After looking at Lizard Wizards out of Temple of Purity last week, we turn our attention to another deck that shows up all of the time in Kotei elimination rounds – Mantis Magistrates. Although there are also swarm/blitz versions decks with some Magistrates out of Kalani’s Landing, what we’re looking at here is a more standard military – it drops some dishonor on you to enable kill actions (or to make them cheaper), and takes advantage of Naval and ridiculous money between the box and a Port gold scheme.

The goal here is to come up with a “standard” KL Magistrates deck to playtest against. This deck is being constructed to be what you’re likely to face in a Kotei, not as a recommendation for being the optimal KL deck if you want to play one.

Kalani’s Landing
Border Keep xp
Bamboo Harvesters xp

Like almost every non-honor deck ever in this environment (and the next one, unless there’s yet another Border Keep that’s even better), Kalani’s Landing always wants Border Keep xp. That’s almost always going to be paired with Bamboo Harvesters xp – the deck is flush with cash, so it’s an easy call to go for the extra card draw of BHXP.

Celestials/Events/Regions (6):
1x Imperial Gift
1x The Second City
1x Jurojin’s Blessing
1x Gaining Advantage
2x ???

Imperial Gift, The Second City, and Jurojin’s Blessing are all universal selections, but the field is more fractured after that, as if often the case for this often meta-heavy part of the deck. Imperial Gift and Jurojin’s a pretty heavily played in every sort of deck, and Second City here is not only a deck-thinner, but gives the +1F out to almost all of the Personalities. Gaining Advantage can fetch Kitsuki Judgment, The Law’s Strength, or Ingenuity. But I’d look most often at the Kitsuki. The most common fifth slot for this section of the deck is Formal Apology to help against dishonor, but it’s wide open after that (including the sixth slot here actually being a 21st Personality).

Holdings (14):
3x Kobune Port
3x Sheltered Port
2x Second City Port
2x Merchant Outpost
1x Traveling Peddler
1x Chugo Seido
1x Buried Treasures
1x ???

The standard gold scheme for the deck is Ports plus some card draw, with a lone Chugo Seido thrown in as well. The final open slot is the 11th port – either a third Second City Port or a third Merchant Outpost.

Personalities (20):
3x Yoritomo Kanaye
3x Yoritomo Kanahashi
2x Tsuruchi Nobukatsu
1x Yoritomo Hiromi
1x Thunder Dragon xp
1x Yoritomo Sachina xp
1x Yoritomo Singh xp2
1x Soshi Yoshihara xp
1x Fukuzo xp
1x Makito xp
5x ???

That’s a lot of question marks at the end, eh? There’s a pretty agreed-upon core of Magistrates and Uniques, but the decks fracture for the last fourth of the Personality base. However, it’s not like there’s a lot of disagreement on the kind of cards you put in those last few slots. Four of them are Magistrates, and the fifth is either another Magistrate, or a Unique of some sort. The Magistrate slots are typically going to be Yoritomo Hama, Yoritomo Hofu (especially if you’re running attachments), or Yoritomo Iwashi. The Unique choices are usually Tsuruchi Nobukatsu xp or Tsuruchi Tomaru xp.

 

 

Strategies (33):
3x A Stain Cleansed
3x Govern the Land
3x Sudden Blockade
3x Broken Alliance
3x The Law’s Strength
3x Ingenuity
3x Kitsuki Judgment
3x Improper Papers
1x Serenity in Air
1x Peace
1x Creating Order
1x A Game of Dice
1x Closing the Gap
1x Relentless Conviction
1x Fruitless Search
2x ???

The number 33 for Strategies may be a bit misleading here. The “average” KL deck ends up running 5 attachments and 2 Rings, as listed below. But the attachment number, in particular, is arguably a bit off – the typical KL deck is really just running 2 attachments, but a couple of them that run playsets of Cursed Relics and Wyrmbone Katana and such throw that off. Since we’re looking to make a typical deck, the final decklist here might want to skew towards the more commonly played light attachments build. On the other hand, there isn’t really anything resembling a strong recommendation to round out the final few slots, because they’re all over the map.

Attachments (5):
1x The Black Pearl xp
1x The Isha’s Yumi xp
3x ???

Black Pearl and Isha’s Yumi are common here. The third attachment slot is probably The Emerald Armor xp. As noted above, the final two are a bit odd. Usually, these decks are looking at something like 3 items, or 9. You’re pretty unlikely to run into one with precisely five. On the other hand, I’m not sure if singletons of Wyrmbone Katana or Cursed Relic is any less representative than whatever Strategies/Rings I might pull out of my hat.

Rings (2):
1x Ring of Fire
1x ???

Ring of Fire is played tons and tons here, just like it was in Lizard Wizards. The decks usually play 2 Rings, but the second can be Earth or Water or Void, and rounding out Ring selection might be a viable alternative for a gauntlet deck to rounding out the Strategies (since we really are not going to stick 5 attachments in here).

So what I see as options for the final four slots in the gauntlet deck are some combination of – 2x At Any Cost, 1x Wyrmbone Katana, 1x Cursed Relic, and the third and fourth Rings. I’m going to leave out the attachments.

Mantis Magistrates Gauntlet Deck

Kalani’s Landing
Border Keep XP
Bamboo Harvesters XP

Dynasty:

1x Imperial Gift
1x The Second City
1x Jurojin’s Blessing
1x Gaining Advantage
1x Formal Apology

3x Kobune Port
3x Sheltered Port
3x Second City Port
2x Merchant Outpost
1x Traveling Peddler
1x Chugo Seido
1x Buried Treasures

3x Yoritomo Kanaye
3x Yoritomo Kanahashi
2x Tsuruchi Nobukatsu
2x Yoritomo Hama
2x Yoritomo Hofu
1x Yoritomo Hiromi
1x Thunder Dragon xp
1x Yoritomo Sachina xp
1x Yoritomo Singh xp2
1x Soshi Yoshihara xp
1x Fukuzo xp
1x Makito xp
1x Tsuruchi Nobokatsu xp
1x Tsuruchi Tomaru xp

Fate:

3x A Stain Cleansed
3x Govern the Land
3x Sudden Blockade
3x Broken Alliance
3x The Law’s Strength
3x Ingenuity
3x Kitsuki Judgment
3x Improper Papers
2x At Any Cost
1x Serenity in Air
1x Peace
1x Creating Order
1x A Game of Dice
1x Closing the Gap
1x Relentless Conviction
1x Fruitless Search

1x The Black Pearl xp
1x The Isha’s Yumi xp
1x The Emerald Armor xp

1x Ring of Fire
1x Ring of Water
1x Ring of Earth
1x Ring of the Void