Sarasota, Fl 1st Place Breeder Tournament Report

Going into the weekend Crane has 6 kotei wins and the highest attendance of any faction. So I strap on my honor meta and set out to feast on brains.

-Round 1: Quintano Lazaro - Crane Magistrates
We spend the first few turns buying gold then guys. During his turn 4 i decline an Impromptu Duel which he then follows up with a Patrolling the roads. During his Dynasty he Buys a Noritoshi for full, my Proper Deference negates 10 honor.
The next turn i swing for 2 provinces with about 5 zombies at each, he defends all in with Noritoshi, Hideo xp and Idzuki against one of my armies. I resolve the opposed battle first. Shameful and Cowardly + Scouting Far Afield cuase him to lose 11 honor while still losing both provinces. At this point he is down to about 11 honor and only has 2 provinces so he concedes.
1-0
MVP - Honor Meta - I have lots of it.

-Round 2: Corey Monson (Hiruma/Amazing Sleep) - TST Yojimbos
Corey is a local member of my playgroup and a good friend.
He gets an early lead taking 2 provinces. I'm down 2-4 but start amassing a lot of bodies. Eventually he swings all in at one of my last 2 provinces. Having played his deck many times i assume that he has Fight as One in hand to unbow all his personalities after the battle. I have to win this battle or lose the game. So i commit everything to the battle. 2 Border Ambushes and a Scouting Far Afield or two later and i have him out forced by a large margin. He concedes after losing his whole army.
2-0
MVP - Gutobo/Expendable/TPeddler - Allowed me to sculpt a perfect hand.

-Round 3: Trevor Valentine - Godzilla Lion
Trevor is playing a unique heavy build out of Great Halls.
We both see a lot of gold early in the game so we build up our economies. I also get 2 Hachigoros in play Turn 3. He attacks with 3-4 Lions. I throw both hachigoros and a few zombies at him as speed bumps. We have a very back and forth battle where he eventually takes the province. At this point we have very few cards in hand and sit back to rebuild. I have my Gutobo draw engine online plus plenty of gold to use peddler every turn so i quickly fill my hand back up.
I throw 5 zombies at a province while leaving back roughly 15 bodies to defend. He gives me the province. On his turn he swings for all three of my provinces with 3 lions to my left, 4 to center and 3 to the right, with 5 cards in hand. I defend 7 zombies to left and 5 to the right with 8 cards in hand. He takes the middle province but concedes after losing both his other armies.
3-0
MVP - Gutobo/Expendable/TPeddler - Drawing back to full after burning out my hand at the first battle.
LVP - Hachigoro- I completely forgot about him.

-Round 4: Antonio Reyes - Spider Monksai
We had a great game the previous year at the Orlando Kotei where i barely won. Unfortunetly for Antonio hes playing my easiest match-up.
He wins the roll to go first and the game begins. Once he has 2 bodies with weapons on he swings in. I chump block with 3 zombies to slow him down and Gutobo defends elsewhere to draw cards. 2 Unclean Sacrifices and a flanked later and ive won the battle.
I decide to play it safe by Attacking one province at a time while leaving a large army at home to defend. Hes never able to attack or defend effectively due to the number of bodies on the table. When this game ends i have 24 zombie tokens out in addition to my normal personalities.
4-0
MVP - Unclean Sacrafice - This card is the bane of decks that are reliant on Fate side battle actions.

Round 5: Kevin Kennedy - CoT Phoenix Military
The first 2 turns pass by with the standard holdings + dudes. Turn 3 Kevin takes an early province by equipping a Rising Sun Blade on a cavalry shujenga. I buy dudes. Turn 4 Kevin resolves a Census bowing out all my personalities except a Inisi, who blows himself up to give me a few defenders. Kevin takes another province with the Shug who has RSB.
Things are getting ugly as Kevin is up 4-2 and he has 2 Takahiro's plus Shiba's Guidance. The next few turns are spent sacrificing zombies to take out said Takahiro's and repel him from my provinces. He eventually sees the third copie of Takahiro and uses the guidance to bring one back. At this point we are getting close to time so i concede.
4-1
MVP - Takahiro - This guy is the bane of my existence.

-Round 6: Thermon Welch (TC) - Crane Embassy Dishonor
TC is a member of our extended playgroup and we have had the pleasure of playing once before during a sealed event. As soon as he tells me he is playing dishonor I know i've lost this game. He gets out an early Seimi and Kazunori and starts burning down my honor. With a little bit of fate support i'm out of the game by his 5th Turn.
4-2
LVP - Lack of Dishonor Meta.

-Round 7: Thomas Hennessey - Dragon LSC
So i go from being first seed going into round 5 to potentially missing the cut all together. If he is running the right cards, like Flashy Teq my chances of winning are slim.
My opening hand has no Shameful's or PDs. His first turn he only sees one holding so he buys a boxable and the holding, leaving a Well-Defended Border. I spend my first 2 turns getting my economy in place. I need gold for box + shuzo +Tpeddler. My plan is to swarm him with bodies and try to draw into a S&C. Turn 3 he buys stuff, gets honor. I take a province and throw a solo gutobo at the WDB to prevent him from gaining honor. Turn 4 is exactly the same.
Turn 5 Thomas crosses on honor and i have yet to see any of my honor meta. So we go to my turn. I make more bodies, draw a card and swing for both his provinces. He defends at the WDB. I make a mistake and resolve the undefended province first. He loses the province but my Unclean Sacrifices are now likely dead cards.
At the next battle he kills all of my shegenja first with duels. I can't Unclean as they are all living. I spend my actions killing off a couple of his guys then start playing my 2 Border Ambushes. He plays 2 Low Stances which makes the battle close but i send his one guy home. I have three 5 force zombies vs his 10 province strength and he has no actions left, so i barely win the game.
5-2
MVP - Border Ambush

They announce the top 8 and i'm in at 5th place. There are 2 dishonor decks in the top 8. I need to avoid both if I'm going to win the tournament. I start praying to Fu Leng.