Mei Feng Tactica.. ish

[Mxbedlam]

STAHP with Toshiro. He's so bad and needs so many cards. Cards that Mei Feng needs. Izamu is good because he doesn't require cards to do what he does best.

[Tokapondora]

Toshiro is a neat 2 extra activations t1, with the possibility to litter the field with Komainu/Ashigaru later on but even if you do need the cards somewhere else he's handing out 's to the Komainu/Porkchop/etc and has them built in himself, actually saving you cards. Really cannot imagine how anyone could dub Toshiro "bad". As for Izamu, he's slow and that upgrade hardly fits in Mei's already packed-to-the-brim upgrade slots.

[Mxbedlam]

SO Toshiro. His (0) is ok but limited to minions and needs an 8 to go off.  HIs other 0 gives out focus but also needs an 8 to go off. His summons need a 9 and a suit to go off, meaning you either have the suited high card or you spend a soul stone. And the models you get for that 9 are not amazing. Komainu aren't quite trash but they also aren't amazing either. Ashigaru are....real meh for a 9 out of your hand.  Especially when Mei needs 7+ to keep her rail walk combos going.  His + aura to minions is pretty good if you fill your crew with good minions (hint not either of the ones he summons) and 10 SS is pretty meh when you more than likely have a 10SS support model (Emissary) in your crew already. He also has almost 0 defense these days. Hard to Wound is pretty unimpressive in a world of min 3 damage. Hard to Wound 2 just means he won't be sniped off the board. 

For what you get out of Toshiro I think you are better of taking Rail Lines so you can tote along one of our slower beaters like Izamu and punch people in the face while Mei takes out scheme runners or does her own scheme running. 

Also for what its worth, taking a TC Warrior with Mei and Kamiatachi gets you some ok card draw in a list that really needs it. 

[DonCheadle]

I think it may also have to do with the current state of things. No strategy benefits greatly from aummoning 30mm 5ss models in GG18 the way they did with stuff like Interference. 

I think Komainu are good. Not quite good enough to get hired 5ss is probably our 2nd most competitive slot after 8ss, but ninetheless very solid, especially with an Ancestor nearby. 

I think it's not an either/or question, but just two different styles of play. I also think Rail Lines Beater transport may be better in the current pool, but that could change. 

[Rurouni Benshin]

I've never NOT taken Kang with Mei Feng in games, as either 10T or Arcanist.  He's just too solid of a beater to pass up on, imo.  As 10T, I give him Recalled Training and Hard Worker, and just B-line him towards whatever on the field needs to be killed.  I've limited experience playing with Sparks, but I think his synergy would work best in Arcanist, where there's more of an abundance of uses for Scrap Markers.  In 10T, I favor Toshiro over him. 

Still haven't tried the Obsidian Statue yet either, but he looks like a lot of fun.  Not sure if he's good enough to replace the Emissary with though, since the Emissary has passive benefits to his abilities as well.  Plus, I've always found that the Porkchop and/or Emberling have generated enough markers for me to use for Toshiro's summoning.  The average hand will draw 2-3 cards above a 8, allowing for some summoning on Toshiro's part.  If you manage to summon 2 Komainu, successfully cast War Fan on one of them, along with the LRM, you can get full activations out of your summoned models on turn 1.  I wouldn't try overstretching your goals in every turn, since you risk stretching yourself out too thinly on resources.  Unless you've got an amazing starting hand, anyway.

My typical Mei Feng list started here:

Mei Feng (Cache 7)
- Misdirection
- Vapormancy
- (Some other 1ss upgrade)
Kang
- Hard Worker
- Recalled Training
Emberling
Toshiro
- Command the Graves
- The Peaceful Waters
Shadow Emissary
- Conflux of Battle
Low River Monk
Shadow Effigy

Starting with 7 activations, with the potential for 3 more if you get the summoned models, the list has done me pretty well since I've been playing it.  Depending on Deployment and scheme pool, you could substitute the Effigy for a Porkchop, if the game doesn't require situational scheme markers, and if you need another construct to Railwalk towards.

[Da Git]

I usually run something similar, but am tempted to swap out Toshiro for Minako (with recalled Training) to see how she goes.  Saves a Soulstone, Katashiro look fun as a swap for Komainu...

[Tokapondora]

Downside to that is that the Katashiro are rare 2. So no more drowning the field in puppers. Also no burn or slow to hand out.

[whodares]

20 hours ago, Rurouni Benshin said:

- snip -

Regarding that list: it strikes me as rather card-hungry. How do you manage your resources? Is it something like this?

• Emberling scrap drop high priority Turn 1. Save a 9+ for this.
• Turn 1 + 2 you focus on getting the 3 Komainu out, so you'll be saving 2 + 1 9+ card for that. Best case is Turn 1 2 Komainu. Means you'll need 3 9+ cards on Turn 1 unless I missed something.
• Low river monk to heal the summons gets "some" priority on Turn 1, but afterwards it's just a nice-to-have
• Turn 1 place rest of the models on decent locations and focus on getting damage out on Turn 2
• Turn 2 priority shifts mostly to Kang and Mei Feng while Toshiro takes a bit of a back seat and gets more into the positioning game.
• If the opponent has a lot of living models, perhaps you keep a 9+ in hand for summoning Ashigaru?

 

I haven't played Mei Feng that much yet, so I have a slight difficulty understanding how her crew works. The goal of your crew seems to be to have several heavy hard-hitting members (Mei, Kang, Emissary and opportunity cost Toshiro), summoning/outactivating and buffing via Toshiro and generally trying to spread your opponent thin on all parts of the map.

[DonCheadle]

@Rurouni Benshin

Does the swap matter for railwalking purposes? The Effigy is a construct after all. 

I also don't know if Kang is mandatory here. He's certainly neat, but doesn't have any synergies that make him indispensable I feel (aside from giving Mei armor ignore, but then even that is not a must). 

I think something like a Porkchop and Sun Quiang would do better than Kang and the LRM. You do lose out on condo removal, which sucks, but the area heal Sunny Q delivers is far less resource intensive than the LRM. Plus Q can drop markers via his push ability, and the Porkchop is just really really good with Mei. 

EDIT : Could also be of interest to get Chiaki for condo removal since she's an ancestor.