AEG Press Release - Ivory Edition Errata

From the AEG Website

Hello Samurai of Rokugan,

It is time to talk about the Crane Clan, and their performance thus far in Ivory Edition. Many would argue that the problem is perceived power vs. actual power, and there is an argument to be had there. But the numbers don’t lie, and Crane has completely taken over this Kotei season. To go along with the Kotei numbers, we have been testing the problem internally and have found very similar results. So is the problem that Crane is just too far over the top, or is the problem that people are not properly preparing their deck for Crane? As with most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Yes, people are generally not preparing their decks for fighting Crane. Cards like The Turtle’s Shell, Roaming Caravan, Determined Challenge, and Blanketed Forest are fantastic cards in the environment that work even better against Crane and other defensive decks, yet are seeing very little play. The answer though is also yes, Crane has come out of the gates far too strong. After lots of analysis, we have determined that there are two main aspects to this; Akagi Sensei and their stronghold.

Akagi Sensei, simply put, is more powerful, by a significant measure, than any other Sensei. It gives any Crane deck extreme mobility, regardless of keywords. If a battle goes poorly, you can always eject your personality to safety. If you need to get your personality back into the battle, it does that too. It creates fantastic hit and run strategies, which is perfectly fitting for the Daidoji, but unfortunately does so much more than that. And it gives you a very relevant +1 province strength bump on top of that.

The stronghold has a different problem. A standard draw is to start turn two with 8 gold, and turn three with 15-16 gold. With Crane though, you generally start turn two with 9 gold (thanks to the stronghold), and turn three with 18-19 gold. This three gold difference will buy you an extra holding (at least) on turn three, often times getting you 1-2 extra people per game. So even a small +1 gold bump early, multiplies and turns into a significant difference on turn 6 and 7, which are very important and key turns.

So with that, effective Friday, April 18th, these two cards will receive errata as follows:

Akagi Sensei will no longer give its stronghold +1 province strength and its ability will no longer target any personality, only scouts.

The Exquisite Palace of the Crane will now have its +1 gold bump last only for the phase.

 

With these adjustments, we expect that Crane decks will be brought under control and down to a reasonable power level, without destroying their playability. Crane decks will no longer get the early gold acceleration, but they will still get it later for Action Phase costs, such as attachments, and of course the honor aspect of the stronghold was not touched.

As stated in the Design Mission Statement, we will never stop working towards giving you, the players, the most diverse and dynamic experience we can possibly achieve. Sometimes this may mean that a problem will arise. When it does, we will look into it, address it, make adjustments if necessary, and move forward as we continue to bring you the best possible L5R experience.