Guild of Black Sakura deck building (Patreon)

We remind you that you can find the cards for the January release here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iSN6RuU7FerKsq2OiGWPtfbc_A1KduT5?usp=sharing

Guild of Black Sakura

Starter Set

The main objective of the League of Plague Doctors is to defeat the curse of the Father of Disease using their power of healing and at the same time spreading magical plague. Some people say they always show up just in time to prevent the outbreak of the plague, while others are convinced that the doctors are the source of the disease and outbreak in the world. And the only thing we know for certain is that the Disease indeed appears exactly where the plague doctors operate.

The plague doctors’ release presented us with a brand new ability in the Signum universe:

Disease, triggered ability, indicated by "Disease token" — the creature receives 1 wound if it declares attack; at the start of its activation, it can skip its activation to lose Disease.

Therefore, we would like to start this article with faction building to show you the whole picture of what's going on.

Guild of Black Sakura — building — a class building that supports the archetype of its guild. Its passive ability gives your creatures an opportunity to gain Disease and then transfer it to their enemies or use it as a resource for your spells, or simply to deal wounds to activate special abilities of your creatures. The second ability strengthens the attack of your characters in addition to Arena, and also deals wounds which the Black Sakura characters might need.

After we figured out how the building do work, let’s finally take a look at the creatures and characters.

Kame-Оnna, the Elder Hermit — hero — a mage with a low level of Health and the Master of Defense ability. It's better for him to stay away from melee combat, though he can defend itself and strike back if needed. Generally speaking, if you look through his abilities, you’ll notice that Kame-Onna is not a warrior and not even a battle mage who would destroy his enemies with the magical blows. The target of Kame-Onna gains Disease as a result of the hero’s shooting, which means the main aim of this hero is to make sure to infect the enemy army, giving them Disease. Alternatively, Kane-Onna can focus on eliminating enemy minions or other creatures with only 1 Health remaining. Eliminating two creatures per one activation can be considered a good result for this hero.

Warrior of the League x3 — character — barracks, any — similarly to the Northerners, the League also has its regular soldier who’s not much stronger than a common minion. Unlike other characters, the deck can include more than one card of the warrior (cards with the same name), as stated in its ability. Although it’s weak enough in combat, it plays its important part in the squad of Black Sakura. The same as other characters of the Guild, it gains Disease once it’s summoned to the Battlefield, and due to the low level of Health, it obviously cannot declare attack while it didn’t get rid of Disease, but anyway, it might be useful along with its Defender and Master of Defense abilities. At the very least, a few of such soldiers can protect its Hero from the enemy strikes.  

Reiji, the Fire Wind — character — smithy, city hall, 1 prosperity — one of the strongest characters of the Black Sakura. The same as all members of the Guild, it gains Disease when appears on the Battlefield. Though you might want it to be receiving wounds by the way. Thanks to its ability, Reji can deal as many as 6 damage if it’s current Health is 1. Usually, it’s enough even to kill the opponent’s hero, so it possesses a really ruthless hidden power and your enemies must stay away from it. Playing for this character, you have to be cautious and feel the balance between the reduced health and situation on the Battlefield so your opponent wouldn’t kill Reiji.

Masa, Rider of the League  — character — Masa and Reiji are two of the strongest characters in the League. Unlike Reiji, Masa doesn’t have so many Strength points, but its Persecution offsets this disadvantage. That means the character is here not to deal an enormous amount of damage, but eliminating lots of small "annoying" creatures such as minions or basic characters.

Total of 5 characters - the basic number of characters for the core of the deck. All of the presented characters are working well in this build, especially the last two ones, but anyway, they will become a much stronger power if you add other characters of the Guild of Black Sakura, such as Masaru, the Noble Warrior and Kazuki, Herald of the Plague.

Miraculous Recovery — spell — library, temple — very useful personal card of Kame-Оnna that allows your already dead character to miraculously survive. Its value cannot be overestimated, especially in decks with a low number of characters, because players with such decks should thoroughly establish every turn and make everything in their power to not lose their soldier accidentally.

Messenger's Mask — relic, helmet/mask — school of magic, smithy, any — other card of Kame-Оnna that allows exchanging the life of your character for a few minions. It’s especially great if you have Rider of the League on the Battlefield as it has a high level of basic Strength and when it dies you can summon 4-5 minions.

Exchange for Life — tactic — any, any, any — the third card of Kame-Оnna; along with other tactic cards it can help you to collect a lot of prosperity on the early and middle stages to quickly build the whole city while your opponent just started to summon first characters to the Battlefield.