What's Next: The Future of Onyx Edition and The Shattered Empire in 2025

Hello, all! Today I'm going to talk a little bit about what's coming up for Onyx Edition and the Shattered Empire in the new year. When we originally conceived of Shattered Empire, we viewed it as a sort of 'mini' arc, bridging Onyxwith our planned next full arc, Three Dynasties. Partially this was done because Onyx Edition, as it was originally released, was dual bugged for the War of the Seals arc (black-bugged, Onyx Edition) and the arc to follow it (what became known as "Shattered Empire"). We felt like this meant Shattered Empire would not need its own 'base set', because Onyx Edition could effectively function as one for both arcs. 

However, we have since come to revamp out timelines and plans since those early days, and as those plans evolved, it became more and more obvious that a Shattered Empire arc base set was likely a necessity, both to keep the card pool fresh and to remove problematic cards from the Onyx Edition base set. To that end, in the next few weeks we will be rolling out Shattered Empire, a full base set that is bugged only for the ShE environment. 

In order to not invalidate the card support for other ShE bugged sets, there will be many similarities to Onyx Edition. It's better to almost think of this as a 'yearly update' to the original Onyx Base Set. All told, there are about 90 cards that are different from the current Onyx Edition base set, in combinations of selected reprints and all new cards. 

In addition, dozens of other cards from the Onyx Edition base set will be receiving updates, largely focused on underperforming cards that we didn't necessarily feel needed to be replaced outright, or changes made to reflect the evolving story of Shattered Empire.

However, we also needed to figure out what to do with the problematically dual bugged Onyx Edition base set. Ultimately we decided the best course of action was to retroactively 'un-bug" Onyx base for the Shattered Empire arc (i.e., remove the white bug from the cards). This will allow players who wish to play in the black-bugged Onyx arc to continue to do so, as it was intended to be experienced. This also accomplishes the goal of removing problematic cards or cards that no longer make storyline sense from the current ShE environment without having to ban or errata them. 

The single bugged 'Onyx Only' Onyx Edition set will be released alongside Shattered Empire, so that the transition will be relatively seamless. We hope these changes will help keep the ShE environment fresh and interesting for our player base until the release of our next expansion, Chaos Reigns, Part II.

As Chaos Reigns, Part I largely focused on events in the Colonies following the collapse of the Iweko Dynasty, CRII brings the focus back to Rokugan, chronicling the struggles of those who stand in opposition to the so-called Hantei Emperor. CRII is tentatively scheduled for release sometime in February.