Maseru's Traveloge

Past News and Notewothy Events

September 2002
Ok, first off, I get this little thing in the mail called 1000 Years of Darkness. Prepare yourself for alot of Uji talk. Uji has confirmed that he is 'The Man!' Yeah yeah, other people did a good job in the alternate storyline, Bayushi Aramoro, Yoritomo, Toku etc... but this is a Crane website and thus Uji is the man! Another Crane who intrigues me is the new ninja Hakumei. Its about time for a Crane like her, and she is gold legal to boot, and yes, I am currently in progress of building a deck around her. But 1000 Years isn't the only thing I have to talk about. Bayushi Danzen and myself took it opon ourselves to embark on a mission, a mission of which at the end rests a 15th century wakizashi. The end, that is, 19 driving hours away in a town called Seattle. The tournment was The Sword of Spirits and whatever faction won would be rewarded the sword that killed the Steel Chrysanthemum by the Seppun. After 19 hours straight driving... we both happily collapsed in the hotel. Danzen works nights so he was pretty much out like a light, I on the other hand only got an hour or two of solid rest but was pretty ok consitering. I decide to head into town and see where we are playing the tournment. The place is Cardhous. Basically the place where all the major tournments in the area (including Everything to Gain which takes place next June) is held. The place is big, regretably not so much as visible product but it has alot of playing space. I guess not so much visible product was a good thing consitering I had a limited budget. Don't get me wrong, the place actually has ALOT of product, just a lack of shelves. I check the place out, introduce myself to Dan Tibbles who sets me up with the store's Uji supply, and I learn that there is a house tournment that night, prior to the sword tournment. Hey what a great opportunity to test decks right? Meanwhile Danzen found his calling in a little Anime store and went nuts, does this have any point in the tournment information? No. But I thought it deserved an honorable mention. So anyways, we show up at the tournment and my so called tournment deck goes down in flames. 1-3. Realizing that I didn't drive 19 hours to go like that in the tournment (almost did anyways but we'll get to that) I decided to scrap my tournment deck for the time being and go with my backup, my Daidoji attack theme deck! Now, as a back-up and a theme you can expect that it wasn't up to snuff right away. We stayed up fairly late (I'm thinking 3 or 4) that night tweeking the sucker and I still have confidence in it (with some minor modifications). Sword Tournment day. We arive in time to find the tournment wasn't as big as it could have been, only 40 people, however 38 of them were people Danzen and I never play against, so we were happy. And I had a chance to show off my new Daidoji hockey jersey. Now I would usually have a bunch of photos to show you, but as is I only have one and thats a generic shot of the crowd. I accidently grabbed a disk for my cammera that also included stuff that I wanted to save during my recent move. But that one photo is up in my gallery so check it out. Just so you know, I am horrible with names, so if your reading this please do not be offended if I don't mention your name. First round: I get paired up with an Asako Towers deck. I can't target crap the whole game, and while we stay pretty even in both force and honor he edges it out in the end, a very tight game but it defeated my deck concept from the get-go. 0-1. Second round: I'm paired up verses the Shadowlands. First turn we both by gold. Second turn, gold, he gets a Voltagi. Third turn I bring out a Megumi and an Enai, he drops a 3f follower and a Goblin Mob and takes a province - rally. I kolat master his Voltagi and take one of his. He gold chokes the rest of the game. 1-1. Third round: I am paired up against a Scorpion. I can handle this, I'm frequently paired up against Scorpions. He's running a (from what I could tell) fairly straight forward Yogo Towers follower attack deck, but isn't really pulling the stuff he needs to keep up against my ambushs or kolats, it runs close but I eventually outlast him. Major style points though for the lego tokens. 2-1. Fourth round: This is it, my ultimate stupid mistake of the tournment. I am paired up against Yasuki Jermey, who two years ago took top Crab at Gencon so, not only is he a good player, he also happens to be a low-down, stinkin, traitorous Yasuki. It gets bloody fairly quickly. As it ends up, he has one province to my two and a distinct lack of rallys, but not any lack of force. Now enter the mistake. I have my underhand out, used it the turn before to see his two Deadlys to my one Sup Tax, but, I have a sneak and a stronghold to send a 20-30 some-odd force unit home. I attack, sneak, bow stronghold, he plays the card he just drew that I didn't see, Test of Courage. That pretty much did me in and Jeremy pretty much reconized that the game was mine, I just played that last turn stupid. 2-2. The last round was pretty much a blur, as I kinda figured I wasn't in the finals. I played a Dragon dueler who just got everything he needed when he needed it. I ended up 2-3. Now, I'm blaming this record on the fact that I drove 19 hours and didn't have a solid night sleep, this might not be the actual reason but the opportunity to blame it is there and I'd be damned if I'm not grabbing it. Danzen finished off in the top 8 but then fell to a Crane dueler, I'm fairly certian he'd be blameing the travel time too... yeah, thats it. The sword was eventually won by a Shadowlands player over a Crab player. What do you know, the Crab fail in thier duty yet again. Side tournment time! We decide to do a booster draft. And as the cards come to me I start seeing a Kyuden Hida deck forming from the boundless crap the packs give me. And as fate would have it, my stack of boundless crap took 3-0 and won the 3 round tourney. So, my trip out here wasn't for nothing, just look at my boundless crap :)! After the tournment I hang out with Yasuki Jermey, and a few other players from the area an north of the border in a Greasy Spoon called Beth's where they serve up 12 egg omlettes. I just found it to be cool casually talking L5R with a group of kick-ass players. Also, Tibbles offered his assistance in helping getting the Denver storyline tournment off the ground and his help is greatly appreciated. All in all, I'd say the trip was worth it. If nothing else it certianly elevated both Danzen's and my gameplay, and we will definatly do it all again at Everything to Gain.
AUGUST 2002
It's that time again, this time, the word on everyones lips is BROKEN BLADES. I am happy to announce that Team R*U*N took first place in 3 of the 4 prereleases that took place during the Gencon weekend in the state of Colorado. And let me tell ya, it wasn't easy. First day: Thursday. Target: Attactix in Aurora. I'm driving on I-70 heading twards the store with Bayushi Danzen when my car blows a distibutor cap. I'm dead in the water on the side of the road and Danzen and I both write off the tourney for more important things, like getting home. But as luck would have it some friends of ours, Louis and Ryan (Louis is a Lion (die hard Matsu even), I think Ryan is typically a Crab) came to the rescue of a stranded Crane and Scorpion. We pushed my car over further out of the way of traffic and piled into Louis's car. We arived slightly late... and by slightly late I mean there was only one starter left. Mickey, the Scorpion running the event was nice enough to let people buy starters from other gold legal expansions to accomidate. I took the last starter (a Unicorn)... I offered it to Louis, but he seemed uninterested (I later offered to buy his starter at another pre-release which he was a no-show, Louis I still owe you one). All in all, I did pretty well in the first 2 games, and all I have to say about that is the Sacred Gong in a Unicorn deck is disgusting. Then I lost a tight game against another Unicorn and after that it went downhill. Danzen however stormed the place (he was using a APC crab starter) and won the day. Once we got back to my stranded car, we called up a tow-truck, little did I know this driver was gonna turn out to be a psycho. I kid you not, 80mph down the free way, exchanges conversations between a cell phone, CB, and communication radio, gets the wires tangled in the steering wheel, and can't seem to find a song on his CD so he's flipping through that, oh, and his gas tank is running on fumes. Goodie. Day Two: Saturday. Target: Digital Dungeon in Greeley. This day started off weird. around 11am Danzen calls me (a rarity cause he works nights and apperantly only got 3 hours sleep) after we are on the road he complains to me for wakeing him up... I'm baffled by this and say 'Um... no... you called me.' who ever did wake him up before he called me at 11am remains a mystery to this day. As for the road, there is only one thing I have to say... I HATE curiousity traffic! Just drive people! Anyways, we arrive at Digital Dungeon and a friend of ours, Grant, is running the show. Danzen gets a Crab starter (a Broken Blades one this time) and I pull a Scorpion (Random choice... no trades) I open things up and manage to get a foil Tjeki which Danzen starts to drool over (I later trade it for a foil Akiko). I win my first game, Danzen loses his, I lose my second game, Danzen loses his... then we have to play eachother. We both don't take it seriously and the game goes to him (with some coaxing) and we are both at 1-2, politely apologize to Grant but leave in a pair so there are still no buys and we haul ass to location three: Gamers Haven in Colorado Springs. Now, for those of you who don't know, Colorado Springs is roughly 80 miles away from Greeley, thier tournment was starting around 6:30 and we just left Digital Dungeon at 4:30 and traffic becomes a BITCH. There is roadwork being done on I-25 called TREX (0f 1c unaligned abomination of highway engineering. Reaction: Bow to redirect an attacking army to any other provice in play, including those owned by the attacking army's controler) We barely make it to Gamers Haven on time and both end up (again, random pick, no trades) with Unicorn. With already two of these under our belts, we know the power this Unicorn has against the other two. For the most part, the tournment goes my way, although there was a couple close calls. I managed to pull an honor victory out of my ass thanks to Cut Them Off. And the top two were me and Danzen, which I managed to win by (and I quote Danzen here) one fucking honor. Day Three: Sunday. Target: Clockwork Comics and Games. Team R*U*N's stomping grounds. We get to randomly pull (yet again) but this time we get to trade! (Wheee!!!) I pull a Scorpion and promptly trade it to Isawa Ben for a Crab (Ben by the way does not own any cards, his tournment deck is supplied by Akodo Kusamoto and today being funded by Bayushi Danzen) Danzen gets Ben to play the Scorpion while he whores himself out to win with Unicorn. I was just happy to not have to buy any more starters. So there you have it. Team R*U*N visited all 4 pre-releases that were being held and took the Puzzle Box home of three of them. Not a bad weekends work. On a side note, Team R*U*N is trying to orginize a storyline tournment for the Denver area mainly because the people, while die hard L5R fans don't really like to travel to diffrent stores for little tournments like Seasons or Pre-Releases so it would be nice to hold a tournment that really defines the L5R character of the Rocky Mountian area, but I feel like I'm gettin blown off by Ray Lau. First place will go a helmet with mempo and more prizes will be up as we go along.

LATE JULY 2002
Ok, comparitivly speaking, this isn't going to be nearly as big of an update as the last one. No Kotei events to report. I do however have to report the Season of the Mantis tourny I just took place in yesterday. It took place at Clockwork Comics and Games and was relitivly small (6 people) but thats ok, it was a sealed deck and I happen to like small crowd sealed deck tournments, people are less likely to cheat (3x Morishigi and a Kitsu Osen in a Pearl Lion Deck with 2 Fire and Shadow boosters my ass) Anyways, it was just me, Bayushi Danzen, Akodo Kusamoto, Jeff (a Crab player who owns the store) and two newbies. I picked Crane because I need another Celestial Sword and end up building a honor/dueling deck, Kusamoto also picks his clan - probably for the same reason and builds an attack deck, Danzen chooses honor Pheonix, Jeff picks attack w/ followers Mantis and the two newbies go Crab and Lion. Long story short... I kinda steamroll the newbies, I always feel sorry for having to play new players in tournments, but they left happy and we will see them again. One mad Doji Yasuyo who declared Domatai to be her Nemisis saves me from the attacking hordes of Kusamoto, I out-duel the Mantis, and my only loss came against Danzen's honor runner even though I had two Iai Challenges and a Winds Truth early, he managed to pull a Sanc Temple and a PPG which helped to outrun my overpriced Fantastic and Kabuki. So, I came in second. Not a bad day consitering I also managed to pull around 8 cards I didn't have yet. Stay tuned for next month when we have the Broken Blades pre-release! Oh, and if any AEG guys are reading this, I would _LOVE_ to show off the new Daidoji or Daidoji Merchants to the rest of the world :).

JUNE 2002

Okay, I just got back from the Albuquerque Kotei. Let me repeat that cause I think it bears repeating. I just got back *deep breath* Okay. Some of you may be wondering why it bears repeating, the reason is this: On my way down there I blew out not one, but two tires on I-25 right outside Pueblo, Colorado. The first one I don't know what happened, the second must have been put on wrong, and of course this happened just after 9 so I couldn't return to the Sears which installed this second tire because they convientently closed. So we pressed on riding our luck with a total of 3 tires and the spare (which was a real tire and luckly not a donut). We got into New Mexico just in time to ride through one of the worst lightning storms I've seen in a long, long time. In the news the next day I saw that this storm started sixteen fires from lightning strikes. But wait! My luck continues. Bayushi Danzen had the forsight to bring along a Wierd Al Yankovic CD with the song 'Albuquerque' on it (One of the most surreal songs I've ever heard and I must say the city fits surrealism). If you never been to Albuquerque let me tell you that the entire city is horizantal. It seemed that we were staying in the tallest building around, the two story La Quita Inn. And nothing against the people there, they were by far some of the nicest people we've met, just the city was just wierd and at any moment we were expecting a dozen half-crazed starving weasles (if you don't know, listen to the afore mentioned song). Anyways, I play Bayushi Danzen a quick game and afterwards I discover that a card is missing... a Yasuki Hachi. Now, I play with blue sleeves and arived with a Scorpion, Lion and Pheonix. The only blue sleeves around were the 39 other blue sleeves in my Dynasty Deck. So on the Saturday we haul-ass to the Active Imagination store where the event was held to find out that we have five minutes to sign in. I buy my box of blue sleeves and steal the extra Hachi from my trade stuff and after registration I was more than excited to discover (being the Douglas Adams fan that I am) to be player number 42 out of 42. The tourney begins. My first opponent is Shadowlands and I have absolutely no idea how my deck would work against Shadowlands, don't play against them in Denver, didn't play against them in Nebraska and here I am playing against them first here. Needless to say my deck worked smoothly and I won the round: 1-0. Second round is Scott Hadsall and his tainted Dragon. I have a horrible start, getting only a Kabuki first turn and having to ditch everything else, but an early PPG helped me tremendously, especially with his difficulty to draw a fist. He's a cool guy and I have to say that even though I did win by honor, it was a lucky victory: 2-0. Third round was against a Scorpion player from Utah. (I'm sorry, I really suck at names) but we both made giant mistakes but luckly it evened out in my favor: 3-0. After a lunch break I then played Grant from the Greely, Colorado crew. He was packing a Eternal Halls Pheonix attack deck that pounded me hard. Nothing I can do about that: 3-1. After that I played a Shadowlands player who really, really did not seem to like Crane. He just lost to a Crane in the previous round and now here I was. He came out pretty strong but through favor control and right cards at the right times (I got all three of my Iai. Duels fairly early) I was able to hold him: 4-1. Ok, 4th overall in swiss and entering the top 16. Who is my opponent? Bayushi Danzen. Great. Go without facing anyone I drove with all five rounds of swiss and now I got to throw my friend out of top 8 or be elimitated myself. His deck runs out of tricks and I slowly creep over forty. I won, but I would have much rather faced him in the top 8 and have one of us go to the top 4: 5-1. Top 8, I'm up against a Dragon Dueler. Most of the game I'm up on Honor. But I see him creeping up, I decided to take a chance and attack... it was my biggest mistake of the tourny and that was the pivital point that sent him to the top 4 (and eventually 2nd place): 5-2. Ah well. We spend the rest of the day in town. Come Sunday we seek out a Sears and get the 10-mile-tire replaced for the trip back, which compared to the trip up was delightfully uneventful. So here I am, dead tired, slightly stressed out and ready to kick back and enjoy the last day of my mini-vacation. I have all the photos up in my gallery section for those who care. And remember out there, I will take any spare Ujis off your hands!! Drop me a line and we'll work out a deal if possible. Talk to ya laters.

- December Y2K part 2 -

Unexpected news update! As it were I didn't know that I was going to the Regional Storyline Tournment in Nebraska until the day before. And being that I live roughly 500 miles away from the event, it was all alittle rushed. No bother, it was still fun and I got to meet alot of interesting if not cool people out there. Unfortunatly there isn't much to brag about my first out of state/non-global storyline tourny. I walked away with 2 wins and 4 losses. My roomates unforntuatly didn't do any better either with a 3-3 and another 2-4. But, the experiance is priceless. Anyways, We pretty much showed up to the event in full costume. And I was able to finally have a good excuse to put photos up here, so i added a new room called 'The Gallery' (really original name I know) down below. If anybody reading this has any Constested Holdings or Mon-Backed (jade edition) Crane Strongholds I am extremely interested (The Contested Holdings more so). Talk to you guys after Test of the Emerald Champion!

December Y2K

Hello all, thanks for the support reguarding Jonah. I have been informed that he will get a card (Bayushi Kaukatsu) in an upcoming expansion. Now with that said and done I'll move on.
The Spirit Wars pre-releases that I went to were rather interesting. The first one was at Black Dawg Games. A good turn out with a random draw to see which clan you get, which was fine by me because there were no Crane or Ratling decks involved. Anyways I ended up with a Spirit deck. I did ok although any worries I had about Hantei taking away an honor victory from me quickly diminished after the first round. Face it, the guy is rather useless. Although I did find a use for him later on, but we will get to that. All in all I did not make the finals, however a friend of mine, Shinjo Paks, won it all with another Spirit deck. The second pre-release was later that day out in Parker, Colorado. The complete other side of this urban sprawl we call Denver from where I live. We got alittle lost finding the place, but eventually did with enough time to grab some Pizza. Anyways, I drew a Pheonix deck this time (this deck sucked in sealed by the way). It was an attempt at millitary Pheonix in a sealed invironment. It didn't work. Although I was involved in a force-tie against a spirit deck which decimated our two armies (I was on the attack leaving 3 people designated 'support' behind) after the battle I brought out two personalities, he then brought out Hantei, I dropped 20 honor and stole hantei then attacked each of his providences sending one at each. Fun fun fun. Anyways, when the smoke cleared, my roomate, Shosuro Danzen came out undefeated. Next day, snow was on the roads, but we did manage to make it down to the Wizards of the Coast store in the new Flatirons Crossing mall. It wasn't a major turn-out, but I did manage to squeak by the top spot with a Lion deck. All in all I ended up with enough cards to not need to buy any more, and enough card knowledge to hunt out the singles I need.
I am doing alittle cleaning and re-vamping around the site. I am trying to put together the most complete links page available. Well, at least until I get distracted by somthing else.

- November Y2K -

Normally I think I would be talking about the three Spirit Wars pre-releases I went to. But instead I have something I need to share with the L5R community. I wish I didn't have to, but I do. Last night I recieved word that a friend of mine, Jonah Medeiros, died. Some who pay attention might reconize his name as the creator of the ancestor: Bayushi Akoru in the Unexpected Allies book, or as the person who ran the Scorpion Mailing List. I confess that I didn't really know him that well out of L5R circles, but for what he did bring to L5R, at least to me, will dearly be missed. He played the card game as he felt it should be played, as fun not something overly competitive. Some of the last decks he made that I know of were his 'Ode to Toku' which sole purpose was to make Toku as large as possible and his 'Glowey Eyes Deck' which all the personalities eyes were glowing in the artwork. Even though he dabbled with alot of strange deck concepts, Jonah was Scorpion through and through. I remember when we played a Stratigic Tournament as the Scorpion Clan. Jonah was our Karo, he wasn't even playing the card game and he did more Scorpion dirty tricks than the three of us who were. I've attempted to E-mail Jeff Alexander, not knowing if he is capable of doing this or not, to try to get a L5R personality named in Jonah's honor. If that is not possible, I will be offering a reward for anyone who names him at one of the remaining regional storyline tournaments. Donations gladly accepted. For me, this is the best way I can honor his memory. I belive the name he went by was Bayushi Kaukatsu, but this is only guessing from his email address. If any member of the Scorpion Mailing list can correct me it would be appreciated. I thank you for your time and support.
- Case Lopez (Daidoji Taishi)

October - Y2K

Okay. Got a couple of weak-ass tourney reports to tell ya. First off, the sword tournament that wasn't: This was a sealed deck (one starter and two boosters from either Pearl, Honor Bound, Ambitions Debt, Fire and Shadow and Soul of the Empire, you could mix and match as you saw fit) Unfortunatly, we didn't have the showing we expected, so we ran a free tournament (instead of the $15 entry fee for the sword) and are now holding the sword for Ghengis Con (Some time around Valentine's Day in the Denver area, www.denvergamers.com for the info if interested in attending) Anyways, I ran with a Crane deck from Soul and pearl and ambition debt boosters. Looking back, I should have chosen a Pearl starter and Soul and Fire + Shadow boosters. *Sigh* live and learn. Anyways, I took 4th in that tourney winning myself a uncommon card sheet, some Koku, and a pearl-backed Crane Mon Stronghold (what I was really shooting for!!) Now, the only Crane Mon backed stronghold I need is the Jade one... willing to entertain trade offers! Next tourney we had was the Legacy of the Naga. I was disappointed about this showing also, but we did have 16 people show, which is quite impressive for our little group. I played a Crane attack deck that I was quite proud of. It in open format went undefeated in Tacticon (another of these little Denver-area gaming conventions) Anyways, after wading in all the cheese I ended up 2-3. Every game my deck was solid, I can honestly say that I didn't lose because of a mistake or the deck was designed badly so I guess thats good even in the face of my record. (If anybody I played is reading this, I apologize, I'm horrible with names) The first match was against a Yogo Towers deck. I was breached in the first turn but bounced back. It was fairly touch and go, just was eventually overpowered by the Towers' and Kachiko's abilities. Second match was against a dishonor Naga deck. DISHONOR NAGA!! I'm sorry, but I'm gonna rant alittle here. This I feel was one of the cheesiest, most gutless decks I've seen. I lost by the event 'The Death of the Ki-Rin' if it wasn't for that event I would have won. *grumble* okay. Rant over. The third game I played was against one of my room-mates, Amy. She came in with an attack Naga deck with Kisada sensei. We both made really stupid mistakes (the kind you probably wouldn't make if the person sitting across from you wasn't a good friend) Unfortunatly she made the last mistake and I managed to win my first game of the day. Next I played Chris Bergstrom and this Shadowlands personality killing deck. All I can say is I hate Shadowlands Marshes. If it wasn't for those and his Shoju sensei, I would have had him. 1-3. Last match was against a Lion Tactition deck. I won, but I claim no glory for it. He wasn't getting the gold he needed, and my deck was doing exactly what I needed it to do. The final three was a Shadowlands-Beat-Down deck (1st), and 2 Pheonix enlightenment decks (2nd + 3rd). In a couple of days I'm gonna be a part of a Live Action game out here, hoping I won't be the only Crane present. I keep you guys informed of that too. Till next time.

September - Y2K

Here we go again. Just returned from Tacticon where I took first in the open tourney there (honestly nothing to brag about, only eight players and two of them were dragged in so we could make it sanctioned). But I am still very proud of my new military Crane deck. I just cut it back and getting it ready for Legacy of the Naga next month (damn these Jade extended rules). The big news with me right now is a sealed-deck sword tournament in the Denver area on September 30th. Its gonna be a starter and two boosters from Pearl, Honor Bound, Ambitions Debt, Fire and Shadow or Soul of the Empire (mix and match) I'm thinking either Pearl starter with Soul and Honor boosters or Soul starter with Pearl and Honor boosters. The clan of Crane of course. If any of you are gonna be in the Denver area (or maybe I know you) and would like directions: drop me a line. Other than that everything out here is same old stuff.

August Y2K

I humbly apologize for not being able to update my site in so long, but alot of things have happened. First up Soul of the Empire is a big hit, although I am disappointed in the Gardens ruling. I belive the original intent was Fantasic Gardens for box (hence the two Gardens in a starter) and it was never tested in a serious tournment scenerio before the ruling. I was more psyched for the millitary uses for our new stronghold anyways, but I would have liked a ligitament choice to go for an honor run. 'Nuff ranting, I went 3 for 5 in my pre-release, and that wasn't able to go to the finals. However, in a later sealed I did manage to go undefeated with a Unicorn deck. First time I ever had sucsess with purple. I would have gone Crane again, but by the time I picked my starter, there were already a majority of Crane out there, and after owning two Crane starters already, I decided to ride a pony. Speaking of which, Rekai is quickly becoming one of my favorite personalities. And I really like Kuwanan's new ability. Them alone have made Soul a worthwile set in my opinion. No much going on over the horizon. Wanted to go to Gencon... counldn't quite afford it. By the way, I've decided to retake the idea of a pure Daidoji site. Look for some new stuff when we get the rules for Daidoji inventions in 'Secrets of the Crane'. When time permits, I'll update my deck list to feature the four new Crane decks I have. Till then...

May Y2K

Alright, let me tell you about this Race to Volturum thing. I went to Dragonfire games in Boulder, Colorado. Unfortunatly there wasn't the turn out I was expecting, we figured the strict jade format scared alot of people off. I arrived with a trick deck. A personality-less Crab deck I designed to help with the Shadowlands invasion of the Kaiu wall. I went 2 for 5 and on hind-sight I think I would have liked to go Crane. But thats a good thing, because I was feeling burnt-out on Crane but now I'm back with a renewed vigor. By the way (and I know he'll be happy with me posting this) a friend of mine (Shinjo Paks) went undefeated in supporting the Unicorn, taking the victory. Be on the look out for new refrence stuff! I just put up the armory, in which I hope to collect information on all of Rokugan's Nemuranai. I'll also eventually expand the Daidoji scrolls to include all Asahina, Doji and Kakita as well as the Daidoji it currently lists. All are welcome in assiting me with this.

April Y2K

Okay, here we go again. I would just like to say that I'm trying to get this site set up for the Daidoji players out there. You know who you are. Those who see Honor as a secondary path to victory. So please send me you military decks and/or views in the storyline or our duty to the clan. One more thing. Even though I would like this site to be Pro-Crane and Pro-Daidoji, it is no way a "Uji should kill Kuwanan for the good of the Crane" site. Kuwanan holds the sword of our clan and thus has my loyalty. Thanks for understanding. By the way, I have just updated my RPG page with more characters in the current game.

Febuary Y2K

Alright, got alot to report. I ended off my 6-week stratigic tourney and there was no real winner, it kind of died out due an unfortunate burn-out of most who were involved. However, it was still a fun experiance which I had greatly enjoyed, just a bit long and alot of other L5R stuff going on. Next I attended the twenty-first Gengis Con in Denver Colorado at the begining of the month. Compeated in the open-constructed tournament with a Kamikazi military/honor runner. Unfortunatly things didn't work out very well and I ended up with a 2 and 3 record. The next event I was a part of was the Skirmishes tournament, in which I again didn't place but was alot of fun. Basically you took two sealed decks of diffrent clans, one you pick and the other is picked by the coordinator (Emerald Edition no less) and you also got two boosters (randomized between Emerald, Shadowlands, Anvil and Forbidden) I picked Crane and got handed a Phoenix So I ended up with a sort of Shugenja honor-runner. You played diffrent opponents and if you win, you go through their 'skirmisher cards' and pick three that would help your cause. The games loser then picks one which the winner gets to add to thier collection. At the end of it all I had a 9-11 record and walked away with a Torrential Rain and my first Scribe (which I won off the guy who won the enitire thing, thanks Donnell!) The last event at the convention was a sealed deck tourney. I, for one, was feeling alittle burned out on Crane, so I decided to go for something diffrent and walked in with a Shadowlands starter (pearl edition) and the two Ambitions Debt boosters. As luck would have it I was given a Nio sensei in one of those boosters, but no elemental oni's were to be seen. Unfortunaly it wasn't until later than that deck started to kick in, and I went 2-2. Finally this brings us to the biggest loss of the month, Strike at Midnight. I had originally built a Daidoji millitary deck to compete with, but then the night before my friend asked for his Wedges that I was barrowing back, so I had to revert to a Crane Duelist, which I confess I simply am not used to playing. Although I come close on a couple games, I left that day with an 0-5 record. I belive dead last in the 40 player showing *grumble*. But my day will come, oh yes (insert maniacal laughter if you wish).

- January Y2K -
Well, I come bearing good news that my collection is on its way to a good rebound and I'm starting to get involved again in a landslide of L5R related things. I have just started a weekly event based on the L5R stratigic event that is played sometimes as a Con event. This one is a bit diffrent as there are only one person teams and it takes place over six weeks. I, as you might have guessed, am playing Crane. If your interested in learning more about this type of event, let me know at celestialmishap@hotmail.com and I'll put you in touch with its creator. Also for this month I was involved in a couple of tournaments. The first was a revolving duel/multiplayer event (non-sanctioned). Not quite knowing what to expect out of the current run of decks, I decided to play my Scorpion/Ratling deck, which is kind of amusing. Needless to say I went 1 and 3 so I didn't quite make it to the finals, no big loss. The other event I was in was a sword tournament (where the store involved actually bought the sword) I went with a hyper honor run deck in hopes that all the elemental paranoia had overshadowed honor victories. It was working but those quick attack decks took its toll and after a couple of Toturi's Army decks with AMAZING starts, I was out of my luck. But, the ideas are flowing in, and Satsume's Vengence is almost ready to re-appear. I am going to open up a tactics page where I would appreciate other Daidoji to post ideas for decks as well as RPG characters. Let me know what you think.

October '99

Alright, I haven't been around in awhile... hopefully this will change. The biggest problem I've been having is at Tacticon (in Denver Colorado) I had my decks swiped and haven't been able to track down the servant of the shadow who took them. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. So, as a side effect I've been out of the 5 rings loop for a bit, I created a Kolat Lion deck as well as a personality-less Crab deck but neither is tournament worthy. If any body out there is willing to trade me a few cards, I would be most appreciated. The biggest ones I'm looking for are the Crane Clan Charter, 3x Focus, 2x Wedge, Inheritance and a Forced March. I realize some are tall orders, but luckly my trade stuff wasn't taken. Anyways, enough woes. I am gonna try to update this website. Now that the civil war is over, my main focus would be to try to get Satsume an ancestor card. Oh, and I have updated my deck archive to give out my two new decks as well as the Crane Tournament deck I'm working on rebuilding.

- July '99 -

As you may or may not know, with the recent senseless beating of the traditional honor run deck, special thanks to Honor Bound, I have taken it up upon to try and seek out a new path for our clan. I have dedicated myself to building three Crane decks. One for each traditional victory. I am happy to say that my Crane attack deck is working perfectly, and still has been able to win by honor effectivly (despite having 3 black markets) I plan on taking it to next months tournament, I'll let you know how it does. The other two decks I am currently building are an enlightenment/master of the five deck and a traditional honor/dueling deck using our new crane clan hero with foxwives, dragon claw katana, traveling poets and pride. Plus of course a to do what we must for flavor. If any of you have any insight on my crusade please let me know.

May, '99

Alright, I promised you alot for the month of May and here it is. On the 15th I played my first game of Clan War (Crane army of course) in a little mini-tournament at one of the local stores. There were 3 other armies (Pheonix, Crab/Shadowlands and Mantis (led by Crab)) After all was said and done, my army came out dead last, but bear in mine that is was the first time I had ever picked up my figs with the intenet of playing with them. I think I learned alot in that tourney, but I would have liked to know more going into the game, so I have decided to (eventually) put up a Clan War-army-builder-helpul-hint page on here sometime soon, and I welcome all of you who are experianced and wish to help out starting players. Now the second event for the month of May was the big Pearl Pre Release on the 22nd. I arrived at the store late so I didn't get to pick the clan I wanted (Crane) so I went with another clan I like (Yoritomo's). Over all, I was impressed with how pearl edition sealed deck runs, even though I very much dislike the new LBS-esque layouts (not to mention the backgrounds drive me nuts). Sorry FRPG, I know you ment well but I prefur the crisper, more oriental/mythical look to the cards, although I have to admit that I think the card-title font is pretty cool... Anyways, I ended up out of the finals on that one. Now for the big part of May, Ben-Con. For those of you who don't know, Ben-Con is a convention out here in the Denver area that gives ALL proceeds to charity. The first event of L5R that I entered was the open-deck tournament. They were kinda vauge in the event catalogue (standard tournament rules apply) so I made my Crane deck Jade legal just in case. As it turned out, it was an open tourney and my modifications went un-needed, but not un-appreciated. I ended up taking the highest position I have ever had in an open tournament (4th out of 14) which I don't think is that bad. I noticed that Shinjo Paks (the overall winner of this event) put his view of this tourney on Andy Ikoma's Lion page. I will update the my Crane deck on my deck page to its current incarnation. The second event I played in would be another stratigic game, we were the Dragon and I have to admit, utterly sucked. The game mechanics worked alot better than last time but we just couldn't get much off the ground. The Crab clan once again won this event (somebody should stop them). Now the last event of Ben-Con was a Pearl Edition sealed deck tourney. This is an event I am still kicking myself over. The first game i lost I would have one if I remembered I had the favor (arg) and the second one I lost I would have one had I put out a sanctified temple earlier. My Crane deck did however win by military means against a unicorn deck (something I seem to be very proud of) but because of those two losses I was unable to proceed to the finals. I'll get 'em next time.

April, '99

I went to a tournament, open deck style, recently. Unfourtunatly it did not go to plan and I only won one game out of four, thus removing my chances to play at the final table. Oh well, I do plan on making a showing at the Pearl Edition pre-release tourney.

Febuary, '99

Recently I visited the 20th Genghis Con in Denver, Colorado and took part in a couple L5R related games. The first was a sealed deck tournament where I was randomly (and laughably) thrown together with a Lion clan deck. I managed to get my ass handed to me in more ways than one would think possible, and still somehow ended up somewhere in the top five. The other event I was in is something I had a blast with. It was called L5R: strategic and if any of your local conventions have it, I strongly think you should give it a try. You have a team of five (one clan) which gets devided up into one Daimyo, one Karo and three warlords. The warlords each have a sealed deck which represents a family army and the Daimyo moves those armies across Rokugan, engaging and making treaties with other clans. Unfortunatly, I didn't think Crane would be good in a sealed deck situation, so we went with a clan where we thought we'd have an edge with, The new stronghold of the Pheonix Clan. It almost worked too, one more friggin turn and we would have had em. Grr...