The Scorpion know the price of failure, and they know the proce of success. No weapon can be put aside when the Scorpion must march to war, and if the cost destroys us after our victory ... so be it. I know that more than anyone.
Shosuro Yudoka, Tactician
This is the deck we used for a Pyrite (fake Gold) tournament in Edinburgh in May 2001.
For those of you that said Tsuburu was useless ... he is a god! (grin) In a gold game it doesn't matter if he is turn 1 or turn two, he is still great. Even an early defender usually falls prey to and art/weapon or for the empire/weapon combo (or can be persuaded to seppukku with a shame) clearing the road, and Tsuburu eats every province out there. Refugees stops him of course, but he comes back, and I would use Shiryo no Shoju on an oathed Tsuburu with the Underhand to bypass all possible defences.. Later on he was there for For the Empire, or a 5 pt honor loss for Angai to Wind's Truth.
Most powerful card without question was poisoned weapon, it was a killer. I used it with arts to kill key people, or to scrape past duels, or to defend against other people's duels (lots of duels around). Its a great card. Even if you don't run dueling I would advise three in any deck with Tangen.
The Anvil of Despair proved to be great every time I got it out, I could sacrifice an Utagu or Angai to get a +0/+6 crystal Katana, or a +3/+7 Judegement. Once I got a weapon like that on Yokuan or Yojiro my Challeges were lethal. The anvil also makes the blade's weilder Shadowlands, allowing Yokuan to use For the Empire and Kill Samurai.
The Crossroads are also wonderful. They make the gold much more smooth and I never really had trouble affording anything. I would not use three (I tested that) 2 and regions worked much better, even though most of my opponents were on to the same trick and got their own. There is some risk of the Regions giving your opponent a farmlands though, to overcome your defence, but if the deck has its own it would be less of a problem.
I would make some changes. Rohiteki is not very good, she would be as a scorpion, but not as a crab, and Angai similarly is not as good as I hoped. I would make it two Angai and three Dozan (who was great), drop a Rohiteki and play with one or two Farmlands, which proved themselves in other decks in the tournaments (and go very well with Dozan). On the Fate side, although Shosuro tech won a battle, I didn't really find it useful, dropping it for a third oath and trimming the deck down a card would be good, and I only needed two slander, not three. The Double Chi I am unsure about. I needed them to win duels against the Phoenix, but they would be the first cards to cut to get down to 40 exactly.
The Towers of the Yogo
Personalites (20)
3x Bayushi Tangen [Archetype]
3x Oni no Tsuburu
3x Hida Rohiteki [Archetype]
3x Kuni Utagu
3x Soshi Angai
2x Bayushi Dozan [Archetype]
2x Bayushi Yokuan [Archetype]
1x Bayushi Yojiro ChampionEvents (3)
1x Regions of Rokugan
1x Imperial Gift
1x Imperial AmbassadorshipHoldings (17)
3x Small Farm
3x Large Farm
3x Geisha House
3x Jade Works
3x Sanctified Temple
1x The Emperor's Underhand
1x Anvil of DespairRegions (2)
2x Crossroads
Items (4)
2x Crystal Weapon
1x Judgement
1x Scorpion Clan SwordActions (29)
3x Iaijutsu Art
3x Iaijutsu Challenge
3x Iaijutsu Duel
3x For the Empire!
3x Focus
3x Poisoned Weapon
3x Shame
3x Slander
2x Shosuro Technique
2x Oath of Fealty
1x Shiryo no ShojuRings (1)
1x Ring of the Void
Spells and Kiho (10)
3x Secrets on the Wind
3x Wind's Truth
2x Double Chi
2x Fist of Osano-Wo