Topic: The Cardboard Geisha Part 8 - The Lonely Island (Read 4444 times)

Nina Illingworth · « **on:** August 27, 2009, 02:55:16 PM »

So hey guys, remember me? Sorry I’ve been sick for the better part of the past month and it all sorta caught up to me just before GenCon. I ended up typing most of this article on a laptop from bed. Thanks for being patient and hopefully my health will hold out at least as long as the nice weather here in Toronto. I’d genuinely hoped to finish most of the decks before Path of the Destroyer was out but it turns out I only made it halfway. At this point I think I have to turn my eyes/focus towards Path because it does change the environment significantly in my opinion. This of course leaves me with a difficult choice. I have 4 decks that I never wrote about lying around the apartment here. Do I post them without explanations and offer to answer brief questions about them or do I forget about them entirely as “outdated information” and start retooling for Path? What do you guys think? Either way my next article is likely going to be up in a couple days and will be something about my favourite cards in Path of the Destroyer.

For those of you who care about this sort of thing; Kyuden Tarantula (our online store) now has Path of the Destroyer singles listed up on the IAB. To find this shop, just click on the picture at the bottom of any of my posts on this forum. (End shameless plug.) Now on to the article, warning as always this is very long.

The Cardboard Geisha CE Article 8:
All Decked Out Part 5 – CE Mantis Follower Military

One of the most interesting aspects of writing a series like “All Decked Out” is the opportunity to stretch your horizons by trying out new clans and deck-types you’ve never played before. The simple truth is that nobody sees everything an environment has to offer at first glance and even experienced players require hours of building/play-testing to accurately assess the best options for each Clan. While it’s only natural to make assumptions about a new environment, sometimes this testing process will prove those assumptions wildly inaccurate. A strong player sees this not as a setback, but as a learning opportunity. Rather than arguing with the cards; he sets about formulating new assumptions based on a better understanding of the environment than before. This type of mental “re-checking” is only possible if you actually test the cards during game situations however. The sheer amount of building and play-testing required to write these articles provided me with numerous opportunities to redefine my own assumptions about Celestial Edition. In particular I found building/testing a Mantis deck to be educational because the final product didn’t even vaguely resemble the deck I originally thought I’d build.

Hello and welcome to the latest (quite literally) edition of the Cardboard Geisha. For those of you just joining us this is part 5 of a series of articles designed to help players both new and old get a jump start here in early Celestial Edition. As always nobody is claiming these are the best decks in the format; merely that they are a great starting point for deck building in the pre-Path of the Destroyer environment.

When I first scanned the cards available to the Mantis Clan in CE, I quickly assumed they had only 2 decks in the format and that both of them had incredibly obvious weak points. First there was a boxable swarm deck with a focus on Scouts and Ranged Attacks out of Seven Seas Port that would lose to Fury of the Dark Lord and Imperial Census. Additionally there was a corrupt big unit Naval deck built off Dragon’s Guard City that would have significant trouble with fast blitz decks and dishonor match-ups. Finding neither of these two obvious deck-types appealing I quickly moved on to building more “interesting” clans and decided to save Mantis for later. As a result, by the time I sat down to build Mantis decks again I’d already finished 6 other Celestial decks and tested well over 100 games in the new format. This newfound environmental knowledge allowed me to look at the available card pool with a whole new eye and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. Rather than being boring and flawed, I saw that Mantis had multiple wildly divergent and yet powerful deck-types with room for numerous metagame options. In fact, I honestly believed (and still do) that Mantis had more viable deck-types than any clan in Celestial with the exception of Phoenix. In particular I found myself intrigued with the idea of crossing a corrupt Naval military deck with all the best Ranged Attack cards in the format while simultaneously recycling Followers with Dragon’s Guard City. Unfortunately early testing would reveal a serious design flaw as the deck’s numerous large honor losses (Umi-Bozu, Ambush, and the Mantis Stick) would generate constant “Blood Money” situations to the point of destroying its own economy. Additionally the inclusion of the 9 followers that cost multiple holdings commonly seen in DGC and another 11 fate cards with a gold cost (potentially) made for a deck that would often chose to buy followers OR personalities but frustratingly; never both. Reluctantly I cut Umi-Bozu, Ambush and Ronin Brotherhood; replacing them with cheaper and more honourable options better suited for the use of Secluded Outpost. The end result was a hybrid attrition military deck that used the Naval trait to dominate attack phases and huge ranged attacks to discourage retaliation. Paying homage to the popular music group of the same name, I chose to call the deck “The Lonely Island” because it’s better “On a Boat” and there’s no question Naizen is “Like a Boss”. As usual we’ll take a quick look at the deck-list and talk about why each card was chosen. Then let’s examine a brief play guide designed to help you get started playing with “The Lonely Island” immediately.

The Lonely Island – CE Mantis Follower Military

1x Dragon’s Guard City – Potentially the best stronghold Mantis has ever had, Dragon’s Guard City may also be the most misunderstood card in the format. Deceptively powerful, the ability to recur Followers from your discard pile as an Open/Battle Action provides a Mantis military player with 3 major advantages:

A)   Card Advantage – Combined with cards like Imperial Artificer, Taoist Archer, Obfuscation and Yoritomo Naizen, DGC allows the Mantis player to draw and play more cards than any other deck I’ve played in Celestial.
B)   Improved Resistance – Early Celestial lacks a significant number of actions that can kill a personality with a large attached follower. This often means that after the first few actions in a game, your opponent will be forced to spend cards killing your followers first and then finding separate actions to remove your personalities.
C)   Improved Attrition – Assuming you play with Followers who have printed Battle Actions, DGC allows the Mantis military player to essentially “recycle” an extra battle action into play each turn. When combined with the natural resistance followers provide this usually gives the DGC player numerous options in battle long after his opponent has begun passing.

1x Border Keep – Unlike many decks in the format The Lonely Island runs enough Holdings (16) to consistently save its second mulligan action. In testing I would usually use the first mulligan to find the best starting gold possible and then save the second mulligan for the inevitable turn when I flipped 3 Holdings and needed guys.

1x Bamboo Harvesters – While 2 starting Family Honor usually means Mantis goes 2nd they are thankfully spared the so called “Crab Curse” of being ridiculously inefficient without putting Harvesters into play. That having been said, in a deck that requires this much gold to operate you’ll never be sad that you went 2nd.

1x I Am Ready – This card is all about generating free actions off a Naval Invasion. Actions that target your Personality as a cost are considered performed by that Personality. This allows any Naval Personality with an attachment to use the action granted before the defender’s first normal action. Even if you find you have better actions to declare with the Naval Invasion, I Am Ready is also effective at clearing out naked personalities at the end of long battles involving numerous ranged attacks.

1x Farmlands – Ostensibly included to allow you to use Imperial Artificer if you haven’t drawn a Follower, the truth is that Farmlands is my least favourite card in the deck. In testing I found that you essentially will never buy the follower unless you have a Rich Coffers in play and no better targets in the discard pile. In other words; this does not happen very often. I often switch this out with A New Year but find I am very unlucky and the event almost always resolves when I no longer have Followers in hand to discard. In theory either card should work, but in practice I have found neither to be effective personally.

3x Secluded Outpost – Possibly the best holding in the deck, Secluded Outpost can absolutely dominate games if your cards come up in the right order. With 9 attachments that cost 4G or less and another 6 that cost 7G or more it’s a very rare turn when Outpost isn’t worth at least 7 Gold to you. They key is to draw the cheap attachments early and the more expensive ones later when you have extra holdings to feed into the purchase. There is little point in buying an early Outpost if your opening draw features expensive followers you’d rather discard and play later. Unless your opponent is exceptionally weak it is almost never a good idea to divert extra holdings in the early game to creating a super-unit with Imperial Elite Guards or Taoist Archers. There will be plenty of time to buy these cards later once you’ve developed your gold-scheme.

3x Border Village – Whether it’s making 3 or 4 Gold, Border Village is a vital part of any deck with so many expensive attachments. When going first there’s no real downside to having a 2nd Clan Holding, even at 4GC. Alternately, it’s particularly effective with Taoist Archers in games your opponent took the first turn.

3x Kobune Port – The simple truth is that it’s hard to beat the raw efficiency of any “Clan Holding” here in Celestial. While The Lonely Island is less dependent on seeing an early Kobune Port than most decks it can still be important for cards like Traveling Peddler, Tsuruchi Saya, Imperial Elite Guard and Oni-Daikyu.

3x Imperial Artificer – Obviously, the ability to draw cards while safely discarding Followers for later use with DGC is pretty strong. The fact that these Followers can in turn themselves draw and discard more cards if you use the Artificer to pay for them from the discard pile is however borderline ridiculous. Generating card advantage doesn’t get much simpler than this.

3x Rich Coffers – While it’s tempting to assume The Lonely Island uses this card to help buy Followers as an open action on your opponent’s turn, this would largely be inaccurate. While this does sometimes happen in longer games, usually Rich Coffers allows you to play key cards like Rout, Obfuscation and Certain Death as early as your opponent’s 3rd turn. While not absolutely essential, holding off your opponent’s first attack while destroying his attachments will often lead to an easy victory. This ability to play multiple fate cards that cost gold without compromising your purchasing power on your own limited/dynasty phases makes Rich Coffers an obvious inclusion.

1x Traveling Peddler – In a deck with 15 other Holdings and a heavy focus on generating card advantage there’s no legitimate reason to leave Travelling Peddler on the sidelines. Drawing more cards than your opponent wins games and having more than one way to do so (Artificer, Taoist Archer, etc) is never a bad idea.

3x Tsuruchi Omori – One of my favourite cards in the deck, it often astounds me when people openly question the inclusion of Omori in Mantis decks. As a 2F Samurai with a potentially fatal battle action for 2 (TWO!) gold, what’s not to like? Sure Omori’s action only kills small personalities and follower tokens but let me repeat; he only costs 2 Gold in Mantis! In a deck that also includes Low Stance, Game of Sincerity and Oni-Daikyu you’d be hard pressed to find a better value. Interesting side note; Omori’s ranged 2 Attack will use up Kuon’s negation trait even though it has no chance of killing the big Crab Champion.

3x Yoritomo Iwata – Despite my usual preference for proactive battle actions it’s hard to argue with Iwata’s overall Force to Gold Cost ratio. Remember, in a deck with 19 printed ways to make ranged attacks it’s pretty much a given that each Iwata in an army will contribute 5F potentially spread over 2 units. While I could never find room for Hold!, his Commander trait does make it a possible meta option.

1x Tsuruchi Oguri – One of the best defensive personalities in Celestial Edition, Oguri’s ability to snipe key enemy personalities or followers and then run away can be extremely frustrating in the early game. Unfortunately the cost of bowing Oguri for his Ranged 4 Attack makes him less effective on the offensive, generally relegating him to suicide attacks with other units in a harassment role. Despite this drawback it’s hard to argue with a boxable that can kill a naked Gohachiro or an Imperial Elite Guard.

1x Yoritomo Saburo Exp – The 8th and final true boxable personality in The Lonely Island, Saburo Exp makes the cut primarily because of other cards. As the cheapest Personality in the deck with the Naval trait, Saburo works well with Secluded Outpost and Oni-Daikyu. His printed Reaction also combines incredibly well with Unpredictable Strategy if your other target is naval; providing an alarming number of ways to take advantage of the switching units.

1x Pokku Exp – Decks without attachments will have an incredibly hard time maintaining presence in battles against The Lonely Island. The sheer number of Ranged Attacks and fatal Battle Actions will make for quick and brutal engagements unless your opponent can somehow protect his personalities. Pokku works with cards like Rout, Certain Death and Oni-Daikyu to take care of any key attachments your opponent may play to thwart your kill. The difference between Pokku and these other cards is that Pokku lets you KEEP the attachment your opponent paid for! Remember, because Pokku ignores restrictions when stealing attachments you can even grab Clan Items and Spells. This will only happen once or twice before your opponent finds a way to kill Pokku, which is okay because now he’s spent more cards to destroy his own attachments and not your guys with huge Ranged Attacks.

3x Tsuruchi Saya – With the biggest printed Ranged Attack in a deck full of big Ranged Attacks, Tsuruchi Saya can often stall an opponent’s early offence all by herself. Equally important her 2PH makes her a legal target for Imperial Elite Guard and her Honor Requirement of 0 is at least manageable with the “Blood Money” rule. At a real cost of 5 Gold, Saya adds up to highway robbery.

1x Moshi Takako – Primarily included because of her Naval trait and a desperate need for 2PH+ personalities to attach Imperial Elite card, Takako also combines well with Oni-Daikyu to kill key 4F Personalities other Naval units can’t. Her battle action is sometimes useful in very long games but usually it’s too expensive to be worth it in a deck that would rather be attaching Followers.

1x Yoritomo Iwata Exp – Giving personalities who were never intended to have the Naval trait the ability to perform their printed Battle Actions during a Naval Invasion is quite frankly disgusting. Obviously this works best with Saya or Oguri but even giving Omori the Naval trait so he can sacrifice an Oni-Daikyu is pretty amazing. Unfortunately without a non-naval target to use with him Iwata Exp is a fairly mediocre 4F Naval Personality for 5G; which isn’t bad but it isn’t making Naval Ranged 5’s either.

3x Tsuruchi Sanjo – The more I see Tsuruchi Sanjo in action during testing the more I’m convinced he’s one of Mantis’s best personalities in Celestial Edition. Although this deck doesn’t run an incredible number of effects that dishonor opposing personalities (3x Game of Sincerity) Sanjo still manages to be useful in almost every match-up I play. Recently I learned during a test game that Sanjo CAN target himself with his action (or any one of your personalities who meet the requirements). This not only allows you to escape from a battle gone wrong, but to also spread your attacking armies out across multiple provinces; taking full advantage of the Naval trait and Unpredictable Strategy without risking Sanjo in the slightest. Obviously he’s a great target for the Mantis Clan item as it increases his Chi to 4 and thus improves the value of his printed battle action. Another 2PH personality for the purposes of attaching Imperial Elite Guard; Sanjo has no HR making him one of the most versatile personalities in the deck.

3x Yoritomo Sunagawa – Unfortunately without cards like Retribution or Permanent Encampment, Sunagawa becomes relegated to a support role as his Battle Action invariably costs your army as much force as it destroys. While it will often be worth it to bow a Taoist Archer/Imperial Elite Guard during a Naval Invasion to kill a key personality or follower on the opposing side, usually this will mean failing to take the province. One way around this is to discard a Tactical Advisors to give Sunagawa 4F and then use DGC to attach the same Advisors to him during battle; creating a 10F unit even if other followers are bowed. At 2HR you occasionally have to pay “Blood Money” for him but ultimately he’s still worth 8G. Regardless, big Naval Ranged Attacks are rarely useless and Sunagawa easily finds a home in The Lonely Island because of this.

1x Moshi Nakata – A very strange Personality, Nakata is not all that relevant unless you have a significant number of cards with Ranged Attacks on them in play. Despite this, most opponents will go out of their way to kill an early Nakata simply based on the potential that she might help you make incredibly big Ranged Attacks later. At 5F and Naval she makes a good target for Justly Earned Victory, while her 3 PH means she can attach any follower in the deck. Usually discard bait if she shows up early, Nakata is really only useful in a longer game.

1x Yoritomo Naizen Exp 3 – When I first sat down to take a good hard look at Celestial Edition I had Naizen ranked as the 4th or 5th best Clan Champion in the arc. Now several hundred games later I’m happy to admit that I was completely wrong and Naizen is at worst the 3rd best of the lot and arguably can challenge Kuon for the top spot. While 8F for 11G with a built in Naval ranged 6 was pretty amazing, it was actually seeing his other ability in action that changed my mind. As an action printed on a Naval Personality, Naizen’s ability to attach a Follower paying 3 less gold from your hand or discard pile can be used During a Naval Invasion. This action then grants you the ability to take ANOTHER Battle Action without stipulating any restrictions. In essence you may now take a non-Naval action (Imperial Elite Guard, Peasant Vengeance or Rout for example) at Naval speed simply by paying the reduced cost of a Follower you were going to attach anyways. I apologize deeply to Naizen and his posse for this oversight and acknowledge that the man is a “wicked nasty” card.

3x Peasant Vengeance – Surprisingly effective in this deck, Peasant Vengeance is primarily useful for taking down personalities who no longer have attachments but are too big to shoot in the face. Between Rout, Certain Death, Pokku Exp, Imperial Elite Guard and 19 cards with printed ranged attacks you should have no problem creating excellent targets to vaporize.

3x Obfuscation – Initially I failed to include Obfuscation in The Lonely Island, rationalizing that it costs too much and my Stronghold already did something similar with followers. While this made sense on paper I quickly realized during testing that the extra action Obfuscation granted could sometimes be just as important as re-playing the attachment itself. In particular the idea of bringing back Oni-Daikyu for 3G and destroying an enemy personality piqued my interest as something neither DGC nor Naizen would ever allow me to do. After testing it briefly I found the card to be excellent on offence but clunky when defending. In response, I rotated Rich Coffers into the Dynasty side and have found Obfuscation to be a game winning card ever since.

3x Unpredictable Strategy – As ridiculous as Unpredictable Strategy is in most decks, it’s even more game warping in a deck built around the Naval trait. While still useful as pseudo send-home, send-home meta and protection for your Game of Sincerity’s it can also be used to force a reluctant opponent to face a Naval Invasion action or risk losing multiple provinces. To do this you simply spread your army out at multiple provinces split into Naval and non- Naval elements. If your opponent defends against the non-Naval army, you simply resolve the other battle and play Unpredictable Strategy to switch your best Naval unit with a non-Naval unit at the main battle. Done properly this allows you to take the undefended Province while still forcing your opponent to face your best Naval action at the other battle when you do get around to resolving it.

3x Certain Death – As previously mentioned; decks without a significant number of attachments will have an incredibly hard time engaging The Lonely Island in battles. Certain Death makes this advantage a forgone conclusion by destroying key attachments as an Open action, before you engage the enemy army! Useful both offensively and defensively this card combos particularly well with an early Rich Coffers; allowing you to destroy a 5G or less attachment before your opponents key turn 3 attack phase. Even without the extra gold, destroying Touch of Ice or Oni-Daikyu in response to your opponent buying them is both effective and demoralizing.

3x Justly Earned Victory – A strangely unpopular card here in Celestial Edition, I run Justly Earned Victory in this deck because of its versatility. For starters, it acts as meta against key Force pump cards that would negate my ranged attacks (Seiden Sanzo, Shameful Tactics). It’s also incredibly useful against force reduction effects like Twice-Cutting Strike, Utaku Plains or most notably Asako Serizawa. As another send-home action it helps support Rout and Tsuruchi Sanjo in the face of opposing meta. Finally because it targets my personality in the cost block, JEV can be used during a Naval Invasion to remove a dangerous unit before it can harm my army.

3x Game of Sincerity – Another dual purpose meta card, Game of Sincerity attacks both honor and big unit/weapon military decks with equal ferocity. At the mere cost of dishonouring an Omori and losing 2F at resolution you can cause an honor deck 2 quick points of Family Honor and set him up to lose 2-5 more points later in the battle when you kill a dishonoured defender. This usually forces the opponent to spend an action removing his own unit from battle to avoid losing more honor; which is sort of like forcing your opponent to discard a battle action and then pass. Against big unit/Weapon military decks Game of Sincerity helps deal with personalities that are too difficult or large to kill with your Ranged Attacks and fatal Battle Actions. While not optimal, Game of Sincerity is also another card that targets your personality as a cost and therefore becomes legal during a Naval Invasion.

3x Rout – Primarily included to destroy key attachments that would protect opposing units from a myriad of kill actions, Rout also dovetails nicely into The Lonely Island’s send-home sub package. While as a side effect you’ll rarely play more than one in a given battle, Rout actually tests out better in a deck with Rich Coffers rather than Barley Farm because it removes the guesswork from spending gold on your turn. Additionally being able to play Rout on your opponent’s first attack phase in a game you went 2nd can be game defining; allowing you to destroy the first enemy army and tilt momentum heavily in your favor.

3x Low Stance – This card acts as yet another answer to Personalities that are too hard or too large to kill with other actions in the deck. While this may seem like over-kill the idea is to simply negate the value of playing Personalities too large to shoot in the face. Working in tandem with Game of Sincerity, Peasant Vengeance, Imperial Elite Guard and Oni-Daikyu; Low Stance makes absolutely certain you’ll always have an answer for your opponent’s biggest personality. As an added bonus it has 4 Focus Value, helping Sunagawa bust most provinces even after bowing a Follower to make a Naval Ranged Attack.

1x Ring of Water – In a deck with 69 printed ways to trigger the Ring of Water’s coming into play requirements it’s almost impossible to resist including it. Useful against the Cavalry trait, Retribution, movement effects and most send-home actions, this card can often dominate military on military match-ups.

3x Oni-Daikyu – To paraphrase the immortal Buddy Ryan, all Oni-Daikyu does is kill things. This is of course an incredibly good thing for 3G (or less if you bought a Secluded Outpost). Whether it’s shooting small-fry personalities and Follower tokens with Ranged 3 Attacks or destroying itself to blow up huge Personalities/Followers, Oni-Daikyu wreaks havoc against opposing armies. As a final testament to this card’s value in The Lonely Island it should be noted that even in a deck with 6 other attachments that have printed battle actions, I still invariably use Obfuscation to bring back Oni-Daikyu and destroy something if the option is available.

3x Tactical Advisors – If someone were to sit down and purposely design a Follower to work perfectly in a Dragon’s Guard City military deck, Tactical Advisors is the card they’d come up with. For starters it has all the right numbers; including 4 gold cost for Secluded Outpost, 4 Focus Value for Yoritomo Sunagawa and 0HR for a deck that runs Game of Sincerity and numerous low honor Personalities. Even its 2F can be an asset; allowing you to play Peasant Vengeance with minimal cost. Where this card really shines however is during opposed battles. The ability to simultaneously force your opponent to discard a card at random, gain force and put a Follower in the discard pile for later use with DGC/Obfuscation/Naizen is pretty much ridiculous. In testing I’ve found the random aspect of the forced discard can frustrate opponents to the point that they will begin destroying Tactical Advisors ahead of large followers with fatal battle actions. Interestingly enough this ability says “once per battle” not “once per turn” so you CAN use the same Tactical Advisors to strip your opponents hand at multiple provinces with an Unpredictable Strategy for example.

3x Imperial Elite Guard – With the possible exception of Naizen’s ability to recur a Follower while generating tempo with the free action granted, Imperial Elite Guard has the best printed battle action in The Lonely Island. The ability to destroy any opposing card that lacks attachments outright, without costs or restrictions will win you battles and ultimately entire games. Unfortunately this amazing ability is printed on a 7GC follower with an Honor Requirement of 2, making IEG a powerful but somewhat unwieldy option until the mid-late game. It should however be noted that The Lonely Island plays with more 2PH+ Personalities than most Mantis military decks (13) primarily because playing or recurring this card is such a strong play once you can afford it. Expect your opponent to go out of his way to destroy this card as soon as possible since most players will immediately identify its battle action as a serious problem. This of course means very little in the long run since a DGC player can simply buy the IEG any number of times per game from the discard pile; once per turn being the only restriction.

3x Taoist Archer – The “Super-Sized Combo Meal” of Followers here in early Celestial, Taoist Archer is all about getting more than what you paid for. While 8 Gold cost may initially appear staggeringly expensive the simple truth is that a 5F Follower, a Ranged 5 Attack and drawing a card would cost you roughly 5 gold each if purchased separately (Seppun Heavy Infantry, Tsuruchi Saya, Travelling Peddler for example). Unlike many Follower based card draw effects, Taoist Archer draws you a card no matter how it’s brought into play. This means that ff your opponent does destroy this card (and how can he afford not to?) you can recur it with DGC, Obfuscation or Naizen to draw yet another card; generating even more card advantage as the game progresses.

1x Traveling Wardens – Not exactly the most important card in the deck, Traveling Wardens finds a home in The Lonely Island almost entirely because it’s a 3F Follower for 4G and therefore can come into play for “free” off Secluded Outpost. At 4 Focus Value it also interacts well with Sunagawa and periodically the Cavalry trait can become important if you already have Armor of the Ryu in play. While in theory its Battle Action allows you to reduce larger personalities to killable size, in practice having to take 2 actions to destroy something is rarely your best option in battle.

1x Armor of the Ryu – While slightly less useful than normal in a deck with so many Followers, it’s still hard to justify leaving out a card as versatile as Armor of the Ryu. Giving Naizen or Sunagawa +3F and Cavalry is borderline broken in the early game for example. Additionally you can always attach a Follower with DGC as a battle action after you assign; essentially turning the entire unit into Cavalry for one attack phase. Finally the Armor’s granted ability to move into or out of opposed battles works just fine even if the unit is no longer Cavalry because you’ve attached an Infantry Follower. This can be particularly useful with Obfuscation, allowing you to save a key unit from destruction by re-attaching Armor of the Ryu and using the additional action to run home.

1x Heavenly Kama of the Mantis – There are times while playing with the Heavenly Kama of the Mantis that I have to pinch myself just to make sure this card is real. Light years ahead of the other “Clan” Weapons; the Heavenly Kama allows Mantis to take maximum advantage of Dragon’s Guard City by generating extra gold on every turn. This is especially useful in a deck with 14 other attachments and 9 actions that potentially cost gold, allowing you to spend a key holding freely during the action/battle phases and still have it available to buy guys at the end of your turn. While it’s true the 1 point honor loss can be frustrating, it’s quite manageable in game situations. After all; even if you spend 2 extra gold a turn on Blood Money payments your can still profit from that arrangement by unbowing a holding that makes 3 or 4 gold. Randomly enough; the +1 Chi bonus is also extremely useful with Tsuruchi Sanjo’s battle action, allowing you to send home 3PH personalities.

Play Guide

Ultimately the failing of any written play guide for an L5R deck will be the inability to cover every game situation you will encounter over the course of even a single large tournament or Kotei. This is especially true when talking about a deck that’s all about choosing from multiple options and matching the right meta for a specific opponent; a deck like The Lonely Island. It’s very hard to explain how to play a deck like this properly since the correct play is often dictated by the opponent’s deck, the game state and cards on the table in a given match-up. Rather than bashing our heads against the wall trying to cover every scenario lets focus on the basic set up and a few of the more common problems you will face while piloting The Lonely Island. Please remember that reading this play guide is NOT a reasonable substitute for practice and even moreso than most decks Mantis Military rewards time spent on the table. This deck wasn’t anywhere as good for me in games 1-10 as it was in games 40-50 despite making very few changes to the card base itself.

In terms of style I would describe The Lonely Island as a basic military attrition deck. Any time you run this many cards that kill something you’re challenging your opponent to engage you in battle and begin trading units. Essentially you’re betting you can do more damage to his army than he can do to yours with each skirmish. As a result most military attrition decks are more worried about destroying enemy armies than taking provinces until the very end of a prolonged game and this one is no exception. In order to compensate for this tendency to drag the game out The Lonely Island takes advantage of both swarm tactics and the recursive nature of the Dragon’s Guard City box action to seize control of the late game.

While it’s possible to play The Lonely Island as a 3rd turn rush deck; it’s generally a better idea to focus on developing your holdings early. DGC’s ability to play Followers from the Discard Pile is only relevant if you can afford to keep buying them over and over. You can almost NEVER buy too much gold when playing this deck. This obviously places a premium on buying holdings both early and well into the game which makes forcing out two large personalities on your 2nd turn a questionable play. In a perfect world you’ll buy 4 holdings (3 with an Outpost), a random boxable and a Tsuruchi Saya by the end of your 2nd turn every game. Alternately Naizen with an Armor of the Ryu/Tactical Advisors works fine too in most match-ups. Be careful of mulling twice to find either of these draws however; a deck with 16 Holdings will occasionally gold flood on the worst possible turn. Saving your second mulligan action for a later turn when you flip 3 Holdings can often be the difference between winning or losing with this deck.

Unless you’re playing against Spider, Scorpion or an honor deck, it’s fairly likely you’ll be staring down your opponent’s first attacking army on his 3rd turn; after your 2nd Dynasty Phase. This generally means you’ll have at best 3 defending units who may or may not have a 4G or less attachment to work with. While in some cases it will be a good idea to engage this enemy army and start killing things, more often than not it will be your best opportunity to lose the game as well. The sheer number of printed fatal Battle Actions on your Personalities and Followers means your opponent’s only chance of winning is to force you to engage early; while he still has more ways of removing your units than you have “walking platforms of death”. By defending early you allow your opponent the option of fighting a series of small battles he can potentially win rather than forcing him to face the prospect of a couple large battles he has no hope of surviving. Additionally the sheer size/number of your Followers combined with DGC’s ability to play them over and over makes for a deck that can often produce as much force and as many removal actions with only 2 provinces as most military decks do with 4. Overall this makes the decision to defend this first attack an extreme judgement call and you should only do so if you’re certain he’ll lose more from the engagement than you do. Of course defending with a Saya, an Omori with an Oni-Daikyu and Rout while you have Rich Coffers in play is usually a no lose situation.

Assuming you were unable to save this first province, you’ll likely want to attach something with a Battle Action to one of your guys and then skip straight to Dynasty. Typically this creates a defensive army your opponent will be incredibly unwilling to attack into on his next turn. If he does you should engage and begin trading lethal actions with his army because as long as you destroy enough of his cards it doesn’t actually matter if you lose the battle. Even if he is able to keep up with you, kill action for kill action in this first engagement, your ability to recycle Followers with fatal Battle Actions and the sheer number of Personalities in your deck with printed Ranged Attacks ensure he won’t keep up for long. Most experienced players will identify this situation quickly and skip straight to dynasty hoping to force you to commit to attacking into them on your next turn. In a military on military match-up however you are under no obligation to do so and should only attack when you have the right combination of Naval actions and the ability to leave a hellacious defensive army behind to save at least one province, regardless of who attacked who. Typically this happens by turn 5 or 6 though often once the opponent realizes you mean to build up until you can’t lose he’ll swing into you again on his 5th turn. Either way, once you have engaged and destroyed an enemy army it’s a simple matter of assigning your units together in force and making sure he can’t draw a lucky action or two and steal back the game. At this point your forward momentum and the full development of your gold scheme should make you almost unbeatable.

Playing against a lower honor military or control deck doesn’t really change much about the way you play The Lonely Island. Essentially you’ll still establish a massive defensive army first and then begin attacking as soon as you have a fatal Naval action and enough units to split your forces between offence and defence. In all likelihood you’ll just have 4 provinces while doing this. Occasionally you can even buy Naizen on turn 2 and pretty much auto-win against an opponent who went 2nd , though be wary of an opponent who can kill Naizen on the limited phase when doing this (Scorpion, some types of Spider).

Like most military decks that go 2nd against honor, The Lonely Island wins this match-up by properly developing its gold scheme in the early game and then flooding the board with units in the mid/late game. You’ll want to avoid spending gold on expensive attachments until later in the game when you can easily afford them. The this end, an early Secluded Outpost can be quite useful in this match-up as it allows you to play your cheaper attachments without hurting your development. Playing an early Imperial Artificer can also be important as it allows you to cycle to key “honor meta” cards like Certain Death, Unpredictable Strategy, Justly Earned Victory and most importantly Game of Sincerity. The Naval trait can be game wrecking against honor so most of these decks will run 3x Reinforced the Gates. This makes it important to always use a “Free” action during a Naval Invasion and avoid spending fate cards if at all possible. There’s nothing worse than losing a potentially game winning Game of Sincerity to your opponent’s meta reaction; try I Am Ready or Naizen/Sanjo instead. Remember to always attack in numbers, forcing your honor opponent to expend multiple fate cards to save a single province. This will quickly drain his hand and present you with a very easy opponent to finish off later.

Like most military attrition decks, The Lonely Island is not particularly easy to play. Reactive in the extreme, correct play with this deck is almost entirely determined by what your opponent has done already and what he is likely to do next. In particular engaging your opponent too soon can be fatal. Additionally this deck will reward a player who excels at trading battle actions, focusing on removing his opponent’s options first and his force later. Practice makes perfect and a player looking to do well with this deck would be wise to spend as much time as he can spare playing it before a major tournament.

Whew, that’s certainly enough about Mantis Military for one sitting! Hopefully you’ve found this useful in some way and I’m sorry everyone had to wait so long for me to finish this time. Being sick all the time certainly isn’t much fun for me either.

Please join me again next time when we take a look at Phoenix Honor out of Shrine of Champions, hopefully this time with Path of the Destroyer cards! Until then ladies and gentlemen remember to leave Saya at home to defend and always keep it weird.

Dirty Ryo · « **Reply #1 on:** August 27, 2009, 03:53:55 PM »

Thanks again Nina and I hope your feeling better soon

In my opinion on wether or not to post the old decks I think the enviroment has changed dramatically and they may not be as efficient as they could be or the clan has gone in a slightly different direction, just my 2 cents.

Perfection always

Sahano · « **Reply #2 on:** August 27, 2009, 08:01:24 PM »

Arigato gozaimasu, Nina-sensei.

I'd run Lightwater Bay instead of Farmlands - it comboes nice with the stronghold.

Doji Maidori · « **Reply #3 on:** August 27, 2009, 09:15:42 PM »

Get well soon!

Corbeau · « **Reply #4 on:** August 27, 2009, 10:55:09 PM »

I've been playing Mantis heavily since the start of the arc, and I have to say: great article! I'd actually overlooked Sanjo somehow. Glad you have seen the light that is Naizen though - he is a certifiable badass.

My version drops some of the cheap attachments and swaps Outpost for Barley Farm (since the latter can also remain unbowed if it generates 1g on my turn, it works very nicely alongside the SH, Certain Death, etc). I also run 1x Lightwater Bay in addition to Farmlands - the unopposed battle cycle is ridiculous out of Dragon's Guard City.

A question: what's your experience (if any) with Mounting a Defense? I long dismissed it as being card disadvantage, but, as you mentioned, a deck with 16 holdings often gets gold-flooded in the late game - and Path brings in a brutal Guidance that's worth digging for (yay for Celestials resolving at any time!). In a deck with so many printed battle actions, an extra personality can net positive card advantage even starting at -1.

Nina Illingworth · « **Reply #5 on:** August 28, 2009, 01:19:32 AM »

Quote from: Kakita Ryotoshi on August 27, 2009, 03:53:55 PM

Thanks again Nina and I hope your feeling better soon

In my opinion on wether or not to post the old decks I think the enviroment has changed dramatically and they may not be as efficient as they could be or the clan has gone in a slightly different direction, just my 2 cents.

Perfection always

Yeah, I mean most of the decks don't seem to change hugely, but some (Scorpion for example) pratically start over. I'm anxious to start Path discussions myself.

Quote from: Sahano on August 27, 2009, 08:01:24 PM

Arigato gozaimasu, Nina-sensei.

I'd run Lightwater Bay instead of Farmlands - it comboes nice with the stronghold.

I think that's probably the best suggestion yet, I'll give it a try post Path since I hadn't done so already. Thanks.

Quote from: Doji Maidori on August 27, 2009, 09:15:42 PM

Get well soon!

Thank you. Giving it my best shot

Quote from: Corbeau on August 27, 2009, 10:55:09 PM

A question: what's your experience (if any) with Mounting a Defense? I long dismissed it as being card disadvantage, but, as you mentioned, a deck with 16 holdings often gets gold-flooded in the late game - and Path brings in a brutal Guidance that's worth digging for (yay for Celestials resolving at any time!). In a deck with so many printed battle actions, an extra personality can net positive card advantage even starting at -1.

I never really considered it. It would probably be pretty good if you hit a Saya, a Sanjo or Naizen. Not sure what the math on that would be.

Definately the ONLY deck I could imagine running that card to positive effect though...

Thanks guys.

Slifter · « **Reply #6 on:** August 28, 2009, 12:14:42 PM »

Excellent article, hope you get well soon.

Have you tried Seppun Heavy Infantry? The 5 gold is a bit of a pain with out Barley Farm and there i no proactive battle action but I think the trait makes up for it. While it doesn't have an action it can effectively net you extra actions by allowing you to use a personalities (and any other followers in the unit) both on the attack and defense. In addition since it can be played after defenders are assigned you can screw up someone's math on whether to defend or counter attack.

Nina Illingworth · « **Reply #7 on:** August 28, 2009, 01:22:15 PM »

Quote from: Slifter on August 28, 2009, 12:14:42 PM

Excellent article, hope you get well soon.

Have you tried Seppun Heavy Infantry? The 5 gold is a bit of a pain with out Barley Farm and there i no proactive battle action but I think the trait makes up for it. While it doesn't have an action it can effectively net you extra actions by allowing you to use a personalities (and any other followers in the unit) both on the attack and defense. In addition since it can be played after defenders are assigned you can screw up someone's math on whether to defend or counter attack.

I gave it a shot but A) the 2HR bothered me as much as it does in IEG and I liked IEG better and B) I'd then have to run Control, Ambush, Retribution, etc all the cards that make Seppun Heavy go from "okay" to "Wow this is broken". While I like that deck, ultimately I felt this was better.

It's definately an arguement I've had with several top flight players, it's just imho a completely different deck than this one at that point.

Definately a good card.

Dare-chan · « **Reply #8 on:** August 31, 2009, 04:35:34 PM »

Just a tip:

Quote

1x Farmlands – Ostensibly included to allow you to use Imperial Artificer if you haven’t drawn a Follower, the truth is that Farmlands is my least favourite card in the deck.

Doesn't work
http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=77808

You're paying for an action on a card, not for a follower.

Doji Hatashai · « **Reply #9 on:** August 31, 2009, 05:13:10 PM »

Quote from: Dare-chan on August 31, 2009, 04:35:34 PM

Just a tip:
Quote
1x Farmlands – Ostensibly included to allow you to use Imperial Artificer if you haven’t drawn a Follower, the truth is that Farmlands is my least favourite card in the deck.

Doesn't work
http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=77808

You're paying for an action on a card, not for a follower.

You should read further Dare. It does work. You pay for farmlands.. then when attaching the follower you "overpay" the 0 gold cost for attaching by using the imperial artifiser to draw a card. Its a hot combo. I want to run it in my crane scout deck now

.

Card Cycle + a 1 f follower for ostensibly 4 gold? Seems good.

Doji Maidori · « **Reply #10 on:** August 31, 2009, 06:30:37 PM »

Wow, Farmlands, Hariya, Yaichiro, Forging the Gift, Phantom Blade Kata... lot of "pay 2G to cycle" options with Imperial Artificer.

Doji Yoshi · « **Reply #11 on:** August 31, 2009, 06:33:21 PM »

Perhaps it should be called "Crane's Imperial Artificer".

Nina Illingworth · « **Reply #12 on:** August 31, 2009, 07:52:21 PM »

Quote from: Doji Maidori on August 31, 2009, 06:30:37 PM

Wow, Farmlands, Hariya, Yaichiro, Forging the Gift, Phantom Blade Kata... lot of "pay 2G to cycle" options with Imperial Artificer.

Absolutely.

It's borderling scary if you think about what a Crane Scout Mil deck might do with that down the arc as you keep adding more cards. Food for thought anyways.

Doji Maidori · « **Reply #13 on:** August 31, 2009, 08:10:15 PM »

7FP and 2-3 Imperial Artificers would be craaaaaaaazy.

Doji Hatashai · « **Reply #14 on:** August 31, 2009, 10:30:34 PM »

Quote from: Doji Maidori on August 31, 2009, 08:10:15 PM

7FP and 2-3 Imperial Artificers would be craaaaaaaazy.

At cycling your deck into the discard pile. Is that an advantage? I'm not so sure.

In a skilled players hands (read that as: someone who knows exactly what card is going to shut down the opponent's deck).

I'm not that kind of player..... yet.

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Author Topic: The Cardboard Geisha Part 8 - The Lonely Island (Read 4444 times)

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