Since Ashes of Malifaux dropped, Wyrd has been reworking keywords at a brisk clip. We already covered the Big Hat and Elite/Mimic reworks, but those two were just the beginning. Recently… never you mind exactly how recently… Wyrd reworked Asami and the Oni keyword. Let’s dive in and see what’s changed!
Special thanks are due in this article to Simon “Draysen,” one of the best Asami players out there, who talked through some of these changes with me.
I Oni Have Eyes for You
The first question, of course, is why Asami? She wasn’t struggling, but she wasn’t dominating tournaments, either. I think the fundamental problem was that the Oni keyword was one of the most one-dimensional keywords there was. For those who don’t know, Asami Tanaka is, in her classic form, a summoner. She summons terrible Oni from Beyond, the realm in which these demons dwell. They don’t belong in our reality, and so they Flicker in and out of existence. By gaining Flicker tokens, they could supercharge their attacks… but if they ever ended their activation with too many, they would pop right out of reality (and off the board). Summoned Oni came in on a timer, accumulating Flicker tokens until they vanished. Out, brief candle!
The problem was that that mechanic was extremely difficult to balance. Asami would typically summon either a Jorogumo, a gigantic drider-style hybrid, or an Obsidian Oni, a lesser beatstick that explodes when it dies. The summon would then go absolutely bananas, typically dying but doing enormous damage on the way out. Rinse and repeat. You didn’t care that Flickering too much would make your models die, because they were just fire and forget bullets… but the Flicker mechanic meant her Summon was aggressively statted and could conjure up truly terrifying bullies.
In addition, her Title was in the running for worst Master in the game. Asami Tanaka, Shintaku had a cool “Rift Marker” mechanic, but the difficulty in getting them out, and the lack of synergy with any other model in the game, meant that the rifts just… didn’t do much. Why jump through hoops when you can just throw Jorogumo at people?
Oni the Lonely
The rework thus eliminated Flicker Tokens entirely, except as part of her summon mechanic. Flicker Tokens are, now, simply a countdown: if you run out of them, you vanish. You can’t really get more very easily (I think there’s only one way to do it, and it’s just one flicker token for one model per turn) so they’re just a way to make Asami’s summons time-limited.
Instead, the crew’s core mechanic is now Rift Markers. These are 30mm, Destructible, Hazardous markers… but that’s just the start of their usefulness.
Let’s walk through the models one by one and discuss their changes.
Asami Tanaka
We’ll start with Asami herself. Her stats haven’t changed, though she’s lost Arcane Reservoir (sort of… you’ll see what I mean). She lost Emerald Shimmer and Oni’s Soul, the two Flicker token mechanics she had, and Violation of Reality, which is more keyed to what her Title form wants to be doing. In their place, she has Extended Reach (a great piece of defensive tech), and two new abilities. Beyond’s Reward lets her print Soulstones if she kills enemies near Rifts (introducing her new mechanic), while Echoes from the Past gives her the Hunger’s Reach upgrade.
Now might be the time to talk about Asami’s crew upgrades. Using the new technology introduced in Madness of Malifaux, these are upgrades that attach to the Crew as a whole, rather than a specific model, and modify the way the crew plays. There are two of them, one for each title. Asami’s regular form uses this one:
Both upgrades make Asami’s crew immune to their own Rift Markers, which is important for crews that want to spam Hazardous markers, and add an extra ability. In this case, that ability allows all Oni to use Rift Markers as arc nodes for their melee actions while they’re within 8″. That’s huge – you can charge and then swipe out of a marker 8″ away, giving them all absurd threat ranges. It also means enemies can’t just ignore markers and step around them; leaving a Rift Marker in place, even if you’re not standing in it, dramatically increases the Oni crew’s threat projection.
Moving to Asami’s back of card, Another Mouth to Feed is unchanged, while Reaching Tendrils has been changed to Demonic Tresses. The function is the same, although the new version attacks Mv and isn’t a projectile attack, giving Asami a lot more flexibility in how she uses it (it doesn’t have a TN anymore, either). She has lost Rip and Tear but gained two excellent new triggers; Gateway to the Beyond gives you a Rift Marker on top of the target, which is helpful whether you’re pushing around friendlies or enemies, while Cocooned in Hair both Stuns and deals damage. This is not an attack enemies want to be hit with.
From the Maw, They Come is still her summon, though it’s been aligned to other Summon abilities to have a stat of 0 and a commensurately lower TN (note that the overall TN is lowered by 1 for all summons). Summoned models still gain an upgrade, but how those work is totally different; rather than come in with 0-2 flicker tokens and count up, now models come in with 0-2 and count down. When you run out, you poof at the end of the turn. You get Flicker Tokens either from being small or from summoning near enemies – to enable the latter, the range has increased from 6 to 8″.
Finally, Asami’s self-heal via Insatiable Hunger has vanished. Now she just makes a Rift Marker each turn. The triggers here are both good – pushing a Rift Marker can both get it into position and ping damage irresistibly, and Deja Vu is just a solid card draw trigger.
Overall, Asami is still a summoner, though she now supports her summons not just by keeping them alive but by creating rifts for them to hit through. She does want to be close to enemies both for her summons and her attacks (and to print Soulstones), so make sure to take advantage of Protected to keep her alive.
Asami Tanaka, Shintaku
Asami’s title form introduced the world to the Rift Marker mechanic. So what’s different now?
Non-summoning titles of summoner masters are a bit odd, since a lot of the keyword is balanced around being summoned. Shintaku therefore focuses on buffing her Oni friends. She has lost Arcane Shield, and her Chains of the Earth ability is now Spiritual Pressure – rather than hand out Injured +1, it creates new Rift Markers when people duplicate actions. She has lost Emerald Shimmer and Flickering Lanterns, her Flicker-related abilities, but gained A Mother’s Love: she can soak damage for nearby Oni, two at a time, with no limit except your own willingness to beat yourself up.
Dimensional Rifts isn’t exactly gone; instead, it’s moved to her unique crew upgrade, in slightly modified form. Oni can’t use Asami as a teleport locus anymore, but they no longer close rifts when moving through them. The range has reduced from 8″ to 6″, but it’s much easier to get Rift Markers where you need them, and not losing them to this ability is so huge that it’s still an upgrade.
This Asami has lost her melee attack, presumably due to her hairstyle change, but kept Into the Beyond and Spiritual Invasion. Into the Beyond is almost identical, except that Pulled In has changed suits to allow for a new Mask trigger in Cruelty, making it easier to spam Rift Markers. Spiritual Invasion now Stuns instead of Staggers and has lost Possession, the weird built-in trigger that let you pretend to be Dreamer with Oni. Instead, it has Defensive Reflexes… definitely a step down in value, although typically Stunning enemies is worth a lot more than Staggering them.
Her Tactical Actions are completely new. Gone is Wrath of the Kimon, her reactivate ability, since it was a Flicker Token mechanic. Instead she has Oni’s Strength, a significant buff (Fast to any Oni!) with two strong Triggers. Giving a model Fast and Focused for one AP is a lot of efficiency, while the heal is welcome given how much she’ll be beating herself up to keep her kids alive.
Finally, A Heavenly Design lets her gobble down Rifts to heal up to four points for a single Bonus Action, a truly impressive amount of healing and one that makes A Mother’s Love functional as an ability. The addition of Reposition and Otherworldly Protection means this ability always has some functionality, too (and remember you can choose 0 markers and heal 0, but still move or teleport a dude if you have to).
Asami’s Title form makes up for some of the inherent shortcomings in summoned models by giving them more offense and more staying power, and she’s really good at putting Rift Markers exactly where you want them for long-bomb charges. Just remember she doesn’t have Protected… you’ll have to find a way to keep her safe. Thang Giong, anyone?
Minako Rei
Minako Rei is Not Even From Around Here, lacking both the Oni keyword and any attachment to the Rift mechanic. Nevertheless, as her little origami buddies are Oni, she got a tweak. Create Katashiro became a bonus action (and had its TN normalized like other Summon options). She’s also gained the powerful Spiritual Transference to steal Conditions, with Focused Cleansing in case the Condition you stole was bad, and Instigate, to force enemies to attack her so she can actually get her Karmic Debt trigger off.
But the real changes are to the little paper pals themselves…
Katashiro
Katashiro were only ever summoned and that is likely to continue. They’ve gotten cheaper but are more fragile (though they are still hard to kill, meaning it’ll probably take two hits to do them in). Like all Oni, they’ve lost their Flicker mechanic (I am not going to keep mentioning this), but they have picked up a new Demise: Torn Up gives you a Rift, and costs the enemy a Pass Token if the Katashiro hasn’t activated, mirroring the Bayou Gremlins’ Cannon Fodder ability. This is useful for weak-but-not-Mindless summons, which otherwise carry a heavy risk of handing activation control to the enemy.
Katashiro have lost their TN-less 5″ Leap, as well as Shrug Off; their new Bonus Action does have a 3″ leap on a trigger, but it isn’t built in and has a TN, so you’ll have to think hard about whether it’s worth cheating. At least it might do a lil damage. They have lost Spiritual Transference (it transferred to their mom), and their claws are a little weaker on the top end, but the scheme marker removal is great – it’s not optional if your opponent can do it, and it doesn’t even require a trigger. They’re pretty cool with Asami1, where you can use Rift Markers to set up long-range attacks to remove Scheme Markers your opponent thinks are safe. Draysen says these guys are likely to either “run away and drop scheme markers, or tie up models without risk of giving up activation control, dropping rifts in the process,” which I think is a fair assessment.
Amanjaku
Amanjaku is now Significant! Hooray!
Ok, there are other changes too. He’s gotten Arcane Reservoir, meaning both Asamis now have access to it, though it’s tied to this relatively fragile model. He has lost The True Power, which let him enter Omega Mode if Asami died while he was still on the board, but he can eat Rifts for Fast in case that is something you wanted to do. He also turns into a Rift when he dies, which almost all Oni do now. His Claws are the same, though he has traded a built-in Unnatural Speed for a built-in Feast of Vengeance, which probably nets to a downside… though this guy is not a brawler by any means, Fast or no.
His Tacticals are a bit more interesting. Strengthen Oni is a bit like the old Anchor Oni, letting your summons stick around a bit longer, though it can also hand out Focused even if the target isn’t a summon. He doesn’t generate Concealment anymore, but he can both create and push around Rift Markers, making him key to how both Asami titles work. You want lots and lots of Rifts around to do your work, and this guy poops them out. Plus pushing a Rift over an enemy is always nice for unresistable damage.
Late in the game, he’s a Mv 6 schemer who can be Fast relatively easily, so he can score in unexpected ways.
Ohaguro Bettari
Asami’s mother, back from the Beyond, is not a happy camper. Her prior incarnation suffered from having no bonus action and being rather pants, but this version… gets there sometimes? Her stats are the same (quite good) and she still has the powerful-if-techy Unnerving Presence, and the powerful-all-the-time Diving Charge. She’s lost Drawn to Essence, her weird little summon-related teleport, but gained Terrifying and Spiritual Tear.
Her attacks are a bit different than they used to be, in positive ways. She’s traded Tear Apart for a unique Blackened Teeth attack with a built-in positive flip against enemies near Rifts (which, as we’ve seen, shouldn’t be too hard to set up). It has the same triggers as before, minus the flavorful but not particularly useful Tear Limb from Limb. More importantly, she’s traded Lure for a unique Oni version, Hunting Son, that does the same thing but also gives you a free Rift Marker (for various applications, including setting up Blackened Teeth). The triggers on this are quite good – you can’t do it twice in a row, but you can push enemies away (super strong on Trixiebelle, and just as good here), as well as heal yourself for some durability.
Finally, she’s lost her extremely meh TN-13-or-slow pulse, but gained a bonus action! A real bonus action! I’ve Got Your Back, isn’t fancy, but it’s nice, and given that both Asamis want to be relatively close to the action but not on the frontlines, this is a solid way to keep her there.
Draysen’s summary is “Not piss, which makes a pleasant change,” which I can’t say he’s wrong about. He thinks she’s still a tech pick vs defensive triggers, and I tend to agree – I think if you’re not getting value from Unnerving Presence, 8 stones is hard to justify here, but there are a lot of crews that you’ll gain value against. Plus pushing someone away, dropping a rift near them, then charging orthogonally to slap them through the rift, is a solid play.
Ama no Zako
Oni’s old beatstick returns in substantially similar form. She’s slightly more Terrifying than she used to be, and can turn dead enemies into Rift Markers. Her Savage Bite can Stun instead of Slow, and for some reason she now heals the leader instead of herself for killing enemies (although I guess Drink Blood is a better self-healing trigger most of the time anyways).
Miasma of Boils and Flies returns, without any TN this time (although with a slightly smaller range). And Dark Bargain is back (note there’s a typo on this card – it’s a 6″ range, like every other Dark Bargain in the game), now requiring you to remove a Rift Marker instead of gain a Flicker Token for the upgraded version on the trigger.
Draysen thinks that she is basically an auto-include, and in most matchups I agree. Doubling up on Hazardous is one of the quickest ways to buzzsaw models down, and while she doesn’t have Flicker for infinite free Focus anymore, she can pretty easily become Fast (plus eat a Rift for a fourth effective AP). That’s a ton of AP for a model with stats this good, and with access to Soulstones – plus the self-healing from Drink Blood – she’ll be a nightmare to put down.
I’m Oni Human
Whew! That’s a lot of cards, but we have a lot more to talk about – the entire Keyword was revised. Join me next time to go over the rest of the Oni keyword, plus more puns!
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