Undead Kolat Ninja?!
Dark Path of the Shadow Strategy Article - iguesi@aol.com

What does our faceless family need? Well to pull of some fat combos, we need some wonderfully Undead Kolat Ninjas! Hmmm... there are not any cards that I know that have all three traits. However, that doesn't mean we can't build our own does it! But now you may be asking yourself, why?

(We already know how to make Kolat/Ninjas with our stronghold + the Kage Sensei, right?).

Two Personalities

Two personalites, both Kolat, one old, one new... (well sort of)

First, we have the new. Yasuki Kaneko, a sweet face from the Heroes set. She is gifted with a wonderful ability. Bow Kaneko to destroy a personality with over 2 ph. Destroy Kaneko. However, that last sentence is a heart breaker. Even with one 'use' she can eliminate some impressive unique people: Kaede, Kuwanan, Osugi, Hantei the 38th, Toturi, the elemental Dragons, Oni no Pekkle... Once however, is not enough. More on this in a moment.

Now the old... Kage, Exp 5! Kage keeps coming back. And this last version can certainly aid an abandoning deck. What's Kage Exp 5 do you ask? Bow Kage and destroy one of your Kolat personalities to get a card other than an elemental ring from another player's deck and discard the card. Shuffle the deck. My, my, my! That's a nice Armor of Earth you have there... tsk, tsk, Tsuruchi Exp 2, you really don't want to bring him into play now do you?

As sweet as that is... there is another benefit that cannot be overlooked. You get to SCOUT you your opponent's Fate and Dynasty Deck! That can be powerful information, especially early in the game.

As cool as Kaneko's and Kage's abilities are, they obviously have a drawback. We lose a personality everytime we put them into action. Ouch. The key to really maximizing their potential is by never allowing our Kolats to stay in the dead pile.

Kitsuki Iyekao

The obvious choice for recycling our Kolat/Ninja personalities is to simply use Kitsuki Iyekao, but this has two drawbacks. First, if Kitsuki Iyekao is not in play, then we're out of luck. Second, we don't know when our Kolat will return to be re-hired.

The Two Spells

The answer to our recycling equations rest in the use of two spells. First from Honor Bound, we have Gift of the Maker. Maho Ritual Limited: Bow this shugenja and any number of your other shugenja. Target any one of your non-shadowlands personalities. The personality gains the shadowlands and undead traits, permanently, and a number of +1f/-1c maho tokens of your choice up to the number of shugenja in this ritual. Not only is the personality no longer threathen by an Evil Portents bomb, but they also gain the Undead train. Why is the Undead trait so important you ask?

Let's look at another spell from Fire and Shadow called Eternal Darkness. Spell Maho Open: Target an Undead Personality. Bow this Shugenja to cause any effect that would destroy the Personality to send the Personality home bowed instead, until the turn ends.

Gift of the Maker + Eternal Darkness = The Super Ninja/Kolat/Undead Yo-Yo! Eternal Darkness is only 4 gold and Gift is free! And neither spell destroys themselves, so you can use them over and over again.

Other combos to consider: Anvil of Despair, Asako Hosigeru, Kokujin, etc...