Noticias – ObakeMerchant

Homunculus Helper (handy bookmark for VTES searches)

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 13/01/2023. Publicado en Novedades.

While this is page is not a deck-builder site (of which there are some excellent ones, like VDB), when we put the files together, we took care to add some relevant information into each product (in this case, card) to make searches easy. How do searches work: For starters, you can easily look for a particular card entering its title in the search engine (upper right side, next to the magnifier icon) and pressing enter. For this to work, the search string must have at least three characters. For instance, a search for «.44» yields this. To avoid false positives you can further limit your search...

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Celestial Edition 15th, how I hate thee? Let me count the ways… (2)

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 04/05/2025. Publicado en Novedades.

In my previous entry in this series I went over why I consider re-do sets, like CE15 was, were a bad idea and may have affected negatively the long term of the game by causing retailers to hold back on stocking the game, fearing these kind of products that would devalue existing stock. I also put forward that, while players were very happy about getting extra rares in their product for the same price, what they were getting was also worth less. The same way printing money without control causes said money to be worth less and causes overall prices to rise, when you get three, instead of one,...

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Celestial Edition 15th, how I hate thee? Let me count the ways… (1)

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 27/04/2025. Publicado en Novedades.

Some of you probably have noticed it has taken me a long time to update the L5R store database after The Harbinger. That’s because CE15 is a maddening h*ll of a hassle to collect and even make a complete list of. First of all, CE15 is a «re-do» set of the original Celestial Edition base set. I have issues with this kind of product, so this part of my… rant applies to the all them and not just to CE15 in particular (even if CE15 was the worst offender of the lot) . At this point, AEG had already done something similar with Samurai Edition Banzai! (SEB) sets, which was itself a re-do of the...

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The L5R Experience, a Gold era Learn-to-Play product. Decklists and other info.

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 06/04/2025. Publicado en Novedades.

The L5R Experience was one of several Learn-to-Play (LTP) products. designed by AEG as a free promotional tool to encourage existing L5R players to teach the game and expand the player base. This product included two small, basic preconstructed 50-card decks (Crane vs. Scorpion) created to be balanced against each other, while showing the core mechanics of the game. It used only existing cards, none of them valuable (one worry being that players hoarded those cards for themselves, thus diluting the intent of the product). Maybe the most valuable cards, then and today, were the two Strongholds...

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UNRELEASED TALES (III): Lost in the cutting room

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 04/02/2025. Publicado en Novedades.

At this point, we know part of AEG promo policy was to not release and destroy those promos that remained unreleased when the legality period for them ended. We only know of them becase of unintended leaks, or mispacks that had a few scarce copies end in the hands of players. Then, we have these… To my knowledge, the only proof of their existence was in them appearing in some old playtest documents. They didn’t even had art assigned at this point (but they had flavor text!). I wonder if at some point they got their art, if they were even printed at all (maybe they didn’t...

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UNRELEASED TALES (II): The Samurai Edition Demo Set

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 20/01/2025. Publicado en story.

Previous arcs had received some form of not-for-sale demo item, released along or very close to the base set. These were simple decks, made out of common and uncommon cards, sent to retailers so they could demo the game to prospective players. Diamond Editiion had a pair of these decks, featuring the Mantis and the Unicorn Clans, while, if I recall correctly, Lotus Edition had one of these for every playable clan in the arc. But not of Samurai… or did it? While no such item was released, a very small bunch of Strongholds with the «SE Demo» indicator in the copyright line made their way...

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Mortadelo y Filemon 1969-1971

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 27/11/2024. Publicado en cómic.

Ahora que finalmente tengo entre manos este primer tomo de la tan esperada edición limitada de Penguin Random House para SD, debo admitir que tengo sentimientos encontrados. Por una parte, empieza a parecerse a algo que hace mucho que deseo, un integral de los personajes y autores que definieron mi infancia (literalmente, aprendí a leer con ellos) y que he seguido hasta mis actuales cincuenta y pico años. Pero por otra, dista bastante de ser perfecto y, en algunos aspectos, representa incluso un paso atrás con respecto a su precedente inmediato, el fallido (y mal titulado) coleccionable de...

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The Cards Tell the Tale (III): Borrowed advisor trio?

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 23/10/2024. Publicado en artwork.

In the HONOR’S VEIL set, we get a trio of personalities, plus a follower card, by Carl Frank. Frank is one of the original artists for L5R. starting from the very first set and kept on contributing art for quite a long time. Utaku Keiko (left), Kaiu Genji (center), and Mirumoto Satobe (right) Borrowed Advisors At a guess, I’d say this art piece wasn’t originally designed for the card game, but as the cover for a rulebook or box for the Clan War miniatures game. I’m really not sure if this was actually used for a published product (in which case, I don’t know...

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Oracular Spectacular! Part 1

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 13/10/2024. Publicado en story.

The Elemental Oracles have been a thing in L5R since the very beginning, starting with Imperial Edition (also reprinted on Emerald and Obsidian Editions). artwork (c) and by Randy Elliott (earth), Ken Meyer Jr. (fire), April Lee (water), and Quinton Hoover (wind) Noticeably, The Oracle of Air was named «of Wind», instead; probably an editing mistake which was later kept to minimize confusion on the playing table. Also, the Void version was noticeably missing at this time. The role of the Oracles was then unknown to us, players of L5R… and probably to the writers, too: something...

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DECK ANATOMY: Khan’s Defiance

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 27/08/2024. Publicado en Novedades.

Release date: January 22nd, 2007. General description: Regular-size expansion for Lotus Edition; the first to include dual Lotus/Samurai legality bugs. Sets size: 156 numbered cards (50 common, 50 uncommon, 50 rare, 6 fixed). Extra cards: 50 rare foils, plus 59 fixed deck reprints. Total size: 265 cards. CRAB DECK (fixed portion) Stronghold: Kaiu Shiro Events (1) Birth of the Blood Heir Holdings (11) A Favor Returned Gifts and Favors Crystal Mine Iron Mine x2 Personal Librarian Rich Coffers Secluded Village x2 Secluded Waystation x2 Personalities (12) Hida Daizu x2 Hida Dayu...

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The Cards Tell the Tale (II): The Training Grounds, by Ben Peck

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 12/07/2024. Publicado en story.

The original TRAINING GROUNDS set was released along the Diamond Edition base set, and was the LTP product for the Reign of Blood era, and depicted a battle between the Lion Clan and the Shadowlands forces. The product packaging (a sturdy two row box designed to hold around 800 cards) had a wraparound battle scene which was also used to illustrate several cards in the set. Sadly it seems the full widescreen picture is nowhere to be found, except for the featured central part, with the two enemy leaders facing off, so well need to use our imagination to picture the full scene, as depicted...

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The Cards Tell the Tale (I): Training Grounds II, by Miguel Coimbra

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 11/07/2024. Publicado en Novedades.

Repeating the trick used for their previous LTP product, the art department decided to use this wraparound image for the product packaging of Training Grounds II. LTP (that Learn to Play) products usually appeared once for each legality arc, near the release of the basic set for a given story arc (in this case, Lotus Edition, or The Age of Enlightenment). Again they usually featured a more discrete conflict, limited to two factions. In this case, they were the Crane and Dragon Clans, and the conflict was called the War of Silk and steel. This widescreen artwork, by newcomer to L5R Miguel Coimbra,...

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What’s in a Sect

Escrito por Obake Máximo en 01/05/2024. Publicado en Novedades.

While belonging to a Clan (or bloodline) is part who what a Vampire IS, and it can’t be changed (well, there are exceptions, as we already have seen). A Sect is an organization that you chose to BELONG to. Of course, the circumstances of your Embrace (sort vampiric birth), like who is your Sire, which city, and when it happened has lots to do with it, it is not something that is in your blood and you need a super duper arcane magic ritual to switch. THE CAMARILLA When the game was first published, this was the default sect. It didn’t even say so in the cards, because… of course you are Camarilla....

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