I remember my first tournament win. Not all of it. Not the whole thing. Some parts I do remember, but not all that well. Time has a way of making the details fuzzy. The memories of other tournaments have a way of fading into each other. I reminisce less about single events and more about entire arcs. I’m pretty sure it was a Strike at Midnight event. I cannot recall what the prize was. There was some store credit. The attendance was just above 4 dozen people. Only a handful more than showed up for normal Tuesday night gaming. In the finals I beat Jordan Murari. A player of note long since lost to the annals of time. A name only remembered because his ridiculous behavior once caused the very rules of the game to be changed. It had to do with Regions. A card type that doesn’t exist now. He played FETA. The first great boogeyman of l5r. In the quarters I overcame his playtest partner, future Dynasty/Straw Dawg/PDT member, and good friend (for a year or two anyway) Vaughn Dredarian. He had been on Crane honor. Kisada’s Funeral won me that. Flipped at just the proper time.

It’s been a long time since I rock-and-rolled.

I know what I played. Toturi’s Army. Palace of Otosan Uchi. Saigorei first turn, big follower on turn two. Naga Guard, the stronghold let me ignore the honor requirement and reduce the cost. That was quite some technology years ago. I won after making a great play with my Toturi is Drugged. Jordan two had two shugenja in play. I bowed one, even though I wouldn’t be able to take his province if the other defended. I didn’t have the Charge! (3F with Matsu Suhada) or Coordinated Strike. By declaring the attack, he would be force to chump though. Sneak Deadly kills his shug, I buy more guys and he cannot get there off only his Taeruko. Needs to use Finding twice to end it. I suppose a top deck of Cultists at the end of turn would doom me, but he is only drawing one. Didn’t prioritize the Boundless Depths like he should have. I took the chance. I won. Hear me roar. He wrote a tournament report. Introducing me to l5r on the internet. Ikoma Andy and the Deathseeker site. The flames had been stoked.

Upgraded from Uncommon to Rare

Over the years l5r has evolved a lot as a game, but every arc I still inevitably find myself scouring the card pool attempting to recreate the magic of that deck. To capture its spirit. To bathe in the warm glow of a blazing fast victory. To blitz.

The available card pools have changed of course. Corrupt gold and other cheap resources are gone. Cost reduction is a mechanism no longer seriously employed. Deadly Ground wouldn’t be much of a card the way Terrains work today, but end the battle now effects are similarly verboten. Crushing Attack forever relegated to being employed rhetorically. Force bonuses, once a glorified aspect of the game are closely managed. In Twenty Festivals there is not an unopposed force bonus to be had. There are only the Ivory base set leftovers. Inspired Devotion doing its best Charge! impersonation. Yet, I try.

Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!

There is cause for hope. The number of absent effects that can blunt an early assault are greatly reduced. Gone too are Refugees, OuterWalls, and Heavily Engaged. There are no trumps like Caught Unawares or Hidden Defenses. Province strengths are as high as they have ever been, but that breeds a feeling of safety and contentment. The blitzkrieg is always at its most brutal and effective when no one sees it coming.

This dance. This tango of blitz options versus defensive countermeasures is an aspect of l5r that is as old as the game itself. An environment without either is a lesser environment. Blitz military isn’t something like enlightenment or open phase lockout control. Those are fringe strategies that can be removed with minimal fuss. Completely eliminating blitz is a different foxhunt all together. Fast military decks preform an important role in keeping other grind-house inevitable decks down. A natural counterweight to the haymaker giant units approach. Itself a strategy in decline. Just as l5r will always have players searching for and playing the best dueling deck. There is always going to be players who want to crush face as quickly as possible. Danny Swartz has to play *something* after all.

As I was cataloging the options open to me with 20 Festivals I was getting a little distressed. Sure every faction now has an honor deck, kind of, sort of, not really. Sure the number of duel decks has increased seven fold. But where is my blitz deck? Twenty Festivals should be a celebration of the deep diversity of deck options that l5r can present. Has a once proud tradition been so unceremoniously discarded onto the trash heap?

Then I saw her face. Now I’m believer. Uragirimono. Or as the cool kids call her.

Keep on rocking in the free world.

Sometimes all it takes is one card. One personality. To set you on your course. Down the rabbit hole I plunged. Voitagi alongside Mastu Tayuko in conjunction with Kitsu Suzaki. Filled it out with some just in case gold. Ikoma Shika on one with Toils of Zokujin can set up 6 force before assigning on turn 2 (Shika + Kaiu Ax, ancestor from Suzaki). That leaves me only one or two more fate cards away from taking a province! This is one of those dramatic all in decks. All force and pressure. With just a hint of control coming from the Imperial Summons.

Once you have embraced the path you have chosen to walk, you see more options than originally perceived. Perhaps a blitz deck built around Summoning the Undead Champion, instead of purchasing the rotting corpse of Voitagi in the dynasty phase. Everything is more fun with Shugenja. Corrupt maho returns.

Drafts as rough as can be constructed, but with some sanding could blitz be a smooth criminal? Testing and time will tell. If the idea fails completely? I’ll always have my memories.