https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/3/6/bonds-of-blood/

Thoughts? That scorpion poison looks nice if a deck that burns decks ever becomes viable.

5 minutes ago, RafaelNN said:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/3/6/bonds-of-blood/

Thoughts? That scorpion poison looks nice if a deck that burns decks ever becomes viable.

Scorpion are seeing more tools that could lead to a mill strategy to help them with dishonor (not that they needed the help), and the ability is pretty solid, but a 2 cost attachment is a little worrying.

The cards:

Also, artwork:

I love that Unicorn art. But seriously... do not direct pre-order for these. Doing so hurts your local gaming store, and FFG needs to stop making these offers. They need to support local game stores, which means they need to make these available through the distributors that the game stores work through. While yes, your store CAN direct order on your behalf, doing so impacts their profits and hurts their relationship with their distributor. It's bad all around. Do not encourage this.

But now, Spoilers.

Yeah, yeah, takes that are mildly lukewarm to potentially hot.

Yogo Preserver - I do not know your Glory, but I am willing to bet that A) you are a Dynasty character, and B) your Glory is either 1 or 0. I think this would find work in my Scorpion Swim Team, should I ever resurrect it. But a 2 Mil / 3 Pol for 3 Fate? Yeah, no. Not in Scorpion.

Festival of the Departed - Keeper locked Earth province? This will only see play when an HMT Lion deck gets dominant in the meta, and even then, I do not see how this overtakes Entrenched Position, Upholding Authority, Public Forum, or even Vassal Fields. I would almost see this getting a second spot in a Seeker of Earth deck, but... oh yeah. Keeper only.

Isawa Tadaka - Okay, I'm sorry, but.... what is going on with that artwork?!?!?! Ahem. Sorry. The Clan Restrictions are good, because this actually keeps it from being run in the Scorpion Clan who would REALLY love that ability. Regardless, blowing up a bowed Steadfast Witchhunter who has used her ability to bring out this body for 1 Fate is a good play. Then smoking a late game stack of bodies from your discard in Crab for a useful ability? Meh. The Disguised keyword is what is going to make this card see play, but I do not think he is worth splashing Phoenix for in Crab over Unicorn right now.

Earth Becomes Sky - Now... now this. This is worth splashing over. I am seeing a future "Scorpion Outta Lock It Down" build using Phoenix Splash in Scorpion that just goes "Yeah, your dudes? They don't... do anything. This is your life, and it is ending one Round at a time."

Arbiter of Authority - Refusable duels? Nice. It is a "Bow and Move Home" duel, however, so it is anti-spammable. It is a Conflict side Duelist, however, so it is one more thing to round out the Crane Dueling strategy. The real power is combining this with Steward of Law to make it unrefusable, but then you are a 2 Pol duelist. So... meh?

Duel to the Death - Heh. Hehehehehehehe. So, I heard you liked running Steward of Law. Crane now have the ultimate anti-tower tech. Just get a bully duelist, drop Steward, and pay 1 Fate to kill any non-Honored body in the game. Well played, Crane. Well played.

Softskin - Now... now this is the perfect card for SOLID. Combine this with Earth Becomes Sky, and you have a nice gut punch, especially if you are pushing for the mill-dishonor kill. Weirdly, though, I am picturing a weird Bid 1 Kyuden Isawa Deck that uses this to fill their Discard Pile with spells for them to use. Huh.

26 minutes ago, sndwurks said:

The cards:

Softskin - Now... now this is the perfect card for SOLID. Combine this with Earth Becomes Sky, and you have a nice gut punch, especially if you are pushing for the mill-dishonor kill. Weirdly, though, I am picturing a weird Bid 1 Kyuden Isawa Deck that uses this to fill their Discard Pile with spells for them to use. Huh.

Phoenix Splash Scorpion to enable the only real Tadaka they will bother running.

1 minute ago, Schmoozies said:

Phoenix Splash Scorpion to enable the only real Tadaka they will bother running.

Phoenix, with Support of the Scorpion. Running Oracle of Stone, Stolen Breath, Pacifism, Softskin, and Tadaka. Just crushing spirits.

How does the new Tadaka fit in with the restricted list? They both have the same name so are they both restricted or just the first one?

1 hour ago, Jamadman said:

How does the new Tadaka fit in with the restricted list? They both have the same name so are they both restricted or just the first one?

Should be just the one as the restricted list actually refers to the set and card number as well.

1 hour ago, Schmoozies said:

Should be just he one as the restricted list actually refers to the set and card number as well.

Cool, thanks for that.

They want the game to grow and then give an incentive to NOT order at the local store. It should be the opposite...

5 hours ago, sndwurks said:

But seriously... do not direct pre-order for these.

Hmm. Mostly a bunch of really solid cards, and then softskin. Mill 3 a turn is not worth 2 fate, and it seems to even give the choice to the player. If they're really that scared of your mill, they can choose the less bad option.

The rest seem pretty good though. Crane Duelist is ok, gives a flexible choice to the opponent (unless they don't have that choice due to Steward or already dishonored, then the ability is pretty great), and Duel to the Death is similar, but the effect is strong enough that it makes it worth it to set up those situations intentionally. Glad the influence is high enough to limit splash, because Scorpion could abuse that card pretty hard.

Phoenix are the clear benefactors here. I already love Kuni Yori's ability to force a random discard, and Tadaka's ability is better in two ways (no honor loss, potential to choose from more cards) with almost no downside. Plus, we've already talked about the strength of Disguised, and Tadaka is a conflict card so it will even be a true surprise. As for Earth becomes Sky, I was on the fence about this card until I read their blurb about it. Being anti-ready tech is rapidly becoming very relevant, but the fact that you can just keep a character down at the end of a turn into the next turn is insane, ALL other uses aside. With 1 influence cost, the only thing keeping it off the restricted list right now is the Earth role part. Going to be part of the standard splash options for earth role decks, in my opinion.

2 hours ago, AradonTemplar said:

Hmm. Mostly a bunch of really solid cards, and then softskin. Mill 3 a turn is not worth 2 fate, and it seems to even give the choice to the player. If they're really that scared of your mill, they can choose the less bad option.

The rest seem pretty good though. Crane Duelist is ok, gives a flexible choice to the opponent (unless they don't have that choice due to Steward or already dishonored, then the ability is pretty great), and Duel to the Death is similar, but the effect is strong enough that it makes it worth it to set up those situations intentionally. Glad the influence is high enough to limit splash, because Scorpion could abuse that card pretty hard.

Phoenix are the clear benefactors here. I already love Kuni Yori's ability to force a random discard, and Tadaka's ability is better in two ways (no honor loss, potential to choose from more cards) with almost no downside. Plus, we've already talked about the strength of Disguised, and Tadaka is a conflict card so it will even be a true surprise. As for Earth becomes Sky, I was on the fence about this card until I read their blurb about it. Being anti-ready tech is rapidly becoming very relevant, but the fact that you can just keep a character down at the end of a turn into the next turn is insane, ALL other uses aside. With 1 influence cost, the only thing keeping it off the restricted list right now is the Earth role part. Going to be part of the standard splash options for earth role decks, in my opinion.

Yes, milling is not that strong. Coming from a Phoenix player with access to Isawa Tadaka v1 is kind of humorous.

Softskin is expensive, yes. but then again, it has to be. It almost certainly is attaching to your opponent's best character. So they can either go ahead and mill three cards to use their best character, or if the mill/ dishonor pressure is getting to them they can choose to not ready their best character. Plus it's passive, so there's no triggered ability to potentially play around, and it's always on for every attempt to ready the character as long as it sticks. Ultimately it's a dual pressure card that puts your opponent in a mind game of having to choose which they think will hurt them less.

Milling is bad. It generates no pressure. It is a bad mechanic in most games, because it does absolutely nothing to advance your board state, but at least in most games it actually wins you the game if you can hit a critical mass of Mill effects. In L5R it doesn't win you the game without you also stripping honour of your opponent, and you are much more likely to win by Dishonour if you aren't wasting 2 Fate and a card on bad attachments that don't actually help you save or take Provinces, or cause an actual honour loss to your opponent. You would be better bidding one lower than your opponent and being down a card than using this card, because you'd be up 2 Fate and create 1 honour loss, which is roughly what this would generate over the length of those rare games it actually had an impact in.

I mean, I get the synergy with original Tadaka and softskin, but Tadaka just seems better when you don't waste 2 fate on another card? I mean seriously, just save your fate to put on Tadaka, it'll be better.