Greetings, Samurai of Rokugan!
As we prepare for the 2014 Kotei season, a problem has come to our attention. That problem is the Ashigaru deck, or more specifically, the cards Exotic Farmlands and Well-Defended Farm. These cards, while being ok on their own, combine with each other and a few other cards to create a situation that we, on Design, do not like. They give a lot of static Force at effectively no cost. What we mean by this is that Well-Defended Farm is a 2 Gold producing Holding, and its ability is “always on”, you don’t have to bow it. Exotic Farmlands does have a cost, and a hefty one at that, but playing it generally wins you the game, which is a pretty good deal. In Ivory Edition, there are few answers available to this amount of extra Force. Based on discussions among playtesters and top players from around the world, we believe there are essentially four options available:
1) Play a deck specifically capable of having a good match-up against the Ashigaru deck;
2) Give in and play Ashigaru yourself;
3) Accept that you will very likely not be able to beat these decks which, with their prevalence, likely means you stand little chance of winning a tournament; or
4) Ban Exotic Farmlands and Well-Defended Farm
Now perhaps we could be fine with banning one or the other, but not both. This is a possibility, but we would rather be safe than sorry and since these cards see very little play outside of this particular deck, we would not be depriving decks of routinely-played cards.
Not only does the presence of these cards, and the Ashigaru deck they enable, create a power issue, the deck threatens to stifle creativity in deck building, and this is the true damage this deck has on the environment. Ivory Edition offers many options for decks for all of the Clans, but the Ashigaru deck is eroding this. As the deck is easily portable from one Clan to the next, it risks turning early Ivory Edition into a “If you can’t beat them, join them” environment, muting the other options available to the Clans and demoting them to second-class decks. This has happened before; in the latter half of Gold Edition, for example, the environment very much was reduced to “Which Stronghold is the best Stronghold to play Ratlings out of”. This was not good for Gold Edition and is not something we can allow to take root in Ivory Edition.
Portability was not entirely the problem here. That has always existed to some degree with some decks. A good theme might work out of a couple Clans, and this will certainly continue to be the case from time to time. The problem here was the Ashigaru deck, while perhaps best out of a few clans, was often better than any “in Clan” options for almost all of the Clans. So I may wish to build Crane Scouts, or Crab “Big Guys”, or Dragon Kensai, but why bother? Ashigaru is simply better, so I will just build that instead to be more competitive. This was the real damage of the Ashigaru deck. It did not let players explore the richness and depth of their Clan, instead reducing Clans to an equation of “Which one synergizes best with Ashigaru?” We have created a fantastic environment that is bringing many people into the game, and the integrity of the game is paramount.
We made a promise to our players, and we intend to keep that. The promise was that we will never stop exploring new and interesting mechanics to keep the game fluid and deep. We do not wish to be overly safe and for the game to grow stagnant. Sometimes this will create a problem that is not surmountable by environmental factors, and as such, we will have to issue corrections. It is not something we do lightly, but some times action is required. Accordingly, effective March 14th, prior to the beginning of the Kotei Season, Exotic Farmlands and Well-Defended Farm will be banned from constructed Ivory Edition tournaments. The sole exception to this is players who wish to play with the A Matter of Honor decks. If you wish to play in a constructed tournament with the exact deck list found in A Matter of Honor, you may.
As we prepare for the 2014 Kotei season, a problem has come to our attention. That problem is the Ashigaru deck, or more specifically, the cards Exotic Farmlands and Well-Defended Farm. These cards, while being ok on their own, combine with each other and a few other cards to create a situation that we, on Design, do not like. They give a lot of static Force at effectively no cost. What we mean by this is that Well-Defended Farm is a 2 Gold producing Holding, and its ability is “always on”, you don’t have to bow it. Exotic Farmlands does have a cost, and a hefty one at that, but playing it generally wins you the game, which is a pretty good deal. In Ivory Edition, there are few answers available to this amount of extra Force. Based on discussions among playtesters and top players from around the world, we believe there are essentially four options available:
1) Play a deck specifically capable of having a good match-up against the Ashigaru deck;
2) Give in and play Ashigaru yourself;
3) Accept that you will very likely not be able to beat these decks which, with their prevalence, likely means you stand little chance of winning a tournament; or
4) Ban Exotic Farmlands and Well-Defended Farm
Now perhaps we could be fine with banning one or the other, but not both. This is a possibility, but we would rather be safe than sorry and since these cards see very little play outside of this particular deck, we would not be depriving decks of routinely-played cards.
Not only does the presence of these cards, and the Ashigaru deck they enable, create a power issue, the deck threatens to stifle creativity in deck building, and this is the true damage this deck has on the environment. Ivory Edition offers many options for decks for all of the Clans, but the Ashigaru deck is eroding this. As the deck is easily portable from one Clan to the next, it risks turning early Ivory Edition into a “If you can’t beat them, join them” environment, muting the other options available to the Clans and demoting them to second-class decks. This has happened before; in the latter half of Gold Edition, for example, the environment very much was reduced to “Which Stronghold is the best Stronghold to play Ratlings out of”. This was not good for Gold Edition and is not something we can allow to take root in Ivory Edition.
Portability was not entirely the problem here. That has always existed to some degree with some decks. A good theme might work out of a couple Clans, and this will certainly continue to be the case from time to time. The problem here was the Ashigaru deck, while perhaps best out of a few clans, was often better than any “in Clan” options for almost all of the Clans. So I may wish to build Crane Scouts, or Crab “Big Guys”, or Dragon Kensai, but why bother? Ashigaru is simply better, so I will just build that instead to be more competitive. This was the real damage of the Ashigaru deck. It did not let players explore the richness and depth of their Clan, instead reducing Clans to an equation of “Which one synergizes best with Ashigaru?” We have created a fantastic environment that is bringing many people into the game, and the integrity of the game is paramount.
We made a promise to our players, and we intend to keep that. The promise was that we will never stop exploring new and interesting mechanics to keep the game fluid and deep. We do not wish to be overly safe and for the game to grow stagnant. Sometimes this will create a problem that is not surmountable by environmental factors, and as such, we will have to issue corrections. It is not something we do lightly, but some times action is required. Accordingly, effective March 14th, prior to the beginning of the Kotei Season, Exotic Farmlands and Well-Defended Farm will be banned from constructed Ivory Edition tournaments. The sole exception to this is players who wish to play with the A Matter of Honor decks. If you wish to play in a constructed tournament with the exact deck list found in A Matter of Honor, you may.
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