The Imperial Gauntlet — Decks to Test Against
Top players prepping for a tournament will put together a range of the decks they expect to face and play their chosen deck against this ‘gauntlet’. The first difficulty with this is picking out the right decks, hopefully, I’ve done a decent job below but any suggestions are welcome. Different environments have different playstyles and sometimes a deck that will do well in one area will underperform in another. At the most basic, does your environment typically bid high or low during the draw phase? Just that simple norm can shift which decks come out on top. This might mean you need to shift your playstyle to get the best out of each deck. The hard part then is getting the games in. Practice, practice, practice.
The Imperial Environment
The first Imperial tournament is going to be at PAX south on January 12th followed by Cork on 27th January. So far, we have only the faintest idea of where the clans stand relative to each other as the Imperial cycle added 120 cards to the small starting card pool. At the end of January, we will have a pretty good idea, but that’s no good for us now. This Christmas, Imperial Advisor is giving you the gift of rampant and wild speculation. We’ve had limited testing and nothing to back it all up with. I’ve included win rates based on the results from the Lotus Pavilion tournament website. As tournaments, you’d hope that it would be a little more accurate, but that could still have a lot of noise. With that aside, we present, the Imperial cycle tier list.
Imperial Cycle – Crane
With the Imperial cycle finally out, let’s have a look at the Crane specifically to see what cards in the new packs go into their decks.
Imperial Cycle – Neutral
Although not a faction, the Neutral cards are the most important in any pack. They are playable by everyone and have the greatest potential impact on the meta. For the Imperial cycle a few stand out.
The Perfect Turn
We have now seen an almost full set of the Crane Dynasty and Conflict cards. The reality, however, is we still have no real idea how to play this game. I don’t mean the rules, we might be missing a small detail here or there, but we have a decent idea of the rules. I mean actually making decisions during the game, what cards to recruit, how much Fate to spend, where to assign, etc.
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Clan Focus – The Crane
Kakita Asami by Mario Wibisono
The Crane clan are the pinnacle of culture and refinement in Rokugan. Their Asahina as renowned for their artistry, the Kakita for their grace, the Doji for their poetry, and the Daidoji for their loyalty. The Crane clan, despite how they appear, are not without teeth. Beneath every Asahina work of art is a subtle air spell. The graceful Kakita kata hones their deadly blade. The Doji’s poetry conceals courtly games that ruin reputations. The loyal Daidoji bodyguard is equally skilled in misdirection and sabotage.
Currently, the Crane are a little bruised and battered from the recent tsunami which devastated their lands and from the rise of the Scorpion in the Imperial courts. Even then, the Crane clan know how to play the great game because they were the ones who set the rules in the first place.
Testing Out the New Crane Cards
We jumped into Tabletop Simulator again last night to try out all the new Crane cards in something close to a cohesive deck.
Her Father’s Daughter – Annotated
Since a lot of L5R fans are new to the setting of Rokugan with its unique terms, we’ve put together an annotated version of the excellent fiction by D.G. Laderoute. Click the links throughout the story to get more detail. If you think we’ve missed anything let us know and we’ll update it.
