Void of Hagakure

The Blade Flashes Red
The Armor Demands More Blood
I am Bishamon

Greetings fellow Ring vets and rookies it's time for Rider Kick to toss out another deck to everyone. This time we look at the demon samurai Bishamon, who through the symbol of void I hope to convey Hagakure while playing him.  Hagakure is sometimes said to assert that bushido “The Way of the Samurai” is really the "Way of Dying" or living as though one was already dead.   

Bishamon is a rough and tumble character who has 6 hand size and the maximum health a 6 hander can receive at 30 vitality.  He’s unique as his static allows him to tap his assets as though they were foundations each time a you play a card freeing your board up for more tricks.  His enhance allows you to remove Keyword abilities to further enhance his destructive power leading to merciless swings that could cleave anything in two.

We run naturally his demonic armor and Sword. Hannya allows you to use make checks with Bishamon then re-ready itself via its static ability whenever you play a weapon card. Plus each time they don’t block your attacks for whatever reason their cards become harder to play.  Kien his sword gives your attacks stun 1 for free for either free board control or to let Bishamon to take away the stun for plus 2 more damage. Getting these out as quickly as possible is very important

We run four of the newly reprinted Segaki Offering. Segaki Offering is an amazing attack that can be played for big speed and damage if you can pick your timing well. The attack gets even better as it allows you to draw a card for a simple check of 4 or better.  Bishamon can further take advantage of this attack through the use of his assets by giving and taking away your newly granted abilities for more damage.

Now a solid alternative to Segaki as it is now an out of print UR that is recently reprinted as a white border card is Karame Dama.  Some say it might even better the better of the card between the two as it is certainly more accessible and leads the opponent to make a very hard decision. With Bishamon's Enhance and should you have Kien out on the field to give it Stun when it enters play it gives the attack 9 damage, 8 if Kien is not out. This gives the opponent of the tough choice of Block it fully and give you the potential to draw 2-5 cards, half block it take around 4-5 damage and still give you draw.  Or simply eat the damage you'll be tossing out taking almost half their life. So similar to one of my favorite attacks M-4 Vapor Cannon you profit no matter what.
  

Next up from the land of Mega Man we have Dust Crusher, which in Bishamon is equally deadly depending on how you wish to use it.  Kien can give the attack an additional Stun enhance coupled with its own E allows for three cards to be tapped on the opponent’s board. However, should you wish, Bishamon’s  first enhance allows the attack to get plus 3 damage over its stun then the E gives it a total of plus 4 allowing Dust Crusher to become 4 High for 8 Damage.


 

With certain cards Tsuji Hayate can be played in a late attack string possibly the 4^th attack. With Kien out you can also give this attack stun, then you can utilize the combo to keep whatever your opponent stunned down for 2 turns.  However Bishamon can also take away the possible three abilities for 4 damage making this attack 4 mid for 8 damage again, truly a frightening attack to be played in a late string.

His three more notable foundations are Ghostly Energies, Smell the Blood and Without a Master.
Ghostly Energies allows you to stack your draws and checks by shifting the top 3 cards of the deck should your attacks with no abilities deal damage.  This lets potentially lets you draw more attacks with the minimal draw abilities the deck has, or ensures you can keep playing attacks longer then you’d be able to.  

Smell the Blood lets you draw should you drop your opponent into Desperation which with his massive swings is easier than you might think it is. Or you can deal damage and make the opponent discard a card from their hand into their card pool making it harder for them to block and get rid of card they might need since it’s random.

 

And without a Master is easily one of his most important foundations. The response lets you retain your assets should the opponent have asset destruction by turning it face down to add the destroyed asset to hand rather than the discard pile.  Should you have 2 assets in play which is rather easy in this deck it allows you to tap itself as if it were 2 foundations which makes playing long attack strings very easy.

Another key foundation for him is Demanding Sacrifices. Sacrifices serves two purposes the first being the R which replaces Bishamon's ability to a slightly lesser degree, but still important should bishamon some how become tapped during your turn. The more important part is the form on the card, this allows you to play an asset from the discard pile into the staging area committed. This is best used to target a Hannya or Kien as Hannya will simply ready the moment you play a weapon card, while Kien is playable while commited.

For now I will use Segaki just to test the deck and see what is better, though I am hearing through feed back that Dama might be the better card as you profit no matter what the outcome of the attack. Should this prove to be correct I will change the deck list above to match the outcome.

 

Darkstalkers , Bishamon and Mega man all owned by Capcom
UFS is owned by Jasco Games.
Cover art by Robert Damnation

 Haiku by Joe Tonello