Wakefield

What I've seen from a lot of comments is people using Anya in the middle of the Scrum or running Syndicate like it's a brawler crew. It most definitely is not. I like hazardous stacking and just taking Surveyors to even 'threaten' hazardous stacking. Since Anya doesn't have 'real' defensive tech, the best way to give her defense tech is to discourage things from going after her. She outpaces Surveyors far too quickly to actually use them as bodyguards, but if she and a Surveyor and Sovereign are over on a flank that can give her time to get her schemes done before going after some squishy backline model. In my Anya experience, her Hazardous damage stacking is one of the best parts of her kit. She's designed to disrupt opponent's plans. She has a lot of access to three things to do this: 1) Stunned 2) Hazardous Terrain 3) Union Buster and other Forced Movement If someone's got Take the Hit or protection set up, Union Buster lets you move or remove that. If someone's got models in the way, Bleeding Edge with a King and a Mask from Price is a great way to force out high cards or bleed someone for 2 or 3 or 4 damage depending on if you have a surveyor set up or not. Going up against a Horseman? Just charge Anya in and keep Stunning Strike on them to stop them from getting off their Revels. Anya plays best when she's playing HER game and stopping the opponent from playing theirs. Her speed and her ability to always get the triggers you want is unrivaled in the game and creates a LOT of spaces where your opponent will just have no valid options to deal with you. That being said, she's fragile. Her whole crew is paper and Price of Progress can make it even softer. I have a whole dissertation on Anya I made on the Wyrd discord that I'm reshaping into a tactica and will post at some point this weekend.

Congratulations on your first Anya. Yannic is a support piece to balance out the Price of Progress. She wants to play midfield and offer focus to Riflemen or Sovereign if he's engaged, for a card. She also has Daze and a blast on her shotgun, but the blast is a little unreliable at stat 5 without focus. Remember if you don't need to consolidate she can toss a card to Focus up with Shouting orders. I take 1 Rifleman and 1 Operative if I'm wanting the minions. Operatives have so much card draw potential that it's insane, so it's great to take them along. They're very squishy compared to Riflemen. Riflemen are great for Flank or forward deployments where you can Walk Focus Bonus then Shouting Orders to draw a card and crack off two Stat 5 focused attacks with threats to daze, or one stat 7 with gimmicking the trigger. Finally, yes. Sovereign is hilariously hard to kill if you also take the Emissary or Brawler to pull attacks off of him. Operatives help to refill your hand afterwards and Riflemen can easily add another card to help keep him safe. Just don't let him get near Armor Piercing.

Updated the list, going to be working on this more over the next few days, but the basic information is more updated.

Once I have more games in with Newko I will update the forum post with thoughts. Initial experiences: Always go for Crow on Riddles if possible. Quick Reflexes is also good, very good if there are multiple threats coming in, but stoning for Crow gives a lot of pressure. We Own You is solid, but it always takes 2 AP on a model that has no distracted on it and setting up for distracted later is a pain. It is almost always more AP efficient to hit models that are currently focused to remove it and potentially add one distracted than it is to load up targets with distracted first because an ally can just end the condition or Assist and burn an AP to remove distracted. If your opponent does not have any forms of instant condition removal, this can still be a good way to burn AP from models that want to be doing something else. Queen's Gambit is one of the best things on her card, but it requires a stone or a mask on an opposed duel with the enemy, spend it wisely. I used to take 7 stones with her, I still feel that's an accurate number. Oh, and her melee attack is just a flat upgrade. And it's still never going to be used. Additionally, she is far better as a second Master now, particularly in crews with Executes such as Misaki.

I get it. You're better than me. I won't post anymore or waste my time trying to play a Master that isn't worth it.

I, again, never claimed to know anything about Jack Daw. I said it looked like Youko would have a favorable matchup. Charm Warders shut down Demise. Lust penalizes card draws, Youko can easily lock down a Guilty as a target to use discard effects with their low willpower. It's going to be a balancing act. Malifaux 3ed is remarkably balanced. I think Jack and Youko are good in their own ways and the best part about Malifaux is you pick your list for each pool and each match. I also don't think that any particular Master or Keyword is dramatically underpowered compared to anyone else. Wyrd did a good job where at a casual level pretty much anyone can have fun and play well with any keyword they set their mind to. Tournament Play is Tournament Play and the meta of where a player comes with is going to shift with each Gaining Grounds. Youko has numerous advantages in being both TT and having a good in on Corrupted Leylines and Public Enemies, having a killy crew with good movement shenanigans to dictate an engagement and kill specific targets or punish models carrying the Lodestone or Bounty Points from Public Enemies. I suppose it's clear we won't see eye to eye on this and so I'll leave it at that. Sorry to OP for hijacking the thread with posts about Youko strategy.

I don't play Shenlong. And I never claimed to have played against Daw. I just am stating I think it would be a potent matchup because of the handsize reduction and the variety of tools that Qi and Gong can bring against him. I've never played against 3 ed Daw. He's not in my meta. I think we've gotten a bit off the original topic anyway. I'm certain you can create a new thread to continue affirming that Youko is not worth running. I find her fun and potent and believe with enough practice she can be useful in plenty of Pools.

It's a lot of things. Because you can also utilize it to disengage or maneuver and enemy into a bad position or scoring position for yourself. My favorite is utilizing it with Hinamatsu and forcing an opponent to take a disengage which then triggers wicked. You can also use it on folks that aren't engaged to drop schemes in bad spots that may prevent scoring. Or pick up a scheme marker. Additionally pass tokens turn her models into near guaranteed damage so you're not only getting two pass tokens which she uses for accuracy but also the action on top of that. Seems like it would be very easy for charm warders and Youko to drain Jack's hand and set up for Bill to just two shot Jack.

Yeah, Jack Daw is a good Master, but he's in Outcasts and I tend to play TT so I don't play as him. I couldn't give an informed opinion on him.

1) It also works with other pass tokens that you get from other sources. Summoned enemy models, Blackmail, or her totem. Additionally, yes, preventing your opponent from scoring is one of the major points of the game, however, if your opponent is deliberately delaying their scoring until turn 4 or 5 they're just opening themselves up for you to stop them or potentially telegraphing their schemes to allow your hitters to snipe folks out. 2) Bill is a tech piece not a beater. Min 3 is solid, scheme removal is solid, his mobility is top notch because of his triggers and his Heroic Intervention as well as conditional fast. He's not there to wipe things out, he's there to cause damage, protect Youko, and conditionally remove schemes. 3) Youko is soft, yes, however, your opponent will often have very limited resources in their hand to cheat fate, or be unable to cheat fate at all. If they tend to focus, use Riddles in the Dark to stack distracted on their beaters and force enemies to use precious actions to either assist it off, or they're at a double negative to swing on Youko. The only way they're getting around that is by focus, having an inbuilt positive, or focus and stoning. She can also always stone and tends to run heavy on cache because of a large number of triggers that she needs. 4) A lack of tactical actions is a problem, but not having a tactical action doesn't immediately make her unplayable. 5) Youko is the single highest 'discard a card' model in the game. From her Bonus which forces up to two discards if your opponent has not revealed a scheme, which also gives you knowledge of your opponent's hand, to Blackmail allowing you to either gain two pass tokens which let you add accuracy or gain activation advantage, or even slip in an Obey, she can single handedly drain someone's hand and remove their ability to Cheat Fate and move cards from their hand into the Conflict. Also, if you're at a negative, you cannot Cheat Fate, which means even one or two distracted on a target can easily make your opponent rely just on the flip. 6) She's a brand new Master in a meta that's been stifled by Coronavirus. Folks can't really get together reliably and play. Her models also aren't all out yet. Meta is also dependent on region. I've gotten some great wins with her locally. I feel like I most of the time have tools in her kit to at least tie if not win any matchup I go into and I feel she's a fun, solid Master to play with. Is she the ideal pick in every scenario? Absolutely not. But that's why I play Faux. I counter pick or play Masters whom are good into certain factions or pools. If I know my opponent likes summoners, I'll reach for Youko to drain their hand and try to force them into losing that high card to get the clutch summon out. If it's a scheme heavy pool or something like Corrupted Ley Lines, I'll declare Youko to control where my opponent's Lodestone carrier is. She's not a generalist like Lucas McCabe or Shenlong or Dreamer.

Bunraku are great scheme runners in keyword. Risky just barely let's you scheme bonus scheme because of the base being an inch long. They're not as good as Hucksters for sheer mobility or Scheming but the lure makes them useful for repositioning your own models as well. Youko is a crazy Master to pick up because she asks a LOT of your game knowledge. There's a ton of knowing when to stack distracted or go for larger things. I'm glad you're giving her a shot. Condi removal is a huge pain for her. One Tanuki can do a lot to keep her safe. Kaeris is also just a bad matchup. As are shockwave heavy crews since they dive right through her Serene and Distracted shenanigans.

Youko is weak overall with middling defense tech because she has to be. She fundamentally plays the game differently from other people. Pre nerf Tara shows that activation manipulation is key to scoring when you want how you want to and Leverage does that. Cody had insane plays late in turns because he could pick and choose where and when Tara and the Nothing Beast could activate. Same theory different execution. If your opponent tries to scheme late to counter it then instead Youko has a bonus action you can stone for to force two discards at random. Bill can remover scheme markers non linearly or deal irreducible damage. She has short range and no tactical actions because she needs to be or else she's a range 10 model who just tells your opponent that they cannot guarantee anything and cheating is entirely off the table. They have to hope flips go in their favor and they no longer can easily meet TNs. Youko is fine. I love playing her and exploring her weird interactions and tech. I have never felt that Miss Hamasaki is underpowered or needs a massive buff. And I've played her for a LOT of games now. In my opinion she fills a niche against Summoners and crews that need discards to function. She's not as optimal in all scenarios as, say, McCabe or old Shenlong, but she is a fun and interesting take on the design space.

Oh hello. Youko Hamasaki player here. Blackmail and We Own You are turbo obeys. It's short range because no matter what you do she still gets an advantage off the action. That's the point. She owns hand pressure. Most crews don't have huge abilities to draw cards. She also has action manipulation with pass tokens. Blackmail is not the best action in the game. But it can be. It's significantly easier to land than an Obey sans the short range, but her crew is full of lures and neg willpower auras. You can use a ton of good bonus actions and just use them to do shenanigans. It also has no TN. Unlike Obey. Which may not come up ever but. You know. It's also a two card draw option as well off an opponent if they want to stop the over. Is she as good as Lucius? I think that question is unfortunately malformed. They are two different crews entirely. Youko is a control caster who focuses on debuffs and hand manipulation while Lucius is extra ap for his crew. It depends. And that's the beauty of Malifaux. Also. I'm 8-12 with Youko now. Hard learning curve but I've gotten out the win semi reliably now.

It's McCabe. Just...just saying. It's McCabe. He's a monster. Fast. Fun. Good in almost any scenario. Not that I'm biased. But I'm biased. He's more fun just to pick up and play into any scenario.

And she's interesting! I like the additional way to get Scrap, makes card draw a bit more reliable with the crew and can let you do it off Blown Apart from Sidir. I'm gonna have to give her a shot with my usual McCabe nonsense. Will definitely take her as a tech piece but kind of want to use her more reliably in certain matchups. Being able to counter-scheme and scheme makes her seem like a prospector almost from Outcasts on steroids.