Deciding which ring to challenge for is one of the most difficult parts of L5R. It is the most common question new players ask me. With 5 different rings each with different effects you can see how daunting it must be for anyone. We haven’t even added the extra variables of the 2 different conflicts and 4 distinct provinces in the mix yet. My goal for this article is to provide a look inside my thought process when I select a ring to give readers a framework to base their decisions on.

Before we go to the main body of the article let me first state that I believe that there is no best ring in general but there will be a most optimal or “best” ring for any specific situation. If you take 3 good players and have them watch a game of L5R and select rings for each conflict a good amount of their ring selections would match.

Mono No Aware

Mono No Aware is the principal concept of L5R. Balancing your needs now versus your needs of the future. Most players think that this only applies to fate and characters. That is incorrect. It applies to ring selection as well. In my mind I organize rings into a spectrum. The rings on the left provide help for the future while the rings on the right provide help for the current turn. The spectrum is Void, Air, Earth, Fire, Water. Thematically it makes sense. The more volatile the element the more immediate its effect.

In order to make a good decision on whether we need help now or in the future we have to look at our board state. Quite simply these are the characters we have on the table as well as our resources (in this case fate, honor, and cards) as well as those available to our opponents. This allows us to form a realistic goal for the turn.

Do I plan to just survive? Do I plan to just build on my advantage? Do I need to aggressively advance my win condition this turn? Once we determine that we can then determine which side of the spectrum we prioritize. For instance let us say I am behind and I plan to just survive. I look at my board state. Can I survive with what I have? If so I will choose rings that impact the future to help make my next turns better. Is survival not possible? Then I choose rings that help me right now. Asking yourself these questions will allow you to make more focused decisions.

Void

Void is one of the most popular rings as its concept is easy to understand. Remove a fate from your opponent and they die early. Suppose my opponent paid 2 fate for a character and put 1 fate on it. He is expecting to get 2 turns of value out of that character. If I remove a fate from it then they will only get 1 turn of value out of the character. Out of all the rings Void is the one that is focused solely on the future. For all intents and purposes Void does nothing on the turn you use it. If your opponent has Togashi Yokuni with one fate and you remove a fate from him with Void you are still left with Togashi Yokuni. He still has his stats and all his abilities and can still be used this turn. Selecting Void means you are confident in your board state and do not need further help this turn.

Now for a slightly more advanced section. There are some players who put 2 fate on a character because they believe that this scares of players into using Void on that character. Most players are only too happy to accommodate this as the belief is the player will have 2 turns of value out of the card no matter what you do. This analysis is incomplete. Take this scenario for example. The Lion brings out Akodo Toturi with 2 fate. As first player he launches his attack and honors some of his allies with Fire. On your turn you remove one fate from him with Void. At the end of the turn another fate is removed. For your first conflict you attack with water and bow him. Your opponent paid 7 for Toturi hoping to have 3 turns of value out of him. With the proper ring selection these 3 turns was reduced to 1.

Air

As a general rule Air does not do anything on the turn it is played. It is played to further the dishonor win condition or to try and stall it with honor gain. Functionally there is no difference between having 15 honor and only having 5. Neither player has won or lost using honor yet. It is very important to note that playing with low honor can drastically change your play style, forcing you to defend conflicts you would rather not spend characters on.

There is an exception to this. When honor dependent cards hit the table Air can have an immediate impact, usually in a much more violent way than Water or Fire. For example if the opponent has Obstinate Recruits on the table. Taking Air at the proper time could destroy your opponents board. An advantage that no other ring would be able to replicate.

Earth

I call Earth the default ring. It is the one I challenge for when I have nothing else better to do. Maybe I need help for the present but Water and Fire are taken or all the characters on the table have low glory. Maybe I will get something good Maybe I wont. Its all random anyway. Maybe I will discard something important from my opponent or maybe not. I cannot rely on something so random when planning my turn.

Some gamers have compared a use of the Earth ring to a 2 honor swing or a 4 honor swing or whatever number they can justify. It is not. Honor is honor and cards in hand are cards in hand. There are plenty of ways to draw cards without losing honor.

Fire

Fire causes an immediate change in the board state by applying a buff to my forces or a debuff to my opponents. While it is true that these changes carry on for future turns I still place Fire on the left side of the spectrum because its effects are felt right away.

On another note when playing a deck whose primary win condition is dishonor Fire actually breaks this theory and becomes the de facto best ring. It weakens your opponents board while fulfilling the win condition of making your opponent lose honor. The honor loss is just delayed until their character is removed from play.

Water

When I first started playing Water was the most unpopular ring. We were wrong. Functionally Water is the same as Void. This may surprise some people but I urge you to think about it. Both rings remove one activation or one use of a card. In essence they both remove a character one turn early. For instance your opponent plays a Matsu Berserker for 1 fate. He is expecting 1 activation out of that card. You attack first and bow him. His 1 activation has now become 0. There are of course more ready effects than effects which add fate and bowed characters can still use their abilities which make Water weaker than Void in this regard. It makes up for it by having the flexibility of giving another activation to your characters if that is what is needed.

Fate

The last consideration is Fate. The number of fate on a ring may increase its value to you. As a general rule I find it personally hard to refuse fate unless there is a very pressing reason and I will almost never refuse a ring with two fate on it.

I hope this article helps readers understand the theory behind ring selection. It is a very complex topic so feel free to ask me questions about it in comments.