After the first two cycles, I wonder if there are enough cards to create a good Imperial Deck.

I would like to hear ideas on how to fill this thing out.

Here are the cards that the deck should contain.

Clan: Any
Stronghold: Any
Role: Must be either Keeper or Seeker of Fire (due to restrictions on two of the required cards)

Province
Before the Throne
Any other 4

Attachments
Icon of Favor

Events
Censure
Way of the Chrysanthemum

Characters
Imperial Librarian
Miya Mystic
Miya Satoshi
Otomo Courtier
Seppun Guardsman
Seppun Ishikawa

Holdings
The Imperial Palace (1 per deck)
Imperial Storehouse
Miwaku Kabe (1 per deck)

In addition, if possible must use...
Crab: Karada District, Stoic Magistrate
Crane: Chisei District, Kakita Yoshi, Silver Tongued Magistrate
Dragon: Enigmatic Magistrate
Lion: Hito District, Implacable Magistrate
Phoenix: Haughty Magistrate, Kanjo District
Scorpion: Bayushi Kachiko, Bayushi Yojiro, Cunning Magistrate
Unicorn: Swift Magistrate

All other cards are allowed to fill out the deck.

What would be the best clan to run this deck from and what other cards would you use?

Unicorn..........just wait until after the Scorpion pack so they can get their better Imperial character.

Gaijin Customs is great for a deck comprised of mostly non-Unicorn. Not to mention, Shahai will reduce the cost of the Meishodo cards that you attach to neutral characters as well. They also have a decent option of actually playing Way of the Chrysanthemum with a crab splash, via Rebuilds and Yurts.

Interesting. Even though they have the fewest imperial cards of any faction.

Gaijin Customs would certainly be decent, it would allow one to ready a character so long as one of the unicorn characters were on the board.

But the rebuilds/yurts combo wouldn't be increased by Way of the Chrysanthemum. Way of the Chrysanthemum only triggers off honor bids.

Shahai does reduce the Meishodo cards put on neutral characters, but she is also a cost 4 which means if I could play 4 meishodo, she would pay for herself. But i am looking over the Meishodo and I have to wonder to what extent they would be worth playing. Maybe.

There is also the issue that playing out of Unicorn means one's defenses are 0.

It is certainly notable in that it wouldn't be the most obvious choice, but is better than one might initially suspect... but is it really the best one there is?

6 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

Interesting. Even though they have the fewest imperial cards of any faction.

Gaijin Customs would certainly be decent, it would allow one to ready a character so long as one of the unicorn characters were on the board.

But the rebuilds/yurts combo wouldn't be increased by Way of the Chrysanthemum. Way of the Chrysanthemum only triggers off honor bids.

Shahai does reduce the Meishodo cards put on neutral characters, but she is also a cost 4 which means if I could play 4 meishodo, she would pay for herself. But i am looking over the Meishodo and I have to wonder to what extent they would be worth playing. Maybe.

There is also the issue that playing out of Unicorn means one's defenses are 0.

It is certainly notable in that it wouldn't be the most obvious choice, but is better than one might initially suspect... but is it really the best one there is?

Way of the Crysthanthemum is a combo piece to play in addition to the Yurt Rebuild combo. For a deck like this, you just play normal Unicorn, using the yurts and rebuilds to keep your honor from dipping too low, but if you find yourself in a position where you baited out your opponent's counters, and you're in the mid teens in honor, you can win with a low bid and WotCh out of nowhere.

Force of the River, Invocation of Ash and Talisman are Meishodo staples and picking up a 2/4 character with covert is already good.

You don't need a Unicorn character in the board. Your stronghold keeps Gaijin Customs online, always.

Use seals of the unicorn and favored mount to get Ishikawa into lots of battles with the stronghold and it doesn't matter what your province strength is.

Okay, here is my attempt to build this deck according to your advice. There are probably ways to make it better.

Deck Created with CardGameDB.com Legend of the Five Rings Deckbuilder

Deck Clan: Unicorn

Total Cards: (85)

Total Conflict: (40) Total Dynasty: (40)

Total Influence: (13/13)

Stronghold:
1x Golden Plains Outpost (Core Set #7)

Role:
1x Keeper of Fire (Core Set #216A)

Province: (5)
Air (1/1) Earth (1/1) Fire (1/1) Void (1/1) Water (1/1)
1x Before the Throne (The Chrysanthemum Throne #61)
1x Endless Plains (Core Set #14)
1x Abandoning Honor (The Fires Within #41)
1x Public Forum (Into the Forbidden City #42)
1x Shameful Display (Core Set #24)

Character [Dynasty]: (30)
3x Miya Satoshi (Meditations on the Ephemeral #112)
3x Otomo Courtier (Core Set #122)
3x Seppun Guardsman (Core Set #123)
3x Seppun Ishikawa (Fate Has No Secrets #90)
3x Imperial Librarian (All and Nothing #92)
3x Miya Mystic (Core Set #125)
3x Swift Magistrate (Tears of Amaterasu #10)
3x Iuchi Shahai (All and Nothing #91)
3x Giver of Gifts (Core Set #115)
3x Border Rider (Core Set #112)

Character [Conflict]: (0/10)

Attachment: (16)
3x Invocation of Ash (The Fires Within #58)
3x Force of the River (The Ebb and Flow #80)
3x Talisman of the Sun (Meditations on the Ephemeral #119)
3x Favored Mount (Core Set #192)
3x Seal of the Unicorn (Meditations on the Ephemeral #118)
1x Tattered Missive (Into the Forbidden City #59)

Event: (24)
3x Censure (Into the Forbidden City #60)
3x Way of the Chrysanthemum (The Chrysanthemum Throne #80)
3x Rebuild (Core Set #136)
3x Breakthrough (Core Set #195)
3x Gaijin Customs (The Chrysanthemum Throne #79)
3x I Am Ready (Core Set #197)
3x Court Games (Core Set #206)
2x Fair Accord (Fate Has No Secrets #91)
1x Levy (Core Set #135)

Holding: (10)
3x Imperial Storehouse (Core Set #129)
1x The Imperial Palace (The Chrysanthemum Throne #72)
1x Miwaku Kabe (For Honor and Glory #30)
3x Windswept Yurt (Tears of Amaterasu #11)
2x Shiotome Encampment (Breath of the Kami #12)

When the first cycle came out I had an Imperial Scorpion deck that was super fun to play.

It had:

2 x Otomo Courtier

2 x Seppun Guardsmen

3 x Seppun Ishikawa

3 x Miya Mystic

3 x Bayushi Yojiro

3 x Miya Satoshi

3 x Imperial Storehouse

1 x Imperial Palace

1 x Miwake Kabe

and for the conflict side

3 x Bayushi Kachiko

3 x Cunning Magistrate

As for the good imperial deck I do not think we will have one viable (competitively) anytime soon. It also depends on what the Children of the Empire's other Imperial cards are. Akodo Toturi is an amazing start for imperial cards in the box. We need an Imperial Stronghold and other cards that proc off of the Imperial trait. Imperial attachments will also need to be a thing before we see viable decks.

Here is what I currently have after Underhand of the Emperor

Deck Created with CardGameDB.com Legend of the Five Rings Deckbuilder

Deck Clan: Unicorn

Total Cards: (85)

Total Conflict: (40) Total Dynasty: (40)

Total Influence: (6/13)

Stronghold:
1x Golden Plains Outpost (Core Set #7)

Role:
1x Keeper of Fire (Core Set #216A)

Province: (5)
Air (1/1) Earth (1/1) Fire (1/1) Void (1/1) Water (1/1)
1x Before the Throne (The Chrysanthemum Throne #61)
1x Endless Plains (Core Set #14)
1x Public Forum (Into the Forbidden City #42)
1x Feast or Famine (Into the Forbidden City #41)
1x Shameful Display (Core Set #24)

Character [Dynasty]: (32)
3x Miya Satoshi (Meditations on the Ephemeral #112)
3x Otomo Courtier (Core Set #122)
3x Seppun Guardsman (Core Set #123)
3x Seppun Ishikawa (Fate Has No Secrets #90)
3x Imperial Librarian (All and Nothing #92)
3x Utaku Tetsuko (Underhand of the Emperor #16)
3x Swift Magistrate (Tears of Amaterasu #10)
3x Iuchi Shahai (All and Nothing #91)
3x Miya Mystic (Core Set #125)
3x Seppun Truthseeker (Underhand of the Emperor #17)
2x Border Rider (Core Set #112)

Character [Conflict]: (0/10)

Attachment: (15)
3x Born in War (Core Set #194)
3x Favored Mount (Core Set #192)
3x Invocation of Ash (The Fires Within #58)
3x Seal of the Unicorn (Meditations on the Ephemeral #118)
3x Spyglass (Core Set #193)

Event: (25)
3x Rebuild (Core Set #136)
3x Censure (Into the Forbidden City #60)
3x Court Games (Core Set #206)
3x Gaijin Customs (The Chrysanthemum Throne #79)
3x Charge! (Core Set #210)
3x I Am Ready (Core Set #197)
3x Outwit (Core Set #212)
3x Way of the Chrysanthemum (The Chrysanthemum Throne #80)
1x Offer Testimony (Underhand of the Emperor #27)

Holding: (8)
3x Imperial Storehouse (Core Set #129)
1x The Imperial Palace (The Chrysanthemum Throne #72)
3x Windswept Yurt (Tears of Amaterasu #11)
1x Miwaku Kabe (For Honor and Glory #30)

I'd swap Shameful for Pilgrimage as its not as good on Stronghold where it forces you into defense and if facing a low Glory clan the 3 Province strength is not as good as the 5 on Pilgrimage.

I'd also likely drop Born in War for something as you are short on Cavalry characters so getting it out could be problematic.

When playing with a Crab splash, I'd strongly consider Reprieve. You only need 1 Way of the Chrysanthemum, I am Ready is a bit of a non-bo with this deck as it's not running many Unicorn characters. maybe 2 max. Born in War is pretty bad overall. that should give you some free space for Banzai and Wayfinder too. You'll need to know what you're attacking or you're going to get crushed in a lot of blind attacks.

As far as provinces, I'd probably put Rally under the stronghold and then you have some more interesting options on your provinces. FoF and BtT are your auto includes but your earth and void options are pretty nice. In addition to Shameful, Pilgrimage and Public Forum, also take a look at Upholding Authority and Appealing to the Fortunes. Appealing is nice with Reprieve. You really need to have Talisman in there to control which provinces your opponent runs into, but, you should have a pretty good line up to play a tempo game and just not care what your opponent hits when you mix and match the provinces that give you the best value when they are broken.

Here is a new version based on what the current sets have given. I am trying as much as possible to eliminate as many non-Imperial and non-neutral cards as possible. The current basic goal is to try to negate as many actions and eliminate as many of their cards as possible, take and hold the favor and either honor out using the Way of Chrysanthemum or just try to honor my characters and have enough raw military and political power to defeat them at whatever they happen to be weaker at.

I don't expect it to be too successful since I acknowledge I am effectively taking a -1/-1 hit on each neutral character I am using and that really only gets made up for when I use Seppun Ishikawa or if I can get them honored.

Anyway, if there are any ideas for what I should switch out in order to make it more effective without losing my theming, I would appreciate it.

Shiro Shinjo
Seeker of Fire
Air - Before the Throne
Earth - Public Forum
Fire - Night Raid
Void - Shameful Display
Water - Rally to the Cause

Dynasty Deck (40)
Character (34)
3x Akodo Toturi
3x Hantei XXXVIII
3x Humble Magistrate
3x Imperial Librarian
3x Miya Mystic
3x Miya Satoshi
3x Otomo Courtier
3x Seppun Guardsman
3x Seppun Hidden Guard
3x Seppun Ishikawa
3x Seppun Truthseeker
1x Swift Magistrate
Holding (6)
3x Imperial Storehouse
1x Miwaku Kabe
1x Miya Library
1x The Imperial Palace

Conflict Deck (40)
Event (35)
3x Breach of Etiquette
3x Censure
3x Court Games
3x Gaijin Customs
3x Good Omen
3x Outwit
3x Policy Debate
3x Ride Them Down
3x Spies at Court
3x Trading on the Sand Road
2x Warm Welcome
3x Way of the Chrysanthemum
Attachment (5)
3x Finger of Jade
2x Ornate Fan

If your goal is to eliminate any in clan characters and you're stuck running some Unicorn Imperial, Tetsuko is way better than Swift Magistrate.

There are still a lot of cards that are handicapping you because of sticking to theme.

I'm currently focused on trying to improve my play with more competitive lists, but, I'll circle back and try to be more helpful when I'm back in the right mindset to brew some jank.