Is there any advantage to taking Mei Feng in Ten Thunders

[theunseengamer]

I have been looking at running Mei Feng in Ten Thunders but I can't any advantage. You just lose access to a lot of good railwalker targets. I'm sure I missing something really obvious and I'm just wondering if anyone can enlighten me.

[Snoutopus]

I've played her mostly in Ten Thunders. If you're looking for straight advantage I don't know if it's there, but there's a lot of neat stuff you can do. Komainu make great Railwalker targets and can become a huge pain for Casting heavy lists, Recalled Training makes a turn full of goofy Railwalker shenanigans a lot more foolproof, and Obsidian Oni are now out for making scrap markers out of just about anything your opponent fields. Between Tengu and Wastrels, you also have several opens for spot-healing Hard to Kill models. Many of your minion options are also in the 4 to 5 soulstone range, so when Reckoning is not on the table it's pretty easy to out activate many quality focused lists, while Mei Feng can shoot up and back taking out exposed, expensive targets. 

You can also do some dumb stuff with Toshiro, two snipers, and just running a bizarre, constantly Vent Steam'd gunline, but that's probably not a good idea. 

[Gottkaiser]

As I only play her as ten thunders, I don't know the perks of her in with arcanists. But on TT side we have at least recalled training for her, giving her on all flips for this turn. It makes her really terrifying with railwalker and jumoing into a bunch of opponents to beat up. With Sensei Yu you have a decent Henchman which can give her additional Speed, in both pushing her an giving her fast. Komainu are nice constructs which play quite well with her, an if you take Toshiro, you can turn Scrap markers into Komainu, giving Mei Feng some constructs back.

As he comes with the box, I would like to point out that he is great with ten Thunders as well. I guess he is infamous for taking the blot the sky upgrade, giving the Tne Thunders Archers an additional (2) Sh action at the end of the turn. As they fire into melee without randomizing, you can use Mei Feng to attack an push them into place, then use the archers to finish them off.

[CaladanCid]

Obsidian Oni are great with her, as is Toshiro summoning Komainu. The Shadow Emissary is a standout with her and Toshiro for summoning antics.

 

As said above, Recalled Training is cheap and nice.

 

 

 

[scarlett fever]

The main difference between Mei in Thunders and Arcanists is the summoning engine as stated. Bring Toshiro then your choice of Emissary, Mechanical Porkchop and Emberling for Scrap Markers.

Then of course it's just access to the general Thunder goodness rather than specific synergies.

Beyond that I think it might be more what options she brings to Thunders, Armour, AntiArmour, Undead/Construct counters and the big one versus most Guild and Gremlins, Vent Steam.

[ArcticPangolin]

There's also the Misdirection upgrade to give her Df Triggers on  on success or failure.

[santaclaws01]

4 hours ago, scarlett fever said:

The main difference between Mei in Thunders and Arcanists is the summoning engine as stated. Bring Toshiro then your choice of Emissary, Mechanical Porkchop and Emberling for Scrap Markers.

Then of course it's just access to the general Thunder goodness rather than specific synergies.

Beyond that I think it might be more what options she brings to Thunders, Armour, AntiArmour, Undead/Construct counters and the big one versus most Guild and Gremlins, Vent Steam.

Obsidian Oni as well.

[chris_havoc]

Honestly Mei is already fast enough, she doesn't need that many constructs (1 or 2) to get all the way across the board or to hop around. Her Kick can also act as a great way to reposition her and Misdirection gives her a lot of survivability in Ml. I think it's a mindset Arcanist players have when looking at Mei that she needs a lot of Constructs to be effective but it's really not the case, besides there are enough constructs in 10T now to have several, if not with the same utility and support as Arcanist constructs. These are some of the things I feel Mei gains playing for Ten Thunders:

For Upgrades:

Misdirection and Recalled Training are great reasons to take Mei in 10T. On Wings of Wind is also a great upgrade if you can't do without manoeuvrability and gives her a useful (0). 

For Direct Synergy:

Access to Toshiro is also great with the Rail Workers because he gives them the added  to attacks on top of their (0), can give out Fast, and when they die you can choose to Summon Ashigaru or Komainu to complement your board state. Don't forget that Banraku are also constructs, and as has been said, Obsidian Oni give out Scrap on a dime. The Shadow Effigy is also a great little construct and adds a lot to scheme runners and a master's defences. 

For (Somewhat) Indirect Synergy:

High River Monks and the Dawn Serpent give out Burning well, as does Kamaitachi who can push Mei and others around too. Sensei Yu is pretty cool too as he can push around Mei's slower Foundry models like Rail Workers and Kang, he can also use the (0) from On Wings of Wind. Also, access to a reliable condition removal and part-time healer in Chiaki is great. Ten Thunders also have access to some of the best shooting in the game that complements a very speedy melee master like Mei greatly. 

[Inquisitor Wall]

Wings of wind gives her a really good 0 which she us lacking and the end of turn push can really set up the next turn. Combine that with Yu and she can get anywhere she wants on the table turn 1. High River monks are also pretty good with her for giving out burning. 

[hydranixx]

Do any of you Ten Thunder Mei players find yourself bringing in any of the Foundry models from Arcanists? Metal Gamin aren't so hot anymore, but what about Willie, or a Rail Golem?

[BigHammer]

7 minutes ago, hydranixx said:

Do any of you Ten Thunder Mei players find yourself bringing in any of the Foundry models from Arcanists? Metal Gamin aren't so hot anymore, but what about Willie, or a Rail Golem?

I've recently picked up a Mechanical Porkchop and Sparks; Foundry isn't exclusively 10T/Arc anymore.

The Porkchop is a brilliant Railwalk target, as it can walk once, drop a scrap marker, walk again, and there's a 6" gap precisely for railwalk to work with.

Sparks can turn models into constructs. Consider that you can do this to the Shadow Emissary and give it armour 1 and (potentially) fast from a 7 SS henchman and you're laughing too. Besides, hazardous working environment is brutal as all heck, and you can chuck smoke grenades on Sparks to keep him safe from pesky ranged threats, too.

Obsidian Oni, as have been mentioned, also work very well as damage dealers in a Mei Feng crew. I like to use her with Vapourmancy, so a lot of my opponent's models end up being on fire; the Oni do a lot of damage to things on fire, and can place scrap markers pretty easily too.

Then there's the Mei Feng summoning list; with Toshiro around, those scrap markers (which got far more abundant with the wave 3 stuff) can all be turned into Komainu, for more burning and constructs.

There's a lot of nice stuff in Thunders in general; I don't think Mei has the best of it in either faction mostly, but the newest releases have boosted her profile as a Thunders master significantly.

[hydranixx]

I'm well aware of Porkchops & Sparks; they're very popular options for both types of Mei. I was just seeing if in Thunders, any of the Arcanist Foundry options ever see play. 

[chris_havoc]

Rail Golem is still a really good choice. Not so sure about the Gamin anymore.

[decker_cky]

6 hours ago, Inquisitor Wall said:

Wings of wind gives her a really good 0 which she us lacking and the end of turn push can really set up the next turn. Combine that with Yu and she can get anywhere she wants on the table turn 1. High River monks are also pretty good with her for giving out burning. 

With Wings of Wind, Misdirection, Toshiro and all the new constructs, I think she's pretty clearly a much better 10T master than she is Arcanist master at this point.

[hydranixx]

I must ask, and please forgive my ignorance with this, what makes Tosh so valuable to Mei? I can't help but compare him to Mechanical Rider, which not only is also a fast Construct in it's own right, but doesn't need to consume scrap markers to summon Constructs like Toshiro does, which to me, means that Tosh needs Porkchops to babysit his summoning engine. I think I'd want my Porkchops running up front near Mei to give her more resources to Railwalk with?

I admit that Mei does seem much better off with Thunders upgrade options though. Most are exceptional for Mei in the right circumstances, whereas the Arcanist options, while consistent, are not exciting and don't give her such profound changes to her game play. I'm not yet sold on her model pool available with Thunders, but that's probably just because I'm still very new to Thunders so I haven't had a change to try much.

[tomjoad]

15 minutes ago, hydranixx said:

I must ask, and please forgive my ignorance with this, what makes Tosh so valuable to Mei? I can't help but compare him to Mechanical Rider, which not only is also a fast Construct in it's own right, but doesn't need to consume scrap markers to summon Constructs like Toshiro does, which to me, means that Tosh needs Porkchops to babysit his summoning engine. I think I'd want my Porkchops running up front near Mei to give her more resources to Railwalk with?

I admit that Mei does seem much better off with Thunders upgrade options though. Most are exceptional for Mei in the right circumstances, whereas the Arcanist options, while consistent, are not exciting and don't give her such profound changes to her game play. I'm not yet sold on her model pool available with Thunders, but that's probably just because I'm still very new to Thunders so I haven't had a change to try much.

Especially in GG16, the Rider has diminished in value. It's scheme marker placement is less useful, and the models it can summon are less impressive (Tosh can also use the corpse markers that will invariably pop up as well, of course). Tosh buffs all the other minions that you'll have milling around. Tosh costs 2-3ss less than the Rider.

Does that all add up to make him better than the Rider? I don't know, maybe. But he definitely has his plusses.

[Inquisitor Wall]

He also gives out pushes and fast to minions. He is really good but not on the level of Mech rider, but few models really are. 

The rider works really well with Mei in Arcanists especially since they keep pace with each other, but sadly no rider in 10T. A bit off topic but Mei in Arcanists simply is not as good of an option as say Marcus or ironsides who works in a similar way with Arcanist models but better than Mei.  

[decker_cky]

Komainu are WAY better than any of the models the mech rider can summon, and Toshiro can get summoning early. Toshiro can also summon ashigaru if there's any corpses around needing to be consumed.

[Adran]

And I would use the emberling to provide Toshiro scrap rather than the porkchop. Much cheaper way to do so. 

 

[Da Git]

4 hours ago, Adran said:

And I would use the emberling to provide Toshiro scrap rather than the porkchop. Much cheaper way to do so. 

 

Why not both!

also, taking the Porkchop opens up the Kamaitachi, which I've found to be a decent totem for Mei with the pushes & burning.  Also the Emberling's scrap costs a reasonably high card & an AP, whilst the Porkchop's is free with a walk!

As for Toshiro, if you just take him for the summoning, I feel you'd be better served simply by taking two extra Komainus.  He does so much more than just summon.  I love the (0) to give Minions Fast (& maybe a push) or Focus.  the + to hit aura is also gravy!  He's also not horrible in Melee. 

[decker_cky]

Yup, and he's an ancestor to make those Komainu even better. 

 

Mechapork also has the aura of nastiness if its in the equation.