Where to use Marlena Webster?

[Davos]

So, with the in-store arrival of Webster (I GOT MINE, WOOHOOO!), where do you see her fitting? I think the obvious usage is with the Viks - undying Master = scary (also sorta kinda really toxic) as well as Outcast Storm Misaki (along with risk & reward and oathkeepr?)  You get 2 hyper aggressive alpha masters, who suddenly can truck a ton of damgage and survive the counterpunch.  This is gonna make them even more powerful and frequent (well, Viks, I've only seen Outcast Miskai once, I really want to try it).

Now, I think Hamlin and Tara both don't need her, since the synergy isn't there, Hamlin is already bascially immune to death (stolen) and Tara it just breaks up her style to much (less room for Void Wretches, etc)

I know the clear synergy (thematically) is with Levi - her fluff stuff makes it clear he "adopted" her (also ewwwww) and her attack is literally a *slightly* weaker version of his CA.  But, I really don't think she's needed.  Her whole point is to provide the Tethers Condition, to avoid Master death, but Levi's whole point is to go in, and die. Seems like a waste of 8ss to bring her, when Midnight Stalker is avaliable (or Sue, or any 8ss-ish model from Iron/Bone)

Now, the one I'm the most excited for is Von Schill, cause he's my one true love.  I think between her and the engineer, he can become a mainline tank, while might not be able to put out a ton of damage (comparatively to Viks/Levi/Misaki) he can hold up a crew to let your models get into position (I also would bring him with Oath of the Freikorps, along with a mostly theme crew, for all the positives)  Webster also provides a pretty strong CA attack that Hannah can copy, increasing the damage output even more.

So, thoughts?  Where do you think she fits?  Are you as excited as me to field her? 

[Gnomezilla]

Of course I’m excited for my little mechromancer!

Between the unfortunate circumstances of having to field a certain master with my stompybots and an opponent who really enjoys killing children and dogs first, I’ve had to not rely on her 0 action very much. So far the most useful thing she’s done, no question, has been to shoot an emissary and hit the ‘no healing’ trigger (which, incidentally, will put the kibosh on Hamelin’s pseudo immortality). I had circumstances where discarding to charge a scheme marker would have been very useful if I hadn’t foolishly ditched those low cards removing negatives from a melee attack (Alyce is getting tied up in melee a lot, masters placing themselves in her face). She’s a counter piece, hired against not hired for. Just finessing what she’s there to counter. Mostly other Outcasts it seems.

 

She has also been a proxy Jury for certain lazy players who still haven’t taken her off the sprue, and local headcanon is that this is who she grows up into—same hair, same glasses, presumably same judgmental attitude, although the attire is at odds with the attitude...

[daniello_s]

Funniest part of Marlena is that this model SHOULD have strong synergy with Levi (as her story tells) and yet she is nowhere near good for Levi but rather for more aggressive Viks, Schill or even Jack Daw. Did someone was afraid to give Levi good model as support?🤔

[Fenriel]

I hadn't thought of Daw, but it's an interesting option considering how many things get past his ghost of malifaux these days. 

[KID55]

3 hours ago, daniello_s said:

Funniest part of Marlena is that this model SHOULD have strong synergy with Levi (as her story tells) and yet she is nowhere near good for Levi but rather for more aggressive Viks, Schill or even Jack Daw. Did someone was afraid to give Levi good model as support?🤔

I hope in summer errata she gets some synergy with Leveticus, because of wtf dudes?

[Davos]

1 hour ago, KID55 said:

I hope in summer errata she gets some synergy with Leveticus, because of wtf dudes?

I meannn, the synergy is that you get a second version of Levi's gun.  But @ 8ss, not benifiting from her main thing -tethers- just isn't value enough

[katadder]

Sometimes with Levi you don't want him to die so she can be useful there as well as bringing his weaker gun. Also helps in my construct heavy Levi crews with Lazarus copying her gun and Vanessa making her shoot it again. 

I find her most useful with survivalist misaki as misaki is always mixing it up and normally dies, now she doesnt as she has hard to kill Plus. Although she does struggle to keep up.

I actually find less use for viks as my master is not often in the face of the fight and Marlena can't protect blood. Maybe will be more agrrssive with ashes if use her though.

One thing to look out for is devouring things though as she is only height 1.

[TeddyBear]

Mhm... i could be wrong, but what do you think about levi + marlena + terracotta?? If synergy works we coukd have a semi-immortal levi?

[KingCrow]

I randomly drew Parker for a Vassal league and have been eye'ing Marlena to potentially use in a Parker crew.  Her Tether seems really good with him as his only means of real survival is Doc and taking Survivalist.  Is there any other synergy I'm missing? 

Also, why does Marlena have a random ability to summon? The Dolls just seems like ways to get activation control as they are just kind of "meh". 

[Davos]

Just now, KingCrow said:

I randomly drew Parker for a Vassal league and have been eye'ing Marlena to potentially use in a Parker crew.  Her Tether seems really good with him as his only means of real survival is Doc and taking Survivalist.  Is there any other synergy I'm missing? 

Also, why does Marlena have a random ability to summon? The Dolls just seems like ways to get activation control as they are just kind of "meh". 

Her gun is hella good - ignoring everything is sexy.  And the anti-heal is a nice touch.  And since Parker wants to tank damage (I think? I've never seen him, only know the theorycraft) hgealing him by 8 or whatever seems really nice

I think the summon is more fluff-based - little girl makes creepy dolls - but for a 7mask, its not bad.  And providing extra actions never hurts.  I could see the summon maybe being useful in a Von Schill crew, where you're rather activation light early on.  Granted, the Dolls themselves aren't great, but they can soak AP, which is pretty nice

[Zebo]

Well, the "All Sewed Up" from Wicked Doll is good with "Steadfast Protector" from Marlena Webster, and also with the "Blessings from the Unmade" trigger from Leveticus, so it's not like they are not useful. Plus one extra activation and the poison extras they add to the crew. 

[Gnomezilla]

On 5/11/2018 at 9:12 AM, daniello_s said:

Funniest part of Marlena is that this model SHOULD have strong synergy with Levi (as her story tells) and yet she is nowhere near good for Levi but rather for more aggressive Viks, Schill or even Jack Daw. Did someone was afraid to give Levi good model as support?🤔

I can’t help but think she’s going to be thematic henchman to Rusty Alyce newly promoted to master, after she decides she’s through with Leveticus for reason xyz and they work together to keep him dead.

...either that or Divergent Paths gave the inquisitive child results so far off any possible path Wyrd might have plotted out for her that she was doomed not to fit anywhere. Which I tend to think happened. The trickster might have grown into a Gwyneth Maddox, the self-righteous man into a Benny Wolcomb or a Paul Crockett, but there’s nothing else in wave 5 quite like Marlena.

...but then again, she might share a naming scheme with her ‘thematic’ crew, in which case I have to applaud some multi-faceted convergence.

[Jesy Blue]

3 hours ago, Gnomezilla said:

I can’t help but think she’s going to be thematic henchman to Rusty Alyce newly promoted to master, after she decides she’s through with Leveticus for reason xyz and they work together to keep him dead.

That would be an interesting story to see what drives her off.  I bet it would be one of those "all according to my plans" reasons he would drive her off.  New girl power crew, hopefully taking a page from Hamlin and hiring Lost models.  Then Marlene could synergize with Candy and Baby Kade.

[Davos]

So I tried out Marlena twice at a weekend tournament.  She is INSANE.  I paired her with Viks and holy tyrants it was awesome.  Making the master immune to death (Survivalist yo! ftw!) let you use both Viks in an even more aggressive manner and actually got some value out of their other (0) actions - + to Df or Ml is rather nice.  Also got some pretty great 2AP place/attacks out of them, to clump both up and go insane.

The second game was against new Hoffman and the no armor reduction is annoying as hell. The henchie died fast, but the master trucked about 20+damage (stones + 2 procs of Tethered + Survuvalist).  His min4/5 peacekeeper kept flurrying and she was a champ. She killed most of his crew (that wasn't Hoffman and the Peacekeepr) and scored all my Shed Blood Points (1).  Her main thing was tanking an entire Guild kill party to let my schemers score full on everything else.

Marlena #champ

[beergod]

On 5/11/2018 at 10:03 AM, Gnomezilla said:

Of course I’m excited for my little mechromancer!

Between the unfortunate circumstances of having to field a certain master with my stompybots and an opponent who really enjoys killing children and dogs first, I’ve had to not rely on her 0 action very much. So far the most useful thing she’s done, no question, has been to shoot an emissary and hit the ‘no healing’ trigger (which, incidentally, will put the kibosh on Hamelin’s pseudo immortality). I had circumstances where discarding to charge a scheme marker would have been very useful if I hadn’t foolishly ditched those low cards removing negatives from a melee attack (Alyce is getting tied up in melee a lot, masters placing themselves in her face). She’s a counter piece, hired against not hired for. Just finessing what she’s there to counter. Mostly other Outcasts it seems.

 

She has also been a proxy Jury for certain lazy players who still haven’t taken her off the sprue, and local headcanon is that this is who she grows up into—same hair, same glasses, presumably same judgmental attitude, although the attire is at odds with the attitude...

Hamlin can ignore the condition, so no help there

 

[Trample]

I used Marlena in a tournament this weekend where I ran Viktoria in all three games. I maintained tethered on her most of the time but it really didn't come into play. In one game she (Vik) was never threatened, but in the others she was, but never enough to trigger the tether. I'm not sure if the presence of that condition dissuaded my opponents from attacking her, but if not I probably would have been better off with Hans, Sue, or maybe the Stalker. Those three games were the first I've used Marlena, so more experimenting is certainly in my future!