This article is intended for people who have played Lion for a while and want to take their game to the next level. If you are just starting L5R and have not played many games with Lion the Lion deckbuilding article may be a better place to start.

As always the deck I am using can be found here.

The Lion clan to put it simply is an army. In fact you may notice that in the deck linked I have a grand total of 4 named characters. 3 of which are the clan champion. Most of the work in your games will be done by faceless troops. As the saying goes an army marches on its stomach and Lion is no different. The most important task for any Lion player is to find enough fate to keep his army fed.

Mono No Aware directly works against Lion. Suppose you had 2 Matsu Berserkers, 1 Ikoma Prodigy, and 1 Venerable Historian in play against your opponent who has 1 Savvy Politician and 1 Doji Challenger. In that turn it is costing you 4 fate to keep your army up and running while your opponent only has to pay 2. The Lion player will have to make up the difference elsewhere. A Lion player who manages his fate well can carry over 5-6 characters from one turn to another while one who does not will find his army deserting.

First Player and Mulligan

There are two competing philosophies among Lions. To keep things in character let us call them the Way of the Matsu and the Way of the Akodo.

The Way of the Matsu states that the Lions Pride Brawler is the most important character to have at the start of the game. Anything that is not this card is reshuffled for a better chance at drawing one. Consequently proponents of the Way of the Matsu want to go first to use the Brawlers ability as soon as possible.

The Way of the Akodo states that it is more important to have multiple characters that you can play on the first turn rather than having one specific card. Matsu Berserker, Ikoma Prodigy, Venerable Historian, Steadfast Samurai and basically any 1 or 2 cost character you can play with a fate on. Since the Way of the Akodo is fate intensive its proponents would prefer to go second for the extra fate.

When I first started Lion I played using the philosophy of the Matsu. As I gained experience I realize the Way of the Akodo is better. There have been some math minded players who have run the stats and it seems like if you mulligan exclusively for one card then you have around a 50% chance of getting it. That is nowhere near consistent enough for me. In contrast there are so many small characters in the deck that you are virtually guaranteed a good mix of them in your starting draw. Another consideration is the provinces. There are so many provinces that can hurt you such as Shameful Display, Meditations of the Tao, or even Art of War that I would prefer to have my opponent take the initial risk in revealing the first province. Lastly the Way of the Akodo almost guarantees that you will carry over 2-3 characters into the second turn.

On the other hand going first and having the Brawler out could mean that your opponent will not be able to declare a conflict at all giving you a dominant position for turn 2.

There are merits to both strategies but I prefer the more consistent one.

Dynasty

This is where the game is won or lost for the Lion player. Effective use of this phase enables you to have the resources necessary for the rest of the turn. There is this belief that Lion takes up a lot of actions during the dynasty phase and therefore you will always get the first pass against them. It is true that in some turns Lions take a lot more actions in dynasty. There have been some games that I have taken 6-7 more actions after my opponent passes, yet they should not happen every turn. If you are a Lion player and find that your opponents are always passing first then this is something you can improve on.

Lion has what I call an ebb and flow. Just like the tide which slowly overwhelm the coast. In one turn you only bring out 1-2 characters making sure to pass first and saving your fate for the next round and in the other turn you splurge and bring out 5 new characters. I highly recommend putting at least one fate on each new recruit as they need to get you through your next turn when you only bring out minimal reinforcements. Ideally your ebb turns should be when you are first player and the turns where you flood the board should come when you are second player.

Conflict

As a Lion player your main task in the conflict phase is harvesting fate. Unless there is a game breaking ring effect your priority that you are sure you can win your priority should always be getting the fate on the rings. The Lion playstyle pressures honor and provinces so every ring should have some use. The best part of this whole thing is that since you are playing for fate it does not even matter too much if you lose the conflict itself as long as your opponent is playing cards. You will get the victories when the rest of your army appears. Your wide formation helps you here as you can participate meaningfully in all conflicts while your opponent is forced to defend or lose the province.

In the deck I presented there are no cards which cost 2 fate and less than half which cost 1. My main goal is to end the conflict phase with more fate than I started. Let the other clans have their Political Rivals or big conflict characters. Lion have access to Staging Grounds and Akodo Gunso which enable us to bring out as many people as they can afford.

Keeper Initiate

This card really came into its own with the Keeper of Fire pick. With Toturi you are potentially pulling one 3 mil 3 pol honored character out after claiming the ring. This is bigger than any character in your deck! While the Keeper is very good he has the potential to be a trap. Unless there is something like 3 of them in the discard pile and you think you have a good shot at winning the conflict do not go out of your way to claim the Fire ring. It serves a role just as a distraction to your opponent forcing him to go out of his way denying it to you. Always prioritize fate first unless there is a very good reason.

For Greater Glory

This card is great but also has great potential to be a trap. Players have a tendency to reserve it until they can use it to hit 3-4 characters when that is not always its best use. Even just hitting 1-2 characters is enough as you are providing them an extra turn. Waiting for the perfect opportunity often means that this card is dead in your hand.

Strength in Numbers

In my opinion cards that target glory will always be strong. Military and Political strength can always be modified but aside from the Phoenix stronghold glory is very stable. Just 3 characters and you can push most clan champions out of the conflict. Be very careful in using this however. Make sure that it is a conflict you absolutely have to win as more often than not taking the loss and having your opponent bow with you is a better tradeoff.

Honored General

Most players will immediately question the lack of the Honored General in the deck. I initially removed him to try out the Gifted Tactician. He was the candidate for this because I noticed that some of my losses were caused by bad flops where my only choices were him and Toturi. While I found Gifted Tactician to be mediocre and replaceable the deck just runs much smoother without the general.

You do not even need him in the final province break as you will normally be bringing in so many people that Strength in Numbers can remove any tough defenders.

Politics

There is this misconception that Lion is very weak in politics. That is not true. Ikoma Prodigy is a cheap 2 pol character and Venerable Historian is a 4 politics one. The Keeper Initiates have 2 glory each which makes for decent political characters as well. Lion may not focus on politics but they can break provinces using it if needed.

Final Thoughts

I hope this article will help my readers improve their performance with the Lion clan. Watching a good Lion player is very similar to watching a Starcraft player with excellent macro. It just looks like magic.