'SHADOWLANDS'
Can anyone tell me what the point of this stronghold is? It seems
the inferior of the Spawning Ground in every which way imaginable. The
only thing it has going for it is +1 gold in relation to shadowlands
cards (possibly good for the fortification which cancels force bonuses).
I can't imagine that turning anyones mind though. I've checked out
the SL cards I have and none of them, save for perhaps Tsuburu no Oni
and other 4 golders promote the use of this SH. Is it primarily for
flavour?
Another question:
If I pay for Tsuburu no Oni and I dont have any other personality in
play, can I bring him out? Or do I absolutely NEED someone else already
built to be destroyed before he can come out?
THIS IS THS SEASON OF THE SHADOWLANDS IN FRANCE
Hi all,
It's been an awful while since I posted a tournament report, but
here's one. We had our "Season of the Shadowlands" last week - only 6
people showed up, quite a low turnout here, but it looks like some
people are still in their Christmas/New Year break.
Well, the last Gold tourney we had around here (12 people) had 4
Lions, all of them in the top 4 (I placed 2nd with a Lion
Tactician/Peasant Revolt deck), and I was getting rather bored of
playing Lion; so, since this was, after all, a Storyline tournament, I
wanted to stop playing "whatever works"... two other players showed up
at my appartment two hours before the tournament, and I decided - hey,
I'll make this Gold Scorpion deck I've been thinking of. Only, of
course, Oni's Fury is still out, so it's either "low on Shugenja" or
"rent an Ikoma Tsai". I went "low on Shugenja", put together a way too
large Fate deck, slimmed it down a little, tested it (once) against
Marc's Crab (Kaiu) deck, won, and said, that's my deck for today. I
was sure my Lion (much more tuned and tested) would have been a better
bet, but I wanted a change.
Well, the first surprise was - no Lions at the tournament. In fact, we
had 6 different Strongholds, representing 5 Clans:
1 Scorpion (Yogo Towers - me)
1 Crane (Kosaten Shiro - Maxime)
1 Unicorn (Utaku Palaces - Benjamin)
1 Dragon (Iron Mountain - Luc)
2 Crab: 1 Kaiu (Marc), 1 Yasuki Palace (Francois)
Everybody was playing Tsudao as their Wind, and that was also my first
reaction - but then, I said, hey, I'm here to play something
different, so what the hell, and chose Sezaru as my Wind (Story-wise,
I should have played Kaneka, but, well, his effect just doesn't match
my deck; at least Sezaru looks useful)
The judge absolutely wanted 5 rounds of Swiss (is that truly
mandatory?), even with just 6 players (that meant a full tournament);
he initially wanted a top 4, but we eventually just had finals for
time reasons.
Round 1: Marc, playing Kaiu Crab (Honor)
OK, great. My deck's been tested against exactly one other, and that's
the one I face in the first round.
I didn't get a very good start, and he got a pretty good one; as a
result, I didn't get a good opportunity for attack before he was too
strong for me to attack without a Rallying Cry, which didn't want to
come; plus, his Kuroda/Kuon set was in play before I got an
opportunity to Kolat Master Kuroda; to top it off, my anti-Honor
Events didn't show up early enough, or at all, and that meant he still
had several Provinces left when he cruised past 40 Honor.
0-1, not feeling too confident - but then, I wasn't here to win.
Round 2: Francois, playing Yasuki Crab (Honor)
I was surprised to see Francois (usually more of a Horde or Lion
player, or, sometimes, Crane) play Crab... oh well.
He got a very good start, getting Welcome Home and Imperial Gift in
the first turns, plus Gold and Poorly Placed Gardens before I was in a
position to do anything against him. He had some Followers in his
deck, but for some unknown reason discarded them, and that meant I
managed to inflict some rather severe attrition on his troops - which
finally paid in the end. He had just two Provinces remaining, about
4-5 Personalities; I had a decent-sized army, with several Sunetra
(mobility) and, I believe, a Kolat Master Kuroda (Cavalry). I attacked
both Provinces, he defended both (one with a token force), keeping
just Miya Yemi aside. I managed to kill one Province and all of his
troops, and he remained with very few cards in hand; but then, his
next turn would clearly take him way over 40 Honor, and an Entrapping
Terrain would have ruined the day. Fortunately, I drew my Judgement
(and I already had a Secrets on the Wind in play), so I felt confident
I would be able to remove his Yemi if he didn't draw another
Personality.
As it happened, his one Dynasty card was Sumai Match, which meant Miya
Yemi foolishly challenged some Shosuro Yasuko (I believe all Kwanchais
had died), and bowed.
1-1.
Round 3: Benjamin, playing Utaku Palaces
Benjamin was obviously a novice player: in his first two turns, he
kept high-HR Personalities in his Province, only getting two Holdings
and one Chagatai into play in the first 3 turns. Meanwhile, I got
Gold, discarded a few too-expensive Personalities, and by the time he
managed to get his Yu-Pan and Mu-Dan into play, I had a few
Personalities in play (Yasuko, Kwanchai, someone else I believe) and
enough spare Gold to start Assassinating the most annoying of them. My
Revering the Past hurt him hard, and I even managed to overtake him in
Honor, killing two Provinces without losing one while he wasted two
Rallying Cries. He then managed to mount a decent defense, and I
played it safe, not attacking uselessly (no Rallying Cries for me) and
just killing people left and right, and gaining 4 Honor a turn (In
Time of War and Suspicions made that the maximum) thanks to Yojiro and
my Sanctified Temples. The game was called on time in my favor, but I
didn't feel too bad, since I had more Provinces, more Force, more
Honor, and a PK combo running (Judgement and Secrets on the Wind
against an opponent who had next to no duelling defense).
2-1 - clearly not too bad.
Round 4: Maxime, playing Kosaten Shiro (Honor).
Maxime got a fast start, getting the Honor events before me and, till
the end, he had more Personalities than me. It didn't help much that I
was very wary of the tricks he'd be playing (he _was_ using A Perfect
Cut), and was maybe overly prudent; but by the time I felt confident I
could take a Province if needed, we both had huge armies, and it was
clear he'd just let me pass and kill me if I didn't Rally. So I kept
drawing two cards a turn (he had the Soul of Yoshi, whom I promptly
Kolat Mastered), looking for a Rally, but that didn't come before it
was too late and he crossed 40 Honor with a full 4 Provinces.
2-2
Round 5: Luc, playing Iron Mountain (Honor).
We both knew, going into the game, that whoever won this game would be
allowed to play a game for 3rd (and we only had 3 Shadowlands card
boxes to split, so it was rather important). Luc seemed to be sure I'd
eat him alive... but then, I managed to draw exactly _zero_ Holdings
in my first 3 turns (to be fair, I did get all of my Events in the
meantime - still, just one Jade Works would have made me much
happier).
By the 5th turn, I managed to have a Jade Works, Soshi Angai, Bayushi
Kwanchai, and Shosuro Yasuko in play; and my opponent had a lot of
Gold, and 3 Personalities (Rosanjin, Temoru, and Daisuke, I
believe). He attacked one of my Provinces, and I defended with Angai.
As my first action, I bowed to bow Daisuke; he Iaijutsu Dueled Angai
with Temoru (he had a Fortress of the Dragonfly in play, so he
apparently was ready for a tie); I striked and Poisoned him, winning
the duel. I then switched Angai with Kwanchai, and bowed the remaining
Rosanjin, for a 0-0 tied battle and three dead Dragons.
This was, of course, a major mistake on Luc's part; it gave me a lot
of time to breathe while he was rebuilding, and my Bayushi Sunetras
inflicted some severe damage before he managed to stop them. Two
Fortresses of the Dragonfly quickly made my Kolat Masters and
Assassins obsolete, so I had little PKill left; but Angai quickly
acquired a Secrets on the Wind, and that meant any attrition I
inflicted during my battles also converted into Honor losses, slowing
him down. Also, my Revering the Past had resulted in me getting Shiryo
no Shoju (and him losing 3 Honor; I believe each and every one of my
opponents got hit by Revering, with me only once having the Ancestor
in hand before it hit), and a Bayushi Paneki was followed by the
Hunting Tiger - which meant his battle abilities were quite hampered
(you defend with just one unit? Shoju calls "Come one at a Time"; you
defend with more than one? Shoju calls "Iaijutsu Duel"). In the end, I
managed to inflict enough attrition that his last Province fell while
he was around 30 Honor.
3-2, and playing for 3rd.
(In the final, Francois - Yasuki Crab - beat Maxime - Kosaten Shiro
Crane. Well, if the story was to be decided just by how this went, I'm
afraid I see how the Tsuno took the Wall: Francois' Crab deck had
little of the "Crab Smash" style I like :)
Game for 3rd: Marc, still playing Kaiu Crab.
Well, this game went a little differently from the one in the first
round. First, I went first (Marc focused an Another Time, and I an
Elite Light Infantry) (for the record: during the whole tournament, I
made a point of carefully looking at my opening hand before telling my
opponent he could start - I wasn't playing Take the Initiative, but it
never hurts to let my opponent think I've got three dead cards in my
Fate deck...)
Actually, I got a very good start, with the Honor events hitting on my
side (the only downside being that Revering the Past hit before I
managed to get a Personality, meaning I had to discard Shoju). As a
result, his early Kuon was Assassinated and his following Kuroda was
revealed to be a Kolat Master, and I killed an early Province (I
believe). Then, he managed to get a good defense running, with lots of
Farmlands tokens (yuck! where's that Street to Street when you need
it?), and by the time we were both gaining exactly 4 Honor a turn
(except when I was Kolating or Poisoning), he had about a 15 point
lead in Honor - but then, I had one more Province, and managed to kill
a (dishonored) Personality from time to time. Then, I got my killing
engine running (Judgement on Paneki, Secrets on Angai, and a Sworded
15+ Chi Kwanchai to substitute for the lowly 6 Chi Paneki), and slowed
him down to about 2 Honor per turn (basically, I was killing a
dishonored Personality with 2 Honor each turn); when he ran out of
Dynasty deck, he still had a decent Force (protected by too many
Followers for me to feel safe with even one Street to Street; Shoju no
Shiryo wasn't there to forbid Superior Tactics), but I had almost all
my Personalities on the field, and even bowing Kwanchai and Paneki
each turn, I had enough to attack and kill the final Provinces.
Overall, I had a great day, and this one tournament reminded me why I
love playing Scorpion so much: I was constantly walking a very fine
line, with lots of tricks that are hard to deal with for the opponent
(Sunetra mobility, Kwanchai substituting for a bowed Sunetra in
battle, make it very hard to defend when you don't have Followers
around; and it will only be much worse once Cascading Fire and more
Shugenja make it possible to actually take those pesky Farmlands
tokens out "en masse").
(I'll post the deck list shortly; I'm perfectly aware that, in its
current incarnation, it needs some tuning, and would appreciate any
comments)
CREATED BY TSIVELEKIDIS CHRIS
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