Hello again Malifolks! After a week of technical difficulties that may or may not have involved Guild questioning, I’m back, and ready to talk about why you want to consider bringing the local Asylum staff into your Guild lists.

An interesting thing about Guild in general is they are tied with Outcasts for the lowest number of Versatile models with 9 each, so knowing which Versatile model will answer the most questions over the course of your game will help save you stones before you bring in the Out of Keyword Models even more than usual here.

The Asylum models are from the M2E starter set, which we’ll hopefully see re-packaged soon so access to them becomes a bit easier. As far as theme, they all share two Abilities, which are both pretty solid. Research Specimens allows the model to draw a card whenever it kills an enemy model. Guild is pretty well known for killing, so having something big and scary do most of the work so even an Asylum minion can deliver the final blow isn’t too much setup, and card draw is always appreciated. The other Ability, Restraints, is pretty amazing just to read: Enemy models with Staggered that are engaged by this model are ignored by their controller for the purposes of Strategies and Schemes. So, for example, you get them engaged and you can still use them as a target for Take Prisoner or Hold Up Their Forces, but your opponent can’t use them for Claim Jump. Seems both good and in keeping with the Guild’s tyrannical nature.

Overall, the Asylum models play around with Staggered a good bit. Their henchman, Dr. Grimwell adds a Crow to his duels when targeting Staggered models, which he hands out on his melee if the opposing model doesn’t discard a card, and at range has a trigger to potentially hand it out at after moving Asylum models near his target. Both the Orderly minions and their enforcer Nurse Heartsbane have a trigger on their melee attacks to hand out staggered, and Emily also has a ranged attack to apply the condition as well which also forces the target to discard a card or gain slow, and which includes a trigger for another friendly to take a melee attack afterwards as well.

Staggered of course lowers the affected model’s Mv by 2, and disallows Pushes, meaning suddenly it’s much harder for a model to leave engagement both using Disengage and with help from other models (though sometimes those effects are “move” and not “push” so be sure to double check)! Suddenly, despite Dr. Grimwell being the only Asylum model with a 1″ engagement instead of a 0″, Restraints looks a bit easier to get use out of, especially when combined with good activation order. On top of that, Guild has several attacks and other effects that are based of Mv, including one of Dr. Grimwell’s own, which pushes any number of Asylum models in a 6″ aura around the target into base contact, then makes the target suffer damage equal to the number of Asylum models within a 1″ pulse. Most shockwaves are Mv based as well, along with several other pulses., so Staggered can be staggeringly good when used well.

Grimwell himself works as an extra beater quite nicely, perhaps not doing as much raw damage as some, but with Crit Strike he does a good amount, and with a 2nd Crow in his melee, he makes the opponent discard any number of cards, then take extra damage equal to the number of cards in their hand. Nurse Heartsbane does slightly less damage overall, but has a better base damage track. The Orderlies can potentially hand out Poison as well as Staggered, but really I think you bring them for their Emergency Surgery heal action.

Personally, I think Lucius will like hiring some of the Asylum models the most, as one of his henchmen, Alan, and his Investigators bump up to min damage 3 vs Staggered targets. That said, Sonia’s Thralls’ shockwave will go off more reliably against Staggered targets, as will the Emissary’s Cage For All, Hoffman’s Overcharge and his new Henchman, Melissa’s grenades, or Papa Loco’s dynamite in its various forms. Basse may not need the help for his Quicksand, but he certainly wouldn’t complain.

On the flip side of that coin, the Asylum models will do well into, again, Lucius’ crew, as he also has a fair number of things that hand out Staggered. So do Lady J, Nellie, and Sonia, as well as Basse from his Clockwork Traps.

Overall, Asylum is definitely a sub-keyword that has been well considered faction-wide for the Guild. Try bringing them in to deny your opponent their positioning-based schemes, mostly regardless of whatever else you need to do.

There is one more Asylum model, but I haven’t mentioned it thus far as it’s the Nurse from Ressers, so you’ll only see her in a Dr. Grimwell Henchman-lead crew. That said, I think you could build a fairly solid crew behind the good doctor with other versatile models and maybe one or two Out of Keyword picks. The Nurse does not share the rest of Asylum’s Abilities, but she does bring Tools of the Job, allowing you to use the top card of your discard pile in exchange for one from your hand, which also provides her with the suit of the discarded card for her turn. These suits primarily add on extra effects to her healing bonus action, such as Shielded +1, Focus +2, or some extra movement. She can also remove Focused at range while handing out Distracted, but ultimately I see her as a utility scheme runner.

There you have it, to the point and as legible as I could manage, working off doctor’s notes. Try the Asylum members out in your Guild crews and let us know how they do for you. Worst case, you get fitted for your own padded room if they don’t agree with your findings.