After bringing in the new cards, playing with what we have and making some assumptions (as I always do...) this is my current list for the pack:

As ever, the original is here.

While I love seeing more Ishiken, I feel like this latest will struggle to get enough value for you to justify running a pretty sub-par character at 3 fate. But I could be wrong. And also, has the most potential down the road when we have a lot more options in each trait for spells to play.

The flavor text on Inquisitive Ishika (not Ishiken?) makes me wonder if we will see some version of the Lying Darness in this iteration of the story. Certainly, both Isawa Ninube and Kitsuki Kaagi (major players back then) have been namechecked.

45 minutes ago, Mon no Oni said:

The flavor text on Inquisitive Ishika (not Ishiken?) makes me wonder if we will see some version of the Lying Darness in this iteration of the story. Certainly, both Isawa Ninube and Kitsuki Kaagi (major players back then) have been namechecked.

It definitely does suggest it. I think I remember Katrina mentioning the Lying Darkness in one of those facebook videos they did leading up to the game's release. I'm pretty confident it's part of the new setting considering it's so important to the Scorpion's history. Do we see any shadow brands on the Scorpion card art?

5 hours ago, Mon no Oni said:

The flavor text on Inquisitive Ishika (not Ishiken?) makes me wonder if we will see some version of the Lying Darness in this iteration of the story. Certainly, both Isawa Ninube and Kitsuki Kaagi (major players back then) have been namechecked.

I swear, if they go with my less-than-unique idea of kitbashing the lying Darkness with the Element of Void...

I will have a reason to not totally roll my eyes every time the LD shows up!

'Cause that Text can apply to either. And after all... the Void is All... and the Void is Nothing.

8 hours ago, Silverfox13 said:

I'm not sure I would dismiss Togashi Tadakatsu yet. I can't vouch for his competitiveness currently, but he certainly could allow for a different line of play for Dragon.

I am sure there is going to come a day when Dragon monk fate manipulation becomes a real option, and he allows for some of the previous monks to be used on attack and fire off their abilities with much less risk of handing them the fate for doing so. The more Mantras they release only makes him more valuable, a now reliable 0 cost event that both produces a good effect and replaces itself is pretty strong imo.

I think its important to remember that Tadakatsu was designed to be Dragon's Phoenix shugenja meta card while also enhancing defensive Dragon monks. Yogo Kikuyo is a similar Phoenix shugenja meta card for Scorpion conflict ninjas. All the non-Phoenix cards in DoV are likely going to be this way, messing up shugenja Phoenix while also being an alright card for their faction.

59 minutes ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

I swear, if they go with my less-than-unique idea of kitbashing the lying Darkness with the Element of Void...

I will have a reason to not totally roll my eyes every time the LD shows up!

'Cause that Text can apply to either. And after all... the Void is All... and the Void is Nothing.

The Lying Darkness always came off to me as dualistic yinyang of the Void.

The spoiler of the day: A Crab!

It's actually very interesting, but I'm not too familiar with crab deckbuilding so I'm not sure what else to say.

Feels very berserky. Good to see Amora and his big *** sword back

Wow. I love him. My wish for a berserker-themed deck seems to become reality.

Lovely how he can really hurt you if you're not careful. =D

I had decks already that tried to force the opponent to pass on conflicts to get the most out of Intimidating Hida so he's not impossible to use. also he's a Berzerker so their will be more synergy for him eventually. A dashed political skill can be a boon in the current meta since he can't be policy debated or pulled into a political challenge (or any of the other things that target low political stats).

I also was under the impression that the Void and the Lying Darkness were a sort of yin and yang because LD is nothing and the void is kind of the fabric that holds everything together (sort of like Obi-Wan's description of the force). Therefore the void is still something, while the LD is the absence of all things. The actual nothingness of preexistence. That said the LD can be a real tricky thing to get right, and I would prefer it stays more of a background element in the story. I think if you shine too bright a light on it you can really screw it up or make it too confusing.

He's not good enough to replace anything already in my deck. And I can see is ability backfiring really easily. Plus he has the same issue as Way of the Crab in that your opponent chooses the target.

Certainly won't be getting the pack just for him.

35 minutes ago, shineyorkboy said:

He's not good enough to replace anything already in my deck. And I can see is ability backfiring really easily. Plus he has the same issue as Way of the Crab in that your opponent chooses the target.

Certainly won't be getting the pack just for him.

The good thing is that Amoro can setup Way of the Crab. Like Joe wrote, it won't be an autoinclude, but a strong include nevertheless. If we get more Berserker support, this card could be a very frustrating card to play against.

I'd agree with the general sentiment that Hida Amoro doesn't really scream at me for inclusion right now. However, I really like the card. I think he'll definitely have a place as various Crab sub-themes continue to develop:

1. Berserker Synergy (Crisis Berserker)
2. Benefits from Sacrifices (Taka, Vengeful Berserker -- though that one in particular doesn't work with Amoro)
3. Defend-to-Win (Defend the Wall, Staunch Hida, Mountain Does Not Fall, etc)

Forcing sacrifices on the opponents terms isn't the greatest, especially if it's the second conflict they are skipping as they can sac a guy with no fate and was going to be discarded anyway. Certainly, thins the field for Way of the Crab, but it seems like a corner case.

Amoro has the number I predicted, I'm happy

New daily spoiler from The 6th Ring Podcast:

19 minutes ago, ElSuave said:

New daily spoiler from The 6th Ring Podcast:

Blackmail + this = scorpion wins again

8 minutes ago, Notorious I.D.E. said:

Blackmail + this = scorpion wins again

Embrace the Void + this = Thank you for your fate.

Could do some funny stuff with the swift magistrate as well, but 3 influence kills it

And by the way, it's a spell that does not require a shugenja to be played

According to the spanish website, the pack is delayed until May.

So in the end, 6x6 was handled like sht.

1 hour ago, Barbacuo said:

According to the spanish website, the pack is delayed until May.

So in the end, 6x6 was handled like sht.

The launch momentum was squandered, I agree. However, I maintain that I feel clan packs are a better idea for subsequent releases. 7 in 7 would have been jarring but casual players won't feel obligated to pick up all 7 (even if they should). Competitive players, wanting choices, will certainly pick up all 7. Non-Phoenix players in my play group are going "meh" at this pending release and wandered away from the game.

1 hour ago, Hellvlad said:

Could do some funny stuff with the swift magistrate as well, but 3 influence kills it

And by the way, it's a spell that does not require a shugenja to be played

Yeah, there's a few of those already.

I'm also slightly happy that it fits in again :).

4 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

Embrace the Void + this = Thank you for your fate.

That sounds way better than my janky plan to put a bunch of fate on someone cheap then Charge in someone expensive and swap the Fate to them.

19 minutes ago, theninthguardian said:

That sounds way better than my janky plan to put a bunch of fate on someone cheap then Charge in someone expensive and swap the Fate to them.

It is still a good plan. The “problem” with this card is that it has to be between non-uniques, which limits a lot your Charge! targets.

That also means that most of the time you’ll be swapping two Fate (three tops). With Embrace the Void, I’m probably taking 2 Fate, at the cost of 1 and two cards, to gain just 1 Fate. Although the value of that play resides mostly in Super-Void Ring a juicy target, like a Fate-loaded Spiritcaller.

How are you figuring you'll swap multiple fate? Is that assuming the new stronghold?