L5R Clan Packs Preview - Defenders of Rokugan, The Emperor's Legion, Seekers of Wisdom

The last 3 L5R Clan Packs have been released for the Legend of the Five Rings Living Card Game (L5R LCG). The Crab with Defenders of Rokugan, the Lion with The Emperor's Legion, and the Dragon with Seekers of Wisdom. Each pack contains 28 new cards. As with previous L5R LCG expansions, each pack contains all the copies of the cards you will need (either 1 for unique or 3 copies of all other cards) so multiple purchases aren't required.

In this article, we're going to look at our favorite cards from each L5R Clan Pack, starting with the clan cards from the pack and then the non-clan cards. They aren't necessarily the best cards from each pack, just our favorite mechanically or thematically.

Defenders of Rokugan

• Kyuden Hida - A new Crab stronghold that lets them cycle through their deck. It sacrifices some strength for that ability, but being able to pick a card out of the top 3 is worth it.
• Hida O-Ushi - Allows you to get another Military conflict once per turn, so has the possibility of 3 conflicts every turn she's around. She doesn't even have to be in the conflict, you just have to win one as the defending player, which is what Crab do well.
• Unyielding Sensei - Solves a key issue and lets the Crab have a holding on a province whilst still drawing a card to it. Let's build a wall!
• Kaiu Forges - Lets you search the top 10 cards of your deck for a holding and replace it with any Kaiu Wall (Forges is a Kaiu Wall too) so you can find the holding you need. Great for deck consistency. Limited to 1, but still a great help.

• Isawa Eju - This Phoenix Elemental Master can have a huge impact on certain Crab decks. Very thematic to include in this pack. 
• Yogo Asami - It always makes us happy when the Scorpion get a great card in another clan's pack and Asami is no exception. Great thematic mechanic with Kachiko. Is a great card beyond that for cost and ability, but we love it more for theme.
• Shinjo Yasamura - A low-cost Unicorn covert character that stops a character being used as a defender in the next battle as well. Can force your opponent to attack with a character they don't want to in order to get some use out of it.

The Emperor's Legion

• Kyuden Ikoma - The new Lion stronghold has a great starting honor of 13, but also a great ability that can lead your opponent to some uncomfortable decisions. If you attack a province with a random low-cost character, they either don't defend and you get the ring. Or they do defend, wasting the character in defense and then they have another character bowed by Kyuden Ikoma's ability, which could open up a more powerful second attack.
• Kitsu Motsu - Motsu causes another uncomfortable decision for your opponent. Motsu's ability works if you have fewer cards than your opponent, so does your opponent bid low to try and keep their hand low, or risk having a character they want for an attack or defense pulled into a conflict they don't want.
• Matsu Tsuko - Tsuko is a huge card! If you're more honorable than your opponent, which Lion can quite easily achieve, just by winning as an attacker you break the province. This again forces your opponent into some uncomfortable situations whereby usually, if you won only by a small margin wouldn't break the province, now just winning by 1 with Tsuko breaks it, forcing your opponent to match and extend their lead.
• Tactial Ingenuity - A zero-cost attachment that gives +1 military and allows you to search the top 4 cards for an event. It has to be attached to a commander, but the Lion currently has 8, so it makes this an auto-include if you're running 3 copies of 2 or more commanders in your Lion deck.
• Embrace Death - This is an instant combo with the new stronghold Kyuden Ikoma. If you set it up so that your character will lose the conflict, and they do, you can sacrifice them and either remove a character with no fate or remove 1 fate from a character. Your opponent will always assume you have this is you attack with a low-cost character with no chance of winning a province, giving you some depth of control in their reactions.

• Those Who Serve - Those Who Serve is a 1-cost neutral event card that reduces the cost of characters you play this phase by 1. It costs 1, so you will need to play 2 characters to get a return, but after that, its return can be incredible. Every deck can play this to save some fate each turn, effectively giving you an extra turn of life if you use the saving to put more fate on your characters, or allowing decks with large amounts of characters to fill the board cheaply.
• Kitsuki Kagi - This Dragon character allows you to remove 3 cards in a player's discard pile from the game. This is great for countering discard play effects like the Phoenix stronghold Kyuden Isawa which lets you play a spell from your discard pile. 

Seekers of Wisdom

• Support of the Dragon - Support of the Dragon gives you 8 more points to add Dragon cards in support of your non-Dragon deck. It will be very interesting to see if there is a variety in Dragon splash decks or if players take the standard Dragon-loadout.
• Togashi Gaijutsu - Gaijutsu lets you ready and use a character again, just for playing a tattoo on them. It's looking more at a specialized deck as the options for tattoo are restricted currently, but as the card pool builds, this ability could be incredible.
• Togashi Mitsu - Mitsu is a great card that lets you resolve a ring effect if you've played 5 or more cards, which is a lot, but can be done. The issue is that there is already a Togashi Mitsu, from All or Nothing in the Elemental Cycle, and that Mitsu is an incredible card. You can only include 3 copies of the same-titled card in your deck, so this version might not see play for a while, which is a shame.

• Bayushi Gensato - This card is everything I love as a Scorpion player. If Gensato enters a duel with a huge opposing character he either wins, and that character is bowed and Gensato is dishonored, not a big deal with 0 Glory. Or Gensato loses and is bowed and the opposing character is dishonored. Either way, the Scorpion benefit, which is exactly the kind of odds they like.
• Hida Kotoe - Kotoe lets you destroy an attachment when she wins as a defender. Crab are pretty good at winning as defenders, so this gives your opponent a little kick as you send them on their way. 

What are your favorite cards from the 3 L5R Clan Packs? Which clans are you playing? Have any of these changed your decks dramatically? Let us know in the comments below.

The 3 L5R Clan Packs used for this article were provided by Asmodee UK.