Greetings Fellow Mantis,

With a lack of information in regards to our great mother clan, and the era we have entered, I believe we must find a way to unite in an effort to see that the Mantis Clan survives in spirit, if not in actuality in the future. There is the chance that it will have some form in the new LCG, something that I truly hope for, but I also feel the odds are not quite in our favor. As such I propose all Mantis clan members seek to win story prizes for the purposes of reforging our great clan from non-existence. I would love for my fellow Mantis Clan Samurai to utilize this as a way of introducing yourselves to each other and to truly reform our camaraderie even without the clan being here to bind us together. Perhaps, if you are willing, share which clan you plan to play until we can reform our own. We are the Clan in waiting, the clan that has ascended from nothing to greatness, and we will do it again. Long live the Mantis. Utz!

Mantis are out. So are the Spider. Looks like we just have to deal with playing some other clan.

Who the hell knows what the future may hold for our clans, but for now, I'm excited to play some L5R again!!! With what appears to be more streamlined mechanics with great looking cards!

Come with me if you want to live.

I would like to see yoritomo's alliance unite under a different minor clan.

I'd kinda prefer to see the Three-Man Alliance as the basis for a new Great Clan...

Sparrow, Wasp, Fox.

Minor Clan Alliance would be nice to see... I wouldn't even mind Yoritomo ad great uniter.

Be patient, little Mantis, the time will come.

Started off playing this game with a Yoritomo's Alliance starter deck way back in the day. Stuck with them as they became the modern Mantis Clan and never looked back. The Wasp were the ones who really got my attention.

1 hour ago, Spoonfunk said:

I would like to see yoritomo's alliance unite under a different minor clan.

I want it to be the Wasp Clan that unites the minor clans. I like the sound of Tsuruchi's Alliance.

Go hare clan!

I just really want my pirate samurai that use Kama's back. To me they were a very unique family and with the aid of the Tsuruchi as the greatest archers, the Moshi as the primary Shugenja (honestly didn;t really care for the Moshi, prefered Yoritomo Thunder Shugenja), and then the Kitsune as the semi-pseudo courtly family the Mantis clan was really unique. I hope that whatever form it may take the Mantis clan (as a family or as the head) will be involved in it, be it Tsuruchi's Alliance, Minor Clan Alliance, Mantis Clan, Kitsune Clan, what have you, I just hope to be a part of it.

In regards to the shadowlands, I hypothesize that they will be "playable" again, but perhaps they will be characters placed in various clans. Perhaps they will print provinces that help alleviate honor costs of the shadowlands cards(in theory, since in the past shadowlands cards cost honor as well as resource). It might not be the same as playing the "-19 honor and you can't dishonor me out!!" box, but it would at least throw a bone to the followers of Fu Leng.

Well, I'm not much of one for tournaments, so I won't be winning any story prizes, but I heartily support your efforts here!

http://kobuneport.com/Kobune/viewtopic.php?p=31542#p31542

Well the mantis are just seagoing crabs. But to be serous, as I don't know the timeline very well hasn't it gone back to before they were formed?

2 hours ago, Cold Iron1 said:

Well the mantis are just seagoing crabs. But to be serous, as I don't know the timeline very well hasn't it gone back to before they were formed?

No.

The Mantis were one of the earliest Minor clans formed, way back almost 1,000 years ago at this point in the timeline.

What is true, is before the Mantis were released as a faction (originally an alliance of Minor clans) and were later promoted to a Great Clan, and started absorbing other Minor Clans (IIRC, they were eventually home to 4 different previously separate entities).

I just have an image in my head, of some Scorpion player winning a story prize and seeing Yoritomo's name on a list of people to kill, smiling at the crowd as all the mantis players plead for mercy he/she chooses to sign Yoritomo's death warrant as all the mantis players descend into despair.

Joking aside, I wouldn't be surprised if the story team already have a pretty solid plan of what they want to do with yoritomo's alliance and/or the mantis.

On the other hand, a 7 faction game is far more manageable.

On 22/4/2017 at 1:55 AM, Yoritomo Kazuto said:

seek to win story prizes for the purposes of reforging our great clan from non-existence.

Doubt very much that FFG would leave the creation of a new Great Clan to such method. Either they want to add Mantis as Great Clan or not. Do not get me wrong, it would be a nice way to involve some fans but... I do not see it. A different angle would be to allow to choose which family of the Yoritomo's Alliance would be the main one (Fox Clan as Great Clan? Where do I sign??? ).

18 minutes ago, Moto Subodei said:

On the other hand, a 7 faction game is far more manageable.

While I would not mind more factions, I must agree with this. The expansion packs would also limit the possible number of allowed factions as I doubt very much that FFG would like the idea of not being able to offer at least 1 cards of each faction in each pack (so people buy them).

It always struck me as funny how many people who loved the Mantis Clan actually loved the families that weren't an original part of it. Not that Yoritomo didn't have his fans, but everyone else always seemed to have more (except the Moshi, not a lot of love for a clan of supposedly traditional yet suspiciously underdressed fire priestesses).

In Onyx it wasn't the entire Mantis that were wiped out, just the Yoritomo family, and the other Mantis families basically fractured back into the Wasp, Fox, and Centipede Clans, each with a Sensei that allowed you to play just them if you so chose. I think it was going to be interesting to see what, if anything, came of that.

I've always been a huge Mantis fan, and a Yoritomo fan in particular. But I still found it a little sad that the Mantis lessened the other clans' identities so much (the Moshi in particular, honestly; Kitsune at least got to keep their traditions for the most part).

While I'd be super hyped to see the Mantis to return as a great clan for the LCG, I'd say I'd actually much rather see an MCA faction. More loosely allied, more disjointed, permanently in an underdog position —but still capable of rivalling the great clans in many ways.

Plus, it might let me finally play my actual favourite minor clan, the Tortoise...

10 minutes ago, Tetsuro said:

It always struck me as funny how many people who loved the Mantis Clan actually loved the families that weren't an original part of it. Not that Yoritomo didn't have his fans, but everyone else always seemed to have more (except the Moshi, not a lot of love for a clan of supposedly traditional yet suspiciously underdressed fire priestesses).

I liked Yoritomo but never a fan of the Mantis eating their allies so they could get the glory of Great Clan. Always enjoyed Ryosei giving Yoritomo the middle finger about possible wedding too.

I also prefered the original mercenary Mantis rather than the pirate Mantis.

8 minutes ago, Smobey said:

While I'd be super hyped to see the Mantis to return as a great clan for the LCG, I'd say I'd actually much rather see an MCA faction. More loosely allied, more disjointed, permanently in an underdog position —but still capable of rivalling the great clans in many ways.

Plus, it might let me finally play my actual favourite minor clan, the Tortoise...

MCA 4 Lyfe.

35 minutes ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

MCA 4 Lyfe.

Well, yes. Have you seen my username?

Heck, I even got to be there at the founding IC!

37 minutes ago, Tetsuro said:

It always struck me as funny how many people who loved the Mantis Clan actually loved the families that weren't an original part of it. Not that Yoritomo didn't have his fans, but everyone else always seemed to have more (except the Moshi, not a lot of love for a clan of supposedly traditional yet suspiciously underdressed fire priestesses).

In Onyx it wasn't the entire Mantis that were wiped out, just the Yoritomo family, and the other Mantis families basically fractured back into the Wasp, Fox, and Centipede Clans, each with a Sensei that allowed you to play just them if you so chose. I think it was going to be interesting to see what, if anything, came of that.

That's part of what made it so frustrating, though, is that we were going into it losing a major portion of our clan. Sure, I didn't play with the Yakitori family that often, but that doesn't mean I wanted to see them all sunk! And didn't one of the story options involve rebuilding the clan in such a way that another of the families would leave in disgust? I guess I didn't read too many of the other clans' options, so could someone please tell me how many of the other clans were losing at least one and possibly two of their major families? The whole thing just felt like AEG had something personal against the Mantis, and by extension, its players.

Contrast with the Ratlings, who also had a bit of a following and then were removed. I wasn't in the game at that time, but from what I've read, the Ratlings went out with a bang! It kind of looks like AEG was saying, "We need to get rid of your clan, but we're going to do it in a totally epic way, so that your clan accomplished something with its demise!" And honestly, had something like that happened for Mantis, I wouldn't be nearly so frustrated as I am with AEG. If the Mantis had shown up at the ultimate battle and been wiped out weakening Kanpeki enough for the other clans to destroy him, I'd still be sad, but I think I'd be satisfied at such an ending. Instead, we get wiped off the map at the beginning of the war instead of the end, but hey, at least we can always play as some other clan ! (That was sarcasm, in case anyone was confused.)

Honestly, Onyx almost killed my interest in L5R altogether, as it just came across as AEG wanting to punish Mantis players for AEG's own screw-up in giving us an overpowered Stronghold or two (according to other players' rants about the Mantis, at least).

Nobody had anything against the Mantis Clan. I know this is a really popular thing to think that there was some secret cabal where we all hated X Clan and thus vindictively set out to 'punish' them, but that wasn't the case. You might be surprised to find out that among our Playtest teams by far the most popular clans were Spider and Mantis, in that order, with Spider being by far the largest group.

Honestly, DT (from what I remember and what someone else confirmed here elsewhere) had nothing to do with deciding what happened to the Mantis Clan, we were merely told that was the decision and we did what we could to enact it from there (I think by the time we started planning for Onyx the whole decision about the Mantis had already been made by people that largely weren't even working for the company anymore). In fact, we (DT and Story Team, as well) fought to include the Other Family Sensei so that Mantis players would still be able to play some aspects of their clans and represent them. Initially they weren't planned to be there at all.

There was also a big push by some higher ups to mostly destroy the Phoenix and Unicorn Clans and somehow mesh them together into a totally different clan, but that was so bizarre many of us pushed back hard enough that they opted against it in the end.

I feel you, I really do. The first starter I ever bought was the Diamond Edition Mantis starter with Yoritomo Kumiko . I love the Mantis, and I always will; but, for as much as I love L5R's rich and complex modern history, the idea that some of the most major shakeups in the game's history (the ascension of the Mantis Clan, the Great Carpenter Wall falling to the Destroyers, the ascension of the Spider Clan, Thronin' or Ronin, etc.) have been essentially reset and we're starting back with Hantei XXXVIII is... really, really exciting to me.

I still think we'll get Yoritomo as a character, and I still think he'll lead an alliance of minor clans. I'm fairly certain there will be a more maritime-focused clan in the future. Will Yoritomo declare he is his twenty strongest men? Will he ascend to the heavens in thunderous glory? Will his clan be granted Great Clan status? Will HIS clan be the aforementioned maritime clan? I have no idea! And that's super duper exciting.

There are still enough clans and story details that I find interesting and inspiring and motivating. While I'm sad to see something I played for so long get removed from the game, the opportunities are just too great to feel too badly about it.