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GOLD
+
ACTIONS =
A GOOD THING?
By Nick Zube
("Colonel Mustachio")
Everyone knows that Yoritomo's Alliance has the all-time greatest gold production of any Clan. Everyone also knows that most of those pricy actions which cost huge amounts of gold are worthless...or are they? After all, we've got plenty of gold. Shouldn't we use it? While many, many action cards have been released which have something other than a "0" in that little diamond symbol, Yoritomo's Alliance players rarely, if ever, look at them in terms of deck construction. Are they really that bad? Or just misunderstood? Let's find out.
So...just how many gold-requiring actions are there? Actually, quite a few. A short list:
That's a total of fifty-one actions, give or take a few, which have some sort of gold cost attatched.
Now, naturally, there are a number of these which can be played by anybody--actions which cost three gold or less. So let's take those out of our calculations--we want only the really expensive actions. That leaves us with:
--A Gift of Honor (Cost: * Gold): "Open: Play during an opponent's turn. Produce as much gold as you wish to put this card into play. The current player may produce gold after you have decided how much to spend on this card. The player that produced more gold gains 3 Honor, and the other player loses 1 Honor." So, I pay as much gold as I wish on my opponent's turn. My opponent has to match my deep pockets, or he loses 1 honor and I gain 3. Ideally, this card can be used to make your opponent use all of his gold up, thereby gaining you an extra turn. In practice? Well...losing 1 honor isn't such a big deal. And you have to keep a lot of gold unbowed to make it scary for your opponent. Still, 3 honor isn't that bad...a pretty easy way to rocket up to Yoritomo or Kamoto levels.
--Along the Coast at Midnight (Cost: * Gold): "Open: You must pay gold equal to the number of unbowed Personalities you have in play. All of your Personalities and Followers gain the Cavalry trait until the end of the turn." One of the neatest cards in the game, Along the Coast at Midnight has long been a favored card of many players. And, now that it's in Jade Edition, it's easier to get. The great thing about AtCaM is that it's very affordable. Most decks won't have more than ten or fifteen Personalities, and it's certainly rare to get all of them out in one game, unless it's in multiplayer. So Along the Coast at Midnight will ordinarily cost anywhere from six to eight Gold--very cheap, especially for the Alliance. And what you get is to play at being Unicorn for a turn. This may not seem like much, but it may be enough to maneuver around your opponent's defenders (unless they're playing Unicorn, natch) and pop a few Provinces. It's also got a nice, healthy 3 Focus value.
--Barbarian Horde (Cost: 6 Gold): "Battle: A 4F/1C Cavalry Personality joins your army for this battle. This Personality is discarded from play immediately after the resolution phase of this battle. You may only use this action if you have a unit in this battle, and all of your units in this battle are Cavalry units. Lose 3 Honor." Having a 4/1 monster Cavalry Personality is nice, and can swing the tide of battle, but, of course, the Alliance will rarely ever get to play it. Not only must you have all cavalry units in the battle (strike one), but you even have to lose 3 honor, along with that six Gold you just paid. And the Barbarians self-destruct after the battle's over, so you won't really be able to use nifty effects like Shinjo's Breath on them. No, thank you.
--Blackmail (Cost: 8 Gold): "[Limited?] Choose one Province and one Holding of another player. You take control of that Holding. If your opponent decides to reveal the Blackmail as an Open Action, then the targeted Province is destroyed, the Holding is returned, and you lose 10 Honor. If the Province is destroyed, Blackmail is too." There's a reason why Blackmail's really hard to find: it just plain rocks. Basically, by spending 8 gold for one turn, you diminish your opponent's resources for the entire game. Imagine ganking your Naga opponent's Forests, or stealing a Crab player's Blacksmith's or fortifications. The great thing is that you get to use these holdings as your own, thereby gaining yourself more gold, protection, or special abilities. Oh, sure, it looks risky--after all, if your opponent decides to reveal the Blackmail, you lose ten honor. That will often take an Alliance player below the 0 mark, basically eliminating Yoritomo's personality pool. However, the cost for your opponent, the loss of an entire Province, is even greater. Combined with Events like Return of Fu Leng and Desperate Measures, the prospect of not giving in to the Blackmail is practically nil. Go for this one.
--Blazing Arrows (Cost: * Gold): "Battle: Blazing Arrows adds two to the strength of each of your cards producing a ranged attack for this battle. The gold cost of Blazing Arrows is 1 Gold per card that can use the ranged attack bonus." Was there any card which could be better suited for the Alliance? With our huge number of ranged-attack marksmen, Blazing Arrows just fits right in. With this card, Mukami can launch a Ranged 5 Attack, enough to kill a Heavy Infantry, then run away. Moshi Wakiza, Experienced, can throw a 4-strength fireball which can target a Personality with attatched followers. And Tsuruchi, armed with his Arrow, becomes unspeakably powerful. Better yet, Blazing Arrows isn't even a terrain, so you don't need to worry about getting it out first, or doing any Go Master action to keep it. The bad part is that the gold cost, which seems small, can quickly mount up into the impractical range when adding in Tsuruchi and various Followers into the mix. But, with Blackened Sky, Blazing Arrows is simply too good to be true.
--Bribery (Cost: 8 Gold): "Battle: Bow one opposing Personality with Personal Honor less than two. Lose 2 Honor." On the surface, Bribery seems like a nice little weapon of war, especially against low-honor Clans. But think a moment. Most of the big military Personalities have honor greater than two: Gohei, Tetsuko, Mitsu, Kamoko, the Naga Warlord. To be sure, Bribery has its uses, especially against the Shadowlands and Dark Dragon ("Say, Hitomi, care for a little...bribe?"), and in decks which rely on dishonoring key Personalities. However, the high gold cost (Blackmail costs this much!), combined with an unnecessary 2 honor hit for relatively little, makes this card somewhat unnecessary. There are far better ways of bowing Personalities. Try Yogo Asami.
--Day and Night (Cost: 4 Gold): "Open: Straighten your stronghold." A good action, to be sure, but Day and Night works much better for Clans which actually bow their stronghold for more than gold: War Fortress Crab, Crane, Dark Dragon, Lion, Old Naga, Isawa Palace Phoenix, Bayushi Scorpion, and even Old Unicorn can make better use of Day and Night than we. No Mantis card this.
--Desperate Wager (Cost: 7 Gold): "Reaction: Play immediately before your dynasty phase. All of your Personalities are straightened and you begin an additional attack phase. When you declare your attack, all of the defenders Personalities and Followers are straightened (even those that normally could not straighten). You lose the game at the end of your turn. You may not play more than one Desperate Wager per turn." Desperate Wager is for when you truly are desperate. Like when the Crane are up to 40 honor and you have to take their last few Provinces. This is when Desperate Wager comes into play. In the late-game, you'll have more than enough gold to play it. Heck, even after one Island Wharf, we have enough for Desperate Wager. Against other military decks, Desperate Wager will often get you killed--after all, they're as good on the battlefield as you. Against honor-runners, fortunately, it works far better. Since the Crane in the above example is already at forty honor, what do you care if he plays another duel, or does a To Do What We Must on you? You're gonna die, anyway, and the Crane's meager military and only seven-card hand won't be able to hold off two consecutive attacks from a fully-loaded Mantis army. Y'see, the great thing about Desperate Wager is that, even though Yoritomo gets sent back home, he gets back up again. You ain't never gonna keep him down.
--Disloyalty (Cost: 5 Gold): "Limited: Destroy any one retainer in play. Lose 4 honor." What is this? A wimpier Kolat Assassin with the same honor cost, but half the usefulness? Stinky. Save your koku for the real thing.
--Disrupted Resources (Cost: 7 Gold): "Open: The current player may not bring any gold producing holdings into play this turn. This action cannot be performed during a battle action phase." Now, this is a card which has uses. Combined with One Koku and our original Stronghold, Disrupted Resources can be played on turn one, preventing that Lion player from getting any of his gold-producing holdings out. This essentially removes the old first-turn advantage, while giving you the chance to bring out your own holdings on your turn. Disrupted Resources works particularly well against honor-runners, who often need an early GPH to bring out Personalities at full price. Or it can make any low-gold Clan (Lion, Naga, Shadowlands, Toturi...) beg for mercy. And one turn of disruption is all you may need to get a leg up on a speed deck.
--Explosives (Cost: 8 Gold): "Limited: Destroy any one holding." It's surprising how many people disregard Explosives. Okay, so it's pricey. But it gives you the opportunity to blow up any holding you wish, without any sort of honor-related repercussions. And the Alliance, unlike many other Clans, can play Explosives on turn two--even turn one, if luck delivers both Tell The Tale and One Koku into the opening hand. When combined with other actions, like Blackmail and Disrupted Resources, it's possible to keep an opponent so starved for Gold that you can mount an attack force to start taking Provinces, but fast. Life's fun when you have gold to spare.
--Forced March (Cost: 6 Gold): "Battle: Straighten (if necessary) and move into this battle one of your units that has already engaged in a battle this turn in another Province. Forced March bows this unit after the resolution phase of this battle. This unit may not straighten in your next straighten phase." I don't know how many times I've been outmaneuvered by this card. Forced March is the kind of action which can enable an apparently outnumbered opponent to take three or four Provinces in a single turn. Just imagine: Marching Yoritomo all across the battlefield, jumping your opponent at every turn! Definitely a keeper.
--Geisha Assassin (Cost: * Gold): "Limited: Issue Challenge. Geisha is your Challenger. Cannot be refused. Geisha may not focus. Loser is destroyed. Geisha has a Chi equal to half the gold spent to bring her into play, rounded down." One of the things that people always try with Yoritomo's Alliance is the legendary 22-Chi Geisha Assassin. Okay, so it's possible, but it will only happen if holdings start coming out left and right, and if you have a whole lot of honor to spare. For the rest of the game, the Assassin will stay in your hand, getting less and less sexy the more you have to look at her, until, finally, you just end up throwing her away. The Geisha may work well against annoying dinky-type Personalities, like Goshiu, Shizue, and many flavors of Naga, and that's where it should stay, but be warned! Since your opponent will focus first in this duel, and your Geisha may not focus, it's always best to try and make sure that even a Focus won't save the targeted Personality. Hence, even to take on Shizue, you need to pay the Geisha fourteen Gold! Even then, Another Time, or He's Mine! can ruin your careful calculations. Leave this little lady in your binder.
--Imperial Taxation (Cost: * Gold): "Open: Play only during another Player's action phase. Target one of the current player's holdings. Pay gold equal to the holding's cost. The current player must also pay the holding's cost or the holding is destroyed." Hmmm...See a pattern emerging? Many of the high-Gold actions can affect your opponent's holdings. Here's another goodie, designed to slow your opponent down if he values his holdings. The great thing is that, with the Alliance's huge gold production, you can target just about any of your opponent's most beloved holdings. If you wait until he's all bowed out, having attatched lots of Followers and whatnot, you're sure to Tax him out. Then, next turn, he'll be minus one holding...and even more ripe for Taxation...awwwww. Too bad...
--Kolat Assassin (Cost: 10 Gold): "Limited: Kill target Personality with Chi of less than five. Lose 4 Honor. Limited: Destroy any one Retainer. Lose 4 Honor." With its new killing proficiency, the Kolat Assassin is finding more and more use in more and more decks. The Kolat's price is high, though. 4 honor loss is big for the Alliance, although the gold cost isn't much. However, it's worth it to stick a needle in Yokatsu's ear and be rid of him forever. Just be sure that the honor loss can be managed (Lies, Lies, Lies... is a particularly ironic, yet effective means of doing so).
--Kolat Instigator (Cost: 4 Gold): "Limited: Lose 2 Honor. Target a Personality who must issue a challenge to a Personality of his controller's choice. This challenge can be refused without penalty." This is a card which is primarily for dueling decks. Since the Alliance has few high-chi Personalities, there's little reason to use this...unless you have Kitsuki Kaagi out! Instigate a challenge between Yoritomo and Bayushi Goshiu. Of course, they'll decline. That's when Kaagi steps in and annihilates 'em, anyway. However, in most Yoritomo's Alliance decks, the true purpose of Kolat instigator, making your opponent issue a challenge with a Personality which he would normally hate to challenge with, isn't as useful, given the low chi of most Alliance Personalities.
--Kolat Master (Cost: 10 Gold): "Limited: Target another player's Personality with a Chi less than 4. This Personality is a Kolat who is in your pay. He now rejoins your family. All Followers attached to this Personality with honor greater than zero are destroyed, and this Personality is under your control until the end of the game. Lose 4 Honor." Another card that everyone wants, Kolat Masters are even better than Kolat Assassins! Think of all the Personalities you hate. Chances are, most of them have less than 4 chi. And, with Kolat Master, they can be yours. All yours. The fee, just as in the case of the Assassin, is steep, but worthwhile: just like Blackmail, Kolat Masters deprive your opponent of options, while strengthening your own position. There is no better type of resource than that.
--Kolat Interference (Cost: 5 Gold): "Open: This action is only playable during a player's action phase. The current player cannot draw any Fate cards this turn. Lose 3 Honor." Much like Disloyalty, Kolat Interference is interesting, but useful? Not extremely. Unless you know the other player is planning to use Face of Ninube, or other card-drawing tactics, this won't help you very much. And you still have to lose 3 honor, one less than you would have with the far more useful Kolat Assassins or Masters.
--Kolat Saboteur (Cost: 6 Gold): "Limited: Target a Stronghold in play. Bow the target Stronghold is it is unbowed. Target Stronghold cannot straighten until after the beginning of your next turn. Any stronghold effects which do not require the Stronghold to bow function normally." Here is what the L5R elite say about the Saboteur: "I'd rather have a Kolat Servant." True...but, then again, the Kolat Servant stays in play, preventing you from using Lies, Lies, Lies... to bring you back up to good honor levels. The Saboteur, on the other hand, doesn't make you lose honor, costs less, and, when combined with many of the other gold-production-killers, can prove the last straw in strangling your opponent. After all, the Stronghold doesn't straighten for a whole turn! That's enough to keep that Crane player from gaining 2 honor, or that Lion player from canceling the Terrain you were going to play this battle phase. And it stays bowed for two of your turns, which makes it possible to capitalize on your opponent's weaknesses that much more ("Sorry. Guess you could've used that +2 Province Strength boost, eh, Mr. Crab?").
--Levy Troops (Cost: * Gold): "Limited: Select one of your Samurai. For every 3 gold produced to put Levy Troops into play, add a 1F Ashigaru Follower token to your Samurai. Lose 1 Honor each time one of these Follower tokens is destroyed or removed from the Samurai." Another fun action, Levy Troops can give you lots of Followers in a hurry. Great for Yoritomo or Tsuruchi. Just beware of getting them killed, as they'll swiftly send you spiraling down to negative honor.
--Night of a Thousand Fires (Cost: * Gold): "Ninja Limited: Bow a Ninja Personality you control to destroy any holding in play. You must pay gold equal to twice the gold cost of the holding to put this card into play. This is a variable-cost card." Wow! ANOTHER holding blaster! And this one's even cheaper than Explosives, and twice as useful. Okay, so you need a Ninja to play it. That's what Shosuro Nishiko is for. After that, you can just destroy any holding you wish...and remember that most clan-specific holdings only cost two gold, making a Night of a Thousand Fires cost only 4 gold to destroy a 3-gold-producing holding. It's even free, if you destroy Small Farms, or corrupted holdings. If you want to use your Ranged Attacks, you can destroy Palisades, or keep your rare Wall Victory opponent from winning by destroying his Walls of Otosan Uchi. If you're using Explosives, this can't be far behind.
--Ninja Kidnapper (Cost: 8 Gold): "Limited: Target and bow any Personality in play with a Force less than five. The kidnapped Personality may not straighten while this card is in play. This card remains in play until any player pays 10 gold as an Open action. When this card is destroyed, the kidnapped Personality is straightened, and you lose 5 Honor." Ninja Kidnapper costs too much. Sure, when you Kidnap someone, they're not likely to come back, unless your opponent also has deep pockets. But, if they do, you lose even more than you would if you'd just killed or controlled them with the Kolat! Although the targets are wide and varied for this, most of them would be equally well-served with Assassins or Masters. Don't get tricked into using it, unless you're running an "all-personality destruction, all the time" sort of deck.
--Political Distraction (Cost: 4 Gold): "This action has a zero gold cost for Scorpion and Crane players. Political Limited: Lose 2 honor. Until the beginning of your next turn, all honor losses are reduced to zero." Political Distraction works equally well as a form of dishonor defense and as a means of playing your own honor-costing actions freely. Unfortunately, it also makes you lose 2 honor, which, while less than you would lose otherwise, still takes the Yoritomo Alliance down to dangerous levels. Still, though, if there is an abundance of Kolat, Ninja, Shadowlands, or other creepy cards floating around, it's better to lose two honor than twenty.
--Test of Honor (Cost: 6 Gold): "Limited: Target Personality must undergo a test of honor. Draw and discard a card from his family's Deck of Fate. If the focus on the drawn card is greater than the honor of the Personality, the Personality dies dishonorably." Just like Kolat Masters and Blackmails, everyone wants Tests of Honor. They're just so good! And cheap! And they work almost all the time, especially against low-honor decks, like Shadowlands or Naga...and the Yoritomo Alliance. How I despise this card. But, damn, it's great in any deck. If only I could get some...
--The Blood Feud (Cost: 6 Gold): "Limited: Target a Personality who is marked for death until the end of the game. Lose 4 Honor. Any Personality may challenge this Personality by bowing as a limited action. This challenge may be refused at a loss of 3 honor and dishonoring the Personality. Any player may remove the mark of death by discarding the Imperial Favor as a Limited action." The Blood Feud is often ridiculed. But nobody ridicules Yoritomo. Especially when he challenges Bayushi Goshiu to a duel every single turn, a duel which may only be refused at the loss of three honor. Every. Single. Turn.
--The Egg of P'an Ku (Cost: 9 Gold): "Unique. Limited: This card enters play and acts as an exact duplicate of any Personality in play. The Egg does not enter play with any of the copied Personality's attached cards or tokens." Does this one need any explaining? Two Yoritomos are always better than one.
--The Perfect Gift (Cost: 5 Gold): "Reaction: Bow one of your Personalities with Personal Honor above 1 when another player has bowed a Personality to lobby for the Imperial Favor. If the Favor is uncontrolled, the lobbying attempt is cancelled, and you gain control of the Imperial Favor. This still counts as a lobbying attempt." A truly nasty card when combined with Kyuden Yoritomo's 5 gold production and such free Personalities as Yoritomo Masasue and, especially, Yoritomo Hogosha. Get that Favor and keep it!
--The Secret Entrance (Cost: 4 Gold): "Reaction: Play immediately before any actions are performed in a battle action phase. Players without units in this battle may not perform any actions, including those that normally could be played without having units in the battle (such as the Imperial Favor or moving a unit into the battle)." Refugees bothering you? How about Traversable Terrain? Shinjo's Breath? Flooded Pass? Then The Secret Entrance is for you.
--Threat of War (Cost: 10 Gold): "Open: This card can only be played during an opponent's turn and you must bow a samurai to play it. This turn, the target opponent must bow a samurai each time he bows a holding, or the holding generates no effects." Yet another resource nuke, and one which is so rarely played that it's scary. Just bow Hasagawa and your military-lovin' opponent is faced with a rather nasty choice: either attack and remove all possibility of bringing anything out this turn, or sit on his laurels and give you another turn to build up? After all, this is played during your opponent's turn. You straighten everything next turn...including the gold you paid to put this card into play. The only problem is that it costs so much. Then again, by the second or third turn, a good Yoritomo's Alliance player will have enough gold to put this baby out, easy.
--When Men Stand Divided (Cost: 5 Gold): "This action costs 0G for Scorpion players. Political Limited: Until the beginning of your next turn, Personalities cannot be assigned or moved into a battle where there are Personalities from another clan in their army. Unaligned Personalities are not affected by this action." A really nice card in multiplayer, most one-on-one games will never see When Men Stand Divided come out. So limited in scope that it's almost sad, what could be a nice little action is reduced to a good-looking casualty of the Scorpion Clan Coup Unusability Disease.
--Winning Kachiko's Favor (Cost: 0 Gold): "Reaction: Play when you or another Player lobbies for the Imperial Favor. You may pay gold to increase your temporary Honor on a 1 gold equals 1 Honor basis." First The Perfect Gift, and now this? Wow. Looks like it's Yoritomo's day to yank the Favor away. Winning Kachiko's Favor works particularly well when combined with The Jade Throne...in fact, The Jade Throne almost invalidates Winning Kachiko's Favor...almost. Since The Jade Throne is unique, and Winning Kachiko's Favor isn't, one can include three of this action and quadruple the Alliance's chance of getting the Favor.
So not all gold-costing actions are duds. In fact, of the thirty-one cards on this list, there are only a few which are not even mildly useful in one-on-one play. Actually, many of them fit in well together, messing around with your opponent's gold, which could make for some very interesting side strategies, or even a focus for a whole deck! Remember, you're playing the Alliance. No gold cost is too high, no toy too expensive, to garner your eye. Don't automatically disregard that piece of "binder fodder," merely because of that intimidating price tag. Money is no object. Victory is everything.