Manipulating the Rings

To support these abilities, which depend on certain rings, the Phoenix have a suite of cards that focus on ring manipulation. They can switch claimed and unclaimed rings, make the current conflict count as a specific type of ring or change that ring entirely – and even deny an opponent the ability to declare a given ring for an entire turn. The other clans may make use of the elemental rings, but only the Phoenix have mastered them.

Display of Power is a reaction to losing an unopposed conflict. It costs 2 fate. Because the conflict must be unopposed, it also contains a hidden cost of 1 honor (because you had no one present at resolution), and only works when you are defending. This also means there is a significant chance your opponent broke your province. So, with all these costs and conditions, this card has to do something pretty powerful, right? Well, it does. It cancels the effects of the ring your opponent was trying to claim. Then you claim that ring, and resolve its effects instead. Timing will be everything with this card, which is capable of producing enormous blowouts. Your opponent has committed characters to win a conflict, and leaves that conflict with all those characters bowed, a critical ring effect reversed, and the Phoenix player likely following up with a conflict of their own.

Know the World takes a lower-key approach. For 1 fate, you can switch a ring in your claimed pool with a ring in the unclaimed pool. So, if you win your first attack and claim the Ring of Void, triggering its effect to remove a fate from an opponent’s character, you could, before your next opportunity to attack, pay 1 fate to switch the Ring of Void back into the unclaimed ring pool, allowing you to declare your second attack as a void conflict again! The limitation here is that you already have to have claimed a ring. Most of the time, this will mean you’ve won a conflict while attacking. But, with Display of Power, you may have snagged one from your opponent. Know the World can also function as an economy card and fate denial for your opponent. If a ring is stacked with one or more fate, you can use Know the World to take that ring before your opponent can declare a conflict and take its fate themselves. If a ring has 1 fate on it, Know the World effectively costs 0; if a Ring has 2 or more fate, then you are gaining fate. This means that Know the World also lets you focus on the rings you really want to use, rather than the rings which are fate-effective. However, Know the World does not let you alter the ring in a current conflict, as a contested ring is in neither the claimed nor unclaimed pools.

Each of the Ways has been defining for their clan. The Way of the Phoenix is both subtle and complex, with an ability that can swing games, but which will be incredibly difficult to master. It allows you to choose a ring and prevent an opponent from declaring conflicts with that ring’s element for the rest of the turn. On a turn where the opponent has priority, the Phoenix can deny them their first choice of ring. On a turn where the Phoenix has priority, they can be assured two rings of their choice. Both these scenarios can represent powerful tempo plays. But Way of the Phoenix also functions as an economy card. Because you can deny your opponent access to a given ring, you can guarantee that it will stack 1 fate at the end of the turn by not taking that ring yourself. If a ring already has 1 or more fate, you can deny an opponent the option to take that Ring and claim its fate for yourself. Or, if you’ll be the first player on the following turn, you can make sure that a ring will stack to 2, or even 3 Fate! The vast utility of this card is perhaps its greatest weakness. Knowing how and when to best employ it will test even the very skillful.

When she was initially revealed, the Seeker of Knowledge gained a lot of attention from players interested in honor running. At 2 fate for 0 military and 2 political skill, this conflict-deck character isn’t very skill-efficient. But the reason she’ll be played is her ability. While the Seeker of Knowledge is attacking, the conflict also gains the air element. This means that you can trigger the Ring of Air effect, even if the Ring of Air has already been claimed by you or your opponent this turn. Looking at the Seeker of Knowledge, you have to ask, ‘Is 2 Fate and a card from hand worth 2 political skill and 2 honor?’ Given how hard it is to generate honor in the game, the answer has to be yes. The distance from a starting honor of 11 to the goal of 25 is a struggle to traverse, and triggering the Ring of Air effect just once with the Seeker of Knowledge will get you 1/7th of the way to victory. The Seeker can also power up the Fearsome Mystic on attack, giving her +2 glory to help use her ability.

The Ishiken Initiate is a simple, no frills conflict character for 2 fate. At the start of the turn, she will have 1 military and 1 political skill. For the last conflict, she could very well have 4 military and 4 political skill, assuming all three previous conflicts ended with a ring being claimed. While a 1/1 for 2 fate is poor, a 4/4 for 2 fate is very strong. This character also has the Shugenja trait, which other cards can key on.