InvokeChaos

I mean, aren't we all just a little silly? We play with toy figures on a table with our own personal headcannon... my ex-gf one time referred to it as grown men playing with more complex Barbie dolls. Clarification - I call it screw neverborn more because of the condition removal, it's not a tailor-made list for anti-neverborn, I will put a clarification about that. Now having said that, Hazardous Terrain is a non-issue for me typically in that list. I have too much healing. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean it's not a good idea to deal with it if you can. And that's where High River Style comes into play. I often do stupid shenanigans like this, but in the above list I would just walk up Izamu (or push him) near the marker. Remember that 50mm are just under 2", and Shen can double blast on his severe. So the goal here is to get Izamu just out of the 3" aura of the land marker, and just walk up to him with Shen (or push). Focus so you can cheat. And use that 9card hand to guarantee severe. That's only 2 damage on Izamu thanks to armor, but drops double blast markers and removes the hungry land marker. Also don't let the hungry land marker scare you off. Remember the name of the game is points. And if by taking a few points of damage, with the uncommon spike (that realistically you should be able to heal) gets you a VP... then it's worth the consideration. Also, keep in mind if you get more models in then he does, it moves the extraction marker so you can then retreat. If need be you can pull people out with Wandering River Style to mitigate damage as well. Side note: Titania is one of those masters where she looks unkillable. And rightly so: lots of built in healing, 12wds, impossible to wound... rough stuff. But this is the miracle of Shenlong. She may be the Autumn Queen... but she has grown weak in her centuries of imprisonment. The Dragon has grown stronger still... Shenlong, with tyrant might, can potentially one round Titania... *dramatic music* Ok, enough silly foreshadowing, this is where keeping in mind all the playstyles available to you with Shenlong is critical. Yes you can one-round her, but the cards have to align properly. Consider this: you can't cheat damage thanks to Impossible to Wound. So no reason to hold severes in hand for damage; you can use them to hit. She's Df5, you're Ml6. With a stone or the right card in hand, she can't spend soulstones. Another trigger prevents 0 actions (which Titania makes great use of). But more importantly... you have a 9card hand, and fermented river style. So chances are you are GOING to hit. They can't beat you unless they red joker. And if it's played from hand, you can still cheat a 13 and tie. Which is FINE. If you get weak damage... that's ... Fermented River makes that . A tie puts it to . So that 13 in your hand? Stone (if needed) to deny her soulstone use and punch away. Yes, Shen's damage track is only 2/3/5... but you are flipping 3 cards on damage. Maybe 4. You can almost guarantee moderate for that. If you hit 3 moderates, that's 9 damage she can't stone away (EDIT: she CAN stone the first hit, but the trigger goes off as long as you succeed). She gets one activation to heal enough that an Angry Izamu doesn't destroy her afterwards. If you flip severe twice, not nearly an impossible task when rolling 3-4 cards per damage flip, she's potentially dead on the third hit. It's not quite a hail mary, but the card gods do need to be with you. Can you imagine winning initiative, using your 0 action to swap to fermented river, one rounding Titania (or dropping her to critical health with no 0 actions and no soulstone use) and then swapping right back to low river to keep your dudes healed up? Maybe you only flip minimum damage both times... damn. Even on 6-8 cards rolled... only 4 damage, you've still set her up for an izamu kill and rolled 6-8 weaks off your deck! Even a couple of lucky shots from the emissary can do the pain. Regardless, it forces your opponent to change their game plan, answer a suddenly very new and brutal question. All because you can switch from full on support to "HOLY JEEBUS DAMAGE!" at the drop of a hat. I will say that Titania is one of our harder crews to deal with though, because her knights are all armor 1 (hissss), HtW and 7wds. In a faction of min dam 2 all the things (grumbles)... Honestly if I thought my opponent was likely to drop Titania, I'd be bringing Kang along instead of Ohagura. It's 1pt more with the ignore armor upgrade, but he's a monster against them. Just be wary of using fermented river style near him as it puts you on negatives due to his aura vs undead and constructs!

You know I've always read that as you can only target the friendly model with it once per turn... not only use it on a friendly model once per turn. Thanks for that, I'll adjust above

Hehe, thanks all. But I've got one more post! Part 4, and theoretically the final! And man is it a doozy! TL; DR So last post we talked about common core and how it works. So now that we have done that I want to go over the other three playstyles that I typically have in the back of my mind for what I'm going to do with Shenlong. You can distill them down to RPG class types, haha: Support, Tank, DPS. I would consider the common core list a controller, not support. As mentioned above I won't be doing a detailed first turn break down, as it's either similar to the above, or nothing like it and varies completely from game to game. I want to focus more on crew choices, schemes and general playstyles. So without further ado: Support Shenlong aka Screw Neverborn This build can be done from either common core, or a slightly modified core, as detailed below: Sample List Shenlong - 4ss -Wandering River Style -The Peaceful Waters Peasant Shadow Emissary -Conflux of Dawn Monk of Low River Chiaki, the Niece -Pull of the Grave Ohagura Bettari -Recalled Training Izamu the Armor -Hidden Agenda Monk of Low River This list has a lot of healing in it and a lot of swappable components. Bettari could be a lone swordsman, samurai, graves or kang. Izamu could be ototo or fuhatsu (or free up a couple of points to run yasunori). Chiaki and Monk could be swapped out for yokai or 10T bros. Or maybe tengu if you are so inclined. The core concept of the list relies on the 9 card draw mechanic, but the reason for that is actually do to the 0 action to end conditions and the heal Shen gets from stance dancing. I often do this every turn, between Wandering River and Low River, topping up whoever needs it and pushing whoever needs it. Shen usually isn't in the thick, and between Chiaki, Emissary, Shen and LRM, conditions are trivial against this list. It's why I often take it into neverborn, as there are so many BAD conditions in that faction. From incite, paralyze, wicked vines... yeah. Condition removal is a thing. The healing from emissary keeps shen topped up typically. Izamu can heal if he's just tarpitting, Chiaki can heal on a trigger, two monks can heal 4 times a turn when in position and Shen can heal upwards of 4 times a turn himself. This list is incredibly hard to shift and I've had Izamu just dig in and never leave. Bettari is here as a second beater, but it can easily fill the role of a second tarpit to Izamu, such as Yin the Penangalan with smoke grenades (and idea more fully explored below). More board control desired? Take lust. There is a tremendous amount of flexibility here. The important thing is that you keep in mind what you are attempting to do: eliminate larger threats with pushes, slow or a beater to the face, and keep everyone topped up and in position themselves. Don't forget to use those peasants to bop people for focus or defensive as needed! Even their 1" push broom is fine, as you have plenty of ways to top up. Try tossing out the damage reduction buff from Emissary if you don't need cards (ha!) and bop people who have activated for defensive... pseudo armor! Schemes and Strats that this list likes: This is one of those random lists that actually can pull off Last Stand. I've done it. It's fun and feels great to accomplish a scheme like that! I love this list for anything that involves holding a point: guard the stash, extraction, squatter's rights... that type of thing. It's upgrade heavy and recalled training could become eat your fill and hidden agenda can become smoke grenades (or equality!), just to help fill out the show of force requirements. I'd drop a low river monk in this case to get that cache back up, though I've run him at 3ss before. A quick murder can be quite hard to get off against this list and eliminate the leadership is not happening unless they have a way to dive past your frontline and remove soulstone use. Still need to give respect to big threats. Healing doesn't help if you get one-shotted, so be careful. Schemes and Strats that this list doesn't like: Anything that wants you to spread out or traverse the board. This list is about staying in range of the heals, which is 6". You have a front line and a support line. You need to be wary of both. If you're front line crumbles, the back line has nothing to save it. Shen should be center of your back line. So he can reach out and touch whoever needs it. Now your choice of beaters and additional models can heavily dictate what you can and cannot do. But the major concept here is to turtle. So I tend to not take too many lone flyers. But even one Yokai can suddenly make Covert Breakthrough possible. Just be mindful of your opponents faction choice and the scheme pool. There is actually enough kill-y here to contend with some of the more aggressive schemes, but I'd still be careful of ones that force you to overextend (such as say Elminate the Leadership). Style Focus: Low River is the go-to here with heavy support from Wandering River. I often do a 2-1 situation here, with using 2AP from one, swapping, then 1AP from the other. Peasants I don't tend to sacrifice here after turn 1, so they can add support on the front lines, dying for SS and then getting resummoned if needed. One stays by shen so it can walk and bop focus when needed. I almost never use high river style here. But I have on occasion used Fermented River to bolster the front line. Shen can be in front or back as needed. But you want low river style because you want to win duels for defensive. If you plan on playing him front and center, consider throwing Misdirection on him, for mask fishing. Also remember low river's weirdness? Keep a peasant in the back behind Shen and once he's built up some defensive from being attacked while in Low River Style, walk that peasant up at EoT to bop defensive on him. Provide for the Temple specifies it lasts until that models next activation, so it overwrites the timing! Tank Shenlong aka Where You Going? Nowhere Sample List Shenlong - 3ss -Wandering River Style -Misdirection Kamaitachi Terracotta Warrior Monk of Low River Izamu the Armor -Equality Yin the Penangalan -Smoke Grenades Chiaki the Niece -The Peaceful Waters Terracotta Warrior Another set of highly swappable key models, I like the ancestors setup because they are all very tarpit already. Chiaki is a great wielder of the upgrade for Low River Monk, but it can go to Shen if needed. The core concept here is to swap to High River Style and just lock down your opponent, using the Terracotta's to mitigate damage on Izamu and Yin, while scheme running. This list can spread out a bit more, but generally you still want to keep Izamu and Yin within 6" of Shen. It's amazing how useful being able to push Shen out of engagement so he can reposition can be (with the Kamaitachi). Be wary though you are typically on a 7 card hand (thanks to Wonder Weasel and Warrior), not 9 because of no emissary. Kamaitachi and both warriors can eat cards... so be mindful. Also take full advantage of Yin's 0 action... her terrifying check is much more dangerous when the model you are tying up is on negative to WP duels. It's also a great middle finger to casters who may try to do shenanigans with your three tanks. Monk Of Low River is designed to be sitting behind Shen, just in range of healing him, so Shen can ideally use High River style with a certain level of impunity. Lust is a strong consideration here instead of Yin, as she can bounce models into Shen and Izamu as long as they have an enemy already engaged with them. Schemes and Strats that this list likes: Strangely this list works ok with scheming lists, as you can drop scheme markers with Monk of Low River to aid the Terracottas and Chiaki. Claim Jump is solid here. Also the free minion walk from Kamaitachi should not be ignored, especially because terracotta warriors are unimpeded. Your ability to bring decent damage and totally render models completely inert can be good for both minorly killy schemes as well as frame for murder. You don't need to kill them, just lock them down. Accuse is good here and you would be surprised how easy it is to spring setup/hidden trap thanks to Monk of Low River healing models engaged. Dig their Graves is also pretty solid here. Covert Breakthrough and leave their mark is easier when none of their models can get to you, but remember, that even on to disengaging from Izamu, Wicked and Gnawing Fear from Yin, and High River from Shen... models can still just keep trying until they can get away. Tail 'em is pretty simply dependin on the master, in that regards. Schemes and Strats that this list doesn't like: Last Stand is a no no, lol. Headhunter is not ideal as you really aren't moving around to pick up heads and you want everything engaged as much as possible. As such any scheme that requires you to NOT be engaged isn't really a good idea, unless you can push the enemy so far back or keep them so locked down that you can scheme. I wouldn't take this to Stake your Claim, though honestly, that's probably a weak scheme unless you are in common core. Collect the bounty is probably not ideal here either. Extraction/Guard the Stash aren't good ones because you tend to keep enemies around you. Style Focus: High River Style is the go-to here with support from Fermented Style and Wandering River when needed. Low River can make appearances for clutch heals, but you have terracotta protection, and monk/chiaki for that ideally. Not to mention Izamu can just turtle and heal himself every turn. Don't forget that with the Terracotta you can swap upgrades mid turn, so if you have need to swap to Low or High River post Shen's turn, so take advantage (of the heal and push especially from Wonder Weasel). DPS Shenlong aka LEEEEROOOOOOY JENKINS! WTF? List Shenlong - 4ss -Wandering River Style -On Wings of Wind Peasant Sensei Yu -Promising Disciple Yasunori Mr. Graves Bloodwretch Yokai Ok... I know. What in the ever loving god is this thing? On Wings of Wind? No emissary or LRM? GRAVES AND A BLOODWRETCH? But hear me out. There's some silly synergy here. Here it goes (yes this is a sample activation thing, sorry) Initiative 0 - swap to Fermented River Style (!!!!!) Mr. Graves activates, shows you the door to the Sensei Yu and walks into position Peasant walks up and bops focus on Yu. Yu activates and Pushes and fasts Yasunori. Then focuses for 0, then pushes and fasts shenlong. Bloodwretch and Yokai move up into position. Now here is where the fun begins... You have a move 6, charge 10" model with flight that has fast. And you have a 4AP master with move 6 and a 6" charge... both of which are already up the board like 11" from deployment. Can we say dive anyone? Oh I think we can. The wings on wind is for end of turn movement on Shen and for pushes from sensei yu when he doesn't need to focus. Now here's the silly thing... you don't have to commit turn 1. This can easily be the setup for turn two. You could always summon a peasant, activate Shen to push and fast some peeps, move yasunori into position, drop scheme markers, go defensive, whatever. And setup your crew for being fast the following turn. Ok so that all makes sense now... and a fasted Graves can show you the door 3 separate times if you do your distancing right (caveat: he can only do it to a friendly once per turn, but can use it with impunity on enemies). So let's address the really weird stuff... Yokai and Bloodwretch? Bear with me here... Yokai hit WELL above their weight. I have taken out silurids on the charge with little trouble before. And they are mobile scheme marker placers on top of that. Who wouldn't want that? The important thing here is they hit HARD. And I have absolutely gotten that additional attack trigger off a couple of times and nuked a 8-9ss model with my piddly little yokai. And the wretch? It has a 1AP action to cycle cards on attack and give it +1 damage making it min 3! I will ABSOLUTELY push and fast that bad boy with Yu for a second wave out of nowhere beater that gets me cards. The wretch, graves, and yasu are all min 3. Shenlong with fermented is on positives at "weak" damage. The yokai is on positives to charge attacks... yummy! I have wrecked 3 teddies in 3 turns with Shenlong... think on that for a second. I one rounded a full nekima with a fast Shen (who stoned for the no soulstone trigger). Fermented Style does WORK. Just watch out for armor. Armor is the bane of this list (and most 10T). If I knew I was heading into a potential armor bonanaza (say arcanists), I might swap out graves for Kang. Just to guarantee I knock out that one Armor 2 bastard that makes me weep. Be wary of conditions... only Shen and Yu (potentially) can remove them. Schemes and Strats that this list likes: KILL. Yes, this is the list that likes to kill things. Eliminate the leadership? Sure. Collect the bounty? No problem. A Quick Murder? Yes please. Frame for murder... ummm, play 3 pts down. I would say that you can still do some scheming here, but it's very select. Holding points is awesome, and I would consider this list for an interference game if I knew it wasn't a summoner... just because I expect to out kill you. Guard the Stash, Extraction, Stake your Claim, etc. Sure. I fully expect to never be staying engaged for long. And the Yokai and bloodwretch can scheme if need be, as can Sensei Yu. Don't forget those peasants that are just walking up and bopping Yu for focus! Kill one so you can resummon it the following turn and get that scheme marker you need! Schemes and Strats that this list doesn't like: Any really intensive interact or scheme heavy pool. Accuse, Search the Ruins, Setup, etc are all bye bye bye. Inspection is a nope as is Last Stand. Hunting Party is ok... but remember Shen doesn't count for that and neither does your yokai or wretch... so Yasu and Graves have to carry the weight there. Show of Force is a nuh uh... you get the idea. Kill good, schemes bad. Simple! Style Focus: Go-go gadget Fermented River Style! I pretty much don't ever leave this style. I 0 action to get poison and defensive and just dive in. Wandering River will never touch Shen again once it leaves him. Low River when needed... High River if I am getting squirrely. Remember if you win initiative, you can 0 action to switch back to fermented, activate shen, drop the damage, then shift back to high if you need that defensive layer. Conclusion With so many varied styles to do, you really need to understand all their tricks and tactics and be able to shift into whatever role you need at that point in time. The more versatile your list, the easier this is... and it's why the common core is so common. You fill in a scheme runner and a beater to the common core list and you can tackle most of the available stuff out there. So try them all out, have fun, try new things. You'd be surprised what works really well. I will end this post with two "cute" tricks that I haven't covered above: Sensei Yu with Undercover Entourage - Yu tends to not be in the thick, and as such tends to be mid table at best and unless you leave him out there, pretty topped up on wounds. Give that bad boy fast when the last turn is ticking down and you have 21" of movement. Tack on that all our means of fasting is from a push... and you have 25-31" of total movement with Yu. As long as you don't telegraph this... it can be a sneaky way to tack down 3 pts. Ranged Shen - this is a gimmicky list and I tend to not run it except to be obnoxious, but two snipers, two archers, yu and blot the sky... Blot the sky can be discarded off shen turn 1 to push up the archers, and then Yu attaches it. This list lives and dies on it's pushes, as the snipers and archers are your primary source of damage. So this is the time to double up on wandering river. They all focus, are all hyper accurate, and you can focus the archers at the end of their activation as a joke for their 2AP action... because it ignores LoS and Blasts and happens for free when near Blot the Sky... oh and it gets +1 to the duel for being near sensei yu and using the focus, which helps in case they are in cover... have fun!

Part 3! Only one more part after this! So I've talked about upgrades and about the common core... so let's talk about what Shenlong actually DOES when you bring him in said common core. Traditional Shenlong aka Common Core Typical List Shenlong - 5ss cache -Wandering River Style Peasant Sensei Yu -Promising Disciple -On Peaceful Waters Shadow Emissary -Conflux of Dawn Monk of Low River The Lone Swordsman -Recalled Training Ten Thunders Brother (or Yokai) The highlighted components are your changeable models. Ohagura Bettari is good as is Samurai to get some ranged support. Katanka Sniper isn't bad, but leaves the list a bit pillow fisted. If you want to run a bit lower on stones, you can swap the 10T Bros for something in the 6-7ss range, like an obsidian oni or the aforementioned sniper. Any heavy beater has potential, just try to keep that Cache at 4... which means if you bring any of the 10ss guys, you probably aren't going to bring an upgrade. This is fine, it just means emissary is always fasting Yu. This list is light on activations, having only 8 after summoning the second peasant. What this list lacks in activations it makes up for in synergy and capability. Shenlong is typically an early activation on Turn 1. Your goal is to push and fast everything you can. The thing to remember here is that you are trading AP back and forth, but doing so with pushes. So you end up with a net gain. Sample order of activations: After initiative - drop scheme marker and witness a miracle to summon second peasant. LRM - Focus +3 and walk Emissary - Push and fast Yu. Remove focus off LRM to draw 3 cards. Walk. Hired Peasant - Bop focus on Shen and walk. Shen - Mighty Gust and lower focus to give Emissary fast. Focus. Mighty Gust and lower focus to give Swordsman fast. 0 action to pick up a style and give the discarded Wandering to Yu. You could attach Wandering onto Shen as well if you wish, as you are allowed to re-attach the same upgrade (they aren't rare). High River Style is pretty common here as well. Low River if you need condition removal. Yu - Airburst Swordsman into position and gain focus. Mighty Gust Shen and give Fast. 0 action to copy Shen and get focus and burning. Mighty Gust summoned peasant to move scheme markers and give it fast. Summoned Peasant - Sacrifice to give Shen a 0 to gain burning and poison (or defensive if needed) 10T Bros - does whatever you want him to, but getting into position to scheme is good. double walking and hopefully placing is typical. Lone Swordsman - should now be upwards of 10" from the deployment zone and ready to bring business if you want to dive him. I have done this on many an occasion, but you better have the hand to earn his points. This is one of those super dangerous situations. If you have activation control, and a solid hand... pop your recalled training, use your fast to walk (if needed) into charge range of your target. Pitch 2 cards to declare it as your reactivate target and dive. You BETTER kill it though. Dangerous, but feels great when it works. 4-5 attacks on positive flips with strong hand support is usually good enough to kill whatever you're after, but cards are cards and if you fail, you pay the ultimate price. If he's not in position to go hard, flank. He's fast enough to go after any scheme runners who may have overcommitted. Alternatively you can activate the Lone Swordsman earlier in the turn and push and fast him after activation in prep of turn 2. This setup makes Shen, Emissary and possibly Swordsman all fast for round 2, while moving your force up the board. You aren't wasting fast on the peasant because if you don't sacrifice it, you can't get that free scheme marker and resummons it the following turn. Alternatively, if you want to Fast the 10T bros... that's fine, just use your 0 action after initiative to get the poison and burning. I like cycling peasants so one doesn't get left behind and it helps provide scheme markers for my oft taken Claim Jump. Speaking of: Schemes and Strats that this list likes: Anything that involves interactions and scheme marker positioning. Be careful on Covert though, nothing in this list is particularly mobile or stalwart enough to try to flank around into range of enemy deployment. You can totally do it, but it's not quite as simple as it seems, even with 10T Bros or Yokai. Claim Jump is kind of an auto take here due to 10T bros and the constant mighty gusting with the free scheme markers. Setup can be super easy to complete, as can hidden trap. Show of force is usually decent, but remember that the pitched upgrade from Shen doesn't count as it started on Shen. At least the first one did If you change stances a second time, that one counts as it was attached after start of play. Accusation is pretty easy to do as you can drag people in and then accuse them. Recover evidence is actually ok here as you can push models away then go grab it! Schemes and Strats that this list doesn't like: Killing. You don't have the firepower, despite the lone swordsman, to guarantee these points. The Swordsman is there to eliminate threats that could impact your scheming. Or at least tie them up for a turn or two. If you don't pull the right cards, or have activation control, it's extremely hard to guarantee death from him with only a min 2. Especially if they have armor or soulstone prevention. HtK is a bane as well. Headhunter is good because you can focus on squishier targets and then push things in and out. Don't forget that free interact for focus on Yu and Shen! Mark for Death has some janky shenanigans where if you are in Wandering River with a focus you can free action to mark, then swap to Fermented River and smack it three times to try to score. But it requires setup to get it off (typically leaving peasants alive so your initiative 0 action is to add focus and poison/defensive). Also do to low model counts, interference isn't the best. It's not the worst, but I want more hitting power to keep my opponent reeling than this list brings. Inspection can be hard too as you really only have one scheme runner. I wouldn't do Last Stand either as you only have 3 models that qualify and I typically want 4 to be safe. Style Focus: Wandering River is the go-to here. Followed by High River with Low River on support. Fermented River is only used when needed for the schemes and strat. Your goal here is location, location, location... Keeping your guys in position, and ideally keeping your opponent's out. If you double up on wandering river, you have at the least 6x 5" pushes a turn (fasting yu with emissary). That is an incredible amount of board control. And you can slow/fast 3-4 of them. If their beater doesn't have any extra AP granting abilities, and they don't have any pushes themselves, you can lock that beater out simply by pushing and slowing. Now they have to walk in just to engage. High River is the de facto secondary style if you don't need so much control, to allow Shen to tie up models and win those duels. There is some consideration here to going low river style turn 1, then turn 2 going to high river so that Shen can tie up models. Yu picks up low river and keeps Shen topped up, while buffing his burning to help with damage output. Again, Fermented is used when needed, but is not a focus (hehe) for this list.

Part 2! Only marginally delayed, lol TL; DR Normally I try to synopsis these long posts... but I got nothing here. Other than Shen is a varied master with tons of choices that you should always try to keep in mind and adapt to the situation that presents itself... simple right? Choose if you want Yu. Choose if you want a 9 card hand. Then get that crew filled out with what's left! Don't forget a second (or even first depending on your build!) beater. Also forgive my rambling and sometimes lack of coherent thought... I'm on only a couple of hours of sleep. I personally run Shenlong in a very aggressive fashion. I know several people who run him more defensive. Then there's the traditional positioning and fasting crew... oh and don't forget the super tarpit! No matter how you run Shenlong, there's a couple of really important decisions you need to make out the gate. After that, you can simplify him down to a few different playstyles. Whilst playing with a singular upgrade as mentioned above appeals to some and not others, I would say that running Shen in a specific "playstyle" for a full game is something we can probably all get behind. The reasoning for this is that stance-dancing happens in any playstyle, it's more what tricks and crews are you bringing to accomplish whatever your overall goal is. The focus of this post will be ask a couple of questions before you decide how you should build the rest of your list. Let's take a look at the common core Shen list and it's two major components: Shenlong - 5ss cache (18ss remaining) -Wandering River Style - 2ss -On Peaceful Waters Peasant - 2ss Sensei Yu - 9ss -Promising Disciple - 2ss Shadow Emissary - 10ss -Confliux of Dawn - 0ss Low River Monk - 4ss Let's start with the first component: To Yu or not to Yu Hot topic: Sensei Yu. Do Yu or Do Yu not? This is a very complex question with a lot of complex reasoning behind it that often gets distilled down to "why of course!". And it's easy to see why... Yu can grab any stance that Shen has, and that specifically means Wandering River and Low River (we will ignore the latter for this post for the sake of "brevity"). With an impressive walk, the ability to copy Shen's 0 action (usually the condition one) and Airburst with a built in trigger to gain a focus... this guy can be bananas. Shadow Emissary is basically an auto-take as well (and the subject of our next piece of information) and can fast and push Yu for 1AP, then walk. Which allows Yu to 0 action to gain focus and some other condition by copying Shen, then mighty gust some one and give them fast (like Shen), then airburst and gain focus, then mighty gust and give someone fast again. The big downside to that series of events is that you don't walk, only get the push from Shadow... and this can leave Sensei Yu behind. Or just put you in a perpetual situation of Emissary pushes to fast him, then walks (or maybe attacks if something is in range). This isn't a bad strategy at all, and it moves a good chunk of your army while also handing out fast to key models. And at some point everyone is going to go off and do their thing, leaving Yu to start pushing enemies and slowing them, instead. But it's something to keep in mind. Then there's the cost... Yu's 11 pts. 9 + 2 for promising disciple. That's a lot of bloody points. So there needs to be an economy of effect to make him worth hit. Here's how it breaks down: You can assume that Airburst and Mighty Gust, without triggers, are a straight trade. 1 AP for 5" push. Flexibility of moving enemies aside, it's like granting a walk to another model. So at worst case, it's a trading an AP for an AP. Mighty Gust handing out fast or slow is where the AP efficiency is MUCH more appealing. As you are directly handing swapping out AP as well as pushing. That's a much more desirable situation. Translation, you don't want to really be using Airburst if you don't have to. While the focus is nice, it just doesn't have the economy of effect that Mighty Gust does if you pop the focus trigger. And with access to focus as a 0 action, it's the de facto choice if Yu has Wandering equipped. This mentality follows through with Emissary pushing and fasting Yu. It's more efficient because it gives Yu a "walk" and then an AP. It also allows Yu to trade out his 3AP for 5AP effectively on other models. This is the appeal of the whole situation. Now imagine you are doing something similar with Shen! Now why wouldn't you take this every time? Because to get "maximum" value you need some outside interference. Yu on 2AP can only fast and push one model, then walk (or push another). Giving him a 3rd AP suddenly allows him to fast 2 models while pushing 3. Or Fast 1 model, push 2 and walk. This is a big difference. That third AP basically dials him up to the 11 that is his worth. So you either need to get it from Shen or the Emissary. I think Shen has much better things to do with his AP, then just helping to enable Yu's efficiency, which is one of two reasons the Emissary is such a pivotal take. So first thing you need to figure out is do you want that level of synergy, interworking and value that Yu brings? It's purely a support, enable other models situation. Yu doesn't pump out damage, cannot charge and doesn't have a solid attack. He is designed to disrupt and facilitate. Other options you might consider without Yu? A beater. Hands down. Shen can pump out some damage but his "core" crew (discussed later) doesn't carry a whole lot of heavy hitters. It carries a few damage capable models... not the same thing. But Yu is 11 pts! That's a lot of wiggle room! Yasunori is fantastic for 1 point more. Izamu is most certainly a wonderful choice. Kang is also great, and can provide a crazy edge against rezzers and most of arcanists (except Marcus). Then there are Mercs... there are absolutely some heavy hitters that can get dialed up thanks to Shen's crew. Bishop's major weakness is taken care of as soon as he gets pushed and fasted, for instance (his slow walk and 1" melee). Experiment! Shadow Emissary and the Dance of Nine Heavens (or the 9 card hand) 14ss. What would you expect to get for 14ss? Nekima plus an upgrade is 14ss. Yasunori with misdirect... Archie, with his armor upgrade. Izamu with decaying Aura is 12... Now we don't have access to all those things, but you get the situation here. 14ss get's you a lot. And that's what I'm asking you to spend when for this trick. So it better deliver right? Oh it does. Shadow Emissary's conflux for Shenlong has a 0 action that removes a condition. No check. Just happens. That in and of itself is fantastic. But the money is in the second part of it... which allows you to draw cards (max 3) for each numerical point of that condition. For our purposes that is going to be Focus +3 typically. How? Low River Monk... Who with Shenlong can gain Focus +2 for a 0 action thanks to their passive ability. Then take 1AP to focus a 3rd time. Then walk or take advantage of it's new upgrade to heal at range. But that's not all! Not only do you get 3 extra cards for next to no effort, but you also have the Emissary! Who by himself has a respectable damage output, an the ability to push and fast any non-leader model carrying an upgrade! Now that's value! The issue is here, that because you really want to be fasting something every turn with the Emissary, it really becomes a mobile pushbot that draws you cards with some built in utility and damage dealing. That is NOT bad mind you. Not at all. It's fantastic. Playing with a 9 card hand opens doors to your wildest imagination! But it costs 14ss to facilitate. If ALL it did was net you 3 more cards a turn, it wouldn't be worth it. But the ability to have two activations, still keep an AP for each model and have access to their kits make up for it as long as you position and play them properly. Or you could not. Conclusion Controversially, the Emissary is a crutch in Shenlong. A guaranteed 14ss take gives utility and card advantage. Add in the 11ss package (crutch part 2?) that is Yu, and you spend 25ss between three models that do "nothing" but support your crew. I highly recommend putting this on the table with no opponent. Try it out. Get used to it. There's a symphony to be played between how you activate Shen, Yu, Shadow and the Monk... And from those four models you can potentially enable the rest of your crew... all 25 pts of it. Account for 2pts to a peasant, 2pts to a style upgrade and Shen likes 5ss... another 3. 32ss all in all, leaving 18 left for which to do what needs done. So this is why I recommend thinking it over. Debating whether or not you want these options. I use them. They are good. But try a list without them. Only one of them. Experiment. Get used to how you need to activate things. It's a minor puzzle, but one that is worth solving and mastering. I have recently begun leaving Yu out of my lists. It's too rich for my blood. I want a beater. Too many times, I have no real response to my opponen'ts major hitters. And many of them have ways of generating more actions either via triggers or built in, so pushing them away and slowing them only does so much. Despite what almost everyone says... this is a game of killing your opponent's threats. It's a resource management game at it's finest, and model count and potency is an oft overlooked resource. "Can't scheme if your dead," my local Sonnia player is fond of saying. Now while this is true, I have won games where I was tabled. I have won games where I only killed 1-2 models. Each game and crew is different but I will tell you that aggression is popular. You need to be willing to fight fire with fire and sometimes that means leaving some of the shiny Yu/Emissary goodness at home in favor of what's going to help you win the game. Mull this over. Try it all out. Get comfortable with the core shenanigans. Then look at what happens when you take it away. Shen works with EVERYONE, much like McCabe. But he does have models he helps more than others, and its up to you to determine how much added aid you feel you need. Stay tuned for part 3 where I finally get into actual list building and playstyles.

TL;DR Each style has a bit of nuance to what you are going to use it for so it behooves you to become familiar with not only the primary aspects, but the oft overlooked interactions that take Shenlong up to 11. Of note, learn about Low River Style's interactions with Yu's Brutal and defensive. Don't forget the free interact off Wandering, or it's ability to deny your opponent VP with scheme markers. High River is pretty straightforward, and don't underestimate the raw power that Fermented Style can bring by turning your weak negative damage flips into positives. Shenlong is one of my go-to, primary masters. So I have a lot of input. I both agree and disagree with some of what Toka is saying. But that's the greatest and hardest part of Shenlong... you can play him multiple ways and be effective. I'm going to add in a couple of things for Shen's upgrades, including other choices you may want to consider. I'm going to assume you understand the core concept of his stance changes as well as promising disciple on Yu. I'll address Shen's play styles directly, in another post. Wandering River Style - Used to pass out fast/slow and help position. This is often on Sensei Yu when not with Shen, and generally gets thrown to Yu after Shen uses it his first activation. Here's some nitty gritty: First of all it allows you to reposition scheme, corpse and scrap markers. Really process that ability. Any of those markers within 3" of your target get picked up. Then placed within 3" of the target's position after you finish they push from Mighty Gust. This is enabling and denial like you wouldn't believe. From guaranteeing Setup/Claim Jump/Search the Ruins/Leave your Mark/Dig their Graves/et cetera, to denying those same schemes... this ability is quite literally a game changer. The other thing that gets often overlooked is that it grants Sensei's Yu built in ability to lower your focus to take an interact for FREE. Not as a 0 action. But just costing no AP. This is phenomenal for placement of schemes, accusing, marking, headhunter... etc. Big big thing. Always keep it in mind. Shen can walk 6" three times and then lower focus to interact... that's HUGE. Or drop a scheme marker, walk 12 and drop another... assuming you didn't get a chance to fast him. So many things you can do here. High River Style - This style is probably the most straight-forward style we have, believe it or not. But there's some stuff to consider here as well. First and foremost is the passive ability. As long as Shen has ONE burning (often why his gains turn 1 is burning and focus), you can take a damage to raise your duel total AFTER cheating is done. That massive Nekima coming to say hello? Take a point or two of damage to miss that min4 swing. If you have high cards in your hand, this is the deal breaker. Pandora coming up with her Ca7 paralyze cuz she has the 13 in hand? Drop your own 13 and take some damage. Now the caveat here is that you need to know WHEN to do this. And this is touches on the depth of Shenlong. If you find yourself facing a pandora crew who is going to condition your face off potentially, you adjust to the most effective style (probably low river for the condition removal). But High River Style just flat out lets you trade life for winning duels. Low River Monks have a great ranged heal now to help top you up, and they are an auto-take with Shen (more on this below). It's all about determining if it's better to take a point of damage or two, or just deal with the losing the duel. Generally, taking a point of damage to prevent your opponent from hitting you with his models is almost always better. They can't flip the red joker if there is no damage flip! Now as to the melee attack from High River... keep in mind it's Rg: 3. That's a huge bubble of why yes, I will take a disengaging strike against you. It allows Shen to tie up a lot of models, but remember the larger your reach, the more wiggle room they have. A 50mm model can toe in your 3" bubble to avoid the strike and reach out and touch someone 4-5" away depending on their reach. That's still quite a range. The min damage is forgettable, but remember Shen loves his focus. So if you are swinging with this attack, you're hunting blasts, so don't forget to focus. Lastly, stacking burning isn't terrible, especially if you don't have anything else you need to stack at that moment, and being able to dump some burning on a model you need dead by EoT is a thing. Low River Style - There's some weirdness with this style. From a different post that explains it well: Above and beyond that, don't forget that Low River Style's heal is a Ml action, so when Sensei Yu uses it, he passes out a condition of your choice. This can be quite beneficial for helping to stacking conditions as the actual removal of conditions is a may: "removes up to one condition". This means you can choose to remove 0 conditions. Also the timing on this doesn't follow trigger resolution timing, as Brutal isn't a trigger. So you do apply Yu's condition first, then resolve Stones on the River. This is useful to keep in mind, as it allows you to heal your models and remove the condition Yu would add. Fermented River Style - Last but not least... pay special note that Fermented River Style only swaps fate modifiers DURING his activation. This makes it wonderful for still going defensive, but also doesn't mean that he's invulnerable to 's added to his duels out of activation. Brewmaster comes to mind. Swill still hurts when you are being attacked. But it doesn't neuter you during the activation at least... so there is that. I tout this upgrade a lot, and it's one of my main picks, even before high river style. The reason for this is that... on average, this game works on weak damage. That means a single to your damage flip. This upgrade makes it a now. Tying? Double . And on the rare chance that you are getting a flip for hitting the severe accuracy? You can either cheat in a lower card, or just take the negative flip... because that's what you flip most of the time anyways. This upgrade plays mind tricks on how your opponent needs to cheat and is the bane of Hard to Wound and Impossible to Wound. This is your henchman killer (combined with Shen's trigger to prevent soulstone use). Stumble takes some gearing up, but it's absolutely devastating to fire this off on turn 4-5 at a clutch point when you were already tying up models. Remember the and fall let's you specify how much poison you lower, so you can always leave that 1 poison needed to enable Drunken Kung Fu. And negatives on your opponent don't hurt you at all, even with Drunken. It's fairly easy to get your poison stack to 5 by turn 3, if that's a major goal. I typically am ok with 4 on turn 3 (using a peasant or two to help facilitate) as that means that most models need a 9-11 to not be on negatives for the turn. Other upgrades to consider: Misdirection, Recalled Training, Blot the Sky (there's a cute thing with Yu here), Death Contract, On Peaceful Waters, Hidden Agenda. I'll go into these with playstyles in my next post, but I actually tend to run Shen with only one upgrade, and that's his whatever Style I start the game with. On Peaceful Waters normally makes its way onto Yu, but as you'll see in the next post... not always. Hope this helps. I'll write that other post after dinner

They aren't particularly compatible in the forms of any synergies, but illuminated are solid models, graves is a cheaper sensei yu that can charge (lol), and Yokai are just fantastic in general. I use obsidian oni with lynch and asami all the time, so good first pick. She plays fine with just summoning yokai and using her other abilities to scheme run and push/buff your models.

Thank you very much!

I love Brewmaster in 10T and I have to agree with Toka that drinking game is fun when it happens but not a plan to build around. We don't have access to initiative control which is what makes that ability particularly shine. The Whiskey Golem and Moon Shinobi are decent, but not fantastic. And Fingers is a great support piece, but we are a faction of great support pieces. Here's my current "testing" list. I've been working on fine tuning this: The Brewmaster - 4ss cache -Running Tab -Binge Kamaitachi Yasunori -Hidden Agenda Shadow Emissary -Conflux of Inebriation Obsidian Oni Terracotta Warrior You have 9pts for a model or models of your choice. I have been recently experimenting with Lust, but Yin could be solid, if not redundant. I've also used a Samurai with the Earth upgrade (+3 wds). The idea is that You are abusing Swill and Binge to keep your opponent unable to deal with the fasted, ancient protectioned Yasunori. Emissary provides plenty of beef. Obsidian Oni provides heals. Warrior/Weasel swaps running tab to misdirection (just for the initial push and card draw) and then swaps things around as needed. Kamaitachi can also help walk obsidian oni and terracotta for schemes. If you are running Samurai, he is your misdirection target for Brewmaster to survive a bit more and be an occassional obey target and scheme runner. Or you can shoot with him and use obsidian oni and brewmaster's on the house to heal him up. I like Lust because putting a beater on negatives, then tossing them around with Lust is really really good.

I think a more important question would be what kind of style of play are you looking to get into? As others have said, 10T is a quite diverse set of masters and models, and so jumping in can be a bit challenging. I would personally look at getting involved with either a master whose style you really are interested in or (if you don't care which) a crew box where you will use most of it's contents. So let's do a quick start from the top of most useful crew box to least (note asami is not released yet but included here for completion): Asami Tanaka Role - utility summoner and support Box - Ohagura Bettari, Amanjaku, and 3x Yokai Synopsis - You use everything that comes in this box. Bettari is the definition of a glass cannon. Amanjaku is very useful, and Yokai are tied with 10T bros as best 5ss minion in our faction. Asami herself is extremely mobile, tough and versatile in her summoning capability with a lot of synergy for Oni. In competition with Shenlong for generally accepted "top tier master" title. Just be forewarned she and Bettari are both card hungry. Jakob Lynch Role - card manipulator and midfield nuker Box - Hungering Darkness, and 3x Illuminated Synopsis - You use everything that comes in this box. Illuminated are fantastic. Hungering Darkness is amazing and his mechanics are very fun. Jakob Lynch is a fantastic and fun master who can delete a model a turn when his engine is running smooth. His brilliance/darkened theme is fun, but he runs equally well without. Shenlong Role - Utility support and board control Box - 2x Peasants, Sensei Yu, and 3x High River Monks Synopsis - You will never use the Monks. But Sensei Yu is a staple for 10T. Peasants are our cheapest model aside from Huggy. Shenlong himself is similar to a force multiplier in that he can help position and pass out fast. But his role is more clearly defined as a utility support because he also can remove conditions, heal, push and slow enemies, and can tie up a large number of enemies and be fairly stalwart. He's not a tank per se, but just because of his abilities he can appear tank-like. Complicated (perhaps are most complicated) master, but with the ability to do most scheme pools and once you unlock his secrets, is widely considered to be our top-tier master (or at least one of them). Mei Fang Role - Hunter and mobile support Box - Emberling, Kang, and 3x Rail Workers Synopsis - Kang is one of our go-to henchman, especially when rezzers or arcanists are dropped. Rail workers are very solid models that see play. Mei Fang herself is in an interesting spot in so far as she isn't killy or mobile enough to compete with Misaki, and doesn't do enough support to justify over Shenlong or McCabe. However she has a unique combo playstyle that is fun and rewarding, if not necessarily super competitive. Enjoyable master with some really solid fluff and definitely captures the feel of a martial brawler. Yan Lo Role - Mobile support and control "tank" that ramps up power Box - Soul Porter, Chiaki the Niece, and 3x Ashigaru Synopsis - Ranked below Mei Fang only because Ashigaru almost never are hired, only summoned by Toshiro. Chiaki is a staple model for scheme running and condition removal (auto-pick vs NVB in my opinion). Yan Lo is another complex model (in contention with Shenlong for complexity) due to his wonderful and satisfying Chi mechanic. A psuedo summoner in his synergy with, and ability to resurrect, Ancestor models... most of which are staples for 10T: Yin the Penangalan, Toshiro the Daimyo and Izamu the Armor. McCabe Role - Force multiplier Box - Luna, Sidir Alchibal, and 3x Wastrels Synopsis - Sidir and the Wastrels are models I don't see used very often, but they are solid. Wastrels in particular are a lot better than most give them credit for, especially for only 4ss. Luna is part of the ubiquitous hound spam list that McCabe is most famous for. That is aside from his Wolverine/Indiana Jones look. He passes out upgrades that just flat out make all our models better. His ability to reactivate some of our most potent minions is quite amazing. Deep, but not complex master with access to some guild goodies that make him a highly versatile and effective choice. Misaki Role - Harrier, assassin (esque), and board control Box - Shang, Ototo, and 3x Torakage Synopsis- Ototo is a bit too glass cannon for his capabilities, but a solid henchman nonetheless. Torakage get some mileage, but most people I know of keep them on the shelf by and large. Misaki herself is one of our most explosive and dynamic masters, but isn't quite stalwart enough to do what she really enjoys: diving the enemies frontlines. A solid pickup (and my personal favorite master), she has a learning curve as she does nothing for your crew and you have to learn how to keep her alive. Brewmaster Role - debuffer and board control Box - Wesley, Fingers, and 3x Moon Shinobi Synopsis - This box is all but useless for 10T unfortunately. Good models, just they can't be hired as anything but under Brewie... and I think he has better options in 10T, generally speaking. But he is a BLAST to play, though mean for your opponents. Definitely a pick up if you go hard into 10T, but definitely a lower choice on the "need" factor.

Yeah, I'd thought about that. I'm just worried about my opponents confusing it for an actual samurai. Need to find another huge guy with a gatling gun! I use samurai all the time with Lynch, usually just one. But man that ace hunting! And yeah, I am kind of hoping someone will have some magical amazing-ness for HRM... but it's a vane hope. They do combo well with Obsidian Oni, but that's a 12ss package and they die to a stiff breeze

Late to the party... work and real life has been hectic. I have really been looking at this with either Shenlong, Yan Lo or Lynch. SHENLONG He and Sensei Yu have TREMENDOUS healing capabilities. This would be one of those time that I would take kamaitachi over peasants for the heal on upgrade swap. Chiaki, Emissary, Low River Monks, Izamu for your heavy hitter. Something along this lines: Shenlong - 4ss cache -Wandering River Style Kamaitachi Sensei Yu -Promising Disciple Shadow Emissary -Conflux of Dawn Izamu the Armor Chiaki the Niece -Pull of the Grave Monk of Low river It's still seven models, which I feel is kind of heavy for Last Stand... but you can kill off the Kamaitachi or Monk of Low River if need be to drop it down. This is a disruption based list that can still put out some damage if need be. Everything heals here. Literally. Shadow Emissary when he's not drawing you cards is going to give you Armor for going defensive. Yu and Shen can push and slow. Chiaki will be handing out slow when she's not healing/scheme running. YAN LO Easy answer here, reliquary with a built in 0 action heal. Here's what an example: Yan Lo - 5ss cache -Fortify the Spirit -Reliquary Kamaitachi Izamu the Armor Shadow Emissary -Ancestral Conflux Yin the Penangalan -Smoke Grenades Chiaki the Niece -Pull of the Grave Goryo Same kind of situation here, though relying more on Yan Lo's ability to resummons over straight healing potential. Goryo is for the chi, and because it's a solid minion threat that will probably die, but can also help fuel early chi to get the necessary Yan upgrades. This flies in the face of my normal recommendation to not take tons of ancestors... but this is a special situation. Soul Porter could potentially be a better choice here, I just like extra card draw. LYNCH Well Lynch is a gimme here because you effectively get an immortal henchman for 5-6 stones (2ss for the upgrade, and I run lynch at 4-5ss cache). One of my old core lynch lists was really elite heavy to abuse Huggy's efficiency. And it still works pretty good here... with a minor adjustement or two: Jakob Lynch - 5ss cache -The Rising Sun -Wanna See a Trick Hungering Darkness -Recalled Training Yasunori -Equality Shadow Emissary -Conflux of Hunger Mr. Graves -Hidden Agenda Obsidian Oni Obsidian Oni Obsidian Oni are awesome with Lynch. And there's plenty of added mobility here with models that already have great ranges and are fairly stalwart in their own right. Swapping an obsidian oni to a terracotta warrior may not be a bad idea, because you can always tank a hit, and not save the terracotta to reduce model count (plus give Lynch an extra cache).

I've always felt like Samurai were considered to be... yet so many people swear by them, myself included... so I don't know, haha! I love taking an extra wound Samurai with my support masters who have Misdirection... handy little guys... with gatling guns I really need to find a good proxy for this guy... if I had a proxy, I'd run him more. That moderate of 5 just seems so tasty!

I practice deployment and first turn movement a lot. Just to get faster about how to attack my schemes. Obviously your opponent crew changes everything, but if you don't have to think about what you do, and only how to compensate for your opponent, then it speeds everything up. I also set up play scenarios and practice "combos." But then again I own like five factoins... so I have plenty to work with

So I play rezzers and 10T. I have done tournaments with both Nico and Asami. And I've also played against Nico as Asami, and played against Asami as Nico. So hopefully my experiences can help you out here. ASAMI Asami eats corpse, scrap AND scheme markers... you have been warned. Maniacal Laughter is great to help avoid this, and Carrion Emissaries shards to block Asami's LoS to things is a great idea period... her charge aura needs LoS too. As of course does her summons. And if you make her blink over your shards, she may be over committing now. Asami isn't some card goddess. She gets a single rush of magic, and often will have 2 trash cards in hand. Remember her TN on all her abilities are 6s. She literally has ZERO use for anything under a 5 in her crew (five can be used for yokai corrupted essence) other than to go defensive. Getting two 13s to double summon jorogumo isn't going to happen all the time. But you do need to be prepared to deal with it. Asami is not always upgrade heavy. And most players going into rezzers or neverborn WILL put Servant on her to get that WP to 6. Lure's suck. So no, Hans is not an auto-take against her. Nor is he a guaranteed good model. If I see Hans on the other side of the board, I'm going to probably just shrug and carry on with my day. Personally, I run her crew quite upgrade light. And unless you are specifically counter building your buddy's list, Hans is always going to be fairly situational. Respect the yokai... they hit WELL above their weight and are fantastic against rezzers because they get to attacks on the charge, can burn flicker to get to damage (thus negating HtW), and rezzers are notoriously Df5 or lower. Ohagura Bettari can absolutely delete a model a turn with her flaying song, but it requires her to hit and then to cheat a severe... because flay doesn't ignore 's it just means you can still cheat. So unless they flip double severes or something, that's coming from that control hand. And that's potentially one less joro on the table. Which means unless it's a high profile, Black Betty is coming in for one reason and one reason only: because it terrifies you. And to be fair, it's a valid fear... she's not hard to kill... she dies to any dedicated beater VERY quickly... but you HAVE to deal with her, because if you don't, she might be by a model that is worth losing 2 severes in hand to remove. Just respect her threat range and have a way to deal with it. Also don't forget she has the ability to charge another model on a trigger, so she can get super deep if she needs to by ping-ponging. Sensei Yu and Shadow Emissary are really really good in a Asami list because you are almost guaranteed to be taking: Yasunori... who absolutely will wreck your face if you aren't careful. When I played Nico into a tournament vs Asami, my opponent had him diving my deployment zone on a 1AP charge with fast... The threat is REAL (he used Sensei Yu). This leads me to... NICODEM If you only play Nico and want to try something that's not just a pure Asami hate-build... try buffer nico. Don't do summoner Nico. Leave Morty at home, take Maniacal Laughter, Undertaker and Necrotic King. The bonus to casts are really really good, especially if you happen to have a couple of belle's along with you. Take Archie. Asami doesn't ignore armor. None of her standard crew does. Archie also two shots Betty. And can't be two shotted by Betty. Not to mention he is a beast just in general, well worth his points, and even moreso when he is on 's to his Ml, Df, Ca, and damage flips. His hulking leap can play hazard on positioning and a lot of Asami is aura management, so pushing her out of position forces your opponent to react. Which is why... Belles. They are one of our best minions for a reason. Positioning is crucial in this game and being able to reposition (and potentially slow) your opponents models is really really good. I tend to bring two in my Nico crew along with a... Nurse. One is enough. If by chance Asami isn't sporting that Servant upgarde... drag her over and hit her with some meds. Any of the meds work because they all remove her ability to summon. Stalwart scheme runners... 10T are fast. We position well. And our scheme runners are tough and bring the pain... Yokai and 10T bros are both dangerous, Yokai far more so. So don't bring a crooligan. Bring the necropunks. They are hard to tie down, hard to shift. Chiaki is not necessarily required, but she does help. Even if nefarious pact is present. Carrion Emissary is a must have for me typically speaking. Shards of Kythera is such a strong ability. And I tend to take his standard conflux because on belle's cast is just mean. Quite possibly the biggest threat from 10T in general, but particularly Asami is going to be Yasunori. We have all the pushes in the world to get him in place, and he is tough to shift, with lots of wounds and even on 1AP can generate 9-15 damage... Nurses are your friend here again as is Carrion Emissary. Yasunori is stubborn... which doesn't matter if you have Carrion Conflux buffing your nurse. He also can't just mystically charge through shard markers, so if you drop shards in front of him, he has to walk around them or get repositioned. Just be careful of that 1AP charge. As to the Jorogumo... There really is no easy answer to them. They are brutal for a reason. HtW, HtK, eat your fill, min dam 3, a 0 action to ignore HtW, Reach 3... they are just nasty. But if you can deny the corpse marker, they only last for a turn with 1AP. That's manageable. I would honestly try not to waste AP on one that is going to die at end of turn anyways, and seriously consider leaving one alone with only flicker 2. At flicker 3, I'd make the decision to probably remove them. Another mark in favor of Archie... he takes out a Joro in a single activation on min damage. May not be the best use of him, but it's not bad either. If you have a belle not in threat range... try walking out a bit and luring the joro into engagement. They are walk 5, so if you move far enough away, you cna make them leave engagement of your other models, in exchange for it getting a free hit or two on your belle... which can survive two min hits from a Joro. Hope this all helps!

Greetings fellow Thunderites! So I know there are several of you out there who are as obsessive as I am in owning all the things and you have the entire 10T faction... Or maybe you don't but you have some niche models that you swear by that don't see the light of day with other 10T players. This is your call out. I have been theorycrafting hard (been on the road for work recently) for my mainstays for this year and I'm looking to go hardcore Brewmaster, Shenlong and McCabe/Lynch (still undecided). But here's what I'm looking for: little used models and why I should give them some love. We have quite a few "shelf" models in my opinion. 10T Archers, High River Monks, Tengu, Fuhatsu, Yamaziko... the list goes on and on. I want to take underused models and put them in and try to get the feel of when are they awesome? So what underappreciated, but effective, synergies are you all seeing these days? Doesn't have to be for the master's I've listed, but obviously bonus if they are I'll start off with one of my favorites: Ten Thunder Archers with McCabe. Two of the biggest issues with the Archers is that they have no melee and don't have enough mobility for their abilities. What better than a situation where you can solve both! One thing that is very common with me is to jam McCabe in with Promises and go defensive. He is surprisingly durable in that state... especially with a Strangemetal Shirt! This gives a very clear vantage for using the 10T Archer to shoot into melee with him, and his ability to push them, give them nimble etc... is just money. Toss on their upgrade because they are GOING to be in position. I find people often forget also that they ignore intervening models for LoS... so you can block LoS to them with, say Mounted McCabe, and they can still shoot "through" him. Also on a crow they can slow their target, and that can potentially play into McCabe's netgun. Worst case, if you need them to get in the thick, toss them a saber and use that 8" charge!!! Sure they are going to die most likely, but if it means the difference between scoring a VP or not... With such an aggressive and mobile list, I have always enjoyed running one with McCabe. So come on! Who are your unappreciated but effective models?

First of all, HI EVERYONE! Work has been killer so i've been gone from the forums for a bit. But I'm back now with my super long posts As always: TL;DR - It SEVERELY depends on what your game plan is for Yan Lo AND what your opponent is bringing faction wise as to whether this is a "safe" trick to use, or whether you are better off using that AP and for positioning. It does work. It's useful. I've used it many times. Best iteration right now is the simple Walk Goryo into position, pop out a seishin, kill it with a single attack from Yan Lo to get +1 chi so you have 2 chi after your opening discard. I commented on the topic of doing this "chi tricks" a while back... here's the post: Now since then we've had some changes to the landscape, mostly in the situation of targets for the chi gaining on turn 1. The biggest change being that Goryo is a superb model for Yan Lo Pan, and also can ping itself to give a seishin... a prime target for easy killing and +1 chi from Lo Pan's trigger. So here's the skinny... you can't take this trick and just make it a "core strategy." You have to take the landscape into account: 1) Schemes and Strats 2) Board setup 3) Opponent's faction/crew selection Let's get this out of the way right now... Viks... Beast bombs... Reva/Sonnia/Raspy... these are crews you are going to NEED cards for turn 1. You can read above why this is important or hang on and I'll detail the new breakdown momentarily. You can't just assume you are working in vacuum of "I'll just throw model X,Y,Z here and nuke it for 3 chi on Yan Lo and it's all gravy!" There's also a tremendous amount of "hidden" cost to this trick. Let's break it down with the newest iteration, and my preferred, if you are going to do this. I am going to do a running tally of the AP used specifically for this trick as well as any cards that may have been flipped and or cheated. Models needed: 1x Goryo, Yan Lo Chi Gained: 2 1) Goryo activates, 1AP - walks into position. 1AP - action to take 2 wounds and drop a seishin. Cards flipped/used: 1 moderate (TN12 on a Ca6) Additional AP used: 1 2) Yan Lo activates, discards a card to gain +1 Chi, 1AP - attack seishin, relent, declare trigger, min damage kills, gain +1Chi, continue with remaining AP Cards flipped/used: 4 (1 discard, 1 attack, 3 damage due to relent) Additional AP used: 1 *note you relent here to because even if you flip for defense... you still are going to more likely than not be on a negative flip... which is 3 total cards flipped. on a worst case scenario, you have to cheat up or down... or worse you red joker the defense flip. It's bad enough if you RJ the damage This is your BEST case usage... You only roll 5 cards, only one of witch has to be a medium, and the only thing you are praying for is that the cards you roll on damage are not severe or jokers. You could also argue that popping the seishin is always going to happen (which I disagree with, but for sake of argument) so it further reduces the overall cost to: +1 Chi = to 5 flips, 1AP. If you add in a second Goryo... now you've added another cost of 5 flips and 1-2AP to get a 3rd Chi. Two things to note here: You drew a hand of 6 cards... Flipped one for iniatiive. Your deck currently has 47 cards in it. Rolling 10 cards is 21% of your deck... and leaves only 37 left for turn 1 + control hand of 5 (pitched one for the 1st chi). If your opponent's crew doesn't engage on turn 1, who cares. Have fun. If they do... you have a decision to make here. And this is the best case scenario... dropping in a 7ss model (ideally you will heal said model back up so the seishin trick doesn't make it trivial to kill) that does work, doesn't hurt your list at all. But the previous iteration had even more card flips and even more AP used... as well as forcing a Hench pick to maximize the situation and not just eat one of your activations for 2 chi. I also think 2x Goryo might be overkill for Yan Lo as it's a good model not a fantastic model, and you need room for other delicious 10T stuff. And for the numbers reference, the old wastrel trick with toshiro took potentially: 4-5 cards from control hand, 9 cards from the deck, and potentially a SS to summon with, 1 of those cards was a face card and the other had to be a 9 or higher. And this was to gain 3 chi. So yeah... watch out for those hidden costs and make sure you aren't giving your opponent an inadvertent advantage just for 1 or 2 extra chi.

I totally forgot about this and have two decks. Is it too late to submit?

I like mounted guard a lot, but I find their drag to not always be the most awesome trick in their book. Though we do have a few surprisingly fast charge minions that are cute with it.

My initial thought for a list to bring to that pool would be as follows: Misaki - 5ss Cache -Disguise -Misdirection -Equality Kamaitachi Shadow Emissary -Conflux of Thunder Lust -Smoke Grenades Terracotta Warrior Yokai Yokai Shadow Effigy So I'm going to line by line this. My first choices for schemes would be: Accusation and Claim Jump/Tail 'em. The game here is a combination of denial and mobility. Misaki, even without Stalking Bisento, can still put up some hits. But she isn't going to be going after nekima, more harassing support, locking down models deep in the backfield and possibly hunting scheme runners. But you're not going to lock down everything always, so the key here is you need a way to deal with heavy hitting models. Misaki with disguise and misdirection does this by divebombing in and deadly dancing to basically become a wall (using misdirection to shunt hits if able). Equality is here to keep your health up because Misaki is a visible master that you typically won't want to activate late in the turn... which means you're going to give up 3 points for Tail 'Em. If you can deny a point or two, fantastic, but it shouldn't be your game plan. The plan is to deny the strategy. So Equality will get you some work this game. Also Misaki's mobility and inability to be pinned down make her great for Accusation. What's that? You got to go first with your model I'm engaged with and now I can't J'accuse? No problem, I'll charge out or push out with my triggers that are baked in and just tag a different model. Problem solved! Kamaitachi is here for 3 reasons: 1) Shang is good, but not great. 2) Pitch a card, walk a minion... more positioning tricks 3) Synergy with Terracotta Warriors. Shadow Emissary brings some pain with pitching a card for focus 2 when you need it, but also allowing you three very important abilities. He pushes himself on a 0 now, allowing more mobility. He can push and fast Lust (sweet goddess) and once he is in position, his Armor +1 on going defensive is damned useful. Quick aside... you have a lot of ability to pitch cards with this crew. Kamaitachi, Emissary encourages defensive, Terracotta uses it to soak damage from Mold the Other, and Deadly Dance requires it to push. This is in addition to any cheating that may need to be done. This is why you have to pay attention to what you're doing. And is also why Terracotta is here. Smoke Grenades on Lust can be swapped to whatever you want every turn, granting an extra card. A very needed extra card. Lust also has triggers on being attacked to get an extra card. It's not a LOT, but it helps pad out a bit. The key is picking the times you truly need to pitch, and remembering that because your goal here is to score points, not kill models... cheating in for attacks isn't as big a deal. And carefully consider cheating Ancient Treasures... we are looking to generate cards, not dig. So if you have to cheat for it to go off... maybe just let it fail. Depends on the board state. Now I mentioned above, our game is denial. Misaki is a LARGE part of that denial. But we still need to be able to deal with the various models that Misaki just won't be able to tie up or lock down. Emissary might be able to punish those who get too close, but Turf War is all about positioning. Enter Lust. Lust is the ultimate denial piece for schemes and strats that require positioning. Her ability to just warp multiple models away or push them here and there just wrecks your opponent's ability to "settle." They can't just run up a couple of stalwart minions and go "they have no heavy hitters, I'll be fine." Lust will just whisk them away. This is what you are keeping your high cards for. Being able to fast Lust, just is icing on the cake. And is crucial for her setup. You need her to get up quick, because her 8" reach isn't fantastic. And turf war is a 6" bubble. So she needs to be in the thick as one of your models to score, and she needs to go late in the turn so she has 4 attempts to push and place. Misaki's downburst is of particular note here, because you can push minions close enough to the bubble that Lust has a bounce point. Terracotta Warrior is here to enable Kamaitachi and give Lust and Emissary some much needed protection. He also is unimpeded and is a great target for the Wonder Weasels minion walk, allowing him to help complete Claim Jump when he isn't doing anything else. In a pinch, he also puts out a nice chunk of damage. Yokai are far and away the win from Wave 4 for me. Capable of single handedly scoring claim jump every turn is just bonkers. They are great at hunting scheme runners, hit well above their weight and are just super stars. I know a lot of people are not into that flicker 5... but as long as you don't USE flicker, that means they are around the whole game. That's their trade-off. You can shorten their lifespan to enable power. I run two often because what I'm looking to do is have them in flanking position so I don't need to use their corrupted essence. But if one gets tagged early or I end up having to burn through flicker to trade up (like charging into a silurid), then I just plan for the other to start doing claim jump on their own. They are also fantastically fast at being able to get into position last minute. Got engaged by a crooligan? Corrupted essence out, drop a scheme marker, double walk and at end of turn warp again into Turf War range. Yokai... practically an auto-take. Shadow Effigy not only has potential to help facilitate Claim Jump, but is a fairly sturdy 4pt model and also helps make Misaki tougher to shift. Neat little package that definitely is great here. Also a minion (like everything on this list) and pretty fast. So just another layer for Turf War/Claim Jump. Adjustments If my opponent is running henchmen or masters that are going to want to be visible... I would absolutely take Tail 'em over Claim Jump. In that situation, I might swap out Yokai for 10T bros, as they bring more utility and are tougher to shift. There's not enough kill in this list to make Dig Their Graves a guaranteed 3, and Recover Evidence again, requires either killing or repositioning. I like Recover Evidence for this list, but I think it requires too much "help" from your opponent. On the magic turn, if you have like 3 models in turf war, you can pop it and hopefully your opponent has to tag those 3. Then Lust bounces them out and you just waltz in. But that means you have to have killed enough to drop them down to 5 or less models, and this list isn't reliably killy enough for that. Shadow Emissary is mutable to the situation. He could be a Mr. Graves or a Sensei Yu. I would even possibly look at a Jorogumo or Yamaziko because again, the name of the game is denial of Turf War. You're not going to deny Tail 'Em most likely. Accusation and Dig Their Graves are both fairly easy to accomplish, especially depending on the crew your opponent brings. So what you are faced with is that you have to assume, barring good play and some luck, your opponent will have the skill to pull out those 6pts. That means you HAVE to score your 6 and deny them Turf War. In regards to other factions - A big shift I would make is if I'm facing Resurrectionists, I would automatically switch out to Stalking Bisento, and hunt down any belles they have with a quickness. I would also consider Servant of the Dragons on everyone if facing Neverborn. Lilith is too good a pick for turf war, and dropping Vines on Misaki HURTS. So getting to WP8 is critical to help ensure she doesn't get locked down. Chiaki is also a prime pick to replace one of the yokai. Arcanists would probably have me looking at Kang with Stalking, because it's too easy to see Coryphee, Rail Golem and/or Joss. That's a bit too heavy a damage pool to leave unattended. Misaki and Kang pulverize all three of those and even if they run say Marcus, just terracotta out Servant again, and Kang becomes a tank. Outcasts are sometimes a similar situation. Viktoria's gracing the table changes things because that Turf War center becomes super tasty for the Whirlwind. I would be looking at bringing in some sort of powerful range threat in that case, just to keep them honest. Maybe even Lazarus. Guild might require a Lone Swordsman for his Bulletproof 3. And Izamu is always a potential pick because Lust can help push him up and once he's in Turf War, no one is going to want to get close.

In slight argument, I find I always see at least one guild Marshall being run with Sonnia, Perdita, Lucius and Lady J. I imagine Nellie doesn't really need one and McCabe has other things on his mind typically. But being on such an efficient and useful minion, it's a regular appearance you need to prepare for. Also the J-bomb is a thing, so you have to worry about that (emissary boxing her and carting her relatively slow self up into charge range for the following turn). Yan Lo is probably not the master I would take against Guild, especially if Lady J is a big drop. Yan Lo, while typically a very surviveable toolbox master, has all his defenses effectively ignored by a Lady J crew. So it's an uphill battle. Sonnia nukes him. Nellie has as much if not more control than him, Perdita can blitz his models off the board despite his armor buffing and Lucius's recent upgrades make even him a sizeable threat to the Yan Lo strategy. If you're looking for general counter picks to Guild, Mei Fang is a consideration, as she nullifies a lot of the offensive potential of two of the most popular masters, and isn't bad against the others. Asami is also a call out here, because you can jam up your opponent with summons that would flicker out anyways. But going early and dropping 2-3 summons into their engagement then warping away with Heavenly Design isn't a bad strategy. And you can keep the rest of your crew cherrypicking targets and scheming. In regards to Lady J... I've had good success with Misaki. Misaki's benefits are not conditioned based, except stalk. And with her new buff to deadly dance, I would absolutely run disguise on her, take a lone swordsman for flanking the ranged threat and laugh as Lady J just cannot keep up while Misaki blows up her models. It's not quite that easy, but mobility and consistent damage output is nothing to sneeze at. And denying Lady J that charge on her is pretty potent. Also for consideration might be Lynch. While brilliance is a thing, he runs elite crews fairly well, huggy is a huge threat in general, and you only TRULY need brilliance for his combo. Just be careful about positioning as Lady J getting the charge off on him could potentially be a dead Lynch in one activation. Being able to rush huggy into her to absorb two swings and thus denying her charging is huge, and teh fact that you revive him from nuking her other models... potentially a decent pick. McCabe is also pretty good as he is the only master with consistent ways of ignoring Armor with his lightsaber. Last thing: Bring your smoke grenades on any enforcer or beater you don't want getting shot up and play to your cover.

My problem is that it's potentially non-existent turn 2. A bit too gambly for me. Even pitching 2 cards is still good, but it's one of those abilities that (because its 2AP) is either downright devatasting, or absolutely worthless. Effectively range 10" only, and if they have a mobile master who's backlining or even not aggressively mid-fielding (colette comes to mind) then this ability is never going to matter. If you're looking for fun combos, I highly endorse it because when it goes off, "boom goes the dynamite". But otherwise there are better synergies to focus on that are much more reliable.

McCabe... oh sweet McCabe. I feel like he's been gifted the holy grail with the new schemes. There is literally nothing that he isn't able to do in GG0217. Combined with our pool of awesome Wave 4... he's going to be just bananas. Here's a quick (haha, right... this is me we are talking about) breakdown: As always... TL;DR McCabe GOOD!!!!! Edits courtesy of @Tris STRATEGIES Extraction - Solid due to puppy spam, an Armor aura and his upgrade Promises. Interference - More puppy spam and the ability to pimp out your minions so they trade above their weight. Also his badge of speed and black flash can make a quick minion suddenly denying a quarter out of nowhere via engagements or what have you. Headhunter - Still not the strongest strat for him, as we have a lot of throw away minions typically in his list, but he does have the speed and pushes to nab those heads as well as the damage output to drop them in the first place! Guard the Stash - Great for McCabe... see Elixir and Shirt with Promises. The bubble is real. Be a real jerk with Terracotta Warrior and an Emissary for TWO shirts, and thus two bubbles of "get off my lawn". Collect the Bounty - Middle of the road. We run minion heavy typically for this... and they hit above their weight. But be careful because puppy spam can give a quick couple of points to our opponent forcing us to have to go in thick to try to take out an enforcer to even the score. SCHEMES Claim Jump - This is a 10T scheme in general. We have plenty of options for getting it done, but giving a badge of speed to any stalwart minion with Wk 4+ will still get it done. Drop, nimble, drop... boom. Eliminate the Leadership - Two words: Black Betty. Proper hand setup and some positioning with badge of speed and bye bye leader. Or at the least... hello massive amounts of damage. Otherwise, I generally think we have better options than this. But McCabe enables so fantastic heavy hitting. Torakage may finally have a permanent role beyond Lust spamming with Lynch! EDIT: Be wary of your opponent picking this... McCabe is easy pickings for this scheme. REALLY easy (you sometimes want to sac him!) Accusation! - With the ability to get pretty dug in with your opponent, this is generally a pretty solid pick. Elixir and Shirt add some much needed toughness to some of our options, allowing you to really get in there. Also having access to some Guardsman means that you have access to Queeg... and he has some fun with this one. Dig their Graves - Badge of Speed and Black Flash make this a fairly solid option. It's pretty easy to setup with a nimble minion, and then capitalize on the following activation. I actually really like Yokai with a sword for this. They can 0 action to place out of combat, drop the scheme marker, and then charge in with to attack with a lightsaber. Seems legit. Leave your Mark - Puppy spam with Black Flash... easy peasy and lemon squeezy. Yokai are also great here just in general due to their speed. Frame for Murder - This is practically an auto take for McCabe. Put it on a puppy (or other cheap minion) load it up with reactivate and a sword and dive in. They can't ignore it. Just make sure you tie up a master or henchman for the full 3VP. Covert Breakthrough - See LyM... Puppies and Yokai can litter scheme markers in your opponent's backfield. Undercover Entourage - I'm pretty certain (please correct me) that McCabe is McCabe regardless of whether he is mounted or not... which makes this a solid scheme to gun for. The Promises multiple shirt trick with terracotta warriors makes this evil... because an Armor 2 McCabe with to Wp and Df 7 is pretty hard to shift. Show of Force - We have silly tricks with this scheme. Emissary's relic upgrade counts for this. And upgrades swapped out by terracotta warrior count for this (unless I missed an errata). So this is kind of an auto-take for McCabe as well. You can easily get 3-4 upgrades floating about that count for this. Hunting Party - Emissary is a big take for McCabe and he likes one henchman. But our heavy lifting tends to be minions... so just think carefully how you are going to go about this one. Yasunori with Emissary in a McCabe crew is a thing... Hidden Trap - YMMV... this scheme is fairly easy to telegraph if you aren't careful. But with reactivation and nimble, as long as you are winning the activation war, fairly easy to lock in. Especially with the pushes so prevalent in McCabe's crew. If you aren't bringing Luna, that wonder weasel helps as their minion push for discarding a card is VERY useful for schemes like this. Recover Evidence - Sun Quiang and Performers... McCabe gives the performers some bite, and their utility is actually really good with him. I just want to give Sun Quiang a shirt and let him wander off healing people and picking up evidence in the process... Set Up - Another easy one to telegraph, but we have a naughty trick here... Yokai with a badge of speed can one turn this on an enemy model that doesn't have reach 3" (assuming I've done my math right! ). McCabe tosses the badge, and pushes the yokai into drop position 1. activate the yokai next (assuming your opponent didn't smite it for recognizing this) and drop your marker. Then use their 0 action to place just on the tippy edge of 3" away, which with your base size will put you at just past 4" and then let you drop a second one for free. Then just nimble on over to your next position (forming a triangle, the only way to ensure all three markers are at 4" apart) and drop your third. Alternatively, just take advantage of reactivating puppies at the end of the turn and do the same thing . Search the Ruins - Solid choice for McCabe. We can remove models and push out of engagement easily. Mark for Death - YOKAI!!!!!!!!!!! McCabe always wants to be in the thick. And you can always run up dogs and just pepper mark for death on their models... Tail 'em - We have pushes, reactivate, a love of minions and nimble... easy peasy lemon squeezy. EDIT: Same for you though! McCabe likes to be in the middle of everything! Inspection - I hate this scheme in general... but we have good questions for your opponent. Send someone to deal with our puppies, or laugh as they score 3 easy victory points... And if they do send someone there... well it's just a puppy. Whaaaat? Alright fine... then badge of speed nimble a beater over and save the poor pooch! A Quick Murder - Nimbled beaters with fast from the Emissary can do a lot of things... especially when you can just throw a lightsaber puppy in their face to soften it up. Last Stand - This is a weird one, and one of the only schemes I'm not really fond of. But McCabe can still bring the goods here. We have a lot of models that help with this, including yokai who flicker out and the terracotta who we can sacrifice by not preventing mold from the other damage. with solid beater enforcers, chiaki and an emissary, it's doable... not ideal, but doable. Bonus comment!!! Armor 2 on yasunori is amazing, even if it means losing out on his amazing 0 actions. He's already hard as nails to deal with... that with mold of the other is just RUDE.

Just be careful on the commit. If you don't have the cards in hand to put a full hurt, and threaten death... you may need to try to postpone. You can't rush in praying the card gods will help you. As simple and obvious as it sounds, I see that happen a lot. This is a game of positioning and resource management. So you need to make sure you're paying attention to both. And cards are a resource. Yasunori one rounds a rider if all his attacks hit, even on min damage, unless they flip their trigger 3 times on def. Bettari two shots it with flay and two severes in hand. Both models get where they want to go. But you have to be prepared for the backlash... Huggy, Lynch, Misaki, Kang and several other models of ours wreck it's face. Another thought is snipers. They have the potential to put him down in two shots as well, though not as consistently. The idea is put the fear in them. And early. Or decide your willing to make the piece trade and go full bore. Just remember the black joker ruins all carefully laid plans. Trading Yasunori for a mech rider is actually a decent trade because of mech rider's summoning. And I'd consider trading bettari for the mech rider as a total win in general. The problem is that you can't really neutralize it, as it's a summoner. So once it can start summoning, it get's its' value unless you paralyze it, which we have no consistent/easy way of doing. Brewmaster can swill it, and that pretty much neuters it for the game, but other than that, kill it with fire.

You really have to take a look at what crew you are going to be building into as well. If you're goal is to build into McCabe, you are going to take quite a different list then if you take Asami. At least potentially. Asami combo's well with Bettari (really any master, including McCabe). But Yamaziko doesn't grant much in synergy to Asami. Asami has an anti-charge upgrade I feel is better than Yamaziko's brace, and while Ziko is great against masters, she's a liability against ranged threats without smoke grenades. Sometimes even with (due to focusing). Her card drain is pretty good early game, and the nimble makes her an alright scheme runner... but if you are going with Asami, Bettari is just hands down the better choice for the BUILD. McCabe likes Yamaziko for her nimble already, making her a great carrier for a strange metal shirt or the elixir of life. Her more consistent damage with some survivability and a bit of tech makes her a welcome addition to McCabe's options. But likewise, throwing badge of speed on Bettari is devastating for the setup. But she can easily get out of range of his pick up, so you have to be careful. Giving her armor is fantastic as well and she doesn't want to hold the sword generally, but can get use out of it (especially against armor, a notorious weakness of 10T). Where as it was really clear cut with Asami, you could really go either way with McCabe, and get good use out of them. Again, it depends on how you want to build out McCabe. All in all, Ziko still probably edges out bettari for the leader role until you unlock your Master just do to a slight increase in survivability. Brace, strong vs lures and places, and solid min damage with a 3" reach make her formidable. Even with the poor Df. Bettari is a walking target. She can hide out of sight and still charge, but once in the thick, she has no defensive tricks other than her higher def and soulstones. Using her upgrade matters more in a campaign, because you can probably get a tad more use out if, with no masters in the mix. And it puts a big target on her head that says if you don't kill me and I have the cards... you're in a world of pain. Not trying to sway one way or the other, more presenting some points to consider. I truly do feel you need to have an idea of what other models you want to take to determine who best synergizes with what you are trying to do.