So... is there any particular reason the design team keeps banning cards, or just plain rendering cards completely useless for the Phoenix clan? I bought into this game three weeks ago with two core sets, the Phoenix Pack, and about four other expansions... and the one consistent is that all of the halfway decent to good Phoenix cards have errata listed from their printing, are "restricted" cards, or are just plain and flat out banned? Is there a specific reason to discourage people from playing this clan? I'd like to know before I invest any more time and money into the hobby than I already have.

Maybe becasue a game with such messy ruleset is "designed" by one mediocre skilled guy and it's even not his full-time job as he also creates cards for more profitable FFG games like Keyforge?

<Laughs in Crab accent> Broken cards get tempered. Meanwhile Crab are so hard done by, we got a *Unicorn* card banned.

Scorpion has a lot more banned than phoenix. Also look at tourney results. Phoenix has no reason to complain. The idea that the dt is biased against or for a clan seems weird to me. They are in it for the cash, so their goal is a reasobably balances game for as little effort as possible. This will mean problematic cards slip through playtest. Ok, that is not good, but it happens. Especially for more out there card designs as often found in scorp and phoenix. But just leaving those mistakes unattended is simply devastating. What would would you rather have, no restrictions on cards or a funtioning competetive scene? Because you cant have both. Even the biggest video game companies in the world need to balance patch theire games. And they have much more playtesting data than ffg.

As a Phoenix player since release, I can confirm the cards that have taken a hit more than earned it.

Banning Isawa Tadaka (Disciples of the Void) wasn't just about removing one of the most oppressive cards in the meta, it was also about removing an extremely NPE card from the game. Kuroi Mori was errata'd because Phoenix players could legitimately stonewall opponents by putting it under their stronghold, because it's such a strong province to begin with.

Against the Waves was errata'd because it pretty much singlehandedly discouraged any other clan from playing shugenjas, ever (especially before Kyuden Isawa was errata'd so Against the Waves may as well have been 6x per deck).

Kyuden Isawa went a long time without any errata, but after a *lot* of actual play data and tournament results, it was nerfed to try to bring it more in line with the level of other strongholds. This one might have been nerfed a bit too far, but afaik Phoenix has still done well regardless.

Kaito Kosori's errata is unfortunate, but honestly this is just to make her work as intended, she wasn't supposed to contribute from home while bowed.

Kanjo District was banned because it proved in play to be severely oppressive and NPE, turns out the previous designer's idea to "balance" overpowered cards by making them 1x per deck was rather...flawed (see also Karada District).

Jurojin's Curse was banned as a result of updating the game phases, as it used to be there was another phase after fate phase when you readied characters. By consolidating that into the fate phase, it basically changed Jurojin's to an auto-trigger every fate phase unless your opponent managed to bow that character before fate phase ended. Since the card never saw play before that, it made more sense to ban it out of caution than try to fix it or leave it be to warp the game in ways unintended when it was designed.

Display of Power was restricted because it encouraged noninteraction by the player to claim rings through not defending, and was particularly abused by both Phoenix and Scorpion who not only have been top clans for some time, but are also among the best control clans who can mitigate the risk of actually having an undefended province break.

Embrace the Void + Consumed by Five Fires are restricted as a pair to break up their combo, because players were using them together to essentially get free Consumed by Five Fires. Student of Esoterica likely could have made this even more likely by putting Embrace the Void and a pile of fate on her...but it wasn't needed to abuse the combo.

The one card that I will say did not deserve its fate is Master of Gisei Toshi. Yes she's a strong card, she's not ban-worthy in her own right. She unfortunately had to pay for the sins of Isawa Tadaka (Disciples of the Void) and Guest of Honor, both of whom share a similar design space and proved oppressive and NPE enough to be banned. Master of Gisei Toshi was banned alongside them because of that shared/similar design space, as the designer felt it would be more fair to ban all three at once. I still hope she might one day be removed from the banned list...