Kharnage

I find that Guild shooter crews are kind of inevitably doomed to a grinding death into Levi, at best. I ran into a similar problem playing Perdita into @Gnomezilla's Levi. Guild shooters have decent damage and some neat tricks, but into someone who melts you to death for attacking them, and then takes giant irreducible chunks out of your dudes, it means little. This came as a shock to me because my Nephilim have a relatively easy time giving Levi a run for his money (we heal a lot, don't have any Reduction to ignore, and punish Amalgam for using Unmade by splashing Black Blood) but Perdita, a master I had respected on paper, just crumpled. I thought Pale Rider and effigy would be enough healing, but it was not. Running a bunch of low HP models though, like birds and traps, is not the strategy I would recommend. Bigger models that can sustain hits and keep fighting are ideal... but I realize that Frontier isn't exactly bathing in models that qualify. If you're looking for Guild responses in general, I'd argue that Hoffman is actually your best bet. He's got the one response to irreducible damage in the game with his Temper Steel trigger, and the guardian you'll put that buff on can keep taking the hit for you. Additionally, he's got the healing you need, and the stuns you want, to make Levi less of a problem. Outside of Hoffman.... Justice. Stun out his Unmade and Necrotic Decay triggers, apply Greatsword to face. Bring enough healing is my number 1 answer regardless of the circumstances, though. Just make sure to avoid/eradicate Marlena, Abominations, and the Ashen Core like the plague.

For future games, I'd recommend taking the toolkit for power tokens without Hoffman. Joss also functions better than some since he can charge himself with Dynamic Generator, if you go Arcanist (I know you said you went guild anyway). Steamfitters can also lay scrap down to power converter in the future, and they're good scheme runners with the same Free Action.

Exclusive Interview: When an enemy model within a2 takes the Interact Action, it is treated as a friendly model and the Action is controlled by this model. Breaking News: After an enemy model within a8 resolves the Interact Action, this model may draw a card and gain Focused +1. Does "it is treated as a friendly model" only apply "when they take the interact action", meaning that "after resolving" it is no longer treated as a friendly model, and Breaking News triggers? Or does Nellie's kit actually work against herself?

So Manipulative reads as follows: "Manipulative: If this model has not yet Activated this Turn, enemy Attack Actions that target this model suffer a - to their duel." I figured, pretty straightforward, once it activates, Manipulative drops, so attacks that a model might suffer in its own activation, such as disengaging strikes, wouldn't be affected by Manipulative. An opponent of mine however, pointed out last night the wording in Step C3 of the activation phase: "End Activation: Resolve any effects that happen at the end of a model’s Activation. The model is considered to have Activated this Turn." His argument is that because it expressly calls out that the model is considered to have activated at this step, that the model isn't considered to have been activated until this step, the end of its activation. I think that this kind of goes against, well, things like how Life Leech resolves or what have you, but what is the rules-monkey consensus at large?

Yep, you flip WP duels each and every time. Immunity to Terrifying for passed duels, is a thing of the past.

Good questions! Having played the double shaman list for a few games, growth into Matures on turn 2 doesn't feel as good to me for a few reasons. First, turn 1 matters. People usually think of it as a setup turn, or a turn where you might get a cheeky shot or two in, but nothing extravagant. That belief is exploitable. In a crew where you have access to what amounts to Ride With Me but on Mv 6 flight models, you can start fights early and potentially throw your opponents quite off balance, and shamans pulsing Focus are good, but if they're what you expect your Matures to come from, you can't start fights early. Second, the shamans are in a moment of weakness through turn 1 and start of turn 2. Df and wp 5, 6 wounds, regen 1 is not a tanky lineup. It shouldn't be, for 6 stones and what they're capable of, but all I need is Perdita getting a severe and a ram on an easy straight flip (or whatever's out to hunt you) and you're down a whole Mature. Even if/when they do grow to Mature, they likely have done it through their second use of Blasphemous Ritual, and that still leaves them on 6 wounds at best, ending their turn, still Df 5. They gain Combat Finesse, but that doesn't hinder everyone, and when people see a Mature they weren't prepared for (or at least, one you didn't start with) they target it with great prejudice. 6 wounds go quick. 10 wounds and regen 2 last a lot longer. Third, shamans can't keep upgrades when they grow, and Ancient Pact is the bomb. Seriously, all but guaranteeing Initiative win is a big deal, and sometimes those cards you get for Nefarious Pact on minions is what you needed to win it. Also I probably flip the black on my Matures twice a game and watching that BJ card mean nothing feels great. My usual attack plan is to Fly With Me Hayreddin and/or the Blood Hunter up the map (usually Hayreddin) and try to take at least one attack with each Mature. You only have 6 models, so you likely have pass tokens. Burn them. Doubling up on Ancient Pact usually guarantees (exception is other double-pacting NB and Mah Tucket) an initiative advantage, and you need to force your opponent to move up into the board. Most schemes have some kind of "I must go past the center line or interact with my opponent" component, and forces a foe to move up the board to accomplish those goals. You don't need a big model to go after (though take it if you can), just take anything that can't be defended because their defenders are out of position or have already activated. As for which Creeds/Strategies/Schemes.... I am specifically a Nekima enthusiast. I'll play other crews to figure them out, but Nekima even in 2nd was my first true love, and I'll play her into any set of strategies and schemes, and I've so far found this to be the premiere Nekima crew. And to be honest with you, she's good at enough of them to be fine. Breakthrough, Search the Ruins, Dig Their Graves, any of the "spam scheme markers and/or put them in a certain place" schemes are easily run because they have a movement mechanic on a Free Action. I never take Hold Up Their Forces, Take Prisoner, or if I can help it, Deliver a Message, simply because trying to keep the foe alive for points always seems to cost me more points later on the strategy or other scheme. Killing schemes are obviously fine, though this crew rarely gets to run Vendetta.

Hello, fellow Neverborn. It's been entirely too long since I've talked about the best master in the game, and I am wondering, now that M3e has had a little bit of time to simmer, what are other people running for their Nekima crews? Are you even running Nekima crews, or do you think she's uncompetitive? I myself aim to carve and bleed my way to the top of the local metas, but it will be a long road. My current usual list is as follows: Nekima with Inhuman Reflexes Hayreddin with Inhuman Reflexes Mature Nephilim with Ancient Pact Mature Nephilim with Ancient Pact Black Blood Shaman Blood Hunter 7 stones. The initiative buffs, focus pulse, and combat finesse in combination with solid speed makes for a dastardly combination. I've tried Lilitu/Lelu crews, I've even tried hiring in DMH Lilith for crews, but none seem to be as quite as reliable as this crew for me. Young are good, but Combat Finesse and Regen 2 keeps those Matures on the table. What are your thoughts? Are there versatile models I'm missing out on? Crews I might be particularly weak into?

The damage is changed from whatever he would have suffered (and only the damage he is slated to suffer, nothing else), to 1 irreducible damage. As far as Jack Daw is concerned, Breath of Fire now reads "Target suffers 1 irreducible damage. Models damaged by this action gain Burning +1." Undying doesn't change anything else about the action other than the damage he's set to receive. For example, if Jack Daw used Undying on Cojo's Ferocious Claws, he would still get pushed up to 2 inches, because the only thing that changes is the 2/4/6 damage into 1 irreducible. The way your opponent wants it to read is "When this model would suffer damage, it may discard a card to suffer no damage, even if irreducible, and then suffers 1 irreducible damage from this ability" Which is not how it reads. He gains the burning.

Thank you for your feedback! Basically, I am to expect Ashigaru and/or a decent amount of healing to keep him alive, and what I would also qualify as the "usual suspects". Do you tend to favor Ten Thunders over Resser options in upgrades or versatile models? I can't imagine how you wouldn't, but I figured I'd ask if there's any resser loyalists running him with something different.

Hello, Thunders players. Having only played one game of post-beta Yan Lo, and that was with me in the pilot seat, he seems pretty immortal for people who aren't God Empress Nekima (i.e., able to rush him turn 1) Granted it's one game, and that's not a huge data set, but still, this backs up what I suspected on paper. Being honest in that I wish to be able to have a game plan to take him on in a Turf War / Reckoning setting, what are your Yan Lo lists looking like? What common tools should I expect to see in his toolbox? What things out of a Neverborn faction might you fear?

Flurry, sure. But Onslaught doesn't say during your activation at all. I could obey someone to get an Onslaught trigger whether it's their activation or not. The trigger doesn't care if it's the acting model's activation, and so if it ended, I don't know why that would change anything.

With things like A Por El and Ceaseless Advance, we have precedent for taking Actions outside of C2, so I don't think that would stop someone from resolving Onslaught, yeah? If we can resolve actions outside of the "Taking Actions" C2, then I don't know why that would stop Onslaught.

But really, there's nothing that prevents it from reducing damage from even its own attack actions, and thus the damage it will deal from the "damage suffered" component. For the same reason that Hayreddin can't stone out of his Necrotic Decay damage, Ashes and Dust reduces its own damage track naturally.

"Game State" is pretty vague, and could be used to say that "had a rat summoned into base contact" as a change in game state. Indeed, I seriously doubt that multi-rat deaths was the intent, though I am truly unsure as to the RAW.

Zoraida and Doxies have the Regret Trigger. "Regret: After resolving, if this Action is a y Action and this model suffered damage, immediately end the Attacking model's Activation." Things like Onslaught or Shove Aside generate additional actions. Are these additional actions irreverent of the model having ended its activation? Let's say that Enraged by Insolence triggered a Young Nephilim to move and attack out of turn, targeting Zoraida. If he triggered Onslaught, it would go off right? Since Regret wouldn't work at all since it's not even his activation? If so, does the same logic apply to triggers generated during their now ended activation?

Molly is an evil monster that needs to be obliterated. The problem is that, especially with the admittedly sage wisdom from the Third Floor Wars podcast, Molly's going to be bringing 2-3 beaters regardless of context. Archie's so good you consistently can spot him outside of his keyword, and Rogue Necromancy is a fantastic pick. Dead Rider's got min 3 and stat 6 with some good defensive abilities, and also helps drag Molly around. The tricky part will be to try and kill Molly before her beaters, which is obviously much easier said than done for those of us that aren't Shen Long or Moon Shinobi, since the Hard to Wound / Serene Countenance combo is so strong. Additionally, Lethe's Caress is just murder for a Nephilim like me. Luckily... most Molly players in my experience don't really like Philip and the Nanny, so usually she won't punish general Focus-Swing tactics. Additionally, clumping on Molly for Nephilim is at least a decent deterrent for her beaters, since she only has 10 precious wounds. Black blood can chip away at her very quickly even as we die. Young Nephilim can also chew through Serene Countenance with their natural positive flips. Once Molly's gone, the rest of her crew, while strong, is manageable by comparison. The greatest tip I could give though, is no matter how painful the cost, don't drop below 5 cards (or 6, for Lucius players) in hand. Molly gleefully spends most of her time triple-Disturbing-Storying for that auto-9-irreducible damage assuming you've cheated at least 3 cards, and it's disgusting. Sure, you'll power up her "I draw up to my foe's hand size" ability by having a full hand, but that pales in comparison to no-flip-necessary 3 irreducible per AP. Forcing her to learn how to play the rest of her kit, and hopefully create a gap that you can exploit, is key. Try to force Molly to activate early if you can, so that you can spend the rest of your turn actually using your cards in hand. Pandora might be a good pick for forcing this, now that I think on it.

A big part of it for me is how aggressive crews ends up being. My time as a tournament Nephilim player so far, rounds have been finished in as little as an hour. If all the slaughter is done by the bottom of turn 2, and I or my opponent just have schemes to run unopposed 3-5, it's a quick game. Familiarity with your crew's tactics is a big part of it, though. If I'm not sure of what exactly a model is capable of, I'll spend more time wondering what to do with it.

I'd try to fix the specific rule rather than the general, just for a fear of breaking more things. Change Revel in Chaos to lead with "This model may choose to suffer any amount of damage, up to its current health -1. For each health suffered...." yadda yadda. Do you think that would be fine?

When I draw 48 cards, I must discard down to 6 cards when I've finished drawing. I will discard every card that isn't those cards.

Mmmmm, I'm not 100% sure that's the case. Under damage it says "If a game effect references the amount of damage suffered, it is referring to the amount of damage suffered after damage reduction." As we know, Hard to Kill isn't damage reduction. It can't be, or irreducible damage would punch through it. How would you reconcile this? Doesn't matter, Hard to Kill still changes the amount of damage suffered? Would Hard to Kill also arbitrarily reduce the amount of healing a Drink Blood trigger would give?

I have a nightmarish proposition. So, as we've previously determined somewhere, irreducible damage doesn't get "reduced" or "unsuffered" if it encounters hard to kill; the model simply can't fall below 1 HP. The model, as far as I understand, still "suffers" each point of damage, it just can't go below 1 HP. I bring you now to Yasunori's fast action: "This model may suffer any amount of damage. For each point of damage this model suffered from this Action, both players draw a card. If the opposing player must discard one or more cards due to the Maximum Hand Size, they must do so randomly." Give him Hard to Kill from Silent Protector. Can he now choose to suffer 48 damage turn 1, never having to deal with the "costs that would put him at 0 health" clause, draw his whole deck, pick out the jokers and kings, and reshuffle?

I actually quite enjoy playing into 6 hp Daw as a plink damage spamming Nephilim. Blade Rush from Inhuman Reflexes and of course, Black Blood, make his primary defense mostly useless.

Yeah, the "This Action cannot target the same model more than once per Activation." bit is a targeting restriction, which would be ignored when the Guardian takes the hit to be the new target. However, he's no longer legal as a starting Obey target.

You could argue that it doesn't break that rule here because the action at any given point only ever targets a single model simultaneously. While I hope you're right, I figured I'd at least ask.

Counterpoint: The healing out of death mechanics (the ones that are supposed to work like that, like Demise (Eternal)) specify that the model no longer counts as being killed. "There are some game effects that can Heal a model after it has been killed. If a model is Healed after it was killed as a result of being reduced to 0 Health, it no longer counts as killed (and is not removed from the game)." There is no such specification here.