Why the humble Will O' The Wisp might be my favourite Malifaux model ever

 I know.

Bit of a bold claim. 

Hello there, Beard here.  And I thought I'd take some time and write about one of my favourite models across multiple editions: The Will O' The Wisp.  But to do so, I need to talk about this lady, Mama Z and Baggy (The Voodoo Doll)

Zoraida has consistenly been one of my favourite and most played Masters over the previous two editions. She was the first Master I ever put on the table in M2E (a terrible idea at the time) and although I have the majority of my time in Guild and Rezzers, I have probably played more Zoraida (in both Neverborn and Bayou) than any other one Master. 

M2E

Time for a bit of a history lesson.  Back in M2E my preferred pattern of play with Zoraida was built around two things. Firstly her ability to hire any living model with a WP of 4 or less and the Voodoo Doll.  Lastly it was built around how Burning back then, which very briefly was take damage at the end of the turn based on how much of the condition you had at the end of the turn.  Have burning +4? take 4 damage etc. 

Good Ol Baggy

The Voodoo Doll principally existed (for me) to place the "Sewn Fate" condition on a target.  Then whatever happened to the Voodoo doll (be that conditions, now called Tokens, or damage) would happen to the Hemmed target.  With the mechanics of the day this meant if I could get 6 burning on to Baggy, the target with Sewn Fate would also gain 6 burning.  Then, at the end of the turn, the model the Voodoo Doll was picking on took a whopping 12 damage.  6 from their burning, and then 6 more when Baggy took his burning.  This was generally enough to kill most things that didn't have soul stone reduction and even some that had it.  I don't think I have ever has as much fun in Malifaux as the tactical Voodoo Nuke just removing a model a turn.  Hem was very reliable to get off at stat 7 and it generally got my best card each turn.  A variety of models then punch the Voodoo Doll to set him on fire (usually Iggy as he was WP4 I could take him in Bayou) and the look of shock and realisation that just watched a Totem kill their main beater was priceless.  

But of course, that damage killed Baggy to.  So you could theoretically only pull this nuke off once per game.  Except of course that Zoraida had a Tactical to summon the Voodoo Doll in, didn't even require a flip! Even better the Voodoo Doll got a free cast of Hem when it was summoned! What possible down side could there be to this?  Well it cost 2Ap. and that is (as I’m sure you’re all thinking) is very expensive.

Having a Totem (summoned or hired) and a 5ss Iggy combine to nuke a model a turn is great value. If your opponent brought the condition removal to get rid of the burning or the Sewn Fate it could of course all come crumbling down. This was fine when you’ve only invested ap from Baggy & Iggy, not the end of the world. But if it’s also cost 2/3rds of my Mastwrs activation as well? Devastating. So this play line was largely shelved under “cute jank, but probably a bad idea” for much of the edition.

Until right towards the end, in 2016 in fact, along came Ripples of Fate and along came the Will O’ The Wisp.

Ever Changing form is a lot of words that basically says "Summon Baggy for Mama Z".  She's an old lady, she needs help bringing in the shopping and the Will O' the Wisp was 3ss of just the help she needed.  All of a sudden the Tactical Voodoo Nuke was back on the table and it didn't cost 1 single Ap of Zoraidas to do.  All it required was for her to be alive. I was happily blowing up 10 stone models at the rate of one a turn and it was all thanks to our Wisp friends. She did have other 2ap actions (she could teleport 15” but then not interact, which she now has again in 4th, but honestly the Wisp never did that).

Was I winning tournaments? No. But it was usually good enough for a 2:1 and it was silly, and janky and effective.  Allowing a small pyromaniac and a cloth doll to blow up much bigger and scarier models and that made me happy.  Never left home without one. 

M3E

Fast forward an edition to 3rd. First thing I checked when I came back? Does the Tactical Voodoo Nuke exist? No? Sad face.

A great deal has changed. Sewn Fate has been replaced by the vastly inferior (and stupidly named) Wanga Mojo Curse.   Whilst I did have fun throwing baggy off buildings to make models take 1 dmg it wasn’t as good, but at least condition transfer still exists.  The core changes to the burning rules meant however that despite my best efforts to replicate the Nuke has gone the way of Nicodem.  So instead of damage, my thoughts turned to control as whatever condition went on the doll, went on the cursed model.

Stunned in particular was of interest as with Penetrating stench in the crew and the newly introduced “This or that” rules it would be possible that if a model was already stunned they would have to pitch a card.  And these abilities stacked, well then they’d have to pitch a card for each model with Penetrating Stench!  Now if only there was a way to get stunned on the Doll, so that the cursed model gained it unresistedly?

Enter our hero! Here’s the Wisp with an attack that hands out Stunned and Distracted +1 and a trigger for slow!  A lure to pull a target into a good pile of Penetrating Stench and an ability to hand out distracted when they get there. 

Now we’re talking! Here’s our good friend the Wisp contributing to a play style all over again.  I think the most I ever made someone discard was 4, and the Wisp was right there in the thick of it when it happened.  Making cursed models stunned, slow, out of position and distracted to boot.  They were costing me a lofty 4ss now but they were still vital to what I was doing. Never left home without one. 

Up to present day.

M4E

Well now.

What have we here? I’ve not played Swampfiend in 4th, but they’re never far from my thoughts. So of the things liked before, where are we?

Well the Curse no longer transfers Tokens/Conditions. Boo. It can now impact multiple models which I like, but it’s still 1 dmg at a time. We’re a long long way from the halcyon days of 2nd now.

Can our friend the Wisp help? Well the Doll lets allies punch him for fun and profit, and the Wisp hands out poison on melee. Ok that’s not awful (I preferred it when the Carrion effigy summoned zombies but hey, that left in the beta sadly). Double up the value of poison by multiplying it through the Wanga Mojo Curse is ok? Not something I would build around to be honest, but it does exist.

Well if not for curse synergy, then what? What is the Wisp for?

Well it’s a 4ss significant model that flies. And it has a signature move (for a 7 mind you). Honestly, that alone makes them pretty useful in this GG. A lure? A trigger to make the keyword marker? That’s all pretty decent!  I don’t overly rate Shimmering Lights as most of the Stunned appears to happen within activations rather than out of activation. 

But that said, the Wisp does the things you want done for many of schemes and strategies we’re currently playing. It’s cheap, it’s significant, it’s not slowed by terrain, it moves without spending ap.  Great little “Veggies” model.

The Wisp has had a journey from enabling an aggro playstyle in M2E, to contributing heavily to a control playstyle in M3E to replacing the Silurid as a cheap little keyword scheme runner in M4E? Always relevant, always cheap. Love them.

Never left home without multiple of them?