The Swift Sword

This is likely your first error. Kisho is meant to be used to protect furniture from glasses not fur putting in decks. Try Arata and Koyama or Koyama and Kakihara. Kakihara and a redirect celestial makes your opponent sad.

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Legacy format discussion

I'm simply working off of Kotei-winning and top 8 decks. Most of those including Kisho, not Koyama or Kakihara. I'm open to using either, but the majority of the time, redirecting to Kakihara results in a dead, or bowed, or sent home personality just as surely as it does redirecting to a Ancestor or a Kisho. Plus, with the dominance of Kensai decks in the military field, it makes sense to run Costly Opportunity over Great Sacrifice - it prevents Again! tricks, shuts down two- or three-kill action megaunits that otherwise run roughshod over your defense, and even makes your send-home stick better through Wyrmbone while denying them Battle cards, so Kakhiara's theoretical increased force is less relevant (Any Samurai can Costly equally effectively, but only Kakihara can GSac to kill a Kensai unit... if he's been targeted first). Sure, it can make a Ranged Attack poor, but Ranged Attacks aren't highly prevalent. Meanwhile, Kisho proclaims for cheaper, which is important for such a Gold-hungry deck.

Ok, now I can see the reason for this discussion: Obviously you're playing in a completely different environment than me

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This is a major problem with netdecking in l5r. If you copy a winning deck and then don't have success with it, it definitely isn't the decks fault. So you're complaining that good decks that I know can win, in the old environment, are no good and need courtiers which is obviously wrong. I hope it doesn't make you too upset but if you aren't doing well with one of those decks the fault is either your playstyle or your local metagame.

As to Kisho, in the base Emperor environment, she was the best choice since the deck needed a cheaper peep. However that environment is dead and we're talking about the EoW environment where Kensai is much weaker and other military decks will be better.

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Legacy format discussion

All right, I concede the netdecking argument. I'm well familiar with the perils from Magic: the Gathering. These are *recent* Koteis, and Kensai is not a recent development, but I accept the problem as identified for the purposes of moving beyond it.

I'm still willing to argue that a Courtier splash might be better than a Paragon splash. Accidental Confession simply seems better - and requires less setup - for controlling super units than our in-Battle options, even with Paragons. The large number of "at any location" Courtier abilities having to rely on Intervening flipping up for high-mobility military, and lets us use Request Authroization to its fullest. While it's probably incorrect to use a full set of Masatsukos, I can see a playset of Demiyahs and one or two Masatsukos supporting six or seven Fate-side Courtier actions (3 Accidental, 1-2 Rhetoric, 2 Request, 0-1 other), which seems strong on its own merits.

I still see Kensai/big unit as being a poor matchup for this deck. Honor/Dishonor decks may need some work too, and I think with Courtiers, the deck's Fate side is more flexible and easier to tailor to a given meta.

Kensai will be beat by the meta game. If you feel that you absolutely must beat it play some personality bow, Unorthodox Attack for instance, and Lady Matsu's Rage.

As to the courtier stuff, do what you want but you'll never be as efficient as if you splash Paragon instead.

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Legacy format discussion

It is a consideration of dead cards and worst case scenarios. Accidental confession is amazing, unless you don't have a courtier and the favor. Cast aside the weak and grateful aren't blank without paragons, just not as good.

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Swift Sword Forum Rules

Kensai will be beaten by the meta game? By what, exactly? It has a pretty strong matchup against most of the top decks, and no glaring weakness. As for 'unbow', it has personalities that straighten, and several action cards that do as well (please see Again, for one). There's a reason it's done well; it's a good deck with few weaknesses.

Read Lady Matsu's Rage.

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Legacy format discussion

So the one shot on a guidance is going to spell the end for Kensei?

In regards to how well ancestors do against other deck types, my Kotei experience this season has been I've only lost to honor decks (twice in Chicago, 1 in AC). I'm confused as to how you can be good against honor, but still need help against dishonor.

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Barto
Dynasty * Team Real Jobs * Shat Pack

It won't stop their weapon recursion. It only triggers when you kill personalities, and it triggers after you kill them, so their RfG doesn't spread to the rest of the unit; the weapons have already been separated from the personality by his destruction. I think.

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Swift Sword Forum Rules

Barto is right; a one of Celestial is -not- going to deform the environment so much that Dragon stops being competitive.

For me, I wonder how the addition of Den of Iniquity hits HOM honor.

I'd say it goes from a near auto-win to something closer to even money.

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Barto
Dynasty * Team Real Jobs * Shat Pack

It's the action not the trait that is important.

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Legacy format discussion

if most every deck that has trouble with Kensai plays it then it will make it harder for the deck type.

I've had games go to time due to not quite being able to honor out against a dishonor engine in 45 minutes. It will be worse once Den comes out and people really start playing Crab dishonor.

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Legacy format discussion