Very Long I apologize. So much to say, So much I left out.

Background.
Northern California Kotei last year. Plans go to the Kotei do crappy with my
Crane deck, play in the open tournament, and show how great the Brotherhood
of the Shensei can do. Problems: I do well at the Nocal Kotei, and the open
tournaments starts earlier then expected while I end up in the round of 16
finals. I think I won't make the open tournament, and I shed real tears in
surprise.
Solution.. Dan Tibbles lets me substitute a friend (Bryan Yoon) to play my
first round in the open tournament while Andrew O toys with me in the round of
16. I go into the 80 + people open tournament, and win it all going
undefeated. I was supposed to get a real nice sword as a prize, but due to
logistic
problems I never got it. Forward a little. Dan Tables feels bad about not
getting the sword to me, and was surprised by my patience. At the Social Guenon,
he
gives me the sword he wins, and the foiled set of Crane cards. I lost my job a
little while later, and the foiled cards sell on eBay, and help me out big
time. Because of this I honor the best L5R player, in humble opinion, Dan
Tibbles by playing Lion. Key things: Experience playing Lion in tournaments;
ZERO.
Experience playing Lion for fun; A few practice games.
More background, I surprise Dan, and talk to him at the Las Vegas Kotei, I go
5-3 and don't make the cut, but Learn about Gold screw, listen to what Dan
says Modify the deck and after some adjustments I feel I am ready for the Los
Angeles(UC IRVINE) Kotei.
Even More Background: Called my wife and she has been a car accident and was
rear ended by some guy in a SUV. I ask her if she wants me to drive home, she
insists she is fine but I am worried sick. I stay over at Mike's house,
sleep very little due to the roar snore effect and anxiety about my wife. Since,
I
had no sleep the night before I am running on vapors. I am worried about
this. Mike says I should get the iron man award. It makes me thing that people
with sleep have an advantage at these events.

On to the report:
Round one

Jason Kang. Playing Crane with Naseru and borrowing 2 shows of good faiths
from me.
Jason is one of the nicest players in Southern California, I regret having to
play a friend.
I go first, I get a great gold start, and I am too fast for him. He does show
of good faith one of my guys, but I am just too fast for him, and Commanding
the favor as well as Favor control allows me to move around and win the game.
There was not too much Jason could do, and he felt like I was a blitz deck.
Military victory against a very nice guy. 1-0

Round two.
Paul Main playing Mantis with Kaneka out of Castle of Wasp.
Paul is a Socal player that I once played a long time ago. I only remember
good things about him. Sadly for him, I get a good gold start and woodlands in
my hand. He does not get enough naval range attack people. I fend him off and
use Retribution to take provinces. A very fun game, I wish I could remember
more.

Mutterings to my self "What am I doing at 2-0?", and why am I the only one
surprised by it. Luckily unnamed player insults others and me, and brings me
down to Earth.
I can focus
Military victory. 2-0

Round three
Karl Prince playing Phoenix Sezaru.
A great and fun game, I would have been happy if I lost it. We both get Gold
Screwed, it is a slow build up. He is military, he can handle most at what I
throw at him, but he can not handle Retribution and my movement. Rend plus
Retribution is good. Movement and my favor control, hurts him. My terrains and
well prepared hurt him more. I get him down to one province to my three. He
keeps getting people, I wait until I get key people, and attack. He does his
best to defend, but I had too much.
Military victory. 3-0

Round four
Phil Schaefer Phoenix Kaneka wind.
I see the Kaneka wind and know I am facing a military game. I am lucky to
have the honor to playing a fun player like Phil. Somehow with Retributions I
get him down in provinces. My memory is fuzzy. Key notables; I get Bloodspeaker
Students and destroy his Kuro's fire on Chieh. He as an open action attaches
another. He is afraid to attack with his other personality. This is very
smart, because I have woodlands and a well prepared in my hand along with a
superior strategist. I wait a little and get a Rising Shadows card. I bow
Chieh,
and take his provinces.
Military victory. 4-0

I go over to John Cohen and end up selling like 150 dollars worth of cards to
him.
More insults from the same unnamed player bring me down to earth to focus.
Round five
Mai Krakauer playing Dragon with Kaneka.
Mai is a real nice guy and may very well be the best Player in San Diego. He
does not seem happy to play me so out of respect I offer to concede to him. He
ignores my offer, and we play the game. His deck does not work, and mine
does. I am sure on another day his deck could beat me, but not today. This was
the quickest game I played. Perhaps his game was off due to playing me, or
perhaps it just did not work.
HELP I am going to Round six to table one.
YEAH I am excited and elated and disappointed all at once.
Both me and Mai watch the round 6 game and cheer on Bryan Reese and his
enlightenment engine. As always I am impressed by Bryans play.
More insults from the unnamed player, bring me off my high. THANKS unnamed
player.
Round six. Bryan Reese House of Tao with Sezaru
Bryan offers ME to concede to his glorious House of Tao enlightenment deck. I
almost take him up on his offer. He points out that I am a Brotherhood
player, and pulls on my heart strings. I am very tempted. Somebody points out he
is
secretly a Scorpion, and I would rather have the pleasure of playing Bryan
then conceded to him. I have only played him once before, and I would rather
play
him, because I don't get enough opportunities to play him because he lives so
far away.
I can not think as fast as Bryan so I choose not to play enlightenment. I
don't want to have stall out games, but I do know enlightenment well and feel I
can trip up Bryan along the way. So on to play, the guy who I feel is the best
player in California.
Doom of the Dark Lord comes out first turn. Bryan also is able to get wisdom
gained plus Ring of Void. He puts the Ring of Void into play using Sezarus
wind and Introspects for cards, and plays two Lessons of Earth. HELLO province
strength of 14. I go for gold first personalities at full second. He says
later that he was not fully aware of Doom of the Dark Lord and that caused him
to
make a mistake. I am not sure exactly what he means, but he has the Path of
Wisdom and has gotten some prayers, so is doing well at avoiding hand clog.
Eventually Nimuro hits the table. Bryan plays Air first after the Void Ring goes
back into his deck. Doom of the Dark Lord and some rings clogs his hand. He
does not attack because I think he secretly knows I will destroy his strategic
crossroads with a Control the Field, so he waits. He does Blessing of the
Dragon twice on Mae the soul of Takao duelist. I know what is coming so I
surprise him. I bow one of my bloodspeakers take an honor loss, and play Rising
Shadows on Mae. This shuts down his automatic ring of fire tech. I watch Bryan
twitch a little. He decides to send somebody else with a force of 6 to ambush
my 1 force soul of gohei with a house guard. He does his force duel, I focus
a rend the soul tying us. He toys with the idea of focusing another card, but
chooses to risk the rend the soul focus. I had three 4 focus cards in my hand
and most threes, so I was not going to lose the duel. We both bow and die in
the ambush.
I take two provinces leaving him with one province. At the last province I
toyed with the idea of sending my clan champ in, but I didn't. I should have,
my control the fields would have stopped his strategic crossroads.
He plays water. Next turn I attack with two people. Nimuro and some Ishege
with the blade of thorns, I play strategic cross roads. I bow his guy. No ring
of Fire for Bryan, and he loses.
WOW. I am the only undefeated.
Round 7
Jared Devlin-Schaeffer. Ratling Sezarus control deck
WOW..I get the pleasure of playing Jared. I am so lucky. It is rare when I
get a chance to play such good players. I don't take the offered for ME to
concede to him. I would rather play the second greatest player out there.
Jared, tells me he hopes I get Nimuro first turn.. The luck is with Jared.. I
do get Nimuro. I plan on keeping him, but Jared insist it would be much
better against his deck, for me to discard Nimuro, I comply, but he says he was
joking and lets me take it back. I build up slowly, and eventually against
Jared's control, I build a little, and attack. Jared gives me all the time in
the
world to think about things. I attack at two places. He does not defend. I
eventually notice I have commanding the favor, and figure out I can move my one
guy to another battle after Rending him twice. Jared shows the patient of a
saint, lets me figure out everything, and in the next battle, happily plays In
search of the Future. Jared ROCKS..I bounce. My plan is to get gold first
and eventually get enough honor bring out Nimuro and somebody else at full. I
also destroy his useless Fist of Solano woo with bloodspeaker students. It was
useless because my Gold was too much. I build up, a tiny bit and use Nimuro
to help me take provinces. Eventually Jared goes down against Nimuro. Jared-
if you read this report it was an honor to play you.
Round 8
We all banter at the tables. Unnamed player insults others and me again. I
am so glad I am not like that. I know the unnamed player can be a nice guy and
is a good player, but I hate it when people don't accept blame for there
losses, and do not give credit where credit is do. If unnamed player lost to a
deck, you don't say"I lost to a stupid enlightenment deck." You say I lost to a
brilliant enlightenment deck from a brilliant player."

Chad Farrel Lion Kaneka..(lots of Kanekas at these tournaments.)
Luckily, Chad and I don't worry about winning or losing. We are in, no matter
what.
It was a fun game, half the game was me being at four provinces to his three
provinces. I was timid and could most likely have won the game early but I am
tired and a phone call to my wife made me nervous. She does not feel well
and I want to go home. As I mentioned before she was in a car accident, and
insisted I should stay at the Kotei. I still worry about things though. My
priorities put my wife over L5R.
Chad is a little bothered; I am getting all the cool unique Lion cards he
isn't. I noticed that he is honor running, and decided to attack and take a
province. He wisely does not defend.
He still manages to break 40 honor. So it is break out the tricks time. He
defends only at one province. I send half my people at each province using
Nimuros reaction to lower his province to zero. I cooly play Defensive Screen
and send everybody home but one and take the province. On to the next battle.
He is Facing the guy with the sword, Nimuro, and an Ishege against his entire
army. He has two Ishege and two Rokuros as well as tons of guys. I have two
well prepared and can superior strategist. I play three terrains, with my last
one being strategic crossroads. He has destroyed two of my terrains. I well
prepare an Ishege. He fails to use Rokuros reaction. He feels that is a game
breaker, but it is not.. I could have superior strategist for the third well
prepared in my deck. I take the province and I am undefeated.
I think I am doing rather well for a guy who has been playing Lion
competivily for 8 days. But I want to go home .I am worried about my wife. I
find out
Art Reid (best Phoenix player in Southern California in my humble opinion) is
tied for 17th through 13th place. One person can not make the top 16 that
deserves this. I am bother by this. I offer to withdraw, to let Art in. Art
is
tempted but refuses. I suddenly had an urge to go home.
An idea comes up. Conrad Jackson could maybe play my deck for me and I could
go home. Somebody had walked off with Conrad Jackson's ratling deck and
Ratling box. This guy went thousands of miles to be here, and that happened to
him. If anybody finds his stuff and returns it to him, I will send you a Foiled
Defensive Screen and a Foiled Show of Good faith. Anyway, I figure a guy who
traveled so far to be with us, deserves to play.
I was tempted, but it would be very unfair to any of my opponents to put a
caliber of player like Conrad with my deck against people. I lack the L5R
diamond playing experience to win it all. I have only been playing the deck for
8
days. I decide to ask some players in the top 16 if they had a problem with me
switching out and letting Conrad play on. One player objected. I tell Conrad
I can't do it. If nobody would have objected, I would have driven home and
allowed Conrad to play my deck if the judges allowed it.

So we have top 16.
Best two out of three against
Kenny Nimura Dragon Kaneka with House of Tao with Ring of fire.
My mind is confused and my opponent plays brilliantly
He is very smart, but is a little new to making the top 16 of a Kotei. Come
to think of it, so am I.
We play on in the first game, he gets a crappy gold start, and I do ok.

We are paying attention to the awards. I am excited that my friend makes top
Scorpion and best dressed costumed person as a Ninja with full gear. At
Vegas he also got the award for the most enjoyable person to play against. Note
to people, the top of clan prizes are GREAT play your clans. Our friend
chooses to take the name Toshimo no Kage. We will let him keep his real name for
now, for that is the way of Ninja.

On to the game.
Kenny makes a mistake and insists it is my turn, when it is not. I catch it.
If I take the turn, I eventually win the game. I insist he goes. He refuses.
I am a little confused, perhaps my opponent is correct. Yet, I insist again
and count my fate cards and explain to him, due to fate card draw and count it
is his turn. Now he may have been right, and I might be wrong and he failed
to draw a card, but I was not going to win that way. Kenny plays great and the
two Iaijutsu Challenges he draws in his opening hand, basically allows me to
get pummeled. His Dragon deck is built brilliantly. He has dueling PK, and
wonderful battle actions some of my guys drop. He soon wins the game, although I
can take provinces.
Game two. I get gold hosed, I figure it is over. We play on. He has the
advantage. I lose provinces. I keep getting gold. Retribution allows me to take
provinces, but he plays cautiously with intelligence and makes no mistakes to
my many. He does not let me take back an assignment mistake, and I think I am
done for. Later he attacks with all his gold bowed out and his guys with lots
of goodies. I defend and play Barren fields. He is stunned. I win the
battle and eventually the game.
Game three was a lot like Game one. His Challenges came frequently, and my so
did my mistakes. I never seemed to have a tactician and my only defenders
were Maikos.. I lost honor slowly. Eventually I lose. Swiss curse bites me,
but Kenny played brilliantly.
Hats off to you Kenny.

My deck is loosely title in Honor of Dan.
Gold structure is huge and important to me. Inspirations for this deck come
from Bryan Yoon, Andrew O, Dan Tibbles, and some very important online advice
from Jon Paulson

Gekka Stronghold

2 x simple huts
2 x Crystal Mine
3xBarley Farm
1x Ashigaru Forts
2xShrine to Benton
shrine to Daikoku
3x Copper mine
Gifts and Favors
2x Personal Librarians
Shoguns Barracks. Perhaps one of the most broken gold holdings.
Yes 18 gold holdings. I hate gold screw

One Siege Towers..Kuros fire and range attack protection.

Personalities 20..yes only 20
3 Akodo Yobi
3 Matsu Takenao..I forget to use his ability too much
3 Akodo Maiko
3 Matsu Aoiko(soul of Gohei)
3 Akodo Ieshige
1 Akodo Kurako..
1 Matsu Hyun
1 Matsu Taniko
1 Akodo Mino
1 Matsu Nimuro.

Fate deck.. 42 cards…
Followers
1 Bloodspeaker Students..Almost tempted to take out the traveling Ronin to
have three of these guys.
2 traveling Ronin
1 Akodo House Guard
1 The Legion of Two thousand
Items
1 Ruby of Iuchiban
1 Celestial Sword of the Lion
1 Blade of thorns
Actions
3 Rend the Soul
3 Tireless Assaults
3 superior Strategist
3 well prepared
3 stay your blade
3 Retribution
Terrains
3 Strategic Crossroads
2 Woodlands..Yes I fear Kuros fire and Mantis.
2 Barren Fields
1 Defensive Screen
1 Heart of Rokugan
1 Suspended Terrain
1 Battle Field of Shallow Graves

1 Egg of Pan Ku
2 Control the Field

I built this deck in Honor of Dan Tibbles.
Dan..Thank you.. Without you, the L5R scene would be a much duller place.

Props To Jeff Alexander for listening to me whine about how the Brotherhood
of the Shensei was screwed and for him saying I had valid points.
Props to Ray Lau..Just because he is Ray Lau.
Props to John Cohen for showing up to sell us cards.
Props to Kristy Mack..A much better UTZ Banzai then Bryan Reese.
Props to the crew in Diamond bar. You guys rock.
Props to Fred at Do not pass go.
Props to people who are true to their clans.
Props to the Ronin decks. You had me at hello.
Props to you the reader.
Props to Ron for being older than me.
Props to Mike for letting me sleep on your floor...Err semi sleep.
Props to my Wife who puts up with my gaming..She is ok guys. I am so lucky.
Sorry if Missed anybody.
David Starr
Whitecat31 GAB Vice-Admiral in the Golden Koku Team


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