Molly Spotlight

[Khyodee]

So we did a Molly spotlight on our new local podcast and I'm curious to here what other resser players think on the topic. Generally agree with the ideas? Or do you play Molly completely differently?

 

 

http://schemesandstones.podbean.com/e/master-spotlight-molly-squidpiddge/

[Fetid Strumpet]

I play her totally differently.

From a purely competitive standpoint, I feel spirit Molly is vastly superior to horror Molly. Your summoning is better because you can summon a hanged out of nowhere and accomplice it to hit an unsuspecting model with whisper from beyond just out of thin air.

Additionally, spirits buff each other through the adversary condition. Don't get me wrong, horrors are good models, but many of them are also spirits, and I've found a Shikome is just as good as a punk when summoning with Molly.

Also two things, first, while you explained a perfectly servicible killjoy bomb, you didn't describe THE killjoy bomb.

Start sybelle on the 6" line, move up twice and call belle Molly, for a total of approximately 17" from board edge. Molly can then walk twice, remember she's a belle and gets boosted by Sybelle's cathouse madam aura, for + 12 more inches. Molly can then summon her totem for a very low crow, and due to the special rule on it, can throw it 10" away from her, popping killjoy out a whopping 39" from Molly's board edge. It of course gets nastier depending on what you want to do. If you pop him so his base eeks in Molly's 6" range for accomplice killjoy gets to activate right after popping out, after Molly uses her 0 ( if playing horror Molly) to give it a extra ap.

If your playing the killjoy bomb its also useful to determine whether its general destruction, or assassination he is going for. If general destruction, aim for a clump of enemies and be sure to have taken the necrotic perpetration upgrade. If anything tries to disengage he gets a positive twist to stop them, but in addition melee attacks that hit him cause a splash of 1 damage, which added to his black blood means if you try to get away he will most likely stop you. If you attack him you'll need to pass terror 13, and even if you hit, your likely still taking 2 dmg.

Izamu is another fun model to take necrotic perpetration on with spirit Molly. As is yin with horror Molly.

Also sybelle and yin have great synergy together, as pointed out by cheated fates Adam. Yin hits a target with her 0 action which gives a negative twist to the targets wp and Ca until yin dies or activates. Now enter sybelle with her 0 action attend to personally. Land that wp attack on an enemy and whenever they want to target something other than sybelle they must pass a wp check that they now have negative twist on, or the action fails, and if they target sybelle they have a negative modifier to their terror check they need to make.

Overall I enjoyed your overview but I felt it could have been a little more in depth. Keep up the good work guys.

[doctorlucky]

Good point about the necrotic prep upgrade on killjoy- its a fun bomb. It was more of an afterthought when I added it in, its not something I use all the time.

 

Sybelle and Yin were mentioned by cheated fates so I didn't include that one again- as I learned it from there and I'm sure if people are listening to our new podcast that they've listened to the existing ones. 

 

I'm all for summoning hanged- but I feel like 'vastly superior' is a bit overstated. For spirits they can be resilient with incorporeal for sure. I'd rather have a punk zombie with HtK and a reliable way to get cards out of opponents hands. Also- spirits are not readily available for players, horrors are. When I summon something for an ap, a high card, and maybe a stone, I want my opponent to spend more resources taking them off the board and being affected by them than I did putting them on. That is how I play her.

 

I agree- I left my notes at home and we were being waited on by other players so we could get some games in. It was designed as an overview on how I play her and use her for players that are thinking about picking her up. I'd love to go more in depth with her but it wasn't really what we were going for the episode. I certainly don't claim to know the best way to play her, I just have a good time with her

 

Thanks for adding in some extra tips, Molly certainly doesn't get talked about enough- but I'm sure that will change with her gorgeous plastic box!

[Fetid Strumpet]

I would submit I'm not overstating how much better spirits are. I've extensively played both versions, and from thematic and fluff perspective I'm horror all the way, but I find the spirits always, universally, work better.

And really I think it comes down to three reasons.

1) Spirits buff each other, horrors don't. Pound for pound the models available as a spirit or horror are about equivilent. But spirits buff each other with the condition, adversary. Get that on a opponent's model and now all your spirits get a + to the attack flip. Summon a onryo, hit the enemy with adversary, and now not only the Onryo will hit better, but so will your Izamu.

2)Better variety in summoning. Molly spirit summons and horror summons are about equivilent, however the spirit summons range better across the spectrum. Sprit Molly can summon the exceptionally cheap night terrors, or the expensive hanged. Just with those extreme options adds more flexibility in what the cards in the deck can do. I thought it was negligible at the start, but over the course of multiple games I came to see how beneficial it really was.

3) Spirit non summon models are more varied and hit harder. This will be ameliorated slightly once wave three comes out, but this is a holdover from edition 1. Horrors never got fleshed out last edition, even though many models got the horror trait added who never had it last edition. The rogue necro might be decent, but its really fragile. Izamu hits about as hard, has an extra ap that isn't conditional, and is vastly more resilient. Add in Jakuuna Ubume and the like and it just gets silly.

Horror Molly will be much better once wave 3 becomes available though and the third reason will decay. And she isn't bad, but I've just found hands down the spirits just work better. Hopefully going forward either the horrors will start having some internal synergy which will decay the major upside to spirits.

Great discussion. Thanks.

[doctorlucky]

The rogue necro is a total pansy- agreed!

 

I'm sure kyhodee would love to have you on to talk about the spirit side of her if you're willing. You did a nice job with seamus on ttb (was you right?).

 

I agree that the spirit synergy is great- I just don't find that lacking with horrors when I play her, as I think I approach her differently than you- which I absolutely love that there is not one set playstyle in this game. I also think that if we are going for spirit synergy, kirai and yan lo offer greater shenanigans than Molly does. They all do it so differently that it comes down, in my opinion, preference and playstyle.

 

Honestly I think I mentioned it on the show- I only summon in punk zombies and drowned. I utilize her ap for other things than summoning, and I understand that you're probably using her zero to get a free attack to adhere adversary. Students are great and so are belles, but again, I don't want to waste my investment of resources if an opponent can use a beater to wipe out what I just brought out- even if I accompliced it and used it once.

 

Agreed- wave three will make a lot of masters shore up what they're missing. Mostly Tara ;P

[Fetid Strumpet]

Do you mean on Through the Breach? That was me. If timing works out Id certainly love to talk with you guys about Seamus and or Molly. Those have pretty much been my go to masters since before Molly was even released the first time. I still remember how disappointed I was when book 3 rolled out at gencon and there was still no Molly model. It is nice hearing different perspectives.

[doctorlucky]

I was sad there were no new belle models in 2e wave three. I've recently fallen in love with Dead Doxies- I'm hard pressed not to bring one along anymore.

 

Since we're having a productive conversation- what are your thoughts on when to bring Seamus vs Molly? I play her generally as more schemey and resource denial based over Seamus where I deny by removing the opponents scheme runners and lynch pins.

 

I know a lot of people dislike line in the sand- but I find it so easy to accomplish with Molly- what are your thoughts?

[Fetid Strumpet]

If I remember you started playing in 2nd edition right? Now consider my continued desire for more belles. I've been playing since Rising Powers released, and aside from Molly, who can't be used anymore with Seamus, the only new belle that's been added since the game began was the Doxy, which was added with Twisting Fates, 4 Gen Cons ago. =/

 

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of ever hiring a Doxy with Seamus or Molly. I've tried them, but they never feel worth the 6 stone hire. Good summon models though, and if I didn't already have so many card dependent models I'd bring them more often, but needing their 7 to make them routinely work is too much I find with Seamus' Back ally and gun requirements, or Molly "The Card Hog" Squidpidge, who needs a massive volume of cards just to function.

 

Honestly, I don't personally think there is a time to bring Molly vs a time to bring Seamus. I've found that unless a master is very one dimensional, or just absolutely excels at something that gives VP, there really isn't enough variance between most masters to bring one over another, which was a MASSIVE step in the right direction they made in M2E, in my opinion.

 

If I was forced to take a choice between both, I wouldn't bring Molly in reckoning, as one of her big strengths is chain summoning models, and while she can function very well without doing so, you are giving up one of the things she can do really well. Additionally, she, herself, isn't very killy. While she can certainly assist in making something dead, and she has a great debuff, it has an issue that it can only even be attempted once per turn, and unless your opponent is braindead, they will know it too, which means they will plan for it comming, making it all the less likely to land it.

 

Conversely, while Seamus is no slouch at it, I'd bring Molly over him in Reconnoiter. The ability to drop many scoring minions out from Molly's summons, and then accomplice them into going to spread out, is a very strong ability in such a strat. Seamus can summon as well, but is more restricted, needing a corpse as it does, and only being able to do it once a turn. Additonally, in most of the games I play I tend to find I use his Red Chapel killer 0 action far more than the summon.

 

I just in general dislike A Line in the Sand Period. I pretty much never take it unless the scheme pool just serves me up nothing but jank. Even masters that are good at it, I find, are equally good at other schemes, and those schemes often require less AP investment for VP reward, which is how I look at the game.

 

Molly was the originally crew I was trying the Triple Unnerving Aura list in. I'm now trying multiple applications of Necrotic Preperation, as it works really well with Molly's ability to hand out black blood. It makes going Melee with her big stuff much nastier. It solves the biggest problem I've found with Yin, which is models starting next to her in their own Melee range. They know they most likely won't be able to disengage as Yin can spend higher cards then other models, because she will deal dmg, so enemy's generally focus and then attack her. Well with Necrotic preparation, Melee attacks against yin in 6" of molly do 2 damage back to the enemy. It's also really worked well on Izamu.

[zFiend]

Fetid. Can I ask you a bit of an off topic question? What are your feelings on spare parts? I have just started experimenting with that upgrade.

[CanYaDigIT]

In a resser vs resser battle Spare parts can be a big swing turn 4 or 5. Generally I find it is unusal to get the 4 corpse markers and molly in a usable position.

[valhallan42nd]

In resser vs resser, I think Manical Laugh is the better choice, as it mass claims Corpse Markers, and allows for moving corpse bombs.