The Emerald Dojo

A Legend of the Five Rings Strategy Site

Disciples of the Void

Updated 28 June, 2020.

By Severijn#5194

Masters of elemental magic, the Phoenix clan and their powerful shugenja are caretakers of the empire's soul. They are also keepers of great knowledge and prefer peace and diplomacy. Despite their pacifist beliefs, however, they are capable of fielding powerful armies if the need arises.

Phoenix are currently a top-tier clan in Legend of the Five Rings with Phoenix player Jose Luis Saenz holding the rank of Shogun. They can play a variety of game plans both long and short term, and a staple in all these is the ability to reuse a character in multiple conflicts by readying them or preventing them from bowing in the first place.

Like the mythical Phoenix, they can gain strength from defeat and be reborn stronger than before. This is evident either by one of their marquee cards (the now-restricted Display of Power) that steals a ring effect upon a defeat, and also in terms of Phoenix having cards that grow more powerful as the game goes on. As the masters of the elements, they can manipulate the five rings to powerful effect.

This guide covers faction characteristics, the most commonly-encountered Phoenix cards in competitive play, and ends with a rundown of the current competitive deck archetypes.

Strongholds

The Core Phoenix stronghold, Isawa Mori Seido is able to manipulate a character's glory, for better or for worse. When used on a friendly honoured character this results in a +2/+2 buff, while the opposite is true for an opposing dishonoured character. Note that this lasts for the entire phase, rather than just a single conflict like many similar effects. The stronghold can also be used to help gain the Imperial Favour as the glory count is completed during the Conflict Phase.

If an opponent reveals Isawa Mori Seido at the beginning of a game then check their dynasty flop very carefully. While Kyuden Isawa will generally support a deck with relatively straightforward spells and buffs, Isawa Mori Seido strategies are very varied and range from dishonouring the opponent, winning via honour victory, achieving enlightenment, playing the attrition game and regular conquest with either Shugenja or Bushi. Try to assess which strategy they are going for based on their flop because you can get burned if you guess incorrectly.

With that glory bonus, some cards get a significant upgrade when played out of this stronghold, such as Fearsome Mystic, Sanpuku Seido, Radiant Orator, Asako Maezawa or Haughty Magistrate. Another common sight is the presence of cards that will honour their own characters.

Recently nerfed to cost a Spell event card to use its ability, Kyuden Isawa remains a very playable stronghold. Its power increases the longer a game lasts as a larger discard pile means more available Spell events to recur. Common targets include Supernatural Storm, Against the Waves, and Clarity of Purpose to maintain tempo, and Consumed by Five Fires or Forebearer's Echoes to establish board control or swing key conflicts.

Note that because its ability is an action, the stronghold cannot be used to play reaction cards such as Display of Power.

Kyuden Isawa is forced to play a lot of spell events to utilize its ability. You can easily expect over half the deck to be spells, and so a marquee card for Kyuden Isawa is Shrine Maiden. Cards that need spells to fuel them have great synergy with Kyuden Isawa, but the most common card of this type, Master of Gisei Toshi, was banned. There still remain Shiba Tetsu and Fire Elemental Guard, but these are rare sights even with this stronghold.

Due to its heavy restrictions, there is only one common deck archetype seen out of Kyuden Isawa and this is the famous 'bird deck', which builds to explosive events to break provinces with big Supernatural Storms (expect many small Shugenja) and Forebearer's Echoes played on Fushicho.

Provinces

Phoenix has several excellent defensive options. Down below are the most common in-faction tools you will see. Beyond these, Shameful Display is a very common sight in Phoenix due to their high glory. Their stronghold will usually feature either that or a Water province.

The setting for the excellent novella The Sword and the Spirits, Sanpuku Seido is also an excellent province for the Phoenix lists using Isawa Mori Seido. When using that stronghold to buff a character's glory, this province is almost impossible to break. That said, if no characters are available to defend, only one attacking character with a single glory point is needed to secure a break, unless the Phoenix player has a holding in play which provides a defensive boost.

Notably, Sanpuku Seido becomes a problem whenever Phoenix plays the mirror if you have less or equal glory to field. When you expect to face many Isawa Mori Seido decks, you may want to include another Fire province when playing Phoenix yourself.

The original in all its glory

The current version

Restricted, unrestricted, and now errata'd, Kuroi Mori no longer has the stranglehold on stronghold defence it once did. That said, it is once again seeing regular play, only this time in the province row. Here it will still cause groans when revealed as no amount of Fine Katana or Banzai! will help secure a break when the conflict is set to political, or when the reverse plays out during a powerful political assault. Kuroi Mori remains the high-water mark when it comes to defence against any faction with a skew to military or political.

One nasty play that gets made with Kuroi Mori is switching the conflict type against a character that has a dash in the other conflict type. This will eject that character from the conflict bowed. Be very wary of attacking into a facedown row province with a dashed character or when your Phoenix opponent plays Pacifism on your character first.

While conflict type switching is the most common use of Kuroi Mori's ability, it can also be used to switch the contested ring to a more favourable one (perhaps to enable Solemn Scholar with a Display of Power, or to play Feral Ningyo or obtain the Water ring for Prodigy of the Waves).

The most recent addition to the roster, Retire to the Brotherhood gained a lot of traction in the famous bird deck. This is exclusively a stronghold province for any deck that has lots of small and large characters and little in-between. As a stronghold province, this is commonly used to remove the opponent's tower thanks to a pre-conflict Consumed by Five Fires to strip away the fate. It works against any swarm strategy just as well. It is really important to remember that the new characters entering play will do so at home rather than in the conflict, and that this happens before Phoenix decides which defenders it will commit, but after the attacker has declared their attackers.

Holdings

Phoenix has excellent holdings and is often running holdings for over a quarter of their dynasty deck. Down below are some common Phoenix holdings. Phoenix will, like most clans, be playing the neutral holdings from the core set as well.

Free cards are nice. Forgotten Library offers no strength bonus and will clog up a province row, but unlike Imperial Storehouse, it will provide a free card every turn. This a powerful effect which ensures that Forgotten Library is an easy 3x in Phoenix decks. When facing a Phoenix player, look to knock these out early as their value only increases the longer the game goes on.

If you are the Phoenix player, you will see opponents try to knock this out, so keep the appropriate defenders at the ready. Also, Phoenix often has over a quarter of their dynasty deck as holdings. Do not keep this holding around when the game is in the developing stages where you need to buy a good character every turn, because holding flood will lose you games. You keep this against any game that is going to attrition on resources.

Recently released from the restricted list, Secluded Shrine provides a number of powerful benefits. To begin with, the claimed ring does count towards the glory count for the Imperial Favour at the end of the Conflict Phase. It also synergises with Solemn Scholar to provide a cheap bow against an attacking character, or Prodigy of the Waves to gain an extra ready. On occasion you will see this combine with Katana of Fire.

There are two notable rules interaction to be aware of with this holding:

  1. The ring produced by Secluded Shrine is virtual. This means you cannot switch it with another ring or put it back in the unclaimed ring zone for a benefit.

  2. The ring has an element type, but lacks a conflict type (i.e. it is neither Military or Political). When the corresponding physical ring is contested, it will copy the conflict type of the physical ring while it is contested.

A tell-tale sign of Secluded Shrine's presence is when your opponent is playing City of the Rich Frog in order to make the Solemn Scholar play much more consistent.

Thankfully, the card is no longer needed to help against the banned Isawa Tadaka during mirror matches.

Ancestral Shrine provides an excellent cushion against dishonour decks. In general, the action should be used during the action window in the Fate phase (after framework step 4.4), as this means claimed rings will still count towards the glory count for the Imperial Favour in the Conflict Phase. Note that this is after fate is placed on unclaimed rings, so any rings returned by Ancestral Shrine will not have fate on them for the next turn.

Ancestral Shrine can also be used to return a ring during the conflict phase. This is commonly done to add more fate to the rings when Phoenix is not going to win the Imperial Favour, or sometimes just with one of the rings so that there are two rings with fate on them if Phoenix is the second player. It can also be returned to declare a second conflict on that ring. This allows, for example, up to 5 honor to be gained from the Air ring (4 from dual ring effects and 1 from the shrine itself), or to resolve Isawa Ujina a second time with the Void ring. Finally, Shiba Tsukune can be used to put back two particular rings so that they can be resolved again by her ability.

Characters

Phoenix characters are on the whole balanced in military (average 2.1) and political (average 2.4), with a slight edge in political. They also have the highest average glory of all the clans at 1.7 glory on average, which makes their characters have the highest ceiling and lowest floor depending on the character's honored/dishonored state.

About half of the Phoenix roster has the Shugenja trait, with the next common trait being Courtier and finally Bushi. Phoenix also has a couple of Monk and Creature characters, but they are not well supported within the faction. A common trait also seen on Phoenix characters is Scholar, which is the auxiliary trait supported by the clan.

Phoenix have a surprising number of pint-sized powerhouses in their 1-cost character slot. You will see as few as 3 1-cost characters on the dynasty side. The average is likely in the 6 to 9 area. Some lists such as those that lean on Supernatural Storm will run upwards of 15 1-cost Shugenja. Whenever you see 1-cost Shugenja, you should read "fuels Supernatural Storm".

Ethereal Dreamer is the aggressive 1 drop of choice. It is both expendable and 3/3 stats during any conflict with the chosen ring element, and has 0 glory so that it can shrug off any dishonour effects. Given how you need to track this ability, it is heartily recommended to use your spare rings from extra copies of the core set to mark which ring each dreamer is set to. Generally, you should buy Ethereal Dreamer when you are the first player with 0 fate on it, or as second player with one fate if you are not throwing away the passing fate doing so. You also buy her, like any one drop, whenever you are facing off against Crab to soak up Way of the Crab.

The ability to bow an opposing character is one of the more powerful effects in Legend of the Five Rings and Solemn Scholar can provide an effective way to achieve this once the Earth ring is claimed (or considered claimed). The easiest way to enable this is with Secluded Shrine, and this can be sped up with City of the Rich Frog and cards with the Rally keyword.

A Courtier rather than a Shugenja, Naive Student provides excellent value when contesting the favour with his 2 glory, and when leaving play as he draws his controller a card. He is immune to military duels, but will be sent home if a conflict is flipped to Military. He is also notably a Scholar and our first instance of the Phoenix potato, i.e. a character that has 0 ability when it is dishonoured. Even so, this is a very formidable character that makes it into any list that wants the conflict card, the glory and/or Scholar at that price point.

A more recent Courtier that is making waves is Expert Interpreter, whose ability to block characters from entering during a chosen ring is fairly disruptive against anyone relying on Keeper Initiates or any of the events that put characters in play during the conflict like Cavalry Reserves.

The Bushi are a rare sight in Phoenix at this price point, but when the trait is supported with conflict cards, you can see Valiant Oathkeeper showing up in amongst the 1-cost characters. No ability to speak of, but an impressive statline at 2/2/1. Expect to see Purity of Spirit to be played alongside it, which makes it a 5/5 once honoured and with the glory bonus from Isawa Mori Seido.

Shrine Maiden is a conflict character who can potentially draw her controller Spell or Kiho cards when entering play. Consider Shrine Maiden's ability carefully when building a Phoenix deck: the more cards with the Spell trait that are included, the higher the hit rate when playing Shrine Maiden. Usually, this means you want at least 23 hits off Shrine Maiden to get a 60% chance at picking up two spells. Note Shrine Maiden's ability to can be used to find both Spell events and attachments. The part where Shrine Maiden discards non-spells is generally not that important, except whenever you are reliant on finding one of those cards to win the game with (e.g. Isawa Tadaka).

Isawa Uona, Asako Tsuki, Adept of the Waves and Seeker of Knowledge are some of the more commonly-played 2-fate Phoenix Shugenja.

Uona's ability, whilst seemingly an edge case, is relatively easy to achieve, and is certainly easy for an opponent to forget about. Commonly-played Air cards in Phoenix include Benten's Touch, Trick of the Light, Cloak of Night, Seeker of Knowledge, Walking the Way, and Cloud the Mind. If Isawa Uona is in play, and you have a non-unique character participating in a key conflict, expect to see any of these cards played to bow said character.

Asako Tsuki is the core of the Scholar theme. She is one of the few Phoenix characters that let you honour your own characters, even if in her case she will generally only honour herself. She does this whenever the Water ring is claimed by either player. Note that she is also a Courtier, so you can play any pay-off card for that trait with her too while maintaining a healthy number of both Courtier and Shugenja.

Good since the core set, Adept of the Waves is the only character within Phoenix that gets close to having covert. Combine his good offensive covert ability with reasonable stats and you have a workhorse of a character.

Seeker of Knowledge is a conflict character who, while attacking, adds the Air element to the contested ring. This can be used to in an honour deck to claim multiple air rings, or, occasionally, in the Kaito Kosori artillery deck to ensure Kosori's skill is added to the current conflict.

The Phoenix clan's staunch pacifism is represented in game through characters such as Meddling Mediator, Mediator of Hostilities, and Pacifist Philosopher. While considered a novelty for much of the games early years, such cards have recently reached a critical mass, allowing them to compete competitively.

Meddling Mediator punishes an opponent for repeated attacks, and as a non-unique character her ability can be repeated with more copies of her on the table. Depending whether the Phoenix player's win condition is conquest or honour, they can take either 1 fate or 1 honour from their opponent.

At first, Mediator of Hostilities and Pacifist Philosopher may read as if they rely on an opponent passing a conflict. However, "a player" can also refer to the Phoenix player, and thus by passing two conflicts a turn, said player can draw multiple cards and gain multiple fate depending on how many of each character is on the board. Such a strategy can generate significant resources, allowing a Phoenix player to use powerful cards such as Consumed by Five Fires to disrupt their opponents plans, whilst they work towards their own victory condition.

Like all Magistrate cards, Haughty Magistrate disrupts an opponent by ignoring the skill value of characters of a particular type. In this case, characters with a lower glory than Haughty Magistrate do not contribute their skill toward the resolution of the conflict. At only 1 glory this does not appear threatening, but with the buff from Isawa Mori Seido this quickly becomes 3 (for the entire phase), and suddenly all defenders with 2 or lower glory are rendered useless at the end of a conflict.

While Haughty Magistrate is not a Shugenja, and thus cannot be readied with Against the Waves, Clarity of Purpose will still work to allow participation in multiple attacks. As a Bushi, you can expect him in lists that run Purity of Spirit, but you will especially see him along with Cloak of Night, which presents both protection and another glory boost.

The 3-cost characters in Phoenix are known for being on the whole relatively low on strength, but high on utility. This allows them to form a potent defensive set.

One of the Rally cards for Phoenix, Student of the (Pota)Tao is expected to be a common sight in any Phoenix list that has several Void provinces. She is tailor-made to be played out of Seeker of Void with a row of Kuroi Mori, Shameful Display and Sanpuku Seido. She can defend any Void province with her ability, and her high glory allows her to both make a stand at Shameful Display and Sanpuku Seido even without her ability. You can even get a third Void province with City of the Rich Frog in order to make her able to defend just about any of these. Also, note how she sends home characters without requiring participation herself. This ability can also be used to break opposing Shameful Displays by taking away the defender, though you will need someone else that isn't hindered much by the Shameful Display like the ever-popular Ethereal Dreamer. Beyond her ability, she is both a Shugenja and a Scholar, allowing several synergies with either trait without sacrificing a dynasty draw for it.

Radiant Orator (or 'Pointy' for friends) is the weakest of the defensive options and only playable out of Isawa Mori Seido, but she can send home just about anyone. She pays for this by having very weak military and political, but that may very well be worth the price if you get to send home a tower.

Sage of Gisei Toshi has the best body of the three and is notably a Scholar. He pays for this by requiring you to be more honourable (better pack those Ancestral Shrines) and by having the most awkward send home, as he won't stick around either. This can be a benefit when you are using his ability in a military conflict if you will win against the same character in political. Of note, he benefits hugely if you get to play him with Favored Mount at which point opponents usually need to find a solution to his ability.

The second type of three drop are the dedicated province breakers.

Hailing from the Phoenix Inquisitors, Asako Maezawa is a pile of political stats that rivals that of Kakita Yoshi. He is better in Isawa Mori Seido, but hampered by being only a Courtier. Still, if you are looking for big political numbers, Maezawa delivers.

Righteous Delegate is a very rare sight within Phoenix as yet another pure Courtier. This limitation might be insignificant when the Phoenix deck goes wide with Keeper Initiates, 1-cost Shugenja, Goblin Sneaks, Feral Ningyo or even Force of the River. You won't see her often, but when you do, you should be aware that the deck the Phoenix player brought will go wide against you.

More of an event than a character, Feral Ningyo is another Phoenix take on Banzai!. Restricted to Water conflicts only, but not maxed out at one and with a political stat. In a pinch, you can even play it against your Scorpion opponent. A noteworthy interaction is against the Crab champion and Shredder-lookalike Hida Kisada. The action of Feral Ningyo will get cancelled by Hida Kisada, but because the card is in your hand rather than in play, the game will not remember that you used its ability. Consequently, you just get to use its ability again right away and negate Kisada's ability! Neat! The second noteworthy interaction is that you can use its ability when it is in play if you happened to have bought it earlier just so that it shuffles itself back in the deck. This is ideal, because you want to build to the endgame of drawing three copies every single turn of the game.

Isawa Mori Seido needs honouring/dishonouring to utilize its ability, and in the dynasty side you will run into several characters that help out in this regard. We already covered the best of the bunch in Asako Tsuki, but this set can definitely help you out if you can deal with their restriction.

If you ever wanted to emphasize a conflict's importance, look no further than Asako Diplomat. Her ability adds a Fire Ring to any conflict that she wins. She needs help to achieve this as her body is unremarkable, but the pay-off is definitely there.

Acolyte of Koyane is a great opener and as a Shugenja works with any of the ready effects you will see out of Phoenix (Against the Waves, Clarity of Purpose and Isawa Tadaka). Again, you need to win the conflict where her ability is used in, but there's a little bit more that she enables. She can use her ability in any political conflict, not just the ones she participates in. When you are playing around with characters with pride or with a Magnificent Kimono, she can also negate that keyword ability when things go South for you in the conflict.

Inferno Guard Invoker is the riskiest of the three. His ability can be fired without winning the conflict. Yay! If you win it and break the province, you lose whoever you used the ability on though, so be careful! This is also a thing that can happen on defence, so try your utmost to not lose your defender by getting sent home! There are ways to help you out though. This ability is all upside when you are storming the opponent's stronghold (at least when they cannot redirect you to another province). You can use his ability on a character that was about to fade that turn anyway without much of an afterthought. You can use him when you overcommit on defenders. He will also generally win any conflict at Sanpuku Seido. Finally, you can use his ability on himself and either move him out of the conflict where you were the attacker with him as your sole attacker, or you can disguise over him with Isawa Takada. Disguising over a character will move over the honoured status token, but the ability where you sacrifice the character doesn't, making it entirely risk-free.

The Shiba are the Bushi protectors of the clan's Shugenja. In the game, this translates to them being good defenders that benefit your other traits.

First and foremost of these is Shiba Yojimbo. She is often the only Bushi in a Phoenix deck full of Shugenja. She provides a bubble shield that will prevent almost all abilities in the game. The ones that are excluded are ring effects and keyword abilities such as covert. Another noteworthy interaction is that she stops the full effect even if it targeted non-Shugenja in addition to a Shugenja.

For the longest time, Serene Warrior was a joke of a card because it has no text and too much glory. A rare sight nowadays, but this 3 drop has the potential to have the highest strength of all 3-cost characters in the game. The only reason why you will see him is when Purity of Spirit is there to help him out.

Doubling down on defending and helping other traits, Chikai Order Protector (or YoboCOP for friends) is a very persistent defender. She is a common sight in a deck with lots of Courtiers because she makes up for the lack of Against the Waves and she makes losing the attack very punitive if she is flanked by Asako Diplomat. If you see this character alongside a Void role, expect the Crane splash for A New Name. Once you combine these two cards, Shiba Bob needs no friends in the conflict to keep readied as a defender.

The Keeper dynasty card of Phoenix, Garanto Guardian is geared towards defence and also has high stats to win the conflict with. Be wary of a splash for Talisman of the Sun because he will redirect you to Sanpuku Seido and resolve the fire ring in a deck full of high glory.

A number of Phoenix Shugenja offer synergy with the Void ring. All feature sub-par stats (though Atsuko might make you reconsider) , but their abilities are noteworthy.

If the currently conflict is Void then Isawa Atsuko will buff each friendly character by +1/+1, while doing the opposite for the opponent. Isawa Kaede can ensure the current ring is Void while attacking, and can resolve both rings upon resolution.

While is is expensive to buy both of these characters and then have them present in a single conflict, Forebearer's Echoes is a cheap workaround. Either or both can be brought back directly, or Fushicho can summon one upon leaving play after an earlier conflict.

If the Void ring is claimed (by any player), Isawa Ujina must remove a character without fate from the game. Ideally, this will be a powerful opposing character, but if only friendly targets are available then one of these must be chosen (including Ujina himself). Isawa Ujina is a potentially risky buy, but usually there will be enough fodder to feed Ujina in case you can't remove fate from your opponent's characters. If faced with Isawa Ujina, be very wary of the Phoenix player switching conflicts to Void without warning as this will enable his ability. That said, his ability targets a character so Finger of Jade can be used for protection. As stated earlier, be wary of Ancestral Shrine hanging out on the provinces because you might face this ability a second time.

While not a Void Shugenja herself, Fearsome Mystic is the final characer that completes the void package. Her ability hits about a Fifth of the characters in the game, but with the glory boost from Isawa Mori Seido, she can hit almost all characters. If she does this on air, she hits everyone. A common play you will see with her is a political void attack, especially when you also have Ujina on the table to set up a damned if you do, damned if you don't attack. She has a modal amount of glory, which is another practical element to her. She is not weak at all once you dishonor her, and she has all the benefits of high glory if you do manage to honor her. Just be careful of Mark of Shame!

While not as grossly overpowered as his early Dynasty version, the conflict Isawa Tadaka remains a threatening character. His Disguised keyword allows him to enter play where needed, and his ability allows him to select a card to be removed from an opponent's hand each turn. The requirement for this is that a number of characters be removed from his controllers discard pile, so when running Tadaka look to cycle Dynasty characters wherever possible, and when playing against Phoenix, avoid discarding cards when breaking provinces.

While it is legitimate to play him for full retail, many players will use him as 3 more ready effects by disguising him over a non-unique Shugenja. This adds 3 more ready effects on top of Clarity of Purpose and Against the Waves, and it conveniently throws a character in the discard to fuel Tadaka's ability.

Due to her high cost, high glory and lack of the Shugenja trait Shiba Tsukune, Champion of the Phoenix clan and protagonist of The Sword and the Spirits, did not see much play until recently, when she was found to slot nicely into the Phoenix Forebearer's Echoes deck.

When recurred with Forebearer's Echoes, Fushicho will leave play at the end of the current conflict, allowing another character in the discard pile to be returned with one fate. If Shiba Tsukune is returned in this way her 4 glory can be used to all-but-guarantee the favour, her ability can be used to resolve up to two unclaimed rings, and she remains in play for another turn (as an 8/8 if the Fire ring is used to honour her). This is a tidy package, provided all the pieces come together.

She also makes an appearance in any list featuring a bunch of Bushi as she becomes a powerhouse once you support her with Purity of Spirit. She also fits in any pacifist build, because her ability wants you to do up to one conflict a turn (a water conflict) so that you can leech off two rings for her ability. She also works well with Ancestral Shrine to ensure the right rings are still available if you had to claim them during conflicts.

Like similar 6-cost Spirit, characters, Fushicho offers a solid 6/6 body with no attachments allowed. And, like its contemporaries, Fushicho is almost never played in the Dynasty Phase (though it is not unheard of against Scorpion), but rather is cheated into play by other means (in this case, through Forebearer's Echoes).

The terror of Gencon 2019, this deck was hit by the banning of Charge! and nerfs to Kyuden Isawa. It remains powerful, however, being able to also make use of My Ancestor's Strength to set the stats of a participating Shugenja to 6/6 until the end of the conflict for just 1 fate.

As mentioned, when leaving play Fushicho allows a Phoenix character in the discard pile to be returned with 1 fate. As with all recursion effects, the effectiveness of this ability increases the larger the discard pile is, as this allows more flexibility in choosing the right character for the current board state.

Attachments

Embrace the Void provides a handy fate boost each turn as long as it stays in play (and the attached character has fate). Multiple copies can be played, but the effect of each can only be used once per turn. That said, more than 1 fate can be returned through Embrace the Void, provided this happens in a single instance. Most commonly, more than 1 fate is removed from a character in a single action through Consumed by Five Fires, resulting in it, and Embrace the Void, being placed on the restricted list. Be careful when playing against it with your disguised characters. Disguising a character moves all the fate from the old to the new character in one instance, which Embrace the Void can intercept. Another thing to be aware of is that it might be combined with Karmic Twist, so your non-unique characters might become a liability.

Even though the best part of Embrace the Void is its potential to mess with your opponent, playing this on a 3-fate character and recouping that cost over multiple turns can lead to an economical advantage that could overwhelm your opponent once this translates in an extra character in the late game.

Phoenix is usually pretty light on attachments outside of neutral 0 cost attachments, but on occasion you will see any of these three.

Studious is a cheap pay-off card for your Scholars. Adding Sincerity means Asako Tsuki will at least draw you another card if/when she gets murdered. As soon as you also win a conflict with it, you have gained a significant advantage for very little investment.

Magnificent Kimono is a pet card of the author, and it is one of the better tools Phoenix has in-faction to honour their characters with. Pride can be as much of a benefit as a drawback, but key here is that you get to decide when you deploy it. If you are dropping Isawa Tadaka for your final conflict when there are no defenders, Magnificent Kimono will honour you without any further investment. If your opponent is under-committing on an attack, you can make them pay dearly for it. A great opening strategy with Magnificent Kimono is to buy a Fearsome Mystic and attack with it on political Void. Many players will not defend because that's giving you the Void ring for free because they likely bought a character with fate on it. Even if they did, the Fearsome Mystic might still win it regardless. You get to honour her pretty commonly here with Magnificent Kimono and ready her after the conflict with Isawa Tadaka. This card shines hard against both Scorpion and Crane. Scorpion will dishonour your large character straight away which means the kimono is all upside there. Against Crane, this goes under the Voice of Honor shields and render them unplayable.

A much more specialized card is Erudite Prestige. You need Courtiers and lots of 0 cost cards (like the other two here), so it can find a home in decks with lots of auxiliary draw. Once you have a list that meets these conditions, it can quickly go over any opponent's political numbers, forcing them to bow or send home your political character. If you want to commit to this fully, it is recommended to splash Adopted Kin so that you get to recoup all of it.

Peacemaker's Blade prevents characters from declaring as attackers. It is cheap, but still allows the attached character to defend (with +3 military). It also does not stop characters being moved into a conflict once it is underway. Playing this on the opponent can backfire spectacularly when they have enough restricted attachments. They can play a third restricted attachment on the card and discard the restricted attachment of their choosing, i.e. the Peacemaker's Blade.

Pacifism is more exclusionary, but also more expensive. For 2 fate it prevents the attached character from participating in any military conflict, whether by declaring as an attacker or being moved in. It has no effect on political conflicts, and cannot be played during conflicts. Be careful not to walk your character with Pacifism into Kuroi Mori, because getting the conflict type flipped to military sends you home bowed!

When combined with the Scorpion attachment Stolen Breath, it is possible to lock down many, if-not-all, of an opponent's characters. Such a strategy is expensive, vulnerable to attachment control, and ineffective against swarm decks, but in other circumstances can be powerful when combined with effects that punish players for not declaring or participating in conflicts.

Events

Supernatural Storm synergises very well with the many Phoenix Shugenja. Unlike cards such as Banzai! (once per conflict), Fine Katana (2 per character), or A Legion of One (no more than one friendly character), Supernatural Storm can be played 3 times in a battle on any participating character, with the possibility of a fourth thrown in from Kyuden Isawa for good measure. Also, and easily missed, Supernatural Storm is a rare political buff, making it invaluable outside of military conflicts. Generally, you need to go wide with this card to be worth it after the Kyuden Isawa errata. If you can get this to +3/+3, it becomes worthwhile to play, but you should aim for +4/+4 and higher for it to trade efficiently on a card-per-card basis.

The support card for the Shiba, Purity of Spirit makes the high glory downside sting much, much less. No longer will Tsukune be dishonoured after a fire ring attack by the opponent. You get to defend with her instead, use Purity of Spirit and either win the conflict, or lose it and discard any status token on her afterwards. Because of Shiba's high average glory, this will generally speaking act like an impromptu Banzai!.

These 3 spells represent the primary Phoenix bow and ready control resources.

Against the Waves can be used to ready a friendly Shugenja, both inside or outside of conflicts. If recurring this Spell with Kyuden Isawa, remember that the stronghold can only be used during conflicts, and thus is unable to ready a key character after a conflict is completed. It can, however, be used in this way to ready a bowed character at home. Now errata'd to only target friendly characters, Against the Waves is rarely used to bow a Shugenja, although this can be done to prevent dangerous 'on break' provinces such as Upholding Authority and Restoration of Balance from triggering.

Clarity of Purpose prevents opposing card effects from bowing the targeted character (who does not need to be a Shugenja), and also prevents said character from bowing as a result of political conflicts. It can still be played in military conflicts, but will only offer the first of these benefits.

A powerful card, Clarity of Purpose ensures that a key character can remain unhindered in the current conflict, whilst also participating in another this round. The character is still vulnerable to discard and send home effects, and if the conflict is switched to military they will bow as usual at the resolution.

Earth Becomes Sky was significantly hyped upon its announcement, when clans were still role locked and players were scrambling for either an Earth role for this, or an Air role for Forebearer's Echoes. While it has not quite lived up to the hype, it is still a commonly-played card in Earth decks, both Phoenix and Scorpion.

Playable whenever a character readies (whether in the usual framework effect in the fate phase, or through a card or ring effect), Earth Becomes Sky can be used to bow them again. Note that it does not target a character so cards such as Finger of Jade will not protect against it, however, cards that prevent characters from being bowed such as Ready for Battle do still work.

Cloak of Night prevents the chosen character from being targeted by opponent's card effects. It synergises well with glory-focused Isawa Mori Seido decks, and, like the stronghold, can be used on a dishonoured character to further lower their skill for the current conflict. It can be utilized on both your own and your opponent's characters to stop further targetting of that character (for instance, when you intend to bow a character that can be readied with the opponent's own Against the Waves. As an Air Spell it can can also be used to bow a non-unique character with Isawa Uona.

Display of Power costs two fate, one honour (for an unopposed conflict), and a conflict card. Is all of this worth it just to claim a ring? Yes. The answer is yes.

The titular rings are a key component of Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game. The reason Display of Power is so, well, powerful, is that it can deny an opponent the ring they most need. Are they on low honour and desperately need to resolve the Air ring? Denied. Are they low on cards and need the Earth Ring? Denied. Do they need to remove the last fate from a Phoenix character with the Void Ring? Denied. Oh, and said fate will now be removed from their character instead.

Display of Power also denies card effects that rely on claimed rings. Does a Unicorn player need a military conflict to enable Shiotome Encampment? Nope. Does a Lion player need to claim 2 rings to use Heroic Resolve? Nope.

When playing against Phoenix (and Scorpion with an Earth role) expect Display of Power to follow any unopposed conflict. This requires that you select rings that will not affect you too badly if your opponent claims and resolves them. It is argued within the community that this breaks the game: the elemental rings are a fundamental part of the framework, and to deny their benefits is unfair, even for the cost of 2 fate and 1 honour.

As of recently, the effect of Display of Power was found too disruptive, and it allowed some very passive decks that never defended. The latest imperial decree has taken the action to restrict Display of Power.

Currently tied for as most expensive event in the game, Consumed by Five Fires, a restricted card, is nonetheless capable of costing an opponent far more.

Suppose an opponent has 3 characters in play: A 5-cost character with 2 fate, a 3 cost character with 2 fate, and a 2-cost character with 1 fate. A single Consumed by Five Fires can strip all the fate from these characters, causing them to leave play at the end of the round unless another card intervenes. An opponent has lost 15 fate worth of investments (not to mention attachments and status tokens) for the cost of only 5 fate.

While not quite a fair comparison (the characters will still contribute during the current round, and may have been in play in previous rounds), this shows what an impact Consumed can have on a game.

The elephant in the room is cancel effects. If interrupted, Consumed by Five Fires will cost its owner 5 fate for no benefit at all. Be very careful playing it against, for example, Crane if they have more honoured characters, Scorpion if they have non-dishonoured courtiers, and anyone who has the favour. Also avoid playing it in conflicts against opponents with Keeper roles and high-military characters, because they will hit you with Defend Your Honor.

Consumed by Five Fires is also Seeker locked so there is no reason to fear it in Keeper decks. If an opponent is running a Seeker role, however, it is a common pick so be wary of putting too much fate on key characters.

Archetypes

By Justin Walsh and Severijn

This archetype is named for Fushicho, Phoenix’s giant 6-cost Mythic avatar. It runs exclusively out of Kyuden Isawa, whose spell-recycling ability is fundamental to the deck’s operation. It can be identified via its Seeker of Air role.

Essentially, this is a tempo/control hybrid deck, utilising City of the Rich Frog, A Season of War, and Walking the Way to dump a large number of dynasty cards into the Phoenix player’s discard pile. From there, the Lion splash card Forebearer’s Echoes can bring a character into play during a military conflict for a cost of 2 fate, with Fushicho being by far the preferred target. Not only is Fushicho an imposing 6/6, she also has an incredibly powerful leaving play effect that allows you bring another Phoenix character into play, for free, with 1 fate attached.

The standard Echo Bird archetype runs a Void sub-theme, with Isawa Kaede as its main Fushicho target, and Isawa Atsuko to pump Void conflicts (which Kaede automatically creates when she attacks). The deck is also notable for its slew of 1-cost Shugenja who can be powered up to disproportionate sizes with the other part of the Lion splash, My Ancestor’s Strength, and for the incredibly high number of spells that it runs.

Echo Bird is an explosive archetype, and among the more aggressive decks in the current environment. It can create overwhelming board positions out of nowhere, but can also struggle defensively, and relies more than most decks on variance. Nevertheless, it remains a strong Phoenix archetype, and a terrifying prospect to face.

The first Phoenix deck made, Midrange/Value was, at one point, a juggernaut of value (well, duh) and blatantly unfair card effects, until most of the deck’s key components got banned or errata’d. It is now a shadow of its former self – but still a capable deck – and has tended to morph toward a self-honouring archetype. It sees play out of both Isawa Mori Seido and Kyuden Isawa, with the former being more generally favoured after the errata.

The deck almost exclusively runs Dragon as its splash and Seeker of Void as its role choice. Featuring a strong line-up of characters in all range bands, the Midrange deck seeks to build a powerful board, honour up key characters with Acolyte of Koyane or the slightly more risky Inferno Guard Invoker, and use the value generation of Against the Waves and Clarity of Purpose to grind an opponent down. The Seeker role also grants access to Consumed by Five Fires, so the deck can go nuclear if required.

Isawa Mori Seido and Ancient Master give the deck consistent Imperial Favour control, which makes Censure a reliable cancel effect, further ensuring the deck’s lockdown.

If given the chance to establish itself, Phoenix Midrange remains an incredibly potent deck, but it is vulnerable to faster archetypes. Still, with an established formula and proven success, it is not to be overlooked.

The Phoenix ‘Pass’ archetype is one of the newest to emerge, with Mediator of Hostilities finally creating a critical mass of card draw effects, enabling a strong, reliable, bid-1 deck out of Isawa Mori Seido. It is the successor to the earlier pure dishonor Phoenix builds and it will generally run a Keeper of Air role.

The deck has a few key features. First, being able to consistently bid 1 on turn one puts a lot of decks under immediate dishonour pressure, while also activating Assassination as a key, early defensive measure. The deck plays a Scorpion splash, which further controls the board and pressures an opponent’s honour.

Next, the deck has one of the nastiest province rows in the game, with four possible heartbreakers on any given turn. The deck is also defensively quite powerful, which only makes attacking it an even riskier and more punishing prospect. This in turn is made even worse by the deck’s draw being largely bid-independent. So when an opponent is quickly forced into bidding 1 as well, to avoid losing, the Pass deck will continue to draw three or four cards a turn, which makes defending easier, which makes the province row even more destructive. The Pass deck can be a tough nut to crack.

Finally, it doesn’t need to attack. It can, and to great advantage, but once it brings Shiba Tsukune into play, it can stall the game to a standstill while still resolving ring effects, and grind an opponent to death. Being able to achieve a lot while doing absolutely nothing is a unique kind of power.

However, the deck falters badly against many Lion archetypes, and can have a difficult time against Scorpion dishonour. Its games also go long, which can make it exhausting to play in a tournament situation. But it is also a new archetype with a lot of refinement still possible, and a completely distinct way of approaching the game.

Others

Beyond these highlights, there are several other deck archetypes that we would like to give a mention right here. One that was prominent until the June 2020 imperial decree was the Enlightenment-based list which is currently back to the drawing board after losing its way to get a ring with Display of Power. Another is the Bushi deck, which has seen success, but it plays like a variation on the Midrange deck. There are also several that are very rare and/or never quite made a high entry in a large tournament, like the swarm list, Erudite Prestige-centered lists or decks that play around with large attachments like Ofushikai. While these are not as common, we have listed these here just to illustrate the breadth and variety of Phoenix decks out there. Phoenix can have success with many different strategies and is a contender for the most different archetypes that a clan can field in today's game.

Faction Strengths and Weaknesses

Faction Strengths

  • Tempo: Phoenix characters and shugenja in particular can be readied/prevented from bowing fairly easily, allowing Phoenix to re-use characters in multiple conflicts.

  • Masters of fate: With cards like Embrace the Void and The Path of Man, the faction can trade cards for fate or discount its own cards, leading to a pretty strong fate economy. At to this Phoenix's ability to remove fate from the opposing player's characters, and you can quickly get to a point where Phoenix will have a large resource advantage the longer the game goes.

  • Powerful conflict cards: Some of the strongest effects in the game are in the Phoenix conflict deck like Consumed by Five Fires or Display of power.

  • Great defence: Many ways to bow or send home characters along with powerful provinces make Phoenix excellent at halting the opponent's progress.

  • Potential to snowball: Letting Phoenix honour their characters or letting them get to the critical mass of shugenja gives them such a spike in power that they become hard to stop.

Faction Weaknesses

  • Fragile characters: The average Phoenix character has a lot of glory and unremarkable military and political stats. Just like honouring their characters lets them snowball games, dishonouring those same characters stifles their game plan. Add to this the following issue:

  • Honoring comes with downsides: Phoenix has several ways to honour a character in-faction, but there's always a catch. You have to bow a shugenja to do it, you need to win the conflict or you cannot have the active province break. They are similar to Crane that honouring their characters is often part of the game plan, but unlike Crane they have no point-and-click methods to do so outside of neutral cards.

  • Reliance on rings: Several frequently played Phoenix cards require you to have claimed a specific ring for those cards to use their action, or they only work during conflicts with a certain ring element. The actions themselves are worth it though, but again, you have to go after specific rings and need to decide which of these you should go for first in a turn.

  • Little movement for your own characters: Moving your opponent out is easy, but moving your own characters in is hard. Phoenix is soft to any effect that prevents them from participating, be it covert or send-home effects.

Conclusion

Masters of the elemental, the Phoenix clan use their spiritual connections to the kami to serve the emperor and search for arcane knowledge and wisdom. While strictly a pacifist clan, the Phoenix, when roused, can prove to be fierce opponents.

When playing against Phoenix it is vital to check their role, stronghold, and opening flop very carefully. If Kyuden Isawa appears you can expect to plenty of Shugenja and Spell cards, and potentially a Lion splash with plenty of recursion interaction with Fushicho. If Isawa Mori Seido appears, expect to see manipulation of glory numbers and plenty of honour and dishonour play.

Regardless of the stronghold being played, however, it is best to expect the unexpected with Phoenix. Capable of both careful patience and furious burst, Phoenix matchups should always be approached with care.