benjoewoo

Proxy Reva. She has an April release, and it might be good for both your opponent and you to see how she plays before you purchase her and in case either of you play a tournament match with her. Guises of Death, Litany of the Fallen, and Decaying aura melt damage reduction models, all with a built in trigger. Joss loses armor, so 3 AP in attacks plus the 0 for ping 1 kills Joss through H2K. It also gets by arcane shield, present on 4 models based on OP's original post. Add to that Reva can choose Df/Wp, for which Sandeeps' crew has limited defensive triggers (only the Nemesis Ward mage for both Df and Wp based on OP's post). Your Nurse is your best friend if you only have one 13 and Joss doesn't have the blood ward mage within 10" and LoS. Every suit is useful against a Joss not already engaged with you--crow paralyzes, ram prevents Joss from copying any of Sandeep's actions, tome prevents joss from attacking effectively, and mask prevents Joss from attacking. Just be careful not to nurse Joss if he can get into LoS of the Blood Ward mage, as the warding runes upgrade will grant him immunity to the condition's effect after being applied. If you know your friend is playing Sandeep, I can't recommend Reva enough. Sandeep can generally start the game with 7-8 models, summoning 2-3 more in, probably 2 barring a higher than average number of masks at 8+. Sandeep needs an 8 mask for all gamin other than poison, 9 mask for poison gamin, and 12 mask for Banasuva. Based on OP's original post, at least 4 of the models in Sandeep's crew have damage reduction built in, with 6 likely to have some form of reduction by the end of Turn 1 (summon metal gamin, summon banasuva who copies armor). Also, Sandeep has a lot of TNs and suit requirements in his crew. As mentioned, the place has a non-built in mask suit on the TN. Sandeep needs a 5 mask, everyone else needs a 6 mask. There's a huge drain on mask cards in Sandeeps' hand, as only Sandeep, Joss, and any other SS user can stone for the required mask for the place. Additionally, the place requires middle value cards, with the summons consuming slightly higher middle or high value cards. Sandeep can also only student of all if someone copies a Ca action from him successfully with a tome and discarding a card. The point is Sandeep has a lot of hand stress, even factoring in Arcane Reservoir and limited SS use. If Sandeep is using the anti-randomization aura, Sandeep is in the thick of things and unlikely has a bunch of high cards because his mages are playing on probability with plus flips and/or furious casting. Reva melts him with her high min damage 3, pumpable to 4 or just unable to reduce (Sandeep has arcane shield) against Sandeep's Df 5. Reva does this from just over 22" away, far and away from the actual fight, while Sandeep is within 6" of the engagement his crew is shooting into. Reva's Litany gets a lot of mileage against Sandeep as a result. Kirai's crew can ignore armor, but you're looking at a lot of units that do 1-2 damage on weak, and Sandeep's crew, like many arcanists, generally have average or above average defensive stat lines, e.g. Df 5 on Joss, Df 6 on Banasuva, Df 5 on Mages--this goes against your efficiency in doing better than weak. All those models will have effectively armor 2+, between printed armor, copying it, and temporary shielding/arcane shield. Bypass all of that with your built in crow trigger on Reva's attack, stoning/cheating a crow as needed against Warding Rune targets. Just my thoughts, as Reva loves going after high reduction models with min damage 3 and saying they can't stone for prevention. She can eat 2 mages in a Turn if you use 2 AP to hit a mage twice, 1 AP to hit another mage with a 0 ping for 5 (arcane shield plus temporary shielding reduce by 3)--the 0 is a great bait because you can stone for the tome, and if you flip equal cards, your opponent must cheat or face the possibility of you cheating to do no-damage flip damage. Even if you don't, assuming equal flips, you're looking at murdering one mage and priming the other to die to Reva next turn easily or to another model in your crew. If you're only playing Kirai, adversary can do well, along with the armor ignoring tricks. It's just not as efficient because you'll generally need 1-2 models to accomplish what Reva can do on her own more efficiently. Alternatively, run the Kirai-Sebastian-Philip combo and go to town on Sandeep's crew after he's pretty much finished his activations.

Per topic title, looking to buy/trade for a Kirai LE card. Unsure what the Kirai LE card owner would want, so open to buying or trading. Please message me with requests/offers. Thanks.

Ok--this is the crux of my question: rules references. While the mentality makes sense, there's nothing explicitly supporting it and it's left someone like myself, a player who came to Malifaux a year+ after M2E's release, with no explicit reference for why either interaction would not result in the complied model taking a terrifying test. Someone pointed out that the line regarding the complied model considering Sybelle friendly would be irrelevant if Sybelle did not implicitly also consider the complied model friendly. My first thought was complying Colette to prompt the now friendly Sybelle. It would be irrelevant whether Sybelle considered Colette friendly because Colette's prompt only checks Colette is targeting a friendly model in reference to Colette. Colette's prompt range vs. her ability to displace herself cannot put her out of range for Prompt on Sybelle barring a terrain piece of set up of models block LoS after the place, and if Colette is unable to place herself for some reason, the interaction is important because Colette could prompt Sybelle into attacking her again, generating an extra attack for a card 4+. Also for the second point, other end of effects seem inapplicable as examples because they generally cause the secondary effect as part of the original action, as the core rulebook indicates with its charge and Make a New Entry examples. The book again also explicitly lists resolution as occurring once the last required step of an action has resolved, and in the case of a Walk action, that would be once movement has ended given the wording. If there is another example that cares about end of action timing in the same way Sybelle's does, this would clarify it more--I thought of Obey and Prompt, but they create the same interaction. The only example I can think of that may imply the end of the movement caused by a Walk Action is not also the resolution of the action itself is Pounce on Rotten Belles. However, this does not solve the issue for Sybelle considering the complied model friendly and explicitly excludes Walk Actions from Pounce's triggering requirement. It also does not necessarily resolve the end vs. resolution question because it does not directly deny the Walk Action would be resolved--movement is necessarily part of a Walk Action since it is also comprised of declaring variations and spending AP.

Could you please reference the rules to help with clarity, particularly why the friendly status is mutual for Sybelle to the targeted model? For the first thing, that's why I brought up that Terrifying is worded that models that are an enemy to Sybelle (for her own Terrifying ability) while Comply only states the targeted model considers Sybelle friendly. Sybelle's Terrifying ability, along with all other instances of Terrifying I've seen, reference models that are enemy to the model that has the Terrifying ability. The Horror Duels section in the core rule book on page 48 does not clarify timing and does not offer other additional clarification. For the second part, I understand the reasoning that if actions cause abilities, then abilities resolve before the actions are considered "resolved." However, I can't find a rules reference. The "Actions causing Actions" call out box on page 38 of the core rule book only references actions in the first paragraph for purposes of costing AP and resolving the original action. It only addresses actions and its examples are charge and Make a New Entry because it explains how to deal with AP costs with relation to taking actions that cause other actions. The text regarding resolving the action that generates action seems inapplicable because it does not address abilities and ultimately, Terrifying only applies once the Walk Action ends. Under the Actions section on page 37 of the core rule book, the Walk Action would actually resolve once the model declaring the Walk Action stopped moving since there are no duels required to take the Walk action and all related requirements of the Walk Action, i.e. spending AP and declaring variables, have already been addressed by the time the model moves according to the declared Walk Action. So, this would mean that for purposes of a Terrifying ability, the Walk Action would have ended and resolved at the time the model declaring the Walk Action finished moving as a result of the action. The Tactical Actions does not offer any clarification from what I see on the next page. Thanks for posting--I know it's late and I appreciate the help!

I understand that it's almost universally accepted that Sybelle's Comply trigger from her Bleeding Tongue upgrade cannot cause an enemy model to target Sybelle and face her Terrifying 12 duel. A search in this forum turned up no results for "Sybelle Comply." I'm not advocating against the above, but I do want an explanation because the texts don't quite make sense to me right now. Sybelle's Comply trigger reads: "After damaging, the target immediately takes a 1 AP Action controlled by this model. The model counts Sybelle as friendly for the duration of the Action." Sybelle's Terrifying ability reads: "Terrifying (All) 12: Enemy models must pass a TN 12 Horror Duel if they end a Walk Action within this model’s engagement range or target this model with an Action." On page 33 of the core rule book, it states: "Some rules reference friendly or enemy models. From a mechanical standpoint, friendly models are any models that are on the same Crew as the model the rule is affecting. Enemy models are any model that isn't on the same Crew. If a rule does not specifically state that it only affects friendly or enemy models (for instance legal targets for an Attack) then it can and does affect any model. When a model's Actions are controlled by the opponent (for instance with the Obey Action) the model does not change which models are considered friendly, its friends are still its friends." Emphasis was added to my points of confusion. Comply only states that the targeted model, provided Sybelle successfully hit the model for damage with the comply trigger, considers Sybelle friendly for the duration of the action. Sybelle should therefore does not consider the targeted model based on the rules section quoted regarding differentiating friendly and enemy models. So, if Sybelle complies the targeted model to target Sybelle with an action and the targeted model has not previously passed Sybelle's Terrifying ability, why wouldn't the targeted model have to take the Terrifying test? Terrifying as worded references models that are enemies to Sybelle, which should still be the case since Comply does not state Sybelle considers the targeted model friendly for the duration of the action. As an added note, a search through the September 2016 errata does not show any relevant results--I searched "Comply," "Bleeding Tongue," and "Sybelle." Additionally, assuming the above means the targeted model does not take Sybelle's Terrifying test, what if Sybelle complied the targeted to take a walk action that ends within Sybelle's engagement range? The targeted model only considers Sybelle friendly for the duration of the action, and Sybelle's Terrifying (All) 12 ability provides that if enemy models end a Walk Action within Sybelle's engagement range, they must take the Horror Duel. If the targeted model ends its Walk Action within Sybelle's engagement range, it has necessarily ended and no longer considers Sybelle friendly--shouldn't that mean it triggers Sybelle's Terrifying ability and now need to take the Horror Duel? Please help with clarification--I've always played that Comply cannot trigger Sybelle's Terrifying 12, but I realized I did it without questioning why and on reading the cards and rules in greater detail, it doesn't make sense to me why the interaction is played this way.

My mistake on misreading Carrion Emissary's placement effect--I recently started with Raspy and hers is different in that regard. I agree Yin can be good. She's one of my favored enforcers for Seamus for multiple Wp duel options. However, the triggers you're describing are not built in iirc. She has built in infect on the melee, but I don't think she has her triggers built in on the Ca action. Also, her melee track is 2/3/5 iirc, which isn't bad, and it'd be slightly above average if it's 2/4/5, with her Ca action being similar I think--I haven't played her in a while and don't remember her card very well. She has decent attacks with potentially useful triggers. But, I don't think they're enough of a reason to take her as an auto-include, because the opportunity cost seems on the high side considering Reva often plays with a 5 card hand--one card saved to summon a candle. Reva's high cards generally go to ensuring Reva hits things, and Yin doesn't play particularly well on probability compared to similarly costed models in addition to not offering particularly strong synergy with Reva beyond the power points of Yin's model. Yin can be a good control piece in certain match ups, but I don't think she's a particularly effective generalist to buy over Datsue-ba and arsenal decks, assuming the OP doesn't own anything beyond the box, bete, and canine remains. Crews that have plus flip tricks, e.g. Guild, only have to really have to worry about Terrifying 12, which can be a pain, but if they get past it, Yin doesn't really hold up too well for her 8 SS cost with what is effectively HtW. She has her place in Reva crews, but not as an auto-include imo. I see using Yin for the 0 in a Reva crew as similar to running Vincent primarily for his 0 and MLH--for an upgrade slot and 2 SS vs. 8 SS in hiring, I can duplicate Vincent's 0 near permanently with two upgrades for Reva's activation--it's not as good, but I'm paying 25% of Vincent's cost, letting me get a belle, nurse, or spring for another, potentially more effective model with the spare 6 SS.

I wrote a guide, and it's buried on some later pages. I wouldn't say I'm a Reva expert, but there are a number of people's collected thoughts there. I echo the suggestions for running emissary. As you get more familiar with Reva, the emissary is good because it can cover for poor positioning with the shards of kythera action. I generally run My Little Helper (MLH) because the turn you pop it, you can really put a hurt on your opponent's efficiency by effectively blocking off a wide lane of traffic or multiple smaller lanes. The shards can be placed, meaning no LoS required, touching terrain, so if there's a bottle neck, you can place the markers so that they completely block off LoS and/or movement through. The only restriction is that you cannot have the markers touching other models or markers, which is a very light restriction compared to many other masters. At higher levels of play, the additional corpse nodes from the end of turn Mindless Zombies as the game goes on plus terrain restriction can really play a large role in your game, especially in tournaments where your matches may not reach a Turn 4/5. Turn 2 MLH double shards has won me multiple games because my opponent's beaters, and in one case master, could not get to me that turn as a result of the shards. The extra summons also supplement Reva's relatively poor summoning options. A lot of people like Yin with MLH to give Reva auto-hits. I haven't found it to be effective enough to be auto-include, and I don't like Yin with Reva because other than Yin's 0, nothing really supports Reva. Yin can't stone for fast tricks with shield bearers, can't move very fast with Wk 4 flying not withstanding, and Reva is a cannon that often works best by eliminating a lot of your opponent's crew to set up mid game scoring, which Yin can help with, but not as well as other 8 SS options, upgraded models, or even weaker minions that can set up Reva more consistently than trying to hit with a 0 action against Wp. Yin can be good, but if you don't own her, I wouldn't purchase her as the auto-include for Reva. The most "auto-include" I would go with is Datsue-ba. If you only have the Reva box and Bete, you're running shield bearers, Vincent, and Bete. Pre-upgrades that's 34 SS. Assuming you have all available upgrades (which should really be your first purchases before any additional models imo), you can put 5 SS in upgrades on Reva (either limited upgrade, decaying aura, litany of the fallen), 2 SS in upgrades on Vincent, and 1 SS upgrade on Bete for 43 SS. If you get Datsue-ba and run MLH on her with Spirit Whispers (the one that gives her a 0 to summon Seishin), you have 53 SS in hires. Drop 1 shield bearer to go to 47 SS, and you have a 50 SS crew with 7 SS starting in your pool. It's a versatile list given model limitations and won't require you to purchase too much--both generalist decks (~$20-$25) and Datsue-ba (~$10-20 depending on if you buy a used/new metal model or the plastic one). Bete is good because she gives you a good damage option that plays on good probability (one discarded card for 3x Ml 6 attacks with plus flips and triggers on every suit), while Datsue-ba gives you versatility in fast tricks with shield bearers, activation control, minor healing, and surprise movement manipulation with her alternative 0 to move shield bearers. MLH on Datsue-ba is amazing to move shield bearers 20" in one Turn or summon a seishin and give fast to generate 3 AP for 2 SS (1 SS for Spirit Whispers, 1 SS to stone for a plus flip to give out fast to 2x shield bearers). There'll be plenty of tricks for minimal investment, and as you fine tune your play, you'll expand into models you find fit you better or give you better options. As an added thought, I wrote the above not knowing what you own, so I assume you own only the box, bete, and canine remains without any of the arsenal/generalist decks. If you own belles, I sometimes use them when I want to run another henchmen/enforcer and need to scrimp SS somewhere. Belles will often have 6 Wk from the Emissary's aura, making them decent scheme runners when they're not luring stuff. However, don't fall into the "must have Lure" trap--when running blood mark, Reva's threat range is > 18", meaning she doesn't need a rotten belle Lure in most deployments. If you run Guises of Death and your opponent has two models just outside of 8" from the candle you summon, you're guaranteed to get a first strike with Reva if they don't kill your candle first or they don't somehow move all models almost within 8" away. Belles are nice, but not nearly as necessary. I would be comfortable running a belle and nurse in a game over 2x rotten belles. Hope that helps!

Demos are continuing as the new year starts. Join us for tutorials on GG 2017 schemes!

Banasuva's Jealous Firelord states that on summoning, he sacrifices all friendly totems in play. He's also rare 1, but can be summoned twice in a turn given Sandeep's student of all ability. Assume Sandeep summons Banasuva. Assume that an Oxfordian mage later uses elemental bolt successfully with a tome in the duel total, proc-ing Sandeep's student of all ability. Can Sandeep successfully summon a second Banasuva onto the board? Reading Banasuva's card, it seems like yes, because the second Banasuva would sacrifice the first, already summoned one.

Hey everybody, we'll be running a small, one month league at Emerald Knights Comics & Games in Burbank, California. The league will be for the month of December, starting December 6th, ending on New Years' Eve. Because the league is short and during holidays, we're keeping it casual and running henchmen lead crews only, with games played at either 35 SS or 50 SS. Players will have the option of choosing one of the crew limits or determining the choice by card flip. Strategies and Schemes will be GG 2016. This will be a no entry fee event, with mainly kudos and bragging rights for the greatest adaptability among players. See http://www.ekcomicsandgames.com/ for address and store details. We hope to see you there!

While this post is on the last day of November, demos are still going!

Question 48 in the FAQ/Errata states that if an ability immediately ends the activation of a model, e.g. Frozen Heart models with a tome trigger from the Sub Zero upgrade, then the attacking model's activation would end immediately, without resolving any unresolved triggers. The rule book states that in Step 4, you determine success. Step 5 resolves the results of any duel. For purposes of abilities such as the tome trigger from the Sub Zero upgrade, would "After Succeeding" triggers resolve prior to damage or after damage in Step 5? I looked up a rules question here previously, but it didn't provide a clear enough answer for me to be sure. If it helps, assume that a model attacks snow storm with a melee action that has the surge trigger reading, "after succeeding, draw a card," declaring the trigger after succeeding in the duel against Snow Storm. Snow Storm flips a tome, declaring the trigger from their Sub Zero upgrade. In Step 5, would the model still get to draw the card for the surge trigger or would the surge trigger fail because damage resolves first? As an extending thought--wouldn't after damaging triggers still apply, assuming they weren't after damaging triggers that generated new actions? When two actions/abilities would resolve at the same time during an opposed duel, the attacker resolves all of his/her actions/abilities first, and then the defender resolves all of his/her actions/abilities second.

So do henchmen items count towards the $300 total?

For those planning to attend: venue has changed! Please see the Facebook page for the updated location! Tournament start time has not changed, but we are now going to be playing in Pasadena's Game Empire, not Burbank's Emerald Knights.

There's always the chance Neverborn win the child regardless--they've lost as many weeks on that character as Ressers have on the trickster. However, the winners both times for the child have been different, so NB may still be winning the child in terms of total points.

Since it's blind deployment, I would probably go Reva, McM, then Molly without seeing any sort of lay out. If you have limited options, Reva's box is the strongest of the three initially and can scavenge the other two better. Molly is unplayable if you don't have blisters or other crew boxes to mention. McM isn't terrible, but he lacks a lot of oomph and literally cannot summon. Be careful about choosing which limited upgrade you want with Reva--in blind deployment you'll often be engaged with Reva's 50mm base and 3" reach, so Guises of Death may be tempting, but it may literally be impossible to summon your corpse candle. I'd actually recommend the upgrade that lets you charge on a tome, so that you have a trigger for every suit on your first flips, and so you can generate extra AP. The trickster requires hiring 60 SS of models, so again I recommend Reva first because you'll have 34 SS from her box alone, and you can hire more by scavenging your other boxes and adding upgrades if you have them.

We're still doing demos! We're also hosting our first tournament November 19! Check out the below link for details. More than happy to demo the game to players new to the Malifaux tournament scene.

As a quick note--Neverborn were leading on the Inquisitive Child until the most recent results came out. They ended up winning the Trickster this reporting period. While the evidence is not conclusive, Neverborn may have more total points for the Trickster than Ressers, despite only winning one reporting period. Still having a win after losing on the child would indicate either a large movement of Neverborn players to the Trickster or that there were already a lot of Neverborn points, but since Neverborn were already winning on the child, they couldn't win on the Trickster. With that, if anyone can play two games, you should actually try to play the Trickster game as Ressers and then play the child's as Neverborn. Neverborn can only win one character, so giving them points on a character you like less could be useful. Also as a thought, if these victories will have great effects on design direction, such as only having abilities/actions/keywords relevant to the masters that interacted with the character, I'll be quite sad, especially since we so far only have influences from dual faction masters.

I'm not a McM player, so I wouldn't be the best source, but in my games against McM I generally see McM summon 2 or so Flesh Constructs during the fighting phase of the game. By the time McM gets his 4th one, the game is already more or less decided, so I think you could get by well enough with 3 total, i.e. buy the plastic blister or two metal models and you're good for the most part. If you buy 3 or so for a total of 4, you should be covered, because you can only summon flesh constructs from Expunging targets, a 0 action, and unless you're consistently killing a target a turn with Expunge, you won't need more than 4 generally between summoning and attrition. You should pick up the wave 2 arsenal deck and generalist wave 2 deck. I believe it'll give you access to all the generic Resser upgrades through all four big books. I purchased the wave 1 and 2 arsenal decks together, so I don't really remember which ones came in which, but I think the wave 1 arsenal deck came with mostly upgrades for the masters themselves and the wave 2 deck came with the general upgrades. Wave 1 is no longer in production, so I don't think it's the one that came with all the generic upgrades, because those ones don't come in crew boxes. If it did come with generic upgrades, I would probably add unnerving aura to Yin for most of the games, so that you can potentially play show of force with 3 upgrades across three models and to make Yin a much larger threat for 1 SS. Since your henchmen and Yin will dog pile the extraction marker, you'll probably be in the running to contest show of force unless your opponent just stacks up upgrades--if he/she does, you can read the situation and fake taking the scheme or play to deny it. When I play Seamus, I tend not to want for too many stones. Seamus is very survivable if you take measured risks, and your henchmen are not only decently hardy, they're very disposable. So, you shouldn't need many SS for damage prevention. That being said, don't go willy nilly and sacrifice your people. If your opponent has chain activations with high damage models, e.g. Perdita crews, play to mitigate shooting, e.g. get behind cover. If your opponent just has big beaters that average 6-9 damage per activation, e.g. most enforcers that cost 10+, don't put Seamus in threat range of two of them unless you have the heals (Wp duels) to back him up, the Hat, or Seamus can activate to do stuff before escaping. If you only use RCK once a game, and it helps Seamus get you VP, it's paid for itself in spades. This game is by default 5 Turns, and tournament games generally only go to 5 Turns because of time, end of Turn 5 card flips, points maxed, or the game is decided already. With that, it plays fairly similarly no matter the crews being hired--Turn 1 is set up, Turns 2 & 3 are "fighting", where fighting is determining who wins, and Turns 4+ tend to be clean up. Certain crews try to upset this by interacting Turn 1, e.e. the "alpha strike," but very broadly speaking this is set up because the crew sets itself up by trying to assert an early advantage with a trick. Seamus is a master that goes hard from Turn 1. Your summoning ability is more often not useful because it's a 0 and requires a 9 crow plus, expensive for Seamus as a drawn card or for SS, since my recommendations leave you with so few--keep in mind even if you start with 4/5 SS, if you use the comply/back alley trick, you're generally using 1-2 SS to get the triggers to maximize the combo, leaving you 2-3 SS for the rest of the game. The models I recommended also never draw you cards, so unless your luck is impressive all tournament, you'll want to use the SS to cycle cards between Turns or get Initiative in Turns 2 and 3. Either way, you should have fun, because Seamus' box is one of the stronger boxes, i.e. more playable than most, and you have some of the common support models he likes. He's also fairly unorthodox, as he's one of the few masters who can score you 3-6 VP a game by catching your opponent off guard or using some relatively undeniable tricks. Don't worry about results--just try to score your VP, and see where it takes you.

Gasp--what if her influence from Molly is something about negative flips? I imagine she'll have something with McM influence, given she's been with him for two reporting periods. Hopefully something related to taking abilities, with a tack on effect if the targeted model has poison, rather than straight put poison on people.

I started a campaign where I planned to eventually play Seamus--our campaign may have been played incorrectly, so double check I'm not super cheating in giving this advice. I also tend to play Seamus with spirit models, so this may help in leaving options open for Kirai and Seamus. I'd start with Datsue-ba, Sybelle, and 3x rotten belles. If your starting SS crew is 35 SS, You have 31 SS between 3x Belles, Datsue-ba, and Sybelle by only buying Datsue-ba's model. If you own the big books, you have the Resser upgrade cards, so you can just use proxies for them. I'd probably start with Spirit Whispers on Datsue-ba and Bleeding Tongue on Sybelle--I believe the upgrades are hired at 2x the price, so you'd have exactly 35 SS by this point. If they aren't, I'd add Not Too Banged Up to Sybelle and keep any remaining SS as extra starting SS--I don't remember if you can. Buy models as you need thereafter. Kirai's box is pretty terrible for supplying campaign useful models, so I don't recommend using her boxe's models-only onryo can be hired. That being said, you can always buy Kirai's models later. Depending on what level of play you want (sebastian-philip-type optimization vs. 1-2 flesh constructs for summoning), it'll be fairly easy to choose what you want.

I agree, don't plan for an extremely cut through environment, especially in your matches. One of the great draws of Malifaux is its relatively casual community. This isn't to say there aren't highly competitive players, but the general attitude is more casual, particularly towards players new to tournaments. If you end up matched with a more skilled player, he/she will probably not rules lawyer you into oblivion. That being said, it's good you already have the schemes for each round. I'd personally take Seamus for Rounds 1 and 2, and choose the master based on opponent match up in Round 3, leaning very heavily to playing Seamus Round 3. You don't have great model selection, and between the crew boxes you have, Seamus' box is stronger without greater selections--McM is a strong master, but is less impactful when he cannot summon additional flesh constructs or canine remains. I'll give some list recommendations and general tactics. As a note, I'm assuming you'll basically get to somewhere in Turn 3 each round, not finishing a full 5 Turn game. Time is the most important resource in tournament play, and if this is your first, I would think you will often be at the end of Turn 2 or towards the beginning/middle of Turn 3. You haven't mentioned you own the arsenal decks or the big books, so I won't assume you own any of the upgrades that come with those items. If you do, the lists would change. Round 1 Standard deployment. Strat: Extraction. Schemes: Convict Labor, Show of Force, Hunting Party, Covert Breakthrough, Detonate the Charges, I would take Seamus with Bag O'Tools, Red Chapel Killer, and Mad Haberdasher, Sybelle with Bleeding Tongue, Yin, Copycat Killer, 3x Rotten Belles, 1x Nurse, and 1x Necropunk. You'll start the game with 4 SS in your pool and have pretty good activation control, movement, and manipulation. You'll want to take Detonate charges and Covert Breakthrough as your two schemes--Seamus can more or less guarantee you score at least 3 VP on Detonate charges Turn 1 in matches you have activation control and is insurance for Covert Breakthrough getting you at least 1-2VP by Turn 3. The rest of your crew is literally there to keep Seamus alive via Wp duels (Seamus heals 2 Wds for every enemy model failing a Wp duel within 6") and get you points for the strategy. I will basically suggest the following trick for the matches you play Seamus. I find it's effective in manipulating your opponent's play without spending too many resources if you do it early into a turn. It's also great if you do it late into a turn with activation control because Seamus can act with lower chances of retaliation. When deploying, be sure to deploy Seamus so that he's out of LoS from any enemy models--e.g. behind a building or other models so your opponent cannot see Seamus and/or cannot deploy to see Seamus. This may be impossible in some set ups, but usually not. Make sure Sybelle is within 2" of Seamus and has LoS to him. Turn 1 you want to have Sybelle actually attack Seamus with Bleeder Lash. Spend a SS or cheat a mask card of any number in attacking Seamus, relent to the attack, and declare the comply trigger from your Bleeding Tongue Upgrade. Assuming you do damage, hopefully weak given you'll flip 4 cards on negative flips, you can force Seamus to take a 1 AP Back Alley action. Depending on your situation and requirements, Seamus should spend a SS or cheat a 7+ tome to get the trigger on Back Alley to place within 16", within 1" of blocking terrain. In Standard Deployment, that puts Seamus 23" up the board, with the ability to threaten anything within 33" of your board edge, provided the proper terrain exists. You'll want to teleport within 18" of Copycat Killer, though, because his 0 place effect's max range is 18". Use the combo late into Turn 1 if you have activation control--when Seamus activates, if he teleported within 4" of three enemy models, drop a scheme marker, then charge the easiest to hit enemy model with more than 4 Wds (or can survive more than 4 damage) and either stone or cheat tomes in to declare the tome trigger on Bag O'Tools, which will drop scheme markers on dealing damage. Assuming you succeed each attack with the correct suit, which should be easy with a Ml 7/stones/good targeting, and actually deal damage (BJ is your only issue), you'll have Detonate Charges set up Turn 1. For the rest of the game, just have your team dog pile the extraction marker, with Seamus backing up your necropunk in dropping scheme markers for covert breakthrough. Drop the Mad Haberdasher upgrade if Seamus is going to die or takes RJ damage, and use RCK to teleport as needed. Summoning would be nice, but won't likely be critical in this match. Round 2 Flank deployment. Strat: Headhunter. Schemes: Convict Labor, Leave the Mark, Exhaust their Forces, Catch and Release, Frame for Murder, I would take the same crew, with the exception of adding the Not Too Banged Up Upgrade to Sybelle and swapping Bag O'Tools for Sinister Reputation on Seamus, so you'd start with 3 SS in your pool. The combo I explained above is slightly less useful here, but may be good depending on your opponent's crew and the terrain set up. With 3x Rotten Belles and Sybelle's upgrade, you're likely to win most movement manipulation wars--use that to your advantage by luring 1-2 enemy models to our side. Avoid having your belles walk though where possible--Sybelle has a 0 that teleports belles to her side--use that by having Sybelle walk, then teleporting a belle within range of luring an enemy model; once Sybelle finishes activating, the rotten belle can companion and lure the model in range. If you use the combo, it'd probably be best to have Seamus near the model you want to lure so you can more likely hit with Seamus' -2 Wp aura. Just lure people in and murder them--between Turns 1-2, it should take your opponent some time to get to you unless they have similar movement tricks. For schemes, I'd probably take Convict Labor and Catch and Release/Frame for Murder. Because it's flank deployment, it's relatively easy to get your necropunk to the center line to start dropping scheme markers, and the Nurse's mask trigger on take your meds will ensure at least one Rotten Belle can make it to the center line and drop a scheme marker. Your opponent will let you score convict labor or contest it, wherein you lure and murder them while scoring Catch and Release on models you can't/don't want to kill yet. I would take Frame for Murder instead of Catch and Release if my opponent's crew was very kill oriented, and I'd probably choose Seamus--your opponent will either give you VP or you'll have Seamus in the middle of the enemy crew almost ensuring nearby enemy models fail every Wp duel. Round 3 Corner deployment. Strat: Guard the Stash. Schemes: Convict Labor, Exhaust their Forces, Take the Prisoner, Neutralize the Leader, Occupy their Turf I'd keep the same crew from Round 2. If the enemy crew is kill oriented, I'd take Exhaust and Take Prisoner. If the enemy crew is more manipulation, I'd probably go with Take Prisoner and consider Occupy their Turf over Exahust if you could reasonably kill at least 1-2 enemy models near the deployment zone to summon and then score. This isn't a particularly great set up for Seamus, imo. Since you don't have access to some tools to be a good assassin, I don't recommend neutralize the leader unless your opponent is running Leveticus or a low Df Master that you can ensure you damage for half of his/her Wds. For the most part, you'll likely have Seamus as a go between for the stash markers, making the fight easier for yourself and to help with Exhaust, or you'll have him helping your necropunk accomplish Occupy their Turf by killing enemy models and/or Copycat Killer and summoning belle models to score as many points as possible. Occupy Their Turf can score off any 3 minions for 3 VP, so don't feel afraid to kill your own Copycat Killer to drop a corpse marker and summon a dead doxy or something. Hope that helps!

It works, assuming the models being hit will live through the damage. Shriek does 4 or 5 damage if you're trying to blast. I actually forgot about Misery--it would actually turn the damage into 5 or 6 in two separate ticks. Assuming the punk zombies had 2 Wds on summoning (Pandora and any Woe for damage punt), you'd get a 1" pulse for black blood from Misery, 2 damage blast on moderate from Shriek, and a 1" pulse for black blood from Shriek, dealing 4 damage over 3 separate ticks to both targets provided punk zombie is in range. If the woe nearby is a Sorrow, you could experience another tick of damage for 5 damage over 4 separate ticks, but the target would have to have at least 3 Wds to trigger the last Black Blood pulse. With only 2 Wounds, the most you could do is 8 damage to two different targets, assuming Pandora and a model with Misery are within range of their auras and close enough for black blood. Punk zombies start with 7 Wds, so that's most of their Wds already. If they have 5 Wds, they'd survive the combo with 1 Wd from HtK--if Pandora and 4 other enemy models are that close together, the stars have aligned for you to do 25 damage, provided you randomized onto the punk zombie for the Shriek and multiple misery auras don't melt the punk zombie. Yes, HtW would make it difficult. You could, however, cheat an ace to bring the Punk Zombie to 6, then cheat an 11 for Sybelle. If you flip/cheat the BJ for Punk Zombie, a 10 would suffice. An 11, ace, and 6 are somewhat heavy costed, but assuming multiple targets, could be worth the cost. Almost easier to run Corpse Bloat to cause the hand drain without risk of randomizing onto Pandora and failing the Wp duel.

We haven't seen the trickster be particularly trickster-y. She's attempted to leave McM, which she paid somewhat dearly for, and she appropriated new trappings from a Guild Gard, but otherwise has been on her back foot since dying vs. taking control of her current situation. Hopefully we can pull a win on her and this will change with influence from Molly. Really looking forward to the prospect of different masters of the same faction influencing a character--what blasphemy will Molly whisper to her? I say will because I really want us to win another reporting period, so hopefully it's not a "would."

Ah yes, forgot they'd start next their own dropped marker on even turns.