Greetings, all.

I'm very excited for the LCG after reading the announcement and spoilers thus far. Frankly, it looks like it'll fit the flavor of the world perfectly, and I can't wait to start building courtly shenanigans decks.

That said - Do we have any word on if minor clans will be showing up in later expansions? And what of the Spider - are they persona non grata at this point?

I am not sure if FFG has even mentioning the minor clans so far, so we cannot be even sure they will be around (but I sure hope they are still a thing).

Regarding the Spider, they certainly do not exist in the new game at the moment and if they get formed that might be rather different. FFG has all options open, like totally renaming them, returning to Shadowlands, or maybe decide that the Spider are already a secret clan for centuries founded by Iuchiban. Whatever they do, I hope they make it an awesome story!

There has been no mention of "minor clans" in any of the story or set preview thus far.

There has been a mention of the Shadowlands, but only so far as to say they are quiet-- at this point rather than "Spider" what you ought to be thinking is "The Lost" but nothing about them being an in-game thing has been previewed. (And, you know what? If they want to use the Spider as the symbol for the lost from day 1, that's fine.)

The Imperials exist though! Hantei the 38th has specifically been stated as the current ruler and one of the previewed cards is Miya Mystic giving us a clue into what unaligned cards will look like.