Shadow Emissary

[Sybarite]

Hmm you might have a point.

[Patzer]

The additional heal with Elixir of Life seems really good for the Emissary (Destined+Regeneration +2). Funny that the timing is different, will help with Blackblood, etc. Corner case, but neat. 

[Pyrflamme]

Elixir of Life does seem good on the face of it, but I usually don't find space for it in my McCabe lists, particularly since it's one of his 2SS upgrades. Having the Emissary will let me take it as another option and buffer its own resilience in the process. Especially looking forward to it and Samurai blasts all over

[Patzer]

Completely agree. I almost always take the Sabre, Badge, Promises, and sadly leave Elixir behind. I just feel that is McCabe's most versatile upgrades. Super happy to be able to get Elixir in from another source. 

[Rurouni Benshin]

12 hours ago, Patzer said:

Completely agree. I almost always take the Sabre, Badge, Promises, and sadly leave Elixir behind. I just feel that is McCabe's most versatile upgrades. Super happy to be able to get Elixir in from another source. 

I usually take the Elixir over Sabre, personally.  Mostly because I rely more on my crew to do the heavy hitting.

[Patzer]

11 minutes ago, Rurouni Benshin said:

I usually take the Elixir over Sabre, personally.  Mostly because I rely more on my crew to do the heavy hitting.

It is not a bad upgrade. A lot of the time I wish that I have taken it instead of something else. Regen+2 is amazing. I ran McCabe with two Jorogumo and two Illuminated with the Elixir. The amount of healing that crew could generate was off the hook. 

I just love to have the security the Saber brings. Being able to ignore most pesky defenses, and the Soulstone generation is mint. 

[Rurouni Benshin]

Just now, Patzer said:

It is not a bad upgrade. A lot of the time I wish that I have taken it instead of something else. Regen+2 is amazing. I ran McCabe with two Jorogumo and two Illuminated with the Elixir. The amount of healing that crew could generate was off the hook. 

I just love to have the security the Saber brings. Being able to ignore most pesky defenses, and the Soulstone generation is mint. 

That's true.  Unless I have a Henchman with me, my cache is usually around 4-5, otherwise it's 7.  I find the Sabre more useful when playing McCabe as a Guild Master though.  The amount of ridiculousness he can give to models in that faction are stupidly good. 

My favorite: Pale Rider + Sabre  "Hello, +4 Critical Strike."

[Eclipse]

The most brutal (literally) interaction I have found between our emissary and other models is the (0) blast aura. Before Fuhatsu was the model that could (potentially) have the highest blast damage in the game. Now this is no longer true: Just take the Emissary in a Brilliance Lynch crew with a few SS to spare. Lynch with Focus and +Ram? Sh6(ram) (and Sh7 near Sensei Yu)  for 4/5(blast)/6(blast) damage. Hungering Darkness with focus and ram on the melee attack? Pff. Illuminated vs models with Brilliance? 4/6(blast)/7(blast)!! I haven't done this yet though, I don't want to lose my (few) remaining friends yet.
Oh, and don't get me started on the new age of TT synergy: (0) upgrades. Yes, 3x Samurai (lols @ all the fun), you get can pushed by yet another models other than Yu, Graves, Wandering River Monks and a Master with Wings of Wind. As a bonus, you can also get healed by that nice Obsidian Oni - before it focuses for a Ca6 1/4(blast)/5(blast)! And then there is (0) Hidden Agenda, so another model can join in the fun. 10T is (will be for no-proxy-people like me:P) so much better after Wave 3.

[Patzer]

I aim to get a full grasp on Emissary Lynch after I feel done with Misaki. Emissary + Lazarus with Recalled Training is just hilarious. Four shots with positives to attack and damage... Yes please. Even more fun if the Emissary can get its blast aura up before that. 

[Eclipse]

On 2/17/2016 at 8:44 PM, Patzer said:

I aim to get a full grasp on Emissary Lynch after I feel done with Misaki. Emissary + Lazarus with Recalled Training is just hilarious. Four shots with positives to attack and damage... Yes please. Even more fun if the Emissary can get its blast aura up before that. 

Remember that the blast aura works for models that have used focus, so since Lazarus recalled his training instead of focusing he won't be getting the extra blasts. However, with Shenlong and fast he can get 3x Auto-fire attacks as well as a (0) Focus for another attack with fast (2xpositives with twice the blasts).

[Patzer]

Spot on. Got carried away there. Anyway. Emissary-Lazarus is a pretty good combo regardless. 

[santaclaws01]

On 2/17/2016 at 11:37 AM, Eclipse said:

 Illuminated vs models with Brilliance? 4/6(blast)/7(blast)!! 

I'm pretty sure the blast would be off of it's base damage track. The attack just deals extra damage against Brilliance models, it doesn't give a different damage track. So unless the model you're blasting on also has Brilliance, it's only going to be taking 2 or 4 damage.

[Patzer]

18 hours ago, santaclaws01 said:

I'm pretty sure the blast would be off of it's base damage track. The attack just deals extra damage against Brilliance models, it doesn't give a different damage track. So unless the model you're blasting on also has Brilliance, it's only going to be taking 2 or 4 damage.

That is the correct reading of the extra damage rule. Still a very viable trick, but requires more set up from e.g. Lynch's Play for Blood or dedicating an Illuminated to get down a cloud before the next one comes charging in. 

[Eclipse]

On 21.02.2016 г. at 10:40 AM, Patzer said:

That is the correct reading of the extra damage rule. Still a very viable trick, but requires more set up from e.g. Lynch's Play for Blood or dedicating an Illuminated to get down a cloud before the next one comes charging in. 

I don't know whether I am more happy or disappointed that the interaction is not as broken as I thought. Still, requiring setup is reasonable. Certainly more so than with some other models and abilities.

[Skitt_Happens]

With Yan Lo: the tethered soul ability seems a bit odd, limiting his use of chi on attack actions. I think I might be tempted to take the shadow conflux instead, use the soul porter to give him chi and start throwing around casting 9 attacks. With double focus. And 6 severe damage. Say "hello", Perdita!

Probably not - the other benefits outweigh the drawbacks, but it's a fun idea. And my local Perdita player would definitely leg it as soon as he realised you're packing a ca9 attack...

[Patzer]

Then you are missing out on making it an ancestor, which is a big thing for taking it with Yan.

[Skitt_Happens]

 

On 19/03/2016 at 9:00 AM, Patzer said:

Then you are missing out on making it an ancestor, which is a big thing for taking it with Yan.

Agreed.

[Patzer]

This thing keeps on impressing me with Lynch and Misaki. Its just solid, and such a force multiplier. 

How is it working for everyone else? 

[Mutter]

So far, it's been doing 'okayish' for me with Lynch, but I acknowledge that I mightn't have used it quite optimal.

[Patzer]

6 hours ago, Mutter said:

So far, it's been doing 'okayish' for me with Lynch, but I acknowledge that I mightn't have used it quite optimal.

Have you tried to give Huggy Fast and push him twice (8") and just chuck him into one of the most important opposing models (and have Lynch get him back later, of course)? 

[GoldenWG]

I have found the Emassiary great with Lynch for the Huggy Push and Go. McCabe for the extra upgrade when gives me  all the ones I feel I need. And the with Yan Lo he is a beast in how they interact. The extra melee stat makes Yan Lo a legit combat master and then making the Emassiary fast lets it push and make a model fast walk and shoot all in its own activation. Also bring it back from the dead is handy. 

Shenlong has been very "meh" the card draw and condition removal is nice. Misaki moves way to fast to benefit in my experience and it is good with Mei. 

 

patzer, how do you find it with Misaki? Maybe I am not playing it right.

[Mutter]

2 hours ago, Patzer said:

Have you tried to give Huggy Fast and push him twice (8") and just chuck him into one of the most important opposing models (and have Lynch get him back later, of course)? 

Yes, I've done that (and I liked it!), but partially the problem might be that I use Sensei Yu, too, so HE can give Huggy Fast as well. Maybe it's more a case of Sensei or Emissary, rather than both ...

[Patzer]

4 hours ago, GoldenWG said:

I have found the Emassiary great with Lynch for the Huggy Push and Go. McCabe for the extra upgrade when gives me  all the ones I feel I need. And the with Yan Lo he is a beast in how they interact. The extra melee stat makes Yan Lo a legit combat master and then making the Emassiary fast lets it push and make a model fast walk and shoot all in its own activation. Also bring it back from the dead is handy. 

Shenlong has been very "meh" the card draw and condition removal is nice. Misaki moves way to fast to benefit in my experience and it is good with Mei. 

 

patzer, how do you find it with Misaki? Maybe I am not playing it right.

Do you consider it a strong choice for McCabe or situationally great? 

Its synergy with Yan seems so darn good! Havent tried it, but it has really got me interested in Yan Lo. 

Dont know really how it fits with Shenlong. The card draw seems so neat, but the crew already got condition removal and sports a ton of support already. Dont know if it is good enough to be in instead of Yu either. 

I really like it with Misaki. It boosts a second model who can then alpha strike with Misaki. Its personal push is great, makes it a lot more aggressive and the model works better as a standalone as well as support piece. The Misaki-aura is nice for turn two to four if the fight is in the middle, but I have rarely got a lot out of it. 

3 hours ago, Mutter said:

Yes, I've done that (and I liked it!), but partially the problem might be that I use Sensei Yu, too, so HE can give Huggy Fast as well. Maybe it's more a case of Sensei or Emissary, rather than both ...

For me you take one of them. Yu if scheme markers are a premium or if you want to load out on Stitched and relibly win most of your duels thanks to dubbel Mulligan. Otherwise the dubbel push (plus card draw!), Fast, and its Attack too good to pass over. 

 

[OneLittleThunder]

2 hours ago, Patzer said:

Dont know really how it fits with Shenlong. The card draw seems so neat, but the crew already got condition removal and sports a ton of support already.

I know that there are a few well-regarded players who consider Conflux of the Dawn not to be "condition removal that allows for card draw," but rather "a card-drawing engine that consistently nets you three cards a turn." I think the example I've seen is a Low River Monk who takes a Focus action as a zero (thanks to Shenlong), gets Focus 2 from that due to Reading the Wind, and then either spends one AP for an additional Focus or has a Peasant give him one via Provide for the Temple. Then the Emissary taps him with Visions of Dawn Light and you draw 3 cards.

Admittedly, that's a 4ss model (in addition to the Emissary) and costs two 0 actions and one actual AP. But for a 50% increase in your hand size every turn, that's not a bad investment... 

[Patzer]

On 2016-04-09 at 2:54 AM, OneLittleThunder said:

I know that there are a few well-regarded players who consider Conflux of the Dawn not to be "condition removal that allows for card draw," but rather "a card-drawing engine that consistently nets you three cards a turn." I think the example I've seen is a Low River Monk who takes a Focus action as a zero (thanks to Shenlong), gets Focus 2 from that due to Reading the Wind, and then either spends one AP for an additional Focus or has a Peasant give him one via Provide for the Temple. Then the Emissary taps him with Visions of Dawn Light and you draw 3 cards.

Admittedly, that's a 4ss model (in addition to the Emissary) and costs two 0 actions and one actual AP. But for a 50% increase in your hand size every turn, that's not a bad investment... 

It looks like a really neat combo on paper, but I am suspicious to how that transfers onto the board. The Monk must stay alive (which should be that much of a problem) and within 6" of Shenlong if you want three cards and the move. However, the big thing for me is that a crew with both Emissary and Yu might be too heavy on support. Especially since Shenlong is mostly a support master himself. Shenlong's crews also got Condition Removal and can dish out Fast. I usually pick Yu or Emissary because of this in other crews, and feel that is very much true with Shenlong as well. Maybe its too good of an action to pass on and both can function, or that Yu is the one who should go.