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From the L5R 2006 World Championship page:
"Several months ago, brave samurai set out with the Emerald Champion to ride to the aid of the Emperor, deep within the Shadowlands. Now Nezumi return with word that the contingent is pinned down at the legendary Tomb of the Seven Thunders. Oni and other vile creatures of the Shadowlands move against them while they struggle valiantly to defend the Emperor, who is still in seclusion within the Tomb. Worse yet, the Nezumi report a mass of Oni moving towards the area of the Tomb, and their force is strong enough to overcome the defenders. The Clans must react for the good of their Emperor.
"At the 2006 World Championships, the armies of the Clans arrive to do battle with the Oni, protecting their Emperor and allowing him to find the resolution of his quest. Will he find the Enlightenment he seeks, or will his quest end in failure as it did for his brothers? And what of the Lost, whose side will they take in this decisive battle? During the long battle, ten noble souls (each Top of Clan player) will be allowed entry into the Tomb. The Tomb will be physically represented at the World Championships, and within are artifacts of great power and mystery. Each player must privately choose the item they adopt for their Clan. While the proper choice can bring great power and glory, an improper choice may bring great peril. Will you choose to gain power for your Clan or deny another Clan their destiny? Seek the pieces of the map for guidance."
From a post made on the L5R CCG Community & Events forum
People seem to enjoy reading these things, so who am I not to sacrifice a few hours writing one? As I don’t want to leave much out, this’ll be a long read, but nonetheless my shoddy memory will have me leave out many details. I am sorry for forgetting, misspelling or flat out raping anyone’s names and or events.
Ok, this story starts at home, with me trying to make a deck for Worlds, while being fairly busy working for my father’s business (I’m learning the ropes of importing and distributing high quality audio goods) and trying to become a proper Player Design Team member. Needless to say, my time was shorter as when I still studied archaeology. I had come up with this Nezumi deck that abused Yotsu Dojo’s with the help of Shinbone’s and Forest Killer Caverns way back when Yotsu Dojo was still in playtest. At the time I wasn’t able to get it to work properly, but that was likely due to the rampant holding destruction present in the (pre-errata) environment then. Unable to come up with a proper Dragon deck, and unwilling to just play a copy of Greg Wong’s all-star Kitsuki build (awesome deck and fun to play!) I decided I should put my money on the Nezumi honor build. I had tried it out with friends at home, and did fairly well, with only Mantis giving me trouble. I started packing Reinforce the Gates and after that even that match-up turned in my favor. I later took it to a smallish tournament in Keulen (Cologne) and won with it there, losing one game from a Unicorn All-star because I had Hired killer’ed the wrong person (oops!) and therefore did not survive the last attack when I was on 40 honor.
After these few test sessions, I noticed the deck was pretty slow and was taking a long time to win its games on honor, as the setup stage was about 6 turns and after that I needed an average of 2.5 turns to fly to 40. Being worried about opponents not conceding when time was called, I had a hard time deciding between this build and a mid-game military Broken Shinbone build from the Depths of the Shinomen stronghold. After several pep-talks from my Team Imperial mates, I decided to just give ‘Tomorrow’s Honor’ a try. After all, who else but Faber could come up with a deck like this?
Sadly, the Dutch delegation to tournaments is getting smaller and smaller (I am glad to be on PDT, so I can influence the future of L5R in central Europe so the game starts growing again here too) so this time we only had two cars coming, with a total of 9 players. Hans and Bennie really suck for not being there, but they both know so already. I just can’t pass up the opportunity to rub it in. I was in a car with trusty Thijs Kaars, our cavalry driver with the amazing powers of not needing any booze to be absolutely loosened up, Pim Oliekan, harrier maniac that stole ET’s finger, Remco de Heus, the Scorpion who never stops smiling and my best mate Wilco ‘taint is bad, mmmkay’ Berger. We had booked into the Golden Tulip through resotel, the company AEG had working for them arranging Hotels. We got up at 5 after having gone to bed at 24… We arrived at the Hotel at a little over 7 in the morning, and decided to try and check in already. Amazingly that wasn’t a problem. I was very stressed out over the fact our room was on the 26th floor (us Naga are very down to Earth…) but the view over Brussels was amazing. We could see the Atomium and the Koekelberg all lit up at night time.
After having checked in we went to the venue. Finding it was not a problem as Thijs had tactician’ed himself a GPS for his mobile phone. It worked like a charm! The venue had ample parking space inside, though the parking lot itself reminded me a little too much about scenes from ‘Highlander: the series’ not to be a little uncomfy :p
We were welcomed by the lovely ladies of AEG, who refused to take my money, and Brent Keith who provided me with my badge and a ‘Player Judge’ mini banner thingy to stick to the badge. It looked great with the other key-chain I was wearing already, which had a thick sleeve hanging from it with the Designer Wins I had won at Mouzaka last February and the alternate art Legions of the Sapphire Chrysanthemum Ariel Alvarez from Argentina had so graciously sent me. I had not won any sportsmanship awards during the kotei season, but I still wanted to have the card for my collection. Ariel first refused to trade or sell it, as it had sentimental value to him, but after he had learned I had had a lot of stress in my life lately he decided to just throw it in the mail to me! It pays off to let your girlfriend sit behind your MSN sometimes Ariel really is the most honorable player I have never met.
The venue itself was basically one huge room with the tables set up regular GenCon style. The only really negatives about it were the bad ventilation and the lousy location inside one of Brussels lesser neighborhoods. The venue was still undergoing lots of construction work, so maybe in the future the ventilation issue will be fixed.
AEG had decorated the venue with a few banners but the best thing they had done was bring the entire staff (and even John’s brother!) who welcomed everybody with big smiles and lots and lots of goodies.
Being qualified a couple times over, I didn’t have to play on Friday’s qualifiers. Instead, Colson had me be in his personal legion of slaves. Being abused never felt as good! The negative was I couldn’t play in the invite only tourney, to test my deck a little more (I had a fate of 44, needed to figure out what to cut…) but the positives weighed up sufficiently: I could share in the anguish of being an L5R judge in this Ninjutsu crazy world :p Plus I got to hang out with all the cool people at the TO stand, which was pretty nice too. Except McFrenzy o’course, he always makes me feel so dirty…
Remco, Wilco and myself had dinner at a nice tavern in the area of our Hotel that night, and went to bed at about 2. I couldn’t sleep very well, as I had drank a lot of beer (for my skinny body at least) and that always gets to my head. Must be the bubbles. Decided to get up again and drink some whiskey plus listen to Pim and Wilco snore like lawnmowers. Alarm went at 7 and after a looong shower, some Hotel weak coffee and breakfast, I was ready to rumble!
I had decided to cut 1x Dark Lord’s Favor, 1x Hired Killer and 2x Encircled Terrain. Bad move… It made my Crane match-ups a little too close for comfort! Should have cut the Reinforce the gates and 1x Encircled terrain instead, but even someone with my ties to lord Satsu can’t see the future. I had figured to be facing a lot of Mantises… I’m sure someone who tries this deck out will find a better mix of cards than I have.
I won’t be reporting on the 8 rounds of swiss, as I didn’t make notes and thus have forgotten most names and clans, etc. Means it would be a messy report anyway. All I can say is that I went 7-1, placing 5th, only losing from a fellow Nezumi who ran WotOT enlightenment. I wasn’t able to make him discard a ring fast enough, as he just enlightened on me turn 5. I knew why Shadowed Path to Victory had to remain on the watchlist! Anyway, I won all other games on honor, or my opponents conceded before I could actually do so.
I did have all players sign my Naga, Zamalash, which can be seen here: http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c200/Faberassha/Worlds%202006/Zamalash.jpg For all you fans, that card contains the john hand-cocks of Greg Wong, Chris Reda and Lars Bodach! Ooooh ebay ebay ebay!
Saturday eve also saw the first round of top 32. This was the first time I really noticed this event was run by Americans as we were going to do best of 3 with 90 minutes time limit and the Palmer rule. We Europeans usually prefer Dual elims.
Top 32: Thomas Pecqueur with Steel Gardens, Rosoku Sensei, Underhand. French (or perhaps Wallonian?)
This match-up is nearly an auto win for me, as all I have to do is get out the Packs and start attacking. But Chris Reda, who I had played during swiss earlier the same day, had played an overwhelmed against me and had almost beaten me with it. This got me worried, plus my own duel builds always include sacrifice of pawns to get rid of Packs/Shono or fetch Funaki to still get rid of Packs/Shono. Turned out he ran neither. I won the first game by dropping Dark Lord’s Favor and Test of Honor on his t3 Masote exp.dropping him to 4 honor and being unable to buy anyone for a few turns. He later get’s out Reju, but another DLF negates the gain (the Last Prophecy is good at fetching DLF) and a Hired Killer takes care of Reju. Having no people get’s you killed I hear. The second game his gold flows well and he starts buying people with honor and I flush like a mad man to see a pack. Turns out all 3 were in my last 6 cards… This means I do not get enough attack phases to wear down his fate hand full of defense. Third game is a normal game, with me seeing a turn 4 pack, turn 6 pack and turn 7 pack. I walk over his provinces as if I was attacking them with hordes of critters. Ah, yeah.
Opponent was a real sport and didn’t seem to be cross about losing to a deck that didn’t let him play his at all. He signed a Ratling pack for me, as can be seen here: http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c200/Faberassha/Worlds%202006/Shinbone1.jpg
Total score: 9-2
MVP: Shinbone Pack
After this game there’s a party in the bar across the road, where a free beer and some nifty promos are handed out. It was well fun to get handed the first cards the new PDT team designed (first set we did will be the next one) and see how the process ends up as actual card board. I am too hyped to go out for dinner, so when we finally leave for the Hotel my dinner consists of Unicorn Sultana cookie rations. Thanks Thijs! After some more whiskey, smokes and watching people play their PSP toys, we went to bed at 3. Alarm again went at 7. A shower didn’t quite wake me this time, and so I am late for the agreed time Thijs would drive me to the venue (the others would rather sleep then cheer me on…). Sorry Thijs!
Annoyingly enough, I arrive well before even the staff does… They even joked on how we must have slept there. Sadly, I was just misinformed by my mates on the time the top 16 would start. Note to self: next time make sure of starting time before leaving. Extra hour of sleep/showering would have been bliss.
I sit down after a coke and some smokes, to play against one of the friendliest players from Spain I know, right after Heraclio Sanchez o’course.
Top 16: Inaki Puigdollers with Morikage Toshi, Kanjiro Sensei and Voice. Spanish.
First game I pull the same trick as I had on Thomas yesterday: t3 DLF + ToH to drop him to 4. I knew his deck only had Kimi’s with 4 Honor requirement, and he had already seen two basics and one experienced (one basic + overlay in play who got the DLF on them). He can’t get any people out and concedes after I discard the Ring of Water with my stronghold.
The second game I get even luckier. He flips turn 1 Kanashimi Toshi (again!) and I have no All Things have a Price, but then he also flips Wanderers Revealed! Excellent timing I buy the t1 rat, so I can start using the box from t2 onwards, trying to mill important cards to his enlightenment tricks. He drops Void in t4, and used all his gold doing so. I knew he had Fire in hand, as I had discarded that with the Stronghold turn 3 (lucky!) but he returned it with Threads of Fate. I first use my stronghold t4, but had planned to kill his sole Sawao with Test later that turn. His top card is Ring of Air. Not having another Threads of Fate he concedes.
Inaki signed my Dark Lord’s Favor, which can be seen here: http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c200/Faberassha/Worlds%202006/DarkLordsFavor.jpg
Total score: 11-2
MVP: Dark Lord’s Favor
After yet more cokes and yet more smokes, I sit down for my top 8 game.
Top 8: Sebastian Fries with Khol Wall, Right Hand. German
I had soundly beaten Sebastian the day before at the last round of swiss, but as we were both 6-1 at the time that match hadn’t really mattered. Nonetheless I was not worried, as my deck was build to beat this sort of deck. It did so, twice, and convincingly. Sebastian lost both games on control elements in my deck. He was unable to set up his board while I was. When he finally had some board, I was gaining 8 each open phase. Both games go about the same, with me destroying key personalities and him trying to get a province. In the end I lose none in both games. Sebastian signed my All Things Have a Price, which made me able to control his board (by taking out key regions, such as Fields of P.V.) and can be seen here: http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c200/Faberassha/Worlds%202006/AllThingsHaveAPrice.jpg
Total score: 13-2
MVP: All Things have a Price
I’m really excited at this point, as I am confirmed top Nezumi and this had been my aim for this tournament! I hear my next opponent had gotten a bye, because his opponent had ended his top 16 game in a tie. I was really lucky because of this, as Christian (who got the tie) was one of the only players running a deck soundly capable of beating mine. The other was Scharwin’s Scorpion dishonor, but he had been lined up to play Pablo and was eliminated by him. Looking at the remaining players in top 4, I suddenly realize I could just as easily win the whole tournament! I try to calm myself down, telling myself some serious bad luck could always end my dreams. Little did I know how great my luck reserve really is…
Top 4: Javier Jimenez with Shiro no Soshi, Right Hand and Rosoku (I Think). Spanish.
Another great guy from Spain (quite literally too!) but one who’s English wasn’t as good as most others. We had some ruling issues (I have stopped caring about Ninja rules after hosting a few events and judging at them…) and needed the help of a friend to translate some remarks. While I was again confused by the silliness that is Ninja, at least I was pretty sure I was going to win. I had tested against Ninja a lot, as both Remco and Frans tend to play them. I don’t think I have lost a single game against them…
What went down in both games was simple. He brings out Ninja, I start setting up for the honor strike. He duels a few away with Shinzo’s etc, I kill Kan exp, and my Packs start coming out. Packs recycle the warriors, and the warriors get me buckets of honor. He concedes both games without me having lost a province and being on 50+ honor.
Javier is another good sport, and signs another of my Packs, which can be seen here: http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c200/Faberassha/Worlds%202006/Shinbone2.jpg
Total score: 15-2
MVP: Yotsu Dojo and Fields of Foolish Pride
In the finals once more! Now I have to wait and see who my opponent will be, either Reda or Pablo but their games are still well in progress. I preferred Pablo as his deck was what my deck was designed for to beat. Plus he owes me a finals after beating me at last Rubies ? Sadly Pablo pussies out and I am left with another Crane finalist. I seem to be getting a bad rep for beating up on Cranes all the time… It’s really nothing personal! (except for that Anvil bit, but that’s being sorted).
So I smoke my last smoke and chat with Reda a bit before we sit down for the match of matches.
Top 2: Reda Lounis with Steel Gardens, Underhand. French
I had chatted with Reda quite a bit during the weekend, and he seemed rather confident in his decks ability to defend itself. Sadly for him I wasn’t planning to let him use the other 66% of his duel oriented fate deck. During the first game he sees the bane of the Packs, Kakita Funaki, in turn 3 or 4. Luckily the Last Prophecy fetches me a Dark Lord’s Favor and so Test of Honor takes care of her the proper way. In my 5th turn all 3 my provinces contain Shinbone Packs… I buy one and get a 2nd Gift out. Turn 6 he gets the Obi of the Sun Goddess and a Mak’Irtch follower and goes to town. And by to town I mean bump into a defense card… End of turn I get another Pack out. Turn 7 I attack with both, and bump again. Lots of bumps later Reda is on 35 and all out of defense. I finally roll over his provinces. Underhand was some annoying as it made him defend a whole lot easier.
The second game he sees Funaki even faster. Turn 3 she is out. His gold start is super tight and mine isn’t. I’m flushing for packs but more importantly a way to kill Funaki. I finally draw into a Hired Killer and spend all my gold to kill her. My setup is so slow this game, I just know I am going to lose. He even starts attacking me! But in his eagerness to take my provinces (not gonna happen, Fields of Foolish Pride took care of that) he forgets that he can only gain honor from 1 peep a turn, meaning he should leave some lying in his provinces. He doesn’t and in the end he fails to take any of my provinces, I Test of Honor a whole bunch of people, Hired Killer Uji and start attacking. After he runs out of defense again, he concedes.
Reda also signs a Pack, which can be seen here: http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c200/Faberassha/Worlds%202006/Shinbone3.jpg
Total Score: 17-2
MVP: Hired Killer and Fields of Foolish Pride
So I’m the frikkin’ World Champion!!! Squeeeek!
I almost cry at this time, but luckily I’m too tired and dehydrated to find the fluids to do so.
I get my arms thrown full of prizes by Colson and Salman and lots of people get pictures. (I need to see some of them!) Then they round people up to head over to the Tomb.
I got to enter it first, with my chosen second George. Pretty sweet deals to have a couple Nezumi enter a tomb full of loot first… The Tomb was this little room in the cellar of the bar, which they had nicely decorated with curtains and candles.
We are told to try and pick the item that we think belongs to our clan, as picking the wrong one spells disaster for the clan that takes it. Many items there are hella nice and shiny, but we both agree the Hourglass must be the one for us. Nezumi are always racing tomorrow, their concept of Death, and an hourglass represents time running out. I will make certain the sand in that glass will never stop flowing, I have constructed a tumbler that tumbles the glass when the weight shifts too much from top to bottom. I’ll post a picture as soon as I own a digicam.
After having had a good look at all the items there, we get out and the Crane enters. After everybody has had a peek, I enter alone to make my pick. As a semi serious joke, I pretend to be spitting in the Urn (which I thought contained Matsu’s ashes) but I don’t think anybody noticed. This is probably for the best, as Lion aren’t the kind that can take a little jest without doing a full on genocide a few centuries after the fact…
I pick the Hourglass and the event card that goes with it (again, pictures will be posted when the tools are found) and Shawn asks me if the Nezumi should stand at Destiny, or flee from it. I decide the Nezumi, while maybe not always courageous; have enough spirit to face whatever Destiny has in store for them. I just hope that event card (picture showing a very bright Dawn) means a good thing, and doesn’t spell such ominous things as the Hourglass…
After we show the items to the waiting crowd, we sit back and see the other clans either not showing their items (oh the suspense, it is killing me!) or having CLEARLY picked the wrong one (except Lion. Just hope they didn’t notice the imaginary spit…). I think the future of Rokugan might be full of swapping ancient artifacts by all sorts of ways
Either way, I am forced to say a swift goodbye to everybody and then leave, as the boys from my car are sick and tired of the fact I always make them wait until the finals are over.
I didn’t get to say goodbye to everyone I had liked to say goodbye to, so I’ll have to give those who I didn’t see one here: Until next time party people! ?
Now on to the obligatory props and slops:
Props:
Slops:
Thank you L5R, for being such an awesome game with such an amazing crowd!
SQUEEEK!
Stronghold: Warrens of the One Tribe
Sensei: Tomorrow Sensei
Wind: Black Heart of the Empire
Fate deck (40 cards)
Actions
3 All Things Have a Price
2 Dark Lord's Favor
1 Encircled Terrain
3 Explosives
3 Fields of Foolish Pride
2 Hired Killer
3 Outer Walls
3 Refugees
3 Reinforce the Gates
3 Test of Honor
3 Three-Stone River
3 Timely Arrival
3 Whispered Rumors
Items
1 Emma-O's Amulet
1 Golden Obi of the Sun Goddess (Experienced)
3 Mark of Oblivion
Dynasty deck (40 cards)
Events
1 A New Wall
1 The First Wedding
1 The Last Prophecy
1 The Price of Power
Holdings
1 Arms Smugglers
3 Forest Killer Cavern
2 Gifts and Favors
3 Rich Coffers
3 Yotsu Dojo
Personalities
3 Ku'chek
3 Mak'irtch
3 Shinbone Pack
10 Shinbone Warrior
3 Z'chkir
1 Zamalash
Regions
1 Kanashimi Toshi