Ten Things I Think I Think #3

About L5R at the end of February and beginning of March, 2012.

1)      If you check out the latest Imperial Herald, you’ll find that the Embers of War Spider Stronghold represents the Spider setting up a secret stronghold in the Ivory Kingdoms without the knowledge of the Dragon Clan.  When the “Dragon watch over the Spider” was revealed in fiction, there was the obvious problem that the Dragon were going to have to start failing at their task, and probably pretty seriously at some point.  I had hoped there would be a decent amount of interesting fiction out of the situation before that time came.  Apparently that was not to be.  And I guess the Spider haven’t lost their whole “setting up massive strongholds without anyone noticing” magic just yet.

2)      All Sensei (or at least the first batch) will be Loyal.  The previewed Sensei don’t directly interact with any keyword specific cards – but the Scorpion Sensei (whoever that may be) will be able to interact with Shiro Chugo.

3)      Don’t call your TO over because your opponent has his Border Keep and Bamboo Harvesters in different sleeves than his Dynasty deck.  Your TO will hurt you.

4)      Decklists for decks that make the cut should be published, along with top of clans that didn’t make it.  This game needs more strategy discussion.

5)      Terrains are getting played.  You should probably have some way to deal with them.

6)      Terrain meta is getting played.  Don’t assume your Terrains will survive.

7)      Between The Perfect Moment and Retribution + big attachments, you are going to get attacked on your own turn.

8)      We’re not kidding about that whole “attachments matter” thing.  Ashigaru Elite is actually getting play.

9)      Do not try and run a T16 as best-of-three in a one-day Kotei

10)   I appear to have been a bit dismissive of honor, as Phoenix ToP and Lion pure Ancestors have done well.  At least we seem to have been right so fare on the notion that defensive dishonor is weak.

11 thoughts on “Ten Things I Think I Think #3

  1. #4) I disagree, a decklist should remain the intellectual property of the person that put it together and only be made public with their consent.

    1. Even in this recent era of extremely long copyright protection, all actual IP is time-limited by something other than the desires of the creator (a decklist is, of course, not actually covered by any intellectual property law, but I get the point). IP law is supposed to balance the interests of the creator (although it should be noted that the player of the deck is often not the creator, and we aren’t talking about a player keeping a decklist to himself but rather to controlling who gets access to it) and the interests of the community as a whole. What is the limitation you suggest for decklists?

  2. I am in favor of deck-lists. While I understand the mentality of wanting to keep your Secret Tech…well… Secret, I think it ends up being better overall and helps to push the evolution of the environment, the more information is made public. I think on this “Just because you are able to see a train coming down the tunnel , it makes you no less dead when I runs you over.”

  3. Lol @ 3.

    I feel that once a deck sees tournament play it is pretty much in the public domain and in L5R having the card list and actually having any ability to play it are two very different things.

    Anything that increases strategy talk has to be good, after all most of us spend more time talking L5R than playing it.

  4. I posted my Lion deck (without saying how many of each card I was running) on the Lion forums, and it generated a pretty good amount of discussion. I do think that SA and Elfiver do a good job of stimulating strategy discussion, and that there’s definitely more room for growth in the community. That said, one thing I do like about l5r is that not everyone is running some net-decked thing and that regional environments really are different.

    1. i actually enjoyed reading that.

      it shows what cards were used
      [opens discussion what cards are viable for a winning deck]
      but the number as an unknown factor
      [makes it hard to be just net-decked. :)]

  5. I’m all for deck list posting. I find the discussion interesting. Plus, it often brings ideas that I might not have otherwise have thought of. It seems like a good way to help out members of your Clan to gain more victories.

  6. About decklists, my 2 cents:

    How many people is a professional L5R player? Rethoric question =)
    How many people we found on local playgroups? With few exceptions, not too much.

    Decklists ever helps beginners to be introduced in the game. Its a single path to become a competitive player. No one likes to be spanked when learning something new. He needs advice and motivation. Anything that helps this process is welcome.

    PS> Sorry about my poor english! =)

  7. 3) Don’t call your TO over because your opponent has his Border Keep and Bamboo Harvesters in different sleeves than his Dynasty deck. Your TO will hurt you.
    lol

  8. About decklists…
    I think that if we were playing this game for $$$, then yes, we should have to require decklists. However, given the nature of this game and how we are supposed to be honorable about our playstyles, I personally believe that we should give adhearence to BH/BK (and 2 x4 cards in the case of EVD), but overall be sincere about how we are playing the game.

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