Legend of the Five Rings: Under Fu Leng’s Shadow

Legend of the Five Rings: Under Fu Leng’s Shadow

The Shadowlands have always threatened the southern border of Rokugan—but now, the aimless and disorganized hordes of foul goblins, shambling undead, lost samurai, and hideous monsters have been united under a single vicious ruler. A monstrous oni stomps toward the Emerald Empire, leading waves upon waves of deadly foes to breach the Great Carpenter Wall. It is the greatest threat that Rokugan has faced in centuries—and even if the clans can unite, there is no guarantee that they will survive.

This Premium Expansion is stuffed with 271 new cards for Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game, and at the same time, it introduces two brand-new ways to play the game! Almost half of the new cards contained in this expansion are fully dedicated to the brand-new Shadowlands faction, and you can battle against the awe-inspiring might of the Shadowlands using two new game variants. You might choose to play the cooperative variant, either playing solo or teaming up with your friends to take on a mighty Shadowlands warlord. Or, you could embrace the darkness in a challenge variant, allowing one player to lead the forces of the Shadowlands into battle against two to four other players.

Whether you battle the rising darkness together with your friends, challenge them to fight the Shadowlands hordes under your command, or use this expansion’s clan cards in your stronghold or skirmish games, Under Fu Leng’s Shadow is packed to bursting with exciting new content for every Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game player.

This expansion also serves as a capstone for the game, marking the completion of Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game.

The Power of the Shadowlands

For the first time with Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, you have the chance to play Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game with two entirely new variants: cooperative and challenge. Whether you’re playing the fully cooperative mode or taking command of the Shadowlands creatures yourself, there’s one essential element of the Shadowlands armies—their warlord.

As a disconnected rabble of undead, tainted samurai, goblins, ogres, oni, and other monstrosities, the Shadowlands forces have no stronghold to rally around and defend. They are united only by the might of a single warlord, who forms the centerpiece of their armies in the game. There are three distinct warlords included in Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, represented by double-sided cards with tweaked abilities to reflect the cooperative variant or the challenge variant. No matter which way you’re playing, each of these warlords brings a different flavor to the battle against the Shadowlands.

For example, you may choose the monstrous Akuma no Oni (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 1B) to lead your Shadowlands army into battle. As the replacement for the stronghold, the warlord determines how much fate the Shadowlands will generate each round—in this case, five per player. Your warlord isn’t always in play as a character, but its abilities are always active and you can use them to shape the battlefield even when the warlord is out-of-play, such as Akuma no Oni forcing your opponents to choose between losing all fate from their best character or giving you an additional military conflict.

Your warlord can bring its formidable skill to bear in your conflicts by playing certain Shadowlands cards, such as Direct Assault (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 57). When it enters play, Akuma no Oni’s skills are further enhanced by the corrupted keyword, which brings Akuma no Oni into play with a new Tainted status card.

This status card can be given to characters or provinces, and it increases the character’s skill or the province’s strength—but you must sacrifice honor to use your Tainted card. Of course, the Shadowlands abominations care nothing for Rokugan’s concepts of honor. In cooperative or challenge variants alike, the Shadowlands have no honor, and never need to pay honor for effects like the Tainted status card, making this a powerful benefit to their forces.

This disregard for honor also changes some of the victory conditions you might expect in a standard game. The samurai of Rokugan cannot beat back the Shadowlands by accumulating enough honor—they can only achieve victory by breaking all of the Shadowlands provinces or surviving the onslaught long enough for the Shadowlands dynasty deck to run dry, at which point the Rokugani players win the game! However, if the Shadowlands can break each player’s stronghold (in stronghold format), or all of their provinces (in skirmish format), the Shadowlands are victorious!

And as you’ll soon discover, the Shadowlands plenty powerful enough to take on multiple opponents at once. Luring the samurai into dread provinces like Blood Fields (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 4) or Haunted Jungles (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 10) can lead to a sticky end—to say nothing of the horrors that lie in wait for even the boldest samurai.

Even a simple Goblin like Fouleye’s Elite (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 15) can be more persistent than it would first appear. When a Shadowlands creature enters play, rather than paying additional fate to keep this character in play longer, the character automatically gains fate from the fate supply equal to its reinforcement number. For example, the Shadowlands must pay three fate to bring Fouleye’s Elite into play, and then they place two additional fate on this character. And there are far more dangerous creatures than goblins lurking within this expansion.

The dark Shugenja Kitsu Sokori (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 23) raises legions of the dead from the dynasty discard pile, amassing an army of Tainted samurai that fight alongside her. A Dark Moto (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 26) is a foul reminder of the Unicorn Clan’s greatest failure. And a Shrine to Jigoku (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 39) can strip cards from a player’s hand. The conflict deck is equally packed with devastating attachments and events, such as Horrific Scarring (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 46) to keep characters out of political conflicts, or the marks of Despair (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 66), which can hamper any samurai events. Whether you’re all uniting against the Shadowlands in cooperative mode, or you’re looking to take on your friends in the challenge variant, the untold dangers of Fu Leng’s domain are an exceptional test of skill for all loyal samurai.

Ready for War

Though the new Shadowlands cards offer exciting new challenges for every player, this Premium Expansion is also filled with new cards that are valid in your standard stronghold and skirmish games.

Two new strongholds burst onto the field to introduce new possibilities for the Phoenix and Scorpion Clans. With Twin Soul Temple (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 74), the Phoenix Clan can twist the very elements to fit their needs, unlocking the powers of their Shugenja. Or perhaps, you’ll make your opponent feel the sting of dishonor with Shiro Yogo (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 75)—when you bow this stronghold, you can choose a dishonored character and prevent it from triggering its abilities this phase.

Though the Great Clans of Rokugan are dedicated to fighting against the power of the Shadowlands, that doesn’t mean that they’ve escaped untainted by its dark influence. In fact, you’ll soon find that many of the new cards included in this expansion, such as Exiled Guardian (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 76), feature the corrupted keyword, which means they enter play with the Tainted status token. If you’re willing to pay with your honor, however, Tainted characters can be a powerful asset in your battle against another clan.

Even in the fight against the Shadowlands, you can reap the benefits of honoring your own characters. The Crane Clan gains the Daidoji Strategist (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 80), who can move an honored character home during a conflict, potentially allowing you to manipulate the flow of battle. The Dragon can rely on Centered Breath (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 104) to chain their Kihō events together, while the Lion Clan may be found Directing the Battle (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 107)—a card that is especially useful when playing the cooperative or challenge variant with a team of other players. You may even arm your Unicorn warriors with a Daikyū (Under Fu Leng’s Shadow, 115) giving them the ability to bow enemy characters from afar before the conflict even begins.

For every clan, you’ll find exciting new options contained within Under Fu Leng’s Shadow. And with the new deckbuilding questions posed by the cooperative and challenge variants introduced in this box, you’ll have another chance to plumb deep into the cardpool for every clan, perhaps reevaluating cards that had previously been overlooked!

We Are All Defenders of Rokugan

The Crab Clan’s defenses are formidable, but they cannot stand against the hordes of Akuma no Oni on their own. Every Great Clan must unite against their common threat, but even then, victory is not assured. Strike your own blow against the Shadowlands or lead their forces into battle with the Under Fu Leng’s Shadow Premium Expansion.