Just now, shosuko said:

Yeah - while people may think Lion and Crab don't have a lot of political guys, so they think they can't use this... you pick both targets! Both Crab and Lion have some characters with decent POL, and every clan has some characters with 0 POL... I'm sure the situation will present its self at some point lol

It's so easy to win the duel even with Crab and Lion, or bait them with only a 2 political advantage into giving you 3-4 honor.

I have no clue why they printed this card with 0 cost, no prerequisite, and the ability to choose both duelists.

20 hours ago, ayedubbleyoo said:

I thought I was quite good at this game, maybe not so much!

Had two games with a big character getting sacrificed by that evil province, then one losing Shoju to noble sacrifice.

Had a number of turns where I had Kachiko and Yojimbo in my had and the fate ready to go, only for them to be discarded by Policy Debate.

The last game I had a sequence of events cancelled by Crane Censure/Voice of Honour/Guest of Honour. Then lost a game against Phoenix with them switching the ring element and bring in a load of Initiates to completely change the board state.

Feeling a bit helpless at the moment, haven't been able to get anything going. Guess I need to get back to the drawing board and figure out how to handle these big threats.

It will take you 30 to 50 games to get a real handle on decision making.

Yeah, I know my own cards very well now, it's more the opposing stuff. Particularly the stuff from the new packs, like Prodigy of the Waves etc.

I was winning the majority of my games originally, maybe I've fallen slightly behind the curve since the 6 packs came out.

14 hours ago, shosuko said:

ppps - FFG - make too many more crazy cards like this and I will walk away from the game. I don't enjoy swingy games like YuGiOh where games are won or lost based on who drew the right power combo of 1-off card first. I've gone for 15 years without playing L5R between gold edition and now, I'm only back because its a new start. I love L5R and Scorpion Clan, but I own all the RPG books I need to satisfy my love of the game without buying a single thing you release! Don't just bank on the IP, keep this game great!

I don't want to sound pessimistic but I don't think there will be an end to crazy cards. Balancing the many cards at once is a difficult effort and there will be some cards that slipped through the cracks. Mind you, I do think that FFG is known to allow more than a fair share slip through than bigger guys (like Magic, let's say). Policy Debate might be a distant memory to a military equivalent card or a stronghold with +8 fate that was supposed to have a minor ability to balance it out.

Unfortunately, the most vocal input for FFG is not the forums but it might be in the tournaments. We may have to wait for a few Koteis to roll by before it is acknowledged as a problem card.