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From the Sensei: Crab Strategy for The New Orderby Andrew OrnatovIntroductionWhenever a new L5R set is released, I like to browse the complete set spoiler and look for new strategies, ideas, and interactions that the set offers. The New Order didn’t disappoint. There are plenty of new interactions to experiment with, thanks to both new mechanics added in the set, and cards that greatly improve already existing strategies.The theme of the article is “Exploratory Deck Design”, and I feel that deserves a quick explanation in itself. Sometimes it is not exactly clear how a new mechanic will perform from a quick glance, and a more thorough approach is required. If that’s the case, I believe a deck should be specifically constructed to showcase the new interactions and explore how they work. The exploratory deck should be a solid contender, using proven methods, so that additional variations don’t interfere with the testing.I’ll be using the Strict format rules for this deck. If you’re not sure what that means, it’s simple--there’ll be no cards used from the Coils of Madness, Gates of Chaos or Aftermath expansions. Those expansions are “double-bugged from the previous edition of the game--Emperor Edition--and Strict format uses only cards solely “bugged” for Ivory Edition.Will you be mineOne of the things that is immediately obvious from browsing the set on The Oracle of the Void is the new holding theme - Mines. There are five new Mines in the set, and a couple have seemingly good interactions between each other. Rich Vein allows you to look at the top 3 cards of your Dynasty deck, and refills the Province from which it came with a Mine. The Toil of Zokujin costs 1 Gold and produces 2 Gold for Mines (as well as Weapons and Armor). Both seem like solid cards that warrant testing.The two other Mines that cost 2 Gold both produce 2 Gold and interact in some way with Armor or Weapons. We’ll include them in the deck to maximize the chances that The Toil of Zokujin is a 1 Gold-for-2 Gold as often as possible. We’ll also remember that at this point, nine of our holdings interact favorably with Weapons and Armor, so will base our Fate deck decisions at least partially on that.The last Mine from the set is the hefty 7 Gold-cost Weapon Artist. While its Ability is quite powerful, we’re going to leave this card out for now and possibly come back to it, if our Gold scheme can handle a 7 Gold-cost holding!The obvious inclusion of Iron Mines gives us 15 holdings as a start to our gold scheme. Since I’m planning on taking the deck in a “swarm-ish” direction, I’ll include two Famous Bazaars to round out the gold scheme at 17 holdings.Iron Mine x 3Delicate Forge x 3Developed Quarry x 3Rich Vein x 3The Toil of Zokujin x 3Famous Bazaar x 2PersonalitiesI mentioned above that this will most likely be a “swarm” deck. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it means a deck that aims to Recruit numerous, relatively inexpensive Personalities and quite literally swarm its opponent with more units than it can deal with. The reason for this is the great “swarm” Personalities that The New Order has to offer to Crab. Hida Ayameko is a 3F/3C Tactician for 6 Gold with a - Honor Requirement; those numbers are really quite good. Hiruma Toshi and Kaiu Akemi offer solid Force:Gold ratios, while Akemi also has a potentially devastating Battle Action. While Hida O-Win has a solid Force:Gold ratio and a decent Battle Action - which is normally made of win and warrants an auto-inclusion in swarm! - his Honor Requirement is a little bit prohibitive, especially since this deck is shaping up to be a great candidate for the Aranai Sensei.So, we’ll include the nine, great swarm personalities mentioned above, and fill the deck out with solid bodies from previous sets.Hida Ayameko x 3Hiruma Toshi x 3Kaiu Akemi x 3Hida Saiyuki x 3Hida Toranosuke x 3Hida Zaiberu x 3Myuken x 3Ninube Shiho x 2The Dynasty deck done, so let’s move on to the Fate deck!Ongoing ProgressWhile browsing the The New Order spoiler, a particular Fate card caught my eye - Ongoing Division. Normally discard costs are fairly prohibitive, but if those costs can be eliminated or mitigated, then the corresponding cards whose Abilities are causing the discard can become quite powerful.One of the cards that I’ve always thought had the potential to be amazing is Progressive. Reusable Battle Actions that remove presence are often game-swingers. Up until The New Order, however, the discard cost of Progressive was a bit too much for my tastes. With Ongoing Division, however, that discard cost is mitigated. So, let’s start the Fate deck with 3 of each of those two cards.Ongoing Division x 3Progressive x 3Another mechanic that shines with discard mechanics such as Tactician and Progressive is Discipline. Doing a quick search for Discipline cards with high Focus Values gives us a couple of contenders--The Thrill of Daring (another new card from The New Order), and Way of the Crab.Next, if we’re running Aranai Sensei, let’s include the powerful Tactician cards that are available to us - Inspired Leadership and The Sun Returns.Remember how I mentioned that our holdings interact well with weapons? Well, The New Order offers a great weapon for swarm in Forge Hammer. With a 1:1 Force:Gold ratio and the Expendable Keyword, this card is amazing for a swarm deck; the fact that it offers a reasonably high Focus Value for our Tacticians and for Progressive makes the card even better. We’ll flesh-out our Weapon package with the efficient Kaiu Axe and Reinforced Parangu.I feel that we have room for one more experimental card, and that card is Open Ground. The versatility of being able to move back into battle after being moved Home, while also dragging back opposing Courtiers that ran away from battle, probably makes this one of the better non-military meta cards. So, now our Fate deck looks like this:Forge Hammer x 3Kaiu Axe x 3Reinforce Parangu x 3Ongoing Division x 3Progressive x 3The Thrill of Daring x 3Way of the Crab x 3Inspired Leadership x 3The Sun Returns x 3We’ll fill-out the rest of the deck with generally good Strategies with Battle Actions. Versatile Army offers both a straighten and bow Action. Coward! gives us both Fate card draw and potential to “harpoon” an opposing unit into battle (“harpoon” means to drag one of your opponent’s units into a battle, usually unwillingly!), which will also “turn on” our Stronghold’s Force-bonus Trait. Sudden Movement and Fall Back! go in as straighten effects. Add a couple of useful Rings, and our Fate deck is done!Final DecklistThe Impregnable Fortress of the CrabAranai SenseiIron Mine x3Delicate Forge x3Developed Quarry x3Rich Vein x3The Toil of Zokujin x3Famous Bazaar x2Hida Ayameko x3Hiruma Toshi x3Kaiu Akemi x3Hida Saiyuki x3Hida Toranosuke x3Hida Zaiberu x3Myuken x3Ninube Shiho x2Forge Hammer x3Kaiu Axe x3Reinforce Parangu x3Ongoing Division x3Progressive x3The Thrill of Daring x3Way of the Crab x3Inspired Leadership x3The Sun Returns x3Versatile Army x3Coward! x3Sudden Movement x3Fall Back x2Ring of Earth x1Ring of Air x1A couple of explanations on cards that I didn’t get to earlier. Myuken is in the deck because he can use the Tactical Advantage ability after copying the Tactician Keyword from one of your other Personalities. Ninube Shiho (despite being a filthy Spider) is a generally good card that becomes even better with Inspired Leadership. The rest of the Crab Personalities are there for their good Force:Gold ratio and their Abilities. Finally, after reflecting,I don’t think the deck can support the 7 Gold-cost Weapon Artist after all, despite it being a Mine, so it was left out.LearningThe point of exploratory deck design is to learn. Learn which cards work together and which don’t. Learn which cards are as strong as you thought they were, and which are either stronger or weaker than you originally expected, and then make changes accordingly.After playing the above deck, you’ll have a good idea whether or not the Mine-based Gold-scheme has legs, both for efficient Gold production and as support for Weapons. You’ll know whether Ongoing Division, The Thrill of Daring, and generally high Focus Values are enough to run Progressive, Tacticians, and Kaiu Akemi effectively. You’ll know whether or not The Sun Returns is useful in a swarm deck or not. Most importantly, you’ll be able to apply the conclusions that you reach to deck-building generally, making you a better, faster, and stronger overall L5R deck builder. Enjoy, and may the Fortunes be with you!"
A odnośnie wartości edukacyjnej... Nie miałem pojęcia, że Myuken może się taktyczyć, gdy grasz na Aranai. Człowiek się uczy całe życie.
