So the upcoming Dynasty Pack, "For Honor and Glory" has a card named "Shinjo Saddle" in it. It's a 1 cost attachment that gives +1 Mil to a Cavalry character in addition to a transference ability. Considering the quantity of cavalry characters that Unicorn has at its disposal (disregarding Shinjo Tatsuo, whom I dislike), you trade 1 fate for a card that will, in all probability, stay on the field for the entire game (unless, for some reason, your opponent decides to use "Let Go" on this instead of a "Spyglass.") While it's not a huge boost to strength, it's an annoying contributor that compounds with "Warrior Poet" and synergies with "Ride Them Down." I've been mostly playing Unicorn with Crab splash for dishonor pressure, but do you see these new cards slowly shifting ponies to the place where they can focus on a tempo rush? "Way of the Unicorn" seems to peg them as a tempo archetype, and while others don't particularly care for the purple philosophy (which is perfectly fine), I've found it to be helpful for swinging at the stronghold and passing first during the Dynasty Phase. And suppose Unicorn does get shifted to tempo, do you think that will make certain less than desirables (cough, Aggressive Moto) more viable?

tldr: bored, and looking to theory craft until we get more card spoilers.

While in theory having the extra military skill that all the Unicorn characters seem to be missing wrapped up in a moveable item seems good it's really not. There are already plenty of important Unicorn characters that lack the Cavalry trait to allow the saddle to be moved, which means you'd have to get a mount on them too and that becomes way convoluted. Packing another +1 skill item just waters down the deck with a bunch of cards that have very little impact on the board. When you look at a potential Lion swarm deck they have a bunch of ways to pump their small small guys to province breaking range.

The threat of movement is a big deal, the Unicorn just lack the characters to follow through on that threat. The Saddle does very little to improve the Unicorn in the areas they are lacking.

From now until the end of time Shinjo Saddle will only exist to keep Wandering Ronin company in my card box.

DOA

I'm interested to see L5R go through the cyclical history of card games. By that I mean there will be cards released now that will not be valued until some unforeseen date when something permits a combination with them, or people's paradigms change as it relates to card value. I think we'll eventually be surprised that some of what we presently consider to be coal will turn out to be diamonds.

1 hour ago, Blu3key said:

I'm interested to see L5R go through the cyclical history of card games. By that I mean there will be cards released now that will not be valued until some unforeseen date when something permits a combination with them, or people's paradigms change as it relates to card value. I think we'll eventually be surprised that some of what we presently consider to be coal will turn out to be diamonds.

I agree 100 %, this game is far too new to be giving any judgement to any one cards just yet. There could be some brutal combos coming with cards people consider trash as of now.

I really don't think there will ever be a day shinjo saddle is good. Maybe if they make it free then you basically have a perpetual imperial favor. But for that 1 fate I'll just find something that actually wins me conflicts.

12 minutes ago, Reins Vengard said:

I really don't think there will ever be a day shinjo saddle is good. Maybe if they make it free then you basically have a perpetual imperial favor. But for that 1 fate I'll just find something that actually wins me conflicts.

Don't forget that attacker wins ties. I agree with your overall sentiment, but disagree with the implication that cards which provide more explicit advantages are inherently better. Basic cards like the Saddle can serve as the pistons for an engine. In my honest opinion, Saddle's biggest problem is that it's released in the 2nd pack, where card pool hasn't had the time needed to mature. Give it a bit of time and we might be surprised what its (or any other card if we're totally honest) potential might be,