And now, the continuation
FROM: Bayushi Kayakino (bayushi_kay@hotmail.com)
Well, the first starter I bought was OE Phoenix. Thought spellcasters would
be cool. Unfortunately, the dealer forgot to mention the slight lack of
spells in a Phoenix starter. (I've never recommended a Phoenix starter to
any beginner ever since)
Then I found my Junzo starter. Ooooohhhh!!! Evil good!
Then I was introduced to one of those obscene Crab decks with Shapeshifters,
Asami, Kachiko and Crab Oni.
One week later, I finally found a website which listed deck archtypes. And
what did I find under Scorpion? Dishonour. Arguably the first alternative
victory condition.
I've always been a sucker for alternative victories (In Magic, I used to
hate attacking people and killing them. Where was the fun in something as
mundane as that? A game is only fun if you can destroy your opponent in
interesting ways).
Kachiko, Asami, Dishonour. I was sold.
WotScorp cemented me.
FROM: Shosuro Mashita (mashita_onnagata@hotmail.com)
My first L5R decks were the Lion and Crane. I initially bought the Lion
deck, but then I got a copy of Doji Hoturi in my Lion deck, so I got the
Crane deck. I thought Crane was a weenie deck, so I played Lion for a while
for their ability to win militarily.
Later I got bored with Lion. This was around the time of the Shadowlands
expansion. I picked up Scorpion and Naga and even though gold was difficult
at first for Scorpion, I enjoyed being able to do nasty stuff without fear
of honor loss. Even more fun was Scorpion Ninja decks. Later, I learned of
the concept of the Dishonor deck using Bayushi Goshiu and Ninja
Shapeshifters. I fell in love with the concept and I've always had a
dishonor deck of one sort or another ever since, except for when SCC came
out...I just had to try Scorpion Military. It was fun for awhile, but I'm
not a big fan of military decks; repetitive and boring.
One more reason I joined Scorpion...Bayushi Kachiko!! Scorpion has always
had the neatest looking people artwork wise (IMHO). I mean other people are
cool, but the Scorpions just rock...they truly exemplify the qualities of
the clan they represent. You can tell just by looking at such people as
Bayushi Goshiu, Yogo Shidachi, Shosuro Ikawa, and Lady Kachiko herself.
My personal fav. scorpion personality is Bayushi Goshiu, who I see as the
Scorpion's version of Kakita Yoshi. Why? He is just bad ass. The battlefield
of the court is probably my favorite one, and Goshiu is the Master. I never
saw Ninja shapeshifters copy Yoshi to get the favor, but Scorpions
everywhere used the Shapeshifter combo with Goshiu. That's the beauty of it.
Here is this Scorpion courtier who can be anywhere at anytime in the Empire,
ready to see you screw up and dishonor your ass into the ground. I LOVE
IT!!!
FROM: Isawa Magus (komodo@global2000.net)
Well, I first got into the game during Emerald (when you could still get
Imperial Starters for ~$10; wish I had had a little more foresight...). I
had seen the cards in the store here and there, and liked the genre, but
didn't really see anyone playing. Then one day I was at a friends house
playing That Game That Shall Not Be Named, and saw a bow of this samurai
game on his shelf. I asked him about it, and he said it was a great game,
but he hadn't played in a while. I traded him some Magic cards for some
cards that loosely resembled a deck. He told me about the different clans
(he only knew abou tthe emerald ones, though), and Phoenix immediately
caught my eye. I liked them because they didn't use conventional tactics
(i.e. get force quick and go crush provinces, or climb in honor like Crane),
and he said not many people played them (anyone here remember Emerald
Phoenix?), and that they were kind of an underdog. That had me hooked on
Phoenix, and my deck (if you could call it that) was reasonably fun to play,
even if it did consistantly get crushed by a certain Lion cheese-head who
eats strength 5 provinces for breakfast, with a slice of grapefruit (my
friend played Lion). Agetoki was a lot of fun too. Anyways, one day I saw
the Ruined Fortress of the Scorpion (which I only recently stopped using, in
favor of the Shadow Stronghold for dishonor (for the higher gold), and Yogo
for military). It looked damn cool (the one on the back of the Shadowlands
box), and I asked my friend about it. He mentioned something about the
underhanded, sneaky, ninja, poison, etc. clan, but couldn't tell me much
about them. We went through his cards and saw _Bayushi_ Hisa (as opposed to
the Vanilla Hisa I had), and Twitchy, but that still didn't tell us much.
He traded someone's collection off of them when they were getting out of the
game (this is when I picked up Naga too, but only because the other two
clans weren't really military-viable), and found he had bought a Scorpion
Box, and traded him for the component stuff (Kyoto, Sword, Aramoro, Kachiko
(Yes! I thought this was the coolest personality in the game. And she's
still pretty high on my list), and a couple of other people from Shadowlands
I can't remember). We quickly found out that the Scorpion was another
underdog clan, low gold production, high personality cost, and about 7 force
total in the deck. Again, I chose them because I liked the clans noone
played, and the underdogs. That, and after trying to decide whether they
won by military or honor, I realized that they don't. They win by making
everyone else lose. And they were evil. And underhanded. And wanted
vengeance for the destruction of their clan. And they 'weren't there'.
Aside from the act that the resulting deck was almost unusable, I had fun
with it, and tuned it. Then one day I saw Breach of Ettiquette, and knew
the true way. Ever since then I've had an ever-evolving dedicated dishonor
deck, with all the sneaky, dirty tricks I can think of. And I love every
minute of it. They fit my personality so perfectly. Frustrating the
opponent, be it 11 province strength or Aramoro, doing strange and
unexpected things that screw over the opponent and laughing at the honor
loss. Once I read WotS I was even more hooked (wonderful job on that,
Uikku-sama). I mean, what other clans can laugh when they discover an
entire appendix of their book was a lie, and then wonder if that was too.
And the stories just portrayed what it means to be a Scorpion so well. I'm
starting to play Phoenix less, though still play them, but I've started
playing Scorpion much more. Well, enough rambling, so I'll close with a
summary of that incredibly run-on paragraph with: I became a Scorpion
because they fit my personality, I like their story, they aren't a bandwagon
clan, they don't win by conventional methods (well, they used to not win by
military or honor..), and they are just overall cool. Oh, and they have
Kachiko. ;)
Hmm.....must remember to form individual paragraghs next time.....
FROM: Bayushi Hideo (slickman@megsinet.net)
Not long after the ccg craze started, my buddy, Tom, and I strolled into
Spellbinder's, the local gaming shop by Kent State, looking to waste what
little money we had on us at the time. While browsing, I picked up an
Imperial Edition starter for the Crane. Having long been fascinated by
Japanese culture and history, I immediately showed it to Tom. "This looks
cool, a ccg based on feudal Japan. Why don't we play this?" Tom shrugged.
"Naw, we play too many games already. If we buy that then we can't get more
Illuminati cards." "Yeah, you're right," I said as I put the box down, and
walked away.
Ugh. That is NOT how I got into L5R, much less how I became a Scorpion.
I wouldn't see L5R again for about another 2 years, after I'd moved back
home. I was re-introduced to the game just after Time of the Void came out,
by a shop owner who was fanatic about it. My Scorpion involvement starts
out the exact opposite of Rob's. I consciously steered away from the
Scorpion because I ALWAYS played the shifty characters, I was always drawn
to the darker side of storytelling when I GM'd ( blame Ridley Scott). If I
choose the semi-bad guys again, my friends would just sigh "typical". So I
choose the Crab, whom I'd heard had redeemed themselves over the course of
the storyline and we're a good beginner clan. I liked the Crab, but as I
grew to learn more and more of the story, I felt a kinship with the
Scorpion. Scorpion personalities kept finding their way into my Crab decks.
Then one day, I opened a booster pack, and there she was- Bayushi Kachiko.
I'm fanboy enough to admit it- I was smitten. I immediately went out and
bought a Scorpion starter and made my first dishonor deck. By the time the
Coup came out, there was no turning back. Bayushi Shoju is (in my eyes) a
true, tragic hero.
It's the Scorpion ways of loyalty, and relying more on your wits and cunning
that appeal to me. And I'll debate any day of the week that we are not
evil. Ruthless, devious, ugly, and backhanded? Yes. But evil? No, I don't
think so. It's a matter of motive. It's our job to be the "bad guy", and
we do it for the common good. Evil is about selfishness and personal gain.
We've sacrificed love, trust, honor, and respect all so that the other guy
doesn't have to. We are the devil's advocate. If every samurai in Rokugan
followed Bushido like they were supposed to, we'd be out of a job. Think of
this: even Kachiko is somebody's mother, and she named her son "My first
duty."
-IC: (from the journals of Bayushi Hideo, edited for content)
"Why did you have to be born a Scorpion?" asked my true love, her eyes
distorted by tears.
"Is that so wrong?" I smiled. Her answer was to frown and cross her arms.
"******-chan, when I was a very young boy, my first sensei taught me the
Bushido while my father told me to be good and honorable, for the world was
just, the kami and my ancestors watched over everything I did, and they
would punish me if ever I strayed from the path. . . but as I grew older I
saw that these things were not so. "Honorable" men lied and murdered,
Bushido was a mask more elaborate than the finest costumes of the stage, and
justice did not exist at all. I was furious at the world. I felt betrayed
and I confronted my father. He laughed at me. "Of course the world is not
fair, you stupid child! Even your own father has been lying to you your
entire life. True heroes die while cowards and villains live within the
Emperor's graces. It was never a question as to whether the world is just
or fair. It's not. The question is, what are you prepared to do about it?"
We are the kami who see everything you do. We are the keepers of all your
secrets, and the guardians of all your guilt. If you step out of line, we
will get you. Be good, samurai-chan, Be good. . . ."
FROM: Mitch Berthelson (BERTHELS@ULV.EDU)
I had been playing at Dark Forest Games (Montclair, CA) for about a year and
become familiar with L5R from watching the other regulars play. At first, I
only wanted to concentrate on one CCG, which was Battletech at the time, but
then SCC came out. Whenever I read comics, watch movies, or play videogames, I
always like the characters with the cool masks, and when I saw Paul Hebert's
Shosuro Ikawa art (not to mention Inexp. Shoju) I was hooked. I already had
some experience with the story because of the store atmosphere and a few games
of the RPG, which had just been released, so I really got into my new clan.
As far as deck philosophy, I've been a fan of Sun Tzu since high school and
the clan that most clearly embodies his doctrine of Warfare as deception is
the Scorpion. I'm currently the only one at Dark Forest that takes the
military approach with the Hidden Clan, and I've had some modest success. I
finished fourth out of 23 at our Morikage and again at fourth in our Pearl
pre-release, even making Ninja Spy the Emerald Champion 3 times during the
tournament!
Speaking of Ninja, Kolat, Shadowlands, and all other corruption, I'd like to
say that in victory, all is forgiven. I believe it's said somewhere in
Clavell's Shogun that the only excuse for treachery is winning. The Scorpion
seem to be the "by any means necessary" type and that includes me.
My favorite Scorpions are Shoju, Togai, and Hisa (the Indestructible Man!).
Togai's just for flavor, but the other two are really cool in a military deck.
FROM: Shosuro Ishi (Krusha1@aol.com)
I started playing L5R back when what ever was after Crimson and Jade was
out. A friend of mine gave me a deck of these green guys who's name I dare
not mention here so that he would have someone to play against while he was
home from school. So one day I was looking through his binder of
personalities and I saw her it was love at first sight, and I asked "hey who
is this Kachiko person." He told me the story about the coup and how the
scorpion were the evil bad guy clan and I was sold I knew I had to play them.
I tried playing them with just a Ruined Fortress starter and some Shadowlands
boosters and well I sucked..... But then came the Coup, and my scorpion
sucked no more. When I first read Shoju I thought he was a god. I my opinion
he had one of the best abilities in the game. It wasn't just Lord Shoju
either we got Bayushi "Just hold them for a minute men." Dozan, Soshi Taoshi,
and a whole bunch of other cool guys. From then on my scorpion were feared
and hated.
My Favorite Personalities are:
#3 Aramoro, He's loyal, dedicated, and willing to do what he must for the
clan; he is everything a scorpion should be.
#2 Shoju, The greatest general in the empire period, Toturi is a punk by
comparison. He was willing to sacrifice him self, his honor, and his clan to
try to do his duty to the empire, and he almost succeeded.
#1 Kachiko, For so long she was the clan, everyone else were just her
supporting cast. She is our Lady and I would follow her without question.
For cards they are:
#3 Tangen, He's the wonder scrub great for duel protection and just getting a
personality out of a bad spot in a battle and now with the Yogo Towers I hope
for him 1st turn every time.
#2 Aramoro, I love his ability just start tossing your opponents cards.
People just hate it and I love to see their faces when I pitch someone cool.
#1 Shoju, He is a total battle winner his ability makes him unstoppable
against decks that rely on their action cards.
FROM: Bayushi Bosuko (bosko@uniserve.com)
I have thought a lot about how it happened, how I became a Scorpion. I started with Emerald and played a Dragon deck. I, in the
words of one of my friends that started me in the game, am a manipulative bastard and the Scorpion way of manipulation suited me to
a tee. I started in with getting as many cards for the Scorpion clan as I could then made myself a oni no Pekkle redirect the honor
loss deck. As with Sothotho I liked killing people with the minus 2 chi seduction tokens from Kachiko. We had force as well as a
political ability that allowed me to win quite frequently.
I wasn't so interested in winning, but controlling the game so as to decide who won. I have played some other clans in the card
game ( Lion, Naga ), only Scorpion in the RPG, and Lion as well as Scorpion in Clanwars. I will always play Scorpion as I like pretty
much everything about them ( Colors, Shoju, Ninja ability, Political abilities, etc. ).
For me I think I like Aramoro xp the best, followed by Tangen. I have been extrememly enthused by the postings as of late. I feel
a part of a family that is going to prosper in the future.
FROM: Shosuro Ashendai (ashes@lyseo.edu.ouka.fi)
I first got into l5r with a Junzo deck, that I grabbed FREE from one of
our local players (this was around OE). I played with that deck, and swore
that I would buy my own decks as soon as I could get my hands on some.
My first intresses in the Scorpion came about by reading Zen's Article in
Inquest #27, supplied was also a FK booster, that I later gave away,
because I was not playing l5r at the time, the intresting thng about the
article was that it listed the Scorpion as the only clan to achive a
win-through-dishonor. I told myself that when I got into the game, I would
also play Scorpion.
The day came that on my visit to New Minas, Canada (near Halifax) I came
accross a gaming store in the nearby Universtiy town of Wolfville. I
quickly spent large sums of money buying SCC, the last two boosters of FK,
a starter of Scorpion (Jade), HE1 and because I wanted to play two
different clans I ended up choosing a ToV Phoenix Starter(that I will
never regret buying). I could have gone for crab or lion, but they were
immensly boring(later i did construct an old school LSD, with some newer
cards [still constructed]).
There was no one personality, no actual physical reason, except that
dishonorment sounded 'cool.
FROM: Soshi Uguri (soshi_uguri@hotmail.com) (me)
I started L5R in an exchange with a good friend of mine. I was to give him
a bunch of Star Trek cards and tought him how to play Star Trek, in exchange
he would give me a bunch of L5R cards and teach me how to play. I now know
what a great deal that was for me.
I started with a clan I didn't really like, the Unicorn. The game just
didn't interest me enough to stay in. And then, later, I was bored of
playing Magic, and Star Trek, so I picked up an AoD Junzo starter. Again,
didn't peak my interest, but this time, I did get exposed to many other
clans. I was particularly interested in Pheonix, Mantis, and lastly,
Scorpion. So, when Pearl edition came out I picked up a Pheonix starter
deck. I liked how Shugenja can do so much cool stuff, but I didn't like
there passive, naive attitude. I later picked up Mantis. I liked there
sense of Ambition, but they lacked a true sense of purpose and loyalty.
Lastly, I picked up Scorpion. I found my true loyalty. Scorpion are, in
every way, the best clan in L5R. Their morals, methods, and demeanor are
similar to my own. I believe that the ends justify the means, and that
loyalty is the highest virtue. I also like how the Scorpion play in game.
It is very fun to have control over the game. I also greatly enjoy the
Scorpions numerous Shugenja.
As far as Scorpion characters go, I would have to say that I have three
favorite characters.
3. Bayushi Kachiko, she is a very three dimentional character. She is, in
most ways, a villain. But she is also very human. (Thanks John, for
making her such a cool character!)
2. Bayushi Shoju, his loyalty, and his duty, make such a good tragedy.
Too bad we didn't get to know him as well as we could.
1. Bayushi Yojiro, he is another very human character. His morals are
defined, his human temptation for Kachiko is real, and his undying loyalty
to the Clan is certain. My vote is Yojiro for clan champion.
For cards I have three favorite as well.
3. Soshi Jujun. He's a bastard that needs to hang in the traitors grove,
but his card is SO good.
2. Yogo Shidachi. 2/2 Shugenja for 4 with a GOOD ability. I use him in
all of my decks.
1. Bayushi Kachiko (exp3). If you can get her out she is awsome. There
are so many times when my opponent keeps muttering "damn Kachiko!" and then,
maybe procedes to mutter about how she's a slut, and then I give them a firm
ass-kicking for that comment.
If I missed anyone who posted on the list-server please E-Mail Me. Or
If you are a Scorpion who missed this discussion or who like to post you may also E-Mail me your story.
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