I am sitting on a plane,
flying to New Zealand as I write these words. It’s been some weeks since the
Adelaide Kotei, where I unexpectedly won. Since then, I have been trying to fine
tune my deck. After numerous of weekly game nights at Alternate Worlds. Team Vic
had likewise did the same. Oddly enough, most of their deck tuning was to combat
and counter me! To their credit, all 3 Team Vic members that accompanied me to
Adelaide did so successfully. Neil’s Unicorn deck now has a 50/50 win rate and
Dan C’s Crab deck was about 75/25 in his favour. Jon Meertens, who had played
Spider, switched to an upgraded Lion deck, which I have failed to defeat to
date. The card draw for Lion is insane. Even with a god draw for me, Satsu,
Scout Armour, favour cycling, Counting House (which requires losing a province)
and peddling traveller, Jon consistently draws 25-40% more cards than I, and he
doesn’t even play Lightwater Bay. This huge card draw, in battle, has always
provided him with whatever he needs. My best result against him has been 40+
honour, as I lose my last province. In any other circumstances, the local scene
would be irrelevant, as originally I was the only Team Vic player going over
seas to new Zealand, however, Jon (coming second to me in Adelaide), decided to
go to after he realized the Brisbane Kotei clashed with his prearranged travel
plans. So, I am back to being the underdog.
We know very little of
the New Zealand standard
. As in any L5R event I attend, my main objective is to be top of clan. My
record thus far has been very successful, with only one strike in recent years,
in all the events I have attended. Weeks of test trials have failed to really
improve my deck. My only options are to alter some cards versus expected decks.
My options are numerous. In between, I have been tinkering with a Ronin deck,
which would make a great theme deck story. In play testing, despite being a
little inconsistent, it did reasonablely well. The weekend before NZ, I was
working a gaming convention for the store. Between working and demoing L5R, I
realized that my Ronin theme deck concept could be applied to my Dragon deck and
should try for the theme deck competition. Theme decks are notoriously poor
tournament decks. I still hadn’t decided on a final deck list, so instead I
listed every possible card that was in the deck or an option of being in the
deck and then spent my “low key” time at the convention, writing a story.
The first draft was complete on day one of the convention. I have a theme deck
based on my LSC tournament deck, which not only incorporated every card possible
in the deck, but also some real world references that related to my deck and my
Adelaide(*) performance. At the convention, there were a number of dealers, one
of which inspired an idea for my theme deck format. On the last day of the con,
I finalized the story and theme format. A day prior to leaving for NZ, I have a
finished story, printed as a 4 pages A5 full colour booklet. My two youngest
children are my test audience and love it. Still, I expect they are biased.
Andrew South, a local, has
offered to put me up for the weekend. My exchanges to date promise a warm and
friendly welcome. The most unusual aspect of my host is that he bears exactly
the same name as a friend I have known for over 30 years. I am really looking
forward to meeting the local community. I have brought some half-dozen decks.
Terry, a local NZ player, is
staying with Andrew for a few days during the weekend. He is our wheels. Jon is
also staying, but arrived a day later. The morning before the Kotei, Jon (TV)
decides not to bring his Spider deck and thus prevent being tempted from
changing decks at the last minute ….. Again, even though Kali-Ma will not
longer be valid for his goblin Spider deck.
When we arrive, the field
ends up being 22. This means they will now have a top 4 instead of top 2 (which
is applicable up to 20 players).
Clan Breakdowns as follows:
2
Crab
2
Crane
4
Dragon
5
Lion
1
Mantis
3
Phoenix
1
Scorpion
3
Spider
1
Unicorn
I submit my theme deck
booklet and the “card” presentation display. The
presentation was well received by the players and attracted a great deal of
attention and interest, unfortunately,
athough my display is well met, I am told that presentation doesn’t score any
points for the theme deck event. I won’t go into detail now, as I intend to
submit it for the Brisbane Kotei next weekend and want to keep it a surprise.
Round 1 – Assigned to
Table 1 – John Cleland (Auckland) Shiro Daidoji – Crane
He buys gold and after
a double mulligan, I get double gold. Not a good start for me. T2 he gets 2
peps, while I get one and more gold. He launched his first attack on turn four.
I hold him offer and hit 23 honour. He attacks again next turn, with a similar
result, giving me 31 honour after his attack. I hit 41 honour on my turn 6, with
4 provinces, he concedes. Win.
1 W – 0 L
Round
2 – Assigned to Table 5 – Blair Reid (Hamilton) Pillars of Virtue – Dragon
Shame
to play another Dragon so early, but there are a lot of us here! We dice off and
I go second. We both mulligan on
the first turn. He gets double gold as do I, again not seeing any box able peps.
My luck seems to have left me. Turn two he buys pep and gold, I get 2 peps,
including Oki. He attacks on turn 3 which I neuter. By turn 4 I am on 26 honour.
Turn five he launches a big attack. I send a pep home he Chasing Osano-Wu. I
send that unit home and he does it again getting +15 force. I send that one home
too and save the province, hitting 30 honour. Turn six, I lose my first
province, and hit 38 honour. I hit 44 honour with 3 provinces on my turn. He
attacks 3 provinces; I defend at one and save it, hitting 46. Win.
2 W – 0 L
Round 3 – Assigned
to Table 1 – KC Wong (Auckland) Kyuden Hida
KC is
a previous NZ Kotei winner. I am forced to mulligan again, but still only get
gold. Turn 2 we both get two peps, but his are BIG! More gold and Taiko on turn
three. He attacks, I repel. Turn four I get two more peps and hit 20 honour. He
has four peps and Taoist Archers. He attack two provinces and sends me home from
both with sneaks. I lose two provinces. Turn five he attacks two provinces
again, but I have enough peps to retain presence. Big battle ensures, but
apparently he drew 3 Obfuscations and Height of Courage’s, I can’t answer
all of them. I defend and save one, hitting 38 honour and losing peps Turn six I
flip and holding and use my second mulligan to get Holy Site. I don’t have
enough to survive such a huge army. Any pep or, Holy Site one card earlier and
it would have been my game. Luck
seems to be missing me by a whisker. Loss
2
W - 1 L
Round
4 – Assigned to table 5 – Chris Briggeman (Auckland) Central Castle – Lion
On my
first turn I finally get a pep and gold. Turn two I forewarning, The New Order.
He uses his second mulligan. I get another pep and gold. It finally looks like
luck has decided to visit me. Turn 3, he “Burns the Village” and I loose
both my peps. This not only results in lost potential honour gain, but also a
province. Turn four I get Satsu and another pep. Turn five he attacks again and
sneaks for a Will. His is too big and I lose another province. Down to two. Turn
six, he plays civility, but I hold off the attack. Turn seven I get to 32 honour
with 2 provinces, 4 peeps (no boxables). He has 11 peeps. He launches a two
prong attack, I save one. I have 2 peeps to his 15 plus, with the Lion Guidance.
He is too overwhelming. Loss
2 W – 2 L
Round
5 – Assigned to Table 5 – Andrew South (my host) (Auckland) Pillars of
Virtue – Dragon
I win
the dice off and go first. I get a good start and my deck starts running like it
is supposed too. By turn six I have 30 honour with four provinces. By my turn
seven’s end, I have 34 honour. At his turns end, I have 39, still with 4
provinces. He concedes. Win.
3 W – 2 L
Round 6 – Chris Forgher
(Hamilton) Utaku Plains – Unicorn
I
mulligan on turn one and get a peep and gold. He double mulligan's and gets 4
holdings. For the first time today, my deck clicks. Turn 2 I get 2 peeps and hit
11 honour. Turn three I hit 21 honour. I stave off attacks. Turn four I hit 27,
although I concede a province. I cross on turn five with 42. He doesn’t have
enough peeps to take three provinces and concedes. Win.
4 W – 2 L
I
finish 6th overall, being middle placed of the three 4 – 2 players.
The top four were all on 5 - 1.
The
top four were
Crab,
Lion, Lion (Jon Meertens of Team Vic) and Scorpion. Final placing’s were:
1st
Crab – KC Wong
2nd
Lion – Jon Meertens
3rd
Lion and 4th Scorpion
Jon
and I split the furthest travelled prize. I get top of Dragon clan. There were 4
entries in the theme deck event, but unfortunately I only came in fourth. Lion
got 1st and 2nd. (I
am hoping presentation counts in Brisbane and I can do better there). After
Brisbane Kotei, I will post the theme deck story.
The event was great
fun; the players were friendly and social. I would love to go back again next
year.