Leveticus

include page="inc_1.5rules" **Leveticus, Outcast Master** //"Leveticus is a Necromancer who works for himself - outside the orders of the Resurrectionists. He is very much a cancerous cell who is difficult to remove as anything less then amputating him and his 'Hollow Waifs' will reassure his presence will return. Like a tumor he infects his opponents, tearing their wounds to nothing before mutating his enemies into Steam-powered Abominations and sending them out to infect their former allies."// toc

=Overview = Leveticus is regarded as one of the hardest Masters in the game to learn. He is a powerful spell caster equipped with many ways of killing models and "assimilates" their remains into his minions (which can also assimilate others into their cluster). Though his power is great, he constantly bleeds Wds, losing chunks of them to use his spells and abilities and decaying over time. He is however one of the trickiest models to kill as his Hollow Waifs work with him to form a "death-and-rebirth" cycle that constantly returns him to life.

All of this forms an extremely offensive and durable Master, with a huge variety in the crews you can select for him, offering a new experience each game.

=Mobility= With only a Wk of 3" many think Leveticus is rather slow at first glance, but like so many things, the real truth lies deeper.

Necromantic Sacrifice
By taking 2 Wds, Leveticus can Walk without using any of his normal AP. While 3" of movement may not be a lot, it does let him cover a maximum of 9" in one turn. More importantly, it lets him step out of cover and still have 3 AP to cast his spells (+1 AP from Casting Expert). This is a good way to help kill Leveticus because it states that Leveticus can kill himself with this action - and killing Leveticus is more useful than some opponents may be fooled to think...

Eternally Shackled & Hollow Waifs
This revolves around Leveticus's death-and-rebirth cycle and Eternally Shackled, which brings Leveticus back into base-to-base contact with a friendly Hollow Waif anywhere on the board. You can send a Waif away from Leveticus and position it for Leveticus's rebirth, making sure to leave it somewhere safe, but at the same time strategic. Then when Leveticus returns because of Eternally Shackled, you place him in base-to-base contact with that Waif allowing you to essentially threaten one flank on one turn and then threaten the opposite flank on the next turn. But this does have it limits: if the Waif ends its Activation outside of 10" of Leveticus, it gets sacrificed. So you can't have the Waif wander off further than 10" on its activation, but Leveticus can still be more than 10" away from the Waif on his Activation. So this can let you jump around the field a bit. It is most useful when you have two Waifs in play as you can risk one by sending it forward into position for Leveticus's return and keep the other safely tucked away as insurance.

=Offense= Though Leveticus has some model generation, his real focus is delivering death. As the definition of death, it's not a question of what is Offense, but rather what isn't. ;D

Besides Blessings of Desolation, he does nothing else to buff his crew, making his model type selection rather open.

Leveticus's primary means of attack are his spells which either deal Wds to the target or kills them if their Wds are too low. With his spells, he can kill any model in the game in 3 spells or less no matter how many Wds they have, as things like Armor, Hard to Wound, Hard to Kill won't save them. But his melee ability should not be discounted; his Death Touch is the highest damage weapon in the game, but also has the largest damage range in the game from 0 - 12. His Face of Death trigger helps increase the reliability of this weapon, but at the cost of precious control cards, which are hard for him to regain. Leveticus does not draw cards during the Draw Step beyond the initial Draw during setup, instead he has to die in order to replenish these precious resources and his Wds. For Leveticus, death is a very good thing.

Unnatural Wasting
This is Leveticus's star spell and his workhorse action for most turns. There really isn't a whole lot of complexity with this spell; just pick an important target and fire away. Remember, it is a Ranged attack spell (because it has the Gun in the Rg) so you will have a negative flip on your casting if you target a model in cover, but this is easily countered by taking the (2) Channel action to gain a positive flip on the casting, bringing it back to a straight flip. Remember, you round up in Malifaux, so if this spell is used on a model with 7 Wds, it deals 4 (3.5 rounded to 4) + 1 Wds to the target.

This is also your main spell for setting up Necrotic Unmaking, as any model with 9 or fewer Wds remaining will be brought down to 3 Wds or less. Don't forget that this spell deals Wds to the target, so things like Armor and Magic Resistance don't have any effect against it. This is also the primary place where you will be using Soulstones, boosting the casting total hopefully beyond what the target can resist, or at the very least forcing them to burn a SS if they have that option. This spell is extremely deadly; it is the most consistently lethal spell in the game and that reputation and threat is going to cause your opponent to be very cautious around Leveticus. Make sure to use this to your advantage and show them what this spell can do early in the game, keeping its threat constantly on the top of their mind.

One final note: even with Dual Focused you need another suit to cast this spell. While you can choose what suit to add from Dual Focused when you determine the total (i.e. after cheating + SS), try to make sure you have either the Crow or Tome in your hand to get this spell off. If you lack either of these suits, Necrotic Unmaking is probably a better choice since you are guaranteed the suits for that spell. Unless getting Unnatural Wasting off is critical at the moment, it is better to go with the sure bet of Necrotic Unmaking.

Necrotic Unmaking
While this spell may not have quite the same range and power as Unnatural Wasting, it is also not a Ranged Attack Spell so you can use this against a target in cover with impunity. The 1 Wd this deals to Leveticus is often not of any real concern, it is after-all just 1 more step down your general goal for every turn (killing Leveticus). But what really makes this spell shine is that it yet again causes Wds, so it bypasses Armor and Magic Resistance and summons a Steampunk Abomination (SPA) if the target is killed via this spell. Now sadly this does not get around effects like Voracious Rats (from Hamelin), but it still gives you a piece you need to form one of the most powerful minions in the game, the Desolation Engine. So while a SPA may not look that dangerous on it's own, it's really the result of having 4 of them that makes them dangerous and using this spell worth it every time.

You should aim to finish off every enemy with this spell given the chance. Even if you have to use your crew to setup the kills for you, this will quickly pay off once you reach 4 Steampunk Abominations (SPA) in play at once and manage to form the Desolation Engine. If nothing else, it gives you another model that can get in your opponent's way and cause some damage.

Entropic Transformation
Entropic Transformation is not a workhorse spell like Unnatural Wasting or Necrotic Unmaking, rather it is a specialized spell that really serves a few specific purposes.

__V3 Update__ This spell received a big update on Leveticus's V3 Card, gaining a Rst: Wp where it used to have no resist.

__Hollow Waifs__ The first use of Entropic Transformation is to provide Leveticus with a way to generate more Hollow Waifs (who are Rare 2), giving him that important 2nd Waif and replacing any that may have gotten killed off for good. If he sacrifices a Living or Undead model or targets a Corpse Counter with this spell, a Hollow Waif is summoned. This is also Leveticus's only use for Corpse Counters.

__Steampunk Abominations__ If this spell sacrifices a Construct it creates an SPA, though the cost of 3 Wds make Necrotic Unmaking a better choice for this particular use. But it can also make an SPA from a Scrap Counter, which Necrotic Unmaking can't do. Since the Wd loss is generally a good thing for Leveticus, using this spell to generate SPAs from Scrap Counters is well worth it.

__Sacrifice__ An often missed and under appreciated aspect to this spell is that the targeted model is sacrificed. A sacrificed model leaves no Counters (and thus is very useful vs. model generating crews like Resurrectionists) and since most death-related effects occur due to a model being killed, a lot of triggers are avoided. There are also several models that have effects that trigger when a nearby model is killed (Ex: Blood Sense from the Black Blood Shaman); this is a good way around those too.

__Deals No Wds or Dg, Simply Sacrifices__ Exactly what the title says. This spell does not deal any Wds or Dg to the target, but simply sacrifices them if they have 2 or fewer Wds remaining. This can get around a lot of defensive abilities such as Hard to Kill and other model-specific abilities. Often this makes Entropic Transformation the better choice over Necrotic Unmaking and Unnatural Wasting against those models, so keep your eyes open and always look at your target's card and ask your opponent about the model to make sure you're making the right choice.

Blessings of Desolation
This is Leveticus' only Buff spell and his only ability/action that does anything for his crew. It does require 2 suits to cast it, so it's best to wait until you have one of them in your hand before you attempt the spell. Since it has no resist, you only have to worry about meeting the Casting Cost (CC) of the spell and little else. The trigger granted by the spell gives you another way to make more SPAs without using Necrotic Unmaking or Entropic Transformation. This spell is especially useful on a model that already has a Crow on their melee weapon's Cb, and it becomes even more useful if they have other Triggers that require them to flip a Crow to use (some Resurrectionist models do and a common favorite is Bête Noire). If you put this on SPAs or the Desolation Engine it gives them that second Crow they need to trigger Desolate Warping with each attack, which frees them up to focus on getting the highest card possible instead of having to worry about getting a Crow. Otherwise, the second copy of Desolate Warping does nothing for them.

The timing for when the model is generated by this trigger has been a major topic of discussion for a long time on the Wyrd forums. Thankfully the Rules Manual cleared up a lot of confusion and the final result is:
 * Slow to Die happens before the SPA is summoned because Slow to Die happens **Immediately** after the model dies so it trumps the timing of the model being generated.
 * The Summoned SPA would be placed after the killed model has any death effects like Shatter resolve because the SPA is placed just before the model is removed from play (because of the last line of the spell) which is after effects like Shatter resolve.

If nothing else, this increases the chance that models killed by your crew will generate more SPAs which is a very good thing. Remember, more SPAs means more Desolation Engines and really, why would you ever turn down the chance to get a free 12ss model?

__Note: Misprint Update:__ This spell has a very obvious misprint that has been confirmed and will be corrected in future. It should say "After enemy defender is killed by __a melee attack__, it does ..."

Desolation
Probably the biggest problem with this spell is that it is a (0) action and fights with Death's Lessons for use. But besides that it is a solid 6" pulse, but requires 2 suits to cast, so you should only attempt it when you know you can get both suits, unless you are in a dire situation where you must cast this spell (then in that case, use SS and do whatever you can). While 2 Dg may not seem like a whole lot, when you consider that your SPAs and Desolation Engines all have auras that can cause damage to nearby models, this 2 Dg can be a solid finisher or just a very good way to put your opponent off their footing. It does a lot to a player's mentality when a bunch of models suddenly take 2 Dg on top of everything else you can throw at him. This is also how Leveticus deals with swarms of weak models that close in on him.

Leveticus can kill himself with this spell, and is very likely to, if you use it at the right time. Since it is a pulse, you want to use it when there are several enemy models in range of it, and with Leveticus taking 1 Wd per Wd inflicted (note that this is Wd inflicted, so after Armor and Magic Resistance have already lowered the Dg), this adds up very quickly. If you are going to use this spell, try to make it your last action for the turn if there is even the possibility of this Wd loss killing Leveticus. Lastly, remember this spell will hurt your own models in range, so be sure to clear the area, especially of your Hollow Waifs!

Death Touch & The Face of Death
Many people overlook Leveticus' melee abilities, figuring that because he has Casting Expert and such a low Wk, he is rarely going to ever use it and if he does, it's probably over for him. But they could not be more wrong. With a crushing 0/1/12 for damage, this weapon has the highest unmodified damage of any weapon in the game so far. This means if it is used against a Master (or a model with Use Soulstones) that are near death, unless they flip the Red Joker on damage prevention they will not survive a Severe damage flip from this weapon. The very possibility of this gives Leveticus a huge deterrent against your opponent as very few people will want the chance of spending an activation near him. So not only do you have the threat of your spells, you also have the threat of his melee weapon going for you letting you continuously push forward and often keep your opponent on the defensive all game long.

The biggest weakness to this weapon is the lowish Cb of 5 and the huge jump in damage from Moderate to Severe. There is not much you can do about your lowish Cb except use a SS to add to the attack total. But for the damage, you have The Face of Death Trigger. Because of Dual Focused, you have this Trigger's suit built into your Cb and, as long as you have some low cards in your hand, you may as well use it each turn. If you have a Severe card in your hand (Face Card + Red Joker), just discard enough cards to give yourself a straight flip on damage and then cheat for the Severe if needed. If you don't have a Severe card in your hand, discard as many cards as you think needed and hope the multiple Positive Flips will get you that Severe Damage.

Dual Focused & Disciplined Caster Trigger
Dual Focused is one of Leveticus' most useful abilities, letting him add either a Tome or Crow to his Ca and Cb duel totals after he has cheated fate and used SS (this is because you choose the suit to add when you determine the duels total). This means he can easily cast his dual suited spells and can get both of Triggers nearly every time he wants them. With Disciplined Caster you should be using this Trigger on every spell you cast except for Necrotic Unmaking, which you don't want to go out of your way to get the Tome just to use this Trigger, as it often won't pay off.

Disciplined Caster is extremely useful for Leveticus because he normally only draws cards when he dies, and draws no cards in the Draw Card phase. You can probably guess how fast his hand can become depleted if he doesn't die every turn, and sometimes it is a better idea not to have him die on a given turn, which only adds to this problem. That's where this Trigger comes into play, by letting him replenish his hand during the course of a turn, hopefully giving him 3 additional cards and replacing those you used already or are building more up for later. Remember, this Trigger can be used when he successfully casts a spell which only means he needs to meet the Casting Cost of the spell, and it doesn't matter if the target resists or not.

=Resilience= What makes Leveticus very unique for a model in Malifaux is that he won't stay dead when killed. He is not terribly hard to kill with a Df of 2, only 8 Wds, and the fact that he constantly loses Wds when cast his spells (which he casts a LOT of). The fact is that when he dies, if there is a friendly Hollow Waif in play during the Closing Phase, he will return to play in base-to-base contact with the Waif before killing and re-spawning all his Waifs.

Leveticus actually wants to die almost every turn as long as his Waifs are in a safe place. He replenishes his hand when he dies and comes back with full Wds and no effects on him or anything. Even if Hamelin made him Insignificant for the Encounter through his spell, when Leveticus dies and comes back he won't be Insignificant anymore (he will basically be brand spanking new). Besides all this, he is also Soulless so he doesn't leave behind a Corpse Counter and is nonliving, so things like Terrifying have no effect against him.

With his high Wp of 8, he is actually a very hard model to debuff or disable shy of just killing him.

A Guide to Caring for your Leveticus: How to care for your Hollow Waifs
The key to Leveticus' resilience is his Hollow Waifs. Above all else you MUST protect at least one on a turn or Leveticus is going to die, and he won't be coming back. Many players take cheap undead models (like a Canine Remains) and use Entropic Transformation on it first turn to get a second Hollow Waif ASAP. This is actually a very good idea as 2 Waifs greatly increases your survivability while giving you more offensive options.

One of your Waifs (or your only Waif) will often hide somewhere completely safe, either in a building or behind a forest, etc. This Waif is your anchor and will be used to resurrect Leveticus as needed. If you have a second Waif, you should be using it offensively by moving it up field to get where you would like Leveticus to resurrect. Often you will want to position it near some Blocking Terrain so when Leveticus does resurrects, he can resummon the Waifs out of LoS and to safety.

The biggest danger to Waifs are extremely fast models, like a Stampeding Pig or the Corphyee Duet. These extremely quick models will be your biggest threat and the best way to protect against them is to make it so they can't reach your Waifs. This could mean hiding them in a building and putting Leveticus or a powerful model in the doorway, or blocking their charge lanes to the Waifs etc. It's very hard to protect them re-actively, as you are bound to make a mistake and leave your Waifs open on a turn and get them killed (hopefully Leveticus will survive the rest of that turn). But the best way to handle these quick models is to be proactive and kill them before they can get you. Often this means sending a quick model in pursuit of them in an attempt to rope them in or at least herd them closer to Leveticus (this is a big reason why you will often seen any of the Riders in a Leveticus list, as they are quick and powerful and great for running down a flank). If you can get them into Leveticus' LoS, then it's just a matter of him finishing them off; luckily, most of these models are not that tough and a spell or two from him can generally finish them off. Alternatively, you can use ranged models like Ryle and Alyce to gun them down, or at the very least, threaten the open paths to your Waifs.

Models that ignore LoS to make an attack like the Guild Austringer are also a threat, but Leveticus can often kill them long before they truly threaten your Waifs.

Don't let this threat get you too distracted as you still have a game to win. Do your best to keep his Waifs safe but at the same time don't do it at the expense of VPs, and the game. Leveticus is very dangerous and sometimes using him as an expendable distraction is exactly what you need to do. Even if Leveticus dies you can still win.

=Soulstones= Like all Outcast Masters, Leveticus has a 0 Cache, so any SS for his SS Pool will have to come from not hiring models for your crew. Most of the time you will have 1-2 SS left over which you can throw his way, but you really want to leave him with about 4 SS, as that should be all he needs. Every player is different though, and if you find yourself really needing more or less, adjust things by all means.

Leveticus very rarely uses SS for defensive duels or to prevent damage (he knows his time is short - it's how he lives). The only time you will want to use them this way is when you don't want Leveticus to die just YET, which usually mean his Waifs are dead and you need to survive the turn without them. In this case, burn them as needed. His very low Df of 2 means he is going to have a hard time avoiding most attacks, but a face card + a lucky SS flip can still win those duels. If being attacked by Wp-based effects, his very high 8 should protect him against most of these, but burn SS if you need to. You don't get any VPs for taking them home, so don't be foolish with them, but don't be stingy either.

Offensively is where you will spend most of them, and often this will be against the enemy Master or a very powerful minion. Cheat high and if they can still meet the casting total, spend that SS and hopefully seal their fate. This is most important when using Unnatural Wasting against the enemy Master, for if just one cast of this spell gets through they are going to be in serious trouble. Consider that the toughest Masters in the game have 12 Wds (and generally Hard to Wound) a single casting of Unnatural Wasting is going to do 7 Wds to them and leave them at 5, putting them easily in the kill range for something like the Desolation Engine, Alyce, or Leveticus.

=Tricks and Tips=

Leveticus's Death and Rebirth Cycle Explanation
The most frequently asked question about Leveticus is how does his "death-to-rebirth" cycle work. It's actually rather simple once you get your head around it, but can be very intimidating for new players to understand. The following is a break down of how it works, along with each model and ability referenced: This means, provided at least either Leveticus and/or a single Waif is alive by the end of the turn, Leveticus and/or any removed Waifs will return prior the round ending due to the order that the cycle occurs in (Leveticus revives, killing all Waifs, before all Waifs return by being summoned by Leveitcus's side).
 * Leveticus Dies/Is Sacrificed -> **Eternally Shackled**kicks in.
 * 1) **Eternally Shackled:** During the Closing Phase -> Place Leveticus in base-to-base contact with a friendly Hollow Waif
 * 2) **Eternally Shackled:** Sacrifice all friendly Hollow Waifs in play.
 * 3) **Eternally Shackled:** Discard your hand and draw up to your Crew's maximum hand size.
 * Hollow Waif:
 * 1) **Shackled:** During the End Closing Phase -> If this model was Killed or Sacrificed during the turn, summon beside a Friendly Leveticus.

Some key points to remember from all this are:
 * Leveticus draws the cards before his deck is shuffled.
 * Hollow Waifs summoned via Shackled __will **NOT** be Slow__ during the next turn, as the Slow from summon only applies on the turn a model is summoned.
 * The only way to kill Leveticus for good is to kill/sacrifice Leveticus AND all of his Hollow Waifs in play (kill/sacrifice/bury them) before the turn ends.

A Guide to Caring for your Leveticus: How to Kill Him.
Wyrd has done us all a big favor by making a note on every Action Leveticus can use to kill himself with. This is a list of ways Leveticus can kill himself:
 * Unstable Necromancy causing him to suffer his last Wd at the start Closing Phase (notice the timing is just right for Eternally Shackled to kick in).
 * Necromantic Sacrifice
 * Death's Lessons
 * Desolation

He can not kill himself with any of his other actions, meaning Blessings of Desolation, Entropic Transformation, and Necrotic Unmaking CANNOT be used if they would reduce him to 0 Wds. This makes timing your actions critical as you don't want to set up Entropic Transformation only to find you have 2 Wds left.

Often the best way to kill Leveticus is to have him go all out on his turn and hopefully reduce himself to 1 Wd, then let Unstable Necromancy run its course and finish him off. Often this will not work out as well as you hope, and you will need another model to finish him off. In this case do not be afraid to have a minion take a swipe at him and cheat when you need to assure his death. Rusty Alyce is often a good choice for this because she likes to hang around Leveticus for Something to Live For.

Beware of enemy models that will try to heal Leveticus! There are not many of them out there, but this can often heavily derail your plans and cause you to suffer through a turn with no hand. Always look over your opponent's models for any that have these kinds of abilities and either stay away from them, or kill them before they cause you trouble.

Death's Lessons
There is not a whole lot of complexity to this ability, but it is worth mentioning some of the uses for this spell. The most obvious use is to stack your deck a bit for your next action's flip, leaving the high cards on top and discarding the rest of them. If nothing else, you cycle away 3 junk cards and hopefully get something better afterwards. Another use for this is to help kill Leveticus, even if the cards are too low to be useful, just put them back on top and that's 3 Wds down, 5 to go. If you're going to try to get a really high casting value (say to kill a master) by cheating and using a Soulstone, you can stack a weak card on top of a strong card to maximize your chances. Lastly, this action can be useful for setting up your new hand when Leveticus dies and resurrects, though to use it this way, Leveticus will most likely have to be the last model going for the turn. Otherwise, you are probably going to end up in a duel of some sort and have to flip those cards you setup for yourself (not that it's really a huge loss).

You can also use this Talent for some surprising tricks. If your game has a variable-effect Special Terrain, such as **Creepy Structure**, you can use Death's Lessons to stack your results beforehand and get the values you need. In a Story Encounter, you could decide where the Krampus goes and plan accordingly, or be sure you got Sugar Cookies when caroling. If you can out-activate your opponent and act last in a turn, you can also use Death's Lessons to stack the results for supposed random global variables, such as whether a special event occurs in a round, or even whether the game continues past Turn Six! While these kinds of uses are very situational, and may make opposing players roar with frustration, they can sometimes make all the difference.

=Strategies and Schemes for Leveticus= Thanks to Pariah, Leveticus has access to probably the most diverse list of potential models for his crew of any Master in Malifaux. This means he can build his crew for nearly any Strategy and Scheme and tweak it to deal with nearly any faction. But there are some influential factors to your Scheme choices. First is that Leveticus is very good at killing a few things, so schemes like Assassinate and Kill Prodigy are a good choice for him. Leveticus is also very hard to actually kill off for good, so Bodyguard is always a solid choice for him. Some recommended Schemes are:
 * **Soulless Life:** Leveticus' Master Scheme is excellent for him, as having to die 4 turns out of a 6 turn game and be alive at the end of the encounter is perfect for him. Just be sure to keep your Waifs safe and remember you can't announce this Scheme but you still get 2 VP anyway.
 * **Thwart:** The good old Outcast Scheme thankfully doesn't require you to announce and can net you 1 VP right away if your opponent doesn't announce any Schemes. If you manage to stop all of their Schemes, you get 2 VP for it. This can be more or less difficult depending on what you're going up against and what the Schemes are.
 * **Breakthrough:** You have access to some very quick Minions and given the right set of circumstances, this can be a very easy Scheme to pull off, even announced. Leveticus draws so much attention to himself that he can get their entire crew to either come up after him or scare them away from an area (their deployment zone in this case), then you just need to run, skip, and jump a Necropunks into their Deployment Zone and you have 2 VP.

=Leveticus in Brawls= Leveticus's choice of Brawling partners are limited by his Pariah ability, as he can only Brawl with another Master if they are Construct, Undead, or Soulless, but otherwise they can be from any faction. Just remember, all hiring restrictions of both Masters apply in a Brawl. So for example, you can only hire Constructs, Undead, and Soulless with Leveticus on top of the other masters restrictions as well. So Leveticus and Hamelin have a very restricted model selection when in a brawl together.

Brawling with C. Hoffman
There are two great things about being in a Brawl with Hoffman. First of all, Hoffman's Maintain Machines ability will allow your Desolation Engine to ignore its ability that causes itself to take a Wd every time it does an action. The other great reason is Hoffman's totem, the Mechanical Attendant. It has an ability that allows it to gain Scrap Counters whenever a Construct is sacrificed within a certain range. Now, the totem takes a Wd for every Scrap Counter it gains as well, so there is some limit to this, but if you start out with 4 Steampunk Abominations, and have them form into the Desolation Engine right away, your Mechanical Attendant will gain 4 Scrap Counters, and have only 1 Wd left. At this point, you have two great strategies you can pursue. You can heal the Attendant back up, and then use it as a mobile threat for Hoffman's Detonate Scrap action. Or, you can kill the Totem with one of your other Minions (the Desolation Engine could work well here), then Levi can summon 3 more Abominations from the Scrap it drops, and if you have Alyce in the crew, she can summon one as well. Now you have TWO Desolation Engines on the first turn!

Brawling with Hamelin
=Building a Crew= The hardest part about building a Leveticus crew is choosing what you want to bring from his vast selection of potential models. He has what may likely remain the largest selection of models for his crew thanks to **Pariah**. He can take any Construct, Undead, or Soulless model from any faction at no additional cost unless they have some sort of specific hiring restriction (like the Coryphee).

Pariah and What it Means to You
Pariah means you can only hire Constructs, Undead, and Soulless models, but you may hire them from ANY Faction without additional cost. Note that this does not ignore hiring restrictions the models may have (like Coryphee, Leveticus can't hire them because of their special rule). In truth, all of these models can be useful to Leveticus in some fashion and many of them have specialized uses with him. For example, Canine Remains are generally only taken to create a Waif out of on the first turn and Necropunks are only taken if you have a movement based Strategy or plan on using movement based Schemes.

He can be a nightmare to play against for this very reason. It is almost impossible to build a crew to combat Levi because Levi can take so many different models. Taking models that are good against one faction is a gamble as Levi could take an all Rez list for example. A Levi list can be Melee focused, magic or ranged focused.

Some Note Worthy Minions
> Desolation Engine: Another of Leveticus' signature models; the Desolation Engine is one of the most powerful minions in the game. It has a very powerful melee attack along with some potent AOE abilities and a surprising amount of resilience. > **Riders:** The Leviticus Avatar gets buffs from Riders on the board, so a crew running the Avatar of Entropy will benefit from taking these > Rusty Alyce: Leveticus's young ward has an ability that lets Leveticus actually draw 2 cards at the start of a turn if she is close enough. In addition to her powerful ranged attacks (including the Headshot Trigger) she can also give Reactivate to Constructs and create more SPAs (although at a high cost).
 * Ashes and Dust: The last of Leveticus' signature models is very expensive at 13ss, but extremely lethal and very hard to kill off for good. It has melee attacks as powerful as the Desolation engine and brings several synergies and buffs to the table for SPAs and Desolation Engines.
 * Bête Noire: Always deadly and great to have, provided Leveticus is mainly running an undead crew, and especially good when facing a non-construct, non-spirit force. Her presence makes it even more risky for an opponent to kill Leveticus or his Waifs, as their demise may mean Bette will rise (and no one really wants to face her. Really. NO one! SERIOUSLY!). Leviticus' Blessings of Desolation can allow her to automatically meet the requirements for her Slit Jugular trigger, which can rapidly drain an opponent's Control Hand.
 * Canine Remains: The best 2 point minion in the game? They are fast, have a nice little trigger, can charge for 1AP, and don't go down without a fight. Well, even if they are not game changers, these guys are great fodder for a 2nd Waif.
 * Killjoy: A great model for Levi. He has lots of Waifs and SPA to use to bring Killjoy out. His huge charge range and hard hitting power can make him a vicious counter balance to Levi's ranged spell damage.
 * Steampunk Abomination: One of Leveticus' signature models. Their speed is deceptive, but sadly they are not dangerous alone. Four of them can combine together for the exceptionally lethal Desolation Engine.
 * Steampunk Abomination: One of Leveticus' signature models. Their speed is deceptive, but sadly they are not dangerous alone. Four of them can combine together for the exceptionally lethal Desolation Engine.
 * Hooded Rider:
 * Dead Rider:
 * Mechanical Rider:
 * Pale Rider:
 * Rail Golum:A big stick with no particularly synergy with Levi, but it is always good to have him on your side. A bargain for his points.
 * Ryle: Ryle is a durable Construct with a very potent ranged weapon that rivals Alyce's Clockwork Revolver. His ranged power works well with Leveticus and Alyce as they can move up the field together gunning down anything that gets into their range.
 * Rotten Belles: Although typically found in the service of Seamus, Leveticus can also employ the corset wearing corpses. **"Lure"** can help drag victims away from the safety of their crew and towards your forces, whereas **"Undress"** will reduce the victims Df by 2, and make it even easier for the SPA to assimilate the target into one of their number - decreasing your opponent's forces while increasing your own.
 * Samurai Punk Zombie: A great offensive Minion for Leviticus, with a high Cb and Paired with Blessings granting the automatic Trigger Rot or Desolate Warping. A relatively low cost and a high Df (for Undead), as well as //Hard to Wound 1// and //Slow to Die//, makes up for its relatively low Wd. Crews can do far worse than to take one or two of these undead warriors.
 * Steampunk Arachnid: The creations of Ramos are also employed by Leveticus. While Leveticus cannot create his own versions of these, they can be very powerful as their **"Latch On"** is cumulative, meaning two of these spiders can reduce a target's Df by 4, which makes them even easier for a SPA to assimilate the victim into their cluster. They are also Constructs, meaning the SPA can 'ride-them' into battle.
 * Watcher: Can be a good objective grabber, something Levi can lack. The Watcher can also get around cover, allowing Levi and Alyce to unload without suffering any cover modifiers.

Pretty much any models you choose to take with Leveticus will work well with him. He may not provide much more then heavy damage support to them, but that can often be enough. Just make sure to take models that help you get your Schemes and Strategy.You don't want to stock up on SPAs when you select Breakthrough as a Scheme, for example.

=Starting Leveticus= Leveticus' starter box gives you most of what you need to get started with him: it gives you Leveticus, Rusty Alyce, a Hollow Waif (unique sculpt), and 4 SPAs. This is a good start for building a vanilla Leveticus crew (mostly made up of his signature models), but you will want to pick up:
 * Another Hollow Waif (Blister is 2 per pack so you have an extra if you start with the starter box, but the savings on the box are more then worth it)
 * Desolation Engine

This gives you a very solid base to start expanding out from. Even if you don't want to hire SPAs or a Desolation Engine, you will need them any way as Leveticus makes SPAs throughout the course of a game, and once you have 4 of them, you want to create a Desolation Engine. How you expand your crew out from there is up to you, and how you want to play Leveticus. Some players like to get their Canine Remain next (for summoning another Hollow Waif), while others like to go for the big powerful models like the Riders and Ryle, and yet others like swarms of dangerous models in the Samurai Punk Zombies.

=Playing Against Leveticus= Leveticus is a hard Master to play against, if a simple one to understand what to beware of. Simply put, if you leave your Master (or a powerful Minion) in the open near an unengaged Levticus, he will most likely attempt to Unnatural Wasting the model and bring it down quickly. Use cover to your advantage as this gives him a Negative Flip to his Casting duel with that spell (because it has a Ranged icon in the Range), unless he uses a Channel action. Leveticus is also very reliant on his spells, so models that can impede his casting (like Witchling Stalkers) or have Counter Spell are a good choice. Armor and Magic Resistance do you very little good against Leveticus himself, but will still be very useful against his crew as very few of them have a way to get past it.

One of the hardest things about playing against Leveticus is that he is far too dangerous to ignore, but takes a lot of resources to kill for good. Your best option is to kill him early in a turn (hopefully before he has activated) if you get the chance and then focus on his crew if the Waifs are in a safe spot or it would be to much of a stretch to get to them. When it finally comes time to go after Leveticus himself and finish him off, there really is not a whole lot of complexity with this. You need to have models that are fast enough to catch the Waifs (or who can shoot without needing LoS) and be able to pin down and kill the Waifs. Often this can take a turn or two to set up as you have to threaten the flanks to force the Waifs to move back into safer positions before you can close in on them. But be careful of a Waif that is placed further up the field (especially near your crew), as this is the tell-tale sign that Leveticus is probably going to resurrect at it and do his best to dismantle your crew. If you ever get a clear shot on a Hollow Waif, even if Leveticus isn't going to die this turn, take it and kill the Waif. It will have to come back close to Leveticus at the end of the turn (hopefully in a better position for you to kill both of them at once) and will force Leveticus to reconsider his plans for dying or living through that turn.

In the end, the best advice for playing against Leveticus is the same as when playing against any other Master: play to your Strategy and Schemes and make sure to look over your opponent's crew's stats before you begin. Above all, remember that Leveticus wants to die each turn, but he wants to die at the right time for him. Sometimes even dealing a few Wds to him can greatly disrupt his plans because now suddenly he may end up killing himself halfway through his plan or simply not have enough Wds left to do it.

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