would mention kabuki warrior as an out of keyword
hire which often makes it into my list. The –wp aura makes it very difficult to
hit terrifying models and near impossible to avoid lynch’s nuke. When you don’t
need or want the aura walk 6 and new horizons make him a better than average
scheme runner or denier. And Min 3 helps him kill whatever gets in his way.
Thanks again to Landon for contributing. You can look forward to future articles of this type discussing Lady Justice, Kirai, and many others. I really appreciate everyone who is helping out with these. I'm aware of the fact that I'm...ok at Malifaux, but not an expert in the competitive realm by any means.
Which model do you use for the Kabul warrior? I believe Wyrd have yet to release one
ReplyDeleteKabuki* damn autocorrect
DeleteThey'll even keep chronicles of all their past reviews, additionally open to open survey.click for source
ReplyDeleteAt the point when you play roulette on the web, you play with an Irregular Number Generator that is customized so that, as time goes on, every roulette number will hit 1 out of multiple times, much the same as on a genuine roulette wheel. referensi yang berguna
ReplyDeleteNotwithstanding, players sitting at a genuine cash poker table have discovered that they might be gambling a lot of their poker chips because of a few irregular conditions outside their ability to control. http://toppokerv.com/
ReplyDeleteThe product has been planned in view of you, permitting you to deal with each viewpoint that you regularly do in the real match.bandarqq
ReplyDeleteNice Informative Blog having nice sharing.. Adu qq
ReplyDeletepkv Games 2022
ReplyDeletePlaying by your position, recognizing your opponent's style and more.먹튀폴리스
ReplyDeleteA lot of people believe that they can tell when a slot machine is going to pay out! qiu qiu online
ReplyDeleteIf so, this article is just for you, illustrating the significance and value of sports memorabilia in order to relieve and remember the triumphs and tragedies of our heroes.먹튀폴리스
ReplyDelete. But what sets many of these Sin City sports palaces apart is their customer service. 먹튀검증
ReplyDeleteCrackStreams is another popular alternative for streaming live sports, offering thousands of live sports streams across various categories.tridewi
ReplyDelete