M2E+Kirai


 * Kirai, Ressurectionist Master**

=__Overview__= // **The Vengeful Spirit** // toc Kirai is the resident Spirit Master, having many tricks revolving around spirits. She can swirl them around, heal them, or rip them apart to summon new spirits. The focus on spirits means that she leaves conventional undead in the dust. This, however, doesn't mean they are without merit....

Kirai does not have the greatest combat stats, but she can bring good and useful support for spirits to the table.

=__Mobility__= Kirai's primary way of moving around is simply walking. She has an average Wk stat of 5, no (initial) charge, and no other movement abilities. However, with the **2ss Swirling Aether** upgrade she does obtain the **(0)** **Into the Spirit World** action, allowing her to be placed into base contact with a target friendly spirit within 8", requiring a 5 and a mask.

While not enhancing her own mobility, she has the **(1)** **Swirling Spirits** action, which promotes the mobility of her crew. **(1)** **Swirling Spirits** allows you to have a friendly spirit within 2" swap places with another friendly spirit within 12". Thanks to this, you can move slower spirits up front without having them spend AP to walk; this makes for a great positioning tool.

=__Offense__=
 * ‍(1) Sundering‍** is Kirai's primary offensive tool. This is a ranged casting attack that is not randomized when shot into engagements. It deals moderate damage and has two useful triggers available. The first one, //Mark//, hands out **Adversary** to the target. **Adversary** gives spirits a positive flip when attacking the model with the condition. The second trigger, //Feast//, hands out **Devour Soul**, a condition that summons a Gaki when the model with this condition is killed.

Because **(1)** **Sundering** is a Ca action, she can use **Entwine Spirit** to sacrifice a spirit within 2" to gain +2 Ca to this action. This raises the Ca of **Sundering** from good to very good. This can be used to hit otherwise hard to reach targets in order to **Mark** them.

With the **(1)** **Bloody Shears** action, which is obtained by the **1ss Bloody Shears** upgrade, Kirai gains a flimsy Cg 5 and gives her a decent close combat attack. This attack is mostly used defensively, as it has a trigger that allows Kirai to push out of range, and denies any further charges of the attacked model. The damage spread of this attack is an average 2/3/6, as is the Ml 5 stat. Use this to pick off opportunity targets, or to get out of a melee attack. Because this attack is Ml based, you can't use **Entwine Spirits** in order to increase it. It can also be used for surprise attacks.

=__Resilience__= A glance at Kirai's stat line reveals that she is not the toughest master. She has a low Df 4 and average Wp 6. This is coupled with a average Wd 10. While she has **Manipulative 12** to grant her some protection, it requires her to not have activated yet. Thanks to her buffs, you might want her to activate earlier in the turn. Her main defense ability is **Of Pity and Wind**, a Df/Wp trigger that allows her to pass a succeeding attack, including all triggers, damage, and other effects, to a friendly spirit within 2". She doesn't have the required suit on her stats, so you'll need to flip, cheat, or use a Soulstone in order to get it. As such, her best defense is to hide behind several weak spirits, such as Seishin, that she can pass attacks to.

Malevolence

 * Malevolence** is an important ability that doesn't improve Kirai's resilience, but punishes enemies for attacking her or her crew. When a friendly living or undead model suffers damage from an Attack Action, you may discard a card or a Soulstone in order to summon Ikiryo in base contact with the attacker. Because this summon isn't an action, Kirai can do this even when she won't have line of sight to the summoned Ikiryo (but since the Malavolence is an aura, she will have needed line of sight to the damaged model)..

This ability is most potent against projectile attacks, as it will summon a model in base contact with the target. This will engage the model, disallowing any further shooting attacks. It's also a good threat, so keeping a card in your hand or a Soulstone in order to summon Ikiryo at any time is a good trick in order to discourage attacks.

=__Summoning__= Like all Ressurectionists, Kirai can summon. In addition to Malevolence (above), she has two actions that can summon models. The first, **Call Forth**, summons a Seishin. This is something that you want to do each turn, as it is a (0) action. These are mostly used to fuel Kirai's other abilities, such as **Entwine Spirit** or **Of Pity and Wind**. Her second summon ability **Blood and Wind**, is a more powerful summon tool. It allows you to name a Ressurectionist Spirit Minion and summon it in base contact with target friendly model. Then, both models suffer damage equal to half the summoned model's Wd stat. The target of this action does not have to be a spirit, so you are free to tap undead or living models to fuel new spirits. As always, you can also sacrifice nearby spirits with **Entwine Spirit** in order to raise the Ca of these actions. This is mostly used with **Blood and Wind**, allowing you to gain a more powerful spirit, at a higher cost. You can also use a freshly summoned seishin as your target for summoning, just summon it in the direction you want your new spirit to go and the seishin simply dies leaving your significant models unharmed. This tactic is better after turn 2 when you may have a reserve seishin for eating your damage if it becomes necessary.

The following Spirits can be summoned with **Blood and Wind**
 * Night Terror
 * Gaki
 * Onryo
 * Goryo
 * The Drowned
 * Shikome
 * The Hanged

For easy access to summoning, Ratty has made an overview card for the summons and their required card. The download can be found [|here].

=__Upgrades__=

Absorb Spirit

 * Absorb Spirit** is a cheap upgrade that grants two abilities to Kirai. The titular **Absorb Spirit** is a (0) action that allows you to draw two cards and then discard one. You need to sacrifice a spirit in order to fuel this ability. The second ability, **Mark the Soul**, activates an aura that gives nearby spirits a positive flip on any damage flips they make. This can effectively combined with **Adversary** in order to give spirits positive flips to attack and damage.

Bloody Shears
The first of Kirai's limited upgrades, **Bloody Shears** improves the personal effectiveness of Kirai. First of all, it gives her **Accomplice**, allowing for chain activations. As Kirai summons several models in the fray and damaged, this allows them to activate before they will become hit themselves. The second action, **Bloody Shears**, gives Kirai a Cg of 5 and a melee attack. See offense above.

Unforgiven

 * Unforgiven** is Kirai's second limited upgrade. This upgrade only gives triggers. The first triggers are given to **Blood and Wind**, //Lonely Assassin//, allows you to summon the model 3" away from the target, allowing better placement and mobility. This trigger is to be used often, as it is always available. The second, //Don't Blink//, removes **S****low** from the summoned model. This requires a Soulstone in order to gain, however, not having slow on a certain model is a good tactical option (though it still can't take interact actions). **Unforgiven** also gives **Sundering** a trigger, //Sunder the Spirit//, which increase the damage dealt, increasing the damage from decent to good.

**Swirling Aether**
This is an important upgrade, as it gives Kirai **Into the Spirit World**, which greatly increases her mobility. The second action, **Comfort Spirit**, allows her to heal a Spirit within 8", healing damage done by **Blood and Wind** or any enemies.

**Spirit Beacon**
Another important upgrade, however, this one can also be taken by any other Spirit Enforcer or Henchmen. It supports and improves the usage of Seishin. The first ability, **Spirit Beacon**, allows the user to save Seishin from a certain death, at the cost of health. This is mostly used in conjunction with **Of Pity and Wind**, allowing you to pass a deadly attack to a Seishin, then save it in order to use it for other purposes. The second ability, **Spirit Anchor**, grants a second source of Seishin. When a non-Seishin is killed (not sacrificed!) you may discard a card in order to summon a Seishin. Note that models damaged by **Blood and Wind** count as killed by that ability if they cannot survive, and thus can be re-purposed as Seishin.

Unnerving Aura
A cheap way of doing additional damage if models start and end their activation while in the aura. Not a good upgrade to put on Kirai, as she lacks the means to have enemies stay in the aura. Better served to put on a heavier tarpit model. (IZAMU!!!)

Decaying Aura
Negates Soulstone usage in the aura. Again, a short aura on a master that doesn't want to be close to enemies. Skip this and put it onto a heavier hitter instead.

Transfusion
Gives the titular action to move all poison from a single model to the target model. While Ressurectionists have a good access to poison, this action is not that good on Kirai, as she lacks the means to use this poison herself. There are other models that can take better use of this.

Maniacal Laugh
What is a evil madwomen without an Evil Laugh? Especially if the laugh raises nearby bodies as Mindless Zombies. A surprisingly useful upgrade, as it gives you bodies to be used with **Blood and Wind** or to be used to bog down enemies. Not a bad choice and certainly a fun one. There are a surprising number of spirits that drop corpses when they die, so being able to put them to use is always a good idea.

Corpse Bloat

 * Corpse Bloat** gives two new actions. The first, **Unforgiven Stench** allows you to blow up a corpse to deal damage, while the second, **You Don't Need a Spleen....Right?** allows the user to suffer damage in order to drop a Corpse Marker. As Kirai doesn't need many corpses, this upgrade is mostly wasted on her, however, the ability to blow up corpses to deal damage is a useful one. Yet, this upgrade is better used on a Henchman.

Asylum Stone
Allows you to use a Soulstone in order to increase your Df and Wp for the duel. You can also discard it to make target enemy within LoS make a Horror duel. Spending a Soulstone to increase your stats is not that good, as it's better to use the stone in order to use **Of Pity and Wind** and pass the attack off to an unfortunate spirit. Forcing enemies to make a Horror duel, however, is a good option. This is a one-shot ability, so it may not be that useful in the long run.

Spare Parts
The general summoning upgrade available to Ressurectionist Leaders. It can be used to summon a Guild Autopsy from a corpse marker or use four corpse markers to stitch a Rogue Necromancy together. This is an useful upgrade, as Kirai does not have much usage for corpse markers. These actions can be increased by using **Entwine Spirit**, allowing for easy summoning, as they have high base Ca. A powerful upgrade.

=__Tactics and Tips__= Kirai relies on her abilities, **Manipulative** and **Of Pity and Wind,** in order to survive. Without those, she can be hit easily and can't take the hits. This means it's better to avoid combat altogether and keep sacrificial spirits close to be the target of enemy attacks. With **Blood and Wind**, **Entwine Spirit**, and **Absorb Spirit** you damage your own crew as fast, or even faster, than your enemy. Having ways of replacing your losses, such as healing or other summoning, is invaluable. Often, it is more profitable to kill or sacrifice your own heavy damaged spirit for a more useful benefit. It is usually best to summon off Seishin or a Flesh Construct, however Drowned and Onryo are also useful as you get additional benefits when they die, a scheme marker from Drowned and possibly slowing nearby enemy with Onryo.


 * Swirling Spirits** is a powerful movement trick, allowing you to move Spirits much further up the field than initially assumed. Using a fast, but expendable spirit to move it up front, only to be replaced later with a slower, more powerful spirit is a good tool. It can also be used to pull a weakened spirit out of combat and replace it with a fresh one. You can also use it to pull more scary spirits out of tarpits and replace them with tarpits of your own. A fourth use is to replace an engaged model with one which hasn't activated for pulling off schemes which require interacts such as Deliver a Message or Distract.

Ikiryo is Kirai's go to heavy hitter. She can summon Ikiryo cheap and often; which you should do, as she performs the best when put into action. Remember that Ikiryo can sacrifice herself, allowing you to summon her multiple times in a turn. Keep in mind that she can only be summoned when a Living or Undead model is damaged, so pure spirits don't trigger her revenge. Izamu, The Hanged, and The Drowned are spirits AND undead so gain benefits from adversary and can trigger Malevolence.

Don't forget you can use **Entwine Spirit** to sacrifice a friendly model to increase the Ca of Kirai's actions. This also applies to Ca actions from Kirai's upgrades. Very useful if you want to summon a more powerful model but are unable to because of your cards or need to buff your spirits.

__**The Izamu** **Slingshot-**__ Take Izamu, give him unnerving aura and keep him close to Kirai, use turn one to move him and Kirai up a notch. Have a lesser spirit further up the field in LoS to a target within 9".Activate Kirai first and use **Swirling Spirits** to place Izamu base to base on the edge closest to your target. Use **Into the Spirit World** to move base to base with Izamu, use your last AP to sunder them and put **Adversary** on them. Chain activate into Izamu, charge in and use your 3 attacks to wreck face. If they waste AP trying to disengage and fail they still take 2 damage, if they harm Izamu you summon Ikiryo, or a fun combo. It's a terrible sandwich for your opponent to taste.

=__Leading a Crew__= Kirai is a support master, and while she can pull off some nasty damage with **Sundering** and **Bloody Shears**, both have triggers that benefit the crew. As such, she is best used buffing allies and recycling near-dead spirits into fresh ones or cards. Keep your spirits close so they can gain full benefit from her buffs or being able to fuel her magics and defense.

Strategies and Schemes
Kirai can pull off most strategies and schemes well. Due to her summoning, she leans toward interact and claim scenarios better than the kill versions.

Reckoning only counts if you kill or sacrifice enemy models. If you kill your own, you won't get any points... but neither will your opponent!

Building a Crew
Initially, it seems that a good list for Kirai involves many spirits. However, it is a good idea to include non-spirits as well. These mostly come in the form of being useful or as dedicated summon anchors. Keep the living and undead in Kirai's M**alevolence** bubble in order to maximize the chance of Ikiryo appearing.

Starting a Crew
The current crew box comes with the following models.
 * Kirai
 * Ikiryo
 * Lost love
 * 2 Seishin
 * 2 Onryo

You will want to expand your collection of Seishin as soon as possible, as Kirai has many ways to summon these little beings into existence.Taking Izamu gives a powerful, and tough spirit, while Shikome are fast and strong as well as being spirits and capable of spreading **Adversary**. Also, you'll want Onryo and Gaki as you will usually summon these. You can't go wrong with Rotten Belles, as they are powerful support and utility pieces. Flesh constructs with their high wounds make excellent summoning anchors. Drowned and Hanged are another good purchase as they make excellent summons being both spirits and undead so trigger malevolence, on top of being great models. As Datsue Ba no longer comes in the starting box she is also another useful purchase, that and she has the last 3 Seishin you'll need to max them out.

Totems
Kirai has two totems available to her.

Graveyard Spirit As a spirit he benefits from many abilities of Kirai, and his armor granting is very useful to keep weakened summons alive. Due to his push he is also very mobile. Overall a good choice for a Totem.

Lost Love Francis has arisen as a undead spirit to help his wife. While expensive for a Totem, he greatly helps the crew out. Like Kirai, he has **Malevolence**, allowing Ikiryo to be summoned more easily. He can also be placed in base contact with a Master or Henchmen and can heal spirits. A useful choice.

Henchmen
Datsue Ba She is an undead spirit henchmen that has many spirit tricks. She can spread **Adversary**, summon Gaki and Onryo, and has spirits take walk actions outside of their activation. She can also deny enemies taking walk action. With an upgrade, she can summon Seishin as well as having spirits drop scheme markers upon death. She can pack a punch against both WP as well as DF. She can also combo her melee attack into her CA (against the same target) with a trigger. Thus, she can potentially attack 4 times in an activation! Datsue doesn't have a lot of wounds, but she has decent stats, terrifying, and incorporeal; making her a very tough dame.

Sebastian Where **Poison** is spread, Sebastian thrives. Many of the spirits spread poison around, as do many of the undead models. He also provides some cover against shooting for the crew. With his upgrade, he can also turn corpse markers into Canine Remains, giving more usage to fallen undead spirits. A cheap, versatile, and usable choice.

Toshiro The Daimyo Toshiro is a powerful, strong henchmen that buffs minions. As most of the models in your crew are minions, as a result of summoning them, he gives them good buffs. With his upgrade, he can recycle corpses into Ashigaru and scrap into Komainu. As Komainu are spirits, they benefit from many of Kirai's tricks, this however, relies on facing or taking constructs. Ashigaru are undead so they can trigger Malevolence and are sturdy models anyway.

Enforcers
Izamu The Armor Izamu is a spirit brick. He is tough and can heal himself. A good carrier for Spirit Beacon. Izamu's greatest weakness is his slow foot speed, but Kirai can negate that thanks to Swirl Spirit. (See Izamu slingshot in Tactics)

Chiaki the Niece Chiaki isn't a spirit, however, she is incorporeal and has a very good condition removal ability.

Jaakuna Ubume Jaakuna is a spirit who can tie down large areas and drag enemies into her nasty web! Enemy models considers a 3" area around her as hazardous terrain. Her melee range is also an impressive 3". She has ways to keep enemies near her while also being able to drag them closer thanks to Lure. Jaakuna is incorporeal and has Manipulative; making it a tough task to remove her. At 6ss, she is a bargain!

Minions
Gaki Gaki are cheap and useful spirits. Their attacks can create corpse markers and can make more attacks. They gain additional Ml while within range of Kirai, synergizing with **Mark the Soul**. Their ability to swallow Ht 1 models whole makes them a powerful asset towards Gremlins. Keep in mind that they are one of the few non-**Incorporeal** Spirits.

Onryo Spirits that are very good at spreading the **Adversary** conditon, they can also heal Kirai. They are a jack of all trade, middle of the pack, kind of model. To name a few things they bring to the table: they can tag enemies with Poison, which then enables Shikomes to charge those models for a 1" action; they can tag enemies with Adversary in a number of ways; when the die, they will pulse dish out Slow; incorporeal makes them fairly speedy. All and all they can do a little bit of everything.

Night Terror These creatures are fast, durable, and very annoying for your opponent. The fact that Kirai can summon these for either a 7 or 5 of crows is nearly unfair; as is their dirt cheap hiring price of 3 Soulstones. They cannot drop markers, but they aren't that bad in melee and they can go places very quick. In Reconnoiter, Turf War, Extraction, and Interference; these are invaluable!

The Drowned They have great defenses against melee attacks, while also having decent stats to hold their own against most other types of punishment. When they go down, they will drop a marker thanks to Finish the Job. Besides their impressive defence, The Drowned have a versatile offensive repertoire. Their melee attack has a very neat range of 2", sporting a nice damage track, can give Slow or even Paralyze on triggers. Their shooting attack doesn't have the best range, but it has AoE and can push enemies closer to hazardous terrain. Their (0) also enhances the damage of hazardous terrain for enemy models. Making them natural running mates for Jaakuna.

Shikome Beast spirits that also aren't I**ncorporeal**. Unlike Gaki, they have other defensive abilities. They can spread **Adversary** and take advantage of it in many ways. Shikome are a very solid summon, as they can fill many different roles for the crew. They are fast enough to do schemes, while they can pack a nasty punch against low to midrange models like enemy runners. Their best offensive trait is that they can choose to whether they want to attack WP or DF, granted it's on targets with adversary.

The Hanged One of the most dreaded summons out of the Resser faction. The Hanged are hard to get rid of and will suck the life out of any opponent, or make them paralyzed out of fear. Thanks to Kirai's **Entwine Spirit** ability she can summon Hanged a lot more regularly and efficiently than the other Resser summoners (11-13/RJ vs 13/RJ crows).

Flesh Construct The humble Fleshy brings a lot of wounds for a low price. Since Kirai uses wounds of her own models in order to summon, the Flesh Construct are a natural fit in the crew. Enemies will have to think twice about attacking these wound banks too, as long as they keep close to Kirai, in fear of getting retribution form the Ikiriyo.

=__Playing Against Kirai__= Be ready for the Ikiryo! This is the place where you'll get surprised most. Before you attack, check line of sight to Kirai and Lost Love. Don't attack anything near them unless you have a plan for how to deal with the Ikiryo.

Kill Lost Love early! It can be worth trading a model for it.

Consider leaving the Ikiryo alive, so that a new one can't spawn.

Kirai will mostly stay in a spirit bubble and as such, pulling her out from it with a **Lure** or any other pull greatly weakens her effectiveness. As most of her crews are spirits, and as such **Incorporeal**, using Ca actions to target them greatly helps. Her spirits also come in damaged, and need to be healed. Attacking them when they are weak severely reduces the summons effectiveness, as her resource (Wd) is harder to replaces than other master's resources.

It is worth to remember that Kirai and her crew will build up power through the encounter (like any other summoner). Your crew will probably loose numbers, while Kirai increases her own ranks. If you want to weaken the crew try and do it early. Then there are less summoned Hanged and Shikomes that will hit you back. In the same spirit (pun not intended), there are some incentive to try and lock up your schemes and not wait for the end game.

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