Who is each factions best "all-comers" master?

[Anung Un Rama]

So looking at most factions it would seem that to be truly competitive as a player you need to have a few masters to choose form and mix and match according to strats and schemes and even opponent.....but what if you were an unusual Malifaux player and not plasticrack addicted or could only afford one master in your faction or just wanted to play the one at a tourney. In each faction who is a master that can do it all to at least be competitive and not getting smashed all day?

[Cadaverousbirth]

Shenlong. He can do anything you need and adjust on the fly to changing situations.

McCabe is really versatile too and could double as your Guild all-comers master too. Nellie would be the other choice for Guild I would imagine. 

[Tokapondora]

If it's just a set master but a swappable crew it's gonna leave some fairly different results to if you can take a master and 50SS worth of units. The former, for most factions, is just gonna be Who is the strongest master. You have your master, tailor the crew to your schemes, and go to town.

If it's the latter... You get a versatile master, build a crew to sortof balance out the master's strengths and weaknesses, and hope the schemes/your enemy favour your playstyle. 

For TT, I'd say both are a toss-up for Shenlong and McCabe, mainly because they can change their crew's direction and flow mid-game. Personal preference goes to Shenlong.

[chryspainthemum]

Lilith, Dreamer, Pandora, Collodi, Zoraida, Lynch... hrm Neverborn may have a good thing going.

[Dogmantra]

In Gremlins it's definitely Som'er. He can summon, he can support, he can shoot, he can melee, he can even run schemes pretty decently cause he has self-pushing. He doesn't do much direct enemy control himself, but his Skeeters are tough as heck to disengage from.

He's not exactly the cheapest master to get into though.

[santaclaws01]

 

Lilith, Dreamer, Pandora, Collodi, Zoraida, Lynch... hrm Neverborn may have a good thing going.

I'd take out Dreamer and Pandora as they have scheme pools they just can't really win in against a good opponent.

[chryspainthemum]

 

I'd take out Dreamer and Pandora as they have scheme pools they just can't really win in against a good opponent.

Dreamer maybe, but where does Pandora really suffer?

[Kirby]

On the Outcast side you have a few options.

• Leveticus can hire nearly anything in the game.  Got a job?  Hire the tool to do it.
• Viks murderate the opponent.  They can't score points if they don't have any models.
• Von Schill is just plain sturdy and his favored crew members are pretty darn flexible.
• Hamelin can out-activate nearly anyone with summoned rats, Outcasts have plenty of killers, and he can hire Crooligans for scheme running.

[dancater]

Its also tough because it depends on your play style and preferences.

Summoning masters are an obvious choice because even with a largely preset master and crew selection you can potentially summon in what you need, particularly if you get a variety summon master like Nico.

Then there is the killing/speed/durable factor, most masters do one well, another adequately but struggle with the third.  The crew you select (fixed, variable or a bit of both) will naturally attempt to help maximize the strength and patch the weaknesses.  Most factions have masters which dominate each particular ability and masters with different weaknesses.  It depends on what you want to play.

So if you don't like getting your master in the midst of the swirling melee then you'll need to avoid that concept if you love the precision strike assassin run then somethings else.

So Arcanist (my main)

• Best tricky scheme master, maneuverable and hard to kill I'd say Colette (Kaeris kills better herself but does not scheme as well).  Your crew will need to supply the 'kill' but Colette can buff to magnify this also.  She'd be among the top Arcanist all comer masters.
• Summoner Ramos, its an exclusive summon (Spiders only) but they are damn good and you can get a lot.  His lists need constructs and scrap and are vulnerable to scrap marker denial and heavy anti armor/constructs.  But he's a great all rounder.
• Marcus is the best kill/durable choice I think for an Arcanist all rounder.  Rasputina does kill the best but is very slow herself and fragile, she really relies on the crew for things and can be neutralized by opponents and scheme pool more easily than Marcus.  Ironsides is an solid durable master with buffing but her M&SU requirement limit her model pool and she is bubble dominant meaning spreading out for certain games is really tough.  Mei Feng is a great speed lower level model buzzsaw but she really needs constructs in her crew and is vulnerable to being killed especially if she bogs down in a tarpit.  Marcus himself can be a beatstick or durable depending on upgrades, he's got OK speed and his crew selection is perhaps the biggest in the game (him or Levi) and certainly the widest in Arcanists and his beast choices can largely work autonomously.

Now however there is a wildcard and I suspect genuine contender for best all rounder in Sandeep.

• He is reasonably durable with defenses (Arc Shield) and solid wounds.
• Depending on upgrade he can hit pretty hard (min 3 melee) or run some control (paralyze on mod/sev melee dam).  He has a solid ranged attack and can summon in his nasty as combat totem.
• He summons and not only that but he has the best variety summon in faction (any Gamin) so can bring in ranged, defense, speed, damage depending on need (although they are largely little 4-5SS models so they support but don't do their own heavy lifting).
• He can work with any Arcanist model, mercs and with an upgrade get Academics which are a small but useful additional pool.  In addition he buffs models (especially Academics) when they can use his Ca actions.

So he appears to be a solid all rounder.  Designed or set crew I'd say Arcanist current best all comer master any scheme/strat pool and competitive would be Sandeep. 

 

[Ludvig]

The problem with only buying one master is that a lot of the good models are locked into master boxed sets so you might need to buy those masters anyway if you want to bring top table lists. That's the main source of the insane number of boxes I've bought.

 

For guild I would say McCabe for sure, all the others have very unfavourable counters and matchups in my eyes.

Outcasts, Ressers, Neverborn and Arcanists seem to have several each that could get by in any strategy. 

[Kadeton]

If I were just buying one Master box for the Ressers it would probably be Seamus. He's a really versatile, tough, dangerous and mobile Master who can do well in any scenario. He comes with Belles and Sybelle who are fantastic pieces in general, and having limited models available for summoning is no big deal for him.

[trikk]

I find with Wave 4 that Nellie, Reva and Sandeep might be all comers in their respective factions.

 

While McCabe buffs mostly low cost models Nellie can buff high cost models. She`s also a lot more board control.

Sandeep is even called a toolbox.

Reva I think has the benefit of not having to overextend where other master have to while being more interactive than summon x3 .