Strategy Article for the Unicorn Clan

Unicorn Kensai Battle Maidens

by

Francois Martinez

Greetings fellow Unicorn players!

Today, we greet the next expansion for the L5R CCG, The New Order and the many new and interesting cards it offers. Fortunately, there is good reason to include many of them in our decks, and not only for their beautiful art!

In the past, we've focused on Unicorn decks making use of Followers. This time, we'll try something different—building a deck that focuses on Items. The New Order definitely gives us significant support for this. Granted, the previous expansion, A Line in the Sand, gave us Your True Nature, a card that has had a lot of impact on the environment by punishing decks that use Items. But does this mean that Item-based decks are not playable anymore? I say, of course not!

In the Dynasty deck, The New Order gives us some great Holdings. Developed Quarry boosts the Force of both Armor or Weapons by giving them +1 Force "Masterwork Tokens". Delicate Forge allows us to retrieve destroyed and discarded Items from the Fate discard pile. Together, these two Holdings make Item-based decks both competitive and stable.

Regarding Personalities, Moto Kyouaku-Inu from A Line in the Sand gives us a solid, boxable Personality--very useful in Item-based decks. I then chose to put an additional focus on the Personalities in the deck; that is, Battle maidens and high Personal Honor (PH). This is a theme I personally love, and this deck will exploit high PH on the Personalities as much as possible, as we'll see later.  This make the Personality line-up somewhat less impactful in terms of printed Battle Actions than the "classic" combination of Shinjo Sujikaro, Moto Okano and Shinjo Yoshie, but it gives additional protection against Dishonor and will lead to some interesting "tricks" in the Fate deck.

Regarding Events, I will try to use Devastating Betrayal as a (hopefully!) "game-breaking" card (in addition to being very fun). Sure, this slot might be better used for more Personalities, but let’s give it a try—especially as the card's Interrupt isn't limited to stopping Battle Actions, but will also allow us to change the target of Limited and Open Actions!

In the Fate’s deck, there are plenty of Items worthy of consideration. I particularly like Items that cost 2-3 Gold, such as Kaiu Axe or Ominous Armor. In this build, however, I'm going to try to make all the Items cost more than 3 Gold, to avoid my opponent being able to use Your True Nature for free. Stockpiled Weapon is a must-have, while Iron Armor, a new card from The New Order, is great for protecting your unit from a variety of threats. The new Weapon, Saikatsu, is also fine in this regard, even if there might be better items for 5 Gold (some with Battle Actions, for example). Justice of the Crane is a great "meta" card against Honor Decks. This slot can be used for high cost (e.g. 7 Gold or more) Items as well.

As for the rest of the deck, I generally chose Battle Maiden Personalities with high PH. I've chosen to rely on a focused send-home strategy, with the new and powerful card, A Desperate Struggle, being able to send home any unit without the possibility of being Interrupted, thanks to the Unstoppable Keyword. Finally, I've included a significant amount of attachment "hate" in the form of Tonfajutsu and Your True Nature, to be sure to have more Force than my opponent's units that still remain in the battle after my send-home effects do their work.

The game plan for the deck is very simple. There are a lot of boxable Personalities in the deck so, using the superior Unicorn economy, I simply try to swarm the field with units. This gives me lot of potential defenders to use with Thoughtless Sacrifice, hopefully allowing me to save one or even two Provinces each game. I try to threaten my opponent's provinces quickly, using send-home effects to weaken his own defenders and, hopefully, winning the battles thanks to superior numbers and Force. I can choose to develop a "Province-taker" unit quite easily—a boxable 3 Force Personality, plus a 3F Item, plus a +1F token from Developed Quarry might be enough in some cases (perhaps with some help from Tonfajutsu, for an additional +2 Force) and this will only cost 8-9 Gold. In fact, it should be possible to swarm the field with numerous 6-8 Force units very cheaply!

This deck is fast, is able to defend itself well (more so if you add, for example, Block Supply Lines), is able to split easily when  attacking or just concentrate its attacks to crush provinces with irresistible force (For The Fallen is often a game-changing card here). Most of all, I think you'll find the deck will be lots of fun to play! Enjoy the power of honorable Battle Maidens armed to the teeth and riding like the wind!

1 The Golden Plains of the Unicorn

# Dynasty (40)

# Events (3) 1 Dark Audience 2 Devastating Betrayal (TNO)

# Holdings (17) 3 Cloth Market 2 Delicate Forge (TNO) 3 Developped Quarry (TNO) 2 Vengeful Populace 1 Temple of Tengen 3 Stables 2 Jade Pearl Inn 1 Deep Harbor

# Personalities (20) 1 Iuchi Karasu - inexp 1 Moto Ming-Gwok - exp 1 Shinjo Kinto - exp2 3 Shinjo Okiau 2 Utaku Izimi 3 Utaku Sakiko 3 Utaku Sang-Ju 3 Moto Kyouaku-Inu 1 Morito Inoue, Scourge of the Plains 2 Utaku Sayaka

# Fate (40)

# Strategies (24) 3 Your True Nature 2 Thoughtless Sacrifice 2 Tonfajutsu 2 Planned Departure 2 Sudden Movement 2 Soul's Sacrifice 2 Lakeside Retreat 1 The Crystal Tears 2 A Desperate Struggle (TNO) 1 Creating Order 3 Incapacitated 2 For the Fallen

# Items (13) 1 Ancestral Armor of the Unicorn Clan - exp 3 Stockpiled Weapon 1 The Egg of P'an Ku - exp 3 Iron Armor (TNO) 2 Saikatsu (TNO) 3 Justice of the Crane

# Rings (3) 1 Ring of Air 1 Ring of Earth 1 Ring of Water