Happy New Year

Eastern Hub Port

I'm trying to think about my extended essay for school, write a bit, research and after some time of trying to concentrate I just have to stop for some time. I'm kind of stuck and I'm afraid I won't be ablet o finish my work. Each day I rewrite my original text that probably is from majority irrelevant. I need to put my arguments there and somehow put my research into it... Anyway this post is not about my difficulties with the paper but about what came of it^^.

Today morning I played with my friend a game of Legend of the Five Rings. I really appreciated this. He hasn't played since Samurai and does not want to play because well of one of our local players that seem to mess up everything he touches. Anyway I played with my Emperor decks against his Samurai Great Falls Castle deck.

In between writing my essay and trying to figure our where to head next I started writing names of cards down and see if I could produce a samurai decklist. This deck is purely theoretical, I could actually try to put it together as I own majority of the cards.

My friend was telling me that there wasn't much draw in Samurai which might be true so I looked for some cards I could use. I knew that there is one follower and send home card drawing cards for samurais so I found those and integrated them in my deck. There's ofcourse Taoist Archer and Veteran Advisor but I'm not sure how good this gold scheme can get. Few Against Many is a wonderful card, both abilities are good.

No matter what...the decklist is here. I might go look for my samurai personalities later. I did not find the box with those cards, have to be somewhere here. hm....

Eastern Hub Port

Eastern Hub Port
ERM? 1x Border Keep
hm? 1x Bamboo Harvesters

Dynasty: ??
3x Kobune Port
3x Rich Coffers
2x Fortified Camp
2x Private Trader (or how the holding that gives gold for an action is named)
1x Temple of Gisei Toshi
2x Secluded Waystation
2x Secluded Village
1x I am ready

3x Yoritomo Kurei
3x Yoritomo Sunagawa
3x Yoritomo Tadame
1x Yoritomo Utemaro XP2
3x Tsuruchi Shisuken
1x Moshi Nakata
3x Yoritomo Jera
1x Moto Xiao
3x Tsuruchi Saya
1x Yoritomo Tadame XP

Fate: ??
3x Taoist Archer
3x Ronin Brotherhood
3x Imperial Elite Guard
3x Wandering Budoka
3x Peasant Vengeance
3x Hold!
1x Koutetsu Unabara
3x Oni Daikyu
2x Juslty Earned Victory
2x Unwavering Assault
2x Knowledge
3x Few Against Many
3x Standing Fast
3x Ruthless Advance/Doomed Intention or combination of both?
1x Ring of Water
1x some smaller follower??
1x ???

Copics attempt

For quite some time I wanted to buy some copic markers. My boyfriend bought me a set so I wanted to see how it works^_^. I don't have the right colors nor the right colors for the blendings effects I would want but anyway the copics are just purely awesome!

Here's a little picture I colored tonight. Ignore the lineart for now^^. I couldn't even write kanji in the proper way with it o_O

[EE] Kyuden Kitsune revisited - Honor this time

I went through some cards and created a draft of KKexp honor. I ignored cards many cards so I still have to see if there are some good cards in previous editions.

I played with it today against EE legal deck and it was quite fun. I had problems with distinguishing what token is what and what which token does, but otherwise it felt good^^. If I would manage to win one battle everything would be fine. With some tweaks this is going to work for sure.

I'm missing a personality (actually two in dynasty) and I haven't gone through the fate cards much yet.

Kyuden Kitsune XP

Kyuden Kitsune Xp
1x Border Keep Exp
1x Bamboo Harvesters Exp

Dynasty: ??
3x Kobune Port
3x Merchant Atoll
3x Ageless Shrine
2x Temple of Hotei
1x Temple of Gisei Toshi
1x Traveling Peddler
2x Overgrown Grove
1x Naoharu's Gift
1x Ebisu's Honesty
1x Willing Spirits

3x Kitsune Kohaki
3x Kitsune Gina
3x Kitsune Denhei
3x Kitsune Tokoru
3x Moshi Tomeno
1x Kitsune Ohsuki
1x Kitsune Hisano
3x Shakash

Fate: ??
3x Entrenched Position
3x Sundering Strike
3x Pearls and Spirits
3x Seeking the Way
3x Wall of Honor
3x Obscuring Pathways
3x Unpeachable Name
3x Duels of Serpents
3x Consecration
3x The Mountain's Power
1x A Game of Dice
2x Capturing the Soul
2x Chikushudo Trickery
3x Great Sacrifice

Cards in consideration

Warded Path
Surprise Attack
Hanabi
Pearl of Rage
Rage of the Spirits
Taming the Beast
Earth Flows
Fury of a mob

I'll try to figure out if defending and trying to divide my opponent's army will work if not I'll play more cards that can do something in actual battle. I have to review Reckless Rush and Sundering Strike. Both cards are awesome but I'll try to figure out if there are other ways more suited for my nonhumans and shugenjas.

Also thinking about Indomitable Home...if clan holdings won't be reprinted I'm going to play this.

Innistrad first real experience

Yesterday I had the chance to draft Innistrad and today I build GW Tokens deck out of two boxes of Innistrad. I know I'm pretty late to discover the card from Innistrad^^ (considering limited).

My drafting experience wasn't that good^^. The deck was capable of 2:1 but it really lacked creatures.

I started picking removal which in the end probably wasn't as good idea as I thought. I should have been picking good aggro creatures since the beginning which would made me play RW. I ended up playing RB with not so many creatures which was a problem. Traitorous blood and more burn spells was something that could help me but wasn't that good as a flood of creatures. I did not quite count with the transform ability and I was caught offguard by it. But the three rounds were nice and it was nice to see what the cards can do. It seems to me though that the best way is going really aggro...meh. Actually mill seems quite viable if you get the right cards as well.

I'm glad I had the chance to draft. I thought that I wouldn't have the opportunity to draft this expansion set at all.

When I saw Geist-Honored Monk I wanted to build a deck around. That card just seems overpowered for ISD Block^_^. Well, ok we have Garruk there (good with tokens), Snapcaster Mage (burning vengeance, it should work in ISD block right...but with W and G going strong and being able to destroy enchantments easily...hmhm) but well this card just can truly beat an opponent. So I searched the cards from the two boxes and put this together.

I can imagine this working with red as well. Still Garruk + Doomed Traveler seems efficient enough.

Township Tokens

4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Fiend Hunter
4 Geist-Honored Monk
3 Hamlet Captain
4 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Mentor of the Meek
1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Creatures [26]
1 Garruk Relentless
Planeswalkers [1]
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Midnight Haunting
Spells [8]
10 Forest
4 Gavony Township
10 Plains
1 Shimmering Grotto

Kyuden Kitsune - Non-human military

Today I tried some non-human military. It was supposed to be EE legal but it seems that Yutakana no Onna is not EE legal? I though that she was reprinted but maybe not...

Here's the decklist.

Kyuden Kitsune XP

Kyuden Kitsune Xp
1x Border Keep Exp
1x Bamboo Harvesters Exp

Dynasty: ??
3x Kobune Port
3x Merchant Atoll (it actually works well)
3x Everwinter Copse (Does not really help much, but it is forest and winter card. Also can be tapped for honor and it gives one more gold.)
3x Ageless Shrine
3x Recuitment Officer (have to try it)

1x Blessings of Shi-Tien ....

1x The Dark Naga
3x The Sleepless One
3x Qalyar (great peronality, this little creature is what this deck needs!)
1x Fukuzo
3x Kitsune Tokoru
3x Moshi Tomeno (cheap and has naval, but it's not the personality I would like to play.)
3x Yukataka no Onna
3x The Shakash
3x The Red Hunger
1x Kitsune Ohsuki
1x Kitsune Hisano

Fate: ??
3x Entrenched Position
3x Sundering Strike
3x Fury of a Mob
3x Tireless Efforts (I have a lot of cards that bow my personalities as a cost. so that's why I play this. The other action comes handy a lot as well)
3x Oblivious (perfect! keeps my opponent personalities at reasonable numbers and can take down a personality I hate)
2x Pearls and Spirits (I like the card but eh...)
3x Near Miss (that's like 2 koku for my follower or a negate its destruction? I kind of like that)
A game of dice
1x Satoshi's Dual Warfans (I need more cards like that)
3x Sneak Attack
3x Scourge of the Sea
Black Pearl
3x Taming the Beast
1x the Vengeful
3x Reckless Rush
3x Broken Alliance

So well...I like it^^. I thought that this could work and be a bit 'rushy'.
I chose Kyuden Kitsune because the Mantis Shugenja's create nonhuman spirits with good abilities. It is also a forest and I can gain honor via the stronghold. The ability on it is good.

Then I have all the nagas I could find + Fukuzo that can remove a personality from a discard pile or well be a copy of something.

Atoll + Ageless Shrine is all what is needed. I would like to add Recruitment Offices to see what it does,. Having even more personalities for attack/defense might prove good and will help me keep the numbers for fury of a mob.

Yukataka no Onna is has a good force and can be a nightmare for clans with higher family honor.

Red Hunger is brute force + good ability and it is one of the personalities that wants to have Naval.

I put Sneak Attack in the deck but I don't think that 3x is necessary. I would probably play two though. If I'll find something better battle action I won't play the card at all.

Entrenched Position has a good ability in battle and can help me against clans going first.

So that's about it I guess. I'll try to look for some other cards. I miss movement or more bowing of enemy cards. So I'll try to figure out what to do with it. Also I don't have any negate effects. The redirecting guidance seems good but that's only one card. I'll see what I can come up with.
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I'd like to play Surprise Attack as well...hmhm..

Emperor Arc? L5R rant...xy

Well, I've been thinking about why I don't really enjoy playing this game that much (compared to Magic). Well, many things come up starting with the rules changes from time to time (which actually means quite often for my liking), inconsistency of certain decks etc.

But there are other elements that ruin the game for me. They are closely linked to the local community

1. Current arc

The current arc is still Celestial. For few more months it will still be the official format. I know that many players are bored of it and seem not to like it. But on the other hand did they even change their decks or build a new one? Not really. Some ended with PotD o_O. I mean come on, the current arc has many more cards.

I spend some time playing Mantis Commanders, then Crab Duelist and lastly Dragon LSC Honor. My Crab Duelist deck is still celestial legal but is outdated and can't handle many decks that can be build now and this is the problem of certain players here. They do not progress. They are frozen in time and are not willing to move on.

Then there are those that claim that the Celestial Arc is too overpowered or boring and whatnot and they want to play EE legal decks. But wait a minute....we don't even have the cards needed for those decks! It started as 2 sets decks! It's not a bad thing to play a EE legal deck but asking others to play it as well and ignoring the fact that it's still CELESTIAL ARC is a problem. I have Celestial decks and I would still want to play but with whom? With players stuck in the past or with those that ignore celestial as much as possible?

When there was a tournament league going on it was the same. Who actually cared about a new set? In Magic this does not happen. (It's like coming with Lorwyn block deck to an Extended tournament...).

2. Mind game

The second major thing is...well mind games. I did not realize that I really need this in a game but after pondering about this for a long time I came to the conclusion that I do. If I want to enjoy a game I need the player interaction - that means that both players count with what other player can play and you just play around it. When I play against someone who ignores all that and just plays the way he think is correct I get lost and I don't enjoy the game at all. Because well, it's not a game. I mean I could just take my deck and play alone.

This is also why I wasn't really sure what a good player in L5R is or if there can a be a good player. If a game can be played on the same 'mind level' as in Magic. I met only three people that played this way outside our community in which I can name two people. The outside local community players are Daniel Nagy and 2 other players that were in top 8 at Prague's Kotei. These players played well and I enjoyed the games. The mind game was present, both of us knew which cards are relevant for the match up and which cards we need to play around. We knew which card combination would screw the game. The anticipation of how it will end was there. Sure if one was would misplay it would ruin the game as well. Anyway those three memorable games are something that I was expecting from L5R.

Everyone is talking about the game as something superior to Magic in terms of game play and being much more consistent. But still I can't hardly enjoy the game when I get to play against someone that can't even understand that THIS match up is a 100% win or loss. The player won't even realize that if by a chance this (something) would happen it would change the outcome of the game....Why the hell play such a game? What makes me angry the most is the fact that the player does not see the way how I could win or lose even though the game has already been decided by turn 3.

This probably concludes my rant. Simply put... I'd love to play but the games have to have a certain level of game play. I'll gladly build a deck that is of equal level to someone else's deck but if the player does not even see what I did and why....that's sad. I just wanted to play a game that I could call a game not T3 win.