Uk Nationals 1st Place

[Linar]

The first thing I want to do is thank David Brown for the tremendous work he has done. It is the second time that I go to a tournament organized by him and as the first time I can only applaud for his great work. A perfect tournament. The next time we meet we hope to have more time to share some beers.

The second is to thank all my opponents for a magnificent weekend. All the games were great, a great atmosphere. Thank you so much guys. You are what makes me want to return next year.

During the tournament play all games with the same Shenlong list:

Shenlong

2 Stundet

Minako

Kitty

Ototo

Yasunori

Low river monk

Cache 7

I want to dedicate time this weekend to make the reports of the games as they deserve. But so many people have written to me to asking me about the list and I think it will be more comfortable to write everything here.
So any questions you have here I am to answer it as best I can.

 

[yerati]

Congratulations Linar from Alicante! We enjoy a lot of when we read you are the winner! Now we arent playing so much but we try to play at least once a month, but isnt enough to Tournaments. Good Luck for the next, regards

Pd: is very funny speak in english with you xD

[Hinge]

Interesting that so few hired models were in key word.  

[Cursed25]

1 hour ago, Hinge said:

Interesting that so few hired models were in key word.  

monks have the same problem as Red Chapel!

 

their leader is really strong but the rest of the keyword is okayish or bad apart for a few exceptions

[HammerForYou]

Does the Shenlong Chi engine work without Sensei Yu? Students seem to generate very little Chi by themselves.

[Tors]

It works, but less effective. I think, the problem is his aura proccs from friendly attacks. That leads to monks hitting themselves, regenerating via low rivers passive heals and Shlong redistributing as he sees fit.

[katadder]

If you need/want alot of chi, activate the low river monk 1st, concentrate for more chi.

Have a student activate and transfer a chi from lrm to shenlong. Plus concentrate twice (so it has 3), then other student does the same. 

Shenlong activates starting with 3 (2 transfers plus 1 for activating) then spiritual alines off one or both students to be on 6 to 9 chi.

Not saying anyone did this but it's possible to build up chi without sensei yu

[Ogid]

The above trick may also be used with a terracota copying Spiritual Alignment to avoid spending Shenlong AP doing it.

Another option is finding an enemy easy to punch and cheat/stone onslaught triggers. 6 attacks = 6 chi.

This is how a true man builds up chi!

[Kogan Style]

1 hour ago, katadder said:

If you need/want alot of chi, activate the low river monk 1st, concentrate for more chi.

Have a student activate and transfer a chi from lrm to shenlong. Plus concentrate twice (so it has 3), then other student does the same. 

Shenlong activates starting with 3 (2 transfers plus 1 for activating) then spiritual alines off one or both students to be on 6 to 9 chi.

Not saying anyone did this but it's possible to build up chi without sensei yu

You can only concentrate once per activation so you can't get 3 on the student, unless I've misunderstood something. 

[bedjy]

5 minutes ago, Kogan Style said:

You can only concentrate once per activation so you can't get 3 on the student, unless I've misunderstood something. 

You can, thanks to Training Grounds ability

[SerZaka]

5 hours ago, Kogan Style said:

You can only concentrate once per activation so you can't get 3 on the student, unless I've misunderstood something. 

It's incredible how this type of comment pops out in every ShenLong topic xD

[Cursed25]

1 hour ago, SerZaka said:

It's incredible how this type of comment pops out in every ShenLong topic xD

Yeah I was thinking the same thing ahah! This is why I always read the cards before commenting!  

[Forgotten]

2 hours ago, Cursed25 said:

Yeah I was thinking the same thing ahah! This is why I always read the cards before commenting!  

Totally need a foot-in-mouth emoji to use for reactions.

[katadder]

12 hours ago, Kogan Style said:

You can only concentrate once per activation so you can't get 3 on the student, unless I've misunderstood something. 

As others pointed out a shenlong crew can concentrate multiple times per activation.

Always best to check the app when replying. 

[farmoar]

On 11/12/2019 at 7:34 AM, Linar said:

During the tournament play all games with the same Shenlong list:

Shenlong

2 Stundet

Minako

Kitty

Ototo

Yasunori

Low river monk

Cache 7

I love the core (Minako & Summons, Kitty, Ototo and Yasunori). That seems like a core that could work with anything and do well.
With the mob of players screaming for Shenlong nerfs, could it just be that those 4 models form an answer to almost everything that can be thrown against you?

[Mycellanious]

2 hours ago, farmoar said:

I love the core (Minako & Summons, Kitty, Ototo and Yasunori). That seems like a core that could work with anything and do well.
With the mob of players screaming for Shenlong nerfs, could it just be that those 4 models form an answer to almost everything that can be thrown against you?

Its pretty weak to stuns and/or good shooting I'd think. Neurotoxins as well would pose a problem, but I doubt youd expect that list so you'd probably only have to worry about that from Marcus' crew

[Ogid]

7 hours ago, farmoar said:

I love the core (Minako & Summons, Kitty, Ototo and Yasunori). That seems like a core that could work with anything and do well.
With the mob of players screaming for Shenlong nerfs, could it just be that those 4 models form an answer to almost everything that can be thrown against you?

From that core the real outlier is Minako, the other 3 are quite fair models: Ototo has some control, good punch and is sturdy, but he is also slow with Mv5 and his defensive stats sucks (df4, wp4); Kitty is a premium scheme runner with some utility; Yasunori is quite powerful but he is the equivalent model in TT to a rider in other factions. These 3 can be changed by other models doing roughtly the same.

However Minako for 8SS is a high defense, fast and decent combat model, but she is also able to bring 2 summons that are squishy but top notch scheme runners and is also a pain to deal with with his Karma mechanics (which may bring another model into the table) and is able to block damage with SS. There is no other model in the faction that bring to the table what she brings for 8 SS.

[Ludvig]

I haven't faced this list so apply a helping of salt but:

Ototo looks exceptionally easy to obey which could be exploited. Yas is weak to anything that can ignore defensive triggers and at a glance doesn't feel more overpowering than the riders. Shenlong is the only model ignoring armour and other reductions? 

Around here we haven't faced thunders in ages so at least some of the success could be people being taken by surprise from not seing half the models in the list before and thus not being prepared for the gotchas? 

 

[Ogid]

Yas is an step below than the riders in power level, but not very far away. The design is clearly inspired in them. His stats are the same than the riders: Df6 Wp7 Mv7 Sz3, 9 Wds, H2W and a defensive trigger. And he is 1 SS cheaper.

His attack with a 6stat and a 2/4/5 track with a built-in Onslaught trigger (as long as the other player has at least 2 cards in hand) is above average. Comparing them with the 2 mele riders (Death and Hooded) he is better than both of them versus an isolated model (Hoody may at least blast).

The defensive trigger is different than the riders, instead of having to expend tokens, he always get the extra suits depending on the number of cards of the other player. Which is worse versus high damage attack when a rider may expend a lot of tokens; but it's better for sustained attacks because he don't have to spend tokens (and a player with no cards in hand will have a hard time beating his high defense stats).

He loses the 5 suits OP riders abilities, but it has 2 utility focused bonus actions (the card draw one is very good with crew that may heal him easily like monks); so in this department is where the riders have the upper hand.

[Jinn]

23 minutes ago, Ogid said:

He loses the 5 suits OP riders abilities, but it has 2 utility focused bonus actions (the card draw one is very good with crew that may heal him easily like monks); so in this department is where the riders have the upper hand.

Also the Riders all have ride with me, which is an insanely good bonus action. It gives a bunch of extra movement to the Rider (which can also get them out of engagements, though the Yasunori can often do this too) as well as what is often better than an extra walk for another model. You could easily trade both of the Yasunori's bonus actions for Ride With Me and bump his cost up to 11SS and I would hire him over his current incarnation, which makes me think that the Riders in general are probably a bit overtuned. I guess having access to this kind of movement might have different balance considerations in a faction that has other easy ways of moving models around though.

[Ogid]

Agree, Ride with me is outstanding. At least Yas has flight, which is good with the amount of terrain that GG0 recomends. Yes, the riders are a bit too strong right now; they won't need much to be in line tho; probably just tuning down their revel abilities a bit (specially the 5 suits ones) and maybe drop Wp to 6.

But TT has a premium rider with 3 actions and artifacts for 16SS! (with a dog for only 3SS extra)

[Paradigm]

The most powerful part of using Kitty in her current state is hitting Yasunori (or another model with HtW) with the trigger to draw three cards, twice. Both Shenlong and Minako are amazing with a strong hand, so Kitty provides the sort of force multiplier that make them both reliably amazing in just about every game. That trigger really needs to be enemy only at least.

[Linar]

Let's try to answer questions:
Shenlong, you don't need more than 5-6 chi to function. With the totem you can catch 7 without problems, 6 if you want to push with the obey. As for the punch, you don't need to have more miniatures that ignore armor, because with three attacks you kill anything in the game.

The duo ototo and minako is simple one creates runner and the other kills them. To say that ototo is slow is not to have read the card well we speak of a guy who deals 7 damages to 15.5 "without help. If you add the pushes of kitty and totems, you will go half a table.

Kitty is to draw and push. Not to do missions, that is completely secondary in this list.

Yasunori is the runner not the killer. Its function is to draw cards and threaten while making schemes.

As for the obeys, if you declare Zoraida, you take off 2 stones and take stealth.Or you take the upgrade of ignoring triger and kill her in the second turn.

[Ogid]

Ty for the insight! Interesting role allocation...

3 hours ago, Linar said:

Kitty is to draw and push. Not to do missions, that is completely secondary in this list.

So how do you draw with kitty? Preparing a low mask with Rig the Deck, attacking your models and relenting? Or attacking enemy models?

3 hours ago, Linar said:

The duo ototo and minako is simple one creates runner and the other kills them. To say that ototo is slow is not to have read the card well we speak of a guy who deals 7 damages to 15.5 "without help.

I play Misaki... I guess when you have her teleporting all over the place, Torakages with Mv7 and Ninja Vanish and Crime Bosses with also a bonus action to move around "slow" is a relative concept. But I wouldn't say without help tho... to do that 1 SS and 2 suits (flipped or cheated), plus a severe card for damage are needed.

Btw, do you usually summon both Katashiros in turn 1? just 1 the first turn? Or Minako follows Ototo and use the shadows he is leaving behind to make the second one?

 

[Linar]

39 minutes ago, Ogid said:

So how do you draw with kitty? Preparing a low mask with Rig the Deck, attacking your models and relenting? Or attacking enemy models?

Normally my start with Kitty was to charge yasunori to advance and push Minako.  If you have the masks cool but normally i used a SS.In the end you draw 4 cards and take 3. That is much better than the standard use of a stone to draw 2 cards and discard 2.

40 minutes ago, Ogid said:

I play Misaki... I guess when you have her teleporting all over the place, Torakages with Mv7 and Ninja Vanish and Crime Bosses with also a bonus action to move around "slow" is a relative concept. But I wouldn't say without help tho... to do that 1 SS and 2 suits (flipped or cheated), plus a severe card for damage are needed.

Btw, do you usually summon both Katashiros in turn 1? just 1 the first turn? Or Minako follows Ototo and use the shadows he is leaving behind to make the second one?

It consumes many resources but the rival has to be very attentive.Normally, in turn 3 I double-pushed ototo and used him to kill an annoying runner or a suport in the rival deployment zone.
You have to think that a normal turn draws 7-10 cards without problem and you start with many SS.
And Ototo is still another piece that threatens with Shen and the Yasunori.

What I was looking for was a list with many miniatures capable of threatening alone. And administer according to the game the large number of cards you draw.And also that they were good runner. In the end Ototo, Yasunori, Shen and the Katashiros have mechanics to disangages and interact. What greatly complicates the opponent to avoid scoring.

With Minako you always summon the two katashiro. You use the push in minako and the mask trigger with Ototo to advance.