Nagi21

Neverborn are good but not strong enough to do everything with one master (unlike some TT masters *cough*Shenlong*cough*), which doesn't surprise me that the single master format is not good to them. Going through I could give my various speculations for the various masters and their state competitively: Nekima - The Nephilim faction (release issues aside) is very strong right now I feel, what with the grow and black blood synergy being much more accessible and synergetic than prior editions. Ironically the weakest part of them seems to be the master herself. A height 3 defense 5 model with regen 2 has issues surviving between activations, and with no other defensive triggers, can get blown up fairly easily in a lot of matchups. The other issue is that her damage kit doesn't really compensate for this, because while she has a stat 7 attack, a 3/5/6 damage track is only slightly better than a mature nephilim, and shove aside is not really the trigger you want on something you would think is designed for deleting dangerous models and not cleaning up weak minions (why a basic sword and greatsword have better attacks than a named blade...). She runs into issues particularly vs TT and their various minions able to tear them apart at range. Zoraida - Zoraida is great (obviously) but the actual swampfiends are in a strange place. Juju is not a particularly strong beater, nor a particularly tanky one as with effective 13 wounds and defense 3, even minor damage is going to pile up on him at short range. Grootslang is nice, but at def 5 and 0 defensive tech, he can die easily in a fight without question. The rest of the keyword seems to be built around getting around quickly and scheming, which is fine but can run into issues vs some crews making her a vulnerable single master choice. She seems more at home as a 2nd master to a lot of crews, although I have seen an interesting crew with mostly nightmares and The First Mate with her that has potential. Titania - Probably one of the more well rounded masters in the faction. Her mid to high tier minions are fairly strong, but suffer from AP resource as most of her crew doesn't have very many bonus actions that are usable every turn. One issue she runs into is effectiveness with OOK models. The underbrush she relies on can be a detriment to a lot of models. Also part of the issue prior to last month, is that she was in a very weird place with search the ruins as a scheme. She also runs into issues with crews that either ignore concealment, or crews that churn out focus on a lot of things. Pandora - She really suffers in single master play, as she is somewhat scheme pool dependent. Not that she can't play into them all, but certain combinations can force an uphill battle. Her crew is also somewhat more specialized and slower to react than the rest of the faction. Versus Arcanists, I find that she has a lot of strength vs most of those masters, however she suffers into crews that have high willpower or long range attacks. Normal play she is very strong provided you can account for the faction you're picking into, but unless you are going to commit to high cost independent models in the bad matchups, she should not be a single master choice. Dreamer - Suffers slightly from the same high wp matchups that Pandora does since that can cripple his summoning. However, the crew is much more well rounded and able to take on most crews on at least even footing. Dreamer/Zoraida is a popular choice, and stitched are one of the best minions in the faction. Played correctly, Dreamer should be your best choice in the single master category, as aside from some edge cases (Tara comes to mind), the nightmare toolbox has the most versatility. Even in normal play, Dreamer should be something considered vs every faction. He can be somewhat tricky to master however, which leads me to believe that issues with his winrate are a result of misplay rather than crew balance. Marcus - Much better in Arcanist keyword than NVB. He does gain some interesting beasts and of course the dreaded butterfly jump upgrade with NVB, but I have seen him much more effective on the blue team. Could be an interesting blindside in regular play, but not as a single master pick. Lucius - I can't comment on this as I've only seen him used by guild players dipping into Mimic and not the other way around. He does seem like he'd be a good suprise pick as a Neverborn player to someone expecting a different matchup in regular play, as most players don't immediately think of Lucius as Neverborn, but taken in single master, he'd be the same as Guild lucius with slightly better upgrades in my opinion. Lucius is a strong master (when mastered) so that's not the worst thing... Euripides - Anything I say would be theorycraft at this point. Looks strong, we'll see.

Limited to targeting woes. The Changling literally just copies it, then you discard a card for whatever suit you want. Neither ability requires a flip, so a perfectly good use of 1's and 2's.

Just remember that future proxies aren't GG legal if they've been released (in any edition).

So what schemes did you take and what schemes did he take other than the two mentioned?

The issue I find with a lot of people when looking at Pandora's scheming is two-fold: First, the bubble in their mind is smaller than the actual bubble on the table. Yes misery is only six inches but that's six inches from every model with it, so that bubble can go from the center of the board to one of the outflank edges pretty easily (assuming a non-diagonal centerline). In fact I would hesitate to call it a bubble, being it's more like a black hole with other abilities to pull various models in. Secondly, the actual bubble itself only needs a handful of key models in it. Pandora and Candy and another cheap misery aura like an aversion or lyssa are all that really needs to be committed to the main center. Rider splits off as soon as he delivers the candy to the kids. Teddy and Kade serve almost no bubble purpose shy of the lure and that's just as good with them slingshoting around the table. You could take Carver and Serena, then you have a reinforcement from Serena via Ted and Carver on multiple fronts. You could take Angel and then just have her do her own thing independently, or Hinamatsu and the same. Poltergeist is better served hanging back and supporting the flanks and coming in when he's needed rather than sitting around as a simple stunned aura. Pandora should ideally be split into two halves as a crew: Pandora, Candy, and the small minions to hold the center, and then the mid-high tier minions and enforcers to play on the outside. If they commit to a flank then you have ways to stop that. If they see a weaker bubble and come to break the center, then (usually) Pandora and Candy can do their thing long enough to pull reinforcements in from the side. Obviously there are some schemes you're never going to want to take (Power Ritual, breakthrough, outflank in a corner deployment), and obviously if your opponent brings a crew that wants to fight in the center or the scheme pool is all middle of the board based, you bring the black hole and drop the hammer (the secret word is Teddy). Pandora 3e is not Pandora 2e where she wants a bubble and if she doesn't she's gonna be behind. She wants a bubble around her and some models, but the crew has mobility (that doesn't make it a mobile crew) and a lot of tools to work away from each other.

I wouldn't roll Wisps with Titania unless I had a very good reason. They're outperformed by Bultungin at cost 5. Bultungin have Old ways to survive, abundant growth to ignore underbrush and give an extra marker at setup, deadly pursuit to move 16" a round, the ability to end conditions on anything, and 5 wds vs 4 at 5/4 vs 4/4. They also have abilities to deny perform scheming. The only thing I could see bringing a wisp for would be if I was bringing Zoraida with Titania to use it as a channeling point, but even that runs into problems due to the concealment from underbrush.

I would agree with your premise, however by that logic it also allows a quirk with Take Prisoner and Deliver a Message in that the friendly model can be obeyed to murder a friendly model to it and score the second point of those schemes. If true (which as it reads in the rules I can't imagine why it wouldn't be), that means instead of obey being strong against Idols and Explosives, you now have it being strong vs Prisoner and Message. Trade strats for schemes i suppose.

Rougarou are nice but not so much better than the benefit you get from arcanists to justify it. Grootslang is nice but has the same issue. Something interesting to test though would be a Marcus/zoraida list as i think those two could do some fun things together XD Euripides doesn't literally just got a box so he's flying on merely the released fluff points. Giants really aren't my kind of thing fluff wise so I can't base anything off the gameplay yet. The reason for Lucius is probably because most of his good stuff is on the guild side aside from the changelings and doppel, so NVB players don't quite get him to the table as often (I assume due to model restriction). Being particularly complex doesn't help more people play him either.

Without knowing what you're going into, couldn't tell you exactly. That into Arcanists vs that into Ten Thunders are two very different setups. Search, Leylines, and Deliver are going to be your go to in this pool since wedge is likely going to cause an early scrum in the center. Your opponent may choose to fight you for the center (which is your wheelhouse so go for that unless it's something insane...), or he may opt to go for Leylines and Search if he wants to avoid you. Also you'll have to account for him taking Deliver and getting the free point on that. Pandora wants to play right up near the middle and a lot of things can close that gap in one turn with some setup. By the same token, you shouldn't have any issues denying the second point of Deliver, so it depends on how confident your opponent feels about scoring some of the others... Dig is unlikely for him because very little of yours drops corpses, so while the first point is doable, the second is this side of impossible (with proper play that is). Depending on what you bring I would say the most likely schemes to account for are Search/Leylines (for evasive crews), or Deliver/Hold Up (if they want to go brawl in the center). Some of the posts here already mentioned Iggy, who is good in plant and in this pool. Also a notable take should be Carver, as his breath of fire trigger burns up scheme markers in a blast a la poltergeist marker style. Bowman can work as she can hang back and channel through carver (and teddy should you opt for him, which in this scenario I would personally). This is a pretty good encounter as Pandora as the amount of schemes that require you to react to all corners of the map are limited. It is likely to be pretty even on the strat points (depending on the enemy), but the scheme pool tilts heavily to you.

I can confirm it is good in matchups where the enemy relies on triggers (ironsides, Mei Feng, etc.) or in crews where you eat your opponent's hand (Pandora).

So the issue you're going to run into with Colette is two-fold: Remembering everything your crew does and how it synergizes and at what time, and figuring out how to stop your opponent's points. Colette has a lot of little things that rely on knowing what your enemy can do so you don't get put in a poor position or lose a key piece. By the same token, you need to know what your opponent is going for in order to stop them from scoring, since while you can technically react to just about anything, stopping it is another issue entirely. The crew suffers somewhat from lack of punch at times, and it's not uncommon to see high scoring draws when new to Colette since both of you can avoid each other given enough effort.

That encounter looks incredibly similar to a recent tournament that was hosted this past weekend... Anyway, it really depends on what you're going into. Arcanists don't have any one particular master that can be taken blind into all factions and perform well. Specifically lets say you're going into Neverborn (my faction). First thoughts that come to mind is you're probably going up against either Pandora, Dreamer, or Nekima in that order (Pandora and Dreamer feed off WP duels which most arcanists struggle with, and Nekima brings the murder that that pool implies). Colette gets a pretty even game vs Pandora but in Reckoning I don't know that she brings enough firepower, and that scheme pool is also very focused on getting into it with the enemy, which Colette is not great for either. Hoffman's constructs will eat themselves alive with their poor WP, so I don't like that play either. Marcus would be okay if the pool had search or breakthrough or outflank, but I've seen the beastmaster run into a pandora bubble and it is not a fun time for him (although she loves it~). Ironsides is plenty killy for that encounter, but has issues into Pandora because of stunned being handed out constantly eating into her adrenaline markers, plus misery can pull the bubble apart since it's only a 3" bubble for a lot of things. Sandeep has focused and shielding built into his kit, which Pandora would rip away for bonuses all day, although you might be able to overwhelm her with model count (although considering the strat I wouldn't go for this). Rasputina has issues because Poltergeist will keep wiping out her ice pillars among other things. Mei Feng might be the best option, but again she is reliant on triggers which stunned can prevent, and this isn't a mobile encounter pool. I won't try to build a list cause it probably won't be good for you, but specifically for this into that, Iwould probably try for something with Colette and bringing whatever you think could survive contact with the enemy for more than a turn.

Especially for crews like mcmourning (ripping off 8 poison on anything is going to be amazing), Kaeris, Sandeep, Perdita. Anything that gives out conditions like candy (not the model) is going to hate Eldritch magic. Oh and don't forget counterspell... kinda fun on 7-8 point minions lol.

Your sacrilege has been noted. You will be first to be purged when the true queen rises again. #NotMyNephilim Mostly Pandora now until Wyrd bring the narrative back around the Lilith's vengeance upon the neverborn. Plus it makes me giggle when I just plant Candy in the middle of the enemy and watch them die to a small child. Trying to figure out a way to convert a Candy into a reasonable facsimile of Tanya the Evil...

That leads to an interesting situation in that, if you copy an ability on the upgrade, you would technically still be able to do it in the von schtook aura, because the ability is considered printed on your card and not an attached upgrade.

Bonus points for putting butterfly jump on Candy and making her nigh unhittable in that crew while she just eats cards and shits stunned XD

Yea the Proxies are only allowed if the model isn't released, meanwhile model x is out of print for 2 years... Smart play Wyrd. Very GW of you.

I mean that's a lot but that also cuts into his main abilities other than his sword, and early it's not nearly that much. 6/7 is good but the issue you run into is if you get hit, you're taking full damage (unless you wanna bite into those turn 1/2 counters which delays his big play making abilities). With hard to wound that could be min damage but min damage weapons with 3 damage are not exactly uncommon... and even min damage 2 in enough volume can easily put him down (looking at you bushwhackers).

Eh rider isn't really more defensive, but he allows you to put other models where they need to be.

My counterpoint to that would be that "Select one of the target's" not "the target" is how Just Like Me reads. Also there is now way the gunfighter case is legal as those are completely different things. That would be like saying you get black blood off copying black blood pustule.

Mimic specifically states that "This model" treats the action as being printed on its card. That's just about as specific as it gets. If you control the model you can take the action, but other models don't treat it as having that action. The abilities not printed on the card that is Mimicking do not apply as the only thing it Mimics is the action.

Yes, and as you are not allowed by the rules to look through the deck (again, it specifically states you can only look through your own), your opponent is allowed to say no.

It's literally the exception that proves the rule. Again, if you could look through either deck, there is no reason to put "their own discard pile" and not "either discard pile". It is also a rule that specifically states a rule for discard piles, invoking the "unless it is specifically stated otherwise in the rules." The examples even use "such as" indicating including but not limited to. The only grey area I could see is whether the number of cards in the discard pile is public or not, but the contents are most certainly not as written.

I'm not sure I would call the number of cards in the discard pile public information either, since by inverse, you cannot ask your opponent how many cards are in their fate deck (at least I would think so...). Noting is legal RAW so long as it doesn't slow the game down... and most players (and more importantly TO's) agree that making a note that x, y, or z has flipped is fine if it doesn't cause hiccups.

The comparison would result in the obeyed model taking the action, which falls under the "This model" portion of the ability. A model mimicking that would not have the corresponding ability, as abilities are not copied. Mimic and Just Like Me only copy the action as written, not abilities on the model copied. The doppelganger can take an action and put it on her card, resulting in the abilities on her card affecting that, but not from the original card.