Introduction
Avast me hearties, yo ho. Its time to talk about Zipp Dread Pirate of the skies. Zipp is how I started M3e journey and I'm very excited to see his title. Well the wait is done and the skies of Malifaux have never been so dangerous. Zipp traded his jetpack in for a bit of rope, swinging in Eroll Flyn style. Let's take a look and see what else changed.
As You Wish
Dread Pirate Zipp is a a bit different than his original form. He's traded his zap gun and his pianos for a more traditional cutlass and a cannon. He's also gained a new weapon, Monologuing, allowing friendly models to hand out distracted when they draw cards, which the keyword does with their Showboating ability. He can also discard a card when he damages models to have friendly models interact. Distracted is a bit of theme with the new card. Zipp wants to hand out as much distracted as possible to keep himself safe, and to be fair, Bayou hasn't had a master who can make good use of the condition yet.
This helps Zipp because he can put enemy models he attacks with Distracted on negatives to resist his attack and then load them up with his Captain's Challenge trigger that puts all other enemy models on negatives to attack Zipp. Meaning that Zipp can get really into the melee and stick around for a bit.
His once a turn shockwave is fairly versatile allowing it to hit wide for less or close for 3 damage and full speed ahead can yoink a model into your own waiting crew or yeet a friendly model into place and take a marker or two with it and his bonus action comes with marker removal, card draw, condition removal and healing. Which seems pretty bonkers.
But You Have Heard of Me
So what do we do with this Zipp that we didn't do with the other? Well this one is much more of a melee bully. He's going to be flying in to a scrum and trying to cause havoc and tie up as many models as he can. You probably want to try him out in pools where there's a definite fighting point like claim jump with Leylines. Considering his tendency to be in harm's way Two Gremlins is probably a good upgrade to have on him, since it makes him even less of a desirable target. Condition removal is going to be a worry for him as distracted and captain's challenge are his only real defenses. You are also probably going to want to go first pretty often to get the most protection out of Captain's Challenge. Its also worth noting that Zipp's target for Challenge doesn't have to stay alive for him to benefit from the trigger. He can fly in, take down a cheap model and put the whole enemy crew on negatives to retaliate.
This might also be a time where the First Mate's often overlooked Menacing Croak could come in handy to pass out more distracted and put more hand pressure on the enemy crew. Zipp is probably also going to want to bring some flying pigs with him so that when models showboat he can have the piggies interact to score.
I don't think that Earl is going to be hanging around with Zipp as much in this title as he will too often be in harms way but he does a good job fixing up Iron Skeeters, making them effectively a 3 model taxi with Fly With Me available. He will also be the only way Mancha is going to get any piano markers with this title.
Mancha and Zipp make a pretty good duo with both having the Mutilate trigger and all the distracted helps Mancha's finisher move. The two of them can easily hold down the center of the board while pigs, skeeters, merris or first mate run the flanks.
Smuggler here could be a cute tech piece as well., He can easily draw cards with appraise to spark monologue and has the ability to drag earl's pianos to a better position or move enemy markers out of the way.
Zipp's new buddy Beau brings lead the way with more Slow to help trigger mutilate and potential for creating Hazardous terrain, though I think that's more for Zipp1's benefit than 2. He also brings some healing and pushes.
Conclusion
Dread Pirate Zipp is a much more tanky and surprising model than his previous version. He is solid at holding points and moving his crew around where original Zipp is disrupting opponent's plans. He is a great drop into the Zipp mirror match, as he can't be targeted with Up We Go. I think we will see much more of original Zipp but the flex into Pirate might take an opponent off guard who is ready for the annoyance of pianos and a zapp gun.
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