Haughty magistrate is good when you want to force conflicts with it as your sole attacker in an otherwise very defensive strategy. I agree that you don't need him here because it is easy to break a province on political here. Did you consider Asako Diplomat for this list? She's a courtier and prov ...

@Stitchdoctor IMS is important to make sure you claim the favor in those early turns and keep your Censures active.

I’ve been playing a similar deck with fairly good success. Seeker of earth, crab splash, same splash cards, same basic idea (I did miss that eju is an all replace). I run it out of KI instead of IMS. With many components of the deck being spells, and the general nature of discard, I felt it nice to ...