On May 5th, I played in a Netrunner tournament at Cardboard Gaming in
Odenton. We were playing with the Spring Kit (whichever one had the full-art
Leela Patel card as a prize), which I had already won a tournament for a couple
of weeks ago, so I decided to go for something different.
For the Runner, I tried to build a Professor deck. I had hoped to take
advantage of all the new tools available for Shaper, and tried to build around
Brahman and the Cerberus icebreakers, thinking I could use Brahman to reset
them at will, and then use a card like John Masanori to redraw them, and maybe
Savor-Faire to replay them as needed. Of course, a strategy like this is expensive, but I hoped that running every type of economy possible
would help make it doable.
On the Corp side, I attempted to run Palana Foods: Sustainable Growth. The
goal here was to build a lot of servers, force the Runner to draw a lot of
cards, get a SanSan out, and try to fast advance agendas. Occasionally, I would
try to sneak out a Chronos Project and score it after the Runner had filled up
his heap.
The tournament ended up having 12 players, I think. Pretty good turnout.
Round one, I played against Joey, who I had beaten in the finals of the last
tournament. He swore to get his revenge, and... well, I let him. He
was using Harmony Medtech as his Corp, and I really could get nothing going (I
did not draw any icebreakers, or any cards to go get icebreakers the entire
game), and he was able to win easily (6-0, I think). We switched, and I took my
Corp deck against Ken "Express" Tenma. He installed Desperado early,
and ran ever server I installed. He quickly found the key cards I needed to
leave out there, trashed them, and hit me with three account siphons, ensuring he
had money. I believe I managed to get an agenda scored, but he easily took the
rest of them. I end round one 0-2.
Round two, I played Rob, who is the person I have played Netrunner against the
most (and it's not even close). I started playing as Corp against his Hayley
deck (Hayley is his favorite Runner, so I have seen many different styles of
Hayley deck from him). I keep him drawing a lot of cards; I set up from
time to time, scoring one or two agendas in spurts until he gets in to trash my
SanSans. I manage to score a Chronos Project mid-game, hurting his potential
use of Levy to maintain any sort of momentum, and end up taking the game from
him.
We switch sides, and I play Professor against his Foundry deck. Once again,
I do not draw icebreakers I need, and he takes the game easily. Just could not
get the Professor going! I am down to 1-3 after two rounds.
As an aside- in all three rounds of this tournament, I was the first player
done- so at this point Rob and I played another game using my Professor deck,
he could not draw ice he needed, and I scored a bunch of agendas off of
R&D. So I did manage a win, but in the least skilled way possible.
Round three, I am matched against Cas, who was flush from winning his FIRST EVER
game of Netrunner (go Cas! Whooo!). I start with the Professor, and he ran
Argus Security. Here, I actually get things up and running- I get two dogs out
along with Brahman, and get through his servers (eventually making decent
R&D runs) and take the win.
Switching, I face off against his Gabe deck. He immediately Account Siphons
me turn one. Then again on Turn 2. Then manages to score a couple points of
agendas from my hand, and then I start getting set up, starting to score a few
agendas of my own. I am down 6-4 when time is finally called, so I get a
modified loss. I was actually starting to get in good position, but Cas was
doing a good job keeping me from getting too much momentum. It could have gone
either way, but really, any small misstep would have cost me the game at this
point, so taking that loss was not too hard a pill to swallow.
I ended the tournament 2-4, which is perfectly fine, given that I was not
bringing my top stuff. Unfortunately, I do not recall who won. I am confident I will never bother playing the Professor again (I tried him quite a
bit when he originally came out as well). Just too little consistency to be
fun. Other than that, it was a good time, and I look forward to the next
tournament.
Showing posts with label Tournament Report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tournament Report. Show all posts
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Phoenixville, PA Kotei Tournament Report [L5R]
So, I attended the Kotei last Saturday, playing my Spider Swarm deck. I didn't do particular well... but then again, neither did any Spider player :). There ended up being 51 players, and I believe 7 of them were Spider. I did have some hopes for some Spider clan success here.
Anyway, let's talk about my deck first. Like I said, I went with a Spider swarm deck, trying to get gold turn 1, gold plus a guy turn 2, and then 3-4 guys turn 3, ideally attacking on Turn 4, and using great battle actions to win the battle, and hopefully take a province.
My deck:
The Hidden Bastion of the Spider
3 Famous Bazaar
3 Kumite Grounds
3 Lonely Dojo
3 Shinomen Marsh
3 Slave Pits
1 Temple of the Heavenly Crab
2 Daigotsu Hachiko
3 Daigotsu Konishi
3 Daigotsu Onosaka
3 Daigotsu Teruo
2 Goju Saido
3 Hiyamako
3 Kokujin Dairu
2 Minikui no Oni
3 Ninube Shiho
3 Colonial Conscripts
1 Ring of Earth
1 Ring of the Void
2 Blind Honor
3 Contentious Terrain
2 Discretionary Valor
3 Ideological Differences
2 Incapacitated
2 Inspired Leadership
3 Overwhelming Offense
2 Palm Strike
3 Relentless
3 Strength in Subtlety
2 Sudden Movement
2 Versatile Army
3 We Are Not Yet Beaten
1 Wedge
3 Your True Nature
I feel like there's not too much here that's a surprise. I tried running a lot of Kharmic cards, in order to clear out Holdings from my provinces after I had the gold I needed, and to replace situational cards in my hand (like We Are Not Yet Beaten). The Temple of the Heavenly Crab was a holdover, it didn't really provide me any benefit, but I figured there might be a slim chance I'd want the gold on my opponent's turn.
I ran a few things that were just in preparation for things I thought I might see at the tournament. Mantis is doing really well, so I added 3 We Are Not Yet Beaten in order to give me some ability to weather the Ranged attacks. Wedge was in there in case I had a situation that an Oni could take a province on his own. Discretionary Valor was included in case I over-committed to an attack that my opponent was going to let through, so I could pull the Oni back. Everything else seems pretty standard for this sort of deck, although I do wish I had run some different options. For instance, Okura is Released over the Palm Strikes might have won me my last game. And Discretionary Valor ended up being so useless that I wish I hadn't included it at all (maybe switch in another Blind Honor).
I also would drop one of my Daigotsu Teruo, probably for another Hachiko. In MULTIPLE games, my first personalities were two of Teruo, and that's definitely not what I want in duplicate early game.
Anyway, onto the games.
Game 1: Jon Ackey (Spider) from Oklahoma
Jon is apparently a Phoenix player, normally, but had forgotten his cards, and was using the Spider starter. Sitting down, I was feeling pretty good- my deck has to be better than a STARTER deck, right??
Well, yes, but only barely. I took a province early-ish, and he took one of mine. Then, in a battle two turns later... he beats my army. Now, he didn't have much on the table, fortunately, and I didn't lose much, but the tide was definitely turning.
Fortunately for me, he was running the starter deck, with its 20-ish holdings, and eventually he got stuck flipping too many holdings in a row to recover, and I ended up taking the game.
Clearly, Jon was a VASTLY better player than I was, but was just hindered by what he had available. Regardless, I exit round 1 with a win, and I'm at 1-0.
Game 2: Devin Bell (Phoenix) from New Hampshire
Devin was playing a Phoenix Honor rocket, with Yung Sensei to help smooth the gold curves and get the cards he needed quicker. Basically, we was shooting to cross 40 Honor before I could take all of his provinces, and using as much send home as he could pack in the deck to stall me enough to do so.
He gets an okay start, and I get way too much gold, and my only early personalities are two Daigotsu Teruo, so don't end up taking a province until turn... 5? Unfortunately by then, he's almost crossed, and I'm forced to attempt to take his final three provinces in a single turn on turn 7 or so. I take one without any opposition, and Devin makes me spend my hand to take the second one. With nothing available to me, I don't have the tools to take the third one, and Devin crosses at the beginning of his turn. I'm at 1-1.
I know Nathan (a meta-mate) was running The New Order to handle this matchup, but I had hoped I'd be able to get going quick enough to put pressure on him. Not to be today, sadly.
Game 3: J. Gerachi (Spider) from New Jersey
Unfortunately, I can't read my scribbles, so I don't remember his first name. He was running a Spider deck, using Taitaken Sensei, weapons, Tairao, and Goju Kumoru to create mini battles to attrition down my army, giving him free reign to attack.
This actually ended up being a tough battle. Fortunately, Relentless and We Are Not Yet Beaten carried a lot of my load. He started a battle, attempted the Melee attack, which I negated, would use the Fear to leave me with one fewer attacker, which Relentless would counter, making my Personality and extra +1F. This would leave him with one fewer defender, and exploiting that two turns in a row left him low on provinces. He finally flipped into two holdings, and the momentum was irreversibly in my favor, giving me the win, putting me at 2-1.
I actually really liked his deck though, something to this effect is something I may give a try in a few weeks, when I have some of the cards I'd need for it.
Game 4: Austin Richardson (Unicorn) from Tulsa
Our game group just got a Unicorn player, so I didn't have the experience I needed for this matchup. I believe he was running the Conspiracy sensei, which had me confused and a bit excited. Heck, I thought, I'll always have people coming out, there's no way he'll win doing that. Thankfully for him, however, he wasn't much concerned about the number of people I put out.
He'd put out cavalry guys, put a weapon on each, and start taking provinces. I defended as long as possible, but when I got him into a decisive battle, he edged me out, and that ended up giving him the win. I badly need more practice against Unicorn! So, I'm now at 2-2.
Game 5: Tanya Segee (Dragon) from New Hampshire
I believe Tanya ended up winning Top Dragon on the day, which is awesome. She was playing what I believe was a Kensai deck. I saw this because unfortunately, it seemed to have misfired. She didn't get a very good gold start, and after aggressively pitching to fix that, she ended up getting more gold than she needed, and not enough bodies to get the job done. The first attack I made, she defended with someone just to kill Ninube Shiho, but I still managed to take the province (a fair trade). I think the next province she let me take undefended. From there, she just couldn't get enough going in time, and gave me the game, putting me at 3-2.
Game 6: Jeff Sarkisian(?) (Scorpion) from Boston
My poor handwriting strikes again, as I can't read the last name I wrote down.
Anyway, this ended up being the quickest game of the day. Jeff was playing Scorpion dishonor (trying to drop me to -20 honor), which is made really easy by all the cards in my deck that make me lose honor myself. I knew from the first turn that this was going to be tough, but I hoped to get a quick start, and with enough momentum to take all his provinces on whichever turn he put me under -20.
I started off getting gold... but my first personalities were again two Daigotsu Teruo. This cost me a whole turn of momentum, and panicked, I recruited Minikui no Oni, causing me to lose 7 Honor (I had to use a Slave Pits, to make it even worse). Doing some of my opponent's job for him just make it even easier, and he bottomed me out next turn. I didn't even take a province! Down to 3-3 for me.
From here, I couldn't make the cut, which was disappointing, and to lose it to a deck that's really an auto-loss for me anyway was a bitter pill to take, but figuring I could still win top Spider (I was the highest ranked Spider at this point, based on table placement), I looked forward to my last game.
Game 7: Larry Wojcik (Unicorn) from New Jersey
Well, again- the Unicorn practice would've been nice. I actually did as good a job as possible defending, but he got such a good start, and had plenty of momentum, that I couldn't stop him. The final battle was close, but I had too many dead cards in my hand to win it, and ended up getting crushed.
So, I finished the day 3-4. I didn't play a single Mantis player all day, which is no surprise, as they were all at the very top of the standings (the top four in the tournament were all Mantis, a great sign for the current level of parity in L5R at the moment). Nathan, who I play with, managed to take Top Spider (I believe he was stuck playing one of those top Mantis players in the first round), and I believe I ended up placing 31st (to Nathan's 27th). Overall, not a great showing by me, but I was pretty darn close to being Top Spider, which is still good.
Anyway, after a brief break, I'll try out some new Spider decks, and try out random decks for the other clans, and get ready for next year's Kotei season.
Anyway, let's talk about my deck first. Like I said, I went with a Spider swarm deck, trying to get gold turn 1, gold plus a guy turn 2, and then 3-4 guys turn 3, ideally attacking on Turn 4, and using great battle actions to win the battle, and hopefully take a province.
My deck:
The Hidden Bastion of the Spider
3 Famous Bazaar
3 Kumite Grounds
3 Lonely Dojo
3 Shinomen Marsh
3 Slave Pits
1 Temple of the Heavenly Crab
2 Daigotsu Hachiko
3 Daigotsu Konishi
3 Daigotsu Onosaka
3 Daigotsu Teruo
2 Goju Saido
3 Hiyamako
3 Kokujin Dairu
2 Minikui no Oni
3 Ninube Shiho
3 Colonial Conscripts
1 Ring of Earth
1 Ring of the Void
2 Blind Honor
3 Contentious Terrain
2 Discretionary Valor
3 Ideological Differences
2 Incapacitated
2 Inspired Leadership
3 Overwhelming Offense
2 Palm Strike
3 Relentless
3 Strength in Subtlety
2 Sudden Movement
2 Versatile Army
3 We Are Not Yet Beaten
1 Wedge
3 Your True Nature
I feel like there's not too much here that's a surprise. I tried running a lot of Kharmic cards, in order to clear out Holdings from my provinces after I had the gold I needed, and to replace situational cards in my hand (like We Are Not Yet Beaten). The Temple of the Heavenly Crab was a holdover, it didn't really provide me any benefit, but I figured there might be a slim chance I'd want the gold on my opponent's turn.
I ran a few things that were just in preparation for things I thought I might see at the tournament. Mantis is doing really well, so I added 3 We Are Not Yet Beaten in order to give me some ability to weather the Ranged attacks. Wedge was in there in case I had a situation that an Oni could take a province on his own. Discretionary Valor was included in case I over-committed to an attack that my opponent was going to let through, so I could pull the Oni back. Everything else seems pretty standard for this sort of deck, although I do wish I had run some different options. For instance, Okura is Released over the Palm Strikes might have won me my last game. And Discretionary Valor ended up being so useless that I wish I hadn't included it at all (maybe switch in another Blind Honor).
I also would drop one of my Daigotsu Teruo, probably for another Hachiko. In MULTIPLE games, my first personalities were two of Teruo, and that's definitely not what I want in duplicate early game.
Anyway, onto the games.
Game 1: Jon Ackey (Spider) from Oklahoma
Jon is apparently a Phoenix player, normally, but had forgotten his cards, and was using the Spider starter. Sitting down, I was feeling pretty good- my deck has to be better than a STARTER deck, right??
Well, yes, but only barely. I took a province early-ish, and he took one of mine. Then, in a battle two turns later... he beats my army. Now, he didn't have much on the table, fortunately, and I didn't lose much, but the tide was definitely turning.
Fortunately for me, he was running the starter deck, with its 20-ish holdings, and eventually he got stuck flipping too many holdings in a row to recover, and I ended up taking the game.
Clearly, Jon was a VASTLY better player than I was, but was just hindered by what he had available. Regardless, I exit round 1 with a win, and I'm at 1-0.
Game 2: Devin Bell (Phoenix) from New Hampshire
Devin was playing a Phoenix Honor rocket, with Yung Sensei to help smooth the gold curves and get the cards he needed quicker. Basically, we was shooting to cross 40 Honor before I could take all of his provinces, and using as much send home as he could pack in the deck to stall me enough to do so.
He gets an okay start, and I get way too much gold, and my only early personalities are two Daigotsu Teruo, so don't end up taking a province until turn... 5? Unfortunately by then, he's almost crossed, and I'm forced to attempt to take his final three provinces in a single turn on turn 7 or so. I take one without any opposition, and Devin makes me spend my hand to take the second one. With nothing available to me, I don't have the tools to take the third one, and Devin crosses at the beginning of his turn. I'm at 1-1.
I know Nathan (a meta-mate) was running The New Order to handle this matchup, but I had hoped I'd be able to get going quick enough to put pressure on him. Not to be today, sadly.
Game 3: J. Gerachi (Spider) from New Jersey
Unfortunately, I can't read my scribbles, so I don't remember his first name. He was running a Spider deck, using Taitaken Sensei, weapons, Tairao, and Goju Kumoru to create mini battles to attrition down my army, giving him free reign to attack.
This actually ended up being a tough battle. Fortunately, Relentless and We Are Not Yet Beaten carried a lot of my load. He started a battle, attempted the Melee attack, which I negated, would use the Fear to leave me with one fewer attacker, which Relentless would counter, making my Personality and extra +1F. This would leave him with one fewer defender, and exploiting that two turns in a row left him low on provinces. He finally flipped into two holdings, and the momentum was irreversibly in my favor, giving me the win, putting me at 2-1.
I actually really liked his deck though, something to this effect is something I may give a try in a few weeks, when I have some of the cards I'd need for it.
Game 4: Austin Richardson (Unicorn) from Tulsa
Our game group just got a Unicorn player, so I didn't have the experience I needed for this matchup. I believe he was running the Conspiracy sensei, which had me confused and a bit excited. Heck, I thought, I'll always have people coming out, there's no way he'll win doing that. Thankfully for him, however, he wasn't much concerned about the number of people I put out.
He'd put out cavalry guys, put a weapon on each, and start taking provinces. I defended as long as possible, but when I got him into a decisive battle, he edged me out, and that ended up giving him the win. I badly need more practice against Unicorn! So, I'm now at 2-2.
Game 5: Tanya Segee (Dragon) from New Hampshire
I believe Tanya ended up winning Top Dragon on the day, which is awesome. She was playing what I believe was a Kensai deck. I saw this because unfortunately, it seemed to have misfired. She didn't get a very good gold start, and after aggressively pitching to fix that, she ended up getting more gold than she needed, and not enough bodies to get the job done. The first attack I made, she defended with someone just to kill Ninube Shiho, but I still managed to take the province (a fair trade). I think the next province she let me take undefended. From there, she just couldn't get enough going in time, and gave me the game, putting me at 3-2.
Game 6: Jeff Sarkisian(?) (Scorpion) from Boston
My poor handwriting strikes again, as I can't read the last name I wrote down.
Anyway, this ended up being the quickest game of the day. Jeff was playing Scorpion dishonor (trying to drop me to -20 honor), which is made really easy by all the cards in my deck that make me lose honor myself. I knew from the first turn that this was going to be tough, but I hoped to get a quick start, and with enough momentum to take all his provinces on whichever turn he put me under -20.
I started off getting gold... but my first personalities were again two Daigotsu Teruo. This cost me a whole turn of momentum, and panicked, I recruited Minikui no Oni, causing me to lose 7 Honor (I had to use a Slave Pits, to make it even worse). Doing some of my opponent's job for him just make it even easier, and he bottomed me out next turn. I didn't even take a province! Down to 3-3 for me.
From here, I couldn't make the cut, which was disappointing, and to lose it to a deck that's really an auto-loss for me anyway was a bitter pill to take, but figuring I could still win top Spider (I was the highest ranked Spider at this point, based on table placement), I looked forward to my last game.
Game 7: Larry Wojcik (Unicorn) from New Jersey
Well, again- the Unicorn practice would've been nice. I actually did as good a job as possible defending, but he got such a good start, and had plenty of momentum, that I couldn't stop him. The final battle was close, but I had too many dead cards in my hand to win it, and ended up getting crushed.
So, I finished the day 3-4. I didn't play a single Mantis player all day, which is no surprise, as they were all at the very top of the standings (the top four in the tournament were all Mantis, a great sign for the current level of parity in L5R at the moment). Nathan, who I play with, managed to take Top Spider (I believe he was stuck playing one of those top Mantis players in the first round), and I believe I ended up placing 31st (to Nathan's 27th). Overall, not a great showing by me, but I was pretty darn close to being Top Spider, which is still good.
Anyway, after a brief break, I'll try out some new Spider decks, and try out random decks for the other clans, and get ready for next year's Kotei season.
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