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Master "Types"


Otylia

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I hear a lot of discussion of different master types - Support masters, Kill masters, Obey masters, Summoning masters... are there other types? Could someone give a run down of which masters are considered what?  I'm sure there's some overlap as well (like most summoning masters will also support).  

I can figure it out for the neverborn but I was wondering what the archetypes looked like across the other factions.

 

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This would be a long list. There are 39 Masters, I believe.

 

The Guild probably look like this:

 

Justice - Face-beater with a side of support

Dita - see above

Sonnia - Face-beater with some summoning and denial

McMourning - Face-beater with movement support

Lucius - AP multiplier with a side of denial

McCabe - Support and de-buff

Hoffman - Support

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For the arcanists and neverborn I'd say it's something like this:

Arcanist

Rasputina: Blaster

Ramos: Summoner and buffing with the capability to dish out some damage

Marcus: Mobile hit and/or run master with buffing/debuffing

Colette: Control, marker manipulation

Kaeris: can do most things, mobility, blasting, buffing and condition damage

Mei Fing: mobile beater

Ironsides: fairly durable beater

 

Neverborn

Lillith: Beater and controller with some buffing

Pandora: Controller

Zoroida: Controller and obey

Collodi: Controller and obey

Lynch: buffer and support

Lucius: Control and support

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My post will be a little more general answer to your question.  I come from a Magic: the Gathering background, and the three general deck archtypes in that game are control, aggro, and combo.  Every deck was some combination of those three archtypes.  I tend to think of Malifaux masters in a similar fashion.

 

1. Control masters are ones that attempt to control the flow of the game, either by preventing opponent's models from doing some types of actions (Pandora handing out Insignificant for example), controlling the position of models or the number of AP they get (Tara is a good example), or directly forcing opposing models to perform actions (any master that has an Obey effect).  Masters that can punish enemy models for doing things such as jack Daw also fit here.

 

2. Aggro masters tend to be all about damage output and killing enemy models.  The classic example here are the Viktorias since their entire build is focused around making them efficiently do more damage . Other good examples are Rasputina and Sonnia Criid. 

 

3.  Support masters. Since there really aren't "combos" in Malifaux in the same way they exist in Magic, I think of the third category as Support. These masters tend to interact with their crew more than the enemy and focus around increasing the ability of their crew to accomplish the game's objectives.  The crew does more of the VP scoring than the master, since the master exists mostly to buff the crew. Support masters are often summoners as well, and a good example is Nicodem or So'mer.  Support masters don't have to summon - Shenlong for example, can provide a lot of support depending on which style he has attached.

 

Now, no master is entirely one dimensional and will inhabit at least two of these categories to some extent.  Some are more biased towards one category than others; for example, the Viktorias are mostly aggro, but do have some support elements.  Other masters will change their predominant category depending on the upgrade they take; for example, The Dreamer can be predominantly aggro or support depending on which limited upgrade you take.  Additionally, people can run a master in an unorthodox fashion that breaks the mold, but I think these categories are a good starting point, especially for describing masters to new players.

 

I'll be interested to hear people's thoughts on this.

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Lilith is a Control Master with a Beater's melee weapon in her hand. Her AP is best used setting everyone else up or screwing with enemy movement/sight.

Colette is a straight Support Master.

Edit: I always thought of Ironsides as a Support Master, but less for HPM and more for just DRAINING the opposing crew of any usability. It's hard to win if your scheme runners get sucked into a time wasting punch fiesta with the enemy Master.

Also Hamelin and Jack Daw are a cross between tar-pits and obey Masters, except they Obey both me and my opponent to hate each other, our game, our lives, and fall into a deep despair that makes us send Hateful Darkblack dirty YouTube comments.

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I'll guiltily admit it was arcanists, TT, and .... *cough* Gremlins *cough* that I was most interest in see what people thought :)

 

As for Ironsides - from what I've heard/read, I think the more people are trying her out, the more she is shining as a support master (and falling a bit flat if you just player as a beater)

 

Moxy - I think the archetypes you present are excellent.  I had a hard time even trying to post the question of master types because I didn't know what to include.  Should summoner be listed since so many summoners are support?  I hadn't thought of listing denial separate from control... etc.  I think the framework you provide seems to cover most bases I can think of or what's been presented so far.  Although it provides a little less information than breaking down into things like denial, obey, board control, etc up front.  

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I've compiled the full list of masters and their types:

Lady J - fighting

Perdita: Steel/fighting

Sonnia: Fire

Hoffman: Steel

Lucius: Dark

McCabe: Ground

Nicodem: Ghost

Seamus: Dark/Steel

McMourning: Poison

Kirai: Ghost/Psychic

Molly: Ghost

Yan Lo: Ghost

Tara: Dark

Rasputina: Ice

Ramos: Steel/Electric

Marcus: Normal

Colette: Fairy/Psychic

Kaeris: Fire/flying

Mei Feng: Steel/Fire

Ironsides: Fighting

Lilith: dark

Pandora: psychic

Zoraida: psychic/dark

Dreamer: Psychic

Collodi: Dark

Lynch: Dark

Viktoria: Fighting

Von Schill: Steel

Leveticus: Steel/Ghost

Hamelin: Poison

Misaki: Dark/Steel

Jack Daw: Ghost

Shenglong: Fighting

Somer: normal

Ophelia: Steel

Mah: Normal

Brewmaster: Poison

Wong: Psychic

Ulix: Normal

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I've compiled the full list of masters and their types:

Lady J - fighting

Perdita: Steel/fighting

Sonnia: Fire

Hoffman: Steel

Lucius: Dark

McCabe: Ground

Nicodem: Ghost

Seamus: Dark/Steel

McMourning: Poison

Kirai: Ghost/Psychic

Molly: Ghost

Yan Lo: Ghost

Tara: Dark

Rasputina: Ice

Ramos: Steel/Electric

Marcus: Normal

Colette: Fairy/Psychic

Kaeris: Fire/flying

Mei Feng: Steel/Fire

Ironsides: Fighting

Lilith: dark

Pandora: psychic

Zoraida: psychic/dark

Dreamer: Psychic

Collodi: Dark

Lynch: Dark

Viktoria: Fighting

Von Schill: Steel

Leveticus: Steel/Ghost

Hamelin: Poison

Misaki: Dark/Steel

Jack Daw: Ghost

Shenglong: Fighting

Somer: normal

Ophelia: Steel

Mah: Normal

Brewmaster: Poison

Wong: Psychic

Ulix: Normal

 Gotta cath all the pokémons?

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Moxy - I think the archetypes you present are excellent.  I had a hard time even trying to post the question of master types because I didn't know what to include.  Should summoner be listed since so many summoners are support?  I hadn't thought of listing denial separate from control... etc.  I think the framework you provide seems to cover most bases I can think of or what's been presented so far.  Although it provides a little less information than breaking down into things like denial, obey, board control, etc up front.  

 

Thanks, I'm glad you found it useful!  I use that to describe masters to new players (especially ones who have played Magic) to give them a general idea of how the masters play so it's not super detailed.  Once they decide whether they want to try control, support, or aggro, I'll give them more information along the lines of Obey, summoning, board control, ranged, etc.

 

The reason I lump summoners into support is the fact that summoners tend to support their crews, but not all support masters are summoners.

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Blaster (masters that focus on area-affect ranged attacks): Sonnia, Rasputina, Wong

Beatstick (masters that focus on high-damage melee attacks): Lady Justice, McMourning, Marcus, Mei Feng, Viktorias, Misaki, Mah Tucket

Shooters (masters that focus on ranged attacks): Perdita, Seamus, Kaeris, Leveticus, Ophelia

Tarpits/Tanks (masters that focus on durability and holding territory): Yan Lo, Ironsides, Brewmaster

Summoners (masters that focus on summoning): Nicodem, Molly, Kirai, Ramos, Dreamer, Hamelin, Ulix

Runners/Swiss-Army-Knives (masters that focus on their own mobility, often with a broad mix of support and attacks): Tara, Von Schill, Shenlong

Support (masters that focus on enhancing other models): C. Hoffman, McCabe, Lucius, Colette, Jakob Lynch, Som'er

Controllers (masters that focus on manipulating how enemy models act, or the basic board/card layout): Lilith, Pandora, Zoraida, Collodi, Jack Daw

 

Note of course that there's plenty of blur here. Perdita's got obey. Tara's got a lot of support. Seamus mixes maneuverability in with his shooting. Everyone's going to drop a Scheme Marker if it'll win a game. Different people will do these different ways also. My goal is to list major types and the masters that are usually used in those ways. 

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I've compiled the full list of masters and their types:

Lady J - fighting

Perdita: Steel/fighting

Sonnia: Fire

Hoffman: Steel

Lucius: Dark

McCabe: Ground

Nicodem: Ghost

Seamus: Dark/Steel

McMourning: Poison

Kirai: Ghost/Psychic

Molly: Ghost

Yan Lo: Ghost

Tara: Dark

Rasputina: Ice

Ramos: Steel/Electric

Marcus: Normal

Colette: Fairy/Psychic

Kaeris: Fire/flying

Mei Feng: Steel/Fire

Ironsides: Fighting

Lilith: dark

Pandora: psychic

Zoraida: psychic/dark

Dreamer: Psychic

Collodi: Dark

Lynch: Dark

Viktoria: Fighting

Von Schill: Steel

Leveticus: Steel/Ghost

Hamelin: Poison

Misaki: Dark/Steel

Jack Daw: Ghost

Shenglong: Fighting

Somer: normal

Ophelia: Steel

Mah: Normal

Brewmaster: Poison

Wong: Psychic

Ulix: Normal

This makes absolutely no sense to me.

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