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So I'm looking at running Marcus and Lucas McCabe, with Marcus doing double duty as a Black Shenron.

Anyone know some 'must-gets' for any of these guys?

All I know is Fuhatsu and Silurids are definitely on the list

I'd recommend focusing on one faction to start (even if you're getting 2 crews to have a set for somebody else to play), because it'll help you out overall.

But for Marcus: Silurids, Waldgeists, Canine Reminds (1-2), possibly another Sabertooth Cerberus (Definitely 2 if you want to lose friends). A Dawn Serpent might be a good buy if you really want to do Mccabe as Ten Thunders.

For Mccabe: Guild Hounds (if playing Guild), Guild Pathfinder (either Guild or Ten Thunders), Guild Austringer (Guild), Ten Thunders archers, and 1 or 2 beatsticks for either faction (Mccabe loves to buff them). I recommend Francisco Ortega, the Peacekeeper, and the Exectioner for Guild, or Ototo, Yamaziko, or maybe the Dawn Serpent for TT.

Izamu is TT, I wonder how McCabe's buffs would work on him...

Guard Hounds are "Guardsmen" type, and Lucas can always run Guardsmen in his crew - is there some reason Lucas cannot run them in Thunders?

Whats the advantage of Thunder Archers over Samurai? I'm certainly getting Samurai (they look too awesome), but if theres a good reason I could get the archers too. They don't seem to be any shootier, and are the same price without the melee

Why Canine Remains over other types of Hound?

The Cerberus looks nasty, maybe I will get a second one. No lover for Rattlers or Slate Ridge Bears though?

Izamu's on my buy list btw, so might be able to tell you after a few games

Izamu's a beast. When my brother used him, he and Teddy got into a titanic fight that moved around the board thanks to pushes, with Izamu falling and doing a revenge stab to nearly finish Teddy.

I have both the Samurai and the Archers, and I feel that for a single SS more, the Samurai is a better guy. He can actually fight in CC rather than just defend or push away.

Marcus is one of my Main crews he has tons of options and most of them work pretty well.

Most everything in his box works pretty well, though I find Cojo to be the least useful.

Sabertooths are great, though I will say I rarely field one outright and usually save it for Myranda to shape change into later in the game. That said this is also a reason to own 2 of them.

Rattlers are amazing, I own 2 and bring 2 frequently. 9 wound with Df6 makes them super durable when combined with a plus flip from myranda, slither gives them some movement tricks, and 2" engagement range makes them ideal for locking down multiple models.

You asked why canine remains over other hounds (guild hounds primarily being the other choice), the reason I would think they are better for marcus is:

1.) they are always significant, guild hounds lose out if you can kill other nearby hounds.

2.)They are more durable in many cases with hard to wound.

3.) They have an trigger on their melee attack to turn models into beasts, which helps a ton with marcus.

4.) They have a -1 DF aura

5.) They can charge poinsoned models as a 1 action which combos well with Rattlers and Myranda.

That said I could see running one of these with a guild hound.

I would also look at taking Molemen, they are great scheme runners when paired with Hounds of any kind.

Silurids are good, but I find them very situational for their 7ss cost.

The Dawn Serpent is another good buy with some shooting, good durability with healing, and counterspell, and a high Ml value

Rouge Necromancies are also powerful with marcus.

I have yet to play with Slateridge maulers.

For non beast models I have recently been running cassandra with my crew a lot as she is just a good all around model.