Isawa Ihara

Isawa Ihara

Isawa Ihara was originally released in Dark Allies, the third expansion of the Gold arc. With her ability - one of the most powerful Battle actions ever given to a non-unique personality - she was priced at a hefty 11G.

Unsurprisingly, she never saw much play. Nobody was willing to spend 11G on someone so easy to kill - 1F and 2C really don't impress anyone - and 2PH for 11G is hardly a good ratio for an honour deck. In Diamond, she is a very different personality.

Firstly, her ability is now negated by one of the most commonly played cards in the environment - the Right Hand of the Emperor. However, the lack of battle-ending actions means that assigning people to defend is less of a gamble - and you're more likely to get a chance to use her. Her cost has been reduced by a massive 4 to 7G - much more affordable.

Send-home is still a very powerful strategy for an honour runner. If you can send armies home for 3 turns you've pretty much won the game. However, due to the Right Hand you have to run a lot of send-home cards to have the required effect. Ihara, therefore, fits in a defensive honour runner alongside the Left Hand, Block Supply Lines, Refugees, Overwhelmed, and Fall On Your Knees/Outmaneuvered by Force to cancel Kaneka's ability.

However, the large amount of movement in the current environment weakens this deck type, with every military deck packing 3 copies of Strategic Crossroads and often Tireless Assault as well. Ihara is only useful if people decide to actually stand and face her. Additionally, her 2C makes her very vulnerable to Written In Blood, duels and similar. 7G for 2 honour isn't especially good in a Phoenix deck that can pack at least 18 personalities with better ratios. When a deck running Ihara comes up against another honour runner, she's not very useful for attacking with her 1F - and one of the big advantages of Phoenix over Crane is our ability to attack.

In conclusion, Isawa Ihara is a very nice card. Strong ability for low cost and a reasonable PH despite her low stats, she's nearly a staple card. I say nearly, because in the current environment Ihara just doesn't cut it. If Phoenix didn't have the emphasis on attacking that we've picked up in Diamond, or if movement was less prevalent, Ihara would fit into some really strong decks. As things are, she's just doesn't quite fit in.