UNRELEASED TALES (II): The Samurai Edition Demo Set
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 into the hands of players, mispacked within some Phoenix starters, probably meaning at least one leftover printing sheet of the set ended on the wrong stack at the printer’s. So it seems a demo set for Samurai Edition was designed and even printed along the Samurai Base set but, for whatever reason, the release was scrapped last minute. We wouldn’t even know about it, but for this accidental mispack.
All the strongholds were full bleed, a special treatment that had started with the previous arc, all but one featuring artwork by Charles Urbach. Most of these were alternate versions of existing strongholds for the arc, with different stats and abilities, but there was completely new stuff, too, like the Village of Enigmas, which also happened to be illustrated by Dave Kendall. Neither this stronghold name, nor the artwork was ever used again!
I would love to know what happened here, what was the reason why this demo set was scrapped when it had gone as far as being printed, and what did the rest of the decks to go with these Strongholds looked like (and, maybe, try to duplicate and play them against each other).. Sadly, chances are we won’t ever know. In any case, these are probably the scarcest promo to exist, besides Toturi III.
You can check this, and other promos (both unreleased and released) from the Samurai era here.