Exclusive look at cards from the upcoming L5R Torn Asunder set – Part 3

Torn Asunder, the new set for the Legend of the Five Rings CCG is coming soon and card previews can be seen at www.l5r.com. Here is an exclusive look at two new cards from the upcoming expansion.

Read the Essence

This week we get to take a look at the Spell card type. While only being able to attach these to a Shugenja Personality, Spells often have unique and very diverse effects, and this card is no exception. Turning face-down cards in Provinces face-up is a deceptively powerful ability. Using this spell can give an Event heavy deck the access to more Dynasty cards in the Dynasty Phase, allowing for decks that have lost provinces to their opponent’s attacks to not get shut out of Personalities with unlucky Dynasty flips. Any player of the game can tell you how much of an awful feeling it is when you get victory snatched away from you with a bad late-game Events Phase.

The often overlooked application of these kinds of card effects is in their offensive capabilities. The Spell doesn’t limit the effects to your Provinces, so inventive Military decks using Shugenja can use this card to scope out what lies ahead for their opponent’s next turn, and attack the province that holds the biggest threat. Getting to double this effect while this spell is attached to a Void with the keyword Shugenja makes those usually overlooked Personalities a little more enticing during deck building. While not a card that can directly advance your game plan, Read the Essence can grind out little bits of value here and there when used intelligently.

Defensive Stance

This card, on the other hand, gives any deck a simple but effective Battle action what will rarely be unable to be used. All it takes is a bowed Personality, regardless of their keywords, and suddenly your army will be up 3 Force (plus the Force of the Personality). With the plethora of bowing effects in Emperor Edition’s already large card pool, this 4 Focus Value card will find plenty opportunity to swing a battle back in your favor.

An interesting twist with this card is found in its flavor text. What is the Chronicle of the Orchid Lands? Where can a player find the other parts? Just how many parts are there? The good news is these segmented flavor texts don’t often span across more than one set, so keeping a vigilant eye out while looking over the rest of the Torn Asunder cards will likely answer these questions, and tell another tale of Samurai drama that defines Legend of the Five Rings.