sad.trumpet

Yeah, this actually helps a lot. I guess it is expected to a degree in a game with such huge variety of models. I need to start somewhere though. After looking at the doc, I will probably go with Lord Cooper, Shen Long, Viktorias or Perdita (and switch to 2 when possible). I'm a bit afraid Ophelia will get nerfed. I guess with so many games and winrate I should also be interested in Von Schtook huh? I dislike his model though and rezzers in general.

Thank you all for the input. I might have not been clear enough with my original post but the thing that really interests me is the relative power of the Master, then their complexity and at the very end the thematics. This means I would have no problem playing lets say TT or Neverborn as long it is one of the strongest options but less complex than other strong ones. Now this is mostly true in any competitive game but as someone else have mentioned, when the individual skill is evenly matched, small imbalances in power can cause huge differences in results. If we will like this game, we plan to stay in it for a while, long enough time I assume to get into higher level of play, where such imbalances would matter. Yeah, I am talking relatives here, obviously most minature and card games are pretty complex in their own ways. I am not looking for a silver bullet but there must be some crews that are "harder" and some that are "easier" just coming from variance. @Azahul Eh I dunno about Bass. He looks cool and I like the theme of his crew but just on paper he feels a bit underpowered to me. For example I look at his Stoic Nod action which would be handy as a quick action considering his crew has synergy with healing. It's not quick though and wasting Master action on heal 1/2/3 does not seem to be worth it. Meanwhile Lord Cooper, brought up by another poster, has the same action (difference in base skill of 1) as a quick action that also has a trigger AND gives focus for some reason?? I understand it's a trade off for not using the powerful reload quick action but still just looks wrong to me on paper. @MetalPixel I actually did and I really like the tought of a bandit crew but I have similar qualms with him as I have with perdita and bass (not sure if strong enough). Yeah but as I mentioned when skill and experience are equal / close to equal, the power differences start to show up. From your post it seems that one needs a lot of experience with only one crew to become really proficient with it. I want to evade the scenario where I sink a lot of time and effort into one crew just to find out after hours of play, that it is not good enough to play efficiently at competitive level. Now obviously it is not a matter of life and death :D it's just a miniatures game but I would still prefer to make an optimal decision. Okay after all of your suggestions I am currently strongly leaning towards Lord Cooper, slightly less strongly towards Perdita 1 (also very strongly towards Perdita 2 but I don't think I can get her). I have also browsed through the app a bit and found a few masters that I wouldn't mind playing from the aesthetic / theme point of view: Ophelia, Anya, Viktorias, Von Schill, Asami, McCabe, Shen Long, Yan Lo Do any of these jump at you as strong picks? If so, out of the strongest ones which one would be the least complex? Or maybe none of them are good? Thank you very much for all the help so far, I feel like I am really close to making a right choice. After that I will probably playtest two-three top picks and choose the one I like the playstyle of the most.

Oh wow, the help is coming fast, thank you guys. Okay, Lord Cooper looks awesome, both theme and strategy wise. My only issue is that there is some errata coming soon from what I've heard. Do you think he might take a (big) hit? From what I understand certain Masters are better in certain situations / with certain objectives. In such cases I would like to pair someone in faction with Lord Cooper. Unless he is a good generalist? Tbh I would love to play the Perdita 2. But if I were to do so, don't I need to get the "Behind the Trigger" box from Wyrd's website? I am not sure I want to pay huge shipping fees to get it over the ocean. Unless maybe it is possible to use her base model but play it as alternative title?

My friend wants me to get into Malifaux with him (he played in the second edition but got out of the loop before the third; I am completely fresh). He is a competitive person (so am I) and he usually picks the strongest options available. I think he was talking about Nexus? Also I do not have that much time to spend on the game but I want to stay on the level playing field. We would probably participate in a local leagues and stuff. Given that I am looking for a Master / pair of Masters that would fit these three categories (in order from most to least important): 1. Is strong. Preferably not "broken and will be nerfed to the ground soon" category, just top tier or close. 2. Is not tedious to play and is something I can pick up relatively quickly. It doesn't have to be simplistic but I don't wish to measure multiple overlapping auras every time I want to move a model. 3. This one is a bonus but I prefer the Wild West-y vibes rather than horror / magic. If it could stay in that theme it would be great but not needed. So far I have looked at Bass and Perdita but from what I understand, they are both not very good. It is also possible that all strong Masters are complicated / hard to play. In such case I would go for less complicated ones (correcting for the theme). I would appreciate any help or direction as looking through 50+ keywords seems like a pretty daunting task.