Crane Paths and Kotei Choices

[Doji Hajime]

I supose that my hope that Crane would be a dueling machine again on my return is dashed. It seems like this was the same arguement that i encountereed just as distince and ability to play faded away. I kind of hoped we as a clan had stablised our themes and were strongly identified. Oh well will have to work at it I guess.

[Martino]

I hope there is a path that restores our honor dueling theme, it seems to have by far the most consensus here. I want to see Makoto cut someone in half like Kurohito did.

[Asahina Shimato]

Yissss. Let's murder everybody honorably who's in our way.

Our PATH to power leads over the bisected bodies of previous pretenders.

[Doji Azai]

You are perceiving failure derived from CCG paths as the Crane failing as a whole. If you eliminate the idea that "to be successful we must win key positions" that problem vanishes entirely.

Now, I get you. You want to know "if not that, then what" and I'm going to show you.

In the meantime, help out your view by pouring onto that Kae bounty. I tossed $100 on it because I would LOVE to see that win.

As a total side note, I remember an Emerald Champion tourney a whole back where every local tourney winner got to pick anyone for their vote and even those who doesn't play Crane helped by picking them anyway.

Grass roots yo.

That may not be relevant here. Hmm...

[Himoto]

And the core design for the clan has to match the core identity, otherwise they completely lose their point in the CCG.

Crane, at the heart, are in fact the courtly clan. Dueling is part of that, but as a side-theme rather than the central identity of the clan (seriously, how many super-duper dedicated duelist did Crane have in its early years? Toshimoko, Hoturi, Reju were pretty much it in Clan War). By and large, dueling was just something (some of ) our uniques did.

[Doji Makoto]

[Martino]

[Martino]

How does being the most honorable clan feel anymore? Are we it? How do we know? The vast majority of our story for the past two years has been about a bunch of soldiers fighting the Mantis, and one stodgy magistrate who discovered that (gasp) the Spider aren't good guys. Are there any story aesthetics relating to being the most honorable?

[Doji Yoshi]

I, myself, would prefer the Crane getting back to badassery:

Dangerous personalities (dueling).
Courtiers you don't mess with (power).
And did I mention dueling?

Of course what I would prefer in decks is honor. Crane should be the best honor deck. Not Phoenix.
Crane should have duelists that don't average chi lower than 4, and yet they do right now.
Magistrates are cool, but I still would prefer Courtiers.

[Himoto]

Hi there Yoshi

Yeah, I agree...design's approach to the Crane doesn't fill me with confidence. Though I'm not really into all-out dueling decks (to me dueling should be a side trick we use in other decks to support our honor machine, not the whole points of an entire decktype, but I have no objection to it being one of our archetype as others seem to enjoy it), I just haven't liked where Crane's design has been in a while, and Ivory is especially bad in that regard.