16 replies to this topic

[estyles]

I'm home from work today, so I'm taking this opportunity to post a couple of what I like to think of as discussion articles.  Articles where I spew out my thoughts on strategy/deck construction and then hope it leads to an interesting discussion.  I haven't seen anyone go over the Provinces in detail, so I'm going to take a look at those here.  Included my current pick for provinces of that element with each clan.
 
- Earth
Ancestral Lands, Entrenched Position, Defend the Wall (Crab)
The two neutral provinces both have 5 strength, which is fantastic, and an additional +5 against one conflict type.  I would almost always choose to run an Earth province even if running a Seeker role of a different element, and would strongly consider putting it under my stronghold.  The choice seems pretty easy most of the time - if you are stronger in military, chose Ancestral Lands (+5 against political), if you are stronger in political, chose Entrenched Position (+5 against military).  For balanced clans (Phoenix, Dragon), I tend to lean toward Entrenched Position, because it's my impression that the strong military clans (Lion, Crab, Unicorn) are more numerous and focused than the strong political clans (Crane, Scorpion).  This may change a lot based on meta, especially outside of the core-only environment.  

 

For Crab, it seems like a really difficult choice between Defend the Wall and Ancestral Lands.  I am currently running Defend the Wall, but I'm uncertain if it's actually better than Ancestral Lands.  The ability is good, but how many times will you resolve it - likely once, IMO.  I have experimented with putting it on the stronghold in place of the more standard Rally to the Cause, because I figure that a battle at the stronghold will have a better chance of being heavily defended (and thus better chance to trigger it), and if they want to try and win the game, they can't avoid it. 
 

Crane, Scorpion - Entrenched Position
Lion, Unicorn - Ancestral Lands
Phoenix, Dragon - leaning toward Entrenched Position, but both are good
Crab - leaning toward Defend the Wall, Ancestral Lands is a close second

 

 
- Water
Elemental Fury, Rally to the Cause, Endless Plains (Unicorn), The Art of War (Lion)
Rally to the Cause seems to be the early favorite here, but both are interesting, if a little tricky.  Rally to the Cause seems most helpful if you are playing a balanced clan, expecting the opponent to send characters to a military conflict that are stronger in military and characters to a political conflict that are stronger in political - if you are equally strong in each, then you almost always will profit by switching the conflict type away from what your opponent wanted to declare.   Even if he used Iuchi Wayfinder to look at the province, it doesn't help, because if he declares the "wrong" conflict type, you just leave it alone.  However, it also seems to be popular in more focused clans, figuring that if the province gets attacked in the conflict type you are weaker in, you will switch it.  This seems to be the idea behind putting it under the Crab stronghold - if they attack your stronghold in political, you switch it to military where you are stronger.  The question that occurs to me is - if you are strong in military, and they attack your Rally to the Cause in military with strong military characters, how often will it be helpful to shift the conflict to political, where it is likely both the attackers and your defenders are weaker...  Sometimes, certainly, but maybe not often.  So, this is probably a little controversial, but personally, I tend towards avoiding Rally to the Cause in a focused military or political deck.  

 

Elemental Fury, on the other hand, is even harder to figure out - it lets you switch the ring, which can be extremely useful, but figuring out all the permutations is likely to make my brain explode.  I kind of need to experiment with it, I think.  I will say that it seems good in a deck that wants to push honor or dishonor, as you can move your opponent away from Air and Fire as needed.  You do have to be careful about Fate on rings though - you don't want your opponent to get the Fate off of two rings on the same attack (it's fully under your control, of course, but sometimes Fate on a particular ring will prevent you from switching the ring the way you want to).  I do think that Elemental Fury can be good in Dragon despite their affinity toward extra Fate on rings - Void can be so destructive to a well-equipped character.  All-in-all, I think this element is the muddiest in terms of who wants which province.  

 

For the clan specific ones, The Art of War seems to give Lion some card draw that they are otherwise missing, but I could still see an argument for Elemental Fury to protect Earth (for card draw) or Fire (high glory characters) or even Air (since Lion has a pretty good honor game).  For Unicorn - Endless Plains is so good and can punish / discourage lone attackers, I don't think there's much choice.  Just don't put it on your stronghold.

 

Phoenix - leaning toward Rally to the Cause, but good reasons to favor Elemental Fury 
Scorpion - leaning toward Elemental Fury
Unicorn - Endless Plains
Lion - leaning toward the Art of War, but considering Elemental Fury
Crab, Crane, Dragon - totally up in the air / I can't decide

 

 
- Air
Fertile Fields, Manicured Gardens, Secret Cache (Scorpion), The Art of Peace (Crane)
In my opinion, the neutral Air provinces are some of the weaker provinces.  If running a Seeker role, I would tend to skip either the Air or Fire element.  Of course, one of the two clans to select a Seeker role this season is Scorpion with Seeker of Air, so I have to assume they had a reason for it.  The abilities on Fertile Fields and Manicured Gardens are perfectly fine, I just don't feel like they're that impactful for an ability that is likely to be triggered once or maybe twice.  Yes, the extra card or extra Fate could end up winning you the battle, but I don't think it's as likely to do so as some of the other abilities.  On the other hand, a lot of the very strong abilities are only "when revealed", while Fields and Gardens are once a turn if they get targeted again, so if Air really is weakest, it's not by a whole lot.  Fate often feels like it's worth more than card draw, so Manicured Gardens seems more popular, but there are a lot of free conflict cards that can swing a battle, so for clans without a lot of draw abilities, I would consider Fertile Fields too.  

 

Both clan-specific provinces seem very strong - I haven't experimented at all with Crane and Scorpion yet, so I don't have much to say about them, but would definitely include their respective provinces.  Secret Cache can be strong under your stronghold (give you something you need to win that last ditch defense), or otherwise (something in the early game to help you get set up).  The Art of Peace, obviously, should never go under your stronghold.  It suffers a little for being one of those provinces that doesn't help you win, but gives you a reward for losing.  However, several clan-specific provinces work that way, and the reward seems to be generally worth it.
 

Crane - The Art of Peace
Scorpion - Secret Cache + Manicured Gardens (?)
Lion, Dragon - leaning toward Fertile Fields, but it's a tough choice
Phoenix - leaning toward skipping it with Seeker of Void, otherwise Manicured Gardens
Crab, Unicorn - Manicured Gardens

 

 
- Void
Pilgrimage, Shameful Display, Kuroi Mori (Phoenix)
Everyone loves Shameful Display, and that ability is really, really good, but I've been experimenting with Pilgrimage in some decks lately, and I've never been unhappy when it's the target of a conflict.  5 province strength is strong, and the ability says "if you can't win by 5, then just don't even bother".  It has definitely saved me from a few ring triggers.  

 

That said, if you're likely to have a high Glory character to honor or if you're planning to put dishonor pressure on your opponent, Shameful Display is hard to pass up.  It's annoying if it gets attacked solo when you don't have defenders available (had one game playing against Crab where I expended everything to win my first defense and keep him from having any way to sacrifice in order to activate his Berserker, and then his second attack was unopposed with the 3/0 Berserker solo and happened to choose Shameful Display (no affect because there weren't 2 characters to target), and broke it.  Crab had no cards in hand to break the province if it had been a 4.  But still, Shameful Display is the go-to for most clans in Void.  

 

Kuroi Mori is incredible for Phoenix, and makes me happy they chose Seeker of Void.  The ability to act as either a Rally to the Cause or Elemental Fury as needed is sweet, especially in a clan that is pretty balanced between political and military - and not just on reveal, but once a turn, even mid-battle if you have a reason for waiting.  The only thing that makes me sad is that the Phoenix, with their high glory, balanced stats, and ring manipulation, will have to choose between these two provinces after the next Winter Court.
 

Crane, Scorpion, Lion - Shameful Display

Phoenix - Kuroi Mori + Shameful Display
Dragon, Unicorn - Pilgrimage
Crab - leaning toward Shameful Display for dishonor pressure, but Pilgrimage is close
 

 

- Fire
Meditations on the Tao, Night Raid, Restoration of Balance (Dragon)
To me, fire seems to be the most schizophrenic element.  I can't figure out what effects are supposed to be in-sphere for fire.  Isawa Masahiro seems to be the fire card that's most straightforward in terms of theme - he has a discard effect because he's throwing fireballs.  Makes sense.  But discard effects are too nasty to just throw around in the game, and characters don't have hit points, so direct-damage effects are hard to model.  The Fire ring is used to honor and dishonor characters.  Something having to do with "belly fire," maybe?  Agasha Swordsmith uses Fire to forge weapons, I suppose.  Display of Power is about transformation and rebirth, which makes some sense.  I suppose with Night Raid, you've got people going out and burning the enemy's caravans - it seems like a stretch, but okay.  All that still doesn't help me understand why Meditations on the Tao is Fire element.  Nor why that causes a fate to be removed from a character - I thought fate removal was a Void effect?  

 

Anyway, enough about confusing theme - Night Raid and Meditations on the Tao are both potentially strong effects that can easily whiff.  If one character attacks your Night Raid, your opponent has to discard 1 card.  Not that great.  But on the other hand, if you manage to get 3 or 4 attackers, it can be devastating.  I could easily see skipping Fire if you are playing a Seeker role, but if you run Night Raid, it wouldn't be a terrible province to put under your stronghold - attacks on the stronghold are more likely to include a lot of characters than attacks on any other province, I would think.  Meditations on the Tao, on the other hand, can whiff if there's no Fate on any attacking characters, and is probably a poor choice on the stronghold because it doesn't affect the current battle, but just (mostly) hurts board position for next turn.  For that same reason, Meditations is probably the most consistent of the Fire province effects, but a little hard to get excited about because it doesn't help in the current battle.  Meta-wise - Night Raid is more punishing for swarmy "wide" decks, while Meditations is more punishing for "tall" decks.

 

Restoration of Balance is kind of similar to Night Raid, but hurts more if they have a lot of cards in hand.  Honestly, I'm not sure if it's any better.  For an opponent who has loaded up their hand, it can be horribly painful, but if they are low on conflict cards, it can totally whiff as well.  All in all, Fire provinces all feel kind of high-risk, high-reward, which maybe is the theme of the element...
 

Dragon - leaning toward Restoration of Balance, under the stronghold, but Night Raid might have the same effect
Scorpion, Crab - leaning toward Night Raid to assist in dishonor/card pressure, though Meditations on the Tao can help with playing the attrition game
Unicorn - leaning toward Meditations on the Tao
Crane, Phoenix, Lion - undecided

[JoeFromCincinnati]

I don't think I could disagree about the Air Provinces anymore than I do haha.

 

How can you dislike resource production? Especially fate, which is intentionally restricted. You get 7 fate. No matter what. Without fate, you only have so many things to do.

 

If you have 0 fate and your opponent runs into a Manicured Garden, suddenly your defense possibility (or offensive possibilities on your counter attack) skyrocket. 1 fate is the difference between being able to win a conflict (with a Mirumoto's Fury or an Admit Defeat) and having to pass when losing. The level of impact there is extraordinarily valuable in my opinion.

 

Compare that with the water rings, which...may do something. One time maximum... Or may not do anything at all, depending on the situation. I'll take the guaranteed impact that unlocks half of my cards any day of the week.

 

Then Fertile Fields, while not nearly as good as manicured garden, is still a card draw. That's the equivalent of 2 honor and also unlocks potential answers that you previously didn't have.

 

If you have absolutely no intention of ever defending your provinces, I could see the argument that you'll only trigger most provinces once anyway, so there's no big difference between a reaction to flip and an action. But if you can defend your provinces to the point that they don't break (which should be a goal of yours) your opponent must then consider, during the following turn, do I attack the province I know and give them another free fate (again, that unlocks over half the cards in the game) or do I risk attacking an unknown province and, maybe, get hit by a Restoration of Balance or a Meditations on the Tao or something that will hurt my board state or hand state. That's a question your opponent must answer and, either way, you are likely better for it.

 

Whereas, with water rings, they can just keep attacking that province until it breaks because it is essentially a blank province at this point.

 

 

 

Other than that, I generally agree with your sentiments. I personally think Unicorn is better off not running their province and just forcing their opponent to play thinking they are running it. That will prevent turn 1 clan champs and it will prevent solo attacks with big bodies. And then you don't have to run an otherwise awful province. That said, the other water provinces are pretty weak as well, so it may be better to just go with their province as Unicorn, I'm not sure. They definitely have very little reason to defend it anyway.

 

I think Pilgrimage is great and a top contender for running under the Stronghold. a 7 to 8 strength province that offers two possibilities: you break and the game ends or you get nothing from your bid attacks. Not bad at all.

 

As for what Phoenix will do once they don't have seeker of the void, I think their clan province is the easy choice. Shameful Display is great, but it doesn't hold a candle to an on demand Rally or Fury every single turn. It's very odd to see them print a province that is, in every way, better than 2 other provinces that were all released in the Core Set. I have a feeling it was meant to be a reaction to flip but just slipped through testing as is somehow. Who's to say? Not questioning the play testers, just musing.

[RocketPropelledGrenade]

I agree with Joe on the Air provinces--they seem quite good to me. And like Joe, I mostly agree with your assessments otherwise. One thought I did want to add is that the difference between province strength in the void provinces seems relatively significant, probably requiring an additional card or character to break Pilgrimage over Shameful Display. Now, Shameful Display rewards a strong defense a bit more, especially if you get to reuse it, but I've been wondering if there is it is worth considering total province strength when making your overall selection. I like Shameful Display in Lion, but I dislike both neutral water provinces currently available when running Lion, so I tend to run the Art of War, which is also three strength. Going with Pilgrimage instead of Shameful means I only have the one weak province, which helps me allocate defense much more effectively--or such is my theory, but it needs more testing.

 

Thoughts?

[JoeFromCincinnati]

I agree with Joe on the Air provinces--they seem quite good to me. And like Joe, I mostly agree with your assessments otherwise. One thought I did want to add is that the difference between province strength in the void provinces seems relatively significant, probably requiring an additional card or character to break Pilgrimage over Shameful Display. Now, Shameful Display rewards a strong defense a bit more, especially if you get to reuse it, but I've been wondering if there is it is worth considering total province strength when making your overall selection. I like Shameful Display in Lion, but I dislike both neutral water provinces currently available when running Lion, so I tend to run the Art of War, which is also three strength. Going with Pilgrimage instead of Shameful means I only have the one weak province, which helps me allocate defense much more effectively--or such is my theory, but it needs more testing.

 

Thoughts?

 

In Theory, as long as you defend it, doesn't the honor/dishonor effect of Shameful Display more than make up for the difference in province strength when determining its value as a non-stronghold province? Pilgrimage is a 5 vs Shameful's 3, but as long as you have a defender (any defender) you will get at least +2 net strength in the honor/dishonor effect 90% of the time. Especially out of Lion who, generally, have high glory values.

 

Now, if you find yourself losing unopposed provinces often, then yea, I think Pilgrimage would be the better choice. But I don't know how often that happens for you.

[estyles]

I don't think I could disagree about the Air Provinces anymore than I do haha.
 
How can you dislike resource production? Especially fate, which is intentionally restricted. You get 7 fate. No matter what. Without fate, you only have so many things to do.

I love resource production, I just don't feel like 1 Fate per game is great resource production. Now, granted, part of the reason that I feel like it's only worth 1 Fate is that I don't think your opponent is going to keep going back to that province to bounce off of it - either they will spend the resources necessary to break it on the first attempt or they will bounce once and then avoid it unless they decide to go in and absolutely ensure a break on the second attempt.  Why would they want to keep going back there to feed you an extra Fate every turn?   So that said - why I do I think opponents are going to avoid it?  Because Fate is really valuable and they don't want you to get a bunch of extra.  So if it's strong enough to discourage attacks on it, maybe that means it's strong enough to include over other choices?  Maybe, I mean the line of logic that says "any provinces my opponent wants to avoid is one I want to play" is sound.  But if it only triggers once, I'm not sure it's actually stronger than a Shameful Display (potentially a 2 honor swing and a decent force bonus), or a Rally to the Cause (not having a province break that your opponent expected to break).
 

As for what Phoenix will do once they don't have seeker of the void, I think their clan province is the easy choice. Shameful Display is great, but it doesn't hold a candle to an on demand Rally or Fury every single turn. It's very odd to see them print a province that is, in every way, better than 2 other provinces that were all released in the Core Set. I have a feeling it was meant to be a reaction to flip but just slipped through testing as is somehow. Who's to say? Not questioning the play testers, just musing.

 
It's certainly strong, but I don't have a problem with a clan province being stronger than neutral ones.  I actually wish they had been a little more consistent about making clan-specific cards stronger than neutral ones.  Ancestral Daisho is nice and all, but I still always prefer to see Fine Katana in my hand.

 

In Theory, as long as you defend it, doesn't the honor/dishonor effect of Shameful Display more than make up for the difference in province strength when determining its value as a non-stronghold province? Pilgrimage is a 5 vs Shameful's 3, but as long as you have a defender (any defender) you will get at least +2 net strength in the honor/dishonor effect 90% of the time. Especially out of Lion who, generally, have high glory values.
 
Now, if you find yourself losing unopposed provinces often, then yea, I think Pilgrimage would be the better choice. But I don't know how often that happens for you.

Somewhat, but the +2 from the province is certainly harder to work around than +2 or +4 from honor/dishonor.  Characters can be bowed or sent home, but province strength is just there no matter what.  I wouldn't play Pilgrimage in Lion right now, just because of the high glory values like you say, and I also think the value in Pilgrimage is more in the denial of ring effects, but 5 vs. 3 is still a pretty nice boost.

[freemandas]

1 Fate may be the difference between play a mirumoto's fury or not, for example.

 

Scorpion is delighted to play manicured gardens because the first time he recives 2 fate which is equal to play Adept of shadows, i can swin or if you have at leat 1 fate saved... ambush.

 

I think in this new L5R the fate is a very valuable resource than can turn the tide

[JoeFromCincinnati]

I love resource production, I just don't feel like 1 Fate per game is great resource production. Now, granted, part of the reason that I feel like it's only worth 1 Fate is that I don't think your opponent is going to keep going back to that province to bounce off of it - either they will spend the resources necessary to break it on the first attempt or they will bounce once and then avoid it unless they decide to go in and absolutely ensure a break on the second attempt.  Why would they want to keep going back there to feed you an extra Fate every turn?   So that said - why I do I think opponents are going to avoid it?  Because Fate is really valuable and they don't want you to get a bunch of extra.  So if it's strong enough to discourage attacks on it, maybe that means it's strong enough to include over other choices?  Maybe, I mean the line of logic that says "any provinces my opponent wants to avoid is one I want to play" is sound.  But if it only triggers once, I'm not sure it's actually stronger than a Shameful Display (potentially a 2 honor swing and a decent force bonus), or a Rally to the Cause (not having a province break that your opponent expected to break).
 

 
It's certainly strong, but I don't have a problem with a clan province being stronger than neutral ones.  I actually wish they had been a little more consistent about making clan-specific cards stronger than neutral ones.  Ancestral Daisho is nice and all, but I still always prefer to see Fine Katana in my hand.

 

Somewhat, but the +2 from the province is certainly harder to work around than +2 or +4 from honor/dishonor.  Characters can be bowed or sent home, but province strength is just there no matter what.  I wouldn't play Pilgrimage in Lion right now, just because of the high glory values like you say, and I also think the value in Pilgrimage is more in the denial of ring effects, but 5 vs. 3 is still a pretty nice boost.

 

So then the question becomes what is more valuable? 1 fate or switching the ring/conflict. Rally to the Cause is played a lot because it can potentially change the outcome of the conflict. Elemental Fury often does not affect the conflict but affects what happens at the end of the conflict. 1 fate potentially unlocks cards in your hand you didn't initially have the fate to play, or Fertile Fields allows you to draw a card that may help win that conflict.

 

Between 1 fate and Rally to the Cause, I think it could end up being a push in terms of which is more valuable to help in winning that particular conflict. There will be times when flipping the conflict type wins it for you with ease. There are times when it is relatively inconsequential, especially if they attack into it with your stronger conflict type (they declare military against a Lion or Crab, for example) in which case your province does nothing at all unless you choose to flip it to your weaker conflict type.

 

The 1 fate, however, is never a dead card. It will always produce that 1 fate for you. And you'll always have something to buy with that 1 fate, whether that be this turn or the following turn.

 

But, as you said, the true tie breaker in that case is the fact that they flipped a province, didn't destroy it and now don't want to attack it again and give you more fate. That means they have to brave the wilderness of your other unrevealed provinces. Whereas with the Water rings, once they're revealed, they've become blank provinces to attack into each turn until it's broken. If your opponent has 2 provinces left, one is a revealed manicured gardens and the unrevealed province seems to be a Secret Cache (because you're revealed and broken their Void and Fire Rings and assume Earth is under their province) you are now forced to decide whether you want to give your opponent a fate or a card.

 

That seems like a much better play for you than if you had a revealed Rally to the Cause, in which case they'd gladly pass over your best province (Secret Cache) to just finish off the blank province before moving on to your stronghold.

[sparrowhawk]

My go to neutral provinces are

Air - Manicured Gardens (but Art of Peace and Secret Cache are both better because they fit their clan styles)

Earth - varies by Clan to cover deficiency (balanced Dragon plays Entrenched Position because of Banzai and Charge asymmetry)

Water - Rally the Cause (but Art of War good for Lion blitz style, Endless Plain looks awful)

Fire - Meditations on the Tao (i just dont like one use provinces and threat of Restoration of Balance is enough playing Dragon first time against someone who appreciates the threat, for repeat encounters 50:50 the province to keep the threat real). The new Dragon 4-coster ups the value of Restoration and Mirumoto's Fury.

Void - Shameful Display (but Kuroi Mori trumps this of course)

Most of my choices are based on a more defensive long game build and strategy.

It seems to me that racing/blitzing strategies (e.g. Unicorn) may want to pick powerful one shot effects but as that's not my style, it's a hypothesis that is pure theorycraft (as opposed to my usual based on a few games mostly theorycraft).

A 12 Honour +2 stronghold and Water Art of War clan province (because both water neutrals are one shot) is probably why I was initially attracted to Lion (along with Brawler and Spiritcaller tricks).

Manicured Gardens is so good that Scorpion chose Seeker of Air first. Whilst Shameful Display is so good that Phoenix chose Seeker of Void second (but I wish it was Keeper of Fire). Those are the standout neutrals for me.

[Khudzlin]

Totally agree about Endless Plains being awful. It will almost never work due to the opponent choosing the character. I prefer Fertile Fields to Manicured Gardens, but it's a close call (also it depends on how much card draw you have access to).

[JoeFromCincinnati]

Just for a quick reference as to the value of fate, I find myself asking my opponent before each conflict "And you have X fate, right?" as a means of understanding what their defensive capabilities are.

 

If they have 0 fate and I run into a Manicured Garden, that conflict just went from predictable (if it's military, they have Fine Katanas, Banzai, Assassination and potentially For Shame, as well as most Way ofs, depending on my opponent's clan that I need to contend with) to unpredictable.

 

With 1 fate, they now could do one of a number of things in that conflict. Mirumoto's Fury, Outwit/Rout, Charge, play another strength buff like Ancestral Daisho or Favored Mount, Calling in Favors, Fiery Madness, Duelist Training, The Mountain Does Not Fall, etc etc. 

 

Or, if they had 1 fate, now they may be able to I Can Swim, Display of Power etc.

 

Or, if they had 2 fate, now they can ambush, Blackmail or Cavalry Reserves me.

 

1 fate can be a very very big deal, especially on defense.

 

And again, worst case scenario, you now start your next turn with 1 more fate .

 

I love Manicured Garden. I even (briefly) considered Seeker of Air at Gencon just to be able to run both of them in Crab haha. Resource production is amazing in this game.

[Hakkor]

Totally agree about Endless Plains being awful. It will almost never work due to the opponent choosing the character. I prefer Fertile Fields to Manicured Gardens, but it's a close call (also it depends on how much card draw you have access to).

 

Endless Plains is awful unless you have your champion on the board. Then it's terryfing, plus there's a viable assasination to increase the effect. Losing a territory you didn't even intend to defend and would be broken anyway and trade it for some board cleaning, with possible complete wipe out combo.

[Khudzlin]

Endless Plains is awful unless you have your champion on the board. Then it's terryfing, plus there's a viable assasination to increase the effect. Losing a territory you didn't even intend to defend and would be broken anyway and trade it for some board cleaning, with possible complete wipe out combo.

 

Altansarnai works only when attacking, so she doesn't combo with Endless Plains (not when both are controlled by the same player, at any rate). And counterattacking with her doesn't require Endless Plains. And the timing is all wrong to combo with Assassination, because Endless Plains reacts to the attack being declared; Assassination can only force the opponent to choose between a solo attack and no attack (which might or might not be against Endless Plains) if the board is right. Optimal use requires a solo attack (because the opponent chooses the character) by a heavy hitter (because it's only worth it if the province was going to break anyway) and that is much too situational for my tastes.

[Hakkor]

Well, if you opponent has deployed 3 character, we could asusme only one is 3+ cost. So if endless plain gets you rid of one, then assasination kill the second one, you can force a cost 3+ high on fate investment character to be sacrificed. It has only need to happen once in the game and it's a huge swing. In any case, it's another tool from the wide range of  the Unicorn surprises.

 

I haven't played Uniceron yet, but I definitely will with as many card combination as I can to get my own impressions. But up to know, my experience has been that every card (except ronin) that didn't look so spectacular ended up being much better than expected. Just give it a try.

 

 I have currently started to force myself into different choices for the capital in order to compare the outcome.

[Caldera]

Still early days for me so I haven't formed strong opinions on some of the elements, but the two stand-out provinces for me so far are:

Fire: Meditations on the Tao
Void: Shameful Display

In fact, as someone who has been playing Phoenix, I've got to say I've been somewhat under-whelmed by Kuori Mori, to the extent that if Phoenix choose a Keeper role next (and I sincerely hope they do) then I'd possibly consider giving Shameful Display the nod for my Void province (which sounds like anathaema, I know).

My reasoning is: Shameful Display is one of the few relatively reliable options for Honouring your Phoenix characters (Fire Ring aside), but Kuori Mori can be played around easier than I'd expected. Granted its still very strong, but I'm not sure that'll be enough to justify passing up on the opportunity of 3 extra influence as the card pool expands.

Still, the beauty of this forum is that when some of the game's nascent heavyweights include it in their top list then i know I'm probably not playing it to its full potential - and I mean that in full sincerity. I've already started rethinking my early assumptions about some of the other Provinces in light of this thread.

[estyles]

I've already started rethinking my early assumptions about some of the other Provinces in light of this thread.

 

I will say that I've done the same.  Where people have disagreed with me, I've started to rethink my original ratings and resolved to give those cards another try with a new perspective.  I'm not one to just up and change my opinion based on someone else disagreeing with me (who is, though, really?), but I'll make sure to re-examine my assumptions when I get a chance to play a bunch more games.  Limited right now to just a few OCTGN games, some against myself with 2 windows open, and a whole lot of theorycraft.  

[Caldera]

Limited right now to just a few OCTGN games, some against myself with 2 windows open, and a whole lot of theorycraft.  

Similar for me: I played five games of 1-core at the L5R Honoured event (which was a fantastic experience with lots of lessons learnt but hardly an accurate representation of what the 3-core 'real-world' will be like), plus several solo games at the dining table using cheekily printed proxies (limited to just 4 clans because the link got removed from the FFG site before I could print the rest ).

[Hakkor]

Provinces tend to extremes sometimes, being huge in a game, worthless in another. Much perspective is needed, as well as how different clans/strategies can exploit your or deny your opponent's