As I built this deck I focused on core principles of the game. I didn’t know the environment at all really outside Crane (but knew Crab, Spider & Scorpion would be major factors at the event) so my deck had to “do it’s thing” and do it well.

Gold

When choosing gold the first question was “can I buy this with a Border Keep?”. Because Ayrie works while bowed and most magistrates cost 7G it was going to be the workhorse of the gold scheme, so I didn’t want to be using it much to buy gold. As a result only Rugashi Bazar needs the SH, and given it +SH+BK can buy everything in the deck and it metas Dishonor that seemed like a good inclusion.

The second thing was that 7G. It’s very much the deck’s magic number, and so I wanted to optimise ways of making 7G. Marketplace and Rugashi gave 6 holdings, and with at least 1/4 of the dynasty having magistrate printed Magistrate Stipend ment having about 1/4 of the gold producing 3G as well.

The final element of the gold was Border Keep xp. The original BK was about improving your gold t1 and ideally later improving your personality flips. Aside from that it was 2G. BKxp works differently. It is about getting that ideal t1 gold and then tweaking your fate hand for your match up. This means with BKxp there is no reason not to cycle for gold. T1 cycle for 4 holdings hopefully, ideally at least 1 static 3G producer and any other 3 holdings. This strategy ensured I always had 9g turn 2 at minimum, I often had 12G turn 2. With gold pretty much set I could afford to buy what I wanted t2 and beyond.

Honor

With a fast environment your honor gains need to be fast. Just to be clear I had an average of 20 honor when the first attack would come during the tourney and that seems to be fast enough. In trying to maximise honor I chose personalities that had actions that could gain honor, and similarly when looking at Strategy cards I looked for actions that had an honor gain plus synergy with the deck in general.

In terms of holdings I experimented with Governor’s Court, the problem with it was it required running a suite of Courtiers to suppot it and those personalities did not help with the goal of gaining honor as quickly as possible even with the Governor’s Court, and so the GC was replaced with Well-Tended Farm. Aside from its awkward gold cost getting an early Well-Tended made the deck faster and created a larger problem for my military opponents. It also helps a lot when dealing with the Scorpion courtier honor meta; 1-3 gains of 1 each are much harder to stop than 1 gain of 2. The other factor with the GCs was that you couldn’t be sure of gaining fast enough that they would ever choose to bow.

Its also worth noting that the most consistent honor meta is the Chugo stronghold and Alter History, both of which will gain your military opponent a turn. This is a pretty big deal, but not insurmountable, however see problems below.

Attachments

There is a lot of “naked hate” in EE and so some attachments are necessary for the personalities that are going to go to battle. Singh Remnants and Asahina House Guard are obvious choices here; both gain honor, and Singh Remnants are recursive. Other attachments are harder to choose. I went for Sasumata because; +2F/+1C, 3G, 3FV, Battle Action. Bowing might seem like a bad choice, but the truth is this deck likes to bow things – while they are bowed and at the battle you can keep targeting them to gain honor. In essence destruction before resolution isn’t a key goal.

Celestial

I know Ebisu isn’t popular, but there were 2 reasons I choose it. I expected to see multiple Spider decks and Daigotsu’s Guidance destroys Doji’s Guidance so I wanted a celestial that was harder to get rid of from the game (see problems below). The other reason was two-fold; firstly the +2PS is always useful for a defensive honor deck, and secondly the ability to burn a province and get a jump on another honor deck late game is also important. That said if you wanted to you can run any of the relevant celestials with the deck.

Bend Like a Reed

This card is much debated, and it was a card I was rarely sad to see in my hand. Against the decks I faced (Crab, Spider, Scorpion mostly) it wasn’t very useful, but being able to duel Aroru and Kisada after they had burnt their redirect with any personality I had on the table helped win games. When no needed it was an easy choice for end of turn discard, favor cycling and BKxp’s other action (the one I needed to remember more). In essence if you are going to run dueling out of Aerie 3x Bend is a perfectly sound decision.

Problems

Ok the first problem is the honor match up. I only had one of these, and it was practically a mirror match, I went first so I crossed first. Outside of that it would depend what was on board for both players to determine the outcome of the honor match up. This deck can slow an opponent down if it gets to battle, and it can make some large jumps in honor in the open phase as well. It just depends on what is on the board.

Second problem is the dishonor match up, which I again didn’t have to deal with, and again will depend on what is on the table. Its entirely possible with the right draw you will out run dishonor right now or just be able to use your honor gains to stay afloat while you slowly take their provinces.

The other problems are more generic and rooted in design rather than necessarily in specific match ups. These occur in 4 areas, Goju SH, Daigotsu’s Guidance, Ninube Onchi and Strategy Requirements.

The Goju SH

For defensive honor this SH is a very large problem. Any deck that can remove all of your defenders and then potentially move in enough force to take a province is a problem, and 9F can be hard for us to get on the table. Just make sure they don’t send more than 1 opposed person home with it.

Daigotsu’s Guidance

Any card that inhibits other players from playing a class of cards is a problem. Diagotsu’s stops other Kami cards from being in play, and so if you are going to run into this Doji’s guidance stops being worth the slot, as do all the kami celestials. I don’t understand why these broad card type denial things keep seeing print; didn’t L5R learn this lesson long ago?

Ninube Onchi

While her ability isn’t a problem per se, the fact she is an 8G Cavalry presonality with a useful ability means she turned up in multiple decks I saw over the weekend. At 6G she comes out of Spider turn 1 and they can attack with 8F cavalry or more turn 2. As long as she gets loe from Spider and Scorpion Ninja you are going to see her, and she will be a problem for you.

Strategy Requirements

The above problems are ultimately minor issues. For this deck a bigger issue is highlighted by looking over the requirements to use the vast majority of its actions; specifically an unbowed personality. In comparison “bow a scout”, not a scout personality, on cards like Disrupting Communication (which bows your peep and randomly ditches a card), and Seeking the Truth (becsue you know you have no unbowed scouts during engagement) far outclass the Magistrate action suit. So the 2 games I lost vs Hida Scouts went something like this; he attacks and attaches 3 scout followers and can now Seek the Truth and Disrupt Communication with impunity, meaning in the second battle I would usually loose 2 random fate cards and have 2 personalities bowed for the cost of him bowing a 0F follower. The effects of the cards are not the issue, rather it is the requirements. Feel free to go looking for 0 cost magistrate followers that could use a magistrate action or duelist followers that can use duelist actions. This is a big problem with strategy requirements. The effects on the magistrate (and duelist) actions are comparable to the effects of the scout actions, but the requirements are higher, along with the means to pay them. This is something we need to look out for in deck design, and that design and PT need to look out for in going forward.

Now I expected to loose to the Hida Scouts in the final, I was playing against a good player who had been actively playing for all of CE, and actively testing for EE (including PT afaik). He made no play mistakes (consider that in the 2 games I lost 1 mistake from him and I would have won) but to have my ability to play affected so strongly by actions with lower opportunity costs than anything in my deck was frustrating. So my advice in looking forward at ways to tune this deck and improve it is to look for actions that do not care if your personality is bowed, and perhaps even if they can perform actions.

The Environment

Despite my problems above I loved the games I played. The environment, right now, was fun for me to play in. Everyone was taking actions and doing things, and no particular phase of the game seemed to dominate. For competitive play the game is in a great position right now, and despite all the usual claims of honor being terrible I think you can expect to see honor decks competing with the military boys just fine through early EE. The Aerie
Bamboo Harvesters – exp
Border Keep – expDynasty (41)

Events (3)
1 Boastful Proclamation
1 Imperial Gift
1 Willing Spirits

Celestials (1)
1 Ebisu’s Honesty

Regions (1)
1 The Second City

Holdings (14)
3 Well-Tended Farm
3 Rugashi Bazaar
1 Falling Rain Dojo
3 Magistrate’s Stipend
3 Marketplace
1 Traveling Peddler

Personalities (22)
3 Doji Genshin
3 Doji Yoshitada
3 Kakita Kazan
1 Doji Hakuseki – exp2
3 Kakita Genshi
1 Kakita Tadanobu
1 Doji Makoto
3 Kakita Maratai
3 Asahina Munefusa
1 Asahina Kitiaru

Fate (40)

Strategies (31)
3 Discovering a Conspiracy
3 Duel of Haiku
3 Fear Me!
3 My Enemy’s Mercy
3 Sanctioned Duel
3 The Light of Justice
3 Wall of Honor
3 Bend like a Reed
3 Steel on Steel
3 Entrenched Position
1 A Game of Dice

Followers (4)
1 Asahina House Guard
3 Singh Remnants

Items (3)
3 Sasumata

Rings (2)
1 Ring of the Void
1 Ring of Fire ]]> http://obsidiancrane.com/2012/01/once-more-into-the-breach/feed/ 0 http://obsidiancrane.com/2011/04/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-ottawa-kotei-report/ http://obsidiancrane.com/2011/04/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-ottawa-kotei-report/#comments Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:58:07 +0000 Daidoji Ryushi http://obsidiancrane.com/?p=177 Following my 3-4 record at the Feeding Hills Kotei, I was happy with the Seawatch Castle deck, but wanted something more. Looking at the Crane decks that had won Kotei already, I was happy to see a fair amount of differences between them. Comparing them with each other and against my playstyle, I figured . . . → Read More: With a Little Help From My Friends – Ottawa Kotei Report]]> Following my 3-4 record at the Feeding Hills Kotei, I was happy with the Seawatch Castle deck, but wanted something more. Looking at the Crane decks that had won Kotei already, I was happy to see a fair amount of differences between them. Comparing them with each other and against my playstyle, I figured I’d probably be most comfortable with Heraclio “Doji Kabuto” Sanchez’s Barcelona deck. Building the deck up a few weeks before Ottawa, I got some testing in against a very limited field and with some deck talk with fellow Crane Clan players Jeremy “Doji Tetsuro” Sumerlin, Darren “badgermonkey” Hazelden and Dan “prespector” Gosson, I changed a handful of cards and settled on my deck for Ottawa.

Round 1 – Jeff Barber (Dragon Kensei – Farthest Fortress)
Looking at the similarities that Dragon Kensei share with the large unit decks I was testing against, I feel pretty good going in to the first round. Jeff and I both shuffle up and wish each other luck, and I’m happy to see an Impromptu Duel and a Legendary Feud in my opening hand. Unfortunately, neither Jeff nor myself get a good start, but I’m at least able to stabilize my economy in the second turn, while Jeff is forces to buy a Hojatsu.  Not being able to deal with Hojatsu’s high Chi, I am unable to issue my duel, but with two Magistrates available to defend against him, I use my Shikatsu to dishonor a newly Rising Sun Bladed Hojatsu with Legendary Feud, Jeff attacks in and I defend with two the two Magistrates, I manage to get a Restoring Order off when Jeff cannot Sneak. He Hundred-Fold Cuts the destruction, but cannot move back in to the battle, passing to Dynasty and buying a Mori.

On my turn I manage to issue my Impromptu Duel on Mori with Yosuga, and Jeff accepts, but makes the mistake on focusing out against me, allowing me to bomb out my sole Hamstrung and will win the duel. As I push closer to 40, Jeff’s economy is still hurting him, but he attaches another RSB to  Hojatsu and manages to take a province on his turn, but can only add a single personality (Mirumoto Kenzo) to his ranks during his Dynasty phase. On my turn Yosuga uses her ability to dishonor Kenzo and I end my turn on 36 honor. Jeff flips his provinces, failing to see either The New Order or The War of Dark Fire, and I play Taxing the Scum and Peaceful Discourse to cross, and with only two personalities on the table, one who cannot assign, Jeff conceeds, unable to take 3 provinces.
1-0

Round 2 – Aaron Celovsky (Scorpion Ninja – Seven Stings Keep)
Both of us get decent starts, but I draw enough dishonor tech, including all 3 Legendary Feuds in my first 7 cards to keep him from being too aggressive.  He gets good shot at sleezing a province with a Walk in Shadows/Flawless Assassin combo, but I have the Hamstrung to keep his unit with Followers at home. I keep my honor gains slow and steady, but a well timed Mysterious Ailment on my Noritoshi keeps me from crossing a turn early and allows to take a province with me in the mid 30s. I end my next turn at 40 honor, and his Stronghold’s ability knocks me back to 38. He attacks all in, splitting his army between two provinces. Knowing the amount of movement and sleeze Ninja can muster, I defend with 4 Personalities where he’s weakest and the rest of my people where he didn’t assign. I manage to get two Wall of Honor off in the opposed battle, and prevent him from taking the province, ending his turn at 42.
2-0

Round 3 – Paul Germain (Unicorn Battle Maiden – The Utaku Plains)
In this game, the deck just clicked. I rocket fairly quickly using my duels, and despite my gut feeling risk getting hit with a Proper Deference on turn3. Fortunately, he doesn’t have it in his hand (I find out after the game, I sent it to the bottom in a focus pool earlier that turn.). As I come within striking distance to bombing out to 40, Paul manages to grab a province from me, but doing so activates the card draw on my Counting House. With the extra card I top deck a Peaceful Discourse and play three Patrolling the Roads followed by the Peaceful to cross and Paul cannot quite muster the required force to take all three provinces during his attack.
3-0

Round 4 – John Kline (Crab Berserkers – Shattered Peaks Castle)
John’s a player I haven’t had the pleasure of playing before, but every tournament we’ve both been at he seems to do fairly well, so it was no surprise to run in to him at this stage of the tournament. John is also a very fun opponent to play against as I find out and major thanks to him for providing my most entertaining match of the day. I can’t remember all the back and forth that occurred during the match, but we both come out of the gates running. I manage to hold off his early attacks with combinations of Patrolling the Roads and Doji Nenkai, but eventually he starts getting ahead in his Personality count, and I’m not getting any more Open control.  While I’m digging hard in both Fate and Dynasty for my anti-anti-Honor Event tech, John manages to resolve both Alter History and The New Order. With the 50 honor mark will a ways off and with my options quickly running out it comes down to the turn after he buys Hida Kuon. I’m staring my defeat in the face, what with Hida’s Guidance on the table as well, and we start going through the motions of pre-battle preparation anyway. Finally with all my control used and him passing, I have managed to get to 48, and with the Wall of Honor in my hand it looks so close yet so far.

However, I also managed to draw my first Subversive Influence at the end of my turn, and calling on the aid of the Kolat I send John’s Guidance back in to his deck. The look on John’s face was priceless as he went from knowing the game was in the bag to very worried he might lose it. After readjusting his assignment to fit the new situation, John comes in on both my provinces. Unfortunately, even with my Wall of Honor I didn’t have enough other battle support in my hand to keep him from taking both and offer my hand in congratulations after a hard fought game.
3-1

Round 5 – Rob Bellefuille (Spider Breeder – Fingers of Bone)
From the discussion I’d done previously with my above mentioned friends, I knew coming in to this game that breeder was a hard, hard matchup. I’d modified Heraclio’s deck list to include two Claw and Shell knowing that I needed more help versus breeder than I did against the Unicorn decks that get played in Spain, but forsaking Doji Umakai and other meta, it was certainly going to be a rough go of things. In my opening hand I have two Impromptu Duel and two Favor of Artisans, which get me to my third Impromptu quickly. Rob is buying out his Shugenja and breeding when he can, but I hold my duels for Inisi and Udo, gaining honor through other means until they hit the table. At turn 4 I think, rob flips and buys two Udo, and my duels fly quickly on my turn 5. He accepts and strikes to them both to keep my honor down, but too much damage had been done, and some less than stellar flips on his part bring the game to a head with me on two provinces and him knowing he has to take both with me at 38 Honor.

He splits up his horde, and I over commit  with 4 Personalities to the battle where he assigned a Hachigoro. No Sneak, I Wall of Honor home a dude to hit 40. Rob responds with a Game of Sincerity and I forget to Seppuku it. I Wall of Honor home my dishonored Personality to prevent further honor loss. He responds with his second Game of Sincerity, which I do remember to Seppuku, putting me at 37. I issue a Steel on Steel to Hachigoro with my Yosuga, and focus a Hamstrung from my hand. Rob strikes and I bomb out the Hamstrung, killing us both. He plays Scouting Far Afields to get back a Game of Sincerity, but with only one person left in the battle I pass and Seppuku the replayed Game, dropping me to 40. With no other ways to get his force over my highly boosted PS due to the two Walls of Honor, Rob concedes. Such a close game.
4-1

Round 6 – Brandon Smith (Phoenix Switch – City of Tears)
Before sitting down against Brandon, I was fairly sure he’d be running some form of honor deck, but as with most City of Tears builds, it’s hard to tell, and as it turns out, Brandon had the capability to switch to Military if need be. As we start setting up the table in our first few turns, it’s clear Brandon’s not quite sure how to deal with my deck and he settles in to playing a very defensive game, which suits my deck just fine, as it has little trouble just building and building. Unfortunately for me, Brandon manages to see all three of his Houhou and a Seiden Sanzon and an Expendable Resources, so the honor lead I have set up earlier was closing very fast. Brandon shuts down my attempt to cross a turn early by playing Unimpeachable Name on my attempt to Patrolling the Roads a dishonored Ningen (which would have then been followed by a second Patrolling and a final Peaceful Discourse). Seeing my victory cut short, I go to Dynasty and end my turn at 36, with him gaining the honor he needs to cross from two returning Houhou and a Dynasty purchase on his next turn.

As Brandon begins rebuying his Houhou from the discard pile, I use my last Patrolling the Roads on my own Shikishi I had purchased in my turn to hit 38. Unfortunately, all his Personalities are honorable. I then use a Yosuga to issue an Imperial Adjudication on one of his Houhou. Brandon thinks for a second, and knowing I’ve only seen one Hamstrung so far, plays the odds and refuses. He had already used his My Father’s Shrine earlier in the turn, and when I get my next action, play the Peaceful Discourse from my hand to cross. As Brandon then has to switch and take 3 provinces from me to keep me from winning the game, I defend appropriately and save the final province.
5-1

Round 7 – Jacob Thomes (Mantis Commanders – Dragon Guard City)
Again, I know that Mantis is harder matchup for the deck, as the control it packs has a harder time with Followers than Items, but I figure if worse comes to worse, I should still make the cut based upon strength of schedule should I drop to 5-2. My deck starts firing and Jacob gets an poor start, but stabilizes with the appearance of Utemaro on turn three. I go to work dishonoring his people, and picking my targets for duels very carefully, but fortunately Jacob has only seen two Order of the Wooden Blades and they are keeping him from being able to play the Muscle and Steel in his hand. As I slowly climb to 40, I use my Yosuga’s to keep his side of the board dishonored and with 2 provinces left, I double Peaceful Discourse his two Tsuruchi Seisha to hit 42 honor, and use a Wall of Honor and Hamstrung a Ring of Water of his during the subsequent attack to save the final province and win the game.
6-1

Wow. This is the best I’ve ever done in swiss before, and the first time I’ve ever had a winning record at a Kotei, despite my previous Top 4 finishes at other Storyline events. I’m super excited and when the cut is announced I find I am seeded second and paired against my good friend Mark Armitage. I know Mark’s running a Phoenix The Last One deck which would normally be an ok match for me, but Mark is a superb player and I’m worried I just don’t have the chops to take him. Surprisingly, Mark comes over to me and tells me good luck in the Top 4 as he’ll be conceding to me. An unexpected move my a classy player, and I know that the day Mark decides he wants to outright win an event, there will be little to stop him from doing so. Facing a potential 90 minute break now while the rest of the Top 8 play their games, I sit and relax and watch the first rounds of the 2nd Chance event.

Top 4 – Eric Gardiner (Crane Honor – Embassy of the Crane)
Eric is the winner of last year’s Ottawa Kotei and very good player, usually playing under the Mantis banner. I don’t remember much from the two games we played, and forgot to take any real notes regarding the games, but in the end both games were decided by a mere 3-4 points of honor and in both games neither one of us saw any of our Favor of Artisans, which really would have sealed the games for us. I also think I could have snuck away with both games had I seen more than 1 Legendary Feud, as in both Games I was sitting on two Peaceful Discourses; I just couldn’t get Eric’s people dishonored. These were very classy games and they were a pleasure to have. Eric went on to win in the finals against Chris Medico’s DGC Mantis deck.

It was a great tournament, and I really want to give a big thank you to my former Obsidian Crane teammate Heraclio for posting the list, doji_tre on the Crane forums for his inspiration to Heraclio, all my friends who helped in the deck tweaking and advice and of course to Mark, who gave me a shot at the finals, even if I couldn’t quite capitalize on it. Below is the decklist, of which only 6 cards total were changed from Heraclio’s Barcelona list. Feel free to ask any questions, I’m happy to answer them.

Deck List:
1 Embassy of the Crane

# Dynasty (40)

# Events (1)
1 Jimen’s Decree

# Celestials (2)
1 Doji’s Guidance
1 Daikoku’s Guidance

# Regions (1)
1 Well-Defended Border

# Holdings (14)
3 Dockside Market
3 Marketplace
1 Tsi Mokotsu
2 My Father’s Shrine
1 Counting House
1 Kitsune Den
1 Traveling Peddler
2 Exotic Goods

# Personalities (22)
1 Asahina Okimoto
1 Asahina Ekei – exp
3 Doji Shikishi
3 Kakita Yosuga
1 Doji Hakuseki – exp
3 Kakita Idzuki
1 Daigotsu Oki
1 Kakita Noritoshi – exp3
2 Daidoji Yorio
2 Doji Nenkai
1 Kakita Hideo – exp
1 Kakita Kensho-in – exp
2 Doji Shikatsu

# Fate (40)

# Strategies (40)
3 Imperial Adjudication
3 Impromptu Duel
3 Hamstrung
3 Restoring Order
2 Taxing the Scum
3 Favor of Artisans
3 Legendary Feud
3 Peaceful Discourse
3 Steel on Steel
3 Enough Talk!
3 Patrolling the Roads
2 Wall of Honor
2 Shadow’s Talon
2 Claw and Shell
2 Subversive Influence

“The Dead of Winter also changes how dishonor plays against honor. Presently, these games are time consuming, tedious, and leave both players generally unhappy. The Design Team has made a conscious effort to rectify this by purposefully designing cards to change how this matchup functions.”

Ok so far so good. I’m not going to disagree with these ideas. I’ve done too many grueling games against dishonor while playing honor to do otherwise, and seeing more dishonor enter the environment just makes that even more important.

“This matchup will now favor dishonor if both decks attempt to pursue their normal victory condition.”

Wait. You mean the single most directly meta’d victory condition now has an intentional loss built in. What the?

Both victory conditions already have problems, and dishonor has always had the edge (once it became viable) in the match up, but now it is designed to win!

Why on earth is the most control heavy victory condition with the shortest path to victory getting the advantage?

“Honor decks will certainly be able to slow a dishonor deck’s clock, but they will not be able to completely reverse it.”

I don’t know about anyone else, but this has been my experience for at least 3 arcs now. So are they really saying that things are going to remain the same? If so I don’t see how that rectifies anything.

“Honor decks will therefore have to switch to an alternate victory condition. Some decks will be able to switch to dishonor, but most will switch to military. To support this move to military each of the main honor clans is receiving a personality that supports their honor victory condition, but can help the honor player make an attack against a dishonor deck.”

Hey that must be Dojo Shikatsu.

Ok let’s stop and take a look at this Crane struggles to put together a competitive deck that averages 3F per personality. The sort of deck Shikatsu fits with struggles to have 2F per personality. Crane honor is supposed to use cards like Shikatsu to push their force up so they can attack.

This is doomed to failure.

Dishonor, like honor, must be able to defend it’s provinces effectively against the 3 basic military decks (blitz, strong & steady, build & crush). Those military decks are already chewing up card resources therefore in an honor deck. The rest of an honor deck is generally devoted to making it win, with the best cards being able to do multiple jobs (eg stop attacks and help win).

Now design apparently believes that in a come from behind race on force, and card pool, Crane honor decks (at least some of them) should be able to mount an effective offense. This is doomed to failure.

The alternative is that Crane honor should change gears and go dishonor vs a dishonor deck. Now the problem with that of course is you need to dilute your honor running or military defense to achieve that, that us a loose loose situation as well.

Now one of our themes for EE is revealed, honor with archer support. If that honor us shugenja based as implied then it is doomed going into the dishonor game in a loosing position. If shugenja (and monks?) are just flavor like in CE it is still fighting an uphill battle unless the basic design of ranged attack cranes starts to look just like Mantis, 3 & 4F doing non-bowing RAs on defense and offense. Somehow I don’t see that coming because building that means building a Crane military deck based on RAs as well, which eats into Mantis thematically.

I think it is reasonable to expect us to get a dishonor/honor theme as well, and should that happen my advice is build for dishonor. Crane can honor run on Personal Honor and a few holdings. If you get dishonor working you win, if you are struggling you still have an honor clock to run with to force the opponent’s hand into attacking. Because it has always been harder to switch to dishonor than to switch to honor, so at least then you have a chance vs that Scorpion or Crab dishonor deck.

Ultimately if the Dead of Winter foreshadows the future of Dishonor vs Honor games then Crane honor is in a bad place when it runs into a Dishonor deck unless the Design Team fundamentally changes the approach to Crane design it has used since Diamond. That to me is a bad thing.

I grabbed a deck list off a friend, one designed to take advantage of the fact that Lion and Crab decks are doing well and are popular in the current environment, especially in New England. After getting in ten or so games with the deck and tweaking a few details, I dropped the deck in some new sleeves, printed out my Tsi Mokotsu tokens, and hit to the road to the Kotei.

Round 1 – Matt Dalen (Dragon Kensei Military – Furthest Fortress)
Matt and I sit down and I know that if he can get some large attachments on to his Kensei, if he’s running some decent FVs My duels will become fairly useless. Fortunately, my deck comes out strong offering me an opening hand containing an Impromptu, Adjudication and two Claw and Shell. I manage to Border Keep in to a Marketplace and Tsi Mokotsu and start setting up some decent economy. Matt’s first turn sees a less than optimal opening flip and as we develop his second turn sees him buying a Tamori Kuroko and Mirumoto Tobushi, attaching two of the created Weapons when he comes in to play. Knowing I can use my Claw and Shells to neuter his first attack (if he makes one) I hold off issuing any duels on my turns and continue to buy out lots of Duelists, slowly gaining honor from buying my guys for full.

After a lot of posturing and me using my Claw and Shells to keep Matt from getting two created weapons on a single Kensei, I finally start issuing duels, killing bigger threats with Adjudications after Matt refuses my Impromptus. Two Exotic Goods keep my trucking up in honor and as I near 30 honor, Matt begins swinging. With my mob of Duelists lead by Domotai and Noritoshi and an equal number of battle actions printed on my Personalities, I defend. Matt spends a lot of time Focusing out on me, trying to win a duel with Weigh the Cost, but I reply with a focused Low Stance every time.  As my other Focus Effects take a number on his army, a mistimed Chugo Seido on Matt’s part causes him to lose a little more tempo and I win the battle, jumping to just under 40 honor.

Matt admits there is nothing much he can do now, but he’ll be damned if he won’t take at least one of my provinces. I buyout a few more guys, crossing 40, and happily oblige Matt’s full army swinging in to one of my four provinces by defending the furthest one away I can.

1-0

Round 2 – Matt Roche (Crane Magistrate Honor – Embassy of the Crane)
Seeing I’m already paired against a Crane player wasn’t a surprise, neither was seeing that he was playing Embassy. What did surprise me was that I wasn’t playing Embassy. After we roll off to see who goes first, and me winning, I remind myself that I’m running Seawatch Castle and that I get to play in the bamboo this round. Matt opens up his first turn and I see a fairly standard array of honor Personalities, and no Scorpions. Knowing I need to attack in to defensive decks, I like my odds better attacking in to honor than dishonor, and I settle in for a longer game than in Round 1. My turn one sees decent gold and Kensho-in. I move quickly to buy as many people for cheap as I can, but with Matt honor running, his now 7 Province Strength slows me down a bit as he starts getting his honor engine running. Fortunately turn 4, I flip my Alter History. Attaching a Tsi Mokotsu  Weapon to a Yosuga I get my first chance to attack in to Matt. I think I’m good at getting over a Outer Walls if Matt has one and assign everyone in to one of his provinces, and Matt defends with no one. His first action is to Strike Quickly in his Yorio and bows out my Yosuga. I now find myself 1F shy of the province, and have to bounce.

As I keep pumping out Duelists, Matt comments on his inability to get off a duel, and unfortunately I haven’t seen enough of his FVs to know if I can risk it either, as I haven’t seen a Low Stance yet. Unfortunately this clogs my hand with an Impromptu and an Adjudication. I manage another attack the next turn, but by now a Shikishi of his has hit the table and with an Outer Walls, Matt is able to keep me from cracking another province. Fortunately, I’ve got an extra Kado to send at his Well-Defended Border to slow his honor gain some what, but with his multiple My Father’s Shrine and a Shrine to Hotei giving him some added fuel, I’m starting to lag behind.

On turn 6, I manage to crack a province causing a 5 point honor loss off the Alter History, but with his non-presence defense in full tilt and his Well-Defended cutting enough of my Force, I just can’t get to him and after two Taxing the Scum, he hits 40. I split my Duelist swarm over his three remaining provinces, leaving the Well-Defended short by 2F. If Matt panics and defends, I am sure I can break him. He smartly sticks to his game plan and declares no defense. Knowing I cannot take the Well-Defended without opposition, I offer my hand to Matt and concede the game.

1-1

Round 3 – Dan Dineen (Mantis Follower Military – Dragon Guard City)
I hadn’t had the chance to test the deck against Mantis before the event, and coming up against a player of Dan’s caliber piloting it had me sweating before the first card was flipped. I admit I was a bit sad to see Dan playing DGC, as I really wanted to see what he has managed to cook up with Aramasu’s Vigilance, but who can blame the man for playing the tried and true archetype. My first turn starts a bit slow, getting only one 3 Gold producing Holding, but I manage to grab a few cheap bodies before Dan starts attaching large followers to his already formidable army of Naval goodness.

I let Dan take the first province, as is the M.O. for dealing with most Military decks. I continue to buy out more Duelists and attach Tsi Mokotsu Weapons when I can, and Dan keeps up the onslaught. I defend the second attack, and he Naval kills a guy, then the fun begins. I start issuing duels, getting Focus Effects off and working on whittling down his army, but as is the case with Mantis, Dan is able to keep pace with the PK. After the dust settles, I’m all bowed out or dead, but so is all but one of Dan units. Unfortunately for me, that unit has 8F and takes the province regardless.

Dan takes a turn off attacking to bring his army back up to speed, and my swarm of Duelists swells it’s ranks as well. Unfortunately, I’ve only managed to crawl to just over 20 honor in this match, having been hit with both War of Dark Fire and Alter History so far in the match.  Dan attaches a couple of Followers and swings in again, and I defend, knowing I need to crush his army this time or the game will be lost. Dan Naval PKs me again, and I once more start the dueling chain and work at killing and bowing as many cards as I can. My focused Impetuous Challenges get around a Muscle and Steel or two, but I just can’t take enough Force out of the equation after Dan Obfuscations in an Order of the Wooden Blade to kill my last unbowed Personality. While I’ve managed to save the province, my entire army will die in Battle Resolution and I offer my hand to Dan, concede and go buy him a beer.

1-2

Round 4 – Don Schaffer (Unicorn Tactician Military – Outsider Keep)
I groan a bit when I see I’m paired against Unicorn and again when I see Don is playing Outsider Keep. When playtesting this deck, the only losses I had with it were to an Outsider Keep deck. Fortunately, I get the best start I have had to date, seeing a Kado, Shune, Marketplace and Tsi Mokotsu in my first 4 cards. Opting not to Border Keep, I buy the two holdings, and get ready to flood the board with Personalities to hold off his Calvary advantage. Don flips Jin-sahn and The New Order turn 1, and chooses to resolve the event. He then Border Keeps, keeping Jin-sahn, and gets ok gold. He buys out his Holdings and keeps The Shogun for next turn.

I buy both Kado and Shune and another Holding on my turn. Don sees a  Moto Shanyu and some more gold, buying Jin-sahn and a Holding (Chugo Seido) to help stabilize his economy during his Dynasty Phase. Another turn goes by, and I allow Jin-sahn to snag a province, and Don goes on to buy two Moto Shanyu, bowing his Chugo Seido to do so. On my turn, I use Shune to Impromptu Duel The Shogun, which Don rightly refuses.

Looking over my options, and Don’s Chugo Seido that will be unbowed next turn, I opt to use the Imperial Adjudication in my hand on my turn. Don goes to Focus out on me, I focus a Part the Waves, Low Stance, Shadows Talon and a 3FV. I manage to Talon in to a Hamstrung, and add it to my Focus Pool, using it to gain a single Honor and still win the duel, I then attach an Impromptu Weapon I discarded to Favor Cycle earlier and gain 3 more Honor of the reaction. Don is left with only two Shanyu, and sees only another Shanyu in his next Dynasty flip. Without any Cavalry to back him up, I manage to defend in the next battle, kill or bow his army and make a large jump to get close to 50 Honor. Don concedes the game as I manage to cross off another Part the Waves/Impromptu Weapon combo in a later battle.

2-2

Round 5 – Rocki Prophet (Scorpion Dueling Dishonor – Palace of Crimson Shadows)
Rocki is a player I haven’t seen in a long time, not since we were in the same playgroup together when I was living in Maine about 6 years ago. We chat a bit about the past few years as we go through the motions of the first couple of turns. I get a decent gold start, and bring Kensho-in in for full along with a Holding. Rocki ends up buying Experienced Jutsushi and a Kuronada basic as I set up for my first attack. Using Exotic Goods on both my turn and his keeps me safe from his people as he’s more than willing to bow and let me attack in to his provinces as he continues to set up his honor loss engine, and with Jutsushi and his Stronghold keeping all of my Personalities dishonored, I know it’s only a matter of time before he can start to oppose me and hit me for larger and larger losses.

A well timed Crossing the Forbidden Sea resolves and I’m locked out of attacking for a turn, being just unable to overcome his Kuronada with now two Tsi Mokotsu Weapons staring me in the face. I manage to float around 6 honor for a while, but then a pair of Yoshihara start hitting my Kakita Kado every turn. As I continue to buy Personalities for full and keep swinging, Rocki resolves Conspiracy locking a dishonored Kado out of battle for the rest of the game. As we continue on, I slowly creep closer to -20, but have managed to get him down to a single province. Then time is called.

Against my better judgement, I decide to declare an attack. I know better than to play after time, and should have taken a die roll, but my familiarity with Rocki clouds my judgement in more ways than one, and I assign the Conspired, still dishonored Kado. Rocki is more than happy to defend, and uses his Ring of Fire to kill the still 1 Chi Kado with a Yoshihara dropping me to exactly -20. Problem is, had I not assigned that Kado, I am 99% sure I had his province without getting dishonored out. I am very unhappy with myself for my poor choice.

2-3

Round 6 – Jon Peterson (Spider Breeder Military – Fields of the Dead)
Knowing I’m out of contention to make the cut there isn’t much in the final two rounds for me, but I don’t want to kill Dan Dineen’s strength of Schedule (I think he was 4-1 at this point) by dropping so I check out my pairing and sit down across from Jon. I know Breeder can come out of the gate faster than I can honor crawl, so I already start to plan my military approach to the game. I start setting up my economy and fortunately for me, Jon flips and decides to resolve it. I try to hide my pleasure in his decision, but with two Seiden Sanzos and the new Incubator still ready to be purchased, I know I’m still in for a hard fight. Luck is with me still as I have drawn 2 Claw and Shell in my first seven cards, which allow me to keep his early breeding down, killing off his double Sanzo’d Zombie and another 2F spud. This allows me to get the first attack off, taking one of his provinces and killing a dishonored Udo in the process.

From there on out Jon plays a little more conservatively, and we start trading provinces, all the while, his mob of living dead continuing to grow. He manages to hold off one attack with the help of Crippling Weather and a handful of non-performed Strategies. I manage to bail Kensho-in out of that death trap by popping my Guidance, but the damage is done and I lose three other Personalities at resolution.Jon continues his Sanzo’d Zombie assault on my provinces, and with us both at one province each, I know I cannot hold off the full might of his shambling horde and need to attack and win the battle to win the game. Unfortunately, Jon has a second Crippling Weather and after we played all the actions we could, he had a mere two unbowed Zombies but I was bowed out. I shake hands and concede the game at that point.

2-4

Round 7 – Devin Freedkarns (Scorpion Ninja Military – Fortress of Blackened Sight)
I’ve played Devin a few times casually on trips to The Game Castle, but never in a tournament before. I know he’s a dishonor player at heart, so I was looking forward to redeeming myself after my fifth round misplay. Devin has decided to switch it up this day however and is bringing the black pajama squad to the table. This works for me, as I too have a Ninja deck (still running out of Hidden Moon Dojo however) so I’m very familiar with their strengths and weaknesses.

Devin too sees The New Order on turn 1 and decides to resolve it, and it hurts his Dynasty production for the rest of the game. As my deck clicks in to gear, I manage to Impromptu and Adjudicate the bigger Follower unit threats, and with the Battle duels and Focus Effects control the flow of the game pretty well. Devin does manage to get all three Strike from the Shadows off on me, but can only get me to discard 1 Personality with them and never got much of the other staple Ninja tech off at all. I manage to kill as many people as he can buy a turn and slow his offensive that I can crawl to 50, getting a few Impromptu Weapon honor jumps in against his low Chi Personalities and with my crossing immanent and me still on two provinces, Devin concedes.

3-4

Overall, I was very happy with the deck’s performance, but very unhappy with mine. There’s is something to this deck, and I fully believe in it’s potential, unfortunately it was not my day to capitalize on it. The idea behind the deck is to get in to fights and win them. With Battle/Reaction actions on the majority of your people and on the majority of the Fate deck, you should be able to control most battles with the combination of PK, bow and minimal send home. Check out the list below, and some final thoughts on it. I’m happy to answer questions and definitely open to suggestions.

1 Seawatch Castle

# Dynasty (40)

# Events (1)
1 Alter History

# Celestials (1)
1 Doji’s Guidance

# Regions (1)
1 Well-Defended Border

# Holdings (15)
1 Traveling Peddler
3 Tsi Mokotsu
3 Exotic Goods
3 Marketplace
3 Famous Bazaar
1 Kitsune Den
1 Counting House

# Personalities (22)
1 Kakita Hideo – exp
3 Kakita Kado
3 Shune
3 Kakita Furegami
3 Kakita Mimaro
3 Kakita Yosuga
1 Kakita Kensho-in – exp
1 Kakita Noritoshi – exp3
1 Doji Ayano – exp
1 Asahina Ekei – exp
1 Daigotsu Oki
1 Doji Domotai – exp4

# Fate (42)

# Strategies (38)
3 Shadow’s Talon
3 Imperial Adjudication
3 Impromptu Duel
3 Part the Waves
3 Superior Opponent
3 Hamstrung
3 Impetuous Challenge
3 Inspirational Victory
3 Low Stance
3 Claw and Shell
3 My Life Is Yours
1 The Fires of War
3 Steel on Steel
1 Relentless Conviction

# Items (3)
3 Impromptu Weapon

# Rings (1)
1 Ring of Fire

While cute and certainly helped speed the already slow honor engine of the deck, I’d probably look at replacing Part the Waves and Impromptu Weapon with some more Battle Strategies, certainly highly considering The Slow Death or Fall Back!, as getting bowed happened a lot more than I thought it would, and often a losing battle might have been swung back my way if I could get a Personality or two upright again. Also in consideration are the Duelist Followers, Dutiful Apprentice and Iaijutsu Student, for some added switch capability. Too often I found myself 1-2F shy of making a turn 3 attack.

Before continuing, I’d like to take a moment of full disclosure. When I returned to L5R during the final legs of the Race fro the Throne, the first MegaGame, I was appalled at the lack of effort the Crane playerbase was putting forth. Early in the Race, they had lost ground on their target, and with it went their enthusiasm it seemed. Riding out the final legs was hard. I wanted to help, but with no other momentum, there was no way to make a real difference.

When AEG announced that in the 15th Anniversary year there would be another MegaGame, I was excited. I could get in on the ground floor so to speak and I vowed to myself that I would not let the Crane playerbase suffer the same apathy that struck them down previously. This was going to be as much of a test of my leadership within the community as well as a way to have my fellow Crane supporters influence the game we so love and enjoy.

I had no idea how I might lead, but I was determined to do it. Because of this I feel I was much more invested in this MegaGame than if I had just been a participant. Therefore, please understand that I am so proud of my fellow Crane supporters and wish to thank them once more for everything they did in the name of the Crane Clan. The MegaGame was a success for us, in my eyes, even if we failed to capture the right to foster and Imperial Heir, our main goal for the competition. Hopefully my leadership lived up to a fraction of the success we had as a playerbase.

So how was the overall contest? It’s hard to say really. There was so many different ways to participate within the overall MegaGame, it’s all very subjective. If forced to give an opinion however, I’d say it was a good thing. How much of a good thing however, remains up in the air. Let’s take a look at some of the parts that made up the larger picture.

The Map Game
What I’d consider the best part of the entire MegaGame, easily. It was fast paced enough to not stale out, but still accessible to anyone who wanted to be a part of it. The interclan alliances and conflicts were all set up by the players really started bring the online communities together. Map strategy required some forethought, good reasoning and a slight ability for risk. The requirement to play that one needed an Imperial Assembly account was looked down upon by some, but I still argue that if you aren’t willing to pay $30.00 a year for some (usually) really good promos for the CCG, you’re missing out on all the added benefits.

I was surprised however that the map game didn’t continue monthly after Kotei season, as was announced at the beginning. I think a good amount of the midMegaGame lull could have been avoided had this been the case. I’d encourage AEG to use this again in their future MegaGame endeavors.

Kotei Season
At all the Kotei events there were two ways to affect the MegaGame; the tournament itself and the non-CCG side event. Sadly, it seemed that the importance of the MegaGame and it’s point system was supposed to make up for the fact that while the previous year’s winners got their name on a card and a chance to influence an entire weekly fiction, this year there would be no such prize, aside from a small one to two sentence blurb in the fictions that chronicled the Map Game. I know there were at least a few Kotei winners who care little for the story who felt a bit slighted. Something to keep in mind for future Kotei seasons that run during a MegaGame.

As for the non-CCG events, I love these. While a decent card player myself, these events let even the most inexperienced player contribute to the overall setting they commit hours of their lives a week to. This was a huge hit the previous Kotei season as well, under the guise of the Political competitions. Whether charity drives, costume contests or impromptu Haiku demonstrations, I hope these become a staple of L5R tournaments for years to come.

Clan Attendance Contests
Not much to say here, I could take or leave these in this or any future MegaGames. There was very little way to influence these contests on any real appreciable scale, and in hindsight they seem almost more for AEG’s marketing knowledge than any real competition of clan loyalty.

Solving the Riddle/Winner’s Choice Events
These are awesome small events for small areas and venues. It was really nice to see that they were able to generate Glory points, albeit a very small amount and it was fantastic that AEG allows the completely player run StR charity events to have the impact on the MegaGame. If in the future there is one of these vents near you, please do yourself a favor and go. Nothing to complain about here, time to move along!

Monthly Honor Contests
These were by far and large the most engaging part of the MegaGame. The subject choice of the contests were varied and far reaching, allowing just about everyone who follows L5R to find an area to put their strengths to. Honestly, I only have two concerns with how they were run. First was the small amount of events that related directly to the RPG. Out of the six monthly events, only one directly had anything to do with the pen and paper classic, and when you add in the fact that Kotei Season, Winner’s Choice and Jeweled events are all CCG driven, it felt as the playerbase who only enjoys the RPG was neglected to a point.

Second, it felt very odd that the announcement that your Clan “loyalty” (as determined by your IA affiliation) that was locked in and stressed as very important before and during the Map Game was just tossed away when it came to the monthly contests. This became a very big bit of contention after the Fight for the Heir was decided by a known Phoenix player getting to choose to support Spider. While no fault can be placed on the player in question for his choice, some scrutiny should be applied to the reasons why he was able to make the choice he did.

GenCon Indy/World Championships
While I was not able to attend these events, I think they were well represented as the grand events they need to be in regards to the MegaGame. The Clan “skits” were a fantastic approach to getting something creative out there for globe-spanning communities to come together and work on, and the results of them were entertaining enough to still be talked about from time to time. I really can’t wait until I can make my first large event like these two, and sincerely hope there is a MegaGame in progress when I do (some have been know to call me an attention whore).

Jewel Championship Events
Similar in scope as the Kotei events, but with more Honor and Glory points on the line, these were a very welcome addition to the tournament scene in the after GenCon lull. Hope these were a success for AEG and that they will continue them in the future. I also home that they continue with the Political contests here as well when there is no MegaGame points to be had.

Koku Donations
Aside from the small logistics headache caused by the annual mid-December closing of the AEG offices, this was a very nicely modified version of the Race for the Throne koku drives. It’s really impressive to see just how much imaginary money is collected by the community as a whole, even with the “inflation” caused by The Harbinger and Empire at War printing issues.

So what was missing?
The one single thing I really wish this MegaGame had had that the previous one did was Temptations. The choice between a solid story reward and some unique promos versus the cost of a partial setback towards a larger goal really made for some nice drama in the Race for the Throne. AEG, please find a way to work this wonderful “plot device” in to your next MegaGame. Who knows if the contest of the Imperial Regiment would have been a bit more interesting if there were some other factors involved in it.

And what could just be upright changed?
The length. Nine months is still a really long time to keep everyone’s attention and enthusiasm. While certainly better than the agonizingly long first MegaGame, I think there is still room to truncate it to something a bit more manageable. I think a six month time frame would allow for proper development of a storyline, but not so long that the tension of the plot device becomes stale and seemingly forced. There’s only so much faceless evil the Samurai of Rokugan can face before the audience just says “meh.”

There we are, my thoughts over the past nine months of magical samurai drama. As I said in the beginning of this article, this MegaGame felt like a success, not just for the Crane Clan and myself, but for the organizers and participants. Good work and I can’t wait to see what AEG will do with the next MegaGame. Just please give us a year or so to recover.

The Megagame and Me

Well now is the time to talk about this I suppose. Congrats to the Spider, you deserved to win as much as we did, and you won. I probably should leave it at that, but I will not, there is so much to say. First I should say I wanted the Crane to win the Heir because I thought it was the result that would keep Rokugan like the setting that originally got me interested in the game in the first place. I never really believed we would win, the environment of the game as a whole, the meta-game if you will, was always against the Crane player base. But despite this I wanted the Crane players to work together to achieve that goal, and I earnt and donated my points to the Empire, and I hope that those that chose to keep the their points for the Crane do not feel bitter about that choice now that it came down to 1 point deciding the outcome. It is not the players I hold responsible for the final result of the megagame but AEG.

There were in effect 4 competitions with 1 set of prizes shared between them. I don’t want to get into a discussion of what they were, but there are 3 problems I wish to address. The first problem is that one faction could win two prizes with one effort, giving them a greater motivation to compete, and I wonder if the Spider would have maintained their effort against the Crane had their been only 1 prize for them to win. The next problem was the rules were not fixed and public from the start, some will say they were, but I will point to the ability of AEG to continually add competitions and vary the available points, and even how people registered who they were giving those points to as evidence against that idea. Finally, and most importantly, no one knows what they were fighting to save or gain.

The last is most important, what were the Crab keeping points for? The Story team took away their lands, and yet the Crab achieved victory at a cost in Glory. What should the Crane have been keeping points for, or the Spider? The last is a big one, Spider players posted in several places they felt they had nothing to loose so why not donate?

The CCG and Me

About 2 weeks ago now I gave away all my cards. That’s 13 years worth of L5R collection. From rares, to limited sets, to commons, I gave them away. Truth be told I wasn’t sad to do so, because CE has been an environment that I have not enjoyed. Not sure why that should matter to me, grab a copy of the Talisman of Yume-do and that’s my name on the side, in other words I can play the game well enough.

“A fast game is a good game” is only true when you can play the game. I like games where both the fate and the dynasty deck matter, and can be used effectively, but much of CE so far has been about the Dynasty deck, a game that makes playing the style of decks I like particularly difficult. The fact that CE has 8 or 9 months left in it has not been something I have wanted, despite how much I like the options given to the Crane by The Dead of Winter, I see the environment remaining much as it has been; dominated by the best dynasty decks. Crane need their fate deck, and they lack the ability to control it well enough and so they will continue to have trouble.

I will miss the rest of CE and all the following arc, so this old Crane will just have to spectate.

The Community and Me

If there is one thing that will keep me involved in L5R it is the community, the amazing generosity, and enthusiasm of the community. For the things I have despised about the megagames the community and their actions have been inspiring, and I hope those who organised and participated them feel rightfully proud of what they achieved.

I will continue to lurk around the Crane forum, and so you will see posts from me from time to time, especially those most awaited ones: previews.

But I hope that going forward the achievements of the community are recognised and that you continue to go from strength to strength despite the apparent set back of the end of the megagame. The truth is regardless of that result what you have done is far more important so keep working together and making this old Crane proud.

The Last Words

Summer winds bring
Changes for us all my friends
For now goodbye.

We had the Glory Points, winnable by attending events and placing well, and we saw Honour points, which were usually handed out for non-CCG events.  Each clan had certain goals they were trying to reach in relation to honour and glory, and could either donate to their clan (thus earning them somewhere between total failure and total success).  Donations to the empire put the Empire somewhere between total success and total failure.

Here’s the kicker, the clan that donated the most to the Empire in terms of Honour would “foster an Imperial Heir”.

The Crane community decided that was our goal, and that’s what we’ve been focusing on this entire time.

Here is where things get hairy… the spider wanted it too.

The Spider, in fact, ended up winning by exactly 1 point.

While that is the end of the story, that isn’t really the entire story.

Crane did an amazing job this mega game season.  Short by 1 point for the heir?  And Spider only got to that point because AEG screwed up the December Honour contest (I mean really, every other monthly contest you gave your clan alignment for points when you made your submission, not afterwards when all the points are already on the table)?

I think it’s time to acknowledge that we did an amazing job.  I think it’s time we realized we worked as a team towards a goal.  I think it’s time to realize that the general apathy of the Race for the Throne is gone and the Crane player base came together and kicked ass for a common cause.

Until the December Honour Contest screw up, we were winning!  Doesn’t that feel good?  Knowing that we did so poorly last time, and knowing that we did such an amazing job this time says something.  I know just thinking back on the amount of food that Benny Crane and I carted to Obsidian, and the sheer amount of money raised for Topaz… I don’t think we have anything to feel ashamed about.  We didn’t suffer a loss of organization.  We didn’t suffer a loss of apathy.  What we went up against was another player base as determined as us, and just plain old fashioned bad luck (or screw up, be whatever case you look at it) right at the last moment.

But now it’s time for the big confession, the dirty secret that I’ve been holding onto…

I really didn’t care if Crane got the Heir either way.  I don’t really follow the storyline, I don’t read the fiction, and I don’t hold much of an opinion on the story (or story team) aside from the really obvious things which make me scratch my head and wonder who thought this was a good idea (such as the Retardo-God).

What I wanted to see was the Crane player base come together.  What I wanted to see was the playing well with others, working towards a common goal together.

Why did I want this?  Well, I’ve noticed one major difference between the L5R players who get active in the online clan forums and those who do not.  Those who get involved with the forums seem to want to have a sense of community.  A connection beyond just talking about a card game.

Not that it was especially easy

We did have rough patches.  Heck, two of those rough patches were named Doji Ayaki and Kakita Kentei.

Doji Ayaki, most famous for arguing and fighting with people about the mega game –BEFORE- the mega game rules were even posted.  The guy who felt it was okay to belittle other people for how they wanted to spend their points, and who from the moment people said anything different from him crowed and cawed that we were doomed to failure because we were not working cohesively as a team (read: doing what he wanted).  After receiving a temporary ban for increasingly bad behaviour, he decided to this forum wasn’t for him and took off, never to be seen again.

Kakita Kentei,  most famous for throwing fits on a regular basis and loudly proclaiming he was going to leave the Crane forever, despite never actually leaving forever.  A persecution complex a mile wide, he felt that everyone who argued against him was attacking him, and those who didn’t support him were clearly against him.  After showing terrible disrespect to follower posters and telling the moderators who had no intention of following forum rules, he received a permanent ban.  Finally, it seems he’s left the forum forever.

Why did I support the effort to go after the Heir?  Because I wanted to prove shmucks like the above two wrong.  I wanted to show them that we could work as a group, that we could achieve things.  I wanted to show them that the apathy from the Race for the Throne was over, and that the Crane player base could work together as a constructive force.

And guess what?  We did.

We did an amazing job.  We had a goal we wanted, we worked towards it together, and we had amazing results.  More than that, people had fun.  Even more than that, I think people made friends and connections over the entire thing.

Did we end up getting the Heir?  No, we didn’t.  Would have been nice, no doubt about that.  Would have been awesome to win and bask in the awesomeness that is winning.

But we didn’t win.  Not in the traditional sense.

We came in 1 point behind a clan that was fighting for its very survival.  We managed to be one point away from having an Imperial Heir.  But, we didn’t.  I understand those who are bummed out by the results (myself being one of them, we were so very close after all!), but you have to admit, it was a wild ride!

What we did do was work together, raise money for the homeless, raise food for the hungry, tell stories with cardboard, dress up in ridiculous costumes, and all around have an awesome time.

I for one am proud of the work we did, and I’m proud of the results we’ve had.  I think everyone should give themselves a pat on the back and be happy with what we did.  We had a fun time, we did a lot of charity work, and we proved those who said we couldn’t work together wrong!

What more could you really ask for?

Aside from an Imperial Heir that is

Then David Winner (Doji Yoshi on the forums) made an impressive showing at a Winner’s Choice in Texas with a unique and “outside the box” deck, Crane Dishonor. I admit I had playtested a version of Crane Dishonor prior to Worlds, and I was less than impressed with the build and certainly some of the card choices. Sending off a PM to Yoshi, I was curious as to how he’d managed to crack the decktype, and since the clan spread of his Winner’s Choice closely resembled what I expected the field in New Hampshire to be, I figured another look at the deck couldn’t hurt.

After some tactic and card choice discussion with David, I figured it was worth my time to playtest it and learn the intricacies of the honor loss mechanics. I was really happy I did. After two weeks of slinging slander at my local players, and making a few small tweaks to the deck to accommodate my playstyle and the environment I intended to compete in. Despite the small changes I made, I am completely willing to give David the credit on building this deck, and wish to thank him for turning me on to the amusement that is Crane Dishonor.

Now let’s get down to the tournament report.

Round 1 – John Macer (The Shadowed Dojo – Unique Dueling)
Knowing I’m paired against a Spider player makes going in to the first round a bit of an ease on my mind, but seeing John’s choice of Stronghold gives me need to pause for a second. Last time I faced a Shadowed Dojo deck at an event, I underestimated the deck and end up losing due to a silly play mistake on my part, most likely keeping me from making the cut at Obsidian Championships. Still I feel fairly comfortable with the matchup, I just need to change my thinking slightly and hunker down for a slow craw to -20.

I start off buying some gold and discarding aggressively from my provinces to see my control Personalities, as Paragons tend to get big with attachments very quickly. John’s first few turns see him buying gold and a T2 Fosuta. Suddenly, my matchup seems much better. Fortunately for John, he’s running a good amount of redirect and also duels, making me lose some tempo with a pair of Enough Talk! IN addition to his My Father’s Shrine, I cannot keep his people dishonored long enough to do any damage, just a point of honor loss here and there. AS he starts over taking my control and sniping provinces one at a time, I finally get past his redirect and get Fosuta dishonored. A pair of Pull the Strings follows and the game swings back in to my favor from there. One Veiled Menace and an Oppression later, I drop him to -20 and win.

1-0
MVP: x3 Senta for soaking an Enough Talk! and providing consistent dishonoring of Uniques.

Round 2 – John Brouillet (Shattered Peaks Castle – Berserkers)
SPC negates a lot of my control, so it can make the matchup literally a toss up. If he’s playing Dueling Heroes, it’s even harder. The first few turns see both of us developing out gold and buying a few Personalities. Then my card draw kicks in, and his non-Samurai Berserkers hit the table. I don’t see enough Open bow to keep him at bay for long, but with Doji’s Guidance, Settling the Homeless and Shikishi’s Favor enhancing trait, I manage enough presence less defense and finally drop a Jutsushi Ambush bomb to end the game.

John was a great guy to play against, and while clearly off put by the NPE of this deck type, managed to keep a smile on his face the whole game, even extending a midgame handshake after a successful defense of 3 provinces. After the match I gave him a nomination for best sportsman, and I was really sad to see he didn’t win it at the end of the tournament.

2-0
MVP: The silly amounts of card draw this deck can pump out.

Round 3 – Josh Griffis (Shattered Peaks Castle – Crab SMASH)
No other way to describe this deck. It’s got Berserkers, Heroes, and just massive muscles (oh wait, that’s Josh… not the deck). It was a very nasty game, with lots of death on both sides. Don’t know if Josh plays and non-Samurai Crab in his deck, but he never saw any and declined to buy a Furumaro. AS I dug for my honor losses while he slowly whittled down my defenses, I made a major misplay in the second to last turn, popping my Doji’s Guidance instead of using Shikishi to presenceless send home with the Favor. The next turn, Josh Province Assaulted my Shikishi, and swung in to my last province, removing my lone defender with an Ultimate Sacrifice. With Yoshihara and Seimi on the table, I most likely could have caused the 3 more honor loss I needed to drop him to -20, if only I could have saved the province.

2-1
MVP: Seimi for providing a deck that can seppuku a clock they cannot ignore.

Round 4 – Rich Chialastri (Twin Soul Temple – Yojimbo Military)
Fairly standard start for my deck, seeing gold turn 1 and a Yoshihara and a Umakai turn 2. On Rich’s Turn 2, he buys a Oichai at full. I attach a Writ of Reprimand, dishonor Oichai and follow up with a Whispers of the Forgotten to start talking board control. After that, it’s just setting up honor losses and controlling the large Yojimbos he starts swinging with. A second Whispers on a dishonored midgame Tsukimi gives me the final push I need to survive and using a Veiled Menace on my turn drops Rich to -20 with two provinces remaining. If not for the opening draws I saw, this match could have gone so much differently. Certainly more lucky than good in this game.

3-1
MVP: Seeing all 3 Faint Praise. Keeps the high honor military from rebounding against my hits to their honor.

Round 5 – Tim Wells (Crossroads Castle – Mostly Naked Lion)
This is the one deck type I really wanted to avoid, much less when piloted by Tim, who had just come off winning the Obsidian Championship, more than likely with this same deck. There really isn’t much the deck can do against a swarm style Lion deck, unless they get a really bad start. Tim went first and it was pretty much over when he was able to buy good gold turn 1 and a person and more gold turn 2. While I was able to get some semblance of a defense out, Tim had answers for everything I attempted to do, and choosing to seppuku most of my honor losses doesn’t really hurt him when an extra 2 gold on one of the three personalities he purchased every turn can undo all the damage I was able to dish out.

3-2
MVP: Shikishi, but only for slightly delaying the inevitable.

Round 6 – Eric Welsh (Shattered Peaks Castle – Crab SMASH)
So after playing what I anticipate was a very similar deck 3 rounds ago, I mentally gear up for another nasty game. Unfortunately for Eric, the deck really clicked and I think all the seppuku he performed early in the game hurt him more than it helped. At one point, I had him down to one defender, with more then enough force to take a province on the board, I Jutsushi his lone defender, and swing. He surprisingly defends, and while he manages to save the province, I cause another 5 points of honor loss and manage to survive the battle myself. The next turn saw another Jutsushi and me drawing an Ambush, and Eric conceded the game with him at -16 honor.

4-2
MVP: Card draw once again.

Round 7 – Patrick O’Leary (Seven Fold Palace – Reese’s Deck Variant)
Let me preface this by saying Patrick and I were the only two Crane at the event. We’d been checking in with each other throughout the day, and I was very happy to see him doing as well as me. Once I saw we were paired against each other in round 7, and both at a 4-2 record, I was very conflicted. The dishonor deck would more than likely win the matchup, as it can switch to honor when it needs to against other Honor decks. Shuffling up, I wish Patrick best of luck and end up winning the roll off. Then I get probably the luckiest I was all day, drawing in to two Marketplaces turn 1 and then in to a Shikishi and Senta turn 2 pretty much set the tempo for the game. Patrick manages a to get a duel off early, but I accept and he cannot draw in to a Hamstrung. Turn 3 I bring Seimi in to play and then I am off and running. After a few turns of me causing enough honor loss to offset his gains, and with my honor crawling steadily higher, Patrick concedes at 14 honor to my 26. It’s never fun knocking a fellow Crane out of the cut, but deep down I know the right deck went through. Reese’s build is good, but it has difficulty with a lot of the field that went through swiss.

5-2
MVP: Seimi. He, like Naoharu of Samurai Edition, can win an Honor on Honor match by himself.

So there we are, 5-2 and waiting on the cut to see if my tie breakers are enough to scoot me in to the Top 8. As the rounds finish up, it looks like Josh and Tim kept on winning, so I’m looking good. Pairings are announced and I am seeded 6th overall and pair against another Spider deck.

Top 8 – Pepe (The Fingers of Bone – Spider Dueling) [sorry I forgot to record your last name]
Sitting down across from Pepe, he informs me he’s usually a Crane player, but couldn’t find a suitable Crane deck he liked, and built this Spider deck only a few days prior. We shuffle up, and I wish him luck. My deck starts humming along, and Pepe starts bringing out pretty big Spiders after Border Keeping away a first turn Udo and Gutobo. Seems like he wants to make a match of it, for which I am up to the challenge. As the game progressed, I got enough control elements of to keep him at bay, but I wasn’t causing the honor loss I should have, as he too was packing redirect and Enough Talk! As I burn through my Fate deck with the draw engine, it becomes very clear that with his Oyo Seido out and his deck having a lot of 1PH Samurai, this was a battle I could very easily lose. I dig hard for my unconditional honor loss cards, and it seems Pepe finally thinks he’s seen enough of my deck to risk some further attacks. When he does, I was waiting for him and manage to drop him to -20 just in time. My Fate deck had 2 cards left in it.

Game 2 was much less close, and I felt really sorry for Pepe. My deck kicked in to high gear and with a nasty mid-game triple Jutsushi bomb firing off, he conceded. On to the Top 4.

Top 4 – Josh Griffis
Ah, Fate! It was roughly about a year ago the last time I faced Josh after the cut, at the 2009 Team Whiplash 9/11 Charity Event. The one where Josh managed to knock me out in Top 4 and go on to win, receiving his name on the side of Hida Shikokujin. So as we sit down to face each other again, I know I have more than just my earlier loss to avenge. Game 1 was a a battle, with my deck coming up just short of knocking him to -20 as he overpowers my control and smashes my last province. Knowing that this game ate up a good 40 minutes of the 90 we were allotted under the Palmer rule, we both shuffle quickly and move on.

Game 2 moves along a quick pace, both of us going through the motions of our decks. I catch a break midgame, when Josh pops Hida’s Guidance and a dishonored Personality to snipe a province, dropping his honor to -1 in the process. I react with a Shame Never Dies, and Josh has to go on to Dynasty, unable to buy the Tamago in his province, and instead gets another Berserker. From there, I slowly control the board now that there are two fewer threats thanks to the Guidance, and manage to dishonor him out. This also marks the first time I have managed to beat Josh at anytime in our matches against each other. Yay, short lived moral victory!

Game 3 proves to be over the quickest of the two, as for the first time all day, I cannot get into enough control and dishonor tech before the Crabs run wild over all four of my provinces. I shake Josh’s hand, thank him for the games, and wish him luck in the finals. Josh manages to go on and beat a DGC Mantis deck in the finals, leaving little doubt in our minds he truly is the Ender of Dreams.

All in all, it was great event, and I was very happy with the deck’s performance. Also of note was the fact that out of the 3 dishonor decks in the Top 8, only 1 was Scorpion, and that deck was eliminated in the Top 8 round, with the Crane and Phoenix versions failing in the Top 4. Check out the deck list below, and please feel free to ask any questions.

1 Seven Fold Palace

# Dynasty (40)

# Events (4)
1 Festival of Coronation
1 Festival of Founding
1 The War of Dark Fire
1 Winter’s Embrace

# Celestials (2)
1 Doji’s Guidance
1 Daikoku’s Guidance

# Holdings (15)
2 Corrupt Officials
2 Counting House
3 Exotic Goods
3 Marketplace
2 Traveling Peddler
3 Tsi Mokotsu

# Personalities (19)
1 Asahina Ekei – exp
1 Doji Odaka
3 Doji Senta
3 Doji Shikishi
3 Doji Umakai
3 Bayushi Jutsushi
3 Soshi Yoshihara
1 Yogo Kazunori
1 Otomo Seimi

# Fate (40)

# Strategies (33)
2 Ambush
2 Arranged Guilt
2 Deceit and Subterfuge
3 Faint Praise
2 Game of Sincerity
3 Only Actions Speak
3 Oppression
3 Pull the String
1 Relentless Conviction
3 Settling the Homeless
3 Shame Never Dies
3 The Direct Approach
1 The Thriving Light
2 Veiled Menace

# Items (4)
1 Ancient Tome
1 Iweko’s Journals
2 Writ of Reprimand

# Spells (2)
2 Whispers of the Forgotten

# Rings (1)
1 Ring of the Void

Celestials: Kind of like wishes, but with less of them.

As I am sure everyone is aware, we were first introduced to the Celestial and their new mechanics back when Path of the destroyer released. Nine Celestials, a Guidance specific for each faction were found in boosters, sometimes two to three at a time. There were concerns over whether L5R needed a new card type, and issues taken with why a pantheon of Unique cards had to take up so many common and uncommon card slots. Then we got to playing them and within a very short window, I’d wager very few of us will not have our L5R experience tinted by them for a very long time.

As the subsequent expansions rolled out, we saw 2-5 new Celestial cards printed per set and the options they made available to deck builders grew exponentially. Dropped were the factional requirements needed to use their abilities, and more general effects were brought to the table. While some Celestials seemed to hide in mediocrity, others would take deck types and super charge them, resulting in at least one errata and possibly discussion among design of more.

Now with 19 Celestial cards in the card pool, where do they all stand? Obviously discounting the eight Kami who won’t work for anyone rocking a powder blue Stronghold, which ones should make the cut in a Crane deck? I can say with 100% conviction, that unless you are running something completely and totally off the wall, there is no substitute for Doji’s Guidance, and it is probably the only Guidance you should be running.

Doji’s Guidance is unique from it’s other counterparts in that, no matter the game state, it is a Celestial you want to keep in play for as long as possible, using it’s ability only in the most dire of situations. The other Kami guidances almost beg for you to discard them, as their ability is often much more powerful than their blanket trait.

Not so I feel with Doji’s Guidance. While the ability appears much more powerful than the trait (and in most Crane decks, I’d wholeheartedly agree), the application of the ability at the right time can and will win games. Pop it too soon and you deny yourself the blanket Force and Personal Honor pumps which can really influence how your opponent may play his turns.

Just call me a fanboi.

I find that, recently in any regard, when I’ve been able to cross in honor with Doji’s in play, I haven’t lost. If I am forced to use it’s ability early in the game, I find I am already so far behind the curve, I just cannot seem to secure the win. This could purely be a side effect of the use of Doji’s Guidance indicating how well I have the game under control, or it could be due to the Celestial itself.

My own bias for Doji’s Guidance aside, let’s switch gears and look at the family of Elemental Dragon Guidances. All very similar in their card text, they provide an ability akin to the Elemental Ring they are associated with and when they come in to play, they fetch that Ring from your discard pile. So where do these five Celestials fit in the Crane decks?

Personally, I think two of them, Fire and Earth, fit very well in to a defensive or switch deck, and I could see Water filling a needed slot in military Crane decks, especially those that run large out of clan Personalities with great battle actions. Void should probably only see play in Enlightenment decks or maybe the rare dueling build that needs to check it’s Focus Pool before tossing out a duel. Air just isn’t enough bang for the buck in Crane, or any clan really, and I don’t see it worth a Celestial slot in any deck. I think when it comes down to it, the Dragon Guidances are very flavorful, but lack the substance needed in Crane, and probably only rank as an additional Celestial to be played in other Clan’s decks.

Finally, let’s take a look at the last five Celestials: the Guidances of Emma-O, Daikoku, Osano-Wo, Bishamon and the Wrath of Kali-Ma. Even in the fabled CrOni deck, Kali-Ma just has too high an honor cost associated with it to make it worth the slot. That leaves us with the lesser Fortunes. Bishamon seems to fall in to a military capacity, where as Osano-Wo screams at being a better Fire Dragon’s Guidance for defensive decks. Emma-O provides some recursion (abusive Daigotsu Oki tech) and Daikoku can really jump start and secure a deck’s economy.

If I had to rate these four for inclusion in Crane builds, I’d start with Daikoku, which can easily help Crane decks hit the 5/7 gold marks a lot of our Personalities tend to be bought for. Followed then by Emma-O’s and Osano-Wo’s in a very close tie. Both have utility that can synergize well with existing Crane-used Strategies. Finally Bishamon is just too hard to fit in a military Crane deck, and even though a quick +2 Force bump seems mighty tempting, two Force is not the difference between cracking and bouncing off of 7 Province Strength with our abundant 2-3 Force Personality base.

... itty bitty living space.

So to bring it all together, I really feel that most L5R decks can really only allot 1-2 slots for this new and dynamic card type, and with the power level of of the original Kami Guidances so good, it becomes a much harder choice, one that can seem more of a gamble than a sure thing at times. I still stand by my opinion that Doji’s Guidance should be in any deck that uses a Crane Stronghold, and since my own bias on it’s usefulness in the late game keeps me from wanting to discard it too early, I am now forcing myself to consider running more than just it in my future decks (specifically adding in Daikoku’s Guidance in addition to Doji’s). Hopefully in a future article before the end of Celestial I’ll be able to say I was wrong, but I really think it will take a much more powerful multi-clan Celestial than we’ve seen thus far to do so.

Step 6: Thinking inside a box.

"This game is HARD!"

As with Step 1, getting an idea of any self-imposed restrictions you want to build a Fate deck under is first and foremost a necessity. Sure I could throw playsets of every card I’d consider playing in to a pile and call it good, but we all know that playing 236 card pickup at the end of a game is hardly time well spent. Since we already know our theme will use dueling, and we will want to have dishonored opposing units for our Magistrates to kick around, we can start to set up some guidelines to follow in Step 7. Focus Values are a must for any dueling deck, and it’s been my experience to consistently and safely duel no more than 12 cards should be non-Focus Value 4. Also, since we aren’t running anything aside from Magistrates and Duelists in our Personality line up, we’ll focus our search for cards off those two key words.

Step 7: Making a list & checking it twice.
Fire up that card search engine! I like to use Egg of Pan’ku’s deck editor or Roku-Mart’s Cardfinder personally, but any card database will suffice for this next step. First off, let’s find those 12 cards we want with less than 4 Focus Value. We are going to need the duels, so the slots fill up quickly. Here’s what I chose:

• 3 Impromptu Duel
• 3 Imperial Adjudication
• 3 Steel on Steel
• 2 Shameful and Cowardly
• 2 Test of Sincerity

Yeah, I know I listed 13 cards. No big deal, we always have exceptions to our rules, and I really want to try out the massive Force swings that Shameful and Cowardly can generate late game, and Test of Sincerity gives us some much needed Open dishonoring.

Now’s the part where this list really starts to grow a mind of its own. Using my card database, I start adding in cards I might want to play. This should result in a grossly oversized deck, but it gives us something to cut back on, and keeps us from missing out on key cards. Check out this deck’s monster list, not counting the 13 cards above:

• 3 Claw and Shell
• 3 My Life Is Yours
• 3 Low Stance
• 3 The Slow Death
• 3 Distractions in Court
• 3 Superior Opponent
• 3 Paid Off
• 3 Precise Strike
• 3 Fall Back!
• 3 Retribution
• 3 Shadow Plays
• 3 Shadow’s Talon
• 3 Restoring Order
• 3 Inspirational Victory
• 3 Hamstrung
• 3 Arrival of the Emerald Champion
• 3 Threat of Execution
• 3 Delayed Conflict
• 3 An Imperial Marriage
• 1 Outmatched
• 3 Deny the Darkness
• 3 Snow-Swept Summit
• 3 Stolen Property
• 3 The Light of Justice
• 3 Defenders of Nanashi
• 1 Dutiful Apprentice
• 3 Iaijutsu Student
• 3 Armor of the Heavens
• 1 Talisman of Gaki-do
• 1 Heavenly Blade of the Crane
• 1 Rekai’s Yumi
• 1 Ring of the Void
• 1 Ring of Fire
• 1 Ring of Water

"This means something. This is important."

Whew, 99 cards is obviously too much cardboard to handle, so lets “check it twice” and start paring down the deck to something much closer to 40 cards. A few cards over would be fine, especially if we keep Shadow’s Talon and/or Inspirational Victory. After what was about 30 minutes of tinkering, this is the 47 card Fate deck I came up with:

• 3 Claw and Shell
  3 My Life Is Yours
  2 Low Stance
  3 Distractions in Court
  2 Paid Off
  3 Shadow’s Talon
  3 Restoring Order
  2 Inspirational Victory
  3 Hamstrung
  2 An Imperial Marriage
  3 Stolen Property
  2 The Light of Justice
  3 Impromptu Duel
  3 Imperial Adjudication
  3 Steel on Steel
  2 Shameful and Cowardly
  2 Test of Sincerity
  3 Iaijutsu Student

Step 8: Back to Square One.

It was either this or Barney pic for Step 10.

Now that we have a working Fate deck, it’s time to revisit the rest of the deck. Last article, we achieved a 38 card Dynasty, were still undecided on a Stronghold and had two Holding slots left to name. Looking over what we’ve compiled it’s clear we need to assign two Duelists to those final Dynasty slots. Kakita Mimaro from EaW seems like a decent choice to try out, as she’s still a decent Force Crane and her ability gives us a nice jump in battle tempo, something I feel Crane often lack. In fact, I’m going to now drop a Kakita Tasaka in order to have room for three of her. I’m willing to lose 1PH for a nice ability.

As for the Holdings, I’m willing to give the slots to Offices of the Emerald Magistrates, very simply because it means that I only need to keep one unbowed to pay for any the 5 Strategy cards in the Fate deck that have a Gold Cost on them, which allows me to spend more on bringing out Personalities or attaching the 3 Followers in the deck for some Personality protection.

When it comes down too it, I honestly have to say, despite my initial feelings for it, I love Seawatch Castle. Also, since we don’t have much Favor-powered actions in the deck we can let our two copies of An Imperial Marriage do the favor grabbing for us, on top of gaining it off winning the box duel. I might consider playing Shiro Daidoji, and if I did switch Strongholds, I could probably cut the Shadow’s Talon and Inspirational Victory right out of the deck. For right now however, I want to at least initially test this using Seawatch.

Step 9: Let it simmer.
There; the deck is complete… or is it? I often like to let the deck sit on my computer for a day or so. This lets me clear my mind and then come back to it with refreshed eyes and sensibilities. Often times I find I’ve missed a card I meant to include or cut one from our large list I know I cannot live without. Obsessing over a deck for hours can lead to making bad decisions as you try to force something to work. Walk away for at least a few hours. You’ll be glad you did.

Step 10: Sharing is caring.
The final step to any deck building is to get other people to look at it. Post it on a forum somewhere or email it you other players you trust. The biggest thing to remember when doing this is to not take criticism personally, even if the critic presents it in such a way. You have your reasons for why you did what you did and they have theirs for why they see what they see. The biggest thing is, get the deck out there somehow. Having completely fresh eyes look over something will give you an insight you cannot provide to your own creations, having at least some emotional connection to them. Yeah, they are inanimate stacks of cardboard, but you spent time on them and it’s only natural to hope that they perform when the gauntlet is thrown down.

So without further ado, here’s the deck list. I’ll also post a copy of the list on both The Home of the Crane Clan and The Endless Road. I hope you’ll comment on the deck there and maybe help refine it to something competitive, and if not, at least we know this is still a theme to avoid for the time being. Thanks for reading!

1 Seawatch Castle

# Dynasty (40)

# Events (3)
1 The War of Dark Fire
1 Festival of Founding
1 Festival of Coronation

# Celestials (1)
1 Doji’s Guidance

# Regions (1)
1 Well-Defended Border

# Holdings (15)
2 Acrobat Troupe
3 Border Village
3 Marketplace
2 Counting House
1 Traveling Peddler
2 My Father’s Shrine
2 Offices of the Emerald Magistrates

# Personalities (20)
3 Daidoji Yorio
1 Doji Hakuseki – exp
2 Kakita Idzuki
3 Doji Tajihi
3 Doji Nenkai
2 Doji Gotobo
1 Kakita Kensho-in – exp
2 Kakita Tasaka
3 Kakita Mimaro

# Fate (47)

# Strategies (44)
3 Claw and Shell
3 My Life Is Yours
2 Low Stance
3 Distractions in Court
2 Paid Off
3 Shadow’s Talon
3 Restoring Order
2 Inspirational Victory
3 Hamstrung
2 An Imperial Marriage
3 Stolen Property
2 The Light of Justice
3 Impromptu Duel
3 Imperial Adjudication
3 Steel on Steel
2 Shameful and Cowardly
2 Test of Sincerity

# Followers (3)
3 Iaijutsu Student