Out of Suite Puppets

[Hugor]

Been thinking about this over the past few days, and thought I would post to see what others thought.

What I want to know is, if you are actually building a toy-box (not a random creation) what out of suite puppets do you find are a really good addition to your crew, whatever faction it may be, and why.

Also, if possible, I would like to limit this to :rams, :crows, :tomes, and :masks. Reasoning is that the outcasts should all be solid choices out of suite to begin with, since that is kind of their thing.

Healing / Effect Removers

1. Witchling Stalker AR 5:rams
   
2. Nurse AR 5:crows
   

Both of these are decently easy to animate, even out of suite, and the role they play is unique, so I often find I take one or the other in my toy-boxes, more or less regardless of Master. They do not always get much done, and I have seen them not be able to activate or pull off their Action when needed, but they can be extremely useful.

Neat tricks

1. Sorrow AR 4:masks
   
2. Cherub AR 4:masks
   
3. December Acolyte 6:tomes
   

I have used Cherub and Acolyte well out of suite. Acolyte, if placed near the fray, can typically pick up some upgrades that will lower his AR, making him an easier to activate puppet. Plus, it is nice to have the option to draw more cards.

Cherub is fairly easy to activate at 4:masks and his Can't Say No To You is insanely useful, and at a (6 + discard a card) the action does not require the collection of any suite cards. Need one of your puppets to do something else that turn...Cherub is your puppet to make that happen. What your enemy to attack themselves. Cherub.

I have not used Sorrow outside of a Pandora box, but in a game a few nights ago, I really saw how well they worked, even without Pandora casting debuffs through them. So, I am going to try this in the future, just to see.

:fast Actions

1. Ice Golem AR 9:tomes
   
2. Guild Hound AR 4:rams
   

I have tried this once, and had trouble get him on the board, but in theory this should work well, since once he is out, if I cannot animate him, I can always discard an AR card to move him into place or attempt Ice Blaster. At an 8:tomes though, you might have to start collecting :tomes to make sure you can get this to happen. But, I always have to remind myself that if I flip an 8 or higher of something else, I can throw any :tomes, or if I have an 8 or higher of something else in my hand, I can throw it and a low :tomes. Lots of options, and this one in theory should work well...but will probably take a few more games to really make up my mind.

Guild Hound does work well, especially in a Marcus toy-box. But with any Master, he works well as a master protection unit. Plus, with the :fast action, he can attack with the discard of an AR card. Plus, his upgrade is amazing.

Upgrades

This one may need to be a separate thread, but my favorite puppets for upgrades include (have included some outcasts here):

1. Guild Hound (Allows for a :fast attack outside of animation)
   
2. Moleman (Allows for all actions to ignore LOS)
   
3. Mature Nephilim (Provides greasy...no more blocking)
   
4. Death Marshal (Increase the standard attack to RG2)
   
5. Executioner (CB and Powerful +1)
   
6. Punk Zombie (Can only suffer 1 rip from an Attack)
   
7. Razorspine Rattler (Multitasker if puppet has a rip)
   
8. Rotten Belle (Two extra stitches)
   
9. Silurid (Leap)
   
10. Ronin (AR - 1; CB +1; DF +1; and an extra stitch)
    

I do not always take an upgrade in my toybox, but when I do (unless I am taking Teddies), it typically comes from this list. If I am taking Teddies, I typically take two or three extra teddies as Heart Patches. Then I just use :fast What Pretty Buttons You Have, and start tearing apart my puppets and drawing my extra cards.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Hugor

[Tauwolf]

I have three for you:

Moleman - great in a Ram crew. With easy access to cork guns you can make him a nice turret.

Death Marshal - ranged attacks and a great upgrade side

Guild Austringer - can never go wrong with an Austringer

[ThePandaDirector]

Mature Nephilim is nasty in a Justice toybox, but probably best to attach Piglet's upgrade to make him easier to animate.

Nino is one of the most common Sidekicks I take out of suit, just becasue I love his range.

December Acolyte is almost auto-include in all my toyboxes, purely for the card draw mostly.

Guild Autopsy (3:crows) gives you a puppet you can resurrect out of a Seamus Toybox, plus it's dirt cheap and can make your enemies most powerful puppets Powerful -1. I think he'd be even better taken with Lucius who reduces him by -2:rams so he costs just a single :crows. Combine with Guild Hounds (who sew each other up) and Austringer (maybe with powerful +1) and whatever suit puppets you want and you've got a really synergistic toybox. Might try this with Marcus =D

[Hugor]

@ Tauwolf: Not sure how I missed the Austringer. Really like him in my Padora box, since the Sorrows and Kade tend to end up adjacent to enemy puppets. I usually use the guild hounds upgrade on him, for ease of activation, but the executioners is really nasty as well.

Also like your ideas for the moleman turret, I am going to have to try this.

I tend to take the gunslinger over death Marshall (ya he is an outcast and against my original rules), although DMs upgrade is better in most circumstances.

@Panda: I have never gotten much use out of Niño, but that could very well be me, and not him. I also like the idea of using the piglets upgrade to negate the suite...have to admit, they are one of the few puppets I have kind of ignored, only playing them once or twice, but maybe it is time for them to really hit the board. That upgrade would actually be really good on all of the higher AR puppets (Ice Golem, Mature Nephilim, Executioner, and Most of the sidekicks.)

[Tauwolf]

LaFemmeGeekita uses the Piglet really well. It's freaking scary how good that puppet can be - to the point that it is usually my target numero uno when he hits the board.

[Hugor]

LaFemmeGeekita uses the Piglet really well. It's freaking scary how good that puppet can be - to the point that it is usually my target numero uno when he hits the board.

I always find stuff like that really interesting. A puppet that my gaming group hardly ever use, is a MVP in another group's games.

Another one of those, every puppet is so "broken" that the game is impressivly balanced. Also kind of pushes me to want to trysome more randomly built toy-boxes since it will get me to play the few puppets i just don't take that mutch (here's looking at you guild autopsy, zombie chihuahua, hog whisperer, and piglet). Given that there are around 40 unique puppets, I guess having four sad outcasts isn't that bad, just really funny that two have mode other people's lists of good out of suite puppets

Now I am really excited about fielding the piglet.

[ThePandaDirector]

I rarely ever take Cherub (recently changed that), Chihuhua, Nurse and for some reason Rattler - everything tells me he's great, but he's not fluffy =]

But I tend to get use out of every puppet, but less so out of suit. It's why I love Marcus, access to cheap puppets, mixed suits and great synergy.

I also seem to be one of the few players who loves Misaki, who I tend to takeover Alyce in most toyboxes. While Alyce is great for getting rid of high stitch puppets, with tome card draw I find Misaki very reliable and lets me get good use out of my fulll range of cards.

[Hugor]

Sounds like my girlfriend. She almost always takes Misaki (leaps around and takes workbench's / finishes off any of those annoying puppets with her magical weapon) and Rusty Alyce. Regardless of her Master and who I am playing.

[ThePandaDirector]

Sounds like my girlfriend. She almost always takes Misaki (leaps around and takes workbench's / finishes off any of those annoying puppets with her magical weapon) and Rusty Alyce. Regardless of her Master and who I am playing.

*Deadpan* That's because I am your girlfriend. *Deadpan*

And as much as I love Joss I look forward to when I have other options for tomes *shifty eyes*

[Tauwolf]

@ Tauwolf: Also like your ideas for the moleman turret, I am going to have to try this.

I can't take credit for that one. Fullborer used that against me a few times. It's great in the center of the board, even better at denying a flank attack.

[ThePandaDirector]

I can't take credit for that one. Fullborer used that against me a few times. It's great in the center of the board, even better at denying a flank attack.

Hmm. What upgrade/s does Fullborer take? I usually take Cork Gun and Rad Sword.

[LaFemmeGeekita]

Love love LOVE the piglet with a hog whisperer. He is great for a misdirect (OMG that model is next to my master! Better kill it! Wait, what are you doing with that Hooded Rider...?) I also rather enjoy strapping a Rad Sword to him and running him into combat with a war squeal. He also does great with the misdirection aspect when you have an Austringer out, because it's like, "Oh, you don't want to kill the pig? That's ok, I'll just bird bomb you next turn."

[AntiZombie]

lets not forget about taking a Belle or a Punk Zombie out of suit. Those things are like immovable objects with benefits when I play them. Sure they take a medium card to get out but these guys give you staying power and awesome upgrades if they get taken down.