Malifaux: Dark Debts

This Neverborn crew includes Jakob Lynch (leader), Hungering Darkness, and 3 Illuminated. From the Malifaux Tactica Wiki page: Jakob Lynch is a support master, able to manipulate fate and stack your hand. His totem is the heavy hitter of the pair and, some would argue, the thing in charge. The Hungering Darkness not only can do damage but he can infect models with the Brilliance which it then uses to control and manipulate them. The Hungering Darkness has a parasitic relationship with the rest of its crew using them to keep itself fed with Brilliance. Lynch is not the offensive powerhouse that his totem is, but he does bring several options to the table: Ace in the Hole Lynch plays with two Red Jokers, because he's that kind of honest. The "normal" one, and just for him, as in, the Lynch model, the Ace of Masks counts as a red joker, i.e. 14 in duels and Severe damage. Nice, eh? Better really if you have it in your hand, because you're more likely to flip it for one your minions. The Source A very straightforward spell, if you're on Brilliance (as most of his crew should be) then you get a small movement buff. Due to the small range of this aura, the models need to be beginning their activation close to Lynch, making this a good Turn 1 spell to help you get out of the gate that much faster, especially when combined with Mr. Graves and the push from Bar's Closed. Dead Man's Hand This is Lynch's signature spell and probably where most of his action points are going to be spent. The spell allows you to draw three cards, adding them to your hand, and depending on the even/odd value of the card flipped, your opponent will either get to draw a card or be forced to discard one. This spell is especially useful for helping to stack your hand (as you will gain all three cards except for aces and eights) before going into a big push with the Hungering Darkness. Due to the random nature of the spell's effect on your opponent's hand, it is not a reliable way to drain their hand of cards, and will generally provide them with the ability to card cycle more than anything else. Holdout Pistol Lynch has a reasonably decent Cb with his pistol, along with a middle of the road damage range and gunfighter, as you would expect with a pistol. The pistol does have a very interesting trigger, Malifaux Roulette, where rather than flipping damage as per usual, you instead randomly select a card from your opponent's hand. Based on the suit of this card, one of several effects is applied to the target model: This trigger is rather situational, but can see use if the target has high armor or your damage flip has several negative twists where the normal shot is unlikely to be of any serious utility. Most of the effects are debuffs (Paralyze, Poison, lowered stats) so if intending to use the trigger, try to pick a target that has yet to activate, where you'll get the most use out of the effect. Additionally, this trigger allows you to see a card in your opponent's hand, knowledge with is never bad. (Of note, if the card chosen is a Black Joker, your opponent gets to chose an effect to apply to Lynch instead!) His other pistol trigger, Pip the Ace, allows you to discard cards from your hand to receive additional positive twists to damage. This lets you discard low value cards from your hand to easily ramp up the pistol damage. Slave To Darkness One of his signature abilities, this allows Lynch to place (not summon) the Hungering Darkness on the table whenever a model with Brilliance dies for the low price of two cards of the same value. The Hungering Darkness enters play with wounds equal to half the value of the cards, rounded up. Maximizing the amount of wounds that the Hungering Darkness comes in on is not necessarily a high priority, as it is a Spirit and has multiple ways to heal itself. Although this ability is not restricted and can be used when you kill one of your opponent's models, it will give them an entire activation to deal with the totem, as it does not immediately activate like the Dreamer or LCB. One common way to use this ability is to run a Depleted into a mass of your opponent's models. If it dies to a melee attack, it explodes, causing damage, spreading brilliance, and bringing in the Hungering Darkness. The Illuminated are those who have been exposed to The Darkness' Brilliance for too long and it builds up inside them to turn them into tough, form shifting brawlers. It serves the role as a damage dealer and brilliance spreader when used with his preferred Master, Jakob.