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Okay I'm taking the plunge into 2e. It's been on my to do list for a while and I need help navigating the finer points of my plan. I'm open to starting any faction but Resurrectionists, undead burnout man. And I get that every master within a faction has a different play style, so it's not necessarily like I'll never get a chance to be tanky or a glass cannon if I play x.

That being said I generally like control style factions, whether through controlling the board or ways to interfere with my opponents options. And my friends and I are competitive, and I'm definitely not up to speed on what the most optimal masters are so I need help in that regard.

Ideally what I'd like to do is buy 3 - 5 Crew Boxes for a faction and just go to town, giving me a solid pool of minions as well as differenf masters to try. I'm not sure if that necessarily works however. Also as there are dual faction masters I'm also open to buying very disparate box sets as long as the majority of models can all work together and I can have a clear path for growing my different factions.

I hope that makes sense and any help would be appreciated.

Neverborn has 3 control masters.

Pandora's tactics revolve around controlling enemy activations, and punishing them for it.

Zoraida controls her own models with obey, but she's more of a support master.

Collidi's tactics revolve around controlling his own models, and it's a key part of how he plays.

The downside is they don't play well together, which is something of a Neverborn thing. The crews are, thematically, pretty self contained. The individual models you can buy tend to cross crews pretty well, but you're not going to be using much from those boxes across those crews.

Well I guess I can always expand to buying a few crews and some minions if that is the way it has to be, if that's viable. I'd rather have multiple playstyles over maxing someone out straight away.

So most competitive casters then?

One Word: Lynch

He's Neverborn/Ten thunders dual master, and is basically a swiss army knife of options. He works very well with his thematic crew but serves as a force multiplier to most models and his card control shenanigans drive opponents to tears. Also has one of the highest potential damage outputs of any master in Malifaux, also comes with a free Henchman who can obey enemy models of give them the brilliance condition to make and his thematic crew hit like trucks.

I was looking at an odd Lynch, Lucius, McCabe starter. Then maybe push Neverborn over Guild.

Failing that might just go nuts for Outcasts.

Well there's a fair bit of cross over in those crews.

Lynch can use the Wastrels from McCabe is he rolls Ten Thunder, Lucius can use Lynch;s Illuminated if he goes neverborn and McCabes whole box if he rolls guild and vice versa. Lastly McCabe can use Lynch's Illuminated if he runs Ten Thunders.