They could also release 7 Strongholds across the 6 packs.
Elemental Cycle begins
At one point there was rumor of an enlightenment victory condition coming out. Don't recall whether that was the same source that told about the Phoenix pack and upcoming Mantis/Shadowlands cards, but I feel like if enlightenment is going to really be a thing, it could very possibly be a thing on this stronghold which I suspect will be a neutral stronghold.
2 hours ago, Radix2309 said:They could also release 7 Strongholds across the 6 packs.
They did something like that in Conquest's first cycle (called the Warlord cycle). Each pack in that cycle had a new Warlord, except the 6th, which had 2, so that each faction received a second Warlord.
They also did it in Netrunner. They usually had 1 Identity for each faction in each cycle until the 5th cycle or so, once there was enough diversity that they could mix it up.
5 hours ago, Radix2309 said:They also did it in Netrunner. They usually had 1 Identity for each faction in each cycle until the 5th cycle or so, once there was enough diversity that they could mix it up.
I think it was as early as the second cycle (Spin) when they broke that mold, with only Anarch and Weyland getting a new Identity (Reina Roja and GRNDL respectively),
Edited by MangodDuring the Imperial Cycle, the art on the box had no correlation to who is inside. I think it was Kaede who was on a different cover than the pack that she came out in.
1 hour ago, Mirith said:During the Imperial Cycle, the art on the box had no correlation to who is inside. I think it was Kaede who was on a different cover than the pack that she came out in.
*Isawa Kaede is in Tears of Amaterasu, and on the cover of Fate Has No Secrets, A Legion of One is in Meditations on the Ephemeral and covers For Honor and Glory, and * The Imperial Palace and Mantra of Water are both in The Chrysanthemum Throne and on the cover of Into the Forbidden City and Meditations on the Ephemeral respectively.
Only Tears of Amaterasu and The Chrysanthemum Throne have a cover-image that corresponds to a card in the box.
Edited by Mangod
14 minutes ago, Swordbreaker said:
At least Yoritomo has been confirmed.
1 hour ago, cheapmate said:At least Yoritomo has been confirmed.
That is just the art for the non-unique "Gassy Pirate"
1 hour ago, Mirith said:That is just the art for the non-unique "Gassy Pirate"
Wow! Talk about your Divine Wind!
It's going to stink for my opponent when I rip this guy into play.
It's sure going to blow when this Mantis comes out. For the Enemy. 
On ‎08‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 8:03 PM, Radix2309 said:They could also release 7 Strongholds across the 6 packs.
Like they've already done for the Clan Seals in the Imperial Cycle.....
On 08/04/2018 at 3:16 AM, psychie said:The earth pack art may also be a province or a holding.
Also, while the air pack is the only one confirmed to contain a stronghold, and while I doubt they have six new strongholds up their sleeves, it is still hypothetically possible that each pack holds one. I envision two potential scenarios:
1. the air pack contains the only stronghold for the cycle and said stronghold is in some way neutral.
2. every pack in the cycle contains a stronghold, one for each clan save phoenix who just got a second stronghold in the phoenix clan pack. Should this be the case (although I doubt it highly) I would imagine all future clan packs that add a stronghold might be followed by a cycle of strongholds to maintain balance, but honestly that sounds like a ton of work and a terror to properly playtest, so I'd be cautious about going down this route.
I am discounting a cycle of six neutral strongholds as a possibility as the feasibility of six unique strongholds that are unaligned all being brought out not only all at once but this early in the game is tenuous at best and frankly unnecessary at this stage, so I'd estimate the chances of this occurring at this juncture to be infinitesimal, as in approaching epsilon.
Frankly the first possibility is most likely, but a kid can dream, right? And until we get confirmation one way or another I maintain that there is a chance (albeit a slim one) that the second scenario plays out.
Or we can have a 3rd scenario: they launch a stronghold for each clan except by phoenix, and don't necessarily needs to keep giving the clans a new stronghold in the next clan packs.
And the last and being a little creative: We can receive a Mantis and a Shadowlands neutral strongholds in the packs. I dont think this makes much sense since we probably will not have many mantis/shadowlands cards released and we already know that mantis will be tied to the elements on roles but... who knows?
On 8/4/2018 at 9:03 PM, Radix2309 said:They could also release 7 Strongholds across the 6 packs.
The fenix clan doesn't need a new stronghold since they have the new one of Disciples of the Void. So we have 6 packs and six clan left.
5 hours ago, The Steel Unicorn said:Like they've already done for the Clan Seals in the Imperial Cycle.....
Or new imperial clan holdings.
On 4/4/2018 at 1:37 PM, Barbacuo said:And no, nobody is going to play other roles just for fun, people keep to what is competitive mandatory.
Well, I for one play exclusively for fun, and don't even bother reading what the official roles are. This is really no different from the CCG, where some people exclusively played their tournament decks every single week and some people mixed it up and just tried out decks with fun, though not necessarily competitive, themes.
On 4/4/2018 at 2:56 PM, Mon no Oni said:
Breath of the Kami
Harness the power of the Air with the Breath of the Kami Dynasty Pack for Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game!
Enter the Elemental Cycle with three copies of twenty-new cards focusing on the most ephemeral element. Explore new Shugenja and Spells revolving around the Air element, a new stronghold, and the first Mantis character to enter the game with Breath of the Kami.
One new stronghold in the mix? Interesting, to say the least. Given the clan packs, I have to think this will be a neutral stronghold. Imperial? Shadowlands?
On 4/5/2018 at 5:49 AM, Barbacuo said:...I cannot find somebody that brings a non torunament-sanctioned deck. There may be people doing so, but they don't show up at tournaments...
Huh. You know, you may be onto something there...
On 4/8/2018 at 5:17 PM, Zesu Shadaban said:At one point there was rumor of an enlightenment victory condition coming out. Don't recall whether that was the same source that told about the Phoenix pack and upcoming Mantis/Shadowlands cards, but I feel like if enlightenment is going to really be a thing, it could very possibly be a thing on this stronghold which I suspect will be a neutral stronghold.
Ugh. I really hope Enlightenment victory doesn't return. It was one of the worst features of the CCG. I suppose it's possible that it could be done in a way that isn't as awful as it was in the CCG, but I'm a bit skeptical about implementing it without it either being too easy or impossibly difficult to achieve.
On an unrelated note, I'm just curious when we'll see Tsuruchi and the Wasp Clan. Will they be part of a Mantis-led coalition, or will they start independently? The former option would help the Wasp get established more strongly, but do we really want to work with a guy in a silly mask swinging farming tools?
Edited by JJ48I think Enlightenment would be an interesting fourth win condition. It would require you win all four conflicts and somehow get a fifth ring in your claimed pile. It is no easy task and cannot really be cheated in so I would be ok with that happening. Be interesting to see the deck builds in order to facilitate that win condition.
12 minutes ago, BayushiFugu said:I think Enlightenment would be an interesting fourth win condition. It would require you win all four conflicts and somehow get a fifth ring in your claimed pile. It is no easy task and cannot really be cheated in so I would be ok with that happening. Be interesting to see the deck builds in order to facilitate that win condition.
Is there currently any way of getting a fifth Ring (not just the elemental effects)? I just think that if they introduce only one card to get Rings outside of conflict (or allowing you to declare additional conflicts), it'll likely be too rare and random to really see much play. If they introduce multiple ways of getting Rings outside of conflicts, it could easily make it so that the person doesn't need to win four conflicts, which could start removing some of the interaction that makes the game so great. I'm not saying there's no way around this, but I'm highly skeptical.
17 minutes ago, BayushiFugu said:I think Enlightenment would be an interesting fourth win condition. It would require you win all four conflicts and somehow get a fifth ring in your claimed pile. It is no easy task and cannot really be cheated in so I would be ok with that happening. Be interesting to see the deck builds in order to facilitate that win condition.
Have 3 secluded shrines , win one conflict and display of power one from the enemy.
Or use wholeness of the world and win all 4.
34 minutes ago, Baer said:Have 3 secluded shrines , win one conflict and display of power one from the enemy.
Or use wholeness of the world and win all 4.
for enlightenment I think you would have to actually claim the rings not use shrine to "as if you had claimed it". Though display of power would work.
4 hours ago, BayushiFugu said:for enlightenment I think you would have to actually claim the rings not use shrine to "as if you had claimed it". Though display of power would work.
Secluded Shrine says, "...you are considered to have that ring in your claimed ring pool." If Enlightenment were just about claiming rings, they'd have to word it rather oddly to get around that.
8 hours ago, BayushiFugu said:for enlightenment I think you would have to actually claim the rings not use shrine to "as if you had claimed it". Though display of power would work.
Display twice only gets you to 4. You'd have to have used Wholeness of the World the turn before.
I feel like claiming all 5 rings will eventually be an easy thing for a faction like the Phoenix. It's just waiting for that possibility of claiming a fifth ring per round.
I'd like enlightenment to be a long game sort of victory. Something your opponent can see coming and combat against. Something that is almost impossible to achieve, but if you do you feel like a superstar. Also something that reflects the player has mastered each ring's aspect. Maybe if it was a set of 5 neutral conflict cards that each had a sort of theme around each ring's effect. Something like:
"enlightenment of air" put this card into play if you have 10 more honor than your opponent and you've claimed the ring of air this round.
"enlightenment of fire" put this card into play if you have 5 or more honored characters on the board and you've claimed the ring of fire this round.
"enlightenment of earth" put this card into play if you have 10 more cards in hand than your opponent and you've claimed the ring of earth this round.
"enlightenment of void" put this card into play if you have 5 or more fate on characters you control in play and you've claimed the ring of void this round.
"enlightenment of water" put this card into play if the amount of ready characters in play under your control is 5 more than your opponent and you've claimed the ring of water this round.
If all five enlightenment cards are in play for a single player than that player immediately wins the game. Maybe each card could have some sort of secondary effect to make them have some utility even outside a deck built to win by enlightenment. Something like for the rest of the game when you claim that elemental ring gain some secondary effect to show you are better at that element. Extra honor from air, extra cards from earth etc.
Edited by phillos
As far as the whole "nobody plays unsanctioned roles" thing goes, while the truth of said statement is definitely YMMV and highly play group dependent, I do think that even for people who are really into the tournament and OP scene it is a missed opportunity to NOT test out various decks built with other roles, because, for one thing, we have the secondary role vote at the koteis, and frankly, at the least from what I've seen amongst the dragon clan, that vote gets split because all of our ideas as to what the best choice is are based off of speculation (granted, most of it is educated speculation, but still), and people who draw different conclusions in the absence of any real data to back up anyone's claims are (to an extent) equally "correct" in their conclusions, on top of this the people who advocate voting for specific roles just so other clans don't get them (I'm rather against that, because while we might succeed in preventing other clans from getting their optimal choice, it is more likely to prevent US from getting OUR optimal choice due to a split vote) split the vote further.
I've rambled a bit away from my point, so here it is in plain terms: People who are interested in the OP metagame with the roles would be well advised to test various alternative builds and strategies using other roles (and subsequently sharing the results of said testing) so that people have a better idea of which roles are actually good choices, both for the secondary role vote, and for when we get to world's and someone has to pick something different from what we already have available to us. This won't necessarily produce perfect results, because the people who do said testing can't devote as much time to it because they still need to perfect their current tourney decks; also because the card pool will be different by the time the data becomes useful; and because the roles for the other clans will also all be different, and thus the interactions will be different. However, the data will still be useful in that having ANY data from testing, even faulty or incomplete data, to back up claims and arguments for or against certain roles will generally (not always, but quite nearly so) be better and more useful than any amount of speculation.
Personally, I barely have time to test my OWN decks for tourneys, otherwise I'd do this stuff myself (as well as test out other clans so I can learn to play against them better). However, there are other guys (I am presuming of course that the other clans also have guys that do this like we do) that spend dozens of hours every week in testing and refining their builds and sharing the results with the clan, and given the level of influence those guys have over the thinking and decisions of the clan, if they even devoted a sixth of their overall testing time/games to trying out the other roles and shared those results the same way they do the rest of it, I think we'd be much better off when it comes time to make those choices, as well as after those choices are made so we can better implement them.