Izamu....

[mathuclo]

First, if taken with Yan Lo, I don't know much that can stop him. Yan has an ability to turn him into a spirit as well, and the soul porter and nice can push him around as efficiently as kirai. Now given that can also bring him back once he is dead, it makes this formidable beat stick even more aggressive. Keep in mind that spirits do not drop corpse counters, so if you plan on making him a spirit, either with yan lo or kirai, then you will need to scavange some from your opponent hopefully.

knowing this, I usually never turn him into a spirit. I usually just allow him to die, as yan can pick up the relequary form 8" and can be within 6" of corpse counters to be able to use them to summon Izamu back. In all honesty, I don't know how you can get around this. Izamu is even given a 22" threat range in a Yan lo list. The niece can 6" pulse him, soul porter can make him move twice (8") and he can walk twice (8") and use melee expert to get a hit off.

My opponents usually have no problems killing him, even 2-3 times a game. It's the reacurssion that makes him disgusting. So, my post doesn't come to tactica on how to kill him, as this can be done quite easily. What I suggest is running corpse counter removal, such as guild. Then when you do kill him you can guarantee that he stays that way.

[Joel]

A 22" threat range in how many activations?!?

[mathuclo]

Guess I should have touched on the Pandora posts that were going around as well. If you read the above you get a sense of the quickness to Izamu, in a Yan Lo list. I played against pandora and won horribly. Again, the secret comes from the recurssion. What the pushing and walking allows is for you to get right in the face of the sorrows and what not and more times than not you kill them in one hit. Pandora only doing wounds is better then all the linked guys helping to do 3-4 wounds for each WP dual lost. Izamu shines because like said he one hit kills the support, and comes back to do it again. Pandora doesnt care how big you are because they are all single wounds from each source, so when you loose a WP dual pandora hits you for one, the sorrow hits you for one,ect. so they are different sources, IE object 2 doesnt matter. BUT izamu doesnt care, because as long as he killed one support piece, it makes him live that much longer when he comes back as starts all over.

I have stopped the dreamer from running around the board, backed him into a corner on turn 3. I have murdered colladi, reposte is so disgusting (and yes, you get to heal on severe reposte damage) resummoning of izamu obliterates pandora.

Again, I stand firm in. . . kill the corpse counters, and thats about it.

---------- Post added at 09:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:18 AM ----------

A 22" threat range in how many activations?!?

2. . . Yan, soul porter, and izamu can activate simultaneous. so you pulse with the niece first.

[Fetid Strumpet]

Assuming the Soul porter is right near him at the start of his activation, and that Chiaki successfully pushes both it would go:

Chiaki Activates: Successfully uses her spell to push the Soul Porter and Izamu Directly away from her 6".

Soul Porter Activates: Uses his spell Empower Ancestor twice to give Izamu two 4" walk actions. (Note the Soul Porter must still be within 6" of Izamu after the first walk action, as that is the range of the spell)

Izamu Activates: Takes (2) 4" Walk Actions and then makes 1 attack with a 3" Melee attack by utilizing Melee Expert.

The best way to prevent Izamu recursion is to either kill Yan Lo first, or kill the Soul Porter and then engage and kill Izamu outside of the 8" range of Yan Lo or Chiaki.

Also this can all be done in 1 action if the participants are close to one another as Chiaki, Izamu, The Soul Porter, and Yan Lo can all companion activate together.

[mathuclo]

Assuming the Soul porter is right near him at the start of his activation, and that Chiaki successfully pushes both it would go:

That is why you ALWAYS ALWAYS link the porter to either izamu (then you can always (0) action to kill him from anywhere to return the reliquary to Yan, or the niece, so she can get to the back of izamu better for the pulse.

Ignore this post as corrected. . . .Immune to influence will not allow the niece to pulse Izamu. My bad.

see post below for correction

Edited January 5, 2013 by mathuclo

[emissary]

Well, you can do it all in 1 as you can companion the all of them with Yan Lo and the Soul Porter.

Also, Chiaki can't push Izamu with the pulse because that spell has a WP resist and Izamu is ItI unless I'm missing something. However you can get more movement if necessary by having the porter kill him, the card going to Yan Lo and then Yan Lo moving and resummoning him. You also can get 2 activations out of Izamu that way.

Also, making him a spirit is more of a situational thing for me. Yes, it's needed for Swirling Spirits and is good against certain masters, but it's terrible against others and isn't necessary. Yan Lo can move him around just as well when he's not a spirit.

Also, Neverborn do have a lot of speed and nobody is arguing this, but just assuming they'll always have more speed then Izamu is really just sticking your head in the sand and ignoring what he can do. Given that the board is 3'x3' if Izamu is near the center of the table when he activates he'll be 15" from the table edges and not too much further from that from the corners. Yan Lo can give him spirit to move through any terrain that would slow him down if necessary. Given his walkx2 and Empower Ancestorx2 would = 16" he could cover most of the board from that position. Even if he isn't towards the center of the board, he can cover roughly half of it in a single activation.

Also, I have also murdered zoraida and collodi on a few occasions as well. He speed is close enough that you can corner them if necessary or can start taking out their crew. It's also been my experience as well from Fetid's that his true power is how easily you can resurrect him. He drops 3 counters which means when he's ressed, he comes back at 60% life from those counters at a minimum with the easy ability to heal him quickly as well.

Edited January 5, 2013 by emissary

[mathuclo]

$%^& that changes alot. oops, lmao.

[Gruesome]

I do not think I would send my Izamu into some far corner for anything other than a lock on a decent number of VP. Sending him off like a lone-missile is risking his relic card.

[emissary]

I should have included that if you really want to push Izamu with Chiaki's Purity spell you can use an Onryo to strip off his immunity fairly easily with the Mark of Jugoku.

I do not think I would send my Izamu into some far corner for anything other than a lock on a decent number of VP. Sending him off like a lone-missile is risking his relic card.

Agreed, the point is more of the fact that he can do it without a ton of effort. Most of the time this movement will be spent more towards the action.

[Hunter-thom]

is object armour that can be reduced to 0?

[Adran]

is object armour that can be reduced to 0?

No

Object is like Armour but applies to wounds.

For most purposes it will stack with Armor, but it isn't ignored by things that ignore armour, and it works on thinks that do direct wound damage. It is still restricted to reducing it to a minimum of 1 wound.

[Fetid Strumpet]

As a side note, something happened that amused me. I had Izamu get attacked by a Slate Ridge Mauler. Who then got it's trigger for rip throat, which does extra dmg against targets without armor...

I thought to myself "But I AM the Armor..."

Totally cool and no big deal I just thought the image was funny.