Played my first few games today. And the Unicorn champion has me stumped. His ability just doesn't seem good. Every time I broke a province, my opponent just discarded a defender from the conflict that was going to be discarded at the end of the round anyway. How does that benefit me?

For clarity: I was using the Unicorn starter deck list.

I feel like I must be missing something...

P.S. I also found the Unicorn Stronghold ability quite underwhelming. But this could be because it was the starter deck and not a constructed (3-core) deck.

My single core thread has, what I feel, are some helpful tips for Unicorn in single core play.

That being said, your are not alone in your assessment. If Aggressive Moto could defend, I likely would have played him instead of the champ. I regularly pass on purchasing the champ as she really doesn't add much to the overall strategy of the Unicorn, which is movement.

She is not the game changer that many of the other champs are. I don't know that I would even run her in 3 core if she didn't have such a good political stat.

Her ability is very situational. The only time I "got it to work" was when my opponent only had a 2 fate character in play with two other 3 fate characters that he had invested heavily into both. I assassinated the 2 fate character, forcing him to pick one of his two best characters and it put me in control of the game, but, again it's very situational. Most of the time she is just picking off people that would have died anyways. Her ability is better when you go first and can force bad blocks or wear your opponent down if she can keep killing scrubs and run your opponent out of people.

There might be a unit kill deck that you could make with her, but, it would be very inconsistent ....... I prefer to just let her go to the discard and have something big in there for my opponent to think about being a Calvary Reserve target. I had her rated as the worst of the champs and I still believe that is the case.

As far as the stronghold goes. You should be looking to get into play the cards that give you fate or more cards and move characters into military battles with them even if that are already bowed. Prevent yourself from taking unopposed honor losses on military defenses and threaten a potential I Am Ready. It should be used every turn of there is a card draw or fate gain to be triggered. If you do t have that, it's really good at shutting down surprises on military defenses and messing with your opponents military defenses. since you can assign one person and then move more into a weak defense.

I would love her if Way of the Unicorn was Way of the Crab.

As it stands now, it seems to easy to work around her, unless she's paired with Assassination AND Fallen in Battle, which is a weird combination that may be a bit too niche to try and build a strategy around.

Unfortunately her ability is garbage. She's still worth playing for stats alone.

Unicorn. Weakest Champion. Weakest Way Of. Weakest Clan. Love them anyway.

After getting a second core and building a pure unicorn (plus neutral) deck (still at the 30 card level), I found unicorn to be pretty strong. For the champion, he is also a cavalry, which allows the use of a lot powerful cards in combination. For example, you can hold back your champion for an attack, see how it is playing out, and then bow your province and send him in there. Otherwise, you can save him for a later fight. I like to put him in play and use cavalry reserves to bring him back. I also like using cavalry reserves to bring in utaku infantry, which have a mil/pol value equal to the number of unicorn characters participating in a conflict. They get powerful pretty quick, and are relatively cheap cards. Warrior poet is also one of my favorite cards in the game, a cost 3 with 2/2 fight value, and a -1/-1 to fight abilities to each participating enemy character. I also like to use the ability to send my 5military strength character to a fight near the end (using stronghold ability) when I am winning that fight, that way, I can win by five or more and play fallen in battle to choose a character to discard (my choice) and if the province breaks, my champion removes another character (opponent's choice). I also like to give my champion born in war, making him silly strong for early battles (typically a military 7-9).

I also got to play two way of the unicorn cards in a row, going first for three consecutive turns. Getting first pick of conflict rings and choosing first attackers, putting player two on the defense, for that many turns, was a serious blow to the other player. Even when only played once, it is especially helpful for unicorn, which has a fair number of ways to unbow characters, characters that are stronger during the first turn, and options for committing a minimum number of characters to first combat with options to reinforce them as necessary, based on how your opponent responds. Oh, and border characters that can be readied with actions and count as cavalry, so you have ways to move them into already ongoing conflicts, is pretty cool too.

One thing I am not sure of is, if you play an action that says "move a character you control to a conflict," are you able to do that even with a bowed character? So far we have not played it that way, but I am wondering if we are doing it right.

The Unicorn stronghold is very good imho. Being able to go back into a fight if sent home, proc spyglass a second time on a bowed character. Also, if warrior poet or Utaku havent proc'ed their ability in a previous conflict (wasnt needed) could send them into another conflict bowed and do their action.

I'm dissappointed with the clan champion, but the three cost ones are very good.

1 hour ago, Moes1980 said:

I also like using cavalry reserves to bring in utaku infantry,

I also like to give my champion born in war, making him silly strong

One thing I am not sure of is, if you play an action that says "move a character you control to a conflict," are you able to do that even with a bowed character?

How are you using Cavalry Reserves to bring in an Infantry card?

And our clan Champion is a lady samurai not a gentleman samurai.

It might be time we sent you off on your ‘warriors pilgrimage’ eh samurai?

We can also move you into a conflict even if you are bowed but you won’t be contributing any military or political strength because you are bowed. The only thing you can’t do to a bowed card is bow it again.

16 hours ago, Dain Ironfoot said:

...His ability...

5 hours ago, Moes1980 said:

the champion, he is

I'm all in for Rumiko Takahashi's involvement in L5R.

16 hours ago, Ishi Tonu said:

If Aggressive Moto could defend

He can? Through movement tricks? Still learning the ropes but his ability isn't as bad as the Seppun or Otomo fellas who forbid presence.

13 hours ago, BCumming said:

Unfortunately her ability is garbage. She's still worth playing for stats alone.

I prefer her to the Moto Horde. Stats-wise.

10 hours ago, twinstarbmc said:

Unicorn. Weakest Champion. Weakest Way Of. Weakest Clan. Love them anyway.

Best Clan Color!!

1 hour ago, Wintersong said:

He can? Through movement tricks? Still learning the ropes but his ability isn't as bad as the Seppun or Otomo fellas who forbid presence.

I prefer her to the Moto Horde. Stats-wise.

Best Clan Color!!

True but I'd rather not be forced in such an obvious play. I'd rather keep my options open for the use of my stronghold. I did not miss Aggressive Moto at all in single core, and unless I am going full aggro I can't justify the space for him.

I definitely agree that the champ is a better stats value than Moto Horde, however there are some times when that extra force maters and higher glory can sometimes be a liability. I wish Altansarnai had the courtier trait.

My daughter painted my toenails unicorn purple just before the release event. Ultimately that was what tipped the scales for me playing them.

I feel Unicorn is the only incomplete faction right now even with 3 core sets. You are similar to crane in how one sided your things are, except Crane has much better way of handling its weaknesses. I think its a general problem of highly specialized clans, you need the tools because your weakness is so obvious. Crane has the tools, Unicorn doesent. All of the other factions have either a balanced gameplay like Dragon and Pheonix or a way to defend themselves even in their weak spots. Also rushing doesent seems to be a real ligitimate strategy in the first turn of this game. Most factions has like one or two units that can just shut down anything in the first round and prevent any kind of damage being done. Like Doji Challenger, crane has it on first turn, nothing happens that turn pretty much.

9 hours ago, Moes1980 said:

After getting a second core and building a pure unicorn (plus neutral) deck (still at the 30 card level) , I found unicorn to be pretty strong.

In general, adding cores for more in- clan cards will definitely improve your deck strength and allow more consistent use of clan strategy. Bear in mind though, 30-card decks are intended for single core construction only, so what you constructed wasn't technically a legal deck. The smaller deck size may also skew the results of your play experience, since 2 cores should be used for minimum deck size of 40 cards in each deck.

19 hours ago, Shiryo no Otaku said:

How are you using Cavalry Reserves to bring in an Infantry card?

And our clan Champion is a lady samurai not a gentleman samurai.

It might be time we sent you off on your ‘warriors pilgrimage’ eh samurai?

We can also move you into a conflict even if you are bowed but you won’t be contributing any military or political strength because you are bowed. The only thing you can’t do to a bowed card is bow it again.

Ah, yes, good catches. I did not realize that the champion is female. Do-oh!

Yes, I messed that up with the Utaku Infantry, I probably confused it with the charge! card.

Another thing we did wrong was initiating two of the same types of conflicts a turn. Only being able to initiate one military conflict will be more limiting to Unicorn play style. I am pretty sure I used the Boarder Raider character's ability to attack twice with military actions, which I now know is not possible.

But I did realize a good combo for the champion and way of the unicorn card. If you go first and manage to break a province with Shinjo Altansarnai, then your opponent will have to discard a non-bowed character, since they haven't had a chance to activate anything yet. By using way of the unicorn card and going first for two turns in a row, you have a chance to pull that off twice. While the other player can always just chose to discard a weak 1 cost character with no fate on it, that is at least one less character for your opponent to use for the turn. Also, an experienced player might feel the need to spend a fate to put a weak character into play to protect their stronger characters, rather than use that fate to extend the lifespan of a stronger card.

And thanks for answering my question about moving bowed characters, that makes sense!

I am new with a lot to learn, though, as is the person I am playing with. So, maybe in time, I will start to see unicorn's weaknesses.

12 hours ago, Zesu Shadaban said:

In general, adding cores for more in- clan cards will definitely improve your deck strength and allow more consistent use of clan strategy. Bear in mind though, 30-card decks are intended for single core construction only, so what you constructed wasn't technically a legal deck. The smaller deck size may also skew the results of your play experience, since 2 cores should be used for minimum deck size of 40 cards in each deck.

Yes, I thought he built a 30 card deck from two boxes as well until halfway through the game when he asked how I had two of the same dynasty cards! In my defense, he told me he was going to get a second box after I smashed him pretty bad with Scorpian and that he had reworked his deck (again, though, we did so much wrong that these victories should be taken with a big grain of salt). We are still at the "learning stage" and nowhere near being competitive. But playing with more unicorn cards, and not having to build most of my action deck out of neutral and other clan cards, made the deck feel much more thematic. So I am really looking forward to our next games where we will have 40 card decks and actually (hopefully) get all the rules right for the first time!