On 11/25/2017 at 8:41 PM, Kubernes said:

Fawning Diplomat - I'll take any glory 0 Scorpion courtier. I haven't seen enough Imperial Favor cards for the clan to really justify that cost though.

I think it will be more to deny your opponent their really cool Favor-related abilities. I can see her being a must-have while we go through the upcoming "Imperial Favor" trend.

24 minutes ago, theaficionado said:

In the context of Unicorn needing help, this guy makes sense. However, why does it seem like this character is the single best in the game?

If true, it definitely would be the best. Lion's Pride Brawler on steroids.

9 minutes ago, caseycheesecake said:

If true, it definitely would be the best. Lion's Pride Brawler on steroids.

LPB bows not sends home.

That sounds like a great card! More like Master of Spears on steroids rather than LPB. Hopefully for the Unicorn it is true. My guess is that is not Kamoko considering the Glory 1. I could be wrong on that guess, but traditionally the Battle Maidens were high personal honor characters. Maybe a Moto? What Moto characters do we have in the fiction now?

16 minutes ago, SolidusPrime said:

I think it will be more to deny your opponent their really cool Favor-related abilities. I can see her being a must-have while we go through the upcoming "Imperial Favor" trend.

0 Glory courtier (Forged Edict) who can participate in military conflicts (Policy Debate, For Shame), easy access to Censure, and can be recursed with Back-alley Hideaway. Might see play outside of this cycle. : )

6 minutes ago, Canezar said:

0 Glory courtier (Forged Edict) who can participate in military conflicts (Policy Debate, For Shame), easy access to Censure, and can be recursed with Back-alley Hideaway. Might see play outside of this cycle. : )

That is one denial heavy deck! I am looking forward to facing it.

6 minutes ago, Canezar said:

0 Glory courtier (Forged Edict) who can participate in military conflicts (Policy Debate, For Shame), easy access to Censure, and can be recursed with Back-alley Hideaway. Might see play outside of this cycle. : )

She's too pricey for my tastes when I have cheaper ways to do all those things. That favor stealing after the favors been determined is pretty magical though.

19 minutes ago, GM81 Protocol Droid said:

That sounds like a great card! More like Master of Spears on steroids rather than LPB. Hopefully for the Unicorn it is true. My guess is that is not Kamoko considering the Glory 1. I could be wrong on that guess, but traditionally the Battle Maidens were high personal honor characters. Maybe a Moto? What Moto characters do we have in the fiction now?

I don't think we've had a named Moto of importance appear in fiction yet unless you count Moto Juro who's quoted on Ride Them Down.

My guess is that if this is real the character is Shinjo Shono. He's got 1 more Military, 2 less Political, and 1 less Glory than his Mother. I think that makes sense considering lore and design.

1 hour ago, Ishi Tonu said:

Considering the Unicorn were clearly the clan lacking the most out of the core set, I would have expected a little more for them in the first cycle. Swift Magistrate and Yurt were a good start and then everything else has been pretty crappy.

I'm not even a Unicorn loyalist, I just want parity amongst the clans. I'm ok with Lion getting LPB and Crane getting DC.......if the other clans are brought up to that level.....enter War Dog Master

I'm still hopeful that the 5 drop will be something that is actually good, but, at this point I'm beginning to wonder if it will be enough.

But Core and first cycle are designed in sync so when the nerf bat hit Unicorn before release, we cannot expect miracles out of the first cycle. Maybe for the second. In the first, we got some decent cards like the magistrate while also getting some... questionable at best ones like the saddle or the mediator. At least the Utaku Mediator seems better than the Shinjo Saddle. Er... Maybe. I know I could make room for the mediator while I cannot say the same of the saddle.

1 hour ago, theaficionado said:

However, why does it seem like this character is the single best in the game? Pretty much able to break provinces on his/her own, free Rout twice per turn that can also be used to "feint", Cavalry keyword, AND low glory so dishonour doesn't mean much? Seems a bit too much for me. Additionally:

A. He/She's not restricted to during military conflict.
B. Unicorn can jump him/her into a military conflict even after they've used him/her on the offense.
C. It's not restricted to opponent's characters, despite most other Unicorn move home tricks being restricted in the same way.

Hey, not that, unlike Lion, Unicorn has tons of uber combos and characters, you know. By the way, which other move home tricks are you talking about? The Unicorn has none. Zero. Nada. Null. Error 404: move home trick not found.

24 minutes ago, Wintersong said:

But Core and first cycle are designed in sync so when the nerf bat hit Unicorn before release, we cannot expect miracles out of the first cycle. Maybe for the second.

Yes, I'm aware of this which is why I was expecting unicorn to be brought in line, or at least closer to it, once we got core + first 6 packs as that is what the design team balanced things around. I'm perfectly fine with any of the clans being behind the rest......as long as they are brought up to the level of play that the other clans are at in reasonable time.

For me, when I hear that design had core + first 6 done at same time I'd expect that all clans are roughly balanced at that point. Maybe not exactly equal in strength but at least balanced so that the worst of the clans presents some sort of natural counter to some of the top clans and would be a good option even if it wasn't a good clan overall.

My concern after the first few packs would be that design potentially missed the mark and there are one or more clans that end up dragging behind until the 2nd cycle is done....which could be quite awhile in a LCG.

I have no horse in this race, no pun intended, I just love the IP and want to see the new version of the game be a success. In the past the game tends to suffer when there is the perception that x clans are better than the rest and y clans are unplayable. Some of the things that FFG has done with the challenge system and hatamoto should help keep the loyalists but it can make for a pretty bad time in the internets when there is a clear divide between the haves and have nots.

If the rumors of the 5 drop are true then that should be a nice bump.....at least enough so that with 3 yurts the Unicorn players can trim to just the best of their cards and scrap the questionable stuff. If the rumors about the 5 drop are just that, well maybe it's time to make the imperial / gaijin customs deck a thing.

58 minutes ago, Wintersong said:

But Core and first cycle are designed in sync so when the nerf bat hit Unicorn before release, we cannot expect miracles out of the first cycle. Maybe for the second. In the first, we got some decent cards like the magistrate while also getting some... questionable at best ones like the saddle or the mediator. At least the Utaku Mediator seems better than the Shinjo Saddle. Er... Maybe. I know I could make room for the mediator while I cannot say the same of the saddle.

Hey, not that, unlike Lion, Unicorn has tons of uber combos and characters, you know. By the way, which other move home tricks are you talking about? The Unicorn has none. Zero. Nada. Null. Error 404: move home trick not found.

Apologies. I meant that Unicorn only had move in tricks, not feinting tricks.

2 hours ago, ElSuave said:

This is just word on the grapevine:

Unicorn 5 cost. Dynasty Character. #111
6/2/1
Bushi. Cavalry.

Action: While this character is participating in a conflict, choose a participating character with equal or lower Military skill than this character - move that character home. (Limit twice per round).

Broken. Period. (and right out of the gate - no pun intended)

I’ll direct any replies that would argue otherwise to the posts above making/stating similar thoughts.

1 hour ago, Wintersong said:

But Core and first cycle are designed in sync so when the nerf bat hit Unicorn before release, we cannot expect miracles out of the first cycle. Maybe for the second. In the first, we got some decent cards like the magistrate while also getting some... questionable at best ones like the saddle or the mediator. At least the Utaku Mediator seems better than the Shinjo Saddle. Er... Maybe. I know I could make room for the mediator while I cannot say the same of the saddle.

Hey, not that, unlike Lion, Unicorn has tons of uber combos and characters, you know. By the way, which other move home tricks are you talking about? The Unicorn has none. Zero. Nada. Null. Error 404: move home trick not found.

Wait... Were Unicorn changed prior to release to reduce them in power? Was there some news I missed where Unicorn were purposefully taken down in power level before release?

I just thought they were designed poorly, and under the power curve. I didn't know they were specifically weakened...

38 minutes ago, theaficionado said:

Apologies. I meant that Unicorn only had move in tricks, not feinting tricks.

No need to apologize. Seriously.

3 minutes ago, Soshi Nimue said:

Wait... Were Unicorn changed prior to release to reduce them in power? Was there some news I missed where Unicorn were purposefully taken down in power level before release?

I just thought they were designed poorly, and under the power curve. I didn't know they were specifically weakened...

From what I have read&heard, there was stuff like Altansarnai giving the player an additional Military conflict, you could declare the conflicts without restriction types, you didn't have to assign anyone on conflict declaration,... It sucks to have been nerfed too much but a broken OP Clan would have been worse. From the bottoom we can only rise, right?

1 hour ago, Soshi Nimue said:

Wait... Were Unicorn changed prior to release to reduce them in power? Was there some news I missed where Unicorn were purposefully taken down in power level before release?

I just thought they were designed poorly, and under the power curve. I didn't know they were specifically weakened...

There are rumors that Unicorn got nerfed in playtesting, possibley because of rules changes like having to assign attackers or having to have one of each conflict type.

1 hour ago, LordBlunt said:

Broken. Period. (and right out of the gate - no pun intended)

I’ll direct any replies that would argue otherwise to the posts above making/stating similar thoughts.

To be fair if it were a Lion card it wouldn't send them home, it would just discard them. IMO Unicorn needs some good cards, that card is good, but you can play around it.

4 hours ago, SolidusPrime said:

I think it will be more to deny your opponent their really cool Favor-related abilities. I can see her being a must-have while we go through the upcoming "Imperial Favor" trend.

If Imperial Faovr decks become really big then she gets a few more points but I'd feel like that meta has to be pretty dominant. Right now I'm thinking that only certain clans will really try to capitalize on it (i.e. Phoenix, Crane, and Lion) and that's only 3 clans. Still need to see the remaining cards to get a better feel though.

8 minutes ago, Kubernes said:

If Imperial Faovr decks become really big then she gets a few more points but I'd feel like that meta has to be pretty dominant. Right now I'm thinking that only certain clans will really try to capitalize on it (i.e. Phoenix, Crane, and Lion) and that's only 3 clans. Still need to see the remaining cards to get a better feel though.

We haven't even seen a Phoenix favor related card yet far as I'm aware, so it's really difficult to say if Phoenix will even have a vested interest in it outside of denying its use for opponents. Maybe so we can use Censure, but we have other splash options to fill that role if needed.

I feel like Censure is an auto-include for Phoenix, since they can claim favor fairly easily and many of their downfalls are to strong counters or Court Games-style effects that dishonor. Having Censure as a defensive backup makes them much safer to play.

As for the Phoenix favor-card, I'm hoping it lets you get a spell from your discard back to hand or play it for free. I crave more tools for my Ishiken.

2 hours ago, Zesu Shadaban said:

We haven't even seen a Phoenix favor related card yet far as I'm aware, so it's really difficult to say if Phoenix will even have a vested interest in it outside of denying its use for opponents. Maybe so we can use Censure, but we have other splash options to fill that role if needed.

I use Phoenix atm just because their stronghold can easily give that push towards getting the Imperial Favor.

5 hours ago, HamHamJ2 said:

There are rumors that Unicorn got nerfed in playtesting, possibley because of rules changes like having to assign attackers or having to have one of each conflict type.

Biggest rumor is that Altansarnai's ability was supposedly Breakthrough, but it was too strong as a character ability.

Yeah I also heard that the Unicorn champ was heavily restricted (and was described by one Playtester as Chagatai on steroids). This new char (if true) will help bring them back to parity with the other clans. it will be good to see more Unicorns decks around.

Slightly off topic, but I think they might had miscredited the artist on Mountaintop Statuary. It says Noah Bradley but very definitely looks like Charles Urbach...

Anyway, if that new Unicorn character is real I will be very very pleased, especially if it is Shinjo Shono. Always one of my faves.

2 hours ago, Fumo said:

Slightly off topic, but I think they might had miscredited the artist on Mountaintop Statuary. It says Noah Bradley but very definitely looks like Charles Urbach...

It IS a Charles Urbach, Noah doesn't work in colored pencil. Urbach has a very distinct style. This was a mistake by FFG, there are two printings of Pillars of Virtue in the CCG, one has Urbach's art, the other Noah Bradly, they must have confused the art with the artist. But seeing how different the styles were makes me wonder how, especially if the people in FFG art direction had any studies of these people's works in the past as they are known card game illustrators.

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Anyway, if that new Unicorn character is real I will be very very pleased, especially if it is Shinjo Shono. Always one of my faves.

I'm hoping its the Khan, who ever the current Khan is. If the Champion was a nerfed down mess at least the other leader among the Unicorn can be solid, and with those stats he is solid indeed.

33 minutes ago, TheItsyBitsySpider said:

I'm hoping its the Khan, who ever the current Khan is. If the Champion was a nerfed down mess at least the other leader among the Unicorn can be solid, and with those stats he is solid indeed.

I don't think there's a Khan in the new L5R yet. Like we probably won't see the Khol, Baraunghar or Junghar for the time being.