Which summons are necessary for Horror Molly?

[yanlosbeard]

Your best choice of summon will obviously vary, depending upon situation. But what are considered to be the essential (i.e. most common) summons for a Molly crew packing Forgotten Life?

[catbat07]

I've only just jumped into Molly, but so far punk zombies have been indispensable. The drowned are also useful, and I have the understanding that the students and Dead Doxies are fantastic.

 

[JoeJones]

I would also add that the ability to summon her totem is indispensable, especially as a way to bring out Killjoy, if you're playing that sort of Molly crew..... 

 

Edited to fix autocorrect issue. 

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

As a regular Molly player I must admit that I rarely summon anything beside punk zombies, crooligans (to guarantee whispered secret debuff), doxies and her totem (killjoy delivery aside, focused attack against enemy glass canon can be devastating if you have severe in your hand). as for a drowned, it's good to have one with you, just in case.

[Wifstrand]

I've got 5-6 games under my belt with Molly, and so far I've focused on summoning Punk Zombies for melee, Drowned for scheme markers, and her totem to tie up enemy models. Once or twice I summoned a Rotten Belle just because I had the specific card.

[yanlosbeard]

What about the options on a 12? Are the Students Of Viscera and Draugrs strictly worse than a punk zombie?

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

3 hours ago, yanlosbeard said:

What about the options on a 12? Are the Students Of Viscera and Draugrs strictly worse than a punk zombie?

In my opinion built into their attack makes punk zombies better in 90% situations. realistically, you cannot expect that after spending high card on summoning you will still have high card to guarantee hitting. not to mention that they are hard to kill.

[Clockwork_Fish]

Finish the Job on Drowned makes them useful for some schemes.  The Student of Viscera is more useful for his Slither ability than for his melee attack; I'll have him slink off out of combat to go do things, rather than fight.  The only other student that I'll summon is Steel, particularly against Arcanists.  Ignoring armor is great, and most constructs have middling willpower, so Horror 12(Construct) is sometimes helpful.

[hydranixx]

Forgotten Life is a good choice to start Molly with because her box set coupled with 2-3 Punk Zombies and a single Drowned are likely to cover all your summoning bases in 80-90% of the games you play. The students are probably essential if you want to play her competitively, though, since there's only so much a Punk Zombie can do for you.

As any Horror Molly player will vouch, Punk Zombies are the combat model Horror Molly will summon most of the time. Their HtK is exceptional when paired with Black Blood. The modest 11+ required to summon them, and the  they get for their attacks, makes them pretty economical as far as summons go, which is important since a Molly running at peak efficiency is usually going to consume your entire hand. 

The only time I bothered with Horror Molly (usually play Spirits) I had great success with Viscera, since it suited the situation at hand (hunting down a Blessed of December). It almost inspired me to play Horror more often. The Students allow you to tailor your summon based on the enemy model, put it point blank in the target's face, then chain activate into it. If you have the right suit for their triggers, you can make the one or two attacks you get rack up impressive damage, unlike Punks who will most likely only do 2 damage.

The combination of HtW, Armour and Terrifying means that they're extremely painful to remove as long as you summon them in where they can get at least a few wounds. The most overtly useful is probably Steel, because as already mentioned in this thread he can get around Armour, followed by Viscera & Sinew. 

Drowned, I summon exclusively for their Finish the Job. Their attacks are not impressive enough to justify their relatively expensive summoning cost, regardless of which version of Molly you're playing. If you want an economic beater, the Goryo or Punk Zombie only cost 1 card higher and have better accuracy, and if you're stuck on a 10 to summon, I find that Doxies are the way to go. Doxies are more accurate, can boost mobility and even when they die they hand out buffs. Their (0) is not to be underestimated.

Nonetheless, Drowned are integral to Molly's toolkit, purely due to the mechanics of her summoning coupling with Finish the Job. The automatic scheme marker at 7" access makes Molly good at things like Hidden Trap or Breakthrough, while Set Up has become a staple.

Necrotic Engine will be summoned on occasion. It's cheap to summon which is good when you have an unimpressive hand. The fact you can throw it 10" instead of the usual 6" is really useful, for Killjoy as mentioned but also because it can always choose to chain activate regardless of distance so you can harass things from a long distance. It's not an offensive powerhouse, but it can force cards out of your opponent's hand. It has an automatic ability to eat Corpses when it activates too, which can be ace if your opponent would otherwise want to use them.

I have never heard of anyone summoning Crooligans or Autopsies with Molly. They generally lack the offensive bite, utility or long distance summon you want from your 1AP+control card investment. Draugr are interesting, but again, I've never seen or heard of anyone summon them in with Molly. 

[Daysleeper]

On 3.7.2017 at 1:49 PM, thatlatinspeakingguy said:

..., crooligans (to guarantee whispered secret debuff),...

Quick sidequestion as i don't have my cards on hand. Do these stack if the enemy model is in more than one aura?

Edit: I don't think so, but wooouuuldn't it be nice :-D

Edited July 5, 2017 by Daysleeper

[Adran]

2 hours ago, Daysleeper said:

Quick sidequestion as i don't have my cards on hand. Do these stack if the enemy model is in more than one aura?

Edit: I don't think so, but wooouuuldn't it be nice :-D

Auras typically stack. the rule book example to demonstrate stacking is the Canine remains -1 df aura. So without having the text to hand,I would expect them to stack unless it specifically states otherwise. 

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

5 hours ago, Daysleeper said:

Quick sidequestion as i don't have my cards on hand. Do these stack if the enemy model is in more than one aura?

Edit: I don't think so, but wooouuuldn't it be nice :-D

yes, they do stack.

[Daysleeper]

Nooiiiice :-D

[Gypsey]

I'm  an experienced Molly player and have run her as my primary master in tournaments.

I can vouch for everything mentioned above regarding punk zombies, drowned and dead doxies.  

One point that I often see missed is that every student has the lecture notes attack on a (0). So many mean beaters are only mean because they get multiple attacks on triggers or have autokill triggers. Shutting that off will neutralize threats pretty well. You can also use the ability offensively to shut off df/wp triggers on usually resilient models. 

The students will go down in one hit likely, which is why punk zombies are generally better as they usually need two. Additionally, if you are still unsure about picking up the Transmortis box, don't forget the Valedictorian. She is a great horror henchmen in her own right.

[nomoredroids]

Molly has so many things she can do, I don't see her as a Summoner, really. That's just a thing in her toolkit. As such, I summon 2 (sometimes 3) Punks per game, and maybe the Totem. Maybe a Drowned. 

If your opponent is foolish enough to clump up, I like to drop a Punk Zombie in the middle of them and then use her (0) to make him take Slice and Dice. Tends to drain their hand if you do it early in the turn, or kill things if you do it late in the turn. If they flip well enough, then bully for you, those cards aren't in their deck any more! This pairs nicely with her (0) that forces Terror duels (as you've just drained their hands). Otherwise I use her high cards to give  and hand out Paralyze. 

I like to drop her totem in a clump if I have that middling Crow in hand. 

I use Drowned if I can annoy my opponent and assure that I get a scheme out of it. 

I don't use the Students, as I prefer the Punk Zombies. I run Molly by forcing my opponents to spend their resources (cards and stones) dealing with heaps of small things that cost me next-to-nothing. Students are more survivable if you hire them, but the Punks are more inline with my play-style.

[OracleToronto]

I've mentioned this tactic before - but if you would like to try your hand using the students more I personally like to bring Sloth with me. He can stay close to Molly to use his aura to keep models from wanting to get in close to her. But the main synergy is his 0 action that gives the model slow but heals it 3 health. With "my little helper" on him he can heal 3 wounds on two summons in a turn (or 6 on one model). Seeing as you are slow when summoned anyways there is little downside. 

Molly jumps around a lot and like to summon pretty far away from herself - but where it is pointless to heal punk zombies - the additional 3 wounds on a summoned student or drowned makes all the difference in keeping them around long enough to do their thing. 

[Paddywhack]

55 minutes ago, OracleToronto said:

I've mentioned this tactic before - but if you would like to try your hand using the students more I personally like to bring Sloth with me. He can stay close to Molly to use his aura to keep models from wanting to get in close to her. But the main synergy is his 0 action that gives the model slow but heals it 3 health. With "my little helper" on him he can heal 3 wounds on two summons in a turn (or 6 on one model). Seeing as you are slow when summoned anyways there is little downside. 

Molly jumps around a lot and like to summon pretty far away from herself - but where it is pointless to heal punk zombies - the additional 3 wounds on a summoned student or drowned makes all the difference in keeping them around long enough to do their thing. 

As summoned models come in Slow, I don't believe that Sloth can heal them. I believe Sloth's ability specifically says they must gain Slow to heal and a second effect of Slow is ignored. i know there has been quite a bit of discussion on this before. I will look to see if I can find references.  A lot of it was during the Beta for Sloth though, so may not be visible anymore. They did not want Sloth to be able to heal anything in a Nicodem crew with no downside and specifically re-worded his ability to avoid it I believe. I don't have his card handy right now.

[SoylentRobot]

Yeah, Sloth's ability says "target friendly model within 6" may gain the Slow condition. if the target gained the Slow condition, it heals 3 damage" so if the target already has slow, it cant gain it again and be healed by Sloth