Okay everyone, Uni getting some help in this cycle - which cards are no brainers? Are Uni going to be capable of going h2h with the big hitters now?

Which new cards in other factions/neutral might be going in there?

Definitely won't be trash tier anymore! I'll be happy if they're competitive.

For me the question is its what cards would you still keep whilst throwing in all the new ones? eg I'm dropping a few cards including Miya Mystics and Keepers. I'll keep Border Rider, Moto Youth, Wielder, Infantry, Outrider, Juro, Nergui, Magistrate, Giver of Gifts, Favored Ground. On the Conflict side IMHO its a must to run 3 x Captive Audience and favored mounts/seals to have more cavalry characters.

Choosing splash, thats tough!!! Lion for Sashimono to stay unbowed for lots of MIL conflicts, Crab for Reprieve + Rebuild, Dragon for Let Go and (covert) Wanderer.

1 hour ago, Hos said:

On the Conflict side IMHO its a must to run...favored mounts/seals to have more cavalry characters.

You're totally just looking to put the oni on a horse and send him galloping into the fight without losing honor, aren't you?

I still see Crab as the most solid splash. Reprieve and the full set of some solid uniques (Juro, Nergui, and Shono) should make for a very solid 3, 4, 5 and the building blocks for most of your decks. However, I could see several options with Crab splash in which some of these could be cut so don't be surprised if you see several Unicrab variants running around.

Master of Swift Waters is Unicorn's LPB/DC type character and I would imagine you'll need a very good reason to not be running 3 copies of her in every deck....spoiler alert there is no good reason not to, so just carve out three slots for her right now. She vastly improves upon the Unichicken build I took to the Seattle Kotei. It showed some glimmers of success but was ultimately missing MoSW and fell well short of the mark I had set for myself. I suspect that being able to more naturally bring in Seeker of Knowledge into all 3 conflicts via the rumored new Unicorn Stronghold is going to allow Unichicken to attack in an axis that most other decks are not prepared for.

Unikitty gains a little more in the way of a potential "numbers matter" swarm and/or send home deck. The old powerhouse combo of Camv Reserves and FGG might be ready to make a comeback. Unclear if this deck wants to be run off the new stronghold to take advantage of the three conflicts in that turn after you built your board, or play the current stronghold to move an extra person in to make sure you get max value from FGG?

Unicourtier (Crane and Scorpion) do not appear to be getting much but there are still some cards left unspoiled so maybe they get something? Or maybe they finally have enough solid core cards to field with the complimentary Courtiers to make their switch tactics viable.

Dragon splash doesn't gain a whole bunch either, however, maybe the new core cards of Unicorn are good enough to play with the big boys and just filling in with solid splash cards is enough for a good player to pilot a Unidragon deck to the top?

Personally I see Crab, Phoenix, and Lion as the most intriguing splash options, at least until I see more spoilers that would change my opinion.

My best guess at possible decks:

Unicrab Corrupt Swarm off new stronghold using Child of the Plains and Spread the Darkness to push a very aggressive strategy that forces your opponent to have an answer early or risk going down 3 provinces on turn 1.

Unicrab Midrange (with or without honor/dishonor flex options) This deck can go lots of ways with old reliable combination of Charge/Reprieve and then some combination of Watch Commander, Rebuild (to either work with Encampment or run the surprise Yurt/WotCh trix), Skirmisher, and Stoic Gunso for discard/Cav Reserve trix.

Uniphoenix has a nice selection of shugenja to make sure you can run 3x Cloud the Mind. Air Pressure is a serious deck that can abuse Kosori and Seeker of Knowledge to attack opponents on all win conditions.

Unikitty FGG/Cav Reserves with lots of send home in some sort of combination or Master of the Spear or Strength in Numbers to support Nergui and Rout to win battles unopposed and build up a huge board.

These are my theorycrafted decks just waiting for the cards to go live and begin testing.

5 minutes ago, Kaito Kikaze said:

You're totally just looking to put the oni on a horse and send him galloping into the fight without losing honor, aren't you?

I know I am!

But also Shono and numbers matter cards seem to be a thing now. I've got the set of mounts slotted into a few builds I'm thinking about.

2 minutes ago, Ishi Tonu said:

I know I am!

But also Shono and numbers matter cards seem to be a thing now. I've got the set of mounts slotted into a few builds I'm thinking about.

Yeah. To some extent the Minami Kaze Regulars seem to be geared towards that, too. Seems like FFG is looking for Unicorn to send in a single big body, and swarm to outnumber the opponent. Should be interesting to see how well that actually plays out.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of MKR.

The extra 1 point of Military is certainly more than what you get from Altansarnai, and getting the fate and the card back post Charge is very good, however, not being able to Reprieve and then discard extra uniques could keep MKR out of most UniCrab builds...also there is a new opportunity to leverage Altansarnai and Fallen in Battle vs decks that load up their fate on a small number of their characters. Still it's well worth testing.

I think there is mix of some real good stuff as well as some absolute duds based on the spoilers we’be seen so far - as well as several “Could be good, IF...” cards.

So the duds in my view are the Battle Maiden Recruits (eurgh!) and the Regulars (i’m not sure yet on Unleash the Djinn, which I know is role-locked anyway).

The obvious stars for me are Master of the Swift Waters (bring on pack 4!), Shitome Encampment, Shinjo Shono and Invocation of Ash.

I’m on the fence about Sneaky Shinjo, the Naga Scout, the one that puts facedown Dynasty cards into the conflict as 1- characters, and the rumoured Stronghold. This is mainly because i’ve yet to see any convincing benefits of outnumbering your opponent. I’m looking to see effects that let you cancel an event or remove an attachment, or make your opponent dishonour or bow a character (preferably both!) if you control more characters in a conflict. If we do then these cards go up in value. If we don’t... it’s the UniShugenja route for me.

Space in my Dynasty deck is already pretty tight, the only filler being the Yurts. So i’m thinking:

Shitome Encampment > Yurts

Shinjo Shono > Nergui

Master of the Swift Waters > Altansarnai or Miya Mystic (2 very different options)

I think another thing to consider are the neutrals, and i’m particularly excited about the Mantis ones. I wonder if they’ll fit more easily into Unicorn?

I would not cut Nergui for anything right now. At least not until the meta can proof to me that it respects and can handle send home.

I think the unique Mantis shugenja is a great option for Unicorn. Being a unique with decent stars for a 4 drop let's you lowers your dynasty curve. I can we plenty of merit to not running any of the 5 drops for Unicorn.

I think Way of the Unicorn is going to see a little more love too.

Sneaky Shinjo and Naga Scout may not be auto includes in all decks but they bring some amazing value into some decks and are a little better than I thought they were at first glance.

8 hours ago, WookieHairdresser said:

Okay everyone, Uni getting some help in this cycle - which cards are no brainers? Are Uni going to be capable of going h2h with the big hitters now?

Which new cards in other factions/neutral might be going in there?

I think Uni will be h2h with agro decks, like dragon and Lion, dont know how it will be against control yet.

Uni have a huge problem with high glory chars and no in-clan ways to honor. There was a kotei were uni have lost 100% against SC.

This said in my POV the best splash for uni is Lion, forget FGG and abuse the low influence cost cards like ready for battle and a legion of one. For me Giver of Gifts is a central char of uni and this build abuses low cost attachments such as ornates, katanas, spyglasses and specially Guard Duty, that helps a lot honoring chars. I run 1 stand your ground, thinking about 2 now with shono, but SiN is also a good replacement for it. And in the dynasty the main focus is: investing 2 fate on 3 cost characters, 5 cost only by charge/reserves.

Some cards I give up: Ide trader, favored mount, way of uni, shinjo scout, shinjo tatsuo, alterasarnai, and now with the MKR I think I'll drop moto horde too, 4 cost will be just shono and 5 cost Juro and MKR.

In this build I am Ready is truly effective.

5 hours ago, L5RBr said:

In this build I am Ready is truly effective.

I don't think you should skip the FGG because of this very reason. Being able to cash in immediately on that extra fate with I am Ready instead of riding the board advantage is a very good option to have when you have a potential for 3 attacks on a turn.

I am Ready is probably my key card, which is why I’m not keen on the swarm/go wide route. But yeah I can see the value in cashing in on it immediately after using FGG for instant high impact - which is the kind of thing that wins Provinces, sometimes even while games.

[Dreams: ”If you control more participating characters than an opponent, place one fate on a cavalry character you control”]

I ditched Ide Trader some time ago, also Shinjo Outrider (like @L5RBr said, there are no in-clan ways to honour it... so it tends to float around in a permanent state of dishonour). Altansarnai is only in there so long as Charge! is; she’s out if/when I switch my RL choice (which I plan to once the whole cycle is out).

Nergui is a controversial one, I know: I’ve found her to be very situational and like Altansarnai I only really use her with Charge! I think i’d keep her in if I went with the (rumoured) new stronghold + Lion splash, but not if I go the Shugenja/Phoenix splash route.

Nergui is clutch IMO. She does so much work, even in the phoenix splash because you need people that do things to threaten your opponent when you have a Master of Swift Waters in play. Nergui also plays really well with Clarity of Purpose since your opponent doesn't want to just send in one guy to get sent home for a military conflict, they try to bait out the ability on political and you can still defend, stay ready and come back across.

I think Outrider is prime for a rise in play. People underestimate her all the time. Presence is going to be much more important going forward. Saving that extra point of honor to prevent unopposed or sneaky Kosori tricks if you can pressure your opponent to attack you on Air is a big deal. Moving in an Outrider (even dishonored) that attacked previously and still getting the stats from Kosori is legit. Magnificent Kimono to honor is just icing on the cake.

13 hours ago, L5RBr said:

I think Uni will be h2h with agro decks, like dragon and Lion, dont know how it will be against control yet.

Uni have a huge problem with high glory chars and no in-clan ways to honor. There was a kotei were uni have lost 100% against SC.

This said in my POV the best splash for uni is Lion, forget FGG and abuse the low influence cost cards like ready for battle and a legion of one. For me Giver of Gifts is a central char of uni and this build abuses low cost attachments such as ornates, katanas, spyglasses and specially Guard Duty, that helps a lot honoring chars. I run 1 stand your ground, thinking about 2 now with shono, but SiN is also a good replacement for it. And in the dynasty the main focus is: investing 2 fate on 3 cost characters, 5 cost only by charge/reserves.

Some cards I give up: Ide trader, favored mount, way of uni, shinjo scout, shinjo tatsuo, alterasarnai, and now with the MKR I think I'll drop moto horde too, 4 cost will be just shono and 5 cost Juro and MKR.

In this build I am Ready is truly effective.

I haven't been super active, but I think Unicorn has been trending this way for a while: swarmy, reactive, and versatile, with a few power swings. I too like to keep the majority of my conflict deck cheap (lion splash helps), so that I can load up fate on 3F+ dudes when they show, or for cav reserves, so I Am Ready. Not a big fan of FFG. I still think Unicorn needs to focus on winning conflicts first, rather than snowball post win.

Unicrab is just a better Charge deck than Unikitty. Charge/Reprieve is just better than not being able to get extra value from the economy boost you gain when paying 1 for a 4-5 cost character.

I've never been a fan of FGG, even when it wasn't on the restricted list, but, now that it is and the next cycle is upon us, I can see that I better become a fan, and quick. It's one of the strongest plays you can make with the Lion splash in a bushi focused deck where "numbers matter" cards have an increased importance. Unikitty is, IMO, moving to more of a low cost swarm deck where you could potentially drop your 5 cost characters entirely. The best way to get value from a deck like this is to keep your swarm around as long as possible and grow it if you can. I still think Juro stays in at least as a 2 of, but, other than Shono, I believe the characters should all be 3 cost and under. I don't even know if Shatoshi will belong in the deck anymore as you can control your Dynasty cycling a little better with Force of the River as well as gain the synergy it has with Shono.

Charge does have the ability to be played on defense which is nice, but, I feel if you are using it that way then you are likely in trouble if you are playing it as defense in a deck that wants to be aggressive.

I think Charge is much more valuable for Uni than FGG, even without being restricted.

Even in Lion charge is more valuable in current meta. Theres no game you dont need or cant play charge.

FGG is supervalued cause of course, is a card that win games sometimes, but sometimes is the problem. My POV is that province traps gained a lot of value with imperial cycle, and theres few ways to win games without making scouts, at same time provinces like public forum and cards like censure and mono no aware are some of the reasons Lion wide decks have lost a lot of power. I see that Uni will try to make a way through cheap swarm offensive, triggering cards by having more units in conflict, but as a Lion is just win-more effects, and I dont believe elemental cycle will give the support swarm need to be top decks yet.

The game have a inherent mechanic that does not favor swarm, gaining a fate for passing first each turn. FGG helped to break this fate advantage, but it is a very restrictive card to trigger, and with rally to the cause, public forum, all the counters and other ways to stop it, its not a card you can count with anymore.

Anyway for splash I think 3 influence dont make it worth, as you are losing 3 ready for battle for 1 FGG for example.

But this is my playstyle, very conservative, cant deny reserves + FGG combo is fun.

3x pathfinders and 3x reprieve perhaps?

10 minutes ago, WookieHairdresser said:

3x pathfinders and 3x reprieve perhaps?

Can't run the Pathfinder's Blade. Seeker only. Also, Restricted List.

However, 3x Reprieve and 3x Watch Commanders is pretty common, as is 3x Reprieve and 3x Rebuild (for Yurts and Shiotome).

I think Unicrab is were you will see the most splash diversity after the next cycle is out. Reprieve, Rebuild, Hiruma Skirmisher, Stoic Gunso, Watch Commander, and Spread the Darkness are all very good cards to splash and have great synergy, but they work best in different builds.

What is this rumored Uni SH I keep hearing about? What is it said to do?

6 minutes ago, fyrm said:

What is this rumored Uni SH I keep hearing about? What is it said to do?

Pretty much the same as the new Lion one with except control more characters than your opponent and sacrifice a cavalry character. These are rumors mind you.

12 minutes ago, cforfar said:

Pretty much the same as the new Lion one with except control more characters than your opponent and sacrifice a cavalry character. These are rumors mind you.

*nods* Interesting. I do hope they actually use this while "control more characters" thingy well.

2 hours ago, fyrm said:

*nods* Interesting. I do hope they actually use this while "control more characters" thingy well.

Same, Unicorn really need a better stronghold.

Now we saw Yoritomo we know that another good option will be splashs with good 3 cost conflict characters to abuse Gaijin Customs.

Yoritomo + Satoshi and/or Kudaka, maybe if we get a good 3 cost neutral plus some good conflict chars will make this a solid build.

Maybe we will see more public forums in meta cause Uni will potentially be able to break 4 provinces in 2-3 turns.

I see no reason why Unicorn decks would not start with Yoritomo as their 5 drop (at least for decks were they want to go that high on their curve) as his raw stats outpace any of the other 5 drop Unicorns and the clan has some cards that support Yoritomo.

If the new Unicorn stronghold is the purple version of the Lion stronghold that is has been rumored to be, then it's very possible for Unicorn to break 3 provinces in a single turn. It would only make sense for people to try whatever options they can to prevent it.

Kudaka I feel will pretty much be an auto include for Unicorn as her ability is relevant, she has the Shugenja trait to enable CTM, which can only get more important as we see more cards with strong ability, and her statline is as good as any other 4 drop in the game.

Satoshi is the only one I question. It's kind of hard because he's been somewhat of a cornerstone for Unicorn decks to enable Cav Reserves, but, I think his time may have passed. Force of the River is more controllable, and cheaper, and gets you a similar effect. It will just come down to how much space you have in your conflict deck vs how high you can afford your dynasty curve to be