Holdings and Gold
Deck Building 101 - iguesi@aol.com

As we learned last time, one aspect of building an honor runner is selecting personalities that will boost our honor as we purchase them. Now the issue becomes, paying for these personalities.

For T.A. Five is the Magic Number

For our T.A. deck, the magic number is 5 for gaining full honor from our incoming personalities. Tohaku, Seppun Nakao, Otomo Yayu, and Seppun Mashita each cost 5 gold and with the exception of Yayu, they each have 3 personal honor.

The Palace stronghold makes 4 gold. The 'clan' holding, Basecamps also makes 4 gold for bringing our peeps into play, along with the Hiruma Dojo when we bring samurai into the game. All of these are just one short of our target amount of 5 gold. How can we overcome this shortfall?

The most obvious answer to producing 1 gold, is a small farm. That's simple enough, but are there other ways to snag another 1 gold, when we need it? Yes. Bountiful Harvest, will add one gold to all of our gold producing holdings (this does not include the stronghold). This is very powerful, once we have a couple of Basecamps or Hiruma Dojos in play. Another way to boost our gold is with the Kiho, Blessings Upon the Land. It doubles the numerals on any one holding. Therefore, Basecamps can make 8 gold (and Santified Temples, 4 honor for 4 gold!). Finally, we could use One Koku, a difficult card to get a hold of from Crimson and Jade.

Other Potential Holdings

In addition to the standard gold producers, we should look at few other honor producing holding that will come in handy.

Since of three the strongholds we have looked at make four gold, Sanctified Temples and Kabuki Theatre Troupe, becomes a very viable choice for our honor running decks. The Temples and Seppun Kossori make an easy 2 honor combo for the Phoenix. The Crane, however might be better served with the Fantastic Gardens, 5 gold to make 2 honor. Finally, the Temple of the Ancestors should blend well with our T.A. deck. It makes 3 honor when bowed, along with a personality with 3 honor or more. With all of these options, Blessings Upon the Land can be used to double our honor gains on one holding.

If we are building a dueling deck, we may want to consider Fortress of the Dragonfly for a chi boost and Historians for extra honor when we win a duel.

Esteemed House Crane For only five gold, the Fantastic Gardens are a solid honor producer for the Crane. However, don't be bashful about tossing an early Garden in favor of moving through your Dynasty Deck. Personalities (18) 3x Kakita Ariteko 1x Doji Shizue Exp. 3x Doji Reju 3x Daidoji Uji 3x Daidoji Sembi 3x Kakita Yoshi 1x Kakita Yoshi Exp. 2 1x Doji Kuwanan Exp. 2 Holdings (16) 3x Small Farm 3x Market Place 3x Hiruma Dojo 3x Fantastic Gardens 3x Sanctified Temples 1x Charter of the Crane Clan Events (5) 1x Inheritance 1x Emperor's Peace 1x Imperial Gift 1x The Hidden Emperor 1x Iris Festival Regions (1) 1x Clan Heartland

Eternal Halls Phoenix Seppun Kossori is a gold producer that combines well with the Sanctified Temples. The Retired Advisor the Grove and Agasha Gennai should help us get to the Fate card we want. Hopefuly, we can win few key duels to boost our honor even further. Personalities (18) 3x Yogo Shidachi 3x Soshi Jujun 3x Seppun Kossori 3x Isawa Hochiu 2x Agasha Gennai 1x Shiba Testu 1x Shiba Tetsu Exp. 1x Isawa Osugi 1x Shiba Tsukune Exp. 2 Holdings (15) 3x Small Farms 3x Silver Mines 3x Jade Works 1x Charter of the Phoenix Clan 3x Sanctified Temples 1x Grove of the Five Masters 1x Retired Advisor Regions (1) 1x Golden Sun Plain Events (6) 1x Inheritance 1x Imperial Gift 1x Test of the Jade Champion 1x Peasant Revolt 1x Iris Festival 1x Blessings of Isawa

Palace Toturi Hiruma Dojos and Basecamps both make 4 gold for bringing in our Samurais. We'll be combining these holdings with the small farms, large farms and our fate deck, to bring in most of our people for honor. Personalites (18) 3x Toku 1x Toku Exp. 2 3x Seppun Nakao 3x Tohaku 3x Otomo Yayu 3x Seppun Mashita 1x Seppun Toshiken 1x Toturi Holdings (18) 3x Small Farms 3x Basecamps 3x Hiruma Dojos 3x Large Farms 3x Sanctified Temples 3x Temple of the Ancestors Regions (2) 2x Farmlands Events (2) Inheritance Imperial Gift

Returning to the darkness of the shadows...