How would you describe each of the clans using MTG Colors and Themes? I think this would be helpful to a lot of new players coming from MTG.

Phoenix is blue. That said, there is really no direct comparison when it comes to l5r vs mtg. If you mean philosophy blue matches phx as well, but even in that single clan it can be said they had red, green, white and black decks, too. So... yeah

I'm referring more to Gameplay. There must be some correlations that can be made as card game theme mechanics aren't typically unique.

I think this is tougher than it seems. The color wheel doesn't always match what cards are in the current arc or particular format someone is playing.

I'd probably go with guilds/deck styles instead of straight colors. I.e.

Lion is Boros r/w aggro.

Scorpion is Dimir b/u control.

Crab is likely Jund or Abzhan midrange beat down.

Etc....

Different clans can do a multitude of different things, but if you were to really break things down into their most basic terms, Lion is White Weenie, Crab is huge Green Creatures

EDIT: I did these mostly in terms of philosophy, not gameplay. Sorry if that's not what you were looking for.

I'm pretty experienced in MtG, so I've actually been thinking about this alot recently. However, I didn't play the old L5R, so I'm definitely not a good judge of this, hopefully someone can come by later and correct my interpretations. That being said, here are my impressions of the current 7 clans in MtG terms, based on what little has been revealed so far:

All of the clans seem to be, to some degree, White aligned. At least, that's my interpretation. They're all loyal to the Empire and to order to some extent, even dishonorable factions like the Scorpion.

The Scorpion strike me as BW. They're underhanded and love to use things like blackmail and assassins, which is very much in line with B's philosophy. However, they are also very fanatically loyal to each other. Being loyal to an in-group and willing to screw over everyone outside of that group is how most BW groups like the Orzhov are characterized.

The Phoenix strike me as UW. U loves accumulating knowledge, which is what the Phoenix are all about. The pacifistic tendencies that FFG is playing up with them is a very W philosophy. Their love of fire is very congruent with R as well--but with the pacifistic angle being played up, I don't really see them as being R aligned in a philosophical sense.

The Unicorn seem very RW to me. Their strategy entails attacking aggressively and never stopping to defend, which is very R.

The Dragon clan remind me alot of the Jeskai, which were a URW faction from Tarkir. I don't know how true that comparison is beyond superficial details, however. For now, I'm going to say the Dragon definitely have U, but I'm not sure what else they have. If they're going with Voltron strategies like the articles seem to suggest I could see them as being pretty UG instead of UWR. I'll just have to see more.

The Crane seem the most mono-White of all the factions to me. Someone may argue differently.

The Lion's battle strategy (Weenie decks) is straight up W. Their berzerkers lead me to want to see them as WR.

The Crab are a bit confusing to me. Their strategy of building up strong warriors and strong defenses seems pretty G. But G loves tradition, and the Crab generally don't seem to care about social conventions such as honor. I could see Crab being RG, I suppose--G in gameplay terms, R in their venation to martial prowess.

Like I said, maybe someone with more L5R knowledge will come by and correct some of these. These are just my first, uneducated impressions.

5 minutes ago, Isawa Syd said:

Phoenix is blue.

From a pure control PoV, yeah. But also red. And when corrupt, black.

2 minutes ago, clanmccracken said:

Different clans can do a multitude of different things, but if you were to really break things down into their most basic terms, Lion is White Weenie, Crab is huge Green Creatures

I do agree with Lion. Crab may have some white there too, as support.

I think that Crane could fall into blue and white. Scorpion... blue and black? Dragon would seem like Crane but red does seem to be there too. Unicorn could be a mix of white, red and green.

The scorpion as BW seems really appropriate to me. Especially since their ultimate goal is the survival of the empire and keeping a government in place is very white.

14 minutes ago, Wintersong said:

From a pure control PoV, yeah. But also red. And when corrupt, black.

Isn't that what I said, silly?

20 minutes ago, Isawa Syd said:

Isn't that what I said, silly?

Who told you my True Name?

I used to describe Unicorn as Red Blue. Aggressive with flying and tempo manipulation.

But, the last time I played MTG was Mirage and Uni mechanics have changed.

Just no comparison lol This is a better game by far

Just now, ImDoneItsOver said:

Just no comparison lol This is a better game by far

But you can only say it is better if you compare it.

It is very hard to compare mechanics/playstyles that aren't direct mechanic copies. Main reason is your win conditions are very different. For example, Bowing and Tapping are mainly the same thing. But so is Exhausting, and probably a few more that get used. The fate mechanic has a direct correlation to "Fading" I believe in Magic. There were, in the past, goblins in both settings.

However, the actual gameplay is so different that it is hard to find other correlations without really forcing it.

exactly. This game is much more involved than any MTG could hope to be. Just look at the choices given to any player on any given turn. What in MTG even come close? "Oh I wait to play this instant until???"

Edit: uops, wrong thread.

it means one of YOUR characters

5 minutes ago, Barbacuo said:

Why does Spies at Court have (friendly) in italic and between brackets?

Someone could suggest potential future multiplayer.

1 minute ago, Wintersong said:

Someone could suggest potential future multiplayer.

They have included language along those lines on other cards, though that might just be to prevent some weird conflict/rules hiccup in the future if they do decide to add in a more than 2 player version of the game.

(Guess what, if you have 2 people, its multiplayer!)

In card games, 1vs1 is PvE.

24 minutes ago, ImDoneItsOver said:

Just no comparison lol This is a better game by far

Agreed. Mtg is checkers. L5r was chess.

6 minutes ago, Wintersong said:

In card games, 1vs1 is PvE.

I don't think that means what you think it means.

13 minutes ago, Mirith said:

I don't think that means what you think it means.

PvE in L5R: You VS a bear. You dishonor the bear on turn 3. He rips off your arms. Everyone wins!

1 minute ago, Mandalore525 said:

PvE in L5R: You VS a bear. You dishonor the bear on turn 3. He rips off your arms. Everyone wins!

Bears are fine, its the boars that will get you. F'in boars.

Our Matsu Deathseeker found his death during the first combat encounter of a campaign via a boar. It sort of ruined the rest of us too. Don't mess with boars.

14 minutes ago, Mirith said:

Bears are fine, its the boars that will get you. F'in boars.

Our Matsu Deathseeker found his death during the first combat encounter of a campaign via a boar. It sort of ruined the rest of us too. Don't mess with boars.

Same as Robert Baratheon...