Shinden Fu Leng

Official Announcement is up: http://www.l5r.com/2015/07/02/new-l5r-c ... -portents/

important stuff:
release date is october/november
they are taking into account the tournaments around that time
12 cards from the set will not be previewed until Sept 28th, owing to their spoilery nature.

that sounds cool I like that

Good move. We story lovers are grateful.

Some early previews, courtesy of the Siege: Clan War decklists:

Archer's Position
Necessary Sacrifice
Questionable Vassal
Spirit's Essence Dojo
Superior Assault
The Search for Enlightenment
Tsuruchi Taito Exp

Spirit's Essence Dojo seems pretty great. Really happy that they didn't make it a rare.

I also kinda like Questionable Vassal. 2g isn't trivial for a cost, but ranged 3 without bowing on a 2g follower is pretty neat. Definitely one to give a go when the set is released (which is what, sometime in 2020 or so...).

The Search for Enlightenment really makes Banished and Kung-An even more amazing than they already are. Weaker battle tutor than Death of the Winds but stronger open tutoring than Accepting the Choice. Hell why not fetch Ring of Void targetting Kung-An and then play it with him.

The commander cards on the other hand seem... ok. Superior Assault is great (two for 1!) unless they don't have any attachments you want to bow or kill, and Neccessary Sacrifice seems a bit clunky with an annoying cost, as compared to something like Feinting Maneuver for tacticians, which while costing gold, doesn't hurt your in battle board state, and has a strong back up ability.

I'd be willing to bow a 1F mook to play this card again: http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=12397

Previews are less than a month away! Spider clan previews are, in fact, exactly 1 month away!

And here I was thinking it's today!

WHOA! previews start monday! and spider previews are a mere 6 days away! gird your cobwebby loins!

Really!?! Where did the time go?

I cant wait, finally the Ninja sensei!

we'll see about that. were i a betting spider, i would not put lots of koku down on that one. given that the shadowdragon is locked in a box and we're about to go all military bonanza on people, i think the odds are probably better of an obsidian sensei or a straight up military one. but thats just me spitballin'. certainly, from a "themes we have cards for but not sensei for" standpoint, ninja is the obvious candidate to get one next. but then, that would suggest logic dictates AEG's design process, and frankly not to point too fine a point on it but lets be real, we all know that Pan Ku is more likely to be accused to logic than the DT's handling of spider.

Well we have 2 themes, Dueling and Ninja, assuming they both get sensei (which design said is the method they are running Ivory, 2 themes with sensei a year) then it makes sense for now.

Now will it be better then Yajinden or makes a better deck then the Kumoru control, its probably not going to. But we should still be seeing it.

The ninja, as a unified whole are pretty divided, based on stripping abilities and dropping spuds. I would like to see more of the spud production, but I'm not expecting much considering the disappointment Sahara turned into.

Oh, c'mon, while the DT haven't always made the best decisions (here's looking at you, Susumu-shift-from-Favor-to-Tokens-mid-block), I sincerely doubt that they would make that many Ninja for 20F if they weren't planning on making a Ninja Sensei.

Although if they release a Maho Shugenja Sensei and don't add any more Shugenja, that'd be Epic levels of trolling on the DT's part.

If they do so, and make said sensei Spider-only, I will laugh and laugh and laugh...

Although honestly, an all-Clans maho sensei could be neat... "Your shugenja and spells all have Shadowlands, but <insert benefit to offset that here>.

My only gripe would be seeing the Phoenix Bloodspeaker Brigade getting their way in such a blatant fashion

Maybe a Chuda sensei with something to do with the dark kitty cats featured on Chuda Teraiko and The Looming Darkness.

Maybe in mid-Onyx edition, or whatever block comes after that.

And maybe make it a Mantis/Scorpion/Spider Sensei, since those three seem to be the ones most interested in Evil Stuff right now (Spider, because duh!, Scorpion because of the A House Divided thing, and Mantis because... because Yoritomo Ichido).

Our erstwhile allies previews go up in about 12 hours! love me some preview season!

Smell that? You smell that? Cardboard, son. Nothing else smells like that. I love the smell of cardboard in the morning.

New keyword ability in Evil Portents: Honor (Repeatable Interrupt: Discard an Honor card to give an Honor gain or loss +1 or -1.)

I don't want to be pessimistic or anything but.....honor loss help ? ....I mean, that does not sounds good for Yajinden Spider, right ?

Depending on the cards that get it, I suspect the intent is more honor/dishonor meta rather than enhancement. Actual honor/dishonor cards are likely to gain/lose more than one honor when used.

Well, we can use those cards too, so it might actually be some meta for us, as well.

Honor keyword battle movement
Battlefield Defamation

Magistrate anti-shadowlands/dishonorable fear
Illegal Justice

Fear keyed to magistrate destruction
Mysterious Murder

Unicorn Magistrates
Shinjo Dogenda
Shinjo Megura

There's a fair bit of shadowlands hate but considering we have/are going to roflstomp their forces and kill(?) their resurrected founder champion I was expecting more.

Pretty uniformly great art, a department that has been delivering at a very high standard for a goodly while so that's no surprise but still deserves mention.

I'm looking forward to seeing what we get tomorrow

More Shadowlands hate in the form of Shinsei's Last Hope Exp (444 holding) on the Unicorn Board EP previews.

We haven't even hit the Phoenix yet and the shadowlands hate has two for us lol.

Whether they get played is an argument but still, I hope our previews are good.

I like the sensei though, really nice way to appease the Battle maiden crowd and also releasing a Moto sensei.