Renaissance Festival
The bomb was dropped. Always the last one to know. So it turns out Twenty Festivals is here, or at least previewed. Back we come with a vengeance. Shake off the rust and fire up the engine. Time to start pouring over the new set and breaking it down. Jesse and I will have our video card by card analysis up eventually, but before we can provide meaningful insight
DRAGONS!
Um, inner voice, I’m sort of writing an article here, could you maybe quite down. We are getting back into our normal full posting schedule. Lots of work to do, I don’t need the distraction.
Oh, sorry.
As I was saying, before we can provide meaningful insight on every individual card in the set, we first have to review the set and themes in totality. Cards are, after all, powerful or weak depending on the context
DRAGONS!!
Dude, not cool. Twenty Festivals is a 350 card set with new strongholds and senseis and themes for every faction. There is a lot to focus on, like the evolution
DRAGONS!!!
*Sigh* Ok, want to do you want?
I want you to talk about the coolest most awesomest part of 20 Festivals the return of
The Naga?
Snark. You think that will calm me down?
Ok. Fine. So for my first Twenty Festival Article, before I discuss anything else at all in a brand new base set, I am going to
DRAGONS!!!!
…. I was getting there.
Too slowly.
Fine. So how do you want me to start this article?
Seriously?
Ok. Fine. You win inner Timmy.
Dragons!
DRAGONS!!!!!
I just said
DRAGONS!!!!!!
You cannot keep doing this all article, it is annoying, it breaks up
DRAGONS!!!!!!
I did the shout thing.
Didn’t say it right. DRAGONS!!!!!!! Needed more volume.
No one has accused me of not being loud enough. Like ever.
DRAGONS!!!!!!!!
Ok, lets do it like a banzai. Three times.
Utz!
DRAGONS!!!
Utz!
DRAGONS!!!!
Utz!
DRAGONS!!!
Nice. Please proceed.
Thanks inner voice, please enjoy this highly caloric sugary beverage and shut the hell up.
Guess whose back. Back again.
I love gigantic personalities. Generally speaking, this love manifests in the form of me playing gigantic oni personalities. Dragons work too. One of the comments I’ve made about set design so far in Ivory is that I don’t have a clear idea of what a “big” personality looks like. Pre-Ivory base we had the Flesh Eater, the experienced Dark Naga and assorted other Coils of Madness personalities, along with some scattered toys from Gates and Aftermath.
From there we haven’t seen much in the way of high gold cost, windmall slam, deal with this! impact personalities. Ivory brought mediocre clan champions, and not much else. Then there were two different 10 gold cost Shugenja that made personalities. That is a small litter. So when I got around to the big Dragons after combing through 20Fest, well, you heard.
The numbers.
How do you read a new l5r personality card? Do you first start by reading the text box? Looking at the force, chi? Do you obsess over the keywords matching the art?
The spikiest place to start is where I begin: the gold cost. There is no more important stat on an l5r card. There just isn’t. A card’s value is directly related to its gold cost. Gold cost is the limiting reagent that determines whether or not a card gets to actually be played from provinces It is the trump. The elemental dragons cost a whopping 15 gold. The same cost as Shadow Dragon Experienced 2, or Gozaru no Oni. More than a clan champion, the Dragons demand a Smaug level of wealth to enter play.
What do we get for 15 gold? Sadly, not a whole lot. 7 Force was massive a long time ago, in an environment far far away. Now? It is not taking the vast majority of provinces. To turn one of these beasts into a House Targaryan style fiefdom destroyer, you are going to need the additional investment of a fate card. Probably a spell, that costs additional gold. Bummer. There is some comfort to be had in that spells are pretty pushed coming into 20Fest, but 8 or 9 force would have been considerably more exciting and cost appropriate, too. Ikoma Akinari invested = 9 force for 15 gold. 5 Chi is hard to complain about in a format that plateaus at 4, but 20Fest features an awful lot of duelists, and for 15 gold it isn’t hard to get a sword slinger up to 6 or 7 chi. On the raw math the dragons come up a little short. So other than our slightly bigger, burlier numbers, what do the dragons bring us? The classic hodge podge of effects.
My scales use to be more powerful than a turtle’s shell. True story.
Air Dragon!
Probably the most straight fowardly powerful. Straighten every phase? Don’t mind if I do! Give it some permanent force from a Guidance in War or Stones of Purity and always a have a large threat for every attack and every defense. The battle ability protects your big force. Good complimentary design albeit pretty radical. An Air Dragon that my opponent can target with Ranged Attacks and Spell Effects? Why I’ve never. When Dragon decks win, they will feature the Air Dragon prominently.
As caring as a honey badger.
Earth Dragon!
Continuing in the vain of completely unexpected, here is an Earth Dragon that isn’t at all interested in whether or not it is attacking or defending. No fucks given. Which is its attitude concerning send home and bow effects. Fits in right alongside Air Dragon in the big units that don’t want to be messed with category, and helps give some clarity of direction to a dragon deck.
With Koiso Sensei, one Fire Dragon can make two ranged attacks!
Fire Dragon!
The Fire Dragon, from its orginal insane 14 gold cost for 2 ranged attacks in Imperial, to its story based perogative to join the Phoenix clan has always been its own unique special snowflake. Now it feels downright bland. A not as good Dark Naga Experienced, with a perfectly acceptable but not really all that exciting ranged 7 attack. If you want to get a sense of how l5r personality design has changed over the years, take some time to chart the course of the Fire Dragon. It is quite revealing. The Fire Dragon is a campfire hoping to turn into a wildfire.
Over/under on Jaws references: 2000. Good bet to take the over.
Water Dragon!
As it once was, so shall it be again. The traditionalist. Water Dragon Experienced 2 was an insane card, and experienced 3 is a comfortable return to form. The ability to copy a trait makes sure it can play with its broodmates. Maybe will be breakable in time, copying traits is unregulated territory. I anticipate the following sequence will happen a lot in my near future: Water Dragon copies Fire Dragon. Paul smiles. Paul realizes bowing Dragons for ranged 7 isn’t actually all that exciting. Paul loses. There may eventually be a super amazing cool something that gets insane benefit from being copied, but with Ninja Shapeshifter also in the set, I’m not holding my breath.
Peaked in high school Rob Lowe
Void Dragon!
As it once was, so shall it almost be again. Two cards isn’t the same as whole hand, and there are discipline cards now. The least powerful Dragon and impactful Dragon out the gates. Questionable value even after it successfully triggers. The only one in danger of actually being left out of Dragon decks altogether. The Void has been losing its mojo.
The number I didn’t talk about because it just bums me out.
Honor requirements. The cock block of many an exciting deck. Cleverly implanted honor requirements bring a lot of flavor and variation to personality design. They also can serve as an important restrictor plate, preventing powerful personalities from destablizing a game by entering play to soon.
Hoo boy, 15 is an awfully big number. From the beginning, Imperial Edition, the elemental dragons had an honor requirement of 10, and I confess, it never would have occurred to me so see that modified. A return to the “Must have Ring of XXX” to enter play? I could have swallowed that. Not like I need more reasons to run Long Term Fruition. 15 honor req, did not see that coming. The ability to reduce the hr is good flavor, but dropping to 13 isn’t a significant payoff for the work of finding and playing the proper ring at the correct time.
What does it mean? That these dragons aren’t going to see a lot of play outside the sensei. Hitting 15 honor isn’t hard. Every faction has at least some kind of honor theme. Hitting 15 honor in a military deck that requires a certain pace and aggressive tempo? While developing your gold to afford 15 gold cost personalities, while playing fate side spells to activate your dragons when they eventualy get onto the board? A much harder task.
Should have been Miyoshi sensei.
Kiyoteru Sensei
If the dragons had lower honor requirements, there would be an interesting discussion about how necessary and useful the sensei is. As it stands, I don’t see the dragons seeing play except in concert with Kiyoteru. If the dragons had 5 or greater personal honor the ability to proclaim them would open an interesting switch deck option. As it stands, the sensei is a neccessary evil. It does provide for some fun attempts to short cut the HR using force bonuses and modifiers. Items are non-bo with the dragons, and there aren’t ton of options for limited phase force generation, but there might be a way to consistently play a Dragon on 4. Still to slow for the enivornment as I think it will actually exist, but a man with an urge has to start somewhere.
Here is the decklist I will be proxy-ing up to test.
| The Majestic Temple of the Phoenix Kiyoteru Sensei | |
|---|---|
| Dynasty | Fate |
| 2 Forgotten Legacy 3 Silver Mine 3 Famous Bazaar 3 Questionable Market 3 Temple of Destiny 3 Deep Harbor 2 Family Library 1 Counting House 3 Komori Taruko 3 Tonbo Jairyu 3 Isawa Amihiko 3 Shiba Michiki 3 Shiba Koshiba 1 Earth Dragon Experienced 2 1 Air Dragon Experienced 3 1 Water Dragon Experienced 3 1 Fire Dragon Experienced 3 1 Void Dragon Experienced 3 | 3 Burning Spirit 3 Stones of Purity 3 Overwhelming Power 2 Ward of Air 2 The Dragon's Breath 3 Zazen Meditation 3 Inspired Devotion 2 Oath of Fealty 3 Banish All Shadows 2 Final Sacrifice 2 Reprisal 2 Honed to a Razor's Edge 2 Undermining the Otomo 2 Discovering the Daisho of Water 1 Ring of the Void 1 Ring of Water 1 Ring of Earth 1 Ring of Air |
I may have miscounted but the fate side of that deck only has 38. Other than that a very interesting read.
My cut paste skills are weak. The list is a test and as such features some one offs. In this case, it should have one Final Ruin and Impassable Waters. Ultimately the the non force pump ramp package is probably going to be a smattering of one and two offs held together by Banish, but first need to get in some proof of concept reps. So fare so good. Deck went undefeated in its initial run, but so many unrefined opponents. Hard to get to excited. Cautious optimism.
Note that the sensei says force and not printed force. That means temporary force pumps you that go away at the end of the turn count.
You will note the giant pile of Battle actions that say “+X F”
They are technically battle actions, but Inspired Devotion, Zezan Meditation, and Overwhelming Power are all also Open actions, which is critical. There may be a version of the deck that uses Force bonuses made solely for battle. Right now all those types of effects require opposition save for Tactician. Attacking just to try and up your force is to risky, if for no other reason than it exposes you to force penalties and negation effects. List update: Stones of Purity was subpar. Discovering has was also superflous. Upped Oath to 3 because when it works it is amazing. Added in more Fun Off spells and 2 copies of the Family Library Kharmic Fate card. Deck has been a delight to play. Nothing makes me smile like giant monsters. Don’t judge.
As someone who can only see everything from a dueling perspective, I can only pout and stick my tongue out at this deck.
I wouldn’t play this deck if I was paid money.
Penetrating analysis.