Maniacal_cackle

I play tournaments locally and in the world series. In a local tournament I can use basically any keyword, and if I'm good with it can place pretty okay. In the World Series, the competition is fiercer and I need to do a bit more fanciness. But you're unlikely to compete at that level unless you can easily access National tournaments (like in the UK, Russia, or some parts of the US). For big sword user, Nekima might be appealing? Also Jedzas Mikhail? Dashel 2 uses axes?

There's a surprising number of masters you can solo, but usually they want a wide range of tech picks. However, there are some generalist masters with a keyword that can handle pretty much anything, like Von Schtook, Yan Lo, Von Schill. But by their very nature, a master that is good in every situation without needing to change its list is ripe for nerfs. Still, there's a step below where you can handle basically anything at the casual level but not top tier competitive. There's probably 10-20 keywords like this, so you'd have lots of options.

One suggestion I have for new players is to start with a core box plus another box. This will give a good feel for the crew and if you want to expand or swap to a different crew. The advice doesn't apply as well if you get huge shipping charges though.

Yesterday I played someone else's list with a bunch of OOK models and the whole time I was wishing for more keyword 🤣 The keyword is strong for sure! Some extra thoughts on it. I think Mr Tannen is very strong, but needs take the hit models to survive. Either illuminated with the upgrade, or Terracotta. Mr Graves, most people I know don't like him at all. Beckoners.... suffer from the cheap minion problem a bit. In general cheap models that can be one or two shot aren't great. But they're pretty decent and stopping interacts can be huge.

Kunoichi you use tools for the job to discard a mask (which you will probably have cuz rig the deck), then you attack a friendly incorp model for mask trigger doing 0 damage and gaining focus. Bill is just a beater with a good kit. I punched Hanged a lot and stoned for crit strike a lot, and then all his Hanged were dead xD

One comment I'll put out there is that I wouldn't put *too* much stock into what people say about relative strengths of masters. Like people were down on Parker 2, until Azahul took down the world champion with him. Or people were down on Marcus and Lucius in Neverborn, so I podiumed world Series events with both of them. Etc. Especially if looking at tier lists, take them with several grains of salt xD

Oh do note that the crew can do just fine in keyword, I think! Most crews can do just fine in keyword in casual play, and in Malifaux skill dominates by quite a big margin. In top-tier competitive play, there's very few crews where you wouldn't want some pieces from out of the keyword.

Kunoichi seems to be the universal model people grab into competitive Lynch 2 crews. The ability to focus up Hungering Darkness twice is huge, as it unlocks those severes of up to 8 damage. Personally I'd be very keen to try out Terracotta Warriors since I like the card draw and Take the Hit is nice for Mr. Tannen... But you can just slap an upgrade on an illuminated to protect him. I also ran a list today with Bill Algren which was quite effective, but it was a matchup where ruthless mattered. I'm no expert though! Also worth noting that for Malifaux, you're generally looking for just a few boxes for casual play, but for absolute top-tier competitive play you sometimes need some tech picks from across the faction (the Bill example above being a good example).

Oh, regarding Parker (and really most crews in general), the cheap models are not generally considered good. If you see models in the 5-6 stone range, it'll be pretty rare that you have more than one in a competitive list There's exceptions of course (triple Botanists have absolutely destroyed some competitive events), but as a general rule cheap models aren't good this edition. So don't get *too* excited about running lots of them. Most lists won't have too many. That's for a competitive level, of course. In casual games you can make anything work

One suggestion from the other thread is to try-before-you-buy. You can play on Vassal to try the crews before you buy them, if your friends are into online play This just screams Dreamer to me. Summoning, ranged spells like twist reality, monster theme, etc. Mechanically, it is a very well-rounded crew, with a mix of medium range attacks and close combat. It is far from One-Dimensional, with constantly shifting options and very fun. A bit expensive to collect (You need 3-4 boxes + title box IMO). As a followup, I also suggest Neverborn Zoraida. She has a TON of movement shenanigans. With her obey mechanic, she can do basically anything. She's got other attacks like the super powerful Hex. Collecting all of Zoraida is a huge pain, but I'd suggest the following for a decent all-rounder list: Zoraida (and her doll) One of Bad Juju/Kurgan/First Mate Mysterious Emissary Widow weaver (to summon Stitched Together) Silurid with ancient pact Silurid with ancient pact or Serena Bowman As you can see, if you collect Zoraida this way, you have a lot of overlap with Dreamer. You'd need Dreamer models, Zoraida core box, mysterious emissary, and a silurid box (potentially converting one to First Mate as he is a nightmare to buy). So I think your friend may really enjoy these Neverborn crews, although as others have said, Arcanists really have that magic feel so may also be appropriate. There's lots of things to suggest here, but here's a wild consideration: Parker + Hamelin? Parker meets the shooting criteria better than most crews in the game. Not only do they use guns, but they also have Run and Gun which really turns gun threat ranges online. Being able to charge and shoot is huge. For combining movement tricks and shooting, no other crew trumps Parker. Hamelin on the other hand doesn't deliver on guns and speed, but uses blight tokens (technically not a condition as conditions don't use tokens, but I think this is what you're after) to just make people miserable. Some VERY dirty tricks like activation control with rats or using Hamelin to cancel triggers. Your opponents will go "your crew can do WHAT???" a lot. Both of these keywords share Benny (who is super good with Parker 2 and Hamelin 1), so there's some model crossover too Von Schill from the same faction may also suit their style of play. Otherwise, Guild matches the gun considerations, but they are REALLY poor on the movement front. They're more zone control - they choose a section of the board that is there's, and they control it (with guns or other brutality). Decent level of dirty tricks spread around the faction. If I had to recommend a crew here, I'd recommend Perdita 2 (although warning, she is a bit overpowered AND is called the Neverborn Hunter for a reason... Won't give fun games against Neverborn IMO). I also wonder if Bayou Zoraida would be a good fit here... Really good at making people miserable and has access to some sweet guns + obeys. But yeah if you can, just hop online and do some testing

Hopefully you can find people to make such a list. If not, I find the most successful way to do it is to make a shortlist of interesting masters or factions and ask for specific advice. Here's an example thread that worked really well at soliciting advice:

I don't know of anyone who could write that for more than a couple of masters in a way that would truly capture the masters. Malifaux has so much depth it is usually better to handle things master by master or faction by faction.

My experience of clocks is almost everyone hates them in theory and appreciates them in practice. For me, one unexpected benefit is I had MORE time to think when it mattered. I tend to play quickly, and so clocks showed me how much time I had left so I would pause to think. Overall my game probably took less time, but it meant I spent the time more efficiently.

Parker 2 is very competitive, but frequently uses Benny to make a million rats so may not be what you're after. I think a typical list for him is benny, mad dog, hodgepodge emissary, pearl, etc. He doesn't work well with his keyword as there's a bit of a rules bug with drop it and perdition (people just drop the markers where he can't see it and it does no damage). Dreamer 2 I think is very competitive, and personally I do pretty well with Dreamer 1. He plays very well with his keyword, and has many 8" range options. It isn't on the same level as say Parker, but you do a lot of 8 inch attacks to manifest nightmares. Although word of warning - playing a summoner like Dreamer can be very time consuming. If you want to avoid slow crews, maybe save this one until you know the game better.

Yeah, those were what I meant! We also number them (original is 1, title is 2). So McMourning 1 is considered quite weak, but I think he is just shy of competitively viable. McMourning 2 is considered pretty good, but I think has some limitations. Outshined by stronger options, and really does better if he emphasizes flexibility with hiring. Reva 1 is pretty strong, but not with her keyword IMO. She has some really awesome teleporting combos with Grave golem, bete noire, and bone piles. Reva 2 is awesome with her keyword, and summons lampads, one of the coolest looking models in the game. She is strong competitively in some situations, but very challenging because she dies so easily.

Just give them access to Yannic, and boom, sorted 🤣

I think Reva and McMourning hit tons of the boxes you're looking for... They have access to hit and run models, and have access to tanky models. And both are condition based. Reva has a good range ability. However, ressers in general are primarily melee. Someone like Parker is better for ranged hit and run. Also worth noting that Mcmourning and Reva aren't the most competitive masters, particularly if playing them in keyword (although their titles are a bit better in this respect).

I'm more comfortable with one. But also I feel Nellie 1 is great without her keyword (though Allison is fantastic). With slow news day, Nellie 1 provides all the distracted and stunned I need. I don't think Nellie 2 can easily stun one model, much less easily stun multiple models at once. EDIT: to be more clear. Nellie 1 can hand out conditions by herself, while Nellie 2 needs some assistance. Round 2, Nellie's false reality is super strong into all the severe, but my opponent is Nekima so that's not very useful xD

Hmm... I don't think you can use Flush with Cash after using Take the Hit now that I think about it.

And the actual game! Much longer than the pre-game analysis of course, but had some interesting twists and turns There's some difficulties at the start and the sound isn't ideal... But someone helped me recover the disaster that I created so it is okay xD

Here's my pre-game analysis explaining the list choices

Antique timepiece lets you just get a bit of extra value out of the cryptologist, whether that's getting a model to pass on their upgrade (perhaps because they were busy doing their own bonus like Ride With Me), or just a bit of extra value on doing the bladestorm again. Ancient Technology is a big part of the kit, but primarily it is to disrupt enemies that have start of activation effects. For instance this model poses a real challenge for Candy. It can also make a scrap by hitting a friendly with cursed translation turn 1. Not fantastic, but also not trivial.

When I first started I liked Flush with Cash on minions, but have grown to appreciate Flush with Cash (with a big cache) on important models critical to the gameplan. Harata with flush with cash is the clearest example of this IMO. The difference between Maxine 2 and Harata vs Maxine 2 with Flush Harata is pretty big IMO.

On the flip side, in tournaments if you limit OOKs & versatiles, you go from about ~50 viable masters in the game to probably about ~20. In my experience, whenever someone has organized a keyword tournament, people don't play lucius/molly/marcus/nellie/etc. They just play stuff like Yan Lo or Perdita with their strong keywords. Although I also find keyword play super boring. It's just the same crew over and over, whereas with my Lucius/Molly/Nellie/marcus/etc crews, every game is carefully tailored with a different crew list most games.

Wait. Wait! WAIT!!!! You know what would be WILD? If another model could generate the Gorgon's Influence instead of Molly. It would really unlock her gameplay, allowing her to actually use her attacks effectively without screwing over the rest of her crew. Giving Philip an ability like: Philip's Purpose: At the start of this model's activation, if a friendly Molly has not resolved The Gorgon's Influence ability this turn, this model may resolve that ability. If it does so, friendly Molly models may not resolve the ability this turn. Friendly Molly models may choose not to resolve their Gorgon's Influence ability when activating. Only problem is it makes Molly 1's crew suddenly click and start to work really effectively, but doesn't really address Molly 2 Also as written, it would allow using the ability with Molly 2 which is not right... WHAT IF WHAT WHAT IF???? Philip's Purpose: At the start of each turn, a friendly Molly may lose one of their abilities until end of turn. If they do so, treat this model as having that ability until end of turn. FUCK YES THIS WOULD BE SO GOOD!!!! What do you think? Am I on a sugar high from excessive cookie consumption again?