Sergrum

Having gone last year and looking to go again next year. As well as attending several team events in the States. Here is the question i have.

Why do we pair by master at all? I get it, it makes the pairing process mean a little more, but it really does force generalized masters that have trouble being countered. 

Why not just pair by faction and let the 2 play a normal game of malifaux? Or assign each player to a table blindly (based off strats/schemes/terrain) and let them play normal malifaux.?

Coudl help stop the same masters being player every round. If not, bans of some sort could at least make it more interesting than it is now.

Do you think your groups "Alpha Strike" Meta is a product of it being the best strategy, or just lack of players with the skill to counter it? It's not something i've seen at top tables around me and is normally the move of the lesser of 2 skilled opponents as it puts more in the hands of luck vs skill since its so all in.

That board is so bad, does it even count as real malifaux  

Just remember zipps limited upgrades allow him you remove conditions when he activates, while it does cost stones/cards he could remove the paralze

I only spoke to Lucas about his lists, but I think the finals Nico ran.... Nico, Mort, Anna, 3 belles, Philip.

He played Zipp and Somer. Not 100% for lists for the pool round, but day 2 he played vs Lynch/Molly/Nico i believe playing Somer/Somer/Zipp

Below are example of his lists. He took the middle one vs Nico in the finals (with DC over DO on zipp cause of eliminate)

Overall, major props to Lucas. I think it was a combination of Skill, list building, and surprises. In talking to him he felt he caught a lot of people off guard (which is odd given nationals but even Varney admitted he didnt know how zipp worked) with things they havent seen. 

My impression (being the one who claimed doom and gloom), we will have to see how the year plans out. I think Lucas is dropping gremlins for Neverborn. GG18 is fresh enough and it seems like the surprises were enough (along with good play). Not sure it will work all year, but we will see. Can't say ill be sad if proven wrong

Not everything can be solved with a SS change, looks like they were trying not to change wording on cards. Have to pick your battles, not every model will be buffed/nerfed.

I think the meta of tank enforcers/hench is not good for gremlins and will hurt them in the long run. 

Has made me decide not to play them in 2018. 

Dont think it will be enough for the gremlins. I think this + GG18 will knock them down couple pegs

Gremlins only faction to be nerfed all of the last 3 erratas, and get barely anything in return. Aaron truly does hate them!

Agree with Angelshard-

Always put strum on, might as well be stapled to Collodi's card.

Terror Tot- 0 synergy with collodis crew, and some anti synergy with black blood. He does almost nothing another effigy cant do better. "sprint" is the only ability even close to useful vs ann armour 1 HTK effigy with a buff. 

Im iffy on Corphyee as well. Especially 2. A stiched/thorn/trapper/iggy all feel the slot better (at least one of them).

Other wise it is a good base, and one i use when i start constructing a list for a game and then change things as needed.

Devil's advocate-

Comparing to just summoning 3 Bayous.

3 Bayous- Need- 1 mask, 3 8+, 3 bayous, 1 Do it like dis

Skeeter Summon- Need, mask, crow, 2 8+, 9+ (stuffed), and to make sure you get a moderate on the attack (cant really quantify)., possibly 2 do it like dis

So clearly the 2nd needs more of a perfect storm of cards. Lets say both are successful. What do you get for your effort.

3 bayous (1 extra SS for upgrade) vs bayou, Skeeter, stuffed, 2 cards. Given the increased card intensity we can say the 2 cards are a wash (mixed with the extra SS). So now we are looking at 3 models vs 3 models. Its hard for me to say the Skeeter/stuffed vs 2 bayous is even an upgrade. Depends on the need for significant models to do schemes/strats. 

"cute" is the best word i can use to describe it. Too many moving parts to rely upon and there will be plenty of corpses (and in better location) for the taxidermist so the benefit of the "extra" stuffed piglet is turn 1 at best.  I dont think doing this turn 3+ does much and Somer shooting is usually stronger. 

I think the people who do it to get a piglet waste AP as well, so not really knocking the skeeter version, just like sammie summoning i think AP is best spent differently 

In the end, i dont think id ever consider doing this in tourny and find the 1ss for the chance at a skeeter (when i could just get a piglet in its place) is mediocre .

If you enjoy it, and pull it off I am sure the extra skeeters can get annoying for the enemy. 

Tome trigger for healing wouldnt require a Do it like dis as you only need to do it once, so just relent the attack and cheat in the tome. Still would be annoying to need the tome for sure.

Merris is an interesting model in that i've been leaving her out of many of my crews. Her gun is OK, and and as a scheme runner she only has her 0/flight over most 7ss models. Things like raph/taxi/burt can all fight off their opponents and scheme almost as well. For solo claim jump any reckless will do, and besides 15" drop a marker for leave there isnt THAT much we need her 0 for vs a another stronger enforcer.

I dont get the non-summoning Somer. Well.. i get it yet its hard for me to justify. If you want to take advantage of him turn 1 (by shooting him to push him up the board) then you already have the masks up and at that point is the turn 1 shooting better then 3 bayous? So at the end of turn 1, i have 3 more models, somer is still up and pushed, and maybe he didnt shoot turn 1.

If you do go alpha strike elite list (which i think is risky to say the least, good vs weak players, risky vs better ones). Then the biggest reason for Somer over say Wong/Zipp would be? the suits? With Wong you get the same style of list (albeit a different attack action on you master), but 3 glowy/reckless models. Zipp is just a good annoying master, and wave 5 ophelia will hopefully help her.

I guess in a double iron skeeter giving out tomes is nice especially if u can keep it in range of pere, but even then feels so all in vs strong players.

Think they are awful hires now. Probably should use Bayous, at least they can scheme.

Probably should of been 2ss and like hireable 3 (rare 6 for summon purposes) and mandatory blow up

Currently not only are they  awful hires compared to Bayous, it really screws the pigapult  and makes it pretty useless since both forms of ammo are way overcost. 

Lenny wants to rule the world

I only like him in very rare cases when im playing a defensive list and want a 4 AP pigapult. Otherwise... idk if he does enough vs the other in his SS slot. It's a hard sell...

Remember you can't use the iron skeeter on ophelia... nor frank with stitlz (ht 2).

If anything the errata gave a good reason to leave lenny behind for master like somer, and to be honest it felt freeing not to have to put him in lists. A blessing in disguise!

In general i feel like Wong can do a lot of schemes and strats well. Below is probably how i would personally run him now a days. 

Wong- Do Over, Ooo Glowy

2 Swine Crused

Burt- Dirty Cheater

Frank- Stiltz

3 Stuffed Piglets

This leaves 12 SS. Below are some of the things i'd use in those slots.

Trixie/DC/Stuffed/1SS

Taxi/DC/2 Stuffed

2 Lighting Bugs/Stuffed

where the 4th or 5th stuffed can be subbed for 2SS/and upgrade as needed. 

Given the amount of killiness i can even support a sammie choice even if i am not in love with her.

Mctavish  is also an option, i've just found glowy burt to really nice lately. That being said, nothing stops you from taking both (as burt is a great model even without glowy) and decide when the game starts who should be glowy. If there are no HTK/Armour things worth sniping with mctavish than give it to burt. They both have different break points they hit so keeping your options open is never bad. 

Wong kinda just does his thing, and doesnt rely on too much synergies with his crew (other than staying alive for glowy), so its really a matter of taking a bunch of good models (swines become near top tier with glowy) and running schemes with a bunch of 3Ap glass cannons.

I heard your round 4 opponent was extremely handsome