FrostHunter

Deployment :

Wedge

Strategy : 

Turf War

Schemes : 

Harness the Leyline
Search the Ruins
Outflank
Assassinate
Claim Jump

Opponent's declared leader : Yan Lo

My Leader & crew :

McCabe

Luna

Sidir

Desper

Samurai

Huckster

Huckster

Ruffian

Tanuki

Score / MVP / Thoughts:

6-5 for me (we played not full 4 rounds, with 5 rounds it would be 8-6).

MVP - Samurai - killed Izamu twice, and would rather kill him third time.

Thanks to the False Claim with Mask trigger and Luna i' ve always had enought scrap to attach artifacts (need to learn how to juggle them better, but they are freaking great), also it allowed me to draw a lot of cards. Not so sure what would be better - two Huckslers or two Ruffians. Fast Samurai at the center of the table backuped btyTanuki from first turn and McCabe in vicinity gave me great board control.

After tournament i reamain in my opinion that Lynch is on of the top/best keyword (played against Kaeris, draw 5-5 and 5 rounds, plant exposives, dig their graves, outflank, deliver the message, Claim Jump, Vendetta),

and McCabe (played against TT Yan Lo, win 6-5, 4 rounds, Turf War, Harness the Leyline, Search the Ruins, Outflank, Assasinate, Claim Jump) and Wastrels are also freaking powerful (maybe even more powerful than Honeypot), but thanks to versatile models like tanuki and samurai (he has killed Izamu 2 times, and he was ready to kill him third time after surviving charge from Izamu),

but Youko (against Mah Tucket with Big Brain Brin and 3 roosters, i've lost 2-6 after 5 rounds, Reckoning, Breakthrough, Harness the Leyline, Hold up their forces, Take Prisoner, Deliver the message) struggled a lot, because of lot of positive flips that negated distracted and card manipulation from BBB and lack of my imagination how to bite opponent roster, also i can't see how she could win against Kaeris where almost everything had positive flips from burning or probably any other roster with access with lot of positive flips and good shooting (but against Perdita it worked very, very well). Two trained ninja are probably must take in that situations.

Yan Lo from perspective looks also very, very nice and without ignoring armor and strong shooting i would have a lot of trouble fighting against him and his keyword.

4 minutes ago, Cursed25 said:

Youko draws no card at all because it's not an enemy model who discard the cards but the players!

 

Youko's Calm Demeanor works only when enemy model discards a card

and 

Zoraida Threads of Fate specifies that it's the players who discard the card

 

So sadly no card draw!  

Damn it, I knew that i've missed somthing there... it was so wonderful idea at first glance.

I would separate the masters from keyword as the Honeypot i would agree that is one of the best keyword as so ability Rig the Deck, but Lynch alone is quite... mediocre and unfortunately boring in play in comparision to other masters (quite slow, not the best buffer/debuffer, all his oomph comes from Succumb to Darkness which is freaking great and i am jumping from joy for spontaneus and opportunistic summoning for Honeypot but... it overshadows the rest of his attacks actions a bit, and as i played him a few games i miss a little the old Lynch from second edition with cheating bastard upgrade, now it's charge to deliver more brilliance, Succumb and Summon something then walk behind something more beefy in my crew).

Youko is freaking great controller even without true obey action, okey she suffer a bit from focus spam as it negates her defensive tech. She can mess with opponent hand and a little with his deck, frustrating any heavy hand depending crew (for instance - Lynch). As for glass cannon crew members - Leverage is wonderful and very powerful mechanic for the defence (for offence i ussualy don't need to use it, so much 6 and few 7 stat attacks and cheating possibilities), also Hard to Kill and Stealth from upgrades are your friends. Hinamatsu is hard to crack with armor, leverage and stones while he is beats with his 6+ attack.

Funny question - what is the timing of Zoraida's Threads of Fate if Youko is within 6" from her, both players discards their hand simultaneously so Youko draws 12 cards?

McCabe for me is probably the top master in TT - freaking mobility that he can share with someone thanks to the Ride with me, wonderful condition spam from netgun and discarding artifacts, also spam of high Mv duels and some Wp and Df duels too... and only 3 actions wit so many possibilities... in case of glass cannons i would say that Wastrels are much less durable then Qi and Gong.

51 minutes ago, DerSkalde said:

Quick question:

what is considered a flip for Jacobs Trump cards ability?

if an enemy model flips three cards for the damage and there is an Ace but chooses another weak card to go in the conflict. Is the Ace counted as flipped or ignored?

I would say it's still count as flipped and for each Ace flipped. Look at the page 8 & 9 at Rules Manual - ctrl+c then ctrl+v copies without any spaces for me.

Well, with all that healing i'm used to play i've forgotten totally about teleporting Huggy for weak damage and then healing from Lynch or Sun Quiang. Like Cursed25 said - Tanuki is also tempting for mass Condition removal, some healing and focus spam.

Two cents for Rig the deck for reminder - beware of Jabber... enemy discard - Youko especially, the fewer cards you have the less powerful it's became. Also thanks to the Rig the deck you may have opportunity to flip naturally Red Joker on demand so enemy will not be able to cheat!

My basic Lynch roster is:

Lynch with trained ninja

Huggy with Silent Protector (if enemy has too much shooting)

Gwen

Kitty

Tannen with Trained Ninja (if enemy has too much shooting, otherwise rather silent protector)

Sun Quiang

Beckoner

Beckoner

Cache 2-6

For first turn - Kitty pushes Beckoners where they need to go (+2" from Tannen for one Beckoner) and eat brilliance from one to push hersefl 5", then Beckoner lures the rest of the crew (Huggy is mobile enough to move by himself) using Reposition - first lures should touch the Kitty so free brilliance and extra 2" movement for one model per activation, then during activation of rest of the crew scatter according to plan. Eventualy through the activation i want to filter for two medium masks to focus spam from Sun Quiang and/or pushes from Lynch.

From second turn i' ve always spammed brilliance from Beckoners on enemy and summon at least one model (usually the illuminated).

You have a lot of mobility and ways to mess up with opponent's positioning (all models has their ways to move somehow the enemy), also you can pack a punch as you will spam brilliance a lot so Huggy will be always on positive flips, Gwen +2 dmg, Kitty's draw essence can be murderous with a lot of brilliance around. Kitty, Gwen and Sun Quiang have their ways to drop scheme markers near opponents models so it should help in some schemes. O, and there is quite healing.

This roster has one major drawback - shockwaves - for first two turns you are rather clumped together and i feel that shockwaves are quite powertful if not slighty overpowered as they cancel stealth and have pretty high TN values to defend while low TN to cast. Also as we' ve lost the armor from whole crew we are not as tough as previous.

For strategies:

Reckoning - quite fun, but high amount of high quality that are so tempting to hire Henchmens may be risky (damm Perdita and enforcers spam - don't do that!) - use minons spam.

Corrupted Idols - lure/reposition already activated enemy model to Idol than obey from Huggy aaaaand... smile! Access to lot of mobility, repostioning the enemy, healing, some summoning - what to not love?

Plant exposives - Look up for Corrupted Idols.

Turf war - I prefer some more shooty crew, but... look up for Corrupted Idols.

Schemes - all are quite duable, with some difficulties for - Hold up Their Forces (many high cost models, Beckoners don't like to be engaged with enemy), Power Ritual (maybe no, but i hate that scheme), Outflank (you are rather bubble crew).

12 hours ago, CD1248 said:

I think Lynch makes good use of the more expensive Versatiles due to Huggy's Obey. An extra shot with Fuhatsu, an out-of-activation Yasunori charge, that sort of thing.

I would rather pass on versatile models, we have a lot of good/freat henchmens, and for versatile mininons i've would point the McCabe.

Lotus Eater from Ten Thunder also can eat any marker to heal himself.

Waldgeist are quite slow with Mv4 and they are not so tanky as in the second edition, but now you have easy way to heal them thanks to Zoraida's ram trigger on Hex, but thanks to Germinate they have some good synergy with Juju and Mysterious Emissary as they can create more severe terrain (probably main reason to take them) and add some kind of protection thanks to concealing trait. As the severe terrain now affects all kind of movement it is also nice to germinate whole alley so enemy model will have to break through almost whole game or just leave this part of the table for you. But i see more uses of Waldgeist in Titania rather than Zoraida (no soulstones for them after hiring other models).

There you may find some useful information.

Basically:

Henchmens:

Almost all henchmens are great, maybe with some little exception. McTavish who provides nice shooting (but not so nice as in 2nd edition, i miss his mask trigger) has quite nice movement (16" per turn). Juju is great brawler (if there are not too many shooters in enemy crew) and Zoraida's spell arc, First Mate is just leaping wonder anti schemer scheming beater. Spawn Mother has great synergy with Gupps which she can summon (in second turn for one soulstone you have all three Gupps on table) and Gupps may be wonderful for annoying & free Spawn Mother's charge spam and funny scheme runners (size 0 with stealh with low masks should be enough).

Also Hinamatsu is wonderful versatile model, but there is almost no room for him.

As for some Enforcers:

Adze looks quite tasty and nasty with high mobility, wonderful triggers and zero actions, but... i usually don't have enought ss for them after hiring the rest of crew including Will O Wisps.

Doppleganger with McTavish gives you additional and high quality shooting.

Mysterious Emissary - i' ve always enjoyed hazardous terrain mixed with Zoraida's obey.

Minions:

Bokor and Will O Wisp have quite nice synergy with voodoo doll (bokor is wonderful target for the doll to stab with frantic frail).

Silurid is even greater scheme runner than in second edition.

Gupps mentioned above.

I would rather pass on Gators.

I have no clue in practice, but in theory i wouldn't hope too much for Will O Wisp or Gupps  evolution, especially the second one.

6 hours ago, marke83 said:

Any advice for my list? Obviously depends on the enemy, schemes etc and those unreleased models seem great, but I gotta spend some amount of time just learning the crew.

I played few times against Perdita using Youko with Chiyo, Kabuki Warrior with Trained Ninja (very pricely, but against Perdita he was great, especially that he usually kill something at the beginning of turn one thanks to the lure with high ram and From the Shadows from upgrade), Charm Warder also with Trained Ninja, Hinamatsu(my opponent after first game has learned to use alternatively Perdita rather than pure shooter like in second edition, after this Hinamatsu goes as far from Perdita as he can and murder everything), Sun Quiang, Kunoichi and Geisha and i feel that i can recommend this list (eventually skip some upgrades with geisha for second Kunoichi). The only thing that came to us is the fact that Papa Loco with his easy to cast shockwaves (stealh is bypassed by shockwave mechanic, isn't it?) is the best murderer of all models from this list even if he is double edged sword because of his WP stat of 3.

I would recommend you also Doppelganger (great utility model), if you want to use McTavish, she won't be as strong as in 2nd ed (three ignoring armor shots), but still she doubles your shooting (by the way - does she use mimic stat for copied attack? It's not so clear for me, but if yes - then you will have 2 stat 7 shots + 1 more stat 7 shot from Zoraida's obey to trigger Following Orders to draw a extra card).

5 hours ago, CD1248 said:

I see Kitty as a specialist piece for matchups where GO FAST SCHEME HARD is the name of the game. She does that better than just about anyone, but not much else.

For me Kitty might sometimes compete with Graves for adding movement to the crew (2x reaching tendrils pushing 6" any models + drawn to brilliance pushing herself 5" versus 2x Lead the Way for 4" push any model and Graves). Kitty is wonderful scheme runner (and so much needed), Graves beater, but there is one but - Kitty has Draw Essence that can be quite devastating for clumped enemy (I'm loooking at you Gwyn!).

In theory if schemes allows you for starting clumped together then Kitty + Tannen gives you nice free movement boost thanks to Delirium - after activation any model excluding Lynch by moving throught Kitty you get 2" free movement. Also it will add some free brilliance for your own models so Beckoners with some 6+ tomes gonna give you a lot of free movement (there is no limit with  added movement from brilliance).

For me Gwyn and Kitty are practicaly auto-take, and the model where I'm still thinking to take or not to take ironical is Graves (with a lot of brilliance on the enemy models Gwyn has the same damage track as Graves - 3/4/5 with wonderful crow trigger) when I'm looking for exchanging some model for upgrades.

I would add to the list:

Sun Quiang - great healer, free assist action, sometimes nice schemer, 7 df, great triggers for Yin and Yang (stat 7 attack) and all for 8ss after tax. Great addition for the crew as support - tested with Honeypot and Qi and Gong.

Probably Sidir - 10ss after tax, brings nice shooting (but there is Fuhatsu and Samurai), but Analyse the weakness and Blow to hell against some crews gonna be devastating.

Maybe Huckster - 7ss after tax for quite soft model, but Secret Passage, False claim, maybe free soul stone.

On 3/24/2019 at 11:08 AM, Jinn said:

I still think that the Qi & Gong crew are very weak, mainly due to Youko being really bad. They also didn't fix the problem with her We Own You trigger (the pseudo obey), which makes it worse than useless.

In all my battles using Youko i found them pretty nice.

True - the Youko had biggest impact most from her front card rather than back part with reducing opponent's hand size, providing with Charm Warder quite nice card draw (i have luck for getting high crows for starting hand), and Informants are great (even if Serene Countenance wasn't always enought to protect her from being close to the enemy models). I have to agree that the rest of her action was pretty the same every turn and every game - sometimes trying to discard cards from enemy hand (if i have high mask card), but usually trying to spam distraction with little of success, because my opponent doesn't like it and usually cheats to cancel it (but usually that made my opponent empty handed so it is good too). As for the exotic weapons - never used it, but it would be nice to have build-in trigger for We Own You so opponent would have bigger dilema what to do (even tweaking it, that trigger will happen if opponent doesn't discard any card, not one or less).

Hinamatsu and Kabuki Warrior are nice beasts in melee, both have wonderful triggers for the lure and the second one is great carrier for upgrades (but then he is quite pricely). Kunoichi is nice too as a utility model. Bill is a little too unfocused in his role, would love getting stoic nod to bonus action, but it probably requires to many changes alongside all models.

Charm Warder is made from paper without upgrades, pass tokens, healing, but even fighting against non summoner jynx with crows is wonderful, and chaos theory even more.

Chiyo Hamasaki - never know how to use her beyond getting into enemy half to get two pass tokens and sometimes using Subterfuge and some range attacks. The low range are quite scaring me from using them, even taking into account that i like them. Would love getting +1mv to getting faster to the enemy half of board.

- Geisha - usually get  killed by shooting - if something has range weapon and LoS to her she is dead.

The most struggling fact for me is that if i don't provoke my opponent with agressive discard to reveal scheme so i can gain pass tokens - mostly for defense, then crew is made from paper and die super fast without upgrades on Kabuki or/and Charm (quite rising their cost) and adding into the crew the Sun Quiang for healing.

The second thing that struggles me is the poll for best keyword for each strategy - Youko crew get for:

Reckoning - 0/29 votes, tuirf War 1/35 votes, Corrupted Idols 4/30 votes, Plant Explosices 3/34 votes (from poll i would say if i want to play at tournament then i should bring Misaki, Asami and Yan Lo and almost forgeting about the rest - Lynch, Youko or McCabe). Does this means that those crews miss something already and would see the board only for casual gaming an/or for fun by players like me? And well, those three crews (Lynch, Youko or McCabe) are my favourite from TT (because of them i'm thinking about changing my allegiance from neverborn to TT or at least splitting it equally) and i would say they are quite nice looking at and almost ready to print (but i'm gonna support all forms to buff them), but it leaves some weird/sad feelings how others sees those crews (at least imho McCabe has wonderful crew for Planting Explosives, Lynch for Reckoning and Corrupted Idols, but there are much better crew alternatives for them and i don't see any strat for Youko) and i don't want to seen them as free points at tournaments when playing against them.

16 minutes ago, santaclaws01 said:

Their bonus action removes brilliance from the target, not themselves. The Illuminated are the only Darkened minion that can remove brilliance from itself.

My mistake, poiny for you.

10 hours ago, SerZaka said:

... Why Asami can lose a 9ss Jorogumo and Lynch can keep his models safe?

I have no problem with the fact of attaching (two posts below the first with question for opinions).

In case of Asami as dedicated summoner with 13 she can summon Jorogumo at turn one (and one for each next turn, or may summon few cheaper models with other high cards). In our case we probably will need also high card to flip or cheat as opponent will try to stop from killing his brillianced model, it require much more set up and is in some way countered by all damage reduction so we need even more set up.

And you might laught hard, but i don't see gradual fading fluff enough (then why other Honeypot Minions doesn't fade away during "mission" (i know, i know - this is Asami theme (joke)) or to die with blaze of brillian...glory (and this is Kaeris)).

For Depleted - they have a way to discard their brilliance: by using Drawn by Brilliance - so with this they would explode at the next turn after summoning them.

Well, quick sum up of Exorcism trigger that now affects our summoned minions:

TT - Charm Warder

Guild - The Lone Marshal, Exorcist

Resser - Vincent St. Clair

Okey, I've thought that there might be more of this. For the notice The Judge also has ability that affects models with summon upgrade.

As for upgrades - okey with plentiful (2 or 3, depends of master) - that's fine and i gladly accept it, as it nicely cut virtual possibility to summon spam - this and in some way rather rare trigger would be enough to prevent the cry. Spreading the brilliance is hmmm... maybe nice? But it depends at opponents posistioning and affects only enemy in case of late summoning it would be nice if worked for all. Probably the most hard pill to swallow is part that it's shutting down demise ability.

I've got some hopes, that upgrade card says that it is Special (Summon, Darkened), Plentiful (2), so maybe there will be in the future some mechanic for darkened that would buff this situation.

How do you find the summoning upgrades (i don't welcome them happily in any form, after reading card twice and noticing that they ignore demise ability, so no self spreading and boom depleted...) and imho non-essential buff for Kitty? Big nerf for what?

1 hour ago, Rosskov said:

This is interesting because she does not feature highly in the bayou pool (though data is still limited) . I've not tried her but she looks solid. 

Looking at the Bayou poll i would comment it in that way - Well, imho turf war promotes shooting, where Bayou has much more options than Neverborn, Plant Explosives - Iron skeeters and whole infamous crew are crazy mobile and have pianos, corrupted idols promotes healing, summoning and denial of movement and Reckoning promotes who will be the first to break the opponent and probably the last preferable strat for Zoraida.

I think that Zoraida is equaly good at all stats, wonderfully universal obey affecting all strats (especially Corrupted Idols), has access to nice shooting (McTavish with Doppelganger) and mobility with stealth (whole Silurid family) for turf war and planting explosives. Reckoning maybe not the super best, but has access to very, very nice beaters. And Will o the Wisp with Voodoo Doll.

Euripides might be great at all strats. Has also very nice deniability because of ice pillars, bultiguns and lyssa are nice scheme runners, access to powerful beaters, nice shooting. Maybe because of lack of healing not so super best with Corrupted Idols.

Titania might be great in Reckoning and Corrupted Idols, because of healing, and slowing enemy with underbrush spam and repositioning enemy via them.

In beautiful world if you want Succumb to Darkness somebody with HtK and you have Red Joker you are unstoppable with rig the deck, but only by spending Red Joker... and in beautiful world...

About more summoning possibilities (veeery loose thoughts) - how about some Huggy's offspring or something like this for 5-6ss  giving distraction to enemy models with brilliance tokens, or treat brilliance as passive source of damage in some way like burning/poison looking at the fluff of brilliance?

I know and it is great, i just thought that there might be another thread just to summarize what we have now. But otherwise - sorry for that question - how to close this thread  to not duplicate?

To tell you the truth in m2e i was neverborn player and my only TT master was Lynch, but because i found him better in TT rather than in NB, because of mixing Lynch's crew with Wastrels. In this edition probably it will be split evenly, or maybe even more for TT. So forgive me for little input for most crew. Also i'm more casual/fun player even at tournaments.

Mei Feng - no experience, but look very interesting, thematic and appealing.

Jakob Lynch - love him and his crew, almost ready to go (depends on fix/break of Kitty). Otherwise wish there would be even more fun with brilliance and more option to use it in some kind of support.

Misaki Katanaka- no experience, but don't appeal to me.

Shenlong - no experience

Asami Tanaka - no experience

Youko Hamasaki - love her and her crew. Love mixing Leverage (love this) with discard from Charm Warder so opponent needs to choose between giving me a lot of pass tokens or don't have cards in hand.

Yan Lo - looks as the most powerful master in TT

Lucas McCabe - very appealing for me as keyword, but looted supplies gives some bad taste comparing to other abilities or actions.

Other:

Tanuki - i am little afraid of his popularity as model needed in almost every crew.

Sun Quiang - love this model as a support and i see him almost in all of my rosters.

All upgrades are great.

I allow myself to copy similar Topic from Neverborn section.

Basically we don't have any thread that summarise all changes and opinions for crew.  Okey there is something in Focusing our efforts, but it's about how to fix some models, but some keywords are quite silent from some time - that's really means there are in goood spot?

For reference, from top to bottom:

Mei Feng

Jakob Lynch

Misaki Katanaka

Shenlong

Asami Tanaka

Youko Hamasaki

Yan Lo

Lucas McCabe

Other cards that bothers us.