Myself I always played Crane in tournaments. But I enjoyed L5R so much in my day that still meant I had 4-5 other decks with me at a time so on causal play nights I had other decks to play for fun. Sometimes it might be a 2nd Crane deck thrown in there. But I agree you learn more from playing other clans that reading about them or playing against them. Maybe I'd build a top deck and hand it to a friend and say, "please play this versus my Crane" to see how it does.

I think what set L5R apart from Magic in its early days was that you could identify with a faction. No one ever said "Go Red!" in Magic.

Also, with how splash works, you'll still want the other clans. I am absolutely certain that most competitive decks will splash at least a little bit out of clan, if only to get that one awesome thing some other clan has to round out your deck. Unless they make a strong story prize not to splash, there is no reason not to, besides pride/moral victory.

1 hour ago, Kakita Katai said:

Myself I always played Crane in tournaments. But I enjoyed L5R so much in my day that still meant I had 4-5 other decks with me at a time so on causal play nights I had other decks to play for fun. Sometimes it might be a 2nd Crane deck thrown in there. But I agree you learn more from playing other clans that reading about them or playing against them. Maybe I'd build a top deck and hand it to a friend and say, "please play this versus my Crane" to see how it does.

I think what set L5R apart from Magic in its early days was that you could identify with a faction. No one ever said "Go Red!" in Magic.

Yeah, obviously, because Team Blue was better.

5 minutes ago, Prepare for War said:

Yeah, obviously, because Team Blue was better.

A..... I.... what does the A stand for?

8 hours ago, Mirith said:

Also, with how splash works, you'll still want the other clans. I am absolutely certain that most competitive decks will splash at least a little bit out of clan, if only to get that one awesome thing some other clan has to round out your deck. Unless they make a strong story prize not to splash, there is no reason not to, besides pride/moral victory.

Obviously we won't know until the game starts, but I think it's very possible that your "splash" clan will be an important and identifying aspect of your deck. Or rather, I kind of hope it is; I'd like to see some themes of clan alliances and such in the game, and the splash mechanic gives an interesting way for that to manifest.

10 hours ago, Kakita Katai said:

I think what set L5R apart from Magic in its early days was that you could identify with a faction. No one ever said "Go Red!" in Magic.

Speak for yourself, I'm Izzet all the way.

On 6/8/2017 at 2:07 AM, Khudzlin said:

House loyalty is very much a thing in AGoT, and it has been an LCG longer than it has been a CCG (I've been playing Stark since I started AGoT a few years ago). "Mercenary' players were already there in the CCG, they just needed more money than in the LCG model.

I get you may not of played old L5R, but Clan Loyalty has existed there since the 90's. Probably more so than any other card game before or since. A large part of that was the old storyline system where what clan you won with could impact how the story prize you choose got implemented in the fiction, but also it was a largely player reinforced standard to an effect. When most of the players you know feel very strongly about their loyalties that has a huge impact on the mentality of new players entering the game.

I played L5R CCG (in Celestial and Emperor, after discovering the game with Samurai starters) before I played AGoT, though I was never much invested in the story (this time I can read it from the start, though, so I'll get into it more). There was some really weird stuff in it at that point.

My point is that Clan loyalty won't suddenly go away because players have ready access to all cards instead of having to trade.