This year I had decks prepared for all events, although I was not as thoroughly familiar with them as I would have liked to be. (Wouldn't if be great to have a warm up Gencon weekend where we can all test our decks and then the following week have the real thing?)

The first event on Day 1 was the Legacy storyline. My deck was a version of the Kami/ring deck. I think the legacy had 18 players.

1. Murry Whiteford (NSW) Dragon House of Tao/ring sensei

Murry was the only non-Victorian interstater. An old friend from way back. He was an honour runner. Turn one I get 2 peeps to his gold. By turn 3 I bring our Togashi, Hantei and Shinsei with the Ring of Water in play. Murray Hired Killer Hantei, whom I save with gold. Turn 4 I steal his only non-bowed peep, Egg Hantei, Dance of the Flames x 2 on Shinsei and ... he concedes at this point. Win. W 1 - L 0

2. Duncan Wong (Qld) Castle of the Wasp/Ring Sensei 

Turn 1 we both get gold. Turn 2 get 2 peeps with Hantei in province. He attacks the Hantei province but fails. Turn 3 get Togashi and Emina. He Hired Killer's Togashi, whom I save with gold. Turn 4 I take 2 provinces with Togashi @ 23 force. He gets nothing turn 4 and concedes. Win. W 2 - L 0

3. Michael Hill (Qld) Kyuden Kistume/Fox Sensei

Mick goes first. He gets Hantei and Shinsei out, I lose a province. I then get Togashi and egg his Hantei and then contemplate/Destiny Hantei to strip his stealing ability. I attack and take two provinces. Mick's deck is a swarm bring out 3-4 peeps per turn. He swarms and forces me to send home all my peeps. Loss. W 2 - L 1

4. Chaedt Ritherdon (Qld) Shizuka Toshi (Crane)

My notes are a little messy. He goes first. By turn 2 I have Togashi and Hantei and Egg Hantei, stealing 2 peeps. I then go on to kill 2 provinces. On turn 3 he gets I pep and gold. I steal his two remaining peeps and finish him off. Win. W 3 - L 1

5. Charles "Chucky" Thrope (Qld) Halls of the Damned (SH)

Turn 1 is all gold. Turn 2 have Hantei and Togashi. He eggs Hantei and steals peep. Turn 3 I egg Hantei and take a province with all the big guns (not splitting forces). Turn 4 He only has Hantei and can't bring out anyone with losing them He porcelain Masks Hantei to make him Shadowlands. Turn 5 I get Shinsei in my dynasty flip and he concedes. Win. W 4 - L 1

I make the top 4 and the finals. My only problem seems to be other players getting Kami's first!

F. Tarl Cowley (Qld) Seven Fold Palace

He goes first. He get an Event for an optional hand flush (which he does), gold and a peep. I later find out that this gives him a "god card draw". I get 2 peeps with Hantei in province. Turn 2 he gets Doji (Kami). He honoured Hostage's on Doji twice for 28 honour and crosses to 43. Turn 3 (I need to kill 4 provinces?) I Tribute to H (to reset his family honour for a full turn). I get Togashi and Kill one province from 2 attacks. Turn 4 He gets a peep and P Fields I have no more delaying tactics. I steal his zero force peep and must kill 3 provinces this turn. I have contemplate/Destiny which I use on Doji, he negates it with the region Psychic Fields. I have nothing else that can target Doji before the attack phase. I go all out attack 3 but only take 2 when Doji sends Hantei home with his innate ability. Loss. I am out. doh!

I finish 3rd (top Dragon). Michael Hill goes on to win with his Mantis swarm deck. It seems that I was the only one he got his Kami's out against. Congrats to Michael. 

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The second event on Day 2 was the major Celestial storyline. My deck was a versions of the magistrate honour runner. I think we finished with 32 players. I believe we had 5 Dragon players for this event. I was worried about Spider goblin decks and "mini-meta" against them. Of course, this means I don't face any all day!

1. Jason Mackay (Qld) Shattered Peaks Castle

Jason is a new bee. Turn 1 I need to double mulligan and end up getting 2 gold. He turns over 3 Iron Mines (bad portents?). Turn 2 I get Ichizo and Diamond Mine. He gets gold and Kumunda. We both continue to building at a similar pace. Jason is reserved and holds back. I cross 40 with 4 provinces and he doesn't have enough to even try to take them all. Win. W 1 - L 0

2. Steve Maelich (Qld) The Utaku Plains 

Turn 1 I get gold, he double mulligan. Steve gets gold screwed and only flips peeps, which he continues to flush. When he finally flips gold, he only gets gold. Don't really get to see what his deck does as I cross with 4 provinces and more force. Win. W 2 - L 0

3. Martie Vam Derleest (Qld) Palace of Crimson Shadow (Scorpion)

Martie won last years GenconOz. Turn 1 we both mulligan. I get a peep and gold. Martie gets 2 events and a peep. Turn 2 we both mulligan again. I get 3 gold and he begins with subjecting me to honour loss. And so begins a long game of See Saw. Time is called with no real result visible. I am in positive with honour gaining ability, he has honour loss ability. Since it is Lunch break, Wayne the TO, tells us we can play on as long as we finish before the restart. However, we both have used all our "overtime". I would prefer to dice off and get food, but Martie want to play on so we do. Another 40 minutes later and the tournament is about to restart. I have since taken 3 provinces. Martie has no Dynasty deck left and has reduced peeps as I have been picking some off. I likewise have no dynasty left but I have my honour holdings out. We work out that without any peep loss, he can cause 6 honour loss per turn and I can gain 6 per turn. After some 1 1/2 hours, we are still in a stalemate situation. If he attack, he leaves himself open. If I attack I might get heavy honour loss inflicted to bottom out. However, since I am in the "better" position (I have 4 provinces), Martie gives me the win. W 3 - L 0

4. Murry Whiteford (NSW) City of Tears (Phoenix)

Murry goes first and mulligan for a peeps. I get gold. Turn 2 he mulligan again. He attacks with Calvary shujenja and takes a province (which reveals Kei) then plants Ring of Earth. The Ring of Earth proves very costly to me, as he needs very little for his Calvary to take a province now. I do well with honour, but 2 Unfortunates drop me back to 29 with only 1 province. He forces overwhelms and I go down. Loss. W 3 - L 1

5. Jason Lee (Qld) Seven Sting Keep (Scorpion) 

The marathon lunch game begins to take it's toll. Lunchless, my mind is strained to concentrate on the game. Details (even with notes) are sketchy. He attacks around T3 and I save the province. I return the favour and take one. This sets up the tone of the game. I'm on 33 hnr with 4 provinces, while he is at -6 hnr with 3 provinces. I cross 40 shortly thereafter, conceding 1 province. Win. W 4 - L 1.

6. Chris Harvey (Qld) Central Castle (Lion)

Chris goes first with double gold. I double mulligan and get only 1 holding. Turn 2 he gets 2 peeps while I get 1 gold and 1 peep. Turn 3 he unfortunates and attacks and wedges a Saiden Seinzo peep, but I save the province. He gets Lightwater Bay (region) out and attack all out, between his card draw (awesome) and my poor card draw I loose the battle. By Turn 7 after another unfortunate I am on 35 hnr, but don't have the counter to his greater force and he take the last province. Loss. W 4 - L 2. 

I make the finals. Dragon is the only clan to have more than one representative in the finals. Top 8 is best of one game and then the remaining finals are best of 3.

F. Shane "Slug" Pheeney (Qld) TKM (Dragon)

Shane is normally a Crab player, but both his main crab decks are unavailable to him due to lending our either a deck of some of the cards from a deck on the previous day. He decides to build a Dragon enlightenment/attack deck instead. He goes first with double gold. I double mulligan and only get 1 gold. (Someone hates me). We both draw Satsu and Kei in our dynasty. He attack Kei province, but I save her. He buys Kei and Kit Hanbei. We continue trading these types of encounters. By Turn 7 I have 23 hnr and 4 provinces with 6 peeps to his 7 peeps. He splits his non-cav into two attacks, I defend against one. We have a big battle, but luck goes his way and I loose. Time is called. I need two turns to cross with only 1 province. He has a sizeable army and massive card draw. I concede. Loss.

Items on note. Murray Whieford (Phoenix) finish undefeated with 6 wins on the tops of the leader board. He suffered the swiss curse and lost the first final to 8th place player. Daniel Chelebowzyk (Vic) finished on 4-2 scraping in to the finals and went on to win with Crab with Spider Goblin coming in 2nd. No longer the bridesmaid! Slug (Dragon) lost his next match to the Spider goblin deck.

Most of the players decide to go back to Chucky's for drinks. Since my host is also going, I go. As is expected, the night goes on ...... late. Dinner is fast food on the run, which never agrees with me at the best of times. I hope my constitution holds out and that I will be coherent for the 3rd day?.

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The third event on Day 2 was another storyline. I keep my magistrate honour runner. We have only one Dragon player for this event, so top of Dragon is assured!. I believe numbers are down to 16, probably in part due to last nights party. I feel OK, but thinking is difficult.

1. Martie Van Der Leest (QLD) Finger of Bone (Spider) This is a big Oni deck

I start with a double mulligan and only get one holding. Martie gets double gold. Turn 2 Ichio and gold while Martie get Aragai no Oni (14F 5C). Turn 3 I Imperial Duel the Oni and loose! Martie goes on to kill a province. Things basically go downhill from there. I buy Eikau he gets Akumna (20/5) and I loose 2 provinces. Turn 5 Taiko exp for me and Umi-Bozu and Paku no Oni for him. Turn 6 I die. Loss. W 0 - L 1

2. Justin Lee (Qld) Palace of the Crimson Shadow (Scorpion) 

Turn 1 I get double gold as does he. Having trouble thinking now. I go up and down in hnr. Time is called. I am on -14 hnr and 4 prov, with no clear winner in sight. We dice off and I win. Win. W 1 - L 1

3. Adam Fry (Qld) Shiro Daidoji (Crane)

Adam gets a golden start and get an Acrobat Troupe in each of his first 3 turns. I am pretty Brain dead at this stage, as he rockets over the line very quickly. Loss. W 1 - L 2

4. Michael Hill (Qld) Seven Seas Port (Mantis) winnie swarm range blitz

Turn 1 I get double gold, while Michael needs to double mulligan. After that my luck stops. Although I hold off attacks, I loose more peeps than him. I get to 27 hnr with 2 provinces and have a chance, when my next 3 turns of dynasty only give me gold. I finish on 33 hnr when he takes my last province. Loss. W 1 - L 3

5. Luke Day (Qld) Fields of the W (Unicorn) 

Luke seems about as coherent as me. I get double gold, he double scoops. By Turn 3 he has 4 peeps on the table while I have more. By Turn 5 he is still gold screwed. By Turn 6 I get Ring of Void out. Turn 7 I have 7 peeps to his 3. I cross on Turn 10. He tries to take the remaining 3 provinces, I put up a fight and defend all 3. Neither of us can count at this stage and it takes us a while to work out force tallies in each battle. I kill his big guy in the first battle in a duel. (I have one fate card left, must have all my card draw working). He concedes. Win. W 2 - L 3. I finish 13th of 16 and am top of clan (duh). Based on this performance, I would say this deck is useless, or perhaps it was my state at the time.

Daniel Chelebowzyk (Vic) goes on to win this one too, with a Mantis Commander deck.