Admit it. You've always suspected it.

Everybody's a Kolat.

Since L5R's early days, folks speculated about whether the Kolat would get a stronghold. The designers decided long ago that the Kolat were far too elusive to get a conventional stronghold. But now, every stronghold can be a Kolat stronghold with Kage Sensei. Why should the Kolat need their own stronghold when it's so easy to take over other's?

With Kage Sensei, your Kolat become clan members (more momentarily), and they get two abilities.

First your Kolat generate Sleeper tokens. Tokens alone aren't very interesting unless you're using Oni no Sanru (bet most of you don't even know who that is!) or Shuten Doji. No, it's the second ability taught by Kage Sensei that brings us to the heart of the matter: Kolat personalities can destroy those Sleeper tokens to cancel a personality's actions.

Kage Sensei is worded very broadly. You may have seen some questions in older FAQ lists about what is means when a personality is "performing" an action; this falls into the same category.

"Taking an action" includes:

Using an ability.

Most actions where a controller targets his or her personality (e.g., Iaijutsu Challenge, Careful Planning);

Lobbying for the Favor (get out those Political Mistakes!).

Attaching cards. If you cancel an attachment the card goes back into the hand, and the player then has another chance to try attaching it.

Conversely, anything that isn't an action (e.g., committing a unit to battle, a samurai committing seppuku), or is produced by a card other than a personality (spells, items) can't be cancelled by destroying the Sleeper tokens.

Since you have to bow a Personality to place a token, and bow a personality to cancel an action, you'll need a lot of Kolat. The number of warm bodies matters most; abilities and special traits are gravy. Forget about making people Kolat with Toturi the First or Kolat Master;

It's easier just to recruit known agents.

Unfortunately, hiring Kolat can drive your human resource department to drink. Kolat are not straightforward employees. Some backstab you: Kado's got his hand in the cash register (raising your cards' costs), and Kouta works for anyone who pays her. Others are expensive (even with a clan discount), unique, or both, slowing your Sleeper token production. Finally, the Kolat are a bewilderingly heterogeneous group, with few Kolat combining well with other Kolat. Luckily, a few personalities fall into none of these categories.

Yazaki is awesome with Kage Sensei because he's free (isn't "free" a lovely word?). His trait - keeping your cards safe from prying eyes - is active whether he's bowed or not providing you with a nice little bonus as he creates Sleeper tokens. The Experienced Yasuki Taka is a good choice for Kage Sensei decks for the same reason: his great trait gives an advantage even as he's spreading and destroying Sleeper tokens.

Ichiin is cheap, which again generates plenty of Sleeper tokens early. Plus, his Fate hand manipulation is good for situations where you don't need him for Sleeper tokens.

Finally, consider Chinoko. With Kage Sensei, she costs a mere 5 gold. This is good value when you consider that she reduces the gold cost of Kolat cards by 4, and can do this the first turn she comes into play, which helps you to recruit more Kolat personalities. Plus, she makes nonpersonality Kolat cards - like Kolat Oyabun, Kolat Assassin or Counterfeit - cheaper, and provides you with protection against other Kolat.

Like most Sensei, there is a price associated with the nifty abilities; your starting honor is reduced by 2. This is not a great detriment to most Kolat decks, since almost all Kolat have "-" honor requirements, and only a couple have "0" The one exception? Ironically, with his honor requirement of 10, the hardest Kolat to play with Kage Sensei is... the Experienced Akodo Kage!

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