Rurouni Benshin

Depends on the strategy and schemes. For "Guard the Stash", I've played Lynch a few times, and having 2 Depleted make it fairly easy to score points on the Stash markers. Beckoners aren't as good, but if you need a suited "Lure", they're not bad. Bringing another Illuminated wouldn't be a bad choice either.

I've played against Anna once, and I didn't really experience a lot of adverse effects from her. Situationally, I didn't need to do a whole lot of pushing with my models, and the strategy at the time (Extraction) didn't really necessitate them. I was playing Mei Feng vs Kirai, and because of "Vent Steam", it kept Anna out of combat for awhile. On the 3rd turn of the game, I managed to kill her with Mei Feng, but again, different players will have different experiences.

I would agree with Lakshman on his accounts of Shenlong and McCabe. Both are the best "support" Masters in the faction, by way of making the entirety of their crew much better on a whole. Yan Lo would probably be the 3rd Master to add to this group. The only downside to Yan Lo is that he relies on his fellow "Ancestor" models more for their synergy to work at it's best. That isn't to say the other 4 Masters can't play well, but those in particular are better used for a specific strategy and scheme pool.

Date?

Personally, I'd rather go after my enemy's models. That being said, I'd have no problems with sending an Ashigaru or 2 headlong into battle more aggressively, and let my opponent target them early on. If they die within range, your Chi will go up, and if you have Toshiro, you can just as easily bring them back up.

Honestly, I've never once used the tactic of Yan Lo attacking my own models to gain Chi. I've always found that strictly going after enemy models was enough. The first turn Chi allows him to become Impossible to Wound, which is already a great defense. Worst case scenario, if I don't get to use "Ascendance" until Turn 3 to gain, Incorporeal, it's not the end of the world for me. In my experience, I've actually forgone that Ascendant upgrade, because by then I've enough Chi to gain Bone Ascendant, because Hunpo Assault is usually situationally better for me at that point.

True, but part of the ability with Stones on the River is removing a condition. As the player controlling how the conditions and abilities are applied, you can determine the order they're done. So you can apply the condition, and then just simply remove it. Unless you're targeting yourself or Shen Long, it's not really a problem.

Wow, well that's certainly eye opening. Thanks for the link!

Pretty sure the Librarian can only do it once if Misaki is a declared TT Master for the game, even though she's cross factioned.

Lust has some really good movement and placement shenanigans, so I can see the benefit of that, depending on the mission. Plus she has a 6" aura on her special ability (the widest of all auras amongst all the Crossroad 7). I'd probably prefer Sensei Yu though instead, or maybe even 2 Depleted, depending on the mission. From my experience, Lynch is great at Guard the Stash. With a Depleted on top of each Stash marker, it would be hard for your opponent to deny you points on it.

I personally find Lynch to be most at home with his "Darkened" models. This sort of crew that you listed looks ideal for strategies that don't require a lot of killing to win at (Interference/Reconnoiter, Extraction/Turf War, Guard the Stash, Squatter's Rights, Stake a Claim). I'd suggest replacing one Beckoner for a 2nd Illuminated though. There's a pretty big lack of staying power in this list, and I'm not sure if one Illuminated and Huggy are going to cut it.

As far as proxies go in my local meta, people are generally fine with it in casual play. For tournaments, you'd have to pass it by the TO, who's generally pretty lenient with the representations so long as they're not obviously some other model. (IE - Such as not using a Dawn Serpent to proxie for a Shadow Emissary). Another local meta has specifically said that if the models have since been released by Wyrd, and are available for sale, no proxies for those models are allowed at all. Older sculpts of models are perfectly fine, and Avatar models are all legal representations of Emissaries as well.

I'll be honest... I'm not a fan of the aesthetics for Asami either... Even with the very well detailed observation InvokeChaos makes about her, I'm still having a hard time trying to accept her for who she is supposed to be. But... She is the 8th Master now, and like a loyal "little Thunder Brother", she will be added to my arsenal. Here's to hoping the rest of her crew comes out looking better.

Maybe it comes down to the style of play then. Having the extra push at the end of the turn is nice. I just like Misdirection on her too much to give up. Having a trigger on Df duels for both winning and losing is too good for me to pass up, especially when I like throwing her into a big crowd of enemy models. Vapormancy is my second auto-include for the Ca 7 attack that can cause Burning from 3 away. If anything, Seismic Claws is the upgrade that I find myself using less, but I believe that more to be situational than a consequence of the way the games I've been playing in. In my last game with her, it was because of Seismic Claws that I managed to kill Perdita in one activation. I agree not having a (0) action that I can use every turn makes them less efficient, but that's also why I find ways of compensating. And without a (0) action on my Master, Sensei Yu always stays home.

I find Sensei Yu to be less useful with Mei Feng. Unless I take "Wings of Wind" on her, he has no (0) action that he can copy, which I'll be honest, is the biggest reason why I'd take him. Just about every other TT Master has a (0) action that they rely on routinely (Misaki with Stalk, Yan Lo with Instill Youth and Ascendence, Lynch with Mulligan, Brewmaster with Drinking Contest, McCabe with Take This, Shenlong with EVERYTHING). Mei Feng is literally the only Master without a (0) action that Sensei Yu can optimize. Granted, he can get another push with "Wings of Wind", but that would mean having to give up one of the other upgrades on Mei Feng, and I find the combination I put on her to be very effective already. Mei Feng is also the one Master that has the least amount of trouble getting around the board, provided there are enough Scrap Markers or friendly Constructs in play. With a built-in suit to trigger another Rail Walk or Jackhammer Kick, getting her around the board and into combat quickly isn't as difficult.

I usually put it on either Ototo or Fuhatsu. If you're running McCabe, Ototo is a great Henchman to bring in general. Putting "Hidden Agenda" on him and sending him into the thick of combat would be great for the Oiran. Fuhatsu is a good choice with his long range and decent damage spread as well. Best part about them is that they're both Ht 3, so you can see them over most models and terrain. Remember you only need LOS to the model doing the damage for "Hidden Agenda" to work. Huggy isn't a bad choice either, but I rarely find myself using Oiran with Lynch. I take Beckoners instead. Yamaziko isn't a great choice, IMO, because of her being relatively low Attack stat and Df. More often than not with me, she's the one with "Smoke and Shadows" and possibly "Smoke Bombs". Depending on the scheme pool, she's the one I sneak up to use "Master Tactician", or I'm running schemes with her. As far as being a solo scheme runner goes, I find that she's pretty reliable. Not really much of favorite combo, to be honest... Because their "Lure" isn't reliable, I typically don't use them for that reason. Unless "Occupy Their Turf" is on the table, and the Strategy is suitable for Misaki, I generally don't play them as much. That being said, I love having a "fluff" intensive crew. Very few things are as aesthetically appealing as Misaki leading a crew of her Last Blossoms to me.

You actually need the Crow to make it work. But I agree, that the "Lure" isn't very reliable. Fortunately for McCabe, he doesn't rely on Crows to get his better abilities/triggers to work, so you can conserve the higher crow cards in your hand if needbe. Oiran are my Go-To minion when I'm running a Last Blossom heavy crew (usually with Misaki and Yamaziko). With Hidden Agenda on a good beatstick, you'll be likely to get quite a bit of mileage out of them.

It would depend on the scheme pool. In a more recent tournament, I substituted the Mech Porkchop for the Emberling and Shadow Effigy, for the current Gaining Grounds schedule (Reconnoiter Strategy, Flank Deployment). The model count would've been consistent, but given the terrain set up, I thought the Emberling (being an Incorporeal Minion) would've been more useful. In the first rotation of this year, I felt the strategies benefited more with the crew I listed above. In the last tournament I played, I ended up not using that original crew at all, but with some small variations. Out of curiosity though, what would you suggest bringing in lieu of the Emissary and Porkchop? This exactly. Ever since Mech Porkchop and the Emissary were released, generating scrap markers became (ridiculously) easy.

Anytime! You can find it in the Wave 3 Shifting Loyalties book. It's a Gremlin model, but with the Foundry sub-type. I proxied it with a War Pig, with layered mechanized bitz that I had from my vast collection of 40K stuff.

This was the list I ran for the entire tournament. Went 3-0 with a +14 differential. Mei Feng (Cache 7) - Seismic Claws - Vapormancy - Misdirection Kang - Hard Worker - Recalled Training Toshiro - Command the Graves Shadow Emissary - Conflux of Battle Mechanized Porkchop Monk of Low River First and second to activate were the Mechanized Porkchop and Emissary respectively, each making a scrap marker on their own activations at the cost of a (0) action from only one model, and that allowed me to summon 2 Komainu on the opening turn. The Komainu ended up being my scheme runners for Round 1 and 2, and in Round 3 they helped me deny automatic points from my opponent taking Hunting Party. All in all, I think the matchups were what really made me choose this list for each round. At this particular tournament, there were 3 Resser players, and I somehow got paired off with each one for every round. Mei Feng is traditionally my "Go To Master" against Ressers, and after each successful round, I just went with the list that I knew worked against the previous player.

That's an interesting take on that, because I actually felt that there wasn't any real "theme" problem with the faction. I suppose the themes vary from Master to Master, but with each Master, comes their own unique "theme", in that sense. Misaki has her "Last Blossom", Mei Feng her "Foundry", Yan Lo his "Ancestors", etc. And while each Master has a collective interest in the Ten Thunders on a whole, they each have their own unique agendas, with the exception of Shenlong. And how fitting is it that the ONLY sole faction Master within Ten Thunders is himself a Tyrant? I guess what I'm trying to say is that popularity amongst each faction is going to vary from meta to meta. As I said earlier, I'm the only TT player in my local meta, with a few other people who happen to have a few, but play them in their cross factions respectively (2 Lynch players and 1 McCabe player). I think given time, the popularity amongst them will grow though.

I like taking Toshiro with Mei Feng, personally. The Punk Zombies don't always come along, but with "Command the Graves", and access to free Scrap Markers from Mechanized Porkchops and the Shadow Emissary, it's easy access to summoning Komainu, who also benefit from his passive benefits as well.

I'm arguably the most prominent TT player in my meta, but that's not to say I'm the only TT player. A lot of my friends in my meta play a couple of factions, and amongst them, they own about 3-4 TT Masters amongst them, but don't play them that regularly (at least not against me, anyway). That said, I've done fine with 7-8 activations per turn. Admittedly, I do get out activated very often, but it doesn't affect my game play as adversely as some might think. A large part of my crew is built to cater to the faction I'm playing against, probably more so than to the mission itself. So while I may not score all 10 points for mission, if I can keep my opponent from scoring, while maintaining a lead of any kind, then it serves the same purpose.

If I knew that I was facing Ramos, I'd bring Price of Progress with her just for killing swarms of Spiders.

Both, IIRC.