[dragon] Worst L5R pt2

Tue Nov 12 11:40:25 EST 2002

On Saturday, a couple of other guys, (Scott Montgomery, Ron Kettler, and Shawn Sanders), and I head up to Plano for a Season of the Crab.  I'm apprehensive and still a little frustrated about my previous nights performance.  Mistake #1.

I still don't have my Hoshi-sama back, but Shawn loans me a Welcome Home after looking at my deck and lecturing me on how Shrine of Stone doesn't directly lead me to my victory condition.  Yes, I've gotten that same lecture in one form or another from Hadsall (at Reg 4 Kotei) and Rob (when I constructed this particular deck). ;-p  I obviously didn't listen, but I can be thick headed at times.  Anyways, I swap out the shrine for the welcome home and go in thinking I should do pretty well.

Rd 1, started off as a bye.  10 Minutes into the round, the TO comes up to me and says two guys showed up late.  He's going to let them in and wanted to know if I had a problem if he included me in a draw to see who got the bye.  I don't like bye's so I said ok.  I lost and ended up having to play shadowlands.

Turn 1 he gets a god draw, corrupt gold, small farm and voitagi.  Two turns on turn 3 he attacks and I defend with a chieko.  I have an I duel but he's running poisoned weapon.  He strikes, I die, 1 province gone.  Everytime he attacks, he has the cards to hose my defense, either pw's or sneaks/deadly's etc.

I never got the guys name but he was a nice enough fellow.  He sees that I'm rather upset and tries to tell me how much he liked my deck.  I'm thinking he didn't really get a chance to see it as the game was over so quickly so how could he like, but then I was angry, frustrated and not thinking clearly.

0-1.

Rd 2:  Crab Kaiu Walls.

I'd never faced a good, or for that matter any, Kaiu Walls deck.  He takes the early honor lead, but I eventually get my sancs and fantastics into play.  I think he has only 4 peeps (all Utagu's) in his deck.  He gets to 37 while I'm still at 32.  I secrets and shame a Utagu, then issue two challenges which he refuses for a combined 21 pt honor loss.  He deeds me 2 turns in a row, but he can't catch up fast enough.

1-1.

Rd 3:  Lion Shiro Matsu (Scott Montgomery)

I hate driving 3 hours only to have to play someone I rode with.  This game was the complete opposite of Friday nights.  Every time he attacks, I kill a personality either with duels, or tdwwm or with a ToD on my turn.  He concedes after I hit 30 honor and he has 1 personality in play.

2-1.  I'm thinking ok, things aren't so bad.

Rd 4:  Shadowlands (Kit Falbo)

I'd never even heard of Kit going into this game.  Apparently he'd taken 3rd at the Seattle Kotei last this year.  Before the tournament I listened to him talk to Scott about a corrupt tattooed blitz deck that he ran off of Shiro Matsu and was thinking this guy's crazy.  I seriously underestimated him.  He gets out a voitagi and followers and I let him take 1 province.  My turn I touch the voitagi.  I hold off his attacks for awhile until he gets out the Maw.  He has a pretty big army out.  I get bitter and instead of attaching it to a Tsuge with either the sword or the standard, I attach it to a shaitung.  My thinking at the time was don't put all my eggs in one basket, and while I have yet to have someone dishonor a guy with bitter, I suddenly got conservative.  I should have put it on Tsuge with the standard.  He attacks one province and I defend with only the shaitung and bitter.  I don't have many defensive cards, but do have one duel, a tdwwm and a tod.  I figured I'd sacrifice shaitung and bitter, but I'd take a few in the process.  I challenge a voitagi with follower and he strikes and plays poisoned weapon.  We tie and he takes the provice.  My turn I touch the Maw.  I'm sitting on two imperial edicts and the favor.  The next two turns, I'm waiting for him to ask me if I have any opens, which he doesn't and proceeds to attack.  He night battles one turn and deadly's in the other.  I lose both provinces.  I know I made a lot of mistakes in this game.  Point remind you opponent you have open actions.  I take it for granted that I personally always ask my opponent if they have opens before I move on.

Between Suspicions, In Time of War, and some event which doesn't allow you to gain honor on peeps for two turns, I still managed to get into the upper 20's lower 30's.  Kit did complement my deck and tell he of all the honor clans, Dragon give him the most problems.

2-2.  I'm thinking the tournament would be over as we thought it was to be 4 rds of swiss only.  Apparently the to takes the top 4 and pairs them up and the bottom 4.  I was in the bottom 4 and got paired against Ron.

Rd. 5:  Phoenix Kyuden Agasha (Ron Kettler).

I'm tired, frustrated, and angry.  Never a good combo.  He goes first and starts with gold.  My turn 1 I reveal a Tsuge, Shaitung, Shaitung and gold.  He starts bringing personalities into play on turn 3.  I see nothing by high HR peeps and gold the first few turns.  On turn 3 I leave a Chosai and fantastic in province thinking, I can get another peep at full the next turn.  Turn 4 he has 3 shugs in play.  I flip a Welcome home and another chosai.  I'm thinking cool.  He TWT's the honor and I'm forced to flush both Chosai's.  Turn 5 I finally get a Cheiko and Reju into play.  His turn six he walks for a secrets and drops it an another he'd been holding.  I'm at 7 honor.  He secrets/shames chieko. then secrets/shames Reju.  At this point he's at almost 20 honor and I can be at either -1 or -7.  I no longer cared about the game or tournamet and conceded.

2-3.

So I went 4-8 for the weekend.  I made some stupid mistakes and allowed myself to play conservatively.  Bad luck or no, I deserved my losses.  I'm planning to drop the shaitung's for a Hoshi Wayan and Hoshi Esai and either the tdwwm or hitsu-do's for a couple of palm strikes.

So, Zembu-sama, I hope this has been enlightening for others.  Now that I've calmed down and put it in email, I've seen some of the mistakes.  Hopefully I won't repeat them.

Laters,
Kitsuki Kyomitsu

>>> barryakunz at hotmail.com 11/11/02 09:40AM >>>
Kyomitsu-san, I request that you provide the list with details concerning 
your play this weekend.  Since I've been unable to play of late, I have no 
idea how the new cards released into the environment are affecting play.  I 
find that a string of bad tournaments can do wonders for ones clarity as to 
what is and isn't currently working.

So, if it's not to painfull and you can remember, please report on how your 
games went from these two tournaments.  The more details the better.  We can 
all learn from a rough stretch.

Barry Kunz
Togashi Zembu
Herald of the New Dawn

>From: "Rick Beidleman" <Rick.Beidleman at cs.oag.state.tx.us>
>Well, I played in two tournaments this weekend and probably had my worst 
>performances in quite some time.  After going 12-1 in tournament play with 
>this deck two weeks ago, I went 4-8 (2-5 on Fri., 2-3 on Sat.) this 
>weekend.  I'm not really sure what happened exactly, as I'm still sorta in 
>a state of shock.
>
>My deck was fairly solid so I guess I just played badly.  Since I'm taking 
>it apart to regroup, here it is.  Make what you will of it.
>
>Stronghold:  Shiro Mirumoto
>Wind:  Toturi Sezaru
>
>Dynasty:  41
>Personalities:  18
>      3 x Tamori Chieko
>      3 x Tamori Chosai
>      2 x Tamori Hiroko
>      2 x Tamori Shaitung
>      3 x Mirumoto Tsuge
>      Tamori Shaitung, xp
>      Doji Reju, xp2
>      Kaelung
>      Togashi Satsu
>      Togashi Hoshi, xp2
>Regions:  2
>      2 x Sorrows Path
>Events:  1
>      Imperial Gift
>Holdings:  20
>      3 x Gold Mine
>      3 x Hiruma Dojo
>      3 x Mystic Dojo
>      3 x Trading Grounds
>      2 x Jade Works
>      3 x Sanctified Temples
>      2 x Fantastic Gardens
>      Shrine of Stone
>
>Fate:  40
>Kihos:  5
>      3 x The Wind's Truth
>      2 x Hitsu-do
>Spells:  10
>      2 x Walking the Way
>      2 x Torrential Rain
>      2 x Secrets on the Wind
>      3 x Touch of Death
>      Hanabi
>Items:  3
>      Celestial Sword of the Dragon
>      Imperial Standard
>      Bitter
>Actions:
>      3 x Iaijutsu Challenge
>      3 x Iaijutsu Duel
>      3 x Iaijutsu Lesson
>      2 x Shame
>      2 x Block Supply Lines
>      2 x To Do What We Must
>      2 x Scroll Cache
>      2 x Superior Tactics
>      2 x Imperial Edicts
>      1 x Test of Might
>
>Kitsuki Kyomitsu
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Dragon mailing list
>Dragon at michonline.com 
>http://michonline.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dragon 

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