Took Toshiro, Grave Digger, and Grave Golem into Reckoning + claim jump.

[Maniacal_cackle]

It was pretty amazing!  Toshiro popped out a few Ashigaru, which were really good. Molly and Toshiro hand out focus like candy, so the Ashigaru had plenty of focused attacks.

Toshiro's aura was usually not relevant, since he was spending an action summoning each turn, he wasn't in a position to aura until turn 3. That was still extremely useful.

At one point I had an Ashigaru charge a mature nephilim and use focus, getting the nephilim down from 7 to 2.

Then Toshiro activated and moved into range, and commanded another focused attack. Double positive to the attack = one dead nephilim.

Grave golem provides quite a challenge to anyone trying to control the centre. He is a must for me in any game that involves fighting for the centre (any claim jump, some harness the leyline matchups). I gave it Grave Spirit's touch for the bonus action, but regen 4 was also devastating.

Grave digger is the synergistic glue that held the team together. It is worth using with Toshiro alone or Grave Golem alone, but just felt hyper efficient when paired with both.

The downside? Toshiro is VERY resource hungry. Turn two I drew an extra eight (kinda) cards with Molly and still ended the turn out of gas. (Only kinda because I had to cheat on some of her lost knowledges).

[newsun]

9 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

It was pretty amazing!  Toshiro popped out a few Ashigaru, which were really good. Molly and Toshiro hand out focus like candy, so the Ashigaru had plenty of focused attacks.

Toshiro's aura was usually not relevant, since he was spending an action summoning each turn, he wasn't in a position to aura until turn 3. That was still extremely useful.

At one point I had an Ashigaru charge a mature nephilim and use focus, getting the nephilim down from 7 to 2.

Then Toshiro activated and moved into range, and commanded another focused attack. Double positive to the attack = one dead nephilim.

Grave golem provides quite a challenge to anyone trying to control the centre. He is a must for me in any game that involves fighting for the centre (any claim jump, some harness the leyline matchups). I gave it Grave Spirit's touch for the bonus action, but regen 4 was also devastating.

Grave digger is the synergistic glue that held the team together. It is worth using with Toshiro alone or Grave Golem alone, but just felt hyper efficient when paired with both.

The downside? Toshiro is VERY resource hungry. Turn two I drew an extra eight (kinda) cards with Molly and still ended the turn out of gas. (Only kinda because I had to cheat on some of her lost knowledges).

I'd be very concerned taking grave golem into Neverborn for fear of Zoraida. If no second Masters I guess this mitigates this risk after master reveal.

[Maniacal_cackle]

8 minutes ago, newsun said:

I'd be very concerned taking grave golem into Neverborn for fear of Zoraida. If no second Masters I guess this mitigates this risk after master reveal.

Yeah, we don't play second masters as it tends to be a lot less fun. But even if Zoraida was obeying it, it is quite happy being nowhere near my crew. And once it is engaged, it can't charge, so I'd just have to get it within engagement range. I'll have to try that matchup sometime!

[Graf]

What did you spend most of the cards for with Toshiro? For his melee attack I guess, but also for his buffs/heals?

 

btw, you seem to own a GG, how big is the model? I want to model my own to avoid the Undying box until the GG is repacked.

[Maniacal_cackle]

6 hours ago, Graf said:

What did you spend most of the cards for with Toshiro? For his melee attack I guess, but also for his buffs/heals?

 

btw, you seem to own a GG, how big is the model? I want to model my own to avoid the Undying box until the GG is repacked.

For Toshiro, he needs a 10+ of crows (summoning), a 6+ (bonus heal), and a 7+ (for his Daimyo's gift to command another model).

Some turns you only do two of those, but it can still be a few cards. I didn't get a single attack off with him in the first three turns xD Plus cards for the Ashigaru, of course. Summoning a big team means you have more opportunities to cheat fate.

Grave golems are size four, so I modelled it after Lord Chompy Bits and made it ~3.5 inches tall. I'll post a photo when I get home.

[Maniacal_cackle]

@Graf here is the Grave Golem I sculpted (work in progress for finishing touches).

I wanted a living graveyard. The moment you destroy it, it just rises from the earth once more!

[Clement]

On 10/24/2019 at 1:21 PM, newsun said:

I'd be very concerned taking grave golem into Neverborn for fear of Zoraida. If no second Masters I guess this mitigates this risk after master reveal.

Is there something to be afraid of Z getting her mitts on it beyond "it hits very much hard"?  I guess having it Hurl corpses at the grave digger (and get the clinging dead trigger) would really suck for the grave digger.

[newsun]

Mostly this. Also how are you going to keep him center if z can activate last for claim jump? She'll simply walk him away if not already charging with him into one of your models.

[Maniacal_cackle]

28 minutes ago, newsun said:

Mostly this. Also how are you going to keep him center if z can activate last for claim jump? She'll simply walk him away if not already charging with him into one of your models.

Molly generally gets the last activation, since she can gain extra activations without handing over pass tokens.

In my case it is all a bit moot though. No one in my meta plays second masters or Zoraida due to NPE (negative play experience).

[Ogid]

2 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

No one in my meta plays second masters or Zoraida due to NPE (negative play experience).

Unless you are playing in "going easy" mode. I'd recomend you to not do this. To learn how to beat these masters and comps it's needed to face them and also know when to expect them first.

If a player doesn't expect certain master/double master and lack experience versus it, it will get him with his pants down in a tournament; that'll lead to a defeat and a self-fulfilled prophecy (how broken is X master / double master!)

[Maniacal_cackle]

34 minutes ago, Ogid said:

Unless you are playing in "going easy" mode. I'd recomend you to not do this. To learn how to beat these masters and comps it's needed to face them and also know when to expect them first.

If a player doesn't expect certain master/double master and lack experience versus it, it will get him with his pants down in a tournament; that'll lead to a defeat and a self-fulfilled prophecy (how broken is X master / double master!)

By default, a lot of casual games are 'easy mode' IMO. A lot of players have only one crew, so cheesing in the best second master in the game seems a bit OP against them.

Our first tournament is also single master only. We will probably relax that later on when people have more models.

Incidentally, I was the one who took Zoraida as a second master. My opponent and I agreed afterward it might be fine for competitive play, but it is not what we are wanting for our current casual environment (only one of our players played before April. Our playgroup is super new, and we are recruiting a fresh batch next month).

For now, casual games are where it is at. I like cutthroat competition, but not everyone in our playgroup does. I'd rather an environment that help new players get started so I have more people to play.

[Ogid]

With the new players I totaly agree, a mostly in keyword crew and without too many shenanigans (and in this case I'd even consider a henchman leaded crew to go even easier)

Versus players that have some experience and at least 2 keywords, a double master or a control master from time to time may be a good challenge and a good experience for them tho (maybe telling them first so they can prepare for that game?). Zoraida is very good as a second master but it forces the crew into a deathball and put a big target in the key beater of the crew, if that one is killed she will lose some punch as she can't obey the leader, plus the range of her obey is more manageable without other swampfiends. She can be beated and learning how it'd be good for them; these comps are just different and need a different approach, a totaly in keyword crew can be played as ruthlessly as a double master one.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Yeah, after our first tournament (this weekend), I imagine some players will be up for double master (I'll play against it anytime), but for now I'm not pushing it.

[Graf]

On 10/25/2019 at 6:43 PM, Maniacal_cackle said:

For Toshiro, he needs a 10+ of crows (summoning), a 6+ (bonus heal), and a 7+ (for his Daimyo's gift to command another model).

Plus cards for the Ashigaru, of course. Summoning a big team means you have more opportunities to cheat fate.

Turned the whole thing around a bit in my head and now I have to say, it's actually quite obvious how many cards can go to him if he wants to pull all his tricks out of the bag. 

To plan for some cards for Ashigaru is at least something to be mentally prepared, just in case a good opportunity arises. Now I just wonder, who except Molly can even bring enough card draw to the game to sustain him in full steam mode. Guess I'll see which abilities I have to skip without those extra draws.

On 10/26/2019 at 12:39 AM, Maniacal_cackle said:

@Graf here is the Grave Golem I sculpted (work in progress for finishing touches).

I wanted a living graveyard. The moment you destroy it, it just rises from the earth once more!

From my guesses its original body should be ~3", with an additional inch with the graveyard bits. Your 3.5" therefore sounds like a sensible value. Still crazy how small this 50mm base looks compared to your Graveyard "Elemental". I'll aim for a more humanoid look like the original, even though it really reminds me of the Dogma movie...

Thank you for your help!

[Maniacal_cackle]

@Graf yeah, I can't get over how big it is either. And it is still smaller than Lord Chompy Bits 😂

I specifically wanted to get away from the humanoid look and have more a 'force of (un)nature' feel.

Re: Toshiro, he is very card heavy how I played him. But you could also treat him as a summoner for turns 1/2, and use him as a generic beater. With the plusses to their flip, the Ashigaru would be fine. I was just hyper-aggressive with card use due to having Molly as am option.

That said, summoning for two turns still takes two high cards + two stones. Definitely don't take him in a card-starved crew.

[Maniacal_cackle]

9 hours ago, Clement said:

Is there something to be afraid of Z getting her mitts on it beyond "it hits very much hard"?  I guess having it Hurl corpses at the grave digger (and get the clinging dead trigger) would really suck for the grave digger.

This is a great point as well. Throwing corpses at gravedigger might be hard as well, as I don't keep them anywhere near each other.

A neat manuever is you can kill your own grave golem and teleport him across the field to a grave digger's marker. I've not quite done it yet, but there have been times where I would have if my opponent didn't kill my grave golem and do it for me.