Good luck with your deck.

Why don't you play Upholding Authority? Great way to control the opponents hand. Also have you thought of Formal Invitation? It combos well with spyglass. I would also add a third Representative.

On another note, a third Steward is probably superior to 1Keeper Kami. Even if you need to fire off a ring in defence every now and then 1Kami is too few to be consistent where adding a third Steward would render the Steward+ For Shame combo more consistent

Thanks for your breakdown and incredibly helpful video. A couple questions: with your suggestions for the air role, do you think Uona is viable with only 4 triggers? How many do you think she needs? Also, can the deck survive without the let go's, if we used another clan for influence (in the Kotei environment)? thanks again

Made a few changes based on the feedback my fellow fire-chicken brothers provided:
-Removed Tsukune. Too many 5 costers.
-Removed All and Nothing, as it is too situational
-Added Benten's Touch, as the deck greatly benefits from having lots of honored characters
-Filled the remaining dynasty deck slot with another copy of Bustling Academy

Tried this out at my local games night. Played Crane twice, went 1-1.
Winning first game by sending 4 characters into their stronghold and all having covert for no defenders was amazing!

I still like the idea of Know the World but unsure where to make space for it...

Karmic Twist lost a lot of edges with a lot more uniques in the field. It's pretty solid against Lion still as a way to deal with Spiritcaller and Crane, but everyone else - especially Dragon - can easily play around it and make it dead. Beyond that, with increased unique counts in the Phoenix deck as well, it can be clunky to set up as a pseudo-reprieve as the only big characters you can do this with are Prodigy and Master of Gisei Toshi.

There are some very Flexible options in terms of spells. I'd take Twist of Fate any day, considering how it can remove a stacked Niten Master out of the game. Anyway, I guess it's just different styles of deckbuilding I guess.

and no other spells come close to matching what Hurricane Punch gives. I effectively have a 37 card conflict deck and also get extra raw stats for 0 extra card investment.

It is more consistent than you would think. Considering Shrine Maiden is also a conflict card it is not hard to line them up with a punch or two; and Keeper Initiates are in play the whole game once you see them because it's really hard for anyone to stop you claiming the Water ring. So if you see a Keeper early then you practically always have a punch target and otherwise you just try and line up your Maiden uses with them.

I'm trying out Time for War out of Crab also with the new SoV. Have you considered Pathfinder Blade? It does require dropping Charge but with Time for War and even Armory you could get a healthy amount of Pathfinder Blade recursion. I haven't tested yet but as you probably also saw there isn't a great amount of Weapon targets currently for the cost/influence.

This is my take on the deck with the new air role, haven't tried it in this state yet though.
https://www.bushibuilder.com/l5r/deck/?deck=2d56da6e-998c-11e8-9c0e-020c407d2d9d&public=y

Thanks for the feedback - I haven't had the chance to build it or try it yet, so it's all hypothetical at my side right now.

Yeah, Hawk Tattoo is getting more and more of something that makes it seem like there is nothing to pick for Dragon Splash other than it and Let Go.

The Imperial Palace was partly because it is so automatic to put in, to make it easier for me to get the favour, if I don't see Academy with Scholars I can try to counter theirs.

Is there anything else you would do differently?

I imagine because it is a free air event that activates that two cost lady and nets a card. Not much down side!

Congratz on 2nd place Travis. I'm really puzzled with some choices though., why the 3xHurricane Punch? You have 6 targets that you can use them with. Yes, it is a Kihou, you can/will draw it with Shrine Maidens. Still it would feel very inconsistent to me. If it's simply to have something to draw with Shrine Maidens, there are more versatile options that are Spells ( Twist of Fate, Know the World, 2nd DoP).

Would you add void fist (or something else from the new packs) and what would you take out? Also, are there any card choices you would have made differently? Way to go!

I have 7 Air cards. 3 Cloud the Mind, 3 Hurricane Punch, 1 Benten's touch

Amazing report. It's very thorough and insightful.

Did you get to trigger Uona much with only 4 Air cards in your deck?

Thank you so much for sharing your list and your experience with it, Travis. This was a very interesting read!

Amazing work, Greatly appreciate you sharing the list and commentary.

I took this out for a try and had some success with it. I did switch out the tattooed wanderers for hawk tattoo. The deck had no trouble doing conflicts and getting the favour via rings, so I feel the Imperial palace might be redundant. Particular with the option to discard your opponents with the academy.

Currently hoping that 9 shugenjas will be enough to use CtM when I need to. Shadowshaper hasn't turned up yet in a match, but I can imagine a lot of uses (especially to bounce back conflict character defense that would block Skirmisher).
Thanks for the comment! :)

Personally I believe you should keep shadowshaper - he combo's well with skirmisher for a multiple covert turn as well as keeps cloud the mind available and he can make your opponent waste his fate on throwing in something truly frustrating like lion and crane characters from their hand( see steward of law)
Miyako gives you the precious military where if he can attack alone with the military favor, you'll likely break the province. I love fiery madness but wish that had the mechanic to return it to hand for dishonoring a character.
I'm often found that it is difficult to always have a CTM active thanks to the few amount of scorpion quality shugenja's, I'm also found that i play reprieve on my lower cost characters to save them from being an assassination target.
Your deck and mine look similar - i hope that it finds itself better and better with each iteration!

As you are wanting be defensive, have you thought about going for Crane splash and combining with Disdainful Remark? Make it where they can't get through when they have a large hand, forcing them to either play more cards to make future plays, or bid low later on so they then have less options?

Related to that, what about Harmonize for getting rid of problematic characters?

I'm surprised you haven't got Favorable Ground so that when you aren't winning you can bring help, and if you defend too well, you send someone home so they're available for later?

Other defensive cards that call out are Kaito Temple Protector so you can be as big as them before your own buffs, Radiant Orator so you get rid of someone who is making them win, and Chikai Order Protector, so that you don't bow to defend so long as there is an eligible character with them.

I pretty much agree with your assessment. The deck is leaning heavy on the honor theme without consistent honor effects. It is susceptible to dishonor decks. The combo elements make it inconsistent. It is the jankiest of my decks right now but one I love to play.

I took the deck the for a test run:

The good: Azunami is actually pretty strong and can disrupt entire boards. She is, however, significantly weaker against Dragon and Crab, who have built in ready/no-bow effects and. The deck has enough ways to honor characters that you can often take advantage of high glory, so it's not hard to find opportunities to break provinces (except, of course, against Scorpion, who just "potatoes" your whole board more often than not).

The bad: Glory is as much of a double edged sword as it always has been and can end up costing you games. I feel that Uona doesn't have enough air cards to trigger with. Lack of conflict characters and relatively few ready/no-bow effects make it hard to keep up board-wise with the opponent. Finally, the deck might need more card draw against dishonor.

It has been okay so far. This deck is trying to get as much honour as possible wherever possible, and an extra honour from the fire ring is nice. It's not great though, I may switch back to Noble Sacrifice in the hopes of better controlling the big brutes that cause me so much trouble.

Yeah, I like Tsuki and I like Tadaka. In this build I'm leaning on my 3+ cost characters and using my cheap shugenja to fuel Bentens and get some big hits late in game with Ancestor's Strength. Tsuki is good when she attacks after you claim water ring or if she sticks around more than a turn. With Waning as an option I don't want to build up a board to support a second attack with Tsuki and I don't want a third 2-cost to put fate on (right now I do fate up Mediator and Uona). All that said, if I find that having 9 1-costs is too risky then Tsuki would be a good option over Tensai Initiate. I'm testing Azunami right now and in my only game since I got the pack she had incredible synergy with Guard Duty (attacking water after a defense with another character that is now honored) and Ningyo. Ningyo is looking to be a stand out. Also testing Charge Bird both because of charge but also to get that big body in the discard for Ancestor's Strength. If either of those don't work out Tadaka will be back in. He's so warping that it's hard to test out how a deck works when he is included.

I'm surprised to see Tsuki didn't make the cut. Have you considered running her? I also wonder if Azunami can truly replace Tadaka in this deck.

I am suprised at icon of Favor, is this card good? How does it play for you?

Put some bling on your deck and add a kotei placement, you deserve it!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaApn0OXsMY

good shit bro!

Nice writeup, thanks for the shoutout!

As of 1/07/18 I have won 15 times with this deck according to the stats I've put on this site, and 7 of those are honour wins. 2 are dishonour wins where I realise it would be easier to push my opponent lower rather than climb higher. Mostly the rest are provinces.

Interesting deck and congrats on the 2 1st placements! Have you gotten any honor wins out of this?

#AlwaysBid1
Seriously, this deck was inspired by Bayushi Akai's article on Defensive Dishonor article ( http://imperialadvisor.com/wp/2018/05/29/defensive-dishonor-theory/ )in response to the announcement of the restricted list and as I did not have a huge amount of time to fully test a new deck I tried his 1st draft and won our local Stronghold tournament the week before the Kotei. After that test, I made a couple of changes to better suit my preferred style (4 cards) & took the list to the Grand Kotei in Birmingham.

All in all I faced 2 Scorpion (who were all running standard high bid decks), 3 Crab, 2 Lion, 1 Dragon & 1 Phoenix. All opponents that beat me (Lion, Crab, Crab) proceeded to Top 16 placements or better (T13, T8 & Final respectively)
None of my games went to time & all of my wins were due to dishonor in around 45 minutes. I only mention this because one of the complaints of this style of deck is how long it can take to win, especially against Scorpion & this indicates that it can be done.

Whether you agree with the deck philosophy or not, I highly recommend that you read the article & give the deck a try and hopefully you will come to understand the game a little better (or understand the steps that any deck adopting this style may take).

Interesting build man. After the Kotei in Dusseldorf I'm trying to put a working version of such a deck, however something doesn't quite click in my builds. I run less holdings and different province choices, but my testing also shows that going with conflict chars is the way to go. Thus it makes more sense like you to have few and cheap dynasty chars. How the 3x Waning Hostilities work for you? I tried with 1 and it is ok, but with many of them I feel you miss chances to hit back with unopposed conflicts. Also aren't you wasting your RL slot for a single Forged Edict? I'll try with Policy Debate and Way of the Phoenix in my next builds. :)

be water my friend

I'm intrigued by the fact that you are running Magnificent Lighthouse and no Libraries. How is that working out for you? I'm also very curious about Way of the Phoenix. Has it been useful for you?

Hi ! I bid 5 cards almost every time and with the new SH, no need to draw more cards. No splash because no spells in the other clans :)

I'm surprised to see you didn't include libraries. How is that working out for you? Equally surprising is that you have no splash? Gasp! I think I'm still on the "another clan's best 5-6 cards are better than your worst 5-6 cards", don't you think