I just kinda want to know what I am in for.

my history of games

pokemon, yugioh, magic, dbz (all but the newest version), heroclix, yu yu hakusho, weiss schwartz, and gwent.

I played 1 game of l5r a long time ago. probably 2010-ish. I mostly got a starter for the artwork.

Any assistance would be appreciated

Welcome!

Now sit down, strap yourself in, get ready to scream because this is gonna be the ride of your life!

Ok the game is not that intense but it will challenge you quite a bit more than the other games you mentioned. The art is fantastic, imo.

Throw that 1 game you played 8 years ago out the window. I have 20 years experience with the the old game and it doesn't count for squat in the new game.

Just enjoy it and when you're ready to step up to competitive play you'll have plenty of people waiting to give you a great experience.

7 hours ago, Kaiba6798 said:

I just kinda want to know what I am in for.

my history of games

pokemon, yugioh, magic, dbz (all but the newest version), heroclix, yu yu hakusho, weiss schwartz, and gwent.

I played 1 game of l5r a long time ago. probably 2010-ish. I mostly got a starter for the artwork.

Any assistance would be appreciated

The games you mention are all designed to fit into 15-20 min breaks and are therefore very explosive. L5R on the other hand is designed to be a 55 min struggle for advantages through a lot of decisions that reward deep knowledge of the cardpool and analysis paralysis to maximise your win chances in the given matchup.

To be clear - the game you picked up in 2010 is no longer in print. The first version of L5R, the CCG, was in print for 20 years, but the brand was sold to FFG in 2015. They went back to the drawing board and came up with an excellent, modern game that very much captures the spirit and setting of the original game, but the two are not compatible in any way.

Yup before I got into this I had to read wikis about the difference between Trading Card Game and Living Card Games as well.

I suggest to do that too to know what you are getting into in terms of the difference in business model and spending differences.

In general the difference can be broken down to a flat cost for play in LCGs versus significantly better resell value in CCGs/TCGs. However, the secondary market for official alt arts and bling for the L5R LCG has been insane to begin with - that's not to say it'll always be that way, but it has certainly been a nice interesting surprise.

Thanks all for the reference. I am just getting through everything abd found the deck. Best i can say is that it was a crane, honor, duelist, political deck. (I think that is what it amounts to?)

I enjoyed the process from what i remember. Dont know how easy/is it still a legit thing or is that style no longer practical/do able? From what Ive read on here is that unless im scorpion, crab, or dragon i may as well not play.

As far as the comparison to other games, i want slower games. I hated that the card games above that turned into who spent the most money to have the deck to win on turn 1.

Thats why i like heroclix. So much strategy and thinking. Though there are those pieces in that game too...

edit: Typos galore. This is what I get for trying to do this on my phone.

I've played card games since '95, worked in multiple games stores, and been involved with a variety of different games, and no game I have played rewards player skill as much as this does. To say you shouldn't bother if you're not playing certain clans is incorrect - a good player with an average strength clan will consistently best an average player with a strong clan.

1 hour ago, Kaiba6798 said:

Thanks all for the reference. I am just getting through everything abd found the deck. Best i can say is that itbwas a crabe, honor, duelist, political deck. (I think thats what it was)

I enjoyed the process from what i remember. Dont know how easy/is it still a legit thing ir is that style no longer practical. From what ive read on here is that unless im scorpion, crab, or dragon i may as well not play.

As far as the comparison i want slower games. I hated that the cards above turned into who spent the most money to have the deck to win on turn 1.

Thats why i like heroclix. So much strategy and thinking. Though there are those pieces in that game too...

Don't be mislead by the naysayers on the internet. Balance in the game is actually pretty good. You can have plenty of fun playing the game without building decks to play within the competitive metagame. If you want to play competitively then most of the info is out there on how to get started and what to Look out for.

If you liked Crane dueling honor runner from the old game, there isn't really anything like that. There are duels and you can win by honor but gameplay is vastly different from the old CCG. Crane is plenty good in the new game too.

9 hours ago, Kaiba6798 said:

From what Ive read on here is that unless im scorpion, crab, or dragon i may as well not play.

That's not true; I tend to rotate around those Clans and I lose as much as I win against Phoenix, Crane and Lion - but it's true that Unicorn are currently in a less than desirable spot, but that's temporary.

It might be the case that some clans do edge out the others when you've got people playing at the top level with honed decks, but those people aren't the majority. In my experience, even if you Netdeck like crazy in this game, it doesn't really get you very much because a lot of the game comes in the moment-to-moment decisions rather than flopping down power cards one after another in an unstoppable combo.

On 3/5/2018 at 10:49 PM, Kaiba6798 said:

As far as the comparison to other games, i want slower games. I hated that the card games above that turned into who spent the most money to have the deck to win on turn 1.

Guess you found your games then.

LCGs are perfect as everybody gets the same cards and in a sense boils down to how you put together your deck.

7 minutes ago, Yogo Rye X said:

LCGs are perfect as everybody gets the same cards and in a sense boils down to how you put together your deck.

OMG. In CCGs everyone play with different cards? oO What a mess.

4 hours ago, kempy said:

OMG. In CCGs everyone play with different cards? oO What a mess.

Not sure if serious? But yes. in traditional games its basically a $5 pack of cards to get 5-12 random cards in a pack from a set of 60+ each at different rarities. It forces some cards in a set to be worth $100's and others being $0.05

He's just being overly literal.

Don't worry about game balance. It's not as bad as the internet makes it out to be right now. If playing face to face you probably aren't playing the hardest decks each match. If playing online just make sure to tag your match as casual and not competitive until you figure out how to play against the top tier decks. Also let your opponent know you are new.

It's an LCG so the meta will be constantly changing. Well it will be once we get to monthly releases again. We are currently in a lull so the current meta environment is magnified by the lack of change in the card pool. Also it's the internet and everything get's exaggerated. We've been through periods where Lion were overpowered, Crab were overpowered, Crane were overpowered, Scorpion and Dragon now are overpowered. The only clan that hasn't been denounced as overpowered at some point since the initial release articles is Unicorn. Poor Unicorn. Also I guess I don't recall a time when people were bleeding on the internet about Phoenix as well. That said I've played and lost against some really skilled Phoenix players. This game is a lot about pilot skill.

Okay. At the shop. Got a core set. What seeker keeper does crane use?

Just trying to figure out everything kinda on the spot

Seeker of Air, but that will change by the end of the year.

Thank you.

So we played a bit tonight and ran into some road blocks. we think we did everything correct but what we couldn't figure out was this.

The province things in the Dynasty deck. We got the +2-ish bonus. But do they just stick there until you choose to discard them? does using one basically just give you a -1 "hand size" for the bonus? does it stack and you reload on top of it?

We assumed it was basically a -1 "hand size" for the defense bonus and ability.

edit: also, just as a general question/opinion. I want to use Crane. But i'm trying to figure out what to splash. I was thinking of going with phoenix. But I don't know what that really accomplishes per se. My other thought was scorpion due to the honor manipulation. What in general is the best thing to splash? I guess personally I'd want to focus on Political for me, forced duel, and make you honor out. I'm just kind of at a loss right now this early on

You're playing holdings right. They go on top of the province and provide a bonus to the province strength. While they're face up, they are 'in play' and occupy that province, so the province is not refilled until you choose to discard the holding at the end of turn (or your opponent breaks the province and forces you to discard it.)

I can't speak to the best splash for crane though, being pretty unfamiliar with them. The crane player at our store is playing Scorpion at the moment because Forged Edict is another strong control card and Fiery Manipulation lets you activate the Crane Stronghold on higher-skilled characters. On the flip side, Dragon's probably solid for Let Go to help control attachments (while Voice of Honor controls events), and Tattooed Wanderer will let you get some punchy damage in with covert. Probably works well with Brash Samurai, too. I could see Phoenix for the Magnificent Kimono if you're going for the Honor victory, and I guess their Air shugenja in the conflict deck as well for that theme.

found out the lion splash is good. Adding ready for battle alleviates the weakness crane has against bow Tech. Then army of one is a province taker with a cautious scout

Are you core only OP? If core only I think you want Dragon for MFury, Let Go and Tattooed Wanderer. That is just generally a good splash, and pretty easy to use to good effect. Alternately you might want Scorpion if you don't care about honor victory. Scorpion will give you a lot of powerful answers with Calling In Favors and Forged Edict and the Crane can make good use of both those cards. Also Fiery Madness as already mentioned helps setup plays with the Stronghold.

After Imperial I can't speak with enough authority since I haven't played enough Crane in the current meta.

ATM core only