Asami List Theoryfaux

[InvokeChaos]

On 11/18/2016 at 1:24 PM, MrDeathTrout said:

How have people been using Ohaguro Bettari? Sometimes I'll charge her in first to give the + to the Oni that will follow, but usually I like to user her late as clean up.  With her charge schenanigans she can get where she needs to be for the final blow.  If she's near Asami I like to charge for 1, hoping I can kill off the charge and then use her last AP to get to a safer posision.  I also like to activate her late since that threat of her charging anything with built in flay and sever of 6 cannot be ignored.  She's a big threat until she activates then she's a big target since she's not that hard to kill.

 

 

I feel she is a minion hunter with a Master who has no shortage of minion hunter options (yokai and jorogumo). What makes Bettari crazy is her ability to flay for 6 damage and to turn off triggers. But the 6 damage requires a severe... which gets me a yokai. Which can charge and generally get in 3 attacks at min damage 2 which gives... 6 damage. While I agree with @Cadaverousbirth that she is GREAT for hunting party, I just never want to use that severe in my hand for her 6 damage when I could get another model out that does things. I mean, if it's a 13 in hand, that's a jorogumo, who on charge does a min of 6 damage as well. 8 if you get the bite off. Now I know Bettari gets at least two attacks, but the math stays the same on a card use basis. One severe is potentially worth 6 damage, depending on what you flip.

What you are gaining with Bettari is that she's a Ml6 that turns off triggers. She still has to hit, but if she hits twice and you have 2 severes, boom 12 damage. It's enticing as hell. However if she misses her swings... well you're kind of screwed. She just can't stay engaged with anything that has teeth for long.

Don't forget with Asami, who needs a 6+ on like everything she does, you are chewing through cards. If I can summon a Jorogumo and a Yokai vs. having Betty potentially do 12 damage, I'm summoning more often than not. Obviously if you can eliminate your opponent's primary threat in 12 damage, thus letting you run rampant... the story changes a bit.

For my list building, I look to the demon spider a lot. I can hire a Jorogumo for one more SS and it has better range, better threat, way harder to remove and comparable damage. Yes it doesn't have the tricks she has (most noticeably charging through terrain) but someone gets a bead on Betty and she's going down fast. Someone gets a bead on Joro, they better hope it dies before its next activation.

I need to throw in more time with Betty as I have basically run her only a few times with Asami. The first time I lived the dream of summoning a Jorogumo, placing her, then being able to 1AP charge and then chain charge after doing severe damage... It's bananas when it goes off. If it goes off. You still need to expect the average, engineer the above average. Or I guess expect the minimum, engineer the severe. Yay rhyming!

Anyways, this just all goes back to my initial problem with the design between Bettari and Asami... I don't want to have to be taking valuable time deciding if it's better to summon, or cruise missile Bettari. I want to be asking my opponent difficult questions, not contributing by asking myself one. By eliminating a card intensive model that is easy to overextend, you are freeing up more points for whatever you need in your list and streamlining your decision making process.

While she is really really good with Asami, I personally think she's a bit too fragile and hungry for how I want to use her in my Asami lists. Now Shen Long, Misaki or McCabe... well that is a tale for another time.

[Tapdancer]

I run Betti with Asami 100% of the time currently at 19 tournament games .  In competitive play she is a game winner.  The switching off def triggers as 6" aura is unprecedented and hugely powerful in a significant proportion of games.  Her synergy with Asami is also massive,  The place within 6" of a summon makes her incredibly AP efficient which is also a game winner.  Your point on card hunger whilst valid can be dealt with via recall training which you can get a double bite of thanks to terracotta warriors. 

[mythicFOX]

<tangent>

Some of this comes down to differing views of crew build philosophy.  Some players take the approach that if a master is good at X it's correct to invest heavily to push that ability further and overwhelm your opponent, I call this turning it up to 11.  Others take the view that if you're naturally stronger at something than other crews you're already winning the game on that front, and are therefore better investing heavily to cover weaknesses, so you can fight the game on multiple fronts.

Players often make this choice without being cognizant of it.  From his comments Invoke is in the former camp, and I'm in the latter. This will inform a lot of where we disagree on crew choices.  Personally I'm having a lot of success just looking to summon five or six Yokai over the coarse of the game, spending the stones for masks where needed. Only mentally committing to spending a 9 from your hand each turn for summoning frees me up a lot to make and consider other plays.  

</tangent>

Bettari is a difficult model to get the most out of and she requires some skill and practice to utilize properly. Her HUGE threat vector creates significant problems for most opponents, the ability to threaten attacks with built in Flay from over 15" ignoring terrain and LOS is something they have to consider and work around.  

I'm 26 tournament games in playing Asami, with podium places in 5/7 events.  The core of my crew is stabilizing as the following;

• Asami Tanaka (Heavenly Design, Nefarious Pact, Servant of Five Dragons, full Cache) -  9ss
• Ohuguro Bettari (Recalled Training, A Taste for Flesh) -  10ss
• Shadow Emissary (Shadow Conflux) -  10ss
• Terracotta Warrior -  5ss
• Kamaitachi -  4ss

With Pact and the Warrior / Weasel combo I'm normally drawing two extra cards a turn (So5D is on Asami is there purely to be swapped out for something more useful). This gives me multiple ways to move almost every model outside it's own activation, making the crew very mobile and nearly impossible to pin down.  It also means it's very hard for an opponent to calculate where they're 'safe' and what your threat ranges look like.

Both Bettari and the Emissary can hit hard so you aren't dependent on summons to take enemy toys off the board.  Having a fast Bettari pop RT can be devastating, it's certainly possible to have her charge something for (1), kill it, then have 2AP left for another charge. You can then potentially pull her back with a summon and have the Warrior swap her second upgrade for a new copy of RT and do it again.

[InvokeChaos]

13 hours ago, mythicFOX said:

<tangent>

Some of this comes down to differing views of crew build philosophy.  Some players take the approach that if a master is good at X it's correct to invest heavily to push that ability further and overwhelm your opponent, I call this turning it up to 11.  Others take the view that if you're naturally stronger at something than other crews you're already winning the game on that front, and are therefore better investing heavily to cover weaknesses, so you can fight the game on multiple fronts.

Players often make this choice without being cognizant of it.  From his comments Invoke is in the former camp, and I'm in the latter. This will inform a lot of where we disagree on crew choices.  Personally I'm having a lot of success just looking to summon five or six Yokai over the coarse of the game, spending the stones for masks where needed. Only mentally committing to spending a 9 from your hand each turn for summoning frees me up a lot to make and consider other plays.  

</tangent>

Bettari is a difficult model to get the most out of and she requires some skill and practice to utilize properly. Her HUGE threat vector creates significant problems for most opponents, the ability to threaten attacks with built in Flay from over 15" ignoring terrain and LOS is something they have to consider and work around.  

I'm 26 tournament games in playing Asami, with podium places in 5/7 events.  The core of my crew is stabilizing as the following;

• Asami Tanaka (Heavenly Design, Nefarious Pact, Servant of Five Dragons, full Cache) -  9ss
• Ohuguro Bettari (Recalled Training, A Taste for Flesh) -  10ss
• Shadow Emissary (Shadow Conflux) -  10ss
• Terracotta Warrior -  5ss
• Kamaitachi -  4ss

With Pact and the Warrior / Weasel combo I'm normally drawing two extra cards a turn (So5D is on Asami is there purely to be swapped out for something more useful). This gives me multiple ways to move almost every model outside it's own activation, making the crew very mobile and nearly impossible to pin down.  It also means it's very hard for an opponent to calculate where they're 'safe' and what your threat ranges look like.

Both Bettari and the Emissary can hit hard so you aren't dependent on summons to take enemy toys off the board.  Having a fast Bettari pop RT can be devastating, it's certainly possible to have her charge something for (1), kill it, then have 2AP left for another charge. You can then potentially pull her back with a summon and have the Warrior swap her second upgrade for a new copy of RT and do it again.

I like that core a lot. I am going to have to mess with that.  I haven't given the Terracotta enough love and haven't tried wonder weasel with Asami at all yet.  What do you cycle to and why?

And I agree with your perspective at the top there. My goal is simply to explain where my mentality is on the choices I make. But there is no right or wrong I feel. Sorry if what I've stated sounded like I was lobbying for the "one true way", as I don't believe there is one. 

 

[Skitt_Happens]

The list I've had some success with is:

50 SS Ten Thunders Crew
Asami Tanaka + 7 Pool
 - A Heavenly Design (2)
 - Nefarious Pact (2)
 - Servant Of 5 Dragons (1)
Kamaitachi (4)
Ohaguro Bettari (8)
 - Recalled Training (1)
 - A Taste For Flesh (1)
Izamu The Armor (10)
 - Smoke Grenades (1)
Mr. Tannen (6)
 - The Peaceful Waters (0)
Terracotta Warrior (5)
Monk Of Low River (4)

 (exported from CrewFaux)

+ death contract/false target

Similar to @mythicFOX's core, it's based around swapping upgrades to draw cards. Tannen is indispensable for me: he can turn a mediocre hand of masks into a great hand for summoning - to be used at your discretion; his cooler ability helps protect Asami, as well as her attacks more potent.

I love Grasping strands, but it doesn't do much turn 1, so swap that in early for So5D. Tell your opponent that if they charge Asami they will only get one attack and have to discard to cheat because of Tannen, I find they usually won't bother! Tannen's aura has also meant that, despite my opponent having the Red Joker in hand, because he had no other cards I have had Asami eat Howard Langston!

Izamu is a bit of a find for me. Part of my reasoning, is that I use Genbu: so he looks awesome in the crew! He is also an entirely self-reliant model who can tank pretty well and dish out reasonably high amounts of damage. The best way I've found to get corpse/scrap markers down is to kill things! I would be interested in trying Yasanori or Emissary in this list, and Izamu is the obvious one to give way.

In terms of upgrades, I might take Feigned Weakness to start if I think it might influence my opponents scheme selection, and then change it out early for Grasping Strands. Smoke Grenades and Taste for Flesh are targets to get swapped out for Equality or RT: as good as Smoke Grenades is, once you've reached a brawl it's less useful. Likewise, Nefarious Pact gives early game draw, but turns 2-3 your opponent will start scoring vp and your summons will start to get kills, so swapping for the Fate of Mortals would be useful.

[qoob]

3 minutes ago, Skitt_Happens said:

The list I've had some success with is:

50 SS Ten Thunders Crew
Asami Tanaka + 7 Pool
 - A Heavenly Design (2)
 - Nefarious Pact (2)
 - Servant Of 5 Dragons (1)
Kamaitachi (4)
Ohaguro Bettari (8)
 - Recalled Training (1)
 - A Taste For Flesh (1)
Izamu The Armor (10)
 - Smoke Grenades (1)
Mr. Tannen (6)
 - The Peaceful Waters (0)
Terracotta Warrior (5)
Monk Of Low River (4)

 (exported from CrewFaux)

+ death contract/false target

Similar to @mythicFOX's core, it's based around swapping upgrades to draw cards. Tannen is indispensable for me: he can turn a mediocre hand of masks into a great hand for summoning - to be used at your discretion; his cooler ability helps protect Asami, as well as her attacks more potent.

I love Grasping strands, but it doesn't do much turn 1, so swap that in early for So5D. Tell your opponent that if they charge Asami they will only get one attack and have to discard to cheat because of Tannen, I find they usually won't bother! Tannen's aura has also meant that, despite my opponent having the Red Joker in hand, because he had no other cards I have had Asami eat Howard Langston!

Izamu is a bit of a find for me. Part of my reasoning, is that I use Genbu: so he looks awesome in the crew! He is also an entirely self-reliant model who can tank pretty well and dish out reasonably high amounts of damage. The best way I've found to get corpse/scrap markers down is to kill things! I would be interested in trying Yasanori or Emissary in this list, and Izamu is the obvious one to give way.

In terms of upgrades, I might take Feigned Weakness to start if I think it might influence my opponents scheme selection, and then change it out early for Grasping Strands. Smoke Grenades and Taste for Flesh are targets to get swapped out for Equality or RT: as good as Smoke Grenades is, once you've reached a brawl it's less useful. Likewise, Nefarious Pact gives early game draw, but turns 2-3 your opponent will start scoring vp and your summons will start to get kills, so swapping for the Fate of Mortals would be useful.

Are you keeping Tannen always near Asami?

[mythicFOX]

9 hours ago, InvokeChaos said:

I like that core a lot. I am going to have to mess with that.  I haven't given the Terracotta enough love and haven't tried wonder weasel with Asami at all yet.  What do you cycle to and why?

And I agree with your perspective at the top there. My goal is simply to explain where my mentality is on the choices I make. But there is no right or wrong I feel. Sorry if what I've stated sounded like I was lobbying for the "one true way", as I don't believe there is one. 

I agree, YMMV on the different build philosophies. 

To an extent the upgrade cycle is useful in and of itself when inside the Kamaitachi auras, you get; a 3" push, 2 points of healing, and draw a card. All of which are worth having, I'd cast a (0) action that did that even if I didn't get to swap an upgrade.  Beyond that it's the ability to tailor your load out to what's going on.

For Asami I tend to swap the 1ss upgrade around, hence starting with So5D.  Equality is great if your opponent is going to score and you want one of the effects, Strands if you're about to have an incoming charge from something nasty, and if you're about to go behind then swapping out to Feigned Weakness can be devastating, then when you catch up swap it on again.  You can also trade Pact out for Fate after Asami has activated to get the best of both worlds for a turn.  If you have a turn when things just have to work for Asami I've even swapped So5D out for Recalled Training.  Speaking of Recalled Training being able to give Ohaguro a second turn of RT can be amazing. 

The Warrior's protection effect also makes the Emissary (and other enforcers) much more survivable, canceling your opponent's best hit can make her a daunting prospect to take down.  

This core does take some getting used to as at any one time you've a ton of options, and it's easy to accidentally move the wrong upgrade around and hamstring yourself. 

I tend to fill out the rest of the list from;  Sniper, Tannen, Performer, Brother, Tengu, and Yin as needed.

[Skitt_Happens]

3 hours ago, qoob said:

Are you keeping Tannen always near Asami?

Near enough. It is quite a bubbly list, because they are all benefiting from each other. Perhaps my favourite moment was summoning a Jorogumo next to Genbu and placing Betti in behind. Creating a 100mm, ht3 wall with a 3", and Betti hiding behind it ready to charge straight through! Not a nice proposition for your opponent ! The rest of the crew tucks in behind so Genbu has ancient protection active, as does Tannen, your opponent can't get to the TW of LRM, The Kamaitachi auras cover anyone you might swap upgrades on and Betti/summoned models get 1ap charges from Asami.

I actually used this in headhunter, using Asami's tendrils to drag models into a kill zone - it was brutal!

[MrDeathTrout]

On 11/19/2016 at 7:05 PM, InvokeChaos said:

I feel she is a minion hunter...

I agree with everything you say here.  I think it mostly comes down to play style.  I like the trickiness she brings.  It limits your opponents options and adds to your own.  Cheating in a sever card for 6 damage is more than I want to pay in most cases, but my opponent knows I can do it.  The threat of her charging in from where they cannot get to her and doing 12 potential damage gives you some board control, even if you never do, it still has an effect on the game.

 

On 11/19/2016 at 7:05 PM, InvokeChaos said:

I need to throw in more time with Betty as I have basically run her only a few times with Asami. The first time I lived the dream of summoning a Jorogumo, placing her, then being able to 1AP charge and then chain charge after doing severe damage... It's bananas when it goes off. If it goes off. You still need to expect the average, engineer the above average. Or I guess expect the minimum, engineer the severe. Yay rhyming!

YES!  One game Tara was all alone, but thought she was outside my reach.  Asami placed 6", summoned a Jorogumo, Betty placed in base, Asami summoned a Yokai, Betty placed in base.  The Jorogumo and Yokai were able to charge for 1 AP, Betty was not. It was a pretty nasty surprise for my opponent.  Tara did no survive.

Later that same game my opponent thought his scheme runner was safe, but the combo of Betty's charge shenanigans and Asami's 1 AP charge let Betty get there and finish of the runner before it could score VP at the end of the round.

 

 

[MrDeathTrout]

20 hours ago, InvokeChaos said:

Sorry if what I've stated sounded like I was lobbying for the "one true way", as I don't believe there is one. 

 

Not at all.  You stated how you like to play her and why.  That's what we are here for.  Pointing out why you don't like another play style can only help someone see the weaknesses in their play style and help them evaluate.  They can counter and maybe you will learn something.

IMHO Malifaux is a very well balanced game.  The fact that we can discus a model like Betty (and many others in other treades) and one side doesn't think she is worth taking and the other saying she is amazing really illustrates this.  If she was broken there would only be one side to this conversation.

 

[MrDeathTrout]

@Skitt_Happens & @mythicFOX That all sounds absolutely terrible (for my opponent).  I'm so bad at this game I never considered how well some of these combos would work. I can't wait for Black Friday so I can get the TW (Yausnori as well) and try some of this out.

[qoob]

A little recap from the tournament last weekend: 

it was a 3 round tournament and I've played the same list every round.

- Asami (Nefarious Pact, A Heavenly Design, SO5D)
- Bettari (Recalled Training, A Taste of Flesh)
- Yasunori (Recalled Training)
- Mr Tannen (Peaceful Water)
- Terracotta Warrior
- Kamaitachi
- Low River Monk

The cache was 6 if I recall correctly. 

Tannen and Bettari are GREAT.

Tannen: Round 2 against Outcast Misaki - Yamaziko was in his 6" "anti" cheat bubble. The opponent used almost his entire hand to damage Asami. I pulled off the trigger with Asami (Eat whole) - Bye Bye Yamaziko. 
I used his +2 and -2 only once because I always had strong tomes in hand. 
He really is underestimated for what he actually can do. 

Bettari: I'm in love with her. First of all her Anti Df and Wp trigger Aura - I love it. Makes almost every master killable. The 2nd thing I like is her charge ability. You can easily catch the enemy model off guard. I'm still not sure if Recalled Training is really necessary because of her Flay Song.

Yasunori: He is a killing machine. I've played him to passive overall. I think he is a "straight in the face"-model. I used the Great Sage ability before I activated Asami to be sure If I have to spend a SS for summoning or not. 

Kamaitachi: It's also a really really great model in combination with the warrior. The only downside is that you are forced to summon a Yokai turn 1 because I have no clue how to generate Corpse or Scrap markers turn 1. 

Low River Monk: I don't know...The healing is nice. But he is too slow to keep up with the rest of the crew. Is there a better or more efficient way using him?

Are you guys usually summoning turn 1? 

 

 

 

[Tris]

@qoob

Nice writeup, yeah, yasunori has his place in the enemys face^^

Did you talk with @Orboros (Konsti) about her?

He's been playing her for a while now and manages to give me a headache every time

[mythicFOX]

@qoob - Good write up. Glad that core's working for you.

I do find Tannen's usefulness inversely proportional to my opponent's skill level.  The more skilled the opponent the less effective Tannen will be.

Monk wise I think expecting much more than a warm body for 4ss is difficult.  He does a reasonable job of just 'being there' the same as most 4ss minions. As a faction TT aren't as awash with effective cheap minions as some of the others.  In some scheme pools a random Tengu may do as much work for the same money, but won't leave a juicy corpse behind if it dies.

Generally I always just assume I'm summoning Yokai, any other summon being situational depending on board state.  If scrap or corpse markers happen to be hanging about to summon from then that's a bonus.  I don't tend to go overboard on T1 summoning, as any Yokai I summon will flick our before T2 scoring and T3 tends to be critical to swinging the game, so I tend to throw the most resources at T2 summons.

I find my second best summon is the Tengu on Flicker +1.  These can get surprising work done by just walking, (0) hoovering enemy scheme markers, then turning into a scheme marker themselves.  I swung my final round at nationals by 6VP in the final activation by having my freshly summoned Tengu deny my opponent's Search the Ruins then turn into a scheme marker to score my StR.  

 

[qoob]

21 hours ago, Tris said:

@qoob

Nice writeup, yeah, yasunori has his place in the enemys face^^

Did you talk with @Orboros (Konsti) about her?

He's been playing her for a while now and manages to give me a headache every time

Good shot! Thanks for the advice.

 

18 hours ago, mythicFOX said:

@qoob - Good write up. Glad that core's working for you.

I do find Tannen's usefulness inversely proportional to my opponent's skill level.  The more skilled the opponent the less effective Tannen will be.

Monk wise I think expecting much more than a warm body for 4ss is difficult.  He does a reasonable job of just 'being there' the same as most 4ss minions. As a faction TT aren't as awash with effective cheap minions as some of the others.  In some scheme pools a random Tengu may do as much work for the same money, but won't leave a juicy corpse behind if it dies.

Generally I always just assume I'm summoning Yokai, any other summon being situational depending on board state.  If scrap or corpse markers happen to be hanging about to summon from then that's a bonus.  I don't tend to go overboard on T1 summoning, as any Yokai I summon will flick our before T2 scoring and T3 tends to be critical to swinging the game, so I tend to throw the most resources at T2 summons.

I find my second best summon is the Tengu on Flicker +1.  These can get surprising work done by just walking, (0) hoovering enemy scheme markers, then turning into a scheme marker themselves.  I swung my final round at nationals by 6VP in the final activation by having my freshly summoned Tengu deny my opponent's Search the Ruins then turn into a scheme marker to score my StR.  

 

Or even spending an additional SS for a Yokai from the start? 5ss is still a good cache

[scarlett fever]

On 1/12/2016 at 10:22 PM, qoob said:

Low River Monk: I don't know...The healing is nice. But he is too slow to keep up with the rest of the crew. Is there a better or more efficient way using him?

I'm currently a big fan of the new Low River Monk incarnation. If I'm not fluffing about my goto 4/5 stone models are Low Monk, Brother and Yokai (don't currently a Terracotta stand-in so this pool will change when my Black Friday order arrives) and I always take some models at the low end to pad out activations/board control. I use peaceful waters a lot but not so much for the heal as the scheme marker drop. I'll often target enemy models or models at full wounds just to get the marker. Oni's Spirit is amazing for marker drop but it's a 10" Aura requring LoS so additional marker drops are still effective.

I find Asami's summoning ephemeral enough that I still like a couple of low cost models to keep my activations up.

[Bumpasses]

Anyone using our first Oni, Ama no Zako?

The from Black Betty's "Flaying Song" are good for Ama's -Promising Whisper- and -Quaff Blood- triggers.

 

Ever since I painted her up I have been trying to use her, but am mostly unsuccessful.

Hoping to get more from Ama via Asami and Black Betty.

 

 

-j

[Somnicide]

I am pretty sure flaying song only adds the mask to Ml actions so will help with the heal only.

[Bumpasses]

missed that, u are correct sir!

[Somnicide]

Still helps hit the heal trigger though with both being built in effectively!

[Skitt_Happens]

On 10/12/2016 at 7:32 PM, Bumpasses said:

Anyone using our first Oni, Ama no Zako?

The from Black Betty's "Flaying Song" are good for Ama's -Promising Whisper- and -Quaff Blood- triggers.

 

Ever since I painted her up I have been trying to use her, but am mostly unsuccessful.

Hoping to get more from Ama via Asami and Black Betty.

 

 

-j

Ama No recently graduated from my painting table and I've used her exactly once. I didn't take Betti because I was trying out a couple of different ideas.

Ama No had Smoke Grenades and RT. Turn 2 my opponent went to root her to the centre of the board with Lilith: "Ama is wp7 and you're on ."

"... Never mind."

Ama then repositioned to Asami and charged into the fray doing a more than respectable amount of damage. Turn 3, my opponent made a positioning mistake and engaged her with McTavish. I popped RT, cheated the red joker from my hand for 10 damage. With soulstones he was left on 1 wd and I had to decide whether to spend her last attack on finishing McTavish or put up hazardous terrain to let him kill himself. As he had a beckoner and doppelganger in the area I took the safe option and in true mortal kombat style, ripped his head clean off. Turn 4 the terracotta warrior walked up and swapped the smoke Grenades for some more training she suddenly remembered (my opponent was both terrified and impressed by this), and proceeded to dish out a s**t ton more damage to everyone around.

People keep telling me Ama No is not good, but with the highest native damage track in Thunders and all the new Oni synergy, I think she may become a gem! I need more games to really get a clear idea. As good as her (0) actions are, that's where she starts to get card/stone hungry. Use them as added bonus rather than essential actions though and she is largely self sufficient, I think. The built in heal from Betti will make her pretty tough. Terrifying was also great for eating my opponents hand.

[newsun]

Ama ml 5 this is where she fails. We're that 6-7, we'd have a winner. I use her all the time and because of this, she'll fall flat just when I need her not to because it's straight cards against my opponent or at a negative sometimes too.

[Somnicide]

Using promising whisper to make a jorogumo or yasanori charge seems fun.

[Skitt_Happens]

8 hours ago, newsun said:

Ama ml 5 this is where she fails. We're that 6-7, we'd have a winner. I use her all the time and because of this, she'll fall flat just when I need her not to because it's straight cards against my opponent or at a negative sometimes too.

Were she ml6+ she'd be broken. Giving her double focus goes somewhat to compensating for one big attack, but mostly it's about picking your target: there's plenty of beatstick models that are df4-5 with high wd. Prime targets. The damage track is high enough tof scare your opponent even when you have little chance of hitting.

[Piccio]

I'm agree... with ML6 she'd be broken.

With Asami Ama can benefit from Focus+2 and charge (flying) spending just 1 ap. She has a good weak damage of 3 and a awesome heavy damage of 7, cheatable also if you hit with double negative due double focus. She uses SS and has some expensive but useful utilities as obey or azardous terrain. She also can self heal.

I think her ML5 was a heavy weakness for sure before Asami but now this stat is balancing her (up to 2+1 attack in charge eventually under focus). If you kill something inside the charge attacks sometimes you can charge another times.

If you need to damage something fat and low defence she works pretty well, otherwise at similar SS cost the choice is Bettari (ML6 and offensive abilities in her kit, but lower damage output and less tanky).