It is at a VERY preliminary stage as all I have to work with are the Printable Proxies images. So right now I am trying to make basic decisions like:

a) Am I splashing another Clan? If yes which one?

b) How hard do I want to push honor? And do I want to push gaining Honor myself or dishonoring my opponent?

One thing I do see is a need to splash some military if for no other reason than self defense.

Humble offerings based not on my own experience, but the wisdom of toehrs.

A) Yes. A variety are popular. Scorpion is the most popular Crane splash right now. It is not the only one.

B) Do not push honor. The honor victory is a non-viable victory condition right now in the environment. It is a 'if your opponent plays really dumb, you might accidentally stumble into it' condition. You want to Political Province smashing, Dishonor, or both. With a focus on the Political province smashing.

C) Crane are viable militarily. If not as much as a military clan, viable enough. Splashing military to cover your deficiencies will reduce your overall strength. You need to build strength.

Interesting.

I had been thinking of building to dishonor and this seems to reinforce that idea. I also was thinking about splashing Lion but will definitely look at Scorpion. My Lion thinking was 2 each of Vengeful Oathkeeper, Sashimono and Honored Blade.

Vengeful Oathkeeper doesn't seem very good, even when played out for free. I'm not sure if Crane has enough Bushi to do Sashimono reliably. Stand Your Ground and Ready for Battle are, on the other hand, pretty good for Crane - you've got a lot of ways to Honor your dudes, and Ready for Battle is universally good.

Sashimono does work for them as they have sufficient Bushi to operate it. Honored Blade is inexpensive, gives a good boost and the honor gain from winning a battle is a nice perk. Oathkeeper I admit is a more difficult fit except that he can get into play for free.

I much prefer using influence in trying to deck build rather than only using in clan and neutral.

Scorpion was my first attempt, running 3x of Fiery Madness and Forged Edict. Poison was pretty clutch sometimes but I never played it. Between Voice of Honor and Guest of Honor it was usually unnecessary.

I switched to Crab to help pressure dishonor. Watch Commander is great for that and can basically lock someone out of playing cards of their honor dips low. It's also a decent buff for the cost. I think x3 is worth it if you're Keeper. I've also been running x2 of Reprieve and Hiruma Ambusher. The Ambusher can be a nasty surprise to turn off an annoying action.

Honor is seriously unviable for anyone but Lion right now (and even they're pretty iffy) so I don't worry about it. Honoring characters is much more useful as a buff and to turn on other cards. Air victories are best used to steal rather than gain. Dishonor isn't a primary win but does allow you to bully people into playing suboptimally or bleed people out if you start to stalemate.

Military isn't as big a problem as you might think. Crane have 4 dynasty characters at 3-4 military for 2-3 cost. You may need them as defenders more but it's not uncommon to win military conflicts. Doji Challenger can also tank an unimportant attack to pull in and bow a potential attacker.

Overall I think Crane is in a pretty strong place right now with a good mix of control, removal, event denial, dishonor pressure, and the ability to win conflicts of both types.

Splashing dragon would be my choice. 3 let it go and 3 tattooed wanderer are fantastic options. Both have offensive and defensive uses against almost all clans. Tranquility is also an option depending on your local meta.

Well I think I am ready for experimental (VERY experimental deck) #1.

The basic idea will be Crane with Lion splashed in. It may wind up being bad news but I figure it's a good start point. The basic idea is to splash in Lions that either help with Honor or Battle. So Honored Blade and Sashimono are in. I'm still on the fence about Vengeful Oathkeeper and may fire it if I can devise a better entry.

If the Lion concept does not pan out I think my next splash attempt will be Dragon followed by Crab. This should be fun!

lion for honored blade. its cheap and gets honor, which is useful for assasinations. its also useful to boost military and win duels. which of course you can bid more honor in because you have the blade....

also vengeful oath keeper is great to fire back out of nowhere when you inevitably lose a military conflict.

a) Right now you should always splash another Clan. For Crane I prefere Dragon, Scorpion and Phoenix (in this order). Dragon has Miromoto's Fury and Let Go, which works especially well with the tempo plan of Crane. Scorpion has access to Forged Edict, Calling in Favors and Fiery Madness, which punishes decks that rely on events that cost ressources (honor, fate etc.). Phoenix has the Kimono and Display of Power. Display of Power is like Miromoto's Fury a strong tempo tool, so you don't get punished that hard on the backswing and the Kimono often enables your Voice of Honor and Politicians.

b) I don't think that going primary for the honor or dishonor victory is a good strategy. But sometimes you get to the point in the game, where going for the dishonor victory or at least preassuring it is viable. The honor victory is very unlikely and most of the time it happens because of misjudgements from your oponent or both sides.

Side note - it may well be that Honor or Dishonor victory is not yet a viable method in the emerging meta. I want to try it to gather data on it so if it is not viable I can point to why and what it needs to be viable. If it turns out not to work then the next port of call is building to politically break provinces.