For the next few articles, I thought I would write about cards in Dawn, and give a few thoughts on how they work in Diamond, and how they might work in Lotus. The first one, since I like magic, is a kiho: Amaterasu's Blessing [hereafter AB].

This card is only available in the Dawn of the Empire set, and is one of the three kihos. It is an Open action, where you target a caster, monk or shugenja, and then target a personality in play. Until the beginning of your next turn, all your personalities have a minimum force and chi equal to their personal honour. This is permanent on the caster and the target.

First, a few universals, no matter which environment you are playing in, Lotus or Diamond. The more personalities you have in play, the better effect it will obviously have. It affects all of your personalities in play, and doesn't require you to bow anyone. Thus, the only cost to play is to control at least one shugenja or monk, and discard a card from your hand.

So, in Diamond, why use this card? Well, especially in Phoenix, we often have a personal honour that exceeds either our force, chi, or both. So, this card acts as a force and/or chi boost. Not bad, but not really that good. It is also a kiho for playing the Ring of Air, and at no cost for personalities. It also prevents others from playing around with your stats, like the bloddspeaker chi loss decks, and the Harrier decks I have seen making appearances. It is also a palliative to Sunetra, if you are worried about her. Which leads to the Lotus focus.

In Lotus, I believe we will see a lot more of playing around with stats on the other side of the board. It appears to be a Crane, Shadowlands, Scorpion, bloodspeaker, and Phoenix sub-focus. That may seem somewhat redundant, but there are different decks from all of those that can use things that lower you're opponent's stats. This card prevents that, even if only for a turn. And how many times have you seen a game switch on a one turn delay? I have, many times. This card is sovereign against Sunetra and the Obsidian Halls, since you can ignore the Chi loss. Well, not ignore, but unless they take the time to dishonour your personality as well, more cards and actions, they will not be agble to kill anyone with at least one honour.

Also, another thing to remember is that this effect is permanent on the caster, and the other targeted card. This gives them an immunity to force and chi loss cards, and possible boost to their own stats from AB. Unless, they can be dishonoured, which will mean more steps, more actions, and more oppurtunities to disrupt what your opponent is doing. I keep thinking of the Top Phoenix deck I saw at the Kotei I went to. He used the KiRin, aligned it to himself, and then killed it over and over. But what if he wanted to keep it alive? Then he could hit it with this, and it would become a 5/5 monster, preventing the Shadowlands from attacking, letting him honour out the slow way.

I picked this card because I have not seen it used, or listed in any decks, and thought I would throw it out there. Hope it makes you pull that binder out, and look at this often overlooked spell.

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