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:
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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.
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Stronghold: Tetsu Kama Mura |
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3 Banish All Shadows |
1 A New Wall |
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…
Don’t agree with some of your arguments. Doomed Intentions works great in Crab decks based of movement and it’s different card than Unwavering Assault and Rapid Deployment (it’s much less conditional than them and have two actions printed on it).
So, yeah, that’s a way better to have 1 Doomed than 3 Seeking the Way for me. For someone else might be different becouse they might need STW and don’t need Doomed at all, but it’s everything about your deck, not a card.
You wrote same thing, but later gave wrong (IMHO) examples.
Greetings,
M
I agree with Siri, I play Crab Heroes and I’ve NEVER needed Doomed in my deck. I’ve seen people use governors court in their deck and watched it be completely useless, all because everyone tells them “You should have that in your deck, you need it!”
No I have three Doomed that I don’t need, and I’ve pulled them and wait on trading or selling now.
Good article Siri, I look forward to reading more.
No, I agree with Monk. DI’s movement on personalities without abilities is essentially the same as a Ring of Water. Whether you want to use it or not just depends on the kind of movement you need and the quantity. Rapid Deployment and Unwavering Assault target only Samurai for example and Ring of Water is ‘unique’ for deck construction purposes, making it somewhat less consistent.
I agree with the message of this article though. When you want to add a card to a deck you should think to yourself, how will this card help me win? DI, although not as badly as it used to be I think, I’ve always thought as an over-hyped card. I’ve never used it and never regretted it. This goes for more than a few other hyped cards.
I should hpe I never have to justify running any of my cards. All the applications should justify themselves.
Once have I gotten the comment “Why are you running Kyoso no Oni?” to be frank I just stared at the person in disbelief before explaining all the reasons that kyoso no oni should be in specific decks especially Black Silk Castle.
he countered with an auto lose to scorpion comment and I counterd with “I play spider.”
I do agree that frequently the card justify itself, without demanding greater explanations, although even then I believe an analysis on the card’s role on your deck can help you to better, if not your deck, your strategy and understanding of the deck. The analysis often reveal hidden synergy or lack of synergy you would not have perceived without thinking about it deeply. Often it also help you to find uses to a card you had not though before.
Why are you bickering about DI, of corse some people will play it in crab, thats not the point. The real question of this easay I think should be: “Have we as players set up assumtions instead of really thinking about our decks”. The fact that monk and the rest are jutifing DI instead of focusing on the subject as a whole.
Who can really say that when they make a deck that they do not auto include cards based only on past use or social stigmas realated to that card. I will admit that it is a habit of mine to do so but I am trying very hard to stop that.
Synergy is the most important part in any great deck, but have we as players sacrificed that for power cards?
I liked too much your essay. I agree with you since usually I am not willing to afford some cards price like Doomed or Famous Bazaar and ever look for cheaper but not less useful alternatives. But I must say, after seeing your proposal of enlightenment deck I think you never played Enlightenment in Samurai Edition or, if you have played this deck often, you don’t win frequently. For example, how do you play Ring of Fire? Due the good draw tech, how can you afford the 8-cards limit? What about discarded rings?
I liked the deck, it’s funny, but I think it’s not the right example of “a deck without the supposed cards”.
Be happy! Bye!