Uncle

Right now, it looks like my "standard" (IE, just putting things together here) would be something like this: Big Hat: Som'er, 2x Skeeters Lenny, Georgy and Olaf, Old Cranky, Banjonista, Good Ol' Boy, Big Brain Brin (7 Cache) Tri-Chi: Brewmaster w/12 Cups of Coffee, Wesley, Fingers, Cooper, Whiskey Golem, Whiskey Gamin, 2x Moon Shinobi (I know, Fermented River Monks are better) (5 cache) Kin: Ophelia w/Inferiority Complex, 3x Young, Sammy, Francois, Merris, Rami, Gautreaux Bokor, 2x Raider (3 cache) I know, I know, I'll need to swap things up for various schemes and whatnot, but this is just a sort of standard go-to. Although, I gotta be honest, I didn't change things up much if at all with Colette in the past.

I started off playing Malifaux way back in 2nd when Colette came out and have pretty much only used her. I became pretty good with her locally, but then I had to move away from my FLGS and things sort of died down. Took at look when 3rd came out and I am really, really glad to see that the Bayou is now its own faction as opposed to being an offshoot of Outcasts. As such, I'm looking to get started up again, but this time with my favorite bunch of swap nutters. So, here's what I'm thinking about picking up along the way. Big Hat seems to be the creme de la swamp, more or less, plus Som'er has always had a smelly place in my heart. It seems like Lenny, Georgy, and Ol' Cranky are pretty much shoo-ins on any Big Hat list, plus maybe a Banjonista and a Crier. Outside of Skeeters, is there anything in particular I should be looking to add? I'm also a huge fan of the Brewmaster because I, well, brew. I know Tri-Chi isn't the best keyword out there, but it seems like one can make a semi-decent Tri-Chi list just from three boxes, which is kind of nice. Plus, let's be honest, the Whiskey Golem is too cool not to include. Also, I've always been a fan of the Kin, but I haven't seen a lot of discussion about them. It seems like you basically just want Ophelia with as many of the named Kin as possible, Merris for objective running, and the Young because of course you want young. Any particular advice there? I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of Wong, Ulix, or Zipp (just an appearance thing) and Mah I can take or leave, but she would come at a much later date. So basically, any advice for someone getting back into the game and just getting into the Bayou?

And some are aMarcus. Kidding. Kind of.

At 35 SS, fitting in the Avatar is pretty simple--you just cut the Dove that you'd be taking otherwise. However, I'm not fully convinced that she's worth it, either. Her ability to mess with cards is, admittedly, very nice, but it's rather expensive in terms of AP and leaves you with less hitting power than before (3 AP for Magician's Duel as opposed to 4). If you were taking something that could reliably bring the pain, setting the opponent up for a strike like that would be golden, but I just can't see Cassie and the Duet doing that much damage. Of course, I could be wrong here--I admit, the Avatar of Deception makes my head hurt.

Given your chosen art style, I really want to see McMourning and a Zombie Chihuahua as Finn the Human and Jake the Dog. WHAT TIME IS IT?

How terrible. Why waste such delicate, expensive machinery when there are plenty of rough-and-tumble Miners willing to dig a quite deep hole just to get a smile from the girls? Seems a bit of a waste, after all. I mean, machines require upkeep. Men just require a little bit of praise. "Ooh, you're so strong" and all that.

Implying that there is a Tier Colette means that you, Tuesday, believe that Colette would stoop to occupy anything as, well, shabby as a tier. She gets the whole damned stage.

I have no problem with the triggers being able to go off as many times as you flip/cheat a Mask. I have an issue with models handing out the required suits for those triggers. In the hypothetical situation with the Ortega, I would have a problem with the model, not with Trigger Happy. Likewise, I don't care about Double Take, but Nekima's ability was poorly thought-out.

I have nothing against Marcus. I'd actually really like it if he became playable--it kind of sucks having only one option in your chosen faction, after all. However, I'm not going to take one person saying "Look, I'm winning with him!" to mean that everything is fixed. Book 3 at least gave him a fun, themed list with the Sillurids, but there just wasn't enough to really push him over to the good side of the chart.

I'm sure he has. And that's good for him. However, his argument boils down to "I win with him." I have won 20-plus player tournaments with Ogres. I wouldn't call them competitive by a long stretch.

You having success with Marcus does not make Marcus a good master.

Maybe, but it's been a lot longer than a month. He's just... Better.

Actually, people are right far more often than they are wrong, but they have a bit of a tendency to exaggerate. Nice underhanded insult to everyone on the boards. There is no such thing as "theorycraft"--it, like "fluff," are denigrating terms for things certain players do not appreciate. Reading the rulebook can certainly lead one to understand how to use models and which ones are better than others. Marcus is not one of those "better than the others" models. He has potential, but with three books, he remains uncompetitive. Maybe Book 4 will help.

There are two schools of thought to this. One school says that in order to understand how something works, you have to experience it directly. The other side believes that rational thought and the application thereof allows humans to figure things out beyond what they directly experience. I do not need to own (and play!) every model in every game in order to understand how each one works, just as I do not need to burn myself to understand that exothermic reactions can cause pain. Several reasons. Firstly, the odds of actually killing something with Electrical Fire aren't all that great since, let's face it, Ramos really wants to be on the back line before he manifests. Then, you're still better off using the Spider legs as opposed to the mechanical arm, and his scheme remains inferior to things like Bodyguard anyways.

I dislike the concept of a 1.5, which is why I didn't include it. The very notion is kind of shoddy and stinks of "throwing it in" after the fact. The auto-win situation is what pushes the Dreamer/LCB up to Tier 0 in my book. That and his complete and total saturation at every competition I've been at.

Yeah, the problem I'm seeing is that you really need the Toolkit to be summoning much, and those summons (and Ramos' lack of speed) means he will have potential trouble getting electrical fire off to do that much damage that early.

Nah, I prefer not to waste my time and money on a failed cause. Book 3 helped Marcus, but not enough to bring him out of Tier Marcus. Absolutely agreed, although it's a bit of a pain to pull off. Still nice, though, and it and the Large Steampunk Arachnid should do wonders for him.

Taking things seriously, because I have very little to do at the office right now... Faction-wise, things stack up roughly like this: Neverborn Outcasts Ressers Guild-Arcanists With the difference between levels being relatively small. Master-wise, I'd break things down like this: Tier 0: The Dreamer/LCB Tier 1: Hamelin Colette DuBois Kirai Ankoku Perdita Ortega Pandora Collodi Zoraida Leveticus Tier 2: Rasputina Lady Justice Lilith Victorias Seamus Nicodem Sonnia Criid Som'er Teeth Jones Tier 3: C. Hoffman Viktor Ramos McMourning The Remainder of the Henchmen Tier Marcus: Marcus And, in explanation: Tier 0 is slightly meta-deforming. You have to have an answer to things in this category because they will show up time and time again. Tier 1 is your standard highly-competitive tournament Masters. Tier 2 isn't a bad choice, but isn't the best of choices either, but you're not hurting yourself too badly by using them. Tier 3 isn't really strongly recommended. Tier Marcus is funny.

I agree completely with this statement. Neverborn is currently too good because of the Alp Bomb and the Nekima/Lillitu thing. Fix those, things go back to approximate normal. I still think LCB is a bit too good, but it may just be that his style of play resonates with me. And a lot of other people too. Let's be honest: there's only four Book 3 masters that are better. 3 of them are better because of movement shenanigans: Kirai, Colette, and the Dreamer. Hamelin is just... Well, it's a bit like being in a zombie movie. You can't really stop him, no matter what you do. Hoffman, on the other hand, just doesn't cut the mustard compared to his peers.

You're going to have real trouble convincing me that everyone else is on the same tier as Marcus. I actually kind of like Rasputina and Ramos.

I think it'd be really quite close, but I don't think that's because of how "varied" the lists are. I mean, with Arcanists (nobody's power faction) you have Colette (awesome), 'Tina (magic blasts), Ramos (summoner), and Marcus (Marcus). Very, very different. The thing is, making a viable crew for Neverborn can almost be a exercise in blind dart-throwing. Any master can be T1 and one is T0 at best (Dreamer). It's just scary.

Just remember, the plural of anecdote isn't evidence. Just because some people have success with Marcus, doesn't make him not... well, Marcus. Colette would be a Tier 1 Master. Rasputina would likely be Tier 2, and Ramos Tier 3. Marcus is Tier Marcus.

The Blessed is interesting, but I don't really see it making a huge difference. It is FAST, though, so there's that, but it's also so fast that it will tend to get itself into unsupported positions unless you're careful. Plus, I consider Snow Storm to be virtually a necessity for Rasputina as is and those two together are darned expensive. With Marcus, well, there's McTavish, who's likely to get bit by a bird and turn into a Beast. I've yet to see anything that would elevate him beyond his status as, well, Marcus.

Colette is at the pinnacle of competitive Arcanist masters (which, honestly, isn't saying much--the rest are fairly unimpressive). Her crew is fast, tricky, can completely multiple schemes T1-2, and while they don't do a massive amount of damage, they can papercut most things to death. Plus, her crew is visually striking and appropriately themed. What she doesn't have is flexibility. At any given points level, it's not hard to figure out what she's going to take. Rasputina is... Well, she's the second best, but not exactly all that great. She's too slow, and her fast pieces (Snow Storm and Blessed) cost 19 stones together. Plus, she really wants to take as many Ice-themed things as possible, which makes her even slower. Good damage output, though, which helps her a lot. Ramos will become better with his Avatar, as mentioned. At the moment, he's a slow summoner which is a horrible archetype for tournament play. Marcus is... Marcus. There are people who will defend him as "misunderstood." I understand that there are also people who believe that the Cubs will turn everything around this season, just you wait and see.

And it also negates the whole concept of "glass cannon." An avoidance tank is still a tank. Just ask FFXI Ninjas. The difference there is that, again, a dead model cannot counterattack, thus making speed and offense much more valuable in Malifaux when compared to "toughness." But that's oftentimes a problem with miniature games in general.