Theoryfaux Wave 5

[qoob]

Hello there!

I wanted to start theoryfaux thread to see if anybody has already come up with some nasty new tricks or combos with our new 5th wave?

- Gwyneth Maddox outside of Lynch: Don't know how good her "Come Play at my table" really is. But she could be able to pass out Brilliance quiet nicely. Add 2 Illuminated in the mix and you have two really nice damage dealer with you. I could imagine using her in Shen Long or McCabe. 

- The other thing I was thinking about if the Amanjaku could get more table time. He could increase Asamis Flicker condition if you have the Borrowed Time upgrade - So Amanjaku gives you, more or less, a SS back. But don't know if it is worth the 9. 

[Nukemouse]

Placing as many models as possible in one spot seems good for shenlong's new pulse 1 damage, can let him get blasts with his big ol kick and leads to easy stumbles. It could also make it easy for Yan Lo to hit a bunch of models at once. Like you said though mccabe seems the nice choice here, reactivating illuminated to rip em up and being able to do some big ol netgun pulses of slow.

[Tokapondora]

The McCabe trick you get the most out of if you take her and one Illuminated. At that point you're being very cost efficient and she's rarely gonna hand out enough Brilliance to benefit more than 2 activations. I wouldn't make any builds utilizing Come Play though. Its unimpressive simple duel nature means it's very unreliable and since she's lost her The Party Never Ends last minute she doesn't gain a lot in return for it. She doesn't give enough to Brillianced models to really get me to take her with anyone beyond Lynch and the odd McCabe list.

As for Asami, one thing I've imagined (but not gotten to yet) is using Borrowed Time and Fate of Mortals. Assuming your opponent scores for about ~3 turns that brings you up to flicker+10 and with that 3 extra flicker/suits to dole out before counting gobbled Gremlins and Amanjaku cheering you on. And adds the nice possibility for card draw to boot. Fate of Mortals' biggest issue was that VP is generally scored after conditions, meaning you'd need to set up a specific Oni to benefit from it. With this you'll always have the perfect target. I think I'd definitely like to run Amanjaku when playing Borrowed Time though. Not even to keep feeding her 9's but it'd be nice to have the option in case you need it.

Beyond that I haven't seen much in the way of "special tricks" or amazing combos. Still trying to figure out a way to get Yan his Blood Ascendant without being at Ca5 and no defensive upgrades in a timely fashion. Does Follow the Path allow you to discard Blood Ascendant after gaining its Casting Expert? And if so, does that mean switching in Blood Ascendant with Follow the Path makes you miss out on Casting Expert? The start of turn nature of Casting Expert and 4 Chi cost makes it so awkward to get any worthwhile use out of.

[Doomikov]

Just going to throw this one out there since I actually think its mildly abusive and might need a cuddle. Two (or one honestly) Bayou Smugglers + either a Katanaka Crime Boss or Lotus Eater. Smuggler hits an opponent within 6 of a KCB or LE with The Swap. Possible outcomes include the following:

• You fail and they didn't cheat so nothing happens.
• You fail but the opponent cheated means you draw a card.
• You succeed and the opponent did not cheat and does (or doesn't) put down a card. Depending on the two, one or no cards placed on the table nets you cards. Either result nets you cards because of the KCB or LE.
• You succeed and the opponent cheated and does (or doesn't) put down a card. Once again you get a card from the Smuggler cause they cheated. THan as above you can manipulate for more cards.

So at worst you get 0 cards, at best 6, on average I have been pulling 3. Now if you manage to put down enemy scheme markers with this all the Smuggler has to do is start walking around placing those scheme markers near the KCB or LE to draw free cards just for walking.

I have run this in Misaki to see how annoying it is and I was able to draw 5 cards in one Smuggler's activation and only cheated once. Nothing like a 10 card hand for Misaki on turn 2. Full hand plus new limited upgrade meant lots of blasty goodness.

Now with any of our masters this is powerful, but that brings us to Mr. Jakob Lynch. This man does not need help drawing cards. I ran 2 Smugglers and a KCB with him and his new upgrade Cheating Bastard so I could always cheat last.  The massive amount of card draw plus choosing to cheat second almost the entire game resulted in a very not fun game for either player. The reason being I was able to craft my hand every every turn and always had an answer in hand. The KCB and Huggy loved having a severe in hand since they was pretty much always on a straight damage flip from either fragile or models having Brilliance. I use to run a modified Melbourne Shuffle in tournaments but that pales in comparison to this as Lynch won't need to keep his aces in hand for Lust + Torakage and its only two models versus the 4 I ran for that.

Just my two cents though.

[ArcticPangolin]

I'm most excited about Lotus Eaters; they seem to go hand-in-and with Katanaka Crime Bosses and Woukou Raiders (with Misaki). Having something that can eat up the scheme markers that the Woukou Raiders want to make the enemy drop is golden.

[Nukemouse]

The model i still don't really get is Tanuki. Other than reactivating the Whiskey Golem i don't see what to use them for.

@Doomikov That seems really cool, i would be pretty scared if i had to face that in an Asami crew since all her 6 TNs are suddenly paid for really easily.

[Nikodemus]

3 hours ago, Nukemouse said:

The model i still don't really get is Tanuki. Other than reactivating the Whiskey Golem i don't see what to use them for.

Reactivate Fingers? 

Don't they have the ability to count twice for strategy? Should make them decent-ish significant minion picks for Interference.

[ArcticPangolin]

2 hours ago, Nikodemus said:

Reactivate Fingers? 

Don't they have the ability to count twice for strategy? Should make them decent-ish significant minion picks for Interference.

Fingers get Fast instead as he's a Henchman.

I run a tankier Brewmaster so I will appreciate their magical elixir. Not sure why you'd take them with anyone other than Brewie though, unless you have an Akaname fetish.

[Nikodemus]

I have to go over their card in detail, but I'd be down with paying 5ss for "two" models in Interference (or next year, Ours). Makes it more expensive for enemy to block my scoring, or cheaper for me to block theirs.

Then again I'm already a fan of Big Jake for this purpose and he's 6ss after merc tax.

[Rugh Z'ull]

How to use gwyneth + illuminated with Brewie I've described here 

And some ideas about Obsidian statue. When you run Asami take statue, Anna Lovelace and Obsidian oni. These models will give you an endless fuel for longer flicker summon. And what is also awesome in statue  damage from Ca actions is increased by +1, so Anna would hit for 4/4/5 and obsidian oni low damage will up to 2/5/6 (already with  for damage, because statue should already burned your target). And of course every casing models will work great with the statue. Emissary will hit for 3/4/7, Yan Lo with new Blood acsendant for 4/5/6 and so on. And statiue by itself can hit very hard

[Clockwork_Fish]

I can see Tanuki being quite good for Shenlong.  You can use Gourds Everywhere to put more poison on Shenlong and Sensei Yu, then heal them up with Magic Elixir.  More poison is also helpful for Shenlong's new Yin upgrade.  Take a Little Nap will be fun with Mighty Gust.  Move the Tanuki up first turn, maybe drop some scheme markers around them; turn two it takes a nap, drops another scheme marker; either Shenlong or Yu pushes it, along with any nearby scheme markers, onto the opponent's half of the board.

[Doomikov]

So I was playing the Bayou Smuggler with its last play test iteration. Just got my copy and they changed them a little so you can't get quite as many cards but it is still a viable card draw engine. I think the most you can get is 4 an activation instead of 6. Still good though.

On 9/10/2017 at 11:59 AM, Clockwork_Fish said:

I can see Tanuki being quite good for Shenlong.  You can use Gourds Everywhere to put more poison on Shenlong and Sensei Yu, then heal them up with Magic Elixir.  More poison is also helpful for Shenlong's new Yin upgrade.  Take a Little Nap will be fun with Mighty Gust.  Move the Tanuki up first turn, maybe drop some scheme markers around them; turn two it takes a nap, drops another scheme marker; either Shenlong or Yu pushes it, along with any nearby scheme markers, onto the opponent's half of the board.

I was messing around with this the other day with 2x Akaname. I think turn one ended with Poison 9 on Shenlong. Pairing that with the new upgrade though was pretty fun. Almost always had the poison for an extra DF.

[Nukemouse]

@Doomikov How would you generate that much poison on shenlong? Best i can figure is deploy in such a way you can place a scheme marker or two in base contact with most of your crew netting +1 poison to 5 models when they activate, one being shenlong obviously, two being akaname and two being people near the akaname. Guys near akaname go first, akaname activate stealing their poison + gaining it getting 2 each then they shoot it onto shen who then activates getting 7. If you shot him twice the second shot only gives +1 but i guess that gets to 9? Sure seems like a lot of poison, in fact its probably more than you need, since 7 would let you make 2 DF flips then deliever a mega stumble.

[Doomikov]

@Nukemouse Ok so I was just messing around in that game just to see how high I could get it turn 1. I setup Shenlong, a peasant and the 2x akaname in such a way that a scheme marker fit perfectly between them all. After initiative the peasant interacted summoning another peasant in btb with the marker. Slow peasant activates and gains poison from Tanuki's aura, 0 action to focus, provide for temple on other peasant giving poison. Non slow peasant activates and gains poison from Tanuki's aura, 0 action focus, provide on other peasant, then goes for a walk. 1st akaname activates stealing non slow peasant's poison and gaining poison from Tanuki's aura for a total of poison 3, vomits poison onto shenlong twice for poison 4. 2nd akaname does same thing on slow peasant to give poison 8. Shenlong activates gains poison 9 from Tanuki's aura, pushes one akaname with marker and then double walks. Sensei Yu pushes other akaname and entire engine moved up the field. Way too much time and attention put into it but was fun for a casual game. I think at one point Shenlong had poison 12, which I immediately used to stumble twice before Charging in with a reactivated Lone Swordsman to clean house.