Enki

You flip one uncheatable card and that's how much damage it does to everyone (+1 for every burning counter). The resist is to see if you take this damage or nothing. This is not effected by hard to wound, duel totels, or anything that gives plus or minus flips.

1. Round 1 - Gaining Grounds Land Grab - your main list 2. Round 2 - Gaining Grounds Line in the Sand - might want to switch out Izamu for 2 Night Terrors and 2 Doggies or some Necropunks 3. Round 3 - Contain Power - your main list I think your main list should be fairly strong for Land Grab and Contain Power. For Line in the Sand you want to keep the cluster guarding 2 markers and some mobile minions to get the rest. As far as schemes you could always bring along chiaki instead of an ashigaru in your list and do his master specific for one game. With 3 ancestors on the board it should be quite easy. He excels in anything Killy and loves stake a claim & breakthrough. If going against a non mobile mele master you can always try steal relic.

I don't think Misaki would have more problems against a Lynch crew than anyone else. I was just suggesting for (both players') learning purposes to hold back on crews that play significantly different from the pack. Alot of new players find these overly confusing and get frustrated trying to remember everything. However, I would suggest both of you to play whoever you are most excited about since I think this will make for a more enjoyable game.

I would probably stay away from the Dark Debts box set since the mechanics of that crew is pretty different and could be really confusing to a beginner. Both the LJ and Lilith sets are about as straight forward as you can get and are excellent to start out on. Lady Justice is probably your lowest $$ investment option to start playing as her box set is pretty good from the get go. She may cause groans when attacking with an 11-13 cb but is still way less likely to evoke a rage quit than Misaki. LJ follows a point click kill type of play with minimal tricks. Lilith is a good blend of mele beatstick and mobility. To play her you really want to pick up a blister of young nephilim and probably the primordial magic totem. She is usually leading a crew of very mobile glass cannon nephilim. She has a few simple tricks and is a blast to play. Hopefully some of this helps and I hope you enjoy the game. Welcome to Malifaux! There are more resources at the pull my finger tactica wiki http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/

Some random thoughts: Dead Doxies IMO aren't quite as useful as another Rotten Belle and 1ss. For this reason I never start out with them but summon them if I need/feel like playing them. The copycat killer isn't as bad as people would make you believe but still the grave spirit is a rockstar for 1 ss. If running Molly you could always take both and see what ends up doing more for you. One of the best things for Molly to copy is The Hanged's spell (I forget what it is called but it halves wounds and prevents them from being healed) Pop this on one of the twins to ruin their day. However this is an expensive combo at 17 stones to field both. Seamus needs a good amount of stones. I wouldn't run him with less than 6 myself or he becomes really squishy. Bette is a beast, just remember to save that 10+ card for her because she will be targeted with everything once people see what she can do. I will usually opt for bette over the hanged since he can really be gimped against high wp/ITI models. Seamus' Avatar is a beast! if you look at expanding in the future you can't go wrong with it. Crooked men are awesome with belles and generally good all around, just don't use up bette's 10 to cast their cave in.

These lists look alot more versatile, but remember you would have to run Yan Lo as resser to have access to the night terrors. Night Terrors = Liquid Awesome in mobile lists I for one have always ran Yan Lo as a Resser just because they have a BUNCH of awesome low cost minions. Ten Thunders has some good models but you seem to have to pay alot more in TT for what you get for super cheap with Ressers (unless you run some clockwork traps which are amazing). I play ressers alot so I might be biased though.

I usually deal with ranged crews with a swarm of canine remains keeping them in mele until my hitty stuff can advance. I love to take 4-6 doggies and walk or charge them into mele with any shooters picking up any corpses to bring back. The -2 df for having 2 in mele is huge, add bolster(cb6 df7) and you have something way better than a 2 point minion. Add Mortimer or Sebastien for an alpha dog strike and you will see those models you brought for cheap corpse counters wrecking and tying up the best minions. Against living crews they get even better as they can charge 9" against wounded living models for 1AP. Above all the best part about dogs is you don't care if they die.

That is definitely a scary crew to play against! You may have to adjust it a bit for more spread out or mobile strats like line in the sand but you should be able to kill about anything (except Pandora of course) I wouldn't be afraid to switch out a punk zombie with chiaki or a torekage based on the strategy.

You may want to increase your pool a bit Yan Lo really wants to spend 3 of your 5 before the game starts for df 7 and regen 1. This would leave him with 2 left over or he's a wet napkin with 5 stones. I would suggest trading out one of your archers for (trying to think of 3 point TT minions) 2 clockwork traps if you have them. This would leave you with 4 after the chi upgrade of the max 5 and make Yan Lo alot more durable.

+1 to Claymore Kirai hates fighting Viktorias, Sonnia, and Misaki..... well at least they can actually scare her a bit with their abundance of magic damage. Seamus is an excellent starter crew and I think you are on the right track with match ups. IMO playing 2 simple crews for the first couple games is more important than balance as you can handicap yourself with difficult schemes and not use tourney lists if you need to keep it interesting while they are learning. I would't play Kirai or Dreamer like you said until they have a firm grasp of their crew and want to learn about the tricks. As for starter lists what you mentioned should work fine, after a game or two give her a grave spirit to learn about totems or possibly some models to branch out to. Remember to fully explain companion and understand it yourself since his can be really confusing compared to others.

You may want to pick up some clockwork traps as McCabe kinda comes with 2 even though they are not in his box. Additionally you may want some guild hounds for Luna to run around with as well as for Sonnia to blow up. If you would like some sonnia summoning shenanigans you could bring 1 or 2 desperate mercs. The bonus is that this is a good 2 point model and a round 1 inferno will leave them on 1 wound which is good for them and sonnia. I always like death marshals and of possibly more stalkers. If it is a larger stone tourney you may want to look into Lucius. Plenty of synergy with McCabe's guardsman models or allow sonnia to blast into other deplayment zone in turn one. Though it usually has to be 35+ SS game for me to bring him as he's 10ss and really needs some of his own models(those riflemen work) to get the most out of him.

+100 on the lost love for me all Kirai lists start with Lost Love and 5 Seishin after that I highly recommend Shikome (hiring one in play means the one your about to summon has a fun hunting buddy) Shikome's IMO are the best do it all minions in the game. I haven't had much luck with datsu, it seems like she makes me want to kill my own minions (wasting turn one and messing with kirai's control hand) or she just doesn't do much. I love Gaki and would find it hilarious running 5 in a list, that and I find them as not as painful to sac spirits when you NEED reactivate or a crucial summon. They tend to do more for me than Onryo despite their price especially when playing against alot of living models (corpse counters = YUM) I would be hesitant to run 3ss with Kirai but could maybe see 4ss. I usually bring 5ss but I really like my stones, I think I may have a bit of a problem (is their a rehab for this)

Because they are both totems you will not be able to take the Drill Sergeant and Luna at the same time unless you bring a henchman(like Lucius) to attach the second totem to. That said you may not want to run Luna unless you have a few guild hounds as well and you probably don't want to run Lucius in smaller games. As far as guild goes witchling stalkers and death marshals are really good and work with almost every guild crew. If you would like to go the guardsman route, Lucius and his entire box set would go very well with McCabe as well as Guild Hounds and Austringers giving lots of guardsmen synergy. Also if your ok with foregoing a totem, the Brutal Effigy is an awesome addition to any guild crew as well. Oh yeah and Sidir is a beast!

Wow I can't believe I forgot Kaeris. I'm giving myself a 50 dkp minus now.

It may be fun to run Molly and 3 crooked men to spam paralyze all over the place at least once Yan Lo gets far enough into his path to get Rigor Mortis. You could also send a Shikome after Colette, crazy mobility, immunity to slow, and poison could cause her fits. Come to think of it, can Colette trigger blinding flash off of WP?