Youko Hamasaki - Tactics and Strategies

[Wakefield]

=== Qi and Gong ===

At a glance, Qi and Gong is...hard to describe.

That's not a cop-out answer either, it's just true. Between Big Bill Algren, Hinamatsu, and the Kabuki Warrior, alongside of Geisha, you'd think they're a 'pick a model and kill it crew'. Luring weak models out of position and destroying them with a slice or two. But, what's with that weird distraction aura then? Why does Youko not do any damage on her own and only provide distracted? What's We Own You and why would they play with pass tokens if their goal is to usurp early model activation and kill models to get activation advantage?

They're also not exactly paper either. Kunoichi boast Disguised and bullet proof to drain actions from enemies who try to charge them and make Min 2 guns a joke. Bunraku, Hinamatsu and Bill are also armored up as well. But they're still not exactly a big bruiser crew. Disguised only goes so far, and Armor 1 isn't enough to shrug off major attackers or dedicated beatsticks without support. Plus they don't want to brawl, the only heal in keyword is Bill Algren, and he's a min 3!

So what do they do? Well, all of the above. Qi and Gong is flexible in its keyword crew choices, and Youko provides a safety net for both in keyword choices and out of keyword shenanigans. She's focused around activation manipulation, and making your opponent take bad engagements or waste AP on meaningless actions that will let you control the pace of the battle. Youko can certainly isolate and murder individual models. With the right play, she has access to up to 3 min 4 attackers at melee or at a distance, and she has a 'kind of' min 3 plus discard on her primary action, Riddles in the Dark.

Their options for scheming, on the other hand, are a little more limited. You're probably going to pick up out of keyword scheme runners or versatile help. Bunraku are fine at it, but they're not exactly an all-star choice, and for one stone more, you can just hire a Wanyudo, one of the best, mobile scheme runners in the entire game. 

Their control options are strong, but are based primarily around Slow and Distracted. Slow can't be cleared up by models without Condition removal, but Distracted can. This mostly means that what Youko wants to be doing is distracting models and slowing them to waste as many of their turns as possible.

She herself hates pulses and shockwaves, as they get around distracted since they don't attack models, and condition removal, of course, is a pain. Von Schill is the worst matchup for her in the game, since a single Drachen Trooper can, in one AP, remove almost all of her hard work.

=== In Depth Review ===

--- Keyword Ability ---

Qi and Gong as a keyword have one universal ability and a few 'secondary' ones that are common across the various types of the keyword. Given how much they spam it, I'll also be talking about Distracted in this section.

Let's start off with Leverage, the primary ability of the Qi and Gong. Every keyworded model has this ability except Chiyo. The easy part first. You can spend Pass Tokens for accuracy in duels. It's slightly less than Focused, but still can help get your abilities to slip by higher defenses and just leverage the deck in your favor. Spending pass tokens wisely is key to Youko's playstyle, so knowing when to use them to pass and force your opponent into bad situations is just as important as when you burn them for accuracy. Burning them for defense is usually a bad deal. At most you're earning a measly +2 on average and at worst you're increasing your chances to flip Black Joker if it hasn't already been cycled. You're usually going to have hand advantage, so I tend to keep them for attacks instead of defense.

Secondly, for each model with leverage, after your opponent reveals a scheme, you score one Pass Token during the start phase. This is AFTER the Initiative Flip. So no bonuses unless you carry them over between turns. Leverage is kind of a trap for your opponent. Yes, if they scheme you're suddenly going 'Ultra Instinct' but if they delay scheming, then you have all of the tools in the world to pinpoint whatever scheme runners or figures they're going for and disrupt them or just outright assassinate. For this reason, keeping schemes unrevealed is a risk, a painful risk that will quickly drain your opponent's hand or lose them key models. Additionally, you can play Shady Dealings off of Jinx from Charm Warders, which will drain a random card for each scheme that your opponent has unrevealed. This combined with their ability to help injure key models gives Youko a strong basis to start piling up distracted. You have great ways to get these to get discards off with Distraction as well, which is on both Kabuki Warriors and Geisha impart a flat negative to all WP duels within 2 inches of these models. This means that even moderate crows can have a lot of value for Charm Warders and especially Youko herself on Riddles in the Dark.

Opponent not scheming early? Fine, start building your pass tokens with Youko's We Own You and Chiyo being across the center and delay your Lures until you can force a model out of position or set two distracted on them and have a Kunoichi spike them for a min 4 hit. Most scheme runners aren't going to take more than two of these, or sometimes even one if you hit moderate.

Disguised is a very common ability in keyword as well. Kunoichi, Geisha, and Chiyo all share this ability, giving them defenses from Charging. Don't think that this is just 'oh, I can't be charged' think of this as 'You need to waste an extra AP to come in and melee attack me.' Youko loves nothing more than wasting your opponent's time.

Distracted is the primary condition. Most models in the crew will be interacting with this in some way. Youko is your primary source, but Kabuki Warriors, Geisha, Chiyo, and Hinamatsu have reliable ways to put it out on models quickly. Kunoichi and Bunraku are your primary 'Distraction Exploiters'. Kunoichi can use it to get to Min 4 on melee or Min 3 at range, Bunraku stack it with their defensive trigger to very quickly become unhittable, and since they like to dart in and slap someone with Stunned, it's nice to have a way to keep them around to exploit it.

Additionally, it just eats AP. Either they Focus to get rid of one, or another model Assists to get rid of 1/2/3 or uses condition removal. If they're burning condition removal for distracted, they're not using that piece to score. Knowing when to activate is huge, because if Youko goes early, all her hard work can be for nothing, but if she goes too late, you're not actually stacking what you need on the beatstick you want to hit.

Be warned, if you don't know where your opponent's Red Joker is, Distracted can actually be a negative against your crew. Youko's only defense is Serene Countenance and Distracted, so if you're stacking distracted on a model, it's just going to fish for Red to hit Youko given her low hit points and substandard defenses for a Master.

--- Master ---

Youko Hamasaki is the Master of the Qi and Gong Crew and is one of the most dangerous models in the crew for two reasons. The first is her Unseen Manipulator ability, which makes your opponent play a card down in hand. This stacks with her Riddles in the Dark ability to give her some easier time adding distracted. The second in Silent Control. Silent Control works wonders with pass tokens, but the meat of the ability is simple. If an enemy model activates within 6 of Youko, it MUST discard a card, which gives Youko a card back for her OTHER ability Calm Demeanor, and then it can activate. Otherwise, Youko picks the next opposing model to activate. She wants to play up close to get this off, but her defenses are, ahem, lackluster. Serene Countenance is good, but it's just a single negative, so if you want to make sure your opponent is flipping down, just stack up distracted on possible threats to Youko.

With Pass Tokens, and proper positioning, Youko is a one master bubble crew that can screw with enemy activation order and force some pretty bad activations before your crew can step in with Leverage. Youko CRAVES pass tokens like candy, and don't be surprised if you're waiting 2-3 enemy models between your own teams activations.

Since she needs Pass Tokens so badly, we'll skip to her Signature Ability and tactical action, We Own You. We Own You is one of the most unique obeys in the game. Needs a five of any suit to pass and has an After Resolving trigger for two pass tokens. This means as long as you have a legal target, you do not need the action to succeed if you want two pass tokens. So you can stone or cheat a low crow on any attempt to convert 1 Master AP to 2 Pass Tokens. While it is once per turn, another model we'll discuss later can copy this action and generate pass tokens as well. And that's just the trigger.

We Own You is unique in that it doesn't get an opposed duel. Youko simply declares 'We Own You' and on a 5+ against a model with 2 distracted, they take any non charge general action, or they may take a melee action. Since the melee action will be against a friendly model, more than likely, it will NOT suffer from Distracted. The possibilities for this are limited only by the fact that it's once per turn, but a few choice options are the usual Obey nonsense, or, scheming for your own scheme markers. Strategy Markers being moved on Break the Line, if, for some reason, your opponent made a goof that they ended up next to one. Assist enemy models because you're like me and were a complete idiot and lit one of your scheme targets on fire that you need alive. Look, that last one was a fluke.

It can also be a psudeo obey for your own models as well if you're stacking distracted on something that's never actually going to attack an enemy. Think Geisha or Terracotta Soldiers. This can get your Geisha a disengage, or an interact if they're playing forwards, or let Terracotta move to get into position so they can We Own 

Riddles in the Dark is a 4 suit trigger ability. So no matter what you flip you get extra value. In order of importance:
Mask: Quick Reflexes: Powerful. Adding two extra distracted to a secondary target is amazing for multiple reasons. The first is more control. The second is to combo with Kunoichi to make them threaten multiple things.
Crow: Mental Trauma: Discard or take 3. It's a painful choice, and it can easily force your opponent to start letting you dictate activation aura. If you're saving Youko until late in the turn, which can be valid, this is also a way to finish off someone's hand and potentially put out 9 damage on a model in one Master turn.
Ram: Information Network IMMEDIATELY lets you draw a card, which can tip you over the limits for +2 distracted. Also good if you're failing the action to cycle low cards.
Tome: Visions of Glamour splashes Distracted. It's nice in that it doesn't allow enemies resistance. It sucks in that it requires some pretty close placement.

Riddles is stat 7 which is one of the highest stats in the game, overpowers many beaters, and can be pretty darn impressive on models. Of course Distracted is only as powerful as your opponent lets it be, and if they haven't flipped Red Joker, the odds are better if they've got Youko in range that they just put attacks on her. 3 cards fishing just for red isn't so bad if you're already down half your deck.

Sharp Wit is an attack. We'll skip it. It's notable that it provides slow, and Slow + Distracted is basically Paralyzed against Youko.

Backroom Dealings is the bonus and it facilitates two things. If you target an opponent within 6, you get card draw off it with the base trigger, or you can go for Queen's Gambit, which is one of the only sources of movement in the keyword that isn't a Lure or We Own You, has no range, just LOS requirements...it's pretty great. It can be used to move your folks around for schemes or disengage someone if you're playing the late game pass for super-scheming, or just dislodge models that you don't want taking an interact. Again, Gambit is the ONLY way that you have to pull models out of engagement that aren't Lures or I've Got Your Back, both of which push models TOWARDS you, so keep that in mind. Subtle Control is good, but you have to declare it when you're going in and it's more of a consolation prize than anything. You get to pick and choose a card to discard, it gives you a card back. It's nice to have but Gambit is the better trigger here if you can get it. Stoning for it late game can be a real changer since your crew lacks a ton of other movement.

So what does this all mean?

Youko wants to be at around 6 inches, near the center, playing to a crowd. She's fragile, so keep her covered with Bill against shooting crews to make her DF6 against shooting and give her a way to pull people out of engagement or punish attackers who dive too deep. She wants to be using Riddles and We Own You every turn, so walking with her is hopefully only happening to get her into position and never again. Make sure you're picking your Riddles Triggers wisely if you can and keep her focused on control. It is always more AP efficient for you to stack distracted on models that are currently focused, since you're burning their actions with your own and potentially adding extra pains to get that Focus back up.

--- Totem ---

Chiyo Hamasaki is a significant totem and one of Youko's scheme runners in most setups. Her primary goal is to get across the centerline to add on two pass tokens every turn and to use Biting Insult to get off Distracted and add Pass Tokens. Her Bonus Action, Misinformation, plays directly into Youko, providing you with two discards that you can pick up as well as more intel. You need to figure out if you want to keep her cagey with Youko, or use her to run schemes, as one of the major problems in keyword is that there's not...really an idea scheme runner. Keep in mind she has both Stealth and Disguised, so your opponent is going to need to dedicate to actually attacking her.

--- Henchmen ---

Bill Algren is the core box Henchman and is a bit of a versatile toolbox piece. He's a positioning and counter scheme wizard that also plays zone defense and has some tactical applications with both Challenge and Stoic Nod. Big Bill is a solid model with good and above average stats in most things, sans his damage track. He's a 3/4/4 so he doesn't spike on severe without Red, but he does have Crit Strike.

His Naginata also has 'You're Coming With Me' which is one of his core movement pieces. He can shove a model up to 7 inches, including his base attack shove. This keeps you mobile and allows you to leverage (ha!) your two inch engagement  range to the fullest. Heroic Intervention is always awesome, but on Big Bill, if you have the Crow, it's also non-linear non-resistible scheme removal or damage. On a tac action. It's...really good. If you have two crows to fuel it, then you can do 4 damage or remove 2 scheme markers without even needing to attack your opponent...or be in range of anything other than one opponent.

The major weakness of Bill is his staying power. He's only got Armor 1 and no other defensive tech except for 'We have Unfinished Business' which heals him for 3 and gives him Fast when a scheme is revealed.  Since he already has Challenge, I don't particularly enjoy taking Silent Protector, but I do actually like Masked Agent. With Me is potent enough, but it allows you to drop an ally in close with your opponent, potentially sending up a Geisha to add Slow or Distracted in melee and crank out that lovely Distraction Aura.

The other thing to really think about as well with Bill is just how unsettlingly FAST that he is. On turns he has fast, he can move 6 inches between targets as part of Heroic Intervention up to 3 times. IF you manage to get all the Mask triggers off for his attacks, you're then going another 5 inches on each attack. It's very easy to have him end up exactly where he needs to be.

Hinamatsu is the second Henchman and is actually Neverborn, not TT or Versatile. While Bill is a Swiss Army Knife, Hinamatsu, uh, she just brings the pain.  With Armor 2, 8 health, and Rush, along with Wicked, inbuilt positives to her attack, a pulsing distraction aura, a freaking LURE...she's loaded with everything that Youko needs. She's aggressive, she likes to tie up your opponents and make it painful to disengage, and she also bypasses armor AND has Onslaught and Flurry. She's surprisingly fragile to things that ignore armor (but what armor 2 model isn't) and she can be stone hungry if you don't have cards, but I don't think I've ever been disappointed by her. 

Hinamatsu has just a sliiiightly longer threat range than Bill, but both can end up being quite far up the board in an instant if needed. For that reason, both of them tend to activate later if possible and use their incredible movement to get to exactly where we need them to be. Geisha are key to helping this out, as are Bunraku if you're not running ladies in dresses.

--- Minions ---

Geisha are a 4 stone lure bot. You pay 4 stones, you get a lure that's stat 6, disguised, and has an aura of - to WP duels. They're not really super deep. They pass out Slow and Distracted in Melee, which, is actually pretty impressive. Basically it's paralyze, and can lock a target out and make them either take an assist or two attacks both at a negative. Either way, your 4 point model has just consumed the entire turn of a higher point model. You're welcome. Comedically, they're also great at keeping targets in melee with them, as Sharp Wit attacks WP and Disengage will mean they're at a negative to their defense against the attack. Don't kid yourself, they sure ain't living through a sneeze with DF4 and 4 health, but they can enable plays and hand out Galvanize, which helps get your folks up the board and add on Focus. If you don't need to be Slowing a target, then keep them outside of engagement. Geisha are a great tool to let you manipulate positions on a very good stat, and let you spam out Distracted a lot faster.

Kunoichi are a 6 stone Skirmisher/Assassination Vector. They don't scheme particularly well, since they're only MV5, but they play around the edges and pick off other scheme runners. They also have Tools for the Job, which means if your opponent is out of actions, and this is their last attack, it's safe to pitch that severe to defend if you have a Kunoichi to pick it up with. Their triggers are key here, learn them, apply them when you can, and don't be afraid to chuck a moderate Ram if you've set up distracted on several targets. Their melee is an impressive stat 6 with 4/5/6 if you have the trigger and two stacks of distracted on your target. 4/5/6 for 6 stones sounds 'okay, in Magical Christmas Land, Wakefield' but Youko passes out enough Distracted that you can reliably force your opponent to burn AP Assisting to just keep these girls off of them. Hell, their ranged attack is min 3 with that setup too. Don't take these ladies with the expectation for them to make it across the board and effortless get things like Breakthrough or Symbols. Take them with the intention of making their attacks count and recycling good cards, as well as manipulating positioning with 'I've Got Your Back' and ways to pull Youko around the board.

Bunraku follow the Puppet Train that Hinamatsu set up and are a 6 stone scheme runner with a lure. I really like the figure as a cheap source of Lures, almost more than Geisha. Geisha are one-tricks, and these guys can actually sneak in some decent damage with Crit-strike and the push on their bonus action allows them to get in and out of all sorts of trouble. As a note, they also have a way to hand out Stunned. Stunned is by far the best condition in M3E. Armor 1 makes them safe against most schemers, and their push DOES allow them to JUST BARELY Scheme twice in one turn. Their defense trigger is baked in, but you need to succeed the first time to get it off. +2 DF until the end of the activation means if you don't hit them once, you may not hit them at all. If you want to spam Lures, they're a great way to do it when Geisha won't get the job done. While Geisha are better at it, Bunraku are likely to survive the follow up hit that your opponent tosses out.

Charm Warder is a split model with Shenlong and you probably already know about them already. 7stones, they attack off WP, they have good attacks, good triggers, counter summoners and demise, have the annoying Chi property that Monks have alongside leverage...they're toolbox units that fit into most scenarios. I usually consider one core, just for Jynx. Their ranged attack has Shady Dealings and is easy to get off if your opponent is in a Distraction Aura. That's a easy possible 2 cards, maybe more if you can doubletap. Their Bonus Action is also probably one of my favorites. Chaos Theory has a below average chance to deal damage to all enemy models within 5 inches, and one that's outside of it if you get the Crow. If you do get the Crow, one of my favorite games is 'pop the totem,' where you see if you can cheeze out killing your opponents totem turn one because they flipped unlucky.

Kabuki Warrior are a stat 6 greatsword on a stick. I'm going to level with you. I feel that Youko needs something with Distraction Aura in order to really make sure her valuable triggers and abilities land, so either a Kabuki Warrior or a Geisha is what I would consider core. Pricey at 8 stones, they're a bog standard beater with average defense at 5. On top of that, they come with Combat Finesse, so you can't cheat attacks against them in melee. Ultimately, this is redundant through Distracted, but it makes a nice fallback, if unreliable fallback, in case your opponent just flips mediocre. They love Trained Ninja to get Unimpeded and Stealth and an 'alright' option to add a negative condition. Kabuki Warriors are, despite their middling defenses, a tanky model. Finesse and hand advantage means you can usually cheat over your opponent and they can take a few hits with 8 heath as well as they dodge. Their Bonus Action CAN come in handy but...honestly, I don't tend to bother. Just remember, if your opponent is in their distraction aura, you're not going to be able to usually We Own You to Scheme or Walk.

--- Versatile ---

Dawn Serpent is what I would consider a key versatile pick. Min 3, MV7, scheme runner, all of these are things the keyword is kind of lacking. Hard to Kill and their healing means they're also VERY self sufficient, and adding a Distracted or two to an opponent from Youko is a surefire way to get your opponent to pull their hair out.

Wanyudo is just a really good model. Youko can give it the defense it needs to make it shine, and it's a very valuable long range movement trick and scheme runner. If you're tight on stones, this is a more than acceptable alternative to the Dawn Serpent.

Samurai are an unsubtle choice, as is their bigger brother Fuhatsu. I would bring a Samurai if I know I'm going into Armorspam and I don't think Hinamatsu will be enough. Use Lures from geisha or anyone, really to get them into position. If going with Fuhatsu, then same deal goes. Keep a Geisha nearby to feed him focus off Galvanize. His ranged potency is strong and adds something that the crew normally lacks, a potent ranged threat. He's also Ruthless, which pairs well with Bill for terrifying or manipulative crews. All in all, Fuhatsu edges out Samurai most of the time unless you REALLY need an option for anti-armor. The one major downside with Samurai is that they are incredibly frail. DF4 isn't doing anyone any favors, even with their heavy armor. Bill will probably have to toss a nod or two, or use Juggernaut, to get them back into fighting shape. If you need a bodyguard for Youko, consider a Samurai with Protector, but keep in mind that's a massive 11 stones. It is a great way to make 

Tanuki are a good way to provide condition removal, something that isn't in the keyword natively, and some extra healing on top of Bill's Stoic Nod. Often times Bill doesn't want to be throwing out a nod when he can be doing a lot more movement and stabbing of things.

Minako Rei is also a surprisingly good choice as a scheme runner and counter schemer. No one wants to attack her, so use this to your advantage and press hard against exposed points or use her as a guard dog for vital objectives. Her Katashiro are hard to summon into Youko, but if a Bunraku dies, then it's more realistic. Still not easy, but realistic. 

Lust is a decent option for more hand removal, and is very, VERY good at what she does. Her ability to force positioning is also strong and at 7 stones she's not a slouch at anything in particular, just not particularly overpowering at all. 

Terracotta Soldier is a way to get extra We Own You from Youko to build extra pass-tokens. It exists. People like to exploit it. I don't particularly think it's as 'amazing' as people say it is, but if your opponent is playing super safe, it's one of the primary methods of generating extra pass tokens. Some people have said 'take 3' but I don't...really think it's that valuable or crazy. One should probably be taken to just give you that extra push. Keep in mind that We Own You is Non Master only with no other restrictions, so if it uses We Own You with the crow, if it passes, it still gets any other general action as well by just targeting itself.

--- Out of Keyword ---

Most of what you're going to pick up for Out of Keyword is probably going to be for scheme runners. While Bunraku are excellent in Keyword, I find the lure to be more valuable on most turns. There's not a lot I like in other keywords, since Leverage makes you want to have as many in-keyword models as possible. 

Huckster is just a very, VERY good OOK pick for scheme runners. Detonate Charges in 2 AP is pretty darn potent, and they're hard to hit. Their gimmick is also not keyword focused, even though McCabe provides you with easier TNs, Hucksters provide anyone with insane mobility on the right maps.

Mr. Tannen is an interesting piece. In theory, he adds onto being a 'Bubble Crew' and can easily hand out distracted to a few things. The problem is that Youko likes to play forwards and Tannen is both slow and easy to hit when he's not manipulative. He's also there to mostly pass out Boring Conversation and stack Brilliance and Distracted on high-value targets. If you can then stack that with a Distraction Aura...well, then its easy to lock folks down. I think Youko shines best when she's handling most of the control, but I can see this being a very potent combination for swarming crews. Or, y'know, just hating on Archie or Papa Loco, which is everyone's favorite pass-time.

 

--- Why Play Youko? ---

Coming Soon

[Cursed25]

the best OOK model for Youko is Mr. Tannen! try him! he will make your opponent cry with all the pressure he adds!

 

use a samurai with silent protector to protect Youko and Tannen! 

[Necrokamo]

As an additional option try Lust, according to several opinions, the errata has made her very compatible with the Qi & Gong.

[Wakefield]

5 hours ago, Cursed25 said:

the best OOK model for Youko is Mr. Tannen! try him! he will make your opponent cry with all the pressure he adds!

 

use a samurai with silent protector to protect Youko and Tannen! 

I'll have to give this one a shot. 7 stones is a pretty steep price for Tannen, who's also really slow. My concern is primarily that Tannen really wants to add Brilliance to make sure that Boring Conversation is a lot harder to go around. It certainly can help lock down an already dragged down model who may be locked in with a Kabuki Warrior or Geisha, but...I don't really think I want to put them as a bubble crew.

I think the reverse is actually a better option. Hiring a Kabuki Warrior into Honeypot means that the bubble crew has a beater that can both lure alongside of Beckoners, add on the negative WP aura, and can keep things pinned in.

3 hours ago, Necrokamo said:

As an additional option try Lust, according to several opinions, the errata has made her very compatible with the Qi & Gong.

Samurai are really good, but I think the Lust option may be better. The advantage with Lust is that you can easily trigger Flirtatious Wink with Misinformation from Chiyo. This also blends into Consumed by Lust being able to just turn Misinformation into a straight two card discard if your target has a sin token on it which they would immediately get from Lascivious music anyway...

Lust can also run schemes with MV6 and Now Kiss can help with keeping her clear of targets. Lascivious Music, sadly, only discards one card from the hand, so Youko only gets to draw one off of it.

I think that the Samurai with Silent Protector is an interesting concept as well, but the thing is, Youko wants to play forwards, which means the Samurai needs to either be lured forwards to keep up with her, or she needs to hang a little further back. Bill can accomplish the same thing by just forcing your opponent back and challenging and has access to Leverage. He's a little softer, but still gives potent advantages.

 

[Bondu]

I was thinking about playing Sun Quiang with her, he can heal and help youko or tannen survive with his place, he also can give more distracted condition to your enemies with excelent triggers (duality can force enemy to discard and you can then discard/draw or hole in the world to more positioning) 

[Cursed25]

Tannen don't need brilliance if opponent is within distraction aura because a lot of low wp models will have a hard time doing anything other than walk near him.

 

Also the main draw of Tannen in a Youko crew is Betrayal! forcing an already card starve opponent to discard even more to cheat will be backbreaking! 😉 also each time they want to cheat near Youko/Tannen, they discard giving you a card in the process! 

 

Also when I play Youko I don,t play that much into a bubble! My Core (Youko, Tannen, Protector Samurai) will stay near each other and will be send near low WP enemy models to deplete hands while the rest of the crew will munch what they want! I really like Hinamatsu as a threat somewhere else in the board forcing opponent to split his force!

 

I'll have to rethink every strategies I had because of GG-1 but I'm hoping to still use Youko in the new strats/schemes! 🙂

[Wakefield]

Updated strats/schemes over here. They'll be shifting as I have more time to play around with them, but they're in a good spot right now based off what I've snuck in so far.

[Mithrandir]

I enjoyed your McCabe review a lot, and this one is even better. Thank you for these!

[Wakefield]

On 3/7/2020 at 2:41 AM, Bondu said:

I was thinking about playing Sun Quiang with her, he can heal and help youko or tannen survive with his place, he also can give more distracted condition to your enemies with excelent triggers (duality can force enemy to discard and you can then discard/draw or hole in the world to more positioning) 

I don't know how I feel about Sun Quiang. On one hand, he's got a good amount of utility, but on the other hand, that's a lot of stones for a support piece. Tannen is cheap enough, but I feel like if you play too heavily into Distracted it may end up being a problem. Tanuki help with scheming, which is another main weakness, and while Sun can do the same, it also steals stones from other things. I'll have to give him a shot.

[FrostHunter]

Sun Quiang is better healer than Tanuki, but you are loosing spam of free focus and have sometimes worse condition removal (free assist action is nice, but not enough if targeted model suffer from condition spam).

But you may find here funny trick for your models by discarding card via his bedside manner to help survive opponent's attack (after first damage) by placing them outside their engagment range, but engaded by your model (Kabuki or Bill with their 2" engage range). This will aslo heal them for 1 hp and if they are unactivated when they will activate they will heal for another 1 hp.

He is 3 stones more, but has much better survivalibity, his Yin and Yang is stat 7 and near Youko duality trigger is wonderful - it's another source of opponent's hand control and you can cycle cards. Other non crows triggers are wonderful too (give distracted+1 to 2 models is nice and Hole in the world might be neat with schemes that requires LoS like take prisoner or to place something armored in no LoS to their friends so No Witnesses will hurt). Don't mind me might be useful picking evidence markers. Study might be also useful for (counter) scheming and with Kabuki's a New Horizon you may place it where you need.

 

[santaclaws01]

Eh, someone else mentioning Sun Quiang!

I've taken him in pretty much every game with Youko I've played, he's definitely worth it IMO. As has been said, all of his non-crows triggers are great. The healing is super nice, and now that My Loyal Servant can be used on the model that healing energy targeted. Bedside Manner is also super useful, and becomes even more reliable in a crew like Youko's where you can get cards to use reliably.

[Ogid]

Sun Quiang is great with her. Also take in count Bedside Manner + King of Medicine make H2K models really H2K: An attack bring that model to 1 Wd? Discard a card and it's now at 2 Wds. Another attack? Here you have another card...

I think this wasn't mentioned yet: Charm Warders with Masked Agent are a real threat, even if a bit squishy. All their attacks are resisted with Wp so they are very reliable versus something under a Distraction Aura.

The best part is cheating the coordinated attack trigger with a low mask because the other player cannot cheat to put that Kabuki sword in good use (even from 10'' with Jynx), or use "with me" when charging into a Geisha aura (or dragging a Geisha/Kabuki for the aura); getting also an easy coordinated attack trigger in mele for other beater.

[Thatguy]

1 hour ago, santaclaws01 said:

 now that My Loyal Servant can be used on the model that healing energy targeted.

It can? I must have missed the faq.

[frumpypigskin]

6 hours ago, Thatguy said:

It can? I must have missed the faq.

Yeah, I can't find it... I also don't know a version of English where "another" could mean "the same". I understand the parentheses confuse the sentence a bit but is seems to act as a further stipulation rather than change the meaning of "another".

 

My 2¢

 

 

[Ogid]

8 hours ago, Thatguy said:

It can? I must have missed the faq.

That clarification is "hidden" in the NVB FAQs, but it affects every ability with that wording:

1. Nekima – Can Nekima Push and take a y Action as a result of a friendly Nephilim model being killed within range of her Enraged By Insolence Action?
a) No. “Another” always refers to “not the model from which this t ext is written” except in those instances where the model in which “Another” is written would not always be a legal subject of the sentence, such as “Another Scrap Marker”, or “Another enemy model”. In such cases, “Another” will never refer to the previous legal subject.

[Thatguy]

This seems to be a pretty huge ruling. Thanks for the heads up.

[Thatguy]

I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with this interpretation. It would make Richochet an incredibly powerful trigger.

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

27 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with this interpretation. It would make Richochet an incredibly powerful trigger.

whopsie.

[ebolazaire]

I've always felt that Ricochet should have been a pulse.

[Ogid]

3 hours ago, Thatguy said:

I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with this interpretation. It would make Richochet an incredibly powerful trigger.

Haha, good one. That's probably not following the errata ruling, either that or the "Ricochet" is happening inside of the model's ribcage XD.

But it's true we now need a clarification for that one.

[Thatguy]

My guess is that RAI, another refers to not the generating model for auras and static abilities without a target and for abilities that have a target another means not the original target.

[Wakefield]

Aaaaaand easing our way back onto topic...

 

On 3/10/2020 at 6:26 PM, Ogid said:

Sun Quiang is great with her. Also take in count Bedside Manner + King of Medicine make H2K models really H2K: An attack bring that model to 1 Wd? Discard a card and it's now at 2 Wds. Another attack? Here you have another card...

I think this wasn't mentioned yet: Charm Warders with Masked Agent are a real threat, even if a bit squishy. All their attacks are resisted with Wp so they are very reliable versus something under a Distraction Aura.

The best part is cheating the coordinated attack trigger with a low mask because the other player cannot cheat to put that Kabuki sword in good use (even from 10'' with Jynx), or use "with me" when charging into a Geisha aura (or dragging a Geisha/Kabuki for the aura); getting also an easy coordinated attack trigger in mele for other beater.

This Masked Agent tip is freaking amazing and I love it.

I always assumed that it was just melee actions, but you're completely right. It allows them to also be even more of a toolbox. This also means you can With Me, bring in something to drop that distraction aura next to the target, Kabuki Warrior, for instance, and all of the sudden you're flipping against a negative with your Chi Blade melee attack that has a brilliant trigger on any flip.

Sun is definitely an MVP for times when you need a ton of longevity. But the only things that have H2K is going to be things you put Silent Protector on, at least in keyword, so it gets 'meh' rating from me for being an expensive combo. In the right setups though, against burst crews, probably very viable. If Seamus pops up as a popular meta model I'd run him, or something with a lot of triggers like Marcus with Onslaught and such.

[Ogid]

6 hours ago, Wakefield said:

This Masked Agent tip is freaking amazing and I love it.

I always assumed that it was just melee actions, but you're completely right. It allows them to also be even more of a toolbox. This also means you can With Me, bring in something to drop that distraction aura next to the target, Kabuki Warrior, for instance, and all of the sudden you're flipping against a negative with your Chi Blade melee attack that has a brilliant trigger on any flip.

Glad to hear it helped

Haha, it happened also to me; when I noticed it's for all attacks that upgrade got a whole new level of utility. Another good combo, this one for Shenlong: Archers/Warders + Low River Style (positioning them near of Students) or even for High Rivers tailing Shenlong (not sure now you cannot charge them with Chi in turn 1 tho), maybe also worth with Lotus' Threaten but that's only 8''. You may buy the trigger with chi thanks to the aura.

The counterpart in a Youko crew is this is a combo relying on minions and an upgrade; which aren't the most resilient models, so it needs finesse/the right game. But when well executed, it's really good.

[touchdown]

On 3/11/2020 at 3:38 AM, Ogid said:

That clarification is "hidden" in the NVB FAQs, but it affects every ability with that wording:

1. Nekima – Can Nekima Push and take a y Action as a result of a friendly Nephilim model being killed within range of her Enraged By Insolence Action?
a) No. “Another” always refers to “not the model from which this t ext is written” except in those instances where the model in which “Another” is written would not always be a legal subject of the sentence, such as “Another Scrap Marker”, or “Another enemy model”. In such cases, “Another” will never refer to the previous legal subject.

 

On 3/11/2020 at 8:25 AM, Thatguy said:

I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with this interpretation. It would make Richochet an incredibly powerful trigger.

In Von Schill's Load Up, his My Loyal Servant trigger says "another model" followed by "other than this model". Why would it need that if another model already means that?

[Kharnage]

36 minutes ago, touchdown said:

In Von Schill's Load Up, his My Loyal Servant trigger says "another model" followed by "other than this model". Why would it need that if another model already means that?

 

I feel that it's obvious that the ruling on Enraged by Insolence was a ham-fisted attempt at nerfing Nekima by not letting Nekima herself get free swings, and their blanket "another means not the acting model" interpretation has backfired immensely. Obviously Enraged by Insolence meant another nephilim that isn't the one dying, My Loyal Servant and Ricochet being great examples of how they clearly originally defined "another".