In the early days of collectible card games, there was one game that stood out amongst most others, and lasted for many years. Legend of the 5 Rings was a very interesting and deep card game about warring clans in a land called Rokugan, a land based off of numerous Asian cultural influences. While not as popular as Magic: the Gathering or Pokemon, L5R still had a steady following and released countless expansions until the series was cancelled a few years back. Over a year ago, Fantasy Flight Games announced that it had acquired the license for L5R and would be relaunching the game as one of their Living Card Games, and the Imperial Cycle is the first expansion release for it.
The game is out now, and has been a massive smash hit. Now, the first part of the Imperial Cycle, Tears of Amaterasu, is releasing. The difference between a collectible card game, and a living card game, is as follows. CCGs typically sell new cards in packs, which you buy, not knowing what is inside, so players are always chasing some great new powerful cards for their decks. With an LCG, Fantasy Flight typically releases a core set, followed by Deluxe Expansions and then a 6 pack cycle of cards. The packs, in this case a Dynasty Pack, consists of 60 cards. There are 3 copies of the 20 cards in each pack, giving players a full playset of the new cards in a Dynasty Pack. This means that typically you go and buy your new pack monthly, get some new cards to play with, and don’t need to keep buying packs blindly hoping for something new and useful or valuable. This keeps costs fairly low if you are playing an LCG, and is why players prefer an LCG format to a CCG one.
The Imperial Cycle is the first set of Dynasty Packs for L5R, and Tears of Amaterasu is the first release, with 5 more following. The first pack looks to have some pretty interesting cards, with at least one new card for each of the 7 clans. Additionally, there will be new Seeker and Keeper cards, with a Lion Seeker and a Crane Keeper, as well as some neutral Seeker and Keeper cards in the form of new provinces for all players to use. One important thing to note, is that Fantasy Flight usually releases these packs once a month, but for the Imperial Cycle they will be releasing one per week, which should drastically change the meta of the game.
Have you been playing Legend of the 5 Rings, or have an interest in the game? Let us know in the comments below if you have been enjoying the game, and what your clan of choice is.
Source: Fantasy Flight Games