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Legend of the Five Rings Review: Provinces
Oct 15 2017 12:00 AM |
Kingsley
in Articles
Welcome to this, the last of our core set card reviews for L5R! This review will cover all provinces in the game, both neutral and clan-specific. Note that in order to make comparisons and decisions easier, provinces are being presented in order of rings, with neutrals first. This will be the last of our reviews for the Core Set, but we'll be back for the Imperial Cycle!Our reviewers:
Grendel: I have around twenty years of card game experience. At one time I was the worst rated player on DCI in the state of Tennessee. I have played several games to varying degrees of competitive success locally. For FFG’s LCG line I have only played Conquest competitively in which I have achieved second place in a 50+ OCTGN league, second and fifth place in two regional events, second in a store championship, and took home several game night kits. Beyond just playing a game. I enjoy discussing theory, strategy, and tactics for said game.
nyxnyxnyx: nyxnyxnyx is a competitive player from Singapore who has played Netrunner, Conquest, and AGOT 2.0.
benjoewoo: Old5r player, coming back and excited to see this game revive.
I Fight Dragons: I am an avid card game player who has played Magic, Netrunner, and Conquest competitively and L5R casually in the past. For the L5R LCG, I went 5-0 in the 704 person Kiku Matsuri and became one of the first Phoenix Hatamoto, then placed in the top 8 for the following 256 person inaugural tournament at Gencon 2017. I host a podcast focused on competitive play and being a better player called The Winter Court Podcast.
Kingsley: Kingsley once played Conquest and Netrunner competitively and is excited for a new and intriguing LCG.
Fertile Fields (average score: 4.2)
Grendel - 4/5
Drawing a card in a card game is always a strong mechanic, in a game with a plethora of cheap powerful events this is even greater. This card is only edged out because it’s mirror is generally better for most decks as fate is harder to come by. This isn’t always true especially in low bid decks like Lion.
nyxnyxnyx - 4/5
4 STR is just about the median, and it’s a repeatable card draw that just keeps on giving. Unfortunately, it faces stiff competition from its fate-doling cousin, Manicured Garden. 1 Fate is *probably* more valuable than 1 card right now, so Fertile Field is looked upon less favourably.
Benjoewoo – 5/5
In a game where cards almost always cost in game resources, this can be a godsend as it effectively only carries opportunity cost for most clans. Combined with Seeker of Air, this is auto-include for most clans.
I Fight Dragons – 4/5
Card draw is good. Repeat card draw is very good, if you can defend it and build up that incremental advantage. Right now I think most decks will favor the repeat fate gain on Manicured Garden over this, but this is by no means a bad province, just slightly less favored for now.
Kingsley - 4/5
While probably inferior to Manicured Garden under normal conditions, Fertile Fields can be a strong option for decks that know they’ll be bidding low in the draw phase, and the fact that this is a “weaker†option just goes to show the strength of many air provinces.
Manicured Garden (average score: 4.8)
Grendel - 4/5
The game is designed around a fixed economy and anyway to generate an economic(especially a fate based one) advantage over an opponent, as long it isn’t squandered, is very strong.
nyxnyxnyx - 5/5
Median 4 STR, repeatable action that gives fate. It will take some serious competition for this province to be displaced as the choice for Air
Benjoewoo – 5/5
Gaining fate is few and far between, especially fate into your general pool for use. Probably the most likely choice for most clans over its neutral counter-part in the core set. Slightly more auto-include as most clans will default to this without being Seeker of Air, and if they already have an in clan air province, this will likely edge out Fertile Fields.
I Fight Dragons – 5/5
Fate is the lifeblood of the game, so anything that gives you additional fate on top of the regulated amount per turn is going to be an impactful effect on the economy of the game. This is why Manicured Garden is the air province of choice for most decks, and I don’t expect that to change much going forward due to the fundamentals it covers.
Kingsley - 5/5
I suspect Manicured Garden will be a very strong option for a long time - fate is one of the core bottlenecks of the game, and this helps you overcome that bottleneck. One of the best provinces to flip against a probing attack.
The Art of Peace (average score: 3.2)
Grendel - 3/5
I think viewing this card in its optimal condition with the defender having a big board committed and the attacker having a big board committed is a bit of a farce as it requires a serious of contradiction of events to win. Looking at it as a 1 one way dishonor effect on your opponent’s board can be very destabilizing if they walk blind into it and manage to break. That being said, I don’t think this effect is better than Manicured Garden or Fertile Fields.
nyxnyxnyx - 3/5
Card sounds awesome in theory but likely fails to deliver in practice. The problem is that the ability (an AoE Shameful Display) is a little at odds with its triggering condition - a break. The more characters you commit the less value you get out of it. Your opponent can also engineer a non-break if it was absolutely going to dishonor his entire party. In most cases, a simple Shameful Display is more controlled and likely to trigger.
Benjoewoo – 5/5
This card usually guarantees Voice of Honor is turned on for Crane, can turn off Forged Edict under the right circumstances or severely limit it. It’s “farmable†assuming the opponent can avoid breaking it, but still very strong because it can create a significant, lasting force swing for later conflicts.
I Fight Dragons – 3/5
Clunky because you want to stick characters on defense to get optimal value from the break effect for Crane, but by defending it you also really reduce the chance of it breaking in the first place. There are times where this is a great effect and others where it’s just not that helpful. Due to the high competition this receives from the neutral air provinces, I’m not sure The Art of Peace is up to par.
Kingsley - 2/5
The Art of Peace is IMO the weakest clan province in the game - the combination of needing to break to trigger its ability and needing a large number of units in the fight for maximum impact is an awkward one. Often this just doesn’t really do that much, and that’s not what you want in your Air province slot.
Secret Cache (consensus score: 5)
Grendel - 5/5
While drawing a card isn’t better then gaining fate, drawing your best card 5 deep is better. This card is exceptionally tilt inducing when combined with seeker of air.
nyxnyxnyx - 5/5
Technically speaking, it’s just a card, which is the same as Fertile Field. The difference is that you get to select it out of 5, which is great. It’s also a reaction instead of an action, which lets you save your defender-first action for something else, while giving it a slight weakness to Cautious Scout-ish effects. (since it only has one window to trigger)
Benjoewoo – 5/5
Looking at the top 5 and picking any card is incredibly strong. Almost strictly better than Fertile Fields, Scorpion will almost always play this given their conflict deck contains more powerful actions than the dynasty deck.
I Fight Dragons – 5/5
See Fertile Fields except it doesn’t cost an action and lets you pick the best card from your top 5 to draw rather than Yu-Gi-Oh-ing right off the top. Seriously, I don’t think I need to say much more about this Province.
Kingsley - 5/5
Secret Cache is basically an upgraded Fertile Fields that gives you a search rather than just a draw. The difference there is pretty significant, so this one ends up being very strong indeed, especially in Scorpion where it lets you get exactly the counter card that you need to hit whatever your opponent is currently doing.
Ancestral Lands (average score: 2.8)
Grendel - 2/5
Only doing something when an opponent attack into it and that something is being harder to break in a specific conflict means this card leaves something to be desired. I think this card edges out over Entrenched Position as even political focused decks can struggle to break it as the ways to buff political stats are quite limited right now.
nyxnyxnyx - 3/5
Pretty strong province against an opponent singularly focused on that conflict type (POL), but falls flat on its face in other cases. In the first place, this almost *has* to go on your stronghold, or it could possibly be ignored. Most clans out of the core set also seem to have a decent split of POL/MIL, letting them attack on the non-buffed side. Overall, still a decent Stronghold that often presents a stumbling block in terms of time, with a possibility to shine in the right matchups. Worth noting that Captive Audience (switch POL->MIL) has no MIL->POL equivalent, so Ancestral Lands suffers a little in that regard.
Benjoewoo – 3/5
You play this currently if you’re not crane, scorpion, and possibly phoenix to mitigate political oriented match ups. Easily farmable, however, so opportunity cost is relatively high.
I Fight Dragons – 3/5
The core neutral Earth provinces are solidly okay in my book, but not as strong as many other options. They are best and really only worthwhile when on your stronghold, and really mediocre in your home 4 due to a lack of beneficial effect that are found on the other provinces. Ancestral Lands likely works better than Entrenched Position due to the difficulty in shoring up a political weakness compared to a military one.
Kingsley - 3/5
Ancestral Lands isn’t anything special, but is probably the better choice over Entrenched Position for most decks, though very political-heavy decks will likely choose Entrenched instead. This works well as a protector for the stronghold.
Entrenched Position (average score: 3)
Grendel - 2/5
Suffers from the problem as Ancestral Lands but the 10 strength is less of a wall because of the many ways to buff military skill. Not to mention the two best military clans can put up extremely high military numbers(mid to high 20s.) with very little effort. Even Crab can get to those heights with little work.
nyxnyxnyx - 3/5
Pretty strong province against an opponent singularly focused on that conflict type (MIL), but falls flat on its face in other cases. In the first place, this almost *has* to go on your stronghold, or it could possibly be ignored. Most clans out of the core set also seem to have a decent split of POL/MIL, letting them attack on the non-buffed side. Overall, still a decent Stronghold that often presents a stumbling block in terms of time, with a possibility to shine in the right matchups. Early results seem to indicate the POL-heavy Clans having more success, so Entrenched might not be so great.
Benjoewoo – 4/5
You play this to mitigate military match ups. This is slightly better than Ancestral because you may play it even if you’re a military oriented clan because the field is mostly military. High opportunity cost for being farmable, however.
I Fight Dragons – 3/5
The core neutral Earth provinces are solidly okay in my book, but not as strong as many other options. They are best and really only worthwhile when on your stronghold, and really mediocre in your home 4 due to a lack of beneficial effect that are found on the other provinces. Entrenched Position is likely the weaker of the two due to the difficulty in shoring up political versus military skill.
Kingsley - 3/5
Like Ancestral Lands, this is a good way to bolster your stronghold against military aggression - but most clans may be better suited with the political boost instead, as military attacks are almost always a threat, even with this boost; in other words, Ancestral Lands does more to mitigate political threats than this does to mitigate military ones. Still, decks with lots of political strength may want to consider this, and it has a rather cheeky combo with Captive Audience on defense as well.
Defend the Wall (average score: 4.4)
Grendel – 5/5
Usually you only want to put forth enough of a commitment to stop an opponent from breaking. An opponent attacking into this one can find themselves losing an impactful ring effect at a necessary time alongside Crabs SH and The Mountain Does Not Fall this card can go a long way.
nyxnyxnyx - 4/5
Would have been a lower rating in any other clan, but since Crab has a ‘defend’ theme, this fits right into their game plan anyway. It’s quite a lot of work required just to trigger a ring effect, but presumably Crab has an easier time of it than most other clans. It’s also convenient that it’s an Earth province, which makes it an easy choice over the alternatives which aren’t amazing.
Benjoewoo – 5/5
I think Crab will definitely play this because it’s the only non-farmable earth province option. It forces your opponent on attack to invest more to win conflicts to avoid giving you the ring anyway.
I Fight Dragons – 4/5
Ring effects are the crux of the game, and Crab have an easy time winning on defense if they really want to. You can think of this Province as a free Display of Power for winning on Defense and that’s pretty sweet. This makes Defend the Wall a nasty surprise to run into with a poking attack or with a vitally important ring effect and you should expect it in just about every Crab deck.
Kingsley - 4/5
Defend the Wall isn’t amazing, but provides that extra bit of worry when attacking Crab and helps boost their defensive advantages. Since the other Earth provinces available right now don’t help Crab all that much,, this one seems like a strong choice.
Meditations on the Tao (average score: 4.6)
Grendel - 5/5
Draining fate from an opponent is one of those few ways to generate fate advantage on an opponent and that is something to not be underestimated.
nyxnyxnyx - 4/5
Very brutal province that essentially does the Void ring effect on a character attacking the province. It’s also repeatable round to round which is excellent. Deducted a point for the cases where there are no characters with Fate in the conflict.
Benjoewoo – 5/5
You play this because Night Raid can only guarantee 1 card loss per game assuming it’s flipped. This one is a repeatable action, deterring farming, and has an average province strength.
I Fight Dragons – 4/5
When Meditations on the Tao gets to fire, it essentially removes an entire turns worth of value from a character and that’s a big deal in a game build around the fate mechanic. There are certainly times where this province is essentially blank, but the times it hits a 4 or 5 cost character with fate on it more than make up the difference.
Kingsley - 5/5
Meditations on the Tao can hit hard when first flipped, and while opponents can somewhat mitigate it afterwards the ability can still be a pain. Among the best provinces in the game.
Night Raid (average score: 2.2)
Grendel - 2/5
This card can quite easily swing for 2, but I often feel developing fate advantage is more important than developing card advantage and the single shot nature of the effect is somewhat disappointing in the grand scheme of things.
Nyxnyxnyx - 2/5
In most cases this triggers for somewhere between 1 to 3 (with 1 being way more common than 3), so it’s not exactly gamebreaking. It’s also an on-reveal trigger, which means it’s only ever going to trigger once.
Benjoewoo – 2/5
Discarding 3+ cards is kind of the dream, but the high chance of variance via scouting and the fact it’s once per game make it significantly less desirable than meditations.
I Fight Dragons – 2/5
Unfortunately, Night Raid being on reveal means it only triggers once and unless it’s on your stronghold, likely won’t discard more than 2 cards which your opponent gets to pick. It simply doesn’t seem impactful enough in the home 4 and there are better options for Stronghold Provinces out there.
Kingsley - 3/5
Unlike Meditations on the Tao, Night Raid always does at least something - but often that something is just a single card knocked away, which isn’t great. Night Raid on the stronghold can be a nasty surprise, but if the opponent sees it coming it’s not too hard to mitigate. I’d rather have the very strong but inconsistent Meditations over the weak but consistent Night Raid in most decks, though ones intending to force a low-bid game might want all the discard they can get.
Restoration of Balance (average score: 4.8)
Grendel - 5/5
This card is insane in the core only environment with Wayfinder providing the only actual counter play besides artificially limiting your draw against Dragon.
nyxnyxnyx - 5/5
The card itself is probably 4/5, because to me, it’s the IDEA of Restoration of Balance that is the truly threatening 5/5. Dragon players don’t actually have to play Restoration to benefit from its effect, as long as they don’t reveal a Fire province. The threat of Restoration should significantly impact the way your opponent plays, which is a big boon. It seems like bidding higher is also the more dominant strategy out of the Core set, which makes this province a lot deadlier.
Benjoewoo – 5/5
For dragon, you play this or meditations, both are fair choices. This has a below average province strength, but once it’s flipped, it can really nuke your opponent’s hand, which they can only mitigate by playing things ahead of time, giving you information and expending resources, or taking it to the face, in which case you gain information on hand strength based on what’s discarded. Dragon in particular will be able to potentially use this multiple times a game with their courtier preview from Tears of Amaterasu, which greatly increases the provinces usefulness.
I Fight Dragons – 4/5
Restoration of Balance really shines in the way the core set meta appears to be developing, with many players opting for high bids in the early game. This forces your opponent to either bid low until they hit it, play cards preemptively, or risk a disastrous face-check that swings tempo entirely in Dragon’s favor. All of which are fantastic for the very aggressive and tempo-oriented Dragon playstyle. The 3 Str keeps it from being on the levels of Kuroi Mori and Shameful Display, but be sure to always keep this one on mind or you might just regret it.
Kingsley - 5/5
Most decks are best served by bidding high early in the game. Restoration of Balance punishes that, forcing opponents to either bid low and concede card advantage or risk taking a huge hit from the discard effect.
Elemental Fury (average score: 2.4)
Grendel - 2/5
While less impactful at the conflict then many other provinces, allowing yourself to get the best ring effect or causing your opponent to get the worst can be extremely profound. That being said
nyxnyxnyx - 1/5
Swapping your opponent to a ring with Fate on it actually gives them that Fate, which makes this a horrible, horrible choice most of time, especially compared to its conflict-type-swapping cousin which has an actual impact on the conflict strength itself. Also only works once, which is sad.
Benjoewoo – 3/5
The high potential for variance in utility prevent this from being a 5/5, because oftentimes, particularly late game, there aren’t many good choices. Early game seems to be when this is best, but ensuring it goes off is almost entirely out of your control.
I Fight Dragons – 3/5
Like Earth, the neutral water provinces really suffer from a lack of persistent incremental advantage; but do offer significant immediate tempo. Switching the ring can be devastating, but just as often ends up being menial. Best when face checked turn 1 where rings don’t have fate and tempo matters most, but really loses value as the game goes on. Rally to the Cause is usually the better choice here.
Kingsley - 3/5
Solid but not amazing. This can often give someone a useless or weak ring, but suffers from the fact that weaker rings for a scenario will often have fate on them later and swapping the ring in that fashion will give the opponent that fate. Still not bad, though I tend to prefer repeated effects when possible.
Rally to the Cause (average score: 3.2)
Grendel - 2/5
Against some factions like Lion or Scorp this effect can be somewhat large, especially on a stronghold but I find against the others, this can be somewhat marginal especially if you or your opponent are playing to trigger ring effects and not breaks.
nyxnyxnyx - 3/5
Swapping the conflict type is great against any characters with lopsided stats, especially (-) Dashes that get sent home bowed immediately when this province is revealed. Unfortunately, this only works once. For multiple use, please refer to Appendix OP, Kuroi Mori.
Benjoewoo – 4/5
The high potential for variance in utility prevent this from being a 5/5, because in particular matchups, e.g. dragon or phoenix, the switch simply won’t matter most times. Early game seems to be when this is best, but ensuring it goes off is relatively hard. This might edge out Elemental Fury, however, simply because a lot of match ups will run dash stats, turning this ability into a send home and bow, the effects of which have to be countered separately.
I Fight Dragons – 4/5
Like Earth, the neutral water provinces really suffer from a lack of persistent incremental advantage; but do offer significant immediate tempo. Swapping the conflict type almost always is a detrimental effect to your opponent, and can really swing an entire conflict by sending home characters with dashes and neutering several abilities that require a specific conflict type.
Kingsley - 3/5
Rally to the Cause is a good way to stop some clans in their tracks - attacks from characters with unbalanced stats will get hit hard by this one. Like Elemental Fury, though, it suffers from being easily “farmable†for ring effects once flipped, since its text is no longer relevant.
The Art of War (consensus score: 5)
Grendel - 5/5
Gaining 3+ cards off an opponent’s blind poke can be extremely devastating and game turning.
nyxnyxnyx - 5/5
Only has 3 STR, though it barely matters since you kind of *want* this to break anyway. Unlike Crane’s on-break province, this does not present the awkward dilemma of having to defend with multiple characters for value. 3 cards is absolutely huge, and could be a big enough swing that would dissuade your opponent from breaking this at all and just being content with a ring effect. It’s also a Water province, which makes it an easy choice compared to the alternatives.
Benjoewoo – 5/5
Lion seem designed to draw fewer cards than the other clans, so this is a way to mitigate that at the cost of losing the province. Stronger option than the counterparts, so lion will run this barring better options come out.
I Fight Dragons – 5/5
Drawing cards is good and if your opponent is actively choosing not to further their win condition and slow down to not give it to you then all the better. The Art of War is such a fundamentally good province that I think it’s safe to say the Lion will be running it for quite a ways into the future of the game. There’s a lot of tempo sometimes in just letting an attack go and not defending, and The Art of War rewards you more for doing so.
Kingsley - 5/5
Not only is The Art of War great (especially for Lion decks, which want to bid low more often than some others), it replaces the comparatively weak Water province slot. Almost mandatory in Lion at present.
Endless Plains (average score: 3.6)
Grendel - 3/5
Quite easy to play around, but playing around it is quite inefficient in of itself. When not played around it can be quite devastating. I find this effect best when an opponent never finds it and they have to play around it for the length of the game.
nyxnyxnyx - 4/5
Dangerous ‘trap’ province that changes the way your opponent plays quite a bit. Until this province is revealed, they’re not going to go on solo expeditions with big guys carrying Fate. It’s nasty when it works, but suffers from the situations where you get chipped by small people or 2-man parties where one is expendable. It gets a slightly better rating for being Water, with less stiff competition. Like Restoration of Balance, you don’t necessarily have to play this as Unicorn to benefit from its psychological/bluffing aspect.
Benjoewoo – 3/5
Like the neutral options, this is subject to high variance because your opponent chooses who to sacrifice, so scouting can turn into a province break or a spud gets sacrificed for the cause to guarantee the break. But, if your opponent cannot scout, this may very well get a high impact kill.
I Fight Dragons – 3/5
The ultimate swingy province out of the core set; Endless Plains can be back-breakingly good or next to worthless depending on when your opponent hits it and with who. Unfortunately, I think the better players will be on the lookout for this one and very unlikely to fall into it unprepared. When there are a lot more options for Water provinces and Endless Plains becomes a bit of a dark horse in the meta then I would not be surprised to see it gaining value from the sheer surprise factor.
Kingsley - 5/5
Like Restoration of Balance, Endless Plains is not going to get a big hit every time but is absolutely devastating when it does. Further, Endless Plains replaces the weak Water slot. Once people get used to this it will probably be a fair bit weaker, but as it stands this card will just give you free wins sometimes.
Pilgrimage (average score: 4.4)
Grendel - 5/5
5 strength and a very strong ability at high level play make this card extremely good. It’s only actual problem is its competition.
nyxnyxnyx - 4/5
The ability negating all ring effects except on break actually incentivizes your opponent to commit to a break, which could be good or bad. Combined with the 5 STR, all poking / small expeditions are almost completely neutered.
Benjoewoo – 4/5
The 5 province strength is above average and very nice for raising average province strength to prevent breaks—probably more important in tournament for tie breakers—plus it’s not farmable outside of allowing unopposed conflicts for honor loss. Has little impact on the actual fight, however, and can be lower impact in games where current board states really matter.
I Fight Dragons – 4/5
Again, ring effects are the crux of the game, so denying ring effects from your opponent is a powerful ability that looks inane on the surface. Being 5 strength makes this province a nice hearty one to break too, and an excellent choice for a stronghold province if your deck doesn’t care as much for…
Kingsley - 5/5
Pilgrimage is a great option and should probably be in more decks even now; the only thing that constrains it is that it has extremely tough competition. Still, I think this will be a relevant option for a while, providing both unusually high province strength and a strong ability. I suspect many clans would benefit from Seeker of Void just to run both this and Shameful Display.
Shameful Display (consensus score: 5)
Grendel - 5/5
An opponent walking into this effect can be game changing creating quite often a 4 value swing that can last for several turns. It’s downside is that it will often break when an attack goes through UO, so leaving a defender up when this is on the board is a must.
nyxnyxnyx - 5/5
Walking into this when you don’t want to is backbreaking. Honoring a character and dishonoring the other is like TWO Fire rings, that’s LIT. Having it be a repeatable Action is crazy. The effect kind of protects itself, which makes the 3 STR deceptive. Brush up on the rules regarding Shameful Display’s targeting requirements though, it’s pretty confusing if you’re not familiar with it.
Benjoewoo – 5/5
Below average province strength, but often more than made up for in the force swing it can cause via the action, which also makes it non-farmable. Some clans may not gain a whole lot in bonus force from it, e.g. crab, but it’s still a strong consideration because in a number of match ups it results in a significant force loss to the opponent.
I Fight Dragons – 5/5
Where to begin… Shameful Display is so obviously good and a massive tempo swing for most decks that there’s basically no reason to not pick it. Placing lasting stat bonuses and penalties repeatedly makes this province this one that people groan to see under their attack every single time. Shameful Display is such an excellent province that practically every other neutral province lives in its shadow. Don’t question why two samurai decided the middle of a battlefield was the perfect time for an affair.
Kingsley - 5/5
The mighty Shameful Display is an incredible card and high up there on the list of things that everyone worries about faceplanting with their powerful characters. I’m not sure quite how the lore makes sense on this one, but it’s extremely strong and will see tons of play.
Kuroi Mori (consensus score 5/5)
Grendel – 5/5
Just insane value. It can straight destroy some match ups like Lion when on the stronghold, but when on the home row changing out the ring effect turn after turn can be very debilitating to an opponent’s long term game plan.
nyxnyxnyx - 5/5
The ultimate stronghold province, it’s kind of like one of those villains’ castles with morphing floors and layout and paintings that move. This here is a Captive Audience Plus (doesn’t cost honor, can swap MIL->POL too, cannot be cancelled), on top of the option to do Elemental Fury’s ring-swap effect if the conflict type swap isn’t needed. It’s also an Action, so you get to do it any time during the conflict, or not at all! You absolutely need to have a balanced force to get past Kuroi Mori, and the problem is compounded by Phoenix’s double-sided stat buffs/debuffs (Supernatural Storm, Atsuko) that force the double commitment if you so choose to die on that hill (or forest). If you fail, you start again from the beginning next round - there are no save points in Kuroi Mori.
Benjoewoo – 5/5
Phoenix will play this guaranteed. In normal matches, there’s a very good argument to keep it, i.e. staple it, to the SH because it makes clinching the win very difficult. In tournaments, where tie breakers are in part based on province breaks, keeping this in the normal provinces allows phx to field 4 non-farmable provinces, an option few other clans can do. Even in normal matches this may be worth doing, though that means the SH will likely run a weaker province depending on phx’s role in the match.
I Fight Dragons – 5/5
Probably the best province in the game due to power and flexibility. I’ve seen many decry Kuroi Mori as game breaking or even a design mistake. I even remember initially sharing much concern over its power level against factions with fewer options for balanced stats. Being able to switch the conflict type as an action mid conflict is such a powerful thing that is only replicated in a 3 influence event and a 1 shot water province, and Kuroi Mori can do it for free every turn it isn’t broken. Then, if you don’t even need to swap the conflict type, you can just swap the ring instead and ruin your opponent’s tempo even more. There is no doubt in my mind the Kuroi Mori is simply the best stronghold province in the game, hands down.
Kingsley - 5/5
Kuroi Mori is one of only two core set cards that I think will be viewed as serious design mistakes later on in the game. While this effect enables a lot of cool plays with Phoenix’s ring-based abilities, those cool plays are widely overshadowed by the ability to swap the conflict type multiple times over the course of a game, which poses a very serious problem when defending the stronghold. Some clans have such difficulty breaking a Kuroi Mori stronghold that this one card seriously distorts certain matchups in a way that I think is quite bad for the game. Indeed, I’ve heard several people joke that Kuroi Mori is Phoenix’s “real stronghold†since it often has more of an impact than their actual stronghold card does. When and if Phoenix get a good stronghold to put on top of Kuroi Mori, I worry that the combination might well prove frustratingly powerful.
- Antaiseito likes this
7 Comments
How Manicured Garden got a higher score than Pilgrimage is beyond me.
I think the one exception to Manicured Garden being better than Fertile Fields is with Dragon, where attachments are necessary. Fate's useless when you don't have cards to use it on, and a lot of people try to choke Dragon's cards because they're so key to the Dragon strategy. Also, Dragon tends to play less characters and pass first to gain that extra fate anyway.
Another fantastic review!
I'd disagree, as a mostly Dragon player. Fate is more valuable to us that card draw, as there's several tricks that generate card advantage (recursion attachments, and the Agasha Swordsmith) but we tend to run a higher cost curve on the conflict deck than most because of those recursion attachments, and have a higher need to place fate on our characters, as we want our stacked up units to last a while, and three characters need to spend fate to trigger their abilities (though admittedly, Ascetic Visionary isn't usable yet). Plus, a well timed extra fate can power Mirumoto's Fury or Indomitable Will.
Just wanted to say thanks a lot for these - I've really enjoyed reading them (and actually find them a quicker method of checking clan conflict cards etc. than using the card database search features). I still disagree with half your unicorn reviews though
Noob question here, what do the reviewers mean by "farming"?
I think they mean "farm" it for ring effects - you can't do this (as easily) on provinces like Shameful Display because you get punished every time you do, whereas with something like Entrenched Position you could just chance your arm and send in a weenie, and if the opponent doesn't throw up a proper defence you can trigger the ring, but if they do defend there's basically no down side, even if you lose.