Regelridderen

When it comes to summoning, I’ll summon the best thing, my cards allow for, Alp, Stitched or Madness with incidental Daydreams. But I’ll hire Madness over Stitched for their speed and durability. Once a Madness hits the opposition and an Alp pops out of nowhere. You’ll have a hard time losing that fight. I’ll rarely have more than one Stitched on the board, as they ruin the deck thinning.

I’d love to do Shen Long, as I am a lover of kung fu flicks, but... It seems like he is mostly just played with versatiles and... He’s got some butt ugly models

Exactly, Deep Discovery allows you to ‘cheat fate’ just as Bayou Two Card allows you to cheat from your deck, these actions are both ‘cheat fate’ but just changes the source of the card. Where as Fiendish Gamble allows you to ‘place the card into the conflict’, no ‘cheat’-ing involved.

Neverborn are my third faction. I started with Guild, as I loved the faux models, but doubted I could find any use for them, and at the time it was more probable I could use them for an RPG. McMourning then took me into ressur territory, and suddenly I found myself having 5 crews and just one game to my name. Realizing I’d become more of a painter than a player, I finally caved in to my first impulse and got The Dreamer - luckily the opportunity for more games came up, and soon Pandora followed, then Lucius, and luckily they’re as fun to play ad they were to paint. I’m fairly done with Neverborn, neither Titania, Euripides, Zoraida nor Nekima scratch my itch at the moment and I’m more into ninjas and samurai. But when it comes to putting models on the table, the creepy kids usually win out. - So what’s your path been like?

Friendly scheme or Shadow markers is the wording, I’m afraid. You might argue otherwise, but I doubt you’ll find many who’d agree with you.

I disagree with @Pergli @santaclaws01 Betrayal reads : “Enemy models with 6” must discard a card to cheat fate”. And cheating reads “After flipping a card, a player has the opportunity to Cheat Fate by replacing the card they flipped into the Conflict with a card from their hand.” So ‘cheating’ is defined as replacing a duel card, while Betrayal simply adds a cost to doing so, but Fiendish Gamble is a completely separate thing.

You Gamble ‘instead’ of cheat’ing, so I’d say you won’t need to discard.

I’m wary of using Daydreams for Protected. Losing one means losing LD and mobility - I much prefer redirecting to a tankier model e.g. Chompy, Teddy or Serena that can drain your opponents hand. Sacrificing Daydreams just means you’ll be down a card and a model. Of course, its all situational.

A little update on Puppets and Witnesses.

I second this. Indeed I try to hold the Black Joker in hand instead. With AP on Daydreams, and thinning the deck via Lucid Dreams it makes good sense to save a spot for theBJ on hand.

I’d recommend for you to try out just starting with Dreamer, Chompy + minions. Wrap your head around the basics, and learn what the strengths and functions of Alps, Insidious, Stitched and Daydreams are - and then at least 6 stones. After that try adding Serena, Teddy and/or Coppelius, and see what those do. How they function in the crew. These first models are fairly simple, mostly focused on creating a violence engine to tear the opponent apart. Once you’ve got a hang of those models and Malifaux rules in general, it’s time to bring in the spiders - these are more tricksy and less straightforward and will add a whole new experience to your game. After this, it’s time to take a look at the Woe keyword. - But take it easy and accept that you’ll probably lose some games until you get the hang og the game and its objectives. I’d recommend you look into the rules for Henchman Hardcore, this will give you some fast-paced games at first to get the mechanics and principles under your skin before you go for 50 stones master games. - And congrats on choosing Neverborn and Dreamer, he’s a nasty little kid, who’ll wreak hell on your opponents.

Vasi is definitely the least sinister of the two in the game as well And my blending is really benefitting from that wet palette, I got myself this year. I'm not all thrilled about the colours on the witness. The black's a little too black (I hate painting black), the blue a little too vibrant, and the red is a little dull. So I should probably go back and revisit her.

A couple of little old ladies.

So you're in some tournament, and suddenly you're paired up against the explorers. What are you gonna do to improve the odds.

Honeypot is definitely interesting. If Lynch hadn’t defected, he’d been my next Neverborn master. And he has a more unique appearance than Youko. Where’d you think he’d excel compared to Misaki and Yan Lo?

My question is, are they different enough from Misaki to really warrant a crew?

Let’s not stray into discussing representation - it’s a fine discussion for somewhere else, but this topic is about finding my next master

Absolutely – this is always my primary concern. - However, when it comes to collecting, I'm usually dragged towards the muscly-barbarian-with-a-big-axe-army-archetype. Yet, when it comes to playstyle I find I'm more in the tricksy-elf-dancing-around-and-doing-the-stabbity-stab-in-the-back camp. Until now, I've mainly put Pandora and Dreamer on the table – who doesn't love creepy victorian kids. (The rest of my collection is more or less just paint projects). But I had a wonderful fight between Misaki/Dreamer at a tournament, and saw that she'd definitely be a master for me. Yan then turned up with a cool concept - and I've always wanted the Sun Quiang sculpt - and his playstyle seems unique and far from, what else I've got. But the whole thunders faction stand out as a little vanilla to me, compared to the more unique concepts in 'faux, so I'm looking for a little advice on what to go for to 'plug the holes', when it comes to S&S. Then I can always check out the models – Youko do seem interesting, as the Pandora equivalent and as an ex-student of Japanese, I do have a weakness for the stuff, even if it is a little vanilla.

I’ve collected Misaki’s gang, and Yan Lo is on his way, so what would you recommend for my next Thunder.

I don't smell any cash grabs from Wyrd in the repackaging. There's a lot of sense in reducing the number of SKUs, both making it easier for retailers to stock - and so ensure that it becomes available. And also to simplify purchases for newcomers. Just getting three boxes to collect a keyword that plays well and competitively is about as simple as it gets. I mean, how many of those 3 minion boxes they had before were actually getting sold. When the same minions came along with crew boxes? Retailer hate dust collectors like these. - Wyrd's gone above and beyond catering to their M2 players in offering the Special Order program for new models. You wouldn't see anything like that from a certain company in Nottingham. It's a big hassle that goes against the intent of the repackaging - personally I'd prefer it, if they ditched it and just focused on getting their base distribution up and running, but kudos to Wyrd for offering it. - About being broke. That's harsh... But ultimate that's not Wyrd's responsibility. They should be more concerned with guys who hand them a couple of hundred bucks a month. That's what going to ensure that they won't be out of a job. Your concern shouldn't be the price of toys, but on how you improve your situation in life. Once you've done that, you'll get to play with all the toys you want.

Of course - although it would be rather odd for Ivan to get double crows on a defensive flip.

I ditched the other models for my DnD character Yellow Taniya. A halfling hellbent on making the tall ones pay for constantly waging wars across her village. Taniya has little time for bullshit, and would rather kill a tall one too many, than risk any more lifes of her fellow race. She often comes into contact with the law, as she walks clad only in the shame of the taller races oppressing the little people - and some simply confuse that for nudity.

There’s always one...

In all cases when beginning ‘faux Get a full keyword, and learn to use it, its strengths and weaknesses. Restrain yourself from going out of keyword - unless you’re just dying to own a certain model - even if sometimes that might be less than optimal, but it’s just a lot simpler to learn all the nooks and crannies of a single keyword rather than getting a grasp on a whole faction. Do it until you’ve got a good sense of the game, and knows what you’re missing - it could turn out that McM’s a disappointment to play, and you’re more into robots or scantily clad women. But once you’ve got a good sense of the game, you’ll have a direction to go for a good time. After this, if you’re still a good little ressur, you’ll probably like The Dead Rider and Manos with McMurder - and they’ll go perfectly with all the other masters as well.

Sounds like a great idea - and don’t worry, you’ll get there. I’ve just put in the order for my 11th crew across 4 factions 🥳