Asami Tanaka - Takusen

[Morgan Vening]

Honestly surprised I'm the first one to post this in the Forum.

It dropped in a Waldo's Weekly, but I think it should be shared here too.

A non-summoning Asami, that gets to mess around with Flicker tokens in a different way (trade for Shielded)?

Rift Markers giving significant movement options, both friendly teleporting with Dimensional Rifts (Possession also), and enemy teleporting with Unstable Rift (Sure, it's only 4", but 4" is 4") though it does mean putting her in harms way.

A less immediately NPE version of Lethe's Caress.

And Wrath of the Kimon definitely looks like an option. Either as a suicide missile, or just generally (as you can clear all the Flicker if you set it up right).

So... a weaker Molly (no card draw) with arguably stronger toys.

[thewrathchilde]

if the Rift marker weren't destructible.... even if they were just remove at end phase. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

I think the bury tricks + activation control is going to result in some really powerful end-of-turn strikes.

Should be pretty easy to unbury two Jorogumo on a model that dive bombs the enemy crew near the end of the turn, for example. Ideally something with armor that can clear conditions on itself? xD

Also neat that you can save stuff. Jorogumo on 2 health? Reactivate it, bury it, and get another full activation out of it (or if it only has 3 flicker, it can unbury with Asami and survive to see another day).

Ama no Zoko allows you to use the ability twice as well, which is nice.

And of course, reactivated Katashiro seem awesome since they're pretty expendable anyway.

[Azahul]

Ama No Zako lets you use the ability three times, no? Asami's activation, Ama No Zako's activation, Ama no Zako's reactivation. Though you'd better have an easy to kill target in range to charge and be in range of Flickering Lanterns on the reactivation.

[Maniacal_cackle]

4 minutes ago, Azahul said:

Ama No Zako lets you use the ability three times, no? Asami's activation, Ama No Zako's activation, Ama no Zako's reactivation. Though you'd better have an easy to kill target in range to charge and be in range of Flickering Lanterns on the reactivation.

Yup, you can pull off 3, but Ama No Zoko only survives the process if it kills an enemy.

[Azahul]

Could be good for some clutch Turn 5 plays, but you'd have to hold on to a stone or two and I don't know you can plan around Asami and Ama No Zako both surviving that long. This new Asami has to be one of the squishiest masters I've seen in the game.

[Assdex]

4 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

I think the bury tricks + activation control is going to result in some really powerful end-of-turn strikes.

Should be pretty easy to unbury two Jorogumo on a model that dive bombs the enemy crew near the end of the turn, for example. Ideally something with armor that can clear conditions on itself? xD

Also neat that you can save stuff. Jorogumo on 2 health? Reactivate it, bury it, and get another full activation out of it (or if it only has 3 flicker, it can unbury with Asami and survive to see another day).

Ama no Zoko allows you to use the ability twice as well, which is nice.

And of course, reactivated Katashiro seem awesome since they're pretty expendable anyway.

More good i think is u can bury ur model inside friendly model . Bury spider inside huksters. Can be nuts.

[Da Git]

4 hours ago, Azahul said:

This new Asami has to be one of the squishiest masters I've seen in the game.

12wds and Arcane Shield +2 isn't too squishy. It's the same as Sonnia with 1 more Df. Doesn't need to be too close either.

[Maniacal_cackle]

39 minutes ago, Assdex said:

More good i think is u can bury ur model inside friendly model . Bury spider inside huksters. Can be nuts.

Yes, sorry, that's what I meant! But I didn't think of Hucksters. That's incredible!

[whitters]

I think it's worth noting that "Flickering Lanterns" should make it quite easy to survive being activated twice so long as the Oni in question can end a move within 8" of Asami.

Unless your using Obsidan Oni and don't want them to survive...

[Assdex]

1 hour ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Yes, sorry, that's what I meant! But I didn't think of Hucksters. That's incredible!

Or more fun . Take the hit for asami then place on rift.

[Jinn]

2 hours ago, Da Git said:

12wds and Arcane Shield +2 isn't too squishy. It's the same as Sonnia with 1 more Df. Doesn't need to be too close either.

Sonnia has a 3" hazardous aura that makes it suicide to attack her in melee if you can't kill her (which effectively discourages it while she has stones) and she (along with all who need it in guild) basically has the Armour +1 upgrade stapled to her card. Very, very different levels of tankiness here. I wouldn't be surprised if this new Asami is low tier just due to the poor defences combined with the low ranges of her abilities. On the other hand the reactivation + insane movement capabilities when unburying on friendly models is probably enough to make her disgusting. If the unburying on friendly models part changes (I expect it will tbh, that Huckster combo is probably too strong) then she'll probably be mediocre from a power perspective.

On another note, Ohaguro Bettari and the Kamaitachi both have a lot of their (dubious) value tied up in summon specific abilities that the crew won't have access to with the new Asami. I don't like keyword models not being compatible (to an extent, there is a bit of new value there) with the alt master title, but I guess it's inevitable given they weren't designed for it from the get go. Maybe having the unbury from Possession count as a summon for the purposes of friendly abilities could fix it, with some limitations?

[frumpypigskin]

Fun grammar check on posession.... Do you just bury "another friendly Oni" or do you also bury the target? 🤣🤣🤣

[Maniacal_cackle]

7 minutes ago, frumpypigskin said:

Fun grammar check on posession.... Do you just bury "another friendly Oni" or do you also bury the target? 🤣🤣🤣

Only bury "another friendly Oni".

That friendly Oni must be within 8" of Asami and the target.

[frumpypigskin]

On a more serious note I was going to say that Yokai synergize with flickering lantern really well. Allowing them to do a once per activation level 2 butterfly jump with shielded around Asami. They also get to place then remove one of their 3 flicker when doing their 2nd activation. 

 

Reading this I've realised Asami can make any model's 2nd activation survive provided they've already activated once and she then possession buries them. Then they get to place within aura of her and strip one. The fact that lanterns happens after finishing a move does limit the mobility of that 2nd activation if you don't want to lose the model...

 

Definitely going to take some practice to get the most out of flicker with this version of the crew as well. 

Love the Huckster trick. Could work with any of the flying versatiles too without requiring an extra flip or blocking terrain but less range total.

Out of activation places to up in value too. Having a Silent protector to take the hit for an Oni or Sun Quiang (😭) who can place a damaged Oni to give it 2 shielded and less flicker potentially... This needs to be taken with a grain of salt however as there's still no card draw here I can see and no arcane reservoir...

[Math Mathonwy]

So is the playstyle a massive alpha strike with a double activating Jorogumo lobbed into position through Rifts or other tricks? Nekima eat your heart out. 

I must say that I'm not a huge fan of extreme alpha strikes as they tend to lead to boring games. And they took out Valedictorian's alpha strike in last errata! (I mean, deservedly so.)

[Assdex]

4 minutes ago, Math Mathonwy said:

So is the playstyle a massive alpha strike with a double activating Jorogumo lobbed into position through Rifts or other tricks? Nekima eat your heart out. 

I must say that I'm not a huge fan of extreme alpha strikes as they tend to lead to boring games. And they took out Valedictorian's alpha strike in last errata! (I mean, deservedly so.)

Spider with double activation its solid but u throw 9ss to death.

[Assdex]

I think about throw summoned katashiro is better.

[Jinn]

13 minutes ago, Assdex said:

Spider with double activation its solid but u throw 9ss to death.

If it kills something it discards a Flicker, so not a guaranteed death. I doubt this makes it to release in its current form. With Ama No Zako you could reactivate two Jorogumo, bury them on the same Huckster and have four Jorogumo activations in your enemies deployment zone on turn 1, which is beyond the kind of alpha striking this edition has allowed so far.

Or just use the extra activations (up to two extra if you reactivate Ama and another thing before the Jorogumo) to guarantee last activations with the Jorogumo.

[Cats Laughing]

If I'm reading things right, putting two Jorogumo in a Huckster leaves that Huckster on 2 wounds with Injured +1* and Staggered. Once you secret passage that Huskster up Manipulative is gone and your opponent should have at least 2 (possibly 3) models unactivated to choose one to respond with. Df/Wp 4 and 2 Wounds is a stat line that makes a Malifaux Rat almost look beefy. If the Huckster dies before the Jorogumo unbury, you're unburying next to Asami and have basically wasted turn 1 while putting unnecessary flicker on your models.

 

*I don't think you can choose to put staggered on twice.

 

One Jorogumo in a Huckster is probably a safer option as your drop ship is then Df/Wp 5 and 4 wounds and harder to just delete in an activation.

 

I figure you'll get to do the Huckster drop ship once per opponent, then your opponent will hold onto an activation that can delete an activated Huckster.  Cards, terrain, and such may allow the single Jorogumo drop to continue to work, but I'm not sure the double Jorogumo drop will work against opponents that are aware of it.

 

I could be wrong, so feel free to explain how the Huckster survives long enough to deploy the Double Jorogumo.

[Jinn]

2 hours ago, Cats Laughing said:

I could be wrong, so feel free to explain how the Huckster survives long enough to deploy the Double Jorogumo.

I'd heal it up with a Tanuki or something (LRM?) first, no way this version of Asami doesn't include OOK healing anyway given her stats and lack of healing. Ideally it would end up on the other side of a <1" thick wall or on a roof or something out of LoS of the enemy crew, but it would depend on the terrain/matchup and some boards would be more abusable than others.

Thinking about it, it might be better to bury one of the Jorogumo on the other and then put that one in the Huckster for even more reach.

[frumpypigskin]

1 hour ago, Jinn said:

I'd heal it up with a Tanuki or something (LRM?) first, no way this version of Asami doesn't include OOK healing anyway given her stats and lack of healing. Ideally it would end up on the other side of a <1" thick wall or on a roof or something out of LoS of the enemy crew, but it would depend on the terrain/matchup and some boards would be more abusable than others.

Thinking about it, it might be better to bury one of the Jorogumo on the other and then put that one in the Huckster for even more reach.

Inception Jorogumo. I like it...

[Maniacal_cackle]

10 hours ago, Jinn said:

 I doubt this makes it to release in its current form.

Is there any reason to think that? I don't know of any time that Wyrd has previewed something and it got significant balance tweaks after that. They have over 50 masters to choose from, I'm sure they would want to preview the ones that are basically finalised.

[Jinn]

3 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Is there any reason to think that? I don't know of any time that Wyrd has previewed something and it got significant balance tweaks after that. They have over 50 masters to choose from, I'm sure they would want to preview the ones that are basically finalised.

Winston Finnigan is the big one that comes to mind.

The magnitude of the alpha strike, which uses an ability that seems like it's intent was for unburying on enemies, is beyond what has been allowed so far this edition. One of the bigger changes from 2e was the removal of most of those alpha strikes. The fact that it can also guarantee last activation makes it a very 2e style combo and I don't think they're trying to bring that style of play back intentionally.

[bedjy]

6 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Is there any reason to think that? I don't know of any time that Wyrd has previewed something and it got significant balance tweaks after that. They have over 50 masters to choose from, I'm sure they would want to preview the ones that are basically finalised.

Not sure about that. They may preview some very interesting concepts that went through the beta but may be "broken" in some ways and let a great many number of people see what could be the problem.