[dragon] Re: Honorable Dragons wins in Montclair CA (long)

[JoshnMolly at aol.com]

Here's a report on the tourney in Montclair CA which was won by an honorable
Dragon deck played by Afsan Coleman.  Unfortunately the deck was Hitomi-less
and the only tattooed man he used was Reju.  The deck was a Mountain Keep deck
with Shrines and Duels up the wazoo.  It used very few cards that were
released after Time of the Void.  We actually can be thankful that the result
wasn't worse because I talked to the guy after the tourney and he told be he
usually plays Shadowlands Horde but just decided for some reason to play
Honorable Defensive Dueling Dragon in Morikage because his corrupt decks
weren't Jade legal.  I guess we can be thankful for small favors.

My deck, which I will send to Buj for posting on the website, was, briefly, an
attacking and dueling deck that relied on the "Song of Blood/Counterattack" to
crush people in storyline fashion.  It did use poison weapons and Ninja Thief
but no Shadowlands and no Kolat (No bloodswords either).  When someone
questions me as to why I'm using poison weapons--I just say "Hey, I said
Hitomi wasn't evil or corrupt--I never said she was Mary Poppins."  But lets
just say poison weapons are the only defense against the Doji Reju/Iaijutsu
Art/Kharmic Strike/Ring of Fire combo.

There were 26 players in the tourney-- 5 Dragons (one not technically corrupt,
but corrupt as far as I was concerned, with lots of Kolat stuff), 5 Unicorn, 5
Crane (1 Daidoji SH),  3 Lion, 3 Naga, 2 Scorpion (One a Junzo-in-a-can type),
1 Monks (House of Tao), 1 Toturi and 1 Yoritomo.

Game 1: Unicorn

This has to be the most embarrassing game I have ever played in my L5R career.
I played a kid who was probably about 11 years old and who didn't know the
rules too well.  He was playing Unicorn, of course.  His deck was fairly well
tuned though by his older brother.  I got absolutely no gold in my first two
turns and very quickly lost two provinces.  The Streets of Otosan Uchi showed
up and I thought I had a chance to win when he sent in his entire force to
take it out.  But he had enough cards to discard to avoid the duels and I only
had one Kaagi to force a duel.  I managed to save the province but I lost my
entire force.  On top of that I was so busy trying to help this kid with the
rules about what he could and couldn't do that I made an illegal move myself
and gave Kaagi two weapons (I must have thought one was Togashi's Daisho, but
that was on Akuai.)  Obviously he didn't catch it but I would have felt pretty
crummy if I'd won after that.

0-1

Game two: Lion

This game was as dull the other way as my opponent got gold-screwed the same
way I did in the first game. On top of that he didn't even get a personality
he could bring out the first turn.  I took out two provinces before he got any
force out and then he attacked.  The Song of Blood plus Counterattack ended
that game right there.

1-1

Game Three: Crane

Ultimate Monkey Shrine deck.  Kisada's Funeral came out and Doom of the
Brotherhood got rid of his Ring of the Earth.  We then both got Ring of the
Void into play.  He tried to Iaijutsu Art Hitomi with Doji Reju and I Poison
Weaponed him to keep him from winning with his Kharmic Strike and putting him
over 40 before I could get disenlightenment out.  So he did it a second time
and went over 40 and Disenlightenment was still under my stronghold.

1-2

Game Four: Naga

This one was wild.  He took out one of my provinces early (with Hitomi sitting
face up in it) and then stayed back and built up his force.  I managed to take
out two of his forces and then we sat and stared at each other and built up
our forces.  Finally he got Qamar out.  I Egg of Pan Ku'ed Qamar and used the
Ninja Thief to say "Hey, I believe that's my Ancient Spear of the Naga."  At
this point I sat back and started to bow my Sanctified Temples, stopping only
long enough to Geisha Assassin a Naga Shugenja.  At this point he realized
that he couldn't take out three provinces before I got to 40 and resigned.

2-2

Game 5: Crane

This was an old Stronghold but the deck was really more Iron Crane that relied
on duels and Ranged Attacks.  My deck was not about to be outdueled and when I
Fleed the Darkness on his big Ranged Attackes and used Kazaq to wipe out his
followers, it was all over.

3-2

One player at 3-2 did get selected to go on to the finals round but the
decision was made on a randon draw and I was not selected.  I probably
wouldn't have been selected on a "Strength of Schedule" tiebreaker anyway.  My
wife and her PCP deck did go on to the finals with a 4-1 record and finished
third.  This is the first time that she scored higher in a tourney than I did
and it was probably good for our marriage, frankly.  (She would also like to
tell Puck that Unicorns make good wives.)

Hitomi Josh Timmers
Dragon Clan Historian in Ryoko Owari 
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