With the addition of the Inheritance cycle and the recent release of the second pack Bonds of Blood, players have once again questioned the value of the role locking clans. While it is widely accepted that having cards locked into specific roles is a great system, locking clans out of roles is less popular.

To understand the current system, we need to go back to the start of the game. In the initial incarnation of role locking, each clan had one role that was selected by the top of clan at Gencon and then Winter Court. Without doubt, this is an awesome prize and lets the top of each clan have a major influence on the decks of the rest of the clan. An immediate flaw with this system was revealed when the top Scorpion player Mark Armitage intentionally passed over the Seeker of Void role, claiming it was a gift for the Phoenix. At Winter Court 2017, Mark, again top Scorpion, then picked the Seeker of Void role and Scorpion went on to dominate the Kotei season in part due to the power of the role.

Mark Armitage, our villian

Initially, Seeker of Void was considered the best role. Part of this was due to the limited card pool where the role’s ability was more important than the cards it gave you access to. As fate gained from the seeker roles was more impactful than the Keeper influence, players preferred seeker roles. As the void provinces where the strongest provinces at launch, Seeker of Void was the best pick. Meanwhile, clans who performed worse at the event ended up with weaker roles. So the top clans got their pick of the best roles while the weaker clans ended up with the leftovers.

The current system still retains the Worlds pick but has added a second role to each clan. Each role lasts for 8 months and a new role is selected every 4 months. In addition to the selection at worlds, the top 2 players of each clan in Elemental Championships get to vote for the next role. Unlike with worlds, clans can end up with the same roles so weaker clans aren’t limited in what they can pick.

Unfortunately, while this system solves some of the issues, it also raises others. In some events, due to the small numbers, players ended up with multiple votes and in other cases vote cards were sold or traded. As the votes weren’t clan locked, some players actively sabotaged other clans. Even within clans, this system has caused conflict as players have aggressively clashed with each while lobbying for their preferred role. We’ve even seen playtesters under NDA leak cards to make sure their clan selected the ‘correct’ role. While a certain amount of tension within a community can be positive, this is instead divisive and has unfortunately left some players feeling betrayed or cheated.

As the votes are going to the top players at each event, and those players often travel to multiple events, the decisions are really being made by a small percentage of players. These are players who are primarily interested in refining the most efficient deck rather than having a wide range of fun options. This certainly happened for the Crane clan who had Seeker of Fire and gained Seeker of Void, this was a minor change but made their best deck more effective. For players who wanted to play a keeper deck, with Defend Your Honor, for example, that wasn’t an option.

Although roles are intended for competitive play only, in practice, the majority of players stick to playing tournament-legal decks even in casual play. This is similar to the restricted system, where players could choose to ignore it, but stick with it. While players could ignore role limitations on their kitchen table, doing so at their local store would be frowned on. That players were so positive online about the ‘Elements Unbound’ pods at Gencon, but on the day more players opted for normal pods, just goes to show how rare it is for players to play outside the locked roles.

At the game’s release, as already mentioned, the focus was on the raw mechanical benefit of the roles. Since release, however, we’ve had a massive influx of role-specific cards. Not everyone wants to play Seeker of Void anymore as the card pool has significantly expanded. Every clan has at least one card for each element and for keeper/seeker and can, of course, splash another clan. Currently there are definitely incentives to play each role. That said, a few key cards dominate the discussion:

Water for Fight on.

Air for Mark of Shame, Soul Beyond Approach, Forebearer’s Echoes

Earth for Earth Becomes Sky.

Fire for Unleash the Djinn or before it became restricted Feast or Famine.

Void for a New Name or The Fires of Justice.

These, however, are the more powerful role locked cards, many others don’t factor into the role selection and never end up legal to play. This means we aren’t going to see a fire role Scorpion poison deck with Adopted Kin and Imperial Librarian. Not because it’ll necessarily be a bad deck, but because it won’t be the popular Scorpion deck with top 1% of players who pick the roles. Every clan has a handful of cards that might see play otherwise, but are locked into roles and aren’t powerful enough for top players to consider that role.

Before we finish up, lets look at the positives and the negatives from the current role system:

Positives

It is a cool prize for the top of clans at Winter Court.

Shifts the meta every 3 months.

Easier to know what to expect from an opponent’s deck.

Can stop clans always playing the best role.

The big benefit here of course is the top of clan prize, if the roles were open there would definitely need to be something to replace it. One option which has been suggested is to still pick a role, but rather than being locked into just that role, have a benefit like bonus influence when the clan plays that role. Interestingly, this would also open up the Support of roles which could make these lesser played roles a little.

Negatives

It reduces deck variety.

Top players pick the ‘best’ roles, casual players can’t play their fun decks.

If a clan doesn’t have the best role, they are weaker than intended.

Harder to balance clans during playtest as they may not have the expected roles.

The role system has to be explained to new players who otherwise have illegal decks.

The system encourages leaks as playtesters have an incentive to keep their clan informed.

Decisions can be divisive in the community as players who don’t get the role they hoped for feel betrayed.

A lot of the above, and arguably the biggest problem with the system, is the idea that the top players will pick the best role they can and the only decks not being played are the fun decks.

The current system in attempting to strike a balance between accessibility and restrictions, unfortunately, has ended up in a situation where clans always have access to the best decks. The only roles a clan cannot play are the ones with experimental or fun decks. Right now, allowing clans access to all the roles wouldn’t significantly change the top end of the meta. Where it would make a difference is on the mid and bottom tables where players who have fun ideas would be able to bring them to a tournament and have some fun.

So while there are definitely some positives to the system, I certainly feel like the time for locking clans into specific roles has passed. What about you?

If you have any comments or feedback please post them in the comments section below. Check us out on the Imperial Advisor website, podcast, and YouTube channel for more discussion about the L5R LCG.

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