M2E+Shadowy+Emissary

// "I'm being followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow. Leapin' and hoppin' on a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow." - Cat Stevens, Moonshadow //
 * Shadow Emissary, Ten Thunders Enforcer**

=__Overview__= The Shadow Emissary is a massive Crew-buffing centerpiece model that can turn the tide of a central combat, and can deliver a lot of damage in a single Focused attack. It has a wide variety of buffs that make a Crew operate better, especially the Crew's Master.toc

=__Mobility__= It has a decent **Wk 5 Cg 7** but no other particular mobility for itself (except for a few Master-specific Upgrades)

However, Shadow can also increase another friendly model's mobility tremendously with **(1) The Rite of Strength**, described below.

=__Offense__=

The Shadow Emissary's main attack is **(1) The Angry Winds**, a **Ca** attack that boasts a high attack value, a very flexible range (2" melee or 7" non-projectile ranged), and a great damage spread. The attack can also trigger a second attack on the masks trigger //Word of the Emissary.//

The Shadow Emissary's offense is greatly boosted by its use of **Focus.** It can discard a card at the start of its turn to gain **Focused +2.** (When working for Jakob Lynch, it can just discard an Ace and get it back immediately!) This means it can make one very powerful, very nasty attack that's likely to hit and do Severe damage. Furthermore, the Shadow Emissary can create a blast marker from a **Focus-**boosted attack by using **(0) Aspect of the Dragon** to gain **Dragon's Breath.** To attack a cluster of enemies, you might start by discarding a card to get **Focused +2**, then use **(0) Dragon's Breath** to get blast marker, then attack with **(1) The Angry Winds** to cause a lot of damage to one model and plenty of damage to others. And you'd still have 1 AP left for moving, Interaction, another attack, or buffing friendly models, or going **Defensive**.

Note that the **Focused +2** must be spent all at once (because that's how **Focused** works) so you can't spread it out across two separate attacks.

The Shadow Emissary can also increase other friendly models' offense with all of its buffs, described below.

=__Resilience__=

The Shadow Emissary has a strong **Df 6 Wp 6 Wd 10**.

Furthermore, it has one of the more potent resilient combinations of resilience abilities, **Hard to Kill** and self-healing through **Power Sink. Power Sink** gives the **Destined +1** Condition when you score Strategy VP, which in turns heals the model at the end of its activation. It's similar to **Regeneration** but with different timing and another offensive use (described elsewhere.) If you are doing well in the Strategy, the Shadow Emissary will begin seriously healing itself in the mid-to-late game - combined with **Hard to Kill**, this can lead to incredible resilience.

The Shadow Emissary can also increase its Crew's resilience with **Dragon's Scales**, described below.

=__Buffing__=

The Shadow Emissary more than anything acts as a force multiplier for the rest of its crew, getting them into position and making their abilities work better.

The Rite of Strength
A (1) Action that pushes a nearby model 4" and gives it **Fast**. This provides extra movement and extra AP to a friendly model, and is a very efficient way to move AP around since it also gives a push. Combined with models that can use the AP well, this can really boost a Crew. If you've got an extra AP or a plan, it's a great tool to make your Crew work better.

If you don't have any good targets to attack yourself, you may find yourself using this ability twice and just spending the whole turn boosting your other models!

Aspect of the Dragon
An extremely flexible boost ability that can boost offense or defense (but mostly offense) in a 10" aura. It's a **(0)** Action, so you'll probably be using it every turn (except the turn when you use **(0) Prophesies in Thunder** if you do.)

You have four options for this flexible Action:
 * **Dragon's Breath:** Enemies within 10" aura that suffer Moderate or Severe damage from an attack with ** Focus ** drop an extra Blast Marker. Note that this affects any attacks on an enemy model: Friendly, Enemy, or the Emissary's. Your opponent may be clever and use this to bounce attacks off an expendable friendly model, so be careful not to set that up. This can be a great way to punish a cluster of enemies, to do damage to an enemy that can shrug off conventional attacks, or to add an extra Blast Marker to an attack that already generates Blast Markers.
 * **Dragon's Scales**: Reduces damage by 1 when a friendly model in range has ** Defensive ** . This is great with models that have a lot of synergy with ** Defensive ** anyway, such as Ten Thunders Brothers. You can also use this to amplify the Shadow Emissary's own considerable resilience.
 * **Dragon's Claws:** Enemies within the aura suffer a ** Df ** penalty equal to their ** Burning ** condition, up to ** Df -2 ** . A great way to soften up the middle of the battlefield, but only if you have models that can spread burning, such as Monks of High River.
 * **Dragon's Blood:** Enemies within the aura take 1 extra damage from ** Poison ** . This can give a little bit more offensive bite to a Brewmaster Crew, or boost other crews that spread a little ** Poison ** around. Most likely, you'll want to use this one only when you want to surprise an opponent by killing off a key model a little faster than they expected.

Prophesies in Thunder
When your **Destined** Condition reaches 2 or higher (which is to say, after you've gain 2 VP from the Strategy at least, which is usually only possible starting on Turn Four) you can spend all your **Destined** to give all friendly models **Focused +1**. This affects all friendly models in play wherever they are, so it can lead to a turn of incredible destruction if you use it early in the turn and have a lot of fights happening widespread throughout the board on Turn Four. Note, though, that you can't save **Focused** to your next turn, and it can't combine with **(0) Aspect of the Dragon**, so unlike many Emissary Destined-spending abilities, this isn't something you want to spend every time.

Some games you'll want to use this so you can make a lot of devastating attacks across the board. Some games, you'll actually do better to keep using **(0) Aspect of the Dragon** and letting your **Destined** Condition heal you.

=__Upgrades__=

Like all Emissaries, the Shadow Emissary has many free Upgrade options: one for each Master and one generic option.


 * **Conflux of Combat** (Mei Feng): Gives a friendly nearby Master (that is, Mei Feng) an extra ** Ml ** Attack after it does damage with an Attack, at the cost of a card. Also gives a (0) Action that pushes the Emissary and drops a Scrap Marker that's especially easy for Mei Feng to target with Railwalker. You'll want to keep Shadow near Mei Feng (or near where she'll end up) to get the most out of this.
 * **Conflux of Hunger** (Jakob Lynch): Gives a positive twist to attack models with ** Brilliance ** . Also gives a (0) Attack action to push a model (friendly or enemy), which can also draw a card on a tome trigger. This can set up some strong direct attacks from Shadow.
 * **Conflux of Exploration** (Lucas McCabe): Start the game with one of McCabe's Upgrades, and gives another copy of McCabe's signature Upgrade-sharing Action ** (0) "Take This!" ** . This extends McCabe's Crew-boosting abilities, but remember that the Shadow Emissary can't use the Master-level Upgrade abilities on the cards.
 * **Conflux of the Dawn** (Shenlong): Heals the Shadow Emissary when a friendly model discard an Upgrade. Usually this is because Shenlong or Sensei Yu switch styles. Also gives a (0) Action that will remove a Condition from a friendly model and allow some card draw.
 * **Ancestral Conflux** (Yan Lo): Makes the Shadow Emissary an Ancestor that can be resummoned as such. Also gives a Yan Lo ** +1 Ml **, and gives the Shadow Emissary ** Fast ** when Yan Lo buffs up. Boosts certain builds of Yan Lo more than others.
 * **Conflux of Thunder** (Misaki): Gives Misaki an extra AP when she kills an enemy model within 8" of the Emissary. Also gives a (0) Push.
 * **Conflux of Inebriation** (The Brewmaster): Gives a 5" Push when the Shadow Emissary takes damage from Poison. Also gives a ** (0) Blind Drunk ** that gives a Turn's worth negative twists to a nearby enemy model with ** Poison +3 ** or more, with no resist.
 * **Shadow Conflux**: Boosts nearby friendly minions and gives a (0) to cycle cards for a Soulstone.

=__Tactics and Tips__=

Because so much of what the Shadow Emissary offers are buffs, it's often most effective when kept close to your Master, or at least near the main scrum of combat. The Shadow Emissary can take the brunt of frontline combat, but it's most powerful on the second line where it can enhance friendly models and pick off an enemy a round with a high-focused attack.

The Shadow Emissary suffers from having way too many options for its (0) Action (typically five or six good choices if you count each Aspect of the Dragon separately) and only one to use every turn. Make a plan before you use your (0) Action -- what you do with it will probably shape the rest of your Activation.

Activate Shadow Emissary early in the turn, so that the rest of the Crew can benefit from its Aura and boosts.

=__Playing Against Shadowy Emissary__=

Don't get caught by surprise. The Shadow Emissary can do a lot of different and very powerful buff effects. It's not incredibly mobile, but it can make the rest of the Crew amazing with its wide variety of buffs.

If you choose to go after the Shadow Emissary, be prepared to spend a lot of resources to kill it -- it's got high defenses, Hard to Kill, and Self-Healing. It's possible to kill it, of course, but not easy.

Don't clump up. The Shadow Emissary has a lot of abilities that can devastate a clump of enemy models.

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