Nagi21

Pandora's weird because you kinda have to play her in keyword to be good, and her expensive keyword models are very good. It's the cheaper ones that have real issues (anything under 7 stones basically). The rework to Misery basically left those models with little use since they don't survive well and don't do much damage unless they stick around close to the enemy. I would put her probably at the midpoint of the faction with Titania. Woe is one of those factions where either it works extremely well, or extremely poorly, depending on what the enemy can or does bring. I don't think I've had a game with Pandora in 3e where it wasn't a stomp one way or the other.

The year was 2009... I got in when the owner of the game store I went to explain why it was better than Warmachine (obviously), and they had, if I can remember right, Seamus, Nicodem, Lilith, Viktoria, and Lady J I believe (probably...). Honestly I was much younger then and it legit came down to which did I like more, undead hookers, leather clad chick with greatsword, other leather clad chick with greatsword, or katana clones. I liked purple more than red... After I got Lilith I liked how she played (she played way different then) so I just kept with her as my main and filled out what I liked. Committing to a faction wasn't as big a thing back then since everyone had a little bit of everything. I mean in order I got: Lilith, Viktoria, Zoraida, Perdita, and Leveticus. Then I fell out of the game for a bit after moving around where there wasn't a community, then moved somewhere there was when 2e was about a year in, and started filling out the rest of the stuff, although I think I really just played Lilith and Pandora mostly through 2e since Dreamer and Zoraida were kinda meh, and Titania didn't come around until almost 3e. I just stuck with them as a main because they have good models, and up until recently fit my playstyle of some variation of murder your opponent (which is why I'm terrible at Collette...). Sadly I've moved into Outcasts because I don't feel like just playing Dreamer 100% of the time if I want to have a reasonable chance to win... although if they become more competitive (or Lilith comes back) I might start playing them again.

So a few things to decipher here: 1) Collette is probably the best master in the game currently due to her kit and just how much AP and mobility it has, and it's only going to get worse with the new EXS models, until GG2 comes around. She's extremely hard to deal with for pretty much everyone right now, so that's an outlier. 2) Arcanists have extremely strong versatiles and upgrades, so basically all Arcanist crews have access to whatever tool they'll need in a situation, whether that be tanking up a model, concealment, extra AP, more cards. The fact that they get these across the entire faction just makes Arcanists have very few exploitable gaps. 3) Mei Feng can be difficult in some NVB matchups since she can go in and out fairly easily, and her counters get countered by the more popular ARC options. You really have to try and anticipate what your opponent is going to bring to get an even matchup as NVB, unless you want to run something like Dreamer all the time. 4) To the prior point, Dreamer has good matchups into a lot of Arcanists (Marcus, Hoff, Toni, etc). If you're struggling with them, consider practicing just Dreamer vs them. They usually only have one ruthless model they can bring (Raspy, Joss, Elijah, and Rider), and although Rider is pretty popular, it's not exactly the most deadly rider. 5) Marcus and Hoffman are under the curve, and I would recommend Pandora for both. You could also run Nekima, but she has more counters (Toni, Sandeep, Collette, Kaeris, Mei) than Pandora (Collette, Kaeris, Sandeep). The key with both is to find the core model and try and delete it as soon as possible. Don't get big eyes and try and go for the jugular. Both of those crews rely on keeping key models alive, whether that be a Sabertooth, Howard, or Joss, and removing one of those from the equation can rip the teeth out of that crew even if you get an unfavorable trade early. 6) This is a two-part answer: Don't leave yourself in a position where you have to walk into Rasputina's ice palace, and don't assume Pandora is a straight counter to Rasputina. If there is no good way for you to get your points without going across the center, don't pick Pandora into Rasputina. Reason being is that in the worst case scenario, she'll force a draw because you don't have a good way to get into a fortified ice palace. Both of them want the other to come to her, and Pandora can get to the center faster, but that's about as far as she can reasonably get without reenacting Omaha Beach. Also, while Poltergeist can remove pillars, remember that it's both short ranged, and you will inevitably leave it in a position where it can be nuked down afterwards with moderate effort (which any half-decent Raspy player will commit to without hesitation). This means you're only going to get one good pillar clearance if you both play correctly. Make it count. Simplified, unless you're going to only play Dreamer, you are going to have to try and anticipate your opponent's crew to try and get an equal or better matchup. Otherwise you will most likely end up in a worse position because of the availability of ARC versatiles and upgrades across the board. It gets argued a lot, but there's a reason why Arcanists are considered a top tier faction and Neverborn (sans Dreamer) a bottom tier faction.

They used to be a bit more interesting than that but in 3e they're solely fast, fragile, and simple. Honestly I don't like the direction so if you're looking for something other than what's on the tin, you're going to be disappointed.

Woe is a bit of a mixed bag in GG1. The pools are less spread out than gg0 but Pandora still has a lot of similar issues that she had prior. The main weakness of the keyword is that the high end models are really good (Dora, Candy, Carver, etc), but the mid to low cost models are extremely fragile (sorrows, aversions, Kade). The biggest problem this causes is that the traditional "misery ping bubble" doesn't work well because A) misery doesn't stack more than once per activation and 2) the models to make the bubble can be one/two shot fairly effectively vs any kind of range. She's not unplayable but the crew is best with fewer elite models than bubble focused models (I would call her a semi-bubble crew). Scheme-wise, she's good in anything that doesn't rely on her going much past the centerline. Claim jump is probably her best, along with something like research mission, Leave your mark, vendetta, Assassinate, or hidden martyrs (basically all the neverborn classics). She isn't going to be getting much off stuff like breakthrough or sabotage or the like unless you build specifically for it. The crew plays well into CLL, but struggles with Symbols since it usually relies on trading a model for a marker. You should never take it into Public Enemies, since you have very little survival aside from your expensive models, and you'll give up as many if not more points to most crews. Recover evidence is a bit of a toss up since it relies on you and your enemy coming together at some point. If you pick her into something like Dashel or Rasputina, you're very unlikely to score anything off the strat and give up points. Flip side is that if you take her into say Hoffman, you should get most of the points from it. All in all she plays almost identical to gg0, except the pools are slightly more conducive to center focused play where she doesn't have to go far. She's still the high cost elite crew she was at the start of 3e (sadly).

I never take Vasi for the summoning. Her role is strictly double bonus actions + Movement increase bubble + armor 2. If she gets a summon off that's just lucky, but I'd still take her even if she didn't have the summon (...at one stone less cost Wyrd).

Main problem with poltergeist is that, more often than it should, it gets picked off with no possibility to prevent that. Too many long range options that can put out 6+ damage in an activation unopposed, even on first activation with From the Shadows.

I've found Rezzer Daw is better if for no other reason than he gets access to the Grave Spirit upgrade. -1 wp aura with terrifying 13 Students of Vicscera? Insanely borked.

I mean you have Hans as an option.

It's basically bury them so they can never score. Depending on the pool and matchup this could be very useful. Also upon further reading there's an... interesting interaction with models that can unbury themselves. Thoon's card specifically says if the pillar is removed, the target is unburied in base contact with it. This effect doesn't have an end state (otherwise the pillars would disappear on their own at some point), so RAW a model that unburies itself would be vulnerable to being teleported back if it reburied itself.

I put it in the part you didn't quote. Anything where someone wants to get behind you for a scheme. Spread, breakthrough, etc. Shuts down any kind of burrow/teleporting model (soulstone miner), Collette isn't going to enjoy him because she can't TP to them when frozen and her crew likes to go in 9 different directions by themselves, Mah has issues because she can't be as mobile as she likes, and the emissary is a popular pick, which gets completely shut down, etc. If the pool is gonna be a scrum around the middle he's very rarely worth taking OOK, but if you're playing vs a scheme-strong master or in a scheme heavy pool, he's one of the few models that can funnel those hard to catch crews where you want them. Like I said he's not for the normal scheme runners. You shouldn't be hiring him just to freeze a lone Necropunk because someone picked Leveticus. There are plenty of hard to catch 7-10 ss models that he likes to go hunting for, so you take him when you expect something like that. You pick him like you'd pick carver vs a crew that likes terrifying. Ask yourself what does this crew have that would be a pain in my ass if it starts running around by itself? If anything above a crooligan comes to mind, it might be worth considering Thoon.

Sell it to you as what? An all around pick like Serena? Not possible. A good henchman in crew? Easy. Situational tech piece? Also easy. Thoon does a lot of things ok, but at his cost those alone aren't good enough. The thing that pushes him over the top is (unsurprisingly) his frozen trophy. Not because you throw him in the middle and start freezing things, but because you stick him in one place, and tell your opponent do not pass go, do not collect 200$. Thoon's bread and butter is punishing models that want to outrun their crews. I don't mean the small stuff like a crooligan or a necropunk. I mean the big stuff. Lucky Emissary, Carlos, Coryphee Duet, Archie, etc. Want to try and play around him? You're sending at least one backup model, usually a pretty good one, which further divides your crew up. Sometimes you can't even play around him and get stuck with a 10 stone paperweight (see Lucky Emissary). Yes you can do some cute stuff with Lucius, and Thoon is probably good in every situation with Euri due to shifting ice, but his main schtick is hard area denial. Walking into a bubble like Daw to try and stop Monstressor or the like is probably not the best idea unless you can get some slick double activation off to pull the pillar away.

Frankly any of them are good, but if you're looking for a second competative faction, I'd say Arc or Thunders. Although anything but rezzer is fine.

Hina, Stitched, Kunoichi, Serena is extremely legit.

I mean let's be real. Malifaux would be much simpler with a "Broadswords at dawn" rule.

I'm suddenly getting flashbacks of Cyka Blyat in Dota...

Curious why that is, because aside from Seamus and Reva, the Rezzer toolkit should be running over those, or at least tying them down to the point of unusability.

Been following the same and I've come to two conclusions: 1) Nekima is at the bottom tier of masters that are focused on high damage output in melee due to a lack of defense, and her style being too easy to counter and build around for most factions/crews. 2) Plaag is a troll that probably plays with a weak meta, and challenges any disagreement with "u mad, fite me".

It can be but he's expensive and of course, slow. He also needs time to setup unless the board is already covered in severe, concealing terrain. Also he's fighting Carver, Ted, Hina, and Rider for his spot.

Ignores underbrush which is the only important part of why unimpeded is needed in Fae. Both Rex and KJ are gonna need a dog to push them up as well. Also has Flurry and Onslaught. Rex does not. A stat 6, 3/4/5 with a bonus action trigger to get two attacks is the bare minimum beater, and there's a better option in KJ for that. 3/4/5, not 6. Df 4 is also not so hot even with 12 wds as we see with Rougarou in Fae constantly. It is.

My biggest issues now are the same as then. Fae has two 10 stone options already in Emissary and Killjoy, with a ruthless option for 1 stone more in the rider. How does this remotely look better than any of those options? KJ is a much better alphastrike options, particularly if you're going to use Titania as part of that since she gets the Blood Sacrifice options. Emissary is much better in the long game when he's able to setup, with fantastic synergy with terrain. If the Rex was the only option in Fae for either of those things, then it'd be a borderline okay model, but it's just outclassed in its own weight class.

#BigAndUselessinFae

Lure is a 12" range. If there's nothing forcing your opponent to cross the midpoint of the board, how are you getting him out of position if he sits back, without going towards him first?

Yea... and casual games? This is going to result in people cutting games off in the middle because they can't agree on previously established rulings. Maybe we should change riccochet while we're at it? And Obey how about that? I like triggers off obey triggers, that sounds fun.

To avoid having one rule apply to just one master, and the rule apply differently to everything else, yes. I wouldn't be so agitated if this wasn't being advertised as the "World Cup" as opposed to "UK meta tournament whatever", which means that this has the potential to be considered the default judgement in general and in other metas. Which considering the rule interpretation is just plain wrong... As a TO you don't get to guess what the designers intended. You define the rule as written, and it most certainly is not written solely for Nekima.