Phoenix vs. Scorpion

[Titanium Mage 13]

Hello,

I would like to get some opinions about what are some good cards for me to put in my Phoenix decks to combat the shenanigans of the Scorpion Clan

Thank You.  

[Nitenman 422]

Which shenanigans  in particular? 

What's your decks strategies?

[Titanium Mage 13]

My deck is made of three main objectives.

1. Getting my big boys on the field and keeping them there

2. Using abilities on characters such as gaining extra ring effects, granting covert, Sending opponents home, readying shugenjas, etc. 

3. Honoring my characters and increasing their glory. 

 

With his Scorpion deck, he did three things

1. Debuffed my characters with poison, pit trap, cloud the mind, etc

2. Dishonored my characters with Way of the Scorpion, and he had two Void provinces (Shameful Display). 

3. Got rid of characters by playing Void Ring, Assassination, etc. 

 

We are both new players and I held my own with Phoenix for like two hours but so did he and then he gained momentum and broke 3 provinces and my stronghold and there was not a lot I could have done to prevented it.

I would just like some direction I could go in to make the game not so one sided and not so blastedly long.

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by Titanium Mage

[starrius 122]

I don' main pheonix but I do play them a fair bit. I find one of the things about deck making for pheonix is that there are a lot of taste looking pheonix whose abilities are good but just slow down the game. Try smiling down characters a little and characters like isawa mashinaro (bow during fire ring to kill a 2 coster) are very good especially vs scorpion who tend to run a lot more smaller guys. 

[Tabris2k 1,106]

On 3/1/2018 at 8:06 PM, Titanium Mage said:

2. Dishonored my characters with Way of the Scorpion, and he had two Void provinces (Shameful Display). 

Wait. Are you saying he had two Shameful Display? Because that’s illegal...

Apart from that, Scorpion is one of the worst matches against Phoenix, because our high glory becomes a huge disadvantage. Also we lost our ability to pressure honor due to their stronghold. 

Normally with Phoenix we want our guys to stick a few turns, but against Scorpion that should change a bit, because a lot of our guys, if dishonored, basically becomes useless. So try not to invest too much Fate in one character. One exception for that is Tsukune, because her ability triggers anyway, but of course depends on which rings are being triggered usually.

Oh, and haughty magistrate+stronghold works wonders against Scorpion. Also, remember you can use the stronghold in his dishonored guys. 

[Titanium Mage 13]

3 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

Wait. Are you saying he had two Shameful Display? Because that’s illegal...

I believe he had them because of Scorpion’s current role Seeker of Void. His role allowed him to have two void provinces. 

I was thinking of splashing Dragon for cards like Let Go and Tattooed Wonderer. 

[AradonTemplar 343]

2 hours ago, Titanium Mage said:

I believe he had them because of Scorpion’s current role Seeker of Void. His role allowed him to have two void provinces. 

I was thinking of splashing Dragon for cards like Let Go and Tattooed Wonderer. 

While they can have two void provinces, there is a separate rule saying you can't have two of the same provinces in a deck, so even scorpion can't run two shameful displays.

Edit: That was my splash for quite a while, Let go and Wanderer. I recently changed to Unicorn for Spyglass card draw and Iuchi Wayfinder, to help navigate the disastrous province effects. Bonus is Talisman of the Sun.

If you have a problem with Shameful Display, I highly recommend Wayfinder. Extra cheap shugenja too never hurts.

Edited January 5, 2018 by AradonTemplar

[Tabris2k 1,106]

Splash for Phoenix I really like are Crab, for reprieve (we want our characters to stick) and watch commander (to pressure more dishonor) and Unicorn, for Spyglass (again, more card draw means more dishonor pressure), Iuchi wayfinder, talisman of the sun and Gaijin customs. 

Against Scorpion I’d say the superior splash between those two is Unicorn. 

[Nitenman 422]

I'd say best splash would be unicorn, for the wayfinder. 

[blackheartz 161]

11 hours ago, Titanium Mage said:

I believe he had them because of Scorpion’s current role Seeker of Void. His role allowed him to have two void provinces. 

I was thinking of splashing Dragon for cards like Let Go and Tattooed Wonderer. 

Provinces are unique, you cannot run 2 provinces with the same name. Most Scorpion run Shameful+Pilgrimage.

[Titanium Mage 13]

I have a game today and I imagine the Scorpion will be back. I will put these strategies to the test. Thank You all for your help. 

[Titanium Mage 13]

Also, I just remembered that he splashed Crab as well. I did not splash. 

[Nitenman 422]

just make sure to call him out on playing 2 shameful display. That's blatantly cheating or ignoring deckbuilding restriction. 

[Titanium Mage 13]

1 minute ago, Nitenman said:

just make sure to call him out on playing 2 shameful display. That's blatantly cheating or ignoring deckbuilding restriction. 

I will, we're both new to the game so he probably didn't know. 

[Nitenman 422]

Could be. But I ran scorpion too, and when I considered two shameful, I felt it too good to be true. So I checked  page 18 of the learn to play. So yes, it was too good to be true. 

 

morality: if it too good/strong to be true, check legality.