The core box of Aristeia has two teams suggested for beginners: the Orange Team with Musashi, 8-Ball, Gata, and Wild Bill then the Green Team with Hexxer, Parvati, Major Lunah, and Maximus. Here we’ll be going over the simple synergies for the Orange Team!

Musashi as Wildcard

• Musashi is an amazing character. High Initiative (6), moves pretty fast (5), great defense (G+B),  can keep opponents in place with a very good Brawl (B+O), and is pretty good at getting away (O+Y). He is a character that must be reacted to; a demonstration of how powerful he is, but also his greatest weakness. Musashi has a bullseye on him wherever he goes.
  • His versatility means he can fill a lot of roles in the team. Do you need an alternate or even a second scorer? Musashi can do that. Need a blocker? He can do that too. Do you need to grab the initiative? He’s your boy. While he’s not the best at everything he can do, he’s good.
  • Ideally you want to keep Wild Bill and Gata alive, but if you can’t? Well, he can pick up the slack to some extent.
• Because of Musashi’s offense potential, he’s quite potent in 1;1 range. This is possibly the only restraint on his capabilities, but it is not much of a problem. In fact, with some setup?
  • Gata can clear the way for him against ranged enemies by Dazzling them. Her ability to support her team in this manner doesn’t always get the appreciation it deserves from new players.
  • 8-Ball  can place and displace targets to be next to Musashi to be dealt with appropriately. While 8-Ball is much better at blocking and disengaging than Musashi, he might be needed elsewhere. Likewise, feeding an enemy to Musashi is a great use of his abilities.
  • The threat of Wild Bill’s ranged offense can force your opponent to split their reaction between the two, reducing the effectiveness of their actions. To focus on one is to give the other leeway!
• Tactics are an area Musashi brings a lot to the table for his team. Only one of his cards is for him, and rather than being anything tricky? They’re all very straightforward.
  • Tsuchi-Do is universally useful. Chances are you’ll get at least 1 Block, but getting 2 isn’t unlikely. All characters can use this, and that’s great given all your team except for Gata can make use of the Blocks in their Switches as well.
  • Mizu-do is also a universally useful card. Adding 1 action point will give you a lot of options for one character for most any purpose. Additional offense, more control, more movement… it’s a card that’s hard to go wrong with. The possibilities are too numerous to really go into.
  • Sora-Do Is an auto-Green Crit. Enough said.
  • Kaze-Do is only for Musashi, and the additional movement is nice if you’re trying to save Action Points for other things.

8-Ball as Control

• 8-Ball is slower than Musashi, but has more control and a little more health.  Since he is highly Agile and has a great Brawl roll, he can more easily get around the board or lock down enemies than other characters. When you factor in Eat My Fa Jing and Be Water Dude, he’s got a lot of tools to control and manipulate position within his threat range.
  • 8-Ball’s repositioning is going to be very important for making the most of Wild Bill. Missing Line of Sight? You’ve got tools for that. Enemy too close (or even adjacent) to Wild Bill? Pry them off. Do you need to hide Wild Bill after his turn? You can PLACE him behind you.
  • Similarly, positioning characters along Gata’s path gives her targets for Freerun.  Or moving characters like Maximus with particularly good/high Brawl rolls.
  • Feeding Musashi enemies is a possibility, and a good use of his abilities given 8-Ball isn’t very high damage.
• Tactics:
  • Block, like Tsuchi-Do, is going to be good in this team since ¾ of the characters can use the Block results in their respective Switches. Likewise, the additional Blue dice is always welcome.
  • Barrel Through is a good card for 8-Ball, Gata, and Mushashi as they all have displacements. 8-Ball especially benefits since its usable on himself or on a target he displaces, whereas Gata and Musashi only displace themselves.
  • Badass-Boom and Dance For Me! are both good cards for position manipulation, and since they are for Targets rather than Ally or Enemy, gives you a lot of versatility without requiring an ability roll.

Wild Bill deals your Damage

• He’s quick to act although not the fastest mover. But, given he wants to stay behind your other characters this isn’t a bad thing. Making up the ranged offense for the team, he does a lot of damage. While this does make him a target, Gunslinger keeps opponents honest turning his Defense into an attack. Moreover, his Switch lets him get more cards for your hand, which is usually a nice thing to have.
  • Given the Switch for Twin Pistols, he shouldn’t be too far from the action. However, make sure his LOS isn’t blocked! Musashi might want to Displace after doing damage to not block him, and 8ball ought be repositioning characters to be more favorably placed.
  • While Bill’s Defense is pretty good, hiding him with 8Ball isn’t a bad idea. At the very least, pushing him into cover is an option to get the Black block die. Fishing targets out for Wild Bill is going to be very good as well.
  • Gata’s main job for Bill ought be dazzling targets so they cannot use successes against him when defending against Twin Pistols. This will allow him to use his Blocks for his character switch and add cards to your hand.
  • Finishing off enemies Musashi didn’t send to the infirmary is a great use for Wild Bill. Conversely, softening targets for Musashi works too. Hunting support or control that would affect Musashi ought be a high priority.
• Tactics:
  • Ace of Spades is a useful card but the cost can be a bit high. Adding Ace of Hearts can mitigate that as you will likely discard something that would be useful at some point.
  • Ace of Hearts is good for the entire team by virtue of allowing you use get back a used target. This works well given all the characters have cards that you’d want to use more than once if you can. Having Gata’s Go All Out and Musashi’s Mizu-Do in your deck gives you two extra Action Points, but fishing one out after use gives you three. This is possible using Wild Bill’s character switch and is a potent possibility.
  • Ace of Diamonds is an amazing card to have, and the best defense can be a good offense. Sometimes the best support you can have is to remove an obstacle…
  • Ace of Diamonds adds a nice boost to any roll, and is particularly good for both Musashi and Wild Bill’s attack switches.

Gata as Scorer and Ranged Defense

• She’s the highest initiative character in a fast team. She’s fast as Musashi, can hop targetable obstacles, and can prevent enemies from retaliating against ranged attacks via Dazzle. Oh, and she can get to the scoring zone. Sadly, she does have a fairly weak defense!
  • Misdirection is a great way to help Wild Bill and 8Ball (assuming he’s not 1:1) not worry about retaliatory damage from attacking. Likewise, it helps Musashi who doesn’t have ranged attacks from being gunned down. This is important since the team has no Healing and no other forms of damage mitigation.
  • All characters are Freerun potential, so keep that in mind! It doesn’t matter what you want her to do (scoring, Dazzling, etc), but it’ll help her get there faster and possibly get away.
• Tactics:
  • Swerve is a Displace, and can combo off of Barrel Through. Usable by anyone, which is going to be very useful for Gata and Wild Bill in particular.
  • Go All Out is like Musashi’s Mizu Do. Gain 1 Action Point. Combos well with Mizu-Do and Ace of Hearts.
  • Quicksilver is useful for both scoring and getting around to Dazzle.
  • Pain Suppressants will keep her off the bench for a little while. When she has that going, make the most of it!