Scorpion Clan Pack – Underhand of the Emperor
With Winter Court upon us, we have the Scorpion Clan pack just in time to shake things up and give Worlds a brand new environment. Going into this, the Dragon Monk deck is commonly accepted as the strongest in the environment, but Scorpion still are a strong contender. The question then, is whether this influx of cards will give Scorpion the edge they need to come out ahead.
01 Kyūden Bayushi
A new stronghold and a new focus for the Scorpion
To add to this, you need to have your character dishonored. Dishonoring characters is a focus of the Scorpion but this condition does make Way of the Scorpion’s inability to target Scorpion personality somewhat frustrating. The extra bonus skill when you drop under 6 honor is nice, and realistically is just one Assassination away, but I don’t see the bonus as important enough that Scorpion decks are going to be trying to lose honor just to get that +1/+1.
Ultimately, this is a stronghold that is competing with the previous Scorpion stronghold which is commonly accepted to be the best stronghold in the game. Despite the bonus for getting to 6 or lower honor, this may be the stronghold of choice for Scorpion decks focusing on dishonor. Even though they lose out on the few points of dishonor the old stronghold gives them, they will have a reliable ability when they are on higher honor than their opponent. The ability may allow an extra unopposed attack and ultimately allows the deck to do more with less.
02 Brother’s Gift Dōjō
Movement tricks have their use and being able to attack as a feint can put your opponent in a difficult situation. Brother’s Gift Dojo allows you to attack with two characters, then if your opponent defends completely pull back ready for the next attack while your opponent’s defenders bow out. If they don’t defend, you win the conflict. Unfortunately, nice tricks don’t make the cut when you’re competing for a Void province slot. Pilgrimage and Shameful Display are already two fantastic provinces and this doesn’t get a look in.
03 Support of the Scorpion
Not much to say here. So far the Support of the Phoenix has not been very popular as giving up the Seeker or Keeper abilities and cards is too much of a hindrance. These days we have extra elemental cards of interest making a Support of role even less viable. The Scorpion
04 Alibi Artist
A 1 cost Courtier Shinobi with a card draw ability is pretty perfect. The Alibi Artist is similar in ways to the Phoenix Naïve Student, but you gain the card now rather than when they leave play. You do need to be at 6 or lower honor which can cause difficulties. Is this combined with the Scorpion strongholds bonus enough to make it worthwhile? Having a cheap character that draws cards is great as we’ve seen with the Dragon’s Agasha Swordsmith, so despite being only 1 Fate the artist may justify a greater investment with additional fate to keep drawing cards on multiple turns. The Artist may not cleanly support a dishonor strategy as the honor shift can make keeping below 7 tricky. That said, Scorpion more than anyone have the options to pull their own honor down and drawing 2 to 3 cards a turn while your opponent is forced to draw 1 is a great place to be!
05 Shosuro Takao
This 2 cost Bushi Shinobi has an impressive 3 military skill considering his cost. As long as there is a dishonored character in the conflict his ability allows him to move in or out of that conflict. So he has
06 Insolent Rival
Experience has shown us that players will typically match bid dials. At the
07 Soshi Aoi
The Soshi are known for their subtle mastery of Air and their ability to weave illusions. Suitably, her ability lets her (or another character) become either a Bushi or Courtier as required getting +1 military or +1 political respectively. As a Shugenja herself, she has all the key traits on lockdown. This makes her a nice addition to a deck focused on Bushi or Courtiers that needs a little splash of Shugenja for cards like Cloud the Mind. Once you factor the bonus skill in, Her 3/3 or 2/4 for 3 isn’t terrible. Where she might miss a beat is in her lack of impactful ability. What she can do, is keep that +1 military or political for just the right moment. So your opponent has to factor it into all conflicts in the same way they do Sinister Soshi.
08 Bayushi Aramoro
Aramoro is the brother to the Scorpion clan champion Bayushi Shoju and is in many regards a mirror of Shoju himself. As a 5 military
09 Ignoble Enforcers
This is just a big pile of stats with no ability. If you pay your 3 honor you get to keep this character around for an extra 3 turns. So, there is a bit of a fate discount. Unfortunately, at 5 cost this character is already pretty expensive, so even if you paid honor and get that free fate on them, you’re already down a bit. Instead of this
Update some months later – This is a super popular card in competitive Scorpion decks. Free fate is good. – Baz
10 Bayushi’s Whisperers
Another big character, and at 6 cost this better be a great one!. The big number of note is the 6 political skill which is impressive. Unfortunately, with only the informant trait, this character doesn’t have any of the traits Scorpion decks are interested in. The no attachments clause
Obviously, the uncharitable comparison is going to be with Kitsuki Investigator who looks at your opponent’s hand and discards a card for a relatively cheap cost. While the Investigator does require presence, must be in the conflict, and can only do it in a political conflict, and must spend fate onto a ring, and has less skill he is cheaper! So is paying an extra 3 fate for this ability worth it? Probably not, although the ability is powerful, spending the fate on two characters both with abilities is going to have more of an impact on the game.
11 Court of Deception
This holding seems to be support for the new stronghold in that you dip in honor, use the stronghold ability on your dishonored character, then
12 Yasuki Oguri
Courtier is not a trait that gets the Crab clan excited, but one more does slowly open up the option of reliably using Courtier cards. As a 1 Military and 1 Political character for 2 Fate Oguri is definitely not here for stats. The ability does increase those stats but you cannot rely on your opponent playing events in a conflict. The key aspect here then is the Covert keyword. Denying your opponent a defender can be game-winning and the Crab already
13 Kitsuki Shomon
With Mirumoto Raitsugu and Kitsuki Investigator, the Dragon already have an amazing line-up at 3 cost. Characters like Agasha Shunsen and Volcanic Troll that would be great for many clans, just don’t make the cut for Dragon. Shomon may be in a similar situation. At 3 Military and 3 Political for 3 Fate she has a solid, if unexciting for Dragon, stat line. The Bushi and Duelist traits aren’t of much interest for Dragon decks currently but may be relevant in the future. Shomon’s ability readies her, which experience has shown us is a game-winning effect. The trigger can be difficult to arrange, you need to have another character you control get dishonored Shomon needs to be bowed and not dishonored herself. Dragon
Kitsuki Shomon appears in the ‘In the Garden of Lies‘ story where she is noted for teaching the non-Samurai. She defends this by saying she will face the consequences for the actions of any of her students, making her cards ability very thematic.
14 Akodo Kage
Kage is one of the big names from the old story. He had a reputation as a wise and cunning teacher and from the
If your opponent starts matching your bid, then you don’t need to use Kage. Instead, you have the option of saving Kage for a Duel where you can force your opponent to reveal 1 like you, making the outcome of any duel you start
15 Asako Maezawa
Having more glory than your opponent isn’t always a certainty for the Phoenix, but it is something they should feel pretty confident in especially if they are running their original stronghold Isawa Mori Seidō. Maezawa’s ability doubles a character’s base political skill until the end of the conflict. So if you have an Ornate Fan on the target, the fans+2 will not be doubled. This is a conservative way to avoid massive bonuses, as it will at most be a +6 when targeting Fushicho.
In the story, this is a character from the Phoenix book The Sword and the Stone. Maezawa is a somewhat enigmatic character who by the end of the book pledges to support Tsukune in the political courts. Combined they have an impressive 6 glory letting him use his ability and he can give his boost to Tsukune giving her +4 political skill!
Typically Maezawa will be targeting himself to get a +3 bonus making him a 2/6 for 3 which is quite efficient. Of course, there is always something to break the curve. The Kaito Temple Protector can set their own base value to the current skill of another character. So if Maezawa has an Ornate Fan bringing him to 5 political skill, the Kaito Temple Protector can set their own base political skill to 5. Then, when Maezawa uses his ability, that 5 doubles to 10. That seems like a fun interaction between a 3 cost and a 4 cost character with a Courtier and Monk deck. So interesting, but not something slotting into existing Phoenix decks.
16 Utaku Tetsuko
I was relatively unimpressed with Dragon’s characters stats which had 3
17 Seppun Truthseeker
At 2 cost for a
18 Opium Wastrel
A 1/1 for 1 is always a great start. With no trait beyond
19 Bayushi Collector
Another conflict character giving Scorpion plenty of options for the 10 conflict character limit in their conflict deck. As a Courtier the Collector does have a useful trait and the ability is pretty useful. He is also the first non-unique conflict character for the Scorpion that is a Courtier. The target, weirdly, is an attachment on a dishonored character which means it doesn’t actually target the character. This means Finger of Jade won’t stop it. You discard the attachment and the dishonored status. You can use this on your opponent to remove their attachment with the drawback that it removes their dishonor. Alternatively, you can use it on your own character to
Attachment hate has been pretty key in the recent environments and Scorpion have been ahead of the game playing Calling in Favors while also splashing for Let Go. At 2 cost, Bayushi Collector is an expensive addition to this lineup but as a 1/2
20 Liar’s Mask
Another card that can only be played if you have 6 or fewer honor, clearly showing the theme for Scorpion. The bonuses are adequate, while 1/1 for a 1 cost conflict character is great, +1/+1 for an attachment is less exciting. The ability is pretty good, allowing the Scorpion to remove a dishonor status from their own characters or remove an honored status from their opponents. Scorpion games often are about windows where all the Scorpion Courtiers are dishonored leaving Forged Edict unplayable. This attachment opens up that window again. The play restriction makes this a difficult consideration for non-Scorpion clans. That said, if the new Stronghold has to play without the innate dishonor protection of City of the Open Hand then maybe other clans could do. A Phoenix deck willing to be aggressive with Assassination could use this Mask as protection against their high glory characters being dishonored. Ultimately, this is another tool in the Scorpion box which will make it into decks when the ability is needed for specific matchups.
21 Stolen Breath
This is essentially a word for word political version of Pacifism. Unfortunately, Pacifism does not see play and Scorpion are confident enough in Political conflicts that they don’t need the help. At 2 cost, really you want to be removing one of your opponent’s heavy hitters and that needs to be someone who isn’t going to just assign into a military conflict without significant drawbacks. This means Stolen Breath isn’t going to be great against decks like Dragon and Phoenix who can happily choose their conflict or Lion and Unicorn who are primarily focusing on Military. As a Poison card it might find some interactions in the future, but for the time
22 Duty
This is a card that caused some controversy when it was first spoiled. That it was a ‘Limit 1 per deck’ reunited some of the frustration about high variability. Unlike Kanjo District and Karada District which can have game warping impact, Duty is a conflict card that you’ll probably want to draw late game. This means you’d probably only play 1 copy even if it wasn’t limited. In
So what does Duty actually do? Realistically it lets Scorpion players hang around the lower end of the honor pool without having to worry as much about dishonor. As it has no influence cost, no other clan can splash it so it’s Scorpion only. Given the number of abilities we’ve seen in this back that are contingent on being on 6 or lower honor, Scorpion almost
23 From the Shadows
Charge! but for Shinobi only. Right now the expensive Shinobi are Bayushi Aramoro, Shosuro Actress and Shosuro Miyako. Dishonoring Aramoro means you can’t use his ability and the Actress and Miyako both have 1 glory so the dishonor is annoying. Miyako can react to her own entering play which is pretty cool. The best value is actually at the 2 fate cost in the forms of Shosuro Sadako who becomes a 4/4 when dishonored or Shosuro Takao who has 0
24 Make an Opening
More bid dial nonsense. While it can conceivably be a -4/-4 penalty, the majority of the time this is going to be a -0/-0 because of the nature of bidding. It certainly is something you can work on with bid manipulation tricks, but reliable cards win games.
25 Stolen Secrets
Pay 1 fate, remove 1 fate from one of your own characters all to look at the top 4 cards in your opponent’s deck and remove one from the game. Would this be worth it if it did the same from your own deck? Probably not, you’d be better off just playing a better card than Stolen Secrets and you’d already
This
26 Doji Fumiki
At 2 cost for a 3 Political Courtier, Fumiki is an expensive Doji Whisperer with +1 glory. The ability, then, will have to be worth the 1 extra Fate to justify her inclusion into a deck. During a conflict with Fumiki participating, you can bow a dishonored character in the conflict. Pretty restrictive, but if Crane can reliably dishonor a character, there might be some value. The most notable card is the primary Courtier action, For Shame! The opponent needs to choose between bowing and becoming dishonored making them a viable target for Fumiki. In this way, Fumiki is similar to the Stewart of Law and forces your opponent to bow their character. They could dishonor and then get bowed, but unless they have a counterplay that is a poor choice to just bowing.
But wait! Down in the bottom right
27 Offer Testimony
Do you have large fate values in your conflict deck? If so, this is a free bow effect during a political conflict. At first, blush that seems pretty cool. Digging a little deeper we see both players choose their own characters. So you don’t get to pick your opponent’s best character, they get to pick their worst character. In addition, there’s always a risk your opponent will end up revealing a card of greater or equal value and you end up bowing your own character. Interestingly, if you only have a copy of Offer Testimony in hand, as you are unable to reveal a card after playing Offer Testimony your opponent will automatically have the lowest revealed number.
28 Peasant’s Advice
For 1 fate and dishonoring one of your own characters, you get to look at the province and if there is a faceup card in the province you get to discard that. Importantly, this is played during the conflict phase rather than a conflict. So you cannot play it during the dynasty phase or the draw phase, but you can play it before the first conflict is declared during the conflict phase. We already know that provinces are a key part of the game, so much so that games can be decided on the first revealed province. This card, like Iuchi Wayfinder, lets you know if that one province is dangerous or safe to attack. As a bonus, it also lets you discard a card in the province. There are two primary uses for this, either you remove a target for a Charge! or you discard a holding such as Iron Mine, Karada District, Kanjo District, or Hidden Moon Dojo. So this is a strong meta card against holdings.
Is it worth the cost though? 1 Fate is a lot and unlike with the
Summary
This clan pack continues FFG’s trend of opening up new deck styles rather than directly supporting the existing decks. There are a lot more options for a Shinobi themed deck and the new focus of keeping at 6 or lower honor is an interesting direction. Very few of the cards drop into the existing Scorpion deck, probably Bayushi Collector and most likely Duty. The other clans similarly have cards which don’t directly fit into existing decks, apart from perhaps Utaku Tetsuko and Doji Fumiki who both should see play. The two neutral cards Offer Testimony and Peasant’s Advice are both very
We’ve talked before about the point where you can start skipping purchases and while the Phoenix pack was close at the time decks were still developing and even those one or two clan characters had merit. With another cycle under our belt, I think we’re past that point. While most committed players will immediately pick this up, for someone on a budget I think it’s one you can skip unless you’re a Scorpion player.
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8 Replies to “Scorpion Clan Pack – Underhand of the Emperor”
Soshi Aoi is not Kachiko’s double, nor is married to Aramoro. Yogo Asami is.
Gah! All those Shoshi look the same. Thanks for the spot.
As a Crab player, a few of these cards looks like hard counters against the common Crab tower deck. I’m a little worried as my regular opponent is a Scorpion!
Collector and Pol Pacify are especially concerning to my deck.
Nice write-up! Quick note: in the Whisperers review, you state the Kitsuki Investigator can be used only in Military Conflicts…
It’s a bad sign when even my corrections end up with typos ><
Good writeup. It still think the new 5 coster will see a lot of play for scorp. That thing is nuts statewise.
A few people have approached me to say that. At 5 cost and 3 honor you can get 4 turns of 4/4 which is pretty stonking. If you’re on the new stronghold you’ve hit the 6 threshold for an extra +1/+1 (if you want) and the old stronghold lets you steal the honor back from your opponent. So I can definitely see the argument, but I’m really not convinced numbers with no ability is cutting it. I might be spoilt coming from the Dragon where raw numbers was our baseline and we’re only adding in abilities lately. Scorpion I guess are coming from the other angle where they’re looking for skill to support their great abilities. Still… I’m not convinvced, but I look forward to being surprised!
It’s worse than Yunako, who is effectively a 4/4 for 4 that has more utility. 4/4 for 5 isn’t even close to nuts.