Avatar+Dreamer

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 * The Dreamer, Neverborn Avatar of Imagination**

=Overview= Avatar Dreamer combines the melee power of the Dreamer with the mobility of Lord Chompy Bits!

Okay, it's not actually that bad, but he does lose a lot of his most powerful tricks when Manifesting. Playful and terrifying, the Avatar version of the Dreamer and Lord Chompy bits loses a lot of attack strength and interplay between units, but gains some very complex board control abilities and some interesting buffs and debuffs for both sides.

=Manifesting= You can only Manifest if you still have both The Dreamer and Lord Chompy still in the game.

The first requirement is for the Dreamer to inflict 5 Wd with Twist Reality strikes. Usually, he's too busy bringing out other Nightmares to Twist Reality much, since it doesn't do much damage. This Manifest requirement may take three hits to work, so may not be worth it.

The second requirement is for Lord Chompy Bits to use his All Done Trigger, which just requires a successful melee attack with a Book suit. Since Lord Chompy Bits is generally making melee attacks anyway, this is quite worth it.

From a strict strategy sense, there is rarely any time when Avatar Dreamer is more powerful than his pre-Avatar forms, so if you're Manifesting him, it's probably for fun. Because he's certainly fun.

Fortunately, at least he gets to keep his Totems when he Manifests.

=Mobility= The Dreamer loses a lot of Mobility. The Dreamer can no longer fly around 7", or even fly at all. Lord Chompy Bits can't Charge anymore, and his Daydreams can't pull him out of trouble.

Instead, Avatar Dreamer moves at a relatively pokey Wk/Cg of 4/-. However, he does have a new and powerful Mobility option, (0) Dream Walker, which lets him switch with one friendly Nightmare within 12". This means he can still be very mobile, but it requires some setup with other Nightmares (many of whom will be very fast) to go where he wants to be.

=Offense=

Melee
Avatar Dreamer's Toy Sword is a fair weapon, but nowhere near as powerful as Lord Chompy Bits. It has a Rg 2", with a decent Cb and a very low Dg. It's also magical, and it has two triggers: Chompy's Turn, which gives another attack with the same Cb, a much better Dg, and no opportunity for a trigger, and Take That!, which cannot be prevented with Soulstones. The Toy Sword can add any one suit, so you'll always be able to do one of these triggers. Chompy's Turn (which is generally more powerful for damage) requires Crows and Masks, while Take That (which is usually useless, except when you're about to kill a Master with a melee strike, at which point it can be game-changing) requires Rams and Tomes.

Nightmares and Bury/Unbury
Avatar Dreamer still uses many bury and unbury tricks. Just not as well.

He retains **(1) Frightening Dream** and the **All My Friends** trigger, and can use them in the same way he always did: dropping powerful Nightmares into position exactly where they want to be. He also still releases all the Nightmares if he dies. He can no longer give them Flurry, but he can switch places with them.

The big problem is, he can't bury them again anymore. Once they're out, they're out. This severely weakens The Dreamer's hit-and-run style, since his Daydreams can't do it either.

He also keeps **(0) Daydreaming**, but he doesn't have as much use for it anymore.

Spells
Avatar Dreamer actually has some very powerful spells.


 * (0) Falling Dream** gives an a target Minion Paralyzed, and then kills them at the end of the round if they don't discard two cards then. You only need a 6 of Tomes or better to cast, but you will probably want to Soulstone it because the enemy is likely to resist. Having those two control cards at the end of the round can be a big weight on the opponent, especially if you have ways of making them discard cards. Paralyzed is very powerful. Furthermore, this can set the enemy target up for (0) Consume Dream, which inflicts 2 Wd and heals Avatar Dreamer of 2 Wd. If the Dreamer is hurt and an enemy is within 8", this is a great way to disable the enemy badly and heal the Dreamer with only two (0) Actions. Unfortunately, you can't use it against Masters.


 * (1) "This Can't Be Real!?"** is another strong attack spell, with a longer range than Falling Dream. Since it's a (1) action, his Daydreams can copy it too. It Slows an opponent, and sets them up for a Wp duel with Avatar Dreamer (which has a monstrous Wp of 8) after their next activation -- if they lose, they gain **Paralyze**. This also stacks nicely with **(0) Consume Dream**, to cause more damage and heal later. He needs a 7 of any suit to cast it.


 * (1) Trapped Your Own Nightmare** is similar to Pandora's spell, and like Pandora's spell it's not likely to come into play very much, but it can be brutal when it does. This cancel's a target's Terrifying and has them treat everyone else as Terrifying -> 12 instead. Remember that this includes both friendly and enemy models.

=Resilience=

Avatar Dreamer loses all his defensive tricks. He doesn't have The Dreamer's **Shadowy Form** or **A Ghost in Malifaux**, so others can attack him just fine. He's not a Spirit anymore, so he loses all that protection. Unlike Lord Chompy Bits, he can't be buried or hidden safely by friendly Daydreams.

He has a decent **Df 5**, and a very strong **Wp 8**, which will protect against most spell attacks.

Avatar Dreamer also has Terrifying -> 13. This isn't as strong as Lord Chompy Bits with a **Terrifying -> 14**, but it's got an important advantage: **Anathema**. Avatar Dreamer's Terrifying affects everyone, which can make a huge difference and drive away big attackers.

Avatar Dreamer also has a very handy Df trigger, **"No Fair!"**. If he takes Medium or Severe damage and flips a Mask on Defense, he can bury the attacker until the end of the round. This is a great way to prevent enemies from focusing too much on attacking Avatar Dreamer.

=Soulstones= Avatar Dreamer has plenty of uses for Soulstones, but especially to boost his dangerous spells. It's also very useful for Defense.

=Tricks and Tips=

Mark of Imagination
Mark of Imagination lets you give everybody in the game a boost, including your enemy. Your side gets one boost, the other side gets a different boost. When you're picking this effect, try to choose an effect that will give your Crew a boost they want, and their Crew a boost that won't help.

Your four choices are:
 * **Cops and Robbers:** Friendly Nightmare models gain Hunter. Enemy models gain Scout. This is rarely valuable, but you might want to choose it if your enemy models already have Scout or Flight, such as playing against a Lilith crew.
 * **Hide and Seek:** Ranged attacks against friendly Nightmares receive a negative twist, and melee attacks against friendly Nightmares get a positive twist. This can protect your crew from ranged attacks if you're facing a range-intensive crew, and encourage your enemy to get close into range which is often where your Nightmares want to be anyway. You might use this if you're facing a ranged combat Crew, like Perdita, Von Schill, Som'er, or Rasputina.
 * **Pirates:** When a friendly Nightmare kills an enemy model with a melee attack, you draw a card. The enemy can do the same when they kill one of your Nightmares. This is often the best choice. Your models like getting into melee range, and the extra cards aren't too bad a penalty if your opponent is a melee crew as well.
 * **Slay the Dragon!:** Friendly Nightmares get Terrifying->12, and enemy models get Armor + 1. This is worthless if your enemy Crew is mostly Constructs, Undead, Nightmares, or Soulless, which many enemy Crews are. This is great against low-Wp living Crews, since Terrifying can win the game and Armor can only slow down the other side.

A good rule of thumb is: Do **Slay the Dragon!** if your enemy Crew is mostly Living, otherwise do **Pirates**.

Parting the veil
Avatar Dreamer can place a new effect every round, but can't put it within 1" of any model. You can't play the same effect two turns in a row.

Your four choices are:


 * **Caustic Gas:** Gives everyone Wk/Cg -1/-1, and all ranged Attack Flips and Casting Flips receive a negative twist. Useful if your models are already in place and in a fight, and your enemy needs to get closer or make ranged attacks.
 * **Dead Zone:** Place a 3" x 3" area where models cannot cast spells. May be useful if an enemy leaves an objective point unattended, but since you can't place this on an enemy model it's often just a minor roadblock they need to move through or avoid.
 * **Dim Lighting:** LoS cannot be drawn further than 8". Great for preventing enemy shots and sometimes even enemy charges, but it can interfere with your own long-range abilities as well.
 * **Hanging Tree:** A 50mm blocking terrain feature with Terrifying -> 12" in a range of 2". Drop this near enemy living models to scatter them, or to give you protective cover, or to block an opponent's movement.

Of these, the Hanging Tree is definitely the most useful effect. You'll want to place this in the most dangerous or obstructive place you can every turn possible. On alternate turns, you can either do Dim Lighting if it will interfere with your opponent more than you, or just put a Dead Zone out of the way somewhere so that at least you're not shooting yourself in the foot.

=Avatar and their Crew=

Avatar Dreamer now has several new and powerful debuff spells that his Daydreams can use. Since you can't use the Daydreams to unbury Nightmares any more, you might as well use them to launch **(1) "This Can't be Real!?"**.

Since Avatar Dreamer can switch places with Nightmares in his Crew, you'd do well to choose fast Nightmares with a lot of melee ability. Fortunately, most Nightmares are fast with a lot of melee ability, so this works out.

=Playing Against Avatar Dreamer= Breathe a sigh of relief. Lord Chompy Bits is gone and now all you have to do is remember all the new global effects in play every round!

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