Defensive Formation
This week’s exclusive preview from Legend of the Five Rings – Gates of Chaos is Defensive Formation. While certainly underwhelming compared to the powerhouse Strategy cards of Emperor Edition, Defensive Formation does get better when viewed through the lens of Ivory Edition. Gates of Chaos and the previous dual-bugged expansion Coils of Madness have show us that without a doubt, Ivory Edition will be a major scale back in terms of individual card power levels. Up to six additional Force for your defending army in a single action might be deceptively more powerful than it appears on the surface. Back in Celestial Edition, the card Shameful and Cowardly gave -6 Force to your opponent’s Personalities and saw a lot of competitive play. While Defensive Formation doesn’t have the added on benefit of dishonoring a few Personalities, Melee and Ranged Attacks seem to be emphasized more in Ivory Edition, and some protection from these kill actions definitely gives this card a little more weight.
Where this card will also shine will be at release event tournaments. With the removal of Starter Decks in the later Emperor Edition expansions, often times a player’s first taste of a new set would be at a release event booster draft. With a common rarity level, this card certainly gives a solid boost for any deck and will certainly be seen enough in your draft pod to be available to you, if you want it.
Look for our next card preview on July 31st!
Urosh, it’s because if you can only target 3 personalities with the card, it’s no longer usable if you have fewer than three.
Are these explorable?
This is one change in card text language that I don’t like. Why not say “Give +2F to three of your target defending Personalities.” instead of “Give one to three…”? Needlessly confusing.