Virtus

Can you Devil's Deal at the start of the turn when you draw two/ ditch two, or to reflip initiative? Or are those not considered actions?

I'm curious to see what the community would grade Hamelin on all the Gaining Grounds Strategies and Scheme, and in which ones they will choose to play Hamelin over other Outcast masters (if any).

I always run Nyx, just because he's usually difficult and annoying for my opponent to bring down. I used to always hire a Stolen but have recently started trying out lists -Stolen, +Hollow on Nyx so he can get the 1 action charge. If I feel like I need to play more aggressively, I go with Hollow; if I feel like I need more activations, I go Stolen.

The three upgrades I usually take on Hamelin are the Piper, the Plague, and Sewer King. Nobody really gives the draw ability from Sewer King much love, but I think it's great. It helps us get the cards we need for the Wretch to make rats, or those 8+ we need for Hamelin to make a Stolen or two in a turn. The Crooligans which we can hire off of Sewer King are really good too. I prefer them over the Winged Plague. I usually build my list with a 7 Soulstone cache, so I usually don't take Survivalist unless the schemes make me want it. I'd say Ratjoy is a trap only if you use it every game when the schemes don't even need it. And even if you do need it, you'll need to evaluate the situation to see when and where the best place is for Killjoy to pop up. Be aware that if your opponent can chain activate, then that probably means a dead Killjoy. And I recommend learn to use Nix well. He's hard to kill and is really annoying for your opponent if you're using him right.

One of my friends that I enjoy playing Malifaux with has gotten big into the Gremlins faction, and he always likes throwing in Trixiebelle in his lists. I'm having trouble dealing with her ability to cheat initiative every turn with my two masters, Hamelin and Von Schill. Von Schill is currently new and running the out of the box list with some generic upgrades. How do you deal with Trixie's cheat initiative ability in Outcasts?

I learned that the Reactivate condition remains on a model even after it reactivates, and leaves during the upkeep step. Is the same true for the Paralyzed condition?

I fell in love with the Wendigo when I first started playing Rasputina, where I was able to devour a full-health Pandora. I'm looking to get a game in with Raspy today, and I really want to make the Wendigo shine. Since the Wendigo is a totem, we can't use soulstones to get the crow we need for devour, so we need to rely on upgrades on other models to make him great. I'm thinking about taking Sub Zero on my one enforcer, the Ice Golem. Keeping him within the 8" aura will help the little 6 wound model survive. With Raspy, I was thinking about going with Shattered Heart, Arcane Reservoir, and Child of December. Shattered Heart is obvious. Arcane Reservoir is already good, but the primary reason I'm planning on taking it is so that Wendigo will have a greater chance of not only having a high crow in hand for devour, but also to be able to cheat the 11 necessary for Raspy's Freeze Over with Wendigo's Magical Extension. The Child of Decemeber upgrade will be new for me (I usually make Ice Pillars with Cold Nights instead). It's awful when you put so much set up into devour by paralyzing a living model and reaching the TN, only to be beat by your opponent cheating in a high card. My only problem with Child of December is that Shatter is a 0 action, so Wendigo can't Magical Extension it. But alas... I also plan on starting with a cache of 7 soulstones, and use a few for Surge triggers in order to draw the cards Wendigo will need. I'm curious as to how others play the Wendigo, and how much mileage people usually get out of him.

Is it possible to respond to a trigger from an attack with a tactical action? The reason why I'm asking is in regards to Shenlong and the Mighty Gust attack action from Wandering River Style. I want to be able to get to the TN 12 of Mighty Gust through focus so I don't have to rely on a card in my hand, but I also want to have one focus still available in order to apply a trigger (reducing the focus value by 1 is an additional cost for a trigger). Can I respond to the trigger by doing a 0 action from Shenlong in order to obtain Focused +1 before the trigger resolves? I'm assuming no, but I'm curious as to why not. Thanks!

Hey all, I'm looking for ways to take my Hamelin playstyle to the next level. He was my first ever crew when I got into Malifaux, and while I enjoy playing him, I feel like I can use improvement. I know the basics, such as what can be changed into what, and usually make a rat catcher and rat king on turn one. Here is a list I like playing with: Hamelin (7 SS Cache) - The Piper - The Plague - Sewer King (flex slot) Nix - Infectious Melodies Rat Catcher The Stolen Obedient Wretch Killjoy Malifaux Rat Malifaux Rat Malifaux Rat I usually deploy one Malifaux Rat and the Rat Catcher as far up my deployment zone as possible. I keep Nix behind the Rat so Infectious Melodies will work. The other two Malifaux Rats are placed on the side so they won't get Tangled with the third Rat. I start by sacrificing my Stolen to make two Rats, which eventually tangle with the two Rats on the side to make a Rat King. Sac the slow Rat King to make another Rat Catcher and a Malifaux Rat. So far that is 6 activations in. Then I activate Hamelin. Use an action to focus to get the 0 Lure, and go for the trigger if I have a high mask or tome in hand. I use my second action to focus and third action to Obey the Obedient Wretch into killing a slow Stolen. Sickly and Voracious Rats will make a slow Malifaux Rat. Walk that slow Rat towards the other slow Rat that hasn't activated yet. Activate and sacrifice the Obedient Wretch to make two more slow Rats. Walk those two towards the third slow Rat. Activate the final slow Rat to get Tangled, making a slow Rat King. Activate slow Rat Catcher to give Rat King reactivate. Activate Rat King twice. Activate the normal Rat Catcher. Walk once and use 0 action to move normal Malifaux Rat. Then reactivate the Malifaux Rat. If you're facing a summoning crew that hasn't finished activating, activate Nix now and the Stolen if you got the trigger off earlier. Now activate the Malifaux Rat to walk, then on its reactive, give it fast via Infectious Melodies. Move up the board, pop, bring out Killjoy. Killjoy charges something. At the end of all that, I'll have 2 Rat Catchers, 1 Rat King, Hamelin, Nix, Killjoy, and maybe one Stolen. That will leave me with 53-55 SS in a 50 SS match, which is great, but it will also leave me with 6-7 models at the start of turn two as opposed to 8 on the field at the start of turn one. It's a great way for Killjoy to go kill a certain model, but I'm losing my Obedient Wretch and my Malifaux Rats in the process, and nothing got Blighted. Is it worth it? Other questions I have: 1) How early do you give Blighted? I want to use that 14" range on Hamelin's Pipes to give Blighted turn one (through The Plague upgrade), but that will require me to change my strategy. If I go this route, I am strongly considering the Scout the Field upgrade instead of the Sewer King upgrade, and the Scramble upgrade instead of The Piper. If I go this route, I will rely more on high crows in my hand for Obedient Wretch to make more Rats (I will lose Obey to kill a Stolen, triggering Voracious Rats), and the only way I can help with that is by drawing two, ditching two via a SS at the start of the turn. 2) I run out of Rats really fast with my current strategy, and want to use them to block charge lanes. If I get rid of The Piper and Sewer King for Scramble and Scout the Field, blocking charge lanes will be even more important because Hamelin will lose Irresistable Dance. How many Rats do you run to help block charge lanes? 3) I really want to get good with Hamelin's Sick in Bed trigger and Nix's Plague Pit 0 action. When do you go for those as opposed to giving more Blighted with Nix's other 0 action or Hamelin's Decaying trigger, or just choosing to deal more damage?

I can't stop imaging Parker Barrows sounding like Erron Black from MKX. Based on Parker Barrows' card and the current upgrades we have for Outcasts, I was thinking of equipping him with Scramble(2), Oath Keeper(1), and Scout the Field(1). If we start him 5" from the table edge, we can then trigger a 6" walk with Scout the Field and Scramble. On his activation we can start by ditching Oath Keeper to give him fast, and gain a Soulstone from "Limited Supplies." Walk him twice for 12" unimpeded movement to get into position. So that is 23" down the field. We can reach the remaining 12" with his "Six Shooters." The next two actions depends on where the opponent has placed their models, but for the sake of argument let's say Parker is the first model to activate on Turn 1, and your opponent positioned a model you wish to shoot that is at least 5" from their table edge. So with your third action, Parker can shoot that model, and make them drop an enemy scheme marker 3" towards Parker. It will be 8" away from the table edge, so Parker's "A Fistful of Scrip" can end up converting it into a friendly scheme marker if you wish. Or, if you need to switch up your upgrades, shoot again with your fourth action and trigger "Hide in Shadow" to move within range for his 0 action. If that wasn't enough, Parker can then trigger "Changing Plans" and may have even drawn a card from "Go Through Their Pockets."

I'm looking to jump into the Guild with Dr. Grimwell as my Leader, and was hoping to get some first hand thoughts on him with the community. When it comes to the good doctor, I don't really mind having just two actions with him as my Leader (because he is a Henchman), as opposed to three with a Master. Grimwell's nimble ability essentially gives him three actions so long as I walk around with him every turn. I'm really into the idea of having my Leader be unimpeded, and I like that he comes with a chache four, but I'm not sure if that is average or not for Guild Leaders. I feel like I can get behind the playstyle of the crew that comes in the starter box. With just one model using SS, I could get away with burning SS to draw two and ditch two at the start of every turn in order to get the required cards for Nurse Heartsbane. The rest can be used for damage prevention or the occasional trigger that I may want off of skull saw. And the orderlies just seem really cost efficient. The only real downsides I see if I were to run Dr. Grimwell as my Leader are that I can only have a max of two upgrades on him (I tend to max out my Leader's upgrade slots), and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of disruption options at the start of the game. The best option is the "Hold Still, Dear..." attack action on Nurse Heartsbane, which only has a 10" range. So, I was wondering: How well does Dr. Grimwell play? Which strategies and schemes do you use him in? Would you use him as your Leader? Since he is a Mercenary, which other factions does he fit well in? Cheers!

I have two questions in regards to this. For all intents and purposes, these questions arose while thinking over the Malifaux rat's tangled ability. 1) What happens if a Malifaux rat triggers tangled, but the player doesn't have a spare rat king model? Does the trigger fizzle, or must the players make due with what they have and say that some other model (with the same base size) is the rat king? 2) Imagine that there is a tournament, and in round one there is a player that has to trigger the tangled ability off of a Malifaux rat, but says he has no more rat king models (in order to keep the rats to continue with multiple activations). Then in round two, he feels like he doesn't need to out-activate, so he makes that extra rat king. Would he be disqualified? Are you supposed to show all available models that you bring to a tournament, or is that private knowledge?

The Voracious Rats ability reads: If an enemy model or a model with the Blighted Condition within pulse 6" of one or more friendly models with the Voracious Rats Ability is killed, summon a Malifax Rat into base contact with the model before it is removed. So I was wondering, what happens if I kill a model with something like a rat catcher's rusty trap attack, which deals 1/2/3 damage and gives blighted before triggers are applied? Versus say it happening with Hamelin's black staff attack that gives blighted after damaging, through a trigger. Assume in either case that the model being hit has zero blighted before the attack action resolves. I'm assuming Voracious Rats will trigger off of the rat catcher but not off of Hamelin, because blighted is given the same time damage is, whereas blighted is given through Hamelin after damage (read kill). I just want to clarify. Thanks!

I recently picked up the Rasputina box set, and I can't wait to start using her. Looking at Rasputina's actions as well as upgrades, she has three (1) activations with the surge trigger to draw a card. Being able to straight up net a card off of a soulstone for that double tome trigger seems rare in the game of Malifaux, and seems solid. Not to mention doing it three times. So, apart from triggering surge when your hand is full of low cards, what other times have you found going for surge useful? Is it worth going for surge via Shattered Heart even with the -2 Ca? I feel like using a soulstone for the tome needed for the surge trigger is worth it, because a tome in hand can still be used for something like an Ice Gamin's Chill trigger; is it worth it?

Let's say that I have an attack action that automatically generates a suit and the TN requires that suit, but so does a trigger. Does the automatically generated suit get "used up" to achieve the TN requirement, or does it carry over into the trigger as well? Or must I find another way to generate that specific suit in order to get the trigger I want? Thanks for the help!

The Misdirection upgrade has the mask symbol next to it, but it doesn't have a Ca or TN associated with it. Does this mean that if I have the Misdirection upgrade, I always have a mask available to me for use on something such as Shenlong's Fury of the Dawn Pressure Point trigger? Or must I flip/cheat into a mask in order to use Misdirection? Thanks in advance!

Any tips on which Lost models to hire with Hamelin with the Sewer King upgrade? As it stands right now, I have three Crooligans in a 50 SS game, and am considering hiring a fourth, but is it worth it? Should I hire a different Lost model to max out on Iniltration (Lost), or just save those soulstones for rats and such?

Hey guys, new player here. I wanted to use Hamelin as my first Master, and had I couple of questions regarding him and his mechanics. 1. Blighted for Zero? Most of the blighted enablers don't trigger until the end of turn. Only the Malifaux Rat can immediately increase the value of blighted. So, if I were to give a model blighted from, say, the Stolen's "Diseased" ability, would the target be considered as having Blighted right away, but with a value of zero? The reason why I'm asking is for triggering abilities such as Voracious Rats or moving a model farther through pipes. 2. Multiple Blighted Conditions? Let's say I was able to obtain 3 crows off of the final duel total from the Black Staff's "Taint" ability, therefore giving the target 3 Blighted +1 Conditions. Would that allow Bleeding Disease 3 times the damage, or would Bleeding Disease only take into account the value of one of the 3 Blighted Conditions? 3. What's the Crow for? Hamelin's "Lure Malifaux Citizen" tactical action has a crow, but no crow trigger. So, what's the point of it? I would really appreciate some help. Thank you in advance!