Topic: [TCG] Article 7 - Dominatrix (Read 1704 times)

Nina Illingworth · « **on:** August 07, 2009, 01:35:32 PM »

The Cardboard Geisha CE Article 7:
All Decked Out Part 4 – CE Lion Bowing Military

   “If people want to believe I'm a dominatrix in my spare time, that's fine with me. I mean, I'm definitely happy to smack people around if that's what they really want.” – Jane Wiedlin, guitarist/singer, The Go-Gos.

   During the conceptual stages of the deck design process previous experience can be at once a great asset and also a terrible hindrance. While it’s true that familiarity with a Clan’s archetypal themes can help you get started; it’s also true that L5R evolves over time and rigidly adhering to the past usually means failing to capitalize on the present. The ability to adapt to new themes and play-styles is especially important at the start of a new arc when a Clan’s entire focus can shift in the blink of an eye. To paraphrase Ferris Beuller: “L5R changes pretty fast. If you don’t stop and read the cards once in a while, you might end up in the side tournament.”

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Cardboard Geisha. This week let’s continue our ongoing series about decks that may define early Celestial Edition with “All Decked Out” with part 4 – Lion Bowing Military. For those of you joining us for the first time; this series of articles is designed as a gateway to Celestial Edition for both new and experienced players. Nobody is claiming these are the best decks a given clan has to offer; they are however a great starting point for deck building in early Celestial.

   One of the reasons I bring up the downside of previous experience in an article about a Lion deck is that my own history with the clan almost caused me to give them up for dead here in Celestial. A long time ago during Diamond Edition and when I cared about things like clan loyalty, I played Lion decks almost exclusively for 2 straight years. During that time period Lion was blessed with an abundance of cheap static force, access to powerful movement effects and had arguably the best gold scheme in the game. As a result of this the decks I built during this arc were sort of like Crab that went first all the time. I’d build force quickly, snipe a province or two through movement and then wait until my Dynasty production and access to Superior Strategist made losing an unlikely occurrence. This strategy was highly successful and I won hundreds of tournament games with Lion decks built this way during Diamond Edition. Over time I came to think of this play-style as “the way to win with Lion” because at the time, it was. Imagine my frustration then when I sat down to build a Celestial Edition Lion deck and found myself looking at a whole new clan. Superior Strategist was gone. My boxables were no bigger than anyone else’s and in fact they were smaller than Crab’s, Spider’s and Unicorn’s. I was saddled with the single worst gold scheme in the entire format because I couldn’t buy 6GC holdings OR run Border Village. I was no better at moving around in battle than anyone else that ran Seiden Sanzo and Armor of the Ryu. And to top it all off half my cards referenced “Bushido Virtues”, of which there’s exactly one I’d play in a deck on it’s own; Duty . I won’t lie, this was discouraging and for a short while I believed Lion might be the worst deck in Celestial.

Eventually it was a combination of two things that changed my mind and coaxed me into giving Lion a second pass. First a friend of mine convinced me that in the right situation, A Warrior’s Patience was actually a much better card than I’d realized. In particular he felt its ability to combine with Imperial Artificer to generate card advantage for Lion/Unicorn decks made it one of the more important cards in the arc. I countered with the argument that this wasn’t real card advantage as ultimately the card you’d be returning to your hand was blank. He then recommended I read Venerable Plains of the Ikoma and Matsu Satsune more carefully. While I was forced to concede his point it wasn’t enough on it’s own to convince me Lion could be successful. It wasn’t until I’d played numerous games of Celestial Edition that I began to realize that the existence of Shattered Peaks Castle was encouraging people to cheat away from “bow” meta. The only commonly played cards I would come across (during games or lists online) were “Hold!”, SPC itself and the Ring of Water/Armor of the Ryu to bail out of a losing situation. In fact many of the SPC players had discarded “Hold!” as overkill. When testing proved that you could overload this meta with Crane, Dragon and Unicorn decks it became obvious that Lion was more promising than I’d initially thought. After-all; they had access to an absolutely ridiculous number of battle bow actions and a stronghold that turned every single fate card into a free bow effect once per turn.

After consulting a noted Lion expert for advice on gold scheme (“run Imperial Artificer”) and personality base (“run cards that say Battle:”) I sat down to build a Lion Military deck with a heavy focus on bowing opposing cards. By random coincidence this deck also contained 17 female Personalities, some of whom looked very angry (Fumiyo, Mikura). Unable to resist the joke; I decided to name the deck Dominatrix and after several rounds of tweaking ended up with the list below. First let’s take a look at the deck list and talk about why these 83 cards made the cut. Afterwards we can examine a brief play guide to help make your first few games with Dominatrix more successful.

Dominatrix – CE Lion Bowing Military

1x Venerable Plains of the Ikoma – Arguably the weaker of Lion’s CE strongholds; Venerable Plains is the obvious choice however for a deck focused on bowing enemy personalities in battle. The ability to overload your opponent’s meta starts up front with a re-usable bow action built right onto the box. This at once backs up the bow element of the deck and frees up slots for meta since once per turn you can make any fate card a relevant battle action. The need to have a higher Personal Honor is a problem but with a personality base that starts a 3PH and has 10 Personalities with 4 or more PH you should almost always find good targets.

1x Border Keep – Moreso than other clans, Lion’s gold scheme makes it utterly dependant on Border Keep to survive. With no access to key 6G holdings Lion has to constantly churn to find 2 smaller holdings that add up to 4-6 on turns 1 and 2. Needless to say this usually means using both mulligan actions by then. In fact my general policy with Lion is to discard/mulligan anything that isn’t a holding for the first two turns.

1x Bamboo Harvesters – The only time you will put this card into play is in the Lion mirror during a game you will start out losing by virtue of going second. While the extra holding may be helpful, you’ll still need to outplay/outdraw your opponent in this situation to get the win.

1x Inheriting an Heirloom – In a deck with so many effects that say “Discard a card” it’s impossible to survive on A Warrior’s Patience alone. For starters, what if you don’t draw them fast enough? Inheriting solves this problem by churning towards AWP while refilling your hand after you attach a Weapon or Armor. Unfortunately this card does not work with Obfuscation as you are not attaching a Weapon/Armor from your hand but rather the discard pile. Regardless if you’re not running Central Castle; Inheriting is almost an auto include in Lion.

1x Farmlands – With the popularity of the big ranged attack fate package in the current environment, Farmlands is becoming a more important card by the day. Combined with Imperial Artificer and Akodo Shigetoshi Exp2 however it becomes a game winner. Remember folks even a farmlands token follower has a gold cost, it just happens to be zero. You are allowed to overpay for any cost in L5R (including zero) so while you can’t use Artificer to pay for the Farmlands action if you want to draw cards; you CAN simply overpay for the 0GC follower by paying another 2G. If that 2G was the Artificer you get to draw and discard a card! If I had 41 slots, this deck probably runs 2x Farmlands.

3x Copper Mine – With the possible exception of Spider Breeder, I have found no single deck in Celestial Edition more dependant on seeing an early Clan holding than Lion. Simply put Lion’s gold scheme is terrible and Copper Mine passes for the “heavy hitter” amongst its gold producers. You probably won’t ever use VPI on the defense if you don’t see one of these.

3x Seiden Sanzo – Deceptively synergistic, Seiden Sanzo fits this deck like a glove. Whether it’s buying Mikura at reduced, making Shunran near un-blockable, turning Fumiyo into a province taking monster, activating Versatile Army or increasing the strength of a Throwing Knives ranged attack; you will always find something interesting to do with Seiden Sanzo.

3x Barley Farm – In a deck split so evenly between 3 and 4 gold cost personalities, attachments and effects; Barley Farm isn’t optional. It also combos well with Imperial Artificer, Rout and Obfuscation depending on the card being targeted in the discard pile.

3x Imperial Artificer – The interaction between Imperial Artificer and A Warrior’s Patience is in my opinion one of the major reasons to play Lion decks in Celestial. While useful as a cycle effect, Imperial Artificer’s ability to generate real card advantage with AWP (or Central Castle) is what makes this card so valuable in Lion.

1x Traveling Peddler – While the concept of having 3 spare gold to draw a card with Lion’s gold scheme seems laughable, Traveling Peddler actually tests out quite well here in Dominatrix. Obvious a mid/late game card, it’s often more useful to draw another battle action than it is to buy J Random lion guy/attachment. Having an empty hand is never a good thing in Celestial, even if most of your guys have printed Battle Actions.

1x Chugo Seido – I tend to think of Chugo Seido as a one time extra battle action at the cost of blowing up a holding. This is because 90% of the time I use it to direct an enemy kill effect from a unit with a printed battle action to a unit who’s already used its battle action or never had one to begin with. I probably don’t need to tell you extra Battle Actions are a good thing.

3x Utaku Kohana – Whenever I show this deck to another player, one of the first questions they ask is “Why Kohana?” This astounds me of course because I naturally assume that if Lion had a boxable 2/2 cavalry unit, every military deck they built would run 3 copies of that card. Her cavalry trait gives you access to Versatile Army and increases the value of Unpredictable Strategy. It also means she can be assigned with units who have Armor of the Ryu or have been targeted by Seiden Sanzo to take provinces. Her 2F and general expendability make her the best card to target/combo with Game of Sincerity, Oni-Daikyu, Duty or lobbying for the Imperial Favor. Finally she’s an excellent chump defender, playing both Low Stance and Final Duty with ease. In light of all this my inability to gain her honor and possible conflicts with the Blood Money rule don’t seem relevant.

3x Matsu Mikura – The most boring card in the deck; Mikura makes the cut because as a boxable with the Hero trait she really helps smooth out the gold scheme on turns 2 through 4. Probably my favorite target for Seiden Sanzo or weapons that give big force bonuses, Mikura can also serve as a back-up Kohana for the purposes of playing Duty, Oni-Daikyu or Game of Sincerity.

3x Matsu Youko – Probably the best personality Lion has in the entire format, Youko is a lynchpin personality in Dominatrix. Her ability to bow a personality or follower regardless of size without expending a fate card would alone warrant her inclusion in this deck. When you factor in her ridiculous Force to Gold Cost ratio and 3PH there’s really no downside to buying her at any point in the game.

3x Matsu Shunran – Primarily a collection of numbers, Shunran also stars in any Lion deck with Seidan Sanzo. At 4PH and 5F on the attack, he works well with cards like Throwing Knives, A Warrior’s Patience and the Battle Action printed on Venerable Plains of the Ikoma. If you can give him Cavalry however (Seiden Sanzo/Armor of the Ryu) Shunran becomes almost impossible to block; forcing opposing Cavalry units to assign as Infantry or be unable to assign against him at all. This “Super Cavalry” can allow you to snipe enemy provinces with ease in the early game, though it may cost Shunran his life.

2x Matsu Yosa – For the most part Yosa acts as a bridge personality in Dominatrix; her 2F, 4PH and two questionable battle actions all help to trigger other cards/effects in the deck. She is noticeably stronger against Follower Military and Spider Breed decks however where she can usually find legitimate targets for both her Ranged Attacks.

1x Akodo Kurogane – I’m very hesitant to throw around the word “Broken” when discussing L5R because I played in an environment with Rise from the Ashes. With this in mind then please allow me to state for the record that Akodo Kurogane is severely “Bent”. The ability to bow a naked Kohana and destroy your opponent’s best non-unique personality is incredibly strong and absolutely under-costed compared to other kill effects in Celestial Edition. The fact that this action is not Tactical and it’s printed on a 3/2 Tactician whose real gold cost is 4 defies all current power for cost ratios in the format. Obviously the restriction that you must have more units at the battle makes him less attractive when you’re losing but there has to be a downside to a card this strong.

3x Matsu Fumiyo – The card that originally convinced me to call the deck Dominatrix, Fumiyo is probably the prototypical Lion personality in Celestial Edition. At 5F on the attack, with a useful battle action and 4PH she’s absolutely worth the 5G you’ve spent on her. Defensively however she’s over-costed and incredibly vulnerable to ranged attacks and cheap battle actions designed to attack boxables (The Hundred-Hand Strike comes to mind). I’ve found the simple solution is to never assign her to defend and enjoy the way she combos with cards like Seiden Sanzo, Throwing Knives, Armor of the Ryu, Infamous Blade and Heavenly Jumoji-yari of the Lion on the offensive.

3x Matsu Satsune – Depending on how you play her it’s possible for Matsu Satsune’s battle action to serve as both bowing meta AND a proactive battle action. This is of course the primary reason to run 9 Bushido virtues despite the questionable value of Paths of Honor and Glory. This can be particularly funny combined with Kurogane’s kill action; though your opponent will try to kill Satsune if he sees it coming. While not 4PH, her Paragon trait triggers A Warrior’s Patience in the end step.

1x Akodo Tsudoken – Shattered Peaks Castle is a pretty good stronghold in Celestial Edition. Buying Tsudoken and keeping him alive essentially mimics playing Shattered Peaks Castle without in any way detracting from what Venerable Plains gives you. When you add in that Tsudoken is also a 4F Tactician and his ability is yet again not Tactical it’s pretty easy to justify paying 6G for him.

1x Akodo Sadahige Exp – An important part of the “kill” sub-package in Dominatrix, Sadahige is at his finest when you can remove a Bushido Virtue from the discard pile. One of my favorite plays is to use Duty to negate a kill action intended for Sadahige and then on my action; remove the Duty from the game to kill an enemy personality/huge follower. As a general rule I don’t target A Warrior’s Patience with this action unless it’s at the final battle and I don’t expect to be able to return it to my hand later; it’s simply too valuable. Even if you can’t afford to remove a Bushido Virtue, Sadahige still gives you yet another non-Tactical bowing action attached to a 4F Tactician.

1x Akodo Shigetoshi Exp 2 – Probably my least favorite Clan Champion in Celestial Edition; Shigetoshi finds a home in Dominatrix because Lion’s desperate need for kill actions outweighs his ridiculous gold cost. Hopefully you’ll have bought a personality at full on turn 2 but this is often at odds with the more important goal of properly developing your gold scheme. Either way; kill actions are important and Shigetoshi can help you win games. It’s the “can” part that’s bothersome since most Clan Champions in Celestial “do” help you win games.

3x Final Duty – Easily one of the most important cards in Celestial Edition; Final Duty fills multiple roles in Dominatrix. Used offensively it serves as front line personality/follower kill in military on military match-ups. Used defensively it allows you to successfully chump block with a Kohana/Yosa type personality and punish your opponent for attacking by destroying key personalities/followers. Even the requirement that you have less total force isn’t significant in this deck because you can always pitch it to Venerable Plains/Satsune for a positive effect.

2x Obfuscation – In a deck with 6 Weapons that blow themselves up to kill things this is pretty much an auto-include. Unfortunately you can’t use Obfuscation to produce the same Battle Action on a weapon twice in one turn. You can however blow up an Oni-Daikyu to kill a unit and on the same turn Obfuscate it back into play to make a ranged 3. Remember that while Obfuscation can’t trigger Inheriting an Heirloom it works just fine with Imperial Artificer; allowing you to draw and discard right there in battle. Only Lion’s terrible gold scheme keeps Dominatrix from running 3 of these.

2x Versatile Army – Highly effective in a deck with Kohana, Seiden Sanzo and Armor of the Ryu; Versatile Army works double duty as a proactive bowing action and as meta against opponent’s bow actions. While obviously not ideal, you can even use it without a Cavalry/Infantry unit at the battle by paying 3G.

3x A Warrior’s Patience - Despite its humble appearance this is probably the most important card in the deck. Combined with already solid cards like Imperial Artificer, Matsu Satsune, Matsu Yosa and Venerable Plains of the Ikoma itself; A Warrior’s Patience helps regenerate your hand turn after turn. Without the ability to continually feed these discard activated effects, I’m not sure Lion would be tournament worthy.

3x Duty – Like most decks that run Duty, Dominatrix uses the card to essentially re-direct enemy kill effects to worthless boxables. Unlike most decks that run Duty, this deck can also use it trigger key battle actions on personalities like Yosa, Satsune and Sadahige. While it’s rarely relevant you can even use Duty to gain a quick 2 Honor while activating Venerable Plains of the Ikoma.

3x Game of Sincerity – Likely the best meta card in the deck, Game of Sincerity can single handedly win you games against both big unit military and defensive honor decks. In particular it’s the deck’s only good counter to SPC Crab Hero decks that run Setting Sun Strike. Obviously you want to be careful about who you play it with (Kohana is best) because Lion Honor Requirements trend on the high side. It is however easy enough to buy 1 or 2 personalities at full over the course of the game. Played against honor it causes an immediately 2 point honor hit loss, dishonors a key defender and sends the opponent scrambling to find a way to get rid of his own personality before your army kills it in resolution; triggering even more honor losses. This is particularly good against personalities who can’t seppuku and therefore Phoenix Honor.

3x Unpredictable Strategy – Unpredictable Strategy is another example of a highly versatile card that fills multiple roles in a deck like Dominatrix. Useful as personality removal, send home meta, Control meta, battle evasion and even simply to counter *his* Unpredictable Strategies; you’ll rarely be disappointed when you draw this card.

2x Certain Death – A key set up card for other effects in the deck, Certain Death allows you to destroy enemy attachments before you assign to battle. This is incredibly important in a deck with so many ranged attacks and multiple Personalities that function better against enemies without attachments. Another victim of Lion’s terrible gold scheme, you simply can’t afford to run 3 copies of this card.

3x Rout – While obviously a strong card in any deck here in early CE; Rout borders on absolutely phenomenal in a deck that hates attachments as much as Dominatrix does. As an added bonus the send home effect on Rout serves as a nice compliment to Matsu Fumiyo’s battle action, helping you draw out send home meta early while destroying key attachments. Definitely the best battle action in the deck if not the format, drawing 2 Routs often means an easy victory.

3x Low Stance – Primarily included as meta against big unit military decks; Low Stance contains the units you can’t shoot, bow, send home or otherwise kill with the rest of the deck. If your opponent doesn’t counter this card (Shameful Injury) it will probably win you an entire battle. In a pinch, its 4 Focus Value makes it useful with the Tacticians in the deck.

3x Paths of Honor and Glory – This is my least favorite card in the entire deck and it only makes the cut because Dominatrix runs 6 personalities that function considerably better with Bushido Virtues than with random fate cards. Otherwise, the Battle Action is good if you can find a Samurai without attachments and at 4 Focus you can always throw it away to a Tactician. Periodically I find myself using the Open to straighten a Samurai with a key battle action after Lobbying for the favor or before my opponent declares attackers. Finally as a Bushido Virtue it can be used to trigger the VPI Battle Action and gain you a cheap 2 honor if you find yourself in a “Blood Money “situation.

1x Ring of Water – Another auto-include in Celestial military; Ring of Water acts as send home and Retribution meta with the potential to save key units from a losing battle. With the sheer number of battle actions in this deck it’s very easy to “hard play” Ring of Water; allowing repeated use over multiple turns.

3x Oni Daikyu – Probably the best Weapon card in the entire game; Oni-Daikyu makes the cut because killing your opponent’s biggest unit/follower in battle is a good thing. As if that weren’t enough, it also has incredible synergy with cards like Inheriting an Heirloom, Imperial Artificer and Obfuscation. You can also bow Oni-Daikyu to produce a ranged 3 attack; killing stray boxables or small followers without sacrificing the weapon. Regardless of how you use it, paying 3GC to make your least relevant personalities (Kohana, Mikura and Yosa) cold blooded killers in battle definitely qualifies as a bargain.

3x Throwing Knives – Way less useful in Lion than in traditional big unit Crab/Oni decks, Throwing Knives still finds a home in Dominatrix as a meta solution to Followers and 3-5F support Personalities. While not optimal you can use cards like Seiden Sanzo, Armor of the Ryu, Heavenly Jumanji-yari of the Lion and even the Tactician trait to set up larger ranged attacks if necessary. As a weapon with a potentially fatal battle action, Throwing Knives also works well with cards like Inheriting an Heirloom, Imperial Artificer and Obfuscation.

1x Infamous Blade – Yet another way to destroy followers, increase force and trigger key card draw effects like Imperial Artificer and Inheriting an Heirloom. This type of deck redundancy is important when you need to be absolutely certain your opponent can’t keep attachments in play for your deck to function properly.

1x Armor of the Ryu – An early candidate for the title of most game warping card in Celestial Edition there aren’t many decks that shouldn’t run Armor of the Ryu. Not only does it create a huge Cavalry super unit with send home meta and the ability to bail out of losing battles but as an Armor it also combines with key card draw effects based on attachments. You can even Obfuscate it on to a bowed unit to run away from battle if necessary.

1x Heavenly Jumonji-yari of the Lion – While the so called “Lion Stick” is hardly the best card in the deck, a need for ways to trigger Imperial Artificer/Inheriting an Heirloom combined with it’s potential to provide 6 Force spread over up to 2 units in battle helped it make the final cut. Weapons with Battle Actions are better than those without even if that Battle Action is just a re-usable Charge.

Play Guide

   Now that we’ve examined the deck card by card, let’s talk a little bit about how to play Dominatrix successfully in game situations. Remember this is simply a play guide; it’s designed to help you get started on the road to learning to play well with this deck. It is not a substitute for real life L5R practice but it should help you start playing the deck better almost immediately.

   One of the more interesting aspects of this deck is that it’s almost impossible to properly classify by deck-type. Depending on the match-up and opponent’s style of play Dominatrix can morph from a blitz/swarm deck into a mid game overload deck or even into a defensive honor runner. Ideally however the deck will win its first battle on the defensive on turn 3.5 and then begin to aggress from there, making it a mid game military deck despite its switch and swarm elements. Regardless of how you play Dominatrix, this is truly an impressive set of options on the path to victory.

   The most important thing to remember about playing this deck is that you absolutely must buy 4 holdings in your first 2 turns. This remains constant no matter who went first (probably you) and regardless of your opponent’s preferred victory condition. This isn’t easy in a deck with only 14 holdings but it is possible. The key to making this work is to ruthlessly mulligan or discard anything you see in the first two turns that isn’t a holding until you’ve found the 4 you need. Ideally then this deck buys 2 holdings on turn 1, and then a personality and 2 holdings on turn 2. If everything bounces just right the Personality will have a printed battle action and you can buy it for full gaining 3+ Honor. Do not get greedy; sometimes you’ll be forced by a bad draw to buy 2 personalities on turn 2 but it’s hardly the optimal play. Once you’ve established what passes for a good production base in Lion you’ll want to force out 3 Personalities on turn 3; preferably ones with printed Battle Actions. Don’t forget to lobby for the Imperial Favor on your turn 3 limited with the personality you bought turn 2; it is after all an extra battle action on the defense.

   Things get very interesting after your 3rd turn depending on what your opponent does on his/her turn 3 attack phase. While it would be impossible to cover every possible situation you may face at this point in the game in a play guide, let’s look at the 4 most common situations I found myself in while testing Dominatrix:

A)   The opponent attacks with 2-3 units into your 3-4 unit army – An over-aggressive opponent can be an ideal match-up for Dominatrix assuming your fate hand is strong and your early Personalities have printed Battle Actions. In most cases you’ll want to defend at this point and begin trading actions with your opponent (and ripping his hand in the process). Occasionally however a soft fate hand or a dynasty draw with too many blank boxables will make defending too risky. In this situation it’s probably better to feign weakness and let your opponent take the province. This gives you another turn to establish a better army and he’s unlikely to stop attacking if the first one went so well.

B)   The opponent goes to Dynasty Phase and buys 2 more Personalities at reduced – This is likely a signal that you’re facing a mid game military opponent whose deck lacks a ton of proactive battle actions. He wasn’t interested in fighting last turn; either because he couldn’t absorb your battle actions or because he couldn’t kill enough of your units to profit from the attack. This is unlikely to have changed with a single fate draw so assuming you have at least an equal number of personalities you should probably begin attacking on turn 4 against this opponent. If he has more units than you however you should probably attach something and head to dynasty; once you have a 5-6 unit army it won’t matter how many units he has.

C)   The opponent spends his limited phase killing/controlling my personalities – Whether it’s Spider Limited Kill, Crane Magistrate Control Honor or some weird Phoenix hybrid of both; you will eventually face control decks in Celestial Edition. Thankfully due to a combination of going first and the ability to use Swarm tactics; Dominatrix actually has a very good game against these deck-types. The key is to never make anything easy for the control player by flooding the board with units and always attacking in numbers. Do not fall into the trap of committing early gold to attachments and desperately trying to rush provinces. Force him to play multiple battle actions to defend a single province and you’ll quickly drain his hand. In a format with such poor card draw an empty hand ultimately means a lost game for the control player. Usually this means skipping straight to Dynasty on turn 4 and beginning your assault on Turn 5 instead, when you have 6 units (most of whom have Battle Actions) in play.

D)   The opponent buys a Personality with high PH at full and collapses into an obvious defensive honor shell - Usually this means you’ll be facing Phoenix or Crane defensive/political honor although sometimes Dragon, Lion and Unicorn players will adopt this style (likely out of nostalgia). Unlike a control deck, a defensive honor deck will be looking to end the game as quickly as possible by simply outrunning your ability to take provinces. The simple truth is that this is incredibly hard to do against an opponent who went first; namely a Lion player. While obviously you want to start attacking as early as possible to destroy the honor player’s hand be mindful of his ability to win battles against small armies outright. Rocket honor decks may not pack as much kill as a control deck but Final Duty, Mountains of the Phoenix and Desperate Battle are somewhat standard. This is where going first becomes vital as it allows you to easily skip to your turn 4 Dynasty Phase and force out 3-4 more units for him to contend with next turn. Your opponent is unlikely to have crossed 25 Honor before you begin menacing him with 6-7 unit armies and superior card draw. That’s not a match-up most defensive honor decks can win, especially when you add Game of Sincerity to the equation.


While it’s exceptionally rare, once in a while you’ll encounter a superior military opponent who can easily trade actions with you in battle. In this scenario it becomes increasingly important to force him to commit his armies to attack first; not only giving you the first action but allowing you to defend in force rather than leaving a defending army behind on an attack. In this situation I recommend buying Personalities at full and switching into a defensive honor deck until he complies by attacking you. With 71 points of Personal Honor in the dynasty deck, 6 Personalities with actions that gain Honor and Venerable Plains of the Ikoma itself; it’s possible for Dominatrix to win by honor without going to time against a purely military opponent. Usually however you’ll buy 2-3 Personalities at full, your opponent will realize you mean to run for honor and he’ll begin attacking as desired.

   Ultimately your success with a deck like Dominatrix will come down to your ability to properly trade cards in battle. Despite the potential card advantage gained from the Imperial Artificer/A Warrior’s Patience/Inheriting an Heirloom trinity, you must conserve cards and play intelligently to win battles against competent opponents. This generally means progressing from free actions printed on cards in play, to renewable resources like VPI or the Favor and only then to your fate hand when choosing which battle actions to play. It also means using your actions to remove his ability to take actions by prioritizing targets with printed abilities during battle. Killing his biggest unit can wait until you’ve forced him to say “I pass” a couple times if necessary.

   Simple but effective, Dominatrix is one of the easiest decks in Celestial to play well. While the sheer number of abilities printed on cards does require a somewhat meticulous attention to detail, simply reading your cards carefully often makes the correct course of action very obvious. It’s also a wonderful deck for beginners since all the actions bow a card, make a ranged attack or destroy a card. This means a new player can hit the ground running after absorbing a limited number of basic game concepts. That having been said Dominatrix has plenty of tricks that will appeal to a more experienced player and it definitely rewards a skilled pilot in battle.

Well guys, that’s all for now. I have L5R practice in 2 hours and my Mantis deck is strewn about the house in random card boxes. This could be a potential problem as I intend to play it at least 10 times tonight if I can get away with it. Thanks as always for reading and I hope this has helped make your L5R experience better in some small but relevant way. For those of you headed to GenCon; I wish you the best of luck and hope all your draws a golden. Until next time when we look at Mantis Military, remember to keep your box unbowed and always keep it weird folks.

Doji Maidori · « **Reply #1 on:** August 07, 2009, 02:25:41 PM »

I'm going to have to digest this in pieces! Like pizza for the brain.

daidoji kenade · « **Reply #2 on:** August 07, 2009, 03:16:50 PM »

Very Nice article there, and what you said is very true. While actions like Toshiro and Outmatched are starting to bring up numbers, movement actions are the big stuff right now, and thus thats where Meta is focused.

Sahano · « **Reply #3 on:** August 07, 2009, 03:27:13 PM »

Arigato gozaimasu Nina-sensei.

SpookyElectric · « **Reply #4 on:** August 10, 2009, 09:24:12 AM »

This almost makes me want to play Lion again.

Very well-written and well thought out. Thanks again! I'll pass it on to our local Lion player.

Nina Illingworth · « **Reply #5 on:** August 10, 2009, 04:52:01 PM »

lol as usual you are all too nice but thanks for the kind words.

I dunno I like Lion because it's so easy to play well. I was very fond of making this deck and testing it. Whereas say......Houhou honor was boring as all heck.

thanks for reading guys

-nina

Doji Hoturi · « **Reply #6 on:** August 10, 2009, 09:49:59 PM »

Someone in the local area plays a similar Lion deck. I haven't had the chance to play him yet but every game I watch he rolls through 3+ fate cards per battle. Then in the blink of an eye his hand is full again for the next battle. It is terrifying and impressive.

Doji Yoshi · « **Reply #7 on:** August 11, 2009, 05:50:26 AM »

I like this deck.
I'm wondering how this deck will change with Path?

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Author Topic: [TCG] Article 7 - Dominatrix (Read 1704 times)

Nina Illingworth

[TCG] Article 7 - Dominatrix

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