Between now and when L5R first came out, there have been numerous expansions, changes and swings in the meta, and some darn good Kotei matches. The biggest change, however, was probably the inclusion of the restricted list (a decision that, given the cards on the list, I support).

However, despite the Restricted List changing things considerably (especially with the addition of the Neutral-faction, hitherto ubiquitous Charge!), there is one thing that seemingly hasn't. This thing I call...

The Core 12.

The Core 12 are 3x Banzai!, 3x Court Games, 3x Fine Katana, and 3x Ornate Fan.

Charge! would have been on the list, had it not been placed on the restricted list.

What I see when I see these cards are little(to-no) risk, extremely high reward. Generally, give or take 1 or 2 out of couple of the sets of three, you've still got some combination of these in every competitive deck.

My question is... where do we see this going down the line? Is there ever going to be a point where clans will opt to run something other than these? How powerful would it need to be? Would it be possible to balance it?

Thoughts, feelings, gut reactions?

I already seen several lists cutting some of these cards, and ultimately they could get phased out altogether, but, they remain solid staples for the decks that need these effects.

I'll use Unicorn as an example, as it's the clan I'm most familiar with and they are undergoing a major change with this next expansion cycle.

Unicorn has been lacking characters that have a big impact on a conflict, so a card like Favored Mount has been largely viewed as mediocre at best. But, now FFG is clearly pushing the " more characters matter" theme for Unicorn and they have some better characters, so a card like Favorable Mount that provides less stats for a higher cost than Find Katana might be a better inclusion.

I expect things like this to be the norm with every clan, but, these cheap options will still be there to plug holes or push certain decks that want the raw power over the broad utility

Cant wait to see less Court Games...

the other 3 are less problematic. As Scorpion I dont feel they are auto-includes like Court Games is. It’s so ubiquitous. It should have been at least « when you win a Pol conflict » or something like that. As of now even military focused clans always include it.

It’s just too simple / effective of a buff/debuff

5 hours ago, Soshi Saibankan said:

Cant wait to see less Court Games...

the other 3 are less problematic. As Scorpion I dont feel they are auto-includes like Court Games is. It’s so ubiquitous. It should have been at least « when you win a Pol conflict » or something like that. As of now even military focused clans always include it.

It’s just too simple / effective of a buff/debuff

Court Games is the political Banzai!, why is honouring a character of choice a more effective buff than a simple +4M?

Because it nets you an honor instead of costing you an honor. Banzai's good in the short term, but Court Games will end up granting you more cards in games that come down to the wire for honor.

court games is the only way for non pol focused clans like crab, uni and lion (sorta) to have a decent conflict card for pol conflicts. same way as banzai is for scorps and cranes.

I don’t always run Banzai, but I always see Court Games. I think te problem is that it’s too versatile, honoring or dishonoring at no cost. If it just honored I probably wouldn’t run it

Court Games> Banzai. If you or your oponent put a lot of fate on your chars (or have unbowing effectivly)) Courts can net you more str. than Banzai, the +1, -1 honor can be important, you can use it in offense and defense and a lot of cards synergieses with the honor/dishonored status.

14 hours ago, Ikoma Sencha said:

My question is... where do we see this going down the line? Is there ever going to be a point where clans will opt to run something other than these? How powerful would it need to be? Would it be possible to balance it?

Thoughts, feelings, gut reactions?

Most of these cards really aren't going anywhere soon unless in Clan options become either strictly better or provide a similar effect with slightly different benefits.

To this point, FFG really hasn't designed any cards that can compete in terms of raw efficiency and flexibility. Clan cards with similar effects tend to be overcosted or too restrictive which is the exact opposite of what should be happening.

Just compare Ornate Fan with other +Pol attachments.

Height of Fashion - 2 fate alone makes it almost unplayable given how important attachment control is and not being able to play it as an in-conflict trick leaves it in the binder. It could have easily been aggressively costed at 1 fate and been balanced.

Kitsuki's Method - comparable to Fan only because of the Ancestral keyword, but you're not running Method INSTEAD of Fans, you're running them in addition. Fair and balanced, but not strictly an upgrade because 1 Fate is still a significant cost.

Writ of Authority - So many knocks against this card: Role locked to Earth, 1 fate for +1 skill over the fan, AND it can simply blow itself up unless you are managing Honor which can restrict your playstyle. You can play it during a conflict, which is a clear plus, and it's basically CiF proof which is nice, but I wouldn't be happy to run this over Ornate Fans. This could've costed 0, given +4 Pol or something else to make it competitive against choosing Fans.

Magnificent Kimono - Pride is bad keyword. At least this is free for half a fan.

Court Mask - Actually decent with a fair recursion cost. Full fan + half a katana + recursion is at least worth consideration against just taking a Fan. Again 1 fate is a significant cost though.

Going forward with Cycle 3 I hope FFG is more aggressive in pushing in Clan options so decks feel more distinct.

As basic building blocks of decks I don't expect to see these cards fall by the wayside anytime soon. IMO they're designed to be simple effects that are easy to understand and cheap enough to be obviously useful for new/casual players - every game needs some of those. As a result they're going to be cornerstones until the card pool is large enough to make at least a couple good decks that want to do things besides add stats, and even then those decks might still be playing a couple copies of some/all of these cards.

Having 12 cards common to the vast majority of decks is a fair percentage. If the neutral cards were so good and Clan cards so underwhelming in comparison that it was 30ish neutral cards that were in every deck then we'd have a big problem on our hands.

Like Danwarr says, most similar cards will be run alongside and not instead of their generic counterparts.

5 minutes ago, BCumming said:

As basic building blocks of decks I don't expect to see these cards fall by the wayside anytime soon. IMO they're designed to be simple effects that are easy to understand and cheap enough to be obviously useful for new/casual players - every game needs some of those. As a result they're going to be cornerstones until the card pool is large enough to make at least a couple good decks that want to do things besides add stats, and even then those decks might still be playing a couple copies of some/all of these cards.

Having 12 cards common to the vast majority of decks is a fair percentage. If the neutral cards were so good and Clan cards so underwhelming in comparison that it was 30ish neutral cards that were in every deck then we'd have a big problem on our hands.

Like Danwarr says, most similar cards will be run alongside and not instead of their generic counterparts.

Even now I'm starting to see them getting cut down to 1 and 2 of's or entirely in some decks.

Fan, Katana and banzai are reclining indeed, but court games won't disappear, as it's the only card that so strong and neutral so far.

I agree Banzai / ornates / katanas can be replaced in some way but Court Games not, indeed it is getting more and more relevance since dishonor theme is advancing and dominating the meta, and plus to that and the fate investment on characters theres the pool of characters / cards that allow them to participate in 2 or more conflicts per turn, some of the most powerfull cards we have now, since in new5R provinces strenght are pretty easy to break.