Topic: The Cardboard Geisha Part 10.1 - Old Crow (Phoenix Honor) (Read 2161 times)

Nina Illingworth · « **on:** November 03, 2009, 07:07:57 PM »

The Cardboard Geisha CE Article 10 (Part 1):
All Decked Out Part 6 - “Old Crow” Phoenix CE Honor

“So let me get this straight, you purposely kept the Scorpion and Spider decks everyone wants to see a secret so you could spend an entire month play-testing every conceivable deck type for a clan nobody plays?” - Anonymous friend.

   The simple truth is that some of you are going to think I’m crazy. After all no rational person would put themselves through the kind of grueling torture a project this immense would entail. At it’s heart I’d be talking about building 3 different decks with separate testing processes, deck lists and play guides for each one. The building and testing phase alone would literally take weeks to complete. Then once I had settled on my final deck lists I’d be left with the mammoth task of combining 3 different articles into one readable overview of the Phoenix Clan in Celestial Edition. When you factor in that typically one article takes me about 20 hours to write and runs between 7 and 9 pages in length it would be easy to characterize this project as “impossible” or “completely insane”.

   When I first began to realize the scope of the task I’d be undertaking I would describe myself as somewhat overwhelmed. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been tempted to simply pick one of the decks and run with it; pretending I’d done the proper testing and simply decided that this deck was better than the others. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) my obsessive compulsive “need to know” would make such a shortcut impossible. From the moment I realized that Phoenix had at least 3 different competitive deck types in the post Path of the Destroyer environment my fate had been sealed.

   Looking over the cards I began to theorize that Phoenix’s chief strength in Celestial Edition was in fact it’s versatility. Despite seeming somewhat mundane on it’s surface, Phoenix’s personality base had actually been designed very carefully for use in multiple deck types that would pursue entirely different victory conditions. Simply by changing a few holdings and modifying his fate deck a Phoenix player could build highly effective honor, military and even enlightenment decks around the same core personalities. What fascinated me most about this versatility is that on paper each deck type seemed roughly equal in power despite having completely different strengths and weaknesses against the field at large. More importantly the “Meta” cards required to shut down each separate deck-type would be entirely different, thus ensuring a smart Phoenix player could alway stay one step ahead of his local competition simply by rotating decks. It was almost as if the clan had been designed to appeal to the type of player who always has to try something new every week just to avoid boredom. Simply choosing one of these decks and declaring it “the best” would be missing out on Phoenix’s true strength in the post PotD environment; it’s ability to play any style or victory condition available in Celestial Edition and sometimes multiple such styles/conditions at once.

   Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Nina Illingworth and welcome to another edition of The Cardboard Geisha. For the many people who email-ed/PM’d me to make sure I wasn’t dead; thank you for your concern but I’m alright. I hope after reading this article and it subsequent sister articles it will be easier to understand why it’s taken me so long to post again. Simply put, the sheer amount of testing/research required to comfortably say you understand Phoenix in Celestial borders on “all consuming”. The truth be told, I’m hardly complaining as I’ve found taking Phoenix decks apart and reassembling them into something entirely different to be one of the most interested deck building exercises I’ve ever participated in. With this in mind I’d like to change things up here by looking at 3 different decks together in a series of inter-connected articles designed to highlight what makes Phoenix special here in Celestial Edition. For those of you just joining us, these articles can then be considered parts 6, 7 and 8 of the “All Decked Out” series and they are designed to help players both new and old get a jump-start on understanding Phoenix decks in the post PotD environment. As always nobody is claiming these are the best decks in the format; merely that they are a great starting point for deck building and play-testing Phoenix decks on your own. There is simply no substitute for actually playing the games when it comes to building/learning to play a given deck and players are actively encouraged to test and modify these decks according to their own play style/environmental needs.

“Old Crow" : Phoenix CE Honor

   Without question the easiest Phoenix deck to play and build in Celestial Edition so far remains Phoenix Honor out of Shrine of Champions. Fast, powerful and incredibly consistent this deck can be frustrating to play against since it usually dominates both military and control decks that fail to meta against it properly. Additionally the sheer simplicity of the deck works to eliminate required choices from it’s pilot, making “Old Crow “ both easy to play and very difficult to gain traction against once you’ve fallen behind. This robotic efficiency should make SoC Honor a popular choice during tournament season and if past history is any indication, it will continue to perform quite well in the Swiss rounds of even the largest L5R tournaments. Unfortunately the same single-minded mechanical consistency that makes this deck a popular choice for beginners makes “Old Crow” a less attractive choice for experienced players. In essence since the Phoenix deck specializes in doing the same thing every game it has little or no way of playing itself out of situations where your opponent takes away that thing (presence-less send home and rapid honor gains). When faced with heavy “Meta”, the Phoenix Honor player’s only option is to “go faster and hope for the best” rather than attempt to play around it. Additionally Phoenix honor has almost no way of controlling honor meta personalities like Doji Bukita or key fate cards like Fury of the Dark Lord. This in turn puts even further emphasis on getting a good start and ending the game before the opponent can draw into his answers or truly capitalize on playing them. While hardly a damning flaw, this inability to alter it’s own destiny is what keeps Old Crow from being a truly top tier deck and it’s likely what prevented Phoenix Honor from breaking through in numbers at this past GenCon. With that having been noted however it’s important to remember that this deck is fast, brutal and almost unstoppable without proper meta. I rate it just a cut below Lion Military/Spider Control and about on par with Crane Honor, Mantis Followers, Crab Movement, etc amongst Tier 1.5 decks.

   Let’s take a look at the version of Old Crow I’ve been running in test recently. As usual we’ll take a quick look at the deck-list and talk about why each card was chosen. Then we can look at a very brief play guide for one of the simplest decks to master in all of Celestial Edition.

Old Crow - CE Shrine of Champions (PHX) Honor

1x Shrine of Champions - You really don’t need to be an expert to realize that re-usable, presence-less, defensive send home that doesn’t care about the enemy unit’s size or attached cards is ridiculously powerful. This is especially true for a “clock” deck like Phoenix honor where winning is simply a question of surviving long enough to declare victory. The only real issue then becomes paying the the cost of bowing a temple as efficiently as possible. Despite having the printed temple trait it will rarely be a good idea to bow your Stronghold for this effect. That would require leaving it unbowed until your opponent attacks and thus failing to buy more honor/personalities on your turn. Thankfully Old Crow runs 6 holdings that say temple and 3 Regions that can also be used to trigger the Stronghold’s Battle Action.

1x Border Keep – In a deck that runs 16 holdings, Border Keep becomes more about optimization rather than forcing the strongest start possible. Generally you’ll want to use the 1st turn free mulligan to find a Temple of some kind if you haven’t already. Typically however it’s wise to save your once per game mulligan as insurance against a bad turn in the mid game. While this may seem overly cautious, Old Crow only runs 20 Personalities and it’s quite possible to see a 3 holding draw in the late game when you desperately need defenders and the Family Honor that comes from buying them at full.

1x Bamboo Harvesters - Due to it’s low province strength (6) and it’s primarily blank boxable Personality base, Phoenix honor does not fare well when going 2nd. Obviously there are times when you will be forced to do so but ultimately Bamboo Harvesters doesn’t help you much either way in this situation.

1x The Lost Path - While Shiba’s Guidance is a wonderful card in blitz military and enlightenment decks it’s pretty much useless in Phoenix honor. Lets be fair here, if your defensive strategies were based on having high force while defending your provinces, you’d play Crane or Dragon. Additionally cards like Akodo’s, Hida’s, Fu Leng’s and especially Bayushi’s Guidance will be a seriously problem if they resolve against you. Remember, The Lost Path is always effective because it works both against a Celestial card that has already resolved and is thus in play and a future Celestial card that your opponent reveals later in the game. If your environment is full of Honor decks this card could be Cherry Blossom Festival instead. While it’s possible to run both events, I don’t feel running less than 20 personalities is wise and I don’t consider the 2nd event better than any of the non-personality cards in the deck already. Additionally events do not combine well with Border Keep/Temple of Tsukune effects. As always, millage may vary.

3x Temple of Tsukune - This card is a perfect example of the concept of “synergy" when it comes to CCG deck building, filling a variety of roles in Old Crow while costing virtually nothing:

- It’s free and you can have up to 3 copies in play if they all land on different provinces (not Singular).
- It replaces itself when it comes into play, effectively reducing the size of your Dynasty deck by one for each copy that attaches to a province over the course of a game.
- It’s the single best way to trigger the battle action on Shrine of Champions because it will be unbowed on your opponent’s turn without costing you any gold production.
- The “Famous Bazaar” effect of it’s powerful reaction helps to speed up a deck with so many holdings (16).
- In a deck that generally only defends with one personality and only runs 20 personalities to begin with, the drawback on this region is rarely even relevant.

If I sat down with the intention of creating a perfect region for a Shrine of Champions honor deck it would probably look exactly like Temple of Tsukune.

3x Acrobat Troupe - What I’m about to say may be extremely obvious to some of you and even potentially insulting if you’ve completed Primary School mathematics. However I do feel it’s important to say these things because its come to my attention that a great number of honor players are continuing to operate under the misconception that Acrobat Troupe is an “optional” or even a “bad” card. The simple fact is that the only way to declare an honor victory is to gain honor, probably about 34 points worth or so. If you do this entirely by purchasing personalities on the dynasty phase this will take you 9 turns to accomplish (and that’s assuming a 4PH personality every turn including turn 1, so yeah more than 9 turns). Thus it is incredibly important to have ways of gaining honor outside of your normal dynasty purchase. Having more than one way to gain family honor outside of the Dynasty Phase is actually better than having only one way. Following the logical course a deck with 8 holdings that gain family honor as limited actions is probably better than a deck that has only 6. Additionally cards that gain 2 honor will help you win much faster than cards that gain 1 honor. Do you see where I’m going with this? I know $35 on the open market is a killer for a rare guys but there’s no magical place on earth where 3x Temple to Shinsei and 3x My Father’s Shrine is better than 3x Acrobat Troupes, 3x Temple to Shinsei and 2x My Father’s Shrine. Yes 6GC is an issue, yes there will be turns where you’ll be forced to choose between buying a valuable personality or gaining an extra 2 honor. None of that matters, the fact is having the option to gain 2 honor will win you games over the long haul. Tell yourself whatever you like to make it feel better but simple math doesn’t lie.

3x Temple to Shinsei - This card is pretty much an auto include in Old Crow. Obviously 2 point honor gains on the limited phase are a huge part of winning games by honor but as an added bonus Temple to Shinsei is officially a “Temple”. This allows it to trigger the stronghold battle action in the unlikely event you don’t have a spare shugenja to bow with it and gain 2 honor. Of course the 3GC can be frustrating but it’s hardly insurmountable (Stronghold, Silver mine, Acrobat Troupe, and any 2x 2GP holdings). As already noted, the cost of bowing a shugenja is minimal in a deck that rarely defends with more than one personality.

3x Silver Mine - While its true that most decks in Celestial perform better when they see an early clan holding, it can be especially important for a typical Phoenix Honor deck. Between buying Temple to Shinsei, resurrecting Houhou, buying 7GC personalities and drawing cards with Traveling Peddler you will have no trouble finding a good use for any Silver Mines you purchase. Games in which this holding runs from you will be considerably more difficult but you can win simply by over-paying for everything and focusing on your 6G and 8G 4PH personalities.

2x My Father’s Shrine - This card was included in Old Crow’s design primarily as a catch-all backup option. As a quick 1 point honor gain it can be used to race towards 40 or as a cheap way to re-honor a key personality (a Houhou that’s just been targeted by Seiden Sanzo for example). Since the cost of gaining the honor is bowing the personality rather than My Father’s Shrine it can then be used to make 2G later in the turn or be left unbowed to trigger the Stronghold battle action on your opponent’s attack phase. Never the best holding you’ll buy, My Father’s Shrine can sometimes win you games regardless.

1x Traveling Peddler - The rise of military decks with effective card draw options in Path of the Destroyer forces an honor player to find multiple ways to draw extra cards as the game goes on or risk being crushed under the weight of superior card advantage. While it’s rarely easy to find the 3G necessary to draw a card the simple fact is you *will* find that 3G when your hand is running low and you’re trying to hold off your opponent’s final desperate attacks. You can’t draw a card if you don’t have the option and thus Traveling Peddler remains an auto-include in Celestial Edition honor decks. If I could find the slot, I’d probably run 2 copies of this card or a 2nd Expendable Resources.
1x Counting House - The simple truth is that against most military opponents you will lose a province around about the same time you start running out of fate cards. Additionally, though you may sometimes attack with Ningen’s samurai clone, you do so entirely to activate expendable resources and hopefully gain another 2 honor next turn. If your going to lose provinces and you’re pretty much incapable of taking them in retaliation there’s absolutely no reason to leave Counting House out of your deck.

1x Expendable Resources - My favorite card in Path of the Destroyer, I swear to you here and now that if this card was a temple I’d run 3 copies of it in Old Crow, singular trait be damned! In fact, if your environment doesn’t have a lot of Crane Magistrate or Scorpion Dishonor decks, feel free to cut Kitsune Den immediately and make it a second copy of Expendable Resources. Not only does it allow you to sacrifice useless or bowed units to draw cards in battle but when combined with Houhou or Shiba Ningen it can actually be used to create a re-usable honor engine while doing so. Sign me up immediately.

1x Seiden Sanzo - Partially included to be a 6th temple holding and partially included to give you a 2nd way to kill Houhou’s and Ningen samurai clones. Remember, you can’t gain 6 honor in a turn if you don’t have 2 dead Houhous in the discard pile. Don’t get cute and attack because you have a Seiden Sanzo’d Houhou and a couple of Cavalry units, you’ll just open yourself up to Retribution or enemy honor gains in battle.

1x Kitsune Den - Playing against Scorpion Dishonor can be a frustrating though ultimately winning battle; this card is included to give you the necessary edge to win this match outright without going to time in tournament play. Additionally Magistrate control decks will often dishonor and kill your personalities as a way of coping with your superior speed. While it won’t solve all of your problems in this match-up, a well timed Kitsune Den can be sacrificed to give you a quick win against this deck type.

2x Isawa Mizuhiko - Essentially Mizuhiko basic is a 2-3G “body” with 2 PH and the water trait who’s primary specialty is bowing to gain honor from Temple to Shinsei or My Father’s Shrine. Periodically he’ll defend to either thwart a potential Naval Invasion, play Inspire Fear or serve as the “Water” component off an Unstoppable Power. Otherwise, he’s just a cheap body. For a while I tried Asako Misako in this slot but I found her lack of a shugenja trait and odd gold cost to be incredibly frustrating. I also rarely used her battle action since the deck is designed to play one kill action and then save the province with presence-less defensive actions. As always milage may vary.

3x Agasha Ueda - One of the coolest personalities in Celestial Edition, Ueda does so many little things for a deck like Old Crow it’d be hard to imagine playing without him. With both the air and water traits he’s worth 2 honor off an Unstoppable Power all by himself and he plays Inspire Fear with the “don’t come back” kicker. The cavalry trait makes him an excellent defender while his 2-4GC makes him incredibly disposable. What’s not to like?

1x Isawa Kyoko Exp - In a deck so tightly focused on sending units home from battle, it’s hard to turn down a 4GC, 3PH unique who removes herself from battle as a cost to send an enemy personality home (regardless of size or attachments), and if he does go home, bows him and gains you 1 honor. Kyoko Exp pretty much represents the entire defensive philosophy of Old Crow packed into a single card. I may be in love.

1x Daigotsu Oki - One of the better cards in Imperial Gift 2, Daigotsu Oki is an absolute given when building a good honor deck. Primarily this is because the 3 point honor gain you get for buying her is an entering play effect and doesn’t count towards your “one honor gain from buying an in-clan personality per turn” limit. 3 extra honor is 3 extra honor. As an added bonus you can then sacrifice her to “lock out” a 2PH or less personality from battle later in the game. At the speed this deck is running, that could very well be the difference between winning and losing for a military opponent.

1x Isawa Reido - As a unique with a manageable 2HR, Reido primarily makes the cut as Scorpion Dishonor meta. It’s highly unlikely you’ll ever use his battle action in a real game situation however so he could essentially be any other boxable Phoenix personality in the game if you so desired. His fire trait is periodically useful for making 3 and 4 point honor gains from Unstoppable Force if you can’t find your Houhous.

1x Isawa Mizuhiko Exp - Considering that this deck makes no use whatsoever of his Naval or Magistrate traits and you almost never give him Cavalry, it’s still surprising how useful Mizuhiko Exp is in Old Crow. Consider the following example from a recent test game I played against a friend after work. On my turn I attach a Touch of Ice to Mizhuko Exp and then bow him and a Temple to Shinsei to gain 2 honor. Using his action I straighten him and bow him to activate the 1pt honor gain on My Father’s Shrine. On my opponent’s turn I straighten Mizuhiko again and bow him to trigger Touch of Ice and force my opponent to bow 2 personalities or give me another 3 family honor. My opponent wisely spent a Dramatic Assassination on Mizuhiko the next turn before I could pull the trick off twice.

3x Isawa Kumai - Primarily Kumai serves as a cheap boxable personality who provides 4 honor for 6 gold and comes with two elemental traits (Air, Void) for gaining honor with Unstoppable Power. She gets an extra +1F from Ningen/Might of the Kami and her 4 Chi combos well with Ring of Fire and Touch of the Infinite. Otherwise there really isn’t much to say about her.

3x Asako Serizawa - Possibly the best defensive personality Phoenix has in Celestial Edition, it’s almost never a bad idea to buy this guy when he flips face up against a military opponent. Giving out -4F as an open action from the safety of your home is borderline broken in this environment. When you throw that ability into a deck that specializes in defending provinces without having a defender your opponent has little recourse but to actively meta Serizawa or risk bouncing repeatedly off Phoenix provinces.

3x Houhou - Arguably the most important personality in the entire build (along with Ningen) Houhou is the reason the deck is named “Old Crow”. While nominally a 2F defender with the cavalry and fire traits, this deck has been designed with an absolutely huge number of ways to get Houhou killed both in and outside of the battle phase. Assuming the bird remains honorable when it dies, this allows you to spend 3 gold on your next limited phase to bring Houhou into play and gain 3 honor. This gain does not however count towards your “once per Dynasty phase gain for buying an in-clan personality at full” gain, thus allowing you to gain another 2-4 honor on your Dynasty phase by purchasing a Phoenix personality at full cost. Obviously then it’s quite desirable to kill Houhou every single turn if possible and then bring her back to life for bonus honor on your next turn. Multiple Houhous simply means multiple ways to gain extra honor, turning the engine even faster towards an honor victory.

1x Shiba Ningen Exp 3 - Even on his own Shiba Ningen is a very bad, bad man. At 4F (remember he gives himself +1F because he's a Void Shugenja),4C and 4PH for 8 gold Ningen has all the right stats for pretty much any type of Phoenix deck in Celestial Edition. Additionally of course his ability to simply create a 2F/2C Samurai personality out of thin air and give you 2 honor while doing so pushes Ningen into auto-include territory. When I first read the Path of the Destroyer spoiler I had a hard time understanding how a responsible game designer could put Ningen and Expendable Resources in the same set. The interaction between these two cards is so ridiculous I often play them together in Phoenix decks that have no intention of winning by honor. In an honor deck like Old Crow however this combo’s ability to dominate a game is completely off the charts; potentially gaining you 2 family honor and a free fate card turn after turn.

1x Shiba Ikokawa - In theory Ikokawa is a 4PH shugenja with the fire trait and a useful defensive battle action for 8G. However in over 60 test/tournament games I’ve never actually used her battle action. Usually I have better options that actually kill my opponent’s units or remove his presence in hand. Additionally not many of the other personalities in this deck have battle actions, so my opponents frequently target and kill Ikokawa with their first/best action. On the plus side her 5Chi makes her an excellent option with Ring of Fire or Touch of the Infinite. On the downside her 8GC usually means she’s discard bait if you aren’t holding one of those two unique cards.

3x Settling the Homeless - An excellent compliment to the battle action on Shrine of Champions, Settling the Homeless is an important part of Old Crow’s presence-less defensive package. The key is to play Settling in it’s proper sequence; likely the third action after a fatal battle action from hand and then the Shrine of Champions send home battle action. It’s probably important to note that with the current environmental shift away from Followers and towards Item based military or decks with no attachments at all this card has become significantly stronger. Therefore it’s important to play this card conservatively as unlike Outer Walls for example, Settling the Homeless continues to be effective well into the end game in the current environment.

3x Mountains of the Phoenix - Probably the weakest part of Old Crow’s 9 card kill package, Mountains of the Phoenix can still be absolutely devastating in the early game against big unit military decks. The key is to play it when your opponent has only one unit to choose, or has a number of equally painful units to choose from at resolution. This is obviously easiest on your opponents first two attacks but when combined with a number of send home effects it can be effective well into the late game. While this card does combo well with Houhou it’s important to remember that the personalities do not die until just before you count force, leaving your bird exposed to a Game of Sincerity and you vulnerable to losing 5 hard earned honor that way. The answer of course is to Wall of Honor your Houhou home and rehonor it; which come to think of it is also a great combo card with Mountains of the Phoenix even without a dishonored Houhou involved.

3x Final Duty - In a deck that only wants to defend if it allows you to gain piles of honor or kill something it’s simply impossible to turn down a savage ranged 6 to the face. Probably the single best reason for an honor deck not to duel in Celestial Edition, Final Duty wins games by forcing heavy attrition on your opponent’s attacking army. If you can keep your opponent’s armies at 2-3 units each it’s virtually impossible to lose against military with this deck. To that end drawing a couple early Mountains/Final Duty or Desperate Battles will usually win you the game all by themselves.

3x Forewarning - 3 of 8 meta slots available in this fate deck, Forewarning could in fact be a number of cards. The simple fact is that Phoenix has a number of difficult match-ups and it would be impossible to counter meta all of them in a single functioning, cohesive deck. Problems include big unit military (Unfamiliar Ground), Cavalry and/or Sneak Attack (Reinforce the Gates), dishonor/control decks (the Direct Approach) and honor/dueling decks (Unfortunate Incident and/or Hamstrung). I chose Forewarning primarily because this deck struggles against Imperial Census but it’s also quite useful against The War of Dark Fire, The New Order and even to shut down your opponent’s card draw from Inheriting an Heirloom. Which cards you choose to fill this slot will go a long way towards determining your final placing at a large tournament.

3x Reinforce the Gates - The second of 3 “meta” slots in Old Crow this card could again be any number of “silver bullet” options depending on the field you expect to face. In my local environment I play against a number of Unicorn and Phoenix military decks as well as Crab with Armor of the Ryu, Straw Horse and 3x Seiden Sanzo’s. Additionally most Lion decks pack 3x Sneak and are almost unbeatable on the first two attack phases if they’ve drawn one. Finally of course there are at least 3 different Mantis decks running around the Toronto play scene, meaning 4x copies of Mizuhiko does very little to protect you against Naval Invasions. Reinforced answers all of these issues at the same time and as such is rarely a “dead” meta card where I play.

3x Desperate Battle - My absolute favorite card in the Fate deck, Desperate Battle is a rare example of a card that accomplishes 3 separate goals when played properly in the ideal situation. First and most importantly it kills an opposing unit, but it also can be used to kill my own Houhou/Ningen token and thus setting up an addition 2-3 point honor gain on my next Limited phase. Finally because it kills my guy and I have to play it when I’m defending alone it allows me to remove my own presence at the battle, effectively making key honor meta cards like Game of Sincerity, Ring of Water, Armor of the Ryu and Beloved of the Clan utterly worthless. Even just trading a small Phoenix shugenja for a big attacking unit can be enough, without the added benefit of recycling Houhou/Ningen tokens for honor.

3x Unstoppable Power - While generally I am not a huge fan of battle actions that reduce the opposing army’s Force I find myself forced to make an exception when the card is as broken as Unstoppable Power. Let’s see, for starters I can target any card I want in the enemy army regardless of type. It lets me take an additional Battle action immediately after playing it, meaning I don’t lose the opportunity to do something else. Finally it can gain me anywhere from 1-4 honor in this deck design. All I can say is whoever designed this card way back when, thank you sir keep ‘em coming! Remember, Unstoppable Power only cares about elemental keywords in your army, it doesn’t care if those keywords are on personalities or spells. Finally don’t get too greedy. It’s sometimes had to pull off a 4 point Unstoppable Power and it’s perfectly acceptable to play this card for 3 or even 2 family honor if it will help you save a province. In a recent test game I found myself defending against a 4 unit army with a lone Ueda and no available send home other than my box. I proceeded to play Unstoppable Power for 2, Unstoppable Power for 2, Wall of Honor home for 2 and increased my province strength by 4. Even though I was only at 18 honor at the time and I desperately wanted to save those 2 Unstoppables for a chance at 8 honor later in the game I felt I’d made the right decision. Later in the game when I won by half a turn at 44 honor my suspicion was confirmed.

2x The Direct Approach - The last meta slot in Old Crow, I often find myself rotating this card up to 3 copies in place of a Forewarning or a Castle of Water. The Direct Approach is the ultimate presence-less defensive action in Celestial Edition because it can also be used as proactive meta against almost any personality in the game with a printed action. The simple truth is that most personalities in Celestial Edition have an absolutely huge number of keywords. This allows you to use The Direct Approach not only to strip force away from your opponent’s armies but also to prevent key actions and reactions that may affect you at ANY point in the turn. Recent amazing tricks I’ve pulled off included turning off Udo’s, Jutsushi’s, a Shiba Ikokawa with a couple of important spells. a Moto Jihn-San who was bout to smash my face in and even a Bayushi Hisoka before he could cause me a 2 point honor loss. Additionally when combined with the -4F reduction on Serizawa there are *very* few personalities in Celestial Edition that The Direct Approach can’t “turn off”. To the guy on the Phoenix forums who told me this was one of the best cards in Path of the Destroyer: “I’m sorry man, you were totally right I just hadn’t tried it in enough decks yet”. Amazing card.

3x Inspire Fear - While the inability to target non-humans (Goblins and Onis mostly) is somewhat frustrating, there are simply too many great reason to run Inspire Fear in a Phoenix honor deck to bother worrying about it. It serves an excellent back up to the Shrine of Champions battle action because it doesn’t care about followers, serving to negate the potential damage from send home meta. Finally with 6 water shugenja on the Dynasty side it should be pretty easy to trigger the “negate the personalities movement to battlefields this turn” clause. This makes Inspire Fear amazing counter meta against key cards like Ring of Water, Armor of the Ryu, Hida Kuon, Beloved of the Clan and Suitengu’s Gateway to name just a few options. If you end up facing Spider non-humans just cycle it with the Imperial Favor or save it for Daigotsu/Undead Tokens (who, by the way *are* Human).

3x Wall of Honor - A high utility/multi-purpose option in Old Crow, Wall of Honor is the kind of card you don’t know you need until you try to play without it. While obviously any card that says “gain 2 honor” can find a home in an honor deck, the fact that Wall of Honor sends your personality home and thus out of danger is what makes it shine in this build. Often enough this will involve re-honoring a dishonored personality rather than gaining 2 but it’s certainly preferable to losing *another* 4 honor when your dishonored Kumai dies. Useful as meta against both Swarm decks and cards like Game if Sincerity it’s fairly safe to say Wall of Honor will be a fixture in Phoenix honor decks for the foreseeable future.

3x Outer Walls - Outer Walls is a very strange card in honor builds like this one. It tends to dominate the early game by turning back smaller armies on turns 3 and 4. Then it loses considerable value to the point of becoming near worthless in the mid-game as your opponent begins attacking provinces in force with multiple units. Finally however, Outer Walls becomes a game winning card again in the late game when your desperate opponent is forced to spread his armies and take multiple provinces at once. I’ve never seen a Phoenix Honor deck in Celestial Edition that doesn’t run Outer Walls.

1x Ring of Fire - The simple truth is that you will never put Ring of Fire into play with this deck. The fact that there are no duels in it and your focus values are horrible should make that pretty clear. That having been noted most military decks in Celestial run a few key 2C and several 3C personalities. This should make it pretty easy to trade one of your shungenja (ideally a Houhou) for a bigger attacking unit, possibly with attachments. Remember, Ring of Fire doesn’t ask you to sacrifice an unbowed personality, it just cares that your personality has higher Chi than your opponent’s does. With no way to return the Ring to your hand from your discard pile and no way to play it you will only get one shot; so make sure you choose your target wisely.

3x Touch of Ice - Depending on the size of the units you are facing Touch of Ice can be downright broken against military opponents. By giving your opponent the choice of letting you gain 3 honor or bow two personalities he controls you can either outrun or stall big unit military decks for turns on end. Touch of Ice is particularly deadly when played in multiples because it forces your opponent to keep bowing separate personalities or allow you to gain 3 honor each time. It’s awful hard to take provinces with 4 guys bowed before the attack phase even starts. Interestingly enough I’ve found in my testing most opponents are hardwired to respond in only one way to Touch of Ice. They either let you gain 3 honor every time or they bow 2 personalities every time. Knowing which response your opponent will have in advance can be quite useful later in the game so pay attention to how he decides to respond to this card.

2x Castle of Water - Originally I had 3 copies of Castle of Water in this design but I found it’s 2GC somewhat prohibitive. Optimally I end up bowing a lot of holdings to gain honor and this usually meant I’d wait until turn 4 or even turn 5 to attach this card from my hand, thus negating the need to draw one early. On the flip side, a reusable Outer Walls effect that can be played from outside of battle even when attached to a bowed shugenja is certainly worth 2 gold. I could certainly understand rotating back up to 3 copies of this card from time to time if I was expecting more Cavalry than usual for example.

1x Might of the Kami - A weaker version of Touch of Ice, Might of the Kami makes the cut because it either forces your opponent to leave units at home or it gains you 3 cheap honor. Much like Castle of Water, it can be used while attached to a bowed shugenja. Of course your opponent can still move the targeted Personality into battle with a later action without granting you 3 family honor but you can always then kill the personality and gain the 3 anyways. I have never played a game where the granted force bonus from Might of the Kami was in any way relevant and I’ve only had to use it’s Void trait to combo with Unstoppable Power 3 times in 60 some odd games.

1x Touch of the Infinite - I would consider bribing someone at AEG to reprint this card as a non-unique if I thought it would help me play with 3 copies of it. Reducing an enemy personality’s Chi to 0 is one of the best possible ways to kill them because it negates the vast majority of “anti-death” meta in the environment. Keeping his personality alive with Strength of the Bamboo for example becomes pointless because he’ll simply die again immediately after for having 0 Chi. Additionally it makes a wonderful way to kill your own Houhou and profit from the arrangement on later turns. Obviously Touch of the Infinite also combos well with high Chi personalities like Kumai, Ikokawa, Serizawa, Mizuhiko Exp, Reido and even Ningen in a pinch.

Play Guide

   While it’s true that Phoenix honor is one of the easiest decks to master in all of Celestial Edition there are in fact a few subtle points to remember that can significantly improve the deck’s win percentages. Now that we’ve looked at why each card was chosen, lets discuss briefly some of the ways you can play Old Crow successfully in game situations. As always it’s important to remember that this is just a play guide and is not a substitute for playing actual games with the deck. Ideally this will serve as a starting point for new players to build, play and perfect their own versions of Phoenix honor at home.

   As far as categorizations or classifications go, I think most people would agree that Old Crow is a defensive honor deck. Basically that means it wins by using defensive actions to buy enough time to start a turn with 40 honor and at least one province. Additionally the deck runs 8 holdings that can produce extra honor and has the ability to re-use cards like Houhou and Shiba Ningen Exp 3 to gain even more honor. This combination of speed and stability makes Old Crow an easy deck to play well and therefore an excellent choice for new players in particular. While I suppose it is in theory possible to win a military victory with this deck, I believe such a result would be highly unlikely and require a near helpless opponent to accomplish.

   At 6 starting family honor, there’s a pretty good chance you will go first in most of your matches. In fact this deck is so geared towards going first that the occasional game you go second will be *significantly* harder for you to win. Assuming you did go first, you should ideally spend the first two turns developing your gold-scheme with a particular focus on buying as many holdings that make honor as you can. Remember every time you bow a holding to produce family honor on the Limited phase you lose it’s gold production on your Dynasty phase. You want to both make honor and buy personalities every turn so its extremely important that you buy holdings in the early game and even well into the mid-game. Sometimes however either a poor draw/mulligan or an aggressive/blitzing opponent will force you to buy a personality on the 2nd turn. Don’t panic, having an extra body early can be useful for playing defensive actions or favor cycling before you opponents first attack. Assuming you continue to buy honor holdings as they turn up later in the game it’s quite acceptable to end your 2nd turn with anywhere from 4-6 holdings and your stronghold in play.

   When you do go 2nd things get a little trickier as you will likely be forced to buy a personality on your 2nd turn either through gold break-outs or simply because you need a defender an entire turn sooner. Again, don’t panic and simply focus on buying a stray boxable early. Mulligan if necessary to find the right combination of gold holdings and a boxable to avoid hampering your early development. If you can hold your opponent off with one personality and a single fate action on the first defense you often negate all momentum he’s gained from going before you. When going 2nd against another honor deck you’re only realistic hope is to draw more honor holdings than she does so don’t be afraid to aggressively mulligan/discard towards your Acrobat Troupes, Temples to Shinsei and My Father’s Shrines.

   Regardless of who went first, from turn 3 forward you should be focusing on bowing your honor holdings for family honor rather than gold every turn. This includes bowing potential defenders to Temples/MFS so long as you leave a lone defensive personality behind to play an action or two. You should also prioritize buying more honor holdings over defensive personalities outside of your “once per turn” gain from buying a personality at full. The only good exceptions to this rule are Houhou and Ningen if you have a way of killing your own personalities on the table. If you still have your second mulligan turn 3 or 4 is the best time to use it to go find the missing pieces of these honor gain engines. At this point in the game your deck needs to shift into second gear to outrun both military and honor opponents and that will be impossible to do without buying the ability to gain more honor later in the game.

   When defending with Old Crow in the early and mid games you ideally only want to expose 1 or at most two Personalities to potential risk. This is in part because you need so many spare bodies to make your various Shrines produce honor but it’s also to preserve defenders for key battles in the end game. With all the holdings you bow for honor and paying to resurrect dead Houhous it’s often difficult to buy more than a 1-2 defensive personalities per turn anyways. Ideally then on defense you would play one action that kills an enemy card (Final Duty, Mountains of the Phoenix or Desperate Battle), then activate the Battle action on Shrine of Champions and then play at most 1-2 presence-less defensive actions from hand (Outer Walls, Settling the Homeless) to save the province. This conservation of dynasty and fate side resources is incredibly important because while Old Crow can draw cards it isn’t particularly great at doing so. Drawing an extra card per turn does very little if you’re spending 4 cards to save a province. Only once you’re over 40 honor or believe you are going to cross 40 during this battle it’s acceptable to defend with all your standing personalities and dump your hand.

   If you have Expendable Resources in play; don’t be afraid to attack with Houhou or Ningen’s Yojimbo token. The extra card draw and additional potential honor gain on the next turn will be valuable regardless of what type of opponent you’re facing. The lone exception to this guideline is when facing a Shiro Daidoji honor player who you don’t want to gain honor from shooting your guy in the face with his box. Even in this scenario you can still come out ahead however, after all resurrecting Houhou gains you 3 honor while killing the bird only gained him 2.

   Remember to carefully count your elemental traits as your getting closer to 40 honor and try to save your Unstoppable Powers for when your opponent will not see them coming. During testing I often found myself at 32+ family honor, with 3 provinces, all 4 elemental traits in the deck on the table and 2x Unstoppable Powers in my hand. In this scenario my opponent thinks he has 2 more turns when in reality attacking and giving me an opportunity to plan an action in an opposed battle means he only has this attack phase. Needless to say this usually means you win the game.

   While it may seem obvious to say this, when playing against another honor deck it’s important to do everything in your power to make the deck go faster. Mulligan hard, focus on buying holdings that gain honor or will reveal more Dynasty cards because of Shine of Tsukune (letting you later buy more honor holdings). Find ways to kill your own Hohous/Yojimbo Tokens to make more honor and don’t forget to shut down some of his key honor meta personalities for a turn with The Direct Approach. Do whatever it takes to cross 40 honor first because with absolutely no honor meta in the build you really don’t have much other choice. If you find yourself playing honor more than 20% of your matches, seriously consider finding room for Unfortunate Incident and maybe even Friendly Traveler Sake.

   Whew, I’d forgotten how easy it is to get lost in a 9 page article about a single deck. I think that’s enough about Phoenix honor for the moment don’t you? Please join me next time when we look at Phoenix Military out of City of Tears in our ongoing discussion about Phoenix decks here in early Celestial. Please excuse me while I got tape my bleeding fingers now.

-nina

Akira · « **Reply #1 on:** November 04, 2009, 03:21:05 AM »

very informative article, one that i've been waiting for! thank you!

i'm wondering why 3 seiden sanzo is not used. redundancy and better chances of drawing into it? and how did you fare against swarm/breeder/goblin decks? encircled terrain and thunderous report were not missed?

mizuhiko exp is now an auto-include in my deck! being a bow chump has its benefits.

am i right in thinking that discretionary valor can be subbed for wall of honor? that card is expensive!

Doji pai nien · « **Reply #2 on:** November 04, 2009, 07:27:19 AM »

nice predictable read. and i don't mean that in a bad way.

i find the REAL problem with honor runners is their overwhelming simularities. i see about 30-35 TOTAL cards that both Crane and Phoenix honor runners are playing. we have the same options to draw cards, we don't even get the options you do mechanically but gain a box honor gaining ability, and our fate decks roughly 70% the same.

i think you hit the nail on the head with your Swiss props, and finals slops, too. I however don't think it's so much that the strategy breaks down (ie presenceless, suicidal defenders) but that our opponents know what's coming. On top of that, even if they know that they won't ultimately take the province, they are banking on burning our fate hands down for later.

i have a love/hate relationship with honor runners. yes, they are boring, but they are so reliably consistant.

i'll leave this with one last thing...bad players should only be playing honor runners to LEARN HOW TO PLAY. an honor runner, in the hands of a bad player at a tournament, is like giving out free wins.

Nina Illingworth · « **Reply #3 on:** November 04, 2009, 11:15:02 AM »

Quote from: Akira on November 04, 2009, 03:21:05 AM

i'm wondering why 3 seiden sanzo is not used. redundancy and better chances of drawing into it? and how did you fare against swarm/breeder/goblin decks? encircled terrain and thunderous report were not missed?

I strongly prefer Expendable Resources to Seiden Sanzo because post Path of the Destroyer if you do not find a way to draw cards you will probably never beat Lion, Spider or Mantis at a minimum. The dividing line in this format is card draw afaict which is why I was constantly trying to find room for a 2nd Expendable. Seiden Sanzo just kills my guys, which has it's benefits but it's more the "2nd best option".

I mentioned in the deck-list that there were 8 meta slots that I'd used to attack specific strategies. In my local environment Big Unit movement military is more popular than swarm. Replacing say Reinforce the Gates with Encircled could be a very good idea if your environment was the opposite. The simple truth is you aren't fitting all of it in there. Also if played right, Wall of Honor is very good meta vs most Swarm decks. Which I guess leads to your next question.

Quote from: Akira on November 04, 2009, 03:21:05 AM

am i right in thinking that discretionary valor can be subbed for wall of honor? that card is expensive!

It's not going to kill you to make that switch but there's simply no question Wall of Honor is the better card. Additionally if you do ever play Crane, you'll probably be running Wall in that as well. That having been said if for whatever reason you CAN'T get Wall of Honors I'd be more likely to change this card to something else that helped against "9 million units at my last province". Maybe Encircled Terrain as you mentioned above.

Dirty Ryo · « **Reply #4 on:** November 04, 2009, 12:06:03 PM »

Good article (as per usual may I add) but the one point you highlighted which you thought you may have some "grievances" is true- Acrobat Troupes

Now I like most honor players went out one the day of release on bought (or tried too buy) a play set of what I thought was going to be a staple honor running card, much to my dismay I found that this extremely costly card couldnt get the cut in my decks becasue of the sheer speed of celestial.

Now it may be that this deck relies on having only one defender there to do his bit but against most blitz/swarm decks this wont be enough IMO, I appreciate that your meta is big unit movement but it seems you play in an anomolous group as everywhere else is gripped by swam/blitz fever.

I think in the current enviroment its better to have "feet on the street" than a 6 g holding that just seems to make my gold clunky and gives me trouble early game if I get multiples in my 1st flips.

Yes the option late game to gain two honor is valuble but having a much more stable early/mid game is much more important in this "take no prisoners" enviroment.

Perfection always

Nina Illingworth · « **Reply #5 on:** November 04, 2009, 12:30:12 PM »

Quote from: Kakita Ryotoshi on November 04, 2009, 12:06:03 PM

Good article (as per usual may I add) but the one point you highlighted which you thought you may have some "grievances" is true- Acrobat Troupes

Now I like most honor players went out one the day of release on bought (or tried too buy) a play set of what I thought was going to be a staple honor running card, much to my dismay I found that this extremely costly card couldnt get the cut in my decks becasue of the sheer speed of celestial.

When you've lost two provinces you can't have 10 honor turns without Acrobat Troupes. Gaining more honor makes you go faster because Crossing 40 honor is how you win this game. Having more bodies you bought at reduced does not make you go faster. If the game was won by having 20 holdings in play I'd agree with you but it's not it's won by starting a turn with 40 honor.

Quote from: Kakita Ryotoshi on November 04, 2009, 12:06:03 PM

Now it may be that this deck relies on having only one defender there to do his bit but against most blitz/swarm decks this wont be enough IMO, I appreciate that your meta is big unit movement but it seems you play in an anomolous group as everywhere else is gripped by swam/blitz fever.

I told you how to meta Swarm already and it has nothing to do with removing Acrobat Troupes. Also by "Swarm" you mean Goblins, Phoenix and Unicorn Players who run 12 boxables right? There are no other "Swarm" decks in Celestial that aren't just "Military decks with a lot of boxables". Drop 3x Reinforce the Gates for 3x Encircled Terrain and if you really must drop 2x TDA for 2x From Every Side or Thunderous Report. The fact is you should honor out on turn 5 against any mil deck that's attacking you consistantly. I've beaten Goblin just fine with Wall of Honor in testing but yes if you're seeing this deck all day, feel free to add Encircled. It's always a question of what you meta.

As for my environment being abnormal, well........ the type of deck I play week in and week out just won the Mass Charity Event. I play a lot of Lion too which I gather has been doing extremely well everywhere since Path if tournament reports are to be believed.

Quote from: Kakita Ryotoshi on November 04, 2009, 12:06:03 PM

I think in the current enviroment its better to have "feet on the street" than a 6 g holding that just seems to make my gold clunky and gives me trouble early game if I get multiples in my 1st flips.

Then buy one acrobat troupe and a defender? It's hardly a Holding's fault if you react poorly and just buy one every time it turns up.

Quote from: Kakita Ryotoshi on November 04, 2009, 12:06:03 PM

Yes the option late game to gain two honor is valuble but having a much more stable early/mid game is much more important in this "take no prisoners" enviroment.

There is nothing less stable about a deck with Acrobat Troupe than one without. This doesn't make sense. If anything decks with more honor holdings are more stable because they hit 40 honor faster and more reliably. Math doesn't agree with what you are saying and neither has several hundred games of testing Honor in CE.

Quote from: Kakita Ryotoshi on November 04, 2009, 12:06:03 PM

Perfection always

Not without Acrobat Troupes.

TheJared · « **Reply #6 on:** November 04, 2009, 02:50:48 PM »

Quote

Now it may be that this deck relies on having only one defender there to do his bit but against most blitz/swarm decks this wont be enough IMO, I appreciate that your meta is big unit movement but it seems you play in an anomolous group as everywhere else is gripped by swam/blitz fever.

Blitz/swarm fever?
I play most of my l5r games on Egg of Pan Ku, so my playgroup is pretty varied with people all over the world. There is basically one playable blitz deck in CE, Phoenix City of Tears spell blitz. It generally goes first turn guy/guy or guy/gold and starts trying to take provinces. Outside of this the only real "swarm" decks come from Spider just b/c they can create so many guys over the course of the game.

Is there some other faction you are seeing blitz/swarm decks out of? Please inform us along with some basic information on how the deck has been succesful. Most other decks I have seen run <10 boxables, dont create personalities and buy holdings on the first turn of the game.

Quote

I think in the current enviroment its better to have "feet on the street" than a 6 g holding that just seems to make my gold clunky and gives me trouble early game if I get multiples in my 1st flips.

Yes the option late game to gain two honor is valuble but having a much more stable early/mid game is much more important in this "take no prisoners" enviroment.

When you say "take no prisoners" I'm going to assume you mean most battle action sets contain "lethal" battle actions. And when you say "feet on the street" I'm going to assume you mean "getting more people into play for blocking attacks". Again I dont see your point here. Acrobat troupe produces 4 gold. Most 2 cost holdings, produce 2 gold.

If I go turn 1 acrobat troupe. This is exactly the same as buying 2, 2 producing holdings. The only better draw really avaliable for Crane or Phoenix involves marketplace/diamond mine/border village, since these are the only available greater than 2 producing holdings you can buy. Are you suggesting that Diamond Mine/Border village would be a better play in Crane than acrobat troupe? How do another 4 and 6 cost holding solve the problem of your gold being "clunky"? Does running all 2 cost holdings that make 2 gold really make your draws less clunky, or does it just let you buy more cards from your provinces every turn, making you feel more secure in your draws? My point is, it doesn't matter if you buy 2 cards a turn or 3, but what the total production available on each of your coming turns is.

On turn 2 in Crane I'm really looking to buy 1 guy at full, and a holding. Or even a guy at reduced and 2 holdings, to get my production settup. Acrobat troupe can often be perfect for this b/c it makes it a lot easier to get "2 holdings" or a total of 4 gold production in your provinces on that turn without having to use up your border keep cycles to set it up. The only disadvantage can be in the midgame when you are forced to pay 6 gold for a 4 producer when you could pay 4 gold for a 4 producer (from 2 holdings). Really its just like buying 2, 3 for 2s that bow to produce 1 honor. Personally, I'll make this tradeoff any day b/c Acrobat troupe makes no difference in gold on turn 1 and by mid-late game you often lose provinces and can buy everything from them anyways. And getting an acrobat troupe then can be key as you point out, its a great mid/late game card. The only really bad turns to flip a troupe are turns 2-3 in certain matchups.

prespector · « **Reply #7 on:** November 04, 2009, 03:17:15 PM »

If the discussion doesn't relate to Acrobat Troupe in Nina's awesome deck, I don't want it in this thread. I'll make you guys a new thread to play in.

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Author Topic: The Cardboard Geisha Part 10.1 - Old Crow (Phoenix Honor) (Read 2161 times)

Nina Illingworth

The Cardboard Geisha Part 10.1 - Old Crow (Phoenix Honor)

Akira

Re: The Cardboard Geisha Part 10.1 - Old Crow (Phoenix Honor)

Doji pai nien

Re: The Cardboard Geisha Part 10.1 - Old Crow (Phoenix Honor)

Nina Illingworth

Re: The Cardboard Geisha Part 10.1 - Old Crow (Phoenix Honor)

Dirty Ryo

Re: The Cardboard Geisha Part 10.1 - Old Crow (Phoenix Honor)

Nina Illingworth

Re: The Cardboard Geisha Part 10.1 - Old Crow (Phoenix Honor)

TheJared

Re: The Cardboard Geisha Part 10.1 - Old Crow (Phoenix Honor)

prespector

Re: The Cardboard Geisha Part 10.1 - Old Crow (Phoenix Honor)