My general opinion about Diamond edition is that it does not mix well with any previous environment... unless you're playing Crane honour, in which case its pretty much the same... stupid Crane.  So the timelessness of the Crane aside it is important to note that the design idea for Diamond was to make the environment balanced, that's it and let's face it Crane honour has never won a Gencon.
	For military Clans in Diamond we have Crab, Mantis, Unicorn, Ratlings and Shadowlands.  For military/honour switch we've got Lion as all ways.  For honour there is Crane and Pheonix.  Enlightenment is the home of the Dragon now, though as usual they can take a stab at anything.  And the Scorpion are now back to basics, the dishonour clan.  Everyone else runs much the same as Gold edition with some slight card-base changes, Scorpion have largely been refited.  This is probably more to do with our near total change of base set personalities, our three constants are Kaukatsu, Churai and the ever changing nimbus that is Soshi Angai (now with the courtier trait).  Sure they decided we should keep my favourite duelist Higatsuku, but he wasn't from the Gold Edition set.  After Reign of Blood I'm really wishing I had experienced Tjeki as I would finally have double chi in that duel.  But enough complaining about what could have been, let's talk about what we got.
	Strongholds:  Yogo Towers appearantly was considered broken so it, like so many cards, got its figurative balls cut off.  Painful stuff.  After a few failed attempts and alot of missing my low force courtiers and shugenja to bow things up I have finally discarded old faithfull.  The Shadowed Tower of the Shosuro however is finally worth playing after several sets of releasing good -rare- political actions, fortunately with the recycle mechanic you can survive with only one or two copies of certian political cards (hurray for small miracles).
	Personalities:  Beyond Bayushi Eitaru, Soshi Aki and Shosuro Tabito most of the Diamond legal Scorpions released before Diamond are a blur of so so cards, though I'm sure if you thought about it for a while you could find a use for them.  Angai's new courtier trait allows her to do everything she did in gold!  She can Duel people, she can use Bronze Lantern for force, and she can give other people your honour losses through The Wind's Truth, er, Rheotoric.  Diamond gives us the fun of Maru (Yogo Asami for one more gold), Yogo Shidachi at plus one gold cost (I refuse to use the soul of because I think his art is bland), and Bayushi Shunko (aka Shosuro Ikawa); these are our low gold cost personalities, Shunko works Yogo Towers for all he's worth, Shidachi does some movement fun which I'm always game for, and Maru bows personalities as an open action.  I like the low cost Scorpions, because they make for a good support staff.
	Then we get to our expensive personalities, this is where most players freak out.  No Paneki, No Sunetra, No Tishi (we also have no Yudoka but he was boxable).  We've got Tai but I've always thought of Tai as a one or two in the deck sort of personality.  Bayushi Churai returns and lends to a strange Scorpion sub-theme in Diamond, leaving the battle: Him, Tai experienced and our house guard just up and leave.  Isn't that nice?  Haru, our bloodspeaker works well with Shidachi and does one of our long lost specialties, chi killing, plus he's a ninja, remember them?  Bayushi Toson, the Soul of Aramoro, is terribly annoying to an opponent, but he ran so much better with corrupt gold, Shiryo no Yogo and Ninja Stronghold, all of which are gone.  Shosuro Tabito does wonders in a dishonour deck, pretty much removing the need for Kabuki theatre troupes in the deck (yea!  I needed those holding slots).  Then there is Ryo from season of the Scorpion who in Gold was a second string thug behind Paneki, but now he's quite handy.  Soshi Uidori is a very nice card for military (meaning at some point we can do that... maybe) being a Daimyo, 4 force, non-unique and she can come out very cheaply.
	Our Unique courtier personality base is fairly nice Kaukatsu (both versions), Aki, Toson exp and Kiyo experienced represent our big courtier squad.  Kiyo for force (hurray!), Aki so you can do reliable political combos, and Kaukatsu works dishonour almost as good as his dad.
	Our Unique military base is Tai experienced, Sunetra experienced, Atsuki experienced and Tsimaru.  Tsimaru is great for bashing through provinces (I just wish I had enough cheap samurai to back him up), however he represents something that I hate about Daimond; Big Powerful 'Soul of's that have -no- background story to them!  They could have atleast raided the new RPG books and just made cards for the head senseis... then they would have stats that made sense!).  Ahem, where was I?  Oh, yes.  Tai experienced, like Bayushi Paneki, only Unique, with a slight honour requirement and some personal honour... oh yeah and he runs away.  And Sunetra's only purpose in life is to be Double chi and bow to stop people with the underhand... I'd honestly be happier if she cost thirteen gold or if they gave me non-experienced Soshi Kiyo and Experienced 3 Bayushi Aramoro since they do everything she does at less cost and have decent specials to back it up.  Atsuki loses a point of chi (gut wounds hurt I suppose) drops in price four points and gains a useful special, he effectively counters every arguement people had against the Shadowed Tower's personality base versus the Loyalist personality base (back in Gold).  That and he looks a lot more appealing as a champion then Sunetra nowadays, mind you I always wanted Paneki to be Champion so what do I know.