So my oldest son, kicked are butts with a Phoenix deck. I ran Crab and Scorp, my youngest son ran Unicorn and Dragon.

How about some advise so I can grab a win before Thanksgiving is over! thanks:

It was my first time seeing Phoenix in action and it was hard to keep up. He was able to resolve all 5 ring effects one turn! Grrrr

Mostly dishonor. Scorpion decks are very good against phoenix simply because they have more ways to keep them from honoring their big guys. If you can keep them from winning conflicts that would honor their characters (fire ring, or with the Asako diplomat) then it can be hard for them to keep building momentum. Without honored characters, their stronghold's not very effective (though it can still be used to weaken your own dishonored characters.) Things like For Shame and Court Games are very effective against them.

For what I have seen Phoenix cards are really situational and heavy condition based. You can blank a good amount of characters just by denying the right rings to your opponent.

And as mentioned above, preventing them to honor their characters will make their stronghold useless.

One Scorpion to another, my first bit of advice would be to sit on any Way of the Scorpions you see and save them for Kaede and Tsukune, and prioritise the fire ring. I'm a big fan of splashing Phoenix in Scorpion, and players rarely seem to see the Display of Power coming.

However I appreciate that might be a pain given your kid plays Phoenix XD

The Young Rumormonger wreaks havoc as well, especially against Phoenix. Treasure him.

Edit: The Illusionist comes in handy too. 1 Fate is a small price to pay to bring Tsukune back in line. And, of course, like Steve suggested, work hard to deprive them of the Fire ring. The Phoenix is a favorable match-up for Scorpion. Really.

1 hour ago, Hellvlad said:

And as mentioned above, preventing them to honor their characters will make their stronghold useless.

You... might be surprised at what that stronghold can do to an opponent's characters with a little dishonor tech of its own...

1 hour ago, Hellvlad said:

And as mentioned above, preventing them to honor their characters will make their stronghold useless.

Not at all. I’ve used the stronghold more times to increase the glory of my opponent’s dishonored characters and to win the Imperial favor than to increase the buff of my honored characters.

... and with Seeker of Void allowing you to run both Shameful Display and Pilgrimage in your non-Stronghold Province array (two provinces which screw over Phoenix probably more than any other clan), the clear answer to the original post is surely: Just Play Scorpion

The Scorpion really do feel like a silver bullet a lot of the time...

13 minutes ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

The Scorpion really do feel like a silver bullet a lot of the time...

Scorpion has a good matchup against Pheonix. Or really, Phoenix just has a weakness to dishonour.

If you don't like Scorpion that much just play Lion and hard mull for Lions Pride Brawler and then just shut down every character they have lololol. Honestly I don't know what they thought they were smoking when that character went through.

People keep talking about Phoenix is weak against dishonor. That has not been my experience at all.

As a Phoenix player myself, I usually control a lot of the tempo through honor, card draw and which rings I allow my opponent to fight for.

I've won nearly every game by dishonoring my player out, which Scorpion tends to help me do to themselves.

2 hours ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

You... might be surprised at what that stronghold can do to an opponent's characters with a little dishonor tech of its own...

2 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

Not at all. I’ve used the stronghold more times to increase the glory of my opponent’s dishonored characters and to win the Imperial favor than to increase the buff of my honored characters.

And what can your stronghold actually do if no characters in the conflict are dishonored? It's obvious that with how the phoenix stronghold works,no one will want to enter in conflict with a dishonored character. Or at least plan for that to happen a little as possible. If you manage your game correctly, the fortress text box can be negated often. And it's not like the scorpion does not have a way to manipulate the honor/dishonor tokens.

18 minutes ago, Hellvlad said:

And what can your stronghold actually do if no characters in the conflict are dishonored?

Winning the Imperial Favor. Our stronghold basically is equal to having won two rings, as long as we have one ready character.

If I managed to get at least one Keeper Initiate in that last conflict, you can be sure the Imperial Favor is mine.

Heck, I’ve even dropped a Seeker of Knowledge after all conflicts + Stronghold just to get the Favor (more like to negate the Favor to the other player, really)

3 minutes ago, Tabris2k said:

Winning the Imperial Favor. Our stronghold basically is equal to having won two rings, as long as we have one ready character.

If I managed to get at least one Keeper Initiate in that last conflict, you can be sure the Imperial Favor is mine.

Heck, I’ve even dropped a Seeker of Knowledge after all conflicts + Stronghold just to get the Favor (more like to negate the Favor to the other player, really)

Fair point. I was only looking at the direct card interaction within a conflict.

.

Bayushi Yojiro has some potential but I haven't played him yet.