Badmojojojo battles Kiramode for supremacy over who gets to wear the flippers and water fins next time there is a monsoon. I added card image overlays and the deck lists are below. This took an insane amount of time to edit in Hitfilm Express 4! Can't figure out how to add text nor how to animate the card images. Anyone tried using that video editing program? Help?

Hope you enjoy!

Nicely done. I appreciate the amount of work you're putting into these.

Regarding Ancestral Lands: Was this actually revealed anywhere? I can't find an image that reveals more than the corner of the card; not even a blurry image from a demo, etc.

Great stuff, way easier to follow now and really informative. You guys are positioning yourselves quite highly in the community!

10 hours ago, Togashi Gao Shan said:

Regarding Ancestral Lands: Was this actually revealed anywhere? I can't find an image that reveals more than the corner of the card; not even a blurry image from a demo, etc.

The only picture I've seen is from the showcase page. I'm guessing they are assuming it's element because of the text.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to get my teeth kicked in today. Some of the most fun I've had losing in quite some time.

13 hours ago, Kubernes said:

The only picture I've seen is from the showcase page. I'm guessing they are assuming it's element because of the text.

I buy that it's Earth; that makes sense.

The text, though...."+5 during Political conflicts"? That seems unlikely.

4 hours ago, Togashi Gao Shan said:

I buy that it's Earth; that makes sense.

The text, though...."+5 during Political conflicts"? That seems unlikely.

I see +1 during Political conflicts on it. Seems much more likely.

I created the version of Ancestral Lands used in the video for use in TTS as a leaked card. This version came from fiveringsdb and was taken down shortly after the fact. The site had it listed as an Earth Province that gave +5 during political conflicts. Given the site had unofficial versions of other cards like Mountain's Anvil Castle (which it had listed as +X/+X where X is the number of attachments), it's fair to assume the versions of leaked cards are from earlier versions of the game and very well would be different in the final version. Having played quite a few games with Ancestral Lands, I can only imagine it will have less strength bonus to political conflicts or cannot be used on the Stronghold. Anyways, the point is to take the card with a grain of salt but it's out there for people to play with if they want.

We do know from the showcase page that it is base 5 strength and gives +[an amount] to political conflicts. We do not know any other text it may have or it's element officially.

7 hours ago, Togashi Gao Shan said:

I buy that it's Earth; that makes sense.

The text, though...."+5 during Political conflicts"? That seems unlikely.

It looks like +5 to me. So not unlikely at all.

It's not that devastating to the game. It's only one province so it can be ignored after revealed. It only works on political so military can steamroll it. I would rather roll into that with Doji Hotaru over Shameful Display.

1 minute ago, Badmojojojo said:

I would rather roll into that with Doji Hotaru over Shameful Display.

Or you could get super lucky and roll into both.

First game and I can already say "been there, done that"

Seriously though I don't think the +5 to political was out of question and I wouldn't be surprised to see a military version of the same thing. If it were just a +1 to political it would likely never see play.

From the games we've done so far the +5 health isn't that big of a deal. It might prevent a province from dying because half of the attacks made on it will be political, but it doesn't have any immediate on board presence. More often than not it just makes it so the defending player burns one less control card that they would have otherwise used to prevent a province kill.

Being able to get the intended ring when you attack is almost always the most important thing when swinging in. The 5 health is usually more useful than the conditional 10 from what I've seen.

The main issue I have with the card is when it's on the stronghold against Crane. Sometimes there is very little the crane player can do if they don't get the right characters and events. I've been up 3 provinces and actually lost a game because of this on the stronghold and not finding military characters. It stalled the game for long enough that my opponent came back and ended up winning despite me playing better the entirety of the game up until then. It's quite simply frustrating. Even with military on the Stronghold you need 7 more than your opponent to win, which can be very difficult.

I think there is no need to get worried just yet. First of all we cannot be 100% sure about the card yet because it is too blurry in the article it was spoiled. People just made a poll and decided its +5 then typed it on the card. Even if it is +5 on the picture though we are not sure if this is the last iteration of the card. We have seen cards like the Mystic guy and the Dragon Prodigy change. But even if it actually is a +5 vs political we still have not enough playtest material to reach a verdict on whether it is too strong or not.

I can safely say I don't think it's too strong as a +5.

As Kiramode correctly pointed out, winning and resolving ring effects are more important than breaking provinces.....unless it's the final battle and your only path to victory is by destroying your opponent's stronghold before they win out.

23 minutes ago, blackheartz said:

I think there is no need to get worried just yet. First of all we cannot be 100% sure about the card yet because it is too blurry in the article it was spoiled. People just made a poll and decided its +5 then typed it on the card. Even if it is +5 on the picture though we are not sure if this is the last iteration of the card. We have seen cards like the Mystic guy and the Dragon Prodigy change. But even if it actually is a +5 vs political we still have not enough playtest material to reach a verdict on whether it is too strong or not.

Is it confirmed that the Mystic will indeed have new text?

There are still two separate pics of MM with different text on the FFG site. Print up both....at least that way maybe next time I play I won't be seduced by the jank. Lol

I truly have a problem when it comes to playing jank, but I haven't found a rehab place that treats that sort of addiction. Maybe I can trick the rehab place..........wait this plan sounds janky..........hah I hate myself for liking it.

11 hours ago, Ishi Tonu said:

I can safely say I don't think it's too strong as a +5.

.....unless it's the final battle and your only path to victory is by destroying your opponent's stronghold before they win out.

Which will be the case if your opponent puts this under their Stronghold, at least with some clans. Crane have a hard time with this province as a +5, and from what we've seen of Phoenix, it might be even more unlikely they can crack it.

Do you guys think that Dragon is the best clan so far previewed? They seem to be more well-rounded than Crane and Lion and have a fair amount of readying effects and good attachments.

@Badmojojojo Really digging that swarmy Lion deck. It's like a concept I've been working on but way better

@Togashi Gao Shan

That was a sneaky edit of my post to make it fit your agenda. Please don't.

Will a Crane player struggle against 10 political province strength if they just blindly throw themselves at it.....yes. And if it's truely the only line of play they have, that's a bummer.

The point that is being made is that as long as you're winning rings and getting the desired effects, you should be in control of the board state and eventually have an opportunity to go military or flood the board with enough political power that the 10 strength doesn't matter.......or win by honor or dishonor.

The game is flexible enough to allow you to change your path to victory of you play in a fashion that leaves you pursue multiple paths to victory. If you happen to break 3 provinces and then try to force a victory through province destruction when then board position won't allow you to do it, then that is player error, not a card being too strong.

1 hour ago, Ishi Tonu said:

@Togashi Gao Shan

That was a sneaky edit of my post to make it fit your agenda. Please don't.

Will a Crane player struggle against 10 political province strength if they just blindly throw themselves at it.....yes. And if it's truely the only line of play they have, that's a bummer.

The point that is being made is that as long as you're winning rings and getting the desired effects, you should be in control of the board state and eventually have an opportunity to go military or flood the board with enough political power that the 10 strength doesn't matter.......or win by honor or dishonor.

The game is flexible enough to allow you to change your path to victory of you play in a fashion that leaves you pursue multiple paths to victory. If you happen to break 3 provinces and then try to force a victory through province destruction when then board position won't allow you to do it, then that is player error, not a card being too strong.

Under the stronghold it is 12 defense on political before defenders and other stuff. Considering political will have much fewer buffs than military means that actually only Crane even have a chance of politically winning a conflict here. That is the real problem. Not for the Crane, but for all the other clans because against them you can have a province that is immune to half the conflicts. No other province creates such a disparity in power outright. Shameful Display might reach at 9 by honoring/dishonoring two glory 3 guys but on average its about 6. As Crane I have not felt its impact that much. Its just that you have to take into account that it is under the stronghold and play accordingly. It frustrates about as much as Dislay on a non-stronghold province, but I think other clans like Scorpion and Phoenix will hate it much, much more.

With that being said I still thing this discussion has no merit because we are not even sure it stands at +5. Considering that the game design geared towards favoring the attacker and taking into account the various buffs we have seen, I thing it will be at either +2 or +3. When the game comes out, if it is at +5 and if it wraps gameplay I am sure FFG will take care of it.

6 hours ago, LifeGain said:

Do you guys think that Dragon is the best clan so far previewed? They seem to be more well-rounded than Crane and Lion and have a fair amount of readying effects and good attachments.

I personally think all three clans are about even right now. There also isn't much of a rock/paper/scissors dynamic either. Games are swung on board states, province flips, and key conflict cards being played optimally as opposed to "Dragon counters Lion, I play Lion, you play Dragon, I guess I lose" situations. Here's the way I look at the 3 clans as the game is currently constructed:

Lion: Most consistent clan. At least if you play the aggro version of the deck. All of the weenies serve the same function so you'll be able to execute the same game plan 75-80% of the time. If you actually start tossing in the heavier stuff they quickly become the most inconsistent clan

Crane: By far the easiest to play. They have the best two way options attacking, they have the most natural control elements, and they have the capabilities to draw more cards than either of the other two clans. The Storyteller giving you extra cards and Way of the Crane giving you extra honor makes it easier to be aggressive on honor bids. You'll just about always have options with these guys. They are also the most flexible clan. You can splash 5 out of 6 of the other factions to good effect whereas the other two can only splash at most 2 options reliably.

Dragon: The clan with the highest upside. If you were to take the top 10 non-neutral cards Dragon probably has 5 or 6 of them. The downside is that Dragon also has some seriously bad cards. Crane has only one objectively bad Dynasty card. Non of Lion's Dynasty cards are objectively bad(but they do have a couple that need support to ever be good). Dragon has multiple dynasty cards that are just bad and are forced to see play. Add in that one of their best Dynasty cards(Niten Master) kind of necessitates that you play cards like Ancestral Daisho and Honored Blade that wouldn't otherwise be jammed in the deck and you're forced to play more bad cards. With aggressive mulligans and aggressive draws you can almost always find what you need in a game, but you're more vulnerable to control effects and don't have a ton of backup options like Lion and Crane.

Going forward(end of Core set reveals) I would speculate that Crane will end up being the best of the three simply because it is more likely to be able to splash the unrevealed clans better than Lion and Dragon. Down the line(after 1-2 cycles) I would expect Dragon to be the best of the three just because they already have some insane stuff and just need to find replacements for the bad cards.

But you never know. Lion could get some killer support for their recursion stuff and end up better than the other two on the backs of Eiji, Deathseeker, and the Spirit Caller. Too early to tell. But I really like where the clans are at right now.

23 minutes ago, blackheartz said:

Under the stronghold it is 12 defense on political before defenders and other stuff. Considering political will have much fewer buffs than military means that actually only Crane even have a chance of politically winning a conflict here. That is the real problem. Not for the Crane, but for all the other clans because against them you can have a province that is immune to half the conflicts.

I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at here. If Crane, who we are assuming is one of if not the top political clan, doesn't have a problem with it then why would any other clan have any difficulty with it? It would stand to reason that the other clans would be better off on military to some degree and going military puts this province back to normal.