Gonna piggy back on this thread.
I'm new to the game (not to miniature games) and have been doing 35 stone games to get used to the game play. Last game I was running the usual 4 of Shen/Yu/2 Students, along with 2 High River, 1 Low, and 1 Wandering. I ran against an Ortega crew with Perdita + totem, Frank/Nino/Santiago, and a hunter. Here were my take aways from it.
1) Chi is extremely strong and plentiful. Consistently spending turns 1-2 with monks nearby Sensei Yu builds chi quickly, and helps turn bad cards in hand into gas. Even when saving it for defense flips, forcing your opponent to burn cards in hand to win makes even the students extremely resource intensive to kill.
2) Shenlong is absurd on his own. He's more than capable of dropping a Henchmen tier model a turn while being tough as nails. Stances are amazingly versatile and he fills any role in your crew when your guys start dropping.
3) The Low River monk blew me away. With bringing Sensei Yu back from the brink twice and the auto healing aura he made up his 4 points cost easily.
4) The Aspiring Students are a kill on sight for your opponents. "Following in his Footsteps" gives you early game mobility to move your monks into position and keeps these guys dangerous into the middle turns. Case in point for this game, a well timed charge with High River Style on Shen equalled out to a total of 6 damage and burning 2 on Perdita. Not bad for a totem.
I'm very excited to keep at it and filling out the monk models, Thunder Archers especially.