How necessary is Vasilisa for Collodi?

[Dark Aletheia]

So, through a quirk, I wound up with an entire painted Collodi crew, but was missing Vasilisa. It seems like it is impossible to buy/trade just for her and I really don't feel like buying the whole crew box for one model.

How necessary is she for a competitive Collodi crew?

[-Loki-]

14 minutes ago, Dark Aletheia said:

So, through a quirk, I wound up with an entire painted Collodi crew, but was missing Vasilisa. It seems like it is impossible to buy/trade just for her and I really don't feel like buying the whole crew box for one model.

How necessary is she for a competitive Collodi crew?

Gadzooks Gaming have Vasilisa for $23. They do split box sales for Malifaux. Sold out right now but email them and find out when they are doing another. She's expensive I'm assuming because she's the most popular from the set.

[Fetid Strumpet]

I would assume that popularity is because all the rest of the models were available in 1.5 in metal, and so many are kicking around. Visalia was created for 2.0 and thus, like many of the henchman or enforcers that come only in the boxed sets, are missing from many people's collections. There isn't much of a secondary market for Malifaux models, at least not to the extent many other games have gone, and the hardest models to actually get at reasonable prices are in fact those models that are unique to M2E but only available with other models that a player might already have.

Now that said I'm not sure how much you need Vasilisa. I see mixed opinions from Collodi players about whether she is a good investment, or a waste of stones. I'd personally recommend proxying her for a few games and make up your own mind, if you were planning to buy her only for her mechanical utility. If you were hunting her down in because you really wanted to paint her model, AND for game play reasons then I'd just go get her because at that point you will still get your money's worth if you never put her on the table in a game.

[SBrunner]

Fetid Strumpet has a good idea in proxying the model.  I am in the same boat owning the original metal box, and I don't see myself paying a lot for a Vasalisa model.

I am however interested in hearing input on running Collodi without Vasalisa.  In addition to the metal box I have Widow Weaver I could use for a henchman along with Coryphees and Mannequins from my Colette crew.  I haven't run Collodi yet, but I think I have enough models to give it a decent go.  I have the Mysterious Effigy (the only Effigy I own), but the consensus seems to be that the model is not nearly as good as other effigies.  I have a lot of other Neverborn models, but I like the idea of a puppet themed crew.

[Tayne]

6 hours ago, Fetid Strumpet said:

I'd personally recommend proxying her for a few games and make up your own mind, if you were planning to buy her only for her mechanical utility. If you were hunting her down in because you really wanted to paint her model, AND for game play reasons then I'd just go get her because at that point you will still get your money's worth if you never put her on the table in a game.

I've run Collodi pretty heavily earlier this year and had some decent success (5th in a 33 man tournament is the best) and I've never touched Vasilisa. To me, she is too fragile for her cost and I just have visions of her dying. She's far from unusable, but if you're curious about her on the table then I'm with Fetid. Proxy her up for some games before committing.

[goth]

Tried to get Vasilisa as a single and gave up... in my eyes the major benefits are moving other models without using their walk, and the Obey.  After thinking about it for a while, I'd rather have paralyze or even slow along with Collodi's AP-stealing, rather than a raw off-turn obey.