Cai Wen Ji

Cai Wen Ji 蔡文姬 Foreign Orphan 异乡的孤女 Lament 悲歌 Whenever any player is damaged by an attack, Cai Wen Ji can discard any card. The victim then flips a judgment. If it is a heart, the victim regains one health.   If it is a diamond, the victim draws two cards.   If it is a club, the source of damage discards two cards.   If it is a spade, the source of damage flips their character card.   Heartbroken 断肠 When a player kills Cai Wen Ji, they lose all of their abilities for the rest of the game.

Clarification:

•      To activate "Lament," Cai Wen Ji can discard any card, including equipped cards.
•      "Lament" cannot be activated on a character who dies from an Attack unless they are saved from the brink of death. 
•      If the victim of an Attack flips a club-suited judgement card, they can discard any two cards, whether they are equipped or in their hand. If they do not have two cards to discard, they discard all of the cards that they have.
  
•      Note that "Lament" is activated on a 'per-instance' basis. If a character is receives two units of damage from one Attack, Cai Wen Ji can only discard one card to allow the victim to flip one judgement card. However, if multiple people are Chained and they all receive damage from the same elemental Attack, Cai Wen Ji can activate "Lament" for each character that is damaged (provided that she has enough cards to discard to do so) since the Attack is causing multiple instances of damage.
•      If a character activates an ability that lasts throughout their entire turn then kill Cai Wen Ji, "Heartbroken" does not stop the effects of the ability for the rest of the turn. However, the ability cannot be activated again. For example, if Yan Liang and Wen Chou activate "Dueling Heroes" at the beginning of their turn then kill Cai Wen Ji in the middle of their turn, they can continue to use their hand cards as Duel until the end of their turn. They can no longer activate this power at a later time though. 

Strengths

Weaknesses

"Lament" is a very powerful ability. All of the judgement possibilities either hurt the Attacker or help the victim, so Cai Wen Ji suffers no risk when using this ability.     Of the four possibilities of judgement flips for "Lament," the spade outcome (source of damage flips their character card) is the most damning as they do not get to draw any cards.       "Heartbroken" is a powerful deterrent that will stop many players from trying to kill Cai Wen Ji, particularly characters with three units of health and two abilities.        Cai Wen Ji is a very intimidating character for beginner players to go up against. It may be possible to pressure them into not Attacking and not being as productive as a more experienced player would be in the same situation.

In order to activate "Lament" on a consistent basis,  Cai Wen Ji must keep as many cards as possible at the end of her turn. As a result, she cannot do as many things during her turn as other characters can.      Cai Wen Ji is particularly weak to card destruction techniques and delay tool cards. If Cai Wen Ji has not cards, she cannot activate "Lament."      "Lament" only provides defense against damage caused by Attacks. This does not help Cai Wen Ji and her team against tool cards and character abilities that cause damage.      While "Lament" will always either hurt the Attacker or help the victim of the Attack, it is inconsistent in outcomes. As a result, its effectiveness can vary considerably based onthe judgement that is flipped.      "Heartbroken" can be a powerful deterrent in some cases, but some characters do not have powerful abilities and will not be afraid to kill Cai Wen Ji. Also, if a teammate inadvertently kills Cai Wen Ji with a tool card like Barbarians, then this power will activated a teammate instead of an enemy.

Notable Combinations:

•      Sima Yi/Zhang Jiao - These characters are judgement tinkerers and can force the judgement of "Lament" to be a spade, which can cause huge problems for the Attackers on the opposite team.

•      Xu Shu/Xun Yu/Liu Bei - These characters can give Cai Wen Ji cards and help her to activate "Lament" more frequently.

•      Guo Jia - Guo Jia's "Bestowed Rouse" can give Cai Wen Ji more cards. Also, since the judgement of "Lament" is flipped by the victim, Guo Jia's "Heaven's Envy" allows him to keep the judgement card that he flips when Cai Wen Ji activates "Lament" for the damage that he suffers from an Attack. 

•      Cao Pi - If another character damages Cao Pi with an Attack and Cai Wen Ji activates "Lament," Cao Pi may flip a heart judgement. This judgement goes into effect before "Exile" does. As a result, it is possible that X may be zero so Cao Pi can flip an enemy and they draw zero (!) cards.

•      Zhang Chun Hua - Zhang Chun Hua's "Unfeeling" bypasses both of Cai Wen Ji's abilities, as all of the damage that she causes is considered to be negligence damage. As a result, Cai Wen Ji cannot flip judgement cards when she damages characters with Attacks and Zhang Chun Hua can kill Cai Wen Ji safely.

•      Gan Ning/Zhang Jiao/Zhang He/Jiang Wei - These characters specialize in card destruction. If they use their abilities on her, it becomes harder for her to activate "Lament."

•      Hua Xiong/Dong Zhuo - These characters have negative abilities that affect their maximum health limits. As such, they will be motivated to kill Cai Wen Ji if they are on the opposite team so their abilities will no longer go into effect.

•      Zhang Jiao/Dian Wei/Yan Liang & Wen Chou/Others - Characters with abilities that can cause damage that are not considered to be Attacks can be troublesome for Cai Wen Ji as they can 'bypass' "Lament" in a sense.

•      Da Xiao/Xu Huang - These characters specialize in producing time-delay tool cards. Da Xiao's "Country Scene" allows her to Capture Cai Wen Ji more easily, forcing her to skip her turn and waste cards that she could use to heal herself and hold more cards "Lament." Xu Huang's "Blockade" allows him to more-easily target Cai Wen Ji with Starvation. This can make it harder for Cai Wen Ji to acquire cards to use for "Lament."

•      Demigod Zhou Yu - Demigod Zhou Yu's "Searing Flame" has the potential to kill Cai Wen Ji in one strike. Since this is a single-use ability and "Qin Music" is quite mediocre, he will have very little to lose by killing Cai Wen Ji.

•      Xun Yu/Xiao Qiao - These characters have abilities that either can force another character to damage Cai Wen Ji or transfer damage to Cai Wen Ji. If these characters force an ally to inadvertently kill Cai Wen Ji, "Heartbroken" will be activated on the ally instead of these characters.

 

King	Cai Wen Ji can sometimes be successful as the king, but she generally is not a good choice. The rebels will pick characters that can deal damage without Attacking and the threat of "Heartbroken" is lost since the game ends when Cai Wen Ji dies.
Loyalist	Cai Wen Ji is a good loyalist. She can help the king with "Lament" and the threat of "Heartbroken" will deter many rebels and spies from killing her.
Rebel	Cai Wen Ji is a good rebel. She can punish the king and loyalists with "Lament" and provide them with a huge dilemma. They are required to kill her to win the game, but doing so will make them lose all of their powers.
Spy	Cai Wen Ji is a poor spy choice. While "Heartbroken" will almost ensure that she will last until the end of the game, it is difficult to keep the game balanced when "Lament" produces random judgement cards.

Final Remarks:

      Cai Wen Ji may seem like a monster to those who have not used her in a game of San Guo Sha. While she does have some powerful deterrents, she is not overpowered. Her cards have to be carefully managed in order to use her effectively. In general, it is best to equip as many cards as possible and end your turn with as many hand cards as you have units of health. The cards can go very quickly when using "Lament." Also, be careful when flipping multiple judgement cards for "Lament" when chained allies receive damage from an elemental Attack. If two spade judgement cards are flipped in this fashion, the character who caused the damage will flip their character card face down then flip back face up. This effectively will do nothing to the Attacker while Cai Wen Ji wastes two cards. This can be avoided not using the ability after the first spade is flipped in this situation.

Alternate Appearances: