Artisan Academy (Crane Holding)

By Kakita Shiro, in Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game

7 minutes ago, Isawa Tasatu said:

Only once you have used the top card revealed... it does not remove top card of deck.

Which is exactly how I was thinking it would play like--->

Take an Action and reveal card on top of the Conflict deck.... Play that card..... Take another Action and reveal card on top of the Conflict deck... Play that card... and so on, till you run dry of Artisan Academies.....

BTW, the Scorpion Holding is similar, but you reveal the bottom card of the Conflict deck and you may play that given card. :D

(literally playing from the bottom of your deck)

Edited by LordBlunt

Heads up: I've doubled the memory on the website so there should not be any more server crashes.

22 minutes ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

!"£%^&*()

Well, my Dynasty predictions are all shot to bits.

I've been running a spreadsheet with the numbers. I've done 2 things. I've ignored all the numbers on the first day previews. None of them have the C or D like the later previews do, so I feel they are early print runs that may not be final. The 2nd thing I've done is not assume each clan has the same number of dynasty cards. With characters in the conflict decks, I feel each clan will have the same number of cards but split differently between conflict and dynasty.

56 minutes ago, LordBlunt said:

EDIT:

Crane Holding.jpg

I like it. You have the option to bid lower than you normally would in order to keep honor.

2 hours ago, Kakita Shiro said:

Must have been before my time.

It happened in 1999, so probably. Here you go, if you're curious.

There was a long time when the Shadowlands Refuge of the Lion Clan was pretty much the only important L5R page. The clans stuck to e-mail lists.

Does this mean that Crane is the card draw people?

Also, the wording leaves a little wiggle room that once you activate it, you can basically keep revealing and using the top card of your deck for the rest of the conflict phase. However, that sounds broken, so I hope it isn't that.

Interesting. You could always bid lower honor in the draw phase but not be hurt too badly by it. I like this card.

14 minutes ago, Mirith said:

Does this mean that Crane is the card draw people?

Also, the wording leaves a little wiggle room that once you activate it, you can basically keep revealing and using the top card of your deck for the rest of the conflict phase. However, that sounds broken, so I hope it isn't that.

I think that they are the Honor Victory People, so they need ways to draw cards (or equivalent) without bidding high and thus losing Honor.

Edited by WHW
19 minutes ago, Mirith said:

Does this mean that Crane is the card draw people?

Also, the wording leaves a little wiggle room that once you activate it, you can basically keep revealing and using the top card of your deck for the rest of the conflict phase. However, that sounds broken, so I hope it isn't that.

Although we have a decent grasp of the basic playing rules how certain mechanics will play out is up in the air. The Fate and Honor mechanic specifcly. Crane and Scorpion are probably the 2 clans that will manipulate/interact with honor and the honor dial th most. Scorpion is called out as the draw clan. But every clan will probably get some way to increase their card draw, each in a diffrent way though. The Phoenix for example have a holding that just gives them a card, unconditionally, each turn. Dragon have a character that searches for items.

Regarding te wording:

It says that card. I don't think their is much room for interpretation. If they wanted to have the effect you describe they would have gone for:

Action: For the remainder of the turn, play with the top card of your deck revealed. You may play it as if it were a card in your hand.

43 minutes ago, Sake-house-brawl said:

Plenty to go around!

Yeah, we got there.

47 minutes ago, Mirith said:

Does this mean that Crane is the card draw people?

Also, the wording leaves a little wiggle room that once you activate it, you can basically keep revealing and using the top card of your deck for the rest of the conflict phase. However, that sounds broken, so I hope it isn't that.

This hasn't been confirmed, but I'm guessing that, unless an action says otherwise, it can only be used once per turn. We've seen several abilities that make more sense when read that way, and it is consistent with some of their other LCGs, so I think it's a reasonable guess.

3 hours ago, Joe From Cincinnati said:

Guys.

I LOVE holdings in this game.

They're just fantastic!

Word ;p

Seriously though, this card is sick. Crane staple 4evs.

FWIW, regarding the slightly ambiguous wording, as a former judge, I would probably argue that the wording 'The' means that we're talking about a single instance of THE top card of your deck. One copy of the card, one card off the top. There will probably have to be a rulings post somewhere clarifying multiple copies though, cause that could really go either way and the card isn't that clear!

Edited by Daigotsu Steve
54 minutes ago, Mirith said:

Does this mean that Crane is the card draw people?

Also, the wording leaves a little wiggle room that once you activate it, you can basically keep revealing and using the top card of your deck for the rest of the conflict phase. However, that sounds broken, so I hope it isn't that.

The Phoenix holding seems also to provide card draw, and I guess they might end up to be the clan with the best card draw, but yes card draw seems also useful maybe even needed for Crane, especially if one tries to win by honour and thus always is bidding low.

46 minutes ago, Daigotsu Steve said:

Word ;p

Seriously though, this card is sick. Crane staple 4evs.

FWIW, regarding the slightly ambiguous wording, as a former judge, I would probably argue that the wording 'The' means that we're talking about a single instance of THE top card of your deck. One copy of the card, one card off the top. There will probably have to be a rulings post somewhere clarifying multiple copies though, cause that could really go either way and the card isn't that clear!

It would depend on timing. If someone uses the ability, then immediately uses the ability on another copy, it's revealing the same card. If, however, someone uses the ability, plays the revealed card, and then uses the ability again, it would be revealing a new card.

48 minutes ago, agarrett said:

This hasn't been confirmed, but I'm guessing that, unless an action says otherwise, it can only be used once per turn. We've seen several abilities that make more sense when read that way, and it is consistent with some of their other LCGs, so I think it's a reasonable guess.

Its only been explicitly confirmed for personalities. It has not been explicitly not confirmed for other things. Which is weird. I'm also not saying that you can reuse it. That would be better, than what I proposed.

To be fair, I also think that my proposed interpretation would be terribly broken, since it would boil down to"The top card of your deck is in your hand too, and is replaced immediately". But the phrasing on the card is a little ambiguous. I figure its the equivalent of "If participating in a conflict...", but the phrase "During the Conflict Phase..." not only states that it can only be used during the conflict phase, but could read "As long as it is still the conflict phase, reveal the top card and play it if it is in your hand." You only would need to activate it once.

"During the conflict phase" is only there to indicate a condition to use the effect. It is different from "if participating in a conflict" because there are action windows ouside of conflicts during the conflict phase. The way these actions are worded is "type of action: condition/cost - effect".

8 minutes ago, Mirith said:

Its only been explicitly confirmed for personalities. It has not been explicitly not confirmed for other things. Which is weird. I'm also not saying that you can reuse it. That would be better, than what I proposed.

To be fair, I also think that my proposed interpretation would be terribly broken, since it would boil down to"The top card of your deck is in your hand too, and is replaced immediately". But the phrasing on the card is a little ambiguous. I figure its the equivalent of "If participating in a conflict...", but the phrase "During the Conflict Phase..." not only states that it can only be used during the conflict phase, but could read "As long as it is still the conflict phase, reveal the top card and play it if it is in your hand." You only would need to activate it once.

Holdings have to be once per turn or the phoenix one reads draw your deck

There's really no justification for FFG to say that abilities on one type of card are restricted to once/turn but all others are not.

29 minutes ago, JRosen9 said:

Holdings have to be once per turn or the phoenix one reads draw your deck

I'm almost positive that they confirmed actions are once per turn during the live stream.

"Character abilities may only be used once per round, unless otherwise specified, like the Wandering Ronin (Core Set, 127)."

From the Conflicts of Rokugan article.

I find it weird they specify "Character abilities", and don't make more of a blanket statement.

Looks like the theme behind Crane 'drawing' is based around using cards from the top or near the top of the deck rather than pure card drawing. Because of that alone, this holding looks to be weaker than the Phoenix Shrine. The academy also has a few other problems behind it such as giving your opponent information, which might also tie into their type of card draw, and potentially being a 'dead' card on top of your deck. Some of this might be mitigated by other Crane draw cards or shuffle effects.

Holdings like these make it tough to want to run many of them. Getting 1 of them is pretty decent but once you hit 2 or more, it feels more like a trap for most decks. I only say that deck they can slow or stop your personality production*. Yes, you can discard the holdings but only at the end of the turn which can suddenly stop a holding like Staging Ground. Of course, a Lion deck may only need to run 2 Staging Grounds to prevent any trouble.

* - The caveat is how many conflict personalities appear, but some decks might be somewhat limited in their draws because of honor constraints.

23 minutes ago, Kubernes said:

Looks like the theme behind Crane 'drawing' is based around using cards from the top or near the top of the deck rather than pure card drawing. Because of that alone, this holding looks to be weaker than the Phoenix Shrine.

If this observation is correct, I think we can easily BS some flavor behind it, in that while the Crane must uphold their dignity, openly revealing their intent rather than resorting to deception and subterfuge, the Phoenix, while also striving for honor, have also been willing to visit some very dark places from time to time, and would not be above cheating some cards into hand in the interest of protecting what is dear to them.

Edited by Ide Yoshiya
45 minutes ago, Ide Yoshiya said:

the Phoenix, while also striving for honor, have also been willing to visit some very dark places from time to time,

Apple keeps the details of new phone releases secret, but no one accuses them of visiting dark places.

Well I mean maybe some people do, but that's not my point.

31 minutes ago, Suzume Tomonori said:

Apple keeps the details of new phone releases secret, but no one accuses them of visiting dark places.

Well I mean maybe some people do, but that's not my point.

They also don't have a reputation for studying blood magic. Anyway the conflict deck has been stated to represent the more cunning aims of the clans.

EDIT: Which I am by no means suggesting the Phoenix are uniquely guilty of, of course.

Edited by Ide Yoshiya