Is Brewmaster worth playing in Gremlins?

[Finalscene]

So I've slowly been working my way through the gremlin masters, testing them out and enjoying each for different reasons. Ophelia is fun for her solo rampage, Mah is fun for those nasty alpha strikes, and Somer is...just great! I'm building Wong now and excited for him, but I'm already thinking of who to get next. Brewmaster looks seriously fun in a Ten Thunders crew but I've played against gremlin Brewmaster on several occasions and he just seems unimpressive. Are my opponent's not playing him properly, or is he just not worth playing in gremlins?

[Dogmantra]

The super absolute number 1 reason to get Brewmaster's box for Gremlins is to get Fingers, who is super useful. I'd also agree that in some ways Thunders Brewie is a better idea. I certainly think if you want to focus on Drinking Contest your best bet is to bring Sensei Yu and have him use the contest while Brewmaster stays nice and safe in the back.

However, I think there's some merit to playing him as a Gremlin. I know lots of people rate Trixiebelle really highly and she has some nice tricks that work with Brewmaster. I also think Swill is particularly good for swarmy tactics. If you can put an enemy onto Df flips, it matters a lot less that your Bayou Gremlins only have Sh4, and you can do a "punches in bunches" kind of strategy where no single hit is particularly strong, but you hit so often that you overwhelm enemies.

I think my favourite reason to play Brewmaster though (and a good reason to play Zoraida too) is as a learning experience. When I go super tryhard in tournament type settings, I rely a lot on Som'er's absurd damage output, and it usually works for me but while it hasn't happened yet, it's possible an early unlucky RJ damage flip could take him out of comission and I might be on the back foot. Brewmaster doesn't have any killing potential on his own, and so he forces you to think a bit more laterally about how to approach given problems, and also how to use your other models to greater effect.

[Rosskov]

I find brewmaster to be good fun but not hugely competitive. So,  if you're playing for fun he's worth a shout but if you're playing serious games the only model who will see much of the table is fingers 

[codingCaptor]

The main boon which Brewmaster has in Gremlins vs. 10T, is Trixibelle.   Once brewmaster gets into the middle of the enemy crew, keeping his Drinking Contest up is key to keeping him alive.   Being able to cheat initiative (insuring you can activate Brew first and turn on Drinking Contest) is a huge boon.   And that's ignoring the rest of Trixie's kit, which is already pretty good outside of brewmaster and even has additional poison synergies.

 

A lot of gremlins players experience difficulties playing Brewmaster, as he's not really focused on killing models.   Murdering enemy models and having low defenses is a running theme in the majority of our faction, so I suspect you just haven't seen him played particularly well.   Even being played perfectly, however, I feel that there are more than a few crews that Brewmaster just isn't going to win against, which makes him significantly less of an attractive option than generalist masters like Somer or Wong.

For some people, who only focus on tourmanet play, that'd make him not worth playing. (Same with Ophelia or Mah.)   But I think there are good matchups for Gremlins Brewmaster that make him AMAZINGLY fun.

[Math Mathonwy]

4 hours ago, codingCaptor said:

But I think there are good matchups for Gremlins Brewmaster that make him AMAZINGLY fun.

When he works it's usually pretty frustrating for the opponent so I'm not sure I've had many amazingly fun games with him no matter who was doing the winning. It's an interesting psychological effect but it seems that people resent it more when their models are unable to accomplish anything than when they straight up die.

I really hope that they can somehow make him work (maybe a similar errata as what Lucius got or something) since the concept is very cool and unique (there's very few debuffer Masters in general).

[Four_N_Six]

I still have a ton of fun playing him, and ended up taking 2nd in a local tournament playing him exclusively.  It takes some careful model choices for every scheme pool, but it's not impossible to make him great.  Even if all you're doing with him is getting Swill onto a high priority target and sending the Whiskey Golem or Burt after them (or both, as I tend to do).  That's a model that probably won't survive.  I always use Drinking Contest because as a (0) with no cost, there's really no reason not to do it.  But don't focus your game around it.  Maybe in the future they'll make it easier to make that his "thing," but for now it's gotta be secondary.

I prefer First Mate to Trixie in a lot of situations, and this is no different.  His Croak is much better than her Lure in a situation where you want enemies near Brewmaster, since it's in any direction as opposed to directly toward or away from Trixie.  Yes, you can't cheat fate, but worst case scenario your opponent gets 1 activation against Brewmaster.  If you play him right, it won't matter.  Every game I put 1 soulstone onto Brewmaster's card, and 1 card face down as soon as I get it (13 with one of his suits for his Df trigger, Red Joker if it comes up).  So their 1 activation they might get some rounds turns into their big hitter just going away.

Besides, an intelligent player wouldn't get first activation against Brewmaster and use it to try to kill him.  There aren't exactly a ton of available models that could kill a master in one go.  Getting that first activation, best bet is to haul ass the Hell out of dodge before you get trapped again.  If you had other models, maybe ones that don't randomize into engagement, that's a different story.

Brewmaster is one of my favorite masters, so I'm always advocating for his use in Gremlins due to his unique theme.  It's doable if you want it to be.

[Math Mathonwy]

15 minutes ago, Four_N_Six said:

I still have a ton of fun playing him, and ended up taking 2nd in a local tournament playing him exclusively.

The real question is naturally whether you wouldn't have taken first place had you just played any other Gremlin Master  

[Four_N_Six]

Considering the jerk that placed 1st, I'd say it was a long shot, but I definitely see your point.

[Voodoo Specter]

Much like everyone else I agree that Trixiebelle is a key model with Gremlin Brewmaster, cheating intiative, pushing your opponent and her poison shenanigans make her an auto take in my opinion. Another piece I would always consider taking with him are the performers as mercenaries more board pushes great poison synergy and don't mind me mean they work really well with him they are also just good mercenaries to have in your collection regardless of faction but with Brewmaster the fact you are loading people up with poison means sip of wine becomes a serious threat. My main issue with brew master is his need to maintain his bubble. He can be very good in Extraction, decent in guard the stash, sub par in head hunter and pretty useless in interference.

[Finalscene]

These are all pretty good points. I think i will pick him up eventually, if anything, just so I can have him for ten thunders which I'm planning to be my second faction once I finish my gremlins collection. Trixiebelle will definitely be a key piece that I'll miss. I use her in almost all my crews even just as a decent healer with quality mash liqueur ( works wonders with aggressive Something; gremlin lure him back then get the heals you want with bayou two card)