Since the "original six", the Crab have been a clan of dramatic heights and desperate falls. A clan of ceaseless duty and thankless rewards, sentenced from birth to death to defend against the Shadowlands with little time for art, music, or the trappings of courtly life. Even their courtier family is forced to spend most of their time swindling the other clans to keep the Crab supplied.

So why do we love the Crab?

Sheer, unflinching, bad-assery.

Ally with the Shadowlands, then realize that it's a bad idea and turn against them while marching alongside them? Done that. See your brother cut down before you, then raised to fight against you and have to kill him again? The Crab call that "Tuesday". Lose your ancestral castle for hundreds of years, and spend every moment of that time waging guerilla warfare inside the Shadowlands, knowing that even if you re-take that castle, you'll be cut off from support and forced to spend every waking moment defending it from unending hordes? The Hiruma to your left is yawning right now. Knowing that from the time of your gempukku to your untimely death, you will be forced to defend an empire that either holds you in disdain or is outright disgusted by you, and you will defend that empire because your love for it transcends its lack of love for you? Well, that's a Crab.

So share your favorite Crab stories; either something from the lore or a personal story from a game (or both)!

My favorite Crab moment came early on, when I was teaching a friend of mine to play using the Beiden Pass box set. Since the Crab were more straightforward, strategically speaking, I offered her the Crab deck for her first game... and she destroyed me. I mean, it wasn't even close. The highlight of our game, in prime cinematic glory, came when she attacked my final province with a Kisada-led army; I defended with my Toturi and a few other samurai, and she literally cackled with glee as my hapless forces were ground into paste and my last province set to the torch.

And after the game, she uttered those words that all of us long to hear when teaching a new player: "Want to play again?"

As far as the lore goes, my love of the Crab can be summed up in the following quote:

"The Crab do not defend the Wall. The Crab ARE the Wall"

I personally only played Crab a little in Ivory part 2, to see if they could have a viable dueling deck. But Hida Yakamo was one of the most interesting heroes of L5R, including his Oni version. Also, he had arguably the best piece of art in the entire game: http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=12640

I'll have to admit to only ever having had one Crab deck: I made a 4 walls deck just for the fun of the alternate victory condition.