L5R Dynasty Pack Review: For Honor And Glory

Hello all! We're back with more reviews, this time for the second pack of the Imperial Cycle. Apologies for the delays on these reviews - much of this can be laid at my feet, but we fully intend to continue publishing these articles despite the delays! On to the reviews:


Frostbitten Crossing (average score: 2.833)


nyxnyxnyx - 3/5
Like Meditations on the Tao, this is a vanilla/blank province if your opponent attacks with the right characters. Kinda awkward to use and most clans probably prefer the consistency of Fertile/Manicured. Remember you can use it on your own characters to remove negative attachments too.

Chuterêve – 3/5
This province being Air roles locked, Crane is the only clan that can play it right now. The effect itself is powerful but not hard for your opponent to play around after the initial reveal and even before for players well aware of what Crane is playing. For now, this is not an auto-include but rather an interesting alternative to Fertile fields/Manicured gardens who have the advantage to have effects that will benefit you every time.

Benjoewoo - 3/5
At least as of this article, only Crane has an Air role. As the first elemental role specific province, this is interesting because it absolutely destroys Dragon’s current voltron strategy if it goes off, but Pathfinder’s Blade releasing in the same pack and Dragon having a seeker role as of this article greatly mitigates the provinces utility. Assuming Dragon goes keeper next role change and continues running voltron while a clan runs an Air role, this province’s utility goes up.

It is a nice choice, but hard to see this edging out Art of Peace, which can close out dishonor and future possible honor victories, or Manicured Gardens, which effectively gives two fate to any seeker of Air. For non-Crane Air seekers, this presents a more proactive action than Fertile Fields, which could be a good option. For Air Keepers, this is the most proactive action, but may not push out Manicured Gardens since it gives one of those most rare resources of the game.

Grendel - 3/5
Certainly, a trainwrecker of a province if walked into blind. But quite easy to play around and break from overwhelming board position. Its competition is some of the best provinces in the game. Tough to sell, but if you want to tech against Dragon it is a card to look at.

I Fight Dragons – 2/5
Not a bad province by any means, though only the Crane have this card as an option right now thanks to the current roles. The effect is very powerful, but a few issues exist that mean this card probably won’t be making many line-ups anytime soon. It’s a face-up effect on the board, so unless your opponent is face-checking this with their tower, they simply won’t play attachments. If this is scouted, it’s basically dead outside of being able to drop harmful attachments off your own guys. It’s simply too clunky to really replace the already great economic air provinces out there.

Kingsley - 3/5
While a niche pick, this card might be useful for Crane to help with their terrible Dragon matchup Unfortunately, Dragon just got Pathfinder’s Blade, which means that even running this counter might not be sufficient. On the plus side, you can also use this to remove Cloud the Mind from your own defenders. However, I’m not sure these effects outweigh the reliability of standard Air provinces.


Riot in the Streets (average score: 2.5)


nyxnyxnyx - 1/5
If I have 3 participating Bushi characters already, I’d hope I would already be winning the defence without needing the additional bow. Super tight and difficult hoop to jump through for minimal payoff.

Chuterêve – 3/5
Bowing a character of your choice is strong but committing three bushi at once is not something a lot of clans can afford reliably. Lion is never going to play this instead of Art of w War, Unicorn may try if they want to swap out Endless Plains. Crab is probably the best placed to take advantage of it, considering that the two others water province at their disposition (Rally to the cause and Elemental fury) are on reveal only and they have access to cheap bushi characters. Even if this is case, they’re not going to be able to trigger the ability every time the province is attacked.

Benjoewoo - 4/5
This is a pretty good alternative to Rally and Elemental Furies. Water in core was widely considered a weaker province element except for lion, as you could make game changing swaps, but the situational utility made the provinces potentially very good or irrelevant. The trait and number restriction balance out the rather powerful repeatable action. This is relatively stiff competition for Rally, which seems to be the province of choice for now over Elemental Fury as of this article.

Grendel – 2/5
I’d run this somewhere, I’m not sure where that somewhere is, maybe crab? Future Lion or Unicorn styles? The effect is certainly powerful, even if the stipulation is high. But the lack of immediately obvious use leaves much to be desired even if in the future there could be a deck for this card.

I Fight Dragons – 3/5
This is an interesting province, and offers an alternative to the one-and-done water provinces already out there. This can make for a rather powerful stronghold province for swarm based bushi decks. Though Lion has Art of War and Crab has a hard time getting the numbers consistently, I bet unicorn can make excellent use of this province, and they really could use the help.

Kingsley - 2/5
Cool idea, especially for a stronghold province, but having three or more participating Bushi on your side is quite hard with the cardpool the way it is at present. It’s possible future developments will make this a real tough nut to crack, but I somewhat doubt it.

Stoic Magistrate (average score: 3.5)


nyxnyxnyx - 4/5
Actually one of the better magistrates because it works on defence (where you declare after attackers) so you can ‘force’ it to work. Most other magistrates are simply played around, save perhaps the Scorpion one. Ties in well with the whole Assassination/Way of the Crab semi-choke theme Crab has going on.

Chuterêve – 3/5
The Crab magistrate is a hit or miss, depending on what is on the board. Your opponent is probably not going to commit 2 cost characters at all on the attack until he’s assured that the Stoic magistrate is bowed (or blanked with Cloud the mind or Oni mask) and you will still have to deal with them on the offense. This can be a real bother for Lion but most of the clan will find a way to navigate around it, even if it means making suboptimal choices.

Benjoewoo - 4/5
Crab get a tool to stop most probing attacks and a way to just hammer blitz swarm. A generally underwhelming stat line seems par course for the three magistrate examples we’ve seen at 3 fate for a 2/2. But, this one seems more playable for Crab given the somewhat situational and niche 3 cost lineup for Crab.

Grendel - 3/5
Weakest of the Magistrates we’ve seen, but board position is built on 1 and 2 drops and nullifying them is a very strong ability. I won’t say he is for every Crab deck, being skornegistic with their stronghold. However, a high impact ability is a high impact ability. Maybe a different stronghold comes out in the future and plays up a big crab theme.

I Fight Dragons – 3/5
This effect helps Crab deal with swarms of little dudes, which is an area they definitely would like to improve; but the body is a little small and its effect goes both ways which hurts Crabs effectiveness with their own small dudes that they like to defend with. Hard to say how much play this actually sees, but it’s not bad at least.

Kingsley - 4/5
The Crab three-cost slot is crowded, but this can be very annoying for some decks to go against and is harder to play around than some of the other Magistrates. Lion hates this.


Kabuki Hero (average score: 2.333)


nyxnyxnyx - 1/5
2 for 0/2 is crappy, and his ability requiring fate is quite a dealbreaker. If there was a POL version of Banzai! or Legion of One this might have some more combo potential, but nope.

Chuterêve - 2/5
The necessity of spending one fate to activate this character’s ability make him somewhere between 2 and 3 cost in the curve and both spots are already taken by efficient characters. Plus, there’s not a lot of playable politic buff in the game right now outside of fan and honoring tools and you do not want to use them for such a little reward, especially on a character so easy to assassinate.

Benjoewoo- 3/5
3 fate for a 2/2 isn’t particularly amazing. But, put a fan on him and you have 3 fate and a card for a 4/4, which isn’t too shabby. Crane isn’t short for courtiers, but the trait is nice. The ability to turn him into a 3 fate for a 3/3 with Way of the Crane off Savvy makes him a relatively solid early play.

Grendel - 2/5
Maybe when that actor deck happens he can act like a good card. Some cute synergies aside, he is probably the worst of all cranes 2 drops so I don’t see him ever making the cut unless he actually finds dedicated troupe to join.

I Fight Dragons – 4/5
More solid 2 cost cards for Crane. This card requires a little investment both to buff it up and to pay the fate for the ability; but the payoff is quite good. Just make sure you have a cancel ready for the inevitable Assassination coming this card’s way.

Kingsley - 2/5
Bad stats for the price, and while this ability is situationally very interesting the fact that you have to pay a fate to use it is the nail in the coffin IMO. I prefer any of the existing Crane two costers to this guy.


Northern Wall Sensei (average score: 2.166)


nyxnyxnyx - 2/5
As a Dynasty Dragon card who is on Seeker, this is unplayable for about a year. Her effect is so-so anyway, so Dragon isn’t missing much.

Chuterêve - 2/5
Note : Dragon is seeker right now and therefore not able to play this with his official role.
Bad stats and situational ability. Still, Dragon is the clan who want to invest the most on one big character and protecting it from events may sometimes be worth the price. Even then, it won’t be as effective on offense because your opponent can take an action before you can use Nothern wall Sensei’s ability.

Benjoewoo - 2/5
I’m unsure of the character’s utility because it can be a very powerful play to make a big voltron immune to events, the most powerful conflict deck card type at the moment, but it costs at least 3 fate and an action to do so with some potentially very wonky planning. She can do it on herself, making her immune to bow and send home events, but you still have to get her to higher numbers, which is a lot of investment on a somewhat lackluster stat line for dragon.

Her best play is arguably protecting 2 cost and below characters with good abilities, but that is basically niten adept for assassinate assuming no attachment hate or plays to deny his ability, and the larger fate cost characters to help ensure they get to contribute at least force, since this doesn’t stop Cloud the Mind. The high cost and participation requirement really hamper the ability’s utility.

Grendel - 3/5
The effect is pretty good, but not specifically a good enough reason to go keeper.

I Fight Dragons – 2/5
Mediocre stats for a 3 drop and the ability is quite clunky because it requires an action and both characters be participating unless it protects itself. On attack, your opponent still has the ability to do what they want before you can fire the action which makes the ability significantly less good. It also only stops events and not negative attachments or character effects, making it just a little too niche.

Kingsley - 2/5
Well, you can’t even put this card into a legal tournament deck for a year. However, it’s rather bad anyway, so I doubt many people would want to? Bad stats for price coupled with unfavorable timing on its ability means that the Sensei can only really be used effectively on defense, and if you want this effect you can get a better version with attachments like Finger of Jade.


Ikoma Ujiaki (average score: 4)


nyxnyxnyx - 3/5
Really strong effect when you can get it to go off, but it’s rather awkward to set up and ultimately is still a dice roll. Lion has decent ways to acquire favor, but even then, like all other favor-requiring/discarding cards, this is dead on the initial Turn 1 flop. Conveniently is both Bushi and Courtier, with decent stats to boot. Yet another target to cheat in with Charge!

Chuterêve - 4/5
Ikoma Ujiaki is very powerful and synergize well with what Lion is trying to do but it is already known that if Lion can align the right cards, they’re unbeatable in a military conflict and this seems to push it to the point of overkill. As for the political side, Ujiaki does not seem effective enough to reliably carry political by himself but he can certainly help with it.
Ikoma Ujiaki introduces even more variance and a higher curve in Lion decks to reinforce something they already did very well. Is it worth it? Yes, if they can reliably win the favor. Will it make Lion a lot stronger than they already are? Probably not.

Benjoewoo - 5/5
A relatively free double charge is pretty strong. If you control the imperial favor about 50% of the time in your matches, his ability is reliable enough that he goes into a conflict and first action sets up a hard to beat stat line, possibly insurmountable since there’s no restriction. This maximizes out of dynasty staging grounds plays and mitigates the times it flips up two people that are too expensive to buy. A whopping 5 political is third place to two champions, making him a solid stat for Lion in the political match ups. His 5 cost only minorly detracts from this package with the bushi and courtier traits, both amazing, because Lion the clan of necromancy can play him like Toturi: never pay full price.

Grendel - 4/5
Super win more, but you know can completely win a game on his own sometimes so its probably worth of the risk of him hitting your flop and not having the favor.

Kingsley - 3/5
Despite this character appearing shockingly good when first previewed, I’ve soured on him after some testing - I wasn’t able to gain the favor consistently enough to be worth increasing my cost curve for this guy, especially given Lion’s swarm style. It’s quite possible others will find out a better way to use him, but right now he seems powerful but unreliable.

I Fight Dragons – 5/5
Powerful stats, Powerful traits, potentially powerful ability; Ujiaki has it all, almost. I think a lot of people underestimate the cost of discarding the imperial favor. Lion are quite weak at “Favor control” compared to many other factions, often having a hard time winning on defense and only really winning one attack a turn where other clans are more flexible and able to threaten more conflict wins. If Lion is able to consistently win the favor, Ujiaki is a Mac truck carrying a bunch of angry samurai here to wreck your stuff; if not, then Ujiaki is a glorified, but decent, body. Regardless, he’s a card to watch out for and will likely win games with very little reason not to run him right now.


Magnificent Lighthouse (consensus score: 3)


nyxnyxnyx - 3/5
Unfortunately there isn’t an Action window between your opponent discarding from provinces and refilling/revealing new ones, or this would have been just a bit better. +2 PS is nothing to sneeze at, and likely means your opponent won’t be attacking that province unless he overwhelmingly dominates in that side. Although not technically card advantage generating, fateseal effects are really strong, especially in tandem with future ‘Name a card’-ish effects as well as any kind of draw/honor-choking.

Chuterêve - 3/5
A holding that can manipulate what your opponent is going to draw, which is not bad. The +2 strength bonuses make it even more playable. However, the main issue here is justifying a slot for it in your deck when other holdings offer a more concretely beneficial effect.

Benjoewoo—3/5
The holding has stiff competition with Forgotten Library and Phx not wanting to clog dynasty with holdings . The holding generally allows you to pick the worst of three cards from either the opponent’s dynasty or conflict deck, so you can greatly mitigate power cards coming up, but that may not help much if your opponent bids more than 1 for the conflict deck and only mitigates the future flops for dynasty. This may not be true against clans with options to play out of discard or who can shuffle the dynasty, and against some of those clans, e.g. Lion, the discard requirement may undeniably give them a benefit because of dynasty discard recursion. The +2 PS is a great boon, but probably not overcoming the potentially high downside of finding double toturi and ujiaki on top of the opponent’s dynasty deck.

Grendel - 3/5
fateseal on steroids effect. If you can get to the point in the game where it becomes bid 1 and have this out, this card will completely take control of the game. It can also potentially snag bombs out of your opponent’s dynasty if they have a super volatile one like Crab. I’m probably rating it higher then I should but I think at some point in time a hard control deck will come around and this card will be dreaded.

I Fight Dragons – 3/5
This card is fantastic for a heavy dishonor focused Phoenix deck, and mediocre otherwise. What this card basically does is allow you to select the worst of 3 cards for your opponent to draw. If your opponent is bidding 1/turn, then you have full control over their single card they get every turn and that is phenomenal and what dishonor decks tend to force quite early. Using it dynasty side is usually mediocre as you are more likely digging your opponent closer to their high impact cards than you are to be milling them.

Kingsley - 3/5
In an honor choke deck, this card can present a huge problem for your opponent - however, under normal circumstances this isn’t really worth keeping around in a province.


Bayushi Yojiro (average score: 3.166)


nyxnyxnyx - 4/5
Scorpion sorely lacks MIL strength, so this 3/1 slant is great. His effect is also great, allowing the multitude of Scorpion dishonor-as-costs to not negatively impact your characters, though this also reduces the effectiveness of Way of the Scorpion and similar dishonor effects somewhat (use them in the conflict without Yojiro!). Cute trick you can do with sac effects is to sacrifice your dishonored dudes in the conflict with Yojiro, allowing you to not lose honor when they leave play.

Chuterêve - 3/5
Yojiro is not incredible but he’s not a bad addition to the Scorpion dynasty deck. Scorpion has effects that ask to dishonor their characters and honoring is not a focus of their game plan, so Bayushi Yojiro’s ability is probably not going to hurt them. Sometimes, you will be able to enjoy the fact that your opponent’s honored characters can’t benefit from their glory and sometimes, the interaction with some of ours cards like Way of the scorpion will be awkward.

Benjoewoo - 3/5
He’s probably not particularly high utility while the only status tokens are honored/dishonored. He is the first imbalanced imperial magistrate, with a favorable military stat for scorpion, but his lack of by and large useful traits makes him essentially a playfield leveler against clans that can consistently honor themselves while mitigating the relatively low penalties scorpion characters take on being dishonored. Possibly useful if Scorpion start getting a military angle sub theme, but otherwise probably average or slightly below without more in clan cards and/or tricks caring for his ability or traits.

Grendel - 3/5
If he was a courtier he would be a total house. He poopoos all over the Crane and Phoenix MU, so if you need help with that one. Probably needs some scorpion themes like dishonor for bonus effect cards printed to really see this character develop. Until then he is a MU card that also fronts a reasonable mil score in a mil light clan.

I Fight Dragons – 3/5
Yojiro is an interesting unique character that isn’t really bad but also not really great. His ability helps you dishonor some of Scorpion’s higher glory characters without punishment or turn off an opponent who relies on honored status for big stat gains like Crane or Phoenix. Honestly, I think Scorpion runs him for at least a little while just because he’s a 3 military character in a clan that has very low military overall.

Kingsley - 3/5
Despite an ability that is often antisynergistic (Scorpion has lots of ways to dishonor enemies), this guy may see play for his strong military stats, relevant keywords, and ability to defend effectively against honored attackers.


Ide Tadaji (average score: 2.333)


nyxnyxnyx - 2/5
Just a really awkward card with poor stats for a 4 coster. The ability is like a combined limited harpoon+movement which is just really strange.

Chuterêve - 2/5
Yogo Hiroue and Doji Challenger are laughing quietly. Tadaji’s ability is not going to trigger a lot because of the heavy requirements for it. Having a two cost character ready outside from the conflict from each player seems awfully specific and can be played around if needed. The stats are not really exciting either but Unicorn can use a political boost.

Benjoewoo - 2/5
Compared to Bayushi Hiroue, who has a lower military stat and isn’t a daimyo, this guy is lackluster. Compared to Doji Challenger, who has a lower political stat and whose ability only works on attack, this guy is terrible at +1 cost with a significantly lower military stat. The restrictions on his ability make him pretty poor since he can’t target ide trader and unicorn currently have no 2 cost or lower people you want in political conflicts over military ones. Unicorn need help, but this guy isn’t it at this time. Will get better in the future, but given other large holes in Unicorn’s card choices, this is probably longer than shorter in coming.

Grendel - 3/5
I’ma be generous and give this a solid 3 in the context of his other dynasty 4 cost brothers/sisters. Extremely limited skill, but when going first it is decent. 4 pol is pretty good, I wish his mil was a bit higher so he could have at least have conflict flexibility to make up for the limitations of his actual ability

I Fight Dragons – 2/5
I’m pretty sure everyone else has covered this card to death and why it’s not great. It’s a 4 drop that has decent political but an ability that is almost always easy to play around or simply not impactful thanks to just how many restrictions it has. Much cost 2 or less, must be ready, must not already be participating; that’s a lot of restrictions for an effect that isn’t even that great. So basically, he’s just a 4 cost courtier with 4 political and that’s sadly about on curve for Unicorn right now.

Kingsley - 3/5
More movement tricks with mediocre stats - what Unicorn really needs is characters with good stats to use those movement effects on, not more conditional movement tricks. Perhaps better than Shinjo Tatsuo as it comes with a useful harpoon, but still not great.


Miwaku Kabe (average score: 1.333)


nyxnyxnyx - 1/5
+3 PS is okay...except no one will ever attack the province this is on, and you can’t choose where this goes. Rebuild is a thing, but at that point you’re getting a card for +3 province strength, when conflict strength is way more relevant and might help you not lose in the first place. The effect is barely relevant.

Chuterêve – 1/5
Do not let this card fool you, a +3 strength holding is not worth it if you can’t move it to another province and it doesn’t matter how many time you see it. The only thing that can prevent this card to never see play would be imperials decks, assuming that they are going to be a thing and need more imperial traits that badly.

Benjoewoo - 2/5
The one per deck limit and extremely situational ability make this below average. With time rules as they are in FFG OP, this card really can help with tie breakers to force a concession from the opponent, but then this is really a blank dynasty slot beyond its +3PS. It does have the benefit of being targetable for rebuild, so you can have it on demand as crab for ultimate turtling or if you splash that card. It also buffs the neutral seppun unique previewed elsewhere, but these aren’t bringing the rating up at this time.

Grendel - 1/5
Yep.

I Fight Dragons – 1/5
It’s a big, fat holding that clogs a province slot in exchange for that province probably not breaking. Until there’s a province I can use without the conflict being there, and every turn it gets me something, this card is a hard pass.

Kingsley - 2/5
Miwaku Kabe suffers greatly from the opponent just not attacking it, and its reshuffle effect is not particularly interesting (especially because it prevents you from using Rebuild, this card’s main strength). While I’ve heard interesting talk about using this to get Spiritcalled characters shuffled back into the deck, the problem is that the enemy is just going to ignore this province in favor of others!


Pathfinder’s Blade (consensus score: 5)

nyxnyxnyx - 5/5
Katanas are commonplace in most decks still, and this basically trades +1 MIL for the effect, and not being restricted. The effect is amazing, cancelling anything from Shameful Display to Art of War. It’s also a (non-Restricted) weapon, which makes Niten Master very, very happy.

Chuterêve – 5/5
Note : Crab being keeper, they can’t play this card but Scorpion, Crane and Dragon will be able to. 0 cost for a card that allow the cancel of a province trigger and that is not useless in other circumstances is probably as good as we can ever hope for. It’s a prime card to splash too (who can say Niten Master?)

Benjoewoo - 5/5
As a Dragon player, a free weapon attachment gives me giddy feelings. From a general point of view, this card gives me fuzzy feelings because it completely denies province RNG assuming the attachment stays alive long enough to trigger its ability. Cloud the Mind doesn’t stop this, only dragon/scorpion splash if you run the attachment hate cards unless there’s an in clan attachment hate, e.g. Crab. That it’s a weapon greatly buffs Dragon, but it’s solid outside of them as a free attachment that gives a force buff and stops some of the most powerful actions in the game, e.g. Kuroi Mori. It also has an interesting effect of increasing high impact attachment cards to draw out attachment hate, increasing the utility of those other high impact attachments like Cloud the Mind.

Grendel - 5/5
Superhotfire. Proactive decks are made on turn 1 attacks into blind provinces and hitting the wrong one can ruin your day. Effectively negating some of the most dangerous effects in the game gives this card a home in potentially any deck with a bit of crab.

I Fight Dragons – 5/5
So obviously good, it shouldn’t need explaining. Province effects are very powerful and swingy and some of the new ones are only getting swingier. For 0 this card straight up stops the best provinces in the game from triggering and gives you +1 military in the meantime. Oh, and it’s also a weapon. Niten Master likey.

Kingsley - 5/5
One of the best cards in the game. Province effects have become very powerful and this card is one of very few options that can deal with them. It’s especially powerful for Dragon thanks to synergy with Niten Master.


Raise the Alarm (average score: 2.5)


nyxnyxnyx - 3/5
Remember kids, when attacking Crab/splash on MIL don’t choose a province with a facedown card! (and between faceups, choose the one with the lesser Charge! target). Not a terrible card per se, but it’s possible for an opponent to make this card dead in your hand for a veeeeeeeeery long time if he’s playing around it, and then you have a chance of ‘whiffing’ sometimes too. Hitting a holding with this is actually not what I consider whiffing, but I’d rather Rebuild at that point.

Chuterêve – 2/5
Fun card for theme decks and maybe a more than that one day if we have enough to make a deck really optimized for it. For now, it is too much variance based to be worth something: You will more often miss than reveal a worthy character.

Benjoewoo - 3/5
A free defensive charge should be above Charge’s original rating (by myself), but this card is crab specific, has to target a face down province, and has to hit a character during a military conflict on defense. Crab generally favor military, so the military conflict restriction is somewhat painful because you’re playing this assumedly into a conflict you should already be favored in when considering Crab’s general military favoritism and the SH. Also, this doesn’t necessarily mitigate Crab’s dynasty issues as you could land an eager scout, generating effectively +1 military force and a body to deny unopposed honor loss and contribute a sacrificial body. The large swing factor of landing Kisada may not be there depending on board state, mitigating the potential upsides.

Grendel - 2/5
I don’t know, this card is skornegistic with itself and with crabs default holding based strategy. Just feels very off to play it even if you can win big with it and then proceed to keep that fatty around for a long time.

I Fight Dragons – 2/5
Potentially high impact event that is also free, but it’s very clunky to trigger. Your opponent has to be attacking an already facedown province and it must be military for this card to even do anything, and then it’s luck of the draw for how impactful it really is. People tend to attack face-up provinces already, so I think this card won’t see much play at all after a week.

Kingsley - 3/5
This card suffers from reliability issues, especially because players tend to attack provinces with faceup cards rather than those with facedown ones. However, it can potentially provide a serious bonus with the right situation, and note that even flipping a holding can be useful.


Kakita Blade (average score: 2.666)


nyxnyxnyx - 3/5
Actually not terrible. Policy Debate is a thing now and it’s very common to be using it in a MIL conflict where you have a balanced-skills guy debating a 2/0 soldier or something. Kakita Blade means you get to slap this on your MIL guy, benefit from the +2 MIL, and still have him/her be your debating expert. And you get an honor, too!

Chuterêve - 3/5
Worse stats than a fine katana for the cost. In a duel focused deck, this will be probably makes you win 1 honor per turn while in play, which directly compare to Honored blade, a playable but not stellar Lion card. The +2 political bonus in duel is good for using Policy debate (reviewed in the same article) and is a nice help without being extremely relevant.
If a consistent duel / honor deck becomes a thing, this card will be part of it. Otherwise, it will be harder to justify his inclusion in an already stacked Crane conflict deck.

Benjoewoo - 3/5
Policy Debate makes this card more useful, and vice versa, though primarily this card benefits as Crane generally won’t choose to duel with a low political stat and generally have favorable ones. Defensive honor is starting to get more tools, and this is undeniably a tool for that. However, Better play greatly mitigates the need to use this card, as 1 fate and a card for 1 honor may not be the best use of resources. This on Kaezin can effectively read 1 honor and massive send home, but the lack of other tools to effectively gain honor and win via honor may detract from that play for some time.

Grendel - 2/5
Pretty neat honestly, not that great generically but in a specific duel deck it will help prevent the honor bleed from winning duels and as more duels come along especially political ones this card will increase in value greatly, if even only for its own archetype. However, it’s widespread appeal is quite low and conflict deck space is very tight so I don’t see it becoming common even if there is a tier 1 duel for days deck.

I Fight Dragons – 2/5
Same stat line as honored blade with a less reliable trigger for the honor gain, for now. This cards stock goes up as we get a legit dueling deck someday, but until then it’s probably a pass.

Kingsley - 3/5
With Policy Debate as common as it is, this card’s side benefit can be quite handy. Further, the free honor for winning duels can be handy. The main thing holding this card back right now is a simple lack of duelists in the game, but in the future this could be very powerful.


High Kick (average score: 2.833)

nyxnyxnyx - 2/5
Costs 1, requires a ready Monk character, only hits participating. Personally not too excited by this, it’s quite a lot of hoops to jump through for a bow effect that still costs 1 ultimately. The silence effect is interesting I guess?

Chuterêve - 4/5
Bow events are powerful in this game. This one is limited to military but it shouldn’t be too hard for a Dragon player to bow a 1 cost monk (Wanderer, Togashi initiate), even if monks are not the main theme of the deck and the silence effect is also really potent. I don’t expect every Dragon to run it because their conflicts deck are already stacked with useful cards but some will definitively do it.

Benjoewoo - 3/5
Dragon monks look to be investment bankers, so it’s possible the fate cost may not matter much as more monks come out and fate manipulation comes out to give Dragon consistently well supplied fate pools. The action is also nice for a couple reasons—it has a cloud the mind effect for any military conflict and it bows separately without requiring both occur. However, it requires bowing a monk character, so you can’t bow your attached TW for maximum value, and can pose a large cost depending on board state. However, depending on available monks, this may not be too much of an issue. If Dragon go keeper, this becomes significantly better as the monk body can be free from keeper initiates entering play. As of now, however, Dragon are seeker, have incentive to stay seeker for Pathfinder’s Blade, and the monk selection doesn’t really support this.

Grendel - 2/5
Feels a bit too steep in cost, but its quasi-unconditional so it might get some play in a monk deck. Good Stuff Dragon doesn’t have the room to spare. Almost a 3 because even though the trade is fair knocking down a character with multiple effects invested into it for a chud is still quite powerful.

I Fight Dragons – 3/5
Great effect and turning off abilities is a big deal when an LPB is gunning for you, but the lack of utilitarian monk cards to bow for it right now means it does have a tangible cost to it. It does make Ascetic Visionary easier to swallow, though.

Kingsley - 3/5
This card has a few too many hoops to jump through to be consistently powerful, but works great with low stat Monks like Keeper Initiate. I wish it either cost zero, worked in either type of conflict, or didn’t require a bow - as it stands, though, it’s still an interesting option, just not a top tier one.


Kamayari (average score: 3.166)


nyxnyxnyx - 2/5
Pretty much a 2 for +3 MIL with a conditional ‘silence’. Problem being if the ability is good enough to trigger, the opponent still gets to make the choice to do it and bow.

Chuterêve - 2/5
This is a weapon for Time for War, the Seeker card that Lion can’t play for now and without it, it’s only a very average military attachment. The effect seems rather intimidating but it gives a choice to your opponent, allowing them to play around it. Two cost attachments are hard to justify right now with Let Go so heavily splashed but in a future meta were less attachment hate are around, this find a nice place in some decks.

Benjoewoo - 3/5
The trait restriction won’t matter much to Lion, though it may for clans splashing Lion. Tempo-less bow is good, but a 2 fate cost is hefty, even if the weapon gives +3 military. Seekers splashing lion can play time for war, effectively playing this for free, but that’s really investment for the future as opposed to winning the conflict that you had to lose to play time for war to get this back for free. This card costs as much as most people Lion will want to play, and other than dragon, there doesn’t seem to be too much appeal for this card just yet. Maybe Crab if they go seeker for time of war hitting up to six 2 fate cost attachments, but that seems like jank.

Grendel - 3/5
That time for war plant is here. Seeker can run 3x and 3x Time For Wars. Pretty strong effect as most characters are played for their ability and not their stats and can quite easily create big swings in combat math if unanswered. Without ways to reduce its cost or cheat into play and the competitive scene stuck on dragon, I don’t see this card making waves even if powerful in its own right.

I Fight Dragons – 4/5
This weapon is fantastic. There are a ton of triggered abilities on personalities that are quite powerful, and bowing Hiroue or Atsuko after they trigger their ability is just mean. The main thing holding this card back is being a 2 cost attachment in a Meta of Let Go, but that likely won’t last forever.

Kingsley - 2/5
While this effect is strong, it’s a de facto opponent’s choice effect (as they can choose not to use abilities to avoid provoking this), and two cost attachments remain very risky in the present environment. In a future deck that supports Time for War this could see play, but right now I think it’s not quite there yet.


Shrine Maiden (average score: 4.833)


nyxnyxnyx - 5/5
It doesn’t take much for a 1 for 1/1/0 conflict character to be good, and this maiden’s effect is great. Right now it’s pretty easy to get to around 18 playable Spells/Kihos in a Phoenix deck, and that number might go up (or down) depending on what new toys Phoenix gets. Keep an eye out for her!

Chuterêve - 5/5
1/1 conflict characters for 1 are already very potent and the ability of the Shrine Maiden is destined to grow in efficiency with each playable new spell released. Even now, Phoenix has good chances of revealing at least one spell in the 3 top cards of their conflict decks which is already incredible value coming from a 1 cost conflict character.

Benjoewoo - 5/5
1 fate for a conflict character with both stats and an ability that can draws 3 cards is pretty bonkers. Kihos and Spells will come in time, so this card will see increased utility, and even now it has multiple viable targets out of the clans that would likely want to play this, i.e. Phx and Dragon. Phx have plenty of spells, and Dragon run a number of spells/kiho. More importantly, both will see more. Based on the 2017 Worlds performance, this card will keep Phx a strong Dragon splash contender.

Grendel - 5/5
Sorry some cards are niche and got low a score even if playable within their own archetype. This card is similar in that its only playable in certain decks. Kiho/Spell decks but in those decks it is insane. Neither card type has the critical mass yet but wow when it does.

I Fight Dragons – 4/5
This card is solid right now. In a deck with around the 14-18 spells in most phoenix decks you are just about guaranteed to draw 1 off this card with a small chance of drawing 2. If and when there are enough impactful spells that most of your deck will comprise of them then this card becomes absolutely bonkers good. So expect this already good card to get better.

Kingsley - 5/5
While not quite there yet, Shrine Maiden is going to be such a powerhouse soon that I’m kind of shocked it was printed. In a deck with many spells or Kiho cards, this is a 1 cost conflict 1/1 (already good) that has a decent shot at replacing itself and even drawing more beyond that. Look for this to attract a lot of hate in days to come.


Harmonize (average score: 3.333)


nyxnyxnyx - 3/5
I think a lot of people are going to rate this card pretty highly, and I can see its value but don’t think it’s as great as people are making it out to be. At best, it’s another avenue to trigger Spyglass/Watch Commander and the like, while being a send-home effect with some alternative hoops to jump through. A typical use would see you using your 3+ characters to defend, then sending both home after an appropriate amount of playing chicken with the conflict strength difference.

Chuterêve - 4/5
A strong defense tool that probably won’t be too hard to trigger but weak to anything that can allow characters to return into the conflict (mainly Favorable ground and the Unicorn SH).

Benjoewoo - 4/5
Phx seem to want to play defensively for the most part in early game, which seems to be the most important segment of the game in the current meta, and this card helps with that, particularly if Phx wants to continue playing long haul investment games with quality over quantity. Radiant Orator with this sends home two people while potentially opening up Display of Power to punish last ditch efforts by the opponent, so this card seems above average.

Grendel - 3/5
Feels like this should be in unicorns wheelhouse, but stalling out an opponent’s turn is pretty clutch in a lot of scenarios and can even create tremendous card advantage if they are trying to front load a character with effects for a break.

I Fight Dragons – 3/5
A solid defensive trick that can be very effective when set up properly. Send home is very powerful when a lot of characters require presence and are best used in a specific conflict type. Being able to also move home one of your own guys means you can neutralize entire conflicts for 1 cost. Setup holds this card back, but it’s very powerful when it is used in the right situation.

Kingsley - 3/5
Harmonize is a solid bit player for Phoenix, but not an all-star card on its own. Clans with lots of ways to move bowed characters into fights (what up, Unicorn) might really appreciate this, but it does suffer from the standard downsides of send-home cards.



Seal of the Scorpion (consensus score: 2)


nyxnyxnyx - 2/5
Yes, you absolutely play this card so you now have enough Shinobi to do S&M. No, I’m just kidding, don’t do that. This works with the upcoming Back-Alley holding for some cute shenanigans, so look out for that.

Chuterêve - 2/5
As a splash, it’s half a Fan and the possibility to avoid Way of the scorpion. Too niche.
Even for a Scorpion shinobi themed deck, it’s still underwhelming because the only good card that synergize with it right now is Smoke and mirrors.


Benjoewoo - 2/5
Unfortunately, most of the clan seals seem poor out of the gate because while free and granting a +1 in a stat, clan allegiance is largely irrelevant in the current meta and the given traits, while definitely useful, are only situationally so. With the Scorpion one, Shinobi opens tricks to play, such as smoke and mirrors on Shoju to force bad plays by the opponent, but that seems janky now and probably for a while unless Scorpion ninjas can really make a larger impact.
Funnily, gaining the scorpion allegiance seems fairly impactful, as it denies an opponent playing way of the scorpion on the attached character in the mirror. Provided that you’re playing any non-scorpion characters, who would most likely come from your conflict deck as of this article rather than dynasty. The rating definitely could go up, and with Scorpion the trait makes that probability seem higher, but as of now the uses seem somewhat questionable, as you have to play multiple cards to really get any use and the additional political stat isn’t an incredible boon to a politically favoring clan.

Grendel - 2/5
This seal is no different from Crane. Has a bit more synergy already revealed with the powerful smoke and mirrors, but I don’t think that makes a reason to run this card. I suspect there may not be a single thing that says run this card for these trait givers, but it will be a wealth of micro opportunities that will cause them to see the light of the day.

I Fight Dragons – 2/5
If Shinobi becomes a premium trait for Scorpion decks then I can see this card being in the deck to make the better scorpion characters also Shinobi. Until then, at least the art is kind of gorgeous. Don’t even consider using this as tech against Way of the Scorpion, either.

Kingsley - 2/5
Just a worse Fan at present. Smoke and Mirrors isn’t a good enough card to put in your deck even with this, so it’s a classic “two bad cards” combo. Hopefully we’ll see more Shinobi tech in the future? Right now you can maybe put Political Rival into Back-Alley Hideaway, which is a cool trick but not really worth the downgrade from Fan IMO.


Shinjo Saddle (average score: 2.166)


nyxnyxnyx - 1/5
Uhhh...theoretically half a Katana for Cavalry that sticks around ‘forever’ and can sometimes get multiple uses out of in a turn? But you pay 1 for it? No thanks.

Chuterêve - 2/5
Shinjo is very sad(dle). In an optimal situation, Shinjo Saddle is supposed to be carried over the whole game. In reality, it will be hard to always have a cavalry character in play after the fate phase but chaining several turns with is doable. Not worth a slot in your deck.

Benjoewoo - 2/5
1 fate for +1 military force seems almost sub-par when you look at pathfinder’s blade. To be fair, that card is role restricted, while this is only trait restricted, but game metrics currently favor getting +2 in a stat for free or paying cost to get an amazing ability.

This card’s ability is effectively built in gift giver for unicorn, which can be nice for those military defenses and attachment protection in the dragon match up, but those seem relatively lackluster positive points considering the 1 fate cost and trait restriction in a clan that arguably wants to play a bunch of non-cavalry because they have good abilities, see Ide Tadajii, illustrious daimyo of the Ide family.

Grendel - 3/5
Better than the hate it gets, but not the sauce unicorn needs. Being able to roll this over multiple rounds is strong and using it twice per a turn is clutch.

I Fight Dragons – 2/5
You can theoretically keep this card in play forever; assuming you never end a turn with no characters, it or the character it’s attached to never get discarded, or you move it to a character and they don’t get void ringed at some point. It’s a bad initial investment with too many failing points for serious consideration.

Kingsley - 3/5
I see this as another take on Guidance of the Ancestors, allowing you to move it from character to character and thus keep it in play for a while. The main problem I have with this card is its cost - at zero fate this would be quite strong,


Policy Debate (consensus score: 5)


nyxnyxnyx - 5/5
Meta-warping! I’m playing this out of every clan I can, and it’s great. You can use it during any conflict, it costs 0, there’s no limit or max, it’s just amazing. How much should you bid during Debates? Bidding 1 is a safe way to get maximum ‘value’ out of any outcome, provided you don’t mind sometimes having to show your hand and get discarded if your POL advantage wasn’t great enough. Bidding just enough to guarantee a draw at ‘worst’ is another strategy that lets you preserve your hand information or cards. Bidding to guarantee a win is when you absolutely need to look at your opponent’s hand and push the discard through. Take into account the absolute honor levels of both players, the hand sizes, how much of the hand is already known, as well as other factors like I Can Swim when determining what to bid.

Chuterêve - 5/5
Printing this card is probably a mistake for the health of the game. Many card games have proven the strength and toxicity of cheap targeted discard effects like thoughtseize in MTG and this one is free and abusable, especially by the political clans. This is a 3x auto-include in a lot of decks.

It sometimes can force interesting bids choice from both players during the duel if the political stat of the challenged character is not too far from the challenging character because even if you’re the one using the card, a loss will mean that you will have to suffer the effect. It can also be used to leverage honor in hypothetical dedicated honor decks.

Benjoewoo - 5/5
If you can consistently play this with auto-win conditions or reliably win, you should. Not only does this force an honor bid, which can gain you resources on a tie, it trades at 1:1 card wise if you win. If you lose, this could really hurt, but you shouldn’t play this unless you know you can win. This will give defensive honor decks favoring political stats a boost, any deck running political rival a card saying, “here’s a Hobson’s choice,” and balanced stat clans a card that can change resource states while getting the Kitsuki Investigator effect outside of political conflicts.

Grendel - 5/5
Game defining. Not playable in every deck, but every deck that can play it should. The ones that can’t should stick to spies at court if they want hand destruction. Not going to get into some putzy plays with this card but this card + 1-2 honor to secure the best card from your opponent’s grip can completely flatline them.

I Fight Dragons – 5/5
This card is good, really good. For 0 fate you get perfect information on your opponent’s hand that allows you to perfectly plan out the conflict phase and you also get to make them drop their best card. It’s insanity. Oh, but it’s a duel so it can blow up in your face right? Technically true, but you select both the attacker and the defender in any conflict type so it’s easy to set up a differential where you are guaranteed to win or spend 1 or 2 honor for a guaranteed win, which is still worth playing the card for. It’s also a great card for dishonor decks as your opponent will definitely be tempted to bid high to cancel or flip the effect. This is a 3-of in almost any deck that can reasonably use it for a good long while.

Kingsley - 5/5
Amazing new card, one of the highest impact cards in the game. If you thought the dueling mechanic didn’t come up enough before, this is the card for you! Almost all decks may want to consider running Policy Debate, as the information and control it provides can be extremely useful. This card should perhaps have cost 1 neutral influence IMO - as it stands I think it’s going to be an absolute staple for a long time to come.