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...

Playing with the pros again...

Greetings fellow mortals, welcome to the my fortress again, and this is the Dark Lord speaking...

Frankly speaking, I haven't been playing much with the more experienced players in L5R since after the last 'Amazing Race'. Most of the time, I'm just been playing with my usual gang (the Midvalley CM gang), kinda get used to all of their decks already. Here's the player breakdown for our playgroup at CM:

Spider: Daigotsu (Me)

Lion: Sze Kerng

Crane: Aik Dwin (bloody Imperial Favor abuse...!!!)

Scorpion: Nathan (Champion deck weih....!!)

Unicorn: Yee How (Angry chicks that gives you ED)

Crab: Kevin (Always been flipping T1 Kuon, T2 Hida's Guidance)

Phoenix: No regular player found

Dragon: Dillion (One of the more challenging players there)

Mantis: Shaun (Choo Choo Train as usual... Plus abit of enlightenment)

Well, overall I have been playing with these people most of the time, and I can say that I know most of the ins and outs of their decks. That's why it's one of the reasons that I get bored sometimes also... :-P

Today managed to play with the pros again at the Tavern (my friend, Kenji's hideout), and after playing with them, I realized that the title of Top Spider that I earned back from the previous Race is kinda lucky. If i were to compare my skills with them, it'll be fathoms deep...

Anyway, the first pro to drop by is Rahman, with his even-more-annoying Imperial Favor abuse with Seven Fold Palace. Basically his deck is a control deck utilizing the full power of the Imperial Favor, with tons of bowing actions, send homes, and also honor gaining defensive actions. As usual I'm using my Dark Paragons. Well, I had a chance when I bought out Daigotsu Setsuko exp, gave her cavalry and preparing to attack an undefended province. Before that I've quite exhausted my hand due to the open bowings that Rahman's peeps did to Setsuko.

The 12-force Cavalry Setsuko in action...

When I pumped Setsuko's force high enough, double copies of Settling the Homeless Literally screwed my play, and from there on I lost my tempo... He crawled up to 42 honor, and The New Order is nowhere to be found... Well, Crane control decks has always be a very bad matchup for me, and I still can't find a way to bypass their heavy control...

Stupid presence-less defense... I have a home!

Next up I played with the Phoenix Daimyo, Adi-sama. This time, I switched to Monk Kensai, and pitted against his Shiba Smash. What is this deck you say? The deck bascially used a few of the best Phoenix and Ronin Samurais with solid stats and good battle action, and let the boys loose equipped with Rising Sun Blades, Hida War Drums, Armor of the Ryu, and SLAM!!!! Oh yeah, did I forget that they're using one of the game's best Stronghold, Twin Soul Temple? A built in kill action, do you have a problem with that? I know I had a lot...

Cheating!!!!! Not Fair!!!! Blasphemy!!!!

The lonely Monk holding his ground.

Tamago: Are you A unique?

Momiji: Err... No?

*Tamago pulls out his sword*

The first 2 turns kinda screwed me up, with holdings keep showing up and Momiji (vanilla sucks!) as my only peep. He took a province from me, and I countered back one, and that's when he showed me a Retribution, took out my Daigotsu Hotako (Naval peeps are annoying he says...), and left me with only 2 provinces without much options to ponder...

The end result? Of course I got Adi-ed. Well it's ok, after all he's a better player than me, and I still have a lot to learn with them. Looks like I need to play more with the pros to gain more experience. Actually I really hoped that one day I will join the ranks of them... Overall, it's a very good night for me, get to play with good players, and have some game talks with them. Somehow I feel more 'enlightened' when discussing after-battle talks with them.

That's all for the moment. Fu Leng will bless those that are loyal to him, and the Dark Lord shall enact his will. Daigotsu signing out, because for now he shall return to his chambers yet again...