Challenge your beliefs: Izamu.

[Stryder]

In this series of threads I am going to challenge some of the most commonly-held views and oft-given 'advice' of many of our pale and pasty bretheren.

Hopefully there will be a new thread every month or so, so post your various queries here and I'll get round to answering them at some point.

You will probably not like many of the things I have to say, so brace yourself for many shocking statements that you will no doubt totally disagree with until you read on.

 

Lets start with a commonly asked question:

What is our best non-soulstone using beatstick?

Most common answer: Izamu the Armour

Correct answer: Dead Rider/Rouge Necromancy

Let me say this now: IZAMU SUCKS. Seriously. Yes, seriously. He is our worst beatstick, and very nearly the worst beatstick in the game. This is because he is NOT designed to be one. He is designed specifically to work with Yan Lo's Lightning Dance ability and tie opposing models down rather than actually kill them. As a beatstick, he requires a huge amount of support just to function properly. You need something to compensate for his terrible movement, something to remove nasty conditions like Slow or Paralysed, and something to heal him when he gets too low on wounds to heal himself. And if he is healing himself, then he's no doing what you hired him to do...which is kill things. All of this makes him a stupidly huge investment involving multiple models (usually including your master) which could be better spent on more useful things.

So what is he for? Used alongside Yan Lo as a 'model bank' the only thing you need is the healing, which Yan can provide himself. Shoving opposing models into him that will struggle to deal with his armour and struggle to escape will effectively tie them down for the entire game. Since you are only using him as a 'model bank', his low movement matters little as you are moving your targets into him, rather than moving him to them. Slow and Paralyse are also of little concern (if he get's Paralysed, just activate him and he gets his melee range back...problem persists) as you are not using him to kill stuff, just to keep it in place. (On a slightly amusing note, 'model bank' is the correct term to use as he does generate a bit of 'interest' with Melee Expert.)

So, in order to counteract my original statement, Izamu does not totally suck...he just sucks at being a beatstick.

But then...how are the other two better?

Well, lets look at the Rogue first. Here are 10 things it has over Izamu:

Better Movement

Impossible to Wound

Terrifying

Three-Headed

Smell Fear

Better Melee

Better Damage (Slightly)

Better Triggers (With built-in infect he's effective weak damage 4)

A powerful ranged attack (Super-important in a faction that generally lacks range)

Stalk

 

And here is everything Izamu has over it:

Armour (Fine...but many things ignore Armour...nothing ignores Impossible to Wound)

Warrior's death (Smell fear is better as you can potentially use it every turn...not just once per game)

Ruthless (Useful)

Melee expert (I'd rather move better and not have this)

Better melee range (But acid breath has a 12” range)

Self-Healing (which means you don't kill things...you just stay alive...which is what he's meant to do)

Movement is one of the most important things in Malifaux. If you can't get to where you need to be, you might as well not be on the board. By comparison, even though the movement difference is only 1”, Izamu is slow. The Rogue is not. Stalk can help close the distance even quicker (with a chance of making your opponent do something stupid in the process). And don't think Izamu has a better threat range either. 2 walks and a 3” melee equals 11”. That's already less than the range of Acid Breath. And if all you need to do is be somewhere (to prevent your opponent moving or interacting etc), the Rogue wins here too. 2 walks and a 2” melee range equals 12”. One more than Izamu. Also bear in mind that while the Rogue is weak to things with a high weak damage, there are usually precious few models capable of that in most crews. Izamu, however, is weak to anything that that ignores armour or can focus with a moderate/severe damage of 4 or higher...which is usually quite a lot of things.

Now the Dead Rider. As I mentioned above, movement is one of the most important things in Malifaux. I can't think of anything in the resser faction that moves better than this guy, with his 6”/10” move stats, unimpeded, and pushes off melee strikes. Also, while Izamu requires constant support, this guy only needs it for the first 2 turns, then he's perfectly capable of holding his own against most things your opponent can throw at him for the rest of the game...and if you use him right, that shouldn't be very much as he functions best as a 'hit, drag and run' model, meaning your opponent will have very few answers to him other than staying out of his way...which is difficult given his speed. He's also good as a last-turn scheme runner. Yes, he's expensive at 12 stones, but he's certainly worth at least 4 more than a 'beatstick' Izamu. Also, like Izamu, he's weak to things with high moderate/severe damage, but only early in the game. A little investment will go a long way here, you just need to be patient and willing to provide it.

All said, I prefer the Rider for his movement, but the Rogue is a cheaper, more aggressive option when that kind of thing is required.

Go nuts. And remember to post your thoughts/questions/requests/complaints/death threats etc.

P.S.: I don't care what the site spellchecker thinks, the word 'armour' has a 'u' in it!

 

[Daysleeper]

RN can also hold "take back the night" wich i realy realy like in a lot of crews. So much of our good stuff is Horror or Spirit 

[Tayne]

I think your opening statement needs some more work. Namely, it needs Kirai. She has support tricks, namely movement and healing, that go a long way to resolving the issues you have stated with Izamu and you do the model a disservice by not mentioning them. Yes, he is slow but Kirai can swirl him 24" across the board if she wishes (and has set it up correctly, of course).

[mythicFOX]

Good read mate, thanks.

Stryder doesn't post in here often, and as he's too modest to say anything himself, some of you may be wondering who he is and why you should care what he thinks about the game.  So here's some context; 

He's the reigning UK Master, a title won by finishing in the top 16 ranked UK players for the year, then winning a grueling two day competition against the other fifteen top players.  He's one of only two UK players to have qualified for the UK Masters every year it's been held. He's one of only two UK players to have won all three of the big titles (ukrocky is the other); UK Master, #1 Ranked UK player, winner of the UK Nationals (aka UKGT).   For all of those achievements he played Ressers.

He's an opponent to be feared, and I doubt anyone knows more about the faction on the table.

[BigHammer]

I'm not sure that comparing the Rider to either the Rogue or Izamu is completely fair. The difference in cost is significant enough that, yes, you should be getting a better model than one that costs 2SS less. So I won't comment on the Rider here.

The Izamu/Rogue comparison is a much closer one, though, so I'll address a couple of your points, at least;

Defensive abilities:

You've only really talked about how armour can be ignored, but impossible to wound cannot. You haven't taken into account that armour reduces damage, wheras I2W only potentially does so. If your opponents' killy models all do 3 weak damage, Izamu can be hit up to nine times before he dies, while the Rogue goes down to four of those. Its Terrifying 13 is a great defensive ability, but it can be bypassed by generic game mechanics (flipping or cheating the appropriate card), and many models (Izamu included) are immune to it.

Offensive Output: If you assume that your models are going to always to weak damage, Izamu puts out more than the Rogue. The Rogue does better overall damage per attack, but Izamu's Melee Expert, which you seem to have dismissed, is probably one of his most important abilities; it increases his raw damage output by 50%. The Rogue is more accurate, but shorter reach, and both have + flips on damage, but Izamu doesn't lose his when he drops below half wounds.

Speed: The rogue is faster than Izamu, just. Stalk makes the biggest difference, of course, but isn't always useful.

Synergy: You haven't mentioned either model's synergies with various crews. One is a Horror, the other is a Spirit, and both of those things are very important to several masters; Molly loves both, depending on her upgrade choices, while Yan Lo and Kirai have obvious synergies with Izamu (and in both cases those synergies deal with what you perceive to be his weak point - mobility).

I'd say both have their place in different crews, but having used both, unless I have a specific use in mind for the Rogue, and I only have stones for the one, I always reach for Izamu. No other non-master model at that cost is as reliable as he is at taking a model out in a single activation, and with the proper support (and Decaying Aura), he becomes an absolute terror, IMO.

[Adran]

I like the Concept. Looking forwards to the series.  

Good report.

There are a few things here that I'm not sure I agree. 

I am used to models on a negative flip for damage. And so weak damage is common anyway. And becasue of that I find armour reduces more damage in a game than Impossible to wound does. (Although its probably almost impossible to prove).  

I agree on the mobility issues, but there are several ways in faction that can speed him up, so not insurmountable. 

3 AP means that he will probably do more damage per turn that the Necromancy. It might take him an extra AP to get engaged, but that normally will eb more than made up over the game. 

I wouldn't give the triggers to Necro quite so well. The Card cycle Izamu can get is pretty useful. And Infect isn't really the same as +1 damage, bcasue it will only go off 5 times per game. If you are using the condition then it will easily win. 

There is also the kill credit issue, from schemes/strats. Its not that common, but getting to lose the count from Poison, or your opponent not counting as killing Izamu can be a big difference in some games.K 

 

Lookign forward to the discussion

[SurreyLee]

New player to ressers and this is an interesting piece. Great to open up debate on models. 

I've not used either the RN or DR yet so can't comment directly, however, I have enjoyed success with Izamu. I agree he is a holding model but that's not necessarily a bad thing especially with some of the new schemes available. Need to be unengaged to clear a condition.....Izamu just made it harder for you. He can also take a couple of rounds of beatings before he snuffs it too. Okay, an opponent has to be silly to engage him but with Belles doing some luring it's not impossible to set up.

That said, i've been dissapointed with his damage output so i suppose the main post is right in this assertion. He's not necessarily the best beat stick, but he is great at tying other stuff up.

Also, if used to tie things up, using his self heal actually makes sense.

Just my take on matters anyways.

[Stryder]

7 minutes ago, Tayne said:

I think your opening statement needs some more work. Namely, it needs Kirai. She has support tricks, namely movement and healing, that go a long way to resolving the issues you have stated with Izamu and you do the model a disservice by not mentioning them. Yes, he is slow but Kirai can swirl him 24" across the board if she wishes (and has set it up correctly, of course).

Note the part where I said 'he requires a huge amount of support just to function properly'. Note that this post also refers specifically to getting people to consider other options that just using him as a go-to beatstick. Kirai has many other, summonable options available to her.

10 minutes ago, BigHammer said:

I'm not sure that comparing the Rider to either the Rogue or Izamu is completely fair.

The Rider will get his own post later. There's far too much potential in him to cover here.

As for the rest of your comments: Those opposing models that do weak 3 damage can focus and do severe 6 in a lot of cases. ITW helps to maintain a negative damage flip and prevents cheating. While Armour 2 is better than any amount of HTW, ITW comes closer to being it's equal, but is harder to get around. Positive damage flips can't be counted as getting around it as they can also be used to deal more damage to armoured things.

The offensive output: Remember that the Rogue can shoot as it moves forwards. Izamu can not. Without support, Izamu can be played around, meaning you never get a good chance to bring all that power to bear. At least the Rogue has a good ranged attack, making it harder to 'dodge'.

Synergy: I mentioned the Yan Lo synergy in the original post. It's the best use for Izamu, and certainly worth doing. The Kirai synergy is a lot less effective, as Kirai needs to move and heal him, while keeping the rest of her crew propped up at the same time. You also need something to swirl him to. A big investment which could result in a small payoff.

 

[MEGAHORSE]

As others have pointed out, Izamu is mostly taken in crews where the master or another henchmen like Datsue ba can speed him up. It helps really take advantage of the 3psuedoAP he has. However, with my meta being pretty armor heavy among my friends, everyone is taking anti armor, even against my crews for the threat of Izamu. Hans typically two shots Izamu turns 1-2. Collodi can too by Prompting a Trapper. I've had it happen, even after cheating to save him. It's really rough! 

If I was in an unknown meta I would feel more happy about taking him, but him having only one defensive ability is the main reason I dislike him and Toshiro. Armor +2 and Hard to Wound +2 is pretty significant if your opponent cannot deal with it... or has the red joker still in their deck. It's why I like statlines like Valedictorian/Rogue Necro more. They not only need to pass the horror duel, but they need to deal with Impossible to Wound (they cant). Or with Valedictorian, Hard to Wound, Terrifying, AND Armor +1. It's very, very taxing for most models, especially lower ss models, to deal with. I dont want to pretend to act like this makes them tougher than Izamu, but it covers more bases and makes my opponents really think twice before committing to taking the model out. While you have to run support for Izamu, you also probably want to heal the rogue necro once it does start taking hits. 

I also have been hesitant to run RN as others have stated, it loses its effectiveness without some backup healing to keep it topped off once it gets some focus. It's a scary model. Sure, Dead Rider costs two more points, from turn 3 onward, you have the Melee Expert off of Dead Rider's first 0 action if needed. It's psuedo armor is also much, much better, and continues to get better as the game goes on. I just wish he was a spirit... 

I do think Izamu is overrated. Primarily due to

1. Really desiring some movement help to get going
2. Your opponent can ignore Armor and he's going down quickly

But if they cant ignore armor, hey, he's great! But for me it's putting 10 points in one basket in my anti-armor meta. For now, I'm not running him and trying other beaters out (unless it is with Kirai or Yan Lo).

 

edit: In fact, lets speak of him outside of Yan Lo and Kirai where he is optimal. One can take him and the Graveyard Spirit with Nicodem for example. I've not seen anyone take him with McMourning (obviously) or Tara. Spirit Molly is another one. She doesnt offer him much besides Adversary and requires doxies/belles to help him advance up the field. 

I mean, my main point is that I think he is incredibly overrated on forums and groups as some end all be all impossible to kill master beatstick. I may be using some hyperbole here, but that's my $0.02

[BigHammer]

2 minutes ago, Stryder said:

As for the rest of your comments: Those opposing models that do weak 3 damage can focus and do severe 6 in a lot of cases.

The offensive output: Remember that the Rogue can shoot as it moves forwards. Izamu can not. Without support, Izamu can be played around, meaning you never get a good chance to bring all that power to bear. At least the Rogue has a good ranged attack, making it harder to 'dodge'.

Synergy: I mentioned the Yan Lo synergy in the original post. It's the best use for Izamu, and certainly worth doing. The Kirai synergy is a lot less effective, as Kirai needs to move and heal him, while keeping the rest of her crew propped up at the same time. You also need something to swirl him to. A big investment which could result in a small payoff.

In the first scenario, that model does 6 damage (3+3) to the Rogue and 4 (6-2) to Izamu. Izamu still wins, unless the attacker also ignores armour.

I won't deny that Acid Breath is awesome. It's the reason why I ever take the Rogue instead of Izamu (though often I take both together), since it's a reliable damage output at good range that can also put poison on a model; that last part is the key to it; I bring one when I have a need to put poison on something (so that Shikome can charge for 1 AP, eg). However, the way I build my crews, either of the two models can be charging an enemy model in the first turn if I want it to be.

There's more to Izamu in a Yan Lo crew than collecting models (and, indeed, I think he's actually pretty terrible at it, since they can still move around freely in a very large area within his reach to attack other things, and too many at once will overwhelm Izamu and kill him anyway); the Soul Porter can push him around to increase his movement, and lightning dance can make it easier for Izamu to not just engage, but also charge a model that needs to be killed. In addition, if you build your crew with more movement in mind (Datsue Ba to give Izamu another walk action, a Doxy to push him further forward still), you can happily throw Izamu into an important enemy model, kill it, take a lot of AP to go down in return, hit the thing that kills you, then be brought back later by Yan Lo to be a secondary, if slightly lesser, threat again.

In Kirai he can be silly due to Adversary and Swirl Spirits, as well as the secondary heals that a Kirai crew can contain.

While you can certainly throw the Rogue into the enemy in a similar fashion, it will only get two attacks at the most, and, on average, will do less damage than Izamu (on rare occasions more, of course, especially if the red joker or lots of severes are in hand), then is easier to kill, and doesn't come back afterwards outside of Spare Parts.

For me at least, Izamu has exactly what I require of a beatstick - high, reliable damage output, takes a disproportionate amount of AP to kill in return, decent threat range (his average charge is offset somewhat by his 3" reach), and useful secondary abilities (Ruthless being the main one, since it gets around a lot of things besides Terrifying and Manipulative).

FWIW, it took me a long time to come around to that line of thinking. I started as a 10T player and very rarely took Izamu, thinking him too expensive for what you got from him, not realising that what you got was reliability, something that, with Decaying Aura, he has even more of in Ressers.

I do love the Rogue Necromancy, though. It brings some things to the table that Izamu doesn't. When I put it on the table, it's usually with Pack and alongside Izamu, because then I don't have to choose and Izamu gets even more free movement.

Disclaimer; I'm not a UK champion and most likely am a worse player by a good amount than the OP, I mostly just enjoy this sort of discussion for what I can learn from it.

[Myk]

Just as an example: In my Meta there is a lot of Killjoy. The rogue never survive an onslaught, Izamu does.

It does just depends on your meta and what you re fighting like everything in Malifaux.

If I have to be generalist I would say it depends on the master, with Kirai, Yan Lo, molly (path) and Nicodem I would take Izamu but with Mc Morning, Molly (horror), Tara, Seamus and Levi I would take the rogue. 

Again this is not systematic it depends a lot about schemes, strategy, opponent, meta...etc

 

My 2 cents  

 

[Kogan Style]

Been on a course all day so I'll reply fully later, but I think the Emissary provides more than the Rogue, but I appreciate that this post is more about damage dealing.

[oryxwild]

Thank you so much for sharing your insights with us Stryder - I really enjoy "getting inside the thought process" of top players. 

I've also found Izamu to be pretty unreliable as anything other than an anchor/place to dump models. I love to dump Joss on a drowned and everything else near izamu! I echo BigHammer's thoughts in that even in that capacity, it can be challenging to actually negate anyone that way - a 10" bubble is a lot of space to move around in!

I just got and started playing the RN and instantly realized a lot of what you pointed out - I think that what some others are missing is that Izamu is defintely not reliable, even with melee expert. In my limited experience, the jump from melee 6->7 is about equivalent to melee expert; no one wants to get hit by these models, so they'll cheat to miss if possible. Lots of things have defense 6, and few very things have defense 7+. Sure, if you have a great hand it doesn't matter, or great flips.

In the end, it's a lot of little things; I'll take +flip +damage ml7 3/5/6 damage over +dmg ml6 ml expert 3/4/5 any day. 

[Math Mathonwy]

Great stuff, Ant! Much appreciated!

One thing that you skipped but which is at least as common as anti-Armour and hurts Rogue way more than Izamu is blasts. Armor is really, really nice against blasts but ItW is completely useless.

Personally it's been a really long time since I've used either RN or Izamu in a crew of mine since I feel that Ressers don't really need a beatstick of that price-range for anything.

[OldManMyke]

Given the RN is built by McM and McM is the best then obviously the RN is the best and to suggest otherwise is heretical

Good write up though, agree with most of the points, though i think that the Valedictorian might have deserved a mention in this role as well

[Kogan Style]

18 hours ago, mythicFOX said:

Stryder doesn't post in here often, and as he's too modest to say anything himself, some of you may be wondering who he is and why you should care what he thinks about the game.  So here's some context; 

He's the reigning UK Master, a title won by finishing in the top 16 ranked UK players for the year, then winning a grueling two day competition against the other fifteen top players.  He's one of only two UK players to have qualified for the UK Masters every year it's been held. He's one of only two UK players to have won all three of the big titles (ukrocky is the other); UK Master, #1 Ranked UK player, winner of the UK Nationals (aka UKGT).   For all of those achievements he played Ressers.

He's an opponent to be feared, and I doubt anyone knows more about the faction on the table.

I don't think this post is very helpful, you are putting him on a pedestal and making it difficult to offer other opinions because not only do you have to deal with the fact he (Ant) actually articulates very well why he feels that Rogue beats Izamu (and he is correct IMO) but you are now seen as speaking against the current champ whereas from the OP Ant is wanting people to engage with him and to help shake up the Ressur forum (which is great)

12 hours ago, Math Mathonwy said:

Personally it's been a really long time since I've used either RN or Izamu in a crew of mine since I feel that Ressers don't really need a beatstick of that price-range for anything.

I agree with this, having taken down a Rogue by turn 2 at the Nationals I still struggle with the idea that its usefulness outweighs its seemingly paper thin defence. Three-Headed is great but easy to reduce and then you are having to hire some support piece to heal it back up to effectiveness.

For the 10ss bracket I prefer the Emissary, you can get potential minimum 12 damage out in one turn using Rot 'n' Rend with the right trigger ( - Word of the Emissary x 2 @ min. damage 3) and still throw up some shards to block LoS for retaliation/aura's etc.. while boosting the effectiveness of other models (+1Wk, Carrion Conflux giving other models  to ALL attack duels) 

2 hours ago, OldManMyke said:

Good write up though, agree with most of the points, though i think that the Valedictorian might have deserved a mention in this role as well

I don't think Val could ever be considered a damage dealer at min. damage 2, she makes a great mobile threat that can hold up other models and survive (thanks to all her defensive layers) but to either hold onto High Rams or stone just to get  to the damage flip (which Izamu has natively) to try get a moderate 3 damage is poor (imo)

Which brings me onto my final point/question: Stryder do you feel Izamu's ability to cycle cards via his trigger and the native  to damage is not a worthwhile point in his favour?

[jonahmaul]

I really like Izamu.  I agree that sometimes he can need support (a trick that I like is to have the Graveyard Spirit stick to him and kill anything that ignores armour!) but then that applies to so many things in the game.  Malifaux is about creating combinations that best allow you to achieve the strats and schemes.  Izamu can hand out some serious damage, especially with Masters who can give him support (which is most of the Resser ones to be fair, I run the big lump with Nico a lot to hand out Fast like candy and full heal him) and Defensive wise I think RN and Izamu are probably on a par with each of them going to be trumped by certain enemy models.

[Adran]

If I'm going to add the Grave spirit, then The necromancy wins out. 

Armour +2 impossible to wound beats armour +4 all the time. 

[Munindk]

Rotten Bells luring enemy models into Izamu with Unnerving aura, and possibly backed by the Graveyard Spirit, looks good on paper.

[jonahmaul]

1 hour ago, Kogan Style said:

I don't think this post is very helpful, you are putting him on a pedestal and making it difficult to offer other opinions because not only do you have to deal with the fact he (Ant) actually articulates very well why he feels that Rogue beats Izamu (and he is correct IMO) but you are now seen as speaking against the current champ whereas from the OP Ant is wanting people to engage with him and to help shake up the Ressur forum (which is great)

I agree with this too.  Obviously Stryder is a very good player but then Joe Wood has just won a high ranking tournament with a Kirai list that has Izamu as a lynchpin beater.  I know this reflects the original point about needing support but as above, combinations are a thing in Malifaux.  The RN works much better if it's got some healing around for example to keep it above the three-headed threshold bonus.

[Stryder]

14 hours ago, Math Mathonwy said:

I feel that Ressers don't really need a beatstick of that price-range for anything.

Usually you are correct, but they can come in handy sometimes as threat pieces.

4 hours ago, OldManMyke said:

I think that the Valedictorian might have deserved a mention in this role as well

Note the term 'non-soulstone using.'

1 hour ago, Kogan Style said:

For the 10ss bracket I prefer the Emissary, you can get potential minimum 12 damage out in one turn using Rot 'n' Rend with the right trigger ( - Word of the Emissary x 2 @ min. damage 3) and still throw up some shards to block LoS for retaliation/aura's etc.. while boosting the effectiveness of other models (+1Wk, Carrion Conflux giving other models  to ALL attack duels)

 

Which brings me onto my final point/question: Stryder do you feel Izamu's ability to cycle cards via his trigger and the native  to damage is not a worthwhile point in his favour?

On the Emissary: I have not had much play experience to form a proper opinion on that yet! Give me a couple of months.

As for the other: Card cycling? Only if your cheating weak cards and drawing higher. What if you naturally flip moderate or severe? Will you cheat your damage lower for the chance of maybe drawing a higher card?

58 minutes ago, Adran said:

If I'm going to add the Grave spirit, then The necromancy wins out.

Armour +2 impossible to wound beats armour +4 all the time.

Especially against the multitude of things in the game that ignore armour or cannot have their damage reduced.

32 minutes ago, Munindk said:

Rotten Bells luring enemy models into Izamu with Unnerving aura, and possibly backed by the Graveyard Spirit, looks good on paper.

Luring them into the Rogue is just as nice as he gets to Smell Fear.

 

Damn half-hour library times...

[Munindk]

51 minutes ago, Stryder said:

Luring them into the Rogue is just as nice as he gets to Smell Fear.

The Rogue has to kill them right away or they'll hurt him bad and killing isnt always desireable with schemes and all. Izamu looks like he can tarpit them longer without killing them.

[Kogan Style]

1 hour ago, Stryder said:

As for the other: Card cycling? Only if your cheating weak cards and drawing higher. What if you naturally flip moderate or severe? Will you cheat your damage lower for the chance of maybe drawing a higher card?

Well I'd cheat weak for another weak card, and a 6 for Moderate, possibly even a weak card if my control hand was that bad (which means the deck *should* have a higher percentage of higher cards) but that is going to be rare. Does fit in with Izamu the tank though, you are not caring/expecting him to kill stuff, just hold out and improve other models chances of doing whatever it is they are doing!

 flip to damage is nice as you can let the duel total sit at 1 - 5 which is where most players are willing to allow an attack to go through.

for all this defending of Izamu, I wouldn't take him over the Emissary  

 

 

[jonahmaul]

I do think that Izamu's card cycling looks better on card than it is practicality personally mind.

[Adran]

For Card cycling I wouldn't do it is I flipped a Severe. But if I flip a weak or a moderate, then I would very strongly consider cheating in a 7 or lower to get to draw another card, even if it doesn't change the damage track. Cheating to change the damage track is often something that I would have done anyway, so that is giving me a free card. 

I have had people cheat from a moderate to a weak against me for the card, but this is probably a very niche case.