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A Web of PowerA View of the Spider Clan following The New OrderIt's no secret that times have been hard for the Spider in the last year. Going into the Ivory Arc with the potentially-devastating Purge of Fudoism was rough enough. With the bold decision to implement an entirely new theme for Spider with the Susumu Courtiers, it meant that many of us Spider players were at a loss as to how our decks should be designed. We got a Stronghold that felt powerful and very thematic (a throwback, in fact, to the historic Black Silk Castle, while establishing Fear as a primary effect for us) along with a Sensei that allowed us to overcome some of the disadvantages of going second by providing the ability to give your strongest unit the Conqueror Keyword. Along with this, however, came a personality base that was a mix of Courtiers, Samurai, Monks and Kensai - a real mixing pot! Now, with the release of The New Order, I think we can finally look at our themes as developed and begin to move forward, looking ahead to some great fun AND competitive decks in the Strict Ivory environment.Being primarily a military Clan, we got some great personalities in the A Line in the Sand expansion - before this set, many Spider players had veered towards a Fear-based swarm build, running mainly 4 Gold-cost personalities and hoping to flood the board with more units than their opponents could deal with. The only problem with the deck was that it contained a mix of Samurai, Monks, Actors and even Ashigaru, in order to provide the numbers of Personalities. With A Line in the Sand, we got some much stronger personalities like Daigotsu Jeramu and Goju Saido, and with this came some more focused military decks that superseded the swarm build. A successful example of this type of deck was the one that finished in second place at the 2014 World Championships. Although still containing a mix of themes, Spider has finally started to come into its own as a powerful clan, and this looks to continue with The New Order.While Susumu Honor was easily the biggest surprise for Spider at the start of Ivory Edition, I think that for many of us Spider players the most exciting personality in The New Order is Gyushi Kageto. The first of a new Shugenja family for the Spider, Kageto is a Smith that creates Weapons as an Open action without Bowing; personally, I believe he's a really interesting card that opens up an entirely new method of play. Some of the best Fear actions in the game have been printed on Armor Items, and with Kageto freeing up some of those precious Fate slots we'd usually fill with Weapons, we can now include them much easily, allowing us to build bigger units with higher Force than before. Additionally, the Chi enhancement helps with our new Duelist, Daigotsu Takahide, who comes with an Unstoppable Fear action of his own. This allows you to apply his Fear effect against targets without worrying about the enemy using Interrupts such as Courage. Together with Daigotsu Atsushi, we have a suite of Personalities that allows us to bring Duels--some of the most powerful actions in the game--into the deck. Together with such regular and repeatable access to Fear effects, we have the basis of a deck that can go into battles of attrition and wear the enemy down, while preserving our own, high-Force units to overpower other decks using Kensai or Commanders.New holdings like Developed Quarry help even more, allowing us to push our Armor and Weapons Items to Force-bonus levels where every Personality is a potential threat to a Province. This means our opponent can't allow even one of our units to remain at fighting strength, whereas the House of No Tomorrow helps us with our biggest Achilles heel, Dishonor, by increasing the threshold for a Dishonor Victory by 2 for each one in play. It might not sound like much, but the difference between losing at -20 Family and -26 Family Honor could be the difference between destroying your Dishonor opponent's final Province and losing the game. Thankfully, we'll almost always get the full use of this card thanks to Courtesy, a new Keyword that helps whoever went second by providing extra "kickers" to the card's effects. I think Courtesy goes a long way toward helping Spider get that competitive edge back, as cards like Back to the Front (a staple for most Ivory military decks) can be reliably replaced with The Thrill of Daring. Although this card doesn't straighten the target, it does gain Discipline for 1 Gold, allowing more use for such a powerful card.Discipline cards, although inherently at risk due to the current prevalence of Victory through Deference, are powerful inclusions in a deck like this. The more ways you have to reuse Actions and keep pressure on the opponent, the greater the chance he'll crack beneath the power of the Spider. Other cards, like Courage beyond Question, which allow us to keep our large units at full strength, are very attractive options for this deck, as are previous staples such as Way of the Spider. Other powerful actions which make an immediate impact, such as the aptly-themed Obsidian Ascension, help bring large opposing units within range of our Fear actions and cost them valuable momentum if they want to stop us from dominating the battlefield.Putting all of this together, we start to see the beginnings of a military deck that should quite literally put the fear of the Spider into your opponents:The Sinister Citadel of the SpiderDynasty (40)1 Counting House3 Developed Quarry3 Famous Bazaar3 Heavy Infantry Dojo2 House of Disgrace3 House of No Tomorrow3 Shinomen Marsh3 Daigotsu Atsushi3 Daigotsu Jemaru1 Daigotsu Kanpeki, the Shadow Emperor - exp. 33 Daigotsu Onosaka3 Daigotsu Roburo3 Daigotsu Takahide2 Gyushi Kageto2 Ninube Shiho2 TairaoFate (41)1 Ancestral Armor of the Spider Clan3 Haramaki-do3 Kikko3 Staff of the Raja's Court3 Courage Beyond Question3 Obsidian Ascension3 Okura Is Released3 Show of Power3 Streets of the Second City3 Sudden Movement3 The Thrill of Daring3 Victory Through Deference3 Way of the Spider3 Weakness Exposed1 Ring of EarthThe majority of the deck focuses on enabling Fear actions to do the most damage, by affecting Personalities with attached Followers thanks to Streets of the Second City, or by crippling enemy Weapons thanks to Show of Power or Obsidian Ascension. However, Weakness Exposed pushes the threat level much higher thanks to it being an aggressive kill actions that can remove an entire unit and, thanks to the prevalence of Discipline cards with a Focus Value of 4, ensuring you win that Duel is relatively easy. Large units like Kensai shouldn’t be a problem as the Fear values in the deck can reach extraordinary heights, while the high Force of each unit means that opposing swarm decks will struggle to deal effectively with the threat. Splashing in some generically useful cards like Ninube Shiho and Sudden Movement and you now have a deck with a lot of answers to many popular problems. I firmly believe that with The New Order, the Spider Clan are finally reaching the time when we can step into our own, and impact the world of Rokugan like never before, finally making every other Samurai realize what their children have been saying is true – it’s right to be afraid of the dark.
Wyglada że może coś wygrać. Trochę niebardzo te pancerzyki widzę, a i tested blade moze by sie nadał.
