Yes, yes, I know Wandering Ronin is terrible. I'm not here to change anyone's mind about the general feelings most of us have about this card. I just can't help myself when it comes to playing jank. With that in mind I set out to make a deck that utilized him as best as I could. I brewed up this hot pile of garbage:
https://fiveringsdb.com/strains/a7598af8-039b-11e8-85df-8e1ccf16fca4/view
So a goofy little Dragon deck with a Phoenix Splash. I've run it though some casual games and even dropped it into a competitive game for a little more serious testing, and it seems to do ok. Mostly because of the strength of the other dragon cards surrounding the Wandering Ronin, but, he has had his moments where he has shown some actual relevance in the meta game.
Lets take my most recent game vs a player running the now very well known Scorpion/Dragon deck.
In this game I lead out with a Wandering Ronin and put 3 fate on him. My opponent passed first to steal some quick fate and we got down to the first conflict phase. They passed their first conflict hoping to induce me into a reckless attack. I passed my first conflict as well. We got to last conflict and he has a (-) military character in play so might as well get some cards out of his hand. I attack into the unopposed province. Reveal Shameful Display, no big deal because WR is 0 glory. He plays a yojimbo from his hand with some fate on him, I skip WR's ability and attach a dashio, he uses shameful then hits me with Miromoto's Fury. I bounce, no big deal
We move to turn two, with me on the play now. I buy a Mirumoto Rigatoni and he passes, signaling most likely a Kachiko. I pass and send in WR to Shameful again. No defense and he hits me with another Mirumoto's Fury. He plays out Kachiko with 3 fate on her and then attacks military with yojimbo, coverts past me, smack dab into Feast or Famine. Both my character have fate on them so he's liking this break. I attempt a Charge, he edict's it away. I could hit him with Fury, but, then I realize, I want this break..........because my bowed Wandering Ronin only has two fate on him. So I use his ability to pump him up outside the battle and remove a fate. Then do it again so he has no fate on him, which now allows me to steal off all 3 fate from Kachiko when he breaks Feast or Famine.
My opponent concedes on the spot. While I think that was probably a little premature on his part. I mean come on have you seen the deck I'm running here? It's so bad. I bet he could have crawled back into it with a little effort..........or at least a couple mistakes that I was bound to make at some point because I'm just horrible at this game sometimes.
So yes this is a pretty specific example and will not always come up, but, the metagame is such that there are some decent interactions that you can create by running Wandering Ronin. Does this mean that he is any better than most of us thought?........not really. Does it mean he will magically improve your match up vs certain decks?........nope. He's his same old terribad self. But even a broken clock is right twice a day and sometimes a blind squirrel finds a nut. Don't forget about those coasterrific cards that have been sitting in your box. Make sure you check them out every so often.
Edited by Ishi Tonu