Due to Matt Colville's video on the subject last year, I decided to get into the re-launched version of Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) as a Living Card Game (LCG). The "fantasy feudal Japan" obviously appeals to me as a massive anime dork, the LCG model appeals to me because the random pack opening was always what turned me off of certain sets in Magic (if there weren't enough desirable cards at common rarity, I just wouldn't buy it) and also gives me room to truly experiment while being able to play at a decent level (i.e., not having to worry about owning four copies of Kird Ape and Stomping Ground [dated reference]), and the nature of the turn construction interests me for multiple reasons -- from the lack of reliance on slow ramping and a seeming lack of any mana screw phenomenon because of it, to the simultaneous turns which keeps player engagement high.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else around here plays or dabbles in it? I have had woefully few opportunities to play, and even the online client (admittedly a fan project) I haven't really used because of the time investment of each game and the UI which I'd have to learn.

If anyone does play, I'll say that I don't yet have any clan loyalty, but that Crab definitely appeal most to me flavor-wise, followed by the Dragon and Unicorn, though I have not figured out how to play well enough to stay with any one clan, or even play any properly.

I haven't played LotFR but it does intrigue me. Same goes for Netrunner.
How does a LCG work? Every pack you buy is a functional deck, right? Kind of annoying then to get doubles if you do want them. But I guess they probably all cost less than the top performing card in any given MTG set.

(Just a note I've mostly only seen it abbreviated L5R.)

I haven't gotten into any other LCG, but I can explain how the L5R LCG has been released so far.

The core box came with one copy of every clan-specific card (there are seven clans and while making your decks you can only include your clan, neutral cards, and a very small amount of a second clan), two copies of every neutral card, and one copy of each province and stronghold (which you are required to have one copy of in every deck). The limit is three copies of any card in a deck. New packs aren't decks, they release with 60 cards in them, but they contain 3 copies of 20 new cards spread out across the 7 clans, neutral cards, and provinces.

Kind of like deckbuilder's toolkits? Or I think Force Of Will had boxes with predetermined lists of staple cards in them. That was in addition to boosters though.

I have literally no idea because I never bought those things you said. See, unlike in collectible card games, rarity is not an issue (and relative power of the cards isn't as big an issue, either, though of course some cards do end up dominating the scene), so you're not missing out on any potential good cards that would only be available by gambling on boosters by buying these predetermined packs. The packs are the expansions.

So you get a full playset of each card in the expansion and don't have to hunt any more down? Cool.
But you said the core set comes with 1 or 2 copies of some cards. That's not a full playset unless those cards aren't subject to the 3-of rule. Are those card also available in the expansions, or are they core set-exclusive? Is the core set like a sampler for the various expansions then?

No, at the moment the core set cards are only found in the core set, so getting 3 copies of all the clan cards requires buying 3 core sets. That does leave you with some extra neutral cards, which does make it easy to make multiple usable decks at a time (like, if a friend wanted to join you in a play session or tournament but didn't have their own cards). It's FFG's conceit to get you to spend more money, I think, instead of the randomized booster pack model. I still think it's a better model, though.

I have no idea what future core sets will look like, though. As I understand it, Android: Netrunner and the Game of Thrones card game both had a rotating standard for tournaments which involved core sets released on a regular basis and X amount of expansion packs, but L5R is strange in a few ways. Firstly, they supercharged the launch by releasing six expansion packs over six weeks (that's 120 new cards) instead of spacing them out over months like they normally do for their other LCGs, so their release schedule might be completely different. Secondly, Old5r (the original L5R CCG that ran for twenty or so years) had an evolving storyline that would involve printing second versions of unique characters later in their lives or after big events (sort of like what Magic has been doing with Planeswalkers but imagine if every planeswalker was printed with the exact same name so that you could only include 4 copies of ANY Jace Beleren rather than 4 copies of every different Jace Beleren in a deck), so I could see it being entirely possible that the next core is going to see the current characters "aged up" and possibly the next generation of unique characters introduced. Either way, I don't know what the L5R release schedule is going to be.

I saw a few videos of it being played and the game actually looked really sweet and there is something aesthetically pleasant about the ephemerality mechanic. Here the game is being sold by the official distributor in a subscription model where you pay to get 1-3 core sets plus one of each expansion for the rest of the year but there is absolutely no one who plays or is interested in playing and I don't really want to pay the price just so it rots in a box.