Legend of the Five Rings – Coils of Madness - Tips & Strategies

Coils of Madness was released as a direct-to-retailer set for L5R with cards that are legal for both the current (2013) Emperor tournament arc as well as the upcoming (2014) Ivory tournament arc.

The collector’s tin contains a playset of every card in the set (except for one personality card for each clan, exclusive to the booster packs) — three of each non-unique card and one of each unique. The tin is the only means of obtaining the cards which are Emperor arc only, such as the Fudo and P’an Ku Strongholds and Celestials.

The booster packs contain five random non-unique cards and two random unique cards from the Ivory-legal portion of the set. Each pack contains one full bleed version of a non-unique card. Approximately one in six packs contains a foil version of a unique card. The booster packs are the only source for these premium versions of cards. Additionally, scattered among the random non-uniques are the exclusive Personality cards mentioned above, in both regular and full bleed versions — a total of nine exclusive cards which can be used in decks — as well as four proxy cards which represent cards generated by effects in the set.

The completists and those still playing in Emperor tournaments will find value in tracking down a collector’s tin. They are largely sold out at the retail level, though they can at the time of this writing be ordered directly from AEG.

Game stores will get mileage out of the booster packs well into the next edition. Since Coils of Madness is the first set to contain Ivory-legal cards, its Ivory-only booster packs will be relevant to new players just getting into the game well into the next year, and potentially beyond. Players who enjoy having special versions of cards will like opening the packs to find foils and full bleeds.