RST Decklist and Strategy

[Lucas Twyman]

Alright. I've gotten 3 requests to post my RST deck, and since I'm a 
glory-hound, I figure I'll just post it to the list. Here it is:

IRON MOUNTAIN

DYNASTY: 41

PERSONALITIES (21)
3x Mirumoto Daini
3x Mirumoto Uso
3x Mirumoto Yuyake
3x Agasha Gennai
3x Togashi Shinseken
2x Togashi Yoshi
2x Asako Sagoten
1x Shoshuro Taberu
1x Togashi Hoshi Exp2

GOLD (17)
3x Gold Mine
3x Small Farms
3x Jade Works
3x Sanctified Temple
2x Empty Crevasse
1x Charter of the Dragon Clan
1x Golden Sun Plain
1x Inheritance

EVENTS (3/4)
Kolat Duplicate
Imperial Gift
Plague of Locusts

FATE: 40

SENSEI: Hantei

RINGS (2):
Ring of Earth
Ring of Void

ITEMS (2):
1x Blade of Secrets
1x Judgment

KIHOS (5):
3x The Wind's Truth
2x Banish All Shadows

SPELLS (5)
3x Force of Will
2x Secrets on the Wind

DUELS/PK (13)
3x Test of Honor
3x Iaijutsu Duel
3x Iaijutsu Challenge
2x Ambush
2x Come One at a Time

ANTI-HONOR (4)
2x Deeds, Not Words
2x Tribute to Your House
(Note that you can count TWT as anti-honor, bringing total to 7)

OTHER ACTIONS (8):
3x Block Supply Lines
3x Imperial Edicts
2x Superior Tactics

NOTES:
Honestly, despite doing well with this deck, I don't think it's tuned to 
perfection yet.

I severely overestimated the prevalence of honor in SJ; given a second 
chance, I would probably drop a lot of the anti-honor tech unless I knew I 
was going to hit honor-Cranes or Taka's Tricks. Starting next month, Spirit 
hits the tournament scene, and they have a nasty honor game, so I'm going 
to watch deck trends closely.

The Dynasty deck is about as solid as I can make it, although the gold 
scheme could use a bit more fooling (some more/better holdings, perhaps). 
The Plague of Locusts was a last minute addition; its performance was 
really iffy, because most of the opponents I played either didn't have a 
lot of free gold or were playing heavy event denial.
I suppose you could play event denial yourself, but I much prefer the 
versatility of the big 3  Inheritance, Imperial Gift, and Dupe. You will 
usually want to use the Gift to grab Judgment first.
Each personality has a specific role  Shinseken is the cheap Shuggie/spud 
for casting Secrets, TWT, and other spells/kihos, as well as favor-boy 
later in the game.
Uso is there for his 3F and 3PH; he's able to defend well in the late-game 
and can boost my honor total considerably.
Daini is there because he's awesome. He's my key dueler, and my all-around 
spud.
Yuyake is a great quick defender, and his ability just plain rules. He's 
almost 4F for 4G when defending, and he has 2PH to boot.
Gennai is my fate cycler, and he is KEY. Don't be afraid to drop cards that 
don't seem immediately useful  like duels against high-chi/tactician decks 
and anti-honor stuff against Horde and blitz decks. He also helps a lot 
with the RoV. Finally, he can be used as a spare Secrets caster if you're 
out of Shinsekens.
Yoshi is there for duels, of course, and the odd spell/kiho.
Sagoten is awesome against honor, and can be helpful against dishonor (just 
don't depend on him).
I could probably have dropped Taberu. In a honor-heavy environment, like 
Gencon was, he's as good or better than Sagoten, but SJ just isn't that 
honor-ridden.
Hoshi is my beating stick. I always like to have a big'un in my decks, and 
7C double chi is as good a dueler as they come. He's also capable of 
busting provinces by himself on the offense.

DON'T BE SCARED TO AGGRESSIVELY DISCARD YOUR 6G GUYS. I usually like to 
keep Daini and my 4G guys in my provinces, but NEVER end your turn with 
more than 2 dynasty cards flipped up. Early Sanctifieds are other potential 
discards.

Tamori Chosai, while not technically first turn, still has great potential 
in this deck; another 4C guy would be great, and he's beautiful with 
Secrets. I wouldn't add more than two, though; maybe drop Taberu and a 
Gennai for them.

As for the Gold scheme, I'll just pre-emptively touch on a few questions 
you may have:
Why Sanctifieds instead of KKTs?
Usually, I find that a sanctified is sitting idle only a turn or two a 
game; that's only one or two honor I could have gained instead from a KKT, 
and the additional honor I gain from the Sanctifieds during the late game 
more than makes up for any early discrepancies.

Why Empty Crevasses?
Simply because they give me the most bang for my buck. Every holding but 
the small farms provide enough to bring them out, and they have a great 
gold ratio, comparable to the Gold Mines. They also can bring out any 
holding but the Sanctifieds on their own, and combo nicely with GMs and JWs 
for my 6G guys. Large Farms just don't cut it.

Why no Hiruma Dojos?
Hiruma Dojos can't bring themselves out, and I only get the 4G production 
on 9 of my guys. Plus, they suck against Nio.


FATE
Fate still needs a lot of work. There were a lot of cards I didn't use, or 
didn't get huge benefits out of, and, most importantly, my focus values are 
too low. While I didn't have too many problems dueling, the many 2Fo cards 
ensured that Yoshi made bad flips.

Ambush was nearly useless, but that's probably because I didn't play too 
many blitz decks. The thing is, the SJ environment isn't too friendly to 
blitz decks; they lose Test of Courage, Destiny Has No Secrets, Wedge, and 
lots of great events. While the 5 honor loss can be nice combo'ed with TWT, 
there's probably better stuff I can include.

If you plan on facing lots of honor, add another Deeds. If, like me, you 
don't think you'll hit much honor, I would say to drop the Tributes, 
Ambushes, and Banishes, and add some Fall to Your Knees, a Bitter (maybe 
also replace Blade of Secrets with the cheaper, but slightly more risky, 
Honorable), In Search of the Futures, Touch of Death, Torrential Rains, 
and/or Heart of the Infernos. I'd probably go 2x Fall to Your Knees, 1x 
Bitter, 2x In Search (or Heart, it depends on what deck I fear), and 
another SupTacs.

There's a lot of room for flexibility here  the best options probably being 
more send-home (
'Fugees come to mind) or denial (One Life, One Action). 
Kolats are usually far too expensive in both gold and honor, but if you are 
so inclined you could theoretically swap the Crevasses for House of 
Contracts and have a ball. I don't like the Kolat.

You could also drop duels altogether, and replace them with send-home 
actions; this would weaken your PK base but it might work. The dynasty deck 
tends to be pretty solid, no matter what fate deck you play.


This deck takes a lot of feeling-out and getting used to. It's certainly 
not an easy deck to play, but when it works, it really works. I like it 
because I always have the tiniest bit of chance against almost any 
archetype, and it has a tendency to win close matches. Its biggest 
weaknesses are its lack of free gold and the fact that it lacks any really 
big "I win" cards, especially against fast attack  but Jade-Ex and Open 
solve this problem with the Ancestral Sword and Twelth Black Scroll.

I FEAR the Naga, because they have fast force without the horde's 0PH, and 
Purusha, the bane of this deck. Fall to Your Knees will help a lot.

I usually call only one of three things with Hantei: Sneak against 
dedicated attack, Breach against dishonor, and Iaijutsu Challenge against 
dedicated dueling. Against Scorpion or Ninja, Shoshuro Technique is a 
REALLY good idea to call.

Oh, and never underestimate the dishonor-kill combo. Daini with Judgement 
must have killed 7 or 8 personalities over the course of the tournament 
(usually a minimum of 2 when I got the combo out), and Force of Will/Test 
of Honor are beautiful cards. It's also great at holding your opponent's 
honor down so you can get the favor  target his highest-PH guys and you 
often can get the favor every turn.

Have fun and good luck.

Lucas Twyman

Kitsuki Iyoku
Dragon Clan Villain - Magistrate - Samurai
Supporter of the Scorpion

"From Bayushi we learned of the lies hidden in truth;
  From Togashi we learned of the truth hidden in lies."