huntroll

Here is an old thread which changed my perception about RN, haven't really used it before I read it, now I usually take it instead of Izamu: tl;dr: RN is far better as a beatstick than Izamu, his Ml6 and his dmg track is quite bad. If you need a tarpit, he is a better choice, but he usually requires some kind of delivery system. Nicodem can grant him Fast and he can give him a +ve flip on his attack flips, so he is not a bad choice for his crew, but in a vacuum RN is usually the better choice.

I like how you come to quick conclusions ignoring the fact that proxying is also an option. And my meta is not dominated by Lilith, but one of our best players mains her and Pandora and I usually struggle against him, but that's mostly due to his skills and the fact that I mainly play Nico and McMourning and neither of them is too good at those matchups. I actually managed to make him concede with Lilith when I proxied Reva against him, but that was due to some hilarous damage flips in a row (Red Joker, then triple severes on a negative flip) resulting in two dead Teddies at turn 2.

All this whining about Reva makes me really regret I didn't preorder her during GenCon. I also wonder if all the bitter people have ever played against a good Lilith player. One of the most insane hand sizes in the game and the potential to take two models out for a turn and swap one with one of your heavy hitters (preferably next to another one of your big guys) and to place a mobile terrain to stay out of LoS via Illusionary Forest, all of this while ignoring all LoS restrictions yourself. I doubt Reva would be any worse than that yet I don't see people crying for cuddles.

I have only played one match against Kirai (I played Nico there) and haven't played with her yet, but from my limited experiences of her playstyle and reading her abilities a few time I came to the same conclusion. She is good, and Ikiryo is definitely scary, but I don't think she is better than Nicodem. Nicodem's summon pool is better mostly due to Necropunks and Punk Zombies (and the occassional Student of Steel if you need to deal with Armor/Triggers) and that summon pool enables him to do any strat/scheme quite well. Also while Kirai is better at enhancing the mobility of a few models, Nico's Death Whip is a HUGE bonus for all the models he summons and Rigor Mortis is usually enough if you want to get a model somewhere. And resource management is really one of Nico's strenght. Undertaker is one of the best upgrades in that regard, but he gets hilarious if you also take a big nasty Horror with Take back the Night, as almost all of your killers (except the Emissary if you take it) are going to be Horrors and/or Spirits. People also tend to overreact his reliance on corpse markers, Mortimer, Corpse Bloat and Manical Laugh is more than enough on the first turns, and then you can start recycling your own models. And while 11 SS is a bit too expensive for Mortimer, if he spends the game producing 1-2 markers/turn it's already worth it and usually he also helps your crew mobility with Fresh Meat and he can even deal decent damage with a great Ml stat if it's necessary. Edit: And you are not alone with your opinion:

"Before removing the Markers a Mindless Zombie may be summoned in base contact with them." It has to touch both markers. Also summon, not place And you don't HAVE TO summon it, it's optional.

-Board control -Activation control/potential Those are Not Ours fodder -Makes your whole crew faster in the early game -McMourning's Conflux Upgrade really increases the Emissary's damage potential making it a decent beatstick -Another model to draw fire from Sebastian/McMourning Actually McMourning is the one master I'd run him almost all the time. No hard synergies or anything like that, but with him I usually have the spare SS for a beater, and Carrion seems to be a better option than Valedictorian or the Rogue Necromancy for the good doctor.

Glue some visible tentacles to Sim29 and make a dropped ice cream cone on his base from green stuff.

This is the reason I never take Spare Parts. I mostly play Seamus/Nicodem/McMourning though, might be a decent choice with Molly. But I found it to be a good hire if you don't overextend with it. Yin is very hard to kill, can lock down a huge area once you put her in position and deals damage on disengaging strikes, has a decent damage track with built-in poison and can hand out a brutal debuff on Ca/Wp attacks. She is great, though for me she is a bit situational and her Wk is quite slow, but there are ways to speed her up a bit. Guild Autopsies are good hires, especially for McMourning if you need cheap bodies (better than Canines imho), and their ranged attack is surprisingly good for 4 SS. If you take Spare Parts with Molly they can be summoned from all the corpse markers you won't really use most likely, though idk if that upgrade is worth it. If you want to get Molly on the board, you can either take Sybelle to move her forward with Call Belle or a Dead Doxy. With Seamus it depends on your limited upgrade a bit, as if you take Sinister Reputation you'll want models that synergize with his Wp debuff (a Nurse is especially fun), but Wp targeting models are good with him in general as he can heal when the opponent fails his duel. But in my experience he is one of the least crew dependent Resser masters out there, so you should build a balanced crew for the strats&schemes which does it's job while Seamus does his. I've had some success with Nurse, Rogue Necromancy and Yin to name a few models. I see some potential in Bishop but I haven't bought him, and the Emissary should be good for him just as for any other Resser master. Also in my experience taking more than 1-2 Belles is an overkill and I've never had too much success with Madame Sybelle.

My usual core is Nicodem with Undertaker, Manical Laugh and Reaper Grin or Love Thy Master, Mortimer with Corpse Bloat, two support models or scheme runners (Nurse/Belle/Chiaki/Necropunks) and two of our awesome 10 SS options (Valedictorian, Izamu, Rouge Necromancy, Carrion Emissary), with at least one of them being a Horror so I can take Take Back the Night. Considering that all our beaters (except Carrion) are Horrors and that your usualy killy summons are either Horrors or Spirits, you'll be drawing a lot of cards with that upgrade. I prefer the Valedictorian to carry that upgrade, as she is very survivable, gets into position easily and usually she is taking care of the weaker models so she isn't likely to die to a counterattack.

Rogue Necromancy should also be good with her. I've started using it recently, and if it doesn't get Red Joker'd at the first/second turn (as it seems to happen in like half of my games) he tends to kill more than Izamu, my previous go-to heavy beatstick. (I was using them with Nico, but it shouldn't matter too much tbh) And it's quite decent for McMourning as well.

She doesn't really need that upgrade if Vincent puts his (0) on the target. It shouldn't be too hard with negative flips from the Nurse debuff.

Mortimer + Corpse Bloat seems to be a trap with Reva, especially if you take Shieldbearers and Vincent who are not Undead thus won't have any synergy with one of his best abilities. A Draugr, Yin, some beater or a pair of 5-6 SS models would be a better choice imo.

Resser models are usually specialists imho (with a few exceptions, the Carrion Emissary being the best example of a good generalist), so I obviously hire models for specific roles, though that can change during the course of the game (Valedictorian can run schemes well if she is not hunting for scheme runners and Necropunks are decent tarpits/distraction pieces etc).

Drowned (maybe with Jaakuna) could be good with her, especially against melee-heavy factions (Ressers, Arcanists, Neverborn), if you don't have anything to attack on turn 1 she can speed them up (Wk 4 is their biggest drawback for me) if you take the Blood Mark upgrade. Same about Yin, she can push her towards the board in the early game, and her Wp debuffs can make it easier for Reva to hit stuff. Seconding Dead Doxies. I'm not entirely certain how much extra corpse marker generation she needs, Carrion Emissary, Corpse Candles and the remains of dead enemies could be enough. Philip might be a decent choice though, also extra cards never hurt. The Shieldbearers doesn't seem that bad to me, especially if you take two (maybe three?) of them, Vigor can be quite good and they are basically Df 6 Wp 6 models with 8+ wounds and Armor who can easily gain Fast every turn.

Yin is great with Seamus. I've had success with the Valedictorian, but I'd only buy the Transmortis box if you intend to branch out to Nico/Horror Molly as well. Rogue Necromancy is a very good beater and has a good Synergy with Sinister Reputation and all the Wp attacks in a Seamus crew (due to smell fear). Dead doxies are also good. If you need scheme runners, Crooligans from Molly's box have some synergy with Seamus (though it's usually not that significant) and Necropunks are one of the best dedicated scheme runners in the game.