Myranda

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 * [[image:https://wyrd-games.net/shop/images/P/Beastmistress.jpg width="300" height="626" align="right"]]Myranda, Arcanist Minion**

=__Overview__= Myranda is an oddity among characters in Malifaux, in that she has the (so far) unique ability to transform into other models. In addition to this, she is a powerful spellcaster who is fast moving and can be quite powerful in close combat as well.

Conventionally, Myranda does not appear to have all that much synergy with the rest of the Marcus box set. This, however, does not take into account her flexibility, especially in relation to other Arcanist masters.

Her main utility is in the use of Transform and tricks and subtleties to do with this, and as such this article will focus not only on her utility in her own form, but what her Transform spell brings to the crew. Also, the use of her Animal Instincts spell also brings a huge amount of utility to the crew.

=__Transform__= Myrandas Transform spell is the bedrock of her utility, and learning how and when to use it is integral to her use as a minion.

Transform is a (1) spell which requires the use of a 9 or better of tomes. When cast, you select a non unique model which has a soulstone cost of 8 or less and the Beast Characteristic listed on their stat card. Myranda then transforms into this model, which works as a Replace effect, meaning you place the new Beast model in base contact with the Myranda model, apply all effects and wounds to it, and then remove the Myranda model.

While Transformed, Myranda effectively replaces her stat card with that of the Beast, with the exception of its spells, gaining any Talents and Abilities listed. In this way, she becomes a hugely effective toolbox, giving any Arcanist Master access to a huge range of minions that would normally not be available, as well as allowing the circumvention of Rare limits in certain cases (Goblyn13's Explanation on Transform).

As of Twisting Fates, there are a substantial number of Beasts which Myranda can transform into, as listed below:
 * Guild Hound
 * The Guild Hound is a fast moving objective grabber that works really well in Packs. While Myranda gains benefits from being near other Hounds, they do not gain the same benefits from her due to the wording on some of the abilities.
 * Lawyer
 * The Lawyer gives a good spellcaster to the crew, which has a lot of very interesting abilities, which are unfortunately spells. While Myranda *can* transform into one, it is generally better to transform into something else and then use Animal Instincts to cast some of the Lawyers spells. One big thing is that it can be used to give Hard to Wound 2 to friendly models, which greatly increases their durability.
 * Night Terror
 * The Night Terror fills a fast moving objective grabber role in the crew, as it is both fast moving an significant. Its triggers allow control over enemy attacks to some degree, and it helps in scenarios where you need many fast moving models. Myranda gains many of the benefits of Night terrors, but care must be taken not to transform when she is wounded.
 * Shikome
 * The Shikome is a very fast, hard hitting model which can do a lot of damage against a single target. It is quite durable with high defense, Spirit and 7 wounds. Myranda gains a lot of speed and melee based abilities upon transformation, and these are particularly good at taking out expensive targets.
 * Razorspine Rattler
 * The Rattler is a lightning quick attacker, with some very nice triggers allowing movement shennanigans and Poison counters. It can also charge a huge distance as a (1) action, giving Myranda some nice offensive clout and mobility.
 * Slate Ridge Mauler
 * The Mauler is a vicious melee target which is also relatively tough. It gets harder hitting as it takes wounds, and can really put the hurt out. Myranda transforming into one of these gets around the Rare 1 limit on the beasty, and gives access to its hard hitting melee abilities.
 * Sabertooth Cerberus
 * The Ceberus is another hard hitting beast, which can really put the hurt out. Its Stalker ability helps with its movement, and its long charge range help get down to business. its Threeheaded ability also means that so long as it isnt too badly damaged, it can do quite a number of hard hitting attacks. Myranda generally transforms into this to take advantage of Threeheaded, which stacks with Melee expert as well.
 * Hoarcat Pride
 * The Hoarcat Pride is a fast moving, hard hitting model which can be hard to pin down due to Evasive, an average Wk, Harmless and Pass Through, along with it being Ht 1. On Severe damage with a Crow in the attack, it can do a huge 8 Dg. It can also Devour living models, sacrificing them. Myranda tends to transform to give a lone Pride the casting bonus from Voracious, and to give another hard to pin down melee beatstick.
 * Malifaux Raptor
 * The Raptor gives a very fast moving, cheap model to the crew. its triggers give some card control, as well as turning models into Beasts, and it becomes significant in groups. Myranda can transform into these in order to do her Caster Clone schtick, or to make a small group of these significant.
 * Moleman
 * The moleman is the epitome of walking armor. Its abilities allow it to get up to a whopping Armor +9, and this makes it perfect for Treasure Hunters and other models that need to stay alive. Myranda can transform into these to give her some much needed resilience, although at the expense of speed.
 * Waldgeist
 * The Walgeist is a fast moving, relatively hard hitting minion which is also fairly resilient due to Armor 2 and Perfect Camouflage. Myranda can use this to give some mobility to the crew while also getting tougher.
 * Silurid
 * The silurid gives a fast moving medium hitter that works really well in groups, and suffers if out of range of another silurid. Myranda can use the speed and good combat abilities to put the hurt out on enemy models.
 * Gupps
 * small silurids, the Gupps give the crew a means of moving other silurids around. Myranda can use this to Wail, and bring silurids from all over to a central point via chain Leaps.
 * Spawn Mother
 * The Spawn mother is a tougher, harder hitting Silurid which can generate Gupps via corpse counters, as well as preventing damage due to Unstable Evolution. Myranda can take advantage of the increased toughness and melee prowess, but loses out on a lot of the utility with regards Gupps generation and Unstable Evolution.

Some of these Transform targets are more useful than others, with the major targets being the following:
 * Shikome
 * Razorspine Rattler
 * Slate Ridge Mauler
 * Sabertooth Cerberus
 * Malifaux Raptor
 * Waldgeist
 * Silurid

=__Mobility__= Myranda herself is quite mobile, with a walk off 5 and Scout. This is only the beginning, however, as her transform targets expand this mobility: When transformed into the Shikome, Myranda retains a high walk, but also gains Spirit, Flight and (+1) Nimble, meaning in the turn that she transforms, she can walk, Transform, and then Nimble further. Transforming into a Raptor brings high movement and Flight, however its low durability means it is inadvisable to remain transformed past the end of Myranda's activation. __**Rattler**__ While the Rattler has a relatively slow walk, its Serpent Strike ability, coupled with its Lightning Quick trigger and Spiny Growths means that in a target rich environment it can move respectably fast. While transformed, Myranda retains her high walk and Scout.
 * __Shikome__**
 * __Raptor__**
 * __Waldgeist__**

=__Offense__= Myranda herself initially has a weak offensive attack, with only Cb 4 and 1/2/4 damage. However, with a Poison 2 trigger and a (0) spell which can up the damage to 2/3/5, as well as Melee Expert, she can do quite a bit of damage, if she can hit.

Her major offensive arsenal, however, comes from models that she can transform into:

__**Ceberus**__ When transformed into the Ceberus, Myranda gains access to its high damage attacks, high Cb and Threeheaded, meaning that she can potentially do a huge amount of damage via Claw and Bite Strikes. For more information, check out the Ceberus page itself. The Rattler brings a good melee attack as well as a ranged attack (albeit at lower Cb). Both of these, however, can benefit from a Poison 2 trigger.This with its Serpent Strike ability, coupled with its Lightning Quick trigger and Spiny Growth mean you can Charge, hit, push out of combat, and Charge the same or another target, all with + flips to damage due to Charging. On forest rich boards, the Waldgeist's Claw attack coupled with its Haunted Forest ability gives it a large threat range with decent damage. When transformed into the Silurid, Myranda gains all of the silurid's benefits, namely its high damage melee attacks, as well as the (0) actions Blood Frenzy and Self Preservation, which allow extra attacks and allow Myranda to push out of combat respectively. While transformed into the Hoarcat Pride Myranda has high damage Cb 5 melee attacks, which can be increased by the Rip Throat Trigger, as well as gaining Melee Expert. While transformed into the Shikome, Myranda gains a high damage, high Cb melee attack as well as some very nice triggers and the ability to choose Wp or Df to target. In addition, if you have used (all) New Prey, then you gain the benefits of + flips on attacks and damage, as well as Fast, against your chosen Prey. forthcoming.
 * __Rattler__**
 * __Waldgeist__**
 * __Silurid__**
 * __Hoarcat Pride__**
 * __Shikome__**
 * __Slate Ridge Mauler__**

=__Resilience__= Myranda by herself is sadly not too resilient, with only 8 wounds and a defense of 5. This is mitigated somewhat by access to the healing spell Primal Flame, although its high casting cost (an 8 of rams when in her own form) means that it cannot be depended on to keep her alive.

Her resilience can be increased by transforming into the Moleman, Waldgeist or Shikome, with the added armor or Spirit reducing incoming damage quite heavily.

One thing that you should note and be careful of when transforming is the total Wounds of the target beast. If the Beast in question has fewer than 8 wounds you need to watch out, as transforming into something with fewer total wounds than wounds Myranda has already suffered will kill her instantly.

=__Tips and Tricks__= Myranda has a variety of different tricks she can use, some of which are below:

Caster clone
With the advent of the Malifaux Raptor, Myranda has a very nice option available, which becomes even more useful when used with Ramos or Tina. This requires 2 Tomes suit cards at a minimum.

What you do is you start first turn by transforming Myranda into a Malifaux Raptor, using your second AP to hit the respective master with a Tome suit card, and trigger the Enrage Trigger, before using Myranda's remaining (0) action to revert.

What this does is give the model hit the Beast characteristic for the rest of the encounter. When combined with Myranda's high Ca, Furious Casting and Animal Instincts, it means that you can use this to increase the range and double the offensive firepower of your master, either through casting Electrical Fire or Decembers Curse. It is also relatively useful for Magicians Duel, but the short range and high mobility of Colette makes this less than optimal.

Shikome-faux
This trick requires a minimum of 2 turns to become fully effective with anyone other than Marcus. What you do is you transform into a Shikome first turn, and use your Nimble and remaining AP to find a safe location for the next turn. Turn 2, you take the (all) New Prey action to select a Prey with Myranda, generally the opponents master or high SS cost minion. From this point, you effectively have a guided missile that can really do some damage, especially as most high value targets will may be getting close to engagement range. Be careful not to send Myranda in unsupported however, as she can be quite a glass cannon by herself.

Goblyn13's Myranda-torpedo
This requires 2 turns to become effective, but can hand out a huge amount of damage if it gets off. It also requires at very least 2 high Tomes (one each turn) to get off. It is advisable to attempt this late (or last, if you can manage it) in the turn, and aim to get initiative the next turn.

Initially, you Transform into a Rattler. You spend your second AP this turn doing whatever - moving into a suitable location to set up next turn, or simply Serpent Striking with Lightning Quick to put some damage onto a nearby model this turn. Next turn, you (1) Charge a target as the Rattler, then (0) Revert to return to Myranda's native form. You then use (1) Melee Expert on Myranda, followed by (1) Shapechange into a Ceberus, finishing up with (2) attacks from Two-Headed. If all of these attacks hit, you will be putting out 9 damage at a minimum, assuming all Weak hits. With all Severe's, this jumps to 19 damage. This can also be done with a Slate Ridge Mauler, though you shouldn't use Myranda's Melee Expert in this case. Unlike the Cerberus which is much less dangerous after suffering a half wounds, the Mauler becomes much more dangerous after suffering half wounds.

Zoraida-Splat
This is a relatively simple use of Transform. You follow the method outlined in Shikome-faux, but when you choose a Prey you target Zoraida. What this does is it limits what Zoraida can do to damage your own crew, as the very most an Obeyed Shikome-Myranda can do is Move (as it cannot target any model other than its Prey, in this case, Zoraida).

Spellcasting
When transformed, Myranda retains her Animal Instincts spell. By transforming into selected Beasts, this allows you to use (1) spells listed on beasts nearby. Some good targets for this are Lawyers, Ceberii (Roar), and McTavish (Wrangle Critter). One thing to be aware of though is that when casting spells in this manner you require both the casting requirements of the target spell, as well as a Tomes in order to initially cast Animal Instincts.You don't have to pick the spell you want to cast with animal instincts until you have your casting total allowing you to wait and see what suits you have.

=__Master-Specific Tips__=

Marcus
Myranda does not really provide much synergy with Marcus' normal crews, as she basically gives a utility which is already present due to Marcus' Beastmaster rule. You can circumvent rare restrictions with this, but this only really becomes effective at higher soulstone games (40+) or if Rare 1 creatures are in use (Spawn Mother and Slate Ridge Mauler in particular).

She does provide another source for Primal Flame, and expands the Spellcasting aspects of the crew, but these are both card intensive techniques for Myranda in a Marcus crew.

Ramos, Colette and Tina
Myranda gives access to the toolbox flexibility as discussed above, as well as offering the chance to take advantage of her Caster Clone technique. This flexibility really aids these crews in many matchups, giving access to a minion that can be fast moving, hard hitting, and sometimes quite resilient as well.

With Colette, however, Myranda's Caster Clone technique is less efficient, as her high mobility makes it difficult to take full advantage of this without handicapping Colette's crew.

=Minion-Specific Tips= Myranda has nice synergy with any beast minion that can cast damage or morale spells due to Furious Casting and Animal Instincts. In particular, the Ceberus' Roar spell is particularly nice in that it really messes with Living models, forcing them to Fall back as if they had lost a Morale Duel. What this does is that it gets around immunities to Morale Duels, such as those offered by Frozen Heart.

=__Playing Against Myranda__= Myranda is relatively easy to kill, with only 8 wounds and a defense of 5 in her native form. She is very much a glass cannon, and if unsupported should be relatively easy to take down with focused fire.

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