thatlatinspeakingguy

I am going to have my first game with post-errata Rasputina tommorrow. My opponent declared Nexus. Scenario is Corner Dep, Leylines, Detonate Charges, Vendetta, Death Beds, Let them Bleed and Spread them Out. Thinking of the game, I have realized that beside few games with a new player who never really clicked with the game I played ONE real Malifuax game in the last ~20 months and I feel pretty rusty. I am really keen to hear your advices for this game. I have never played against Cadmus before and all I know is that I need to protect my models from getting Parasite Tokens as long as possible. When it comes to scheme selection, I am leaning towards Death Beds as my first scheme. When it comes to the crew, I was thinking of Hoarcat Pride as my initial loadstone runner, two Silent Ones (one with MT), Envy, Blessed of December and Snow Storm. No Ice Golem because it's too likely to get Parasite Token early and easily.

3 hours ago, Jordon said:

When do you see yourself reaching for one over the other? Seems like both have some powerful movement tricks and both can hit decently hard. 

Rasputina, Abominable seems more susceptible to hard counters: ignoring Armor/Shielded, irreducible damage, Stunned. OG Raspy can easily punish bubble crews. I think in her case the choice may depend entirely on the opposing keyword.

17 hours ago, profdikweed said:

The upgrade to harsh winter meaning enemies don't get cover from your ice pillars is massive. It cannot be overstated how drastically this changes her.

I agree. Ever wanted to pick Envy for free focus but was discouraged due to the countersynergy of Ice Pillars and gun attacks? Now it's no longer the case.

I have recently started playing Syndicate and I find that discussion extremely helpful. How do you guys rate Austera with Anya? After my first Syndicate game I feel I want to make more use of Anya's ability to turn markers into pieces of hazardous terrain and Austera seems to be one of the best models to lay them where they need to be. Also, I would like to try Austera+Yannic+Ngaatoro combination to cycle my hand turn 1 in case it's garbage or just draw few cards if it's not. Also, I feel that placing markers with multiple models on turn 1 to fuel Ingenuity later is a bit of a trap, as you very often want to concentrate on that stage of the game. I really missed these focused hits on turn 2. Austera's Nature's Rejuvenation seems like a more efficient way to draw cards, as you need only one marker to draw 3, discard 1.

13 minutes ago, MrBabash said:

What about English Ivan, Lord Cooper, Sonnia, Nekima, Euripides and McMourning? Sorry if I'm asking too much.

They all seem fine for the beginner. Ivan is a summoner, but he needs only one purchase beside his core box to cover his entire summoning pool. Are you looking for a more specific answer (explaining gameplay, priority purchases etc.)?

21 minutes ago, MrBabash said:

Thank you so much! Is any of the masters I mentioned too hard to play for a beginner like me? That would cut down the list to a smaller pool that I should choose from

No master is too difficult if you are keen to learn the game. On the other hand, if you are looking for an easy-to-pick game for casual play, then probably every master is too difficult. Malifaux demands a certain degree of devotion, otherwise it's hard to have fun with it. At least that's what I've learned teaching new players recently. Responding to your question more directly: masters who can act independently from other models (i.e. don't rely on their support/are less synergistic with their keywords) are as a rule easier to play for the first few times; also, I find beaters and summoners easier to pick for beginners than support- or disruption-oriented masters. However, since summoners require a lot of purchases it is usually not recommended to begin with them. It means that you can probably cut off from your list following masters: Seamus, Molly, Jack Daw, Pandora, Zoraida, the Dreamer and Colette. All of them (maybe except the Dreamer, who is pretty boring but has poweful keyword) are super fun to play once you know what you're doing, btw.

On 10/18/2021 at 4:17 PM, Plaag said:

i dont see any place for them, also cannt find any situation where they will be more useful then other models(i hire 2 silent one+1train, blessed, ice golem with cash, storm)

interesting, personally I find Snow Storm pretty bad and would rather hire two Kaltgeists.

She's a huge improvement over her OG version, who is, let's be clear on that, among the worst designed masters in this edition. Creating Ice Pillars via bonus action is how it should be from the beginning. What I like the most is that she makes other models better too. Wendigo was a very weak totem (ever tried to create an ice pillar with him?), now it's great being able to use northern winds easily. Ice Golem needed suboptimal models to support it's mobility, now it needs nothing except northern winds from Raspy and Wendi. Not to mention that there will be more ice pillars aka corpse markers for him to heal, boost his damage or make his hazardous aura stronger. On the other hand, new Rasputina is very susceptible to counterplay, as her crew relies on armor and shielded and she's very vulnerable if Stunned.

And Kaltgeists are absurdly good.

after looking at all effigies I came to a conclusion that you want most of them. Shadow, Hodgepodge and Intrepid seem to be high priority purchases, Arcane is good if you don't bring Serena or if you need as many condition removals as possible, Carrion is good against some crews or in certain scenarios (set up a kill of a soulstone user), the rest can be probably skipped.

yeah, at first glance his attack looks like nothing special, but a) Stunned can be very potent against some models as it basically turns them off or makes them very, very vulnerable (btw. I wonder how impactful will be releasing more and more models that can apply Stunned for the meta) and b) range 2'' is really frustrating to deal with. Not to mention all those scenarios when you catch someone off the guard and deal 6 damage in single attack. It reminds me of Execute on Kirai's and Seamus melee attacks: "Have you played against Kirai already?" "Yes, many times, I know what she does" [three turns laters] "So, you tell me you have no cards nor stones? Ok then: walk, walk, charge, your master is dead."

7 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Never Forgotten: Once per activation. After a friendly Forgotten model (or maybe minion) discards one or more cards, it may draw a card.

What do you think?

I think it's the laziest design ever It puts the entire Fading mechanic on its head. You should rather get some compensation for having an empty hand, like positives to flips or something else what increases survivability of your Keyword models or punishes enemy for engaging in opposite duels with them.

I am really excited for the first batch of nerfs to your shiny-shiny faction... 😈

beside that, I can't wait to get my ordered DUA/Umbra boxes. Ivan has one of my favourite sculpts in the game so far - he's going to be a blast to paint!

Awsome!

On 6/27/2021 at 11:51 AM, Maniacal_cackle said:

Mistakes that I know of:

• Bete Noire unburying in deployment zone, could have claimed the turf war marker and just really secured the game.
• Sybelle didn't plan for and use I've Got Your Back and lost an entire activation with Seamus because of it.
• Whatever the turn 5 mistake is that I forgot.

Overall, we had Kharnage who was an expert with his crew and knew every in and out of every model. On the other hand, we had me who was an expert in the individual models, but not in the crew and how they worked together. However, combined with my teching and planning, I managed to put together a good fight despite not having technical perfection.

I have watched the game and enjoyed every minute of it. Well deserved victory.

If other TT keywords are not aesthetically appealing to you, then you should probably stick to English Ivan. In any case you should know that Youko's profile has been entirely reworked in the latest errata.

The way Malifaux is played is that players declare masters before they compose their crews. If your Colette (who was also heavily changed in the last errata btw.) friend knows what is coming (s)he has to adjust and pick other models. I understand that (s)he may not have a large collection yet, but the very nature of the game requires having at least some options. Having said that, Ivan is indeed a very strong master, and Colette used to be one of the strongest (not sure how she fares now after the nerf), but in competitive scene she was played mainly with models outside of her keyword, so if your friend stays mainly in keyword (s)he may get different impression (especially if you insist on playing the latest, i.e. nerfed, version of Colette's profile).

Anyway, I hope you will find the way to make the game enjoyable for everyone.

check out English Ivan's crew box for a Lovecraftian vibe (edit: no tentacles tho). Midnight Stalker is also great miniature for an RPG set in urban enviroment in early 20th century.

I don't know what masters do you play, but summoners and masters who are effective killers can really dominate 35 ss format. If you already know yours and your opponents models then jumping directly into 50ss game may not be that overwhelming as it seems.

Cool design overall, but especially passive summoning mechanics. can't wait to give her a try, I was never a fan of traditional summoners.

A small thing I have just noticed: Big Jake's card is missing "Sz" abbreviation in the circle on the front.

now I understand why they didn't buff Rasputina. they probably figured out that she's beyond redemption and it's easier to replace it with entirely new profile 5 mv, teleporting to ice pillars, creating few of them at the start of the game for free, drawing a lot of cards and showering battlefield with frozen corpses for her keyword models to eat

11 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Molly vs Kirai!!!

It's a battle of the besties!

great! we will see how nerfed Kirai performs in hands of an experienced player.

do I understand correctly that you cannot use Paralyzing Kunai outside charge action? anyway, Stunned is very powerful against some models, it can basically turn them off for a turn (Youko for example), so I would definitely rate this upgrade high, even if it's matchup dependant.

35 minutes ago, Maogrim said:

Nah, you didn't. I just really love that show. And I love Wyrd for naming that trigger the way they did. 😅

Just in case you don't know: Queen's Gambit on Youko's card is a reference to one of the possible openings in chess, when white player moves two of his pawns forward. The show could have inspired them to name the trigger that way, but they could also come up with that idea independently (especially if there's a chess player among them).

I can't believe I live a time when using your master's AP to apply Distracted is actually a desirable thing to do. what a relief that no faction has an access to a bunch of models that can treat those negatives as positives, right? <wink wink>

Von Schtook is not dead, he just needs to played differently now. His keyword had great card draw, survivability, hitting power, scheming efficiency and overall speed. Now they were nerfed in the last two departments. They're still good, but not stellar good. Players just need to rethink the way they play the crew, as they no longer can slingshot fast Valedictorian to enemy DZ followed by teleporting undergrad(s).