triedman99

Looking to hire Shenlong as second master when I know my opponent will have lots of Hard to Wound, Manipulative, etc.. How many students do you take with him? 1? Both? None?

Ohaguro was great in 2E, but she's just outclassed by Ama No Zako in 3E. Maybe Ohaguro could be part of some niche anti-summoner list? Placing her in base contact with your opponent's summons sounds like fun, but she doesn't have a ton to offer other than that.

Wow, I'll have to remember to try this!

I would usually never hire such an expensive model, either, but I tried it last week, and it went so well that my opponent forfeit at the end of turn 2. My crew was: Asami w/ 6 stones Amanjaku McCabe Luna Jorogumo w/ Masked Agent Ama No Zako Tengu Wedge deployment and Turf War. I played very aggressively, and got my hired Jorogumo and a summoned Jorogumo right into my opponent's face, and McCabe tossed a saber to the first Jorogumo, which then got fast and ignored HtW/HtK/armor/shielded, and gave itself + flips with flicker, so of course it got 1 or 2 kills and removed flicker. Then it quick actioned to toss the saber to the next Jorogumo, which also killed more than 1 model. McCabe and the tengu claimed turf war markers, and Asami supported the Jorogumo, and Ama No Zako also got into the fray. At the end of turn 2 more than half his crew had died, and there was no way he would've survived a turn 3. I think hiring a second master is usually not optimal, but McCabe brings so much versatility and support to Asami's crew, and she can summon models to make up for the low model count that a second master causes. Maybe my next game with this crew won't go as well, but McCabe will always be on my mind with Asami because of how brutally efficient he made those Jorogumo. Having said that, the Oni keyword and Versatile Ten Thunders models provide enough variety and fun that a second master certainly isn't necessary. And maybe my game would have been just as one sided without McCabe and with a Samurai and Dawn Serpent instead? It's hard to say.

In addition to what everyone else has said, Ama No Zako is great, and Samurai, Dawn Serpent, and Shadow Emissary are all very good versatile models. I would always hire a Jorogumo with her. McCabe handing out his sword artifact to Jorogumo is just an absurd combo.

I love Obsidian Statue with Mei Feng. Easy scrap generation, tons of burning, some utility with cover and hazardous terrain, and min 3 damage on its attack. Is he a big target? Sure, but that takes pressure off Mei Feng/Kang/scheme runners. I will almost always hire him with Mei in Ten Thunders.

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These still available? I have Ototo (assembled, not primed) that I might trade for Waldgeist or Changeling (would prefer waldgeist)

Adding to everyone else's good advice: most Viks players expect Blood to be killed after her huge attack, and they NEED to do huge damage to make losing Blood worth it. They'll be saving high cards to spend on Blood's attack, leaving their other models vulnerable. It also takes a few activations and several AP and 0 actions to fully buff Blood; anything to make them waste AP or block 0 actions makes her attack weaker. Keep your models far apart (more than 5 inches) so that Blood can't Whirlwind to kill multiple models in an activation. Kill one of the Viks (preferably Blood) as soon as possible. Losing Izamu while they lose Blood and a scheme runner or two is probably a great trade for you. Vanessa/Student of Conflict/Librarian are important to buff/heal the Sisters, but die easily.

Ah, my mistake!

Not sure the exact wording on the Alp's card, but I see two possible timing options: 1. Slow Waif activates 2. Waif only generates 1 AP and the Slow condition goes away 3. Waif takes willpower duel from Alp, and may gain slow, which will affect the Waif's next activation OR A. Slow Waif activates B. Waif takes WP duel for slow from the Alp, but Waif already has slow so the result doesn't really matter (cards are still flipped). Waif would not take 1 point of damage because it ignored the additional Slow C. Waif generates 1 AP and the Slow condition goes away Since both the Slow and the Alp willpower duel seem to happen at the same time (after activating), the Waif's controller would choose the order that the effects are resolved, and would of course choose to resolve the Alp's WP duel before resolving the Slow condition and AP generation. The exact wording on the Alp's card is important here.

I've gotten several games in with her, and I'm planning to try the Dawn Serpent with her next game. Solid model, high wounds, hard to kill, flight, ML and SH of 7, and Asami can give it Focus +2 to hit severe and those blast markers, I think he can do a ton of damage. Everything he gives burning to will benefit the Obsidian Oni's CA attack. And all those positive flips will really help ease the pressure on your control hand (Asami just needs so many cards to do things). Summon Yokai, have them charge in for +attack flips to do as much damage as they can, Dawn Serpent to finish models off with blasts, Ohaguro constantly threatening to charge, and Asami plus a summoned obsidian oni or jorogumo should be able to control a lot of the table, leaving your scheme runners to get their scheming done. At least, that's how it works in my head. I'll see how it works in real life soon.

She only had 1 wound left when he dropped his load. Killing him at that moment was probably not my best choice (first time I had ever faced Willie).

In the middle of a game right now. Ohaguro Bettari had the Death Contract upgrade attached. She had 6 wounds remaining out of 8. She attacked and killed Willie. Then Willie got two blast markers off on his death, which killed Ohaguro, triggering Death Contract. It reads: When this model is killed or sacrificed by an enemy model's action or ability, the enemy model must discard two cards or two soulstones or be killed. The problem is this: his model is already dead so he can't choose to kill it, he didn't have any cards to discard, and he only had 1 soulstone to discard. So by the wording of Death Contract he is unable to fulfill any of the requirements. Does nothing happen? Did he find a loophole around Death Contract? Thanks for your input!

That looks like a really solid Tara list. I like taking the Nothing Beast and void wretches with her, and then trying to use up my hand early on all my important moves so that they have high defense. Try to fit in Hannah's Ancient Tomes upgrade. It gives her a pretty easy (1) AP bury action that fits in very nicely with Tara's thematic crew. I think the Hodgepodge Effigy isn't necessary. He won't really help you run schemes, and his shooting cover that he provides with the Mist isn't necessary with a Tara crew, seeing as how void wretches and the nothing beast are incorporeal, have high defense late turn, and Tara has a defensive trigger to ignore shooting damage. Run your schemes, hand out fast and slow liberally, and try to always have an important enemy model buried.