Tao Of Headpunching
by Lukai (a.k.a. Junnoluk)
I am a control player.
I have always thrived on controlling
the board; my philosophy has always been that it doesn't
matter when I win, as long as I don't lose. Countless
personalities have fallen to my Test of Honors and Force
of Wills; it wasn"t a good day of gaming until I cut
down entire armies with duels. But I have always been
odd in my ways.
Resources are my obsession - eventually, I learned
to base
my strategies on cost effectiveness and card advantage;
I never ran Kolats, and duel support is abhorrent to me.
Come Gold, my old tools were gone; the old synergy my
decks once had disappeared with my personality and fate
base. Despite moderate success, it took me quite some time
to get used to this new environment; old concepts that I
dismissed as military only and the idea that a deck could
switch from one victory condition to another, were slow
for me to adopt.
I used to be the first to run cards like Deeds and even Shame;
weapons that
worked to stop my opponents from winning instead of moving me
closer
to my ultimate goal. But I have experimented, and I have found
new ideas -
old ideas, really, that I never embraced - that are refreshing
to me; exciting,
seemingly foolish yet showing great results. Some of the wisdom
that
follows may seem simple. Do not dismiss it as techniques for
beginners;
instead, look at them as the tools of a master.
In L5R, as in everything, there are weapons that
are attractive to novices, but are
useless in their hands. The intermediate dismisses these weapons
for seemingly
better ones, and does so rightly. The master, however, can use
these weapons in
a way unseen by the novice; the differences are in intent as
much as in technique.
I aim to strip away all artifice in play technique of Five Rings;
to create an ultimate
technique, the ultimate synergy of deck style and play style.
What seems reckless
is actually highly calculated; I aim to prepare for my recklessness,
and temper it,
creating a stroke that is seemingly wild and unexpected - but
is always wild in the
same way, and is fully under my control. It is a sudden act of
violence that will
catch my foes off guard; it is attacking in what appears to be
the most foolish
manner.
I am confronting not the weakest point, but throwing my strength
into the strongest
point, thus making it the weakest by destroying expectation;
I am hitting hard bone
instead of soft flesh; I am revealing the Way of the HEADPUNCH.
The Way of the HEADPUNCH is the Way of the Switch. Previously,
switching
was not possible; the card base was too specialized for most
decks to be able to
run for honor and take provinces. High force personalities were
too expensive to
be bought for full honor, and often had low personal honor; the
opposite was
true for honor personalities. A deck trying to do both would
require twice as
many resources, or would lose to a focused deck.
With the slower, more homogenized personality base in each clan
in Gold,and the
increased cost of honor personalities, switching is more viable.
The principals I
lay out below allow for switching, and the Dragon has the majority
of the tools
needed to do so. Thus this treatise is primarily for the Dragon,
but may still be
applied to other clans, particularly the Lion, the Crab, and
the Crane.
I have considered saving this wisdom, hoarding it lest it be
used against me, but,
for now, I will allow a select few to partake in it, so that
my methods may be
seen as wisdom and not the foolish luck of a madman. So, on this
early March
morning, twelve days before my twentieth year, I lay my two decks
to my sides
and put hand to keyboard to explain the true spirit of this HEADPUNCHING
School as it is mirrored in the cards and in the heavens.
1) FIRE: ALL CARDS MUST MOVE ONE TOWARDS
VICTORY
- TAKE THE MOMENTUM
Every card should be pro-active. Grab control of
the game and force your
opponent to react. Meta is for the weak, unless said meta is
inherent to
deck design (for example, both Test of Might and Purity of Spirit
can be
considered horde meta, but they are also both integral to deck
design).
Everything should emphasize winning battles or GAINING HONOR
-
either through raw force, like followers and Tattoos, or through
massive
force swings, like Block.
At the heart of this is NO WORTHLESS FATE SUPPORT,
particularly
for duels. Every card I draw should immediately aid me in taking
a
province or defending my provinces - and poisoned weapon or Snow
Crane
does neither of these things. Following this allows one to drop
absolutely
silly resources from the hand - often I'll add an upwards of
10 permanent
force from my hand during a round where I have a large resource
surplus
(like after being deedesd).
The biggest advantage of this is simple: consistency.
Nothing is worse than
trying to attack third turn with a hand of two poison weapons,
a counterattack,
a take, and a superior tactics. The Dragon headpuncher almost
always has a
force-giver and an opening defensive card - and if it doesn?,
it usually has a
killer military hand or a dueling/defensive hand that will allow
me to survive
long enough to switch gears somewhat.
I have to admit I violate this rule somewhat with
both Outmaneuvered by Force
and Counterattack. The latter I trying to find a replacement
for (despite, at the |
fundamental level, it serving solely to TAKE PROVINCES), and
the former
I was toying with dropping completely - it's the only real meta
in my deck,
for the dishonor/honor archetypes I tend to have problems with.
As an aside, a common question about my deck is
why I do not run Walks,
and the answer is simple. In theory, every card in my deck should
be useful,
and I want to be able to immediately use as many cards as possible.
Since so
many military cards are only useful with a limited phase, I want
to limit the
number of cards that I need a limited phase to use. In addition,
I try to make
full use of all my resources every turn - it is rare when I have
an extra
personality to bow, let alone an extra 4 gold for a Walk. The
onlytime when
I have 4 gold that I do not need is in the very late game, and,
honestly, I win
off superior resources, not single cards in play - a Walk in
the opening hand
is absolute murder.
Finally, when it comes to momentum, the true Headpunch
deck will have a
victory condition it works towards almost automatically, typically
by
GAINING HONOR. This is accomplished simply by having high PH
personalities, Sanctifieds, and support cards that give honor
as well as
advancing the military goal (typically duels, but also the Sword,
the Shrine,
and the Imperial Standard, among others). This way, the fate
can be focused
on maintaining momentum for the less automatic victory condition
-
TAKING PROVINCES - by including more force and followers, along
with support like Rallies and Test of Courage.
Momentum is key, all should advance it. With this
principal, you will never be
lacking a chance to win the game. This is the truth. This is
the way of Fire.
2) AIR: RESOURCE ADVANTAGE IS KEY
- ALWAYS BE MOVING, AND VICTORY WILL
COME
In a headpunching-style deck, general resource
advantage is emphasized more
than situational resource advantage. This is more than just running
more gold
holdings - it's spending gold smarter. The majority of personalities
should be
cheap; run as many boxables as possible (Dragon boxables are
amazing; this
is why HEADPUNCHING works so well with Dragon). Fate cards should
add to the personality's survivability (either through the inherent
defense
offered by followers, or through force/chi bonuses like Dragon
Tattoo), using
mostly free or cheap fate cards or blanket bonuses (most notably:
Ki-Rin shrine).
Make it hard for your opponent to kill your guys, and make them
waste entire
turns worth of resources doing so (if they Assassin your 3G Iyojin,
you're
coming out far, far ahead in terms of raw resources).
However, situational advantage sometimes beats
blanket advantage - if they
assassinate Iyojin, and he's your only guy, you're fucked. That's
where part two
of blanket advantage comes into play: see more cards than your
opponent.
A solid, fast dynasty flow is great for this, as is more fate
draw, and blanket
bonuses that take advantage of having many over few. Dragon obviously
has
many advantages here: more fate cards than anyone else, the ability
to get
more force and honor from Ki-Rin Shrine, and awesome *permanent
*
bonuses for whole groups like Gaijutsu + Dragon Tat, the Shrine,
and the
Sword. All make your force more formidable almost exponentially
and
make your current base asmuch more survivable.
However, do not assume that any card that gives you one kind
of resource
is worthwhile - Tamori Hiroko, while potentially a card engine,
requires an
exceptional amount of resources to play (two holdings without
honor) and
does not do anything for military, so she is useless to the true
Headpuncher.
Additionally, some more expensive yet highly effective cards
are worth
using in a switch (Reju X2, Hoshi, even Satsu) - while they have
the
potential to clog early, their late game impact cannot be overestimated,
and
they often serve as answers to threats the deck cannot normally
handle
(countering other large personalities, etc).
This is the opposite of traditional duel/pk/honor
type decks - they usually require
only one person that is superior to the entire opposing force
- you need only one
guy to duel away the entire opposing army. HEADPUNCH, as a switch,
is a
mix of complete blitz and this. It is capable of making absolute
uber-units, but
doesn't auto-lose when these units die, since so many of its
bonuses should be
across the board.
That said, survivability is only worth including
if it *directly advances your
winning conditions * -- which is why Ki-Rin Shrine XP (more force
and
honor, in addition to making your peeps harder to kill chi-wise)
is great, but
Fortress of the Dragonfly isn't, or Dragon Tattoo (Force AND
Chi) is
samazing but Masume Wakizashi (only free chi) is trash.
At the same time, beware cards that remove these
advantages - In Time of War
will reduce your massive multiple sources of late-game honor
(Shrine+cheap
peeps and Battles). You also will want to preserve provinces,
often at the cost of
personalities - unless you can counterattack and gain momentum,
don't let your
opponent gain more resources than you.
Understand this principal and you will be like
the blizzard - one snowflake is
fragile and has little impact but many snowflakes can be deadly.
If your foe
strains himself trying to remove the single snowflakes he will
overextend
himself and find himself trapped by the storm. This is the way
of Air.
3) EARTH: YOU MOVE YOUR OPPONENT, YOUR
OPPONENT DOES NOT MOVE YOU
This is the simplest of the principals, but the
hardest to take fully to heart.
So, you're outproducing your opponent, and your opponent is potentially
not devoting all his cards to directly outproducing or outperforming
you.
What do you do when your opponent does mean things to your cards
in play?
If it doesn't change the state of the game, ignore him. Keep
him reacting.
The idea at the heart of this principal is this:
you spend your resources -
specifically here, your gold --on *your * cards, and your cards
alone.
It is hard to explain this except in the simplest manners:
If you are spending gold on removing opposing units, you are
reacting.
If your opponent has any advantage over you, you are not furthering
this advantage. Since HEADPUNCHING is based on the principal
of the Switch, you are already at a slight disadvantage - you
must keep
up with your opponent in military buildup, but at the same time
be
gaining honor.
Your primary means of thwarting your opponent is
defeating him. By taking
his provinces, you lessen his potential resources. This is the
strength of the
switch: not only are you moving towards victory, but you are
also increasing
your relative resources. Even if your opponent is a dedicated
honor runner,
or a PK/honor runner, you can easily outproduce them with your
larger
number of provinces, gold, and (sometimes) superior PH. In addition,
you
can often destroy and deny resource providers like Poorly Placed
Gardens.
In order to keep up, every gold you spend should be on gaining
you honor
and giving you force. If you match your opponent in one and defeat
them in
the other, then you will always win.
Thus, ways of gaining momentum from your opponent
should be free.
Iaijutsu Challenge is perhaps the greatest of these ways; it
costs no gold
and will either remove a personality (allowing you to attack
more
effectively) or deny your opponent honor (making it more likely
for you
to beat your opponent to 40). Defensive cards like Test of Might
allow
you to steal momentum and defeat opposing armies - and block
supply
lines and the Tsudao Wind should also be used mostly this way
(send
home the most dangerous unit and then outforce the rest, gaining
advantage and honor).
Finally, you need ways to maintain your momentum
advantage. Rally is
the most obvious; in addition to combo'ing well with Dragon Tattoo,
it
also allows you to take a province without fear of retribution.
The Wind's
Truth both moves you towards your goal and hinders your opponent;
it is
the moving you towards your goal (and, of course, the 4 focus
value) that
makes it superior to other anti-honor alternatives.
The most difficult and subtle part of the entire
Tao of the HEADPUNCH is
understanding the difference between maintaining momentum and
simply
trying to stop your opponent. Test of Courage and Outmaneuvered
by Force
allow you to maintain momentum, helping you take provinces, while
Fall to
Your Knees and Deeds (as well as Secrets/Shame outside dishonor,
which
already has a strike against it for being a combo) are purely
reactive - they
assume your opponent is gaining the momentum and seeks to stop
them
from doing so. However, like all things, the Tao may be fallible
in this
assumption.
It is sometimes impossible to maintain a superior
momentum, even in the
best conditions, and because of this cards like Deeds may be
worth
including, even in violation of this tenet. Meditate extensively
upon the card
choices.
(Please note - Outmaneuvered is perhaps the card
most difficult to apply
to the Tao in my deck. However, it serves a purpose similar to
ToC
against Tsudao, has a superior focus value to deeds, and stops
a wide
variety of actions - most importantly, the Wind's Truth. In addition,
instead of slowing my opponent's win, it ensures that my win
happens
sooner. NOTE: And despite all this, I have currently dropped
it from
my deck :P)
Since I outproduce my opponents on honor (especially
with the Shrine),
I can shrug off most honor / dishonor attempts. Their decks require
perfect
synergy and drawing exactly the right combos to beat me; sure,
if they get
Suspicions/Nagoris/In Time of War/Tjeki/Secrets/Shame I'll lose,
but they
need to get all of them before I win. It's not really putting
my opponent on
a clock, like a turbo-honor deck would - instead, its asserting
control
through force.
Even if they do get all the combo, they still have to manage
holding off my
armies. My deck is about half Shamebait, yet I beat honor / dishonor
more
often than not, usually through honor victories (even after getting
shamed
twice or more). I just gain far more honor, since I'm not spending
gold on
PK/Walks/Secrets or anything else, and I often take early provinces,
which,
in the late game, can translate to 3-6 additional honor a turn.
By understanding the principal of becoming an unmoving
force upon
your foe, you are able to have a second dimension to your tactics
towards victory and defeat them where they are weakest. This
is the
Way of Earth.
4) WATER: HIT HARDEST AT THE PATH OF LEAST
RESISTANCE
- AND THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE MAY BE THE HARDEST PATH
Gold is all about the Metagame. Headpunching seems
to ignore the metagame -
but, in reality, it does quite the contrary. The correct Headpunch
deck is all about
indirect metagame.
Part of this comes from an extraordinarily good
mean focus value. I run very,
very few 2s - in Dragon, only 3x Test of Might, 2-3x Challenge,
and 2x Test
of Courage. This means I go first very often against other Dragons
(who run
lower focus duel support, and often run the odd terrain), Cranes,
and basically
everyone other than Lion or Phoenix. This also allows me to run
Gambling
House, giving me a vital additional 3G-producing holding that
can be brought
out turn 1, fueling my ability to potentially take T3 provinces
while still
maintaining the resources needed to switch. Finally, it gives
me an advantage in
duels without requiring fate support.
Duels must be addressed, since they define the
present environment. By avoiding
chi-based duels, the deck takes into account the raw power of
Scorpion (perhaps
the most powerful clan - and certainly the most underrated -
presently) against chi
duels (many run poison weapon and Shosuro Tech), as well as avoiding
other
anti-duel meta. In addition, much of the rest of the environment
runs heavy
chi-dueling (including Crane, Horde, and other Dragons), so their
support cards
can be used on your duels as well as theirs - and one of the
principal concepts in
dueling is that if you win one duel, it is likely that you will
win even more (since
you obviously have superior chi and have likely depleted your
opponent's hand).
Since HEADPUNCHING does not allow for pro or anti-duel support,
you will
have resource advantage in play, but will be outclassed in duels.However,
due to
high focus values, I often win duels I might instead lose. Focusing
is actually a
smart idea for me - since I have solid force in play (often matching
or exceeding
my straight military opponents), and since each card in my deck
should be useful
by itself, and since I draw as many or more fate cards than my
opponent
(with Shiro Mirumoto and the other card drawing tools), focusing
means I'm
maintaining my advantage by whittling away my opponent's resources.
If they focus away potential wining cards that can nullify my
unique numerical
and resource advantages - like In Search, or PK, or Torrential,
or whatever -
I've already won. And, typically, there is so much invested in
most duels that if
they lose them, I've once again won.
Finally, Test of Might capitalizes on the low force
of Tacticians and goblins
and allows me to both nullify and kill an entire unit, including
followers.
Ranged attacks can be a pain, but they aren't as prevalent as
they could be,
and either way, winning battles gives me honor, moving me towards
my
other (more typical) victory condition. Along the same lines,
compare
Mountain Tattoo to Snow Crane. Mountain Tattoo aids Test of Might
similarly to Snow Crane, but is not as flexible (it must be used
as a battle
action instead of a reaction, and, more importantly, does not
aid Challenges
at all). However, Mountain Tattoo is more useful on its own (it
takes
provinces and helps win battles), and offers another reason for
Test of Might
over Duel - providing a sort of synergy loop of usefulness to
the two cards,
both of which were likely, but not certain, to be included on
their own.
By understanding the principal of indirect metagame,
the Headpuncher is able to
simply make a more synergistic deck design that does not sacrifice
focus yet
still capitalizes on the weaknesses |of the environment. This
is the Way of Water.
Consistency and Flexibility are at the heart of
Headpunching, yet they are not
contradictory. The fate and dynasty should be very consistent
- all cards
directly aiding either one victory condition or the other (or
both), with a large
amount of redundancy. However, the deck should also be able to
respond in
any number of ways, depending on what resources are at hand.
The only time
you should be completely out of options is when your opponent
(or a bad
draw) has denied you all of a particular resource, be it personalities,
fate cards,
or gold.
You should always be looking for the weakness of
your opponent, and
immediately be ready to confront it; if in a deadlock where you
have the
advantage, wait for him to come to you, if in one where you are
at a
deficit, always assume your tools (your cards in hand and in
play) will
give you the advantage over some surprise your opponent will
spring on
you. Nine times out of ten, if you fear a surprise, your opponent
won't
have one - otherwise, they would already have used it to their
advantage.
Flexibility and stability have always been the
key to L5R. Flexibility is a
must, and the switch is simply a newly viable form of flexibility.
Speed is often portrayed as the be-all and end-all
of L5R strategy, when,
in fact, it is nothing more than another way to limit your opponent's
resources - denying them more dynasty and fate cards by denying
them
time. Do not think of speed as some magic method to victory;
weigh it
as much as any other control factor. Superior resource management
will always win, especially in the current Gold environment.
Every deck
needs at least two methods of winning, because you cannot simply
be
assured of being "better" than everyone at your one
method.
By this, I do not mean that you cannot make a straight
honor deck - instead,
you must have some control method backing up your victory, and
you
must outperform your opponent in your victory method and your
control
method to win, be that control method be personality sdenial,
speed, or a
snother victory method.
In the case of a switch deck, you must not allow
your opponent to gain an
overwhelming advantage in one path to victory, and outproduce
them in
the other method to win.
L5R is an Art, in both deckbuilding and play, just as war is
an Art (not that
either are taught at schools...). It requires intuition and logic.
No deck that
wins will "play itself" - the idea of a deck that can
win without the player is
a fallacy perpetuated by bitter players arguing against elements
of the game
they don't like, without a full understanding of play, and players
of other
games that do not involve luck, skill, and a near infinite possibility
of
different pieces. In this student's humble experience, the decks
perceived as
the trickier, more difficult decks are the ones that triumph
at the highest l
evels of play over the more inflexible, brittle decks.
Perhaps the greatest lesson is that the many of
the principles of HEADPUNCHING
can befound in all of the best decks - maybe not exactly similar,
but the basic
fundamental ideas found here in the principle of the Void all
seem to ring true.
My recent experience in the Gold environment backs this up.
Even the odd Phoenix Dishonor/Honor/Military/PK deck Scott Pagliaroni
ran
against me last night (based almost entirely on the design Jared
Devlin-Scharer
and Dan Dineen ran at the Chancellor tournament - one of the
best designs I've
seen of any deck in Gold), a deck that is basically the opposite
of my own
Dragon Headpunch deck (since it runs an exceptional amount of
honor
manipulation and expensive PK), contains similar trends: Its
personality base
is very cheap, and each card is focused towards a specific purpose
- the dishonor
is useful because the deck *does * use dishonor as a victory
condition, the honor
manipulation (Deeds/TWT) aid in this goal, it includes card draw
(Oracle of Void)
and Corrupt Gold for resource advantage (coupled with its cheap
personality base,
this allows it to shoot through the dynasty quickly), and even
the PK aids the
dishonor by creating a honor loss when killing dishonored peeps.
The Military uses cards that offer the best province-smashing
ability for the gold,
and requires as few fate cards as possible for optimum force
- i.e. Heavy Infantry
and the Sword - since Phoenix doesn't have access to free, cheap
force like Tattoos.
Even Uncertainty has wonderful synergy with both the PK and the
military.
However, it differs greatly from my own deck and parts of my
treatise, since it
relies on manipulating opposing personalities, has an expensive
Fate, and seems
to lack an automatic victory condition. Still, the deck gives
the sensation of
headpunching. Perhaps I can manipulate it more to my taste.
Goblin Horde PK follows similar principals - its
automatic victory condition
is force, and it utilizes (mostly) cheap personalities and fast
dynasty flow to
support its backup path - personality-kill. Brandon Flores's
Daidoji deck is
flexible, but more traditional in its flexibility - it wins largely
by honor, and
does not concentrate as much on Military in the fate
(NOTE: Since the original writing, Brandon has
released a modified deck list
that does concentrate more heavily on military). Still, the fate
deck, particularly
in its focus values and follower choices, is very synergistic.
I would not presume
to imply that I could make a superior version of Brandon's excellent
deck, but it
would be interesting to see how a more military-switch oriented
version of
Daidoji would work. I would suspect that, without the amazing
finishers that
are the Shrine and Gaijutsu, it would have problems hitting 40
or outforcing its
foes sometimes, but it does not really need to worry about dishonor
at all.
On the other hand, while not a switch deck, Steve
Murray's winning deck at
the Chancellor tournament in Connecticut is very much in harmony
with the
Tao of Headpunching, particularly in the fate - he removed most
of the
reactions many Scorpion players use, and instead opts for enhancing
his own
offensive output, while relying on his own superior resource
output and r
edundancy for advantage (I am a bit...uncertain of his huge dynasty,
but, hey,
it looked fun and it apparently worked). The redundancy in the
fate is beautiful -
the heavy use of terrains is perfect, since most people run anti-terrain
cards,
but they can't run enough to beat him.
And, finally, I can add my own analysis from the
recent A New Legacy tournament.
My own performance was lackluster, being the first tournament
where I did not
have a winning record (I went 3-4) - but this I attribute to
a lack of practice on my
part, not to a flaw in the Tao. Looking back to my games, I find
glaring errors,
many of which may have won me the game outright. At least two
of my games
were lost on my part by a single foolish misstep, for I am still
flawed in my
understanding of HEADPUNCH. Scott Pagliaroni, however, placed
in the top 8
with a very similar deck, a fact that heartens me greatly, and
Ted Renner's Lion
Switch (which Switchingly Headpunched astonishingly well, and
beat me more
soundly than perhaps any other deck that tournament) placed ninth.I
blame my
own poor performance for his missing the finals.
In addition, the latest incarnation of Brandon
Flores's Daidoji deck appeared with
an even more militaristic bent and placed second after TAKING
many
PROVINCES and GAINING much HONOR, showing that he, more than
any
other, deserves the title of the premier Headpunching Crane.
I will continue my experiments with Headpunching,
perhaps next in Connecticut,
or perhaps next in Indiana. While the siren song of defensive
control sings
louder to me with its recent success, I will ignore it, at least
for the present.
It is my belief that this new Way is more resilient, less dependent
on the
draw and the environment; if I fail again, let the blame lie
with me and not
with the Way.
But, in my analysis, I digress. The key of the
final principal is consistency;
the execution of the final principal is flexibility. When one
understands this,
along with the principals above, and applies it without fail,
then only the
Fortunes will defeat them. This is the Way of the Void.
Perhaps some of the constraints I am placing upon
myself within The Way
are artificial and cosmetic. If that is so, then perhaps the
Tao of Headpunching
must be discarded. For now, though, I will continue seeking the
ultimate
goal of this path - victory by overcoming not only overcoming
the opponent's
weaknesses, but the opponent's strengths. Because, this, truly,
is the Way.
Lukai
Known also as Junnoluke, or the villain Iyoku.
The Soul of Sanzo.
(2002)
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