Friendly Unicorn Casual (which can be competitive)

The deck might not be so friendly. Following the lead from my last article, we’ll be exploring just what can the Unicorn do with only 2 cores to at least keep toe to toe with the other clans with fancy new cards. To be honest, not a lot except to outplay with shenanigans.

However, a stay back Unicorn is a deadly one, so try to buy a dude with 2 Fate over if you can. Be prudent with your attachments and attach them out of a conflict if possible. And if possible, try to at least leave out 2 Fate as you end your Dynasty turn. Prioritize buying one dude for +2 instead of 2 dudes for +1. Possibly the only exception to this rule is Border Rider. Chick’s an Assassination magnet, you can buy her with no Fate and get her back with Cavalry Reserves later down the road. Maybe you can put 1 on her if you’re swimming in Fate.

Allying with Crane can be a big boon for the Unicorn. The Duelist Training works excellently with the big force Unicorns are sporting. Don’t be shy to invite an uncouth bushi to a sophisticated Political conflict, since that’s where Rout can be most effective. With no Yurts, prioritize Air whenever possible because you want to be drawing a lot of cards if you can.

The deck is less mobile than I wanted it to be due to the lack of Favored Mount, but the extra Fate pulls its weight into making sure you can come back next turn. I Am Ready is less scary to use on someone with 2 Fate rather than 1.

The rest is usual Unicorn doctrine. Send your horseless dudes up front, see if it’s worth the hassle before bringing in the cavalry later. Also you should defend with this deck whether you win or not. Try to bleed them off their cards as they try to break your province. Remember, a bowed bushi can still Rout an overconfident courtier back home.

Crane Drop Bear for casual (which can be competitive)

Right, so you want to be able to build a fully functional deck, but not enough for you to go to the extra mile to get the third core. You also want to play around a bit before jumping into Dynasty Packs while everyone else is playing them. Fair enough. It’s 2 cores versus the world. This deck has a 70% win rate in Jigoku Online so far, not bad for a deck to start with.

So the whole drop bear deck thing is the current hotness, especially among the Crane and Scorpion where these 2 bears live: Political Rival and Unassuming Yojimbo.

The entire deck is about tempo. The negations can buy you a lot of it and the lots of holdings can help too. To compensate for the lots of holdings, your drop characters are a bit above average in size.

With clever attachment placement, you should be able to use the Routs and Outwits to fully remove troublesome elements from the equation, especially other courtiers. Also, to make Doji Hotaru worth her weight in gold, playing Rout in a Political conflict can be really effective. And vice versa when you Outwit with Guest of Honor in a Military conflict. The mismatch is intentional to make full use of these send homes.

How to play the deck:

If you have a cheap spud in the first Dynasty flip, that’s cool. Better if you have Imperial Storehouses. You want to see at least 1 of the 4 bears in your opening hand so don’t be shy to chuck everything if you don’t see them.

After that, buy 1 spud and pass. That’s it. Drop the bear of your choice, preferably paying 2 more to keep them around and annoy people longer and swing with covert. Usually 1 attachment is enough for you to break provinces. Your second turn onwards you should be gearing for a normal game, but do try to keep 3 Fate afloat for your send home Events.

Rings to prioritize: Fire and Earth. Hit Earth first because discarding a key card to a loss is damaging. Also, if you can attach or play important stuff, do it outside the conflict. Political Debate is going to ruin your day if they get that all important bear/sword/fan that you need to break a province.

And whatever you do don’t leave with 1 Fate at the end of your Dynasty. I can guarantee you that Goblin Sneak is going to make your life miserable.

I’ll be covering a dual core Unicorn deck next that would hopefully make you a believer of the underdogs of L5R.

Everybody Loves Dragons

Let’s face it: Dragon splash is good. It’s control and denial at its best. Or you can use it to make your very own Voltron force (great for Scorpions). Between attachment discard, covert and even outright bow, the Dragon has it all… for other clans to enjoy in small quantities.

I’ve built one before but I decided to test its potency in a dual core environment: it doesn’t disappoint. Sure, you can’t really max out on 3 Let Go’s with 2 cores, but it does open up Influence points for other stuff:

There’s really not much wiggle room in the Dynasty side. Just take everything and go! There’s little fine tuning between the holdings and neutrals that you can do, but it’ll be minimal. And no, you don’t want to take the full Imperial complement of 3 Seppun Guardsman and 3 Otomo Courtiers, at least not yet. In cycle one they’ll be stupidly awesome.

For Conflict, those 3 cards are the best denial that the clan can offer in 2 copies. Good Omen and Contingency Plan work really well together. As for the full blown Political attachments, I came across an observation:

There are no events that boosts up Political, only items and honour. Honouring sometimes doesn’t do anything (I’m looking at you, Political Rival) but that’s all that you have to rely on. Military have Banzai! so it’ll be fine in unopposed single conflicts with the little dude.

 

A boring Crane deck

I’ve had reasonable success with this deck. It’s pretty straightforward but has a couple of surprises to catch people unawares

Besides Let Go and Fury for damage control, the rest is pretty standard Crane fare. The exception is that I find Doji Gift Giver to be an excellent card defensively or offensively that makes me bump her up to 3. Daidoji Nerishma has proven his worth as well by turning up more options that is not normally present during the Dynasty phase.

But then again you guys already know this. Which is why this is a boring deck.

p/s: A card is not supposed to be there but provides immense fun when it can be pulled off. Perhaps the only bit of excitement in the deck.

Back to the Future: Rokugan Edition

Yup. L5R has returned and we’re going back in time to the Clan Wars, where everything began. No mention of the taint, your sexy tainted heroines are still pure and clan champions die in fictions. Glorious.

GenCon was won by the Crane, who is the only hatamoto of the clan. High number of hatamotos come from the Crab and Dragon.

So what can we expect in the future? Uncertain, though Crab and Dragon does seem pretty strong at the moment. The first event featured only 1 core and reliance over a single clan’s strategy is yet untested since the combos are all one shots. With cores, I expect the Unicorn to be quite potent since most of their personality abilities will begin to work more reliably.

I myself will just start from a single core and pad up with upcoming chapter packs and deluxe expansions. I’ll know for sure in October when the product hits Malaysian shores.

AGOT instead of L5R for 2016

We had a winter tournament last few weeks and I went in with my Bara/Night watch wall deck… and didnt get to top 3…

 

But to be fair, there was no top cut and my swiss results was 3-1. I loss to player who got third where he lost to 2nd and 2nd to 1st. I hate swiss that has no top cut, but that is life. i guess.

 

The field was heavier Lannister, out of around 12 players, there was 2 greyjoy, 3 baratheon, 5 Lannister and 2 Targaryen. The other Bara got 1st place.

 

So far, the game AGOT 2.0 has the usual complexity of playing l5r, but minimal of its baggages or rare hunt being an lcg instead of ccg. Rules timing seems a bit more consistent compared to AEG L5R back then, but then again, the problem with l5r has always been the wording of the card’s abilities that conflicts with the game’s timing. As card text usually superseed game’s rules, that create nastiness.

 

I didn’t exactly print my decklist, so i will provide my decklist based on another user on thronesdb.com. His deck is similar to mine, and i think his is more efficicent. There were a few cards in my deck that I keep wondering if i should have replaced with something else. It probably contributed to my loss in round 2 with that Lanni dude.

 

A fun game for now, you guys should give it a try while waiting for l5r to be rebranded. Assuming you guys are l5r players…

 

2016 and L5R in FFG

We are now in 2016. By reckoning, still a year and a half more to L5R LCG by FFG. That’s a long way to go and I’m sure we will start getting teaser previews in Jan 2017 in line of the estimated Gencon unveiling. This also means that the actual release production will be by Christmas 2017 or later half of 2018 to get into mass public’s hands.
Only time will tell whether this will significantly change L5r as we know it or will it remain dead… everywhere… we will wait and see i suppose.

 

The old group locally has split up. A few went to MTG, a few to console/PC gaming… dota mostly and the rest disappear to do their own thing.

 

Almost all of them gave a tentative comeback only and only if l5r come back hopefully better. While the promise of LCG format makes it cheaper to go in overall compared to the cracking packs of CCG format, a lot of players are weary of FFG LCG format mainly due to the distribution methods via local company… who is notorious in handling the prize support kits. Among the complaints has been getting an expansion 2-3 months later coz he decides to pool 2 expansions per shipment. Prize kits came in late and tampered (some of the prizes are missing) and few more infamous deeds…..

 

That is the reason that FFG products are having difficulty to grow here. I’ve always favoured AEG prize support, which was very helpful in supporting local communities to grow more players and also WotC prize support for MTG. But FFG prize support… urghh.. is bad really….
A tourney kit of 8 players which only rewards the top player, I find it hard at times to get players to play since they know that by paying, they are getting only participation prize random full bleed card they already have and might not like..(Curse of any LCG, everyone already have the card). unlike WotC/AEG who encourages top 3 prize and 1 lucky draw prize to encourage people to play regardless of winning chances since you might very be that lucky draw winner. With this, even new players are encouraged to play since you stand a chance. But with FFG, only if you have high shot at winning would you be willing to participate, otherwise, why bother to pay and lose as a surety?

 

This is something that FFG needs to buck up or they will lose out the more casual group in the long run.

 

I have gotten my hands on Game of Thrones 2.0 LCG. So far the game is much more streamlined compared to the horrors of 1.0. As I have a void of 2 years of L5R to come, I suppose i will throw my lot at this game and see how it goes.
Ours is the Fury!

 

 

Inzen’s kickstart to 2015 gaming

New year of gaming. I was card game sabbatical for most of 2014. Since i don’t have dedicated gaming time, I squeeze my time here and then between…
DESTINY

Since September, most of my gaming has been Destiny. A multiplayer online first person shooter on PS3/PS4/Xbox360/XboxOne. I played on PS3 and crossbuyed for PS4. The game is mainly so-so with grievance on the RNG (Random Number Generator a.k.a. Loots) but I have been staying on the game mainly due to good friends who i get to know over the course of the gaming. I still login nightly for some raids/event or just random stuff. My OCD kicked in so my daily login is mainly to get the daily loot and to increase my storage of material for future expansion House of Wolves, which will be released sometimes March… or May apparently from reddit sources.

L5R

L5R has just released the spoiler for 20 Festival, a new sort of semi base set they are doing now. Instead of once in two years base set, they release it yearly and follow sort of MTG style rotation. I’ve more or less promised the mrs that I wont buy much L5R during the Ivory arc. So I get my decks from local players to just play for fun to satisfy the cardboard addict in me.

Also of note, this year, South East Asia region here gets two kotei. Malaysia will host on the 2nd half of the year while the 1st half will be held by Singapore. Both countries have always been lumped together back the mainly due to the low number of players. But the fact is that both countries are at least 350km apart (200 miles) and nowadays have more sizeable number of players. So it’s good to have two tournament yearly as that will keep the interest locked on. Previous years, after a kotei, the interest dies down until the next year, since that’s the next major tournament.

MTG

I have always cracked a pack or two of MTG here and there, just try my luck to see whether i can strike gold mine. Case in point, so far I’ve only cracked 10 packs of the latest mtg expansion and got an Ugin. So yeah, it covered my pack cost.
The only interest thing about mtg that caught my eye is the new casual format, tiny leaders that picked up like a storm. It’s EDH lite. Meant for one-on-one. You have a commander like EDH. 50 card deck inclusive commander. Highlander 1x copy of each except basic lands. Life starts at 25 and no commander damage. Cardpool is legacy and most importantly, you can only include cards which are 3 casting cost or lower… you got that right.. 3CC or lower. X casting cost counts as 0 for the deckbuilding purposes.
Read further on this at tinyleaders.blogspot.com

The leader choices are not as limited but there are some limitations. Interesting formats so far since you need only a bit of cards to 50 cards, so budget-wise its cheaper to EDH 100-cards. I’ll be building Kira first.. since I just love to hate… so i will get a decklist up soon.

MISC

There are still two card games that I got that didn’t see much play yet. I should get a move on to break it out and get some games in, but the reason i didn’t back then is I do not want to be the pioneer holding the fort like i did with L5R. So i will wait to see a healthier group before coming in. Two games i have in the backburner that i will play soon.. maybe… hopefully.
1) Doomtown Reloaded – AEG
2) Warhammer 40k LCG – FFG
The player base have increased a bit of sorts… but then, just last week, I have just got my hands on Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate for 3ds. GG.

Raiding the storeroom

AEG has dropped another announcement that annoyed some of us l5r players. After Gate of Chaos expansion, which releases soon, there will be another expansion in nov/dec namely Aftermath. I was like wtf. Another expansion? Where’s the base set dudes?

Most of us are really waiting for Ivory Edition and if it takes too long, some will migrate to other games like namely MTG. The problem with games with once a year tourney scene locally is the lull/downtime/quiet time that follows a post-kotei season.

I wonder if the expansion name is a foretelling of l5r local scene.

Talking about the Gates of Chaos releasing soon, it becomes obvious from this that the base force for non-unique dudes, is 3F averagely. So looks like they are lowering the force? But being a dual bugged set, it’s hard to say for sure.

Also, if they run non-standard games, I wonder how they will treat the gold cost of peeps, seems like a lot expensive now.

Chase rare from the Gates of Chaos Expansion? Productive Mine. Deal with it. You need at least 2x playsets if you’re building a minimum of 2 decks for Ivory Edition.

Productive Mine, a 4g that produces 4gold solid. With Kharmic traits.

.

Among all the other rares available in the set, this card is the one card that all decks need in Ivory Edition. I dont understand the logic of printing this type of card in expansion, where this card should really be printed in base set due to its stapleness…..

In other news,

It’s time for stock take as usual. I have been cleaning up the house and get rid of my excess cards and organised my old cards… like Harry potter ccg, initial d ccg, Duel Masters, a bunch of old Pokemon cards… (which i gave to junior to learn to read), organise mtg cards by colour and a bunch of other stuffs.

I got rid of Netrunner… while the game is good, having not enough people to play with and since i need to drop a ccg/lcg, netrunner gets the short end of the stick. If somehow the game gets more popular somehow, I might regret dropping it early.

But then again, maybe not.

I passed some of my excess Initial D cards to Lit.sensei… I got some of the starters for cheaps so i passed some spares to makes decent decks. This game should be fun for the giggles.

Post house cleanup, so what decks do I have with me in the car at all times?

L5R – Imperial JEK Honor

WS – Madoka Magica Trial Deck (Eng)

WS – Fate Zero Trial Deck (Eng)

WS – Asuka Pilot (Jap version)

MTG – Modern Red Burn

MTG – Modern Infect

CF – Bermuda Triangle Random Cheap deck (Eng)

CF – Bermuda Triangle Rivierre Deck (Eng)

Initial D – Mako Sil 80 Tactical Turn Deck

SW LCG – Imperial Hoth deck / Rebel Space Fleet deck

And… having sorted some of my old stuff… I’m unsure what to do with my harry potter ccg and Duel Masters……. sigh..

July 2013. Time does fly.

L5R Ivory Edition is still a long time away, at least 5-6 months down the road. I’m just waiting for arc change as I’m bored with Emperor Edition.

I’m still on ccg sabbatical. I still bought Coils of Madness, since its dual bugged. And I will probably also buy the upcoming set, Gates of Chaos (Sept 2013).

With MTG, I got lucky with Dragon Maze though, about roughly about 24 packs in total via multiple separate occasions, and got 4 Voice. Sold those during its high peak price, so I got nearly 100% profit in terms of 24 packs. Did not touch Modern Masters though, I looked at the card pool and the price and it’s not worth it. I’ve seen people cracking whole boxes and no goyf nor dark dude. So all-in-all, seems not worth at all for me. I hardly touched EDH and Modern format anyway.

M14 is around the corner. While there are good cards, since this set will support new standard post-Theros, (which is due in Sept 2013), I see it more of EDH worthy maybe. Time will tell whether the set shapes up well or just down the drain.

Had a first tourney of Star Wars LCG, I completely failed at it. Considering I bought the set in the beginning and every chapter packs but did not play it at all. So the tourney was really my first few games. So far, the game is not bad, due to its interesting twist in deck building, although if i was to summarise the game, i would say the game is about bullying. Once you reach a certain point and hit the opponent down, the game is very harsh in ensuring that a downed opponent will stay down. For now, I would say the game does not quite provide means of making comebacks.

Maybe it’s just my game/experience so far in it.

The other LCG, Android Netrunner, I’m considering to drop it. While it is interesting, I don’t feel like maintaining that much games anymore, so L5R and Star Wars LCG is about it in terms of purchase for card gaming.

That being said, Little Sensei has got into Vanguard. I did not buy into that since I’m not too keen on it, but he did drop me a nice decent deck. (Tier 2.5 maybe), but it works well in casual games i suppose, so i may give it a shot if mainly to satisfy my curiosity and OCD for knowledge.

Being on sabbatical, i have completed on a lot of backlog games… Now trying to finish Project X Zone.. before Shin Megami Tensei 4 arrives next week… argghhh…