Wow I am so glad I happened upon this website. As I am a new player I have been looking for advice elsewhere, but since I only have a great deal of older cards, many people (namely those that play the newest arc, and who are not used to having such a large card pool) have not been able to give me help. Thus I ask you good folk if you could give me some advice on my Phoenix military deck: cards you think I should get, possible strategies I should look into/incorporate are much appreciated. Also let me know if the deck is even legal in the legacy format (though i am playing casually, I like to keep my decks within a specific format so that it cuts down on possible imbalances that might occur if I played with an anything goes attitude).

So here is the deck thus far. The reason for the many non-phoenix personalities/many one ofs in the deck is that I simply do not have many cards and I am just making do with what I have:

Stonghold:
City of Blood

Personalities:
Phoenix:
2x Isawa Sachi
2x Asako Hirotsugu
1x Asako Kinuye (exp)
2x Agasha Chieh
2x Agasha Seruma
2x Isawa Yoriko
1x Isawa Ihara
2x Shiba Katsuda
1x Isawa Kaede

Dragon:
1x Agasha Tamori

Crab:
1x Hida Atsumori
1x Hida Rikyu
1x Hiruma Oda
1x Kuni Yori

Unaligned:
2x Hizuka

Holdings:
3x Jade Works
3x Silver Mine
3x Sanctified Temple
3x Talented Apprentice
2x Gifts and Favors
1x Political favors
1x A Favor Returned

Events:
1x Glory of the Shogun
1x The Return of Fu Leng

Spells:
1x The Wasting Disease
2x Fire and Air
2x The fury of Osano-Wo
1x Walking the Way
1x Fear's Bane
1x Castle of Water
2x The Fire from Within

Followers:
1x Decoy
1x Siege Engine
1x Wardens
1x Shield Wall
3x Light Infantry

Weapons:
2x Henshin's Amulet

Kiho:
3x Strength of My Ancestors
2x The Wrath of Osano-Wo
2x Defining the Essence
2x Fist of the Earth

Actions:
3x Block Supply Lines
3x Counterattack
3x Storm of Isawa
2x Superior Tactics
1x Higher Ground

Now there is a little bit of Mantis hate in here because my main opponent is a mantis player, and the naval+ranged attacks are killer.

I will also be getting another starter deck soon to supplement this deck, and I was curious as to which one (either the samurai one, or the stronger than steel deck) would be best for me to get? Whereas the samurai deck has 2 strongholds, and more cards, I know that the stronger than steel deck has the BRT (which is really good for military decks), and is a little cheaper. So which one should I get?

Thanks for any and all advice!

I can't help you much, since I've never paid much attention to Phoenix before SE, but I can give you some strategic pointers for dealing with Mantis-style decks (since I play against Naga in Legacy, where Purusha does essentially the same thing, and against Mantis in SE play).

First, maximize your Limited kill. Since you're not going to get many actions in battle, killing them outside of battle is your best bet. Second, consider Reinforce the Gates (it works WONDERS in SE, which also features Sneak Attack and Naval beatdown). I also strongly recommend upping Superior Tactics to 3, since Deadly Ground is so common and devastating to a deck that needs actions and PK to win over high force. Forewarning is a possible alternate choice, if there are events that you'd like to avoid.

I can give you one piece of faction-specific advice though: use Night Battle. Since you have a ton of Shugenja, being Phoenix, it can shut down your opponent like Deadly Ground while still allowing you to toast his people.

More generally again, I'd also highly recommend finding some battle action that's more lethal than Block Supply Lines. That card doesn't even cut it in Samurai Edition, much less Legacy (I had to learn that the hard way). There have got to be more lethal options available to Phoenix considering the huge card pool of Legacy.

Thanks a lot Corbeau, I will keep all that in mind (and my eye out for those cards), especially if and when my competition gets any fiercer

Any more advice is still more than welcome, especially regarding which deck to buy (I would like to order it soon if possible ).

Needs more Sezaru.

Wow I just looked him up, and yea I totally agree. That is a very tasty card. Kinda expensive to buy him though, even if I only need one.

He's worth every Gold.