It has been a long time since I blogged for L5R. Truth be told, it has been a long time since I took L5R seriously. I top 8'd an Elemental Championship in Springfield a month or two ago, but other than that, I've been pretty radio silent.
It's frustrating to not get new cards for an extend period of time, and when there is a lull in competitive tournaments on top of that, it's hard to justify spending time testing and practicing. But that changes now.
Not only do we have a new pack of cards in Bonds of Blood, but there's also this little tournament called GenCon coming up. A new meta + a major tournament is right about the time that I come out of the woodwork and get to work.
The Goals
Before any plan is successful, you have to know what you want the plan to accomplish. So what are my goals for Gencon?
Normally, I'd tell you my only goal is to win the tournament. I'd go on some diatribe about how I would never walk into any single match planning to lose, so if you take that mindset extrapolated over 10 rounds, I plan to walk out of the tournament undefeated and a champion.
Not this time though. This time, I honestly just want to do well. GenCon is a weird tournament because it's such a HUGE deal, but at the same time, if you don't do well, there's a million other things to do and see.
This GenCon is my wife and I's first GenCon where we're staying all 4 days. I honestly don't know if I want to spend all day Friday and all day Saturday playing L5R. Now don't get me wrong, I'd take a GenCon championship, but I'm not going to be heartbroken if I have to spend all day Saturday playing other games and wandering the dealer hall.
So the TLDR of my goals is: play tight L5R, win as much as possible, but also just enjoy the ride of GenCon.
The Plan
I'm a big believe in having a plan anytime you want to accomplish your goals. If the goal is the destination, the plan is the map. And like any time you plan with a map, sometimes you have to make adjustments as unexpected things come up.
Here, there's three main avenues for preparing for GenCon:
1. Jigoku testing against randoms;
2. Paper testing with trusted teammates; and
3. Theorycrafting on Discord with the community.
As to Jigoku testing, anytime there is a new environment, like a new expansion release, it's important to get the appropriate volume of testing in. Volume helps a couple of things: it helps you see interactions, increases your familiarity with cards in play, and gives you an idea of what other clans are potentially brewing with. Most people that play on Jigoku are competitive, and the competitive community in this game is pretty good at information sharing - Jigoku is where you get that data.
As to paper testing with teammates, I think in person dialogue is a great way to test out new cards and discuss ideas. Your friends will push you and challenge your deck building in ways others simply can't. The biggest problem to avoid here is your outspoken friends dominating the conversation and leading to bias.
As to theorycrafting, sometimes you can't just play with the cards (like, I have a traditional desk job), Discord/Facebook are my only ways of developing my strategies sometimes. These forums are great places to get the next innovation or idea for deck building.
So what's my specific plan using these three tools? It looks like this:
1. 1 game of Jigoku testing/tuning every day July 15th-July 19th;
2. 2 games of Jigoku testing/tuning every day July 22-July 26th;
3. 3 games of Jigoku testing/tuning every day July 29-August 1;
4. In person testing/deck building sessions on July 20, 21, and 28.
5. Regular interaction in discord/Facebook community.
The actual number of games is probably irrelevant, but it's more of an idea of ramping up as we get closer to GenCon. This lets the meta develop, and as we get closer, i can finer tune decks that have had a greater time to work themselves out. It will also help me redevelop my stamina, as I'm a bit out of touch having not played in a long time.
Summary
A competitive tournament is on the horizons, and I can't let myself sit by while there is work to be done.
Tune in Wednesday for a look at the general, 10,000 feet look at the deckbuilding I'm starting with and my thoughts on the format at the moment. You can follow my day-to-day thoughts on @imjorman, even though I sometimes (often) tweet non-L5R things.
It's frustrating to not get new cards for an extend period of time, and when there is a lull in competitive tournaments on top of that, it's hard to justify spending time testing and practicing. But that changes now.
Not only do we have a new pack of cards in Bonds of Blood, but there's also this little tournament called GenCon coming up. A new meta + a major tournament is right about the time that I come out of the woodwork and get to work.
The Goals
Before any plan is successful, you have to know what you want the plan to accomplish. So what are my goals for Gencon?
Normally, I'd tell you my only goal is to win the tournament. I'd go on some diatribe about how I would never walk into any single match planning to lose, so if you take that mindset extrapolated over 10 rounds, I plan to walk out of the tournament undefeated and a champion.
Not this time though. This time, I honestly just want to do well. GenCon is a weird tournament because it's such a HUGE deal, but at the same time, if you don't do well, there's a million other things to do and see.
This GenCon is my wife and I's first GenCon where we're staying all 4 days. I honestly don't know if I want to spend all day Friday and all day Saturday playing L5R. Now don't get me wrong, I'd take a GenCon championship, but I'm not going to be heartbroken if I have to spend all day Saturday playing other games and wandering the dealer hall.
So the TLDR of my goals is: play tight L5R, win as much as possible, but also just enjoy the ride of GenCon.
The Plan
I'm a big believe in having a plan anytime you want to accomplish your goals. If the goal is the destination, the plan is the map. And like any time you plan with a map, sometimes you have to make adjustments as unexpected things come up.
Here, there's three main avenues for preparing for GenCon:
1. Jigoku testing against randoms;
2. Paper testing with trusted teammates; and
3. Theorycrafting on Discord with the community.
As to Jigoku testing, anytime there is a new environment, like a new expansion release, it's important to get the appropriate volume of testing in. Volume helps a couple of things: it helps you see interactions, increases your familiarity with cards in play, and gives you an idea of what other clans are potentially brewing with. Most people that play on Jigoku are competitive, and the competitive community in this game is pretty good at information sharing - Jigoku is where you get that data.
As to paper testing with teammates, I think in person dialogue is a great way to test out new cards and discuss ideas. Your friends will push you and challenge your deck building in ways others simply can't. The biggest problem to avoid here is your outspoken friends dominating the conversation and leading to bias.
As to theorycrafting, sometimes you can't just play with the cards (like, I have a traditional desk job), Discord/Facebook are my only ways of developing my strategies sometimes. These forums are great places to get the next innovation or idea for deck building.
So what's my specific plan using these three tools? It looks like this:
1. 1 game of Jigoku testing/tuning every day July 15th-July 19th;
2. 2 games of Jigoku testing/tuning every day July 22-July 26th;
3. 3 games of Jigoku testing/tuning every day July 29-August 1;
4. In person testing/deck building sessions on July 20, 21, and 28.
5. Regular interaction in discord/Facebook community.
The actual number of games is probably irrelevant, but it's more of an idea of ramping up as we get closer to GenCon. This lets the meta develop, and as we get closer, i can finer tune decks that have had a greater time to work themselves out. It will also help me redevelop my stamina, as I'm a bit out of touch having not played in a long time.
Summary
A competitive tournament is on the horizons, and I can't let myself sit by while there is work to be done.
Tune in Wednesday for a look at the general, 10,000 feet look at the deckbuilding I'm starting with and my thoughts on the format at the moment. You can follow my day-to-day thoughts on @imjorman, even though I sometimes (often) tweet non-L5R things.
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