Hey everybody. The Knight's Quest held its second Kotei warm-up tournament yesterday in Gardner, MA. We had 21 participants, and I took first again with Naga. (finally broke that karma rule :) The breakdown was: 2 Naga (me and another dude who was using Tim's deck) 4 (!) Crab (3 Rats, 1 Semicorrupt) 3 Scorpion (1 Old school dishonor, 1 Weenie military, 1 New Kid) 1 Dragon (Standard dueling) 1 YA (Fox box, played by our regular naga player) 1 Ninja (NPD honor/dishonor event-driven deck, very interesting) 2 Crane (1 pure honor runner, 1 honor with military capability) 2 Shadowlands (I think they were both running duels or enlightenment) 2 TA (1 Monkey clan, 1 regular TA w/Purusha) 1 Lion (Dan just can't give up on Lion :) 1 Phoenix (what a shame, I thought they talked Kyle out of Phoenix...) I'm missing someone, can't really remember what else was there. I didn't check out the field as much this time, too busy nursing a brutal head cold between rounds. Anyway, here's how the matches went: Round 1: New Kid with Scorpion (no sensei) After a mistake in the computer entries causes us to re-pair for round 1, I find myself facing this kid who *literally* played 2 games of L5R before the tournament. He struggles with gold and I smash him quickly...I feel bad, but don't have the time or energy to coach him through a long game. Round 2: Shaun Haskins, Crane honor/military (Hantei sensei? can't remember) My Nio sensei screws him *bad*, as he leads with Uji/Uji/Yosai/Hiruma Dojo. He brings up an Uji and ditches the rest, and I flip Kolat Dupe. My gold pours right out while he struggles with a marketplace and small farms. I take a province under Winter Warfare, and amazingly he declares an attack on his turn. He doesn't assign anyone and uses Arrival of the Emerald Champion to take out my golden sun plain. Very nice. :) I thought I had heard a ruling that you couldn't play the AotEC under Warfare, so we checked with the judges. There was nothing in the rulings, so we kept going. My turn I took another province, building up on Purushas. In the end he can't get enough defense to survive my sneak-range capabilities. 2-0 Round 3: Rob Ciccolini, Yogo weenie military (Hantei sensei) I knew I had to get a strong early game against Rob's deck to win, so I brought up an Issut first turn and prepared for Shady/Guard. He gets screwed turn 1 with nothing but a Geisha house coming up. I Shady and attach the Guard and declare an attack, and he says he has an open to take. He plays uncertainty on the Issut. I check my hand for destiny has no secrets, but come up empty. I struggle with gold now, bringing up a deep forest and purusha. His turn, corrupt gold and two scorps (including asami). I flip no gold, and it goes downhill from there. He just builds up to the point where he severely outnumbers me and starts taking provinces. There's nothing I can do, since I only drew one bushi after that guard and I concede with one province left. 2-1 Round 4: Ryan Jensen, Crane pansy/exploding (Hantei sensei) (hmm, a trend...) I was confident heading into this one, since I've been playtesting against Ryan a lot lately...he still hasn't found a good way to beat naga. :) I Ambush/purusha his first poet, then he calls Ambush for Hantei sensei. I name flattery. My events proceed to come up in perfect order (Winter Warfare, As the Shadow falls, then Tao kicks in when the Warfare runs out). He saves one province by defending with one more personality than I have purushas, but on the whole my ability to deny him presence in battles wins the game. He dies with two entrappings and three BSLs in his hand. 3-1 Round 5: Brian Sweeny, Scorpion fortress/dishonor (Kaede sensei) I figure I have to win this one to make it into the top 8, and I know this is my worst possible match-up. I start with Nio sensei and hope for Damesh...and get 3 Damesh by turn 3. :) I smash a province with the Damesh force, and he hits me with Secrets/Shame on an Issut. Next turn, I kill another province, and he goes. I'm at -8, he's at -10. He says "Hey...I think I can win this right here..." He dishonors a purusha with secrets, and plays Dark Lord's Favor to dishonor another one. Then he drops TWO MORE SHAMES!!! Arrrrrrrrrgh. I was really pissed and slammed my hand on the table, since I figured that meant I was out of the tournament. 3-2 I sit around and watch games for a bit, and after the rest of the round concludes I check with the TO...turns out I'm still in, somehow in 6th place. Cool! Quarterfinals: Chuck Derby, Dragon honor/dueling (Toshimoko sensei) Heh, as anybody who read my last report knows, Chuck and I have a longstanding karmic rule: No matter how he does against me in casual play, I always beat him in tournaments. This game actually started off going the other direction. We both get decent starts, a little slow for what our decks are used to. He Challenge/pressures a purusha off before I can attack, then attaches the Wasting Disease. Ouch! I start losing Issuts and Warlords, and my next two Purushas bite it upon entering play. I build up a horde of people, though, and an early As the shadow falls has kept his honor total low. I start taking provinces with the Naga Spear and Winter Warfare. On the second turn of Warfare I've got enough for two and knock him down to one province. My first card of the next turn is desperate measures. Game. One interesting thing Chuck noted is that he normally complains about Purusha shutting him down, while in this match he killed all 3 Purushas before they even got a chance to attack. 4-2 At this point, I'm staring at the worst metagame situation I've ever faced: The other three players at this point are Brian and Rob, who beat me earlier, and Martin, running an NPD Ninja with heavy events and honor/dishonor tricks. Three bad matchups...ack. Semifinals: Martin Helsing, Ninja NPD honor/dishonor (Yoritomo sensei) His deck spits out gold, while I bring up a pair of purushas and some free gold. His rampant plague kills both Purushas, after I point out that since he has no personalities in play I have to put two tokens on my guys. I bring up some more nagas and dig through both of my decks like a madman. I know I've got the tricks I need, so I hoard Avoid Fates, Sneak/Storms, and dig for Armor of Earth and Winter Warfare. I take a province with only a warlord and purusha thanks to Sneak/Storms, then bring up a beefy Balash (4 chi, highest in the deck). Balash grabs the spear and leads my naga hoard to take a second province with like 15 chi total. His turn, PORTENTS BOMB. Everything but balash dies! But it's too late for him, as I can recover quickly and have 11 chi at the end of my next turn. One province and then the last one fall to a naga swarm. Careful use of Avoid fates stuffed his death of the Ki-rin (I couldn't empty my hand for RoV!) and Emperor's Peace (avoided it twice). All in all, this was the coolest deck there. Nobody saw it coming... :) 5-2 Finals: Rob Ciccolini, Yogo weenie military (Hantei sensei) This time I was more prepared...I focused on brining up gold early to ensure a steady flow of personalities and followers. We both bring out several people, when the game hits its turning point: I flip Inheritance and Retirement, he has no avoid. He has two Asamis and two Jujuns, all of which retire, and a Tangen. He's bowed out except for Tangen so I max out with Inheritance, Shady dealings, and Golden sun plains to attach 4 followers. I split my forces to attack two provinces, his Tangen bows a Naga Bushi and I arrows from the woods him. I take both provinces and figure I can settle into a resources race since his asamis are still a threat. Then on Rob's turn he flips the one card in his own deck he didn't want to see right then...Torn from the past. All his Monks have a 4 chi and remain bowed! He concedes and we collect our Koku and store credit. DYNASTY 4 Naga Warlord 4 Purusha 3 Issut 3 Damesh 2 Tausha 1 Balash exp 1 Shahadet 3 Deep Forest 3 Forest 3 Black Market 3 Jade Works 1 Retired Advisor Golden Sun Plain Palace of the Emerald Champion Inheritance Tao of the Naga Winter Warfare As the Shadow Falls Kolat Dupe Desperate Measures Retirement Enlistment FATE Nio Sensei Kisada Sensei Ancient Spear of the Naga Armor of Earth Ring of the Void 1 Shahadet's Legion 4 Naga Guard 4 Naga Bushi 3 Ashigaru Archers 3 Avoid Fate 3 Sneak Attack 3 Rallying Cry 3 Shady Dealings 2 Arrows from the Woods 2 Ambush 2 Storms of War 2 Frenzy 2 Destiny has no secrets 2 A Test of Courage That's three tournaments in a row won by Naga at the Quest...rather odd, eh? I feel a bit redeemed for scrubbing out at the Toronto Kotei (went 2-2 and dropped). I've got a bad feeling that our local players aren't going to be too ready for Kotei, though, since we haven't had much Unicorn or Phoenix presence around here lately and few people are preparing to face those bandwagons. Oh well. We're bringing upwards of 40 people to the NY Kotei, so I guess we get to define our own metagame. :) Hell, I was going to play a Phoenix bandwagon deck for NYKotei, but I took this as a sign that I should stick with Naga. See everybody there. -"Hida" John Brouillet Retired Crab Clan Tactician Will join the Naga for 2 less gold ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com For help with this listserver, send a message with no subject or message to majordomo@frpg.com Contents Copyright (C) 1997,98,99 by FIVE RINGS PUBLISHING GROUP, INC