Sparks tuning up Arcanists Mei Feng??

[KingCrow]

I posted on AWP the other night about how I had recently acquired a Sparks and, having never played him before, asked about how to use him with Mei Feng.  Now I'm not sure if this has ever been brought up anywhere but I think Sparks is a very-underused asset with Mei Feng due to some of the answers I received.  

For instance, his (0) action to make target model a construct and give armor +1 can also target enemies, turning them into constructs.  This benefits any friendly model within 6" of Kang by giving them positives to both attack and damage vs that model.  Metal Gamin can also use their magnetism (a Ca 8 action) vs that model. Lastly, those models that wield Relic Hammers now LOVE to smack the new construct around. Sounds great, right?

Another way to use Sparks (0) is to cast it on Mei giving her the construct trait and pushing her up to armor +2!  But wait! If you bring Lazarus along, Lazarus can now copy one of Mei Feng's (1) ap actions such as Railwalk or Vent Steam.  Since Lazarus is already a construct, Sparks an give the old boy fast too! So if Laz is ever engaged with an enemy, just Railwalk him out and discard a card to take 3 shots at your enemies!

Lazarus with Sparks can open up a lot of potentially unexpected actions being taken and I can't wait to try it out.  This is usable in both Arcanists and TT, although I'm not sure which is better at the moment. 

What are other's thoughts on this? Any fun interactions you can think of and want to share?

[Squirrelich]

When Mei is a construct she can be targeted by mobile toolkit buffs and her attacks can trigger Powered by Flame burning. I never got it to work as well as I wanted, but I had fun with it.

[spooky_squirrel]

One of the things I'll do with Sparks in Arcanists is make Coryphee Duet Fast. Outside of that, being able to make select enemies Construct and then ignore their Armor through Hard Worker is amusing--especially on Mei Feng, who has no competing (0) actions and plenty of reasons to want to be on positives.

[spooky_squirrel]

Outside of strange behaviors like the ones I just mentioned: if you're running Sparks and your opponent didn't bring construct hate (Relic Hammers, Kang, etc.), you can use it to make your non-construct elements stronger. If you've been taking your Mei Feng in the direction of 1-2 constructs with some form of scrap marker generation (e.g. Emissary, Porkchop) and fleshing out the rest of her crew with non-constructs, it lets you do things like make Envy a construct (and thus benefit from everything that could tune up constructs, including Sparks making Envy fast and the toolkit putting Envy on positives--because who doesn't want to have all those shots?).

With the Wave 5 release, we've received a Foundry Enforcer who gets bonuses when fighting alongside constructs, in that he gets to attack more often because he's trying to outdo mere machines. I'll double check the wording after work, but I think Mr. Henry could potentially trigger his own bonus attacks if he happens to have been turned into a construct by Sparks.

[Treehouse]

Just don't use him only for his (0), for those are most likely not worth the 7 ss investment. His aura can be very tough on certain crews and his ML is ok. 

 

Also, think outside of foundry too. Sabertooth cerberus with armour and fast is fun. An ice dancer with fast can move 24" a single activation. Also, a model stays a construct until Sparks has activated again, so you gain the armour bonus two turns until sparks activates.

Put 'packed with explosives' on a railworker, then hit it with willie to generate some serious blasts which ignore armour, and cheat in a low tome to prevent two dmg on the railworker. 

[Treehouse]

on lazarus, though, that is some serious investment for an extra vent steam. You could also.just railwak to him and kick him for 1dmg and take the pressurized vent trigger (if you took vapormancy....which you should if your going for vent steam denial)

[Mxbedlam]

Think about it though. If you really need Laz to reach their ball of models on turn 1. You get sparks to give him fast and turn mei into a construct. Have Mei railwalk and drag Laz. Have Laz Rail walk himself and suddenly he's firing 3 auto fire shots 12 inches further up the board than he has any right to be. Also, Laz can alternately provide a second bubble of Vent Steam, allowing you to cover an entire other vector of models from casts and sh attacks. 

[Treehouse]

Right, dont know how the upgrades work. Thats nice. 

[Ludvig]

8 hours ago, Treehouse said:

Put 'packed with explosives' on a railworker, then hit it with willie to generate some serious blasts which ignore armour, and cheat in a low tome to prevent two dmg on the railworker. 

You'd sacrifice a lot of blast damage since the metal on metal trigger, unlike armor, reduces the damage of the entire attack instead of reducing the damage taken by the model.

[Treehouse]

Is that so? Never noticed, thanks. Well ,then it is not so good :-P. 

Then, lazarus and an arachnid for +2 armour would be better. 

[Mxbedlam]

My go to list for Laz Mei is:

Mei (Vapor, Rail lines, Siesmic)

Emberling

Sparks

Porkchop/Steamfitter

Laz (imbued)

Arcane Effigy

Neil/Johan/Acolyte

[Ludvig]

On 2017-09-27 at 4:15 PM, Treehouse said:

Is that so? Never noticed, thanks. Well ,then it is not so good :-P. 

Then, lazarus and an arachnid for +2 armour would be better. 

It's pigheaded RAW and some people may play it in another way. I'm not sure what was intended because it's a very rare wording as far as damage prevention goes.