Why are you running this card?

You walk into your dojo store and after some games a guy new to the playgroup take yours deck to see what you are running, out of curiosity, or maybe looking for some good card he haven’t thought. Then a dialog along the following lines occur:

“Hey, why are you using this card?”
“Well, there is no Koala Clan Deck without this card! It’s just awesome!”

But despite all the awesomeness that card can have, you are lacking a real explanation.

There are some cards people insist on running in every deck, even when they have to good reason to justify it’s presence there, besides the card being “powerful”. Very often that card ends being counterproductive or don’t work with their game strategy at all, but it remains in the decklist due to some weird card choices.

• Doomed Intentions in samurai decks with no Battle action in units (Crab Hero, Crane Magistrate etc);
• Governor’s Court in honor decks with great honor gains based on battles.;
• Seikitsu Mountains in offensive decks focused on Bowing as battle tech.

The list go on, but these are good examples.

DI without using its additional battle frequently is not worth its fate slot. Unwavering Assault, Ring of Water and Rapid Deployment are main contenders to take its position.

GC will keep wise opponents from attacking, meaning that you need double the usual amount of turns to cross 40, and them you’ll have to deal with massive attacks. If your main honor revenue comes from defending, stay away from GC. GC is just a “cheap” control tech for honor decks, not a real honor engine, unless coupled with massive control (try Touch of Ice, Control and GC).

SM on offensive decks are useful as a guerrilla tactic. It’s an amazing card to run on decks with reusable, cheap PK (Kyuden Ashinagabachi, Kyuden Wasuremono etc), but on decks without this abilities it becomes just a runaway card, and, to escape from lost battles, Ordered Retreat is a lot better, due to its straightening ability. It’s better to choose cards that help you to win, than cards that help you not to lose. This may be bullshit in relation to most control decks, but control decks are a totally different kind of animal.

What’s the main idea?

Every card choice must be justifiable. It should also be the best choice, to your deck consistency, to your environment* and to your strategy. To take a choice other than the best is to cheat yourself.

There are some steps you can take to avoid doing bad choices:

• Adjust your choices to your strategy.
  Do not play in Time of War on a blitz deck.

• Always ask yourself how much each card will help you
  How many cards will your Tsi Blade usually draw?

• Do not make conflicting choices
  Stay Your Blade and Winter Warfare in the same deck is usually a bad idea

• Avoid using cards as a replacement for lack of skill
  Are your really running The Mikado to know what your opponent may throw at you?

• 4 Card Combo will not happen
  There’s always a C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!

• Trade wisely
  It’s better to have 3 Seeking the Way than 1 Doomed Intentions

• No card is sacred
  Absolutely no card. Not even your clan holding.

Advices on how to evaluate cards were already posted elsewhere by other authors:
Philosofy of the Five Rings: Earth

The most important question to answer is how much will your choice be useful. Think about in which turns it will be useful, and how many turns it will help you. An event useful only between turns 4 and 5 should be game-winning to be played; the same principle applies to every card choice in your deck. Other important aspect is to analyze the cards taking into consideration all its aspects. It’s not because you’re building a Honor deck that you should ignore completely your Personalities Force, after all it may be useless to you, but your opponent might use it against you.

*: If people still like dishonoring themselves in your area, please stick to Doomed Intentions and give them a lesson.

Decklist

Here is as an example; an enlightenment Dragon deck with no Gold Mines, and absolutely no reason to run it.

Stronghold: Tetsu Kama Mura
3 Banish All Shadows 2 First and Final Strike 2 Manipulation 2 Ordered Retreat 1 Coward! 2 A Legion of One 2 Aligned with the Elements 2 Draw Your Blade 2 Kharma in Death 3 Determination 1 Impressive Resilience 3 Song of the World 3 Stay Your Blade 1 Ambush 1 Ring of Air 1 Ring of Earth 1 Ring of Fire 1 Ring of the Void 1 Ring of Water 3 Walking the Way 2 Purge the Weak 1 A Terrible Oath	1 A New Wall 1 Wisdom Gained 1 Emerald Competitor 3 Famous Bazaar 1 Shrine to Bishamon 3 Sushi Stand 1 Temple of the Seekers 1 Temples of Gisei Toshi 3 Venerable Master 1 Private Trader 1 Shinsei’s Tomb 3 Tamori Konoye 3 Tamori Wotan 3 Togashi Chikato 3 Togashi Keitori 1 Togashi Tsuri – exp 3 Mirumoto Ichizo 3 Bayushi Kurumi 3 Kitsune Tsutaro 1 K’mee – exp 2

The next topic will probably be “Cheating by the rules – The art of twisting rules on your favor” or “The Bluff Factor – On how to win games you lost.”

Comments would be extremely appreciated.

Written listening to:
The Dresden Dolls – Yes, Virginia…
The Dresden Dolls – No, Virginia…