Gates of Tengoku Fiction Previews III

There are a great many previews today to accompany the short Tanuki Clan vignette "A Better Fate". We've shown you some of the art previously, and talked about how some minor story choices a decade ago ended up helping us create an entire mini-narrative within the post-Onyx Rokugan; today we get to share the design philosophy behind the Tanuki Clan, alongside several cards which are either directly involved, or which add to their narrative via flavor text.

Fundamentally, the Tanuki Clan is meant to be a coalition deck. We wanted it to represent stragglers from many clans, all working together towards a common purpose of survival and resistance. (Kokujin) Dangai Sensei is the centralizing factor for the deck.

The deckbuilding rules with this Sensei are unusual: you cannot include a Wind (there is no central authority to whom these rebels report), Shadowlands cards (what they fight against), or Unique non-Tanuki Clan Personalities. Many "Superfriends" decks which have done well in the tournament scene in the past were centered around the most powerful Unique Personalities of every clan; we absolutely wanted to avoid that. As such, the only Uniques you may include are ones like Bayushi Waietto and Tsuruchi Yurio, pictured above, who are intended specifically for these Tanuki Clan decks.

You also may not include more than 5 of any clan's Personalities in your deck -- this is to encourage a wider build, rather than a simple two-clan alliance like Akeha Sensei provides. You may ignore the Honor Requirement of your non-Unique Personalities, allowing you to play with literally any of them which are not clan-loyal to clans other than yours, but they all also have Singular, meaning you can only have one per title in play. To cement the idea of the wider build, Dangai Sensei provides a benefit we have not seen much of mechanically: the more Clan Alignments in your army, the more "indirect Force" they contribute to your army, a bonus at resolution which cannot be Force penaltied away, negated, or reduced. The coalition is stronger together!

Why do many of the Tanuki Clan Personalities have the "Tattooed" keyword? Not so much for mechanical reasons, but for flavor: it is Dangai who offers them this unusual advantage, his tattoos powered by extracts from an artifact sealed away and forgotten in a cave inside ravaged Scorpion lands: the Oni's Eye. Others have not yet fully signed on to the Tanuki's cause, but are still in the midst of things, such as Shinjo Dairu, another character created by a high-level tournament win.

The coalition's members use their ability to coordinate to scavenge material and to strike terror into the Chuda occupiers of the lands around the Second Festering Pit. They have become the nightmares' nightmare, and will continue to operate as such in the future.

Deckbuilding options during Gates of Tengoku's playtest were widely varied, but none of them stood out as unreasonably powerful. We hope you will find the Tanuki Clan an interesting option to explore, and look forward to seeing what unusual coalition you put together!