Dr Mittens

Minako wasn't versatile in beta, presumably they changed her to versatile to avoid the unintuitiveness of her being core to mei feng. 

As for masters, Mei feng and mccabe have a lot of synergies with their keyword, so they should be the leader of any crew taking them.

Misaki got shangs cost increased to nerf her power as a hired master. She's still great in the role for some schemes and pairs especially well with leader youko as pass tokens synergise well with misaki.

Haven't tested it yet, but I've heard good things about shenlong as a varied toolkit who also gets off solid damage through drunken style.

As far as budget options, Crew box+samurai alone gives you a well rounded crew with some ranged, anti armor, AoE, scheme running, and bulk.

A bit more expensive money wise, but Minako Rei makes a wonderful addition as her summons add some support and mobility to operate either as scheme runners or decent attackers.

The above should be sufficient, but Yamaziko and Snipers can be quite good for gunlines. Tanuki are undercosted support atm.

The only out of keyword/versatile units I would consider are a geisha or rail worker for either lure or fling respectively.

Minako Rei specifically for Mei Feng is a great summoner.

Haven't tested it yet, but Youko's distractions can be quite useful for stalling to yan lo's later power.

The Geisha's are squishy but lure is useful at 5ss.

Rail workers lack mobility without scraps, but there are worse ways to move your other units early and have a slow bruiser like old graves.

As a Ten Thunders player, I've seen more of every other faction except outcast so if one of your goals is uniqueness we're a solid contender on that front.

Hard to guess what your looking for in a master, but I can vouch that Mei Feng is a very fun master with unique movement options, combo attacks, and positioning tools, who can also double as a solid gunline in place of McCabe due to her smokescreen.

If you think Youko's manipulations look intriguing, you might want to check out Jacob Lynch. While he is more explosive his crew includes some very potent utility options like Tannen, Kitty, and Gwyneth's bloody AoE pull.

As far as I can see, your interpretation is correct, and this is definitely grounds for errata, as the obey issue doesn't seem intended. Stacking probably is a cause for concern, as while atm it's not a big problem, any future source of fast that can be applied to The Lone Swordsman would bust the stacking wide open, so better to nip that in the bud now.

The main reason the Samurai come across as always tempting is that they are our best default ranged option. Even if you want a dedicated gunner, the katanaka snipers are just kind of underwhelming. For only two more points the samurai is overall a better gunner, tankier, and far better at melee.

Outside gunning, Samurai compete with Yasanori at the cost, having far lower mobility, general damage, and cc, but bringing better ranged and anti-armor tech.

Anyone else think Inhuman Physiology looks a tad ridiculous, combat finesse but it applies to ranged duels,  enemy damage flips, and makes it so opponents can't cheat when defending... yikes. It's going to be rough defending against this guy and trying to kill him.

Woohoo, notable synergy between the torakage and misaki. Now they still are weak at a straight up fight for their cost, and expensive as scheme runners, but compensate with mobility that makes the watcher blush. You need to set it up and dedicate some moderate cards to rely on it, but in exchange you get a lot of mobility to pick and choose your fights.

They actually feel more like assassins now, always needing an escape plan but so long as they are careful they are extremely hard to catch and ready to capitalize on an exposed target. They may not have the umph to reliably kill, but at 6 points being a good pressure unit with the tools to get in and get out is on theme and useful.

Should they find this added mobility to much, rather than revert back to an action, I'd suggest nerfing the range.

I feel like there are some typos here as atm critical strike does literally nothing.

The problem with the trigger is that it has two separate conditions you have to achieve simultaneously.

Getting the right suit is bound to happen eventually, but unless you have a high crow, you can't count on it, and if you do have a high crow, there are usually better beaters to feed a high card. 

Not only is being in melee range while no other enemies have LoS really difficult to set up, but you have to position yourself BEFORE you know whether or not you will get a crow. This is especially awkward because, by the nature of positioning, you will often have a better location overall that doesn't put you out of LoS.

If they attached a built in crow to melee, it would at least be a reliable option when you have an opportunity to avoid LoS.

11 hours ago, bedjy said:

Mei Feng crew box + Metal Golem* / Metal Gamin* > Willie* / Neil Henri* > Porkshop* / Sparks* / Survivor*

Just want to add that even with the extra cost, Minako Rei goes very well with Mei Feng as a way to spend early scrap markers while still being a decent beater. The Katashiro then give you a construct with solid mobility (15") and support through removing status conditions from allies and buffs from enemies.

If you're looking for movement, the Railworker can place a model 8" up field with no card investment turn one. They also give you a fairly beefy minion later on who can use charge to maintain movement while launching your guys where you want. But they cost Misaki 6 and lack the Geisha's ability to CC enemies.

In ten thunders, Minako Rei works wonderfully with Mei Feng, as using the leftover scraps for summons puts more pressure on your opponent.

Niche/map dependent, but if I need some extra movement, the new rail worker is pretty solid at +1=6 with 8 inches place on turn 1 

Are you looking for competitive, or for budget? Mei Feng is probably going to be really strong in 3E, with rail ride applying to her squad, kang passing out focus at the start, and a decent mix of positioning tricks, and henchman summoning, a full collection will allow her some very productive turn ones with immense control over where she and her crew fight/scheme.

For budget, the torakage/ototo buffs means misaki's entire box is self sufficient.

Shenlongs crew got some notable utility nerfs, but more reliable bulk/damage and focus staying between rounds could help a lot. Yan Lo box seems almost self sufficient although he struggles a bit on mobility.

If I could change one thing, it would be to have discount or budget on theme models instead of tax on everything else. It would ease list building as instead of keeping in mind taxes on tons of units and either having odd ratios or pushing people away from cheap off theme models (as 3, 5pt models at +3 cost is generally worse than a 15pt model +1 in most cases) you would just spend the budget/discount on theme models and everything outside your special rule is default.

This also plays into loss aversion, as getting a penalty feels a lot worse than getting a bonus, even if the underlying numbers are the same.

Seems like Minako would work best in a meifeng crew, with plenty of scrap to pop out Katashiro, and if you line up a wanyudo summon mei will love the abundant burning. She would also be great with any lure/pull models as if you get off a Wanyudo summon she is premium for her cost. 

While the 2 action is neat, at 8 points wanyudo is better as a situational summon than someone to recruit for most lists, as the low damage and passible bulk just aren't enough for 8 points imo.

Katashiro are amazing, good threat range, mobility, passible bulk, situational condi removal/stacking, and absolutely bonkers with the amount of push Ten Thunders has access to. Worth fielding in any crew looking for cheap melee and especially nice when paired with Toshiro for push, fast, +attack flips.

Some things I noticed from what little I read,

Conflux of Thunder on Misaki, while the confluxes are master specific, it is the emissary who equips them. They are just limited based on your current master.

Burning soulstones on Shadow Emissary attack. Only Masters and Henchman can burn soulstones, and Emissary is an Enforcer.

What would you do?

EX:

Model - Ototo

Unflinching Fury

Cost - 1

Ototo gains the following abilities

Ruthless - This model is Immune to Wp duels during its Activation

Calm Before the Storm - At the end of this models activation, it may discard this upgrade to gain +3 wp until the end of the turn

There's a free download of the core rules pdf, but it doesn't include info on all the cards so you will probably want the Bad Stuff Happens app. If you prefer books, it's more expensive, but Retnab summed it up quite well.

3 hours ago, TeddyBear said:

For the first time i am in disagree with your opinion Ludvig..

"An alternative would be a huge boost to half the masters in the game to make them as good as the proven top dogs but that takes a lot more work than filing the edges down on the filthiest two or three."

That's what should be done, i know it's a very huge job, but think about who this year, bought Nicodem, and all his models, Or Sandeep with his entire pool.. in my opinion should be more respect for client who spend his own moneys.. nerfes it's not the right way.. buff others could be..

This has been tried in numerous pvp games, and historically results in terrible balance, as in trying to balance everyone around the strongest masters/models in the game, you will inevitably by statistics create new stuff even worse than the old problem. It's also non-sustainable as it constantly forces the power level of the game up, making older models that weren't brought to par unusable and creating a constant sense of power creep.

It is both far easier to hit 2-3 outliers than 20 mid tiers, and more sustainable as the prior maintains the current norm of power while the latter warps the whole game around the new standard.

@Cashewmellow

Samurai
-Better against groups
-Higher General Bulk
-Low card reliance
-Melee covers a vital niche while still being pretty solid

Sniper
-Better range (Do not underestimate)
-Much better positioning due to from the shadows
-Hard to kill has less things that bypass it than armor
-Lower cost
-Reactivate on leader death

Samurai are ideal when you want to hold a position, don't want to invest cards in ranged support, aren't as concerned about mobility (ex: shenlong/misaki compensate with tools) and want to have a tool against armor

Sniper is ideal when their is minimal blocking terrain to counter obscene range, you can afford to give them severe cards, there is a good sniper post that would be time consuming to reach, and you don't want to throw mobility tools there way

Overall I prefer samurai due to their versatility and how well they scale with mobility tricks to cover their weakness, but the snipers can be very helpful depending on the map. Basically Samurai need mobility support, while Sniper needs card support.

For beaters, it is important to consider how you deal with defensive abilities.

Hard/impossible to wound is best dealt with high min damage. Common in ressers, Yamaziko, Izamu, and Yasunori all fill this role and have the wp/abilities to bypass horror duels. The lone Swordsman has two triggers that also bypass this although with min 2 he struggles without them.

Armor is best dealt with by either hitting high, piercing, or death by a thousand cuts. Samurai pierce is great, Kang hard worker works wonders, Yasunori/Izamu have the raw power to still work but aren't very cost efficient for armor 2+, Katanaka Crime Boss and Sniper can work around it through "cannot be reduced" and cross map 5 damage severe.

Burst damage is helpful against healers such as anything with call unto chi and is where Ten Thunders Shines, as recalled training turn Izamu/Lone Swordsman/Yasunori/*insert master* can basically delete almost any model in the game.

Always happy to see a new video by you guys. Your battle reports are always such high quality and surprisingly fast given the amount of detail you provide.

Noone else voting for Shang?

He is willing to sacrifice his own life to protect his owner.

@Tokapondora
Fair enough, all I know is my brother looked at sonnia and thought they needed to avoid units that didn't inflict burning due to her synergy with it.