After spending so much time playing with my usual masters and using their individual avatars from time to time, I decided to make a list based almost entirely on augmenting someone's avatar form. I ended up picking Nicodem because I really dig his zombie-horde theme, and thought it could be an interesting experiment to see how many zombies I could put out, and exactly what I could accomplish with it.
Right now I'm looking at what models would be necessary in 25-35SS lists. I think Rafkin would work exceptionally well in this crew, as he works very well with the number of corpse counters I will be going through, and will be able to throw out even more Mindless Zombies as the game progresses. Alongside Rafkin, 3-4 Canine Remains would work well for the theme. I'm not looking to kill them right out of the gate- they have far too many uses for that. What stood out first for me is that, while they can pick up corpse counters, they discard them when giving them to Nicodem, which means Rafkin gains a body part counter if he is close enough. In addition to that, Rafkin gains another body part counter when Nicodem uses those counters to summon his critters, or when he's making more Mindless Zombies. Lastly, while I'm not a huge fan of using them as walking corpse counters, I think a couple Desperate Mercenaries would do well with this crew. As a bonus, if I keep them close to some Canine Remains, Nicodem, and Rafkin, I should be able to get 2 body part counters out of them, in addition to the corpse counter Nicodem gains (Dog kills DM, picks up counter, gives it to Nico(+1 for Rafkin), Nico uses it (+1 for Rafkin).
With Nicodem, his avatar, Rafkin, 2 DM's, and 4 Canine Remains, I've got a solid core of 22SS, with the remainder available to spend on minions suited for the strategy, opposing crew, or for straightforward damage dealing. As far as hand management, I'll be looking for high crows as usual, but I won't have to worry about saving cards for Rafkin *that* often, as he'll only be turning those body part counters into MZs a couple times per game, since it's an (All) action. Apart from that, he'll be running around preserving bodies and healing minions.
Thoughts? Any other models out there which I'm overlooking? I've considered Mortimer, but I think he's just too expensive for a model which I'll just be using for a free corpse counter each turn.