Hello all, Tossing my two cents on the NY Kotei this past weekend. An excellent tournament and a truly enjoyable time. This is the Kotei portion of my report. The rest of my 42 hour ordeal can be read at http://home.earthlink.net/~skipalways . If you've got nothing better to do tonight it's an entertaining read ... in warped kinda way. ANYWHO! Managing to survive our own stupidity we arrived at Netrual Ground, the store that was holding the tournament. We all registered and the cool guys that are Eric Devlin and Co. made sure everyone came away with something. Promos cards were handed out and I ended up with a Time of the Void. Cool way to start the day. After some general hubbub we got down to business. Here's how my day went tournament wise. Round 1 - Undernet's #l5r's TLP_Ethan (w/ Krazy Kolaty Neenja Lockdown) Once I saw the Kage sensei on the Ninja Stronghold I knew what I was in for. Luckily I had a beautiful first turn. Two Tohaku's, a Merchant Caravan and a Small farm. Leaving one Tohaku in the back row Ethan brought out some gold. My next turn was even better. The same Tohaku, another Merchant Caravan, Seppun Nakao and an Inheritance. Tossing a Focus to the Merchant Caravan I had in play to pay for Tohaku and Inheriting Nakao I bowed to Ethan. He properly Ninja Kidnapped Nakao. My turn, a Shrine. His turn he kidnaps Tohaku and forces me to pay 10 gold more for every personality I get. My turn, the other two shrines. I soon honor out as there was little he could do. 1-0 Round 2 - David Smith (playing Seppun Sensei'd Neo-Phoenix) On his first turn he brings our Seppun Kossori and a Small farm. I squeak out some gold and a Seppun Mashita. Next he brings out Morito Tokei, and Lady Kitsune, using the two gold that Kossori can produce to use Remember What You Have Seen to gain Lady Kitsune's honor. On my turn I fret. He's just doubled his honor in one turn. Ouch. I play an Iaijutsu Art on Lady Kitsune (cause her chi was lower than Tokei's). I win, and gain my four honor. Something I completely forgot about, when Lady Kitsune is dishonored she dies, and thus he lost the five honor he just gained. I then art Kossori, gaining another 4 honor, and causing her to not produce any gold (with her personal honor now zero). Again completely unplanned. Dumb luck perserve us! A few turns and a Shrine or two later and I'm winning the honor race, just about to honor out when he plays a Tribute to Your House, killing one of his provinces, but setting my honor back (temporarily at least) to my starting level. Worried I quickly attack three of his last four provinces (Crysanthemum Festival showed up early). I break all three I go for and that's what one me the game. He had one more Tribute left, but couldn't blow up his last province to stop my honor win, least he lose. Again, fortune favors the dumb! 2-0 As we sat down for Round 3 Tim "Shady" Smart held Boshniggy aloft and did the count down. "3 ... 2 ... 1 ..." and all in the know let out a loud and heartful BOSHINIGGY!!! Needless to say everyone NOT in the know was dumbfounded and confused. It produced the exact effect we wanted. I got to see Mr. Devlin's facial expression when it happened and it was a cross between "What the hell was that?" and "Typical gamers." Round 3 - Ben Sherlock (Lion Tactician using Yoritomo Sensei) Let's just say we both had excellant starts, then his Bandit Attack killed mine. I mounted a meager defense, and with no duels showing up I got Shrine locked and beaten. However it was a good game, fast paced with no mistakes by either player, and Ben was an all around good guy. I like to see decks like Lion win, cause no one thinks they can in the current environment. I believe he made it into the final 16, if not higher. 2-1 Round 4 - Jubal (didn't catch his last name with NASTY NASTY NASTY Scorpion Dishonor deck) Let me just run down what this deck did to me. Bayushi Goshiu Exp. Three Dark Lord's Favor. One Command of the Kami. One Breach of Etiquette. One Unrequited Love. Two Den of Spies. 41 points of dishonor. He used the Bayushi Stronghold to keep himself just one point of honor below me until he could knock me out of the game. His deck came up PERFECT for him, and had I not been on the receiving end of it I would have cheered him on more. Again, another all around cool player. At least I didn't have the chance to make any mistakes this game :) 2-2 Round 5 - Roger "I've been playing corrupt Phoenix since Day 1 so bite me & Chris is gonna spell my last name wrong" Bolleu Nothing fancy in this game. He just played his Enlightenment game and I played my honor game. Jama Suru and Rest My Brother killed quite a few guys on my side so I was never able to mount any kind of attack. Bad news hit when he went to gift for his sword and he couldn't find it. The previous person he played must have had it. He just went on with the game and a few well timed Sun in Shadows helped me stay ahead of him long enough to bust out with 15 honor in one turn to get the game. 3-2 Round 6 - Sergio (I'm gonna screw up his name too so I won't try Naga) Best game of the day for me. Went back and forth has he built up force and I built up honor with a credible defense. At last I was Shrine locked and at 44 honor. He had to attack on his turn. He took his time dividing his forces, and in the end he had got me just right. Solid player and again, really cool all around. At least I was lucky that way. I hate losing to pricks, and I hadn't faced one yet. Still trying to think if I could have done anything different to get him =). 3-3 Round 7 - John "Lil'" Sosa (No event are gonna happen on MY shift Scorpion) Knowing I was mathmatically out of the final 16 I sat down to this game TRYING to get a winning record. His Norikazu deck caused four of my events to fizzle, which gave him a head start that he capitalized on. I pitched a pitiful offense and lost bad. Oh well. This prick I can handle losing to. (hi John!, just kidding) 3-4 Now we just had to wait cause our contingent had quite a few in the final 16. I just sat, drank water, played a few quick pick up games, and waited on the news. After a few more rounds of finals it came down to Martin "Monkey Clan Fanboy" Lund, and Aaron "Everyone picks on me but I made it to the Kotei finals and they didn't" Medwin. Martin pulled out the win, and the Monkey were victorious! The cool bit was when Martin insisted that I share in his victory pose, so I raised his hand in victory as Eric Devlin captured the pose for posterity (and posterity is all the more thankful for it). Congrats to all who played and esp. Aaron and Marty for making it an all MA final! Maybe next year my odds will improve (1-5 last year, 3-4 this year ... maybe a winning record next year????). See everyone at GenCon. I'll be the one mooching off of Marty's room ;) Chris "Rakki Yaro" Burns Monkey Clan Guerrilla * Sensei of Fanboys "Wanna buy a ... MONKEY?!?!" http://home.earthlink.net/~skipalways