Malifaux Season 2 Errata- My Thoughts

 With Gaining Grounds Season 2 also comes a new errata for the season, and with it some really big changes. I won't go deep into all of it but I will try and give an opinion on it all, and some of the bigger ones that affect me personally I will talk about more in-depth. Those models that I have already mentioned in my previous tactica I will talk about mostly here as a lot of them have changed in big ways. 

General Changes

The big one here is Focus and Distracted. They cancel each other now, but Focus can only be stacked to 2 while Distracted has no limit. The buff to Distracted makes a lot of keywords that relied on it a lot better now (Performer, Qi and Gong, even a lot of Redchapel) and Focus stacking isn't the easy decision it used to be. 

Summoning now gives any model summoned a token that treats them as having a summoned upgrade, so things that trigger off upgrades or kill summons outright now have a whole lot more use

Additional Master hires are now capped at half the list total, which means effectively a cap of 2 masters (3 if Viktorias). Five Guys in Outcasts is dead and we mourn the loss

Outcasts

Leveticus got a huge spanking in a lot of ways, but he is still Leveticus in spirit. He has less health when he respawns, and less ways to burn through his wounds for benefits, but he still hits insanely hard (and his melee stat went from 5 to 6 which is great) and is still the respawning beater he always was, just takes some more finesse to keep him alive and his ceiling for damage is lower. 

Big Jake changed in a very interesting way, with his respawn after death now being a Demise Ability (meaning it can be ignored now) but also being any turn, although once per game. It means he has more table presence if he dies early on and can do a bit more, but it also means there are a lot more ways to counter him from coming back. 

Now for the huge change, and one I love a lot- Talos. For such a minor thing (+1 Df and Wp) his survivability has gone way up and made him a real choice IMO, and his attacks now synergise a lot better with the crew as well. His hammer being able to attack buried models is very welcome and brings him in line with the rest of the keyword, while the loss of Glimpse the Void and replacement with Void Maw is also really nice because it still works, but it lets him play with all his toys a bit more. All in all I love this change and I'm taking Talos a lot more now. 

Wanted Criminal got a complete rewrite from being crap to being a funny situational take that works pretty well. Disguised for Minions is amazing and I love the potential for what it can do, but Free Loot is also useful in a lot of places (not really Bandit, Obliteration or Infamous, but Mercenary and even Amalgam get a lot out of it). Escape Plan is also hilarious because it makes things so much faster, especially in places like Mercenary or on Prospectors where they can be stacked with other abilities for movement bonuses.

Scavengers got nerfed so they won't be seen in every Outcast crew OOK, but they're still decent enough in Amalgam as a support piece that I can see one of in a crew. In general this is a healthy change to stop All Stars forming again. 

Another "death to All Stars" move that I really appreciate, the Midnight Stalker had a big hit to his survivability and a few of his other traits were reworked as well. He now no longer can gain keywords, but Face in the Crowd makes a lot more sense for how the character works and Work of Art is a really nice thematic ability that will trigger on himself far more often than Threaten did which is a very good change. 

Ten Thunders

McCabe. This one is really big because it almost completely changes the playstyle of one of my favourite masters, but I understand why it needed to happen. Losing built in Rear Up and Make Way! being removed entirely seriously cut down his damage potential, and him moving enemies and not himself with the bullwhip is less insane mobility. He went down 2 wounds so he’s easier to kill, but the bonuses he got are great. Being able to put upgrades back onto himself now is great for keeping them moving, and giving every keyword model -2 to their TNs is massive in a lot of ways- Desper’s Leap, Hucksters in general. The keyword and McCabe crews now are pretty good IMO and they’re mostly geared towards being a real scheme crew instead of just having their master melt the enemy crew under a dozen duels

Youko got a rewrite, and she has some actual actions to do now which seem to do enough to make her pretty great all together. 

Sun Quiang nerfs are fine, he still does most of what he did before anyway but just isn't as difficult to take out as he used to be and he doesn't heal quite as much as he did. 

Yan Lo got really slowed down on recycling his own models, which I feel like is a way of Wyrd keeping it to the theme of him being able to just bring back his crew from death instead of deliberately killing them for greater benefit to yourself. Ash Ascendant also changed, losing built in hazardous and concealment for 2 triggers on the action to add hazardous or concealment. This is another way of slowing down his efficiency and making him work for a lot more which I don’t have much of an issue with

Trained Ninja replacing From the Shadows for Flick of the Wrist reduces a lot of alpha potential for Thunders overall, and moving Stealth to minion only means a lot of things that wanted it before (I’m mainly thinking about Mr Tannen here) don’t have a huge use for it. Flick of the Wrist is ok, but it’s definitely situational and Trained Ninja in general is now a lot more niche

Bayou

So'mer Teeth Jones got a few tweaks so that his summoning and the crew's blasting potential isn't insanely oppressive, but really he is still quite good. Bayou Two Card being activation only is a small change (outside of the sheer amount of out of activation shooting So'mer can do), but it means the Lucky Effigy/Emissary has a real place now with it's bonus action as well. 

Sparks is now a henchman (gone are the days of breaking All Out Brawl) and he changed a lot otherwise as well. Scrapyard Mines has a bit less reach with it being only the markers now and not auras around scrap, but it’s still definitely useful. Pack With Explosives is also now gone (and Bombs In Yer Belly with it) replaced with a trigger on Now Yer A Robot, which itself had a lot of changes. Under Pressure and Burnout, both previously excellent triggers, are now sadly gone but Pack With Explosives and Galvanise are both very useful for the crew. Sparks being a henchman also now means he can lead crews, and having 2 keywords he is a very very interesting option to take. Tricksy and Foundry have some interesting synergies with each other and I’m looking forward to putting it on the table myself. Command Construct in keywords with a ton of constructs and especially on a model that can make models constructs is excellent to have as your only bonus action

Resurrectionists

Schtook and Undergraduates both took big hits which make the crew a lot more healthy to play against and stop the insanely high alpha strike potential they used to have. He can't give Valedictorian Fast any more, Undergrads can't teleport across the table any more so they have to all walk up, and Academic Broadcast got kneecapped in terms of its huge amount of bonuses (now being once per turn and an either or bonus, not both). They'll still be an awesome crew to play and really good, but they aren't as oppressively strong as they were before. 

Ikiryo got a bit of wording cleaned up, likely so she still works with either version of Kirai now that titles are on the way. 

Lampads got a bit of a rework where some things are worse, some are better. Overall it's a positive change I think that will make them see more table time.

Necropunks Leap got both easier and harder. They lost the mask, but went up to a 6 from a 4 so it needs lower cards to get off but it needs the suit so they aren't moving around quite as quickly. With both Amalgam and Transmortis getting nerfs it was highly likely that their best scheme runners would be nerfed too and here we are. 

Madam Sybelle got a big buff, and it should be enough that she has a definite niche now in keyword, but I know a lot of people are still preaching her uselessness. She went from a mediocre beater/tank IMO to a support piece, and the support that she does give is useful when the situation presents itself (especially with Claim Jump back, she can stop it being scored fairly easily)

Toshiro got changed slightly to be a bit more restricted in his actions, but I'm not really sure on how badly this affects him. I always saw him as more of a support piece for a minion-heavy Yan Lo crew as opposed to the mainly named character lists, so I guess with this idea in mind the change is very minor. 

Guild

Reichart got the buffs he finally deserved, and is now a decent piece in a Basse crew with a lot of synergies. Execute on his claws was something he should've had from the start, and him getting additional ways to attack while doing things the crew wants (Kick Up Dust) is really good for him to have

Phiona Gage nerfs are a hit to Guild All Stars and really happened because she was being taken everywhere. She is reworked into being a Journalist piece that can potentially be decent in other keywords, which is good because she didn't have a huge amount of synergy before with her keyword. 

Neverborn

Bowman and Dreamer nerfs, pretty much expected. Not being able to summon Stitched Together is massive, but also probably not a bad idea all things considered. 

Arcanists

Kandara is a slight wording change so you can't draw jokers, just a clean change to be in line with a lot of other similar abilities. 

Mech Rider giving a model a second activation has now changed a lot, with it being cost 8 or less (so no reactivating your biggest beaters or the Rider itself) and the activation has to be immediately after the Rider ends its activation. Still undeniably a very strong ability, especially with how rare reactivates are in 3E, but it got curbed in its oppressiveness. 

Magical Training being living only is a big change but it stops some of the more commonly-seen combinations for it

Colette lost a lot of stats and in general just has to work more for what she had before. Not having built in Df trigger hurts but it’s fair, and her sword being 3” range was honestly a bit silly anyway and it makes more sense thematically at 2” like most longer range melee attacks. She also lost range on a bunch of other things so she doesn’t have as huge a reach, so overall she is going to be in the danger zone a lot more instead of being able to safely do whatever she wants