So, everybody has seen the Ofushikai promo card coming up in the Phoenix novel, I suppose:

We also know that this is a expanded art card (or alt art card) of a card that will be released in the next cycle, after Phoenix clan pack.

With those facts, I think we can safely assume that, as the Imperial cycle brought us the Magistrates, this next cycle will bring us Ancestral items for each clan... armors, weapons, scrolls, maybe even horses! Only attachable to unique characters of clan X, and with no influence value, of course.

So, just for the sake of having some fun, and speculate a little bit:

What items do you expect to see for your clan, and what do you expect them to do?

And yeah, Shadowlands players *cough* @Ishi Tonu *cough*, we all know how much do you want to be for the Scorpion item to be the sword Ambition or a Black Scroll...

First of all, the art in this card is amazing, and I hope Lion's attach get something nice too, but maybe we will receive a war tessen like Gumbai-Uchiwa https://goo.gl/BXFYE9

It would be great something like the broken sword of the lion https://goo.gl/hxA285 or with a harpoon action.

Well, the most obvious cycle, since we've got Ofushikai here, would be the other Ancestral Swords of the Great Clans: Chikara , Shukujo , Shori , Itsuwari , Hayai and whatever the Dragon call theirs .

Or we could go with the Ancestral Armor cycle: Fukutsu , Sasageru , Junsui , Mezameru , Yuki , and whatever the Scorpion AND Dragon call theirs .

I'm unfortunately not clever enough to come up with appropriate abilities for what those cards might do, though.

The ancestral sword of Lion, Shori was broken by Akodo after the first day of thunder, but it was in O5R timeline..

1 hour ago, L5RBr said:

The ancestral sword of Lion, Shori was broken by Akodo after the first day of thunder, but it was in O5R timeline..

Not to gainsay you, and the Wiki is very patchwork, but:

"After the first Day of Thunder , Akodo was called upon to hand down his sword to his heir, but he refused, saying, "This sword has drawn my brother's blood. A sword which has drawn family blood cannot be revered." With these words, he broke the blade beneth his heel, and took up the simple katana he had used before.

This simple sword became Shori , the Ancestral Sword of the Lion Clan ."

13 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

With those facts, I think we can safely assume that, as the Imperial cycle brought us the Magistrates, this next cycle will bring us Ancestral items for each clan... armors, weapons, scrolls, maybe even horses! Only attachable to unique characters of clan X, and with no influence value, of course.

The Imperial cycle had both Magistrates and Clan Seals. Their maybe multiple set themes each cycle.

I'm betting one of the next cycle's themes will be Champion's Weapons not necessarily Ancestral weapons.

One thing to note is that both Togashi Yokuni and Agasha Sumiko have the Champion trait so will be able to get full use out of any "Champion" items.

21 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

So, everybody has seen the Ofushikai promo card coming up in the Phoenix novel, I suppose:

We also know that this is a expanded art card (or alt art card) of a card that will be released in the next cycle, after Phoenix clan pack.

With those facts, I think we can safely assume that, as the Imperial cycle brought us the Magistrates, this next cycle will bring us Ancestral items for each clan... armors, weapons, scrolls, maybe even horses! Only attachable to unique characters of clan X, and with no influence value, of course.

So, just for the sake of having some fun, and speculate a little bit:

What items do you expect to see for your clan, and what do you expect them to do?

And yeah, Shadowlands players *cough* @Ishi Tonu *cough*, we all know how much do you want to be for the Scorpion item to be the sword Ambition or a Black Scroll...

As much as I would love to see Black Scrolls, Ambition, The Terrible Standard, etc. I’d much rather the clans get a little more depth before the Shadowlands gets unleashed. I’m a patient Oni. My guess is we won’t see the Shadowlands deluxe expansion until the rest of the clans are done and the Mantis get theirs, so there is plenty of time for the slow build of corruption. I’ve already got Goblin Sneak in all my decks to get that tainted snowball rolling downhill.

Besides we already have the Ruby of.........er I mean Talisman of the Sun.

I like the idea of Shadowlands being built upon in each dynasty cycle until a final deluxe expansion to fill out a true Shadowlands force, just maybe wait until they release a Mantis expansion haha!

On point however, I love the idea of Ofushikai's ability, along with the tie in to the old stories of Ujimitsu seemingly being able to 'cross Rokugan in moments'. Plus it is a good Phoenix tie with controlling conflicts; use it on defense to remove an attacker from your opponent for both conflicts or on offense to save one of your attackers for a defense to come.

I think the Crab item, hopefully Chikara, will work with the defense/sacrifice themes or the Unicorn item will focus on movement or calvary.

As I recall, the fluff of the lion sword was added way later, the original Broken sword was of the scorpion

Not to hijack this thread (again!), but for 2 Fate, this attachment is quite strong. !!!

26 minutes ago, LordBlunt said:

Not to hijack this thread (again!), but for 2 Fate, this attachment is quite strong. !!!

It is, really? Right now, there’s a lot of attachment-hate cards out there, so spending 2 Fate in any attachment is risky, to say the least.

Besides, this card is, most of the time, a +2/+3 by 2 Fate, which is good, but roughly the equivalent of playing Katana+Fan, which are two cards, but 0 cost, and as I said, lots of attachment-hate.

The ability is great, but only triggers with the champ, so you’ll rarely get to see it working. Besides, it’s not the best for Tsukune, I think. If she’s honored, this is overkill, if she’s dishonored, this is wasted on her. Normal status... well, not bad, but... have I mentioned the amount of attachment-hate in this game?

On 2/17/2018 at 4:01 AM, Tabris2k said:

And yeah, Shadowlands players *cough* @Ishi Tonu *cough*, we all know how much do you want to be for the Scorpion item to be the sword Ambition or a Black Scroll...

Tru dat!

I'm actually just hoping for a neutral Shadowlands item like Porcelin Mask of Fu Leng or Blackened Claws.

The elemental items like Yari of Air, Armor of Earth, etc. Would seem to fit for the next cycle.

7 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

...

The ability is great, but only triggers with the champ, so you’ll rarely get to see it working. Besides, it’s not the best for Tsukune, I think. If she’s honored, this is overkill, if she’s dishonored, this is wasted on her. Normal status... well, not bad, but... have I mentioned the amount of attachment-hate in this game?

Attachment hate is real, I’ll give you that. More than half the players I play online nowadays splash Dragon for Fury and Let Go. But you cannot discount that with one card you are getting +5 skill, as well as an ability that is only found on 4 or 5 costed characters.; that’s huge imo... but yes, with one Let Go or Favors and it’s gone.

Secondly, I suspect more characters will get a Champion trait or an ability that allows a given character to use Champion weapons/Attachments. ??

Viewing this sword with the same scrutiny as the Fuchido (sp?) gives me the feeling that this card is destined to find its way into a deck sooner or later, maybe at the beginning of the next cycle of cards. Pure conjecture here.

6 hours ago, Ishi Tonu said:

Tru dat!

I'm actually just hoping for a neutral Shadowlands item like Porcelin Mask of Fu Leng or Blackened Claws.

The elemental items like Yari of Air, Armor of Earth, etc. Would seem to fit for the next cycle.

Well, we already have Katana of Fire as a Spell Attachment. I'd assume the others would show up eventually in one form or another.

10 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

It is, really? Right now, there’s a lot of attachment-hate cards out there, so spending 2 Fate in any attachment is risky, to say the least.

Besides, this card is, most of the time, a +2/+3 by 2 Fate, which is good, but roughly the equivalent of playing Katana+Fan, which are two cards, but 0 cost, and as I said, lots of attachment-hate.

The ability is great, but only triggers with the champ, so you’ll rarely get to see it working. Besides, it’s not the best for Tsukune, I think. If she’s honored, this is overkill, if she’s dishonored, this is wasted on her. Normal status... well, not bad, but... have I mentioned the amount of attachment-hate in this game?

The only attachment hate that can get rid of it efficiently ist Let Go (and maybe Calling in Favors in Phoenix).

16 hours ago, Taki said:

As I recall, the fluff of the lion sword was added way later, the original Broken sword was of the scorpion

The scorpion sword was Ambition (one of the bloodswords) that was broken after the coup. Shoju left the ancestral sword at home in case the coup failed.

4 hours ago, Ignithas said:

The only attachment hate that can get rid of it efficiently ist Let Go (and maybe Calling in Favors in Phoenix).

Which at least half of the decks have right now, either by being dragon or Scorpion (two of the most popular clans), or via splash. Also Karada district in Crab, and maybe the new Fire Elemental Guard, although I don’t know if it’s used right now or not (I’ll probably use it)

6 hours ago, Ignithas said:

The only attachment hate that can get rid of it efficiently ist Let Go (and maybe Calling in Favors in Phoenix).

You also have Maya Mystic for item removal.

1 hour ago, Tabris2k said:

Which at least half of the decks have right now, either by being dragon or Scorpion (two of the most popular clans), or via splash. Also Karada district in Crab, and maybe the new Fire Elemental Guard, although I don’t know if it’s used right now or not (I’ll probably use it)

I think what he's getting at here is that only a Phoenix deck splashing CiF can actually steal it so the only true item destruction that is usable by all is Let Go via Dragon splash or Miya Mystic.

Assuming all the ancestral items will only be able to be equipped by the clan they are affiliated with, this does limit some of the decks that can hate this out. While Dragon does remain a fairly good splash, it's not always optimal. The top tier decks, Phoenix, Scorpion, Dragon have the attachment hate, and that is part of what makes them top tier as they are able to answer a variety of problems. If other decks in the lower tiers keep this in mind when it comes to deck construction they can stick their opponent with dead cards or build their items count up to a point that they can overwhelm their opponent with good targets and not enough removal.

An example would be Phoenix with Unicorn splash. Are you going to remove the Pacifism or Talisman or Spyglass or Ancestral Sword? There are only so much item hate you can include and if you go full item removal suite, you run the risk of getting blown out by an event heavy deck.

My expectation would be the all clans end up with some form of item hate, but also the card pool will add more attachments option so that deckbuilders can still force people to hate out the correct items and punish them when they dont

If you Calling in Favors something you can't attach isn't it just discarded? That is still solid removal even if it's not as good as Let Go.

13 minutes ago, HamHamJ2 said:

If you Calling in Favors something you can't attach isn't it just discarded? That is still solid removal even if it's not as good as Let Go.

It is at the cost of 1 Fate and dishonoring a character. Depending on board state, using it to get rid of Ofushikai outside of Phoenix vs Phoenix might put the user in a worse board state that if they had not.

3 hours ago, Ishi Tonu said:

I think what he's getting at here is that only a Phoenix deck splashing CiF can actually steal it so the only true item destruction that is usable by all is Let Go via Dragon splash or Miya Mystic.

Calling in Favors and Karada discard the item if cannot be stolen, so it’s the same. Either splashing, or being, Scorp or Dragon provides solid attachment control.

2 hours ago, Ultimatecalibur said:

It is at the cost of 1 Fate and dishonoring a character. Depending on board state, using it to get rid of Ofushikai outside of Phoenix vs Phoenix might put the user in a worse board state that if they had not.

Dishonoring a character to get rid of a 2/3? That’s the same as discarding a 2 Fate Character, I doubt your board state is gonna be worse.

On 4/27/2018 at 1:23 PM, Tabris2k said:

Dishonoring a character to get rid of a 2/3? That’s the same as discarding a 2 Fate Character, I doubt your board state is gonna be worse.

Depends heavily on character Glory. 0 or 1 Glory? Yeah, its a net reduction of 2/3 or 1/2, but 2 Glory? You ended up paying for a net reduction of 1 Pol. Calling in Favors ability to steal attachments mitigates quite a bit of the loss from dishonoring.

But even at a net loss, it can be worth it if you're dishonoring a character with no fate on it to remove an attachment on a character with 2 fate.

I don't really see "send home" as a Phoenix thing. Though I can see unicorn getting a pull to battle for their item.

Speculating crab might get to add the province strength to attached character's skill