Synergy is something that I feel is under-discussed, since I believe that it is second only to play testing as the best guide when building a deck. The theory is straightforward: the best way to build a powerful deck is to have every card complement and increase the power of every other card. While achieving that ideal is well nigh impossible, it’s quite practical to keep it in mind during deck construction. Every card has individual components that aid or hinder the rest of your deck and your progress towards a win condition. I like to think of these components as many little nubs sticking out from each card, waiting to connect with the rest of your deck. Identifying these nubs and linking them together will practically make a deck build itself. The more nubs that are linked the better each card becomes.
L5R cards have many different statistics that can offer subtle opportunities for synergy. Let’s take glance at a card like Doji Toyoaki. He’s a Courtier and a Samurai, which opens up a wide variety of actions for use. He’s best in an honorable deck, since he gets a bonus from having the Imperial Favor. High focus values synergize with his battle ability, but he has one related point of anti-synergy: high focus values work best alongside dueling, but Toyoaki has only 3 chi and is not a duelist, which makes it difficult or impossible for him to initiate a duel. Toyoaki himself actually conflicts with some of his potential synergy, but that doesn’t make him a bad card since he has a ton of good stats and plenty of nubs.
Even vanilla cards have many nubs: take Doji Ayano as an example. No, I’m not talking about those. I mean that while she’s about as vanilla a card as Crane can get, she has plenty of synergistic potential. Ayano has no abilities or traits, but she does have both the Samurai and Courtier keywords to enable the use of actions. Her chi and personal honor are both 4, which allow her to synergize with a number of effects based on those stats (including force reduction and dueling). She’s not perfect though. Ayano is clearly best in an honor deck due to her honor requirement of 10, which gives her anti-synergy with any other win condition. Her force is only 2, which makes her poor in a military deck (though Crane sometimes has to take what they can get). The ideal deck for her would utilize all of her potential synergies and avoid her anti-synergies: an honorable dueling deck with effects like The Fortunes Smile (also synergizes with duels), Strength in Certainty, Weigh the Cost (also synergizes with duels), and political cards like Governor’s Court. That’s a lot of possibilities for such a seemingly straightforward card.
Fate cards can be evaluated for synergy as well. My favorite example is Impromptu Duel. It has three nubs: it can gain honor and either initiate a duel or cause dishonor. The trick is that your opponent has the choice of effects; to get the best out of the card your deck should connect with all three nubs. The ideal deck for Impromptu Duel would be an honorable dueling deck that also focused on causing and punishing dishonor.
There are often many cards that share synergies and identifying them can speed deck construction. The battle duel package is the first that springs to mind: Warrior Challenge plus First and Final Strike. They have some differences in nubs: Warrior Challenge synergies with the imperial favor and has anti-synergy with dueling due to its low focus value; First and Final Strike has slightly more synergy with the Duelist keyword and honor victories. But both have the same major nub: they’re both battle actions that initiate lethal duels. Normally, if you’re going to include one of them in a deck then you’re going to include both of them. Thus they can usually be lumped together as one package when considering synergy. There are many other such packages out there, but the battle duels are the most obvious.
Synergy theory can be a great guide to building a new deck. The pieces of a deck will fall into place by themselves once you select a few cards as a starting point. Simply find other cards or packages that have synergy with the cards that you know you want to play. Continue doing so, also trying to connect with the synergy nubs of previous additions, until you’ve got more cards than you need. Then begin to cut out the least synergistic or simply bad cards through play testing.
Impromptu Duel alone inspired my first tournament-grade Crane deck: dishonor-control honor out of Shizuka Toshi. My plan was to get as much synergy with Impromptu Duel’s as possible. That meant that the deck must be able to duel, that it must take advantage of honor gain, and that it must be able to punish dishonor. The first point means high chi or duelist personalities, high focus values, and the immediate addition of the battle duel package to take full advantage of dueling. I determined that the deck would try to win an honor victory to take advantage of Impromptu Duel’s honor gain. Finally, many Magistrates and Magistrate actions should be used to punish dishonored personalities. A number of good Magistrate actions have high focus value, like Scouring the Village and Restoring Order, so they have additional synergy with dueling (in fact, they form a nice package that’s worth keeping in mind). I quickly chose Shizuka Toshi for my stronghold since it synergizes heavily with honor victories and dishonor punishment. It so happens that several Crane courtiers have high Chi, so they fit right in with Shizuka Toshi and dueling (one of them, Doji Tsubakita, also has the Magistrate keyword – another connection!). Crane is lucky enough to have a superb crop of Magistrates in Hakuseki and Doukohito, both of whom have the capability to duel as well as use Magistrate actions (they also have fantastic printed actions). These are just the first few pieces that fall into place – many more follow with ease.
Synergy theory is also handy when considering changes between play tests. When considering which cards to remove, first look for what has the most anti-synergy with your deck and the least synergy with the rest of your deck. When looking for cards to add, look for what would most synergize with your deck. If you trim a few cards from a package, consider whether it would be an improvement to cut the rest of the package and replace it with a whole other package that might synergize better with the remaining packages. Similarly, if you remove a package then it might be time to re-evaluate the cards that were connected to it. For example, if you use force reduction alongside small ranged attacks then removing one will significantly weaken the other – possibly to the point where it should also be removed. Synergy theory is good for pointing you in the right direction.
A point of caution though: even with all of the benefits of synergy theory, building a winning deck requires extensive play testing. Some cards may have great synergy with some of your themes but hamper others. It usually takes play testing to determine which cards are worth the anti-synergy that they carry. Let's go back to my dishonor-control deck. Allegations was a useful battle action that causes dishonor disruption, but it was anti-synergistic with dueling due to its low focus value. It was in my original builds, but play testing proved that the anti-synergy was too damaging to retain the card. Reinforce the Gates is allowed me to use my battle-swinging duels and dishonor punishment without being dodged or killed preemptively, but it also has the anti-synergy of low focus value. Play testing proved that the effect was absolutely worth the cost, so the card stayed.
Synergy is an essential part of strategy. The better your cards complement each other, the better that they all become. This theory can be used as a good guide and rapid shortcut when building decks. Recognition of the possibilities of each card can easily be leveraged into the quick construction of a solid deck. With time and play testing, the result can be refined into a spider web of elegant power.
Tags: L5R Strategy
Related to:
Legend of the Five Rings
