244 replies to this topic

[FightingWalloon]

Is the former world champion Kith pilot claiming he wants to run a bad deck to prove it is not terrible?

I think it is because they are both purple.

[ellonellanfair]

I would agree that For Greater Glory wouldn't win you conflicts. It sure does win you the next ones if you trigger it. A case can be made though for Ready for Battle, specially with a lot of bow effects in core (For Shame, Miramoto's Fury, Admit Defeat etc) and even Water Ring. I share the sentiment of the reviewers on Way of Unicorn. I think it can make your conflict deck inconsistent but I respect and acknowledge its importance to others. Conflicts really boils down to cards for Unicorn and every card not helping the conflict can lose us the game.

 

I personally like the higher cost dynasty characters because they are so good with Charge, which is another economy card (allows us to pass early in Dynasty) and demands a cancel (which is good as it clears the way for Cavalry Reserves and For Greater Glory).

 

@GKZhukov, it's good to see you here. Conquest community is back

[mnBroncos]

wish scorpion and crane didn't have access to counters I feel like Unicorn could be really strong as long as your Cav. Reserves into for greater glory would always be safe. 

[sparrowhawk]

That's what Earth ring and Spies at Court are for, to bait a cancel or risk losing it. (Analogy: Duress vs Counterspell in MTG but that's more Investigator). Also control of Fire Ring to maintain Honour parity with Crane and Dishonour Scorpion Courtiers with Court Games, For Shame etc. You can also bait the cancel on Banzai, Captive Audience, Charge and Assasination - once they have turned down a key cancel opportunity, the coast is probably clear for your big play.

Cancel is great but the designers have given the tools to get round it. You picked a tricky "horse" to back with Unicorn, admittedly.

[mnBroncos]

Unicorn probably shouldn't be playing Spies at Court though... 

[GKZhukov]

I intend to test Scorpion splash mostly to provide Edict cover to Cav Reserves (and key Captive Audiences). I know Edicting an Edict/VoH requires a Courtier (and some of them have 2 glory on them) which you may not have out. I'm hoping more options will appear in future to make it more stable. It also let's you have Favours for moving a problematic Pacifism (sure Let Go would be better in this specific instance, but could still be game-winning) or stealing something useful (better than Let Go). Of course you miss out on all the juicy stuff like FGG, but I'm wondering if this will help blowouts off key event cancels.

 

Perhaps this is a terrible idea, I don't know. I think it just needs 1 more Courtier (really don't want to play that Conflict one).

[ellonellanfair]

I agree with Sparrowhawk. Much of the losses I've had playing against Scorpion and Crane was not abusing my superior military strength on the Fire Ring and a bit of earth ring (I'm a recovering Void addict). If you don't have cancel's in your splash, we can work around the cancels by assassinating or dishonoring Scorp Courtiers, playing court games or honoring ourselves against Crane. The Crane splashing Scorp is tricky with 6 cancels but the work around is still there. It's great that the designers gave a workaround on the cancels, otherwise, it would be a bummer.

[Hakkor]

I have started to splash Lion, an discovered For Greater Glory is not the ones that shines, but Ready for Battle and, surprisingly, Strenght in Numbers. Due to Unicorns nature of poking your opponent with a weenie and then move everything in when the conflict is safe to resolve makes it very useful for powerful or voltroned characters too tough for rout/ouwit.

 

Is keeping a silver bullet for counters for cavalry reserves worth the splash? It is quite conditional, due to low courtier count, their high glory values, and your opponent could still have 2 voice of honors in hand. At least, if we apply the typical argument of "the opponent always has the counter in hand". If he has the counter in hand, why not 2 or 3.

 

I'm stil trying to figure out Unicorn, but I'd bet they currently play suicide. Maintaining their initiative with way of the Unircorn turn after turn, and focusing on offense. It doesn't matter if your opponent breaks your porvinces if you break his first. When I consider possible splashes, my first thoughts usually go for the conflict winning/province breaking cards or the ones that help me when not defending.

 

Lion: Strenght in Numbers (also tried Sashimono, but it does not help that much with explosiveness in conflicts).

Crane: Admit defeat

Phoenix: Display of Power

(EDIT) Dragon: Indomitable Will / Tattooed Wanderer

Scorpion: Blackmail (yes, Crane and Scorpion can counter it, like the rest of events. That doesn't make it unplayable when it puts away a defender a net you an attacker)

Crab: a little meh. Mountain does not fall is great, but you want to ensure a province break. Yet, it's useful when not having initiative.

 

Those cards set a huge tempo in the province break run very consistently. Did someone else find other ways of playing Unicorn?

 

Oh, and speaking about counters. It's important to remind that you opponent will have as much as 3 copies of an event countering card, if he has any at all. Unicron has cavalry reserves and charge, plus other possible cards that bow/move home. Those are quite a lot of cards compared to 3 counters. Scorp/Crane has 6 counters, but that's a single possibility among a ton of clan combinations. I'm not sure how important is to prepare your conflict deck taking that border scenario as a rule.

 

(I think it's someting similar to Dragon Players fearing let go)

[GKZhukov]

I think the thing with the counters is just how expensive Cav Reserves is, as well as how much of a swing it produces. Typically let go hitting dragon won't hurt as much, neither in terms of immediate impact nor economic cost.

That said, I do really like the idea of going first and exploiting first pick of rings as a form of counter. In a weird way, Way of the Unicorn becomes a minor counter itself.

[FightingWalloon]

Is there any case to be made that Fallen in Battle is a useful card for Unicorn? With its movement ability, is it the clan most likely to be able to generate a 5+ military win?

[mnBroncos]

I think its just to obvious... Oh I am already winning this conflict and breaking providence....Guess I will still add str for no reason... If Unicorn had ways to move opponent's characters in then it be intriguing... I just think its to situational. I think if you play like 8 games it will be a huge blowout in one of them...but a died card in the other seven.. so probably a fun card for casual games but not tournament valid option. 

[ellonellanfair]

I share the sentiment on Fallen in Battle as well. Putting it in means a drop in consistency of your other tricks. I've had games though where it was a blowout (wiping the whole opponent field with Altansarnai, FiB and assassinate) but it is niche. It is great however against a POL attacker, switching to MIL using Captive Audience, then gang up for the FiB. Sadly, I prefer consistency over toolbox, but to each his own.

[ellonellanfair]

On another note, Christmas just came early for Unicorn. Talisman of the Sun is so brutal that even if it's unique, I could see putting 2x already. Endless plains is an obvious combo but simply dragging an opponent to two provinces is painful. Meditations of the Tao, remove fate, use Talisman, shift to Shameful Display, ouch! And it gives +1/+1 on top of that. We also now have  a holding that will allow us to go into overdrive! 2 honor allows us to keep on bidding high, the 2 fate is clutch as well for Cav Reserves play. The future is bright for Uni

[GasPoweredStick]

I've gotten decent usage out of FiB, primarily as a tool for enabling Altansarnai. I think you can also bluff it as being FGG i.e moving in to get the extra fate. I run 2x, because as pointed out, sometimes it just isn't particularly viable. I do think we're close to one of the best users though because it synergises quite well with captive audience - They attack.defend a pol conflict with a high pol low mil guy, we captive audeince, and suddenly we have a huge lead, that can only get better.

I think we are the most "tricksy" of the military clans - we have a lot of cars for outmanuevering opponents (captive audience, I am Ready and a ****-ton of move effects) which I tihnk make it more likely we will iwn a surprise big mil win more than other Mil Clans, who just walk it in, so are more predictable.

[sparrowhawk]

On another note, Christmas just came early for Unicorn. Talisman of the Sun is so brutal that even if it's unique, I could see putting 2x already. Endless plains is an obvious combo but simply dragging an opponent to two provinces is painful. Meditations of the Tao, remove fate, use Talisman, shift to Shameful Display, ouch! And it gives +1/+1 on top of that. We also now have a holding that will allow us to go into overdrive! 2 honor allows us to keep on bidding high, the 2 fate is clutch as well for Cav Reserves play. The future is bright for Uni

For me, Talisman is indeed the stand out card previewed.

I am genuinely sorry to burst your bubble but Talisman will probably end up only for 4 other Clans. Because maximum 4 Keepers and ranking choice.

I really hate the current rich-get-richer system and it needs to be fed back that it promotes feedback loops of virtuous and vicious circles.

[mnBroncos]

hey you never know (: everyone thought martell and nw was by far weakest out of core for 2.0 and yet martell won the first worlds. I could see someone do well with Unicorn.......

[Fumo]

Talisman looks alright, but I'm not seeing how Chasing the Sun will ever be useful unless it works like old cavalry and leaves all the defenders stuck at the other province...

[FightingWalloon]

Good discussion on Fallen. Looking at the Champion and Province, it just looks like discard is one of the clan's things, so I was looking for cards that build on that strength.

[sparrowhawk]

Talisman looks alright, but I'm not seeing how Chasing the Sun will ever be useful unless it works like old cavalry and leaves all the defenders stuck at the other province...

"Looks alright" is an understatement - you must have very high standards.

On Chasing...

There are edge cases when the province attacked and its occupant that you dislodge is relevant (often vs Crab with holdings) and also moving from neutral Earth or Pilgrimage to a weaker one but the obvious benefit is...

I am Unicorn Seeker.
I have broken 3 provinces.
I attack the 4th non-stronghold province with just 1 unbalanced unit in my first conflict (say Horde in Military).
But I can move in all my remaining balanced units if I want to.
Or use them all later in a Political attack on the Stronghold that I may even switch.
How many characters do you defend with?

[MadMagician]

On another note, Christmas just came early for Unicorn. Talisman of the Sun is so brutal that even if it's unique, I could see putting 2x already. Endless plains is an obvious combo but simply dragging an opponent to two provinces is painful. Meditations of the Tao, remove fate, use Talisman, shift to Shameful Display, ouch! And it gives +1/+1 on top of that. We also now have  a holding that will allow us to go into overdrive! 2 honor allows us to keep on bidding high, the 2 fate is clutch as well for Cav Reserves play. The future is bright for Uni

Talisman doesn't play into Endless Plains. Endless Plains triggers when "attackers are declared here".  Talisman is a action that you would use after that triggering condition. However Talisman does synergize with Restoration of Balance. Confirmed FFG hates ponies.