Crab in story defend the Empire from its insidious, monstrous neighbor the Shadowlands. They're the first and last line of defense from Oni, Goblin, and Lost Madmen. They have little use for etiquette and niceties. They have a job to do. That and Crab players love alcohol and boobies to a fault. crabclan.net is where they hang out.

Mechanically they focus on not dying(a lot of their abilities hold off or completely ignore destruction) and heroes(Heroes tend to be a lot about attack pumps, and dying for a cause)

Also: There are no good clans(Except Scorpion) or bad clans(except Crane, mantis, and Spider) in L5R. There's the clan you like, and the clans you personally dislike. It's not black and white. That and... look at my sig. I was a Crab for a long time.

One of the great things about L5R, fluff wise, is the fact that every Clan has its virtues and vices, positives and negatives. There's no clear villains (amongst the Clans anyway... though I will admit I'm out of touch with the current storyline, and don't know what the Spider have been up to. I figure they could have been written as ambiguous or evil equally)

Even the highly dishonourable Scorpion are actually dishonourable for a good reason - they believe Loyalty is a higher virtue than Honour, and thus sacrificing their own honour for the good of the Empire is okay. (I'm almost a Scorpion, almost. As it is, I identify most strongly with the sneakier side of the Lion clan)

After a day of reading entire card libraries for Vs and L5R both, I think I've decided on the main thrust of my deck:

It'll be a JLA deck, that's for sure. And it will include copies of the only card in Vs to have the word Honour in its name that isn't honour among thieves - Field of Honour.

After that, there's two directions I'm considering taking it:

A Carrying the Torch (Honouring your ancestors) build using Wonder Woman and her PT restricting stuff - forcing the enemy into honourable combat.

Or a "Tactitian" deck. By which I mean a straight beats power up deck. Ally seems a very flavourful mechanic for the Lion, and for the virtues of Duty and Compassion.

Crab in VS = Big Brotherhood

Crab also have a bit of an equipment theme going on. I was thinking a deck built around the 4 drop MUN Iron Man would be pretty thematic. Extremis Upgrade = Crab's not dying easy, and also facilitates your other guys getting back up, bigger and angrier.