[dragon] So,just how do you win those darned duels?

[Rob Bowman]

Greetings,

Once again we are dealing with the fate side :)...

Here is my two koku, duel support cards are by themselves "dead" cards. =20
think about games you lose, doesn't it always seem that when you are losi=
ng=20
the other player is performing actions non-stop?  Now think about an open=
ing=20
hand of 3x PW, and 2x BLaR... :(.  You have no options.

I agree some duel support can be very handy, but too much and you will be=
=20
winning duels, but losing the game.  You point to Scott Hadsall as an=20
example of no duel support.  I have looked at those decks closely and I=20
wonder whether they really understand the nature of tattoos or whether th=
ey=20
really find no value in them... ?

Me persoanlly I stick with 2x SCT and 2x Drag Tat.  This duel support is=20
reusable, and especially the Dragon Tat has other uses on defense.  Sorry=
 I=20
am rushed and as always ymmv :)!!

Take care,
Rob- Mirumoto Shokan

>From: "Eljas Oksanen" <kkogen at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: dragon at michonline.com
>To: <dragon at michonline.com>
>Subject: [dragon] So,just how do you win those darned duels?
>Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2002 13:20:15 +0300
>
>Greetings!
>
>I've just browsed the Dragonstrategy.net list of some Dragon decks that=20
>have
>placed in Top 4 in the Koteis (thanks for putting them up, Hokosaki-sama=
!),
>and noticed that all of them run roughly half-a-dozen to a dozen duel or
>duelling related cards in the Fate deck.
>
>So... I take this to mean that Dragon duelling is "in"?
>
>OK, you may stop groaning now, honoured Clan members. :-) I know that th=
is
>is very a elementary topic, and discussed to death several times over by
>now, but since duelling is such a vital part of the strategies that we
>embrace, I'd like to ask the list members just what you consider to be
>"good" duelling cards, and especially what are good duel _support_ cards=
 in
>the current pre-GenCon environment. 'Cause, I take it, every duel deck d=
oes
>need a few of those? You just can't rely of on a one or two point Chi
>advantage and having a hand full of FV4 cards... not at least if you wan=
t
>consistency with your wins, right? Or wrong?
>
>I was quite intrigued to notice that there was, relatively speaking, som=
e
>quite large differences in the number and type of duelling support cards
>that the decks on Dragonstrategy.net used. And I was especially intrigue=
d=20
>to
>realise that Scott Hadsall's high-placing deck did not run _any_ duel
>support - this despite having 3 x For the Empires and 3 x Duels (or
>Challenges, in a variant). I counted 26 FV4 cards plus the massively
>Chi-boosting Celestial Sword and Porcelain Mask, but still... especially=
=20
>the
>latter are just two cards that you can't always rely on having on the=20
>table.
>Thus, Mr Hadsall, is the necessity of having actual duel support just on=
e
>big myth? :-)
>
>For a Dragon Honour deck (since that seems to be our dominant deck-type =
at
>the moment), what would be an ideal mix of duel cards on the Fate side?=20
>What
>should the ratio of duel support cards to actual duel cards themselves
>(taking into account Chi-boosters like the Celestial Sword, Porcelain Ma=
sk
>of Fu Leng, and the Dragon Tattoo who, while not specifically duel suppo=
rt,
>nevertheless do win duels for you)? Any "rule of thumbs"? Exactly how vi=
tal
>is duelling as means of PK and/or Honour gaining in a Dragon deck?
>
>One does realise that one should not miss the forest for the trees, thou=
gh:
>I suppose that there is no single optimal set of duelling cards, and tha=
t
>different duelling cards operate with varying amounts of success dependi=
ng
>on what _other_ cards there are in the deck (i.e. overall deck synergy, =
and
>whether or not you prefer to use "smash" or "trick" duelling). Apart fro=
m
>the "FV4 is good", what kind of synergy/combos do people suggest? For
>instance, has anyone experimented with running only one or two copies of=
 a
>given duel, to be pulled off when most needed via card search (WTW, AotG=
M)?
>
>Just to kick off, in the Honour-switch deck I played at the UK Kotei I
>myself used 3 x Iai Duel, 3 x Iai Challenge, 2 x For the Empire, 1 x Arm=
our
>of Shadows and 3 x Poisoned Weapons, plus of course the Big Heavenly Sti=
ck.
>The Iai Duels and Challenges operated as usual, but the 2 x FtE and the =
1 x
>AoS were a mistake - if one hopes to pull the combo off with any kind of
>regularity I presume that one really has to run a third FtE plus the
>Porcelain Mask. On the other hand, the Poisoned Weapons were extremely
>useful, and not the least because it allowed me to safely challenge
>Personalities that had higher Chi than my own peeps. But then again, I w=
as
>running Big Daddy Hantei Naseru who hushed up the Honour loss, and I'm n=
ot
>sure I'd run PWs with any other Wind.
>
>OK, I've bored you guys enough. I'll go away now. :-)
>
>=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>Hitomi Ginrei
>Dragon Clan Novice * Team Jade Cat * Still Learning
>
>
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Take care,
Rob- Mirumoto Shokan


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