Kotei Report: Puerto Rico

The field in Puerto Rico was small. Overall there were 13 competitors.
Through swiss I faced:
Round 1: Win
Opponent: Jorge
Scorpion Theme Deck: Seven Stings Keep
Overall, I simply steam rolled poor Jorge’s deck. I was able to attack provinces with personalities in them. I dishonored my guys he hit with Kurumi, redirecting it when he tried to target an elemental master. He was never really able to mount a defense.

Round 2: Win
Opponent: Edgar
Lion: Venerable Plains of Ikoma Switch
Edgar has been away from the game for a while. He was a very sporting opponent. I was able to neutralize most of his personalities with Earth Becomes Sky and Consumed by Five Fires.

Round 3: Win
Opponent: Juan (Sabu)
Unicorn: Temple of Death
Temple of Death is actually the most challenging unicorn match up I face. He gets off to a bad start when I react with Doomed Intentions to his Arrival of the Obsidian Champion. I am able to fend of his first attack with Refugees and a Retribution with Refugees. I end up facing him again in top 2. Additionally, I get out The Khan, Ningen and Aikune early and manage to take two provinces in one turn.

Round 4: Loss
Opponent: Luis
Unicorn: Temple of Death
This game comes down to one simple, stupid mistake: I get A New Wall early. What do I grab with it? Seiden Sanzo What’s in one of my other provinces? Seiden Sanzo. What should I have grabbed? Secluded Waystation. Why did I make this dumb ass mistake? No freaking clue. Anyways, with very limited gold and losing provinces every turn my deck just doesn’t get off it’s feet. Luis makes top 4, gets beaten by Sabao.

Round 5: Win
Opponent: Wilfredo
Crane Theme Deck: Kyuden Kyotei
I’ve got Aikune, I’ve got Ningen, I’ve got a Tokiko token and a Final Sacrifice in hand. Who could ask for anything more?
He’s unable to keep the combination of Ningen and Aikune from destroying his defenses completely and concedes pretty quickly.

Top 4:
Opponent: Milton
Crab: Seventh Tower beat stick

I win the first two games.
The first game was definitely better than the second.
First commandment of playing phoenix military in Samurai: you do not ditch Ningen or Aikune.
First game: I get Ningen in my opening flop and one holding. I ditch the other two cards. Get my legacy. Second turn: no second holding. Okay. Time for the Ningen blitz.
Some how, some way, I have a way of getting Ningen to work out for me. Ningen and I, we’re simpatico. Third turn: Ningen pays off, I get my people. Take a province.
Over the course of the rest of the game he’s able to get out Daizu Exp, Karou Exp, Fujiki, a Tatsuma and the Khan. He’s gets a Tetsubo on Daizu, I’m able to Doomed in with Ikokawa, who trashes the Tetsubo. He kills Ikokawa. I Determination, Hired Killer Karou, he gets a Tetsubo on Kujiki and eats a province every turn but in the end I get him before he gets me.

Second game: Milton gets a horrible, horrible gold flood. I take a province third turn with a loaded down Ritsuo. I do the right thing and don’t attack fourth turn and he just sees gold and gold and gold. He never gets to keep enough people in play to really defend. Sadly, his deck beat him more than I did.

Top 2
Opponent: Juan (Sabu)
Overall Sabu is a really competent opponent.
First game he destroys my High Temple with Raze to the Ground. I know he’s packing Cut Them Off, so I plan around using my Doomed Intentions. He knows I’m packing Doomed Intentions so he plans around using his Arrival of the Obsidian Champion. I have to have Ningen and Emori take a back seat because I don’t have my High Temples anymore but that’s okay. I rock out with some Seiden Sanzoed Ningenites and Tokiko’s with Kami’s Blessing and Wandering Budoka. I’m steadily able to threaten two provinces each turn AND hold Emori in reserve for defense.

Second game:
I don’t see any elemental masters immediately. What I do see is Ikokawa and Armor of the Ryu. His first personality is Chen. I get out Ikokawa and Dazian with a Seiden Sanzo. He plays Arrival of Obsidian Champion on Chen. I can’t destroy him with Doomed Intentions because he’s already dishonored. I have two Doomed Intentions in hand and Earth Becomes Sky. I decide to Sanzo up Daizan and attack because I know if I can just get Ikokawa at the battlefield, I can kill Chen. He uses Chen’s Ability to send me home. I Doomed in. He uses Crippling Cut. I Armor of the Ryu in. He uses Crippling Cut again. I Doomed in again. At this point he decides to Stay My Blade home and let me have the province, which is probably the best choice.

I’m down one province to two. Gradually I’m growing my hand. He’s got three people and one personality in his provinces. He decides to attack. Unfortunately for him, I’ve still got that Earth Becomes Sky and a second one I picked up later in my hand and his three people are:
Chen with Arrival of the Obsidian Champion, Moto Juncheng and Moto Chai, all of whom have 2 or less chi.
I kill Chen with a rock token. I kill Chai with another rock token. After that, I’m out forcing him because of a Wandering Budoka. He concedes.
I don’t know if I would have attacked in his place but I had Emori out and my High Temples and there are some incredibly dangerous spells in my deck and at this point, I’ve got the gold to use them.


Overall:
The cards that won me the most games were Shiba Ningen and Refugees. Ningen just excels in this deck. Refugees saved my provinces more than once from attacks I’d rather not defend against and from several Retributions.

The card that won me the tournament was Earth Becomes Sky. In my final match up it was a kill action that could not be negated.

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Kevin
Winner Puerto Rico Kotei 2009
Top Phoenix: Columbia Kotei 2010, Cincinatti Kotei 2009

Congratulations to the tourney win Kevin! Always heartwarming to see phoenix win!

It was nice meeting you.
The correct spelling of your opponent's nick was Sabu.
We expected 7 more ppl to come but I don't know if you heard us saying that 2 of the players were at weddings and the other 5 couldn't make it.

The trivia was fun...

I hope you can come again in the next one and we can play a game.

I will get the political win next time...

I hope you enjoyed your short stay and your prizes.

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Shugenja, artisan, elemental tinker
Read the legion fanfic here It is Tensei's story about me...yay
Lost 5 Honor for the Unfortunate Incident of being Top Phoenix @ PR Kotei 2010 XD
Sept 12, 2010 CE constructed @Cupey PR.

Excellent work Kevin and Laurie! You represented us well.

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Shiba Rikuo
Phoenix Clan • Samurai • Courtier • Yojimbo • Order of the Bent Knee

Good Job Kevin.

I swear next Kotei season I'm going out of the country for a kotei. (I know PR isn't technically out of the country)

You and Kakita Hatashai (Crane 4th place from Mobile) both won Kotei's out of the states

Honestly, I think it may have just been a matter of finding a deck that works.
If I had played this deck in Mobile, I could have won there.
I tried blitz twice, honor once only to lose three honor match-ups and enlightment only to lose to crane honor and my friend's mantis deck.
I don't know if I could have beaten Chris. The one time I've played him he won and his deck is really solid as well.

I think you should go to Puerto Rico next year anyways. I wish I had booked a later flight out...

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Kevin
Winner Puerto Rico Kotei 2009
Top Phoenix: Columbia Kotei 2010, Cincinatti Kotei 2009