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This article is covering one of the most overlooked and ignored
personalities in Phoenix. Isawa Ihara, I think, is still overlooked
because of the early problems with her. When she was first released she
cost 11 gold, with an honour requirement of 6. She has since been
lowered to 7 gold and 3 honour requirement.
The first gold cost is not unheard of for a good personality, with decent
stats for that cost, and a good ability. They gave her a decent ability,
but her stats were extremely low. She was, and still is, 1 force, 2 chi,
and 2 personal honour. Her ability is to bow to send home an opposing
personality. When I learned she had been changed, I looked over her all
over again, and I found I liked what she was now.
Let's look at what she is now, and ignore the earlier, overcosted
version. She has an honour requirement of 3. This is half that of the
Phoenix's starting honour,so you need not gain honour to bring her into
play, and in fact can afford to lose a little and still play her. Also,
she has a personal honour of 2, average for a personality. Thus, she is
reight on the border, it is worth it to pay full to gain her honour, but
you do not suffer unduly if you do not.
Next, her gold cost. She costs 7 gold, normal for a cheap personality
that is not actually boxable. This is only 5 on the cheap, not at all
expensive. Thus, she is not a boxable, but is as cheap as you get get
and not be.
Her force is 1, and her chi is 2, very low for a personality in L5R.
However, when considered in conjunction with her ability. Since her
ability bows her, the stats are really irrelevant.
Next, she is a shugenja. This is both a good and a bad thing. Of
course, all of the following points apply to all shugenja. Positive,
they may attach and cast spells, the only personalities that may do so.
They are also able to cast some kihos, though not all of them. Negative,
they are vulnerable to dishonour. Any card targeting them that will
cause an honour loss will cost you the entire thing; no lowering it by
Seppukku. Also, few of the formations will work for them, as most
require either Samurai or Bushi.
Finally, her ability. As a Battle action, she may bow to send an
opposing unit home. Simple, but powerful. Note, first of all, that she
must be in the battle to do this. That is not good, but not as bad as it
could have been. In the days of battle-enders, like Deadly Ground, she
would probably die really, really quick. Now, with the chance to do
multiple actions in one battle, she can be useful.
She can use this ability in both attack and defense. This is of note, as
many of the actions that send units home have restrictions, such as only
attackers can be sent home, or only those with no followers. She doesn't
care what the opposing unit looks like, she will send it home. Big unit,
lots of followers? Sent home. Clan Sword on a Champion? Sent home.
The next point I will address is that her ability does bow her. However,
you are only losing 1 force, very, very minimal. That is why her low
force is irrelevant. Also, with the Isawa House Guard, you can
straighten her as soon as she bows. This is the power of that follower
[who I will cover in another article in the near future]. Also, don't
forget that City of Rememberence allows you to use an Innate Ability once
per turn, without bowing. Many people forget that section of text on the
CoR box, because of the cost reduction. I have had people stop the game,
just to re-read that trait when I use it. However, when a shugenja uses
that trait, they lose the ability to use any of their Innate Abilities
for the rest of the turn.
To continue on that vein, I have found that using her with the trait of
CoR can be useful. If nothing else, you just sent home one of their
units, and still have her 1 force. I have also found that it is nice to
have a shugenja of low force unbowed. I have, in the past, followed the
sending home of a unit by bowing Ihara and the Shrine of Bishamon to give
another personality +3 force. Thus I sent home an opposing unit, and
gained +3 force, for the cost of a 1F personality.
One other point to remember is that she is reusable send home. Unlike
the Left Hand, you are not required to somehow get ahold of the Imperial
Favor, and be running a particular Wind. Unlike an Action card, she
stays available turn after turn, even if used. And she can be used for
things besides the send home, such as getting the Favor.
Now, I will cover some of the negatives some other people have raised in
the past, when they see this card in one of my decks, but before they see
it come into play.
"There are too many ways to cancel the send home." There is the Right
Hand, which is seeing a lot less play of late. Though this was a valid
objection earlier, many of the top decks in the environment right now are
using either the Black Heart or the Gozoku Sensei. And, even if they are
using the Right Hand, they can only use their Reaction once. I can use
Isawa Ihara as many times as I have unbowed copies. There is another,
Rightous Conviction, but it only works on defending units. Well, as
Phoenix, I more often find myself defending, not attacking. Also, I
haven't seen that card used outside of the Pre-release it was in.
"They can just send the unit back, like with Tireless Assault." Yes, but
then they just wasted a valuable card, and I lost 1 force. Which side
came out on top of that transaction? Or maybe I have a Slaughter the
Scout in my hand, and that works into my hands.
This card is often, in my experience, ignored by Phoenix deck builders,
and I think it should not be. If you are building a Phoenix deck,
consider it, try it, see how you like it.
Also, at the request of Shiba Samoshii, I will try to answer two
questions:
*Is this card a good one in the current environment?
*What sort of Phoenix deck would benefit from this card - and is that
deck any good?
*Is this card a good one in the current environment? Actually, I have
found it is. As the Right Hand is used less and less, she gains in more
power. Also, send home may only delay, but for some honour runners,
delay is all that is needed. And occasionally, you can win that big
battle, with judicious use of send home.
*What sort of Phoenix deck would benefit from this card - and is that
deck any good? Honestly, almost any honourable Phoneix deck could use
this. It could be used in a Bloodspeaker deck, or a tainted one, due to
the lower honour requirement. It is not optimal, but it is possible. I
currently use her in both a Phoenix CoR deck and a Phoenix honour runner.
In the CoR deck, she can be used as defense, shile most of your people
attack, or even send her along, to get rid of defenders. In the honour
runner, she is good for a defense measure. With this particular deck,
delay is the name ofthe game. I try to keep from losing provinces, even
while my opponent attempts to take them. She helps me to accomplish
that. As for other Phoenix decks? Well, try her and let us know what
you think!
Isawa Letomo
Phoenix clan Librarian-Shugenja
Discussion thread.
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