My NY Kotei Experience Well, to start things out, forgive me for messing names up/not remembering them. I'm really bad at them to begin with, didn't run anything down, it's been two days, plus, I've been studying for finals. BTW, if you talk to my manager at work, on Saturday I was "studying for finals". Now that we've got that out of the way, time for the report. Woke up early Saturday morning, still unsure of my deck. I knew I would be playing Crane, but not sure what type. I had had a deck made as of Friday evening, but I definitely still needed to modify it. Unfortunately, I was feeling very ill Friday night, and went to bed early, unable to fix it. Ah well, it's a 1 1/2 hour car ride, right? Anyway, drive an hour to my friend, Jon Palmer, the player formerly known as Kakita Musashi, now known as Hitaka, another Crane player. Of course, much like I thought, Crane isn't a top tier contender anymore, and without some tricks, will need luck to pull games off, so he's stuck between playing Phoenix (BOO!!!!) or Kolat Ninja (Anyone that knows me, knows that I love the Kolat). To further spread our web of espionage I try to talk Jon into playing Ninja (well, not really, he just chose, but I tried to persuade him, because I needed the 3 Iaijutsu arts in his phoenix deck for my crane deck!) Eventually, Jon, who's written a report elsewhere, decides to play suck face with his oppenent, playing Ninja. Since I'm playing Crane, of course, I'll be playing suck d- Oh right, G-rated list. Never mind. Anyway, onto the car ride. We drive up, talking about different things relating to the game, when I whip out my deck, preparing to cut it down from it's massive 50+/50+ format it's already in. Now, anyone that knows my deck building strategy knows I build my decks big, because there's just so much I want to do, and for the most part, my decks do well. This deck rounds out at about 48/45. Without about 4 meta game cards in the dynasty (War Weary, Doom of the Alliance, The World Stood Still, and the obligatory Iris Festival). For the record, this is my deck *AFTER* I decided to go away from the spell slinging dishonor style, which would have added Shizues, Suspicions, Uojin, Den of Spies, and a Tomo or two. That's so extended jade. Deck was slightly modified exploding Crane, only running 1 shrine, because any more and I risk getting beat if I come up against a Deeds, Not Words player. Lotsa political tricks, including Shosuro Taberu exp, my favorite non Crane, human personality in the deck. (Ki-Rin winning coolest nonhuman, of course). We finally make it to New York, and after searching for Neutral Ground, getting a psychiatric evaluation to prove to ourselves that we *weren't* crazy because the directions did indeed say 7th and 8th Ave, instead of 6th and 7th Ave, we make it to Neutral Ground. I run back to our parking spot, the one on 8th avenue instead of the one right next to the store, to get Palmer's binder, cause I needed that The World Stood Still! Finish cutting my deck down, and play against those dastardly Ninja for a few practice games. Anyway, after getting my ass handed to me, thanks to a third turn bandit attack blowing up my Merchant Caravan, Hiruma Dojo, and , oh yeah, Charter, he wins. Second game is more of the same, although I do Iaijutsu art/kharmic bayushi areru with reju 2x in one turn. And now, if you haven't clicked the little X on the top right hand corner of this window, the actual tourney report. Round 1 - Jason Kotan - and, FYI, the only reason I remembered that was because Palmer just told me. That's what friends are for. Hey! It's a phoenix player that isn't playing Eternal Halls of the Shiba (he was running Sacred Temples of the Phoenix) ! He must be stupid or something! WRONG. We flip our senseis, my harmless Hantei, his EVIL, EVIL Norikazu sensei. He goes first, we do about two turns, then realize we weren't supposed to start yet. So we chat for a little bit. Anyway, after the round officially starts, we continue. Turns out his Norikazu sensei was the least of my troubles. He's running Sagoten, so I'm like "Whee! Can't wait till Taberu exp comes out!" Of course, he's also running Hantei the 38th. BTW, I think in the book Way of the Crane and various flavor texts, there was a bad editing job, it should read "The Emperor's Left Hand is the Crane " Because that's exactly what happened. Forgetting that the H-bomb doesn't even need to bow to cancel political actions, he makes my guys that want to do political stuff bow down. Oh yeah, all those blood speakers in his posse, they whomped on us, too. All in all, the anti-my deck deck. 0-1 Next round, Maurice, Scorpion dishonor. Eh. Never really played against a straight dishonor before, so should be interesting. He gets nothing but gold the first coupla turns, and an In Time of War, which slows me down. I bring out personalities, and whatnot. He pkills some with stuff like the wasting disease, he hits me with a shame, once or twice. He brings out dark oracle of earth, and I smell Goshiu beatings. Soon enough, Goshiu exp shows up, and starts canceling the favor, or redirecting honor losses and what not. Fortunately, my Iris comes up, and wacks the Dark Oracle, and I bow enough chi to destroy den of spies. he takes a province or two in battle with some force after bowing out my guys with asamis. My turn, Imperial Levying pops up. All those 2 force sembis, uji, aramoros, ninja shapeshifters, etc, die. We only gain 5 honor. I kolat dupe Bayushi Goshiu, to send him back for a turn or two. Without much threat of dishonor, I gain the honor I need, and eventually eek above 40. Good game, probably would have gone differently, had he not gotten just gold early on. Next round, Stephen Muray, Norikazu sensei Yogo Oi, another Norikazu deck, as well as military. Fortunately, he gets a bad draw, and brings out just his charter first turn, with the other things being personalities. My turn, I'm like "Yay ! " Followed by his "Norikazu". Sorry about that Steve, I'm a lil' thick headed. Thanks partly to his poor start, I gradually gain honor, and hold him back, get above forty, and pop the twelfth black scroll, even with a bowed uji, saving my province. 2-1 Next round, Scotty 2 Hotty (Apoligies, do not remember your name, but had the hair of the WWF wrestler), Toturi's Army, running Kaede sensei. I get lucky, with a war weary first turn, and a decent gold/personality draw. He sneak deadlies at one of my provinces, but will not let that fool me twice, hantei-ing it my next turn (the sneak). With me able to do at least one action every battle (something I expect at every battle, and base my decks off that), and his lack of followers, I generally take control of the matchup. I''m at 38 honor, he attacks a shrine, i defend with reju, and i let him kill it, letting the poet put me to 40 honor. 3-1 Next round, Ryan Jensen, Crane, running Hantei sensei. Nice kid, few years younger than myself, I'd say about 15 (forgive me if I'm underaging you!!) Similar decks, he goes first, he hanteis the sword, I do likewise. I don't get that good of a gold draw, and am running short on personalities. He's got plenty of gold, personalities, and 2x shrines out. I figure if I draw a deeds not words or two, I might be able to get back up there (since he'd be losing at least 4 a turn), but a refused iai challenge, followed by a shame, plus imperial levying nailing his kuwanan exp2 (Where'd he come from!) ends that. 3-2 Next round, ??? (sorry!), Shadowlands Horde He's running Yoshi sensei, so that hurts, since a lot of my honor comes from personal honor. I don't get the greatest start, plus he uses 2x avoids in the first 2 turns to get events, that weren't even Iris Festivals (War weary, and Occult Murders), but it saves his Tsume, and followers, and it pays off, he takes my last province 3 turns before Iris would pop. 3-3 My final round, ??? (sorry!) Water Monk, running Kaede sensei. He expects me to hantei finding the harmony, first turn, I notify him of my "Wait and see" attitude towards hantei sensei. We build up, I dishonor some monks with iaijutsu challenges (not arts!), various pkill events come up, i kolat dupe maseru, and eventually, after he gets a seconr ring out, i name iaijutsu art to hantei sensei. He tells me he only has one finding the harmony in the deck for circumstances like that, and he walks the way to get it, oddly, he plays Ring of Earth with it. Later he walks the way for another card, looking for something that will help him get fire out. I try to help him out, since i respect players that don't run 3x finding the harmony, suggesting test of might, but apparently, he did not have it in his deck, so he goes militaristic on me. BTW, earlier in the game, Kisada's funeral came out, when I was at 35 honor, now I'm at 70, favor shuffling trying to get rings, I finally draw ring of the void, he attacks, with minimal force at provinces, I flattery at 1, discarding everything but the ring. That's game. Very good game, probably the best I played all day. 4-3 Overall, I'm happy, would have liked to have done better, but 4-3 is still respectable, and still puts me on the "winning record side". My ride, Jon Palmer, did a little better, losing in the round of 16 to a fox deck. Them things are icky. -Ryan AKA Daidoji Amarasu, Crane Clan Kolat, Information Gatherer.