The Third Hand: Deck Construction (Part 1)

First and foremost, welcome back and thanks for visiting F5generation.com.  Today we will focus on the art of deck building.  If the mental game is the most important aspect of L5R then deck building is a close second.  I’m going to cover my approach to deck building and I hope to some insight to a structured way of deck building to those who sometimes get lost.  If you have other approaches please chime in on the comments below and I will include them in future articles.

The Third Hand: The Basics – Tempo

“It’s been a long time since I left you, left you, without a dope column to read too…” (Aaliyah feat
Timberland “Try Again”.  Sorta.)

Welcome back to The Third Hand.  It’s been awhile but I’ve been stuck in the lab working on the next deck for our local Kotei.  As for all of you coming down to Sarasota on April 9^th I want to first thank you and I look forward to seeing you all.  Frank really knows how to put on a great Kotei and its going to be a lot of fun.  With that said, lets get to the article.

EE Themes: Unicorn Shi-Tien Yen-Wang Priests (Military)

Wow.  This theme… what a mouth full!  The design team could have used any name for this theme, but instead they went with this.  Cmon, there had to have been SOME better name… “Unicorn Death Priests“?  “Prancing Pony Priests“?  “Galloping Gandolphs“?  “Water Wizards on Horses“?  ANYTHING.  I would have even been okay with “Dudes who may or may not sometimes ride horses and have an affinity for casting spells, as well as a weird fascination with the dead.”  But I SUPPOSE we’ll have to just deal with Shi-Tien Yen-Wang priests.

When I build this deck in Emperor Edition I’m just going to say that I’m playing “Purple Shugenja” and be done with it.

“If it can beat Lion…” – The Road to Kotei: Tampa (Part 2)

Part 2
“If it can beat Lion…”

Welcome to this weeks episode of “The Road to Kotei”!  Preparing for the Tampa Kotei I have been conducting an experiment in deck building.  I decided to take the stronghold I’m least familiar with, combined with a theme that I have never built before, and design it from the floor up instead of starting with a “base” from popular versions of the deck.  In building this Twin Soul Temple dueling deck, I started with a bunch of cards that may or may not work, and the plan is to make small changes over time to fine tune it into something resembling “good”.

EE Themes: Scorpion Paragons of Loyalty (Military)

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Yojimbo, it’s a Paragon, and it’s probably loyal!  That’s right, it’s SCORPION preview time and what a doozy this one is.  Our playgroup has been playing around with the thought of unicorn battle maidens being “folded” into a paragon theme for greater overlap, but to be honest, I’m not sure anyone expected Scorpion paragons.  I mean, cmon!  The Scorpion, thematically, are just the opposite of what you imagine Lion paragons as being.  But I suppose if Spider can has paragons, Scorpion can has too. 

Buy the F*cking Shugenja! – The Road to Kotei: Tampa (Part 1)

Part 1
“Buy the F*cking Shugenja”

Welcome back to the “Road to Kotei”!  For this series of articles (which will be 5 parts long, updated every Wednesday) I’ve decided to focus more on the “Johnny” aspect of the articles.  So, instead of just being updates on how the playgroup is doing, instead it will be an in depth exploration of the evolution of a deck from inception to finished product.  The Road to Kotei: Atlanta series did this as well, but it was far from the main focus.  For those who have become smitten with one or members of Team Anthem (and rightfully so!) worry not, I will still give small updates on their progress preparing for the Tampa Kotei as well.  Anywho… ON WITH THE ARTICLE.

EE Themes: Lion Shadow of the Pride (Military)

Another week, another preview.  This week we are looking at the Lion clan and their new theme “Shadow of the Pride”, a scout based military deck.  Apparently this theme is all about the Lion being able to swallow their pride and play dirty… by scouting?  Okay, I’ll buy into it.  I suppose.  Doesn’t mean I like it though.

EE Themes: Crane Protectors of the Temples(Honor)

Sorry that I am a week behind on these.  I promise I’ll catch up.  PINKIE PROMISE MAN.  PINKIE PROMISE.

Following last week’s interesting-but-not-necessarily-groundbreaking theme comes another theme that accomplishes an old win condition (Honor) in a new way (Crane Shugenja).  Anthony has complained all arc that the Crane lack shugenja, thus putting them at a major disadvantage if they have any hope of going for an enlightenment victory.  He has also been pretty miffed because the lack of shugenja has blocked off a large amount of spells/kihos that Phoenix get for honor running.  Well worry no longer Anthony, because you now get those sweet, sweet baby blue robed shugenja as a theme.  Well done.  Jerk.

Sleep’s Strategy: The Road To Kotei… ATLANTA (Wrap-up)

Alright!  It’s been just over a week since the Atlanta Kotei, and now that Team Anthem has had some rest, I’ve decided to post our wrap-up for the Road to Kotei articles I’ve been doing for the last month.  I had several people talk to me about the blog and it was tons of fun to talk shop with the great players that came out for this Kotei.  For this wrap-up, I will post my final decklist, my personal tournament report, as well as a look at how well the rest of Team Anthem did.  Also, for those who are interested, starting next Wednesday and every Wednesday from here until April 9th I will be doing a series of articles for the Sarasota FL Kotei, so stay tuned for that!

EE Themes: Phoenix Path of Man (Military/Enlightenment)

The first theme preview for the Phoenix clan is also the first “predictable” theme preview of the new set.  “The Path of Man”, a military/enlightenment win condition theme, focuses on monks and it hints at stat manipulation.