How to Gamble responsibly?

[Skitt_Happens]

Hi

I'm after a little generic advice regarding Lynch. He was the first master I bought, first I played and first I won with, but after 2 and 1/2 games he's been on the shelf while I got to grips with the game using Misaki, Mei Feng and most recently McCabe.

I'm now getting ready to add the Lynch horse to my stable: I know how he works as a damage dealer - with quite frankly sickening amounts of damage being thrown out from all sorts of sources - but when playing other strats and schemes, positioning or interact based, has anyone found any clever synergies in Ten Thunders that might make them consider Lynch ahead of other masters?

I own most of the faction - or am in a position to get what I need. Any thoughts, advise or theoretical ideas welcome.

Thanks

[Patzer]

My best advice, give this a listen: http://schemesandstones.podbean.com/e/episode-25-master-spotlight-ten-thunders-jakob-lynch/ 

I usually run something like the following: 

Jakob Lynch -- 5ss
 +Recalled Training - 1ss
 +The Rising Sun - 2ss
Hungering Darkness - 0ss
 +Hidden Agenda - 0ss
Lazarus - 11ss
 +Recalled Training - 1ss
Shadow Effigy - 4ss (or another Depleted) 
Shadow Emissary - 10ss
 +Conflux Of Hunger - 0ss
Stitched Together - 6ss
The Depleted - 4ss
The Illuminated - 7ss

or 

Jakob Lynch -- 6ss
 +The Rising Sun - 2ss
 +Recalled Training - 1ss
Hungering Darkness - 0ss
 +Recalled Training - 1ss
 +Hidden Agenda - 0ss
Shadow Effigy - 4ss
Shadow Emissary - 10ss
 +Conflux Of Hunger - 0ss
Stitched Together - 6ss (or Mr Tannen)
The Illuminated - 7ss
The Illuminated - 7ss
Wandering River Monk - 7ss

Huggy is my cruise missile. Emissary can give it Fast and Push it 4-8". That is a tone of movement, possibly: deployment+4"+4"+6"+6"+3"(engagement range) for a whooping 23" charge range. Huggy will get almost anywhere thanks to Incorporeal too. It packs enough hitting power to put down most models by turn 2. If Huggy dies, it doesn't matter, it will come back later. 

Emissary can push friendlies and enemies which is nice, can hit pretty hard, and the Fast is gold. 

Lynch mostly stays back for the first three turns, and then engages in order to get Huggy back. If Huggy is keeping on trucking even then, I would play him more cautiously. Lynch is great by just being alive thanks to his card tricks, he will only get his hands dirty when I feel it is needed. As you said, Lynch can dish out a tone of damage and can out right kill a lot of models. Minimum damage 4 is really solid. 

The overall strategy for scheme running is shoot first, put down scheme markers later. I wouldn't prefer to have any interact heavy schemes (Exhaust, etc), but scheme markers should be more than fine. Tannen's Chatty can be pretty neat at times, so can Effigy's Remember the Mission. 

Ten Thunder Brothers are models that could be added for holding points, but I haven't mapped out a list for them yet. Sensei Yu with Wandering River can still give Huggy Fast while also adding some Scheme marker manipulation. Yu also brings another Mulligan which is nice. 

[enderwiggin]

Sensei Yu can do some great work handing out pushes and Fast, but he is expensive. He also helps cycle cards a little better, enough so that you shuffle those cards in with the zero action instead of discarding...

 

Lynch works wonderfully for anything requiring cards to discard if you don't mind holding your favorite ace in Samurai, TT Brothers, etc.

[Eclipse]

In regard to Gambling with a Lynch crew specifically:
  His (0) Mulligan is not a gamble, but a set-up and is more often used; if you want to gamble with him, sprinkle Brilliance on some models for Huggy and Illuminated to hit later (hopefully with Addict [1ss] on Huggy). This means you can also use (0) Pay Up and hope you can draw more masks = more cards. The Red Joker can also be considered a mask, as it allows you to pick the suit.

  This is the less obvious (0) for a reason: You need to have a plan for it. What is this useful for, considering that you might reveal and discard some useful (due to suit and/or number) cards other than masks? The potential you can milk from this is twofold: First, the somewhat obvious Woke Up With a Hand. Second, if you need many masks in your crew for triggers and such.

  Woke Up With a Hand gives you two cards up straight if you activate Lynch last - but this in no way forces you to do so. You might as well activate him first and evaporate a model or two. Or maybe set up some Brilliance tricks for your other heavy hitters. The attack this upgrade gives is Ca with the restriction of targets with Brilliance - but the damage is exactly the number of cards you have in hand, no flip, no nothing. If you DO set this up deliberately to have many cards you might have some specific models that you want to look at:
- Sensei Yu - gives you either a (0) Mulligan or (0) Pay Up, his active River Style as well as tons of other utility (5" pushes even on his base stat card);
- Fuhatsu - now this guy is a real gamble to take. Sometimes he will do nothing, while other times will be an impregnable Bodyguard Fortress or the Gatling Maw of Doom. Still very fun and with the amount of cards he flips you are bound to hit an ace somewhere;
- Samurai - like a combo mini-Izamu + mini-Fuhatsu. when shooting they turn a sh*t ton of cards, and if you have the right triggers (rams) you might keep sprinkling damage and turning cards. Perfect for fishing out some aces for Ace in the Hole. They are also customizable with 0ss upgrades - so they will play well with the Obsidian Oni and the Shadow Emissary;
- speaking of which, the Emissary not only has very sweet (0) abilities, it also brings a solid Ca attack (sorely needed in Ten Thunders). The Lynch upgrade seems very good in theory (I intend to wait until the model is out to play it) - read Patzer's post to see why. Also, my favourite Theoryfaux (tm) combination with it: (0) for blasts with Focus, give Fast to two-three models in your crew with the Emissary and Yu (Huggy, Lynch, Illuminated, Fuhatsu...) so that they have enough AP to focus and charge or focus and shoot. Lynch +flips and on a ram 4/5blast/6blast; Huggy +flips and on a ram 4/5blast/7blast; Illuminated 2/4blast/5blast and deal +2 on every model with Brilliance; Fuhatsu 2/5blast/6blast OR 2/5blast, blast/6blast, blast if you happen to be lucky with his (2) attack (nobody ever does but hey, it's a Gamble!!)
- Illuminated - they obviously synergyze with Brilliance, especially given their high Ch value. You might want to (0) Brillshape with them regardless of whether they need to heal or not to hope and fish out an ace;
- Beckoners - a utility model, useful to sprinkle Brilliance around and move enemy models out of position/into your crosshairs. Fragile, so take care not to leave them exposed;
- Stitched Together - I don't play them as the aesthetic isn't to my liking, but some others might find them VERY useful. Another Gamble type model, and it says so itself - it might deal heavy damage, or it might hurt itself. It has the potential to draw cards for you - up to two if you discard an ace and get it back;
- all Darkened minions benefit from the Addict upgrade, and the +flips to attack and damage vs models with Brilliance is, well, brilliant.
So what this means is basically you can Sensei Yu (0), then flip some Aces and draw some cards with other models, then activate Lynch (and draw two if he is last), give Brilliance up to three targets, (0) if you didn't already do it, then evaporate one with a mighty Final Debt if you have an AP left, maybe discard some Aces to evaporate a model if you have .52 Pickup... And if you have Brilliance-dependent models you get to charge the hell out of anything that might have survived this hell. Naturally, if you managed to return a Rising Sun Huggy he gets to join in the action as well.

  Now, using Masks is a little niche, but still helpful. This comes into play in several cases:
- You face a model that strips printed suits from you and still want those (mask) triggers - Huggy, Illuminated;
- You play Ama no Zako because she is awesome and even more awesome together with Huggy, but you need a mask for her (0) Whispers.. Well, no need to stone now;
- You have Misdirection on Lynch because you are smart and you know that the opponent will come to get your Lynch who is carrying The Rising Sun and Woke Up With a Hand. Deflect any attacks on something sturdier then evaporate his models anyway;
- Or you might have Expert Cheater, because you have a true Gambler's heart and want to bluff it out with your opponent. Well, having many cards helps here. Also, you can push 4" away from a melee attack... On a (mask);
- Lynch can give Brilliance more reliably with his Ca8 Play For Blood. Well, sometimes you need more damage AND brilliance. This is where the gun comes in. Discard a mask, save an addict! (Maybe not);
- Last Blossom minions can (2) Shadow Stride or (1) Smoke Bombs with a -trigger- for a free Shadow Stride - yep, Masks again. I don't know about you, but those teleporting Jorogumo look so delicious to me... Yum.
- Ten Thunders Bros (and Terror Tots) love the Ace of Spades, Ace of Spades... Or Ace of Masks, in this case. Being more mobile is very Ten Thunders. And hey, you ARE a Bro, right? Don't leave your Bros hanging, give them a helping mask (or card hand);
- You... Do know that you can discard extra Aces and Masks for any ability that says so - like (2) Flurry/Auto Fire/Rapid Fire and the like, Ototo's (0) heal, etc, etc...

Overall, there is too much fun to be had with that I had to leave him in the box so I could have some fun time with other Masters... Yeah.

[Eclipse]

Oh, but there is more. Remember the Depleted? Well, these guys like to cruise straight into the enemy territory and stick like a bomb on something. A nasty, twitching, hard-case-of-withdrawal Brilliance bomb. Make this even nastier. This is my "Six Short Tips on How To Make Depleted Hated":
1. Take Toshiro. Now your dead Depleted will become undead Ashigarus. Oh, the irony.
2. Take Obsidian Oni. Now charge the depleted AND the Oni inside an enemy clusterfunk. Preferably after you light something on fire with, say, the Dawn Serpent. Which is an amazing scheme runner by the way (although expensive).
3. Did I mention Ama no Zako? Of course I mentioned Ama no Zako, bacause she's awesome. Forget about minions as scheme runners, take heavy flankers and take out the opposition.
4. Take Mr. Graves. You know how some don't like you distributing your Brilliance in Da Club? Well, it's time someone showed them Da Door. Bonus points if you push your Depleted troubles onto someone else. Now you also have Graves who keeps splashing Black Blood all around, Alien-style. Also, he can totally smash some heads in with this plank of his. Bonus points if you say "Show Ya Da Doo!" with an Arnold Schwarzeneger voice.
5. Take more than two Depleted and the Shadow Effigy. Sprinkle some "Remember the Mission" on your Depleted and Leap It Up around the board. Forget about Gupps, these are your brand new, brand insignificant, bat-shin insane scheme runners. They still explode if they happen to die, too.
6. (Optional) Cackle maniacally and say "Brilliant. Finish him!" whenever appropriate. A cautious use is urged in regard to this tip.

[Skitt_Happens]

Thanks for the notes.

I had listened to the Schemes and Stones before but went back and listened to it again. Ama No Zako is a good shout: I've always liked the look of her, but she seemed so card/stone intensive I never found room for her, but what I'm finding is that with Lynch, you very rarely want for cards.

To give some context, the first game I won with Lynch was reckoning against Arcanists (Collette), I took:

Lynch w/ Rising Sun, Woke Up With a Hand, Expert Cheater

Huggy w/ Addict

3x Illuminated

Graves

2x Beckoner 

That was an absolute murder machine: by the end of the game, the Collette player had only Angelica and a coryphee left and we ran out of time before a beckoner and Lynch had their last activations. I lost an illuminated. 

I recently played another game, which was headhunter against Outcast Tara:

Lynch w/ Rising Sun, Woke Up with a Hand, Wanna See a Trick

Huggy w/ Addict, Recalled Training

2x Illuminated 

1x Depleted

1x Beckoner 

Yin

Graves

The interaction between Huggy's obey and Yin's terrifying was awesome: particularly when you can pick an ace back into your hand ?