Subject: Knight's Quest Morikage Report...ah, screw surprise, Crab Wins! Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 20:28:03 PST From: "Hida John" Reply-To: l5rinfo@frpg.com To: l5rinfo@frpg.com Hey Everybody! Well, this doesn't need much of an introduction...we all know about Morikage. We all know what's at stake, we all know the rules, the day, the restrictions, etc. So I'll just get into the report. We held our tournament at the Knight's Quest in Gardner, MA on Saturday. 12 people showed...not as many as I'd originally hoped, but the weather here has been REALLY horrible the last few days. Not cool for driving long distance. Plus the Magic Guild just down the road in Fitchburg held their tournament at the same time, which kinda split the field. We had a fairly good representation of clans. The highlights, of course, were 2 Crane and 2 Unicorn...yay, the favorites to win it all. A couple Naga players and a pair of Toturi's Army players were in attendance, along with a two Mantiseses, a lone Scorpion, and a single Crab... (who else, eh? ;) I've been working on my deck the last two weeks leading up to the tournament. Needless to say, Crab military in EJade is...sub-good. So I went with Dan Chambers' (Hida Man on IRC) suggestion, and tried Taka Tricks...and liked it. I threw the deck together and playtested like a fiend for two weeks solid. After many revisions and trimmings, I arrived at the version that follows: Taka Tricks (aka, the John Hirons memorial Crab deck) DYNASTY: 3 x Fantastic Gardens 3 x Sanc Temp 3 x Hawks & Falcons 1 x The Master Painter 3 x Yasuki Taka 3 x Kuni Utagu 3 x Iron Mine 3 x Jade Werks 2 x Merch Caravan 3 x Garrison 3 x Unscalable Walls 1 x Bronze Gong of Hantei 3 x Crossroads Occult Murders Festival of the River of Stars The Hidden Emporer Peasant Revolt Emporer's Piece Proposal of Peace Imp Ambassadorship Architechs of the Wall Wisdom Gained Imperial Gift FATE: 3 x Entrapping Terrain 1 x Encircled Terrain 3 x BSL 3 x Refugees 3 x Flooded Pass 2 x Flattery 2 x Avoid Fate 3 x Test o' Honor 3 x Touch of Death 3 x Evil Portents 3 x Breach of Etiquette 3 x Unrequited Love 1 x Ancestral Crane Sword 3 x Exhibition 1 x Ancestral Crab Sword Ring of Earth Ring of Void I have to say, first up, that this has been the MOST fun and exciting tournament I've ever played in. I played some of the closest matches of my life, and we all put everything we had into striving for the prize. So thanks to FRPG for putting this whole thing together, and setting it up so everybody gets a chance to influence the storyling. L5R truly is the greatest CCG on the market. Now, on to the tourney...we all gathered and began play around 3 o'clock. Originally we were waiting on a few players who said they couldn't get there until that point, but they were unable to come at all (and let us know at 2:50)...ah well. We had time. First Round: vs. Rob Hawkins, Crane (yay) My opening hand consists of a Breach, the Ancestral Sword of the Crane, and three irrelevant cards. Breach slows his personality development. I get some early gold and bring up Takas and Fantastic Gardens. Utagu takes the Crane sword and becomes His Most Favored, and suddenly the Crane finds himself down by 20 honor or so. A few turns later I soar over 40, and the Crane player is LIVID...ever see a Crane lose to a Crab via honor victory? It's amusing, trust me. ;) (1-0) Second Round: vs. Eric Burton, Unicorn (oh god...not looking forward to this) Eric and I are old rivals at L5R, and know this is going to be a good match. If you've read my tournament reports before, you'll notice we've faced in the finals on more than one occasion...he's a decent player, with the world's most INCREDIBLE luck. It's messed up, you've gotta see it in real life...crazy stuff. Anyway, the match is fairly even. He attacks, I hold back the dam. Sooner or Later the Unicorn stuff starts slipping through. An early Festival of the River of Stars showed up, and I named "Otaku"...amusingly enough, his next six personalities were all SHINJOS...ARRRGH! He knocks out one, then two, then three provinces...I gain honor...25...30...39. Then it comes down to the last turn. With one province, I bow a few holdings to get up to 45. With a Garrison and a Bronze Gong of the Hantei out, I pray to the fortunes that my defense will hold. His inner fire quickly squelches my hopes, however, and we start doing the totals...I'm able to use the favor and a BSL to hold him back...and when we boiled it down, he was just 2 force away from killing the province and winning the game. I unbow and take the win, having narrowly escaped what is doubtlessly the closest game of my life. Eric and I both congratulate each other and head off to watch the other games. (2-0) Third Round: vs. Kyle, Toturi's Army (Oh good, an easy match...god was I wrong...) Well, sitting down against a TA stronghold is certainly heartening. The match was not as easy as I hoped, however, as I stalled a bit early and he gets out an early Mitsu. I lose a province to the Mitsu and a Tohaku with Shiriekan, failing my attempt to Flood the Pass. He rallies...dammit! Occult Murders then flips up, killing off Mitsu and saving my ass for a bit. I sandbag with fortifications, finally hit some gold and honor holdings. With the favor and Ring of the Void, I manage to draw enough Go-home to hold off his attack. Another province drops, though, and it looks close. Finally I'm left with two provinces, one with Bronze Gong and one with Unscalable Walls...he launches an all-out attack with Kamoto and THREE Kitsuki Kaagis...all of which have a follower (Kamoto's, of course, was an Ogre Warriors... 9F, daaaamn). I curse at my Refugees, but manage to hold the Gong province thanks to another Flooded pass and a bowed Ogre Warriors and Kamoto. I'm at 43 honor, nice knowin' ya. Closest a TA deck's ever come to beating me though. (3-0) Fourth Round: vs. Dan Ramos, Unicorn (Ulp.) Dan, as of late, has been my other perpetual L5R rival. In September he beat me out of the finals of our first ever sword tourney...I'm still perturbed a bit by that. We knew this would be a good match, at any rate. Both of us have decent starts, I manage to breach early. He starts taking provinces on turn 2 with Xieng Chi + First Shout, First Shout, Second Shout, Third Shout, Third Shout. (Note: AAAAAAAH!!!!) He had to shout the last time to escape the Flooded pass...but daaaamn, that's a lot of force. I was able to stall him for a little while and gain the honor edge with Utagus and Fantastic Gardens. Favor-whoring while I Taka'd for honor managed to keep my head above water and grab the fate cards I needed. Finally, he storms my two remaining provinces...but is again repulsed by the Bronze Gong and a hand full of Go-home, aided by an Evil Portents. My turn, 43 honor, cha-ching. These matches're getting a bit too close for comfort. (4-0) Fifth Round: vs. John Sosa, Scorpion (Hey, another easy match...and another case of me seriously underestimating someone :) I just...couldn't...believe it. Of all the decks in the tournament, Sosa's was a perfect foil for mine. Blackmails, Kolat Interference, Explosives, Night of a Zillion Bajillion Ninja, Shapeshifters, Aramoro, you name it. He kills with Abandoning the Fortunes/Death of the Ki-Rin/Military force from Aramoros and 'Shifters. The -whole- game he frustrated me at every turn. I even lost a province to Blackmail just to get a Sanctified Temple back... *shudder* I've never been this frustrated since I first played magic and went against a counterspell deck. An avoid fate helps delay Abandoning the Fortunes, but it comes up again before too long. I squeak by at 41 honor, with no honor holdings in play but a Hawks & Falcons, and no dynasty left. His next card? Breach of Etiquette. :) Close game, I was surprised at how effective his scorp was against my Crab...unfortunately, he wound up going 2-3...seems it wasn't as effective against everyone -else-. Ah well. (5-0) Semifinals: After taking a break to eat some supper and throw in Chinese Connection (one of Bruce Lee's finest, a MUST for all L5R tournaments to run in the background), we settled down for the final four. The mix came to two Cranes, a Unicorn, and a Crab (whoo hoo!). Dan (the unicorn) and I were each paired off against a Crane, and we wished each other luck at keeping the finals Crane-free. Sixth Round: vs. Rob Hawkins, Crane (again) Not much to say. He was pretty pissed at this point...apparently annoyed because I played a "non interactive" deck. Personally I found that amusing, coming from a Crane. :) Both games were pretty lackluster. I just hit the gold and Imperial Gift-Crane Sword action in both games, and plowed him under in honor. Three Honor Victories against a Crane in one day, and he was pretty dejected...Rob even conceded the third place match to the other Crane. :) Hey, sorry man, but...you're Crane, and Crane needs ta DIE. (7-0) After our quick games, I hang around and watch the other Semi match. Uni vs. Crane is pretty even....they split the first two games with non-standard wins (Unicorn with an honor victory, Crane with a military victory). Third game is interesting...Dan's hand consists of three Third Shouts and three First Shouts...then he draws two Second Shouts, and all of a sudden the Crane provinces -drop-. The game's over in a couple of turns, and it looks like a rematch in the finals....Dan eats some supper, I hang around a bit, and then we sit down to find out how does their part to find the emporer. Finals: Seventh Round: vs. Dan Ramos, Unicorn The first game is woefully anticlimactic. He gets gold-flooded for several turns, and his only early personality is killed off by the 'Cult. I hit massive gold and the MasterPainter joins my side. Double Exhibition plus Takas end the game in a hurry, he never takes a prov. The final game, though, was far closer...similar to my earlier Unicorn games. He actually keeps the upper hand in honor for a while, thanks in part to ample gold for Otaku peeps with three honor and two of my Unrequited Loves (hey, I WANT Kamoko 3 with the armor bowed). Occult Murders and his most favored help out a bit. After losing a province, I start hitting the crazy Taka Taka Taka + Fantastic Gardens action. I lose a province without a Garrison 'cause of my Takas being bowed...getting close. I peak over 40 with two provs left, one with the Gong and the other with a Garrison. My hand is FULL of go-home, and I manage to combine that with the Bronze Gong to repulse his attack at that province. After I bow his people with three chi and drop a flooded pass, he moves to play a Superior Tactics...but thankfully, as I mentioned, all the 3C people were bowed or home. He puts the Sup Tacs back in his hand, looks over the hand for a minute or two, and extends a hand in congratulations. (11-0) Afterwords we divy up the prizes (I took home a C&J sheet), and do the little write-up FRPG so wants us to hand in. I pick up some munchies with the store credit, but as my car died this morning and I needed a ride home from my dad, I had to split before much celebratory-type festivites. Ah well. Once again, I had a blast, and thanks to Five Rings and everybody who participated...and GO CRAB!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEE!!!!! -John Brouillet aka Hida John crabfort@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/6046/crabfort.htm BTW...the ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT War Fortress of the Crab will be opening later this week...stay tuned to the web address above! See everybody around! OH yeah, Crab is BACK on top bay-bee... >:) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email 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