Wanted to make a thread for discussion of the Dragon personalities and how the Dragon Deck will/should/could play as we get more and more information. I think it'd be cool if fans other clans did something similar for their favourite clans. I'll try to remember to update this as we get more info.

Characters

Doomed Shugenja - 3/3/1 for 1 Fate. Seems like a strong stat line, can't add more fate to her.
Mirumoto Prodigy - 3/2/1 for 2. When attacking alone, only 1 defender can be assigned.
Togashi Initiate - 1/1/2 for 1. Can rehonor by paying fate to a ring
Seeker of Enlightenmen - 1/1/0 for 2. Gets +1/+1 for each fate on an unclaimed ring

Mechanics

So far we've been given two elements of the game that the Dragon will interact with best/more so then other Clans. With the first announcement we got - "The use of attachments is one of this clan’s greatest strengths, and it’s wise to invest in a few powerful characters with plans to give them multiple attachments. The concept of balance is also important to this clan, and they are well suited for both military and political conflicts. You must take advantage of this flexibility and strike wherever you opponent leaves an opening." In the conflict preview we were told - "Finally, a fate is placed on each unclaimed ring in the general pool. The next time a conflict of that element is declared, the attacking player moves all fate on that ring to their pool. This presents a strategic choice for players—though a ring’s effect may not be optimal, the extra fate on it is a valuable resource that can be used immediately. Some cards even interact with this fate, a specialty found in the Dragon Clan"

First the attachment thing. I think its smart that FFG is focusing on attachments with the Dragon and not weapons/swords like AEG did (granted its a different game....). Its obvious that the Mirumoto and Kisuki will want too/be better when they attach weapons. However the Dragon cards (Conflict, Stronghold? Holding?) that deal with this attachment strength will probably also be just as effective when it comes to Spells which will help the Agasha Shugenja, Kiho/Tattoo's which will help the Togashi Monks, and other items the Kitsuki (mostly, Mirumoto a bit probably) will use to help in Political battles. Second, interacting with fate on the unclaimed rings. I believe that ability will be mostly for the Togashi Monks and Agasha Shugenja to interact with being the more mystical families of the clan. Third, the Dragon will be fairly well balanced between military and political conflicts. It would seem that the Crab, Lion and Unicorn will be focused on Military conflicts while being a bit weak in the political arena. The Crane, Phoenix and Scorpion will be strong politically be not as strong on the military side of things. Dragon will be right in the middle. While this does mean our decks will be a little less focused, we should be able to role with the punches better. Not a great military match up switch things up.

We've seen Dragon Characters with bushi, Shugenja, monk, duelist, fire, and tattoo. The first 3 aren't that exciting. Every clan will have access to the first 2, and monk will just give access to certain conflict cards. We know Dragon characters will be able to issue challenges. As far as I know they are the only confirmed duelist so far, but it'd be silly not to assume that the Crane will have just as many, if not more, duelists. I also think other clans will have more access to dueling then in the CCG (I think Dragon and Crane will have the most in-clan dueling conflict cards, but all clans will ahve access to the out of clan ones and have duelists if they are so inclined). It looks like the Agasha will be utilizing Fire Spells, I wouldn't be surprised if they get access to Earth as well (it remains to been if each clan will have access to all 5 elements or if past family specialization will remain).

Overall

It looks like the Dragon Clan deck will be fairly well balanced with roughly equal numbers of characters from each family and catagory (kinda pointless to play the balanced clan if your deck isn't balanced). Their Samurai, Shugenja and Monks will all be better when they have the appropriate attachments and you'll most likely be able to save them from distruction when a character is discarded. They'll be able to charge up unclaimed rings, and then make themselves stronger by utilizing that fate.

Doomed Shugenja doesn't block limited actions, she is just herself limited. Each player can play one limited card per turn so playing Doomed Shugenja doesn't prevent your opponent from playing their own limited card.

Mirumoto Prodigy plus Admit Defeat sounds like neat trick.

One benefit I see from the Dragon cards we've seen thus far is that, while we won't have the same attack power as a clan that focuses on military or political, we'll be able to always fight from a position of strength and we'll still likely be able to defend after we attack. Hopefully we'll be able to mount an attack every turn against the conflict type that our opponents are weak to, then turn around and mount enough of a defense to prevent our provinces from breaking (even if we lose the ring). Maybe if the Dragon are too focused on Voltron this won't be viable, but I'm hoping this will be the strategy. Cheap characters like Doomed Shugenja will likely help--she can serve as a cheap one-turn defense while our buffed-up character takes the offense.

22 minutes ago, GoblinGuide said:

Doomed Shugenja doesn't block limited actions, she is just herself limited. Each player can play one limited card per turn so playing Doomed Shugenja doesn't prevent your opponent from playing their own limited card.

YOu're right, I misread that.

1 hour ago, Mandalore525 said:

One benefit I see from the Dragon cards we've seen thus far is that, while we won't have the same attack power as a clan that focuses on military or political, we'll be able to always fight from a position of strength and we'll still likely be able to defend after we attack. Hopefully we'll be able to mount an attack every turn against the conflict type that our opponents are weak to, then turn around and mount enough of a defense to prevent our provinces from breaking (even if we lose the ring). Maybe if the Dragon are too focused on Voltron this won't be viable, but I'm hoping this will be the strategy. Cheap characters like Doomed Shugenja will likely help--she can serve as a cheap one-turn defense while our buffed-up character takes the offense.

I thikn its likely the "average" Dragon board will have 2-3 highly invested personalities, and they will be supported by 2-3 1 turn guys. This means you can throw your big, voltron's at provinces and defend with the weenies or the reverse, depending on board state.

So far I like everything that I have seen for the Dragon clan. Actually I like everything I've seen period, but the Dragon definitely look the most interesting.

The two main things I'd like to see next are our stronghold and Togashi Mitsu...I really hope he's still in as he was the first character I pulled way back in Emerald edition when I opened my first deck (Dragon, of course).

4 hours ago, Jedi samurai said:

Wanted to make a thread for discussion of the Dragon personalities and how the Dragon Deck will/should/could play as we get more and more information. I think it'd be cool if fans other clans did something similar for their favourite clans. I'll try to remember to update this as we get more info.

Characters

Doomed Shugenja - 3/3/1 for 1 Fate. Seems like a strong stat line, can't add more fate to her.
Mirumoto Prodigy - 3/2/1 for 2. When attacking alone, only 1 defender can be assigned.
Togashi Initiate - 1/1/2 for 1. Can rehonor by paying fate to a ring
Seeker of Enlightenmen - 1/1/0 for 2. Gets +1/+1 for each fate on an unclaimed ring

I just wanted to point out - the Initiate does not rehonor himself, he honors himself. We don't yet know for a fact how rehonoring a dishonored character plays out, but there are three states: base, honored, dishonored. Honored personalities get their glory as a force bonus and gain you one honor when they leave play. It's presumed dishonored does the exact opposite (we haven't been showed the dishonored state verbatim). The Initiate basically gives himself a semi-permanent two force pump for one fate and also buffs any Seekers you happen to have in play at the same time. And he gains you an honor when he croaks. He is very efficient. Not to mention that if you play smart you can try to set it up to regain that fate on your next turn.

If you knew this already, I apologize, but I think it's important enough to look at and elaborate on so that returning players don't get confused with the new paradigm.

Because of the nature of a Voltron strategy, I assume you'll want to try to claim the Void ring first so that your opponent can't accelerate your biggest guy's departure.

Water is also strong to straighten your voltron. Especially since he's probably strong in both types of conflict.

Hm...so if I'm Dragon, maybe I would want to go second, defending with two Togashi Initiates and a Seeker of Enlightenment. Each Initiate spends a Fate to become a 3/3, which also pumps up Seeker to 3/3! Then, I attack and get the Fate back!

...except that I forgot that I was facing Unicorn, who manages to attack twice in a row and reclaim the Fate themselves! -__- Even in a hypothetical scenario that I crafted myself, I can't beat Unicorn!

Note that sometimes you might just want to attack and use Togashi Initiates to buff Seekers of Enlightenment during (yours) first attack of the turn. Your opponent will get extra fate, but you gained a lot of tempo.

And if you have Bamboos to spend during deck building, well...Breakthrough looks like delicious treat for a Dragon.

2 minutes ago, WHW said:

Note that sometimes you might just want to attack and use Togashi Initiates to buff Seekers of Enlightenment during (yours) first attack of the turn. Your opponent will get extra fate, but you gained a lot of tempo.

Though you could also mitigate the loss a bit by spreading the Fate onto different Rings, or choosing Rings that you know your opponent doesn't really want/need at the moment.

8 minutes ago, WHW said:

Note that sometimes you might just want to attack and use Togashi Initiates to buff Seekers of Enlightenment during (yours) first attack of the turn. Your opponent will get extra fate, but you gained a lot of tempo.

And if you have Bamboos to spend during deck building, well...Breakthrough looks like delicious treat for a Dragon.

I might be missing something here, but why would your opponent get the extra fate? My expectation - always pending the, you know, actual rules - is that you would use the initiate's action during the attack. So, you attack, declare it a fire (or whatever) conflict, and assign your attackers, including the initiate. The fire ring is, at this time, still unclaimed, since neither the attacker nor defender has claimed it. So, you put a fate on the ring, buffing your initiate, and maybe a seeker too. Assuming you've planned it out right, this helps you win the conflict, in which case you claim the ring and get your fate back.

Now, there is of course a risk here, since maybe your opponent has some tricks up his sleeve and he wins the conflict. But assuming you've played it right, you should have a chance at getting your payment back. Is there something obvious I've missed here, or a rule I didn't read yet? Thanks.

We will need the full rules to be sure but the article says you claim the fate when initiating a conflict and not when claiming a Ring.

8 hours ago, Kakita Shiro said:

Because of the nature of a Voltron strategy, I assume you'll want to try to claim the Void ring first so that your opponent can't accelerate your biggest guy's departure.

Educate me on something, please. So if you have claimed ring of "void" does that mean you can use it whenever or must you claim it immediately? If, you can wait on it... can nobody else claim it?

thank you.

You are also missing Agasha Swordsmith from here:

Which is a ?/?/1 for 2 Fate, and probably looks at the top 5 cards of your Conflict deck for a Weapon, and then adds it to your hand.

So far, the biggest weakness the Dragon appear to have is a lack of Personalities over 2 printed Fate cost, which will leave them vulnerable to a lot of the discard effects we have been previewed so far.

7 minutes ago, SavageTofu said:

Educate me on something, please. So if you have claimed ring of "void" does that mean you can use it whenever or must you claim it immediately? If, you can wait on it... can nobody else claim it?

thank you.

You claim a Ring at conflict resolution and trigger its ability (if you attacked and won). Once it's been taken your opponent can't take it until the next turn.

Paraphrasing the article:

Both players pass -> compare skill.

Defender wins -> claim ring. End of conflict.

Attacker wins -> claim ring. Use its effect. Check for breaking province. End of conflict

12 minutes ago, sndwurks said:

You are also missing Agasha Swordsmith from here:

<picture snipped>

Which is a ?/?/1 for 2 Fate, and probably looks at the top 5 cards of your Conflict deck for a Weapon, and then adds it to your hand.

So far, the biggest weakness the Dragon appear to have is a lack of Personalities over 2 printed Fate cost, which will leave them vulnerable to a lot of the discard effects we have been previewed so far.

Well, we also haven't seen any of their Unique personalities yet, have we? I'm guessing that either they'll have a few high-Fate personalities or else have some way to block being discarded (perhaps the attachments themselves may help in this regard?). It's a valid concern, but it's also tough to judge at the moment until we see just how prevalent such discard effects are, and how common any defenses against them may be. (We already know the Crab have an attachment that helps in such a case.)

Also, Reprieve only has one bamboo on it. If the bamboo means what we think it means, I'm guessing that'll find its way into a good many decks...

Forgive me for not being hip on the slang, but what is this "Voltron" folks keep talking about? I'm assuming it has nothing to do with five brightly-colored robot lions.

Actually it does. It's a deck archetype that tries to get a certain character into play and boost its powerlevel to insane heights.

The boosts can be attachments, locations, other personalities etc.

5 minutes ago, twinstarbmc said:

Forgive me for not being hip on the slang, but what is this "Voltron" folks keep talking about? I'm assuming it has nothing to do with five brightly-colored robot lions.

I believe it's a MTG commander term where one personality/creature is beastly. Enough so, that you can win with that character alone.

10 minutes ago, twinstarbmc said:

Forgive me for not being hip on the slang, but what is this "Voltron" folks keep talking about? I'm assuming it has nothing to do with five brightly-colored robot lions.

1) Play a characer.
2) Strap EVERYTHING to him/her to make them a planet stomping monster.
3) Stomp!

1 hour ago, sndwurks said:

You are also missing Agasha Swordsmith from here:

Which is a ?/?/1 for 2 Fate, and probably looks at the top 5 cards of your Conflict deck for a Weapon, and then adds it to your hand.

So far, the biggest weakness the Dragon appear to have is a lack of Personalities over 2 printed Fate cost, which will leave them vulnerable to a lot of the discard effects we have been previewed so far.

As I said I don't want to include half shown characters.

2 hours ago, WHW said:

Note that sometimes you might just want to attack and use Togashi Initiates to buff Seekers of Enlightenment during (yours) first attack of the turn. Your opponent will get extra fate, but you gained a lot of tempo.

And if you have Bamboos to spend during deck building, well...Breakthrough looks like delicious treat for a Dragon.

Also means during a final battle at a stronghold, you can basically pay for "force" - with the right character in play