Shiba Danjuro

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Image copyright of AEG, used without permission	Diamond legal cards: nonXP Features in: The Forgetten Son
A lieutenant of the Shogun, Kaneka, Danjuro has endeared himself to many players due to his habit of leaping in the way of all sorts of nasty actions aimed at our Clan's precious Shugenja. If any Personality card truly epitomises the spirit of Shiba's oath, it is Danjuro. Shiba Danjuro 2F, 3C 2HR, 4GC, 1PH Phoenix Clan YojimboSamuraiSoul of Shiba Raigen Reaction: When an action targets one of your Shugenja, bow Danjuro to redirect that action to Danjiro, if legal. If the Shugenja is in an army, Danjuro must be in the same army to take this action. One of the great mysteries of Rokugan is that a personality who is willing to give up their lives for others, in accordance with the oath sworn by the founder of his Clan and Family, can have a mere 1PH. I don't know what Danjuro does in his spare time, but he must torture babies or something to have deserved his PH rating. Of course, if he had more PH then he'd be broken in the card game, and if his ability was on a more expensive card it simply wouldn't be as good. So I'm happy to overlook Danjuro's indiscretions in the name of a stronger Phoenix Clan... Ahem. So why is Danjuro so good? Quite apart from his ability, being able to buy a 2/3 Samurai for 2G is strong. But in Gold, we had Shiba Tsukune, who was 3/2 for 5G (3G reduced), and she didn't see nearly as much play as one might expect. There are two reasons why Danjiro fits much better in our decks than Tsukune ever did. The first is that his ability synergises with any strategy that involves shugenja - which would be most of them. In a way that Tsukune never did, Danjiro makes the other parts of your deck stronger by taking hits aimed for them. The second is the shift in Diamond towards Force being important in Phoenix decks. A person with a 1:1 force ratio is far more useful to us now (where we have other decent force personalities) than it was in Gold. While Danjuro doesn't make every deck I build, he's not far behind Seruma, Tsukimi and Toshiji as the core of many of my decks. And like Tsukimi, he's a really flavourful personality who really brings out the nature of the Phoenix Clan. P.S. Danjuro's favourite kata? Balance in Nothingness...
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