Asami blog article

[Badluck&blood!]

Hi

My latest article on running Asami is now up

 

http://abnormalifaux.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/asami-managing-cards.html

 

I hope you find it interesting or useful.

 

Thanks

[Somnicide]

Bettari is fragile, but far from useless. She has a tremendous threat range and can stay out of LOS for most of it. Don't forget the hunting song - it can be very useful at peeling a model away and isolating it. Also, if you remember to do flaying song before you charge you often don't even need to cheat high - a double negative means nothing to her, she can still cheat damage. Watch out for armor and impossible to wound, those are terrible for her. Also her anti-trigger ability is an aura, I can't count the number of times I've placed her in a position for something else (yokai often) to benefit from it.

As to Asami, she is a solid generalist when I play her summoning as needed. I've used every ability on her card at different times. Her strength is her flexibility and I use her soulstones as often on the Devoured Whole trigger as I do on summoning. What I've found go best with her are some cheap activations. Unless she's in summon mode for the turn I prefer to go late in the turn with her.

Many of her summons are very short lived. I recommend running a hired obsidian oni with her for easy scrap markers, plus it's larger base helps protect her. I also summon them fairly often due to their reach, they can engage a couple of models and when they die (not sacrifice from Flicker) they explode. 

I do run a very Oni centric build with her. A common core for me is Asami with grasping strands, a heavenly design, and the third slot a flexible one based on opponent, Bettari with A Taste for Flesh and recalled training (which really helps defensively on the turn she goes in) an obsidian oni, and 2 akaname. Often a terracotta warrior as well. The remaining points are determined by the pool. Frame for murder or a lot of killy schemes will see Yasunori come in and if scheme heavy probably a pair of Thunders brothers for protecting those free scheme markers she's dropping. I might also add a wastrel or low river monk. I usually run around 4 stones left.

Turn 1 for me will often be one akaname shooting her twice, a nearby akaname licking the poison off and double walking to puke up a marker my opponent won't use. Asami will place for her 0, pull the obsidian oni up to her and likely walk for into shadows trigger. Then depending on the board I'll either pull something else up (Bettari most often), and get to cover. I'll only summon turn 1 if there is a compelling reason.

this opening typical gets me set up nicely for turn 2 and I haven't used anything from my hand higher than a 6. This lets me build my hand for turn 2, which, based on what you wrote your cards are like means next turn I'll have 2 good cards, 3 medium cards, and 1 trash card, which I'll probably toss for defensive stance.

I think I've only lost Asami twice in all the games I've played with her. Make sure to set up a fallback point with a couple of scheme markers to heal off of. And don't be afraid to use her amazing mobility to get somewhere safe for a turn.

[Amayasu]

Seems a tad negative. Betty is far from useless. Flay ensures you always have the option of hitting for more than min damage. Being able to teleport to summons is amazing (and not just your summons). Flaying song to put Masks into the MI of all other ONI within 4" is also amazing. Yokai come in on Flicker 2. Asami can summon on top of corpse and scrap to increase Flicker. Akaname tricks can give you a scrap marker.

Jorogumo are an expensive summon, yes, but they're also amazing. Summon them onto a marker for 2+ Flicker. Get Slow off them. Charge them, (0) push back, and Charge them again and then say they're bad. Built in Entrap (I care not for your defensive trigger pushes) and a chance at  on damage on a 3/4/5 track? Great. At 9 stones I would never hire one; 3 more points is a Yasanori. 1 more for the Emissary (who is very good with Asami; giving  to all your summons and a push+Fast for Betty or Yas... not to mention being able to push out plenty of damage by himself).

Take a look at Tannen if you're concerned about summoning, he can help a lot.

"it took me using both Bettari and Asami to kill a Low River Monk that had not gone defensive. "

Maybe you just had tremendously bad luck, but Betty kills what she looks at. Asami too (which is absolutely no slouch in a fight). There's no reason why Betty won't drop a LRM in 1AP after (0) properly.

[newsun]

Sounds like you need more practice with her and get Yasinori.

Yu is not that useful with her after my testing which was discussed in the long Asami thread.

Betty is ok, though not great. She is best at handing out 6 damage on one hit. I don't like her with Asami much as I want my high cards for summoning mostly.

Keep playing her, she is on par with Shenlong once dialed in how she works. Just like him she's versatile.

[Tokapondora]

I actually agree with you a bit. Granted, I wouldn't have taken that list but still...

Asami is very card intensive, and I honestly feel like you get little for that in return. Your bread 'n butter Yokai and Jorogumi are Ml 5, which may get all the 's in the world but doesn't count for shit if you need to get in a hit (On top of that, Joro are summoned at a 13, meaning your Ml 5 can't be counted on to become an 18 - I've used them more as smoke markers on steroids than anything). So you're left with the Obsidian Oni, who are decent enough, but will also do little more than a poke that can get healed up and don't quite carry any threat.

Bettari, too, is very card intensive and in my opinion doesn't really go with Asami because of it. 

And then we have her buffs, which are honestly "Fine" at best. And still incredibly card intensive. She's simply inconsistent, and that's the last thing you're looking for in a game like this.

I haven't lost with her yet but I've also felt that in each of those games I would've been much better off with a different master. She can do plenty of things, but each of those things are done better by others, and even at being a Jack of all Trades Shen and McCabe leave her trailing. She just lacks anything that would make me go "Asami will be best for this". Maybe it's because I'm comparing her to other summoners/buffers, maybe it's because I'm comparing her to the other wave 4 masters, but she's always struck me as underwhelming and so far none of the experiences with her have changed that for me. 

[Kogan Style]

18 hours ago, Amayasu said:

Take a look at Tannen if you're concerned about summoning, suddenly you have 13 cards capable of giving you a Spider (9 of them would require a stone).

I'm not sure that works - Tannen bumps/lowers the card value, the stone just adds the suit to the duel total, not the card. So a flip of 13 with a stone for  becomes 11 which isn't enough for a Jorogumo. 

[Amayasu]

44 minutes ago, Kogan Style said:

I'm not sure that works - Tannen bumps/lowers the card value, the stone just adds the suit to the duel total, not the card. So a flip of 13 with a stone for  becomes 11 which isn't enough for a Jorogumo. 

Yeah you're right; I shouldn't post when tired...

... which is pretty much all the time.

 

The general point stands though; Tannen can vastly improve Asami's summoning. I've edited my original post to ensure no one reads just that and jumps to the wrong conclusion.

[newsun]

Tanen is probably best for his no cheat aura and slowing down aggressive models. The summon helping is going to be very situational.