Jack+Daw

include page="inc_1.5rules" **Jack Daw, Outcast Minion** toc (Work in Progress! Rathnard)

=__Overview__= Jack Daw is not a minion for players new to the game. He actually has more rules than many Masters, and his mere presence on the board tends to strongly dictate the flow of the game, from how you build your crew to how your opponent reacts to him and how you both set out to achieve victory. Jack works in a way that's completely different to most other models. He exists completely outside the concept of damage, both in terms of dealing and recieving, and instead focusses on control cards for his offensive and defensive Talents and Spells.

Jack Daw is unique in the Malifaux Range in that his initial model & card was released before the book containing his rules (Rising Powers). Aside from a slight errata to Undying and renaming the melee attack, both the card and book are functionally the same. But for the purpose of this article, I'll be referring to the most recently printed rules, which is what's found in Rising Powers.

=__Mobility__= Jack Daw's mobility is very decent, with a Wk5, Float and Spirit enabling him to ignore most obstructions that may get in his way. The lack of additional specific AP (eg. Nimble, Melee Expert etc) means that he does tend to be relatively static. With only 2AP, any Wk you take will effectively halve his offensive output and as explained below, Jack Daw is the kind of minion who wants to be attacking models as often as possible.

=__Offense__= Jack Daw's offense comes down to a series of attacks that force your opponent to discard his cards, and Severed Ties - an Aura that more or less defecates all over any model within 6".

Ancient Words and Suppressed Memories
For all intents and purposes, the only difference between these attacks is whether it's melee or ranged, so they'll be discussed together.

Hangman's Knot
Because this is a spell, Jack Daw will need to cheat down his total and announce any triggers before yoru opponent flips his/her resist.

Severed Ties
This is arguably THE most frightening offensive trick in Jack Daw's arsenel. The suit requirement means you won't always be able to cast it but if you can, it's effect, plus the fact that it can't be resisted can spell horrible, horrible death for any model caught in the aura. A common tactic is to cast the (0) Severed Ties and then Wk right up to whatever key model/s you want to get rid of. You can then use your own ranged minions to pick off those models within the Aura with relatively little difficulty. This is particularly effective against Masters, who may rely on their soulstones.

Doomed
Jacks other (0) action isn't a spell, but simply gives all models within a 4" aura -1 to their resisting stat vs spells and -1 to their defending stat against melee and ranged attacks until the end of turn. Note that that this will also affect your own models, but it won't affect non-melee, non-ranged and non-spell actions such as the Stitched Together's Gamble for your Life or Pandora's Incite/Pacify actions. Doomed is a great way to make your opponents models more vulnerable to attacks from Jack Daw and the rest of your crew, although it's strictly inferior to the sheer devestation of Severed Ties.

So why even bother using Doomed? Well for one it's not a spell, meaning it's not vulnerable to spell neutralising effects like Disrupt Magic. And if you don't have a high enough card with the required suit then you're often best off resorting to a guaranteed Doomed action rather than flipping for Severed Ties and hoping for the best. Also if your opponent is already unable to cheat or use soulstones (either due to an empty hand or a Bewitch from Zoraida), then Doomed will be a more effective choice. A Doomed action is more friendly to your own models within the Aura than Severed Ties, so if you yourself want to engage enemy models within the aura then it might be better to throw up a Doomed and make sure you can cheat with your own models too. Finally, Doomed is more conducive to encouraging your opponent to cheat cards. So if you're trying to empty your opponents hand, you'll have more success by using the Doomed action than Severed Ties.

=__Resilience__= The first thing people notice about Jack Daw, aside from his massive list of Talents and Spells, is the lack of a Wd Stat. Jack Daw doesn't take damage like other models, instead relying on two Talents to dictate whether he lives or dies - Oldest of Magics and Undying.

Oldest of Magics / Undying
Oldest of Magics enables Jack to ignore any wounds he suffers unless from a magical or focused attack. With Undying, if Jack takes any wounds, he is killed unless you discard a card from your hand. Together, it means that Jack Daw will ignore most attacks that can be directed against him and for those that he can't, he only needs to discard a card to ensure he isn't killed. Naturally, this makes Jack an incredibly difficult model to kill, just so long as you make sure you still have cards in hand!

Jack Daw's Big Weakness
While Undying will keep Jack relatively safe from wounding attacks, it says nothing about effects that dont deal wounds at all. Paralyse, sacrifice and kill effects are all a major threat to Jack Daw since he has no way of easilly getting around them, and other effects like Lure or Obey, depending on the situation, could be equally debilitating. Fortunately, Jack's Wp7 is pretty fearsome, and his Ca is not terrible. The nastiest non-damage spells are going to target those stats so if you can keep a high card in hand and the caster isn't burning a soulstone then you're chances of resisting aren't terrible. But anything requiring a Df resist is going to be much more of a challenge. The best thing to do when facing effects like these is to know which models can do them, and then do your best to either keep Jack away from them or just tie up, distract or kill them before they can do anything to Jack.

Betrayed
Jack Daw and Killjoy should hang out, because it's pretty clear that they both have some kind of grudge against the Neverborn! When resisting spells, Mask Suit cards count as a 0 for Jack Daw. This is usually not a big deal, since most of the time those spells will be doing damage and Jack need only discard a card to ignore that damage anyway. But as above, Jack is still vulnerable to non-damage effects, especially things like paralyse, sacrifice and kill effects.

=__Tips and Tricks__=

Jack Daw hates you and wants to kill you
Jack Daw may be amazing, but all this power comes at a price.

Jack Daw is a scheme
Jack Daw's Talent, Kill Scheme, is one of the reasons he can become such a central part of any game he's in. Basically if he kills one or more models himself, you get 1VP. If your opponent kills Jack Daw, s/he gets 1VP.

Everyone forgets Terrifying
It's true! With so many crews packed to the brim with non-living models, Terrifying tends to end up being an overlooked talent. Still, Jack Daw's Terrifying 13 stat is impressive, especially if you also have Severed Ties up to prevent any cheating or Soulstone use. But if nothing else Terrifying can force your opponent to cheat some extra cards to prevent nearby models from running away.

=__Master-Specific Tips__=

Zoraida
Zoraida is a very good match for Jack Daw. For one, she's a very card-efficient Master, rarely needing to make defensive flips of her own and with a play style that doesn't necessarilly rely on making lots of attacks (and thus needing to boost cast/attack flips) on enemy models. Obey allows you to get the most out of Jack Daw's discard attacks and if you're particularly concerned about Betrayer, Zoraida could always

And if that isn't enough? Try using Jack Daw with Avatar Zoraida - the undisputed Queen of Card Control. The trigger for her Pins and Needles Spell can net her up to 5 cards per casting and she has access to a variety of other spells and abilities that will allow you to either draw additional cards or reduce your need to cheat. The only disadvantage is that unlike regular Zoraida, her Avatar tends to rely more heavily on those Mask cards to do her thing. So she'll be competing for them with Jack and his Heart Stopper Trigger.

Seamus
Insert OSOI (or someone else) here...

Leveticus
Leveticus and Jack are peas in a pod. Together they form a nearly unstoppable combination of death and in turn be nigh impossible to kill. Imagine this, Jack Daw casting Severed Ties and marching right into the core of your opponent. They strike him causing cards to fly out of your hand. Then you activate Levi, he not only has the most devastating offensive spells in the game, which you opponent can now do nothing about due to Severed Ties, but you also gets a card every time he successfully casts a spell, making Jack even harder to kill! This effectively protects Jack Daw, and lets Levi filter the deck. Levi also has an ability which lets him look at the top 3 cards of the deck, decreasing the chances of pulling that nasty Black Joker on defense.

The other added benefit to Levi is the huge number of models he can take that can maximize Jack's nastiness! Mix in Rotten Belles to lure models into Severed Ties range, or Bette Noir to form the core of a does not die list (Ashes and Dust, Bette Noir, Jack Daw and Leveticus in the same list, just dirty) or even Ryle to cause nightmares against Neverborn - the combinations are endless.

=__Minion-Specific Tips__= Jack Daw is the kind of model you build your crew around, so minion selection is often very important and can potentially decide whether Jack will be a Tactical Nuke, or a Paper Tiger on the table top. The sort of minions that work well with Jack are many and varied, but can be divide into four broad categories;

Minions that force Discards
As a rule of thumb, any minion that will either force your opponent to cheat or discard cards can be a great match for Jack Daw.

Minions that force Cheating
Discarding might be the most obvious way to drain your opponents hand, but emtying your opponents hand can be much simpler than that.

Minions that hate Wp
Other effective models are any that can inhibit the Wp resists of enemy models. The most effective minions for this are the Insidious Madness and Onryo. Both models are able to strip Immune to Influence off enemy models, which will neutralise one of Jack's biggest weaknesses.

Minions that don't Cheat
Finally it's important to remember that while you're trying to force your opponents hand down to nothing, you need to make sure you're not doing the same to yourself! If you drain your own hand by continuously cheating your attack/resist flips then you're making it much easier for your opponent to sweep in and deliver that killing blow to Jack Daw.

=__Playing Against Jack Daw__= Jack Daw is obviously not an easy model to deal with, but he's far, far cry from being invincible. Put simply, there are five main things to remember when trying to deal with Jack Daw in an opposing crew.

This can include Paralyse or Slow effects, right up to Kill, Sacrifice and Bury effects. Jack Daw's Oldest of Magics and Undying will only have an effect on these if they require you first to deal damage (such as the XXX trigger from YYY). Jacks Df 4 is thankfully quite mediocre, but his Wp7 is amongst the highest natural Wp in the game. But this can bemitigated somewhat by Jack's Betrayed Talent, which counts Masks on a resist flip as a 0.
 * 1. Jack is vulnerable to effects that do something other than deal Wds.**

Despite what people might initially think, you don't need lots of magical attacks or focused strikes to kill Jack Daw. You just need to ensure that when you do hit him with that focused or magical attack, your opponent is holding no cards in his hand. The trick, then, is to drain your opponents hand by making him cheat with the rest of his crew against attacks or effects he won't otherwise want to let through. Whether it's multiple terrifying effects or throwing everything you have at their Master, so long as he's cheating cards you're improving your chances of finally taking out Jack.
 * 2. Forcing your opponent to cheat a card is as good as wounding Jack Daw.**

As above, Jack Daw's attacks focus on stripping his opponents hand of cards and then sacrificing his models with his Heartstopper Trigger. So if you're conservative with your control hand, have abilities that let you draw more cards and generally only consider cheating when it's absolutely necessary, the actual effect Jack Daw has on your crew will be much less serious than you might expect.
 * 3. Jack Daw can only kill things if your hand is empty.**

Along the same vein, when Jack Daw is attacking one of your models, it always pays to ask yourself "is it worth cheating a card to resist this?". Without any triggers, Jack Daw's ranged attack (NAME???) will only cause a single wound and force you discard one card. Even Hangman's Knot without Triggers is only really a threat if 1-2 damage will kill the target or the 4" push will do something truely horrible (like pull the model into Severed Ties range). So it's often best just to take the hit and discard a single low card than resist by cheating a high card. Even if one of the two triggers are active, discarding two low cards might in fact be preferable to cheating down a high card...assuming that doesn't risk you emptying your hand before Jack can throw out a Heartstopper trigger.

No cheating, no soulstones. For a spell aura with no resist that's incredibly painful. As described above, any model within this aura is either going to die or has little chance of doing anything meaningful in its activation. It goes without saying that you'll want to keep your Master from getting caught inside this Aura, as well as any other model in your crew that you intend to either keep alive or cheat cards with. This becomes less of an issue if you have no cards/soulstones available anyway (dangerous if your opponent can obey Jack for another Heartstopper trigger), with models with natural :+fate flips to their attacks and defense duels, and if your opponent isn't in a position to take advantage of your model entering the severed ties aura (ie. he's got no dangerous models nearby to activate).
 * 4. Severed Ties is very, very bad.**

Okay, Severed Ties means this is not strictly true, but it's definitely important to remember that Jack's offensive attacks rely on Wp duels. Throwing a minion like Teddy into melee is going to make it hard for Jack to do anything significant and if his Cb is good enough, minimises the chance of Jack moving into Severed Ties range of your Master. Failing that, models with a high Wp (Moleman) or general Wp -boosting talents (Shrug Off, Smoldering Heart) could also make for decent models to tie up Jack. Even if your minion dies, the time and effort (and cheated cards!) Jack has to go to to kill a high-Wp model might just be worth it.
 * 5. Jack Daw can't do a thing against Immune to Influence.**

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