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| Truly Malifaux's Most Prestigious Award |
The Golden
Globes were last week, and Oscar season is right around the corner, so in
the spirit of the times I thought I’d bring back an old premise from an MM
article from a long time ago, the Malifaux awards show. When I did it before,
however, I had a bunch of general categories, tracked a bunch of stuff with the
competitive scene, yadda yadda. I’m not as tapped into everything at the
moment, and I think most people consider the competitive scene to still be
evolving, particularly given that a large number of the new models haven’t been
released yet. So, I thought I’d come at it from a different angle this time.
If you
played against a Guild crew in 2nd edition, you almost certainly
played against Francisco. As in, he was in every single Guild crew, regardless of
what they were trying to do. All of them. Playing against Nellie? She’s
bringing Francisco. Sonnia Criid? Francisco with a puritan hat. Hoffman?
Cyber-Francisco. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of that in 2E in
general. As described (frequently) on the Wyrd boards, most crews were an
all-star team with different leaders in charge, but Frank was the poster boy
for this sort of thing.
Obviously
there’s a lot less of that these days, from the keyword system and the out of
keyword (OOK) tax. But versatile models still exist, and some models are
proving to be good enough that crews are consistently hiring them even with the
tax. And so, in the spirit of models that have the potential to show up in many
of the games we play against particular masters, I’m pleased to present to you
the first (and likely last) Franky awards!
Nominee #1: Yasunori
Ok, as most
people will explain to you (laboriously, and at great length), the Ten Thunders
have no shortage of solid models. In fact, they’re probably the faction that
has the most non-themed crews going around in the current M3E environment. There
are no shortage of strong candidates in the 10T for this award. But I think the
model making the most frequent trips to the table for this faction is probably
Yasunori.
He’s a big
point investment, which is going to be a common theme in these models, but you
get a lot for him and he doesn’t ask much of your crew in return. Outside of a
little bit of anti-synergy with Youko (since he relies on cards in the opponent’s
hand), he goes into just about any crew and will do what he does, which is deal
damage and be resistant to taking hits back. He’s mobile, adds plus flips to his
attacks, and so long as you watch for enemies that negate resistance triggers, can
be a real problem for the opponent to get rid of. Anything the master/crew does
simply serves as a bonus, be it Shenlong stacking focus on him, Chiaki
transferring a reliquary onto him, or Misaki ordering him to take a charge action
out of his turn. If you’re playing against 10T, you need to be ready for
Yasunori.
Nominee #2: Archie
Not a lot of
explanation necessary here. From what I understand, most Resurrectionist
players consider Archie to be a 10 stone versatile model at this point. 3/4/6
damage track. Leap that’s almost automatic is invaluable for a huge beater,
particularly in a faction that (generally speaking, though with some huge
exceptions) aren’t as known for mobility. He heals every time he flurries from
his fading ability. He’s got Ruthless, so Terrifying and Manipulative won’t
work. Archie can be used to smash whatever you need smashed early on in the
game and then change gears to run schemes later on. In a Yan Lo crew, throwing
Manos’s reliquary onto him helps to offset his biggest weakness, his low defensive
stats. Manos can probably give Archie a run for his money, actually, since he is
also a mobile resilient beater and has a soul lantern to block Demise
abilities, but I gave Archie the nod since he does more damage and is immune to
conditions.
Nominee #3: Soulstone Miner
Unlike the
Ressurectionists, there is a number-one with a bullet obvious choice for the
Arcanists. If you’ve played against a Soulstone Miner, you know the power that
they represent. They can bury and then unbury anywhere on the board. That’s
really all they need to have to be amazing. Whether you want to complete
Breakthrough, Search the Ruins, Stake a Claim, maybe even Take Prisoner, what
have you, this model is the best option for completing those schemes. Oh, and
there’s always Plant Explosives or Turf War Marker flipping. They’re probably
pretty good at those too. Then of course there’s the fact that they’re Armor +2
and Unimpeded. Also they blow up destructible terrain. And, of course, if they’re
not scoring you VPs they can give themselves Stunned at the start of their turn
and add Soulstones to your pool. Now, a model that can do all that probably
costs something like 8 stones, right? Oh, no, miners cost 6. Sure. Of course.
There’s a reason many of us are instantly driven to rage at the mere mention of
this model. If you’re up against Arcanists, you’d better have some way in mind
to deal with a soulstone miner, whether that be the ability to attack buried
models, ranged Willpower duels, or something that can paralyze them. Come up
with a plan for the miners. You’re gonna need it.
Nominee #4: Big Brain Brin
Given the fact
that Brin has no attacks that do any damage on his card, you may not think of
him immediately as the first candidate for this award. The largest effect Brin
has on the game is through card manipulation. Burning out 10 cards and then
shuffling back three of them lets you prime your fate deck in a way that is unmatched
in any other faction in Malifaux. And then, of course, you get to draw a card
afterwards (you know, after you’ve heated the deck up and removed low cards.) You
won’t need to cheat the first flip for this, almost guaranteed, because he gets
to look at the top three cards of the fate deck and then return them in any
order. Oh, and he has Arcane Reservoir. So, yeah, Brin has an unmatched ability
to set your fate deck up for success at the beginning of the turn. It’s kind of
crazy. Putting 9 points (8 if you’re Tricksy) in a corner all game long feels
kind of bad, but it’s absolutely worth the expenditure to set your whole turn
up in advance like that.
Nominee #5: Serena Bowman
Of the
models built from the worldwide event several years ago, Serena Bowman seems to
have benefited the most from the transition to M2E. She doesn’t automatically
come back to life the way she did in M2E anymore, but she has Demise: Eternal. Put
that with Disguise and Feed on Fear, and Serena’s pretty tough to take down, plus
she doesn’t teleport back to your deployment zone every time she’s killed the
way she used to. Her ranged attack can target Df or WP and has a trigger to
place models within 6” of their current location, which is pretty solid, and
she can draw range for her melee attack out of other Nightmare models. That would
normally only matter for when you’re playing against the Dreamer, but the
prevalence of ways to summon Stitched Togethers increases the likelihood of being
able to use it with other crews as well. She’s just a solid model that is
annoyingly difficult to get rid of and can really make a big difference on the
board, especially if you have multiple high Tomes in your hand.
So who wins
the Franky award? I’m going to leave it up to you! Vote in the poll on the
Malifaux Musings Facebook page, and you can decide who goes home with the
golden Franky.
