Andrew Merton

So you think you know the ninja? Most of us up until the introduction of ‘The Hidden Emperor’ expansions and ‘The Way of Shadow’ RPG sourcebook thought we did. A mere offshoot of Clan Scorpion. A well-trained cadre of assassins, assisting in the work of the Emperor’s ‘under-hand’. Now we know better. It was the living Shadow, a nameless entity that existed before time that kidnapped the Emperor Toturi I. It’s designs are clear; destruction of all physical matter, starting with humanity. The objective of this piece is not to provide a comprehensive history of the ninja clan in Legend of the Five Rings CCG. Goodness knows that would be painful for any ninja player. The intention here is to give a quick guide as to how the Ninja have evolved and point to possible directions for the future. Give away too many secrets and I will forever be looking over my shoulder, waiting for the knife to fall…

Initially the Ninja proved themselves to be something of a white elephant; There was little in the way of force on aligned personalities, making a military victory difficult. No starting honour from the stronghold and little in the way of personal honour on the selfsame aligned personalities, rendering honour victories a torturous route. Enlightenment also proved to be a problem victory; some elemental ring conditions like Earth and Fire were reasonably straightforward, others however, like Air were difficult to achieve. Try generating three spell effects in a turn when you have but one shugenja aligned to your clan, and a unique one at that. Coupled with all of this, the seemingly strong defensive ability on the box could be circumvented; The event Winter warfare was quickly dubbed ‘Doom of the Ninja’, because it prevented the movement of units from one battle to another or from a battle to fief, rendering the stronghold sending home ability useless. Fate cards like the kiho Tsuchi-do and the item Armor of Earth similarly prevent or cancel the movement of units, and the action Storms of war requires each player wanting to take a subsequent action to bow a personality he or she controls in the battle. This can prove difficult if you are a ninja player attempting to send home units attacking your provinces where you have no defending units. In the early days of their life as a ‘clan’, the Ninja were reduced to an existence on the periphery. Skulking around eking out longwinded dishonour and Abandoning the fortunes victories that were stressful to play (for both ninja and opponent!) and often relied on Rise from the ashes to draw proceedings out a bit more. A handful of cards, like Ninja tricks and Way of Shadow made the journey more fun though. There is nothing more annoying than seeing one of your key actions cancelled by a ninja player in this way, I have been told many times! One thing that the Ninja have been able to do well since inception is destroy or otherwise tie up opposing personalities. This feature needed to be built upon if the boys in black pyjamas ever wanted to contend in competitive play, and the game designers have not disappointed.

Now the ninja are a different proposition entirely. In the story the Shadow (another name for the Ninja) has been busy absorbing people into it’s living darkness, manipulating the Emperor, assaulting Jigoku, the land of the dead and generally making life (and unlife) distressing for all. To reflect all of this the Ninja have become more of a threat in the game environment, albeit a silent one. Most players have been focussing recently upon the strength of new strongholds like Kyuden Kitsune and Kosaten Shiro. This could almost have been an exercise in distraction by Goju himself! There is much greater flexibility in ninja deck design now, and a number of strong archetypes have come to the fore.

One of the most significant developments has been the birth of the ‘Shadowlands’ Ninja or ‘Shadowninja’, brought about by the inclusion of The Dark Moto sensei in the Fire and Shadow set. The reduction in cost of all shadowlands cards by one gold makes this sensei the perfect accompaniment for a militarily aggressive ninja deck. Suddenly force is no longer a problem; the two most maligned factions in Legend of the Five Rings work well together for mutual benefit! Moto Tsume and the Shadowbeast now come into play from the stronghold. Key defensive ninja cards like Evil portents can now be of value on the offensive as well. Used in conjunction with the ninja actions that cancel others, and the ability to move around swiftly (cards like Unmaker’s shadow and Ninja shadowwalker spring to mind), the ninja and their new pals make for a potent military force. Oath of Fealty and the kiho Know the evil can help convey the benefits of both traits to all your units, and the item Burden of the word can give extra force, chi and the shadowlands trait to one of your ninja. Despite the fact that your opponents cannot cause you honor loss from their cards, self-induced honor loss can be a problem. It is best to concentrating on using force-rich personalities that cost little or no honor when building this type of deck, like Oni no Gekkido, for example. Although not from the Shadowlands, another new personality deserves mention when talking about Ninja as a military force. Elder Goju, a non-unique 5 gold ninja was introduced in the Soul of the Empire set, and is sure to see lots of play. For your money you get a 2/2 with the choice of Tactician, Double Chi or Cavalry traits at the beginning of each of your turns. Affordable flexibility counts in the current climate!

If you had mentioned this before the Fire and shadow set, most players would have laughed at you. The balance has been tipped now, largely due to the emergence of one personality. That little spirit dude Asako Sagoten can allow honor catch-up in a big way. Merely hold back your opponent by causing him honor loss (shouldn’t be too difficult now, should it?) until Sagoten hits the table, then begin the trek back into favour! Other neat honor tricks have turned up too. One of my personal favourites is to bring in Oni no Pekkle, make him a ninja and slap the Night Medallion on him. Voila! Your own little honor factory! Bow him for 3 honor, copy his ability with your Ninja Shapeshifters and even straighten him again with Dark energy to gain another 3 honor! You will not lose the 10 honor if he dies in this case, as he is now part of the Shadow, and you cannot lose honor from your own ninja cards!

I think it was Adam ‘Big Ad’ Jones who coined this term to describe a fusion of Ninja and Kolat under the Dark Path stronghold. Sounds phonetically a bit like chocolate, and is just as tasty. Start the game with Kage sensei to make all Kolat personalities in your deck ninjas. Then target and destroy your opponent’s holdings and to a lesser extent personalities until you can bow his stronghold with a Kolat servant. Protect key personalities, like the Servant, with Way of Shadow. Use the abilities of personalities like Yasuki Kaneko and Kage exp5 freely; once you have the retainer Kitsuki Iyekao in play, dead Kolats can be recycled into the dynasty deck. A good card to make the use of limited personality abilities is the fairly obscure shadowlands rare, Twist of fate. This allows you to activate Limited abilities on the turn a personality hits the table. Once your opponent is sufficiently locked down, go for a military victory.

With the big concluding storyline tournament at Gen Con USA looming large, things look grim for the Ninja. Takao the flamin’ monk has aided Hitomi in naming the Shadow, something that the original Sun and Moon neglected to do. This means that the Ninja can now be hurt, and pretty much everyone wants to see em obliterated at ‘Oblivion’s gate’, as the alternative is too dark to contemplate. (Weren’t we in a similar position on ‘The Day of Thunder’? Same dish different gravy.) The general feeling is that honour/military combo decks are in the ascendancy at the moment, a field led by the Cranes and their green counterparts, the Fox. I am sure that many players will follow their instincts to nail the Ninja by including cards like Investigation, Scorpion children and Soul of the Empire in their decks, to symbolise the struggle against the Shadow. How can the Ninja fight this rising tide? The action Avoid fate has always been fairly important to the ninja as a means of blunting troublesome events, and I am sure it will retain this status in the near future. Those pesky little blighters The Scorpion children can also be a pain, but nothing a well-placed pack of semtex can’t put right. Yep, Explosives are the best way to deal with such misbehaving brats, and it fits in well with ‘Ninjolat’ deck principles if you use them. The Ninja have an outsider’s chance of winning at Gen Con, and a shadow of a chance has to be better than none at all.