The most well-designed Wave 4 models and upgrades

[Phinn]

With Wave 5 behind a corner, or two rather, and almost 9 months since the rules for Wave 4 have been released I was wondering...

Which Wave 4 models and upgrades are, in your opinion, the most well-designed?
I am also interested in reading why do you consider them well-designed. Is it because they are finely balanced? Fun? Much needed? Strong? (Maybe a bit too strong?) Because they rekindled the love for a master or a model you haven't played in a while?

Thank you for taking time to write your opinion

[Freman]

Parker. He's flexible with his upgrade switching, he supports his crew, but he doesn't do so much that you're in a constant state of analysis paralysis (Exhibit A, Jack Daw). His themed crew are decent, and have some nice tricks with scheme markers.

That said I can't really compare him to other Wave 4 crews and Masters since I only play Outcasts, so I can only say that I think Parker is well-designed, I can't say that he's better designed than any other Wave 4 Master.

[Angelshard]

A thousand faces. I love that upgrade. I only started playing a short while ago so I haven't tried playing without it, but I know I almost always bring two as they give me so many options. There's a lot of other neverborn upgrades I wouldn't use if I couldn't get them through a thousand faces 

[Math Mathonwy]

I think that the Wave 4 Masters are a bit too complex for complexity's sake. Parker and Titania are IMO the worst offenders in that they fiddle around with lots of things but ultimately they don't do anything quite interesting enough to warrant all that. Sandeep is similar but he sorta achieves something new (though I consider him somewhat badly balanced and a nightmare to face for the first twenty times when you learn how he works...).

I understand that design space is getting more limited when there's more Masters but they seem somewhat gimmicky and unrefined. In this they remind of M1.5 TT Masters - when they came they were really complex. M2e distilled them far better into the essentials and streamlined them (arguably Mei Feng lost a bit in the translation, though) and probably the next iteration of Wave 4 Masters for Malifaux 3 (whenever that is) will be better. Similar to Tara, btw.

That isn't to say that they are badly designed, mind. And I do like quite a few of them. Just that they are a bit needlessly fiddly.

As for the actual question (sorry, went on a bit of a tangent there), I really, really like the Wisps. They aren't too complex but are quite interesting and they boost a bunch of pretty lackluster models to new heights. They are arguably OP but they don't reach their full potential unless you take underpowered models so it evens out. I find them really, really neat (though they have made a bit of a problem on the Gremlin side for me, unfortunately).

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

From my limited experience with new models:

My Little Helper - funny and thematic, with powerful albeit temporary effect which involves some decision making. It mitigates the usual negative outcome of losing initiative on a crucial turn. Double (0) is really handy too.

Will o' the Wisp - for the reasons Math pointed out.