What's the overall consensus on the Dragon cards in these packs? Maybe it's just because I'm a noob, but I just don't find myself getting excited about any of the cards my clan's gotten revealed so far :/. High Kick decent, I might run that one. The Kitsuki guy seems too situational to be valuable, and the statue, although better, is still low-value for fate and situational. Northern Wall Sensei doesn't look very good, plus we're Seekers now anyway. The Stone of Sorrows might actually become pretty useful once we start getting enough fate-to-rings cards to build a whole deck around it...that is, until the tournament when we next lose the Seeker role. The Philosopher doesn't look that good. Written in the Stars will probably become better with more fate-to-rings stuff, but now it seems very meh. Am I missing any? Do you guys think I'm right about the value of these cards, or am I just noobing and not seeing their value? Let me know if I am--because I want to make sure to get any that are good, but for the other packs I think I may wait for a while.

3 minutes ago, Mandalore525 said:

What's the overall consensus on the Dragon cards in these packs? Maybe it's just because I'm a noob, but I just don't find myself getting excited about any of the cards my clan's gotten revealed so far :/. High Kick decent, I might run that one. The Kitsuki guy seems too situational to be valuable, and the statue, although better, is still low-value for fate and situational. Northern Wall Sensei doesn't look very good, plus we're Seekers now anyway. The Stone of Sorrows might actually become pretty useful once we start getting enough fate-to-rings cards to build a whole deck around it...that is, until the tournament when we next lose the Seeker role. The Philosopher doesn't look that good. Written in the Stars will probably become better with more fate-to-rings stuff, but now it seems very meh. Am I missing any? Do you guys think I'm right about the value of these cards, or am I just noobing and not seeing their value? Let me know if I am--because I want to make sure to get any that are good, but for the other packs I think I may wait for a while.

The Kitsuki guy is sorta kinda ok on his own. As you say, very situational. He does have courtesy, so at least you get a card when he leaves play, and he'll be good against Scorpion.

High Kick is potentially solid, but I've been needing to run at least 2 of the new 1-drop Phoenix Monk conflict character to make it worth using.

The Jade Masterpiece (the statue) hasn't really been worth it to me, yet. Not sure if it will work out.

The Philospher...yeah, I'm really not happy this is the monk we get. He's sub-par, very situational. I'm kinda hoping Mitsu (if we get him soon) is a 4-cost instead of 5, so he can just replace the Ascetic Visionary instead of Yokuni.

Written in the Stars and the Stone of Sorrows: The whole 'pay your own fate to put it on rings, get a benefit from it' is an interesting mechanic. However, it seems far too much effort and risk for too little gain, especially when playing against Phoenix. It's possible that just two or three future cards could make it all gel together into something good, but so far, it's not looking promising.

In theory, Dragon (along with everyone else) will get somewhere around 6 Dynasty and 6 Conflict cards in this 6-pack cycle, or possibly a 5-7 or 7-5 split (I suppose even 4-8 / 7-4 could happen, but I rather doubt it).

So far, we've seen 3 of the dynasty cards. all characters. One is an interesting but situational and probably understated unique Courtier. One is a lackluster, very situational monk, and one is a mediocre Bushi that we can't use this year, anyway. Conflict-side, we've seen four cards. Two unique items, a potentially good but currently difficult to use efficiently 'battle kung fu' event, and another 'put fate on rings!' card.

Unicorn seem to be getting the worst of the previews overall, so far, and they are already struggling a bit. So I can't say that Dragon are getting the worst stuff. We're probably getting the second or third worst from what we've seen, in my opinion.

7 hours ago, Togashi Gao Shan said:

Unicorn seem to be getting the worst of the previews overall, so far, and they are already struggling a bit. So I can't say that Dragon are getting the worst stuff. We're probably getting the second or third worst from what we've seen, in my opinion.

My thoughts on this, with all the previewed stuff so far are:

- Scorpion and Lion are clearly getting the upper hand here.

- Crane and Phoenix are very good. All decent cards, and at least one very solid card. (maybe one bad card, but debatable)

-Crab and Dragon are OK. Not outstanding, but they have cards that work now, and even the "bad" ones can work in the future, probably.

- Unicorn... well, we don't talk about Unicorn.

1 hour ago, Togashi Gao Shan said:

The Kitsuki guy is sorta kinda ok on his own. As you say, very situational. He does have courtesy, so at least you get a card when he leaves play, and he'll be good against Scorpion.

Minor nitpick, you get a fate, not a card.

2 hours ago, Togashi Gao Shan said:

The Kitsuki guy is sorta kinda ok on his own. As you say, very situational. He does have courtesy, so at least you get a card when he leaves play, and he'll be good against Scorpion.

High Kick is potentially solid, but I've been needing to run at least 2 of the new 1-drop Phoenix Monk conflict character to make it worth using.

The Jade Masterpiece (the statue) hasn't really been worth it to me, yet. Not sure if it will work out.

The Philospher...yeah, I'm really not happy this is the monk we get. He's sub-par, very situational. I'm kinda hoping Mitsu (if we get him soon) is a 4-cost instead of 5, so he can just replace the Ascetic Visionary instead of Yokuni.

Written in the Stars and the Stone of Sorrows: The whole 'pay your own fate to put it on rings, get a benefit from it' is an interesting mechanic. However, it seems far too much effort and risk for too little gain, especially when playing against Phoenix. It's possible that just two or three future cards could make it all gel together into something good, but so far, it's not looking promising.

In theory, Dragon (along with everyone else) will get somewhere around 6 Dynasty and 6 Conflict cards in this 6-pack cycle, or possibly a 5-7 or 7-5 split (I suppose even 4-8 / 7-4 could happen, but I rather doubt it).

So far, we've seen 3 of the dynasty cards. all characters. One is an interesting but situational and probably understated unique Courtier. One is a lackluster, very situational monk, and one is a mediocre Bushi that we can't use this year, anyway. Conflict-side, we've seen four cards. Two unique items, a potentially good but currently difficult to use efficiently 'battle kung fu' event, and another 'put fate on rings!' card.

Unicorn seem to be getting the worst of the previews overall, so far, and they are already struggling a bit. So I can't say that Dragon are getting the worst stuff. We're probably getting the second or third worst from what we've seen, in my opinion.

I think most of your assasments are right, but Stone of Sorrows Looks really strong, but with Calling in Favors and the new crab holding also very risky.

Dragon in general is pretty trashy. Not sure why everyone is so excited by the Monk card. We lose a Fate, lose a card, bow a monk, can only target someone in the conflict, and temporarily blank them, which is worse than Cloud the Mind.

LPB on the other hand can bow anyone anywhere with less military, and has an aggressive 3 mil for 3 when all of our characters have skills lower than their cost pretty much.

2 minutes ago, Waywardpaladin said:

LPB on the other hand can bow anyone anywhere with less military.

Equal to or less. Just to be safe.

2 minutes ago, Waywardpaladin said:

Dragon in general is pretty trashy. Not sure why everyone is so excited by the Monk card. We lose a Fate, lose a card, bow a monk, can only target someone in the conflict, and temporarily blank them, which is worse than Cloud the Mind.

LPB on the other hand can bow anyone anywhere with less military, and has an aggressive 3 mil for 3 when all of our characters have skills lower than their cost pretty much.

The big thing about High Kick is that it can lay low the Mighty. A humble Togashi Initiate can punt Ikoma Ujiaki (to take an example from the same pack) and defuse what would otherwise have turned into a steamrolling Lion victory. High Kick is very much a defensive card you use for low cost characters to seriously punch above their paygrade for a vital defense, leaving your own powerhouse for the counterattack. Note also that the blanking is independent of the bowing, so cards like Ready for Battle and I Am Ready cannot circumvent that.

Just now, Saibot said:

The big thing about High Kick is that it can lay low the Mighty. A humble Togashi Initiate can punt Ikoma Ujiaki (to take an example from the same pack) and defuse what would otherwise have turned into a steamrolling Lion victory. High Kick is very much a defensive card you use for low cost characters to seriously punch above their paygrade for a vital defense, leaving your own powerhouse for the counterattack. Note also that the blanking is independent of the bowing, so cards like Ready for Battle and I Am Ready cannot circumvent that.

But my initiate is likely a 3/3 at that point If I throw him out without giving him fate, don't pay to honor him, then yes I am bowing a 1/1 to bow a big guy. But I'm also losing a conflict card, a dynasty card, and 2 fate to bow and blank someone for one conflict.

Just now, Waywardpaladin said:

But my initiate is likely a 3/3 at that point If I throw him out without giving him fate, don't pay to honor him, then yes I am bowing a 1/1 to bow a big guy. But I'm also losing a conflict card, a dynasty card, and 2 fate to bow and blank someone for one conflict.

The Initiate was just an example and obviously if you already Honored your Initiate you would probably try to win the conflict another way while staying on offence with the Initiate. As to your general point, on defence defusing an attack for as little cost as possible is way more important than claiming the Ring (Crab notwithstanding). Considering the dynasty card in your calculation makes little sense because you probably would have defended anyway (and if not, if you run entirely on province trading without defending, then I can definitely see why you might avoid High Kick). But when you are in a 1-on-1, taking down a Toturi voltron with a High Kick is the essence of efficiency, even if it means the Ring bounces (which may even be in your Favor if you want the Ring yourself). You likely committed much less dynasty force than if you had defended 'normally' and compared to Mirumoto's Fury you are not reliant on unrevealed provinces. Furthermore, in the Toturi example you at least keep the second Ring trigger away from him if the Lion does manage to ready him again.

In the example above, you're stopping the big lion province break in its tracks. That's probably the moment they were going to pitch favor, charge in 2+ guys, break a province and play For Greater Glory. Paying a couple cards to shut down an opponent's big play (with little room for counterplay, due to ability blanking) is fairly notable.

I haven't run against Toturi voltron, because they like to put fate on LPB and Spiritcaller, pitch Toturi, and summon him in for free when appropriate. It tends to be Dragon who is the Voltron, and so bowing yourself seems counterproductive.

It could have its uses, I might even run it when we have a significant Monk presence, (or I can get Ascetic running reliably to unbow them later)

Unicorn war doggies: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/K0QGB

Just now, Wintersong said:

Unicorn war doggies: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/K0QGB

Awesome art, shame about the card.

4 minutes ago, Wintersong said:

Unicorn war doggies: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/K0QGB

A card that helps fill our discard with people AND helps us break provinces? I can't believe I'm saying this about a Unicorn preview... That actually seems pretty good.

Almost doesn't suck. No calvary

3 fate for a 2/- isn't great on first glance, but while attacking he's almost guaranteed to be at least 3 mil, unless you flip a holding for his react. No political, but current Unicorn cards don't seem to care about political anyways.

6 minutes ago, Iuchi Toshimo said:

A card that helps fill our discard with people AND helps us break provinces? I can't believe I'm saying this about a Unicorn preview... That actually seems pretty good.

*discards an Altansarnai with War Dog Master* Yay! My Clan Champion was useful!

Lion 3 drops: they get spirit caller and LPB. Unicorn get a dog that doesn't synergize with their stronghold. But at least it gives Tadaji something to do. Seriously would it kill FFG to print a pony with a progressive action to be taken.

I feel like they're designing pony thinking cavalry rules are the same as OL5R and their stronghold produces more gold. Maybe if their next stronghold gives 9 fate i can imagine myself running this overpriced nonsense.

Seems ok. Very good when honored, with that glory of 2. A little bit pricey for when you hit a holding or 1-coster, but 3 for a 4-military attacker seems ok, with potential for much more. Don't see why they couldn't have given him a 1 political though, for as little else as he's doing as a 3-coster.

If it wasn't a reaction but a trait, I think it would be more palatable. Also work on all military conflict.

If Unicorn had something along the lines of Spiritcaller, then the dogs could be decent, but, they don't, so kind seems like more of the same.

Sure, there will be that time where your flip an Altansarnai or Horde, but, the unicorn are pretty full of non-cav characters that are 3 fate and only 2 military skill. I don't see it replacing any of the 3 drops I'm currently using.

Can we just skip to the part where Kamoko is revealed and she is awesome?

another 3 drop with 2 military skill, another card with no cav if cav reserves wasnt counted 100% of the time id be excited for this guy. Give us a guy who bows, or readies someone, Or an ability that makes a character always count his base skill! I also dont like that he has 2 glory either, it makes me prioritize the ring of fire even more due to my guys having super high glory.

12 minutes ago, Ishi Tonu said:

Can we just skip to the part where Kamoko is revealed and she is awesome?

Not that she can save the Clan just by herself but if she (or whoever our 5 cost one is) is "almost good" or worse, I'll truly begin to seriously worry.

24 minutes ago, Ishi Tonu said:

Can we just skip to the part where Kamoko is revealed and she is awesome?

So much faith, be prepared to have though hopes dashed.