Cornerstones (8) / Character Assassination (3) - Blackheart

The final article in the Cornerstones series is an exception on two counts - it is the first to feature a Captain, and is also a Character Assassination. Get ready for the whine.

I decided to include the Union's captain as their Cornerstone because the Union as a team is so individualistic and devout of synergistic special rules. They have a dedicated support model (Hemlocke) and a dedicated scorer (Mist) but for the most part are all "core" brawlers with unusually good KICK scores. #justunionthings

Let's start by looking at these stats. On the whole I'd say they are good for a captain, but not necessarily amazing.

• 5/7" MOV is pretty average, by itself anyway.
• TAC 6 is very good, and common on captains.
• 3/6" KICK is an average solid stat.
• 3+/2 is a solid, tanky stat line. 16 boxes may be a little bit low for a Captain, but it's not too bad.
• 4/6 INF is also standard for a captain.

Note also the 2" melee. So we can see he is pretty solid all-around - decent kicker, and pretty good in a scrap. Moving on to the playbook.

This playbook could either be seen as very good or freaking amazing depending on how well you use Blackheart.

The early part of his playbook is quite good on a defensive level - momentous dodge on 1, and a double dodge + 1 DMG on 2. This is followed by a Tackle. So definitely not too impressive in the momentum or damage department so far, but good for mobility. If all you set up for is getting low results, you can at worst farm momentum and move around as much as a Fisherman (a 3+/2 Fisherman that destroys people in combat).

Then shit starts to get real - KD and momentous GB/GB on 4 hits in order to activate Commanding Aura (more on that soon). 4 hits is a pretty likely result with TAC 6 on a charge with no other modifiers.
When you move into the 5 and 6 successes column, all his results basically read "3 momentous + whatever other result you want, bro". Double dodge, KD, Tackle - it's all there. I dunno why the Momentous 3 with no other result is there, as it will never ever be chosen. I am guessing it's a legacy thing.
5+ hits is where it gets freaking amazing - with a little set up and Commanding Aura, getting 5 hits is not that unrealistic for old Blackheart. He'll wreck someone and move around like a ballerina while doing in.

Anyway - good striker playbook with lots of mobility and good options for counter attacks. Then if you get 5+ successes, he starts tearing holes in people while doing it too. Momentously. Sickening.

Ok, I'll admit I've never seen Blackheart use Misdirection. With the amount of mobility he has, he's usually just better killing someone and removing all their INF rather than spending 4 INF to steal one. It's a nice strong play to have in situations where he get pinned down however.

Commanding Aura, however, is ridiculous for Union. Sure, you can get it in Brewers on Union models, but you probably won't get it on too many Union models since you want those Brewer synergies on your team. Having it on 4 fighting Union models (who aren't bad at scoring goals, btw) with access to Coin however - that's another realm of BS altogether. Commanding Aura pushes Blackheart's personal damage significantly by allowing him to reach those 5/6 successes somewhat reliably with minimal set up. With 6 INF, he is crushing people and getting momentum like a boss at the same time. Nevermind Gutter, Decimate, Avarisse, and all that....

This is when I start to rage (more) about Blackheart. What you have here is a way for a beatstick tank to move 2" for free at the start of it's activation, basically guaranteeing him an exit from almost every combat for 1 INF (dodge 2", then momentous dodge for 1). Seems good. Oh, it also makes him an effective 7/9" MOV (better, even). Fast as Shark? Seems legit for a walking killing machine. Who is also a 3/6" KICK for lolz.

Oh wait, he also has a legendary with two super strong effects - an immediate 2" dodge for all friendly guild models OR +1 DEF for everyone. You usually just see the first one even though +1 DEF on all friendly guild models (who are all likely at least 4+/0 or better) is pretty ridiculous. Even stronger when you consider that after Blackheart has activated you'll probably have 6 momentum to defensive stance and counter attack, rendering your team nigh invincible for a turn. Seems legit.

Anyway, as mentioned, you probably won't see that +1 DEF because all his fellow douchebags dodging 2" and getting out of combat or getting ready to wreck someone you thought was safe or scoring goals from miles out is pretty good. In fact, it's pretty good JUST for Blackheart to gib someone unexpectedly from 13" away. And all it costs you is the INF to run/charge.

Dealing with Blackheart

Weaknesses? Few to none.

• He is not a stellar kicker, but he is a very good striker due to high mobility and momentum generation. More than good enough to reliably put the ball on the post multiple times.
• He does little for his team outside feat and commanding aura, but that tends to be enough since he can move that aura around to basically wherever he wants, even when MOV debuffed (unlike Tapper), thanks to his low-playbook dodges and Shadow Like. Even in the worse case scenario if he is completely shut down from moving and isolated (which requires a LOT of investment), he still has a 10" threat on Misdirection to dump his INF somewhere.
  Not to mention that his team is made up of highly independent models that are pretty awesome all on their own, so throwing in +1 TAC and DMG  and DEF/2" dodge is alright.
•  His DEF of 3+ makes him a little vulnerable to character plays, I guess.....

VetRage is clearly designed to be the beater/brawler of the Union captains but it's hard to outfight 2" melee + Commanding Aura (functionally identical to vRage's Legendary with less set up and a smaller area - but every turn) + a nasty playbook - and this does not even consider Blackheart's amazing mobility and decent KICK stat. Not only does he strongly compete with vRage in the damage dealing department, but he certainly leaves him in the dust in terms of scoring goals. There is a reason Union has been on top of the overall guild rankings for a long time, even after receiving a good chunk of nerfs to their models - that reason is this god amongst guildballers.

All I can say is - thank the powers that be for the Season 1 errata, bringing him back into line... or should I say, almost back into line.

Thus ends the Cornerstones series. Thanks for reading.

Cornerstones (7) - Calculus

Similar to the Fishermen, I had initially written up the Alchemist Cornerstones article on Vitriol. But however ridiculously amazing Vitriol is, she doesn't fit the concept of the cornerstone. She is by all accounts a superstar player with borderline captain damage and scoring ability, reigned in only by her 4 INF cap. She might be in every list but all she cares about is herself - getting goals and getting take-outs.

We need to look for a model that fits the playstyle of the Alchemists, is not particularly flashy, but somehow makes its way into most Alchemist lists. If he were popular (and admittedly more efficiently designed), I'd bet my left arm this model would be Katalyst - he's got good all around stats and he ties "all the conditions" together with his Traits and Plays. The reality, as we all know, is that this isn't the case.

I've gone with Calculus - I think if you're not running the Midas + Vitriol + 3 Union teams, you're probably taking Calculus in your team. Her inclusion in this list is even better since she gets so much slack from Alchemist players for being useless, or "straight worse" than Hemlocke....... yet still seems to make her way into rosters - there must be something there....

Her stats are even more average than Luke Wilson. The only thing worthy of any note is her lower than average TAC, but for an Alchemist backliner, it's as you'd expect.

The most interesting stat she has is her health boxes - 15. Just a little bit more than you'd expect, and in my experience, quite enough to make a difference.

Man, does this playbook suck. Push on 1 is probably the best thing on here. The non-momentous damage spread is also not too bad, although with her low TAC she's probably not getting the results you want without some serious help.

TL;DR - she doesn't want to get into combat, but she does have an ok chance at getting out, and can do decent damage if you get enough Crowding Outs going (realistic output - not great).

This is where Calculus bakes her bread and butters it - two excellent character plays that fit the Alchemist style of condition and control. Like an acid-bathed shampoo treatment.

First, we have the ever-popular Blind. Fresh off a nerf, Blind has lost it's AoE component and its TAC & MOV debuffs have been halved in exchange for a KICK debuff and 2" extra range. Is it still a good play? It sure is. It's an all around FU debuff that makes a pretty big difference to any player that has not yet activated. It has a good range. It only costs one, meaning you can use any spare INF on it. The downside of course is that you are prone to missing on only 1 die, but it's the kind of control play that's worth Bonus Timing.

Noxious Blast - it's an AoE. It causes 2 DMG and poison when it hits - actually pretty significant damage for 2 INF if you can get it on 2 or more players, especially late turn. Not only that, but it stacks up well with all of Smoke's shenanigans. It's just a good, reliable play and the main reason she'll usually take at least 2 INF.

She only has one character trait, Poisonous Fumes, which instantly poisons any model that advances within 1" or starts their activation within 1".
Underwhelming on the surface, but getting another 2-3 models poisoned stacks up condition damage pretty fast. It sets up Venin's heroic play pretty well too - 5 condition damage on multiple models is pretty brutal, and not that hard to pull off if your opponent sends multiple models in on her. At worse it will make your opponent dump some momentum, which you will surely want as an Alchemist player.


So why is this model a cornerstone player? I have no idea. She has super average stats, only one trait, two character plays that you can find on another competing model and a crap playbook. Why would you prioritize her over the very similar Hemlocke or Mercury?

Let's overanalyze a bit, as one tends to do in these situations:

• Calculus throws out a lot of poison with relatively little effort - she has a 3" AoE that poisons both on hit and on entry, and also deal 2 instant damage (same as poison). She poisons people who attack her without 2" melee (which is the majority of the game).
  Poison is a condition. Alchemists like conditions, and condition-causing AoEs. So Alchemists like Calculus' style.
  Basically, she deals out quite a lot of conditions and poison damage for a relatively low INF investment.
• She is reasonably resilient with her 15 boxes and an average defensive stat line. This, combined with the Poisonous Fumes is what really differentiates her from Hemlocke, outside the friendly guild aspect. Having a team full of 5+/0 squishies can backfire in many matchups.
• She is usually INF neutral. Most of them time she will use her 2 INF to chuck a Noxious Blast, but often she will be happy with just 1 for a Blind. This is the first point of distinction with Mercury - being 2/4 INF is quite a bit more valuable than 1/4 INF for a support model, even considering the potential Flask INF buff for Mercury.
• Blind is still good. I think Blind is the second thing that separates her from Mercury. Having a 1 INF play that can really do work in the right situation seems to be a feature of several Cornerstone players.
• The final point of distinction from Mercury is that she is female, meaning she ignores Charmed [Male]. Having an effective +1 to hit vs some key models in the game is clutch when using Character Plays.

So all up - Calculus might be a pretty ideal finale to the Cornerstones series. She isn't particularly impressive, especially after the Blind nerf - but she keeps finding her way onto Alchemist teams. Unfortunately, we still have one to do for the dirty, dirty Union.

Dealing with Calculus

No great wisdom you haven't heard before here:

• Attack with 2" melee models to avoid that poison condition, which makes a pretty big difference. If these have Anatomical Precision, all the better :)
• Likewise, if you are going to try to take her out, use as few models as possible.
• She doesn't not like to get crowded out since it hurts her characters plays. Not much of an escape mechanism if she is isolated either.
• Staying spread is a pretty good way to minimize the impact of Noxious Blast, and a high DEF can make Blind miss more often than not.

Cornerstones (6) - Siren

Finding a subject for the Fishermen Cornerstones article was difficult. I think they are one of the least synergistic teams in the game in terms of their interactions and playstyle, while also being one of the most balanced teams in that they don't really have any real auto-include characters in the vast majority of matchups - Sakana probably being the closest.

Thus I had initially opted to write about Sakana over Greyscales (my two initial candidates for the fishiest fishes around), finished the article, had it all ready to post, had started to write the next Cornerstones article.... and then it hit me. I was focusing too much on the 'auto-include' aspect and not enough on the 'core support' aspect, which I think is more important. And nobody fills the later role on the Fishermen squad more than Siren, one of only two Fisherman to received a nerf since the beginning of the game. She lies somewhere between the sneaky mobility and speed of the Fish and the douchy control of the Morticians. Delightful.

Without further ado, following our format for the evening, the Stats:

• She is fast - really fast. Among the fastest natural human movers in the game. Throw in 2" melee and she has a pretty good 11" melee threat.
• Her TAC is bad. Generally one of the worst TACs for human model. Despite this, you will probably want to get in combat with her at some stage.
• Her KICK is average at 3/6", good enough for what she needs to do, and resulting in an unbuffed 15" scoring threat.
• Her defensive stats are not great at 4+/0 and measly 10 health. She does however have several defensive traits that help her out in this department.
• And we have that standard 2/4 INF again.

Overall, outside of her MOV, her stats are not impressive at all - much like most Morticians, funnily enough. Let's have a look at her Playbook:

The playbook itself is not fantastic. The damage is mediocre (mostly due to the few columns) and her Tackle is both high up and non momentous (mostly likely only hitting it after a charge). The double dodge on two is nice though. She does have two interesting momentous results however - a dodge on 1 success (Fisherman specialty for counter attacks or momentum farming) and a GB/GB on 3 hits (come back to that later).

One of the advantages of having a poor TAC is you have a short playbook - 3 columns long means there is a high propensity to wrap on the charge, especially if you can get around ARM somehow. Getting a Tackle + Momentous Dodge on a well placed charge can be a game winner, and Siren has both the MOV and KICK to make it happen.

Moving on to the heart of most Cornerstone players, the Character Plays:

Siren has two character plays that both mess with people.

Lure is a play that pulls enemy players out of position via a Jog (ie. affected by ground/terrain). The faster the enemy player, the better! It is one of the best ways for Fish to isolate and crowd up on an enemy player in order to get a takeout. With an 8" range, she can pull someone in from 17" away! That's more than the space between the two deployment lines (not that you will want to do that first activation, but it shows you the threat range).
It's also an excellent way to set up for a Kraken/Corsair harpoon to further isolate someone.

Siren's second play, accessible via either 3 playbook successes or 3 INF is Seduced, effectively an objectively worse version of Puppet Master (shorter range, less options, and the lower cost is offset by the 1 INF returned by Puppet Master). Despite this, it's still a very useful play.
The primary use of this play is to force an enemy model to pass, thus getting the ball back into your control (or set up a pro snap shot!). Like Puppet Master, the threat of it is often stronger than the actual effect and your opponents will often drop the ball in order to avoid this. Have a retriever ready to capitalize!
The secondary use of Seduced is to force an enemy model to make an attack - this is especially good if the target of the play has a low momentous KD result (Kraken, Ghast, Stave, Tapper, Fangtooth....) to KD a player that has not yet activated. You get a momentum and a KD'ed enemy model. Winner.

















Siren's three traits are all defensive and help make up for her subpar defensive stats:

First is Beautiful, rendering her almost immune to targeting character plays. Engineer bolt shots, Puppet Master, Dirty Knives, Shutout, Heavy Burden, Chain Grab.... - any targeted character play you can think of suffers a -5 RNG penalty when targeted at Siren (note that if she is out of range as a result, she is no longer a valid target for the play).
This makes her both a solid backfield or flanking model, and an excellent kick off player (especially vs the aforementioned Engineers).

One note of caution though - AoE character plays that do not target are not affected, so watch out for things like Blast Earth, Embalming Fluid, Lob Barrel,  or any of the Alchemist' flurry of condition AoEs. With 10 health, even a few points of damage is dangerous.

Second is Charmed [Male], boosting her to DEF 5+ against two thirds of the human models in the game. Seems good.

Finally we have Protected [Kraken], which grants Siren +1 ARM if she is within 4" of Kraken. This trait would be amazing without the positional requirement, as it sort of ties her into a backfield role if she wants to benefit. 5+/1 is a very good defensive stat and will protect her from most attacks, and with Lure, she can help set up Kraken to pull someone from a long ways away.
The downside of course is that she only gets it while near Kraken, and as mentioned Fishermen often spread out a lot, chasing the ball and such. Nevertheless, a nice bonus to have and being backfield is not usually a bad place to be.



In summary, Siren exists to do two things: control the enemy team's positioning and get the ball back to your team somehow. Fishermen benefit hugely from both aspects, and both her character plays feed the Fishermen play style, either in terms of scoring goals or getting isolated takeouts. And I need to play Siren a lot more.

Dealing with Siren

It's quite easy to see how deal with Siren - she is one of the squishiest models in the game and requires on both careful positioning and her triad of defensive abilities to keep her alive. If you can somehow get around these, you can take her out with ease:

•  Non- targeted attacks (pulses, AoEs) get around Beautiful. 
• Her low health is a definite weakness - chip away at her and force her to chew up momentum to live. This will keep her out of the fight.
• Charmed [Male] and the potential +1 ARM from Kraken are a huge part of what keep her alive. Threatening her with female fighter models (ie. Gutter, Brisket, Decimate, Vitriol, Cosset....) is a good way to scare her away. The only issue is to watch out for her counter attack if you do not have reach yourself. Gutter is probably the best Siren killer in the game as she ignores both Siren's stats buffs.
• As mentioned, you can consider dropping the ball back or holding it with a high DEF model with a poor KICK stat (I personally am incapable of rolling a 5+ on Character Plays, no matter how many dice I throw at it) is a good way to protecting yourself from Seduced.
• Finally, and most importantly, be wary of how easy it is to get Lured then Harpooned back into waiting school of Fish and swallowed by the ocean's tide.

Cornerstones (5) - Boiler

As we get deeper into the cornerstone series, it becomes harder to define which player in a line up most characterizes their guild's playstyle and therefore becomes as close to an 'auto include' in a lineup as you are likely to find.

When a new player thinks 'Butchers' - they initially think of a player like Boar who is all TAC, huge damage, and not much else. However as you get deeper into the Butcher playstyle, Boar falls out of the lineup pretty quickly when you take into account his weaknesses and his lack of synergy, and start to appreciate the many intricate layers of synergy and tactics that come with wasting opposing teams.

Boiler, I think, encompasses all aspects of the Butcher game style and is perhaps their best "support" model, for lack of a better option. Allow me to make my argument:

Stats

 

Like most Cornerstone players so far, Boiler's stats aren't particularly amazing. I would even say they are average across the board, with the exception of

• a good MOV stat - he is a winger after all, so being pretty fast is fitting.
• a below average KICK stat. 2/6" is not terrible and usually enough to pass the ball around or score a goal (75% odds without modifiers), but given his lack of repositions he probably won't be doing the later too often.

14 health boxes, 1" melee zone - really nothing of note here.

Moving on to the Playbook:

Again, not a particularly impressive playbook at first glance, given his TAC of 5. You might even question his status as a Butcher looking at that non-momentous damage result!

Like several Butchers, he has a low momentous Tackle result, a KD result about midway through his playbook, and a non-momentous GB result.

One thing he does have that no other Butcher has (at the time of writing) is a push dodge result, which is excellent for a 1" melee model. With a little luck, it can save his ass on a counter attack.

Overall, again like both Ratchet and Silence, a relatively uninteresting playbook, at least until you consider his other abilities and Traits:

Traits are where we start seeing Boiler's magic reveal itself.

Anatomical Precision is, in the majority of combats, an effective free hit. It helps him reach those higher playbook results quite easily (much like Gutter!). When you take Anatomical Precision into account, hitting that push-dodge on a counter attack is far more likely than it would first appear, and getting the two hits for the momentous 2 damage/Tackle is almost as certain as getting one hit.

Crucial Artery is also a powerful ability not only on the damage side of things, but also in terms of momentum control and Butcher synergies. In terms of momentum, making your opponent burn MP to heal/remove conditions without any conscious resource investment on your behalf is money. In terms of synergies, both Meathook and Fillet have strong synergies around the bleed condition which makes Boiler a great inclusion with either of these models.

Finally, we come to Boiler's coup de grace synergy with the team's Season 1 Mascot, Assist [Princess]. This trait turns Boiler from a good all-round support winger to the Butchers' highest potential killing machine, as it is the only damage buff in the team exclusive to one player.

Keep in mind this is without any of the Butchers' myriad of buffs like Get 'Em Lads!, Butchery, Tooled Up or The Owner. When you throw these in, almost any Butcher player can deal very high amounts of damage, but Boiler's Assist trait and relatively short playbook gives him that extra edge in the damage dealing department over even a dedicated beater like Boar.
The short playbook is key to multiplying damage buffs. For example, under the Owner + Ox's Legendary ie +2 to Playbook Damage, landing 8 hits with Boar gives you 6 damage. Landing just 6 hits with Boiler nets you 8 damage. Throw in a Assist from Princess and the same number of hits, and Boiler goes to 10 damage from one attack, never mind the bleed effect on top of that. BRUTALITY.


In short, Boiler's Traits allow him to deal a lot more damage than his stats or playbook demonstrate, and make him an excellent buff multiplier.

While Boiler's Traits reinforce his damage dealing capabilities (appropriate for a Butcher!), both of Boiler's Character Plays are support buffs for his team, one defensive and one offensive.

Swift Stance, while costing quite a bit, is a very powerful buff when used on DEF 4+ or DEF 5+ models (like Brisket or Fillet). Moving from 5+ to 6+ effectively halves the expected number of successful hits against you, which is a lot more than you get out of using it in making Boar DEF 3+. It is perhaps one of the strongest tank buffs in the game at present, not only allowing the recipient solid resistance against mass TAC dice, but also against Character Plays. The downsides to this play are as mentioned the cost of 2 INF and the short RNG of 4".

Boiler's second play is Marked Target, which at first seems like a pretty straight forward offensive threat buff for your team - everyone now charges the target from further away, Shank for example now getting a monster 14" melee threat even without Where'd They Go?. That is pretty scary.
However, in a game of alternating activations like Guild Ball, such a play is often used defensively or as a control element. Your opponent can react to the play and position differently, maybe taking pressure off your team at a crucial moment.
The second thing of note about Marked Target is that it can be cast for 1 GB off an attack with only 1 hit thanks to Boiler's playbook. Given Boiler's pretty good combat capabilities, it's usually better trying to cast it this way than trying to hit with 1 die, and you might even hit it off a wrap and take it over the non-momentous 1 damage. Also, given it's low cost (both in INF and GB) it is a pretty effective way to pop "one off" shield abilities like Clone or Gluttonous Mass.
Most impressively, you can even use it on a counter attack, which can expose an enemy to a charge they didn't see coming and make reacting to it very difficult!


Overall, I feel Boiler is a cornerstone players for the Butchers - not only can he certainly pull his weight in the damage dealing department, but he also brings some valuable utility and defensive support to the team which greatly opens up tactical space. His only attribute which makes me a bit sad is his 2/6" KICK, but 'tis a Butchers' life.

Dealing with Boiler

Despite the kid's many benefits, he does have a few weaknesses that can be exploited:

• As mentioned, the thing that sets Boiler ahead of the pack in terms of damage is Assist [Princess]. If you remove Princess from the table, as a Mascot, she is not coming back and this takes Boiler's potential down a few notches. Note that this is easier said than done since:
  a) Princess has Loved Creature which gives a MOV and TAC buff to the team on the turn she gets taken out (two stats you don't want Butchers to have more of) and
  b) while she can activate early to telegraph where Boiler will go, this can be used as a diversion by a clever Butcher player. Plus she's no slouch in the damage dealing department either!
• Like most Butchers, Boiler has a 1" melee, which makes him vulnerable to counter attacks, Don't Touch The Hair! and other such defensive ploys, as well as not being able to counter attack reach models himself.
• Swift Stance has a short range (4"), which together with the other Butcher buffs (primarily Ox), locks him into staying close to his team, for a winger.
• Keep the counter attack Marked Target in mind when attacking him, because it can really ruin your day :)

Cornerstones (4) - Mallet

Mallet is the first 'non-support' model I have selected for this series, mainly because Masons do not really have a player that falls into this category. The closest would be Marbles (the mascot), and you could make an argument for Tower being that support player, although it would be hard to make a case for him as a cornerstone since he doesn't make lineups very often.

Mallet, on the other hand, is pretty much in every Masons team. Why is that, you might ask? In short, it's because he does it all, and helps others do it too. He fits perfectly into the Mason shtick of reliability, lack of flashiness, adapting to the particular turn by focusing resources towards a particular plan or players' skill, and being a tough old boot.

As usual, we begin by looking at the stats:

 Much like the other Cornerstone players, Mallet's stat line is not particularly impressive outside his signature Mason 2 ARM - He may be an old man, but he's a tough old Mason man.

• 4"/6" is quite slow, but he partially makes up for it with his traits (ie. Extended Reach)
• TAC 5 is reasonably average, but he gets a big buff via his reliable Singled Out play.
• KICK 2/6" is below average, but Football Legend brings it up to solid 3/7" at all times.
• 3+/2 is a typical resilient Mason stat, and with 16 boxes he tends to stick around
• 2/4 INF stock standard stuff.
• He also has a 2" melee!

Basically his base stats aren't great, even supbar in MOV and KICK, but both those stats are improved by his other abilities.

Moving on to arguably his most valuable asset, his sweet playbook:

This is a stellar Mason playbook, and plays a huge part in landing him a spot in this series. Masons, while lacking flash on the surface, rely on very diverse playbooks to set up a situations where their specialist players can pull the trigger. This playbook tells you Mallet's specialization is either apt at being a grindy workhorse working the centre of the pitch (Momentous KD, Push, Tackle and some sweet 1 hit GB results, all with 3" reach), or a burst damage dealer (good damage on 4/5 successes columns).

Like most Mason playbooks, the momentous results are early in the playbook. This plays into the grindier, slower style of the team of making plays happen around a solid center of Attacking and Defensive Midfielders. Compare this type of playbook to say Alchemists, who have very few momentous results on 1 hit, and really want to avoid drawn-out combat.

There are two standout results: Momentous KD on 3 (same as Brick, which makes it quite low for a Mason) and Momentous GB on 1, which is one of the big parts of him being the star all-rounder centre (see the below section on Character Plays).

Damage is excellent, with a momentous 2 on 2 hits, 3 damage on 4 hits and 4 damage on 5 hits. Basically, if you load him up and set him up properly, he can deal some serious damage.

Of course, we can't really talk about this man's playbook without looking at his Character Plays:

Mallet has only two character plays - both can only be triggered as the result of an attack, and both are RNG: P, meaning their can only target the model Mallet has attacked. This fits in with the Masons' design as a melee-centric faction with very few ranged plays (Goad and Shutout are the only two at the time of writing).
Secondly, both plays are triggered off only 1 success and are momentous.

Singled Out is a solid TAC buff that all Masons can make great use of, especially when not charging. Not much to say about this - more TAC is more good.
Smashed Shins is also a situationally excellent play early turn if Mallet can get it on a key striker, effectively shutting down their scoring potential (even a Super Shot/One-Legged Stance Angel becomes a 2/6" KICK after a Smashed Shins).

Essentially, Mallet can either control the enemy's football game, or set an enemy model up to get wrecked. Both are better early turn, but Mallet himself makes great use of Singled Out (and it gives you momentum) so any time is good.

Moving on to the Character Traits:

First we have the same aura as Spigot, namely Football Legend. I won't repeat what I wrote about Spigot here in its entirety, but suffice to say that Masons are slightly better kickers than Brewers to begin with, so the benefits are slightly more accented on Mallet, and given his usually aggressive positioning on the field, almost anyone in the Masons lineup can become a scoring threat.

Secondly, we have Extended Reach, which grants Mallet a 3" melee zone during his activation (the only model in the game with this trait at present). This makes Mallet excellent in scrums, since he can make attacks where others would not be able to and helps make up for his low MOV by giving him a decent 9" charge range.

Finally, we have Forceful Blow, which basically means Mallet hits freaking hard on a charge and can also reposition enemy models if he wishes.

These later two abilities, combined with his damage-heavy playbook, have led to the popular first turn Mallet Missile tactic with Honour - kick off with Mallet, load him up on 4 INF, use Honour's legendary and Superior Strategy to give him an extra activation and even more INF, Tool him Up with Marbles, sprint Mallet up the field and use his second activation to charge into the enemy and take out a valuable player, perhaps score a goal or whatever.

This play highlights the Masons playstyle perfectly - they are also able to adaptively pool their resources into making a specific play happen each turn. Mallet can either be an enabler - either in terms of ball control, player control, or damage - or the trigger, depending on what you need that turn. And that is what makes him the cornerstone of his team.

Dealing with Mallet

Mallet really wants to get into combat. His damage is there, his plays are there, and other than his Legend aura, his abilities rely on hitting people in combat. His 3" melee helps make that happen.
On the other hand, he doesn't really have a good way of getting out of combat IF you get into his face. His 3" reach can help keep you at ARM's length, but then limit his potential. He is thus prone to getting bogged down in an unfavourable melee, if you can engineer it.

He also likes to be one of the earlier activations for the Masons since he does not really require any set-up to do what he needs to do and has general applications, and is a pretty reliable source of momentum generation. This telegraphs his play somewhat, and he will usually be predictably be allocated a nice chunk of the influence pool.

Finally, like most Masons, he has a low DEF which makes him susceptible to character plays, or abilities ignore ARM (Ox's plays, Anatomical Precision, etc.). Use this to move him around, slow him down, or otherwise hamper his ability to position effectively. Or just take him out - his slow speed will hurt his ability to get back into position.

Cornerstones (3) - Ratchet

An appropriate follow up to Silence is Ratchet, who shares many playstyle aspects with the brooding Mortician Assistant Captain - unimpressive playbook, a Character Play intensive approach to influence and the ability to bring a Mascot back to play.

Much like Silence embodies the Morticians' weirdness and denial game, Ratchet embodies the Engineers - superior ball playing skills, synergy with the Mechanica model type, and some good old fashioned ranged damage.

Ratchet has a middling stat line:

• 5/7" MOV is a standard MOV stat.
• TAC 4 is slightly low but on par with most support pieces
• 4/6" KICK is very good, in line with most Engineer KICK stats.
• 3+/1 is a good resilient statline (especially with 17 boxes - tougher than old Spigot), and 2/4 INF is also standard fare.

Other than the KICK stat, nothing really deserves particular attention.

Moving on to the Playbook:

Ratchet's playbook is pretty encompassing of most Engineer playbooks. It includes a low momentous tackle, a double push and some standard non momentous damage spread. Actually, along with Colossus, he is one of the best melee damage dealers on the team - that tells you what Engineer playbooks are about (ie. not dealing damage in combat).

Ratchet, like most Engineers, only wants to make attacks to get the ball or get away from someone. If you get stuck in prolonged combat (other than putting the last bits of damage on a very wounded enemy), you are doing it wrong.

Thus far we have a defensive midfielder with a great KICK stat but nothing really spectacular otherwise. Let's move on to Character Plays:

Most of Ratchet's work will come from these character plays (and the soon-to-be-discussed Heroic). Like Silence, Ratchet brings two strong situational 1-cost plays and 1 generally useful 2-cost AoE:

Fixer is essentially a single target version of Hemlocke's Smelling Salts AoE play, but restricted to Mechanica models. It is very good when you need it, acting as a better version of Come On Mate!. Especially good in Pin Vice teams (ie. can target anyone), and as a late turn play, or to use up excess influence.

Long Bomb is a situational but solid play that is mostly likely used as a long pass, but without the risk of interception. As a backfield model, Ratchet is quite well positioned to pick up the ball defensively, either from a missed enemy pass/shot or a momentous Tackle. He can then boot it back down the field to a waiting striker or winger to put in the back of the net next activation. Perfectly legit first and second activation play which again plays into the Engineer theme of excellent ball control. At worse, it can help keep aggressive ball playing teams where you want them - at range.

Blast Earth is probably Ratchet's most commonly used character play. Engineers like to stay at a distance and plink at you while they score goals. With a massive 10" RNG, Blast Earth allows you to put rough terrain exactly where you want it to slow your opponent AND deal some damage. Unlike most ongoing-effect AoE plays, Blast Earth does not have clause that requires opponents to enter or end their activation in for additional effects - therefore if you can deal some damage and have the AoE in a good spot, why not roll the dice?

At first glance, the Heroic Play Overclocked seems highly situational. It might be useful on Velocity/Hoist to get them into combat, steal the ball, and land multiple push/dodges before scoring then being taken out (and consequently Reanimated).
It also stacks with all of Pin Vice's Mechanica only plays, so if someone is going to die as a result of those, you could always throw in Overclocked for extra efficiency.

Apart from that, giving up 2 VP/a lot of player health +1 MP in exchange for 1/2 effective INF  seems like a pretty bad trade unless it nets you a game-winning goal. To make sense of this, you need to look at Ratchet's Character Trait:

To understand the value of Creation [Mainspring], you have to look back at his Heroic Play Overclocked and at the back of Mainspring's card - specifically that when Mainspring is taken out, he causes 3 DMG and burning to every other model within 3" (including friendly models!).

For 3 MP, you can bring back Mainspring, use Overclocked on it, then send him charging into an enemy model 9" away (getting a few playbook results in the process), ultimately exploding in a huge ball of fire and punishing clumped up enemies. Combo that with Blast Earth, and you've got a serious amount of MOV debuffs and area damage. Very strong damage and denial combo.

Note also that often this will make Ratchet an effective TAC 5 with Ganging Up from Mainspring, making that momentous Tackle on 2 hits quite a bit more likely against the average model.


Ratchet - simple, reliable, with good tactical efficiency. Like the previous Cornerstone players, he has a range of good play at different levels of influence allocation, and can play well at different stages of the turn. He can slow the enemy, deal significant AoE damage at a distance, play the ball very effectively and heal his team. What else could you want in an Engineers player?

Dealing with Ratchet

Similar to Silence, Ratchet doesn't have great ways of getting out of combat. In fact, he only has that double push on 3 hits, and with a TAC of 4 and no outside help, that isn't going to happen against most players. He will thus be relying on other Engineers to help him out of combat, with pushes and KDs from the likes of Colossus, Salvo or Ballista.
To catch is that other Engineers (besides Colossus) are in the same boat as Ratchet - they do not like the idea of becoming tied up or KD, which stops them playing the ball or using character plays effectively. If you rush them and keep them from playing the ball or getting out of combat, they will become sad pandas and have trouble helping each other out.

Second, avoid clumping up players that can get hit by the Mainspring kamikaze / Blast Earth combo!

Cornerstones (2) - Silence

NB: this basically rehashes/expands on Dave's article on Morticians 201 here, but with more flair.

Second in the series of Cornerstone players is Silence, Distracted Dave's favourite player bar none. Silence is often looked at by new players with some disdain. I don't really blame them, as he does look pretty average and bland on the surface. Despite that, he still never seems to get dropped from the line-up. There is a reason for that - as you learn to look beyond the surface and into the tactical detail, Silence is the foundation of the Morticians' denial game.

Silence embodies the Morticians playstyle - quirky stats and abilities, a seemingly unfocused playbook with erratic momentum results, and extremely strong control and denial traits + plays. If you don't have a plan, he won't do much for you other than be an above-average INF provider. If you do have a plan and execute it, he can be a massive irritation to your opponent.


Let's begin the investigation by looking at his stat line and androgynous mug:

Immediately, one is struck by Silence's weird stats:

• MOV 5", seems pretty average. But sprint move of 6"? Weird. With a 1" melee, you're probably not charging anyone then.....
• TAC 5, KICK 3/6" - pretty average relative to the game, but KICK actually above average for Morticians and TAC quite good for a 'support' oriented character.
• DEF 5+/ARM 0 - again pretty average. But whoa - FIFTEEN boxes. Most 5+ models have 10-12. Even Midas only has 14! Impressive.
• 3/4 INF - his most noticeable stat. This is very good and often gets him tagged as an influence battery.

Overall - weird, unfocused stats. Pretty slow, not a great fighter, decent kicker, but surprisingly survivable for a support model. dat INF stat tho.

 Moving on to the playbook:

TAC 5 with a 5-long playbook is pretty normal. Like most Morticians, his momentous results are kind of all over the place, and his playbook somewhat unfocused.
He's got some good damage results, especially Momentous 2 damage on 2 hits. Then he has a momentous dodge on 3 (ie. not great for counter-attacks) but it can get him out of combat with non-reach models, and a momentous push dodge on 5 alongside his Tackle. Again, weird. You don't really get what he's supposed to do at first glance.

Looking at other Morticians might give some context:

• Most Morticians have Tackles higher on their playbooks (3+ hits). Graves (a versatile winger) and Bonesaw (a striker) are the exception with results on 1 & momentous 2 hits respectively.
• Unlike most Morticians, he has no GB results, which helps explain his reasonably bare playbook. He doesn't really have a good reason to spend much influence on attacks for that reason, unlike say Casket, Ghast, Bonesaw or Graves.
• His damage spread is reasonably common, with 1, 2, X, 3 being as standard a Mortician pattern as you're going to get. It's not fantastic, but it does point to the Morticians' flexibility in dealing damage if they need it.

Like most Morticians, playbooks aren't what you need to be looking at with Silence, outside getting a couple of momentum to Bonus Time! or play the ball or react defensively. When you look at Silence in this way, his playbook seems fine. The majority of the time, if you're attacking with him, you're not doing it more than once or twice, unless you are pulling out that surprise 8DMG/4MP for 4 INF on an unsuspecting target.


Next up we have Character Traits:

 
















Again, two seemingly unremarkable traits. At least on the surface. Much like Silence himself.

First, we have Creation [Dirge]. This allows you to bring back Dirge for 2 MP. Doesn't seem that great. However, keeping in mind that Dirge:

• has both really strong death effects (-4MP to enemy)
• is generally annoying between Follow Up and his very high mobility
• provides a valuable TAC buff in Singled Out
• has good ball retrieval skills
• and most importantly, will not give up additional VPs if killed again.

And now we can see how this is a pretty powerful trait, and contributes further to Silence's denial game and the Morticians' disruptive plans.

His second trait is significantly weaker, making him a 4/7" KICK if Dirge is nearby. This probably won't happen too often as Dirge likes to run off places, but it does make Silence a very good kicker. This is useful in the early game to help rank up momentum, or later to help land crucial passes in order to trigger Teamwork results. Given his slow speed, he probably won't be scoring many goals, but in the event the game gets super weird (definitely a game state the Morticians excel in), he becomes a snapshot monster :)

Moving on to the meat of Silence's card, the Character Plays:

Immediately, the control aspect shows itself with Tucked and Shutout. Forcing an enemy player to go first or last takes a lot of decision-making power away from your opponent.
If you choose the right target, it can be devastating for your opponent. If you choose the wrong one, it can be tremendously helpful for him/her.

This is why it is important for Morticians players to understand what their opponent wants to do, and how to stop them. Which player to Tuck and which to Shutout is not an easy decision to make and varies on a turn by turn basis.

One aspect you want to consider heavily is your opponent's influence allocation that turn.
As an example, enemy players you want to Shutout are players that want to go early - momentum generators and play maker captains (ie. Shark, Tapper, Ox, Blackheart) are good targets as they usually have a lot of influence allocated to them and set things up for the rest of their team's turn. Shutting them out gives you time to deal with the threat using your other pieces and hampers your opponent's momentum generation until then.
On the flipside, strikers who don't have the ball might want to be Tucked, which basically wastes their activation.

Note that both Tucked and Shutout are once per turn, and cost 1. You will really want to Bonus Time! these plays if you can, especially since 1 cost plays are quite sensitive to Crowding Out penalties. Both plays also want to be used early in the turn, making Silence a first or second activation.
This is where the momentous dodges on the playbook start making a bit of sense - if you REALLY want to Tucked/Shutout someone with 4+ or higher DEF that you can't get in melee with and need momentum to Bonus Time, giving 3 INF to Silence, getting him to charge someone to hit a dodge on 3 or 5 hits to get out of combat, then throwing a Bonus Time!-ed character play at someone is pretty legit.
Alternatively - hit that momentous 2 damage, take the crowding out penalty, and hope averages are on your side :)

Finally we have Embalming Fluid. The best effect from this is the movement debuff from burning. The [1] DMG is also neat when combined with Damaged Target on Graves and Minx, otherwise not a big deal. Like most AoEs, you can also place it defensively, although it would be significantly better in this role if it applied burning instead of poison as the ongoing effect. Then again, if you can trap 2-3 players and force them to take poison with a well-placed AoE, it's certainly worth 2 INF.
The three standout features of this play in my opinion are:

• It has a long range, effectively 9.5". Given Silence's central positioning and 5" MOV, he can almost put it anywhere he wants.
• It's a good early turn play, because it puts burning (-2/-2" MOV) on affected players.
• It's a pretty good late turn play, unlike Tucked and Shutout, due to the conditions (even picking up a poison condition late in the turn is quite a bit less appealing).

Character Plays - it's what Morticians need. And this guy has some good, really disruptive ones.

Dealing with Silence

The core of Silence's power are Tucked & Shutout and Creation [Dirge]. These are difficult to stop as Morticians have ways of getting momentum exactly when they seem to really need it...

Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, Silence is somewhat prone to getting tied up in undesired combats. Without some additional TAC buffing, he is unlikely to be able to land his dodges to get out of melee. Crowding him out and Play debuffs like Heavy Burden also makes his life quite difficult when he relies on 1 INF, once per turn character plays. Anything that further decreases the success of character plays is good at reducing Silence's impact on the game.

He's also very much a support model - slow and doesn't do all that much heavy lifting by himself. He's probably not putting points on the board via takeouts or goals, but he can make it very hard for his opponents to do so, or easier for his teammates.
Like most support characters in MOBA games, he can be vulnerable to becoming isolated and ganked. DEF 5+ with 15 boxes IS quite survivable, unless you find ways around his DEF, in which case he can go down pretty quick to an even average beater. The Mortician player will inevitably want to bring him on right away lest he give up that 3 INF, meaning he either is prone to getting ganked again or is staying well away from the action.

As for Dirge coming back all the time, you are just going to have to deal with an annoying bird being in your face. You may want to kill it again in the right situation to get activation advantage, but often it's just going to make your life harder. Silence does use up a lot of momentum between Creation and getting his other plays to stick, so hopefully you can take advantage of that through damage, conditions or simple outmanoeuvring with the ball.


In summary - Silence. You don't know exactly why you take him in every Morticians team, but there he is, doing what Morticians do best, holding it all together, being a douche.

Cornerstones (1) - Spigot

I was originally going to write this article as part of the Character Assassination about how to deal with the Brewer deathball, aka. the Spigot train aka. the noobstomp machine. But I realized I have great amounts of respect for Spigot, and while I want him to get taken out every game, I can't whine about him enough to make it a Character Assassination.

Instead I think I will start a companion series that focuses on non-captain players that I think truly characterize their guild's playstyle, those players that might not initially appear very impressive on the surface but in reality epitomize their guild's playstyle and are the foundation of their respective teams' game plan.

I've chosen to write the first article in this series based on a player I consider to be the most underrated player in the game at present, and perhaps one of the best non-captain players available to any team.

This player is Spigot of the Brewers Guild.

Overview

Spigot's background is that he is an aging mob football superstar, with a body and mind worn down by years of living a rockstar lifestyle - gambling, multiple random sexual encounters, excessive amounts of alcohol, non-descript drugs... you name it. As such, he has become volatile and unreliable as a player, but for some reason he manages to keep his place in the roster.

That reason is that his rules are in complete opposition to his fluff. Spigot is a fookin' legend the likes of which Karl Tanner would be jealous (link NSFW). He is the most reliable player on the Brewers side, always pulls his weight and always has a sweet play up his sleeve.

Let's see why:

What a moustache. What a man.

His base stats are pretty average all around, nothing remarkable, except maybe his 16 health being a little high and his DEF little a low. Where he shines is in his character traits, plays and playbook. It's hard to talk about each one separately, since like the Brewer team, Spigot is designed around multiple small synergies.


Let's begin by looking at the playbook:

TAC 5, 4 columns. Just Brewer things.

Like most S1 Brewers, his playbook is one shorter than his base TAC, meaning with a few TAC boosts he has no problem entering wrap city and getting results out the wazoo. And with a momentous 3 damage on 4 hits and 2 damage on 2 hits, that means damage can stack up fast.

With a momentous tackle on 1 and "Ball's Gone!" on 2, he's also pretty awesome at getting the ball back. Momentous KD/Double Push on 3 rounds out his tactical potential. Overall, a solid playbook - good damage, excellent ball recovery, good enemy control.


Let's look at his character traits and see how things start coming together:













Football Legend means Spigot is really a 4/7" kick at all times, meaning he is pretty damn good at passing the ball. And so are most of the Brewers near him. This makes them all pretty good at passing the ball around to get some momentum if you receive, basically giving you the next turn. Seems alright.

Remember what I mentioned before about TAC buffs making Brewer playbook ridiculous? Spigot brings his own against KD models with Floored. Not that KD models are a rare sight in Brewer matches. Let's say Tapper or Stave KDs a 3+/1 enemy player in melee - if Spigot with 4 influence Tools himself Up and swings 3 times, that's around 18 damage and 3 momentum without any external help other than the KD. Seems alright - and he can do it without momentum. Who needs Hooper?

 Spigot's hidden third trait is found on Friday's card (Defensive Support [Spigot], namely that he grants her +1 DEF while within 4". This makes Friday 5+/1 against everyone, and potentially 6+/1 vs Parting Blows if she uses her Heroic Play. Seems alright.

So overall - hits pretty hard, buffs the team's ability to play ball, and makes their fastest player even more survivable. Seems alright.


Next we come to the plays:













As mentioned, he has Tooled Up, an innocent +1 DMG to character plays and playbook damage results. Even if he only gets 1 influence at the start of the turn to put this on someone else and use his heroic play (below), he is doing SERIOUS work. Tooled Up is especially brutal in Brewers thanks to the aforementioned short playbooks and the propensity to wrap.

His second character play, which he can access as the result of two successes in melee, allows him to pseudo-tackle the ball and give it to anyone within 4". This also gets around Close Control and other anti-Tackle tech since it's not a Tackle result. Very useful for Brewers given that you'll usually have a good number of targets to give the ball to other than himself.

Finally, we have Spigot's bread and butter, a 4" aura of +2/+2 MOV for 1 momentum. I think this play is what makes Spigot an auto-include in almost every scrappy Brewer list. It's an almost identical effect to Quick Foot, a 2 influence single target play - except it costs 1 momentum and affects the majority of you team. Spigot alone becomes a 7"/10" with this play! It gives Friday a goal scoring threat of 20" (even without Football Legend) This is an INCREDIBLY powerful heroic play that fixes the teams biggest weakness (lack of mobility).

Note that his play was incorrectly written as [6" Aura] on the last run of the Season 1 cards.


You can see that in blatant contradiction to his fluff entry, EVERY SINGLE ABILITY HE HAS IS ROCK SOLID RELIABLE. He makes his team hit harder, move faster, and gives them the ball control skills they otherwise lack.

He is useful at any stage of the game and with any amount of influence:

• Give him none and just rely on his multiple auras to squeaky shine your team of drunks.
• Give him 1 influence and he can go second to activate his heroic + put Tooled Up on your beater of choice that turn.
• Give him 2-3 to get the ball back and kick it off to someone.
• Give him 4 to beat the living crap out of someone early or late, even better if they are KD already.

 If Tapper nukes a guy quicker than you'd expect, old drunk Spigot is waiting to make great use of Old Jake's. Hooper has to land a pass to get a 4" dodge and charge someone? Football Legend.
Want Scum to score a BM goal from nowhere as the closing play of the game? Spigot's on the case. The list goes on.

Spigot. What a hero.

Dealing with Spigot

Systematically speaking, Spigot is so amazing that it almost forces Brewers to hang out near him - this gives rise to the Brewer deathball meta, which is especially brutal on newer players coming from a wargame perspective (ie. trying to piece trade). Brewers have a lot of short ranged buffs, and when they stack them all up, things get crazy. If you force the Brewers to split up, then the effectiveness of these buffs and auras is greatly reduced. Spigot is the linchpin.

If you are facing Brewers, kill Scum. If you can't kill Scum, kill Spigot. It's the only way to be sure. He is the glue that holds the deathball together. He is amongst the squishiest of Brewer players (despite about par for the game), so seems like a pretty high value target anyway.

All his buffs are RNG 4" - Tooled Up, Football Legend, Time's Called... if he has to spend influence to run into position rather than just doing everything he wants and affecting everybody, his stock goes down significantly. He also like to activate early when he's buffing people, which he needs momentum to do. If you can push him to activate a bit later since he needs momentum to heal himself, that's half the battle.

Finally, much like other aura support models (ie. Ox, Ballista, Tower, etc.), pushing him out of position after he has activated is very powerful - Jac, Stave and Bonesaw are especially potent with large push AoEs, but even more conservative pushers like Brick, Colossus or Midas can make a big difference in reducing Spigot's effectiveness.



TL;DR - Spigot. What a legend.