Dante83

Ok, so firstly, the reason for promising disciple (and as stated above I only take it if I have the stones left at the end of Crew selection) is that being able to carry focus over from turn to turn gives Yu extra flexibility as opposed to having him do the same thing over and over (I.e- air burst followed by mighty gust) and being in position on an important turn to make 2 models fast or 1 fast and 1 slow is well worth what would be leftover stones. Second, if you remove smoke grenades from the core list above and then assume 10SS for whatever you take in the beater slot it gives you 40SS (again, not adding promising disciple at this stage as the crew is not finished), you have 6 activations and 10 stones left over. That is easily enough for 2 more activations and so activation control shouldn't be a problem. Regarding stones, I barely ever play with a SS cache above what the master comes with (unless playing a summoner or something), especially with a master like Misaki when there is an actual advantage in having no soulstones. With the disguise build the only real reason to use them is damage prevention and in my experience it's not a huge factor as with careful positioning you shouldn't have many attacks coming your way. Finally, whilst 5AP sounds all well and good, I have personally found that the Bisento build generally results in one all or nothing turn from Misaki before her untimely death. Therefore, for me, the choice is between 1 mega turn or 5 good turns and that is why I find the disguise build so much more effective. Edit - Besides if I ever really need the 5AP mega turn I can just swap upgrades with the Terracotta Warrior and have at it.

The list is not a full 50SS though, it's just a rough Crew core. I'll admit I was just trying to think of an upgrade off the top of my head to replace my mistake with smoke grenades, but you are right it would require a last blossom minion. Recalled training would work, I just find that whenever is use it I almost always seem to see a black joker!!! Maybe that's just my luck though!!! Another option might be broken promises. Putting your opponent on Negatives would just add to the lack of incentive to target Misaki, albeit only for a turn.

That is a very good point!!! Ironically I had never tried the smoke grenades trick but it occurred to me mid post and I thought I was some kind of genius!!! So if you remove smoke grenades and replace it with smoke and shadows it doesn't change up the playstyle much, you just get LOS blocking stuff as opposed to negative flips vs ranged. Admittedly it costs you AP but as I said above disguised Misaki is not about silly amounts of damage as much as she is disruption. I'm also quite keen to try out the new upgrade which allows you to discard stones for a heal condition with the disguise build.

I might be the rare soul that would recommend going with Disguise over Stalking Bisento in the Limited upgrade slot. I know that Stalking Bisento is considered the go to and it is an upgrade that has obvious perks. Disguise however, i would argue has equal upside and offers a completely different play experience. Whilst i don't have any kind of fixed regular list for use with Misaki, I often (though not always) use a core of: Misaki -Disguise (2) -On Wings of Wind (2) -Smoke Grenades (1) Sensei Yu - (9) -Wandering River Style (2) -Promising Disciple (2) - I will only usually add this depending on stones left at the end of filling out the crew 10T Brother (5) 10T Brother (5) Terracotta Warrior (5) +1 Beaty Enforcer of your choice. The reason for the choices are as follows: The 10T Brothers can reliably score claim jump in pretty much any game and their ability to stop enemies removing my scheme markers is pretty good in GG2017. The Terracotta warrior is there to provide the beater with a bit of protection as well as to swap in Stalking Bisento in those turns where I absolutely, positively need something to die. Sensei Yu is for the pushes and scheme marker shenanigans, his ability to make Misaki fast is what puts him above the Emissary here, however i usually take one or the other in every 10T crew. I also like to use him to push opposing beaters and make them slow, this combines with the AP drain that attacking Disguise Misaki becomes for your opponent (I'll talk about this in a bit) The beater provides another source of killing in the crew, meaning that it's not all left to Misaki to provide threat. Finally, (and the point of the thread!!!) the reason for the Misaki loadout is that I personally find that it makes Misaki a much bigger threat. This is down to my personal opinion that Misaki is an incredibly easy master to kill in her Bisento incarnation. This often results in positioning her way out of harms way at the end of her activation to prevent any reprisal from your opponent. This has the effect of making her less able to impact the whole board in her next activation and limits her options in the following turn. In short, Bisento Misaki is often a master who has one giant activation per game but doesn't have much impact in the following turns. In her Disguise loadout however, positioning Misaki at the end of her turn for future turns is relatively simple as with her (0) to push if an enemy ends a walk within 2", the fact she cannot be charged and the fact that her next target trigger and the push she gets from wings of wind pretty much guarantees that you can end up 7" away from any ranged threats meaning that the negative flip from Smoke Grenades is active. All of these things drastically reduce the AP your opponent can spend attacking Misaki, which can often lead to your opponent not bothering to attack her. The fact that her damage output is obviously reduced from not taking Bisento can also lead to opponents leaving well alone, in a game about choices Disguised Misaki can be made into about as unappealing choice for your opponent to spend AP that she IMO has more of an impact on the overall game. Now i understand that her killing power is reduced in this build and i am loathe to often send her against some of the most resilient models in the game (unless the terracotta warrior is able to switch out upgrades), however i think it is important to realise that she can still put out some damage. She has melee 7, still has the assassinate trigger and if Sensei Yu has made her fast, she can potentially have 4AP!!! This post has gone on much longer than i initially anticipated and so I'll finish up with a few thoughts before it gets so long that no one bothers reading it!!! By no means do i think Disguise is a better upgrade for everyone who plays Misaki, nor do i think that Bisento is a bad choice for her to take. It just comes down to playstyle. Do you want Misaki to be able to kill anything on the board across from her or do you, like me, want MIsaki to be a disruption piece, able to bully/threaten things like scheme runners/glass hammers and to drain your opponents AP whilst he tries to find a way to deal with her. Anyway, that's my two cents, i just wanted to talk about an option i don't often see bandied about on the internet, if for no other reason than to generate conversation around the much unloved (unless by me!!) upgrade that is Disguise.

Awesome, thanks. I've just listened to the latest Max Value podcast and they had a breakdown of all our new wave 5 stuff (including all the master upgrades). I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how we came out of this book. Misaki looks like she will be a lot of fun and I may actually have to pick up Yan Lo!!! Overall, good job Wyrd!!

Ah man, the limitedness stops it being auto take as is though (probably good game design), as Huggy's effectiveness will have to take a hit in order to take it. Do you know what the discard effects are for each mask discarded?

I agree being able to cheat second is great, especially if you are losing the duel, but the original post doesn't mention that as a part of what Lynch does. I haven't seen the upgrades myself and so my comment was based on the post by pyrflamme. From what you are suggesting though being able to always cheat second does seem pretty good. Do you happen to know the upgrade cost/if it is Limited etc?

Hmmmm, that first Lynch one doesn't seem right. He already has an upgrade to enable cheating face down. In fact the proposed one is worse than the existing one as rather than being anyone in line of sight (as per existing upgrade), it appears to imply you can only do it within a certain distance of Lynch/Huggy.

This was very helpful. Thanks

That's fine, and in my original post I stated that it may well be the case that the acting player gets to choose. However, I am personally unable to find anything in the rules to confirm that the acting player gets this choice (this is likely me being an idiot!!!), and so before I begin playing my Yokai this way, I was hoping that someone wiser than me might point me towards an actual rules passage which backs up the supposition that the acting player chooses the order.

But as per the FAQ: "52. In the headhunter strategy, when is the head marker placed? It is placed after completely resolving the current action and any triggers it generated" This seems to suggest that both effects happen after the current action is resolved (I.e - at the same time).

Hmmm...I'm not sure if this works. The key is going to be the timing between placing the head marker and when the ability Ephemeral Warriors goes off. The last FAQ states that head markers are placed after triggers and so it looks like both the head marker and the place happen at the same time; after the soul burn trigger resolves. In which case, I may be utterly blind, but I can't seem to find a definitive statement which declares the order that these resolve. Is it the acting players choice? Unfortunately i I have nothing more definitive that that to add to the discussion, but I figured I'd share my thoughts in the hopes that someone much more knowledgeable than me could provide some clarity.

Thanks to all who viewed this, but I think Wyrd may have sorted me out based on their Black Friday newsletter.

I'm getting back into Malifaux after a year long hiatus. I'm looking for the Nightmare McCabe box. Short and sweet pitch, but if anyone is looking to sell let me know. Cheers

The thing is the 3 master wins should be worth more than 2 master wins and a henchman win. We all knew that going in this would be the case and I certainly have no complaints. I went into the tournament hoping to finish at least 2-2 and came out third!!!!!