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Asahina Nizomi is the strange little boy found by Naka Tokei, which
could be either Tokei's Evil, or his Good, in pure form. He is also a
Crane clan personality with interesting stats and ability. He is a
common from RoB, and has 0F and 4C. You need 5 family honour to hire
him, and he costs 8 gold. For this you get a Fire Shugenja/Courtier with
3 personal honor, who is a Jade Magistrate. His ability is to give one
of your personalities +2 to what ever stat is being used when they enter
a duel.
First, Nizomi's Force and Chi are normal for a Crane Shugenja of his
cost. His gold cost is mid-range [though high for Open]. The honour
requirement is not unusual for Crane, and is easy for all the Diamond
Crane Strongholds to keep at or above, though The Iron Fortress in Open
will have to stretch to reach it. His Personal Honour is also normal for
his cost, for a Crane. Being 3, it opens him up to several cards
unavailable to personalities with lower PH.
Nizomi is not only a Shugenja, he is a fire Shugenja. This would seem
strange for a Crane, but he is only an adopted Crane. This allows Crane
access to several of the more interesting effects of spells and kihos
from RoB, which come from that trait.
One of the potential reasons that Jade Works was removed from the
environment was the proliferation of Jade Magistrates. There were at
least 2 in this set, and Jade Works would speed the production of decks
using them. Not the only reason, but it was probably included in their
thinking. Nizomi is one of those Jade Magistrates. So far, that does
not seem to be of any use, but that may easily change, as more sets come
out.
Nizomi is also a Courtier, making him one of the few Courtiers with
other traits, and the second to be a shugenja [to my knowledge]. The
other is Soshi Angai. This allows him to not only cast spells and kihos,
but also to be used for those Courtiers only actions that have been
coming out of late.
Nizomi's ability is to give +2 to the stat of any personality entering a
duel. Although AEG may change this, currently the change is until the
end of the turn, as it does not give a set duration. The drawback is
that the loser of the duel is bowed instead of destroyed, if it is a
lethal duel. As Nizomi is not Unique, this allows you to give one of
your duelists up to +6. Not bad. Harkens back to the days of Togashi
Yoshi.
However, this ability is more useful then Yoshi in several ways. First,
you always know how much the gain will be. Second, the gain will go to
whatever is needed for the duel. Third, it may be used several times in
a single turn, not just once per turn. For those turns where you have
multiple duels in hand, this means the bonuses can just keep on
accumulating. Not a bad thing at all.
One last point to keep in mind is that this ability can be used
defensively, not just offensively. If one of your personalities is
challenged, instead of refusing or dying, you can use Nizomi's ability,
and the only thing that will happen is that your guy will be bowed.
However, note that Nizomi does not stop duel effects beyond dying. If
there is a dishonor component to losing, or it already bows the loser,
this will not stop that.
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