Ha, yeah I know how Heores Gamble work. Just saying that it really helps you out if you are in a bad spot. Play your high cards and hope for a good second draw. It doesn’t give you more cards, that’s for soulstones. These two combined are just solid. Not that many models have armour to begin with, so the trade of between Heores Gamble and Trick Shooting are always situational.
One of my problems with the Effigy is that it’s not a family model so you can’t Relocate to it (I don’t like Abuela, but you can always Shotgun Wedding it). My other problem, and this is the main problem, is that first turn I have the Fear Not The Sword and everything is just so, so sweet. But then turn two I want to activate Francisco first (so Perdita don’t move out of El Mayor range) and Companion with Perdita and all of a sudden Fear Not The Sword is not active since it’s a condition that only last until the end of turn. If Fear Not The Sword had been active until the Brutal Effigy activates (or die) it had been a huge difference. My third problem with the effigy is that you need to target Perdita, so to be within range you have to move, and move and that way you lose your scheme runner function since you have no ap left to put down a marker. And in relation to that it’s not always possible to target Perdita since you are ht1 or she is off behind a building or similar. On paper Brutal Effigy is just solid but when you hit the board my experience is that it can’t keep up with Perdita and the family logic over all, then the Brutal Effigy starts to dictate how you should play Perdita and I really don’t like that.
I know when I hit the 30 encounters played with Perdita I had lost her in three games, if you have problems losing her you have to pick other upgrades, but mostly it comes down to how well you play her on the field, what other models you use to support her and resource management. And with blasts, stay 2” away from Francisco (and such) and call it to your opponent, now that 50mm blast marker should fit between (base to base) but not overlapping to Perdita.