Masters of the Court
Next up, the Crane pack. The Crane clan are in a pretty good position, they’ve been mid to top tier all along and are well suited to benefit from a new clan pack. The question now is whether this pack will push them ahead of the rest and how long that will last!
The current Crane stronghold, Shizuka Toshi, has a reputation best summed up with the phrase ‘use box!’. The ability is either played and never gets used, everyone forgets, or it has a big impact when the opponent forgets and the Crane players remembers. Kyuden Kakita is a proactive ability that the Crane can use every match and cannot be played around, so this will be the stronghold of choice for Crane decks going forward despite the slightly less influence that usual.
The ability lets you honor a character who was in a duel, after the duel resolves. So it encourages duelling and rewards just being in a duel, win or lose, with the honored status. The honored status is highly valued by the Crane who have abilities that key off it and high glory to benefit from the skill bonus. Any character with an innate duel increases substantially in value. Similarly, any duel gets an extra bonus. As you can use the reaction only once per turn you’re looking to maximise the effect and trigger it every turn.
With
Without a doubt, this is a solid stronghold for the Crane that will easily slip into the top performers. It is comparable to the current Dragon stronghold which gives up to a +2/+2 bonus to a character with 2 or more attachments. In the case of Kyuden Kakita that bonus is being honored and it sticks around. The drawback is in needing an duel to trigger an an opponent to duel and it would not be surprising for opposing players to not defend to avoid triggering the stronghold.
As a water province this province gets compared to the recent addition of Midnight Revels. For 1 less province strength and an on reveal rather than an on attack you get a little more flexibility in target selection, picking a non-honored character rather than the most expensive character. The majority of the time of course, your still going to pick your opponent’s most expensive character but that added flexibility is nice. I think it is unlikely to be a better choice than Midnight Revels but it might find a place in Seeker of Water deck if Crane players ever decide to go that direction.
As before with previous Support cards, there might be some decks that enjoy this especially as the card pool increases but the loss of Keeper and Seeker only cards in addition to the ability make playing any of the Support roles a poor option. Hopefully, we’ll see these roles get used in special tournament events where players must be or support one of two clans. For example, the recent Lion versus Unicorn conflict could have had a tournament with players playing one of those two clans (and any other role) or any other clan and Support the Lion or Support of the Unicorn.
Maybe it’s the red clothing in the art, but this really feels like a Scorpion card to me and that can only be a good thing for the Crane clan. This stat line has been decent for conflict characters but not for dynasty characters where instead of spending this 1 fate you could pass instead and grab passing fate. Worse still, the Iwasaki Pupil has no relevant trait like Courtier or Shugenja instead with a currently fluffy Geisha trait.
The ability on the other hand is super strong. While you have the Pupil in play, each players draws 2 fewer cards during the draw phase to a minimum of 1. So if you bid 1, 2, or 3 then you get 1 card, if you bid 4 you get 2 cards, and if you bid 5 you get 3 cards. In a situation like this I imagine most will bid 1. In a deck where the Crane player has additional card draw and card discard for their opponent, this character could be a lynch pin.
Typical stats for a 2 cost character have up until recently been 1/2 or 2/1 so seeing a 1/3 character for 2 fate seems like a good investment. The Courtier trait definitely is one the Crane are interested in. The ability is mirrored, so both players get the benefit. In most cases this essentially blanks the ability, if both players are benefiting equally then you might as well not have it. The key then is working out how to maximise your gain and minimise your opponent’s. A dedicated hand denial deck might be able to utilise this by drawing cards for their opponent knowing they are about to get discarded. Similarly, a combo deck may use the Advisor to dig down to it’s combo pieces knowing that they will win once all the pieces are put in place. It can also be effective in situations where you can play cards but your opponent cannot, for example with when you have Guest of Honor in play any event they might draw in the conflict isn’t going to help them until after the conflict.
Getting 3 military for 2 fate is decent, especially when your clan’s primary skill is political. Looking at skills alone this is quite similar to Daidoji Nerishma who has drifted in and out of Crane decks since the core set was released. The Kakita Favorite does have the Duelist trait which is useful especially with
Shugenja is not a trait the Crane are particularly blessed with and many of the Shugenja they do have sit in the expensive 4 cost range. This 3 cost character is a little better is immune to dishonor. Unfortunately that can be a bit of a two edged sword as sometimes you want the option to dishonor your character when your opponent plays For Shame! and this immunity goes both ways. If the Maker had a more proactive ability then she might be worth playing, but right now the so-so stats and almost blank ability make this a card unlikely to leave the binder.
A Courtier and Duelist. A 3 fate cost, the cheapest character immune to Assassination. An innate duel ability, so Kyuden Kakita can easily honor him. While 0/3 is okay, 2/5 is where Yuri is most often to sit. The
At 4 cost Courtier and Shugenja with 0 skill in either military or political, Asahina Takamori is all about his ability. When you bring a Crane character into play, you can react with him to prevent an opponent’s character with equal or less fate cost from assigning to conflicts for the turn. He can use it on himself when he comes into play, he can use it when he is already in play and another character is played in the dynasty phase, or he can use it when a
In many regards, Takamori is like Hantei, he’s an expensive character who can neutralize an opposing character. Hantei is pretty great, but often all he does is stall a turn. You invest heavily into him limiting your own options and then stop your opponent from doing things. If you’re not able to effectively
The Benevolent Host has the potential to be an amazing card. For 4 cost you can get a turn of this 2/2 and the best Courtier you have in your provinces. This could be a 5 cost Kakita Yoshi giving you more effective cost than you’ve paid for. If you have Yoshi though, you probably want to get more than just 1 turn out of him so you might be better off paying 7 to bring him into play with
To evaluate the savings, we should consider the Host itself. If this was a 2 cost 2/2 character with no ability we probably wouldn’t play it. At 1 cost we would be happy. So, if we pay 4 for this character we want to make sure we’re getting at least 3 fate from the ability which typically we are. Unfortunately, the ability isn’t always reliable. If we end up playing an all Courtier deck then there is still a chance, even if low, we won’t get the character we need and a typical mixed character base makes this even more likely. It’s a fun card that has some potential, but the sacrifice of having to play all Courtiers along with the risk of not being able to trigger the ability makes the benefits too low.
11 Daidoji Uji
Uji is a signature character for the Crane clan. There are players who enjoy the courtly dealings exemplified by Kakita Yoshi or the perfect duelist as exemplified by Kakita Toshimoko, but Daidoji Uji caters for an often hidden side of the Crane clan the Daidoji. The Daidoji are the backbone of the Crane armies and are the stark realists of the clan. They are the ones who sabotage enemies supplies and use guerilla tactics all without the knowledge of the rest of the clan making sure the Crane stay honorable but also safe.
The card for Uji does not disappoint. Some Scorpion players have gone so far as to declare Uji as the best Shinobi printed so far. At 5 cost he is in clan champion territory. With 6
His ability lets the Crane player play characters from their provinces as if they were in their hand, so they can pass immediately in the dynasty phase and make characters only when they need them. As the Scorpion have demonstrated with Hidden Moon Dojo this is an incredibly strong tactic as it lets you keep your fate in reserve and avoids situations where you end up overspending in the dynasty phase. In addition, he also has a 1 cost discount saving even more fate.
Where Uji differs from Hidden Moon Dojo is his vulnerability. If you can Cloud the Mind Uji or remove his honored status, then suddenly the Crane player no longer has access to those dynasty characters. If they choose to pass without making anything and they’re unable to get his ability active again then they could be in real trouble.
This is an awesome card that will give the Crane a lot of benefit while still allowing their opponent some counter play.
It seems everyone gets a 6 cost character in their clan pack and the Crane are no exception. This 7 political monster is likely to eat provinces in a similar way to Bayushi Shoju. You could defend, but
The real question is whether 6 fate is worth it. So far the 6 fate characters have been a bit hit and miss with those you can Charge! as the preferred option. Right now the Crane could instead pay 4 for Guest of Honor who does as good a job at shutting down options. Adding in a Winter Court Host or two could double down on this situation, but might not be worth the cost.
The Crane already have the fantastic Kakita Dojo which makes fitting in additional holdings a struggle. The Distinguished Dojo gives you a point of honor every time you win a duel (up to 3 times per turn) so we’re already looking at a focused honor running deck which already is a stretch.
In theory, the risk with this card is it could be destroyed with the province losing all the tokens on it. To trigger it, you just need to win a duel, so you can always defend when it is attacked and use it during the conflict. One nice aspect is that multiples will stack, so if you have two in your provinces you can gain 6 tokens from just three duels. With the new Kakita stronghold duels will be a major focus in the deck so it shouldn’t be too hard to make that happen.
This is a nice element to an honor deck, but it’ll find it hard to compete with the other holdings.
We’re assuming this is a reference to the old storyline writer Rich Wulf who we still remember fondly. Before he joined the team he wrote L5R comedy fiction called the Legends of the Hidden Chicken with the main character being Yasuki Garou who would later become Fuzake Garou. If you haven’t yet, it’s definitely worth a read.
Looking at the card itself we have a 3 cost Shugenja with subpar stats. The ability is a way to remove status tokens from your opponent and yourself, so maybe remove a dishonored token from your side and an honored token from your opponent. While it does make sense as a way to counter Crane it doesn’t seem to have much proactive play for the Crab. That it only triggers when he leaves play is directly counter to their sticking around
If the Crab decide to go down a Shugenja path, Fuzake will be there, at least till someone better comes along.
I don’t like this card, but I think I should. At 4 cost the 3/4/2 stats are top of the line up there with Toshimoko. The ability actively denies your opponent fate and that fate will often end up in your pool instead. As a Courtier, he doesn’t fit into any existing Dragon decks but as the pool of Kitsuki characters improves that option is increasingly and makes me wonder if we can expect a Kyuden Kitsuki soon.
The ability, in theory, should be reliable enough, players often both bid 5 or both bid 1 depending on the turn. With Jusai in play your opponent is incentivized to bid a different value, maybe 2 or 4, or spend all their fate to avoid the fate loss but that itself has merit. If they manage to dodge the ability during the draw phase then they will have to
Resource denial is an easily abused mechanic,
16 Akodo Makoto
A Lion character with 4 printed military has definite value to the Lion clan giving them an excellent target for Way of the Lion. Makoto hits that 3 cost spot perfectly, keeping her just outside of Assassination range. The ability really is an afterthought, if she is on the board the opposing player will know their Courtier’s with fate are at risk and should be able to play around it without too much concern.
17 Chukan Nobue
At 2 cost the 2/1 stat line is fine. Just fine. The Courtier trait isn’t something the Phoenix particularly are interested in but their selection of Courtier characters is steadily increasing and may eventually lure them away from their precious Shugenja. The Scholar trait is the faction trait for the Phoenix and they do have a few cards that like to see it. The ability again is one designed to counter the Crane which inherently makes it poor against the rest of the field. Right now, the only commonly played card discard is Dragon’s Restoration of Balance.
A neutral Bushi character with 2/0 who becomes honored when another character you control becomes honored. Maybe this will be of interest if we see something that keys off the Mantis Clan trait but right now this is going straight into the binder.
From a design perspective, this is great. Cloud the Mind is a strong card that sees play everywhere and introducing equivalent cards that have benefits (cheaper) and drawbacks (harder conditions and weaker effect) is a good way to open up the card space. This probably doesn’t hit the mark. While having more political skill shouldn’t be a big deal for the Crane, only being able to do this during a political conflict and it only preventing triggered abilities rather than blanking the card really limits it. You cannot stop characters that are heading into a military conflict. You cannot stop characters like Tadaka who do not require triggering their ability. It could see play in some decks who do not run Shugenja, but they would need to run ‘harpoon’ effects to drag the target into the political conflict. Even then, a number of high target threads that Cloud the Mind
This is Ornate fan but at 1 cost that can be sacked to trigger a Spies at Court effect that doesn’t require dishonoring and isn’t limited to once per turn. Like Spies at
22 Gossip
While there may be more powerful cards in this pack, gossip is definitely the one being talked about the most (no pun intended). Some consider it incredibly powerful naming the one card that could stop you and shutting down your opponent’s options. Others consider it a waste of a card pointing to the scenarios where you name a card your opponent doesn’t even have and deny yourself a protactive card in hand instead. I’m almost certain that once players start actually playing Gossip they’ll still be as divided, if not even more.
The trick of course, is naming the right card. If you could see your opponents hand, for example with Meek Informant, then you will know if you need to play Gossip and what card you need to name. Similarly, if you know your opponent’s deck well and are in a situation where just one of those cards is going to mess with your plan, then Gossip is a way to reduce risk and guarantee victory.
A lot of the time, cancel cards will be named. If you have an important card to play but you’re worried about Censure you can play Gossip naming Censure forcing your opponent to Censure your Gossip (possibly revealing they have another Censure in hand) or let you play uncancelled for the turn. Similarly, naming Let Go will help keep your key attachments safe while naming Charge! could avoid surprise Chagatai.
Gossip is a great card that will have different results for different players. Some players may not understand the best cards to play. Great players may be able to play around the problem cards and use the slot for another card that will get more work done.
A note for the judges. This card can cause some problems between players if the person playing the card makes a mistake with the naming. Saying ‘Let it Go’ rather than ‘Let Go’ might trigger a ‘gotcha’ moment between players. It is part of the cost to name a card though and if the opposing player realized a real card was not named they should have alerted their opponent. In addition, as the game has been translated into multiple languages there are lots of ways to identify a card and it’s not reasonable to insist two French players playing in Paris with French cards use the English names. As such, as long as it is clear between the two players which card is meant then it is okay whether that is ‘Let it Go’, ‘Let Go’ or ‘That Dragon event that destroys attachments’.
Send home effects are a way to deal with problems in conflicts but they aren’t very popular as the problem character then gets to assign to the next conflict. Bow actions leave the character in the conflict but neutralize their skill and prevent them from attacking again. Mirumoto’s Fury was a very popular splash for a reason. In this case, you spend 1 fate and an honor token from one of your characters during a military conflict only to bow an opposing character. The limitation to military only is a frustration, but Crane
That said, this still seems like a great card for Crane especially Kyuden Kakita where they should be able to honor themselves a little more reliably.
At 3 fate this is a risky card to get
Haruko can pull an opposing
This attachment has no fate cost, instead to play it you issue a military duel during a conflict and the winner gets the attachment. Fine Katana and Ornate Fan both offer +2 skill for free, so this is a minor improvement on that with a pretty big condition, winning the duel. Decks that are interested in dueling for the sake of dueling will very much enjoy this attachment. Kyuden Kakita, for example, gets an extra opportunity to trigger the stronghold and honor their character. This doesn’t help when you’re unopposed however and as it’s unique if you already have one in play the Gunbai will not enter play. You can use additional copies to trigger additional duels if you wish, which can be useful.
28 Retreat
Speaking of cards that remove you from the conflict, at 0 cost this could have some consideration in decks like HMT. Those decks need to assure victory in a military conflict but if the opponent doesn’t defend then Retreat would effectively be a ready action. In
Summary
This is a pretty strong pack for the Crane giving them a lot of powerful additions to their decks. Other clans have less incentive to look at this pack, the non-Crane card aren’t very exciting apart from maybe the Dragon and Lion characters.
Kyuden Kakita is likely to be the dominate Crane deck going forward, although decks not interested in dueling can always rely on the old stronghold. Iwasaki Pupil and Letter from the Daimyo might be a deck type all by themselves. Uji is a powerhouse which along with the addition of military characters like Kakita Favorite might see a strong conquest deck that can take military and political conflicts with equal easy. Kakita Yuri, Asahina Takamori, and Gossip all say no to your opponent while Courteous Scheming says yes to the Crane. Some of these cards might need a little work, practice, and finesse to get working but this pack has the potential to bring Crane to the top of the meta.
If you have any comments or feedback please post them in the comments section below. Check us out on the Imperial Advisor website, podcast, and YouTube channel for more discussion about the L5R LCG.
6 Replies to “Masters of the Court”
Great article, although it could use a little proofreading
I think this will end up on my gravestone. “Here lyes Bazleebub, he could have used a little proofreading”
i love your reviews but please could you add the original text to each card? (my english isn’t that good and reading the text boxes is very difficult because of the fuzziness … i dont know is this the right word)
Names now link to the card on FiveRingsDB.com
Normally I do this but I forgot to this time!
Kaezin doesn’t get sent home if he loses his duel.
Gah! Good spot, updated.
Thanks!