Showing posts with label Limited. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Limited. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
What is the L5R Kenjutsu Format?
The L5R Kenjutsu Format is a new unofficial format developed by The Kolat Informant.
The Kenjutsu Format is the Legends of the Five Rings equivalent of the Magic: The Gathering Cube Format.
For those of you who have not heard of the Magic the Gathering Cube Format, allow me to explain. A person or group designs a cube using cards from every available set and only using 1 of each card. The cube is designed with an appropriate number of the different card types and colors for balance. Once the cube has been designed and sleeved, you would then shuffle the cards for randomization. You would then create 15 card packs from the shuffled cards so that each player had enough packs (Magic used 3 15 cards packs). Once the 'packs' of cards were created, each player would be given 3 of these packs and then normal booster draft rules would apply.
Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering how this would translate with L5R. Well it was a bit harder than I originally imagined. First, unlike the normal L5R draft rules, I wanted to incorporate actual constructed strongholds to be drafted. So to do this I had to make sure everyone got strongholds and got them early so that you had an idea of how to draft your deck. I came up with the Stronghold Pack. This pack would be nothing but strongholds and would be the first pack drafted for all players. This pack would be several cards worth (my initial pack ends up being 6 cards times 8 players which is 48 strongholds) so every player would end up with multiple strongholds.
There is no reason you cannot just use a draft stronghold instead and choose two clans but I chose something a bit more challenging.
The next hurtle I encountered was how to make sure players didn't 'hate' draft Clan Holdings so that another player's economy was hurt. The easiest thing to do here was to remove the Clan Holdings from the Kata (our term for the 'cube') and make them like basic lands from Magic. Now you can add 3 Clan Holdings for the clan stronghold you choose to use throughout the event. Since Shadowlands did not have a 'clan holding', if you end up using them in your Kata, I suggesting using something like Shattered Peaks or Obsidian Mine.
The other problem was going to be Elemental Rings. With the newer versions of the Elemental Rings being more playable in other decks, anyone who wanted to play Enlightenment would be completely out of luck. So I came up with the idea to also remove Elemental Rings from the Kata and allow them to be added to the deck during the deck building portion. There was also one other thing that I added. Elemental Rings would be played as printed rather than reverting to MRP. Why did I do this? Well, I wanted players to experience the different versions of the Elemental Rings just as I have and understand why they progressed the way they have.
Once those issues were resolved, then I needed to decide what card types to include. For this first run, I decided for the Dynasty cards would be Celestial, Region, Events, Holdings and Personalities. Fate cards that I included was Items, Spells, Followers, and Strategies. Personalities and Strategies are going to take up the most space in the Kata, then Holdings, then the rest. You are welcome to include other card types like Ancestors and Sensei.
You can choose to put any number of the clans into your Kata. I choice the 9 current clans + the Shadowlands and Toturi's Army for this first attempt.
I also decided that each clan would have 2 themes. For example, Crab themes I did Scouts and Berserkers. The Berserkers I also did a small sub theme, the Damned (Berserkers with the Shadowlands trait). I chose some personalities who didn't have the right traits (like Hida Yakamo Oni Exp who's not a Berserker but is Shadowlands) but they could still fit the theme.
I ended up putting 5 stronghold per current clan (except Spider I only did 4 for them) and 2 each for the Shadowlands and Toturi's Army. With Crab, I did 2 Berserker strongholds, 2 Scout strongholds, and 1 generic stronghold. This gives players the ability to draft a theme with a usable stronghold.
Once each theme was set and cards were added to the Kata, it is time to sleeve up and shuffle this massive pile. The Strongholds would be shuffled together (if you chose to go that route) and then packs would be created.
Then everything else (save Elemental Rings, Clan Holdings and Border Keep Basic / Bamboo Harvester Basic) would be shuffled together and then 15 card packs would be created. What we decided on was giving each player six (6) 15 card packs + one (1) 6 card Stronghold only pack. Each player would start by drafting the stronghold pack, then each of the 6 other packs of cards.
We decided on doing 30 dynasty / 30 fate card decks. Once all the cards were drafted, each player would then construct a deck using only those cards and basic (Rings, Clan Holdings, BK basic, BH basic). Then it is time to duel.
Above on the menu, I have attached links to the basic rules that I've come up with along with the first draft of the Kenjutsu Kata. I will be doing articles and updates to the Kata and refine the Rules for you folks to follow. I certainly hope other players get interested in this exciting format.
I am also taking other suggestions / ideas to add to this aspiring new format.
The Kenjutsu Format is the Legends of the Five Rings equivalent of the Magic: The Gathering Cube Format.
For those of you who have not heard of the Magic the Gathering Cube Format, allow me to explain. A person or group designs a cube using cards from every available set and only using 1 of each card. The cube is designed with an appropriate number of the different card types and colors for balance. Once the cube has been designed and sleeved, you would then shuffle the cards for randomization. You would then create 15 card packs from the shuffled cards so that each player had enough packs (Magic used 3 15 cards packs). Once the 'packs' of cards were created, each player would be given 3 of these packs and then normal booster draft rules would apply.
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| Goin' Old School |
There is no reason you cannot just use a draft stronghold instead and choose two clans but I chose something a bit more challenging.
The next hurtle I encountered was how to make sure players didn't 'hate' draft Clan Holdings so that another player's economy was hurt. The easiest thing to do here was to remove the Clan Holdings from the Kata (our term for the 'cube') and make them like basic lands from Magic. Now you can add 3 Clan Holdings for the clan stronghold you choose to use throughout the event. Since Shadowlands did not have a 'clan holding', if you end up using them in your Kata, I suggesting using something like Shattered Peaks or Obsidian Mine.
You can choose to put any number of the clans into your Kata. I choice the 9 current clans + the Shadowlands and Toturi's Army for this first attempt.
I ended up putting 5 stronghold per current clan (except Spider I only did 4 for them) and 2 each for the Shadowlands and Toturi's Army. With Crab, I did 2 Berserker strongholds, 2 Scout strongholds, and 1 generic stronghold. This gives players the ability to draft a theme with a usable stronghold.
Then everything else (save Elemental Rings, Clan Holdings and Border Keep Basic / Bamboo Harvester Basic) would be shuffled together and then 15 card packs would be created. What we decided on was giving each player six (6) 15 card packs + one (1) 6 card Stronghold only pack. Each player would start by drafting the stronghold pack, then each of the 6 other packs of cards.
We decided on doing 30 dynasty / 30 fate card decks. Once all the cards were drafted, each player would then construct a deck using only those cards and basic (Rings, Clan Holdings, BK basic, BH basic). Then it is time to duel.
Above on the menu, I have attached links to the basic rules that I've come up with along with the first draft of the Kenjutsu Kata. I will be doing articles and updates to the Kata and refine the Rules for you folks to follow. I certainly hope other players get interested in this exciting format.
I am also taking other suggestions / ideas to add to this aspiring new format.
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