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PJOmega posted:Unpainted, unassembled, blind box subscription. For $16/month. Yeah, that's outlandish. From what I know of the local mini-gamers in my area, those first two things are mandatory and they wouldn't have it any other way. When I picked up D&D Dungeon Command and invited some of them to come play they were near offended that I would want to play a game with preassembled and prepainted minis.
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Aug 3, 2018 13:54
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PJOmega posted:Unpainted, unassembled, blind box subscription. For $16/month. Yeah, that's outlandish. Assuming shipping is like 4 bucks, you're paying 12 bucks for a detailed resin or metal model. That's pretty much industry standard, if you want cheaper than that you have to go to like Bones or those D&D miniatures which have whole different economies behind them. I don't really like the subscription model, but at least they announce them before they close the purchasing window so you can just buy the ones you want.
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Aug 3, 2018 14:22
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I am home from gencon, and a friend happened to pass by the FFG booth while they still had beginner boxes, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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Aug 6, 2018 19:01
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Speaking of Gencon, Dragon wins defeating Phoenix in the finals. The other two in the top 4 were Lion and Crane. Imperial Advisor has the results up and is linking in the decklists as they come up.
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Aug 6, 2018 19:27
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PaybackJack posted:Speaking of Gencon, Dragon wins defeating Phoenix in the finals. The other two in the top 4 were Lion and Crane. What was legal for this? Up through 4th pack of elemental cycle?
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Aug 6, 2018 21:28
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NinjaDebugger posted:I am home from gencon, and a friend happened to pass by the FFG booth while they still had beginner boxes, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I have questions about how this game works in practice, but I'm not sure how to ask them. I guess what are your impressions reading through the adventure? How easy does is it to learn how to play based on the challenges in it?
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Aug 6, 2018 21:42
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Finster Dexter posted:What was legal for this? Up through 4th pack of elemental cycle? Yeah, 5th pack becomes legal on Monday I think.
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Aug 6, 2018 21:56
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Epi Lepi posted:I have questions about how this game works in practice, but I'm not sure how to ask them. I guess what are your impressions reading through the adventure? How easy does is it to learn how to play based on the challenges in it? Just ask them, basically. The beginner rulebook is pretty well laid out, and really, aside from the bits that are just completely changed like the custom dice and how advantages work, it's mostly just the same stuff L5R's been doing from the start, broken down into well-labeled steps and made explicit. The cooperation rules are significantly better than anything in L5R previously, I think. Outbursts are no longer mandatory, but being compromised (at/above max strife) means you can't keep any dice that have strife on them, even if that takes you down to 0 kept. I'm only now browsing the adventure itself, but it seems like they're doing a decent job of covering a lot of potential approaches to various situations, so that new GMs have some guidance on what's what. In the portions I've read, there seems to be an unfortunate focus on bonus successes rather than opportunities, though there are universal ways to spend opportunities detailed in a sidebar, and "Spotting details" is an especially important one in the context of the adventure, as it lets you suss out which approaches will give you a bonus point from the judge. Some of the competitions seem like they have pretty crazy targets, as well, and actually winning competitions, even ones your character is good at, seems like it will be pretty absurdly difficult, often requiring you to get 4+ successes on things you're rolling at most 2 skill and 3 ring on, plus maybe a void point. Custom made PCs, once the full main book is out (apparently it was supposed to be out at gencon and got stopped by a significant binding error in the first batch?) may have serious trouble hitting their 8 points if their preferred approaches don't line up with the skills they have, since each event judge has a preferred approach that can net an extra point towards your required 8.
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Aug 7, 2018 00:48
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Well, it won't be my first Lion pc who is forced to commit seppeku because of this adventure.
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Aug 7, 2018 01:06
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Lord_Hambrose posted:Well, it won't be my first Lion pc who is forced to commit seppeku because of this adventure. The provided PCs tend to line up their approaches with their skill strengths, judge-wise, so they have a pretty good shot, and even if you don't get the required 8 points before the tournament, there's a last chance that gets you in if you're successful in the finale. Screw it all up, though, and you'll be doing the samurai belly dance in no time, I GUARANTEE IT. Also, there's a pronunciation guide, so maybe I can finally stop hearing people say "Highda" and "Hanty" and "Raiyoo"
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Aug 7, 2018 01:08
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Are the days of arthropod dominance over? The Restricted List worked?
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Aug 7, 2018 01:28
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SuperKlaus posted:Are the days of arthropod dominance over? The Restricted List worked? The Restricted List didn't end arthropod dominance, but the Elemental Cycle was far kinder to Phoenix, Lion and especially Dragon, giving them a bit of a leg up. Unicorn is on the rise, but has a ways to go before being on top even after the new SH becomes legal. Crane continues to be pretty strong, and they got a modest buff with the new cycle. Crab and Scorpion, however, just got side-grades more than anything. They're still very strong, but their dominance was overtaken somewhat.
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Aug 7, 2018 01:46
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SuperKlaus posted:Are the days of arthropod dominance over? The Restricted List worked? Well Scorpion saw a ton of players but Crab didn't see too many. The restricted list definitely helped but the printing of strong new cards has made more of an impact. And on that note we can start counting the days until they errata Hawk Tattoo because it shows up a lot in the top 16. Other than Unicorn though that was a very good split for a top 16 and 8, I'd say. Hopefully after the last two packs come down the new Stronghold will provide a strong enough boost for Unicorn to breakthrough into the top 16/8 of a major tournament.
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Aug 7, 2018 02:00
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From what I'm seeing, Hawk Tattoo is the big argument now, in "Of course I play it" and "It should be banned FOREVER! Or restricted"
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Aug 7, 2018 04:17
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SirFozzie posted:From what I'm seeing, Hawk Tattoo is the big argument now, in "Of course I play it" and "It should be banned FOREVER! Or restricted" Most people seem pretty certain that the card was intended to be played on your own people to allow them to move into battles and it slipped through design without anyone realizing that it would be so powerful as a harpoon effect. Something will be done about it before Worlds because so many of the top 16 decks ran it. That's bad for the meta. It's also uncounterable in any meaningful way which is bad too. I think it will be erratta'd to only targeting your own guys because if it gets restricted everyone just goes 'Lol, makes that choice easy!' and still runs it.
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Aug 7, 2018 09:36
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PaybackJack posted:Most people seem pretty certain that the card was intended to be played on your own people to allow them to move into battles and it slipped through design without anyone realizing that it would be so powerful as a harpoon effect. Ehhhh, I don't think everyone still runs it on the restricted list. That requires Phoenix to give up Against the Waves, Crab to give up Iron Mine, Lion and Unicorn to give up Charge, Crane to give up Policy Debate, Scorpion to give up Forged Edict and Dragon to give up Pathfinder's Blade. Hawk Tattoo is really good, but if it has to compete against the full restricted list it won't see play in every deck.
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Aug 7, 2018 14:46
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I played my Crane deck in the Thursday Samurai/Magistrate stages of the Grand Kotei, Hawk tattoos were everywhere. My matches went: Lion - Dragon - Crab - Scorpion - Scorpion - Crab - dropped. I won my first two matches and lost the next two. My hardest match ups were against the Crab I played, their characters just never went away and it was difficult to maintain any sense of board control. It was a good time, all the people I played were cool and I managed to snag a win against a dragon Hatamoto so I can't complain at all.
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Aug 7, 2018 18:58
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New roles have been announced I think I would have preferred Seeker of Fire to Keeper for Unicorn. Scorpion getting Keeper of Earth is good. BHC is coming and we'll see if it's worth all the hype. Crab seem upset by getting a Seeker role but I'm definitely interested to see some more offensive Crab decks and in particular I think they're in a position to make use of the "paper" void province. Crane switching to Keeper of Air from Seeker seems reasonable. Dragon becoming Keeper of Void is interesting. I guess they really want to run that Being & Becoming + Jurojin's Curse combo. Phoenix becoming Seeker of Air is cool. Crane has some great splashes for both those roles and we could see Phoenix really pushing towards a competitive honor gain deck. Lion getting Seeker of Void is a bit strange. I'm not entirely sure what they're looking for in Seeker/Void. Nothing seems obvious at the moment so I guess we'll see how it plays out.
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Aug 7, 2018 23:35
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Keeper of fire unicorn is absolutely better than seeker. Talisman + feast or famine beats having a second fire province
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Aug 7, 2018 23:41
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Crab getting SoE is awful. It's absolutely bizarre that anyone would vote for it. It opens up almost no new decks for crab. Pathfinders blade doesn't replace iron mines and the province row isn't really an improvement on what we already have. We would also have to give up keepers and talisman. The only thing I can think of is splashing time for war or of lion so we can run all the tetsubos but that is just fun jank.
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Aug 8, 2018 00:39
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My guess is that Crabs assumed they wouldn't get a Keeper role at all so threw their votes towards Seeker of Earth instead to try and take it from Scorpion and protect themselves against Sabotage. What's most interesting to me is how different those picks are from what they previewed a few weeks ago. That suggests to me that overall people were probably voting for some random roles and the last leg here, just about anything could have won with enough effort on the part of the winner.
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Aug 8, 2018 12:40
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No it was that the majority of European events hadn’t been counted in the first iteration of the article and had to be submitted last week.
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Aug 8, 2018 19:08
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HidaO-Win posted:No it was that the majority of European events hadn’t been counted in the first iteration of the article and had to be submitted last week. Ahh, so that's why there was a 'blame Europe' thing going on. Oh well, the only way you guys lose Keeper is if you win, or come in second at, Worlds. I mean there's a chance that this happens and 2 clans don't go Keeper as well, but either way it seems like a fair trade off.
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Aug 8, 2018 20:53
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PaybackJack posted:New roles have been announced Hmm, I guess trying to push a swing turn by knocking out one of your opponents characters while getting a bunch of Keepers Initiate monks might be a thing? I haven't played enough games as keeper to know if the Initiates are worth chucking in the deck as discard bait. I was actually in a tournament before with the Gencon champ. I might have gotten first Dragon without him too!
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Aug 9, 2018 03:35
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The second Scorpion clan pack preview is up. All the Shinobi stuff seems like a 'wait and see' situation. The Mask and the Opium peasant seem like they're tools Scorpion have in case Crane/Phoenix/Lion/Dragon get too out of hand with honoring high glory characters, while having the secondary benefit of being able to mitigate the effects of dishonoring on your own people. Alibi Artist slots right into current decks pretty well and is going to see a lot of play. The province is in a weird spot because it is probably pretty useful if you can flip it but since you can't control when it flips...eh I dunno about this one.
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Aug 15, 2018 22:08
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Is there even a strong Shinobi to cheat From the Shadows?
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Aug 15, 2018 22:49
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SuperKlaus posted:Is there even a strong Shinobi to cheat From the Shadows?  Puts her into play for 0 cost and dishonors her. If you're on the new Scorpion SH, you can then unbow her after the conflict as a 5/5 to use again.
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Aug 16, 2018 00:40
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We had our 3rd and final Stronghold tournament here in Taipei, and after winning the first two, I came in third on this one but still managed to secure the win for the Scorpion. My first match I went up against the other good player in our meta, a Dragon player, he saw all three Hawk Tattoos in the first 2 rounds which made the rest of the game pretty interesting. I had a pretty garbage draw late game after hitting 3 Hiroyue one turn. Misplayed the Back Alley and accidentally got 2 uses out of it, but it didn't end up mattering as he played well and dropped a ton of attachments making the 1 Censure and 2 Edict's I'd been holding pretty worthless. His second was Crab and he got to keep a Raitsugu-voltron around for 2 extra turns because I had test of skill and dropped a Favors and then used a Favors on something unimportant earlier on so I was digging for the 3rd one. He also got an Investigator use early on and saw I had 2 assassinates so he gave me no targets for them until late game. I used one of one of my own guys just to drop my own honor and start using my stronghold. Final battle was me attacking for Air with an unbowed stronghold and a ninja I could pull back to drop an honor, just needed top deck either a Fate Worse Than Death still had two left, or the last Way of the Scorpion. Didn't see any of it and I conceded knowing he'd swing for two provinces and 2 honor loss that I couldn't soak. It was a very close match though. 2nd round I got a bye (7 players) which was bad because that didn't factor into my points to win the Stronghold (we were going with 1 point per win, most points after 3 tournaments takes it). 3rd Round, I played one of the weaker players running a Phoenix deck after switching off Lion. He mulliganed into two of his champion which against a Scorpion isn't really the opening you want. He went second and put 1 fate on her, more or less telegraphing that he had Display of Power in hand. I played a few cheap characters and built economy. He had gone 1-5 the previous two tournaments and had a bad loss that turned into a win because the Crab player DQ'd himself for running Charge! and Iron Mine, and the bye the first round. I didn't want to just steamroll him so I let him take a couple provinces with Tsukimi, and actually took his Stronghold in the end, but I had an Edict and a Fate Worse Than Death in my hand turn one with like a Liar and a Manipulator as my opening characters. Our clan breakdown of 7 people included 3 Crab players but humorously enough 2 of them got DQ'd for having illegal decks. If between them they'd managed to score 6 out of a possible 9 points they could have swung the whole Stronghold tally for Crab which would have been a good story but the narrative that Crab showed up in force, had their number reduced due to the rules, and then a Scorpion won is also very fitting. Made a Photoshop of 101 to celebrate the occasion. PaybackJack fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Aug 22, 2018 |
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Aug 19, 2018 23:39
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Thanks for the play report. It was interesting. I always like to see play-by-plays in this thread. They affirm that the game is deep and engaging. So, FFG continues to monkey with L5R's releases. We'll be seeing the Scorpion pack in October, and then ~*a mystery*~ after that. Not a cycle, not a clan pack, they say; something "entirely new." Does that mean new to the franchise, like a Conquest / Netrunner-style big box? Or "new" like some damned procedural KeyForge poo poo? Cool news anyway is that the remaining Clans won't wait long for their clan packs. All will be released before 2019 is over. https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/8/22/sun-and-shadows/ SuperKlaus fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Aug 22, 2018 |
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Aug 22, 2018 18:16
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The rumor is that's the big box expansion they'll announce at worlds.
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Aug 22, 2018 18:26
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A few days ago we also got the preview of the Season Three kit which has a killer line up of promos for some of the various clans as well as some great neutrals. Full art Forged Edict, Let Go, and Assassination are top of the list for me. My theory on the 'mystery' product is a box that also contains some multiplayer stuff since we saw the 'beta' rules for that floating around a while back. SuperKlaus posted:Thanks for the play report. It was interesting. I always like to see play-by-plays in this thread. They affirm that the game is deep and engaging. Thanks, but it was a bit unintelligible so I went back and cleaned it up a bit. I honestly forgot I posted it, because it was one of those 2am posts where your brain is fried from playing L5R all day. PaybackJack fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Aug 22, 2018 |
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Aug 22, 2018 18:56
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I don't know whether to be excited or worried that the Unicorn get their clan pack next. They definitely are the most in need of a boost, but if its coming out that soon it may still reflect the design decisions that made them so weak in the first place.
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Aug 22, 2018 19:59
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PaybackJack posted:My theory on the 'mystery' product is a box that also contains some multiplayer stuff since we saw the 'beta' rules for that floating around a while back. That's where I'd put my bets. In a wonderful world it's a Shadowlands box.
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Aug 22, 2018 20:01
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WerrWaaa posted:That's where I'd put my bets. In a wonderful world it's a Shadowlands box. I could see them pulling a Star Wars LCG and putting out a combo multiplayer and 1vsX set with a Shadowlands challenge deck. I know that wouldn't exactly make Shadowlands players that want to see their faction return in the main game happy, but it feels like it would be a more natural fit to the game to release a companion product that incorporated the Shadowlands in a way that better reflected their status in storyline and a 'raid' style deck feels like that would be a good way to do it while at the same time you can add cards to support multiplayer in general.
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Aug 22, 2018 20:14
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PaybackJack posted:Thanks, but it was a bit unintelligible so I went back and cleaned it up a bit. I honestly forgot I posted it, because it was one of those 2am posts where your brain is fried from playing L5R all day. Oh cool I'll see the updated version. I would expect the Unicorn pack being next means that it reflects the design we've seen in the last cycle, and I am currently entirely behind that. I feel that over the last cycle Unicorn has gotten some solid, playable, and even strong cards, which is exactly what they need, and nothing eye-popping or game-deciding, which is exactly what no one needs.
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Aug 22, 2018 20:24
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This is the busy time at work so I haven't had a chance to really get familiar with the Elements cycle additions, but that's a fair point. The Unicorn additions there seem like a really strong step in the right direction, and the sooner they get a hand up the better for the game overall.
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Aug 22, 2018 20:39
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One thing I'll say for Unicorn is that they're benefiting a lot off Hawk Tattoo right now not only because it's a great card but because Dragon support is good for another card: Adopted Kin which helps to not only recycle your Hawks but also keeps your Spyglasses/Talismans around. I'm running 3 Hawks, 2 Let Go and 3 Kin Tossing down a Talisman on the 0/0/0 cost Battle Maiden then using her to move an enemy into Feast or Famine and sucking in a reserve unit to ensure it breaks is real good stuff. Unicorn have a ton of great low cost characters now to help open the door for late turn value off the new Stronghold and Hawk really plays into this. Unicorn themselves also have some great cards like Shitome Encampment, Moto Juro, Master of the Swift Waves, and Border Rider that mitigate the effect of Hawk being used against them to some degree.
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Aug 22, 2018 21:01
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This might seem like a dumb question and I actually may have asked it before but: How do you get into this game? I really love the theme and the mechanics and playing around with making decks but it's so hard to slog through these matches online that are 45 minutes if I'm lucky and where I realize end of turn 1 I probably hosed up royally and will lose in about 25 minutes. I do love the slow plodding, ponderous nature of the give and take back and forth, but in terms of feeling like I'm getting better, I still don't feel like I'm seeing the right path until after my opponent has revealed their metaphorical hand. Is it better with the new cycle to get back into it now? Any suggestions? Maybe I should be demanding my friends learn with me more?  I want to like L5R especially since Netrunner is kaputing itself but every time I look at digging into my cards I'm just like "I don't get you real well, game."
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Aug 23, 2018 04:54
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Actually yeah bully a friend into getting into it with you. That will sidestep anxiety about losing to skilled internet randos because you get to explore and get better together. I mean, how'd you get into Netrunner? Do that. If you want online resources to read and from which to learn, this thread and even reddit are here for you. Post some play scenarios for analysis maybe? There are some podcasts and the website Imperial Advisor seems alright (found a lot of their new cycle card reviews full of worthless breathless "if I roll a 20 I'd do max damage" best-case-thinking hype BUT they also had pro players adding more level-headed commentary).
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Aug 23, 2018 21:42
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I would also recommend picking and clan and netdecking someone's really good deck. The Lion write-up that a guy did, and I think I reposted here a while back in particular really helped me with some decisions I was making and caused me to adjust my play quite a bit. He wrote it and included some poker terminology that helped me to wrap my head around some of the strategy behind why he made certain decisions and having someone that speaks in a language that changes your mindset can really help to shake you out of being stuck in a particular viewpoint. I was a bit reluctant to give up my edicts, cheap attachment control and the best 1 drop conflict character in the game but seeing how good Hawk Tattoo is, getting cheaper attachment control, and recursion for my attachments made me switch from Scorp to Dragon on my ponies and now I'm implementing more of those lion tricks into the deck, namely getting the cost of everything down. When you can step into someone's shoes and run their deck a bit, you start to see how high level players think when they're faced with various board conditions and how they want to open up the board in certain ways to create weak points later. It's really quite beautiful and tactical. Each clan has their own rhythm and as a player you bring your style to the game as well. So experiment around and try to be mindful of how you're playing and then figure out which clan works well when you can implement your style with their cards.
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Aug 23, 2018 22:45
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