Shoju's Duty - Sixth Dynasty Pack in the Inheritance Cycle

By sndwurks, in Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/6/26/shojus-duty/

And the hot takes!

Storyline-wise - Yeah, sorry, no. I do not see Shoju taking the throne as an outcome of "Daisetsu's Regent". I see this flavor-text and the sequence of this as being a result of both Sotorii and Daisetsu thought to be dead (with Shoju possibly knowing the truth of Sotorii being alive) (no, seriously, Daisetsu has to die or turn evil) (or one, then the other), and Shoju taking power because someone HAS to, and all the other choices (Toturi, Yoshi) are gone. And he knows he has to be the villain to be unseated. Hence, duty.

But now, the cards!

Bayushi Shoju - Henceforth referred to as Shoju2, this card is a solid staple for the Scorpion draw-bomb dishonor strategy. He accelerates the game in a good way, and denies Censure. Which is actually pretty awesome, considering. I like it. Good card.

Student of Esoterica - Ahem, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS CARD DOES. But it's a 1/1 for 2 Fate with some text about spells, so this is obviously a bad card. Obviously.

Chrysanthemum Steward - 2 Fate for a 1 Mil / 2 Pol Imperial Courtier is not something even an Imperial focused Scorpion deck wants. The ability is counter to a strategy of making your opponent's deck run out of cards, and what is your best case scenario here? You are both at 1 bids, you have out Shoju2, and you make them redraw that Censure they can use... and then they draw two more? Yeah, I am just not seeing how this card is useful. Someone enlighten me?

Castigate - Set up for the kill. Keep in mind that once this card is on a body, it stays on, so while it is somewhat gated on when you can play it, it paints a big bullseye on the back of whomever has it. Never underestimate the power of kill.

Gallant Quartermaster - As we expand the Crab actions to feed the machine (In Defense of Rokugan, Way of the Crab, Steadfast Witchhunter), I expect to see this card step up in use. It is a slightly less versatile Kaiu Envoy, but I expect it to see some play regardless. Definitely a card to watch.

Yasuki Hatsu - Well, then. A slightly gated, slightly more expensive, slightly more powerful Agasha Swordsmith in Crab? This will unlock certain strategies, and makes me glad that Spyglass is on the RL now.

Root Out Heresy - I like this card. It's a strong Crab offensive card. It eats a card out of your opponent's hand, and lowers Province Strength. Using this on the Defense is an... interesting idea. Makes Upholding Authority a better province for the Crab to run.

Edited by sndwurks
9 minutes ago, sndwurks said:

Castigate - Set up for the kill. Keep in mind that once this card is on a body, it stays on, so while it is someone gated on when you can play it, it paints a big bullseye on the back of whomever has it. Never underestimate the power of kill.

Castigate IS the kill. Why would you attach this to somebody, allow your opponent the chance to Let Go or whatever, and then drop their Pol? Oh no no, you drop their skill first, then this is the finishing blow. Because you can't counter an attachment.

Chrysanthemum Steward could be intended to combo with something like the scorpion attachment that lets you play the top card of your opponent's conflict deck.

4 minutes ago, Kaito Kikaze said:

Chrysanthemum Steward could be intended to combo with something like the scorpion attachment that lets you play the top card of your opponent's conflict deck.

OOOOOO. I like that one. Chrysanthemum Steward into Stolen Secrets, too.

I think you're seriously undervaluing the Steward, Dave. If you can strangle your opponent so they have to bid low then control the card they draw...that's definitely useful. And in an Imperial focused deck with even one of the buff holding out, they become a 2/3 for 2 with a valuable trait. It's not a super sexy card, but it's going to be in several successful decks.

Edited by Hinomura

So, the Quartermaster is 111, which is the first card of this pack. Which means that there are 0 provinces in it. I would be really surprised if there were somehow three 1-of Dynasty or Conflict cards. I think this means that there will be 20 cards in this pack, not 22, meaning that the entire cycle is 130, not 132. It's a nicer number.

46 minutes ago, Hinomura said:

I think you're seriously undervaluing the Steward, Dave. If you can strangle your opponent so they have to bid low then control the card they draw...that's definitely useful. And in an Imperial focused deck with even one of the buff holding out, they become a 2/3 for 2 with a valuable trait. It's not a super sexy card, but it's going to be in several successful decks.

I hope it does come out clutch. I do think that with the Restriction being placed on Spyglass, Steward grows in value. Having a draw engine in place once everyone in on 1 bids is going to be necessary in the meta pretty soon, I expect, and having one vs not having one is going to be quickly a watershed for successful vs unsuccessful decks.

Or, in other words, if Steward kills your deck, your deck is going to deserve to die in the near-future meta.

So am I the only one that looked at Shoju sitting on the "throne" and chuckled at the title of the this pack being "Shouju's Duty"?

I bet it's a big stinking Oni turd he's dropping. If he wasn't wearing his mask you could see that he was really struggling to get that thing out.

"For the Empire!"

Sorry my inner 5 year old just escaped for a moment.

54 minutes ago, Hinomura said:

Steward, Dave.

Also read this and thought someone was about to try and dis one of my favorite A's pitchers.

I was like "oh no you didn't...……………...oh nvm you actually did not, carry on good sir"

Yasuki Hatsu is only slightly more powerful than the Agasha Swordsmith by one political stat and does not enable Cloud the Mind. There are two hoops he has to go through just to equate one Agasha Swordsmith activation. You don't have the advantage of have two or more in play or low cost. Yasuki Hatsu is not setting the world on fire even in a world where spyglass is legal. I'd say he's even worse than the Shrewd Yasuki. Sure, the draw depth is deeper but the Shrewd Yasuki is more discreet and sometimes you need to draw into your fight ons and mountains.

The Crab 3 drop line up is not spectacular but this guy isn't going to make the cut vs Borderlands Defender or Crisis Berserker. It just irks me as I do love the Yasuki. Maybe if they printed some Crab conflict cards needing courtiers, they could start an archtype to validate him.

2/5

Edited by Hordeoverseer

On the subject of Yasuki Hatsu, he's the quartermaster from the scenario in the RPG beta test.

49 minutes ago, Hordeoverseer said:

Yasuki Hatsu is only slightly more powerful than the Agasha Swordsmith by one political stat and does not enable Cloud the Mind. There are two hoops he has to go through just to equate one Agasha Swordsmith activation. You don't have the advantage of have two or more in play or low cost. Yasuki Hatsu is not setting the world on fire even in a world where spyglass is legal. I'd say he's even worse than the Shrewd Yasuki. Sure, the draw depth is deeper but the Shrewd Yasuki is more discreet and sometimes you need to draw into your fight ons and mountains.

The Crab 3 drop line up is not spectacular but this guy isn't going to make the cut vs Borderlands Defender or Crisis Berserker. It just irks me as I do love the Yasuki. Maybe if they printed some Crab conflict cards needing courtiers, they could start an archtype to validate him.

2/5

His main advantage of Swordsmith is actually his three cost since it means you can't assassinate him so its not as necessary to expend Fingers of Jade on him. But yes overall he is a weaker version of Swordsmith.

Rating Yasuki Hatsu in comparison to Agasha Swordsmith is pointless, since they can't be in the same deck. Regardless of the power level of the Swordsmith, Hatsu is a powerful card that fits in well with the Crab deck that sees the most play at the moment.

I did compare him to Shrewd Yasuki and his ability is slightly worse than that card, as the other does allow draw into events. Shrewd Yasuki syncs more with the dishonoring your opponent plan but that might change for Crab in the new RL list. Would Yasuki Hatsu replace Borderlands Defender? Probably not.