4 hours ago, Gaffa said:

Breach as printed wouldn't do enough of anything. There's no Honor Requirements any more.

Like end a game.....grrrrh! Still think a 5 point swing may be good in this as well.....

i just want to play the game about now. who will wait till november or whenever is worldwide release.

15 hours ago, Koriume said:

I think maybe the balance in politics and military will be one of the keys in the design. If they are not well balanced, it will probably be frustrating for one or two clan players. In a game where clan loyalty is highest, this could be a problem.

Not that every clan should be able to build a competitive deck of either politics and military, but every clan should be able at least to defend himself from both. It seems like they are introducing at least three ways to do it.

- characters which are strong in both: like Borderlands defender and mirumoto prodigy.

- clans which have characters that are strong in either, like seems to be the case of crane (we have seen Doji whisperer and the Daidoji)... I wonder what sollution will the lion clan have to avoid being sistematically overwhelmed by politics.

- events and tricks that can be used in both, like Blackmail.

Now, this is all speculation, but I am definitely waiting to see balance here.

You sort of have to have a mix to maximize the conflicts available and to provide some defense against military conflicts. We do know that's there's a strength 6 province against political attacks as well (Ancestral Lands) and future expansions may bring other political hate.

The question of whether or not a clan will have some offense/defense with politics will be answered once we see everything. I'm betting that being 'weaker' in one area or another just means a slightly lower general score. Think of that Mirumoto Prodigy as an example. Heck, we also have the potential of neutrals being able to shore up a clan weakness too.

1 hour ago, Kubernes said:

You sort of have to have a mix to maximize the conflicts available and to provide some defense against military conflicts. We do know that's there's a strength 6 province against political attacks as well (Ancestral Lands) and future expansions may bring other political hate.

The question of whether or not a clan will have some offense/defense with politics will be answered once we see everything. I'm betting that being 'weaker' in one area or another just means a slightly lower general score. Think of that Mirumoto Prodigy as an example. Heck, we also have the potential of neutrals being able to shore up a clan weakness too.

Where did you see Ancestral Lands?

I want to make a crab political deck, but it probably won't be possible until a few expansions.

24 minutes ago, yasuki umiushi said:

I want to make a crab political deck, but it probably won't be possible until a few expansions.

How about a deck that uses political elements to support an overall military theme? That's what I'm hoping to see for the Unicorn fairly early on.

31 minutes ago, Builder2 said:

How about a deck that uses political elements to support an overall military theme? That's what I'm hoping to see for the Unicorn fairly early on.

I'll have to see more stuff to know if that viable. in the past most of the time you made a "switch" type deck it ends up being a watered down version of both. This being a totally different game could change that, but I haven't seen enough yet. I tend to favor pure political stuff so I'd prefer that.

11 minutes ago, yasuki umiushi said:

I'll have to see more stuff to know if that viable. in the past most of the time you made a "switch" type deck it ends up being a watered down version of both

Or just became well oiled machine like Vigilance Keep ones, including one that won at Gencon.

Considering that something like Mori Kuroi exists, I feel it's clear every deck is going to need to be able to do both political and military conflicts. For instance, imagine a Lion deck that has completely neglected its politics trying to attack the Phoenix stronghold with Mori Kuroi under it; every time they declare a military conflict to try to take the Phoenix stronghold, the bird player just giggles and makes it a political fight instead. It'd just be impossible to win, right?

(That's presuming Lion doesn't have cards like "Reaction: negate the action taken by opponent's province this turn". But still.)

1 hour ago, yasuki umiushi said:

I'll have to see more stuff to know if that viable. in the past most of the time you made a "switch" type deck it ends up being a watered down version of both. This being a totally different game could change that, but I haven't seen enough yet. I tend to favor pure political stuff so I'd prefer that.

I would say that the honor dial system encourages "switch" decks, so you can pressure your opponent and force them to bid high if they want to find answers to the situation. At the very least I would say that even if you are running full honor/dishonor you will want to claim the air ring as often as possible.

I'm actually very interested in seeing how a deck would play with only honor/dishonor as the victory condition.

2 hours ago, Smobey said:

Considering that something like Mori Kuroi exists, I feel it's clear every deck is going to need to be able to do both political and military conflicts. For instance, imagine a Lion deck that has completely neglected its politics trying to attack the Phoenix stronghold with Mori Kuroi under it; every time they declare a military conflict to try to take the Phoenix stronghold, the bird player just giggles and makes it a political fight instead. It'd just be impossible to win, right?

(That's presuming Lion doesn't have cards like "Reaction: negate the action taken by opponent's province this turn". But still.)

Perhaps these effects have a rulebook once-per-game limit, and you flip it face-up when it's used. After all, it's kind of strange that some mystical force at Province X is making enemy samurai kiss each other during every battle!

6 hours ago, Builder2 said:

How about a deck that uses political elements to support an overall military theme? That's what I'm hoping to see for the Unicorn fairly early on.

This is more likely a Crane deck type with Daidoji Scouts and Kakita Duelists supported by Doji Courtiers forming an honor switch deck type.

Phoenix is likely to have something similar with Shiba Yojimbo backed by Shugenja, giving them some options to cast spells from home.

Scorpion are also likely to have a similar arrangement as Crane with Courtiers dominating the Political side while their Bushi shore up the Military, both bolstered by Ninja popping out of the Conflict deck. Their switch will likely revolve around the Dishonor debuff and the threat of the Dishonor win condition keeping card draw and duel bidding of their opponents honest.

I suspect the Lion, Dragon, Unicorn & Crab to be much stronger militarily, but will struggle in the Courts. Eventually, as more Ide, Kitsuki, Yasuki & Ikoma are printed these Clans will strengthen their Political presence, but at a cost.

I'm really interested to see what the other clans will bring to the political arena. It is a safe bet that the Crane and Scorpion will dominate political battles but I'm very curious to see what the Crab will have. I'd like to see the Yasuki have a unique mechanic that represents their mercantile skills.

The only currently previewed Yasuki has the ability to look at the top two cards of your deck and draw one. Though making any assumption about themes based on just one previewed card is a little silly, I could see it working as a theme for the Yasuki as a whole: merchants who able to procure just the thing you need by tutoring / filtering through your deck.

1 hour ago, Smobey said:

The only currently previewed Yasuki has the ability to look at the top two cards of your deck and draw one. Though making any assumption about themes based on just one previewed card is a little silly, I could see it working as a theme for the Yasuki as a whole: merchants who able to procure just the thing you need by tutoring / filtering through your deck.

Well, considering that cards in the Core Set are going to be forever legal (unlike cards in monthly packs, which will rotate out eventually), that they will be very quintessential examples of their theme would be a fair assumption.

7 hours ago, Builder2 said:

Perhaps these effects have a rulebook once-per-game limit, and you flip it face-up when it's used. After all, it's kind of strange that some mystical force at Province X is making enemy samurai kiss each other during every battle!

Have you read the history of Lion attacks against the Phoenix Clan from the clan book? That's almost exactly what happens. repeatedly

9 hours ago, Builder2 said:

After all, it's kind of strange that some mystical force at Province X is making enemy samurai kiss each other during every battle!

Shameful Display!

4 hours ago, Mon no Oni said:

Well, considering that cards in the Core Set are going to be forever legal (unlike cards in monthly packs, which will rotate out eventually), that they will be very quintessential examples of their theme would be a fair assumption.

I can the Yasuki possibly broader than that and focusing on one of three different things (or even all three): holdings, other physical property like attachments, and deck manipulation. This first Yasuki just seems to want to fight at places where holdings are located which is a bit narrow. Pending on province breaking, it may not be likely that your opponent will just target your holding filled provinces and just target the other, non-holding ones.

Likewise, I'm not even sure how many decks will use holdings or even that many holdings. This just makes the poor guy a meta game card. But, hey, maybe we'll see some Yasuki events that place a temporary holding at a conflict. For example, it could cost 1 fate, and the winner of the conflict receives 1 fate or dishonors a personality of the loser.

His ability just needs a holding in play, the conflict doesn't need to be taking place at it. And since Crab decks are supposed to be built around holdings I don't think he'll be lacking for them.