Included "story-backed" stronghold cards for the thirteen legal factions at the uncommon rarity level. Packaged in cloth covered box and binder. Simplified cards included in demo booster for Top Deck Magazine.įirst direct to player set. Included "Clan War Saga" foils reprinting older cards. "Learn to Play" set including two pairs of decks. Included "Clan Weapons" for each clan.īrotherhood & Dragon, Naga & Toturi's Army The Hidden Emperor: The Dark Journey Homeįifth base set. These had two levels of uncommon rather than true rares. The Hidden Emperor expansion was released in small monthly episodes as part of the "Rolling Thunder" campaign. This allowed tournament rules to limit the card base allowed to be used: either "Strict Jade" in which only cards with the bug were legal or "Extended Jade" in which all Actions, Followers, Items, Kihos, and Regions were legal but all other types were required to have the bug.īrotherhood, Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Naga, Phoenix, Scorpion, Shadowlands, Toturi's Army, Unicorn, Yoritomo's Allianceįourth base set. Newly printed cards were now marked with a "Jade bug". With Jade Edition, L5R introduced the concept of "arc legality". "Prequel" expansion, released in 3 monthly installments as part of the "Rolling Thunder" campaign. Included "story-backed" stronghold cards for the twelve factions at the uncommon rarity level. Introduced actual cards for Strongholds, instead of using back of deck box. Included "Ancestral Standards" for each clan. Included "Ancestral Armors" for each clan. Introduced Region card type and Ritual spells. Included "Ancestral Swords" for each clan.
The rarity symbols are circle for common, diamond for uncommon, star for rare, triangle for promo, hollow diamond for "premium" (bonus cards found in Emperor Edition and later boosters), and star within a circle for fixed cards.Ĭards made available at GenCon prior to commercial release.Ĭrab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Phoenix, Unicornįirst base set. From Gold Edition on, cards have an expansion code, card number, and rarity symbol listed on their lower edge. Originally, sets were differentiated by the color of their borders. These bugs are shown next to each arc's title. The only cards legal at most official tournaments are those printed with the current bug (or earlier printings of those cards). From the beginning of the game's second arc with Jade Edition, cards have featured a "bug" (a kanji approximation of the edition's name) in a lower corner of the card's text box showing that card's legality. In addition to starters and boosters, there is also the occasional "learn to play" set containing two fixed decks and an expanded rulebook for new players and a fixed "direct to player" set unavailable except directly from AEG.įor the purpose of tournament format/legality and the storyline, L5R's sets are divided into "arcs". They also include cards from previous sets and are intended to be fully playable decks. Starters feature a particular faction, including new fixed rarity cards and a Stronghold card for that faction. Cards are sold in 60-90 card semi-randomized starter decks and booster packs which have a smaller number (typically 11 or 15) of random cards. Expansion sets (which are smaller than base sets) are composed entirely of new cards. Base sets are typically composed primarily of reprinted cards from prior sets with a smaller number of new cards. L5R is marketed through base sets and expansion sets. This is a list of the card sets for the Legend of the Five Rings collectible card game ("L5R") published by AEG.