Kuroiban

I decided to try to merge my DVD and HOFH decks into one giant dishonor ninja cluster of happiness, just to try to have one Scorpion deck that people won't deal with instead of two different ones. I'll put it here for suggestions because I may need them. Undefeated so far but we'll see if I've missed an obvious idea.

Seven Stings Keep


Dynasty (40)

Events (2)
A New Wall
In Time of War

Holdings (17)
District Governor
2 Family Library
3 Famous Bazaar
3 Geisha House
Seat of Power
3 Secluded Village
3 Secluded Waystation
Shrine to Fukurokujin

Personalities (21)
Bayushi Kaukatsu exp2
Bayushi Kurumi exp
Bayushi Paneki exp4
3 Bayushi Saya
Bayushi Tsimaru exp
3 Bayushi Yumita
Shosuro Aroru exp
Shosuro Jimen exp
2 Shosuro Hihiko
3 Shosuro Uyeda
Yogo Koji exp
3 Yogo Rieko

Fate (40)

Actions (32)
3 Assigning Blame
3 The Bitter Shadow of Shame
2 Doomed Intentions
2 Hired Killer
2 Hunting the Prophet
3 Insolence Punished
2 Loyalty, Unto Death
2 Misdirection
3 Ruthless Advance
3 Sneak Attack
2 Summoned to Justice
3 Unexpected Betrayal
2 Unfortunate Incident

Followers (4)
2 Gunso Hirobumi
2 Wandering Budoka

Items (4)
Daimyo's Blade
Koutetsu Shinri
2 Tsi Blade



So that's the deck. I might need a few more battle actions or a few more people with battle actions instead, and I need to make room for Rich Coffers but I don't want to get rid of any gold. Help and convincing is needed there. The problem with a switch deck is you could be getting all your courtiers but need the actions, or getting all samurai and ninjas but getting all your courtier actions, which is why I was hesitant to build it but I feel like I have a fairly good balance here. Suggestions welcomed and hoped for.

 

i'd switch out 1 of your Hihiko for a Jimen (normal) 

possibly replace the Tsi Blades with Kusari Gama? you have enough Ninja to make them work.. 

lastly the Family Library could make way for the Rich Coffers you wanted , if you can live with the Downside of

not being able to recur losses due to 'province sniping' or early discarding.

remember.. open gold in your opponents turn makes them cautious, which can be used to bluff them out of an attack. 

 

thats a solid sounding start, anyone else? 

Do you really manage to take provinces with that many low force courtier (I'm pointing Uyeda here more specifically and I'd rather have Jimen base than xp) and limited actions ?

Hihiko can get to 5F which is nice when you attack but I'd rather be able to defend with another range 3 on chi than discarding one of my people for a meager +2F. Rieko is nice (doesn't look like you'll be missing the sam trait) but costs gold while you play a lot of costly actions (10) and 8 attachments.

And if you have courtiers you need 2 front war, and if you play 2FW (and maybe if you have them things like knowledge, surprising resistance, the khan/yasuko) you NEED Muhito.

Keep at least one family library. Being able to get back a discarded Kaukatsu/Tsimaru/Paneki/Aroru can be game winning. If you often find yourself trying to defend that last province maybe try the castle holdings. And you miss a legacy !!

You're usually defending more than attacking against most military decks with such a build so 3 sneak and ruthless seem a lot. Without Saya/Jimen/Assigning you might never see a dishonored guy so 3 unexpected is also too much imho, hunting and insolence still do things without dishonored dudes around so they're fine.

 I would drop the gunso's for Taoist Archer. You really need more force there if you wanna make this work. SSK is not intended to work out as a pure dishonor box like DVD. Search for some other SSK decks and especially the one that won the Georgia/Atlanta Samurai event.

I have one archer at the moment, and as soon as I get more they're going in there. I tend to forget my ninja's don't get the 1F bonus from HoFH.

Seven Stings Keep


Dynasty (40)

Events (2)
x1 A New Wall
x1 In Time of War

Holdings (16)
x1 District Governor
x3 Geisha House
x3 Rich Coffers
x2 Private Trader
x1 Seat of Power
x2 Secluded Village
x3 Secluded Waystation
x1 Shrine to Fukurokujin

Personalities (22)
x3 Bayushi Irishi
x1 Bayushi Kaukatsu exp2
x1 Bayushi Kurumi exp
x3 Bayushi Muhito
x1 Bayushi Paneki exp4
x3 Bayushi Saya
x1 Bayushi Tsimaru exp
x3 Bayushi Yumita
x1 Shosuro Aroru exp
x1 Shosuro Jimen
x1 Shosuro Jimen exp
x1 Shosuro Maru exp2
x2 Shosuro Uyeda

Fate (40)

Actions (34)
x3 Assigning Blame
x3 The Bitter Shadow of Shame
x2 Doomed Intentions
x3 Game of Sincerity
x2 Hired Killer
x2 Hunting the Prophet
x3 Insolence Punished
x2 Loyalty, Unto Death
x2 Misdirection
x2 Ruthless Advance
x2 Summoned to Justice
x3 Surprising Resistance
x3 Unexpected Betrayal
x2 Unfortunate Incident

Followers (2)
x2 Wandering Budoka

Items (4)
x1 Koutetsu Shinri
x3 Tsi Blade



Edited to it's current list, and it's working better than before with more battle actions and a better gold scheme and higher force courtiers. I think that's the trick to having a SSK switch deck is having the force. And again, I'll probably switch out the budoka's for taoist archers when i get them.

 3 x Bitter Shadow?  Really?  Do you get that much use out of them?  I could see one or two, but three seems like overkill; it's a dead card to pull in battle (not that you have much card draw...isn't that a problem?)

Also, consider Flanking Action over Ruthless Advance.  Ruthless is a pain, because of the gold cost and the fact you can't use it on defense.  The nice thing about your deck is that you're running Suprising Resistance, so you can bow someone for Flanking to destroy an opposing personality, then Surprising Resistance them home to bow another unit.  That's two uses from one bowed personality, for no gold, on attack or defense.

Loyalty, Unto Death is much better if you have a way to kill your own guys, like Ring of Fire.  That way, you kill a guy, kill an opposing guy, trigger Assigning Blame, then move to another province.  That said, I think you'll find that Loyalty, Unto Death is a card that sounds better than it actually is.  It's another card that's of limited value on the defence, only works when one of your guys dies and really does nothing to help you actually WIN a battle.

Bitter Shadow has saved my ass a number of times. Beniha, Benika, Masujiro, Kanaye, Genichi, Tadame, plenty of dudes to take out with that card in my group, plus it's a fairly high focus value for the crane duelist in case I need that instead, or of course to take out a Kuronada that like 5 people here play in all kinds of different decks. I don't find a problem with it in all honesty. Also I was considering a little bit more draw like SYB, I'll probably throw 2 in for the Loyalty's, they aren't getting the use they got in my ninja deck.

Flanking is definitely a better idea than Ruthless, I didn't even think of that. I'll throw 3 in there I'm sure, and MAYBE try taking out a Shadow, but a far more likely scenario is taking out my unfortunates because they're getting zero use right now. Thanks for the ideas, Ukyo-sama.

Seven Stings Keep


Dynasty (40)

Events (2)
x1 A New Wall
x1 Proposal of Peace

Holdings (16)
x1 District Governor
x3 Geisha House
x3 Rich Coffers
x2 Private Trader
x1 Seat of Power
x2 Secluded Village
x3 Secluded Waystation
x1 Shrine to Fukurokujin

Personalities (22)
x3 Bayushi Irishi
x1 Bayushi Kaukatsu exp2
x1 Bayushi Kurumi exp
x3 Bayushi Muhito
x1 Bayushi Paneki exp4
x3 Bayushi Saya
x1 Bayushi Tsimaru exp
x3 Bayushi Yumita
x1 Shosuro Aroru exp
x1 Shosuro Jimen
x1 Shosuro Jimen exp
x1 Shosuro Maru exp2
x2 Shosuro Uyeda

Fate (40)

Actions (34)
x3 Assigning Blame
x3 The Bitter Shadow of Shame
x2 Doomed Intentions
x2 Flanking Action
x3 Game of Sincerity
x2 Hired Killer
x3 Hunting the Prophet
x3 Insolence Punished
x3 Stay Your Blade
x2 Summoned to Justice
x3 Surprising Resistance
x2 Two-Front War
x3 Unexpected Betrayal

Followers (2)
x2 Wandering Budoka

Items (4)
x1 Koutetsu Shinri
x3 Tsi Blade



Edited again. More card draw and better actions makes for a much better version of my deck.

I'm going to insist upon a point that I've consistently been stating- SSK isn't a switch deck in the traditional sense. It's just a military deck with dishonor on the box to either a) slow down honor or b) force teh attack in a military matchup and speed teh game up.

I would make a more pure military deck and roll from there.