All I know is that everyone better get ready for Yoritomo/insert your Clan "superfriends" style decks. As it stands now Phoenix Will probably be best poised to pull this off, but, every clan is going to at least try to see if Yoritomo works well with them.

Can't wait to see what the big bad in pack 2 will be.

7 hours ago, Ishi Tonu said:

All I know is that everyone better get ready for Yoritomo/insert your Clan "superfriends" style decks. As it stands now Phoenix Will probably be best poised to pull this off, but, every clan is going to at least try to see if Yoritomo works well with them.

Can't wait to see what the big bad in pack 2 will be.

I dunno, unless they don't make him a high cost character, Phoenix already has an extra 5-coster to pick from, and 4-costers are some of our best cards. Not to mention our 6-cost giant fire chicken. Might be hard to fit Yoritomo in without a strong personal interest to make him a thing in your deck.

1 hour ago, Zesu Shadaban said:

I dunno, unless they don't make him a high cost character, Phoenix already has an extra 5-coster to pick from, and 4-costers are some of our best cards. Not to mention our 6-cost giant fire chicken. Might be hard to fit Yoritomo in without a strong personal interest to make him a thing in your deck.

Charge firechicken, bring in Yoritomo at end of turn....seems pretty straightforward to me.

1 hour ago, Ishi Tonu said:

Charge firechicken, bring in Yoritomo at end of turn....seems pretty straightforward to me.

Giant fire chicken only works on Phoenix characters.

1 hour ago, DarkHorse said:

Giant fire chicken only works on Phoenix characters.

Seal of the Phoenix?

13 minutes ago, OokamiGauru said:

Seal of the Phoenix?

Interrupt: When this character leaves play, choose a character in your dynasty discard pile – put that character into play with 1 fate on it.

If Yoritomo is in the discard pile, Seal of the Phoenix does nothing for him.

49 minutes ago, DarkHorse said:

Interrupt: When this character leaves play, choose a character in your dynasty discard pile – put that character into play with 1 fate on it.

If Yoritomo is in the discard pile, Seal of the Phoenix does nothing for him.

Forgive me, I meant if it has been played on him before discard pile

2 minutes ago, OokamiGauru said:

Forgive me, I meant if it has been played on him before discard pile

I may be misunderstanding the rules, but wouldn’t the seal and thus the Phoenix affiliation “fall off” of him when he went to the discard pile?

2 minutes ago, OokamiGauru said:

Forgive me, I meant if it has been played on him before discard pile

When a card leaves play "◊ All lasting effects and/or delayed effects affecting the card while it was in play expire for that card." (RR pg 10) so Yoritomo (or any other card) would lose all effects of Seal of the Phoenix when he leaves play and goes to the discard pile.

15 hours ago, Iuchi Toshimo said:

As a very Olde Unicorn who started with the first L5R set ever, new Shono hurts my brain.

Shono after the Coup... after the Day of Thunder in the old game (about 3 RT years after first ed. release:) http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=6940,#hashid=c8e4e70f93dfa5c85473fa3335971f3e,#cardcount=0

... just a wee lad.

Shono pre-Coup in the new game: Beast mode.

Also, Ratlings are for eating, not for scouting. *sigh*

Yeah there are a lot of anomalies like this....I just think of it as a parallel universe thing *shrug*. Now we just need to add that Jade attachment card on him now to give him his jade eye that he had in Gold or Pearl Editions... shame their aren't experienced versions of characters in the new game....yet!

1 hour ago, The Steel Unicorn said:

Yeah there are a lot of anomalies like this....I just think of it as a parallel universe thing *shrug*. Now we just need to add that Jade attachment card on him now to give him his jade eye that he had in Gold or Pearl Editions... shame their aren't experienced versions of characters in the new game....yet!

Definitely parallel universes. As for experienced versions, there's precedent in LCGs for multiple versions of characters, but usually without a clear progression (AGoT has multiple versions for many of the named characters, but no experience levels). The only LCG with experience levels is Arkham Horror, and there's no in-game replacement mechanic (it's "use the experience you gained to improve your deck between scenarios", which is fitting for a campaign-based coop). I expect multiple versions of unique characters eventually, but I assume they will be like in AGoT: identical names (so the copy limit is across all versions), no progression between versions and you can discard one version to put 1 fate on another.

6 hours ago, DarkHorse said:

Giant fire chicken only works on Phoenix characters.

So it does. Crisis averted

I completely understand the 6x6. Each clan gets some cards and others do not have to wait that long to get theirs too. It keeps the playing fields more alive. Doing it all at once makes the price point seem harsh and I know many gamers will just not pick up a 80 dollar box of cards.

56 minutes ago, zombiemusing said:

I completely understand the 6x6. Each clan gets some cards and others do not have to wait that long to get theirs too. It keeps the playing fields more alive. Doing it all at once makes the price point seem harsh and I know many gamers will just not pick up a 80 dollar box of cards.

That doesn't make sense since clan packs exist.

I had kind of assumed the original 6 in 6 had something to do with printer schedules and not wanting to have product clogging up warehouses, but perhaps they were trying a new release model. Or they didn’t really want to do the 6 in 6 at first, but liked the results and decided to try it again.

I wonder if the six in six has more to do with having the full cycles card pool for major events. Like having the full cycle be either available or not for GenCon or certain koteis and grand koteis.

I wonder if Yoritomo is the guy featured in the packing of The Ebb and Flow (which doesn't mean necesarily that the card would be found there).

1 hour ago, Mon no Oni said:

I wonder if Yoritomo is the guy featured in the packing of The Ebb and Flow (which doesn't mean necesarily that the card would be found there).

I would say yes, since it’s the best example of that character so far in anything we have seen. Furthermore, is that part of a ship’s sail in the background of the pic?

Yep, they look like the sails of a kobune.

As for "Yoritomo", he wields his classical kama (but they are iconical from all Mantis samurai). The kabuto "antlers" are different to the classic look by Jason Behnke (but more in line with the more realistic FFG house style) and I'd say the red faceplate with the insectoid jaws is completely new.

Whoever he is, he looks like a bad dude. My first thought was Yoritomo. I think the picture is too evocative to be any one else, but we'll see.

Awesome art, one of my favorite things in this edition is the pretty solid art.

Found Yoritomo

In the pack of Ebb and Flow

Must now go wreck $#!+

It's hard to imagine a more impressive figure for Yoritomo. That said, my assumption is he will be in the last pack that ties everything together, rather than one of the packs with an element theme. Judging from the announcement's wording regarding the Mantis cards. We had Kaede featured on a different pack than the one she was in, so there's already precedent for it.

I just hope he's getting an extended art card in the release OP kit for the cycle.

I agree that he's likely the headline card of the final pack for the same reasons you state. Also, it looks like the pack art for the Earth pack will be the stronghold that comes in the Air pack. Hopefully I can get a decent following built at my FLGS so they'll order hat release kit.

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.