List building as a new player?

[DrDinocrusher]

So I've painted Malifaux for a number of years but never played. As such I have ended up with a sizeable Neverborn and TT collection and never used them but I'm looking into actually playing the game. It has, however, put me in the unusual position of having two pretty fleshed out factions and around a dozen masters available to use as a new player, not counting my guild oddballs and the Viks. The TT units and boxes I have available to use are:

 

Lynch, Shenlong, Yan Lo, Misaki, McCabe, Mei boxes

Lone Swordsman

Akaname

Oiran

TT Archers

Guild Pathfinder

(Yan Lo) Goryo

TT Brothers

Terracotta warriors

Mr.Graves

Mr.Tannen

Fermented River Monks

Sun Quian

 

So I'm not sure how to put them together into a reasonable force for any of those masters. Of the masters I have, I'm most interested in Lynch and Shenlong as my potential masters. Lynch because I dig his theme, and Shenlong because his flexibility is very appealing to me. Not to mention that even without playing, I can see that Shenlong, Yu, and Terracotta warriors are a match made in hell. Purchase wise, I'm planning to get Yasunori and Low Rivers next as they seem to be highly recommended from the lurking I've done here and on other forums.

[Tokapondora]

That's a pretty big list you've got there, and it's plenty to play most TT masters. For new purchases, besides the amazing Yasunori and Low River Monks I'd suggest looking into the Shadow Emissary (who vies for Yu's near auto-include spot for every master) and maybe some Katanaka Snipers. I'd get the Emissary before any others, really.

But anyways, going through your masters and what they love...

Shenlong can take just about anything really, but looking at things that benefit the most from his presence you have...
The Emissary+Low River Monk, who combined let you draw 3 cards a turn, Snipers who love the free focus Shen hands out and midranged beaters like Graves and the Lone Swordsman. All in all he can make any unit perform ten times better, though his effectiveness reaches some diminishing returns on models with a lot of their own 's and speed/pushes.

Lynch is again one of those masters who can make anything shine, though he loves models that go through a lot of cards and discard a lot of them.
The TTB are nearly impossible to leave out of a Lynch list, Yu allows Lynch a double Mulligan, the Lone Swordsman's discard is free if you have the aces, Yasunori is absolutely amazing with the 's everywhere. Beyond that he likes even more beatsticks and speed, as a Lynch list will tend to be focused around killing everything in sight.

McCabe... well.... ^, really. He makes everything around him stronger and can work with anything, though he has a slight preference for a strong minion or two.
Which neatly brings us to the Illuminated, who are great at their price point already and amazing when you get to activate them twice. You'll want a box of Guild Hounds with him though, as cheap significant activation are something no other TT master has access to. He's also greatly helped by the Shadow Emissary (who essentially becomes an 8 point model with McCabe), likes TTB and other sturdy minions who would benefit from strong attacks and works pretty well with slower units. You'll want him in games where you're expected to spread out more.

Misaki likes a generalist crew that does their own thing while she flutters off. This tends to turn her crew into staple-central.
The TTB, TCW, LRM, Yu, Snipers, Graves, Lone Swordsman... Anything that knows how to hold their own, really. 

Yan Lo likes Ancestors, who you're a tad low on, and tarpits (see ancestors). 
Besides the Ancestors he loves Komainu (who are sturdy for their price and also love Ancestors), Yu or the Emissary (I prefer Yu but with Yan's new upgrades it's a much tougher call) and some fast units that allow him more options for his Lightning Dances or pushy units that allow slower but strong units to take that place.

And Mei is gonna be a tough one. She performs best with a very specialized crew using a lot of parts you don't have.
With the Emissary, the Mechanical Porkchop and Toshiro you can churn out Komainu for days and Mei combined with heavy shooty crews can force opponents in. You can use her as a general support piece but she loves being in the thick of a gang of cheap constructs and will feel fairly underwhelming if you can't provide her with those.

And beyond that there's the load of models who simply do great in general, with or without master-specific synergy.
The Pathfinder is a good cheap shooting piece who can clutter up the board or go off schemerunning at will, the TTB are very sturdy for their price and good with scheme markers, TCW are always nice to have if you want to protect your pieces or root around in your toolbox for upgrades, Sun has a set of schemes that he's amazing in, Graves and the LS are great cheap beaters with each their own niche, the LRM will fit in any list, Yasunori is an amazing piece to field, Snipers love popping up whenever you find cover is lacking, Kang crushes Ressers all day every day... 

You're gonna have to get a feel for which models fit your playstyle best, naturally, but picking with the general themes of the masters' playstyles in mind will net you the best results (Shen likes units in his 6" bubble and thus fits well with models that also like being near others, McCabe likes them around 10" with some scheme runners out and about so look at models who are happy on their own, Lynch likes flippy models or models with discard effects, Yan Lo likes trapits, Mei likes constructs and Misaki does not care one bit).