Legend of the Five Rings: Honor in Flames

Legend of the Five Rings: Honor in Flames

The fissures tearing open within the Emerald Empire have grown into chasms, mighty cracks that divide the seven Great Clans and tear their way of life apart. Every clan now faces its own temptations, and in the face of desperation, the foul practice of mahō blood magic grows more widespread. To what depths will your clan sink in the face of the coming storm? And to what heights will they rise as they push forward into the coming darkness?

Like other Dynasty Packs of the Temptations cycle, the 60 cards included within this expansion provide new dynasty deck and conflict deck options for each of the seven Great Clans, as well as three new provinces. The honor levels of each clan become more important than ever before, and the new dire keyword lets your characters unlock potent new abilities as they near the end of their time in the spotlight. With the expanding Temptations cycle, what dangers will you face—and what choices will you make?

A Dire Choice

The Temptations cycle introduces the brand-new dire keyword, and within Honor in Flames, you’ll find plenty of cards that play into this keyword directly. If a character has a dire ability, such as Steward of Cryptic Lore (Honor in Flames, 31), it gains a powerful additional ability—so long as the character has no fate on it! In most circumstances, your dire abilities will only activate on a character’s last turn in play, which poses an intriguing question. How much fate will you invest into a dire character? When do you need their dire ability?

The Steward of Cryptic Lore is far from the only dire character within this Dynasty Pack. Shoju’s Diviner (Honor in Flames, 33) offers unparalleled control over the top cards of your conflict deck, filtering out the cards that you don’t need and rearranging your cards to line up a victorious future for the Scorpion. Alternatively, if you’re using a Keeper role, the Unicorn could take advantage of Nimble Noyan (Honor in Flames, 34), a powerful military character that allows all bowed characters in a conflict to contribute their skill.

These dire cards can tip the game in your favor, but it will take both foresight and careful consideration to have these abilities available on the turn that you need them. Fortunately, if you’re willing to taint your deck with Mahō cards, you can call upon malevolent spirits to ensure that your characters run out of fate in the perfect round.

Accompanying the increased presence of the dire keyword, you’ll find an assortment of new Mahō cards with Honor in Flames. These attachments and events are unified by a sinister condition—their fate cost can only be paid using the fate on characters that you control! While playing these cards directly shortens your characters’ time on the battlefield, it can be a blessing in disguise for dire characters… and no one could argue with the effects of a Mahō spell.

A clan using a Water role might play Darkness Rising (Honor in Flames, 36) and dishonor a friendly character to bow every participating character with lower military skill! Or, the Phoenix may Unhallow (Honor in Flames, 40) an unbroken province, significantly boosting its strength—though you will sacrifice your own honor to defend this unholy ground. The Unicorn may even choose to call upon a Shadow Steed (Honor in Flames, 43), granting the Cavalry trait to any character and letting you pay honor to ready the character. No matter which clan you fight for, Mahō has much to offer, so long as you can pay the price.

A Splintered Empire

The Great Clans of Rokugan are pushed apart by dissension and differences—but if the Emerald Empire is going to survive, all clans must unite and push back against the shadow.