Schemes & Stones Misaki Challenge

[Khyodee]

So each month I'm encouraging people to play a few different masters (Ironsides, Misaki, and Zipp this month) and post their feedback on them. This can be anything from general musing, to battle reports, to good models that synergize with the master. I'll also be posting different questions for people to answer to start the conversation.

Week 1 Question:

So you a prepping for a tournament and have limited pool of models that you can bring with you. You first decide that your only going to bring one master which is Thunders Misaki. What is you plan to play for the following round? What factors may change your list and how?

Standard Deployment
Turf War
Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves, Accusation, Recover Evidence, Tail 'Em

 

Week 2 Question:

What the filthiest model/ability combinations you have found playing Thunders Misaki?

 

Week 3 Question:
What strategies do you love doing with Thunder Misaki? What schemes? Which ones do you hate doing with her? Why?

 

 

[Somnicide]

I just ordered the vintage Misaki - is this for Feb or March?

[Paradigm]

I would like to try something like this. The basic idea would be to aim for Misaki using turn one to get into position and Stalk a key model on the enemy side that would be good at hurting Misaki back. Misaki would then try to remove said model at the end of turn two, or switch to a new target if the opponent pulls back with the first target. The Jorogumo would then teleport next to Misaki so that it can tank attacks against her via Misdirection, which the opponent can't ignore when the new target is one of my models. Most of Misaki's stones would go to cycling cards, getting masks on defense for Misdirection and the occasional prevention or Crow for Assasinate. If possible, the Jorogumo is aiming to last as long as possible by triggering Eat Your Fill to heal. Hopefully, this lets Misaki survive long enough to remove the most dangerous models. The Terracotta Warrior can switch Stalking Bisento into Disguised if she wants to focus on survivability and the opponent lacks ways to counter it. Smoke and Shadows can be switched into Recalled Training once the Jorogumo has done its thing. Chiaki is there to provide condition removal in case the opponent tries to lock her down via Paralyze or other nasty conditions. The rest of the crew will basically focus on tanking and doing schemes. As for schemes I would likely go for Accusation and Tail 'Em, or Claim Jump in case the opponent didn't pick any good targets for Tail 'Em. 

Misaki + 7 Pool
 - Stalking Bisento (2)
 - Misdirection (2)
 - Death Contract (1)
 - Smoke & Shadows (1)
Kamaitachi (4)
Chiaki The Niece (6)
 - Pull Of The Grave (1)
 - False Target (0)
Jorogumo (9)
Ten Thunders Brother (5)
Ten Thunders Brother (5)
Terracotta Warrior (5)
Shadow Effigy (4)

[Nikodemus]

This is awfully relevant for my current single-master ambitions.

If you see some strange picks or omissions odds are it's because there's a few "faction staples" I don't own. List is aiming for Dig Their Graves and Recover Evidence, will settle for Claim Jump and Accusation, not personally comfortable with Tail 'Em:

Misaki - 5ss

-Stalking Bisento 2ss

-On Wings of Wind 2ss (Easy to swap out if you hire someone to push Misaki, I'm trying to learn her without "crutch" models so 3'' push from this upgrade is a godsend)

-Recalled Training 1ss (Flexible slot, RT is great but only somewhat redundant with Stalking Bisento)

Shang - 3ss (I've gotten great value out of him. Healing has been surprisingly reliable, rush of magic, cheap activation)

Samurai - 8ss (Budget tank for the middle, easy to upgrade if you're ok with a smaller cache. If I expect wp4 to be an issue I'd consider Gracie, or any in-faction wp6 tank that I don't own.

-Favour of Earth 0ss

-False Target 0ss

The Lone Swordsman - 8ss (If Samurai is our budget tank, Swordsman is our budget killer. RT is better for killing but I've been experimenting with Equality as it can keep him in the game for a round or two longer. For tournament play I'd go with tried and true RT, but for casual games I try to test drive equality as I think it has potential)

-Recalled Training 1ss

Big Jake - 6ss (Mainly here for Don't Mind Me, could easily swap with a performer but then you'd need another Peaceful Waters carrier. He'll probably die so death contract is an easy pick, though you could put DC/FT on pretty much any eligible model)

-The Peaceful Waters 0ss

-Death Contract 1ss

Wandering River Monk - 7ss (Move 12'' and interact? Don't mind if I do)

Monk of Low River - 4ss (Never leave home without it. Even without healing I'll take one for condition removal and being a cheap significant minion, though I expect to get one or two casts out of his heal as well)

Shadow Effigy - 4ss (Significant minion for that price makes for easy list padding. Accomplice is useful with Dig Their Graves and Accusation. Misaki appreciates the leader buff. He doesn't always rock the show but I've never regretted hiring him)

No henchmen was a conscious decision to deny Tail 'Em. Plan is to have Jake, LRM and Samurai scoring Turf War, Misaki and TLS kill who needs killing, WRM leaps around and interacts for VPs and Shadow Effigy does any errands I need him to run. Dig Their Graves is a fairly sure pick, just dig some holes near the Turf Marker and kill model a turn. Recover Evidence seems like a fairly safe pick against mobile crews who move all their models up. Misaki and WRM are pretty good models for it as well, Misaki charges Evidence guards and Next Targets to pick them up. WRM leaps to unguarded Evidence. Against crews with a lot of backfield support I'd swap Recover Evidence for Accuse. Reluctantly pick claim Jump if placing scheme markers near the centre seems like bad idea.

To criticise my own list there's not a whole lot of Accuse denial in it. I could swap in some Torakage or Ronin. Effigy is easy to swap out, then maybe Big Jake but I really want Don't Mind Me for this pool. I'm also probably telegraphing not taking Tail'Em by not spamming minions, though WRM is probably a good tagger and I've got a few minions loitering around. Hard to say, I've played against it a few times but it's never struck me as a scheme I'd like to pick. My crew is also not very efficient at placing or removing scheme markers, there's only two marker schemes in the pool but that could bite me. Finally on an important turn Misaki discards one for Stalking Bisento, TLS discards two for reactivate and WRM cheats a 6+ from my hand. Consistency wins and top decking isn't very consistent. Hand efficiency is one reason I like Samurai here and why Ronin were a serious consideration.

Should get a game in next Monday. Plan is to take notes so I can at least muse a bit about it.

[greenstuff_gav]

i haven't played alot of M2 and don't have alot of Ten Thunders so looking to hopefully play 'em this weekend!

i think i need more active guys; Low River monks are pretty worthless and Fermented are more hold'em down types; rail workers cheap chaff and Toricage not someone to rely on!

[InvokeChaos]

My initial thought for a list to bring to that pool would be as follows:

Misaki - 5ss Cache
-Disguise
-Misdirection
-Equality

Kamaitachi

Shadow Emissary
-Conflux of Thunder

Lust
-Smoke Grenades

Terracotta Warrior
Yokai
Yokai
Shadow Effigy

So I'm going to line by line this. My first choices for schemes would be: Accusation and Claim Jump/Tail 'em.

The game here is a combination of denial and mobility. Misaki, even without Stalking Bisento, can still put up some hits. But she isn't going to be going after nekima, more harassing support, locking down models deep in the backfield and possibly hunting scheme runners. But you're not going to lock down everything always, so the key here is you need a way to deal with heavy hitting models. Misaki with disguise and misdirection does this by divebombing in and deadly dancing to basically become a wall (using misdirection to shunt hits if able). Equality is here to keep your health up because Misaki is a visible master that you typically won't want to activate late in the turn... which means you're going to give up 3 points for Tail  'Em. If you can deny a point or two, fantastic, but it shouldn't be your game plan. The plan is to deny the strategy. So Equality will get you some work this game.

Also Misaki's mobility and inability to be pinned down make her great for Accusation. What's that? You got to go first with your model I'm engaged with and now I can't J'accuse? No problem, I'll charge out or push out with my triggers that are baked in and just tag a different model. Problem solved!

Kamaitachi is here for 3 reasons:

1) Shang is good, but not great. 
2) Pitch a card, walk a minion... more positioning tricks
3) Synergy with Terracotta Warriors.

Shadow Emissary brings some pain with pitching a card for focus 2 when you need it, but also allowing you three very important abilities. He pushes himself on a 0 now, allowing more mobility. He can push and fast Lust (sweet goddess) and once he is in position, his Armor +1 on going defensive is damned useful. 

Quick aside... you have a lot of ability to pitch cards with this crew. Kamaitachi, Emissary encourages defensive, Terracotta uses it to soak damage from Mold the Other, and Deadly Dance requires it to push. This is in addition to any cheating that may need to be done. This is why you have to pay attention to what you're doing. And is also why Terracotta is here. Smoke Grenades on Lust can be swapped to whatever you want every turn, granting an extra card. A very needed extra card. Lust also has triggers on being attacked to get an extra card. It's not a LOT, but it helps pad out a bit. The key is picking the times you truly need to pitch, and remembering that because your goal here is to score points, not kill models... cheating in for attacks isn't as big a deal. And carefully consider cheating Ancient Treasures... we are looking to generate cards, not dig. So if you have to cheat for it to go off... maybe just let it fail. Depends on the board state.

Now I mentioned above, our game is denial. Misaki is a LARGE part of that denial. But we still need to be able to deal with the various models that Misaki just won't be able to tie up or lock down. Emissary might be able to punish those who get too close, but Turf War is all about positioning. Enter Lust.

Lust is the ultimate denial piece for schemes and strats that require positioning. Her ability to just warp multiple models away or push them here and there just wrecks your opponent's ability to "settle." They can't just run up a couple of stalwart minions and go "they have no heavy hitters, I'll be fine." Lust will just whisk them away. This is what you are keeping your high cards for. Being able to fast Lust, just is icing on the cake. And is crucial for her setup. You need her to get up quick, because her 8" reach isn't fantastic. And turf war is a 6" bubble. So she needs to be in the thick as one of your models to score, and she needs to go late in the turn so she has 4 attempts to push and place. Misaki's downburst is of particular note here, because you can push minions close enough to the bubble that Lust has a bounce point.

Terracotta Warrior is here to enable Kamaitachi and give Lust and Emissary some much needed protection. He also is unimpeded and is a great target for the Wonder Weasels minion walk, allowing him to help complete Claim Jump when he isn't doing anything else. In a pinch, he also puts out a nice chunk of damage.

Yokai are far and away the win from Wave 4 for me. Capable of single handedly scoring claim jump every turn is just bonkers. They are great at hunting scheme runners, hit well above their weight and are just super stars. I know a lot of people are not into that flicker 5... but as long as you don't USE flicker, that means they are around the whole game. That's their trade-off. You can shorten their lifespan to enable power. I run two often because what I'm looking to do is have them in flanking position so I don't need to use their corrupted essence. But if one gets tagged early or I end up having to burn through flicker to trade up (like charging into a silurid), then I just plan for the other to start doing claim jump on their own. They are also fantastically fast at being able to get into position last minute. Got engaged by a crooligan? Corrupted essence out, drop a scheme marker, double walk and at end of turn warp again into Turf War range. Yokai... practically an auto-take.

Shadow Effigy not only has potential to help facilitate Claim Jump, but is a fairly sturdy 4pt model and also helps make Misaki tougher to shift. Neat little package that definitely is great here. Also a minion (like everything on this list) and pretty fast. So just another layer for Turf War/Claim Jump.

Adjustments

If my opponent is running henchmen or masters that are going to want to be visible... I would absolutely take Tail 'em over Claim Jump. In that situation, I might swap out Yokai for 10T bros, as they bring more utility and are tougher to shift. There's not enough kill in this list to make Dig Their Graves a guaranteed 3, and Recover Evidence again, requires either killing or repositioning. I like Recover Evidence for this list, but I think it requires too much "help" from your opponent. On the magic turn, if you have like 3 models in turf war, you can pop it and hopefully your opponent has to tag those 3. Then Lust bounces them out and you just waltz in. But that means you have to have killed enough to drop them down to 5 or less models, and this list isn't reliably killy enough for that.

Shadow Emissary is mutable to the situation. He could be a Mr. Graves or a Sensei Yu. I would even possibly look at a Jorogumo or Yamaziko because again, the name of the game is denial of Turf War. You're not going to deny Tail 'Em most likely. Accusation and Dig Their Graves are both fairly easy to accomplish, especially depending on the crew your opponent brings. So what you are faced with is that you have to assume, barring good play and some luck, your opponent will have the skill to pull out those 6pts. That means you HAVE to score your 6 and deny them Turf War.

In regards to other factions - A big shift I would make is if I'm facing Resurrectionists, I would automatically switch out to Stalking Bisento, and hunt down any belles they have with a quickness. I would also consider Servant of the Dragons on everyone if facing Neverborn. Lilith is too good a pick for turf war, and dropping Vines on Misaki HURTS. So getting to WP8 is critical to help ensure she doesn't get locked down. Chiaki is also a prime pick to replace one of the yokai. Arcanists would probably have me looking at Kang with Stalking, because it's too easy to see Coryphee, Rail Golem and/or Joss. That's a bit too heavy a damage pool to leave unattended. Misaki and Kang pulverize all three of those and even if they run say Marcus, just terracotta out Servant again, and Kang becomes a tank. Outcasts are sometimes a similar situation. Viktoria's gracing the table changes things because that Turf War center becomes super tasty for the Whirlwind. I would be looking at bringing in some sort of powerful range threat in that case, just to keep them honest. Maybe even Lazarus. Guild might require a Lone Swordsman for his Bulletproof 3. And Izamu is always a potential pick because Lust can help push him up and once he's in Turf War, no one is going to want to get close.

[Somnicide]

Nice write up. One little thing I'm going to point out about the yokai (I love them and typically hire 1-2 myself!) is that Corrupting Essence places the scheme marker before the yokai places from ephemeral warrior  since ephemeral warrior states you do the place after the current action is completed.

i try to keep them Flicker neutral by cheating in a time every now and then.

also I've been hiring in an akaname to follow up, who shoots them each once for the extra place end of turn from poison. Last night I even hired in 2 akaname because I could tell I wouldn't need the Flicker place and shot Asami twice with one, the other Akaname licked it off, walked forward and puked up a corpse marker for Asami's activation

[Khyodee]

Week 2 question up

[Bloaty]

My current favourite model combo with Misaki is taking Disguised and using Deadly Dance, then Anna Lovelace walks around with Misaki so now you can't charge, push, place, or walk (if she has enough cards) to her. So Misaki charges in, does her thing then pushes out and is like, "Come at me!" but you can't. I give Anna Smoke Grenades and keep her near cover to deter shooting and Misaki just counters what comes near her. I also like throwing in Misdirect if I fear gunlines to send attacks to Anna or a Wokou since all 3 of these models reduce Sh damage.

Anna just rocks in general giving extra card kinda (which everyone loves) and being able to shoot into melee if Misaki gets stuck or needs something finished off since that gun hurts. She can also Vortex things away from Misaki to add to the annoying.

[Nikodemus]

My Misaki is very honest. She just hops over and bops people on the head. Interested to hear what others come up with though. Disguised+Anna sounds neat.

With any luck I can play week#1 scenario on Wednesday, would love to compare experiences with that if others manage to play it.

___

I've got a game coming up later today and I'm wondering what and why you might bring to the table. I try not to counter-build specific masters but if you're into that my opponent is most likely playing Yan Lo, faction unknown.

Standard Deployment, Extraction

Claim Jump, Eliminate The Leadership, Dig Their Graves, Undercover Entourage, Last Stand

I'll try and remember to take a picture of the table. Maybe even write a few words of the game, what worked and what didn't.

[Paradigm]

Might as well get the most obvious answer to Question 2 out there. Sensei Yu is very good with Stalk Misaki. Him being able to borrow Stalk to either tag two models at the same time with it or both tagging one model and using Misaki's 0 AP attack against it in the same round. With 10" push and Fast her threat range becomes enormous, and she will likely reach whatever she wants to attack in turn 1. Definately a good combination, but the more I play her I get the feeling that she doesn't really need him. Misaki usually does better as a board control tool rather than a cruise missile. She tends to die way too quickly if you try the latter.

[Nikodemus]

Played a week#1 game, except using Extraction instead of Turf War.

• Misaki 2ss cache
• -Stalking Bisento
• -Recalled Training
• -The Peaceful Waters
• Shang
• The Lone Swordsman
• -Equality
• -False Target
• Big Jake
• -Death Contract
• Wandering River Monk
• Ronin
• Torakage
• Monk of Low River
• Shadow Effigy

Ended up against a somewhat elite Guild Lucius list, I think 7 models versus my unusually large crew of 9. Picked Tail'Em and Recover Evidence. Could've taken any scheme really, I've never gelled well with Accuse or its predecessors and Recover Evidence feels like an easier Dig Their Graves in practice. Misaki and Lone Swordsman took out models but prioritised their own survival to maintain my activation advantage. Rest of the crew played cagey. Misaki charging in and Next Target'ing back towards my healers worked really well for this. Equality on Lone Swordsman seems to work well if I don't need him to be hyper aggressive. I ended up snowballing and we called it on round 3 or 4. Lucius might have gotten it up to 10-5 had we played to the end. Lucius got a few points off of Accuse and none for Recover Evidence. I don't think this crew is particularly vulnerable to Accuse but he managed to box my accused models in to prevent disengaging or pushes out of engagements.

Tail'Em seems extremely easy if you have activation advantage and keep it. Lucius didn't take this so I don't know how well Misaki plays against it, she likes to be up front but also has built-in pushes to get out of dodge. Not a fan of this scheme though, and how I generally like to build my Misaki crews it will be harder to out activate. This was my third(!) Recover Evidence game with Misaki. I love the scheme in general but I think it's a great fit for Misaki. Next Target makes it easy to charge someone and push to a marker just outside enemy's engagement range to pick it up, or heck just stalk+diving charge someone and recover evidence next to their corpse marker

Wandering River Monk is great for scheme pools like this and has mobility to keep up with Misaki. If she can't or won't spare AP to do interacts the monk can do that after threats have been cleared, or just leap around threats. Opponent can't leave unguarded evidence markers in the backfield because of him. I don't always have room for him but seems to work well with Misaki in schemes that mix interacts and killing. Partners in crime, hopping over the battlefield.

With a centre based game like this I prefer a more cautious Misaki with friendly heals. One source of healing feels like enough, but I like having both Shang and upgraded Low River Monk for extra insurance and for non-healing reasons. Helps her survive and keep projecting a 15'' + pushes threat radius throughout the game.

 

[Nikodemus]

Played a small 4 player tournament. Standard 50ss encounters, but we were only allowed two masters and self made list of 100 stones worth of models to hire (summons & upgrades free). Played single master Misaki for 2 close wins and 1 tie, winning the event.

Game #1 against self buffing Collodi (bag of props?), Illuminated and Teddy for muscle:

Close Deployment, Guard the Stash, Dig Their Graves, Accusation, Recover Evidence, Inspection

Both went for Dig Their Graves and Recover Evidence, figured I could slaughter my way through his crew. MVPs include Equality-Lone Swordsman for being reasonably killy yet survivable and Big Jake for Don't Mind Me. Untouchable is a great upgrade for saving your control hand. Theoryfauxing performers would be solid for this pool. Don't Mind Me with scheme marker disruption added. I've already gushed enough about Misaki and Recover Evidence. Game timed out at 6-6 but since it was just before lunch we decided to play the game out for an unofficial 8-6 to Misaki. In retrospect I might have been better served taking Claim Jump instead of Dig Their Graves. Killing things near scheme markers is easy, rationing killing them down to one per turn is the hard part. Misaki died towards the end after taking a beating from Collodi and Teddy. Won me a lot of VP though.

Game #2 against Perdita with some family and death marshals:

Flank Deployment, Extraction, Accusation, Leave Your Mark, Tail'Em, Last Stand

Picked Claim Jump and Accusation, only scored Accusation in the final round. Perdita took Claim Jump and Last Stand (four eligible models). This is one of those pools where all I saw were bad options. Not a fan of Leave Your Mark on flank/corner. Table was fairly open which made approaching Perdita's crew difficult and I had a hard time justifying leaving things alive for accusation since there was a lot of killy stuff. I did manage a 7-5 win but I was just scraping by. Unknowingly blocked Last Stand by killing two eligible models on turn 2. Amusing interaction early in the game included Ama No Zako obeying Francisco come closer, allowing Misaki to bash him down to hard to kill. Turn 2 I got initiative and had Shadow Effigy shiv him to death. Equality-Lone Swordsman ended up scheme running Claim Jump for me while rest of the crew blocked his. Misaki died halfway through after Perdita took out her support and I panic charged her all over the middle for maximum disruption. By the end of turn 5 Perdita was barely scoring the strategy while all I had was an effigy at death's door Accusing folks.

I kept feeling like I should've taken Shenlong for this match. I struggled to play Misaki with any sort of proficiency. Probably just a failing on my part, but it was good to see what schemes she (=I) struggles with.

Game #3 against Resurrectionist Yan Lo, lots of big models with Toshiro, Yin, Izamu and Datsue Ba:

Corner Deployment, Headhunter, Frame For Murder, Accusation, Hidden Trap, Quick Murder

I picked Frame For Murder (Big Jake) and Quick Murder (Izamu). Yan Lo took Frame For Murder (Nurse) and Hidden Trap. Felt good about this pool. Sure enough I ended up scoring 3 for headhunter and 3 for Quick Murder. I could've played Jake a lot better and into some henchmen, as is he ended up near Yin who hit him for 5 wounds and 1 poison, robbing me of Frame points. With two Monks of Low River I was able to get by with the nurse living through the game and deny him Frame points. He telegraphed Hidden Trap a bit too early in the final turn allowing me to get out of dodge with my remaining models. This included Misaki using Downburst on herself to push an already activated Ototo away from a scheme marker. All in all a close fought 6-4. Untouchable kept being awesome against terror crews.

 

Some takeaways after an intense day of Misaki games... I'll be taking Untouchable and Untouchable+Misdirection a lot more often. The Lone Swordsman w/ Equality really proved himself to me. Fielded the model in all three games, opting for Recalled Training instead in the final round. Equality makes him more survivable while turning him into more of a card hog to get things done. This is fine in my typical crew as I like stuff with +flips, which includes Misaki herself who doesn't need as much from her control hand after the initial discard for Stalking Bisento. For a budget price of 9ss I get a credible, self-sustaining threat that takes a lot of pressure off of Misaki. In the right pool I love taking Big Jake with Death Contract. Don't Mind Me makes scoring easy while I Thought You Were Dead and Death Contract make killing him annoying since it costs you and he comes back turn 5 anyway.

[greenstuff_gav]

i played Misaki today!
Reckoning - 40SS
ALitS, Assassinate, Protect Territory, Plant Explosives, Power Ritual

took Assassinate and Always Watching (Ten Thunders)
Misaki - Disguise, CutPurse, Cache 4
Shang
Lone Swordsman
Katana Sniper
Thunders Archer
2x Fermented River Monks

against
Ophelia
Francois
Raphael
Rami
Young Lacroix
Pigapult
3x Stuffed Piglets

between Misakis' Next Target, the sniper / archer pinging a few wounds here and there , Shangs Rush of Magic and ability to heal Misaki was alot more useful than i was expecting; was able to throw her about and murder a couplea models at once, Next Target allowing her to stick to the Squee-ing gremlinsand then bugger off into cover when they died!

[Nikodemus]

Book schemes? Rad. Cool Misaki. Debated doing mine red but purple won in the end. Anyway:

Really interesting list. How did disguised and cutpurse work out for you? Do you ever take cutpurse outside of assassinate? I should probably start experimenting with it, haven't given it a chance yet because it seems so situational. Do you feel you got your stones worth out of the archer? Any tips? I'm still trying to get mine to work at a level where I'd feel comfortable taking them to a tournament. For reckoning especially I think they're way too fragile. How did Fermented Monks perform? I've been eyeing them as nice budget models, but even ignoring the fact that brothers exist I'm not sure. They seem a bit card hungry with their (0) for questionable gain.

[greenstuff_gav]

we don't play alot of Malifaux (much to my dismay!) so outta the book works for us want to do more tournaments but lack the skill or knowledge; going to run Misaki a bit now to get some experience of her!
her paintscheme is a nod to Shantae, one of my favourite game series; was gonna try a proper resculpt but not brave enough!

Disguise was due to not knowing what GRemlins i'd be facing; my opponent owns all the faction but i knew he played Ophelia recently so saw a LaCroix brother-team-bash on Misaki but thankfully i was able to keep 'em away from her (until she struck! muhaha!); cutourse wasn't that useful either; i brute-forced my way through the stones and had to use Next Target to follow Ophelia about!

the Archer was useful in that he can shoot into combats to help ping a few wounds off, making Misaki able to get more kills (so instead f two attacks, use one the Next Target for another attack on someone else) but they could do with some more range!

with the Monks i tended to use their other 0 to stack Poison on themselves; i think against tougher things (anything armoured / H2Wound) the shifting of poison can help them, i wish their DF bonus was higher, +2 is meh on the whole but one was able to wander up the field and provide all sorts of distraction before plonking a couple of Scheme Markers down at hte opponents deployment zone

[Khyodee]

Week 3 question up

[Nikodemus]

Quote

What strategies do you love doing with Thunder Misaki? What schemes? Which ones do you hate doing with her? Why?

I haven't had a lot of interference games lately but it's my least favourite for her. I think she can support an aggressive way of playing interference, but doesn't have as reliable AoE as some other masters. Headhunter is best, Kill-Next Target-Interact. I don't think she has any specific strengths in central strategies but I like playing her in those because she can operate near her support models. I think she does fine in Collect the Bounty but it's not my favourite because it forces my targeting choices somewhat.

Schemewise I like everything that rewards her talents in killing and mobility. Strong picks:
Eliminate the Leadership, Dig Their Graves, Undercover Entourage, Recover Evidence, Mark for Death and Quick Murder.

Diving Charge let's her pick targets freely, Next Target gives extra mobility. Wandering River Monk combo's well with some of these since they can move 12'' and interact before or after Misaki's +10'' charge to secure VP. Few weeks back I managed a last minute entourage scoring by charging my own frontline model and next targeting from it to within walk distance of enemy deployment.

You didn't ask but on the deny angle I think Misaki's pretty decent at blocking Show of Force, Hunting Party and Last Stand depending on how many eligible models opponent brought in. Eliminate the Leadership takes a little cagey play to deny but I've had no trouble with it. As a frontline model she's vulnerable to Tail'Em/Set Up, but also has mobility to dodge those so I don't know. Need more experience against those schemes. Frame For Murder is something I don't have an answer to. At least I'm not consistently giving points for it and I don't think I've ever given 3VP for it while playing Misaki.

Schemes I hate tend to be those that rely on leaving the opponent alive. With Accuse I could leave a harmless VP battery somewhere and engage it with a cheap model, but most models eligible for Tail'Em tend to be ones that I want dead to score/deny other schemes that call for masters or henchmen. I don't play to table my opponent, but I like having the option of leaving nothing standing. Last Stand is another tough one. Misaki herself tends to be expensive with upgrades and I like her activating later in the turn so small elite crews don't really fit for me.

Other schemes I'm fine doing, but don't rely on any specific talents Misaki herself has.