Ogid

This is an interesting point... If RES would be the ones being released, a lot of players would be surprised by all that faction has (avobe average defenses, good healing, good punch, good schemers, very good tech, several good mastes...) so I guess it'd be about learning how to play against the new faction. On the other hand RES is one of the best, if not the best, faction. However power level aside, RES it's a good example of a (mostly) balanced faction with several masters being good picks instead of the entire faction being carried by a few masters/models and it seems Explorers try to fit that mold, which is good. I guess in 2053, when all get perfectly balanced, this will be the best game ever! 😄 I really agree with this point, however another very important thing is learning how not to shot yourself in the foot when picking crews as several things in other factions hardcounter your crew just doing its thing (my point in the last post). Asuming equal skill, not everything will work into everything. The first step is knowing which enemy masters go well for the pool in play and which ones of your own get crushed by these, first step is obviously not picking one of those. Second step is looking from the remaining of your masters which ones plays well into that, then checking if any of their master is good against them and how likely is that to happen as a pick or counterpick after declaring the master. With all that considered, the remaining masters are your safe picks for the game (and even in this case players into mindgames and gimmicks can still surprise you). In this case, some examples of fails at crew declaration that could end badly for the NVB player: Nekima versus Jezra or not taking in count the Emissary and how the defensive upgrade works. Euripides versus Cooper. Titania into a good McCabbe/Cooper pool. Marcus going for blue beasts and facing Ngaatoro. Double spider builds (Dreamer/Marcus) versus Nexus (or even versus another master, an OOK Nightsilk Creeper can still kill the Bandersnatch in one activation easily even without Nexus helping with Omnipresent Influence) And several others that I'm not aware yet because as said before, I'm not familiar with that faction yet. Obviously the pool counts, if the counterpick will hinder the other player ability to score, then you might risk picking something with a hard counter; but picking something that can get hardcountered by something good in that pool is a fast way to put yourself in a massive dissadvantage that game. The bottom line is: know your enemy. Playing blindly into any faction will likely lead to a loss, specially when the other player knows what he is doing and has the perfect counters at his disposal.

I honestly haven't put the time to understand that faction yet (in fact, there are like 2 or 3 Master I haven't look at yet)... To be safe go with Dreamer or Zoraida, as I've seen some hardcounters for other crews. Mind they have good defenses between the Emissary, upgrades (a expensive one, but as NVB is usually quality of attacks over quantity, it has to go well) and some other models (the robot they can hide models inside for example); so rushing or removing high priority targets isn't going to be easy. Also as they also have access to Ill Omens+2, they could probably rush well lol. Between that and the anti-healing, Nekima is probably a terrible pick into that faction. There are a few powerful auras (take the hit, neurotoxins, distraction) in hard to remove models, plan around that; mind specially neurotoxins as it can get an overconfident master or Henchman killed if you are careless. About Titania... I wouldn't be so confident about her, Jessie "totally not Lara Croft" Halliday has good marker removal and at least both Cooper's and McCabbe keywords can ignore or get enough to ignore H2W. Also about Cooper, he may ignore demises and H2K from the other side of the table and he could do that with double to damage, so Savages are going to be a bad pick and you better hide Serena behind something versus him. Not sure how good the anti-condition is, if it's not that good maybe Pandora could be a possible pick into explorers. But again careful with Neurotoxins as it could make Candy much easier to kill than usual. About Marcus, mind there is a versatile henchman with an obey in that facion; any model with adaptive evolution could get its upgraded discraded easily; avoid those models and careful with spiders because it could give Nexus free models or extra movement for her own beaters. They look strong tbh, I hope it's just that the new stuff is always shinnier, not powercreep to sell more. I guess they have to had some weakpoints to exploit, but as I said I have yet to look deeper into that. Good luck!

Interesting list, it's more brawly and use different synergies that the ones I usually use, but it still have good schemers and I see the idea behind... Candy has to work well with the Intrepid effigy repositioning her and later the Emissary taking the nastier hits and she can support the Duet well with some healing, fast or removing stunned. And with 9SS both Candy and Hina can get in the thick of it.

Nightmare models are going to work very well with Dreamer of course, but they can bring a lot of things to other crews. Marcus loves WW+Bander for their mobility, WW is also good with Zoraida as a summoner, any crew could make use of Carver to counter Focused spam, Teddy+Kade are a good tandem... it's about looking at how they complement other crews. And the same with Qi and Gong... Youko doesn't have that strong synergy with her keyword tbh, the distraction aura is good for her, a few discard effects here and there and maybe Kunoichis beneficing from Distracted, but it's more a thematic crew than a very cohesive one mechanically. However those bring a LOT of things not present (or hard to find) on the faction. For example: The distraction aura (currently only in Pandora's totem or one Lucius' minion) is very powerful because in this faction we have way more damaging Wp effects than in TT, the tricky part is keeping the models with that aura alive because this faction is signifcatively worse defending models, but Puppets bring also Take the hit to the faction so that's another strong synergy. Kunoichis can stack Focused on particular models, something this faction struggle to do and also have Tools for the Job that is only avaliable with Lucius (and are not bad fending on their own). Geishas bring a stat 6 Lure on a 4SS model, we have good lures but have to pay premium for them (8-9SS) in most cases (or have in less than ideal models like Lilitu) so that's another good tool. Bill is a ruthless henchman with min 3, the only ruthless henchman in the faction is Carver (or Lucius' Agent who is way squishier) and also the only way to include a Cover aura in the faction (the Maurice one is worse because it needs to be activated first). Or Charm Warders, who are the only thing in the faction able to deal with Demises and that can snipe weak totems from the other point of the table with a bit of luck. I agree the key to play Hinamatsu is looking all those unique tools that she has and evaluate when those are more valuable than a Master (and denying yourself the possiblity of a double master plus giving all that info to the other player before he build his crew). It could be Bill for Ruthless and his aura versus an expected nasty gunline, it could be cheap Lures to disrupt some schemes, it could be Kunoichis for extra Focused and Disguised, it could be Kabukis for combat finesse + Aura... add to that the unique tools from Puppets (Armor, AoE healing, take the hit, all effigies/emissaries, good schemers...) and that's a lot of possible tools to choose from. That will probably end with a mixed crew from the 3 keywords as you say. But don't stop there! You can always go for mindgames and play mostly from one keyword even if that's an objectivelly suboptimal list, that doesn't matter if that's going to surprise the other player who will bring a list not prepared to deal with the style you used. This unpredictability is one of the best part of a leader with so many options; you don't have to bring the best list, you have to bring the best list for that particular game and sometimes the most optimal picks are more telegraphed and the other player will bring a crew better suited to deal with that (that's the reason I play mostly OOK Nephilims for example) A master is better and safer, but Hinamatsu is a good reactive pick if you expect some things the faction has bad anwers to (or to just play for fun), don't be afraid to experiment with the 3 keywords.

Yes, terrible mistake; We'll feed you to the tots if you don't win that XD. Now seriously. Being practical... I'd say Zoraida for game 1 and Titania for game 4. Other masters are more tricky to learn and could have more bad match ups (game 1 could be a Marcus, Hinamatsu or Lucius game for example). Those 2 masters could also work decently well in a crew full of versatiles, so even if you don't have that much time to practice, you can always go down that path. Note I'm not familiar yet with Euripides, so maybe one of those games would be awesome for him, idk. With Zoraida you have the advantage you can bring almost anything and she will be a force multiplier with her obeys; and she mixs well with the crews you already know, bring WW for a Sititched summoning engine or Carver+Rider if you expect a lot of Terrifying/Manipulative (or just go for Versatiles) for example. Game 1 has a lot of bottlenecks and as the bearer can't place; it's possible it'll be forced to walk through these; the stitcheds sumoning will be a pain for your adversary (and will make easy for you to control de center). Zoraida can also use her obeys to speed up your own bearer or send the enemy behind and her scheme runners could also open the more mobility based schemes for her; so I'd say she is solid here. For that game practice a bit with Zoraida + WW; the rider should be a good and safe bearer but Bad Juju or the Emissary could also do the trick if the other player has a lot of displacement (planted roots). Take a look at the Bokors and learn how to draw a lot of cards with them (attack them with the totem or a summoned grups for fast and suits). With Titania you have a few forests in that map which is very good for her; her models have also a lot of displacement on their abilities and that's good to move defenders out of the way and snatch the symbols; but it's also a killy crew if built that way. In this case it's harder to give you a draft without knowing who you are facing... but maybe you could try the Titania alpha strike opening here (Killjoy put 1 upgrade on Titania, 1 or 2 BBS for Focused, Rougarou pushes, Titania use the queen's command to make 1 underbrush hazardous and proceed to deal a crapton of damage to anything near of that; here you have a more detailed write up). That's a great option this game because: Rougarous with the push in the mele attack can be very useful later to get Symbols (charge, push, interact) Matures will be good defending your own Markers or can be used to score several things in the pool. Killjoy is slooow, but being Wedge make that less than an issue and there is one scheme based on controlling the center. Being wedge Titania won't have to be too far away from the crew, so it'll be more forgiving than usual (and the other player could even walk right into it if he doesn't know what she is capable of) Depending on what you are facing, consider Vasilisa to speed up the BBS growth, that model can be killed easily and being wedge that's a real risk (here you may see 2 lists based on that idea, one from LexLock and a version of that using Vasilisa that I've already tried; both good, but consider tweaking it and add Serena for a more stable crew). A more standard Titania list would also work here; but that opening is imho worth practicing. Note Titania needs SS to have kill potential, so you should go for at least 7-8SS imo (the new enforcer could make that less true, but I've no experience with him yet) Hope it helps!

I've not played the new effigy/emmisary yet, but they do seem a good fit for the crew. What do you pick in your list with Hinamatsu and in which kind of games do you pick her?

For getting the models I agree, I myself got the M2E Neph and Puppet cores just to get the models; but not so much for playing. DMH gives NVB 2 extra Masters and Collodi is a top tier one with strong synergy with the rest of the faction and not every faction got that (also I don't want to get used to play with some options I won't have later)

You can play only Puppets and be fine, however I recommend you to not neglect the other half of the crew; Qi and Gong are squishier in general but have a lot of utility and are worthy picks in some scenarios. You are putting yourself on an small dissadvantage by picking a henchman as leader, you better make use of all possible advantages. As you said, it's the versatility of the crew it's strengh. With Mv6 and Risky Maneuver Bunraku is more of an scheme runner than Stitched, but it gets outpunched by Stitcheds and outschemed and outlasted by Coryphees so I don't tend to take them a lot. The Df trigger is way better with Youko destroying the other player's hand so maybe this isn't the best crew for them. They are a cheapish source of Leverage (which gives activation control or ) and are sturdy enough to not get obliterated instantly if they try to Lure something big (unlike Geishas); plus Risky Maneuver gives them basically 3'' extra on the Lure. So maybe consider them if you need an scheme runner with a Lure + extra pass tokens generation or want more scheme power after including the Coryphees and don't want to run more pricy options like Spiders, Vasi+BBS or Vasi+Shadow effigy/doll. However I don't tend to hire a lot of stitcheds for what is worth, 1 from time to time; they are too slow and LD is better with more models able to do it (but again I don't pick this Crew for brawl-heavy pools; if you do, they could be a better fit for you). She is legit by herself, however I wouldn't pick her on her own as an scheme runner, for that she is way better paired with the Bandersnatch (she could do it, but it became much easier for the other player to know where she is going and to deny webs); but as a more combat oriented model. She needs a particular crew to shine without the Bandersnatch: a few nightmares to get stuffing tokens, constructs (drop scrap), a fat cache (she will want to be on the thick of it, but Terrifying is her only Df tech and she is a summoner), Wp effects to heal and models with good kill potential in case she set up a kill (Hinamatsu in this case could do the trick just fine) On her own she is better setting up kills with "Into the Dream Web" (just create a web, charge/attack something stonning that and you could even follow up with Terrorize for extra displacement if she didn't have to walk first to do it); replacing dead pupets (or stuffing tokens) for Stitcheds/Dolls with Careful Assembly (she is way better than Vasilisa for this as she can use SS) and using webs to block charge lanes and that kind of things. If you put the EoF on the Mysterious Effigy, he can use the webs for extra healing and to his spell, so that's another model to include with her. Charm Warders or Candy have a long range and mele Wp attack, so that's another decent pair for her. For this kind of crew consider Stitcheds and Teddy to do the Stuffing farming (Serena is worse for this, but if you include a BBS and H2W is not expected, she may help); Teddy it's not a Puppet but it's a construct so it goes well with the crew. I wouldn't go all in on this tho; for that you can just pick Dreamer, hire Hinamatsu and a few puppets and you'll have an stronger crew to brawl.

One crazy thing for OOK is the Archivist. Ill Omens+2 is very good to enable rushs... I feel like that thing should have restricted to the master/totem/Hive upgrade tbh... I can smell some obnoxious lists brewing. And those totems my god; 2'' engagement range alone make them quite good at controling other models; but let's add 8Wds and H2W on top of that on a keyword able to redirect damage; and 2 of them just in case lol. But I guess we'll see what Explorers can do with that in next tournaments.

Glad to help! Those are going to help a lot. An small trick with Wisps the first turn; during this one Marcus will usually hands out 6 mutations and use the bonus to move the models around him forward (3-4''); plan the first turn so Cojo after this push starts his turn surrounded by 3-4 scheme markers (for 4 you'll need something like 2 Wisps or 1 Wisps and 1 Doll for example; using the doll needs also that Myranda or other model walk first in the right direction). This won't happen by chance so I recommend you to put your models in a table and practice it a few times. When you get the chance, get also Rougarous and The Grootslang; those will also put a lot of work in that crew. An small shoutout for the Rougarou; expensive but very good model. They are fast, durable and has some mobility tricks that is all you need with Marcus. The damage potential is good but unreliable, Marcus lack the resource generation to make good use of it and even with defensive Mutations charging head on into the best enemy beaters will result on them being killed so try not to use them like this. I had some fun with double Rougarou agro lists when I started to play Marcus, but I moved away from that because it's a big gamble. The push in the mele attack is also very good; you can push models away from objetives using a mele attack (Symbols for example) and then just get them without needing to kill the defender (if you can't do this with their 2 actions, use Myranda or Marcus to position him or make him charge). And a cool trick, pushing models near of Wisp/Adze will give them Distracted, which again goes well to make the other player inefficient. The cat is more efficient moving and dropping scheme markers having also Jump, and the damage is a bit better; but it's glassier (so it can be killed earlier than the Rougarou) and the only way it has to remove defenders is killing them; something NVB Marcus cannot guarantee. If you pick him over a Rougarou, be sure to have a solid plan in mind. Primal domain works quite different in the table as it appears when reading the card for the first time; 6'' is nothing with the mobility of that crew and stuffing all your models around him to benefice from that aura doesn't fit his playstile, asume you will get 1-2 cards from that in most turns; but don't go out of your way to try to get more card draw... they should rename that ability "Primal backyard" or "Primal Flower Pot" XD Call of the wild being only 6 make playing him harder than other obey-based masters; specially as you'll want your beasts to end within 6'' of him to activate Accomplice most of the time; you'll get used to. Asume in most turns you'll expend 1 action with him walking or charging just to get in range (and mind you can use the bonus action to position models to be in range after he moves/charges). The bonus is also important when attacking with Cojo, an engaged Cojo can't charge so use it to disengage without wasting normal actions (in case one of your attacks failed, so he couldn't push the other model out of engagement range or the other player engaged him with something during the enemy activations and he starts Marcus' activation already engaged). And about keeping Cojo alive that you asked before, healing helps. You can heal him 2 by putting a mutation on him with Marcus with the Mend trigger (this may cost you a SS tho); then move/attack with him. Accomplice into Cojo and attack 2 more times (if you are lucky you may get another ram trigger in the first attack), but if you need extra healing you may discard the Horns upgrade during the last attack to buy the ram trigger for another 2 healing. Or Accomplice instead into Myranda for 2 more heals if he is real hurt. Doing this you may heal Cojo 4-5 Wds reasonably consistently (even 8 if Myranda is quite close); you can't face tank everything and there are nasty alpha strikes and back to back activatiions out of there that can take him out without being able to respond; but if you play well your cards, you should be able to keep him on the table versus most things (at least long enough to win the game, that's it). And of course, don't be afraid to throw Marcus or the Jackalope into enemy models to keep your more squishy beasts out of harm just a bit longer. Those models help but they aren't 100% needed to play her; Marcus bonus action move Chimeras and beasts so she is getting close to a free movement each turn by just being near of Marcus. Also she has a to defense and give that to chimeras (not beasts tho) around her; that's a godsend in a crew so card hungry and is one of the things that may make Marcus and Cojo durable. Her healing is good and that's needed to not start losing models too early so the other player can just go score. Also if you activate her before Marcus the first turn, you may have 2 mutations the first turn or 3 by turn 2. She has a LOT of utility in her shapeshifting. For mobility for example, if you don't fear for her life and don't need the buff to defense around her, you may shapeshift into a Rougarou or a Rattler at the end of her activation to get Deadly Pursuit and swap back into Myranda at the start of her next activatioin (that's around 7,3'' free movement taking in count the placements at a cost of her bonus action one turn and a card the next one). Be careful with this as she can be sniped easily in beast form. I think she has been in all my Marcus games so far; if I take Serena to support, she is going in as a Shapeshifter. I usually take both, the Bander can also work on her own, but becoming much more predictable. The above combo is good, but it's important to choose wisely the targets and turns; they won't have the damage to kill henchmans with that and the retaliation can kill one of them easily; versus scheme runners, supports and glassy models in general is good. However I take both to score something (Symbols, Breakthrought, Take Prisioner...), hunting things depends on if the other player isolates something worth killing but it's not my primary goal for that pair (for 16SS, there are better things to bring for damage tbh). If Marcus is going to try this in turn 2 it's important to put only 2 mutations max during that turn (probably also stoning the swift action trigger to not having to cheat it) or he can weaken his hand too much for this to succeed. There is also some compromises to make: For damage Horns + Serrated is the best pair of mutations; but this is full glass cannon. The balanced one is Horns + Armor (Camo could be legit in some scenarios); but this one make the attack hand intensive because her targets are usually far away to put adversary on them with other model. The cheap one is Horns or Armor if you want to put the double mutation on other beast during that game. Horns is also a mutation with other good holders that enables agression and the bander can't discard it so there is an oportunity cost here worth considering as picking bander for this means that a Rougarou with Horns (or a surprise Rougarou thanks to Myranda) is out of the question if Cojo is also in the game.

I hope you are enjoying the crew so far! About your questions: 1 The best tools for this are either Lures (Wisps or Adze) or WW stonning "Into the Dream Web" (which goes well into The Scorpious for the Neurotoxin aura for a real threat); lots of ranged attacks aren't a Marcus (or in general a NVB) thing so that's not very viable unless you go for a very unortodox build (which It's probably 100% better with Lucius) 2 Marcus' models even with mutations are squishy; they have the potential to hit hard if you have luck or the right cards but they can't take retaliation. Positioning should be his main defense, also try to pick the right models and defensive mutations for the match and pick him in the right pools; he will have a very rought match if the pool isn't good for him. 3 Keep him near of Cojo as that's the model that he can use to deal damage most efficiently (and use Wisps/dolls to give Cojo a decent stack of Focused the first turn); use him to move a model and then accomplice into it for extra attacks or to bypass dangerous areas, put serrated on him and spread Adversary, engage him with enemy models to keep them away from your squishy beasts... 4 Myranda is usually better near of the center of the board, with Marcus and Cojo. To move her you have some tricks, Rougarou can push her, Cojo can also push her, Wisps/Adze can lure... it's a bit harder but she supports very well the crew, it's worth the hassle. And she can also use the call of the wild into accomplice. 5 Uff, very general question... First use your mobility to score as fast as possible, and then use your models to delay the enemy as hard as possible. NVB beasts are great for this, Grootslang can go score and then lair back to defend, the spiders are super fast and can be one turn scoring and the next defending, Wisps have 2'' engagement range and an annoying aura to defend markers... NVB Marcus (for me) is about using all those tricks. Also include Serena or EM (on rabbit) if you are against conditions (specially stunned); those may shut him down quite well.

I've played the Hinamatsu version and it's legit; as @Maniacal_cackle mention I tend to ramble about those things (I wouldn't say expert haha, but ty) so here you have some thought food : My initial post asking for feedback from players: Hinamatsu, is she a worthy leader? - The Neverborn - Wyrd Forums (themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com) And here a most recent post with more curated info after playing the crew: https://themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/151661-hinamatsus-strengths/?do=findComment&comment=1229526 And I also think she is a serious candidate for the best Henchman leader. She isn't as good as a master, but the versatility and the out of faction tools make up for it when picked in the right pool. I tend to pick her for more mobility based pools, the crew is decent for brawling but I think there are better things in the faction for that. Coryphees are very good schemers, for only 1SS as OOK tax you may also have WW/Bander pair in that crew and this is one of the best crews to include the Vasilisa/BBS to grow a Mature, which is another efficient schemer. The Qi and Gong part has also interesting models, I like specially the Geisha and the Kunoichi as 2 cheap support characters; Bill is solid and there are possible shenanigans with the Distraction aura; but you can go full puppets. Hope it helps!

Because it's Guild obviously, GUI is supposed to be bad! (👈 joke, lower your pitchforks) I'm guilty of this; this is probably why I enjoy so much gimmicks and playing the underdogs tbh.

I'm interested in this part, I already got most of my Savages but I've not got the time to put them in the table yet. I could really use some curated info to make the first games easier. So... when to use them? Which are their strongest pools (deployment+strategies+schemes)? Versus which factions/masters is better going for other picks? How would you rate each model and how often do you pick them? How do they work versus the top dogs (Dreamer, Dashel, Colette, Misaki, Asami...)? Any versatile/OOK you like to pick with Savages? Ty in advance!

A highlight for this one is the Distraction aura, very powerful. ARC attacks to Df mostly so not sure about the OOK potential of it, but Colette and her girls could make good use of it (and even the constructs, even with stat4 the Dazzling Flourish of the Mannequin will succeed most of the time versus a model affected by that aura) Also Ngeri Haka seems legit with Showgirls/Angelica (it'd be also good for Colette, but she doesn't need that much help fending on her own), it'd be interesting to see how those works now. Theoretically also with Cassandra's Finesse, but needing to activate the two models so there is more room to attack her before she is fully protected by a to duels that cannot be ignored and only versus mele attacks. I like it, a good attemp to give more tools to the living part of the crew that was seeing less play.

Lol, just looked at it, that one has a lot of potential... it can even replace revealed ones, so you can pick one easy to score the first half and then replace it with another easy to score the second half or if you get your vendetta model blown up the first turn isn't gg.

About this, I need to look at most of them yet, but so far the one that catched my eye was Mrs Nagatoro's Neurotoxin. I've used that aura with Marcus and that is a very powerful aura that can get Masters and Henchmans killed if used right; that thing on a versatile henchman that can be kept alive throwing SS at him is scary. And on a sidenote, that obey with Bully on a 9SS model is going to make most of beasts from the blue part of Marcus unplayable versus this faction.

I agree with this part, and that's why I'm not sold with him as an scheme hunter, all of these will be more useful either against the main enemy crew or in the enemy part of the board; enemy scheme runners would be away from the core and diving into my half of the table. The blessed is a good comparison; it's maybe playstile but I've always used her as a tanky scheme runner with some punch if needed (with Horns upgrade) more than for chasing things into my half of the table. It could be playstile tho, he has the tools for being at least usable at that but I'm not convinced for him in that role... However the blessed is better equiped for wandering on its own than this one, killing a living model will net her up to 6 healing; she has an onslaught trigger (better versus isolated targets) and it's faster considering Deadly Pursuit; the Dawned has instead his useful auras and AoE attack with utility. It seems fair, ty guys!

It's not helpless on his own, but I don't think that's his strenght, maybe he could go for the kill of an exposed model but I don't see him as a hunter. The heal on kill aura would be way easier to trigger setting up the kill with the other models than him just 100 to 0 models, the ping damage aura is way easier to trigger with all the ping healing from Frozen VIgor and Cyclops than from him getting kills. That jump, focus, charge would be on average 4 (or 3) damage so most scheme runners has a fair chance to live trough it and it'd be quite bad versus H2W scheme runners (he has min damage 2 and no flurry so it's not as good as Archie for that). Most scheme runners worth its salt have decent defensive tech, I don't think he can consistently remove most threats fast enough... it can get messy with the runner surviving and diving into friendly territory and you'll get a 8SS model chasing a 5-6SS model in a place where it can't score at that point.

Looks legit. I don't see him chasing enemy scheme runners tho; he got the mobility but not the damage, without Focused that damage track isn't good and all his auras and abilities benefice from being near of others. But with Leap he could be reused as an scheme runner himself in latter turns and that 2'' push in the attack is great to grab objectives so it seems versatile. It's worth to note that Chronicle plus Lyssa's Mysery start to rack up the ping damage of this crew. It's good to get an ability to drop ice markers without needing or the master (but again that ability benefice a lot from Focused to get the ); it may help to get Gerions some extra healing or reinforce some model putting a pilar near of them; and the staggered play is good for Lysas and Puppets. A question tho, that "instead of dropping the " means he can't drop ice pilars attacking friendly models? It's also a beast, so useful for some casual Marcus double master play.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Double-Cross yet, that is basically NVB Emissary aura (and simmilar to Pride's also) in any model. It gives a big advantage cheating, useful for mind games (cheat a low card to see if the other player overreact and cheat something good; which is extra painful with the other ability of the upgrade), sneak a high impact trigger or to make defending against that model harder in general. That is going to be good on their masters or models able to spam attacks.

Glad to help! Mind there are masters that even if they can't work as well as the top dogs in all situations are very good in some particular circunstances and knowing your faction OOK/Versatile picks helps to empower those (and it could also pick other players by surprise as they won't be as used to play against that). I've got not enough experience with those two to know where they will shine so I can only offer a few ideas; but experimenting is always fun, good luck!

Unique stuff in masters is good and gives it niches; I choosed that option because it gives the upgrade to models that can usually attach it so the range for unintended stuff is lowered. The upgrades in this dual faction master are a big deal of how the crew works; so eliminating that would be good to be able to balance both sides without neglecting one or making the other one OP. I also thought about the attuned in a mutation upgrade, but I'm not sure if that'd work that well to give both sides of the crew a simmilar starting point to balance. A master with so much mobility as this one is hard to balance well because it can go from underpowered to opressive real fast; adding to that the huge difference the upgrades make doesn't leave that many choices to try to leave both sides in a simmilar spot. What I also like is that could give it more ways to differentiate from other strong masters dominating his good pools like Colette or Zoraida; being able to get +2 initiative in ARC for some strategy for example. But you are probably right, I still have hope this get fixed; but being realist this is probably going to be a neglected keyword the rest of ME3. I like some of those suggestions; I've not included those because I think the above are more needed (the totem one for example is to give it more possible builds as Cojo+Myranda are usually an stapples, the SS for other models is limited and with how limited he is, he could really use a few extra SS more in the totem), but I see the reasoning behind yours: Making easier to integrate the low costs beast would be good because sometimes the are left outside of the crew for not being worth it a master AP to attach the upgrade, I've been there. As long as this doesn't make the more expensive models needing to reach summoning levels TN to attach mutations it'd be fine; or just give the swift action for free if it targets models with 6SS costs or lower for example. Adaptive evolution on some upgrades would be nice too, but this would make the crew even more vulnerable to obeys (so... maybe also changing a bit the wording for only friendly controled?). Losing a mutation in a beast is as bad or worse that gaining a Flicker token with Asami's Onis, and yet Marcus is fully exposed to this. It's true you can always pick around it with models without that ability, but it's yet another area where this master got the short stick. But you are right, we could let this kind of talk for the other threads and keep this just for NVB Marcus crew suggestions/feedback... I think this one was the last one used for that: Marcus Dreams - The Arcanists - Wyrd Forums (themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com)

Feel free to ask! Wrapping your head around the mutations is a bit hard at first, but it'll become second nature soon. I'll try to help you out: In general in this faction these are my favourites: Cojo: Horns + Something defensive (usually wings) Bandersnatch: Armor + Horns (it can work with only 1 of these) Jackalope: Armor and/or Serrated Rattler: Armor (Serrated also decent) Scorpious: Armor or Serrated; but any other one goes also well Cerberus: Wings + Camo. Adze/Wisps: Camo Grootslang: Wings, Armor or Serrated Bear: Wings, Horns or Serrated... but anything works in this one tbh. Rougarou: Horns + any of the 3 defensive (you can skip Horns if you only want him for utility not damage) Vogel: Camo or Wings Beast Within: Wings, Armor or Serrated; Camo is decent when switching between forms each turn and Horns is also decent but my least favourite. Initiates: 2 Ofensive or Horns+Defensive into 1 defensive (Armor if engaged!) after the combo. Paul: Camo or Wings but this can work without one if the other player cannot reach him easily. In general: Armor goes well in models that like to stay near of the other model (Rattler for constriction, Jackalope for annoyance or to redirect damage and Bander because the model with the upgrade can always attack her) or models that are going to stay in the thick of the battle. Wings goes well in ranged models, models with pushes in their attacks (so they can attack and end outside of enagaement range) and in mele range 2 models when fighting mele range 1 models so they can always jump into engagement range to control them. This also help with mobility. Camo good in ranged models, models that like to keep their distance (this include all those 3/4SS beasts) and mele model with Pushes (same reasoning than above). It combines very well with the Shimmering Lights aura of Adze/Wisps. Horns: Good in something with good moderate and severe damage track (2/4/6) and the one model with built in mask. Serrated: Good in sturdy models that can go in first to give Adversary and can survive reasonably well without other defensive mutations, models with Pouncing Strike or that can attack outside of their turn (Marcus, Myranda, Jacakalope, Grootslang, Rattler, The Beast and The Scorpious). Adze has built in rams, but it's too fragile to make good use of it. You can double mutation for empowering one role, to put it into something easy to understand: Duelist/1v1 annoyance (Armor + Camo): Go 1v1 and reduce the interferences of other models; good for things like the Rattler or the Jackalope. Tank/Area annoyance (Armor + Wings): Usually in a range 2 models that will try to engage as many models as possible. Groostslang is a good model for this for example. Roge/Alpha strike: (Wing + Camo) Nimble models that doesn't like to be attacked: Saber, Adze. After getting Horns this pair will be very good on Rougarou or Cojo, but this is also risky because losing that many upgrades at once hurts. Berserker (Horns + Serrated): Good for damage but very risky, could work on the most sturdy models (The beast, Bear), Initiates or the Bandersnatch in some circunstances (usually needing WW to set up for her). Not my favourite combination. Speaking from experience, it's important to separate ARC and NVB Marcus: In ARC SS cache make Cerberus a VERY different animal, that model has min damage 3, onslaught and Jump; that means it is all set up from the offensive point of view. Giving him Wings, Camo make him hard to reach, but a few good focused hits and he is gone. Just like that he can deal reasonably consistent 6 damage, it could reach higher but Onslaught needs either a card from the hand or ditching one of the mutations it needs badly to survive. But enters SS cache, now he has also damage reduction so killing him is way harder and can buy the Onslaught trigger, that can rack up to a staggering 12-15 damage per turn. This combination is even better because SS cache gives itto the duel when using an SS (which makes the card hungry Marcus not that card hungry and make it able to bypass things like Manipulative, SC or Distracted) and it also generates SS when it kills (and miners can also generate more SS). And on top of this is a model with good movement and Leap, so it's a good schemer on top of a killy model. But leaving the cat aside, in general SS cache gives this crew the equivalent of Henchmans; which is great to make those models reliable and also make harder for the enemy to kill them, which also makes the mutations on them even more effective. NVB has some damage combinations, but far away to be as good and reliable as the above or being able to put them on the equivalent on henchmans. With that in mind you can see why brawling with NVB Marcus isn't my favourite option. This faction lacks the tools for it. What his faction has is a lot of mobility in the beasts, pushes and condition play; so NVB Marcus needs to play those strenghts, move fast around the board, debuff and engage enemies to slow them down while you score, push enemies away from markers to score/deny scoring (Rougarous/Cojo/WW) and win the game that way (that's why I said it feels more like Colette). You can definitely build a combat Marcus, and it'll work sometimes unless you are facing the good combat crews; but I haven't find it a consistent way to win with him. It's very glassy and can be hard countered with too many things; as long as your adversary knows Marcus a bit and how to punish him, those builds folds like paper in my experience. Cojo is an important beast because it's the only beast able to be commanded to charge more than once per turn, has a lot of damage potential with the Focused stacking (plus Horns and Wings) and utility. It has and ability to remove scheme markers, can also throw other models in position/displace enemies. Even if damage shouldn't be the main focus with Marcus, having 1 model able to put a good amount of damage to enemies that carelessly close the gap is important to make the other player think a bit before engaging, that makes him lose time and you can also make some areas dangerous to avoid him just walking over your crew and kill whatever he wants. An stacked Cojo is more about threat than alpha strike because as you need both Marcus and him, you need the enemy to come to you to deal enough damage (you could use Lures or WW for this; but again, the trouble will come to you on its own, no need to rush it) Myranda is a key support, she gives healing to keep your model count and mutations on the table as long as possible, but has also call of the wild + Accomplice that is the core of Marcus play. She can take a model make it walk (or double walk if she is ahead) and then Accomplice into that model to bypass dangerous areas controlled by your adversary. Plus the shapeshifting gives her a lot of utility (Lure in Adze form, some damage and a push in Rougarou form, Slow in Grootslang form...), but mind that makes her vulnerable; stack defensive mutations on her (minimum of 2) if you want to use her for this and probably include Serena to handle the healing. Note this is only my experience, so feel free to experiment yourself other builds and combinations. I'm not done yet experimenting with him myself!

I think Marcus need a few tweaks to stop being underpowered and that's definitelly one of them; his keyword can't adapt to all situation and the Master deny tech picks for how badly they integrates in the crew. My top 3 needed changes for Marcus would be: Chimera (and beasts?) models in his crew can take upgrades from both factions. Without this either ARC is OP or NVB is UP, and it would give him something very unique in both factions. Change his call of the wild for an action that can move non-beast and let the beast charge or attack WITHOUT IT BEING A TRIGGER. The master being totally shut down by Stunned or any anti charge tech is too harsh and this would let more models than Cojo being useful for combat near of Marcus. The Jackalope stops being a totem, Marcus' cost is reduced to 12 or 13 (he is quite bad he on his own, and this will also promote some double master play with masters with beast in their keywords) and he gets 8-10SS extra to expend on beasts instead of getting a totem. Other 2 needed changes but not that high priority Give Marcus a Purification trigger somewhere, the best place would be in the action that replaces his Call of the Wild. Myranda aura works on Chimera AND beasts and her bestial form upgrade gives her Attuned. And 1 nerf: Sabertooth loses Onslaught for another mask trigger (Pouncing strike, Shove aside...). This model scales too well with SS cache to the point of making most other models redundant.