Misaki as an outcast?

[Kadeton]

In terms of minions, Ronin are fantastic and offer some synergy with Misaki; they cover her weakness to armoured opponents, and when Misaki burns through her stones (always use that last one to add a crow to her Bisento attack, to get the second for free!), she can recoup them again by sacrificing a near-death Ronin, giving her another free assassinate trigger at least.

During Misaki's beta phase, the Ronin had the Last Blossom characteristic, and it was awesome. It gave her a cross-faction Infiltration hire when playing her as Thunders, and it meant they could benefit from Smoke & Shadows. I was a bit sad to see it go.

[SpiralngCadavr]

Oh, that does suck. I wonder why that didn't make the cut... Am I missing something, or is Misaki the only dual faction master who has no dual faction options or draw models in from both her factions (with the exception of obligatory totem)?

[Myyrä]

Oh, that does suck. I wonder why that didn't make the cut... Am I missing something, or is Misaki the only dual faction master who has no dual faction options or draw models in from both her factions (with the exception of obligatory totem)?

There's also McCabe and Lynch.

[The Zinc Lich]

I... really don't understand people who keep talking about Misaki dying in every game. Granted, I've only played a couple of games with her, but she's never even been in danger of dying. She can't be charged (sometimes, anyway), she has bullet proof, above average stats across the board, can't be tied down in melee, ignores a lot of terrain, can get plus flips to Df, can ignore horror duels, can ignore the cost of defensive stance, and has Deadly Dance (for what its worth. I've never got it to work). I don't know what you could possibly give her to make her more survivable without resorting to the legitimate tank rules.

 

Are people just throwing her into the middle of the enemy crew and leaving her there? She's so mobile, every turn of every game she's been able to do work without exposing herself to undue risk. It means you don't get to delete-mode the enemies big shiny crew core, but if she is single handedly crushing the opponent's scheme running abilities, you can use the rest of your crew to do that.

 

I'm also a really big fan of Torakage. They are fast, economical, scheme runners you can put out on flanks and be fairly confident they will murder other cheap, solo flanking models (or at least escape from ones they can't kill). Add onto that the fact that they can return to your crew's core with Shadow Step (or suddenly evaporate a flank. I left two Rail Workers and two Metal Gamin totally out of position one game, took them till turn three to get back to the melee.). add onto THAT smokebombs, which are situationally brilliant against gunlines. I literally can't think of a 6-stone minion I like more than Torakage with access to Smoke and Shadows.

 

Unfortunately, that upgrade is so good, I personally predict we will never see another Last Blossom...

[Bengt]

There's also McCabe and Lynch.

McCabe has both Guardsman and Black Sheep on his infiltrate. Lynch has dual faction options (Graves and Tannen).

[SpiralngCadavr]

There's also McCabe and Lynch.

Eh, worded that poorly. Meant masters w/o options native to both factions (counting dual faction as both since other than grouping they are). Tara was the same way until Karina let her grab Autopsies where she only drew from one faction other than the totem.

[BigHammer]

During Misaki's beta phase, the Ronin had the Last Blossom characteristic, and it was awesome. It gave her a cross-faction Infiltration hire when playing her as Thunders, and it meant they could benefit from Smoke & Shadows. I was a bit sad to see it go.

That's pretty interesting, I didn't know about that one. Ronin would be absolutely filthy with access to Smoke and Shadows, so I can see why it might have been taken away, but I would have liked to see her able to hire them into a 10T crew without the merc tax, at least, as they're very useful models for her.

 

Something else I've tried in the past with Outcast Misaki was to take Torakage and Ronin, and have Vanessa in there with the Howling Wolf Tattoo - this allows both of them to conserve cards (as both are mercs) on their flurry/rapid fire respectively, and with Vanessa's draw control and card-draw triggers, can provide a predictable top-deck and a strong hand for Misaki to abuse. Vanessa herself is less effective without other sisters, of course, but the Tattoo means she can heal one of your minions once per game by discarding it and healing herself, and it gives you a good excuse to bring the Student of Conflict (to dole out fast and to pull Vanessa out of combat, should she need it). Besides, a Fast Vanessa on the centerline is a wrecking machine, able to draw up to 3 cards or dole out 3 blasts at Ca9, and Misaki is mobile enough to be able to easily protect her from anything that wants to get at her up close.

[Drool_bucket]

Ten Thunder Brothers, Katanaka Snipers and Ronin all carried it at one time or another.  Then there was the great purging that left her with just the Henchmen and Oiran and Torakage.

 

I still lament the lose of 10T Brothers most of all, for fluff reasons.  And would have loved to see Ronin get it over Oiran, but that is spilt milk at this point.

 

I think we will see a Last Blossom Enforcer sooner than later, but I agree, more solid Last Blossom minions will be hard to justify/balance.

 

And as to the other point of Outcast Misaki's survivibility...  She is more survivialble in Outcasts, IMO, thanks to the greater access to healing and the Survivialist Upgrade itself.  Thats why I favor the Disguised Misaki over Stalking when I  play her because I feel it goes to her strengths.  And the more I play her the more I feel that she is different from the Viks, which is a good thing,IMO.  I see her as a fast moving model that is running down enemy scheme runners and support pieces instead of the Viks that just gut the opponent wholesale!