Sīmǎ Zhāo 司马昭 (Sticker Add-on)

Translated Description:
"The Ambitious Wolf Cub 狼子野心 (láng zǐ yě xīn)"

Who is he:
This was no ordinary "Prince-to-be". The contrast between Sima Zhao and Liu Shan 刘禅 is as stark as Ivanka Trump and Paris Hilton - capable and effective versus trashy and generally useless. Despite the bulk of the dirty work being accomplished by his father Sima Yi 司马懿, Sima Zhao did not simply rest and enjoy the fruits of his father's labour. Inheriting his father's combination of cunning, prudence and patience, he seized control of Wei and became the puppet master behind the scenes, then struck down Shu kingdom in one fell swoop. As if that wasn't enough, he was also able to guard himself against the very adviser that aided his Shu conquest, Zhong Hui 钟会, who began to show signs of rebelling with the help of the enemy, Jiang Wei 姜维.

But what is even more interesting is the fact that Sima Zhao did not proclaim himself Emperor of all China when he easily could have. Although Shu was defeated, Wei territory spread across China, and he alone was in control, Sima Zhao chose to leave the formation of the Jin Dynasty to his son Sima Yan 司马炎. Some say that the Sima family learnt this move from Cao Cao 曹操's family, where the formation of Wei Kingdom was delayed for two generations after Cao Cao.

Though the bad guy that he is portrayed as in the story, there is no doubt that Sima Zhao was an extremely pivotal person that shaped the history of China from 250 AD till today!

Character ability 1: "Obvious Intentions 昭心 (zhāo xīn)"
At the end of your drawing phase, you can immediately display all your on-hand cards. This is seen as having used ATTACK 杀 on a player within your attacking range. Limited to once per phase.

Character ability 2: "Cautious Wolf 狼顾 (láng gù)"
Whenever you sustain 1 unit of damage, you can flip a judgement card and you can replace this judgement card with any of your on-hand cards. Then, inspect the on-hand cards of the player that is the source of your damage. You can discard any of his/her cards with the same suit as the judgement card.

Ability's relation to story:
“Obvious Intentions” comes from Cao Mao 曹髦, the puppet emperor of Wei Kingdom. As Sima Zhao’s power and influence increased day by day, Cao Mao feared that Sima Zhao would kill him to seize the seat as an emperor. Cao Mao gathered his loyalists and launched a resist, but Sima Zhao’s subordinate killed him. The name of the ability “昭心” also has the meaning of “Sima Zhao’s intention”. The mechanism of this ability is that Sima Zhao exposes his intention (showing all his on-hand cards) and launches an attack on someone (use and ATTACK on a player within the attack range).

Oddly, “Cautious Wolf” refers to his father, not Sima Zhao himself. It is said that Sima Yi could turn his head 180° around on his neck to look backwards without turning his body. The game mechanism symbolizes a damage-triggered ability that involves making a judgement, correlates to the two abilities of Sima Yi. Perhaps this ability symbolizes Sima Zhao inheriting his father’s awareness to the surrounding environment and his ability to seize power?

How to obtain this character:
Sima Zhao can be obtained from the August 2012 issue of Zhuo You Zhi magazine, alongside *SP008 Da Qiao. It is available as an add-on "sticker" to be pasted on the "blank" character cards that are originally provided within the original pack as back-ups.