Youko Hamasaki is finally good

[Jinn]

Look at those distracted changes, look at her new card. Is anyone else excited?

[TheUnseemlyOne]

I cautiously optimistic.  I do hope these changes work out well. 

[Vessien]

I was planning on painting and playing her sooner than later, so I am excited too with the changes.

Let's put the new card somewhere handy:

[muraki]

Yeah, i'm pretty excited to get her on the table (when I really wasn't before).  Feel like those 7's will really let her go to town without saving a bunch of high cards and the built in / triggers on all suits give her a lot more versatility to go with 'whatever comes up'.  I am wondering what a turn for her looks like (charge + cut, riddles, we own you? more riddles?).  Also wondering if I'll get caught in situations where I'm like 'guess i'll cut 3 times, and do 3 1 pt of damage pings?' and wish cutting words was just a higher damage wp attack without the built in slow.

What do people feel about the change to trained ninja with youko?  I'll probably still bring it to protect a minion or 2, but are there enforcers+ that put a hit on her playstyle?  I'll admit I haven't played her enough to know what her core crew looks like and how many of them really needed that non-minion stealth to stay on the board.

[regleant]

Cautiously optimistic. I am puzzled by the "We Own You" Tactical Action, as it can only target models with Distracted +2. So if you use them to make any attacks, you're at a negative. And per the game rules (Wyrd's own video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUV0-8f9DIM&t=2s) when you drop a Scheme marker, it is friendly to your opponent, not friendly to you. So I am at a loss as to how to use this.

[touchdown]

I think you're going to want to Riddles into We Own You virtually every turn.

6 minutes ago, muraki said:

Also wondering if I'll get caught in situations where I'm like 'guess i'll cut 3 times, and do 3 1 pt of damage pings?' and wish cutting words was just a higher damage wp attack without the built in slow.

Pretty clear they want her to be Control™ master and not a damage dealer. However, in a situation where you need her to attack for damage, probably a focus attack is the move since moderate is equal to 3 weaks.

[touchdown]

1 minute ago, regleant said:

Cautiously optimistic. I am puzzled by the "We Own You" Tactical Action, as it can only target models with Distracted +2. So if you use them to make any attacks, you're at a negative. And per the game rules (Wyrd's own video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUV0-8f9DIM&t=2s) when you drop a Scheme marker, it is friendly to your opponent, not friendly to you. So I am at a loss as to how to use this.

DUA counter lol

Otherwise, mainly picking up scheme markers or walking out of position? Putting distracted on your own models for extra interacts?

[Vessien]

7 minutes ago, touchdown said:

I think you're going to want to Riddles into We Own You virtually every turn.

Pretty clear they want her to be Control™ master and not a damage dealer. However, in a situation where you need her to attack for damage, probably a focus attack is the move since moderate is equal to 3 weaks.

I agree with you and I guess the Cutting Words is meant to be a defensive tool more than a damage dealing attack.

I am liking a lot the Silent Control skill, doesn't it remind you of a certain mistress with a box? Hehe, I find it a pretty annoying defensive tool aswell. Since Youko seems to like being in the middle of the fray, it should impact quite a bit.

[Thatguy]

6 minutes ago, Vessien said:

agree with you and I guess the Cutting Words is meant to be a defensive tool more than a damage dealing attack

Yeah, none of her abilites are shut down by being engaged. It's probably more to tag a Beater with slow so you aren't punched in the face as much. 

 

Edit: Seems like her hand control has gotten a lot better too. Crews without good card draw are going to be in a bad spot.

[touchdown]

8 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

Yeah, none of her abilites are shut down by being engaged. It's probably more to tag a Beater with slow so you aren't punched in the face as much. 

With the new focus/distracted rules, it should virtually guarantee they can only attack you with a neg flip, possibly double negs. Actually, I think I figured it out. She's the greatest tarpit in the game. We Own You a model into engagement then slow and stacked distracted, your Joss or whomever is just done for the game.

[Vessien]

21 minutes ago, muraki said:

Yeah, i'm pretty excited to get her on the table (when I really wasn't before).  Feel like those 7's will really let her go to town without saving a bunch of high cards and the built in / triggers on all suits give her a lot more versatility to go with 'whatever comes up'. 

My eyes went straight to those 7's when first checked the card, it seems pretty efficient to me. And taking into account you should be having card advantage, more often than not, you should be able to just outrange (don't know if this is the word for when your opponent just cannot reach a high enough result) your opponents.

 

23 minutes ago, muraki said:

What do people feel about the change to trained ninja with youko?  I'll probably still bring it to protect a minion or 2, but are there enforcers+ that put a hit on her playstyle?  I'll admit I haven't played her enough to know what her core crew looks like and how many of them really needed that non-minion stealth to stay on the board.

I have not played her yet neither, but I find the Kabuki Warrior could get good use out of all the new Trained Ninja upgrade. I think this change was indeed intended to make it more appealing to give the upgrade to a minion instead of to an enforcer/henchman/leader ( I am looking at you, Fuhatsu  )

[Adran]

30 minutes ago, regleant said:

Cautiously optimistic. I am puzzled by the "We Own You" Tactical Action, as it can only target models with Distracted +2. So if you use them to make any attacks, you're at a negative. And per the game rules (Wyrd's own video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUV0-8f9DIM&t=2s) when you drop a Scheme marker, it is friendly to your opponent, not friendly to you. So I am at a loss as to how to use this.

Distracted only applies if you attack an enemy model. So you can we Own you a model and make it attack a model it considers friendly (so one on its own crew) without suffering from distracted. 

[Maogrim]

No one has mentioned that Youko has gained a trigger called Queen's Gambit. So I will:

Youko Hamasaki has a trigger called Queen's Gambit. She is now officially Malifaux's coolest most bad ass model. Now, I don't know whether she's into substance abuse, but it doesn't quite matter since she still is now more bad ass than Von Schill. And Nekima. Combined. Without a mustache. 

I love it.

[muraki]

4 minutes ago, Maogrim said:

No one has mentioned that Youko has gained a trigger called Queen's Gambit. So I will:

Youko Hamasaki has a trigger called Queen's Gambit. She is now officially Malifaux's coolest most bad ass model. Now, I don't know whether she's into substance abuse, but it doesn't quite matter since she still is now more bad ass than Von Schill. And Nekima. Combined. Without a mustache. 

I love it.

Haha yeah I perked up when I saw that too. Like 'guess the devs have the same netflix queue as I do...' ha

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

I can't believe I live a time when using your master's AP to apply Distracted is actually a desirable thing to do. what a relief that no faction has an access to a bunch of models that can treat those negatives as positives, right? <wink wink>

[touchdown]

11 minutes ago, thatlatinspeakingguy said:

I can't believe I live a time when using your master's AP to apply Distracted is actually a desirable thing to do. what a relief that no faction has an access to a bunch of models that can treat those negatives as positives, right? <wink wink>

Her obey gets better if Ivan's crew is giving themselves distracted. I haven't gamed it all out but might come out equal.

[Rufess]

1 hour ago, regleant said:

Cautiously optimistic. I am puzzled by the "We Own You" Tactical Action, as it can only target models with Distracted +2. So if you use them to make any attacks, you're at a negative. And per the game rules (Wyrd's own video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUV0-8f9DIM&t=2s) when you drop a Scheme marker, it is friendly to your opponent, not friendly to you. So I am at a loss as to how to use this.

Isn't the scheme marker friendly to the crew which controlling the interaction action, i.e., Youko?

[Vessien]

56 minutes ago, Adran said:

Distracted only applies if you attack an enemy model. So you can we Own you a model and make it attack a model it considers friendly (so one on its own crew) without suffering from distracted. 

I was happy when first read this, but then I went wondering if it wasn't too good. Would this GG2 adjustment make it work as stated earlier by @regleant?

 

 

Or what is this clarification for? Are there skills that mention "controlled"?

[touchdown]

@VessienI believe friendly or enemy controlled mainly applies to taking interacts for the strategy. I remember people *hated* Zoraida in pre-GG0 Plant Explosives because she could obey you to drop bombs in your own deployment zone (or to pick them back up after you dropped them).

[Thatguy]

1 hour ago, Maogrim said:

No one has mentioned that Youko has gained a trigger called Queen's Gambit. So I will:

Youko Hamasaki has a trigger called Queen's Gambit. She is now officially Malifaux's coolest most bad ass model. Now, I don't know whether she's into substance abuse, but it doesn't quite matter since she still is now more bad ass than Von Schill. And Nekima. Combined. Without a mustache. 

I love it.

I don't get the reference.

[Maogrim]

23 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

I don't get the reference.

It's a mini series on Netflix about a female Chess prodigy played by Anya Taylor-Joy, and it's really, really good. You should give it a shot. 😍

[Thatguy]

8 minutes ago, Maogrim said:

It's a mini series on Netflix about a female Chess prodigy played by Anya Taylor-Joy, and it's really, really good. You should give it a shot. 😍

Oh. 

I got the reference, but wasn't prepared for that level of enthusiasm. I thought I missed something. Lol

[Maogrim]

3 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

Oh. 

I got the reference, but wasn't prepared for that level of enthusiasm. I thought I missed something. Lol

Nah, you didn't. I just really love that show. And I love Wyrd for naming that trigger the way they did. 😅

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

35 minutes ago, Maogrim said:

Nah, you didn't. I just really love that show. And I love Wyrd for naming that trigger the way they did. 😅

Just in case you don't know: Queen's Gambit on Youko's card is a reference to one of the possible openings in chess, when white player moves two of his pawns forward. The show could have inspired them to name the trigger that way, but they could also come up with that idea independently (especially if there's a chess player among them).

[mattc]

3 minutes ago, thatlatinspeakingguy said:

The show could have inspired them to name the trigger that way, but they could also come up with that idea independently (especially if there's a chess player among them).

Nah, I'm just a sucker for a good pop culture reference. But the chess connection made sense with her personality and it is a very, very good show.