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This article is a card focus covering the common card Acolytes of
Air from the set Reign of Blood. AoA are a shugenja follower, costing 6
gold, and having an honour requirement of only 1, quite reasonable. The
cost alone seems to remove them from most peoples consideration, but I
think they should be looked at again. Why? Read on to find out.
First, and most often overlooked is the fact that they are
cavalry. This means they will attach to Ryouko without causing him to
lose his Cavalry state as a unit. And, most people do not expect a
cavalry attack from Phoenix. A quick, simple thing, but often not
thought of. This of course, makes the most sense out of CoR.
Next, and to continue to look at the card, is that this follower
has a ranged attack of 3. Not too exciting. If you want a ranged
attack, why not go with a shugenja follower like Minor Shugenja, cheaper,
or Firestorm Legion, often a bigger ranged attack? Well, actually, if I
am using one of them, I am considering all three. Also, Minor shugenja's
ranged attack is much weaker, and because Firestorm Legion's is variable,
it could be more or less than this one. It never hurts to have
consistancy. Finally, this article is on the AoA, not the other two.
Next, and this will seriously hurt a Mantis's day, is that the
Acolytes unbow as a Reaction, if a ranged attack resolves that targeted a
card in their army. This gets really nasty if the Mantis is using their
new Sensei, since the AoA will bow to make their ranged attack, the
Mantis will make theirs (but can't hit the AoA, who are bowed), which
unbows the AoA, who then shoot again. And, as a follower, the AoA
protect their personality from being hit, outside of a few unusual
circumstances, most of which are not Diamond legal. Thus, it is a little
bit more of a defense against ranged attack decks. If your opponent is
using ranged attacks, and not that Sensei, then they may actually kill
this follower, but then they used up a turn shooting a bowed card, giving
you another chance.
Another thing to mention is that both the ranged attack and the
straightening reaction are also Elemental, if that matters. There was
card in Gold which would have made that a bad thing, but in Diamond, it
is mostly just flavour for now. This could change in the future.
Of course, I should also mention that this follower is also an Air
Shugenja in its own right. Thus, if you are looking for cards that key
off of that, like Strength in Unity, this follower can help. I am also
guessing that this will become more important as time goes on.
Another trait on the card says that it gains +1 force and +1 ranged
attack strength if attached to a shugenja with the Air trait. There are
not a lot of those in Diamond, though the field is much bigger in Open.
In Diamond, I think it is actually Unicorn that benefit from this the
most, with personalities like Iuchi Katsumi, and any Unicorn readers out
there that use the Air Shugenja might consider this follower. There are
ways to give the Air trait to shugenja, but they are card intensive, and
not currently worth it.
A quick little look at this often overlooked and ignored follower.
No, it is not an auto-include by any means. But if you are using a deck
with Shugenja followers, cavalry followers, or that uses ranged attacks,
think about it.
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