Malifaux on a Budget: Effigies

Not too long ago once I had become a Henchman, my FLGS owner saw me eyeing up which Neverborn gang to buy as I wanted a crew for every faction. My eyes settled on Collodi and the conversation turned to how you never see him used, and in that moment a challenge was laid down. I had to take Collodi and make him work. Its a few months down the line and I had a pretty decent Collodi crew but it hinges entirely on the fact I take all five of the Effigies.

The Effigies are 5 puppets created by the hag Zorida to infiltrate the factions of Malifaux, as such there are five unique Effigies with their own unique flavour that tries to personify the faction it is affiliated to. Each of them works well with Zorida and Collodi, so I won't be touching on this in the rest of the article. Also non Neverborn crews hiring the effigies cannot take a totem for their master, which for most is not an issue but I'll cover this rule more a little later on.

Masters: Rasoutina, Ramos, Marcus. (While Colette can also take the effigy I believe she benefits from her doves more which is why she is not included.)

The arcane effigy is a casters best friend. With arcane reservoir giving you and extra card, and his attacks targeting opponents Ca value he's definitely one of the arcanists, but his true power lies in being able to give a friendly master an additional Ap for casting or channelling. One of the slower effigies Marcus may find himself separated from his helpful doll friend but the two slower masters will benefit from him no end.
Masters: Lilith, Pandora.

Harmless, can add to its defence, and its charge  at first glance you may think the Mysterious effigy is a combat character, an idea reinforced by its high defence and hidden blade weapon, but true to its name this is not where it power lies. The ME can shut down one models ability entirely but more interestingly allows you to flip a card and give slow to any model with Wp lower than the card value, very powerful to a combat heavy Lilith crew.

Masters: McMmourning, Nicodem, Seamus

The Carrion effigy has a very unassuming card compared to his fellows, its very concise and compact but still just as good. He is less powerful to Neverborn players but really benefits ressurectonists. He allows nearby grave robbers to heal for a corpse counter, has a poisoned beak and a blast radius ranged weapon. He can also remove immunities from opponents models especially good for taking away bullet proof or magic resistance to get the important kill in.
Masters: Viktoria, Som'er Teeth Jones

A lot of the Outcast masters need their totems for very specific things, so hodgepodge is over looked more than the other effigies. The reason for this is his abilities are a little complex but in essence his role is to keep the balance of fate and he does this by returning your jokers to your deck and allowing you to draw a card when you pull the black joker. He's not bad in combat and his auto trigger has a fair few options of what he can ignore when he hits. I would say Hodgepodge is the more specialist effigy but also the most fun.

Masters: Justice, Criid, Perdita