Kirai tips?

[Phototropic]

My core list has kirai with swirling aether, and one of her other upgrades, lost love, flesh construct, izamu (he will often have an upgrade depending on strat and schemes), as well as datsue ba with spirit whispers. The flesh and lost love are my summoning engine, combined with dat's seishin, then dats and izamu are my killers who can change roles if need be. Izamu can take hits and hold enemy in place or ignore horror duels, whilst dats can go scheme runner hunting, drop scheme's with her movement tie up enemy with her summons, etc. The remainder of points will be based on strat, but there will usually be a hanged or shikome or drowned, and something else like a necro punk, night terror, jaakuna etc. I like to have spirits at the start, its hard to heal up completely what ever you bring in so i would prefer to have a full health spirit who can make the most of any adversary or swirling spirits going on. First turn both kirai and dats will try to summon seishin (mostly to help out activate and use to give kirai +2ca) and kirai will summon two things, usually a hanged or shikome which all my healing effort goes into, and something else useful which i don't mind dying like a drowned, onryo, night terror, or another big guy if ive got the cards. After the first turn my summons will peter off, although dats will often be using her 0 to try and get a seishin.

LennyB's trick off summoning of ikaryo is a good one, it lets you use both actions to attack and you can still bring her back out to give adversary, or as a deterrent. 

Regarding non-spirits, other than the flesh construct i will often bring necro punks, sometimes crooligans (i don't have the some love or luck with them as other do though). I've been thinking about bringing yin, and hans if im playing sonnia (sonnia does my head in). I know others use nurses (i really need to try nurses with her, a +2dmg izamu swirled into combat against enemy with adversary sounds like fun) and belles. izamu never lets me down but i've been thinking about swapping him for the carrion emisary. I'm sure there must be more non spirits i just can't think of them, maybe chiaki for removing conditions? I should prob experiment with some of the cheaper undead since the cheap spirits aren't undead so don't trigger malevolence. 

[Adran]

On 08/01/2016 at 11:21 PM, Tris said:

One quick question concerning the Seishins ability to place themselves into base contact with my leader when she avtivates - does this keep me safe from Candys "Sweets" Aura (which paralyzes me if I´m the first model to activate in my crew), by blocking line of sight, or do they "teleport" to late in the activation sequence?

 

(I thought asking in a Kirai thread would be the best thing, if I`m wrong here please tell me)

 

Kind regards

Regardless of the rules, I believe Seshin are Ht 1, so Kirai will jut look over the top of them anyway. 

EDIT - Seems I was thinking old rules. They are Ht 2 Cheers Tris

[Tris]

Their card says Ht 2

[Obeisance]

Tonight I assembled 3 Gakis, 3 Seishin, Datsue Ba and a Grave Spirit.

While the PVA on the bases is drying, let's talk about upgrades?

Spirit Whispers - 1) Gives Datsue Ba the ability to summon Seshin. 2) When non-peon spirits die in 6, drop a scheme marker. This seems really strong. Make dudes, give stuff Finish The Job. Seems like a great one point.

Spirit Beacon - 1) Suffer a point to prevent Seishin from dying. 2) Turn bad cards into Seishin when spirits die. Seems okay? Not that great. I must be missing synergy somewhere.

Unforgiven (limited) - 1) Bumps damage on her gun to 3/4/5. 2) Adds two triggers to her summon spell. Which is a 3" push or not receiving slow. Seems okay. I guess you'd take this if you're planning on running Kirai as a damage dealer?

Bloody Shears (limited) - 1) Gives her a CG range. 2) Accomplice. 3) An ok damage melee attack that pushes and stops charges. I suppose it's decent if you're planning on brawling in the middle of the table?

Swirling Aether - 1) Discard cards for healing flips. 2) Zero action 8" push for a 5+ of masks. I feel like you take this if you think you're going to need mobility. 2 SS is fairly steep, though.

Absorb Spirit - 1) Sacrifice a spirit to draw and discard. 2) Give all spirits in 6 a positive flip to damage. No chance to resist it, but you need an 8+ of tomes. Seems really strong. Couple that with Adversary and you're getting plus flips to attack and damage in 6.

...

What upgrades do you take in what situation and why?

 

 

[BigHammer]

The synergy you're missing with Spirit Whispers is with Kirai's Df/Wp trigger; a Seishin within 2" can become the target of some pretty hefty attacks that were designed for Kirai (like a Levi channeling a charge, for example) for the cost of a mask in the defense flip. Then, when the 5 or 6 or 8 damage or whatever kills the Seishin, she can take a single wound herself and have it survive and heal a wound. She has to suffer that wound, as the ability requires it to gain the benefits (so you can't prevent it and still have the Seishin survive), but the net result is that, as long as you can get a mask in her Df/Wp duels, she can take 1 damage instead of however many else a particular attack might deal her, and all it takes is a Seishin within 2" for it to work.

It also allows her to protect those Seishin from direct attack by suffering a wound herself, if she requires that they survive for any reason. The Lost Love (or a sacrificing Seishin) is able to heal her pretty easily, and Ikiryo can do it when it kills something, so losing the odd wound here and there to keep a Seishin in play isn't all that bad a cost for Kirai.

The other ability on the card allows you to set this up as well; if you have no Seishin in play yet, and a friendly or enemy model dies within 6" of Kirai, you can chuck a low card and summon a Seishin, which is summoned in base contact with her. This allows you to use cards lower than a 6 to get a Seishin, and also to not have to use her (0) action on her activation to summon one (which can instead be used for one of her other upgrade-based (0) actions, or even Muahahaha if attached and corpse markers are around (Kirai loves Mindless Zombies as targets for her Summoning), which appears in base contact with her. This can be used for a lot of things; they're height 2, so summoning one between Kirai and 30mm base enemy model engaging her, if you have the space, can allow Kirai to walk away from her attacker with impunity by blocking line of sight for the disengaging strike; the above damage mitigation trick can be used now that there is a Seishin around to allow it; the Seishin itself is a valuable resource, and an activation to be taken that turn for whatever reason.

Note that you can also put this upgrade on another Spirit; Datsue Ba and Izamu are good choices, as both are likely to be killing things to trigger the summon, and if Kirai is nearby (likely, she likes to hang out close to her models), she might be able to use her Df/Wp trigger to off the hit onto a Seishin within 2" of one of those models, who can take the wound to save the Seishin in her place (Datsue Ba can be healed by the Lost Love, a Seishin, or Kirai if she has that upgrade, and Izamu has all that and the added benefit of his own healing action).

I never leave home without it on Kirai, personally, because the synergy with her defensive trigger is insane, and it only requires a single Seishin and some masks/stones to completely shut down an attacking enemy model. Be wary of anything that ignores defensive triggers, though; there isn't much, but most of what can will have a field day with Kirai (Joss, especially, will utterly murder her Df4 W10 in a scarily short period of time).

[MEGAHORSE]

On 1/11/2016 at 7:36 AM, Obeisance said:

Tonight I assembled 3 Gakis, 3 Seishin, Datsue Ba and a Grave Spirit.

While the PVA on the bases is drying, let's talk about upgrades?

Spirit Whispers - 1) Gives Datsue Ba the ability to summon Seshin. 2) When non-peon spirits die in 6, drop a scheme marker. This seems really strong. Make dudes, give stuff Finish The Job. Seems like a great one point.

Spirit Beacon - 1) Suffer a point to prevent Seishin from dying. 2) Turn bad cards into Seishin when spirits die. Seems okay? Not that great. I must be missing synergy somewhere.

Unforgiven (limited) - 1) Bumps damage on her gun to 3/4/5. 2) Adds two triggers to her summon spell. Which is a 3" push or not receiving slow. Seems okay. I guess you'd take this if you're planning on running Kirai as a damage dealer?

Bloody Shears (limited) - 1) Gives her a CG range. 2) Accomplice. 3) An ok damage melee attack that pushes and stops charges. I suppose it's decent if you're planning on brawling in the middle of the table?

Swirling Aether - 1) Discard cards for healing flips. 2) Zero action 8" push for a 5+ of masks. I feel like you take this if you think you're going to need mobility. 2 SS is fairly steep, though.

Absorb Spirit - 1) Sacrifice a spirit to draw and discard. 2) Give all spirits in 6 a positive flip to damage. No chance to resist it, but you need an 8+ of tomes. Seems really strong. Couple that with Adversary and you're getting plus flips to attack and damage in 6.

...

What upgrades do you take in what situation and why?

Quote

 

 

1) Shears, I've yet to take these via the earlier discussion in the thread. Accomplice is pretty huge, especially once you get into the thick of things, which allows you to get immediate value out of a Swirled spirit or a summon. The beauty of both of her limited upgrades is that they're both pretty darn good. This one gives her a way to charge, melee, and stop models from disengaging with her. It's not really accurate or deadly, but it allows her, like Seamus's Slap, to have her get out of range of the model that attacked her. If this upgrade wasnt limited, I would take it in 80% of games I reckon. It's just damn good for 1ss. I should also mention I havent tried it yet due to the earlier discussion and being carless/busy with other plans has made me fall behind with Malifaux  

2) Unforgiven. This one's primary effect being summoning a model up to 3" away off of the summoning battery (which given that they come in with slow, is like a psuedo Walk action. It's usefulness is hit or miss, especially on a turn with the fact that they cant charge or interact, save for great scenarios where you can position a Shikome for a 1 AP charge). On the offchance you have the crow in hand, you can spend a soulstone to remove the Slow from the summoned model. I really dont care for this trigger, much like Molly's reactivate trigger to push, it's largely a waste of a soulstone, but unlike Molly's ability, I can easily see the benefit here of stoning for the mask in a do or die scenario. I would also like to mention it doesnt bump her gun's damage per the discussion on page 1 I had with a fellow forum member, it's merely a trigger to do so. In most cases I see giving Adversary or using the Crow trigger to summon the Gaki as more important, but there will be a few scenarios where it's relevant. Not baking it in makes this upgrade much less lucrative to me, but makes Bloody Shears more tempting. I think that's solid game design, however. I'd rather have choices than a cookie cutter "Unforgiven is by and large the best all of the time". 

3) Spirit Whispers. Cant take this with Kirai, had to edit my post. I was going to say, it's terrible on Kirai!!  For Datsueba, it makes her worth taking. She can then make bodies off the upgrade, or punish your opponent for killing your models with Finish the Job allowing you to effortlessly to gain markers. Datsue ba also can or move your spirits around, which is particularly strong with Yin (Who I dont see people run enough with Kirai), Izamu, or Phillip, who gets to move 8" off of it! (but that's also on her card, much like Kirai, it gives her options). I commonly see people recommend Swiling spirits rather than having Datsueba move them since you can swirl further than Datsue can move them, and her summoning a Seishin, despite being much harder to pull off than Kirai, is a better use of AP. Kirai can teleport up to a spirit making walking largely bad for Kirai. Back to the upgrade, Finish the Job usually means the opponent is gonna block your LOS, or not kill them this turn if it means Breakthrough/Plant/Spring points. Phillip also likes it, as worst case he can turn those 2ap spent on the ability and his own into 2 new cards (dropping one as well, before anyone jumps on me )

4) As BigHammer said, I prefer Spirit Beacon on Kirai for the combo wombo it provides. Biggest boons he has pointed out. Kirai has so many useful upgrades that this can be a tough slot to justify, but I find it superb. She is action starved and having more auras is never bad, especially if it means free bodies, and keeping bodies around for a very low cost. I dont want to call this an auto include, but if Assassinate is in the pool, you betcha. 

5) Swirling Aether - An expensive upgrade with some very worthwhile abilities. Kirai's biggest strengths I think come from not only being a summoner, but her movement shenanigans. This gives her another onem just requiring a 5 of masks to place her b2b with a friendly Spirit within 8". Using this means you lose summoning a seishin or Absorbing a spirit this turn, but really, this is a more powerful ability much of the time if you have the cards to pull it off. ie, a seishin is a 6, this is a 5+ of masks. However, it's pretty darn easy to pull off and gets her out of bad situations. It's often taken just for that reason, similar to Sybelle to pull Molly out of bad situations or throw her upfield. Throwing Kirai upfield off of this is also more lucrative than spending a 1AP walk since you can move up to 8", and allowing her to keep up with her beaters so she can shoot, apply adversary, then have them charge in and ruin someone's day. Also allows her to discard some med-high cards to heal models up off a 1 action. I dont see the point in healing something for 1wound (outside of HTK), although there might be a situation. I've used this to heal a near dead Yin up to full health. She's an amazing Tarpit and works great with The Hanged. Did I mention I love Yin? 

6) Absorb Spirit: I've yet to really utilize this as I said above: Kirai is action starved. She eventually hits a critical mass of things she can do... but more importantly, a critical mass of WHAT she wants to do. If the ability to absorb the spirits around you was a (1) instead, I would consider this more. Or if this was a 0ss upgrade. It just seems overtuned. Currently it competes with some of the best 0 actions in our faction! Phillip can also provides good card draw (especially with One with the Night), and with all of his utility, I'd rather spend 9ss on him and TBtN than this, and that's sad. The + to the damage flip is really meh. Nicodem has a similar upgrade at 2ss, and I never take either. If I have an 8+ with Kirai, that card goes a long way. edit: THIS NEEDS A TOME? REALLY? Using it for + damage flips seems so meh to me. I'd rather sac some seishin for a Drowned off of it, or summon a Seishin. Or use it to swirl. Or... etc. Not that it's not solid, but Kirai's units put out some pretty solid damage, or have + damage flips built in or off triggers to begin with. I think this may be best in a Make Them Suffer/Headhunter/Vendetta/Assassinate pool. I've seen some people take it and like it, so I'd like to hear their stories. It's just, IMO, her weakest upgrade, and it's still pretty neat.

7) Dont forget about Maniacal Laugh! I've seen some people try it as the zombies, mid to late game, become a better 0 summon than seishin for summoning bodies, activation control. In addition, when the mindless die, you can discard a card to summon your seishin off Beacon  The zombies also make good targets for your opponent to shoot/smack and forget they're undead... until Ikyro pops out in their face. 

I hope Fetid can add some good advice here (or correct me!) as well he's the expert here on Kirai I believe! 

 

edit #2: Yin isnt a spirit. I need to read my cards, I just assumed she was! What to take away: Read the top of the card better

[Fetid Strumpet]

Truth to tell I'm more of an advisor on all things Seamus and Molly.  I've not played too many games with Kirai as the games I did play her I found her over the power level I feel is healthy for the game. And really don't enjoy playing her because played well she often just can just pound anyone not on your skill level so far into the dirt that they seriously consider quitting the game if you don't seriously tone down how you play. I think she, and a few other masters got too much grandfathered in from last edition, and while I don't think she is broken, she is certainly one of the masters I wouldn't shed a tear seeing a toning down in a future FAQ/Errata document.

One upgrade I think you are missing review of, mainly because it isn't Kirai Specific is Take Back the Night. It's one of the Molly upgrades that can be taken on a spirit or Horror and allows ever spirit within 10" and LoS of the Carrying model to draw a card after they kill an enemy model. It would be a serious consideration in any kirai list I played.

[MEGAHORSE]

1 minute ago, Fetid Strumpet said:

Truth to tell I'm more of an advisor on all things Seamus and Molly.  I've not played too many games with Kirai as the games I did play her I found her over the power level I feel is healthy for the game. And really don't enjoy playing her because played well she often just can just pound anyone not on your skill level so far into the dirt that they seriously consider quitting the game if you don't seriously tone down how you play. I think she, and a few other masters got too much grandfathered in from last edition, and while I don't think she is broken, she is certainly one of the masters I wouldn't shed a tear seeing a toning down in a future FAQ/Errata document.

One upgrade I think you are missing review of, mainly because it isn't Kirai Specific is Take Back the Night. It's one of the Molly upgrades that can be taken on a spirit or Horror and allows ever spirit within 10" and LoS of the Carrying model to draw a card after they kill an enemy model. It would be a serious consideration in any kirai list I played.

Oh apologies! You just had some good thoughts on her in other topics, I figured you were a good resource  

I also agree on Take Back the Night. I like it on Phillip since Phillip wants to be sort of near the action, removing markers and being chatty. It's an amazing upgrade, and along with his ability to eat your markers for cards, makes fulfilling the TN's of Kirai's abilities much less taxing. 

[LennyB]

Think Take Back the Night is Horror only. Not Spirit. Works great with Sloth. 

I do love Yin with Kirai. You can tie up some serious models with him (?). 

Spirit Beacon is terrific on Kirai. I only give it to someone else if I am expecting that model to be in the thick of things, like Izamu, in order to get more Seishin faster. 

[Adran]

Take back the night has to be taken on a horror, but it provides the card draw to both Horrors and Spirits

[MEGAHORSE]

1 hour ago, LennyB said:

Think Take Back the Night is Horror only. Not Spirit. Works great with Sloth. 

I do love Yin with Kirai. You can tie up some serious models with him (?). 

Spirit Beacon is terrific on Kirai. I only give it to someone else if I am expecting that model to be in the thick of things, like Izamu, in order to get more Seishin faster. 

 

57 minutes ago, Adran said:

Take back the night has to be taken on a horror, but it provides the card draw to both Horrors and Spirits

Adran is right, and Phillip is both a horror, spirit, and undead. Superb for the crew in scheme heavy pools, as chatty, his removal of enemy sheme markers, carrying Take Back the Night, the large base for hiding Kirai/Lost Love, pretty ok melee attack that opponents typically dont see coming, as well as being undead for Ikyro make him one of my new favorite pieces with Kirai. Heck, I like him more than Datsue ba! But Datsue does more movement/model generation and is a solid beatstick against Armor heavy crews like the Arcanists tend to bring.

[Obeisance]

Great replies, guys. I didn't realise Yin was a spirit. Or that I could use Phillip with tbtn. 

Also.. Kirai.. that op? Seriously? 

[Fetid Strumpet]

Yin isn't a spirit, she's only a Horror. But you don't only have to have spirits in a Kirai list.

My issue with Kirai's power level is that she can do everything really well, and doesn't really have any weaknesses. She has a ranged attack with several useful triggers which doesn't randomize into combat and with an upgrade can do damage equal to that of killer masters. She is one of the hardest Resser masters to remove from the board, in ways that even the harder to kill masters would love. She has excessive mobility do to her ability to go into the spirit world. She has one of the flat out best and least costly summoning mechanics in the game, in addition to easily being able to summon a VERY nasty beatstick at unlimited range which itself can feed into her summoning cycle. In short, in my opinion, like Leveticus, she just does too much too well with very little weakness.

[DoctorWhat]

27 minutes ago, Obeisance said:

Great replies, guys. I didn't realise Yin was a spirit. Or that I could use Phillip with tbtn. 

Also.. Kirai.. that op? Seriously? 

Kirai isn't overly overpowered, but the biggest gripes that seem to pop up are:

1. Multiple reliable sources of very good damage that ignores armor, doesn't randomize, and/or has a minimum damage of 3. Take Unforgiven on Kirai, Anna Lovelace, the Emissary, and summon Ikyrio and the damage is just gross. Crews that rely on hard to wound or armor have a very tough time against most of her crew's attacks.

2. Amazing positioning. You're not going to tie Kirai or her crew down if the Kirai player doesn't want you to. Swirling is incredibly easy and there's never an issue of getting form point A to point B. 

3. Summoning/high activation control. It's the same gripe about Levy, Hamelin, or any other heavy summoner. You're going to get out-activated by chaff, but it's definitely not the end of the world.

 

Beating her is all about understanding the crew, like any other master. Learn how to avoid/bait Ikyrio and manipulative and you won't have much trouble taking things apart.

[lusciousmccabe]

33 minutes ago, Fetid Strumpet said:

In short, in my opinion, like Leveticus, she just does too much too well with very little weakness.

Yeah, I always feel like this pair started with costly core mechanics and power to make up for it, but then someone did way too good a job making those costs easy to pay.

[jonahmaul]

What strats/schemes do you guys think Kirai is best at? Now that most of her Spirits are out (I have good Night Terror proxies) I really need to get her on the board some more.

[Obeisance]

I assume Ikiryo can activate multiple times if she's resummoned? 

I come from Warmachine where models can never activate twice in a turn. 

So first game with Kirai tonight against my girlfriend's Neverborn. Lilith or Pandora. Will be interesting. 

[Dassenkop]

8 hours ago, DoctorWhat said:

Learn how to avoid/bait Ikyrio and manipulative and you won't have much trouble taking things apart.

Any advice you could give on avoid/bait Ikyrio to a player inexperienced with or against Kirai? An how can you avoid Manipulative? Thx.

[Jokerboy]

I only know Kirai from playing against her, but the best way to handle Ikyrio is to "trap" her. Try to have a good caster near the model that attacks one of Kirai's models. Another good way to avoid her, is using Tactical Actions or Conditions that deal damage, because Ikyrio can only be summoned if the damage source was an Attack Action.

The only ways to avoid Manipulative is Out activating or using models that ignore Wp-Duels.

[Adran]

5 hours ago, Obeisance said:

I assume Ikiryo can activate multiple times if she's resummoned? 

I come from Warmachine where models can never activate twice in a turn. 

So first game with Kirai tonight against my girlfriend's Neverborn. Lilith or Pandora. Will be interesting. 

Yes, every time you Summon it is a new Ikiyro so it will be activate as normal. 

For what its worth I find Kirai the hardest master to face when she is played well. Largely for the same reasons as Fetid. She can do everything really well, and has easy covers for the normally expected weaknesses.  She has one of the best sest of movement tricks, and easy summoning, and easy to obtain protection from blast damage and ranged attacks. Her Bubble of models is safe and then can still score all the scheme points on the last turn. 

Ikiryo is tough to master when you want her out, and when you want her dead, but once you get good at it, she is almost impossible to bait out effectively. (About the only time I got close to controlling her was when I pine boxed her) 

I would say that Kirais worst match up is Reconnotre, and even then, she is pretty solid at it. She is probably only good at Head hunter and Interference. I think she is great at everything else. 

 

[Obeisance]

Yesterday I was talking to my GF about being meh about Resurrectionists.

Nicodem was too static. Seamus was too gun reliant. McMourning has bad WP and relies on conditions that can be removed. All of them have crap DEF. Molly was the next stop.

I compared Ressers masters to Cryx warcasters.

"I like debuffing, recursion, durability, ranged/magic target removal and a warcaster who can do business if he/she needs to." and I was mentioning how I didn't feel like that suited a lot of the masters I was dabbling at.

I was perched precariously over the edge of buying Dreamer and taking a foray into Neverborn. Decided I'd wait a day or so and "cool off" on Dreamer. This thread pointed out that Kirai does everything I want. Ikyrio is the facebeating part, Kirai can kill stuff her self.. and so on.

I get the feeling that I'm really going to enjoy playing her. 

 

[DoctorWhat]

7 hours ago, Dassenkop said:

Any advice you could give on avoid/bait Ikyrio to a player inexperienced with or against Kirai? And how can you avoid Manipulative? Thx.

I'll start with the two best things you can do: 

1. Stick to the strats and schemes! If you can take 3 AP and complete a quick protect territory, do it instead of running around for cover. You don't need all of your models alive to win. 

2. Know the rules/cards of both crews. Read through them and be comfortable knowing what to expect from each model. Know that your opponent needs a card, line of sight, and to be near Kirai or the Lost Love to bring Ikyrio out. Know the ranges on enemy attacks and any defensive abilities. Use your Ca actions against Incorporeal models (unless the Emissary is near, then just do whatever) and if you can ignore armor, use that against Izamu mostly.

 

When Kirai is on the table, the game can shift to feel much more like a cold war that's more about positioning and objectives. It's always an option to just run around and do your two schemes and be set up for the strategy without firing a single shot.

 

As for Ikyrio:

- Lots of Kirai players seem pretty eager to get her out (it's a great cheap summon, why not?), but have a plan for attacking that includes "what would I do if Ikyrio pops out" or make sure that your attack can't bring her out.

- Forcing your opponent to discard cards is a great option. Austringers, Acolytes, and a handful of other models can just empty an opponent's hand. Force your opponent to decide if that high card is going to summon a Hanged, Ikyrio, secure an attack, or prevent one.

- Use chain activations (Companion/Accomplice) to deal with Ikyrio before she activates. There's nothing more satisfying than two Rotten Belles pulling her 4-6 inches and then ripping her apart with pounce.

 

As for Manipulative/Kirai:

- Manipulative goes away as soon as that model activates, leaving Kirai with nothing but a defensive trigger, a very low defense/wound count, and Ikyrio. Models with the Ruthless ability can just ignore Manipulative out right or just attack her after she's activated, which can be tricky. The best ways to deal with that are to either have more models than your opponent (which is difficult with Kirai's summoning), force Kirai to activate early by putting a threat near her and force your opponent to react, or just have some high cards to burn for Manipulative and brute-force your way through.

- If you can get her away from her crew, she melts very easily. Lures, Mr. Graves, Lilith's pushes/places, and such are all ways to take the heart of a Kirai crew and rip it out. Once she's isolated, your opponent will have to react in some way, as losing Kirai can shutdown the crew entirely

[BigHammer]

Also bear in mind that Kirai and the Lost Love (both have Malevolence, the ability that can summon Ikiryo) can use a Soulstone instead of a card for the summon; emptying your opponent's hand isn't always a sure-fire way of avoiding Ikiryo.

[lusciousmccabe]

8 hours ago, Shen Long said:

 using Tactical Actions or Conditions that deal damage, because Ikyrio can only be summoned if the damage source was an Attack Action.

The only ways to avoid Manipulative is Out activating or using models that ignore Wp-Duels.

That is probably the best advice about Ikiryo I've seen so far. There's also a fairly little-known rule that you can't summon a model outside of your Line of Sight, but Ikiryo is usually big enough to get around that anyway. 

Tactical actions which don't target will also get around Manipulative as well, which is nice.

[Adran]

5 minutes ago, lusciousmccabe said:

That is probably the best advice about Ikiryo I've seen so far. There's also a fairly little-known rule that you can't summon a model outside of your Line of Sight, but Ikiryo is usually big enough to get around that anyway. 

Tactical actions which don't target will also get around Manipulative as well, which is nice.

Unfortunatly, that little know rule specifies that Actions can't summon models outside of line of sight, and Ikiryo isn't summoned by an action, so can still be summoned out of LOS of Kirai.