Mysterious Effigy, what a fitting name.

[Phinn]

I have this medical condition, that makes me fall in love with different model every week. Marionettes, Widow Weaver, Hooded Rider... This week - Mysterious Effigy.

I was trying to find some insight into aforementioned Effigy and I found next to nothing. Those threads and articles that I have found were usually Collodi-related and they went something like this:

"Effigies are great. All of them. Brutal, Lucky, Arcane... You name it."
"How about Mysterious?"

"Who?"

Which is understandable, because Mysterious Effigy has following Tactical Action:

(0) Rapid Acceleration: Target friendly Leader within 8" gains the following Condition until the end of the Turn: "Rapid Acceleration: After resolving an enemy Attack which targeted this model, this model may end this Condition to push up to 3" in any direction."

And Collodi has following Ability:

Df ( Built-in) Run Away Home: After resolving, push this model up to 3" in any direction.

The model looks... just astonishing. Opportunity to cheat fate with the card face down sounds fun, but what is the model's purpose?

Should you keep it close to your master and then later wander off to do some scheme running?

What is your experience with Mysterious Effigy? And if someone who played it with Zoraida would share their opinion, that would be just splendid. Or maybe do some theorycrafting. Any discussion will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Joel]

Used him for the first time today, with Pandora. I had it run past her dropping scheme markers where require da me targeting her with its (0) action. This meant if an attack missed her I'd have a 3" push and a 4" push to increase her mobility.

It worked well.

[EnternalVoid]

He is not bad, that is sure.  But part of the problem I have had with him in the past is that people don't tend to attack my master unless they have set it up.  Generally due to Pandora, Zoraida, Lucius, Lynch, and Collodi they tend to favor one BIG attack over trying to get in with a bunch of little ones.  While the push is still useful it is at its best when you can push after the first attack to break a series of attacks.  The cheat down is also only really useful if your total is less than your opponent's, something a Lynch player and I noted in our last game.  Don't get me wrong, he is not bad, he has use.  But for 5ss we can get an Insidious Madness that is good for Scheme running, for 4ss we can get a terror tot or Gupp for scheme running, and soon for 3ss we can get a Corrupted Hound which is not a bad cheap melee option.  It just has contenders for its cost.

 

The problem the Mysterious and the Shadow Effigy have over ones like the Brutal, Arcane, Hodgepodge, Lucky, and the Carrion is that their (0) actions need the Leader to be attacked to trigger.  The others trigger off the Master's attack or activation *or in the Lucky's case any time they flip a ram*.  If our masters did not tend to draw indirect damage or single boosted attacks *like with focus* it would likely see more use.  It would also likely see way more use had it been a 3" move opposed to a push which is easier to deny.  Or if the aura for the cheating was 3" rather an 2".  Or if his melee was slightly better *Ml5 perhaps or his Wk6 and long charge range*.  Don't get me wrong, he has use, but you have to plan to use him to make his 4ss cost.  He just does not mess as well with our masters as some like the Brutal messes with some of the Guild masters *Lady Justice, Sonnia, and Perdita*, have the extra utility of the Arcane *a Condition removal ability that is not a spell with a TN* or some of the extra utility of mobile cover or the like.

 

Now if your group is the sort that is all about killing enemy masters he can help alot, but my group anymore tend to not target my master's period unless they think they can take them.

[Joel]

So in scheme pools with assassinate he's worth considering - and since he is hard to kill, armour +1, and def 6 he's worth considering in reckoning, headhunter, collect the bounty, make them suffer, etc. pools.

[Nical]

I like to use it for my Lucius Crew. Because Lucius doesn't have good escape trigger and he can use Issue Command to it. 

 

Stat 

At least, Mysterious Effigy is very durable as 4ss minion. So it is useful for "homekeeping" Schemes and Reconnoiter.

 But if you want to take more scheme runners or want to play aggressive, Gupps and Tots may be better. And Neverborn usually need to be aggressive....

 

Disguised Fate

I think it is not great, but it can make to use opponent's high cards. Additionally, Jakob Lynch's Expert Cheater Upgrade works like it. 

 

Rapid Acceleration

Simply, Mysterious Effigy to add "Escape trigger" for your non-escape triggered Leader by Rapid Acceleration.  

[cursingbulldog]

I could see some use against maybe iron sides, mei fang? or other masters who do a push/pull between your master and their master as the push is after resolving so it's after their triggers go off. Or if you think your going to see something that prevents you from using defensive triggers like an executioner. You could also use him as a taxi for pandora or collodi by putting the 0 up and attacking the masters cheating down getting two pushes in from the one attack.

The cheat face down is kinda worthless. The range is to small to get more than 1-2 models in it. Might work better with Lucius and his ranged units he can bring in. 4 inch range would be better but I still probably wouldn't pick it over a tot gupp or depleted unless it was closer to a 6 in aura.

[Myth]

Simply by having the basic Effigy stats, this guy has his uses. Df 6, Armor 1, Hard to Kill and Accomplice are all enough to make for a sturdy minion for objectives.

 

Unfortunately, that's about all he has going for him, since he got the short end of the stick as Effigies go.

 

 - All the other ones got some sort of benefit on their attack to make it a bit better than just a Ml 4 after-thought. Mysterious gets nothing.

 - Cheating fate down is a nifty ability. I've used it well in Lynch crews. But an Aura 2 (that he doesn't even get the benefit of) is really hard to make good use of.

 - Helping a leader push away from a threat has its uses. It is good for avoiding the disrupting charges, getting out of range of other attacks, etc. But it is a very reactionary benefit, and one the opponent knows you have available and will plan around it. Whereas you have much more control over the other Effigy buffs, which arguably also give more useful bonuses like healing, or cards, or Soulstones, or bonus damage. The closest comparison is the Shadow Effiy, who gives a similar one-use consumable condition that reacts to an enemy attack. In that case, he gives the enemy a negative flip on the attack. Which I have found to be much, much stronger. It lets you react to the first attack that comes at your Master, whereas the Mysterious buff involves taking the first attack in the face, and then hoping the free movement will position you to escape further harm coming your way.

 

Even as the worst of the Effigies, he's still a solid minion for 4 SS, and gives a good option to Neverborn, since their other 4 SS minions tend to be fragile but speedy guys. So he can be a viable with certain scheme set ups. But I often play Collodi, and its awfully hard to come up with a reason to bring him when compared to his much more capable Effigy brothers. I think I've tried him out 2 or 3 times, and never been particular impressed by his performance overall.

[Joel]

I ran him out with Lilith last night (my second game with the Effigy, the first was with Pandora).  He didn't do much except survive well - and since it was a turf war I want asking too much of him beyond that.  His (0) action helped Lilith a little since assassinate was in the pool and it allowed her to avoid alpha strikes for most of the game.

 

he's good enough for his cost to warrant a look at, but not much beyond that.

[4thstringer]

With Collodi you can give the 0 to a bunch of puppets. That makes s slippery crew more slippery.

[Joel]

this could be useful for interference games perhaps.

[eldritch]

Unfortunately, that's about all he has going for him, since he got the short end of the stick as Effigies go.

 

  The closest comparison is the Shadow Effiy, who gives a similar one-use consumable condition that reacts to an enemy attack. In that case, he gives the enemy a negative flip on the attack. Which I have found to be much, much stronger. It lets you react to the first attack that comes at your Master, whereas the Mysterious buff involves taking the first attack in the face, and then hoping the free movement will position you to escape further harm coming your way.

 

Even as the worst of the Effigies, he's still a solid minion for 4 SS, and gives a good option to Neverborn, since their other 4 SS minions tend to be fragile but speedy guys. So he can be a viable with certain scheme set ups. But I often play Collodi, and its awfully hard to come up with a reason to bring him when compared to his much more capable Effigy brothers. I think I've tried him out 2 or 3 times, and never been particular impressed by his performance overall.

You are severely miscalculating the potential and effect of Mysterious. The push effect does so much more than Shadow's ability in most cases, for one. Shadow's ability can only affect a single AP from a single model, if it even succeeds, whereas pushing in reaction to a charge, or even the first attack of an already engaged model cancels at least one, if not more of the enemy's APs. If the leader is engaged by multiple models from the previous turn, and especially if said leader has a melee range of 3, pushing it might result in the effective loss of 3+ enemy APs, if you're then out of their range, but they're still in yours. It breaks charges, flurries, second attack triggers and can cause the loss of melee expert AP, among other things.

Outside of simply cancelling enemy AP in combat, the condition can be used simply to add 3" to the leader's movement, to enable a charge or put them in range, or it can be used to slide out of sight or into cover you couldn't otherwise reach, again potentially cancelling multiple enemy AP.

If you can't think of how 3" of reactive movement can be used to great effect, you're really not thinking hard enough. I certainly wouldn't trade our effigy for any other.

 

[RobertSirc]

She isn't bad to take when assassinate is in the pool, I pick her up when am using Lilith just to give her some free protection early game and if Lilith is safe i will send her off to drop scheme markers.

[Eclipse]

 The Effigy is solid like all other Effigies, especially for 4 SS. It is also different then our other cheap minions as it is more durable. Shadow that was mentioned is different as the prime reason you bring it is for the amazing condition that let's a minion drop a marker when it ends it's activation (+ Accomplice!).
 Finally, like Eldritch said, the 3" can be very useful if you have planned beforehand. Not to mention that the sculpt is great. I will surely pick it up when it is available here.

[Ceodoc]

I have this medical condition, that makes me fall in love with different model every week. Marionettes, Widow Weaver, Hooded Rider... This week - Mysterious Effigy.

Thank you.

I find if you rub a little Paypal all over your problem, it goes away for a few days!

;p

[Phinn]

I have this medical condition, that makes me fall in love with different model every week. Marionettes, Widow Weaver, Hooded Rider... This week - Mysterious Effigy.

Thank you.

I find if you rub a little Paypal all over your problem, it goes away for a few days!

;p

All that I have is VapooRub.

[cursingbulldog]

This guy might be a little better now with his cheat facedown aura with a changling/trapper gunline in the early rounds, especially against a summoning master.  Tough part is finding the stones to bring him and having some way to draw extra cards into your hand. 

[Ceodoc]

Bulldog, the link in your sig does not work for me, in fact many Eyrd links seem broken to me.

?

 

Doc

[Joachim]

It's been more than two years since the last post, but since it has already been discussed here. I would like to continue here.

 

I'm playing Titania in an upcoming tournament and I'm going to play two practice games. I'm considering the mysterious effigy in the third game.

 

Scheme pool (gg2017):

Collect the bounty - Claim jump, ffm, eliminate the leadership, set up, last stand

 

I'm playing Titania, and this is a list I was considering trying out first:

 

Titania (royal indignation, audience with the queen, behold my glory)

Gorar

Lilitu

Doppleganger

Tooth

Rougarou

Mysterious effigy

Mysterious emissary (primeval conflux)

 

The reasoning is as follows, the combination of collect the bounty and eliminate the leadership puts a huge bullseye on Titania, it can score the enemy 4 points in a turn (etl and ctb).

For collect the bounty I'm thinking about taking minions and enforcers and trying to keep Titania safe. Royal indignation will do a lot of work if the opponent has a lot of minions but a hard hitting enforcer/henchman or especially master can put her down quite easiliy with some focussed effort. 

The game plan is to use the lures to score setup early. This could give me an early advantage in VPs. If the opponent does last stand and plays defensively, lures will also help me counter that. Lilitu and doppleganger will give me 4 or 5 lures, titania with audience can further reposition enemies  and finally I'll have tooths challenge, that might be a bit redundant, but these models do other things as well ofc. Rougarou obviously goes great in this strat and combined with all the lures he'll be really efficient. Tooth makes setup really easy once an enemy is at least within charge range of her. The mysterious emissary I find very good with Titania, it can stay back and summon changelings, which improve my activation control and they can go stop claim jump if necessary, as the rest of my crew wants to stick together.

In this list I'm left with 5 stones and I'm wondering what to do with it. I'm ok with 4 stones usually, though an extra one wouldn't hurt since etl is in the pool. I don't need changelings as I can summon that, and that brings me to the mysterious effigy. I've played with the brutal effigy a lot, and he's great for his (0) but I always find him worth his 4ss just in stats. In this case the mysterious effigy (0) seems to be nice to prevent an alpha strike on titania and since she can be especially tanky with all the heals in this crew, that one extra push can be a lot, and allow her to heal back up for the next hit. The cheating face down I'm not really planning on using it, but if someone is in the aura you might as well do it.

 

In conclusion, seeing that I have 4/5 stones left, a tanky minion is really solid in Ctb, the 0 I think does a lot for titania if you really need to keep her alive (and I think that in this game a bit of redundancy is not wasted).

What is your guys experience with the mysterious effigy? I haven't seen it on the table yet. I don't think it has the best (0) compared to other effigies, though it is still solid at 4ss without the (0) imo. 

[Haagrum]

It's quite decent with Titania if there are schemes which require going after a Master. Particularly with Royal Indignation, very few models can reliably bring her down in one activation. Buying yourself space from a beater probably gives you an activation to drop scheme markers to heal her, counter-strike, or just get her out of danger.

Outside of protecting Titania, it can go off to run schemes. It's tough for its cost and Titania seldom has to worry about having enough markers on the table. If they're going after the Effigy, they'll probably need to waste at least 3 AP to kill it. Fair trade, if if means your other models can get on with their jobs. All the more if it's your FFM target, although I think it's not the best scheme choice for this crew.

I think Mysterious Effigy would be worth it, in the circumstances you've described.

[Colonel Sanders]

Mysterious has accomplice, which is great for Dig Graves.. drop a marker, accomplice to beater and kill.

Cheating face down is really wasted on sniper shots and such.. it shines with game changing actions like Tangle Shadows. I might cheat in a low card to draw a severe out of my opponents hand, and then cast again to cheat in a high mask.

[wafew]

I keep on meaning to hire mysterious in a zoraida crew with some rooster riders. Because I think cheating from the deck face down will be very confusing and fun.

[melkore]

I like the Effigy with Titania so she can go in somewhere, make models have to hit her and then run when it gets hot.