Broken Promises Upgrade Reviews: Arcanists

Took a little break (silly jobs that insist on my doing things besides writing about Malifaux) but we’re back to talk about the Arcanists.

               First, however, let me remind you about our Patreon page. For those who are unfamiliar, Patreon is a way by which fans like you can help content creators like me turn our ideas into reality. It cuts out the middleman of having to put ads up on my blog and lets you lend support to me directly. But what am I going to do with this money, you might ask? Well, one of the things I had in mind was to do product reviews of each of the Malifaux, The Other Side, and Through the Breach books when they come out. I would put the money you use towards it directly. Another idea was to acquire prize support to run a Vassal Malifaux league. I have some more thoughts as well, but you get the idea. The more successful the Patreon is, the more I can build. Additionally, I've thought about having Through the Breach adventures written exclusively for my patrons. And I just like interacting with the patrons directly. Today’s article topic, the Arcanists, was picked by Rich, who was our first patron. The next article will be Neverborn because of our second patron’s preference. Anyways, enough with the pitch, but if you’ve got a dollar to spare per month, I’d love to have it.

Ramos

               It may surprise you that the words “Spider” “Arachnid” or “Construct” do not appear anywhere on Dr. Ramos’ upgrades for this book. Instead, it appears that his new options are designed to improve his ability to do things other than summon the four-legged spiders onto the board. Given the deemphasis of the role of Summoning in the new GG2018 (which Phiasco wrote about in this post) that may be a good thing. The first, Leviathan Power Core, gives Ramos a buff based on how many Soulstones have been used by models during the game. Every time this happens, he gains the “Powering Up +1” condition that extends the range of his electrical fire an inch per point of the condition. Additionally, when he activates he can lower his powering up by an amount he chooses and gain buffs based on the amount it is reduced. These range from giving him a + modifier to the first duel of the turn for 1 point to giving him Fast for 4 points. You can’t control how your opponent is going to use their soulstones, so you only really know what you’re going to do during the game. It may be interesting to try it from the perspective of using Ramos to summon on the first couple turns of the game, discarding stones to increase the condition, and then transitioning him to a ranged combat master for the late game. I’d have to see it in practice to gauge for sure.

               The other upgrade represents his position as (former) leader of the Union, Vox Populi. It gives Ramos a 0 action attack against WP that can make a model count as a Peon for encounter purposes and block it from taking Interact actions until its next activation. Additionally, his Strike! Action lets him throw out a pair of 50mm markers not touching any models or each other. Enemy models treat these as 3/4/4 damage Sever Hazardous terrain. They only last for a turn and don’t provide any cover, but they could be useful to block a choke point. Turning a model into a Peon is useful, but only being able to do it once a turn limits this. Overall I’m kind of “Meh” on Ramos’ upgrades. They’re not bad, but they don’t leap out at me either.

Marcus

               Apparently Marcus and McMourning have been collaborating, given that now the good Doctor can bring beasts into his fights and Marcus has learned some of his former pupils’ poison tricks. Venomancy gives him the standard Infect trigger to his Shillelagh attacks. It lets him use a 0 to pulse poison off of one of his beasts to put a point of Poison on any model within 3” of it, or 2 points of Poison if the beast has the Infect trigger on one of its attacks. And, finally, it grants Marcus and any of his Henchmen with Beast the Virulent ability to make models take 2 points of damage per tick of poison rather than one. The big thing that’s missing, of course, is McMourning’s ability to force models’ poison conditions to tick at the beginning of their activation, which improves the conditions’ ability to actually kill something in a timely fashion, so it remains to be seen if this will be enough to make Poison Marcus a thing. But they’re sure trying to get there, aren’t they?

               The other upgrade for the Beastmaster is a new Limited, The Gods Path. This version seems to lean him towards a defensive tanking and support role, as it automatically gives him Wicked on his attacks and allows you to discard tomes (as per the other Limiteds) to gain Armor +2, +1 Ca, and/or an ability that forces models to take 2 damage if they end their activation within his engagement range. The Trail of the Gods upgrade is really good, and the silliness it lets Marcus get up to on the board is one of the reasons people like him so much. This upgrade lends itself to a much different role which may turn some players off, but I think could be effective in boards that are particularly dense with terrain or otherwise won’t require the big movement buffs. Armor +2 will help improve his survivability, but he's still Df 5 without other significant defensive abilities. I don't know if it will be enough, but I'm curious to see. 

Rasputina

               Obviously, one of the advantages of these new upgrades is the ability to introduce a new playstyle to old masters. One of the biggest examples of this would be Enveloped in Ice for Raspy, which increases her Walk, gives her a point of armor, and allows her to perform a 1 melee action once per turn on a model that ends its turn in her engagement range. “But wait!” you say, “Raspy doesn’t have a melee attack.” Oh ho, my friend, do I have news for you…she does now from this card. Ok, I guess that wasn't as dramatic as I built it up to be. I mean, it’s Ml6 2/3/5. That’s not amazing, but it can’t be reduced by models with the Slow or Paralyzed condition and has a Tome trigger to give that condition out. She still has no charge and this only makes her Walk 4, so it would more likely be useful as a counter-attack action for when opponents try to engage her to cut off her ranged attacks. Still, Melee Raspy…that’s just hard to picture…

               Maybe more interesting is Frozen Servants, that gives her a limited ability to start pretending to be a summoner. For the cost of a 7 of tomes she can summon an Ice Gamin out of a scrap marker and, upping the cost to an 11 and two tomes (meaning you need an 11+ of tomes and a stone) you can summon an ice golem. They both take about half their Wounds in damage when they come in, but considering they explode when they die this might be more of a feature than a flaw. Finally, any Living models with Frozen Heart gain a 0 action to eat corpse markers to gain a healing flip with the unusual requirement of making a WP duel to do it. Cut to a shot of the newly summoned ice constructs giving you a “Hey, what about us?” look. Because, apparently, I don’t hate playing against her enough, so now she can be a summoner too. I guess if she’s doing that, she’s not blasting my crew to ribbons…

Ironsides

               The M&SU’s new president (no word on whether she’s vowed to make the M&SU great again) gained the ability to manipulate her Adrenaline condition a bit more by electing not to reduce it and heal at the end of the turn. Additionally, a (0) Tactical Action gives her a Challenge ala Barbaros which fits well with her “get into the middle of things and mess stuff up" ethos. From my times playing Titania I can tell you that these Challenges are more disruptive than you think (the look on an opponent’s face when they realize they have to pass the test to target their own friendly models is usually worth the price of admission all by itself.) Complementing it, her other upgrade lets her increase Adrenaline at the beginning of her turn by 1 and gives her a ram trigger on her Brass Knuckles to heal an amount of damage equal to the damage she causes. These two are pretty complementary, so I’d imagine you’d take them both in tandem, step to the middle of the opponent’s crew and dare them to move you.

Collette

               Audience Participation, her first upgrade, has some fun concepts on it. The first, “Add an Extra Flourish,” gives her an 8” aura wherein any Showgirl Minion models that activate gain Focused+1. This would be cooler if there were more minion showgirls to choose from (and I’m certainly not wearing my Seamus hat while typing this) but as it stands, will mostly help her Performers and Coryphee more than anything I’m thinking. She also gains a 0 action, “I Need a Volunteer” that allows her to do a version of Collodi’s hated “I use your first AP for you” trigger after winning a Willpower duel. You need a 7 of tomes at least to cast it, but it could be quite irritating.

               Her other upgrade alters The Dancing Blade, her 0 AP melee attack. The upgrade allows her to discard one of her scheme markers within 8” to perform the attack as a (1) action. If it hits and does damage, it also Slows the model. To offset the cost, she has a Mask trigger on the attack to also discard an enemy scheme marker. I don’t know about this one. Maybe if the trigger had allowed you to place one of your own scheme markers instead I’d like it more.

Kaeris

               The Guild’s #1 most wanted terrorist (arsonist? I guess they’re not mutually exclusive…) picked up a number of things related to heat, fire, burning…you get the idea. Heat Wave (and yes, if you play this upgrade you’re required to sing the Martha and the Vandellas song) puts Burning +1 on a model when it activates and/or when it ends an activation within 3” of her. Yes, that means you get Burning +2 if you start and end next to her, so you probably don’t want to do that. Interestingly, she also gains a 0 action to apply the condition Heatstroke to enemy models within pulse 6 of her. Heatstroke starts out at 0 but can be increased by reducing the Burning from any models within the pulse 1-for-1. Why would you want to reduce burning? Because Heatstroke reduces final duel totals by an amount equal to the value of the condition, to a max of 3. That’s actually pretty significant. Imagine if you were DF 5 and then effectively changed to DF 2. You won’t want to do it all the time (as a model that dies from burning has its duel totals much more significantly reduced, you might say) but it could be pretty decent, I think.

               The other upgrade, Flaming Angel, is a bit more intuitive. It gives her a 1 AP action to push up to 8” in any direction, ignoring intervening models. At the end of this, any model she moves through during the push gains Burning +1. This has some utility for movement as well as offense, as her walk is normally only 6. Additionally, a second tome on her Immolate action lets her spread Burning to other models within pulse 3 of the original target. More movement plus giving her a pseudo AoE that fuels her other abilities=good times.

Sandeep

               So, the undisputed king of the Arcanist tournament scene. What can we give him that won’t make a tilted faction become even more tilted? Well, how about letting him borrow spells from other Academics the way they borrow them from him? Oh, your favorite Ca action is on a model that isn’t an Academic? No worries, he has a Rg6 (0) to give them a + to Ca actions and makes them count as an Academic until the end of the turn. Admittedly, he has to discard a card to use the cast from these pseudo-Academics, but still, there are opportunities here. I’m not sure there’s anything in particular Sandeep was missing that this fixes, but versatility is Sandeep's strength. Giving him more options isn't a bad thing.

               His other upgrade is a new Limited (thank god) that tries to turn him into a melee master. His melee attacks gain Burning +1 or Burning +2 if Banasuva isn’t on the board. It also allows models with the Toss ability to treat him as being Ht. 1, which is at least an amusing mental image. He also gains a Tome trigger to summon Banasuva into base to base with a model he damages with said melee attacks, ignoring its Jealous Firelord ability. If big B is already out on the board, the same suit can activate a different trigger to push him 4” towards the enemy model and give them Burning +2 if he engages them. This would be a very different version of Sandeep than what we already see, obviously. Again, GG2018 deemphasizes summoning, which may make up for the loss of his other Limited upgrades. And, honestly of the summoning masters, he's probably the one that is least reliant on his summons. But still, my knee-jerk reaction is “He was good the way he was. Why would I change to something completely different?”

               His Conflux upgrade turns the Emmisary into a Gamin and gives it the ability Teaching Assistant which allows other friendly models within 6” of him to use his casting actions at -1 Ca once per turn, much like Sandeep. For those of you who (like me) forgot what its Ca action looks like, it’s a Ca6 (so they’ll have Ca5) Rg 6 or Melee 2 that does 2/3/5 and has a trigger for each suit. As with the initial examination of Sandeep himself, this ability is kind of average on its own, but spread out to other cheap minions could be pretty cool. The thing is, the Arcane Emissary has this Ca action and doesn’t see a ton of play as is. Will this be enough to change that? I’m not sure. 

Gaining Grounds 2018 open Beta : Strategies Last edit 8/24

By: Phiasco

So for those of you who haven't heard Wyrd has opened Gaining Grounds 2018 for beta testing.  Odds are I won't get around to updating this blog real time.  So what I am thinking is I will update this once a month or so.  I will endeavor to record the evolution of the document to it's final form.

I think this link will get you to the page where the link to the current iteration of the document can be found.  Link to page with the current Gaining Grounds 2018 document.

If you wish to participate in the beta there are a few things you should keep in mind.  There are likely things you might have strong feelings about.  The best way to make sure your opinion is considered is to play games to generate data in a battle report.  From what I understand, if you send them I think this X scheme ought to be written as Y, and there is no data to support it, then odds are good it will be ignored.



Things that I have noticed have changed in the general document:

-There appears to be a change to deck etiquette.  But the language needs to be cleaned up as there is contradictory elements but it looks like players will gain the ability to refuse to cut your opponent's deck.

-Slow play has been redefined since it is difficult to establish it is intentional.

Strategies:

-Strategy conditions may Not be ignored in any way.  This includes things such as condition immunity.
Initial reaction; Up to now there have been no strategy conditions.  As such this has possibly been an issue for schemes where some crews just shut down condition schemes forcing the opponent into a smaller pool.  Looking at the document I am happy with strategy conditions sticking to all models.  If we are lucky the handing out condition based schemes will not fall on suits or doubles and then worse case scenario is there are 3 viable schemes verse Hamelin.

-Summoned models do Not count for strategy purposes.
Initial reaction; McCabe's horse reclaims its Master status.  In all seriousness this is something the game probably needs regardless if this iteration makes it or not.  In the end it changes the function of summoned models to screen for scoring models or to go run schemes.  I have a feeling this will cause the greatest gut reaction but I think most players will adapt and a few will abandon summoners instead of embracing the challenge of slight alterations to play style.  To be fair summoned models in most cases feel like cannon fodder I care less about then the peons in my lists.  So thematically it doesn't make sense for them to score.  I expect there might be a tweak to this condition but I do expect it to make it through to the final document in some form.

- Ours (masks); Basically reconnoiter but you add up SS value of all of your models per quarter vs the SS value of your opponents models.
Initial reaction; I have a feeling this will be clunkier than intended.  I know people who have trouble adding their acting value to the flipped card in a timely manner to the point I have started to memorize the acting values of most of the common models.  I will attempt to play test it as is when I get a chance.

- Ply for Information (tomes); I read this wrong in the late hours of last night.  Your model interacts with an enemy model to gain the condition on your model.  Then you try to keep the condition until the end of the game.
Initial reaction; Your crew will want to be able to hit, run and survive.  Or just have a ton of activation control.  Very interesting in any case.

- Public Executions (crows); Kill a non peon bad guy and prevent the bad guys from capturing the flag it drops.  Score if you have more friendly flags than your opponent.
Initial reaction; Summoned models won't drop flags, they can make the enemy drop them, and claim them (the turn after they are summoned).  Lure and anti lure tech will be big for this strategy.  I like the idea but something feels off and I probably won't see it until I play it a few times.

- Symbols of Authority (rams); Place 4 flags (2 on each side).  Score VP for flags you remove from their side and flags remaining on your side at the end of the game.
Initial reaction; Chatty, Don't Mind Me, Lure, Anti-Lure, push, anti-push, and probably a couple other abilities will be big.  It will probably play a lot like Rock, Paper, Scissors depending on if your crew trumps what your opponent crew is trying to do.  I like strategies where there are only 4 VP total to be had.

- Put Out a Hit (jokers); <I realize this is in programmer speak> place 2 30mm strategy markers, one on each side not in deployment.  Discard a card a the start of any turn to hand out a condition nested in another condition to an enemy model.  Then kill the enemy model to collect the nested condition.  Bring the nested condition to either marker to score VP.
Initial reaction; So basically my crew discards a card and selects super beater model in the other crew.  Then I kill that model to get the payment condition and try to get the model with the payment condition to either strategy marker to score. If the other crew kills or sacs the model after it is targeted then I score a VP.  There are a few moving parts to this but outside of Ours it seems the most straightforward new strategy.  Can't wait to play it to have some constructive feedback.

I will run the new Schemes in the next blog which I ought to have out shortly.

Broken Promises Upgrade Reviews: Gremlins

Standard disclaimer: I don’t know Gremlins. I don’t play them. I rarely play against them (with one exception...curse you Wong...). So, there’s a very real chance this article will be more filled with inaccuracies than usual. So bear with me. Luckily, the Max Value podcast did their Gremlins episode on Sunday, so I at least had that to listen to and prepare. So if our opinions sound similar…there’s a reason.

Ophelia

               Her first upgrade is Useless Junk. No, that’s the name, not my opinion of it *rimshot*. It allows her to dump a 30mm Trash marker anywhere in Ophelia’s LoS whenever she discards another upgrade. What’s a trash marker, you ask? Where would I be without you, my easily suggestible audience? At the beginning of any other kin model’s activation, they can push 6” towards a trash marker. If they come into base contact, they heal 2 and drop a scheme marker, but either way the Trash Marker gets discarded. An interesting utility tool for kin heavy Ophelia crews (which, let’s be honest, just means it’s a way for Francois to get some free movement.)

               Metal-Lined coat seems decent as well. It gives her Instinctual, which is usually useful. Also, if you discard it for Plink! It prevents 2 damage instead of one. It costs 2 stones, which seems a tad steep, but since her little cousins can toss her stuff during the game maybe you can attach it later on. Not flashy, but decent.

Som’er Teeth Jones

               Neither of Som’er’s (the rare double apostrophe) upgrades really blew me away. Insectophile adds a trigger to his melee attack to summon a Skeeter with a crow. Skeeters are ok, but a melee summoning trigger’s not great in general, and Som’er Teeth wants to summon Bayou Gremlins or shoot his gun. Hell, it’s even on the same suit as the piglet summoning, so it’s really just giving you a choice of summoning one or the other when most folks I don’t think really used the piglet summon anyways. Higher Proof is a little bit different, as it lets a friendly model in LoS that uses Drunk and Reckless gain a condition that increases it’s Sh value but prevents you from declaring triggers on your attacks. I guess if you wanted to do a gunline type list this could be good, but I just don’t see it. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong.

 

Brewmaster

               I’m glad to see that they gave Brewie some stuff to do besides just get the opponent’s crew drunk and try to lock them down all game. A Barkeep Never Sleeps gives him an ability to make poison tick for 3 damage rather than one ala Sebastian for any models within 6” of him and gives him a 0 action to resummon Apprentice Wesley. I don’t know how often Brewmaster crews would lose Wesley, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt as an insurance policy on your insurance policy.

               The other upgrade is A Friendly Ear, and I think it has some interesting potential as well. When targeting a model with the poison condition on it, the TN for his duels (namely his Obey action) gain +Mask to the final duel total. So, if he does it to a friendly model with poison, all he has to do is hit the TN to succeed, which is huge. And it makes using the Obey on enemy models much more practical. Handy, especially for a control oriented master like Brewy. The other action, Explosive Mixture, makes all enemy models within 3 pass a TN 12 Wk duel or suffer 2 damage. Again, this one seems like icing on a good cake, but also again I’m glad to see Brewmaster gain some offense rather than just being a passive lock-down (even if it’s in the form of “lock you down and then blow you up.”

Ulix

               His upgrades very much are what one would expect for a support master. Disembodied Sooey lets him target a non-pig model within 8 and have every pig within a 6” pulse move their Cg towards it. One of them that moved at least 1” gets to make a 1 Ml attack action against it. This is alright, but it seems like models that can charge for 1 AP and are within 6” of a target don’t really need this to get the job done. If it was longer range and worked like Mortimer’s Fresh Meat I could see it being really useful, but this seems more situational.

               I was saying in the Resser article that an ideal upgrade for a Summoning crew is one that provides passive buffs, as their AP are mostly spoken for on the majority of turns. Pig Midwifery is a good example of this. Any pigs that are summoned within Aura 3 of Ulix don’t become slow, and any Living Pig that is killed or sacrificed within 8” of Ulix and 3” of another pig lets the other pig heal 2 points of damage (ostensibly by eating the dead one.) Simple, straightforward. If Ulix crews have the space for it and plan on doing some summoning, there’s no reason not to bring it along.

Wong

               Ah, Wong, my old nemesis. What new tricks have you learned? Behold My Effervescence! gives him a 3 AP action to Lightning Jump every model within range and Line of Sight. They don’t randomize when shooting into engagements, which seems like the opposite of what Wong wants most of the time. Additionally, he gains a 1 AP action to flip a card for each model within pulse 6 of him, with a random effect based on the suit that flips. This is randomness, and the kind of randomness that would drive me crazy and lose me games. I don’t like it.

               The other upgrade increases the benefits a model gains from being deemed “Magical” at the start of the game, granting them Don’t Mind Me and Agility and preventing the condition from being removed in addition to the normal buffs. If the Swinecursed didn’t exist, I’d be worried that this was putting all your eggs in one basket, as killing that one model would make the upgrade useless. Spreading it around to other models helps, but I wonder if Don’t Mind Me and Agility are all that useful to a Swinecursed model. Time will tell, I suppose.

Mah Tucket

               I’m told that Mah Tucket isn’t very good in Malifaux. I’m also told that these upgrades make her a lot better. I can’t tell you for sure whether they do or not, as I’ve never seen this “Mah Tucket” in person.

               Manifest Destiny seems to be the big one. It lets any models with “Get off my Land!” (Mah, the Little Lass, and Bushwackers, unless I missed something) use it every turn rather than just on the first one, and allows them to cross the center line with it on any turn after the first. Additionally, any time Mah discards a card outside of a duel she gets to then draw a card. The aforementioned Get off my Land is one thing you have to discard for. Also, her 0 actions. Card cycling is good, ya’ll. Finally, her melee attacks gain an inch of range. So this isn’t so much an upgrade card as a straight buff. Go ahead and staple it to her.

               The other upgrade is Pit Traps, which lets you throw out three 30mm pit trap markers after both crews have deployed at the beginning of the game. Rather than Blight you, they force you to discard a card or become slow. They can also be removed in the same manner as the Plague Pits, but Mah gains a 1 AP tactical action to discard a card (and then draw one, since you’ll have MD) and place a new trap marker in base to base with her. You can’t take it while engaged (that would be mean) so it’ll take some foreplanning to make it work. It’s not as useful as Manifest Destiny, but it’s got potential.

Zipp

               Zipp’s upgrades are a little all over the place, in that one I think I’d use most of the time and the other is…situational. Let’s get that one out of the way first. Supply Drop at least doesn’t cost Zipp any of his AP (you couldn’t pay me to use it if it did.) Instead, it allows Zipp to flip a card once per turn after he completes a walk action. Based on the suit, an effect happens. One drops a blast marker within 2” of him that deals 1 point of damage to everyone touching it. Another drops some blocking terrain within an inch of him. A third drops a scheme marker, and the fourth pushes Zipp 2”. Jokers let you flip two cards and resolve both. If you were able to cheat the flip, it would be a different story. As it is, the effects are all too different from each other, so you’ll never know what you’re going to get and it will often be the one you don’t want. Pass.

               The Dread Pirate Zipp on the other hand is quite amusing. It gives Zipp a 0 action to summon a Bayou gremlin and then bury himself, called “I am not the Dread Pirate Zipp.” At the end of the turn, you resummon Zipp in base to base with any Bayou Gremlin you have on the board and sacrifice the Bayou Gremlin, as that one is obviously the “real” Zipp. While he’s buried, all the Bayous in play gain a 0 action to hand out Incite to enemy models, which is pretty cool. Playing this upgrade on Zipp is interesting and a good way to potentially get him out of danger, but may not actually be the best use for it. A lot of what Zipp does is annoy the opponent by being on the board and messing up their stuff. An idea I heard the Max Value fellas talk about (and one of them borrowed it from someone on the Wyrd forums, so citing sources gets even stupider…) is to instead put this upgrade on Sami. I think it’s Sami. That’s the one that can attach a master’s upgrade, right? Anyways, whatever that one is, put this upgrade on them. They activate at the beginning of the turn, do their thing, and then bury themselves. Meanwhile, Zipp still gets to flit around and mess things up for your opponent, and you have Bayou Gremlins with Incite that is incredibly obnoxious (you know, unlike the rest of this crew…)

               Finally, his Conflux for the Lucky Emmisary lets it work like the giant death wheel that it really is. The model gains the Trample ability allowing it to move through Ht 1 and 2 models during any move or push. It also gains the Death Wheel ability which allows it to, once per turn, force any models it moved through on a walk to make TN 12 wk duel or suffer 2 damage. Oh yeah, and he gets Witty Banter to turn on a 4” Chatty aura as long as he has LoS to Zipp as a 0 action. Seems good.

               So, that’s it for the Gremlins (Zoraida’s a Neverborn master, and I won’t hear any argument to the contrary.) You may have noticed there was no pitch for the Patreon account at the top. That’s because we got our first patron, and as a reward for being first in line, I let him pick the next faction to review. So, next out of the chute is going to be the Arcanists! If you want to pick who is coming after that, go to our patreon page and sign up. A $1 donation will at least get you a vote (assuming that this magnificent, inspirational reward gets the pledges rolling in that is. More likely you’ll be the only one to sign up and you’ll get to pick. Tough to argue with that!) 

Broken Promises Upgrade Review: Ressurectionists

For this next post, we're going to talk about the cool new upgrades for Rezzers. Before I do, though, I want to take another opportunity to encourage people to sign up as my patron on Patreon. I've really enjoyed all the positive response these articles are getting, but it isn't an insignificant amount of work to get them done. It would be amazing to get a little something back for the effort. I'm not talking a lot of cash, here. I would love for you to start at $1 a month just to let me know you enjoy the work as well. 

McMourning

               Ready for some weird science? Get ready for Dr. M, because stuff just got weird. To start with the more normal one, let’s go with Guild Coroner. It gives him an ability to, after killing a model with a melee attack, drop a scheme marker in base contact with a different enemy model within 12” and LoS (effectively, him pointing at them and saying “He did it!” McMourning is then allowed to use one of the 0 actions printed on the stat card. One lets him discard every corpse marker within 3” of him, adding a soulstone to his pool for every two corpses ditched in this way (I would think this would be 1 most of the time.) The other, corpse retrieval duty, lets you ditch a single corpse to draw two cards and then discard one.  I like that they don’t cost you anything you wouldn’t be doing anyways (killing stuff.) Not sure how much the soulstone thing will pay off for you, but could be useful.

               On the other hand FRIGGIN TEST SUBJECTS! *ahem* *composes himself* This upgrade allows Dr. McMourning to hire 4 non-Gamin beasts or academics from other factions into his crew. That is bonkers. Welcome to Marcus 2.0, but with Academics and potentially the Guild as well. There are too many options to go through all the stuff that could end up being useful here. Guild McMourning gets the most use out of it, as this lets him hire Rogue Necromancies and the University Transmortis stuff out of faction. I like that it lets him hire Myranda in, since they’re family and all. I’m just jacked to see all the things you can try with him now.

             

Seamus

               Do You Know Who I Am? Enhances the fear based Seamus crew by punishing models for passing their Horror duel. Once per turn, an enemy that passes a horror duel within 6” of him can be forced to take a 2/3/4 damage flip. If the flip does severe damage, you can place a condition called Infamy on Seamus to increase the TN of his Horror duels by one, to a max of +3. If you’ve built yourself to be attacking Horror, I would have to think it’s worth the card to cheat in and move up the TN. On top of that, he gained a new 0 action, Boo! It forces all enemy models within 3” of him to pass a TN 12 horror duel. Making the opponent flip more cards when nothing good can come of it for them and plenty of bad can happen instead is a good thing. Plus, it has a built in trigger called You Can Run that lets you push anybody who passes the duel a number of inches away from Seamus equal to 2+ his Infamy condition. I think this upgrade is pretty strong.

               Maybe likely to gather more buzz is AKA Sebastian Baker, which allows Seamus to hire Showgirls at the beginning of the game (what’s the deal with the Rezzers expanding their hiring pools this book? Can Nicodem hire Oni now too?) Additionally, when he uses his Arise My Sweet, he can sub in a Showgirl minion instead of a Belle. The Showgirls lose the Living characteristic and become undead whether they’re hired or summoned. The hiring is interesting as it grants him access to showgirls like Carlos and Cassandra (though you’d think Collette would have noticed the smell if Seamus had murderd and reanimated them.) Hiring a performer without the merc tax for games like Headhunter is ok. My thing is, Seamus only gets to summon once a turn, and if he gets the opportunity I would think he would want to summon a Belle. More flexibility is a good thing, I suppose, and he could potentially get an Ice Dancer, which would be ok. Oh, and he gets to use a 0 action to place a scheme marker in base contact with a piece of terrain somewhere within 12”. It’s not a BAD upgrade by any stretch of the imagination. I just feel like “Do You Know Who I Am?” takes an already pretty good Seamus build and makes it objectively better.

Nicodem

               So, one of his upgrades is Their Last Breath, which basically lets him take a living friendly Rezzer model who dies anywhere within his LoS and buy you a few more turns with it. It isn’t killed and heals all wounds, but gains a Decaying condition. This makes them Undead, limits them to healing no more than the Decaying condition every turn (it starts at +2) and deals 2 damage to them when they activate that can’t be prevented, ignored, or reduced. Every turn the Decaying condition increases. I’m trying to think of who would be a prime candidate for this and nothing’s IMMEDIATELY jumping out at me. Mortimer? I guess that could be useful, since Morty is trading his wounds for corpse counters all game. (Also, why are there no Nic and Morty memes out there anywhere?) Vincent St. Claire? The new Assura Rotten henchman? I’m really not sure what the best application for this would be. I’m sure someone will point it out in the comments. Also, it’s worth noting that this works like Titannia’s Queen’s Champion where it goes off when the condition is met, rather than when you choose, except this one doesn’t have the ability to pay a cost and keep it from activating at all. So, whatever you’re going to do with it, it’s probably best if you only have one target in your crew that can gain it (so, no Vultures I guess.) This would, however, be pretty sick in a doubles event. Oh, you killed Seamus? Guess what, he’s still alive.

               Speaking of Vultures, his other upgrade is Circling Buzzards. This one lets you discard however many cards you want at the beginning of the game to place one corpse for each two cards on the centerline, so long as they’re at least 8” away from any other corpses. Getting more corpse markers on the board is undeniably good for Nicodem, but I wonder if the cost is too high. They do have a lot of card draw in Phillip and the Nanny abuse, but if you drew a pretty strong opening hand it might be kinda painful to ditch four cards for 2 corpses. Also, Nico gains the ability to summon Vultures into base contact with a Corpse Marker at Range 8. There’s a Ram trigger to drop a scheme marker behind when you perform the summoning as well. Again, debatable if this is better than what Nicodem already uses, but ranged Scheme Marker placement without an interact isn’t terrible.

Kirai

               Both of Kirai’s upgrades give her passive abilities, which I like for summoning masters. Their AP is usually pretty much spoken for every turn. The first, Ectoplasm, grants her the ability to place a scheme marker in base to base with any non-peon Spirit that she kills or sacrifices during her activation. This will typically be Ikiryo I would think, who you sacrifice to then resummon somewhere else on the board, allowing you to potentially generate an extra scheme marker per turn. Still, there could be some utility here. Second, Spiteful Wrath makes her Seishin count as Undead and allows them to be affected by the Malevolence Aura from her and the Lost Love. This could potentially make them very annoying for opponents to deal with.

               Vengeance Will Be Mine gives her an aura that prevents removal of the Adversary condition from models within 6” of her. As someone who has played Beckoners before, this isn’t that big of an aura, and it will be difficult to plan on using this offensively in a game. On the other hand, enemies are likely to want to get up close to her to stop her summoning, so this could be a useful defensive ability. It just remains to be seen if that’s enough to warrant an upgrade slot and a soulstone.

Molly

               I’ve secretly suspected that one of the unspoken design goals of this book and the upgrades in it are to give really strong options to masters that needed a boost while, instead, granting side-grades to ones that are already pretty good. One of Molly’s upgrades kind of flies in the face of this, though, as I consider her to be a Tier 1.5 master at worst, and her Back on the Job upgrade is one of the strongest tactical options in the game IMO. Embodying her new-old job in Malifaux as a reporter, Molly’s Thorough Investigation allows her to LOOK AT HER OPPONENT’S UNREVEALED SCHEMES AFTER CREWS ARE DEPLOYED. Now, go ahead and think about that one for a second. You don’t get to know the names or variables on the schemes, so you don’t have to say who the sucker is on Frame for Murder, but just knowing that this is what they’re doing is in-freaking-sanely strong, and lets you immediately move to block what your opponent is doing with the assurance that your guess is most likely correct. Wowzers. The Tactical Action to discard an enemy Scheme Marker and draw a card once a turn, which is pretty good in and of itself, is just icing on the cake.

               Possibly overshadowed is Forgotten Items. Lost and Found allows Molly’s summons to prevent damage based on enemy Scheme Markers within pulse 3 when they’re summoned rather than enemy models (you get to choose which.) The flexibility is probably pretty good. And Things I Almost Remember allows her to draw 2 cards when she reveals a scheme. Card draw in a summoning crew? Pretty solid. I think Molly did pretty well with these upgrades.

Reva

               As with all the other Book 4 masters, Reva gets 2 upgrades and a conflux for the Carrion Emmisary. Riders in the Sky allows her to force an enemy model to take a TN12 Horror Duel when she charges them. It also gives her a (0) action to place a Blast Marker touching every Corpse Marker in play, regardless of LoS. Every model touched by one or more blast markers must succeed at a TN 12 Wk duel or gain Burning +2. Additionally, there is a tome trigger that makes every model which gains Burning pass a TN 10 Horror duel (is it me, or if a dead body just exploded and set me on fire, wouldn’t the TN be higher than 10?) I don’t know that most players would be going near corpse markers in games against Reva if they could help it anyways, but often you don’t have a choice.

               Specter of Death gives Reva something else to use as the source of her attacks: spirits. If you use them as the origin of the attacks they do one point less of damage, down to a minimum of zero. Additionally, it gives her a crow trigger on her Ethereal Reaping to summon a Seishin when she kills something. I can see the benefits of adding more things for her to attack out of, particularly when they can move towards the enemy. I think using spirits is clever, as they don’t drop corpses when the enemy kills them to prevent a positive feedback from the effects. It really just depends on whether this was necessary, ie if Reva was having trouble getting targets in range before now. I don’t think that was the case, but more tactical flexibility is never a BAD thing.

               Her Conflux upgrade gives the Carrion Emissary the ability to count as a corpse marker. A 50mm mobile corpse marker could provide her with quite a bit of increased threat projection. Adding to this, the Emissary can discard a card as a 0 action to place themselves in base to base with a corpse marker. If the card is a crow, you can push the marker 3” in any direction after placing yourself, also potentially improving their placement. It does deal 2 damage to the Emissary when you use it, so you might not want to do it every turn, but I think it could be pretty useful for Reva. Given his Shards’ ability to summon Mindless Zombies which also function as mobile corpse markers, I think you’ll see the Carrion Emissary in many Reva crews (assuming you don't already).

               Tara’s upgrades are discussed in the Outcasts article, and Yan Lo’s are in TenThunders. Next time we’ll be talking about the Gremlins.  

Broken Promises Upgrade Review: Outcasts

I’m going through the factions in the reverse order that I did the models, earlier, so Outcasts are up next. Warning: I make a lot of mistakes when theorizing what is good and what isn’t when I’m talking about factions I actually play. The Outcasts, on the other hand, I don’t play at all. So, I’ll do my best, but expect me to be wrong…frequently.

But before that happens, did I mention that Malifaux Musings is on Patreon now? What's Patreon you ask? It's a way for people like you who are entertained by content creators like me to support our efforts. You sign up for a monthly donation to the pool and, if enough people jump in, it unlocks bonus stuff in the future. For instance, I want to introduce a monthly raffle for some limited edition models that we have lying around in the MM warehouse for my Patrons. I'm not asking for a ton of money from any individual, either. Have you got $1 every month? I'll take it! So go to our Patreon page and donate! And if you put your money in while I'm doing these articles, I can certainly be convinced to do my review of your faction first ;). 

Von Schill

               His first upgrade, Oath of the Freikorps, introduces the ability for V.S. crews to manipulate the Oathkeeper upgrade. Any model in the crew with the Upgrade attached gets a positive flip to duels against anything Von Schill damages with his attacks. Pretty sweet, but the real power of Oathkeeper comes from discarding it to gain fast. So, does this upgrade become useless later in the game? Not so much, because V.S. also gains a 1 ap Tactical Action to attach Oathkeeper to a Friekorps model within 12” of him as long as there are less than 2 of them in the crew at the time. Even without the plus flips, this Upgrade would probably be useful for reattaching one of the best generic upgrades in the game. A plus to all duels is almost like icing on the cake.

               Nythera Aftermath is more designed to make V.S. an individual badass. Target Practice lets him take a shot with his gun against an enemy that places within 6” of him with a plus flip to the attack. Probably the most useful part of the upgrade is Practiced Ambidexterity that lets him take the attacks from a charge against separate targets. And, finally, it gives him an attack with his new robot arm that does a small amount of damage but lets V.S. knock the model 6” away from him after damaging. I don’t know V.S. well enough to say if this makes him a strong beater (or significantly stronger than he already is.) I think the first upgrade will be more universally useful.

Tara

               Ah, Tara. The master I’m probably least likely to ever want to play. Surely they didn’t keep going with this “no control hand” thing, did they? *reads Out of Time.* Oh, well, n/m.

               Out of Time gives her a + to all flips when Tara has no cards in hand, so likely in her reactivation at the end of the turn rather than at the beginning. It changes the 2 AP Void Maw action into a 1 AP action, allowing for them to do a bit better job of chewing up buried models. Finally, I’m at least intrigued by The Clock is Ticking, a new 1 AP attack action. It’s Ca 7 (Tome) and range 6. It does automatic damage, which I like (the fewer card flips, the better) equal to the turn number, and a built in Tomes trigger heals Tara for the same amount. You can only take the action once per turn, but I still think it could be useful, assuming Tara is still alive in the later turns of the game.

               Emptiness is a bit more interesting. It’s a 0 cost upgrade that allows her to ignore the upgrade limit for any upgrade cards that are specifically for Tara (is it ironic that the Nothingness crew gets to attach the most upgrades? Possibly…) You may not want all of her upgrades in the game, necessarily, but even a junk one can be discarded later in the game to draw cards equal to the soulstone cost, turning running a Tara crew away from the “dump your hand” game and changing it to “manage the number of cards in your hand to match the situation.” Dump cards until your opponent’s beaters activate, then build it back up? I don’t know. In any case, Out of Time and Emptiness don’t really jive with each other, so that’s weird too.

               Did I mention Tara’s not my cup of tea?

Viktorias

               The Soaring Dragon improves the Viktoria crew’s ability to play a hit-and-run game. It can be attached to either Vik and allows that one to start the game buried. All friendly Sister models gain a 0 action to unbury a friendly sister and place them in base to base. They aren’t able to chain activate, so you’ll either want to bring them out somewhere safe or make sure you have activation control before you do it, but it can provide some interesting mobility. I don’t know that you would always want to start buried, since you can’t come back until turn 2. Instead, I think you’d want to do the standard Viktoria slingshot, throwing the model with this upgrade forward. After it kills a target you can discard 2 cards and bury her, improving her survivability significantly and making the Viks less all-or-nothing. Of course, it also means you could maybe do the slingshot multiple times in the same game, which would be unpleasant for the opponents one would think.

               Sisterly Bonds is less about improving their offense and maybe giving the crew a bit more survivability. Any sister model heals 1/2/3 damage whenever they gain a condition from an enemy model, which is situational at best. Viktoria of Ashes can also use a 0 action to give a minion within 6” the Sister characteristic until the end of the turn. I’m sure this opens up some interesting interactions with the rest of the crew gaining synergy buffs, but I don’t know what they are. This one doesn’t seem as useful, to me. Which probably means it’s game breaking and I’m just not seeing it.

Jack Daw

               Growing Injustice allows the Daw crew to exchange Guilty models for Cursed Upgrades, and vice-versa. Every time a Guilty model dies, you can attach a Curse that isn’t currently in play to Jack Daw. Then, if an enemy Tormented model dies with a Curse upgrade attached, you can summon a Guilty off of them first. Lather, rinse, repeat. Any time summoning is involved the potential for strength is there, but this is another very conditional summon. However, the fact that it doesn’t really require any resources from the Daw player other than playing Guilty means there is at least potential for this to happen incidentally.

               Cursed Life is a bit simpler. Whenever he attaches an upgrade to something, heal a point of damage. Whenever a model with a curse on it dies, draw a card. Simple as that. These abilities are good, but as I understand it upgrade slots are at a premium for Jack Daw. Time will tell if these benefits are good enough to warrant a slot.

Hamelin

               Hamelin’s first upgrade is Plague Pits, invoking the idea of the pits of dead bodies that the Guild had to create in Malifaux after the first outbreak of Piper’s Plague in Book…2? of Malifaux First Edition. After both crews are deployed, the Hamelin crew deploys a trio of 50mm Ht. 0 markers anywhere on the board that’s at least 3” away from the opponent’s deployment zone. Enemies that begin their activation or end an action within 3” of a pit marker gain Blighted +1. An enemy in base contact can choose to take a 1 AP Interact and discard a card to remove the markers, but they’ll gain at least one Blighted in the process. Finally, at the end of the turn Hamelin gets to move one of the markers up to 6” at the cost of one of his cards. Based on how these sorts of abilities have worked out in the past, they’ll be most useful defensively to try and restrict enemy movement. The fact that the enemy can send a throw-away model and spend a card to get rid of it gives me pause, but sometimes one activation can make the difference in a win or a loss. And my impression of Hamelin crews has always been that they win by stacking up these little hindrances until they snowball out of control and kill you.

               Useful Vermin is maybe a bit more universally…useful. Essentially it lets Hamelin turn two Malifaux Rats in line of sight into Scheme Markers at the beginning of the turn. Seems good. Not much to add.

Leviticus

               One of the methods of targeting Levi is to kill off his Hollow Waifs. This is often easier said than done, as he has a pretty strong incentive not to let you do that. If you can pull it off, however, he can’t get them back. That is, of course, until the Aether Shackles upgrade. It lets him spend 2 AP to summon one directly or, if there are enough scheme markers on the board within 8”, to get it out for 1 AP instead. Levi has to discard a card for each of the scheme markers, and there must be more of them than the number of Hollow Waifs on the board, but then you can ditch the scheme markers and summon the Waif. Oh, yeah, and it gives Levi a ranged ability to remove Scheme Markers. It seems like a good defensive upgrade, but I don’t know if the Waif summoning would be good enough to warrant an upgrade slot, given that most crews can’t go get the Waifs anyways. The scheme marker removal may put it over the top, however.

               Untimely Demise gives Levi the Desolation ability. Whenever he would be buried by the Pariah ability he does 2 damage to everything with pulse 3 of him. Anything killed by this damage summons an Abomination. You’re planning on dying anyways, so this could be a good way to get some decent incidental damage into your crew. The summoning can be set up with Levi’s attacks, but that’s a lot of work just to get an Abomination.

Parker Barrows

               Like the other wave 4 folks, Parker gets a pair of upgrades and a Conflux for the Emissary. Reminiscent of the Clint Eastwood western A Fistful of Dollars, Hidden Steel Plate can be discarded to reduce the damage of an attack Parker takes by 2 and grant a + Ml and Sh actions for friendly Minion models within 8 when its discarded until the end of the turn. Alternatively, he can use a 0 to remove a condition from a model. If it isn’t a Bandit you have to discard the upgrade, but that will trigger the buff action as well. Badge of Office saw play once upon a time and this is in the same vein, but the fact that Parker can pull it out of his bag of tricks as needed improves it quite a bit.

               His other upgrade gives his shooting attacks a trigger to ignore armor with his pistol attacks, which is useful for him but not exactly lacking in a faction with the Viktorias. It also grants him a 1 AP ability to place a condition on a target called Dead Man Walking and discard the upgrade. This condition allows one opposing model to take a shooting attack at the model with the condition at the end of any activation where it takes a walk or charge action. The model with the condition can discard a soulstone to parker’s cache to discard the condition, which Parker can then immediately discard to reattach the upgrade to himself. The soulstone tax could be significant, but it puts a lot of the power to choose in the opponent’s hands, which I don’t like. Many crews get by just fine with no stones, and/or the model with the condition can just hide or something to keep from getting shot. Might be interesting with somebody like Hans or a Friekorps trapper, and like all situational Parker upgrades you can always choose to use or not use it as needed, but I’m not sure it will end up being a staple.

               Finally, his conflux upgrade turns the emissary into a bandit, which should be helpful. He gains an ability to draw a card whenever he attaches one of his trinkets to a model, and it gains anew 0 action that discards an upgrade off of a friendly model to draw a card. If it’s a trinket, the model also drops an enemy scheme marker in base to base. I honestly have no idea how useful that is, but I’m sure when Phiasco builds a Parker crew and we play in the future I’ll realize why it’s good.

For discussion of Misaki, go to the Ten Thunders article, please. Next up, we’re heading to the graveyard to do the Thriller Dance. It’s Rezzer time! 

Broken Promises Upgrade Reviews: Ten Thunders

Mini-Musings

-I mean, there’s nothing really going on this week, is there? Let’s just skip this section. Oh, no, wait, Gencon 2017 is happening, so Book 5 and Upgrade cards are flying into people’s hands! And you’d better get your damned Upgrade decks fast, because the webstore is already sold out. So, bummer if you didn’t get it, but don’t worry, because Malifaux Musings is going to break all the new stuff down for you. You’ll at least be able to see what your new models do as we make our way through the upgrades. In the meantime, Phiasco sent me some pics of Wyrd’s booth, so I’ll put ‘em here.

-Before we get to the articles, I'd like to point you to a way through which you can support our humble blog. Malifaux Musings is officially on Patreon!  I love this blog and I love Wyrd products. Wyrd, however, still insists on trying to make money off of their products rather than just giving them to me (the fiends.) Additionally, I have kids who'd probably like to go to college some day or something. You can help make these things happen! If you appreciated the model break-downs or the forthcoming upgrade spoiler articles, and you think our efforts are worth $1 a month....well in the words of Dan Carlin, I'd love to have it. Thank you in advance for the support. 

Ten Thunders Broken Promises Upgrades

Adam-Hey, Jon, while I wait for an upgrade deck to get here, you could send me pictures of the final upgrade cards so I can start breaking them down.

Phiasco-Cool, we can start with Ten Thunders.

Adam-Are you sure? I mean, they’re not the most popular faction. Maybe we should-

Phiasco-Well, you’ve got a point there. How about I send you Ten Thunders?

Adam-…But-

Phiasco-TEN THUNDERS!

Adam-Ok, ok! Geez.

*Disclaimer: Not representative of the actual conversation.

So, we’re breaking down Ten Thunders upgrades from Broken Promises first. As with all the factions, each master, including the new ones received a pair of new upgrades (with a handful of exceptions). Additionally, the Book 4 masters received a Conflux upgrade to attach to their respective factions’ emissaries.

Misaki

Holy heck, did Misaki get some cool stuff! Probably the one that will draw the eye immediately is The Storm, which allows her to place any blast markers that result from her attacks anywhere within 12” and LoS and makes the resulting damage from the blasts irreducible. Gross. Additionally, it gives her Thunder attack a crow trigger that allows the damage flip to be cheated regardless of any – modifiers to the damage flip. Which, jeez, imagine if Sonnia could cheat her damage flips regardless of any –'s. That would be ridiculous, right? It’s Limited, so you have to pretend that you must decide between her other Limited upgrades (cut to a shot of a Terracotta Warrior laughing uproariously. Also, possibly slapping his knees. Knees are being slapped, people.)

Second, and possibly the most broadly useful, is Risk and Reward. This upgrade lets you avoid the standard “Take the fewest soulstones possible” build with her. Instead, Misaki can throw any number of soulstones away at the beginning of the turn to give her the Risk condition equal to the number of stones. At the end of the turn, you heal a point of damage equal to the Risk condition. “Oh no!” you say, “There goes all my soulstones!” Fear not, her reward ability lets you put back any stones discarded to Risk. As such, you now can have lots of stones in Misaki's pool for the game and still take advantage of her built in abilities for being out of soulstones. This offers more flexibility than you would expect, even, as you get to draw your hand before you have to decide how many cards to ditch, so you can keep one to draw more cards. If you know that you’re going to need to go first, you can save another stone for that and, if you don’t end up needing it, throw it to buff one of Misaki’s flips later on to get back down to 0. Probably a must-take in every game for her. Am I excited for Misaki's new stuff? Well, there's a reason I spent my Guilders for the retro version of her model. 

Shenlong

               Shenlong got a pair of upgrades that tie together, in that you can’t buy both at the same time, but can flip back and forth between them during the game. Yin lets him lower his poison to increase his defense by one every time he’s targeted with an action. Also, it gives him the Butterfly Jump ability. Good, but was Shenlong really struggling to survive before this upgrade? I’m not sure he needed it.

               Yang, on the other hand, boosts his offensive capabilities. When Shenlong charges, he can discard a card to make an additional melee attack as a result of the charge (so, it still must target the initial target.) Additionally, at the end of his activation, any enemy models within pulse one of him takes an additional 1 damage. So…this does improve his attacks, but not by much. I guess it encourages you to get him into melee with a lot of targets, but to take advantage of Power Unleashed you have to still be in Yang and so can’t take advantage of the defensive buffs of Yin. Time will see on this one, but I’m not convinced his upgrades will make it too often.

Jacob Lynch

               Phiasco and I’s favorite master, Jacob Lynch, gets a couple of interesting upgrades. Burn Out gives him the option to summon Depleted off of any Brilliant models that die within 6” of Lynch by discarding 2 cards (at least one of which will likely be an ace.) It doesn’t come in on full wounds, though, starting with 3 points of damage or 4 if you used an ace (which you probably did.) Admittedly, damage on The Depleted isn’t such a big deal since they have Hard to Kill and you kind of want them to die anyways, but the fact that you have to get Brilliant on a model that’s within short range of Lynch (who usually doesn’t want to be that close to a lot of stuff) or Hungering Darkness AND you then have to kill it. All of this suggests this upgrade may be fool’s gold, but I do like Depleted a lot and summoning is very good. This card asks a lot (just think how hard getting Sonnia’s summon to work is, and that can be done from across the board.)

               The second upgrade is Cheating Bastard, which gives him two abilities. One lets any Friendly Models within 6” of him or the Hungering Darkness always chat fate second, which is potentially quite good. The second ability, House Rules, potentially makes your life a little simpler by letting you reveal any number of cards from your hand and triggering effects for however many of them are Masks. If you reveal even one mask you can give an enemy within 8” Under the Influence automatically, which is great for Lynch’s action economy and takes a card flip out of the equation. The two mask ability lets you (in addition to the previous Brilliance distribution) drop a pair of scheme markers, one in base contact with Lynch and one off of Hungering Darkness. And the third lets every friendly model heal two damage. Sounds pretty good, right? Here’s the tricky part: Cheating Bastard is a Limited upgrade, so you have to choose between this, Endless Hunger, and Rising Sun. Right? (Again, cut to the Terracotta Warrior, who is laying on the ground with little Terracotta tears rolling from his eyes.) But seriously, with Lynch this is a tougher call because you need to have Rising Sun on him before HD dies, or he’s dead instead of buried. It does make the Brilliance version of the crew a lot more viable, however, especially with his new friend Gwynneth Maddux in the mix. So, you’ll have more excuses to pick up that fun, face tentacle-y alternate Hungering Darkness model in the future and get him on the board. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

Lucas McCabe

               Unsurprisingly, McCabe’s stuff plays back into his artifacts. One of them is a new toy, the Cloak of Invisibility. When McCabe has it, he gets Perfect Camoflage ala a Sillurid. When he throws it to somebody else, however, they get Don’t Mind Me and Disguised. Not as powerful as Saber or Badge of Speed, but still situationally useful. If nothing else, it saves you the trouble of hiring in a Performer for Headhunter games to go grab the heads out of melee.

               His other upgrade is Loot Bag, which gives McCabe a version of a motif we’ve seen a lot recently: the flexibility of switching from one upgrade to another. Essentially, whenever McCabe activates, he can ditch any of his specific upgrades attached to himself and then attach a different one that isn’t currently in play. So, referring to the other upgrade, if you wanted to start with the cloak for the first turn to keep McCabe safe from range as he moved upfield then swap it for the Saber, you can do that. Or, alternatively, you could just attach the Loot Bag instead of the Badge or Saber, then swap the Bag for it on the first turn, saving you a soulstone. Not the most creative use ever, but if you don’t care about having the flexibility for the rest of the game there’s no reason NOT to do that.

Mei Feng

               Press the Advantage is an interesting upgrade that allows Mei to declare a trigger on her attacks from any of her attack actions, rather than the specific attack to which the trigger is attached. I don’t know enough about Mei to say specifically what the advantage of this would be, but it reminds me somewhat of the old days of Mei when she had a massive flowchart of triggers for all her attacks. Additionally, all of her melee attacks gain a trigger to take the Railwalker action immediately after succeeding. More mobility is always a good thing, so I have a feeling that will be useful.

               Speaking of mobility, her other upgrade is Rail Lines. This one gives any Foundry models that begin their activation within 8” of her +1 Wk. As the Foundry crew tends to be a little slow, this could be potentially useful. Moreover, her Railwalker action gains a mask trigger, Passenger Line, which lets her choose any friendly model within 3” of her and, after jumping, place that model in base contact with her. Good for jumping a model out of trouble (or into it.) Seems pretty good.

Yan Lo

               The old man got some nice upgrades out of Broken Promises as well, and got one extra upgrade beyond what the others received. Follow Their Footsteps lets him gain a point of Chi every time the opponent gains a VP. Additionally, it essentially allows him to swap between Ascendent upgrades at the beginning of his activation (paying or gaining Chi to make up for the difference in costs.) That gives some great versatility and reduces one of the hardest parts of playing Yan Lo, figuring out which Ascendant upgrades to purchase given the board state. This should help quite a bit in getting him up the ladder and, more importantly, making sure he can save himself if he starts going down the wrong path.

               Possibly more important, Awakening gives him Instinctual and turns his Lightning Dance action into a 0, essentially just giving you a free ability to Lightning Dance. Additionally, he gains a tome trigger on Lightning Dance that, if he is still in base contact with the target after completing the jump, inflicts 2 damage and puts Slow on them. Again, more mobility is always a good thing.

               And, finally, he gets a new Ascendant upgrade. At a whopping 4 stones, it’s going to take some doing to attach Blood Ascendant. But in exchange for this, he gains Casting Expert and a new melee attack. This is a Ca attack that hits anything within 2” and deals 3/4/5 damage. This attack targets Willpower, so it lets Yan Lo have some flexibility on which defense to attack. It has a small heal for all ancestors if it kills a target, though probably not enough to make a huge difference. Casting Expert plus the Lightning Dance as a 0 action lets Yan Lo hop into the middle of the enemy and drop 4 attacks on fools (5 if you can make him fast) that’s going to be really tough to survive.

Asami

               Bad Hair Day is a 1ss upgrade that improves her summoning and gives her a little versatility. Any time she flips a simple duel and fails it, she can discard a card to ignore the failure and flip another card. That’s helpful in general, especially for cheaper summons like the Yokai, and provides you with some Black Joker insurance. Additionally, she gains a range 8 melee attack which places a condition on an enemy model that prevents it from taking walk or charge actions.

               Possibly more interesting, she has Borrowed Time. It prevents the enemy from removing conditions off of her, which is necessary given the fact that it also gives her Flicker +7 at the beginning of the game and turns Flicker into a resource she can use. Why in the world would you want to do that? Well a couple of reasons. First of all, she can reduce her flicker by one when taking an action to add a suit to the final duel total. Also, when she summons something, she can reduce her Flicker by an amount and then increase the summoned model’s Flicker by the same amount. She can get some Flicker back by killing an enemy model with a melee action. This isn’t likely to happen a ton (though she can chew up weaker models when given the opportunity,) so her totem may be necessary to help replace the Flicker that Asami is losing over the course of the game.

               Finally, she gained the Orochi Conflux to add to the Shadow Emissary. It gives the Emissary the Oni characteristic and makes it so that, when an Oni model is sacrificed with 6”, you can place a scheme marker in base contact with it first. Additionally, the Emissary gains a 0 action, This Flesh is Temporary, which lets it cast a spell to increase a target Oni’s Flicker condition by 1 at the cost of making it suffer half of its total wounds. That seems a little fiddly, but I can envision a situation where an Oni is needed to hold a quarter or something and is far enough away from any enemy models that losing the wounds won’t be helpful. Not sure if this will be as useful as the generic conflux or another Recalled Training, but maybe I’m missing something.