Model Review- Lucas McCabe, Tomb Delver and Corpse Curator

 One of the newer reveals for the next Malifaux book, bringing one of the Masters I was most looking forward to- McCabe. My favourite crew to play in Ten Thunders, and one I played almost exclusively for a lot of 2020, anything new for Wastrel is something will always be very excited for. 

The new version of McCabe has a lot to like, and he loses the horse for a whole lot of really awesome versatility. Extended Reach is to be expected with his whip, and Depths of Malifaux has shown up on a lot of his keyword already but is also something to note as really great because it means most forms of terrain won't stop his crews from doing what they want to, and while he loses Looted Supplies he gains Claim the Riches which does the same thing but better (it also gives Shielded 1 and can trigger off any markers except for schemes). He plays really nicely with his Artifacts as well, because any friendly model that has one will create a 5" bubble around them where enemies get -1 to their attacks which is amazing and you can really play around with Artifacts in a defensive sense instead of just throwing the sword on things and watching them blend. Treasure Hunter lets you take a bonus action from an Artifact when you end your activation (meaning you also get another bonus action, so he can attach one to himself and then use an action from it anyway) and then you also have the choice to chuck it to another Wastrel or Minion within Aura 5 and gain Shielded on both McCabe and the recipient. Passing it off is a choice so if you want to keep something on McCabe for any reason (mainly for Life Leech) you don't have to give it away, although Shielded +1 and likely also Fast is very hard to pass up. If it hasn't already become obvious, my favourite upgrade to pass around with this version of McCabe is the Phantasmal Mask because it lets you play an aggressive defence where you can dive in and really mess with the opponent's plans with making their attacks less reliable (and then lower damage from Shielded) while you tick down their health as well via Life Leech which is amazing all around. Treasure Trove also has some really great triggers, because Jackpot! gives you potential for a ton of Focused in the crew which is always good, or Tomb Curse to force a bunch of duels mid-game that give out Stunned which hurts a lot in the right matchups. 

Take What You Can Carry is quite easily my favourite part of new McCabe's card and it makes an already great scheming crew ridiculously powerful in this regard. For a 6 of any suit, you can make any Wastrel on the table (but still in LoS) move 2" and take an Interact action at the cost of gaining Staggered (in effect making it once per turn per model). Staggered can be potentially a bit of a downside, but your good scheme runners in keyword (Desper, Hucksters and Rough Riders) have ways to get around this with their extra movement abilities that don't care about what their Mv stat is at all. Each trigger heals 2 on the target, but ending a condition or dropping a Scrap are both directly applicable in a lot of cases so you'll often want to use them. Using this is a great way to extend your movement and/or get into places you need to that you might not have had the AP on other models to get to and is really a game winner all by itself. The interactions that are the most immediately noticeable are with strategies, because this works great with Symbols of Authority and Break the Line (this one especially because you can just force it really deep quite easily). 

McCabe has 2 attack actions and both seem to be consistently low damage, although they are consistent in their damage and both have potential to control spaces on the table either for your models or the opponents. His Pepperbox is 2/3/4 damage with blasts on every level, which combined with giving everyone damaged Stunned you can spread out some really nice debuffs and chip out damage over a wide amount of models if the opponent bunches up. The Mask trigger on it to move any friendly model in LoS up to 3" in any direction is really great because it just lets you play with movement even better while damaging the opponent, giving you really nice angles and even synergising with Take What You Can Carry nicely to get into places where they need to score schemes or strategies. His Bleeder Lash is min 3, which alone is great, although it only goes up to 3/3/4 so doesn't spike very well although it is consistent on the lower level. 2" range, stat 6 with a possible positive flip is very good though, and he can kill models well enough with it. Combined with the sword to have him ignoring a bunch of defensive tech it becomes even better, and although the same can be said for almost anything he does have one of the highest min damages in his keyword so he is a good choice to keep it. Although he doesn't have the pulse duels and basic movement of the mounted McCabe he does keep something a bit similar, with his Ram trigger Crack the Whip to push enemies in his engagement range away from him and give them a little extra bit of damage, meaning he will potentially be min 4 on his target and pulsing damage (and forcing movement) for everyone else which plays well with a lot of schemes. Overall this new version of McCabe trades being able to very effectively operate solo for buffing up his crew a really good amount, like a lot of the new wave Masters being crew buffers instead of efficient by themselves (be that as beaters or schemers)

The Corpse Curator is an interesting piece in Wastrel crews although like a lot of the latest wave it is largely a piece that will be seen sometimes as a tech piece when needed. It is pretty good defensively for 6SS and Drag Behind and Dredge Up both give it a good niche in terms of getting markers where they need to be for Looted Supplies to trigger, and being able to make an attack off of Dredge Up is more just a nice thing to have rather than the main intention of it. In terms of anti-marker tech it also works well because it effects any non-scheme and you can move a lot of the more annoying markers that aren't Destructible out of the way to a place they're just useless which is almost as good as removing them anyway. Its melee attack is quite weak in Wastrel generally (it makes Netgun McCabe a bit better, but I wouldn't rate that super highly as far as interactions go) although the trigger on it does have some quite funny interactions with Symbiotic Relationship (enemy takes possible 2 damage from the Poison from it) being able to remove any marker (same as Wrastlers and Mancha Roja, but slightly less universally useful being on a trigger). Cursed Sludge is decent mid-game when the Curator can get into a scrum (but it is almost always applicable in Experimental) and affect a bunch of enemy models with Poison. The Tome trigger for Scrap drop is always nice, and Leaking Fluids could be useful just to make certain parts of the table more annoying for the opponent but is really more applicable for McMourning. The real big reason you take the Curator though is for Animated Remains, which lets you use it as a Scrap or Corpse marker (meaning it triggers Looted Supplies for free card draw) and you can deal 2 damage to it when you would normally remove a Scrap for Artefacts which isn't bad, but I don't find it hugely useful unless you want high amounts of Artefacts out without also generating a high amount of Scrap. There are definitely a lot of uses for the Corpse Curator, but in general I think it is mostly something you take when you feel like you really need the marker bonuses but otherwise I don't think it is massively essential for Wastrel crews.