L5R Deckbuilding: Unicorn

Ahh Unicorn. The self-loathing samurai of Rokugan. Unicorn clan players are almost uniformly more downcast about their clan than other players and not without reason. They are similar to the Phoenix players of the old universe who always assumed they would lose at the end of the arc even when the current fiction showcased them winning. I tried making Unicorn work in the past using the same Unicorn-Lion concept you see the top players use at worlds. I always found that it was mediocre when it worked and terribly inconsistent. My problem was I misunderstood what the clan was trying to do. I moved on to other clans and only recently returned to Unicorn. A big shout out to Calimsha the Red Pony for some of these concepts. I would not have understood some cards like Way of the Unicorn without his help. Without further ado it is time to Make Unicorn Great Again!

As always the Deck List can be found here.

Stronghold

Most of the current strongholds are minor locations in Rokugan. Yet I always found it funny that the other clans got unique locations while the Unicorn got a random outpost. Our outpost allows us to move a cavalry unit into a military conflict. This suggests some things. First we want cavalry units, which should be obvious since we are Unicorn. We will also be taking things that make units cavalry like Favored Mount. Second we want things that benefit from moving into a conflict. Third we want to focus on military to increase our opportunities to use the house.

The house gives us some advantages. First we don’t need to commit everything up front in a conflict. We can move in additional troops as needed or we can pull back troops using Favorable Ground. Second we can move in bowed defenders as necessary which insulates us from unopposed honor loss. At this point it is important that we think of the Unicorn stronghold with the same mindset we use with the Phoenix one. Sure you can use it for a random plus 2 glory but in order to use it well you need to dishonor or honor people first. In the case of Unicorn we can just bring in people or we can bring in people with Spyglass or the Trader with Favored Mount and get more cards and/or fate.

This brings us to the contradiction that most players are unable to resolve. Spyglass wants you to bid low. In a game where both players are bidding 1 each use of Spyglass represents a 100% increase in the number of cards you draw over your opponent. In a game where both players bid 5 each use of Spyglass represents a 20% increase in the number of cards you draw. Moving from one edge of the spectrum to another increases the value that Spyglass provides 5x. Yet Unicorn also wants you to bid high. First just to be able to get the Spyglass and your other items and second because you are better protected from honor loss than other clans.

Knowing this allows us to formulate our strategy. First turn we bid 5. This plus the mulligan should enable us to see at least one spyglass. In the following turns we bid low to maximize Spyglass. This means that in addition to military victory we will also be pressuring dishonor to lock our opponent into bidding 1, which as we previously discussed, maximizes the value of Spyglass and our movement tech. Due to this we will prioritize dishonoring opponents rather than honoring ourselves and we will attempt to get unopposed challenges which means we shy away from sending people home.

Our movement tech also involves Ide Trader which can give us fate. An Ide Trader with a mount can give you 3 fate per turn without much effort. In order to amplify this we play in such a way as to maximize our fate gain. We prioritize rings with fate first unless there is some very good reason not to and we attempt to pass first every turn. The Way of the Lion involves a mailed fist smashing the opposition thru brute force. The Way of the Crab is victory thru sacrifice and persistence. The Way of the Phoenix is the swordplay of the waterdancer. Staying outside of the enemies reach while you dishonor him to death. The Way of the Unicorn is economic warfare. Our victory comes from attacking the opponents fate and honor as much as by destroying provinces. The second is a product of the first.

Provinces

Standard except for Endless Plains. Endless Plains is similar to Way of the Crab. Until it fires your opponent will play suboptimally to dance around it. They will send 2 units when they only need to send . They will pass when they could have attacked. Just the threat of the massive swing it can generate warrants its inclusion into the deck.

I personally play with Ancestral underneath the stronghold. Other Unicorns play with Entrenched. The logic is that since you have Captive Audience you can just turn any conflict into military benefiting from the higher strength. Both provinces are valid choices.

Dynasty

Holdings

You may notice that I run 6 holdings in the deck which is pretty big for Unicorn. 3 Favorable and 3 Storehouses. The reason I run 3 of each is I want to pass early in the turn. Having a holding pop up allows me to pass early and still get some use out of the province during the conflict phase. After all your not always going to have a Charge available and sometimes you need to see more than 9 cards to dig for your first spyglass. The sooner you can bid low the better your chances of winning.

A quick note on the upcoming Yurt. There will be an honor rocket build for which it will be perfect for. It will not work for this deck. The last thing you want to do is give your opponent the resources you worked so hard to deny him.

1-2 costs

Utaku Infantry, Moto Youth, Meishodo Wielder, Shinjo Outrider, Border Rider, and Keeper Initiate make up our selection. Keeper Initiate is another one of those things which I can ignore in the dynasty phase but provides some sort of advantage later on. Moto Youth is something I actually prefer in the discard pile rather than in play. The other characters provide so much more value for their fate and my primary use for the Youths in this deck is to make up the 1 cost in Cavalry Reserves that I usually lack.

Some Unicorn players may notice the absence of Aggressive Moto. 3 worth of stats with a drawback is just bad. Our other 2 drops have 3 worth of stats as well and come with useful abilities of their own.

3 costs and up

Ide Trader, Giver of Gifts, Moto Horde, Shinjo Altsaranai, Shinjo Tatsuo, and Warrior Poet make up our bigger cards. Ide Trader is something we will always mulligan for to get our engine going. Even on the board alone he can pop into conflicts with a Favored Mount to set you up for turn 2. The Giver is used to transfer the important items from characters who are about to die. Of the others we mostly want to Charge them in or use Cavalry Reserves for them. The only time we bring them in normally is when our engine is working well and we start the turn with 10 fate or more.

Conflict

Way of the Unicorn

The first thing we need to go over in Conflict is this card. At its core it is an economic card. Going first allows you to pass first more easily creating a two fate swing. Second it allows you to pick the ring with the most fate on it first. There will normally be one ring with more fate on it than the others. In this case it caused another two fate swing. Messing with Challengers and LPB who want to go first is just a happy bonus

For Shame!

A lot of Unicorns will be surprised at the inclusion of this card. Our game plan is to drag our Ide Trader around all the conflicts so we are very likely to have a courtier when it matters. It is also another tool to pressure dishonor. For those uncomfortable with running For Shame you can always take it out for the missing Fan and Katana.

Spyglass and Favored Mount

These are the cards we most want to see in our opening hand as they are the core of our engine. Don’t hesitate to take the fate with the Ide Trader as preparing for future turns is just as important as doing well in the current one.

Attachment Control

One thing you may notice about the deck is we have no attachment hate. The underlying theory is that, being Unicorn, we would be able to use our items to generate more value than our opponents. If this is a concern you can always remove the Giver and 1 Tatsuo for a set of Miya Mystics.

The rest of the cards are standard so I will go to the splash.

Splash

I have chosen Crab for our splash. Mainly for one important reason. Saturation. The Unicorn deck relies on Spyglasses and Mounts to generate our economy. This also means that they become the target of all of our opponents counters. Watch Commander and Reprieve allows me to run 6 more high quality attachments to draw out the hate. Watch Commander helps our honor game out and Reprieve allows us to let high value Charge targets stay for another turn. Alternatively you could remove one Watch Commander for 2 Rebuilds to use more Favorable Grounds.

I can’t really recommend any other splashes as they do not provide the synergy that Crab does.

Unicorn is in a tough spot but mainly because the core concept of the clan itself is difficult to figure out. Once you grasp that it can be competitive.