By David Attali
If Lion hasn’t really been a dominant force in Emperor, it was very competitive up until the release of Torn Asunder and Journey’s End Keep Experienced. JEK changed everything, though. As most of you already know, the main difference between the Emperor environment and the one that preceded it, as far as Lion is concerned, was the lack of quality 6G Personalities. Lion in Celestial indeed had access to many 6G guys, including two who clearly outclassed the rest; that just isn’t the case in Emperor. That, in turn, means that Lion was ill-equipped to face those new military decks they go second against. Defense isn’t exactly the Clan’s forte; instead Lion military is usually built to attack on turn 3, which means it found itself on the back foot against JEK blitz, which could attack first, and this for the entire duration of the game. The lack of good, cheap guys meant that Lion couldn’t hope to recover by trying to overwhelm the opponent, but instead had to try to find other answers. None of which were particularly exciting or effective. The fact that JEK always goes first against Lion makes Lion almost obsolete, as there’s never a reason, in a competitive setting, to play something when you can play the same thing, except better. That is, to me, the main problem with Lion right now, although there very well might be solutions at the deckbuilding levels.
Gates of Chaos shouldn’t revolutionize Lion decks. Coils of Madness gave us a ton of new options in Tactician builds thanks to Death of the Winds, which is exactly the kind of card Lion players love, and allows us to play a toolbox-like deck to find the answer we need whatever the matchup. Gates brings us three Unique Tacticians, but the current environment is too fast to expect to reliably see your Uniques.
That being said, Gates also brings us new options, especially when it comes to Gold schemes, which might allow us to tinker with more expensive line-ups that may be better suited to counter our bad matchups. Finding a balance here will require extensive testing, though, as you’ll still need your Gold scheme to be fluid enough to be able to afford your Personalities at all stages of the game (including those expensive new Uniques, should you decide to run them). Honor and switch decks don’t get too many toys to play with, either, except for those same Unique cards you can’t reliably count on. Nothing particularly stands out on the Fate side, either.
What should and will have an impact, though, are the bans. The banning of Kalani’s Landing in particular should make Kitsu Honor more relevant and give a boost to our Paragons deck, which had a lot of trouble dealing with Mantis. More aggressive decks could also see an uptick in popularity to fill the void created by the disappearance of the Phoenix Nonhuman decks. One could also learn from what Journey’s End Keep taught us, either by building fast military decks based on the large number of very cheap Personalities Lion has access to, or by going for some Faceless or semi-Faceless Honor deck if it still has a place in the environment after the departure of Caught Unawares.
If I had to play Lion in the post-Gates of Chaos, post-bans environment, I think I would gravitate towards Kitsu Honor, which seems to me to be the most reliable option. However, a military deck with a Tactician base incorporating a few Personalities from another theme (Scouts or Paragons, for instance) also seems like it should be competitive, thanks in large part to the adaptability Death of the Winds offers.
As for Lion swarm/blitz, arguably the Clan’s most successful archetype in North America prior to the bans, it is our only deck to be directly impacted by the changes. The loss of Charter of the Legion of Two Thousand does hurt the deck, and especially its ability not to run out of steam in the mid-game, but it isn’t exactly a crippling blow, either, and the deck should remain playable. The changes to the overall environment the bans imply should actually have more of an impact than the loss of one card. Indeed, if the banning of the Charter is enough to kill Imperial token blitz, the environment might shift towards somewhat slower decks perhaps less suited to withstand the early onslaught Lion swarm is capable of, which would put it in a great spot. However, the bans also mean that the deck loses a popular prey in Lizard Wizards, a deck it was particularly well-equipped against. Even more importantly, the disappearance of Phoenix Nonhumans and Mantis KL (and, to a lesser extent, JEKxp blitz) also means that Scorpion LoDD Dishonor should make a comeback. This could be very bad news for the deck as, depending on the build, it’s proven to be a nigh-unwinnable matchup for most swarm decks, ours included. If LoDD is kept at bay by the renewed popularity of Battle Maidens, this deck will probably prove a very solid choice. If not, though, you’ll be better off packing something else.
Shamate Keep
Border Keep XP2
Bamboo Harvesters
# Dynasty (40)
# Events (2)
1 Alter History
1 Disgrace
# Celestials (1)
1 Jurojin’s Blessing
# Regions (4)
1 Shinden Shorai
3 Natural Aviary
# Holdings (12)
1 Traveling Peddler
1 Chugo Seido
3 Colonial Harbor
1 The Quartermaster’s Depot
3 Luxurious Silk
3 Prosperous Village
# Personalities (21)
1 Akodo Dairuko
1 Akodo Kobi – exp
3 Matsu Arata
3 Matsu Koyama
3 Akodo Kakihara
1 Ikoma Hakige
1 Daigotsu Hotako – exp3
1 Matsu Koyama – exp
1 Ikoma Natsu – exp
1 Ikoma Satoru – exp
1 Morito Inoue, Scourge of the Plains
3 Ikoma Shizuka
1 Ikoma Shuji
# Fate (40)
# Strategies (36)
3 Cast Aside the Weak
1 A Game of Dice
1 Creating Order
3 Know No Fear
2 Sundering Strike
1 Serenity in Air
3 Grateful Reward
3 Iron Will
2 The Perfect Moment
1 Closing the Gap
2 A Paragon’s Strength
3 Strength of the Divine
2 You Are Unworthy
2 At Any Cost
2 Heart of Darkness
2 Broken Alliance
2 A New Perspective
1 Peace
# Items (1)
1 The Topaz Armor – exp
# Rings (3)
1 Ring of the Void
1 Ring of Water
1 Ring of Earth
David (aka Akodo Tenrou, or Lonewolf) started playing L5R all the way back with Imperial. He’s been a playtester since the end of Celestial and a TO for some years in Toulouse, then Paris. He is the owner of La Fierté du Lion, the second-largest French website dedicated to L5R and has made the cut in numerous Kotei and tournaments, including a win at ‘Kuronada’s Destiny,’ the Second Chance Tournament that was held at the 2010 World Championships in Lyons.
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