For those unfamiliar with it, Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) is a collectible card game in the same vein as Magic: The Gathering but in a fantasy feudal Japanese setting filled with samurai warriors, fearsome demons, and powerful shugenja. As far as CCG?s go I enjoy L5R over the others out there (I have played Magic, Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, WoW, and many smaller ones) for three main reasons. First is the amount level of strategy involved in the game. Sure it is a card game and part of it is luck of the draw, but what cards you choose to build your deck with and how you choose to play your actions during the game has a higher level of strategy to it than many other games. Second is the L5R community which is probably one of the friendliest and fun loving gaming communities I have ever encountered. It makes each playing experience enjoyable and exciting. Lastly L5R has an ongoing story within the game that is told through flavor text on cards, short stories released on the website, and large scale tournaments and the players in the game get to have an impact in shaping that story in various ways.
Every year the high point of this story revolves around the Kotei season, running during the spring and early summer, major tournaments are hosted worldwide and the winners get to make a choice that will have an impact on how the story unfolds.
My journey begins about a week before the Portland Kotei as I returned home from school and was anxious to get back into the L5R scene because it is tough to find a playgroup in the middle of nowhere in the prairies. I hadn?t played L5R in over a year (since the last Kotei of the summer last year) and only had a dozen or so games of Emperor Edition under my belt back when I was playtesting. Thankfully the Pacific Northwest is home to some of the best L5R players in the world and I had my friend Randy to put me through my paces and bring me up to speed as much as he could in a few days. As a loyal Dragon Clan player I was pleased that their Kensai deck was having a lot of success so far and played a few test games against its toughest competition and set off for Portland. The trip almost ended in disaster before it even got started however as I ended up at the old venue (unaware that it had been changed) and with the start time for the Kotei approaching and the store still as empty as a tomb it looked like I was going to miss out. Thankfully seconds before I left another lost gamer rolled up to the store and called a friend who knew the proper location. I jumped in with him and we rolled up to Red Castle Games with time to spare.
Round 1: David Ball, Phoenix Enlightenment
David was a new player to L5R and this was his first tournament which is always exciting to see the game growing. Enlightenment is typically not an easy deck to play so it was nice to see David embracing the challenge. He got a few rings out as I took a few provinces and he managed to kill a few of my kensai with some Tsunefusa and Kaitoko tricks. The game comes down to one intense battle where I manage to take out his team with my two units thanks to Again and being able to keep my attachments alive and reuse them with the Box. This stops him from dropping Earth and next turn I take his last province.
1-0
Round 2: John Tong, Lion Tacticians
John is a great player from the Vancouver Crew who took home the Calgary Kotei last year. I know that Kensai have a good game against Lion Military though so I am hoping this will go in my favor. He gets normal start with 2 guys on turn two. I flip 3 people and an expensive holding and my gold will work out that I can only clear one province. I know that I need a good economy and can handle being down a province or two so I use my Border Keep to try and flip some less expensive gold hoping to grab either three holdings or two cheap ones and a guy. I made the mistake of cycling all three people away and end up flipping 3 holdings so rather than 2 holdings and a dude I grab all gold, not what I wanted but not bad either, or so I think. I make a big mistake here and leave a holding in a province rather than flushing it, hoping I can get two guys and that extra gold next turn to cement my economy. As predicted John comes across and takes one, but then at another battle at an empty province he jumps in Ashiko and takes another, busted. I flip a holding and with my other holding sitting there uselessly and having already used my border keep proceed to the scoop phase.
1-1
Round 3: Chris Knapp, Unicorn Battle Maidens
Chris gets gold screwed off the start which lets me jump out to an early advantage and Kensai is a pretty brutal deck once it gets moving. We trade a province each before I Retribution and smoke his defender to take out his champion in province and come across on my turn for the win.
2-1
Round 4: Roby Swann, Crab Berserkers
Roby is another fantastic player, a former Gencon winner and seems like a great guy from the short impression I got. I start the game off with a really solid gold start, going 4 holdings turn 2 and Tetsuo and 2 other peeps turn 3. He runs a berserker at one of my provinces on his turn and I contemplate letting him have it as Kensai have no problem playing from behind and none of my dudes have weapons. Instead I decided that a province is more valuable than a body on table and try to chump block with Reiyu thinking I will drop his force, lose my guy but save the province. Of course what I don?t know is that his box can delay any action to the end of the turn not just destruction like the old zerker box. I end up losing my province and my guy, RTFC. He buys another dude and some gold and I strap up my Kensai and swing at a province, thinking he will possibly ret for one but I have a Creating Order in hand so that he shouldn?t be able to get another one on his turn and I can stabilize. Unfortunately what I am forgetting is probably the strongest card in the environment right now (and the name of a great Maiden album/song) and he rets for one and BNW?s into another one to put me down 1 province to his three. On his turn he flips Nikaru and with no redirection I concede knowing that I would only be delaying the inevitable at this point. He is pretty humble about the victory, offering his condolences on how strong the Ret/BNW combo is. None are necessary of course as it is part of the game but it goes to show just how good the L5R community is with comments like that.
2-2
At this point I have to win out to make the cut, but I am still confident the deck can do it, it is just a matter of whether or not I can pilot it well enough.
Round 5: PJ Torres, Unicorn Battle Maiden
This game goes back and forth for a bit, with him getting some big honor gains off of crushing a few provinces with A Perfect Moment with 5 or 6 Battle Maidens and stalling me out with lots of send home, attachment hate. He eventually crosses with two provinces intact. I have 5 Kensai fully strapped and he has 8 or 9 bodies on the board, we both have a full hand of cards. There was never a doubt in my mind, Kensai is so nasty in opposed battles. I split for both, he blocks all at one and I proceed to shred his army although he did take out a couple units. Tough beat to take to put him at a third loss and out of contention but he took it in stride, another great opponent, the game was a lot of fun.
3-2
Round 6: Roy Esquival, Crab Dishonor
Roy was running a theme deck revolving around Sake, he had shot glasses for everyone he played and every card in the environment that had the word sake was in his deck. Despite that he was still sitting at 3-2 due to the strength of Crab Dishonor. He had a pretty rough start and I had a great one, going full gold turn two and then more gold plus 2 guys (1 for full) on turn three. My first attack almost failed because I didn?t realize his box had 9 province strength, combined with some holdings that increased it, I end up spending two BNW and attaching and extra item to take it after he Siege Volley?s putting me short on cards. My economy however churns out two or three bodies a turn and I simply keep buying people for full and throwing my whole team at one province a turn and eventually crack his last province while I am at -8 honor.
4-2
Round 7: Adrienne Beck, Crab Scouts
Of all the decks in the environment Crab Scouts is one of the toughest matchup?s for Kensai and is usually a coin flip. Not what I wanted to see facing off against me to see who moves on but that meant it would be a good game at least. We both get slow starts and she gets a turn three Watari and is able to go around me and Duty of the Crab in her discarded Kisada to crack a province. I Ret for one, but she has Creating Order and an unbowed Recruiting Officer to dissuade me from pressing the issue on my turn so I buy some more dudes. She comes across for two and I let them go, swinging for two of my own on my turn but end up only getting one due to Game. Now I am down 1 province to 2 but have enough movement from Ring of Water and ANW to bring my whole team on defense to my final province. She has too much redirect to get through however between Kisada, Ryoshun, and Chugo. The final nail in the coffin comes when she focuses a Duty on Nikaru when I dueled him with my champion to delay his death till the end of the turn and she wins the battle and wipes out my team. It was an exciting game and I didn?t feel bad about losing it as I don?t think I made any major mistakes. It was her first berth in the elimination rounds at a big event so congratulations to Adrienne.
4-3
All and all not a bad outing for me, shook off some of the rust and should be ready to go by the time Calgary rolls around. It was great to see a ton of people at the event that I hadn?t seen since last summer. I ended up narrowly edging out Mike Petke and Raven for second Dragon behind Sensei Wong.
Props:
Huge props to Ryan Thorton who gave me a ride to Red Castle from the other venue, without him I wouldn?t have made the event at all
Diana Wong for running yet another world class event, her Kotei?s are always excellent.
My opponents, for all the good games
Randy for giving me my EE crash course.
Bar Carlo for one of the best Pulled Pork Sandwiches I have ever had
Slops:
Me, play mistakes are bad.
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For more info on L5R check out the website: www.l5r.com
Until next time, enjoy the Journey
Neph
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