Throw me into the disappointed in this news camp. Scorpion are currently warping the meta as every deck needs to be built to deal with them and sadly this is only going to reinforce that issue.

24 minutes ago, Kakita Shiro said:

Where is this from? Did I miss something on the announcement page?

It is from the novella announcement, Bayushi Yojiro also has an alt art card too. https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/5/30/whispers-of-shadow-and-steel/

27 minutes ago, Schmoozies said:

Throw me into the disappointed in this news camp. Scorpion are currently warping the meta as every deck needs to be built to deal with them and sadly this is only going to reinforce that issue.

This pack is far down the road after The Elemental cycle launches. While I would have preferred to see a different clan (Unicorn) to get their pack. By time we see this the meta is going to be completely different (hopefully for the better).

Nooooo. I called it. Why did I have to be right? This is the worst. ?

37 minutes ago, Duciris said:

Uh, what?

Just to clarify, this card is part of the elemental cycle, not the clan pack.

Neutral feelings on the Scorpion pack aside, but the decision to focus on Yojiro in the novella is great, because I like his character. Honor, Loyalty, Duty was a good piece. I'm glad it wasn't Kachiko's POV.

9 minutes ago, shineyorkboy said:

Nooooo. I called it. Why did I have to be right? This is the worst. ?

I think everyone who says this is bad needs to calm down a little. I am somewhat disappointed myself that other clans who need a boost did not get theirs next but we have an entire cycle next before this even launches. We could be looking at a hugely different meta by then. I will wait by with cautious optimism while the next cycle cards are spoiled before I make any early judgement.

Before this goes completely off the rails, I would like to point out that so far, none of the cards that are shown for Scorpion do anything to improve upon what they already have. I suspect the goal of this pack will be much like what we got for Phoenix............a new way to play the clan, not a blatant power bump.

In the case of Phoenix, their clan pack improved upon them quite a bit. The new stronghold is better, and there were a couple other cards that improved upon their problem match ups. Phoenix was thrust into top tier status as a result of their clan pack.........but I don't get the impression that was the design intent, nor should we expect every new clan to get a pack to immediately move to the top tier.

There has been nothing from FFG to indicate that the clan packs are intended to improve parity amongst the clans. They did specifically mention that the Elemental Cycle was the first time they had an opportunity to address the Unicorn issue. I could be reading into it, but, this signals to me that the expansion cycles will have more focus on balancing the environment and the clan packs will be a way to refresh the clans with new themes.

At first glance, I don't see any cards spoiled in the Scorpion pack that make me think they will be reasserting their dominance in the metagame. Kage on the other hand, appears to be a big deal.

2 minutes ago, Ishi Tonu said:

Before this goes completely off the rails, I would like to point out that so far, none of the cards that are shown for Scorpion do anything to improve upon what they already have. I suspect the goal of this pack will be much like what we got for Phoenix............a new way to play the clan, not a blatant power bump.

In the case of Phoenix, their clan pack improved upon them quite a bit. The new stronghold is better, and there were a couple other cards that improved upon their problem match ups. Phoenix was thrust into top tier status as a result of their clan pack.

There has been nothing from FFG to indicate that the clan packs are intended to improve parity amongst the clans. They did specifically mention that the Elemental Cycle was the first time they had an opportunity to address the Unicorn issue. I could be reading into it, but, this signals to me that the expansion cycles will have more focus on balancing the environment and the clan packs will be a way to refresh the clans with new themes.

At first glance, I don't see any cards spoiled in the Scorpion pack that make me think they will be reasserting their dominance in the metagame. Kage on the other hand, appears to be a big deal.

I 100% agree with this. Being able to play a different style of Scorpion could be a super healthy thing for the game.

59 minutes ago, Duciris said:

Uh, what?

Yeah, so... Would you still need to pay the cost of the card you look at or could this get you a free AFWTD?

1 minute ago, shineyorkboy said:

Yeah, so... Would you still need to pay the cost of the card you look at or could this get you a free AFWTD?

I'm sure you would. And the play restriction, "Play only if the bid on your honor dial is higher than an opponent's." is going to make this a little harder to see play in clan.

Infiltrator is at that point a worse Pillow Book.

5 minutes ago, shineyorkboy said:

Yeah, so... Would you still need to pay the cost of the card you look at or could this get you a free AFWTD?

You are playing the card from your hand so yes you would need to pay all appropriate costs if you want to play it, but you can always just discard it if its unplayable.

It says play it as if it were in your hand. As part of playing a card you have to pay it's costs. That is under "Play and Put Into Play".

1 hour ago, Tabris2k said:

Well, here it is the big announcement for today: the next clan pack, Scorpion.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/5/30/underhand-of-the-emperor/

Release October 2018

First of all, it seems that the spoiler art was Aramoro, so now I’m wondering who’s that Phoenix in the same picture.

New Stronghold and all that, worth notice that the influence value is 9 with this stronghold, and honor is also 9, which helps triggering its ability.

Also, a unique that’s not really a unique character, as it seems is more like a organization or group of people, Bayushi’s Whisperers.

Akodo Kage appears as the first card that can alter duel results via reaction. No Kolat trait, sorry guys. Good to stop the “Bid 5 every turn” strategy.

Bayushi Manipulator can also bump your bid up by 1, though this ability is far stronger than his in duels.

28 minutes ago, Ishi Tonu said:

Before this goes completely off the rails, I would like to point out that so far, none of the cards that are shown for Scorpion do anything to improve upon what they already have. I suspect the goal of this pack will be much like what we got for Phoenix............a new way to play the clan, not a blatant power bump.

In the case of Phoenix, their clan pack improved upon them quite a bit. The new stronghold is better, and there were a couple other cards that improved upon their problem match ups. Phoenix was thrust into top tier status as a result of their clan pack.........but I don't get the impression that was the design intent, nor should we expect every new clan to get a pack to immediately move to the top tier.

There has been nothing from FFG to indicate that the clan packs are intended to improve parity amongst the clans. They did specifically mention that the Elemental Cycle was the first time they had an opportunity to address the Unicorn issue. I could be reading into it, but, this signals to me that the expansion cycles will have more focus on balancing the environment and the clan packs will be a way to refresh the clans with new themes.

At first glance, I don't see any cards spoiled in the Scorpion pack that make me think they will be reasserting their dominance in the metagame. Kage on the other hand, appears to be a big deal.

Free unbow a turn that pumps the new ninja to a 5/5? Calling in Favors to steal a fan/katana and then you unbow?

And I will be surprised if there is not more cards in this pack with a dishonoring "cost".

6 minutes ago, HamHamJ2 said:

Free unbow a turn that pumps the new ninja to a 5/5? Calling in Favors to steal a fan/katana and then you unbow?

And I will be surprised if there is not more cards in this pack with a dishonoring "cost".

Assassination target for sure though.

It's interesting that we get infiltrator instead of the clan sword as a splash

1 minute ago, Taki said:

It's interesting that we get infiltrator instead of the clan sword as a splash

We might still get a sword in the cycle anyhow, just not the alt art they chose for the novella.

4 minutes ago, cforfar said:

We might still get a sword in the cycle anyhow, just not the alt art they chose for the novella.

If it is anything like how they are doing the Phoenix sword, it could be in the following cycle unless they do all 7 swords in this one (Which is my hope).

As to it being Scorpion for the pack/novella, I'm not so opposed because it's showing another theme for the Scorpion, which will effect the meta in it's own way. Kage is an amazing card that will slide into my Lion deck as soon as I get him. While I would have loved to see Unicorn get some help to better balance the game, giving Scorpion a different but still solid expanded card pool can still balance the game.

The stronghold is suuuuper busted, ready actions are already a high commodity that are generally hard to come by and usually tied to restrictions that make them situational, but the only restriction on this one is the dude must be dishonored, and in scorpion that is absolutely no problem, because a bunch of their tech dishonors a dude as a cost! And they get to do it once a turn EVERY TURN!!! This is automatically the best stronghold in the game because ready actions are absurdly strong right now!!!

1 minute ago, psychie said:

The stronghold is suuuuper busted, ready actions are already a high commodity that are generally hard to come by and usually tied to restrictions that make them situational, but the only restriction on this one is the dude must be dishonored, and in scorpion that is absolutely no problem, because a bunch of their tech dishonors a dude as a cost! And they get to do it once a turn EVERY TURN!!! This is automatically the best stronghold in the game because ready actions are absurdly strong right now!!!

Also do not forget it is 9 influence and 9 honor. People will have to adjust to not dishonoring themselves out. I think this is a good stronghold but until it sees play who knows how good it actually is.

I'm guessing Shinobi deck will go for province breaking and courtier deck dishonor / control. And some will cross in between

1 minute ago, Soshi Saibankan said:

I'm guessing Shinobi deck will go for province breaking and courtier deck dishonor / control. And some will cross in between

Exactly my thoughts as well. Since Aramoro is a heavy military character as well as Yunako (5/2, 4/2 respectively) province bashing is going to be more of an option to us when this hits stores.

The 9 influence is really not much of a hit when you have most of the best tech in the game in clan, and the 9 honor really isn't much of an issue for them, especially when having six or less makes the ready action better. Yeah they'll have to adjust to not dishonor themselves out, but after that adjustment happens (and really, it's not much of an adjustment, it's only one less honor than before) they still have the best stronghold in the game, the most annoying conflict deck in the game, etc. Honestly, their conflict deck is so annoying that I don't even enjoy playing against them when I win, they are just unfun to play against and this makes the problem worse.