A comparison of the Scorpion and Phoenix clans.

	Okay let's start where it makes the most sense, the Kami.
Shiba and Bayushi were twins (WC:KS, p. 16), thus the Scorpion
tradition of wearing masks.  If Bayushi wasn't wearing his mask, he
could have effortlessly been mistaken as Shiba just by quoting Shinsei
if/when he bothered to talk (I somehow doubt that either of them spoke
all that much).

	Also, neither Bayushi nor Shiba had any inclination to return
to heaven.  Shiba was forced back with Tsukune's ascendance and he will
most likely come up with some new cunning way to return and get in the
head of the Phoenix Champion.  Bayushi, as I understand it, never
really died (or just didn't go up to Tengoku), and stayed with Shosuro
in that lake by Traitor's Grove (currently one of several notable dead
Scorpion there).

	So in summation: the Phoenix and Scorpion Kami both had a
similar start, both had a quiet broody guy who became fanatically
devoted to someone (Isawa and Shosuro, respectively), and now both are
dead. Mostly.

	Next, let's look at them from a CCG perspective. Both clans
have that odd happenstance of having the least number of clan champion
cards of anybody (2 different people, 3 or 4 cards); heck, the even
Mantis have had more clan champions!  The Scorpion have Bayushi Shoju
(Nonexp. and Inexp.) and Bayushi Yojiro (Exp2.), while the Phoenix
have Shiba Ujimitsu (nonexp.) and Shiba Tsukune {Exp2. (standard and
KYD), and Exp3.}.

	So besides the fact that Money says that from here on for
both clans the champions are only going to be released after they
reach experienced 2. Each clan has a whoop-ass champion (Shoju and
Tsukune) who has multiple incarnations, and a champion with a weird
ability (Ujimitsu and Yojiro).

	Sure, nonexperienced Shoju really sucked (a 6/6 Tactician is
not worth a multiple card combo), but his inexperienced is God-like.
He is the master of Scorpion thought: "I -could- look at your hand but
it's so much more fun to borrow it while I crush you.  Oh, sorry -my-
hand was all followers, which I bought. Nothing for you, so sorry."

	Tsukune has assortment of fairly nice specials (I particularly
like her exp.2 KYD), from producing an irrefusable duel, to giving
herself the Tactician trait, to just being pumpable.

	Yojiro's ability is thematically appropriate; he just keeps
pulling the Scorpion clan's collective butts out of the fire.
Similarly, Ujimitsu got to represent the Phoenix rising from the 
ashes aspect of his clan,  single-handedly making all those cheap
Phoenix samurai with useless specials (or no specials) good for something.

	Family-wise, the Scorpion have four (Yogo, Soshi, Shosuro, and
Bayushi), and, after the Agasha joined, the Phoenix also have four
(Isawa, Asako, Agasha and Shiba).  In an RPG perspective they have the
second and first places for number of shugenja schools, respectively
(the Scorpion are tied with the Mantis at 2 schools and one advanced
school, and the Phoenix are way in the lead with 6 schools, arguably
more, and one advanced school).

	Both also have their weird schools that boggle the mind as to
where to put them. Actors, Henshin, Supai?  Are they a bushi, a
shugenja, a ninja, or a courtier?  Both clans even have a Tejina school,
which I'm certain is there just to confuse people!

	Both clans keep getting snagged by corruption and yet no one
seems to notice... they gave the Phoenix a bloodsword to guard and the
Scorpion still use ninja.  I swear, the Phoenix are going to kill
someone with Ambition (Another similarity: both clans got to guard
Ambition), or else I don't understand the infighting of the Phoenix
half as well as I think I do (four families, three of which are
obsessed with besting each other).

	So there you go, a series of odd trivial similarities between
the Scorpion and the Phoenix.  At times sounding conspiratorial (yeah,
maybe the Kolat suggested that both the Yogo and Shiba make a Tejina
school, yeah...), at other times just odd coincidence, and just forget
that somehow in a comparison between the Scorpion and Phoenix the
Mantis got mentioned twice (they seem to be the new heads of The
Conspiracy so who knows).  The surprisingly similar Phoenix and
Scorpion.