Zhou Tai
Zhou Tai 周泰
Battle Records in Scars 历战之躯

Refusing Death 不屈
 When Zhou Tai is on the brink of death, he can choose to flip the top card of the deck and put it under his character card.  He is always considered to be on the brink of death. For each additional point of damage, he can choose to flip over another card. When he has two cards that have the same number, Zhou Tai dies. Whenever Zhou Tai is healed in this state, he can choose any of these cards and discard it. 
Clarification:
  •  The cards that Zhou Tai flips over for "Refusing Death" are not judgement cards, and thus, are not subject to judgment tinkering. 
  •  When Zhou Tai is in his "Refusing Death" state, other characters can only use a Peach for him when he flips an additional card.  This is also the only time he can use Wine to remove a card.
  •  When Zhou Tai is in his "Refusing Death" state, he has zero health and he cannot hold any hand cards at the end of his turn.
  •  Zhou Tai's "Refusing Death" ability is not enforced, so he can choose to die whenever he gets hit when he is out of health.

Strengths Weaknesses 
  •  Zhou Tai has the most stamina of any character in San Guo Sha. He can live for a very long time. He is often known as the "guy who never dies."
  •  Because of his power, other players may focus on other characters because they can be more-easily killed.
  •  Although he is known as the "guy who never dies," this is far from the case. With enough people focusing on killing him, it will eventually happen. 
  •  Once he hits his "Refusing Death" state (a.k.a. his Purgatory state), he becomes very ineffective as a character because he can hold no hand cards at the end of his turn. He will continue to take damage from everything and die a slow, miserable death.
  •  When Zhou Tai is in the "Refusing Death" state, he is very vulnerable to Starvation and Capture. Both prevent him from doing anything during his turn.

Notable Combinations:
  • Xiao Qiao - Xiao Qiao can pass damage to him when he is in his "Refusing Death" state. He will then draw four cards, as he is missing four units of health.
  • Xun Yu - Xun Yu can refill Zhou Tai's hand when he is in his "Refusing Death" state by taking damage. This is particularly good for Zhou Tai in this state because he will draw four cards since he cannot hold cards at the end of his turn.
  • Xu Huang/Da Qiao - Xu Huang's "Blockade" and Da Qiao's "Country Scene" allow them to easily use Starvation or Capture on Zhou Tai easily.
  • Xu Sheng - Xu Sheng can flip Zhou Tai's character card when he damages him with an Attack. Because Zhou Tai has zero health points, he draws zero cards to help him mitigate the flipping of his character card.
 King  Zhou Tai is not a horrible king, but he is mediocre and not as good as the standard king choices. He can survive for a long period of time, which is a good characteristic for a king choice, but there is little he can do to help is loyalists in the battle with the rebels. Through experience online, we find that the loyalists and spy die first, then the rebels team up to take down Zhou Tai. Once Zhou Tai hits his "Refusing Death" state, he usually does not recover.
 Loyalist
 Zhou Tai is mediocre as a loyalist. He is good at keeping himself alive, but he has few options to keep the king alive and fight the rebels. Choosing him as a loyalist will almost guarantee that the spy will not win, so this may be somewhat of an advantage. 
 Rebel Zhou Tai is a serviceable rebel. Because rebels have a three-card bounty on their heads, they receive a lot of attention from enemies. Zhou Tai can survive longer than most other rebels. However, he cannot offer much for his team offensively.
 Spy Zhou Tai is an okay spy pick. He can last a long time and other characters will not be inclined to waste their resources on trying to do a lot of damage to him. However, he has few options for controlling the game.

Final Remarks:
As Benjamin Franklin said, "... in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Remember this quote when picking Zhou Tai. You are not immune to death with "Refusing Death." Once he flips three or four cards his Purgatory state, he usually does not make a recovery. He is probably not one of the better characters in the game, but it can be fun to watch the looks of frustrations of your enemies as they try to kill you.

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