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Students of Conflict - Season 2 - #1A - Andre (Maxine vs Kirai, Envoy of the Court): Houston May Tourney 2024
360 Plays9 months ago
After a bit of a hiatus, the Students of Conflict are back! This episode we talk to Andre about his close matchup against Bryan in the Echoes of the Breach campaign tournament played in Houston recently, we get excited for the upcoming North American Faux Tour Championship Weekend, Doug rants against anachronistic beverages, and we keep talking about food in our journey to become the only Malifaux themed cooking podcast.
Hosts: Clay and Doug
Guests: Andre and Devin
Tournament: Houston Monthly Tournament, 11 May 2024 (GG4, feat. the Echoes of the Breach Global Campaign)
Tournament on Longshanks: https://www.longshanks.org/event/15544/
Encounter:
Andre (Maxine) v Bryan (Kirai, Envoy of the Court)
Andre Echoes of the Breach thread selection: Price of Knowledge
Bryan Echoes of the Breach thread selection: Wicked Whisper
Standard Deployment
Strategy: Raid the Vaults
Schemes: Let them Bleed, Death Beds, Power Ritual, Outflank, Sweating Bullets
Mentioned in the Podcast:
NORTH AMERICAN FAUX TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND - Master’s Invitational Championship and NAFT Black Joker Open: https://www.dlairhouston.com/products/north-american-faux-tour-championship-weekend-ticket
Hotel link: https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?app=resvlink&id=1654866468754&key=CORP
Echoes of the Breach Global Campaign: https://www.wyrd-games.net/global-campaigns
Recipes discussed (recipes can be found in the Students of Conflict discord channel):
Gooey butter cookies
Thin mint hamburger cookies
Thank-Yous:
HUGE thanks to Top Doug Design for all the terrain we play on here in Texas and for sponsoring this podcast, to Wyrd Miniatures for allowing us to use their artwork from the 2nd Edition Student of Conflict, and to Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy Houston for providing such an amazing space for the community.
Top Doug Design: https://www.topdougdesign.com/
Wyrd Miniatures: https://www.wyrd-games.net/malifaux
Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy Houston: https://www.facebook.com/dlairhouston
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Malifaux Gameplay Improvements
00:00:10
Speaker
Straight out of the heart of Texas, here come the students of conflict, helping you become a better Malifaux player and reach the top of the podium, one game at a time. All right, welcome back to Students of Conflict. We are Clay and Doug for tonight. I'm Doug every night.
00:00:39
Speaker
Yes, we are. You are, and I am Clay every night. It works out that way. Anyways, we made it through a long hibernation and we are back. We are trying to become better Malifaux players, leveling up ourselves and hopefully leveling others up as well. As usual, we're not trying to capture our guests' entire tournament journey. We do want to talk to them, though. We want to find out about the game. We want to take an in-depth look at just one of those games from their tournament. What were key decisions that they made before the game, during the game? And now that they're looking back, what were the things that they learned that they can pass on to other people?
00:01:09
Speaker
And then we interview our guests together. We release one individual podcast per guest, helping people level up one game at a time.
Interview: Tournament Winners Andre and Devin
00:01:16
Speaker
Tonight, we're speaking with Andre and Devin. Hello, hello. Hello.
00:01:22
Speaker
And hello, guys. These guys came in first and second at the Houston Monthly Tournament, held on 11 May, 2024. This was the GG4 tournament featuring the Echoes of the Breach global campaign. So we're excited to be talking about that sometime tonight as well. We're gonna be releasing our discussions with them as season two of Students of Conflict, episodes 1A and 1B.
00:01:42
Speaker
And so we are going to just jump right in with Andre here. Our icebreaker question for the episode. For those who remember those, we try to start
Cookout Favorites: Gooey Butter Cookies and Cookie Hamburgers
00:01:50
Speaker
out with an icebreaker. This one came from Diceman87 over in Discord. And it is getting into the summer months as we record this. Let's pretend that you're invited to a cookout. What dish are you making and why? All right. Well, for me, I'm not a terribly good cook, although apparently my other dish was well received.
00:02:12
Speaker
For me, desserts are a go-to. And so if I had to panic for a cookout in two days or whatever, I would make gooey butter cookies, which are bad for the body, but good for the soul.
00:02:26
Speaker
Awesome. It's got a buttery flavor, but you dust them with powdered sugar, but they stay, as the name might suggest, gooey. It's eating butter in a way that makes you not want to die. It's really the best way I can describe it, but that's what I would bring to my cookout.
00:02:49
Speaker
Nice. And we are here in Texas, Central and South Texas as we record this, and Houston over on the other side, spread all around Texas. But point is, a cookout in Texas, they're not going to be gooey into just complete melted nastiness, are they? No, no, no, no. You want to... I think it's super gooey. It's just better. That sounds delicious, and I need them in my belly.
00:03:18
Speaker
They're delicious. Yeah, no, that's awesome. So thank you. And yeah, thanks to Dyson and thanks to everybody who had commented on, we had Doug running solo for a little while on episodes. And so- I was left unsupervised. Yes.
00:03:35
Speaker
That's never a good idea. So the chance to do like some Malifaux foodie kind of intersection and we'll see where that takes us. But anyways, thank you very much. Well, you know, I do. I have an important addendum to that question, though. Okay. What would you bring, Clay?
00:03:55
Speaker
Okay, so without a whole lot of thought about it, I would bring, I'm also going into the cookie theme, just because Andre primed me up with cookies, and it's something that I do for cookout, like picnic kind of things, pretty regular. And the basic deal is you take thin-mint cookies from Girl Scout thin-mint cookies, and you put it, you make little, they look like little tiny hamburgers. So if you can imagine a Nilla Wayfoder,
00:04:23
Speaker
bun on the bottom, a thin mint kind of looking like a hamburger patty, some green and red frosting that kind of look like ketchup and lettuce, and then another vanilla wafer on top. And then you take just some honey glaze and sesame seeds, and they look like these little tiny cookie burgers. So this isn't happenstantial. You were intentionally making little cookie hamburgers.
00:04:47
Speaker
Oh yeah, totally. And they don't take a ton of work, but they look like you spit like forever on these. So it's like super Instagram worthy, even though it's hardly any work at all. I don't know if anyone likes them, but God, they love looking at them, right? And I get an excuse to go buy Thin Mints, so it works out pretty good. That's a great win.
00:05:10
Speaker
All right. Anyway, so on that note now, now we'll see how this plays with our
Choosing Maxine: Strategy and Experiences
00:05:14
Speaker
listeners. But, uh, uh, besides talking about cookies, we are also going to talk about some Malifaux. And so, um, the other night, uh, as you were, or the other day, as we were working through this term, uh, what round are you going to be talking about? And why is it the most interesting or best lessons or what? Um, I think it's a mix of most interesting and the best lessons. So I'm picking round one into my boy, Brian Bauer.
00:05:37
Speaker
Um, it was a great game as games between us always are. Um, but I think that, uh, this, the lesson that I'm trying to teach, I guess, uh, happened in both round one and round three. Um, so I'm hoping, uh, that, so I picked the game that was very, very close, uh, the seven six game. Um, because I think that, uh, it can show you how close you are to greatness. If you can just kind of make the right decision in that heat of the moment.
00:06:08
Speaker
So I think it'll be a good thing to consider for listeners, because I'm not saying this is going to be my example to get it right 100% of the time, but I think it's a good thing to think about when you're in your own games to come.
00:06:20
Speaker
OK, that's awesome. Thank you. Let me go ahead in the pool for this round one. And we'll have this all in the show notes for people who want to follow along. But standard deployment, raid the vaults, let them bleed, death beds, power ritual, outflank, and sweating bullets.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah, cool pool. I love the pools that Doug comes up with. And so as you were thinking about the tournament, what faction you didn't play your normal Neverborn. So yeah, tell us about the faction you picked and why. So when it comes down to it, I think I've had my most
00:06:59
Speaker
Like I got famous on the chemo, but I've had most of my actual success in explorers specifically on Maxine. Um, now, you know, I'm not like trying to sweat out for my local monthly tournaments, but I am trying to prep for, uh, upcoming tournaments where I have to try my absolute hardest. And I was like, all right, I need to get reps in. It had been a while since I had played Maxine, um, in any sort of competitive setting, at least a while for me.
00:07:28
Speaker
And so I was like, all right, I need to get back on the bike. What am I doing? Uh, so I decided to go with Maxine because, uh, frankly, I just got done playing Parker out and the railroad rampage chose to buy Ambrose out in the Pacific Northwest. That was a fun time. That was a fun time. And I was like, is this it is Parker to the sauce. Uh, and then I played into Brian, uh, not in the May tournament, but in the April tournament. And I got destroyed, um, because I couldn't.
00:07:57
Speaker
manage cards, like if Parker too's deck decides he needs to lose, he has no recourse. So I was like, this ain't my jam. So I was like, all right, I'm sorry Parker, I'm gonna have to leave you on the shelf. So I was like, you know who doesn't get shafted by cards nearly as often? Maxine, all reliable. So I was like, all right, we're bringing her back out and it worked out pretty well.
00:08:24
Speaker
No, that's great. So what was your, uh, as you, as you're thinking about this, obviously you're thinking Maxine, were there any other explorers that you were thinking about bringing for this or not? That I have assembled? No, I have been doing the shopping and other crews, uh, cause in the wonderful world of asshole, you can be whatever you feel like, man. Um, and so, cause, uh, a buddy of mine has the, like the JEDSA crews available. He got all the alt nightmare stuff when it came out, cause it looks cool as heck. Um, but.
00:08:55
Speaker
So like I said, I've been fiddling around with JEDSA in terms of seeing if she's worth it on the table. And then I have a lot of experience on McCabe because he also does a lot of card management while kicking face. So those are in my pool of tricks, but I just wanted to get, like I said, get re-familiarized myself with Maxine, see if I still have all the same tricks. And there was another thing that I wanted to do, which was GG4 asks different questions. And so I was like,
00:09:25
Speaker
Am I going to be able to play Maxine? Cause this is really the first tournament that I played Maxine in GG four. Um, because I had originally tabled her because I was like, I don't know if she's got kind of the scheme running potential that she needs. Um, because she really, the crew that I played in GG three for her, uh, is very much a ball crew. Like, so it would hire the intrepid and it would be like, all right, cool. I'm going to make sure my machinist lives.
Strategic Insights: Bo Fishbocker and Hidden Agenda
00:09:48
Speaker
by hiring this big lion to stand in the way and then we're going to live because, you know, Kyle likes the lion. Everybody likes being alive. We're good. But in GG4, you can't. You cannot stand within two inches of a 50 mil all game and still score points. Like it's just not possible. It's a lot more spread out now. It is. It's a lot more of a spread game. And so I was like, I don't know if Maxie is good for that. So this was also an opportunity as a tournament for me to play a crew without the intrepid and still see if I can
00:10:17
Speaker
play Maxine without my safety blanket and come out ahead. And that was a test for that, for that theory. So replacing essentially for now, what I did is I replaced the lion with Bo Fishbocker, but it also means that I just have to like approach the game differently with how I play my support pieces in the back, as opposed to just being like, we'll have the lion. It's fine. I have to be like, I have to position these really carefully or I die. Yeah. What is Bo Fishbocker bringing to the game for you?
00:10:45
Speaker
Uh, it allows me to play a lot more fast and loose with Maxine. Um, because, uh, in my original build, the only healers affected the machinist and, um, BB could heal, uh, constructs, but can't heal fleshies. Uh, so if Maxine took damage, that just stuck. Like there was nothing I could do about it. Um, so with bow, I can be like, Oh, dang.
00:11:12
Speaker
Maxine got her face ripped off by a PK and I stoned to live. Cool. Bo can put like six to eight hit points back on her, which lets her take fights she wouldn't engage in normally, which lets her kind of range out a bit further or enter the melee a bit more, which lets other people go do things instead of having to stay in the ball and live. So essentially it added to my survivability while letting me spread out. That's the best way to answer that succinctly.
00:11:42
Speaker
That makes sense. I love Bow. You talked about kind of the swaps. Let's go ahead and I do want to circle back on Naya and the campaign thing, but just because we're kind of talking deep into the list, let's have you go ahead and go through the list. Sure. If you don't mind. So for every round, because that's how I roll, I hired Maxine 1, Orville obviously, Kaya with Hidden Agenda, which is one of my favorite upgrades in the game, and I love it.
00:12:18
Speaker
And so, can you talk, you got anything else on Bow that you would want to say? If he ended up being your MVP, obviously we'll dive back into him.
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah, I don't say that. So the two things that Bo brings to the table that I really, really love is obviously the healing. Like it's free. It's brain dead. Also, he can go card positive because you have Captain of the Superior, which gets you a card back when you cheat your suit. But he also has showboating. So you'll get an extra card if you turn the thing you had to cheat once. And that kind of value is real, real nice. Going card positive to Maxine.
00:12:53
Speaker
Is rarer than she would like and so any opportunities to be like ha ha just kidding I still have a full hand and we're seven activations in Um is just really really good. Um, but the other part of it that I really like Is lost in the bayou with the one inch push after cheating like it's such a small minuscule change But like for me i'm a kaya stance like I love having kaya on the table There are maxine players that don't like her but I am a huge fan
00:13:18
Speaker
Uh, and a two inch reach model with ha ha, just kidding. One inch scoots after cheating is so freaking annoying for people that are trying to actually kill these models. Um, because if you're a one inch reach damage dealer and she just goes scoot, um, that's an immense savings and survivability. And it's such a, a layup of an ability to use in Maxine cause you're cheating all the time anyway. Um, so Bo brings a lot to that table in that regard.
00:13:44
Speaker
No, that's cool. And then you mentioned that Hidden Agenda is one of your favorite upgrades in the game. And that is pretty big. That's pretty big. It is beating out some really, really good ones. So can you talk to that a little bit? What makes that your favorite?
00:13:59
Speaker
Is it your favorite or is it your favorite on Kaya? And if you can dive into that a little also. Oh, sure. Uh, so. Especially in a maxine crew. Like if you put Kaya on the table, people are afraid of Kaya because obviously she's like a big, if you're not scared of Kaya, you will be the next. Yeah. So she's definitely a big workhorse for damage output. So people love attacking her. Um, and so what this, so hidden agenda, the two things that it does is it lets you cheat face down, which is awesome. And when you cheat.
00:14:29
Speaker
Once per activation, when you cheat and oppose it with that model, you'll suffer damage. So this does two things, like a little samey, which is generally speaking, it discourages cheating effectively, which is very important into a model like Kaya, who's going to get a lot of attacks thrown her way and throw out a lot of attacks.
00:14:47
Speaker
So I love when people are like, all right, I attack Kaya, I hit on a, you know, 10 plus six, 16, I'm on a 16, and then I go, cool. And I cheat face down and draw a card. The only thing they know is that I cheated a crow. They don't know what the value of that crow is. They're like, did he just cheat an ace and it's 14? Or did he cheat his king crow? And I'm about to miss if I just let that through. And this actually came up in this game specifically,
00:15:12
Speaker
Uh, because Brian really needed an attack to give her adversary to land. And so he flipped a 10 off the top and then he watched me cheat and he cheated a king and I was just cycling a card. Uh, so he lost a king for free.
00:15:27
Speaker
off of hidden agenda, which he obviously wouldn't have cheated if you could have seen the card. And then the other thing is those little extra little pings of damage throughout the turn where people are like, I need this attack to land, I'll cheat it, can be all you need to ping them down into that next damage category for her to just spike them off the table. So I love hidden agenda. Now I will say that I don't think hidden agenda is the most powerful OP busted upgrade in the game, but for me, it's a psychological upgrade through and through, and I love that.
00:15:53
Speaker
Um, so that's why I hidden up hidden agendas like one of my favorite upgrades because it it just messes It's purely in your opponent's mind and i'll pay two stones for that. That's great. No, that is super cool And and so you talked about the one case where it worked out brilliantly with with brian Did you happen to talk to him about it either before the game or after the game or just about? how did that play out because thinking about him and for listeners who
00:16:17
Speaker
Haven't listened to Brian's card management episode back season one episode eight is an amazing episode He's he's he's always looking for card advantage and to have it turned against him I think would probably have been infuriating but I'd love to hear what kind of his take on it through your words if you don't mind um I guess I would say the best way to represent what he thought about it is that like
00:16:43
Speaker
You never realize how much that's swaying the game until you have to get right into it. And then you're like, Oh God, what did he cheat? Where it's like, okay. You know, I feel like I've got it. You know, you get to that moment. We're like, you know, I need this attack to land. I'm going to cheat a King. Make sure it lands. And you get to that moment where you're about to cheat that King and you're like,
00:17:01
Speaker
But go on what if he's just bluffing me and so like that moment where you're stuck in your own head Slows down the rest of the game mentally for you. Anyway, so I think he really appreciated the psychological aspect of it as much as I do Even though he was the victim of it in particular. Yeah, so no, that's great you also get that little bit of advantage there knowing that hey if it's a garbage card and
00:17:26
Speaker
If it's a crow, or for her at least, if it's a crow she's cheating face down, it's an above average card, which is really, really useful. Like I know that the mysterious emissary has that thing where it puts up the aura where we all get to cheat face down. I rarely ever even worry about putting that up because first off, I forget that I have it up. But then also it's one of those things where it's like, how often has that affected the game for me?
00:17:56
Speaker
very sparingly, but knowing that you can be tossing an ace on
Global Campaign and Naya's Development
00:18:01
Speaker
there. I mean, you've got all these cards below, you know, that number that are that number, which is really, really useful, because a nine can get you out of a sticky spot sometimes. Yes, it can. Well, and the
00:18:18
Speaker
The hidden value of the one ping of damage thing is that if you lock in on a model that only has a hit point left and you're trying to kill it, they're like, oh, man, I'll cheat my highest guard to dodge. You're like, well, that'll kill you anyway. That kind of final death sentence with hidden agenda has been useful as well. But oftentimes, you'll also get to spike through things that people don't expect. Like if I attack a regular model with focus and I'm like, all right, cool. I flipped a two and a three, but I cheat face down and draw a card.
00:18:44
Speaker
they're like I can't risk cheating this because he's probably just gonna spike through a severe anyway and he just cheated his best card because why not he's maxi and he's got the cards so being able to just like cheekily sneak in like oops yep this was a 14 still getting a straight flip die um
00:19:02
Speaker
The value for that is immense. Maxine already has such card control and be able to add another layer to that, I think, brings in a lot. And I think Kai is the best person for it, just because she ends up in so many duels through over the course of a turn.
00:19:17
Speaker
Yeah, and they all count. Whether it's from spiking somebody or somebody trying to put her down and take her off the table. So, all right. So I wanted to circle back on, what was your faith thread for Naya? Let's talk about this campaign. So you knew that we were doing that. Were you excited? What's your take on the global campaign in general? And kind of what was your pregame thoughts about it? And then what do you select for this game?
00:19:42
Speaker
I thought that the global campaign idea was really cool. I think this is something fun that weird does every so often. I remember that they did it for Serena Bowman, Ferdinand and Marlena back in second edition. And I thought that was super cool. So I was excited to see a similar kind of thing a second time around. And I like that there's more paths now.
00:20:00
Speaker
In my opinion, there are certainly some winners and losers in terms of what our final options could be. I shamelessly dislike Cadmus and Redchapel. Those are clearly the bad endings to me. But beyond that, to me, I saw the lineup of Naya as options. And I was like, for sword Naya, that's my jam. Don't get me wrong, I fully acknowledge that the Trichy Naya is the good ending Naya. But I was like, I want to see more swords in Malefoe. And that's a four for one winner right there.
00:20:29
Speaker
So I went in. She starts out with a sword and then she upgrades to four if she goes down that thread. She's got that chosen one energy and like all the elements on each sword. I was like, ah, that's cool. So I went for that one. And it was also, I was thinking it was going to be pretty easy to do. And it was where it's, you just have to, one of them was like assist conditions off, which is situational, but
00:20:52
Speaker
The spin soul stones during your activation within three of Naya was a layup. Also, the passive injured pulse out thing was super cake. So to me, both mechanically, the price of knowledge academic one was cool and game. And I'm working towards what I consider to be the coolest Naya. So that was an obvious choice for me.
00:21:13
Speaker
There you go. That's cool. So, and that's, yeah, the academic one. So the price of knowledge for listeners who are like, what are we talking about? Because you maybe haven't played global campaign stuff. We'll have the link to the weird article in the show notes. And then I'll drop in this episode in the Discord, also the picture of, it's like a, whatever, concept art.
00:21:36
Speaker
for each of the eight possible Nyas. And so it'll be obvious when you see the picture of the one that Andre is talking about. Obviously in an audio only medium, you may be like, what? But you can tell it's cool. Even though- You need to paint them a word picture. Yeah. Imagine Nyah, but with like four swords. There you go.
00:21:58
Speaker
And you know what? I'm okay with this. I hadn't actually looked at that one as close. I'm like, ooh, why haven't I been going with that one more? I've just been going with Savage needs some love. Sure. And Savage is also pretty easy to score with Marcus. There you go. Marcus needs more points. That's what you're saying. It's all good. It's all good. And I'm, of course, going for happy Naya.
00:22:27
Speaker
I'm just going to say this though. I know people are loving that try chi one. And they're my least favorite of all of them. I would rather have a bad ending than have this anachronistic abomination there. But
00:22:52
Speaker
But my happiness is in historical accuracy. First off, at the point that we are in time, so she's clearly holding a margarita. The margarita had not been invented yet. No, but she's hanging with gremlins. Come on now. Nor had that plastic fucking cooler. Yeah.
00:23:15
Speaker
no no no you had me like giant vampire demons like magic constructs that know things all on board floating swords and i totally get it period appropriate that margarita in her hand come on weird
00:23:30
Speaker
It actually really bothers me because you take a look at the aesthetics of Malifaux. It doesn't fit in the aesthetics of Malifaux. But the other thing is like sale boards. From a lore standpoint, they do a very good job of as the timeline advances, they've tied specific occurrences in Malifaux into actual real world occurrences.
00:23:58
Speaker
So like the invention of the margarita. Exactly. The invention of the margarita isn't for several years. The invention of the Cody cooler.
00:24:06
Speaker
The margarita is a derivative of the sidecar. Don't question my alcohol problem here. But no, they tie the appearance of the Burning Man triggering a earthquake in San Francisco. Well, that's an actual historical earthquake. And so tying all these different real world occurrences
00:24:29
Speaker
to our current time. There's the Malifaux Earth, and then there's the Earth that we live on. I like that they've got those crossover bits there. And it feels anachronistic, and I don't like that. Now, yeah, there's the Nightmare Crew, the 1988 Nightmare Crew. OK, it works in that context there.
00:24:59
Speaker
But it just doesn't work. I'm still looking forward to Margaret and Margaret. But it turns out that neither Andre nor Brian had picked Try G for this. That is true. So anyways, well, let's go ahead and move to the game. We got to the tournament, we got to the game. We had my rant.
00:25:18
Speaker
Which is fair. It's a valid rant and that's part of the deal on the whole campaign thing that I just love is it gives us stuff to talk about that I mean like the game is amazing, but then you put this extra layer on it. I'm very glad that they had this campaign
00:25:35
Speaker
Because as much as I dislike that one image there, I love the concept of these campaigns. They've done, in my tenure playing Malifaux, they've done a few different campaigns. This is the second time they've done it where it's a specific character based on it there. But anytime they do global campaigns, I find that it really energizes the community and it gets people playing more games.
00:26:01
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. And the decision to do the tournament with the campaign rules there, it was a very small decision. Brian floated it on the Lone Star Discord saying, hey, are we going to make the tournament echoes of the breach campaign? So I don't know. I played a game. I was like, oh, this is fun. It changes the game, but it's not game breaking.
00:26:28
Speaker
So yeah, you know what? Let's have a little bit of fun with this. And it was an opportunity for people like Brian, who, you know, due to life and kids, et cetera, aren't able to make it out for the regular game nights as often. So it allows them to say, hey, I've got to participate in the campaign, even if they can't get in a weekly game. Yeah, I thought it was a good choice. And just, you know, more chances as they get that awesome looking faith deck that we're put out.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah, given the love to Dragonslayer. Yeah, Dragonslayer Houston, where we do our tournaments is fantastic. Also shout out, and it may come up in your episode also, but Devin, thank you very, very, very much for 3D printing the Nyas for us.
00:27:14
Speaker
that we can use markers, we can use any 30 millimeter marker to represent a NIA, but it was fantastic. And thanks to Weird also for putting out the SDL and making that available for sale, because that allowed us to play with actual NIA's on the table, which was just super cool stuff. That was a cool and surprising development that I was not expecting from them.
00:27:34
Speaker
Yeah, it's a bit cool with the model, you know, and I'm excited that like, you know, it will eventually disappear. And like, not everyone will have that you'd be like, yeah, it's just, you know, cool little like pre Naya, you know, to her margarita madness or, you know, you know, possible version or her four sword version. Yeah, exactly. Okay, I'm kind of cheering for four sword version now. See, it's good, isn't it?
00:27:59
Speaker
Yeah. I'm looking for Savage, to be honest. I think Savage needs a little bit of help there. Like, not like what we did, but like, you know, there's no women there, you know, just a whole bunch of, like, weird goons, you know? That's fair. There is the one female Cyclops. That's true. There is the female Cyclops. Yes, there is the one female Cyclops, yes. And it was up to Naya to not have it be a Sausage Fest. I have concerns, so I feel like...
00:28:29
Speaker
That's like Clapteens' girlfriend, you know, somebody to talk with. Yeah. On that note, we are going to go right into the start of the game part. So, Brian declares Karai 2. He's got his whole kit. Were you expecting Karai 2? And how did that change? You're going in with your typical list. How did that change your game plan? And then also, as you're thinking about
00:28:54
Speaker
him declaring the because he went with the red chapel wicked whisper yeah ny a thing right yes okay yes so as you're thinking about his bonus objectives and and on that for for listeners that we you get points if you get your objective and so you could actually score nine points per game in the way that we ran this tournament
00:29:15
Speaker
And so as you're thinking about what he's doing with Wicked Whisperer, as you're thinking about the list that he brings and just cry to, are you like, God, I'd really like to change around my list? Are you thinking, no, this is perfect. Are you thinking, OK, here's what I got to do for game plan? What do you think? And kind of once he declares masters and once you see the list and once you see his naive objective. So Brian has a few different masters in his pocket. The one that I find to be particularly annoying is rather not that I don't also find the morning kind of annoying, but
00:29:43
Speaker
Reva, if you don't have like the tools to deal with her, can like end your whole life and you just kind of have to stand there and watch. Um, luckily as Maxine with eye of the storm or eye of the hurricane on the machinists, you can ignore auras and that turns off a lot of what Reva has to bring to the table. Uh, so right off the bat, he was like, ah, not bring a Reva can't do it. And so he had to pivot to cry, um, which was, I think at this point a comfort pick for him, which is great. I love cry.
00:30:13
Speaker
Um, I like seeing him play cry and he, I, he was like, dude, I'm going to run like all these different math, like at the railroad rampages, like I'm going to run all these different masters. And I was like, bro, just run cry. And he's like, ah, I don't know. And then turns out he runs all five rounds cry. Uh, and he had a great time with it. Uh, so cry is now like a comfort pick for him. So when he picked that, I wasn't like super shocked. Um.
00:30:35
Speaker
And cry has a couple of different auras that you also like to ignore, but for the most part it was like, okay, this feels like a doable matchup. It's not insane. And in certain, and then in the context of him pushing the, the, the red chapel, Naya, the only two ways to do that is like, have corpse markers near the center to remove or, uh, someone models on your own activation. And so I was like, Oh, he's up a Creek dude. Uh, cry is not.
00:31:00
Speaker
Like, as long as I don't kill a Kerrio, she's not super great at summoning models on her own activation. For some reason, I thought that I was wrong. That was super done.
00:31:10
Speaker
You know, shoving people around to generate the little Gakkis and enslaved spirits, whatever, was a layup. I don't know why I didn't think that through. However, I will say that because it forced Karai to be near the Naya marker, because I had picked the Arcanist one, Karai kept getting injured for free at the start of every turn, and that really cost her some bones. The other thing that it did is that it made sweating bullets really, really easy to score.
00:31:36
Speaker
Because his master has to go towards the center of the board in order to score points there So then I had token I think ended up baiting him into doing things that I needed him to do
00:31:48
Speaker
Anyway, in order to score. Uh, so I liked that. Uh, now I'm not going to claim that I thought that out beforehand. Uh, also we didn't play that Naya teleported after round one. We just like didn't read that because we're top Maleficent players at the edge of our game. Um, so she stayed in the center the whole time. And so, yeah, like I said, that super worked out for me. Um, so, but that, like I said, I didn't really factor it in because I hadn't thought about the Naya campaign except like which Naya I wanted to win.
00:32:18
Speaker
Until I like got to the tournament and I was like, okay the you know, the spin soul stones in the certain one that seems doable I brought a heavier cash than I'm a little maybe used to I used to run five now I ran six for this tournament And so I was like, you know spending soul stones during activation should be super doable and there are certainly a couple of activations where I'm like I'm literally just spending a soul stone here to satisfy the threat requirement and
00:32:39
Speaker
Um, which is cool. Like that works. That's super good. I mean, that changes the thing, but yeah, I was actually, I hadn't asked about that, but, but six did seem a little high for kind of your normal Maxine crew. And so I was like, Oh, let me, is it, but yeah, that makes sense. Was that just a happy accident or was that actually planned?
00:32:59
Speaker
It was planned, I feel like. Okay, cool. I mean, not that I haven't been trying to put more stones to my crew anyway, but it was like, once I had, I had considered running different versions of the crew that would have put me at a lower Soulstone count. And I was like, ah, but I need them if I want to score and push this Naya. So I was like, all right, cool. I'll just, I'll stick with the higher cash then. So it did actually influence my crew build.
00:33:22
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. That's really cool. The, uh, I didn't want to mention also for listeners who are not familiar with the, with the global campaign, that the deal Andre was talking about teleporting at night around and that the rule is that during the start phase of every turn after the first.
00:33:37
Speaker
the player that lost the initiative flip places Naya within three inches of her current location. So I assume that anti-place effects would come into effect there, but... No, she's a marker. Oh, not a model. She's a marker. Well, it's also not a friendlier enemy either, which should preclude most auras that die. Yeah, true.
00:34:01
Speaker
got it okay yeah i didn't even think about because she looks a lot like a model but yeah she's just okay no that makes total sense okay i think i may have misplayed some of that wrong at one point or another so we're which is fine it's it is a global campaign game it does give it a little bit of goofiness i don't pretend to be a malefoe player at the top of my game but but still okay cool um
00:34:27
Speaker
So then you launched into the game. And I would just love to hear about you've already touched on some of it. But yeah, any what was the most interesting lines of play, key decision points that you made? And and then we got to talk about the most MVP model, MVP model that you had. But but yeah, talk talk to me about your game, please.
Critical Game Decisions against Brian
00:34:46
Speaker
Yeah. OK, so the reason that I had picked this game was I think a focal point on turn three, where
00:34:56
Speaker
Uh, because every game into Karai is how fast can you kill Karai the game? Um, you know, she'll hire Gwishin. Uh, she'll share healing to herself. It's a pain in the butt to be sure. But the issue is the more you attack.
00:35:10
Speaker
cry a she doesn't have vengeance and be every time she wants to not eat an attack to the face she has to drop a card and her card regeneration is basically if she kills stuff like if you have whisper models and they kill stuff great other than that you're dancing with who brought you on that first six cards and so being able to
00:35:30
Speaker
cause her to have to discard cards for take the hit or to just sit there and take it if she's not in range of her Guition is always the best option because she is just the lynchpin of the crew. And so the turn one kind of went, I guess I would say how I expect, you know, we both kind of move up the board, nothing too insane. He rushes a Curio up because of course you can freely resummon her and it's like, why would you not?
00:35:59
Speaker
But she didn't find any value. Um, so we didn't really do much to each other. Turn one. And I didn't really want to kill a Kiryu at that point because he could just like resummon her. And I was like, okay. Uh, so I did pull a cheeky. I staggered her with Maxine with impromptu invention so that I couldn't start scooting her through my crew. Um, but for the most part, like turn one wasn't super spicy. Turn two got pretty spicy. We started, uh, having a real slap fight. Um, but.
00:36:28
Speaker
And then at the end of turn two, cause I almost lost my tide collar, which was my sweating bullets target. Uh, he dropped out of two health cause that dude.
00:36:35
Speaker
So I had like a 12 and handed cheat and he had injured one from the NIA token on turn two. And so I was like, as long as the dude does not flip 10 on two cards, cause you've received adversary does not flip 10 on two cards for tax row. I'm good. And the first three attacks, he did it. He flipped tens. And so I was like, please don't not on the fourth attack, just one. And he missed that one. And he lived long enough. So that was, that was, and that was where, uh, cry moved into the center and I got to score that. Um,
00:37:04
Speaker
But like I said, very back and forth, blow for blow. And then I started just trying to beat the crap out of Karai as quickly as I could. And so she dropped down to like one health, uh, during an activation. And so his, is the decision moment, the crossing of the Rubicon for him in that moment was, do I activate Karai to get one more activation out of her before she dies? Or do I try to save Karai?
00:37:29
Speaker
by healing her up. And so he went for, I'm going to try to heal her up. Now keep in mind, she had no Guishan near her at this point, and she was out of Soulstones. So Ikirio went, killed a model, got the Feast of Engines off, and so healed her like five or six hit points, which was big. You know, half her health bar right back to the
00:37:50
Speaker
Um, and I'd lost a model of course. And so that was a big swing, but it wasn't enough. At the end of the day, Kariah had seven health and defense five. And at this point with no stones, she's an enforcer. Um, and I'm able to bring enough damage to kill a seven health defense five enforcer. And so she just went down. Uh, and so losing your master on activated in a critical scrum turn like that cost him a lot. Um, and even then it was only barely enough for me to squeak out a win seven six.
00:38:17
Speaker
uh yeah i was gonna say seven sixes tight yeah very very close game um and so i kind of wanted to bring that as kind of like the focal point of the game uh to say that
00:38:30
Speaker
When youth, I've seen players so many times over so many games try to make a decision that saves a model instead of just activating it to get the value out of it before it goes down. And that ends up costing them more than even having lost that model. So I guess what I'm trying to say is the lesson to learn here that I want to bring forth is that if you have to decide between trying to save the model or just activating the model,
00:38:58
Speaker
If you're not absolutely sure that model will be safe when you're done trying to save it, just activate it. Because a third master activation out of Karai would have totally changed that game, even if she died the very next activation. And I'm not saying it's a for sure thing every time. Obviously, you can't call 100% your thoughts 100% correct. But I think that people shy away from accepting a model's death
00:39:25
Speaker
And I get it. It sucks, especially if it's your master, but like, sometimes you're just like, I got two hit points in a dream. Let's take this activation before I lose activation control. Um, cause that's another big loss as well as the activation control in addition to losing the model itself. It sucks losing an unactivated model. It sucks even more losing an unactivated master. Cause even though, I mean, yeah, there's other models that'll get three AP, you know, models that can get fast.
00:39:52
Speaker
a master's AP is just innately a more valuable action than any other models. And so he, she, um, went down on activated turn three. Correct. Uh, now he had still managed to get his, uh, thread cause he had summoned to turn one cause you can score on the threads turn one or generate the tokens or whatever. Um, so he had still gotten his, uh,
00:40:22
Speaker
But by then, it was a done deal, I would say.
00:40:31
Speaker
And frankly, you also have to consider like the amount of activations a model would get, even if they were invulnerable anyway. Um, so he loses out on two cry activations, which is big, but instead he lost out on three, but not taking that. Um, and so that I think was the big thing that swayed it in my favor. Not that I think I couldn't have won if cry hadn't died that activation per se, but I was, I was starting to lose models. Like I had lost the tide collar. That was the model that, uh, curio killed and people were coming after my machinists now, which they totally should cause that guy sucks.
00:41:01
Speaker
The crunch was happening and if I hadn't been able to kill Karai or hadn't been able to stop Karai's activation there, I'd have been in a much bigger hole to try to dig out of. What dealt the final blow to Karai? Maxine. Because he had blown good cards trying to heal her up.
00:41:21
Speaker
Um, he didn't have what he needed. And obviously I'm going to have strong car control with Maxine anyway. So Maxine was just able to be like, cool. I need to do seven damage. You have no stones. I focus shot five damage when the next shot two damage debt. Um, and so what's also satisfied my third stone spend, cause I was having a fire in the melee, which is why I needed the focus. Um, so.
00:41:44
Speaker
Maxine ended up being my MVP, just purely through damage dealt. The shots that she's able to take.
00:41:54
Speaker
and the range she's able to do it at while messing with your opponent's deck or handing out conditions to stuff for the enemy like staggered for a karai crew. Like karai wants to be able to move her friends around for the spooky duels and if you can't do that, that's just tough. I happen to have stopped by your table at the point where you first, you know, where you went and you put that staggered onto a curio and
00:42:16
Speaker
That is like I saw the look on Brian's face. I saw the look on your face. It was like that. Oh, that's a cheeky move there. It was it was like, oh, you could do something that'll do damage or you could give her slow or something like standard. It's just that cheeky little
00:42:36
Speaker
You understood his mechanics very well. And you knew what you needed to stop him from doing, instead of just like, well, I'll just give him stuff that sucks. It's like, no, no, no. Staggered would even be better than giving him stunned almost.
00:42:53
Speaker
Yes, well, especially for Ikirio because she has shrug off anyway, but staggered affecting the rest of everyone else's activation trying to get her to move around. Huge. So that definitely came into play nicely in that regard. But yeah, so being able to hand out conditions, being able to take down Karai. She was doing the damage to get her down that low anyway, because it was just her, like Maxine, there was a gallows fittingly in the middle of this table.
00:43:16
Speaker
And so she just teleported up onto the top of the table with the portals jump. I was like, all right, I got a six shooter in a dream. And so she ended up dealing the killing blow and really changing the tempo of the game with that. So I have to hand the MVP to Maxine.
00:43:35
Speaker
Yeah, or maybe Tania throwing out injured, giving some extra points, like, I don't know, but not a model. Okay, but still. Okay, a marker. She's not a real person. Yeah, and so no, that's extremely cool. And like you were saying on the, it was what, sweating bullets, that she was a key to you being able to get sweating bullets because of
00:44:02
Speaker
the thread that Brian had taken. So, okay. No, super interesting. So, yeah. No, I'm not trying to take it away from Maxine. She would absolutely kick my butt if I tried to do that. But it's also cool that Naya had a big influence. So, okay, need to go and shift into the after the game as you're looking back at it and as you're thinking about advice for people like me, bottom third player, facing your crew for the first time, you know, I'm like, Maxine, too,
Maxine's Crew: Tips for Opponents
00:44:28
Speaker
I faced...
00:44:28
Speaker
I've faced your Maxine before. It has not been pleasant. But still, what do I need to watch for if I'm facing your crew for the first time? I would say the two biggest things that as a player who has not seen the crew before that you need to watch out for is Deep Discovery, which is everything that every single keyword model has. It's an ability where I can, when I am able to cheat, I can instead discard a card and cheat the top card of your discard pile.
00:44:57
Speaker
Um, it's either discard pile, right? No, no, no. It's only the opponents. Yeah. Um, so that ended up itself is a game changer for a couple of different situations. So my favorite is that when an opponent wins initiative with a King, I'm like, cool. Like whatever duel you're going to take first, it's going to cost you a high card because I can cheat this whatever. And I'm going to get that card. Um,
00:45:22
Speaker
The other thing that it does is if they have like a great defensive activation, like if Kaya, you know, if I've got a bunch of trash in hand and Kaya is like, all right, I'm going to pike this guy. And then he goes, ha ha, a king. I'm like, cool. My next attack is going to land. And so having to like constantly play around the mind game of like my cards can be good for my opponent.
00:45:42
Speaker
is difficult to wrap your head around. And I would say in practical terms, the best way to try to avoid this is to give yourself positive flips where possible. Because the way of the mechanics, if you flip two cards, you pick one card to go into the conflict and one card to go on top of the discard pile. And that is going to affect what the Maxime player is able to cheat. So strategic use of your focus or I've seen people stone out of it.
00:46:08
Speaker
where they're like, all right, I have a king on the top of my discard. I have to sell it for positive flip here. Do I need it? No, but I need you to not have it. Um, so the, like I said, the deep discovery, it takes some getting used to for the Maxine player, certainly, but for the opponent as well, being able to play around what is on the top of your discard pile is not normal for people. As a matter of fact, most people in a duel will just flip onto their discard pile. And the number of times I have to go, all right, I discard a card and cheat that king. And they have to be like, what king? Oh.
00:46:35
Speaker
Um, is yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that takes some getting used to as an opponent. Um, the other thing that I would say absolutely watch out for, which also came up in this game is, uh, the machinists eye of the hurricane. Uh, yes, because being able to ignore or is huge. Um, so for this game,
00:46:56
Speaker
it came up because kurai gives you negatives to willpower duels if you're with an aide of her if you have adversary but i got to ignore that so i got to pass a lot more spooky ghost duels than i really should have because of that aura additionally uh
00:47:10
Speaker
I don't think it came up specifically in the game, but he had taken a model with Withering away, which denies healing within three. The machine is being able to say, nuh-uh, I get to heal, because he's already a healer. So he's a healer with nuh-uh, I get to heal. It's a beautiful combination. So being like, not only is Kai going to get to heal, I'm going to healer four right now.
00:47:30
Speaker
is really, really nice to have. So those, I would say the two biggest things you need to watch out for into Maxine Crew, like generally speaking, she has good car control, but there is car control you get to participate in. So watch out for that and watch out for the auras thing, because there's so many times where you just like assume stuff happens because no one else ignores auras in that way very consistently.
00:47:48
Speaker
Um, so just being able to be like, all right, you activated within range of Jack of a mantras or in your staggered, take a damage. Like, ah, ignore that. Oh, penalties will power. I ignore that too. Oh, I can't cheat within six. I ignore that. That's like whole cruise game plans fall off if you get to a go there. All right. So watch out for that and playing around it. If you can.
00:48:07
Speaker
No, that's cool. Maybe this goes for at any level, but certainly for the bottom third. The advice that you talked about of if you're not sure a model is going to survive, just go ahead and activate it.
00:48:22
Speaker
Yes, certainly good advice. Kind of what's your sure level? You know, what I'm trying to say there is is, you know, it's like 50 50. I take it you wouldn't take that, but it's not going to be 100 percent. Would you take a 90 percent? Go ahead and go for the save 80 percent. Well, like what are the issue? Well, so the issue with this question, right, is that in a decision moment, you are assuming perfect knowledge of what your opponent can do. Yeah.
00:48:50
Speaker
which, especially because you don't even know what, I mean, you might have perfect knowledge of what every model has printed on their cards, but you don't know what he's got in hand. You don't know what he's willing to do to get to that point. I think, because there's just so many surprise plays that even if you understand the text and all the cards, being able to be like, oh, I didn't see that play coming. Like, I've had people were like, back when I was playing Nakeemah, if I put up and rage my insolence, I can stab my own models to death, which will give me another push and another attack.
00:49:19
Speaker
So it's like, oh, I'm 12 inches away from the Kima. She's only going to get two attacks. I'm safe. I'm like, what? Sorry, Piggy. You got to die. Stab. All right, cool. There's another push because I get to provoke that. Now I get three attacks on that model. I wanted to stab like that is a game changer. So you can never fully understand a game of Malifaux to be able to say I can for sure save this model. Yeah.
00:49:40
Speaker
So I would say if you have to like put what you believe to be the threshold on it, I would say that if you are at least 90% confident that you can save a model, then maybe you should try to save the model. And there are, there are certain obvious instances, like I can give examples to give people like barometer, uh, understandings. Like if you have a fast low river monk with five Chi and Shin Long's on a hit point, go ahead, bud. He'll have Shin Long. You got this. Yeah. Um.
00:50:10
Speaker
The, but there's other stuff where it's like, oh, I'm sure this model will be safe. If I just move and take the hit model into range, you might think that, but you don't like what blast options does he have? Does he have like a pulse damage effect? Can he shove that model away first and then stab your favorite model? Like there's so many things that come to play.
00:50:29
Speaker
Like no shockwaves or yeah, there's just a lot of options to attack models that you're just trying to protect with take the hit specifically. Um, so if you're not at least 90% confident that you can save that model, just activate it because like I said, it's probably one of the most common occurrences I've ever seen of just people being like, I'm going to say this model. Oh, dang, it died anyway. And now I'm an activation behind crap. Yeah.
00:50:52
Speaker
And he's seen all that other activations, saving it. Correct. Well, because you're not only down the activation that you lost by not activating it, you're also down the activation you lost by trying to save that model. Because oftentimes it's like, all right, my shield beer is going to get into position and post up. Did he do what he could have done more optimally at that point? I don't think so.
00:51:09
Speaker
Um, he could have been dropping ski markers or whatever. Right. You know, exactly. Um, so if you're not 90%, but at least just, just activate the model. There's so many times where you're not going to be like, like I've seen the regret of, I didn't activate it and I feel like an idiot, but I've very rarely seen, I activated that model and I could have saved it instead. This just doesn't come up as often. It just really doesn't. Yeah. No, good puts. Cool. Thank you. How about, uh, middle third, any, any thoughts for middle third players facing you? Um,
00:51:41
Speaker
I would say that
00:51:44
Speaker
The strongest, so at least for talking about, I guess, continually Maxine, and this applies more generally, I think, in a good way. If you can find ways to attack people's hands or use their own crew's methods against them, do it. So the example that I can give again is Karai and the Gwishin. Like, Karai and Gwishin sound, looks like a very strong king's castle that makes Karai difficult to assail, but just keep pushing that bar until it snaps.
00:52:13
Speaker
because every time the Karai has to drop yet another card for Take the Hit,
00:52:17
Speaker
A, vengeance isn't going off because the Gwishin wasn't the model targeted by the action, and B, she's just losing card control. Because if Karai gets to an activation and she uses her obligatory stapled whisper and sees one, two, three off the top of the deck, and she has no cards in hand, her turn's gonna kinda suck. And so being able to push those defenses instead of just assuming that it's gonna go poorly. Because if I have a Gwishin standing next to Karai,
00:52:44
Speaker
And I have a choice between attacking the two models. I'm going to attack her eye every time, because if I can get an extra card and stab the question anyway, why not? Um, so test don't always assume that people's defenses are unassailable and try to find other ways to do it. Sometimes just attacking the problem as head on as you can to try and push the resources they have to spend to make that defense work is a valuable approach.
00:53:08
Speaker
Yeah. And especially for a model like Karai, like whatever, that's such a key to the crew. So cool. How about top third players? And this is kind of, as you're looking at the mirrors, is there anything that you wish you had done differently that you could have pulled out a 9-6 instead of a 7-6? Yeah. Any thoughts for top tier players? I would say that if I could have given myself advice at the beginning of that game,
00:53:38
Speaker
I think the best advice I could have given was practice your unpack, which sounds dumb because I have so many games on Maxine. But like I said, it'd been the first time I played Maxine at tournament in a while. And it was with a crew build that I don't run all the time. And so if you're playing a crew that likes to take control of a
00:53:59
Speaker
part of the middle of the board and move up and get ready and post up, practice that unpack. Like obviously, and this sounds so basic, right? Like practice your unpack feels like the first thing you should do as like a beginner player to get up the board, get models in position and get ready. And that sounds great, but the problem is you would just assume that mastery and then you get into game one of a tournament where you mashed into someone who's really good. And you're like,
00:54:23
Speaker
Oh crap. Should I activate a tight collar or a little first? I don't know. I don't know. So even though this is the advice for the top third players and we feel like we should have this down, I think it's an absolute powerful benefit to go back to the basics. And if you have any kind of changes to your crew that you're used to, or if you're playing, you know, if you're a generalist who likes to play three or four different crews in a tournament or whatever.
00:54:48
Speaker
Practice your unpacks just open up, you know, if you've got a table at home great if you don't boot up facile Just practice and unpack see if it goes how you expect Because there are so many games where I get to turn to and I just go dang it I really needed that model that's still in my deployment zone to not be in a my deployment zone right now And I really wish I could have made a different decision there or like I wish I could have started this model here So it wasn't blocking this model that I didn't realize I was gonna have to go first
00:55:14
Speaker
So there's so many things you get out ahead of by practicing your unpacks that I would say even for top third players, practice those unpacks. Yeah, that is awesome advice. And it's one of those words.
00:55:24
Speaker
just as you're talking about that I'm reminded about like motorcycle training or something which is and this is kind of bizarre but it's the you know there's a there's a huge percentage of accidents when you first learn and how to ride a motorcycle you know you're very likely to tip it over and then you you learn and you get good and it's not a problem and then once you're super experienced there's this spike again
00:55:45
Speaker
where you're actually pretty likely to tip over a motorcycle again once you're super experienced because you get kind of like, oh, I know this. I don't have to think about it as much. Yeah, you forget your fundamentals. Yeah. And so it's like a little bit of the fundamentals is actually super useful and even for top tiers. So thank you for sharing that. That's not necessarily an easy thing to share, but I appreciate that very much. And that's awesome.
Discord Q&A: Maxine's Strategy and GG4 Differences
00:56:09
Speaker
so we have spent a lot of time we got some amazing questions on discord and But we have we have taken this quite some time. I could rapid-fire if that yeah Yeah, go ahead and you've got the list. So if you don't mind just running down or I'm happy to ask them But yeah, go ahead
00:56:28
Speaker
All right. Uh, so for Makina, uh, did you give up on Nkima or just needed a break from purple? Uh, the answer is I give up on Nkima is really the bottom line. Um, she is great vanilla flavored power, but she has so many match ups where she's like, all right, cool. I hard lose. Uh, that I was like, I can't run her competitively at big tournaments. Uh, so yes, I did lose faith in Nkima. I'm sorry. Got impressed. I failed you. Um,
00:56:53
Speaker
for now. True. True. True. Uh, from basement 87, uh, what ashes do you think changes your list building for Maxine one and or two and did that factor into your event run? Uh, Maxine only got the sailors that she gets cross keyworded with, uh, the elves, but not. Dang it. Terry. Um, yeah.
00:57:16
Speaker
Uh, and if I being honest, they kind of suck, like they're supposed to be a scheme runner and that's cool, but like the Calypso and I'm just never going to not hire the clips over these guys. So it's like, uh, it didn't really affect my hiring and it's like great on a shelf. Like that's kind of my take on them. Like sharp looking models, but I'm going to put them on the table at some point, just to say that I did and make sure that I'm not an idiot. But yeah, on paper, I'm not buying them. Um,
00:57:46
Speaker
The, and so for other people having Ash's models, none of the assets models were like super, super stupid. Like you could argue Gemini and stuff, but like as opponents stuff comes in, I wasn't worried about Ash's models either. So I would say that Ash is actually as a Maxine player didn't factor into my play run at all. Um, what is my biggest determining factor for choosing a suit for polymath? Uh, strangely, usually my determining factor is what did my opponent discard at the end of the turn?
00:58:10
Speaker
Uh, because if I can guarantee that he has trash that I need in order to teleport, that's good enough for me. Um, occasionally, uh, I will factor in the suit of triggers that I know my opponent likes. As an example, if I'm playing into an enemy Nakeemah, I will choose masks for my suit, largely regardless of context.
00:58:28
Speaker
because shove aside is everywhere in that crew and I don't want to deal with that being able to guard. If you want to stone for it, great. If you want to cheat it, cough it up. So being able to turn whatever suit that I pick into aces has a big value. So counter picking enemy triggers is actually a common choice for me for polymath as well. What is the lesson that you've learned after your time with Maxine that's taken the longest to unlock?
00:58:54
Speaker
Deciding what Maxine is going to do, which sounds so stupid, but there are a lot of times where like a 235 gun with range 12 and a trigger to get cards back or impromptu invention are like wildly different actions, but you still
00:59:11
Speaker
have to decide what the value is comparatively with those things. And so finding the situations where you're like, I would love to do damage right now, but I need that to have stunned instead is hard. It's hard. It's really hard for me to not choose to deal damage. It's really the bottom line. If at any point I'm like, ah, man, I could kill that model, but I need that model to not have triggers. That's been the hardest part for me personally as a Maxine player.
00:59:38
Speaker
And then, let's see, for Andre, you've been known for a period of time as a Maxine 1 trick. I've also seen you play some Cooper and McCabe in MWS, and no doubt you've dabbled in other EXS stuff as well. Given the content of your competitive EXS play, are you going to play more Masters outside of Maxine 1 on the regular, and in which cases would you?
00:59:56
Speaker
Uh, so I did mention earlier that I've been dabbling in JEDSA and that I really liked McCabe. Uh, I think McCabe in XO got a lot of value because he finally has a min three beater that isn't himself in keyword. Uh, so he's no longer has to, uh, lay himself at the altar of Gerogamo in order to play the game. Um, which means that he can run an XO because he's not thirsty for thunders minions. Um, so, which one was it? The, the, the one that he just got, uh, that's the.
01:00:24
Speaker
Uh, alleyway echo is the model, right? Yeah. Um, and host to copy good too, but for different reasons. Uh, but yeah, now that he finally has access to at least two and three meters in keyword, like his whole life opened up for XO. Um, and now I get to play in my hidden agenda faction. So I like that a lot. Jetsa play is less confirmed, but yes, there are at least other tools in my toolkit for XO. Um, but Maxine, it's just hard to put down the crack that is the control of cards that she has.
01:00:52
Speaker
And then for both of us, but I'll answer my half as GG for emojis what schemes seem like traps and what seemed like the obvious takes? factionally or in general for the game I will die on this hill. I think let them bleed is the biggest bait in the game. It's such
01:01:07
Speaker
a stupid scheme. It makes you feel like it's your friend. We're like, oh, dude, I love stabbing things. And I love having not a lot of models of full health. You know, the game, it feels like it should be a layup. And you get to the end of the game and the opponent has like two scheme runners in Narnia that you could never get to. And you couldn't kill the big thing. And it's just a bait or like for even my own crew. When people pick let them bleed into me, it's a layup because there's no point where I'm like, should I heal Kaya right now? Obviously, every time as much as I possibly can. And so they will always get to the end of the game like,
01:01:37
Speaker
dang it I didn't score let them bleed and I'm like I know because it's a bait and that's my hill I'm dying on yeah that is a it's a harder one to score than a lot of people it is no it's it's such a bit hate it like as a kill scheme I'm supposed to love it because I mean but I hate it
01:01:52
Speaker
Awesome, so thank you for the rapid fire, very much appreciate that. You got any plugs or parting thoughts, Andre? Yeah, well, I'm gonna go to this cool little tournament in June in Houston, the champion's invitational. I am super psyched to be there, but I think that everyone who has not signed up for it should, even if you weren't invited, you should come out. The...
01:02:21
Speaker
the Black Joker tournament running alongside it is going to be your best opportunity to kick people in the face that aren't the people that got invited. Absolutely. Yeah.
Upcoming Championships: Participation Encouragement
01:02:30
Speaker
So what Andre is talking about there is we have got the.
01:02:35
Speaker
North American photo or championship weekend, which this is something that those of us who organize the North American photo or we've wanted to get this going for a while. It was kind of the original spirit of the NFT.
01:02:52
Speaker
Where we wanted to have something that was not attached to a convention Then when Craig shipping went and handed over to the capital city crew guys it kind of you know Made sense for them to attack it on the Nova and we're trying out Finally heavy to beat its own standalone things. You're not paying that you know quote-unquote convention tax
01:03:15
Speaker
where you're paying for the convention, but the organizers have to pay the convention, they have a space there. No, no, no, all the money from it is coming back into our event here, which is awesome. But what we've wanted is because the NAFT is a national ranking system. You're not sure going into it how you're gonna rank.
01:03:44
Speaker
The plan has always been to have two tournaments running side by side, where even if you don't know if you've got an invitation, you can book your ticket and know that
01:03:55
Speaker
If you get an invitation to the Masters Championship, awesome. Your season went well, you're going to have a great time. If, you know, you just happened to get not placed high enough, or you were from a really competitive conference, or, you know what, maybe your conference just didn't get a whole lot of invites just due to the fact that, you know, some conferences are more active than others. We've got what we're calling the NAFD Black Joker Open, where
01:04:23
Speaker
everyone who is not in the championship gets to play in that. And while we call it the Black Joker Open, I'm not saying, well, this is a consolation. I'm saying this is your chance to shine because there's so many times where I know I've played in an event and going into first round, I'm like, oh, well, look at that. I'm paired off against so and so. I know they just won, you know, this other big event.
01:04:49
Speaker
and I don't get to play as competitively as often. Well guess I'm not being competitive this time. I mean I still try my hardest but it's kind of that it's like well I at least am knowledgeable enough of the scene and see all these you know various people you know Andre and
01:05:06
Speaker
you know, Pete and Longton and Landon and Brian and all these different people, that if I run into them early on, I'm like, oh, well, there goes my weekend. But if they're all kicking each other's asses over in the invitational, it's really the chance for the middle tier players to have their moment of the sun. Those middle tier players are the top tier for this. And those bottom third players, those are the middle third now.
01:05:35
Speaker
But it sounds like a really good opportunity to be able to get the tryhard kind of malefoe that you want in a competitive environment without being like, all right, cool. It's the guy that crushes every tournament I lose. It removes that vague sense of nihilism from a tournament. So I actually really like that you're running it concurrently so that the big boys have to stay out, so to speak.
01:05:56
Speaker
I'm excited for it because it, you know, it lets you, I mean, functionally it lets you book your tickets if you don't have it before you know the final standings. But it still lets everyone know like, hey, you know what? I'm booking that ticket. It's like, I know I'm not gonna get that invite, but I am, you know, I'm excited to, you know, be just below that there and maybe this'll be the time.
01:06:23
Speaker
Well, and it's also the chance for like hanging out and talking, you know, you're going out to dinner with some of the best players in North America, some of them with the best players in North America, some of the best players on the planet. And, you know, so it's exciting for, you know, I'm definitely a black joker tournament guy, but like,
01:06:39
Speaker
I'm super excited about this, so this is gonna be great. And tickets are available. We've got the link in the show notes. The weekend is going to be June 7th through the 9th, so the invitation is the 8th and the 9th. June 7th is when we've got, you know, we're doing a fun alt format, which we're gonna talk about in episode 1B. We're calling it Evil Twin.
01:07:09
Speaker
Stay tuned for the shenanigans. So that's awesome. So well, thank you very much. Yeah, links in the show notes. If you got an invite, you know, if you don't come on out anyways, we are looking forward to playing against you. Great. So our nationals for our international listeners, this is our nationals and we're super excited about it. Even though it's North America, we play
01:07:35
Speaker
I don't know that we've got any money from Mexico, but we definitely have folks from Canada that are going to be there and super excited about it. So, yeah. All right. Any other comments from anybody? Oh, you know, even though I am but a dark fallen champion at this point, long may the god empress reign. There you go.
Conclusion and Acknowledgements
01:07:57
Speaker
All right. Thank you all very much.
01:08:01
Speaker
Students of Conflict is brought to you by Top Dog Design. Check out topdogdesign.com for all of your Malifotrain needs. Top Dog Design, 3D printable designs to enhance your tabletop. Students of Conflict is not an official product of Rude Miniatures LLC.
01:08:17
Speaker
All intellectual property belonging to weird miniatures is used with permission. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of entities they represent. Any content provided by our guests and or hosts are their opinion and not intended to align any group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything. Whoo!
01:08:58
Speaker
Speaking of Sausage Fest, what's your favorite type of sausage? Cube awesome. I'm a fan of bratwurst.