Crab good stuff

1 The Impregnable Fortress of the Crab (1)
1 The Impregnable Fortress of the Crab (2)
1 Bamboo Harvesters - exp

# Dynasty (40)

# personality (22)
2 Hida Ayahi
1 Hida Kisada, the Little Bear
1 Hida O-Ushi - inexp
3 Hida Saiyuki
1 Hida Tadama
2 Hida Toranosuke
2 Hiruma Fujito
3 Hiruma Koru
1 Hiruma Nikaru, the Flesh Eater - exp2
2 Hiruma Tsurao
1 Kuni Renyu - exp2
1 Nishoji, the Steel-Eyed
1 Toritaka Chokichi - exp
1 Zansho - exp

# holding (17)
1 Abundant Farmlands
2 Akodo Dojo
1 Counting House
1 Deep Harbor
1 Hida Advisor
3 Iron Mine
3 Jade Pearl Inn
3 Productive Mine
2 Vengeful Populace

# event (1)
1 Dark Audience

# Fate (40)

# strategy (28)
1 A Game of Dice
2 Back to the Front
3 Coward!
1 Creating Order
3 Deliberations
3 Entrenched Position
2 Fall Back!
3 Fearful Volley
2 Sudden Movement
3 The Crystal Tears
2 The Turtle's Shell
3 Unholy Strike

# ring (2)
1 Ring of Air
1 Ring of Earth

# item (1)
1 Koan's Staff

# follower (9)
3 Incendiary Archers
3 Kikage Zumi Initiates
3 Skeletal Troops

# L5R Companion deck string - copy/paste in L5R Companion to import this deck
# H4sIAAAAAAAAAE2QQQ7DMAgEv1IpH2ABO+ZY5VDlkE/0A5F6qNTfF0UGchthvLssP/bv+flRGwsC
# zXE7D2JeZM46fPY6N8K6cMzEn58HYcS+BLSAHt8s5KXrDd8ucb1zylImUUKGQitcE10/EgpmGqRS
# a5W1F/IMR33CyDsFCGTPMRFmhWnOahVUQ56NUsFulzSfuheqU6XMJJeX9wDNHkTtOgg66wVpWY9a
# 01mxW/wB0CZ7fs0BAAA=
#

i  play tested this this today and i rolled crane scouts crab big dudes and scorpion military
decks good and fun

really not a fan of deliberations though a single turtle shell can screw you and you lose the gold. Nikaru is scary with an attachment having a 10f guy show up is awesome. the 4g scout that needs a follower to do anything kinda sucks I might give the other scout that has a ranged 2, if you dont mind.
The fate side is boss you have so many actions in battle it can all but ensure you victory.
Thanks anthony for building this.

if you really hate deliberations then i would look at Legion of Toshigoiku as a replacement. 3f for 4gc that can be bowed to vengeful then pop itself to draw a card. I still think deliberations is good in that deck you just have to choose when and where you use it. Much better end of battle end of game action. Use your little ranged attacks to draw out the turtle shell.

Kakita Hideo wrote:if you really hate deliberations then i would look at Legion of Toshigoiku as a replacement. 3f for 4gc that can be bowed to vengeful then pop itself to draw a card. I still think deliberations is good in that deck you just have to choose when and where you use it. Much better end of battle end of game action. Use your little ranged attacks to draw out the turtle shell.

This... I was just thinking to myself that's exactly it, especially if you have other attack actions that can pull it.  The big thing is there are no "big game-breaker" actions on bodies.  Most ranged attacks require setup of some sort or stacking, the biggest game breakers are unit removal which is mostly send-home atm.

HidaDowling wrote:..the 4g scout that needs a follower to do anything kinda sucks I might give the other scout that has a ranged 2, if you dont mind...

You have 9 followers in the deck, all of which do fear actions.  He doesn't bow his follower to do the fear action, so with Skeletal troops its a fear 5, and Kikage Zumi it's fear 4.  Either of those fears will hit vs 90% of the field.  He's a workhorse in the deck and also key to your gold curve.  I would play more games against more decks before cutting him, that action is great.

Also, remember that other clans pay 4g for BLANK 3f dudes.  That guy is 3f with a fear action for 4g (unless you run him out of todori sensei, but that's a different discussion for a different deck).  Don't forget about the cost benefit your box gives you.

oh shit i totally forgot that fear also stacks like ranged. doh yeah i will play test more.
I played a lion deck today and it out forced me really quick. it utilized well defended farms and just ran ashigaru keyword followers. not many battle actions just stuff to pump his followers out of fear and ranged attack range. 
and because he had followers vengeful populace was blank too. lion is going to be tough to beat i think.

HidaDowling wrote:oh shit i totally forgot that fear also stacks like ranged. doh yeah i will play test more.
I played a lion deck today and it out forced me really quick. it utilized well defended farms and just ran ashigaru keyword followers. not many battle actions just stuff to pump his followers out of fear and ranged attack range. 
and because he had followers vengeful populace was blank too. lion is going to be tough to beat i think.

Yeah, some people have been talking about the Lion ashigaru scheme deck that is pretty serious. It's just big dumb force, but ivory is time when big dumb force matters.

The issue is that the deck becomes much worse if the meta shifts AT all and people actually run some of the attachment hate in the environment. That being said, I see it being strong out the gate because there is no meta. For example: I'd run a lion ashigaru theme deck at atlanta. But chances are likely, if the deck has teeth, that by the time we get to the sarasota kotei, the meta will have shifted where attachment destruction/stealing is more abundant (which only makes the 40 red card lion deck EVEN better than it already is, which is pretty good).

Even without the meta, ashigaru (when running the holding) are extremely gold efficient, but that's about it.  With no battle actions if you can cut through to 1-2 personalities you're going to be okay.  Save ranged attacks for the followers and fear for the personality (unless you have okura no oni hanging around, she ain't no foo).  

Worst case, he runs the crab berserker champion strike on a stick.   I do kind of want to test-run directing the battle and toolboxing some cards, like say, champion's strike.


I've actually got an ashigaru deck that I'd like to try out that runs ashigaru and the farm scheme that sleep showed me.  If you ever want to catch a few games online ping me on skype.

The 2g farm followers get to 5f, outside of ahahi's range. And even at 4f,you are bowing your 4f guy that cost waaay more than the 2g Ashigaru to destroy it. With. That battle plan you will quickly burn through straighten.

Those lion personalities that the big followers are attached to still have great battle actions.

Sleep wrote:The 2g farm followers get to 5f, outside of ahahi's range.   And even at 4f,you are bowing your 4f guy that cost waaay more than the 2g Ashigaru to destroy it.  With. That battle plan you will quickly burn through straighten.

The answer is not you just lose, lets look at the tradeoffs... 

Let's say in a magical world, the lion player didn't play ashigaru.   Instead he bought efficient lion personalities that are also 2g for 5f while opposed (instead of 2-3 force with a good battle action for 3-4g, which is essentially what battle lion run in followers). 

You're just trading for a different kind of efficiency, big, dumb, force.  I don't know about you, but lion battle actions on their personalities while good are not THAT amazing, in truth they are exactly the same as my clan, some force manipulation, 1 ranged attack, and a smattering of fears (Which is about true of just about every single military clan out there).   Their uniques are also EXCEEDINGLY expensive.   Their best action is an unrestricted send-home on a deathseeker which is good (Morito), that requires him to bow.  What is good is their synergy with their followers.  See richards deck that aaron is running, lots of good actions on good followers with good force to gold ratios 2f for 3g + battle action (sometimes fear synergy). 

But do the math, they traded a good battle action (that will probably take out what, 3-4 force on the field when combined with their two fears) for 1-3 EXTRA force, depending on what cards you have in play.   It's a trade off, ONLY assuming your opponent can't cut through them.  IF your opponent can (and most will) then you're trade-off wasn't worth it, where as if you had proactive battle actions you can control your opponents abilities and fight off the ones that will cause you to lose the battle. 

My other problem with the follower scheme is that it doesn't help you take provinces or win early battles where actions matter.   This is the same problem that the crab full of force pump deck had, if you oppose it early, and eject button, he loses as he burned his hand cards to stop the token defense he could of beaten with actual battle actions, instead he has 3-5 force that drops to 1-2 when you eject button.  With my talks with seals and dalu I've heard the same thing, it's scary if you let it ferment, but easily outplayed through tempo control and smart play.