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As I promised in the last Research I did, I will cover the Isawa House
Guard [IHG]. This follower is one of the House Guards introduced in
Diamond. Each clan got one, with varying levels of power and usefulness.
It is my opinion that we, the Phoenix, got the best one. The others
tend to be conditional, only really useful out of one deck-type or
stronghold, or oddly weak. Ours is almost always useful.
The IHG costs 6 gold, and has an honour requirement of 2. These are a
little high, but not terribly difficult for most Phoenix decks. The IHG
is a shugenja, and has 3 force, which is average for a House Guard. What
makes this so special is the ability. IHG has a reaction: "Bow after one
of your shugenja bows during a battle, to straighten that shugenja. The
House Guard need not bow if it has not used this ability this turn."
This ability is magnificent. First, you have the ability to use it once
a turn, wthout bowing, for the rest of the game. If you do need to use
it more than once, you can. I do not know of any other House Guard with
that talent. All the others are limited to once a turn, or at least once
a battle [the Hiruma House Guards fear]. Second, this ability is worded
such that you need not have the House Guard in the current battle to use
it. It doesn't even need to be at a battle. Third, it will work on any
shugenja you control, not just the one it is attached to. For that
matter, it doesn't need to attach to a Shugenja. I have attached it to
Samurai before. The ability does not even require the target be a
Phoenix clan Shugenja. It is wonderful with Dragons.
Speaking of which, the Water Dragon is the IHG's best friend. Why? The
IHG is a Shugenja, and the Water Dragon will copy an innate ability.
Since IHG is a shugenja, it's ability is innate. Thus, you can get 3-4
uses a turn. This gets really nasty. I have had opponent's concede when
I got both out together [okay, and Kuro's Fire, too].
Another point is that the bowing does not have to be FROM anything.
Bowed to cast a spell? Straighten. Bowed to do an action? Straighten.
An opponent bows him? Straighten. It does not matter what caused the
shugenja to bow, this will straighten him. Also, it is a reaction, not
an open, Limited, or Battle action, so it does not take up one of your
action turns to do. Thus, if your opponent bows a shugenja, you can
straighten the shugenja, then take an action of your own.
One note, is the limitation on the ability. It can only be done during
a battle. Thus, no unbow tricks during the Action phase. Sorry. This
would have been a much bigger problem during Gold, but Phoenix do fairly
well with battles in Diamond. Not perfect, but much better than we used
to during Gold, when we [at least where I was] tended to die badly during
battles. Now, I sometimes actually seek them out. If you are using one
of the now possible Action phase p-kill decks, this follower may not be
for you. However, even in that case, you may find you have to enter
battle, and this is both a useful talent, and a follower, protecting one
of your personalities. Also, it only works for Shugenja. Sorry, no
unbow tricks for Samurai.
Sorry if this article didn't inform you of anything new, but I promised
to write it, and I do try to keep my word.
Isawa Letomo
Phoenix clan Librarian-Shugenja
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