A Rainy Day, and The Dead of Winter...

Hello fellow mortals, this is the Dark Lord again... It has been a long while since I last posted, because of the huge load of work that I'm supposed to do... But nevertheless, here's my newest post, long overdue...

Today marks the release of L5R's newest set, The Dead of Winter (TDoW) in Malaysia. As Kyuden Suzume was to be found there, there's no reason for me not to go. And after all, Kyuden Suzume is important for me to complete my Monk Kensai deck, which I have been leaving it behind, collecting dust for so long. When I opened my products, all the rares I got were quite lousy actually, with only Chuda Inisi usable in the deck. I was so furious when my fellow clanmate, Blur opened Ujisato in front of my eyes, NOOO!!!!!

Anyway, no matter how suck the rares I get, the game must still go on. My first opponent was a Singaporean player (yes, Singaporeans purposely came here just to attend the release party, how dedicated they are...), playing Crane. Starting at 8 honor seriously made me worried. But it proved wrong when I took his first province with only 2 peeps, despite all the honor gaining mojo he did (he was at 15 honor when I took the province). It was just steamrolling after that, taking one province each turn. The game ended when he was at 34 honor, with all 4 provinces blown up.

MVP: Chuda Inisi. The board position that he gave seriously helped alot. 3 zombies for 7 gold, oh yeah!

Second match I was pitted against Spider. I've already expected that because almost half of the field were playing Spider. The mirror match for me I think really depends on how good is your hand. Technically I could've won the match (yes, I lost), but I have to blame myself for allowing my opponent to pull back his moves. Well, what's done is done. Next time, there will be no more pulling backs. Another reason besides that was I never draw a single weapon in the entire match. What can a Kensai do without weapons man?

The third match was quite easy for me as well, because I'm playing against Crane again. I misjudged one battle, and it costs me quite some time, where I was only able to take his first province while he's at 20 honor. Nevertheless, I managed to pull of my steamrolling again, and I won the game when he crosses during his own turn.

MVP: Chuda Inisi (yes, him again), Katahide. Taking multiple battle actions in one go is strong... ^_^

Overall, I placed 6th among all the players. Not bad for my first sealed L5R tourney. After reviewing all the cards for my clan and based on my performance the day itself, somehow I feel like Kyuden Suzume was quite 'cheating', in a sense that the stronghold gives you card cycle and personality kill in one go. Definitely the best for Monks where weapon recursion makes the SH's cost near negligible.

That's all for today. Need to rest early as I still need to continue my normal work the next day. Farewell mortals, the Dark Lord shall once again return to his chambers...

New Year, New Post, New Life, New Wishes

Hello there everybody, this is the Dark Lord speaking again. Today is a very special day, where the Dark Lord will be heading out to the mainlands to experience something different from his usual scheming. (In other words, I’m now starting my internship in a magazine and event company.)

Starting from today, the Dark Lord will not have much time to game, or maybe even blog, due to most of the time being occupied by work. Nevertheless, I’ll try to work it out, maintaining a balance between gaming and working. Also, after I start work, expenditures will be a big problem as well, as I now have spend more in addition to my usual expenses, namely petrol, parking, and the increasing costs of food.

What I can only say is I seriously need to learn how to manage my finances, because 2011 is also the ‘payback’ year for me, where I need to buy back all my shares of my soul, slowly but surely. Apologies to those concerned, and I promise that I’ll settle all this with you all whenever I’m able to.

Alright, back to the usual stuff, my gaming time has now been reduced to only Friday nights, Saturday and Sunday, and that is also given that I don’t need to work extra time. Frankly speaking, I’m totally not used to this, since I have been spending the majority of my time doing things that I like to do instead of sitting in the office doing work.

A new year means a new start. This year, the Dark Lord will try his best to finish his degree, and also improve more in his gaming skills, namely for L5R and stuff. The ‘Amazing Race’ is still going on, and the top 4 in the second leg 2 weeks ago really serves as a morale boost for me. I shall try my best to do better in the upcoming leg, hopefully improve my standings if not maintain it. And I’ll be also anticipating the release of the new set ‘The Dead of Winter’, which will be available later this month.

Okay, quite a long post for the first post of 2011, and I think this should be enough for the moment. Well, time to bid farewell, and wish everybody have a pleasant 2011.