M2E+Karina

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 * Karina, Outcast/Resurrectionist Totem (Tara)**

=__Overview__=

Karina was once a Resurrectionist, but a thousand years spent within Obliteration's prison shattered her mind and left her a hollow shell of the woman she once was. When Tara was assassinated, it was Karina who raised her up as an undead, though unlike most undead, the influence of Obliteration allowed Tara to retain her free will in unlife.

Karina provides support against buried models, another gunner, and with an Upgrade can provide Summoning to Tara's Crew.

=__Mobility__=

With a Walk speed of 4 and a Charge of 5, Karina isn't particularly mobile.

=__Offense__= Karina's offensive abilities are a bit...weird.

She has a Peacebringer with a decent Sh and a good damage track, as well as a subpar Bash attack that barely deals any damage at all (0/1/2). Bash would be completely forgettable, were it not for her "...in the head with a rock" trigger which immediately kills the target unless they discard two control cards or two soulstones. Karina has to deal damage for the trigger to work, though, so you'll have to at least hit moderate damage to make it effective.

The Flames of the Void tactical action allows Karina to hand out the Burning +2 Condition to every buried model that fails a TN 14 Wp duel, which can be very useful if Tara is running a crew heavy on Death Marshals. Buried models still resolve the Burning condition at the end of the turn, so this is a good way to put out lots of potential damage against buried enemies. If you only have one buried enemy, however, there might be better uses of Karina's AP.

With her Energies of the Void attack, Karina can give the Fast or Slow Condition to enemy models, but only when they're buried. This can be a good way to debuff models that have been shoved into a Pine Box by Death Marshals or buried by Tara, Void Wretches, or the Nothing Beast.

The Price of Eternity ability also deserves a mention, as it forces enemy models with the Fast condition that begin their activation within 6" of Karina to pass a TN 14 Wp duel or take 2 damage. When combined with Tara's Dead of Winter upgrade - which gives Fast enemies within 6" of Tara a -2 penalty to their Wp - this ability can rack up a startling amount of damage very quickly. It works best with Tara hanging out near Karina and using Temporal Shift to hand out Fast to a large number of enemy models.

=__Resilience__=

Karina has pretty average defensive stats and wounds for a model of her cost. Nothing special to see here.

=__Summoning__=

Karina is a summoner!

Her Shattered Memories ability allows her to discard the Red Joker when another living model is killed within 4" of her to summon an Undead Death Marshal within 4" of her. While this ability will rarely come into play, it's worth remembering, as it doesn't require any AP on Karina's part, and doesn't even require it to be her activation to use! The Death Marshal she summons comes in at full life, too, which is pretty nice.

With the free **The Faces of Oblivion** Upgrade, she can also Summon a Horror Minion within 6" as a (0) Action as long as she doesn't bury a minion. This minion comes into play without **Slow**, but at the end of the turn it takes damage equal to half its Wounds, gains **Slow** and is Buried. This is useful for a one-shot attacking model that disappears, but it's much more useful if Tara unburies the model afterward with **(1) Faces in the Void** from her **Obliteration Symbiote** Upgrade.

Models that Karina can Summon:


 * The Faces of Oblivion (Horrors):**
 * Crooligan: Since it can't Interact on the Turn it was Summoned and doesn't get the benefit of From The Shadows, there's no good reason to summon this, but you can.
 * Guild Autopsy: A hardy low-cost Minion with its own nominal summoning Ability and Poison-spreading.
 * The Drowned: A very durable melee model.
 * Punk Zombie: A high-impact blender attack model. Huge offensive potential here.
 * Student of Sinew: Good against Undead.
 * Student of Steel: Good against Constructs.
 * Student of Viscera: Good against Living models.
 * To hire Karina or Not to hire, that is the question**.

You want Karina pretty much for her summoning. Without the summoning, you would have better choices among the faction.

So the question is changed to: how efficient is Karina's summoning?

According to math and probability, in the assumption that at the beginning of each game turn, 2 cards are used for the initiative flip, thus only 52 cards remain in your fate deck.

The chance to see at least one 9+ crows from your six cards hand draw is: 1 - C(47,6)/C(52,6) = **47.25%**

The chance to see at least one 11+ crows from your six cards hand draw is: 1 - C(49,6)/C(52,6) = **31.3%**

The chance to see at least one 12+ crows from your six cards hand draw is : 1- C(50,6)/C(52,6) = **21.9%**

As a side note, with Hannah and her built-in Arcane Reservoir (Or her sister Anna Lovelace's rush of magic), your chance to get crows are slightly better.

The chance to see at least one 9+ crows from your seven cards hand draw is: 1 - C(47,7)/C(52,7) = **53%**

The chance to see at least one 11+ crows from your seven cards hand draw is: 1 - C(49,7)/C(52,7) = **36%**

The chance to see at least one 12+ crows from your seven cards hand draw is : 1- C(50,7)/C(52,7) = **25%**


 * In other words, on average luck, your chance to summon a punk zombie is 1 out of 5 game turns. With the help from either Hannah or Anna, the chance is slightly increased to 1 out of 4 game turns.**


 * So is Karina really worth the 5 Soul Stones investment?**

For me, the answer is a sadly **NO**. Unlike Resser summoner masters, Karina cannot burn Soul Stones for the much needed crows. A totem that costs 5 stones needs to offer much more than a sub-par summoning potential. For ressers, Toshiro is a better choice albeit his increase in Soul Stones cost.

=__Tips and Tricks__=

Tara has multiple playstyles and Karina supports each of them, though it can be difficult to get what you want out of her sometimes. If you're spamming Fast to debuff the opponent's models, then Price of Eternity can be very useful in forcing the opponent to take extra damage just for being fast. If you're burying lots of enemy models via Death Marshals, then Flames of the Void is very handy for throwing extra damage onto them while they're buried.

If you draw into the Red Joker, give some thought as to whether or not you want to save it to trigger Shattered Memories or not. A Death Marshal appearing out of nowhere can be a huge help in a game, and the ability is so rare that most of your opponents won't take it into consideration when they're planning out their turns. On the other hand, you don't want to hold onto the red joker for an entire game just in the hopes of getting a Death Marshal out of it when you could be using it for something more important.

=__Upgrades__=

As one of the few Enforcer Totems, Tara can take a single Upgrade.

The Faces of Oblivion
Released with Crossroads and available in the Wave 2 Outcasts Arsenal Deck. This is a zero cost Upgrade with a lot of utility. It allows you to hire a Nothing Beast or Void Wretch as a Resurrectionist, or a Guild Autopsy as an Outcast, which frees up an Upgrade slot for Tara.

More importantly, it adds Summoning functionality to a Tara Crew. You can summon Horror Minions as a (0) Action.

As a 0 soulstone cost, this is practically an auto-include if you're hiring Karina.

Long Forgotten Magics
Karina's original Upgrade. When a model would be killed, you may discard a card to sacrifice instead. Conditionally useful, but it's not as powerful as her free Upgrade.

Notable Outcast Upgrades
Generally, it's better to take **The Faces of Oblivion** instead, since it's free and very good, but you have other options.
 * Scramble** can increase her speed. **Oath Keeper** can give extra actions or Scheme Markers.

Notable Resurrectionist Upgrades
Generally, it's better to take** The Faces of Oblivion **instead, since it's free and very good, but you have other options. ** Unnerving Aura ** can spread damage. **Transfusion** can spread Poison.

=__Playing Against Karina__=

Karina isn't particularly dangerous in most scenarios, but she can suddenly become a thorn in your side if Tara starts to spam Fast around her or bury lots of your models with her Death Marshals. Fortunately, she's not too difficult to kill if it comes down to it.

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