Underhand of the Emperor

- lordshoju#0867

Updated 26 April, 2020

The Scorpion are a clan of no consequence. The rest of the Empire reviles the Scorpion as a clan of treachery, deceit, and lies. Founded by Kami Bayushi, all Scorpion are regarded as untrustworthy scoundrels, stalking the courts of the empire with blackmail and scheming villainy. And indeed, this is just what the Scorpion would like others to believe.

Scorpion dynasty characters are weak in military skill. Scorpion characters have comparatively inefficient skill values for their cost. Scorpion attacks are feeble, usually ineffectual, and unable to break any provinces at all. Why indeed, would a player ever play this lowly clan?

Strongholds

The City of the Open Hand allows a Scorpion player to take an honor from an opponent if the Scorpion has lower Honor. Highly situational, this means the Scorpion usually go several turns without being able to activate their Stronghold at all. How often would a Scorpion have lower honor than an opponent? This Stronghold is so useless it has the dubious distinction of being the only Stronghold on the Restricted List (up to three copies of only one card from the Restricted List may be included during deck building) as nobody wants to use it. Obviously.

Kyuden Bayushi targets a friendly dishonored character, allowing the player to straighten that character and granting a +1 boost to its military and political skill if the Scorpion player's honor is at 6 or below. As this requires the Scorpion to first control a dishonored character in the first place (and why would anyone even dishonor their own character?), the stronghold has little practical use.

Seven Stings Keep allows the Scorpion to choose a number of attackers, then forces an opponent to first declare defenders, before the Scorpion decides which ring, which province, and which conflict type his attackers will participate in. This is sheer madness. If the Scorpion has a single character with no military skill, which conflict do you think the Scorpion will declare? What a waste of space.

Provinces

Scorpion Provinces are as ineffectual as their Strongholds.

Secret Cache is an Air province that allows the Scorpion to look at the top five cards of their conflict deck, draw one card, and reshuffle the rest back into the deck. To understand why this province is so weak, compare this with the provinces of other Clans. Some can discard a character outright, or change a conflict type and/or Ring. All Secret Cache does is draw a single card. Oh joy.

Any character played from Toshi Ranbo enters play with an additional fate. This province was the first province to have all five elements, meaning it can take the slot of any element during deck building. Great on paper, but in practice this province is usually the first to be attacked and broken by an opponent.

An Earth province, Effective Deception allows the Scorpion player to cancel any triggered ability performed at this province. One cancel does not win a battle however, as an opponent usually just plays attachments (not a triggered ability) or plays yet another ability afterward.

Characters

Here are some of the notable characters in the Scorpion roster. Notable because they provide more disadvantages than advantages.

Bayushi Shoju is the Champion of the Scorpion Clan. Which actually isn't saying much.

Bayushi Shoju (Core Set) is, simply put, the least feared of the Clan Champions. His ability, usable twice per turn, allows the Scorpion to reduce a character’s political Skill by one, discarding the character if their political skill hits zero. He is unwieldy and hard to play as his ability only works during a political conflict.

Bayushi Shoju (Shoju's Duty) is even weaker than the Core Set version. He has a dash for his military skill, meaning he cannot participate in military conflicts at all. His ability to reduce every player’s honor by one every turn is interesting, but this comes at a price of allowing everyone to draw two cards. Why would a Scorpion ever want their opponent to draw two additional cards?

Young Rumormonger represents the Scorpion Clan at its most impotent state. He allows you to redirect an honor or dishonor token from its intended recipient to another. However, he can only redirect among characters controlled by the same player. Just how useful could his ability be? Not very useful, that’s for sure.

Blackmail Artist is a two-cost character that allows the Scorpion to steal one honor from his opponent if he wins a political conflict. However, at a lowly 2 political skill, he rarely wins, and is a prime target for cards such as Assassination or Court Games. He is no threat, and his opponents know it.

With Favored Niece, the Scorpion discards a card from hand and draws a card, twice per turn. With most games coming down to a matter of the right cards at the right time, why in the world would a player gamble on discarding a card already in hand to just potentially get a better one? Chances are the drawn card will just disappoint you, twice. No one needs this level of disappointment. Skip this card.

The Bayushi Liar is the lowliest of the low. Sure he has three political skill for the cost of one fate. But like his clan champion he cannot join military conflicts, or participate in a military-based duel. His Sincerity trait (draw a card when he leaves play) also means he usually never lasts beyond one turn. What a waste.

Conflict Cards/Events

Forged Edict is the weakest card in the Scorpion arsenal. Yes, it can cancel an opponent’s event, but at the cost of dishonoring a Courtier. And when dishonored characters leave play, they cause honor loss, bringing the Scorpion one step closer to losing the game through dishonor. It is also on the Restricted List, meaning a Scorpion player has to give up other Restricted List cards to include this one.

It slices, it dices. A Fate Worse Than Death removes a character from the battle, bowing it, dishonoring it, removing one fate from it, and blanks the character’s abilities until the end of turn. Scary on paper, in practice the Scorpion will rarely have the fate to even play this card successfully. Its presence on the Restricted List also means it cannot be included alongside Forged Edict, which means a Scorpion player usually plays this in the hope his opponent has no cancels.

Calling in Favors steals an attachment controlled by another player and attaches it to a character controlled by the Scorpion. The Scorpion must dishonor the receiving character, however, which means a character dishonored to begin with cannot be the recipient of the stolen attachment. Again, this usually leaves the Scorpion with many dishonored characters, making a loss through dishonor highly likely.

Backhanded Compliment makes the chosen player lose an honor as he draws a conflict card. What can one point of honor loss do? Even with three copies, this just means an opponent loses three honor in total. What are the chances an opponent will only have three or so honor left during a game? Highly unlikely. This card is also locked into a Keeper role.

The infamous Way of the Scorpion. All this card does is dishonor a participating character during a conflict. It does not help the Scorpion win a conflict, nor does it affect other Scorpion characters. Why would a Scorpion even bother using this card?

Dispatch to Nowhere targets a character with no fate and discards him. This is yet another terrible card. Why? This is a Dynasty card, meaning it can only be played during the Dynasty Phase. There is no worse feeling than watching a huge character with no fate attacking the very province this event is in. This card is also powerless against characters with Finger of Jade or Above Question. Don't even bother including this card in your deck at all.

Duty prevents the loss of a Scorpion's last point of honor, gaining one point of honor instead. Duty is also limited to one per deck. It rarely shows up in hand enough to warrant inclusion, and when played is susceptible to cancel effects like Voice of Honor, Censure, or Forged Edict. And, this card is on the Restricted List. Not worth using.

Attachments

Scorpion Attachments are not worth the cost and utterly confusing.

Mark of Shame dishonors a chosen character twice. This is a terrible card. To begin with, it costs two fate. Second, why would there be a need to dishonor a character twice? It’s not as if the character can have two dishonor tokens. This card also requires an Air Role, limiting its usefulness.

For the cost of two fate, Stolen Breath prevents a character from participating in a political conflict. Why would this even matter? The character could simply participate in a military conflict then. What were the Scorpion even thinking?

Fiery Madness reduces the skill of attached character by two. Admittedly this card is decent, as it only costs one fate. It is not very useful however, as all the opponent has to do to make up the loss in skill is to attach a Fine Katana and an Ornate Fan at the same time. And everybody uses Fine Katana and Ornate Fan.

Holdings

Surprisingly, the Scorpion have some of the best holdings in the game.

Back-Alley Hideaway is a feared holding that allows the Scorpion player to attach a character to it facedown as the card leaves play. The holding can hold unlimited characters, all ready to be brought into play during your next Dynasty Phase. This means the Scorpion can play characters over and over, as the character never reaches the discard pile. Let your opponent be afraid. The Scorpion are eternal.

Petal Village Estate gives a +1 boost to the military and political skill of an Imperial character you control. Imagine the effect of three Petal Village Estates in one’s provinces at once. Imperial Scorpion characters will be unstoppable in their strength. And currently five Scorpions out of 65 have the Imperial trait. Fear their presence.

Licensed Quarter is an indispensable holding that allows the Scorpion to discard the top card of an opponent’s conflict deck every time the Scorpion wins a conflict. Every time. This means the Scorpion can discard four cards every turn! The best cards of an opponent, languishing in the discard pile. Efficiency at its finest.

Deck Archetypes

The Dropbear

A brainchild of Shosuro Kiseki and other enterprising Scorpion players, this deck redefined Scorpion play in the first few months of Legend of the Five Rings the LCG. Before the Dropbear, the usual flow of play was: buy characters during Dynasty Phase, have one or two fate left over, and pass. The Dropbear would simply pass without buying anything, ending the Dynasty Phase with eight fate. The opponent is faced with a Scorpion with no defenders or potential attackers.

The Dropbear would then play conflict characters like Unassuming Yojimbo, Adept of Shadows, or Bayushi Kachiko, dropping them into play before declaring an attack or directly into defense. The sudden drop would take an opponent by surprise, leaving them off balance for the remainder of the match.

How to play a Dropbear deck? Follow the deck design to the letter. Don’t buy any characters from your provinces at all. Don’t even discard them at the end of turn. Let your opponent smash your provinces; you’ll be fine, you’ll catch up once your hand is filled with big conflict characters. See how much fate you can build up by passing and not buying anything. 30 fate already? Great job. See if you can hit 50. Keep it up! Go Dropbear!

One has to sight a Dropbear to know if it’s a Dropbear. If the Scorpion acts like he has no Dynasty Phase, yep it’s a Dropbear. Send your smallest characters to attack his provinces. See if you can manage a sighting of the mythical Dropbears that appear out of nowhere during a conflict. And be very very quiet.

Dishonor

The most notable Scorpion deck archetype. This deck has one main objective: drag the opponent down to zero honor, winning the game for the Scorpion. Key to this deck is City of the Open Hand, as having lower honor means taking an honor away from an opponent.

So with this in mind, bid high. Bid five every turn. Look at all the cards in your hand! Your opponent is in for it now. Eventually your opponent will catch on, and will start to bid one. You will lose four honor every turn. Great! The trap has been sprung.

Use every card that will lower your own honor so you can use your Stronghold. Use Assassination every turn. Bring Ignoble Enforcers into play by losing three honor. Now watch an opponent weep as you take yet another honor from them. No Scorpion ever lost by hitting zero honor. Just keep using your Stronghold. Don’t even bother defending! Keep it up and savor the look of unease on your opponent’s face as he stands with 30 military skill and 24 political skill. You can win even if your Stronghold province is the only one left. Trust in the power of dishonor!

When facing a dishonour deck, call up the biggest, burliest Bushi and courtliest Courtier to attack as early and as often as possible. And stick to military conflicts, as a Scorpion can throw more shame in court for the underpants you wear. Honor helps too. Claim that Fire ring, and keep it away from those dastardly Scorpion.

Discard

When a player’s deck runs out and a card must be drawn, that player reshuffles the discard pile into the appropriate deck, loses five honor, and draws the required number of cards. This Scorpion deck aims to exhaust an opponent’s conflict deck, using the five-point honor loss to win the game for the Scorpion.

Heartless Intimidator is your best friend, as he discards one card from your opponent’s conflict deck every time your opponent loses one honor. Watch your opponent squirm as you discard all of their good cards. Put every fate that you can on him when he appears; four fate should be a good start. Don’t bother buying any another character as Heartless Intimidator will win the game for you single-handedly.

Another great card is Master Whisperer, which forces a player to discard three cards from hand and draw three cards. This means that one Master Whisperer can discard an opponent’s entire conflict deck in only 12 turns! Three Master Whisperers would only need four turns to do so. Imagine winning without having to participate in a single conflict. The possibility is mind-boggling.

And ignore that Slovenly Scavenger when it comes into play. What could a single Goblin do, anyway?

How to play against Discard? Ignore the Scorpion. Really. Discard is slow, so focus on constant attacking. Having only five cards left in your conflict deck doesn’t matter if you’re attacking the Scorpion’s Stronghold Province with a huge army.

Conclusion

As detailed above, Scorpion cards are inefficient, ineffective, highly situational, and generally useless, as is the Clan that uses these cards.

Which is exactly what the Scorpion want you to believe.

When the Kami held their great contest to determine who would rule, the shrewd and cunning Bayushi walked into the contest with his brother Shiba…and lost on purpose.

Scorpion thrive in the shadows, their tools deception, deceit, and treachery. Scorpion use misdirection and trickery to appear weak, concealing their true intent behind a venomous grin. This philosophy is reflected in the cards of the Scorpion, and guides how competent Scorpion play the game.

The Scorpion are the villains of the Empire, and they thrive in the infamy.

It would be wise to remember the parting words of every Scorpion sensei:

Everyone lies. Even me.