rate_review Card Review: Rated: : 3
This card has a lot going for it as it is a scholar (and can thus be honored by Asako Tsuki), 3 cost (so no assassination), good stats for a courtier and a powerful ability. The real issue is however that you need to be more honorab [continue reading]le. This is still doable, but it means you will need to warp your deck and stop playing cards that lose you honor. In addition, you will need a source of card draw, because people love to turn off this card's ability by lowering their bid.

The other issue is that Radiant Orator does similar things, and overall Radiant is easier to use. I still believe there is a world where you pick one over the other.

Play this with Spyglass or other dedicated sources of card advantage. Play it with 3 ancestral shrines. It is worth it.

Also, as a reminder. This doesn't stop effects like charge, a spiritcaller or Cavalry Reserves. Sadly, this card is not only clunky and expensive, but it doesn't do enough on top of all that. It is just too narrow.

Well, it is restricted for a reason. This card is dirt cheap to play. Even without any shenanigans, this lets you play with a higher income per turn, allowing you to deploy another body down the line. The only requirements are that you play with enou [continue reading]gh shugenja, and that you plan to play a 3+ cost character with 3 fate or more, preferably.

The aforementioned shenanigans is the card Consumed by five fires. You can attach this on your opponent and blast their fate away, gaining all the fate from the character that had the embrace the void. Another example is Student of Esoterica, a character that you can spend fate from to pay for spell cards. Embrace the void will refund the fate that you are spending from the student.

The final way of using this is on a 2 drop. Many 2 drops in the game are excellent cards, all hampered by the existence of Assassination. Embrace the void lets you get away with buying a Asako Tsuki with three fate. If you get assassinated, you will have at least recoup that fate on Tsuki. Still, be wary of Let Go into Assassination!

Magnificent Kimono quickly fell out of favor even during core set days, because this card has "risky" written all over it. And to be fair, if you're marginally winning a conflict, this card is raising the stakes. Even so, this is by far the best card [continue reading] with the pride keyword in the game. You get to decide when to use this after all.

There are a couple of ways how you can mitigate or avert the risk altogether. The first option is to play this on your character that already became dishonored, in which case this is pure upside. The second option is to play this on a character that participates in multiple conflicts, like Prodigy of the waves or a Chikai Order Protector. These characters are commonly getting dishonored as the preferred solution to them anyway. The third option is to play this when you are running into your opponent's province with an on-break ability like Upholding Authority or when you are running into a Display of Power. In those cases you're at least getting some equity from the exchange beyond a broken province.

Now, with Bonds of Blood, this card has a bit of extra life added to it in the shape of Conflict Isawa Tadaka. It is very easy to find a board state where you can play Isawa Tadaka and find a conflict that he will win. This card very obviously synergizes with that situation, too.

Note that all of the above assumes that you are running Isawa Mori Seido.

Pacifism has a couple of extra uses beyond the obvious one of handicapping that militarily-slanted character: You can use it as pseudo-covert in case your opponent is keeping back a powerful character like Toshimoko or Ujiaki for a critical defense. [continue reading]The second use is with Kuroi Mori. You put this on any big character, and you can switch back to military with kuroi mori to send them home bowed. This card excels against any deck that attempts to lean heavily on one or two characters.

One addition: This can also be used to make someone a Phoenix character. This isn't particularly useful in most cases, since the cards this enables is a Benten's Touch which requires a Phoenix shugenja. The one other use case is to import a champion [continue reading]into Phoenix. Slap this on the neutral Akodo Toturi, and you have an extra phoenix champion, capable of bearing and using Ofushikai. One reminder: If they let go the seal from Toturi, and it was the only seal, then Toturi will discard Ofushikai as he is no longer an eligible target.

rate_review Card Review: Rated: : 5
This is a contender for the best courtier in the game. It is easily the best courtier that Phoenix has, and they're no slouch with the likes of Asako Diplomat, Naive Student, Radiant Orator and Meddling Mediator. With the Isawa Mori [continue reading] Seido stronghold, this is a 2/6 in most cases. It gets even better when there is a character with higher base political like a Fearsome Mystic or even Fushicho.

There are other contenders as well, of course, but this one has the compromise of a relative low cost for 6 and upwards of political strength. Its strength is that it wins conflicts like no other for that price. When you play this character, you want to focus on grabbing a fire ring with this and get it honored if the situation presents itself. A 4/8 or 6/10 is not something most decks can deal with without spending several cards and/or fate.
Thinking about support, Maezawa is great all by himself. You don't need anything to help him, though I would recommend running a couple of Magnificent Kimonos. It is easy to get these to work in your favor. If there is any other card that you want to put in there as support, it would be Clarity of Purpose, so that you can project his power twice.

rate_review Card Review: Rated: : 4
The rating applies only when playing this in the Isawa Mori Seido stronghold. Without it, it hits about 20% of all characters (i.e. the proportion of characters with 0 glory), and 94% of all characters during air conflicts. With Isa [continue reading]wa Mori Seido's bonus, she hits 94% of all characters, and 100% during air. Note that the overall percentage isn't really representative of the characters you see in the game itself. Some clans prefer 0 glory across the board, whereas others will hover around 1.6 glory per character.

In IMS, Fearsome mystic is a house of a card. Dishonoring her doesn't hurt much with her 1 glory, so you do want to confront her with characters or with remote bow or send home effects. These latter two are few and far between, plus bow isn't all that useful considering that against the waves won't be far behind. This makes fearsome mystic an excellent attacker, because blocking her is painful. When she gets honored, you can also just throw 7 to 9 skill into an air conflict, which is clan champion levels.

Generally, you will want to attack with her on the void ring if there aren't many characters without fate on them on the opposing side. If you put her in your deck, it is a good idea to also run favorable grounds so that you can throw her into whichever challenge has the best target.

In the near future, when Isawa Ujina enters the card pool, she will be even better at pursuing the void ring and demand her prize.

rate_review Card Review: Rated: : 2.75
This card is a far cry from some of the other "way of..." cards, but it has its uses. Your main mode for this card should be setting up the scenario where a ring accumulates two fate and denying that your opponent gets to take it [continue reading] so that you can capitalize on this ring the next round and take up 3 fate (or 2 if you need it during the next dynasty phase). The second mode is to deny the ring that your opponent needs to trigger keeper initiates, or a ring effect that hurts the current board state way too much. A niche application is that you can deny the HMT players from declaring a fifth conflict.

Overall, an unexciting card since it does nothing during a conflict, which is the type of card you can't run in significant numbers. That said, if your deck is very fate-hungry, consider playing this as a singleton together with other "gain fate" phoenix cards like Embrace the void and Path of man.

rate_review Card Review: Rated: : 4
There's a good reason why this has a lot of influence printed on it. This card is magnificent and pretty easy to pull off. It is especially nice how you can play all of them in your hand in one conflict where you end up over-defendi [continue reading]ng or breaking a province.

rate_review Card Review: Rated: : 4
Worse than Bayushi Liar, but still great. Most useful in contesting the imperial favor. Also strong if you can get him honored with Asako Tsuki. Good traits, nice cost, good ability.

I am a firm believer that expensive characters need adequate support cards to make them shine. Currently, you are playing 5 big shugenja and 5 big bushi. You are running 5 support cards for bushi and 2 dynasty cards for your shugenja. Granted, the bu [continue reading]shi cards are easier to play courtesy of A New Name.

I think your shugenja need more support. Against the waves is such an easy card to fit, plus it takes advantage of your stronghold. The strongest thing to do with Isawa Mori Seido is to apply the glory to an honored character and unbowing that one so that you get the bonus multiple times.

The other potential issue is that you do not have many ways to honor your characters in the long-term in the conflict deck. I would always recommend a pair of Magnificent Kimono; They even like your steward of law.

Finally, Most of your cards are about just increasing stats on your characters. I have found that they will combat you with cards that bow, covert or send you home. I recommend taking either cards that allow for more movement (like the third favorable grounds) and cards that prevent messing with your big characters (like finger of jade). You should likely look into playing more of these effects yourself. Pacifism, Taryu-Jiai, Radiant Orator, Sage of Gisei Toshi and Ofushikai are each with significant downsides, but I feel like I need some of effects these offer. You may want to take some of the better effects out of Crane to complement your overall strategy, like duel to the death, issue a challenge, try again tomorrow and so on.

The main comment I have is that your deck might lack on the power front. Not many powerful characters in here, which is intentional given those who serve. There is also a potential issue in that Regal Bearing is not enough of a game plan. I think you [continue reading]r deck's plan does not include a powerful endgame.

Furthermore, I do not think this deck can take advantage of those who serve. You need to play 3 characters to break even (and even then your opponent still has one more fate most likely). You need 4 characters played to make a profit compared to getting the passing fate. I don't think that is a likely scenario with 11 holdings.

In light of the above comment, I would look into playing bigger characters. There is a large range of shugenja, but even Daisetsu could make for a compelling courtier choice. You could even play Tsukune and just enough bushi to warrant some support cards.

I recommend switching out some ornate fans for Magnificent Kimonos so that you have non-event ways to honor your own characters. It's very easy on the back of a Maezawa or a Tadaka you drop into play.

Your deck is a little too skewed towards political conflict in the conflict deck. You don't need all that to win those conflicts. The offer testimony in particular don't have many cards to key of.

You have about as many shugenja as courtiers. You should run Against the Waves.

With regal bearing, you are putting pressure on the common bidding strategy. I think this kind of deck needs its cards to be very impactful towards conflicts on a card to card basis. Cards that need other cards to function or that are by their nature very reactive should be used rarely. You will want cards that do a lot by themselves.

Going away from the feedback, I think there's definitely a couple of new courtier paths to explore by either going to the Crane for A new Name, or to Dragon for Justiciar's approach.

Haughty Magistrate is an interesting idea. Rather than utilizing movement, he's more a good target for Gajin Customs because I don't have that many characters that have 3 or more base glory.

The reason why he's not in here is because of [continue reading] a couple of factors:
- He is a poor defender.
- The deck has enough ways to win conflicts as the attacker.
- Feral Ningyo and Haughty Magistrate don't get along.

I think you can definitely try this by swapping one Shiba Yojimbo for a haughty magistrate. I think the better statline of Shiba Yojimbo and her protective effect are overall better. This is mainly because Haughty Magistrate is more replaceable with other powerful offensive tools than the Yojimbo's bubble shield.

@NikolaP, I have now been playing a couple of games with Ofushikai in there instead of the last ornate fan, and I have liked it quite a bit. It is expensive, but I felt it was worth it every time. You do not get the champion ability frequently, but g [continue reading]etting the flat +2/+3 bonus with ancestral was actually good enough to break several conflicts my way. Thank you for the suggestion!

I think Magnificent Kimono is pretty important for this deck. It is often a card that breaks open the match-up against Crane and Scorpion because it is a non-event that can honor my characters and does so multiple times per round. Crane especially do [continue reading]esn't like it because this is the card that can turn off their cancellation from when they have the voice of honor shields up. I would not like to dismiss the second copy and believe it is more important than the singleton ornate fan is.

As for Tadaka, I think he is brings a lot to certain matchups, like the matchup versus scorpion, unicorn and Crab. In each of those matchups you are sniping cards that are essential to their gameplan. I run two copies to increase the odds of drawing him early enough in those matchups. I play him for full retail the majority of the time. Often, all it takes is just passing my dynasty phase to buy him with 3 fate later. I did this in the game against Wouter described above. My flip versus his flip made it clear I would be better off banking fate to buy him. Wouter wasn't going to break any province, I only cared about the imperial favor and defending Shameful Display. I decided Tadaka is the better buy because I can play him after Wouter's options to mess with him are over and just grab the favor. If he went for shameful display I could honor Tadaka there.

I definitely think Tadaka in this style of deck is an important card. Disrupting hands is important, and on the other hand, I often can just break a province by dropping him late in the turn, attacking versus no defenders, attach a kimono and end up with an honored Tadaka for next round.
As for disguise: You are only occasionally doing this from a Fearsome Mystic. I think these two play well together. Fearsome mystic is usually also not something people defend against, so she often carries the magnificent kimono on her way in. Then, after I won the conflict, I disguise over her and have a 7/5 (or 9/7) ready monster at the ready.

Simply put, I go out of my way to play him when I think I need his effect or uniqueness. Other than that I just save up enough to buy him.

I always try to look for a spot to play Ofushikai. Usually you will want a second champion and tools to make the champion Phoenix. In here, it would frequently be a generic +2/+3 bonus, which is not nothing, but it sure is pricy.
So in short: [continue reading]It is a cool card to play in here given the density of uniques. The question is more on what to take out. I feel it is very greedy to play this over the singleton Ornate Fan, but that is the first card I would look at.

I think Stride the Waves will be fairly redundant with the five movement cards already in the conflict deck, but overall I do think there is merit in the card. It hurts that Stride the waves needs the water ring in your claimed pool (and it costs a f [continue reading]air bit of fate, too). I would be interested in playing it if I had the same movement pay-offs, wasn't playing with unicorn cards and had Secluded Shrine or another way to fix rings in my deck.

I definitely like having options for movement in my deck. I will eventually test Stride the waves to find out just how usable it is when I try a different splash. If I am playing with Heiko, I would absolutely think of playing her out of Kyuden Isawa for supernatural storms at that juncture.

A couple of comments: Dynasty-wise, I think you should run some additional holdings like favorable grounds (key with fearsome mystic, orator, maezawa) and ancestral shrine (so you don't die to dishonor as easily). I would recommend playing 9 1 drops [continue reading]and remove some of your high-end like sotorii and Tsukune or run proper support for them. I think you should run purity of spirit as soon as you include tsukune, and you want a couple extra bushi to keep the card playable. My go-to is Shiba Yojimbo due to the reliance on shugenja and the valiant oathkeeper would be a great choice too.

As for conflict: Run Goblin Sneak in your fate denial deck! This also makes it very easy to splash a legion of one. Beyond that, your conflict deck costs too much and that needs to be brought down. I can also guarantee you that Subdue the spirits and Assassination should not be in the same deck. I like subdue the spirits, but would only play just 1 as you only want to see it for breaking the stronghold. Clarity of purpose and against the waves should be 3 copies each, too. Taryu-Jiai has only kaede and fearsome mystic as good casters, and you need an opposing shugenja as well. I would recommend cutting these to 1x at most. I think you would be better off running zero of those instead even.

Wouldn't this be better out of Kyuden Isawa, so that you'll have ludicrous supernatural storms?

Also, is the embrace the void specifically so that assassination doesn't hurt as much?

I would also favor adding Valiant Oathkee [continue reading]per.

As for cheap options, I think Seppun Hidden Guard is interesting. Shiba Peacemaker is a pure defender, but 4 mil is incredible at that price point. I agree it is not at home in your deck given that you don't want to be in the defensive stance. Beyond [continue reading] those, I like Aspriring Challenger myself. He is slightly more budget than the Yojimbo, but with composure he'll be on equal footing, with the added benefit that he sometimes has a good duel opportunity.

The one I was thinking of the most was Seppun Guardsman. Yes, I know. Can't attack when you don't have the favor. Other than that, he is totally serviceable as a bushi.
I wouldn't necessarily need a bushi though. You're currently running 21. I think 18 is also fine, while adding a couple of naive students. There are multiple interesting options. I think Seppun Ishikawa is definitely the coolest choice we could make here.

As for the emperor: I definitely like him, but I usually play support for him in the form of Feral Ningyo, Prodigy of the waves and in a perfect world Embrace the Void. I think you have enough glory in Serene Warrior and the likes that you probably don't need the cards I play to keep my glory count high. Economy might be a different story as you have a lot of high cost characters, but I still think it is doable. And if it is not, it is just a The Path of Man away.

What is the Shiba Yojimbo for? I doubt she is worth it for protecting the 5 cheap shugenja in the deck?

If you just want a bushi at that cost level, there are better options, like Seppun Ishikawa. There are already 10 imperial cards in y [continue reading]our dynasty. He will easily be a 3/3 and surpass Shiba Yojimbo.

There are also decent cheap options available, should that be preferred instead.

Have you tried the third Katana/perfect cut over the third Banzai? If you did, why did you prefer Banzai?

Should this deck have Defend your honor instead of Stay your hand?

How has Demonstrating Excellence been?

As on the topic of Crane: I have started running Hantei XXXVIII. Crane has issues dealing with that card.

Well, if you do try out the swap of Fire Tensai Initiate to Ethereal Dreamer, and Chikan Nobue for Naive Student, you will have just as many courtiers and shugenja. :)

I don't really like Sanpuku Seido myself, because it forces passivity [continue reading]. Have to hold back a blocker, try not to get coverted, and there's a bunch of 3 glory characters running around nowadays. I do agree that it needs to be ran with holdings that add strength. My solution would be to stop warping the deck's plan just for Sanpuku Seido, but if you really want it, I would recommend adding in the Imperial Palace still.

I am also gonna go back on my suggestion for against the waves. I still think it is important to run this when you have some worthwhile shugenja, but in your case it's just Tadaka and Tsuki. That is not a lot to work with. I'd be open to cutting to 1 against the waves, or running another beefy shugenja over the like of Sotorii, like I do in my own A new Name list.

A couple of suggestions:
- Add Naive Student instead of Fire Tensai Initiate.
- Find room for Ethereal dreamer (I suggest getting rid off Chukan Nobue).
- This kind of deck should play Magnificent Kimono.
- Don't run Midnight [continue reading]revels in a list where you want Shiba Tsukune or some other big value character in play for many turns.
- Play the third Clarity of Purpose.

I do not like Magnificent Lighthouse by itself, and think you could run Forgotten libraries over it. Or even just run the imperial palace over one of them.

I also don't think you should be running 2 displays of power in your always-defend Chikai Order Protector list. :)

It might be preferable to run more shugenja to keep those cloud the mind playable, or otherwise replace them with something else, like pacifism. Note that you probably should run against the waves as support for Isawa Tadaka anyway.

Neat idea. I wonder if Policy debate is the right choice here. It is a good card, but you want specifically Maezawa and other political powerhouses do the talking without having to commit a card first. How has it been working out for you?

[continue reading]> Also, with all that glory, have you considered playing the emperor? Thoughts about keeper initiates?

@RoninRosko, the Illustrious forge is indeed not going to give me a great hit all the time. Despite this, I think it significantly increases the likelihood that I find one of the unicorn attachments, which is enough for me. Consistency is key here. I [continue reading] don't feel like Meditation on the Tao is where I want to be nowadays, especially as I have other ways to get that effect. Vassal Fields has proven better, and so it has been one of my favourite provinces to redirect into/out of.

I believe you are right about that. I'll look into playing one. Subdue the spirits sounds great in this deck. I could very well play that over the second Benten's Touch.

Thank you for the kind words.

I had been thinking about the ningyos and had removed them at some point. The thing is that I am doing a lot that involves the water ring with Tsuki and Prodigy of the waves, and it's nice to have free defe [continue reading]nders in case my opponent wants to nab the fate on the water ring. I am also a little worried that I could get a bad flip with nothing to play, and playing a Ningyo might not be ideal, but it is good to have the option. I am always trying to get Ikoma Reservist in the deck, but if I'd do that, I would be leaning on the water ring even harder.

I do like the suggestion of Asako Diplomat, and have considered running that instead of the Asako Tsuki. My belief is that Tsuki is still better, especially with the Henshin Disciples in here. I don't particularly want to run more 2 drops however. Because of how risky they are against assassinate, I try to limit the number of 2 drops in here, especially as alternatives at 1 or 3 fate are available.

Clarity of Purpose is a good card, and I want to fit one in somewhere. That said, I don't really like this on my bushi. Being unable to bow means that For Shame will dishonor me. I do think they can have a space, but I'd start cutting some of those ready for battles for other ways to keep my bushi honored. As it stands I like playing Clarity of Purpose on Fearsome mystic or Ujina when they are on the offensive, but if I'd use it on those, I think against the waves is enough support.

Now, if I were to remove the ningyo and find room for Clarity of purpose and Asako Diplomat, I believe that would be an excellent deck. I would however then pivot the focus of this deck away from the characters that need claimed rings, and replace those with courtiers. Radiant Orator, Maezawa and even the sage of gisei toshi would be excellent candidates for that list. I would start playing Chikai Order Protector as well instead of the prodigy of the waves. It'd be an interesting idea, but at that point I am changing so much that it will play in quite a different way.

Commonly, my opponents that play let go are sandbagging one of them to ensure that cloud the mind doesn't get their crucial character. Many opponents also snap off a let go on an embrace the void or a timely ornate fan. So, their let go is slightly o [continue reading]verworked.

Other than that, I will occasionally take let go with policy debate or find it with magnificent lighthouse and bin it/steal with infiltrator. Another common occurrence is that I pressure my opponent's hand to such a degree that the earth ring is burning their last few cards, which happen to be let go.

Even so, while infiltrator is a very fun and surprisingly potent card, I do not feel it as a necessity to protect it. This list can win without ever resolving one of them. On the other hand, policy debate will make it an informed choice on whether the infiltrator will stick.