Picture two samurai on a battlefield. Momentarily separated from their troops, they are in heated conversation ("shouting match" might be a better description). Each is convinced of the rightness of his cause -- and how dare the other stand in the way! Both stake part of their reputation on convincing the other to stand aside and let him pass. That's the contest of wills depicted in Show Me Your Stance.

My favorite feature of Show Me Your Stance is that a lot of personalities who ran from duels like scared rabbits suddenly become very capable duelist when honor is compared. Otaku Kamoko has an edge over Togashi Mitsu. Toku becomes an even match for Matsu Agetoki.

Because Show Me Your Stance creates a duel of personal honor and sends people home from battle, some think this card is only good for Crane. Wrong. Crane does not have exclusive rights to honorable personalities. Daidoji Uji is a solid duellist but he's less noble than Ikoma Ryozo or Hiruma Yoshi. More important Show Me Your Stance can be used by the attacker to send home defending units, too.

Packing Show Me Your Stance in your deck has a risk. Because Show Me Your Stance is about "pulling rank" in Rokugan's honor- conscious society, neither the challenger nor challenged can be nonhuman. If you're facing a Shadowlands Horde or Naga player (or are one yourself), Show Me Your Stance will be all but useless. With a focus value of one, this card doesn't make good fodder for other duels or Merchant Caravans, either. The risk that this card will be dead wood is small -- most personalities are human, after all -- but it's a risk nevertheless.

A duel of personal honor will usually be very close. Most personalities are more evenly matched for personal honor than chi or force. Few personalities have 3 personal honor, and only exceptional, champion- level personalities have 4 or 5 personal honor. Furthermore, personalities tend to stay evenly matched in personal honor. Even with Sunabe, Kenku Teacher, Traveling Poet and Foxwife floating around, you seldom see personal honor breaking into double digits like force or chi does. While honor duels are usually tight the consequences of losing Show Me Your Stance are less severe than most other duels (unless someone focuses Fatal Mistake). If you lose, your opponent isn't gaining much honor and you still have your unit.

Because duels of honor are a little unusual, be careful about playing Reactions to entering this duel. It's very embarrassing to give yourself a hefty chi bonus and then realize that the chi boost is useless during a duel of honor. Cards that provide an extra focus, or say they're played as if they were a focus, work fine (e.g., Oracle of Fire, Bend Like a Reed, or even a Garrotte). Despite the name of the trait Double Chi affects focus cards played during Show Me Your Stance, too.

The simplest way to turn the odds in your favor is to dishonor your foe's personality (e.g., Marries a Barbarian, Frenzy). The Unclean Cut is especially tasty: it almost acts like a Poisoned Weapon for honor duels! If you've focused better, play The Unclean Cut to remain the advantage of your foe's higher printed personal honor, and you win. You may be dishonored too, but you won't be the one walking home.

Weapons and armor add pizzazz to any duel. A Tetsubo is a nice way to guarantee a lock on the duel results. The -1C penalty from a Tetsubo is meaningless in a duel of honor, but you still have the final option to focus or strike. Similarly, Bloodswords still gain +2F/+2C tokens when you win a duel of honor. Finally, since you're hoping to have a very honorable personality as your challenger anyway, having your challenger don the Armor of the Golden Samurai is a natural.

For those of you seeking Enlightenment Show Me Your Stance is a one card answer to playing the Ring of Fire. The Ring only requires that you entered the duel with lower chi; it doesn't require you win a chi-based duel.

One common question about this card is whether you can play Test of Courage on a personality targeted with Show Me Your Stance. The answer is no. Test of Courage must be played when the action is taken, and there's no way of knowing in advance whether you'll have to leave.

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