Ezuma

I am interested in this myself as a Neverborn/Nekima player who usually faces Bayou, I'm sure Nekima can be defeated but I don't know what moves the bayou player ought to make. Clearly rushing to engage is suicide, but at the same time it's not easy to avoid combat with such a fast crew/ My games vs Wong have been incredibly one-sides (admittedly largely due to player error on the bayou side) To me Dreamer still seems like the strongest master I've played, but Nekima is not far off and her counters seem even less clear (Dreamer at least folds when you assassinate him quickly, which is possible if not probable).

Posting on behalf of a friend learning the ropes with his Bayou crews, who needs perhaps a bit of guidance. I play Neverborn, Dreamer, Titania, Nekima, Pandora and Lucius to date. So far he plays Wong and Zipp. In 2e zipp was a terror unto himself, murdering Dreamer from out of nowhere, using first mate to deny pretty well any schemes involving markers, and generally performing well. So far in m3e however things haven't been so good for the gremlins. Any and all advice on these match-ups, fighting Neverborn generally, or even just playing Zipp or Wong (especially Wong) would help a lot. I think probably the biggest problem he has so far is getting his crew murdered by the end of turn 2, something that I hope should be avoidable?

I don't think aversions need any help, so far I've found them a very effective bodyguard for Pandy/Poltergeist, as well as a reliable way of denying Claim Jump or other positioning schemes. Based on his performance I would say the aversion seems like a key piece of the Woe keyword

second this, playing with an aversion recently I was very impressed with the trio's performance. The protective bubble and position-altering abilities are great, and frightening reminder is really important as a way of getting either candy or pandora wherever they need to be. I've found Hooded Rider and Serena Bowman both to be great additions to the crew, other than those two all you need is the woe keyword models in general, I would ignore Lyssa though and I think it would be fine to pick either Carver or Teddy rather than both. Either can be used well but neither seems entirely essential either imo

I also haven't found focus to be overpowered, compared to the nasty combos of 2e most of 3e seems very reasonable to me, allowing for far fewer negative experiences but still leaving some design space to exploit (after all any game is about learning to exploit the rules imo)

Dreamer or Nekima would be my picks for that pool, but going with Pandy you will probably want to avoid making a standard Woe crew full of slow pieces in favor of things like Hinamatsu and Hooded Rider to try and get in their face. Lucius is far more interact efficient and will likely outnumber you, so if you have a chance I would think it will involve killing his pieces early. That said, watch out for Agent 46 and be wary of potential gun lines. Perhaps taking a blackblood shaman to hand out focus and then becoem a mature could be a good choice, both for getting through manipulative and possibly scoring vendetta.

Good call on your first 3. For Titania I would agree that rougarou are the next priority, then killjoy, as bultungin and waldgeists seem a bit lacking currently. I've recently found Candy (who I'm guessing you own if you have Pandora) is really fun mixed in with a Titania crew (for you not your opponent however), just make sure to bring a lot of stones.

That looks intriguing, as I have painted/love all these models. I'm curious how it plays, and also if taking iggy is more useful (with the extra stones), or Candy (and losing some stones).

Interesting, trying to get my head around Pandora lately and I was struggling to really visualize how to properly use the Sorrows. Good to hear they're not useless, but I wonder how the three ghosts (sorrows/lyssas/aversions) rank up or if there is any consensus there?

I have some blind spots admittedly, although I own most but not all of the Neverborn, I have never used angel eyes or the starter set half-bloods I don't think we need to tweak that many models, mostly the game seems very balanced to me. But for the sake of discussion: To nerf, I would say that 1. Stitched could be 1ss more or unable to cheat the damage on 'gamble'. 2-3. Zoraida and Vasilisa could maybe be toned down too but no idea how or what needs to change. To Buff: 1. Bultungins. They have some cool tricks but 5ss feels like a lot for something so fragile. A point lower however would likely be a bit too cheap, so I think giving them another defensive ability (hard to wound say, keeping in theme) and keeping them at 5ss might be enough. 2. Terror tots seem rubbish to me, I struggle to justify them when you consider a corrupted hound does the same job for 3ss, and a changeling does so much more for the same cost. 3. Waldgeists are much worse than in 2e, so I may be bitter, but they seem lacking at 6. They are much less tanky than before, I'm not sure they even qualify as tough now. They do have some handy abilities but I think another wound on them would make them a better pick without really pushing their power level all that much. Also considered the Mysterious Emissary as under-powered, but he has enough tricky triggers on him and abilities that I could see getting some work out of him in a Titania crew perhaps, although that puts a lot of pressure on cards. If her were a henchman it would be a whole other story, but as is he looks either below average, to perhaps average in the right crew.

this seems like a reasonable fix, I don't like the idea of making it uncheatable both ways, as I don't think I would ever use a stitched then. Balancing it out a bit would really help limiting the bad feels aspect, and the stitched would still feel useful.

Dreamer and Lucius, I love their tricks and the way they play this edition, but most of all I love their look and theme, and played them a lot in 2e as well. I've yet to try Euripides, Zoraida or Marcus however, as I don't own most of the models. I've struggled with Pandora but I haven't really put enough time in, so I'm likely just missing what makes her crew work

My first few games Chompy went down regularly (and he's probably one of the better models to dump damage into early), but now i tend to stone with him a lot more and keep Serena nearby, and lo and behold he's made it through the last few games and helped put down all sorts of troublesome peices. One thing I do find hilarious though is that an insidious madness is actually tougher to kill in one activation, barring stone use

One other thing that I love (as a dreamer player) but is very frustrating to the opponent, even if you do kill dreamer and chompy early, its not game over the way it was in 2e. The crew is far less reliant on its master than it once was, and doesn't have to bubble up anymore. For some masters and scheme pools it seems to me the answer is probably to out-scheme, mess with dreamer's positioning or waste their ap (zipp is so good at that of course). I've also found that Molly and Jack Daw aren't horrible vs dreamer, but that might be due to the skill of their owner rather than the crews themselves I can't say, as I only know the one resser player, and he tends to win 90% of his games anyway.

In my experience (running dreamer), mostly vs gremlins and ressers, a cautiously played zipp can do some nasty things turns 1-2 to really mess with the snowball effect. You definitely have to stop Dreamer early, by turns 3 and 4 lucid dreaming means I tend to win a lot of duels without cheating. More aggressive crews should aim to kill what they can as quickly as possible, while crews like zipp should be wary of getting stuck in unless necessary, as I tend to find unburying stitched with insidious madnesses tend to mess with your plans. Also the amount of anti armour abilities (dreamers gun, chompy, serenas gun) is pretty nasty for anyone who relies too much on Armour (recently had a very one sides game vs mei feng). Don't bother killing Serena unless you absolutely can finish her off, generally take out stitched wherever you can, kill chompy, daydreams and copelius. If you're going to take out insidious madnesses, make sure you do it quickly as they have a nasty habit of surviving protracted fights only to emerge at full wounds.

Personally I don't own the model, and that's the only reason I haven't tried him. He does look solid

I have only used her a couple of times, so have no real feel for how good she is. Is she great with bandersnatch mostly or still great on her own? I was concerned she would just die but looking at her card, she does have a lot of tricks

I haven't tested them, but I'm curious if anyone has used stitched with Lucius, at 7ss they still seem pretty good to me. One I've seen mentioned a lot, is the Mature Nephilim with Lucius, which is very very good in my experience

I haven't used alps much yet, as i usually have a high enough card to pop out a stitched or madness, so maybe I get greedy. That list looks pretty similar to what I tend to run, depending on strats/schemes bringing things like Teddy in for corrupted idols or reckoning as well, and more madness for plant explosives usually

Often I summon stitched who then enter off of insidious madness attacks on flanking schemers, tends to pay off very very well ime

glad to hear she has some depth, I've got all the models anyway so I might as well give her a shot

If you want to wait for the alt models, and you are only playing casual games, most opponents would probably let you proxy them in. Personally I think Stitched are too good to pass up and most games I end up using 2-3 between hires and summons. In reckoning they are especially nasty

In your experience of M3e thus far, who stands out to you as the most engaging and rewarding master or set of masters? DMH ecluded, (sorry Collodi and Lilith) I'm slowly working my way through my collection (I don't own Marcus, Zoraida or Euripides), so far having tried Titania a few times, and Lucius and Dreamer each in a good number of games. In practice, Lucius is as entertaining as he has always been to me (even before he was any good), and I very much love new Dreamer, and my win ratio with him suggests he might even be stronger. Of the crews I haven't taken to the field yet, Pandora stands out to me as potentially interesting, whereas Nekima seems a bit straight forward for my tastes, although I own all the models so will no doubt try her out. So, based on your own experience which master/masters are your pick? Which combos?

I'll have to try that combo soon, I'll always love Lucius and Pandora's crew is the next I hope to learn. Dreamer/Lucius could be fun too of course... so many options

I'm curious how Stitched do with Lucius. If you take Dreamer they would seem a pretty good summon, but would they be worth hiring in in anyone's experience?