You know, I wrote this big long post, but it was mostly me whining about not liking how they’re implementing the Two-Handed keyword, and how despite the flavor text this card (based on the name and art) depicts a katana, not a no-dachi. And, really, who needs to read that?
As for playability? It could have some potential use, although it’s not something I’m planning on using. I’m not really sold on the notion of loading up one unit for all of your duels, but Dotanuki does have the potential to provide +2C from a single card with a 3FV (Naginata will grant the same Chi bonus for half the cost, but is only a 1FV). But that really seems like the extent of its usefulness, and even that’s pretty narrow. If you really want the +2C from one card that much, you can switch to Seppun’s Blessed Blade for one gold, always get the +2C (and maybe more Force) and be able to stack another Weapon on top of it – you’re really, really not going to be happy when your Dotanuki dueling unit can’t hit the guy that matters because your Personality + Weapon is only 4 or 5 Force.
And if you aren’t fixated on the +2C from one card, there are plenty of better options – you can get a +2F/+1C 3FV Weapon for 2G, and it isn’t Two-Handed. Or get a +3F/+1C non-Two-Handed Weapon for 4G with a variety of other upsides – a 4FV on Family Sword, honor meta on Justice of the Crane, card draw on Utaku’s Destiny, a 4FV and two abilities on Versatile Blade, and so forth.
Wonder why they chose this as the reprint instead of just doing No Dachi?
The question is: How this works with RoF?
That’s a good point. Without seeing the comprehensive rules I’m not sure we can know, but it seems reasonable that Ring of Fire would look before you get the Chi boost, which would make that handy for enlightenment.
Assuming that the weapon’s chi bonus does not occur until the actual duel begins, I would think that the ring would check right at the time of the challenge.
Regardless, I know it comes across as ‘meh’, and perhaps this is a little too specific for applicability, but lets say you use this weapon with Kitsuki Miroken, who starts off at 2F/4C, and becomes 4F/4C if he’s opposing a dishonorable personality (and given he isn’t a Kensai, the weapon being two handed matters little). Given that many of the duels we know of so far dishonor losers or refusers, its not exceedingly difficult to have Miroken opposing a dishonorable personality. Attach this weapon, and he becomes 6F against a dishonorable personality, which combined with the multitude of force drops that Dragon has available (Mirumoto Hatsuto and Kitsuki Nakai, for examples that are just printed abilties) means that even against many fat crabs Miroken will get the 2C bonus, turning him effectively into a 6F/6C personality, and putting him well into nigh-unbeatable ranges for duels.
Hell, attaching this weapon to Mirumoto Tsuda, while it isn’t as drastic of a possible force advantage (turns him into effectively a 5F personality), using the force drops and Tsuda’s cavalry engage action to pick the right battlefield he could effectively be a 5F/5C duelist. Again, he’s not a kensai, so the 2 handed doesn’t really matter.
Based on the wordings, Ring of Fire checks for lower chi when entering the duel while the sword gets +2 chi while you are in the duel with someone with lower force. To me, it seems that the sword is getting re-printed to aid in the playability of the Ring of Fire for some deck types, as not all of them benefit from having personalities with the ability to ‘correct’ for having lower chi while in a duel with a given condition. Well, aside from just using Mister “I Duel With Force and Have Crappy Chi”