Many of the philosophies of the combat system in LSR were determined from Sun Tzs 2,000 year old book The Art of War. Sun Tzu always emphasized that one of a general's most important virtues was adaptability. The Art of War is dedicated to honing your ability to bring multiple elements together to make a devastating effect. In other words, Master Sun Tzu's a card combo monster.

Togashi Mitsu and Shuten Doli

The Tattooed Man and the Hungry Spirit are a wonderful combination because they make each other more powerful. The Tattooed Man can become incredibly strong, but then gains tokens which keep him bowed. Shuten Doji can eat these tokens and become more intimidating while restoring Mitsu's strength.

Legendary Victory, Charge and Mercy

When you are attacking your opponent and you're behlud on force, play Legendary Victory, which will double your honor gain if you win the battle. With a Charge, your forces can regain the advantage (or with ranged attacks, spells, etc..) and by playing Mercy after the victory you rack up the honor. Mercy makes each defeated card worth 3 Honor, which is then doubled by Legendary Victory for a whopping six Honor per card. Defeating only seven cards in a battle with this combo will give an honor victory from a standing start.

Marsh Troll and Frenzy

This is a quick and cheap way to trample a province. The Marsh Troll is inexpensive and adds a lot of force to an army, but eats your own cards at the end of the turn. However, if your samurai Frenzies during the battle (adding +2F to the Marsh Troll's 4F) your samurai has been pumped for six this turn), not only will he win the battle, but the Frenzy ends up killing the Troll before his appetite catches up with your samurai.

Armour of the Golden Samurai and Foxwife

The Foxwife raises the Personal Honor of her Personalities to five. The Armour of the Golden Samurai prevents an opponent in a duel from using a focus with a value less than your Personal Honor. Since only one card ("Focus") has a value greater than four, a Personality with both of these cards will win nearly all of his or ha duels.

Any Ancestal Sword and Oath of Fealty

The Ancestral Sword gives its Personality a 1F/1C bonus for each Personaiity from your clan that you have in play. When you have a good number of Personalities who are not from your cla4 play Oath of Fealty. The Oath will give each of these Personalities a lF/lC bonus, and also aligns them to your clan, giving your sword a gigantic bonus!

Yotsu Seiki and Apprentice (with Spirit Guide)

The power of Yotsu Seiki's ranged attack can be increased by three by hiring an Apprentice for her. Also, a Splrit Gulde will straighten her back up for another blast. Apprentice and Spirit Guide can be even more powerful when given to Agasha Tamori (whose Chi is 5 for casting spells) with the spell scroll Fury of Osano WQ This four card combo yields two Ranged 10 Attacks each turn.

Yasuki Taka and Imperial Acrobats

There's one man that no Crane deck should be without, and curiously enough, he's a Crab. Yasuki Taka (the Wily Trader) can bow along with any gold-producing holding to straighten any holding in play. Try this out. Bow your imperial Acrobats for 2 Honor (or 2 Gold and 1 Honor) and then bow Taka and a Small Farm to straighten them back up to bow for 2 more Honor. With a couple of Wily Traders in play, you can be bowing for Honor all day long. Maybe he's got some Doji blood in those Crab veins...

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