Because there are new and better Versions of some old beloved Cards, why not give the same treatment t xin the Iron Wall of the kotoba.
And maybe with him introduce a new way to play them.
Maybe focus on 2 handed weapons, namely lances.
i purposely tried to make him unusable in the current kotoba dekc because a slight improvement might push it over the edge.

Xin Head of the Royal Guards

Spirit 2
Atk 5/7
Defence 5
Health 13

1,3,5 Your Warrior have Def +1 till the end of the game
chain Armor and lance
All your kotoba Warriors can equip 2 lances till the end of the game.

For the second part of his ability i thought of 2 options, both together would be to strong, be either would on its own would be fine:

"The enemy cards can no longer change the defence of your Kotoba Warriors"

Maybe this will inspire a more defensive abara like playstile, there are some cards that use defense as an offensive tool but its hard to keep the defence on a high enough level for that.
Note, this effekt is not til lthe end of the game, so if Xin falls you are again fully vulnable to those types of cards.

"Wenever you recieve magik damage this ignored and instead dealt as physical damage.
After that Defence -1 till the end of game"

And this idea is for the age old weakness of the Warriors, the mages.
The problem is that this effekt might be too good on its own so maybe some further restriktions need to be put on it.
But basicly the goal is to not be too punished by playing only defensive.
With this even mages are forced to push through the defence.
But with every magic damage you recieve your Defence is shrinking giving them more and more chances to break through your defences and making it harder for you.


And additionally his Weapon

Naginata of the Royal Guards
Spirit +1
Atk +3
If Xin is among your charackters(alive or dead) your kotoba have +1 Defence till the end of the game(maybe even at aktivation and at the start of a fight.)

just a simple weapon, not to much.
there arent realyl many 2 handed weapons around that are good....or that activate imidiatly.

Making other 2 Handed weapons aktivate imidiatly might be too strong because of weapon like so rather giving new average ones would be ok.