The following text is taken from the Kolat Informer (the website itself claimed to have "taken" the report from Dr. Zen Faulkes' Steel and Iron website). It claims to be a report from Eugene Earnshaw, the Scorpion player.
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I had won the region 10 Kotei (Toronto, Bright Winds Geisha House) back in April, using a tainted Scorpion blitz deck. The principle behind it was basically to ignore fate-side battle tricks in order to maximise the ability to take provinces early. Running Charge over Inner Fire is painful for a Scorpion, but I was confident it made for a stronger deck.
I knew there was still room for improvement on the deck, but I spent most of the time between Kotei and GenCon working on different decks.
Not long before GenCon, the first Battle in Otosan Uchi story was released, which had the Bright Winds story. After reading the story, I decided that tainted didn’t seem to be a lot more favourable than corrupt, so I had better either go clean or corrupt all the way. I spent a while working on clean decks, but I didn’t really find one I was happy with mechanically. I had also become a supporter of the Shadowed Tower faction of the Scorpion, and it seemed to me that the best way of supporting them, storyline wise, would be to run a corrupt deck — as long as the storyline guys went along with it.
So Tuesday night, put together a corrupt deck. It was built for maximum speed and for resilience against dishonour and Kolat, running Churai instead of Higatsuku, Zombie Troops, and Accessible Terrain.
...
Top 2: I go off with my posse and eat, as I’m starving and still absolutely wired with adrenaline. I’m excited to have gotten past Reese’s deck, which had me worried, and I’m much more confident about facing a P-Kill/Tools Shadowlands, which is one of my best matchups. Before the round of 16, I had a chat with Conrad Jackson, just about L5R stuff, and it’s cool that we ended up matched against each other in the finals. Going in, I’m worried only about Kolat Masters and Deadly Grounds — he’ll be trying to kill my Yudokas to stop me busting his terrains.
The first game I win the cut (he cuts to a Refugees, giving him a -17 to my 5), and he doesn’t seem to be running Takes. On turn 3, I have a scorpion sword on Yudoka, a Kwanchai, the EUH, and he has no personalities. I look at his hand. He has a Kolat Master, a Geisha assassin, a Poisoned Weapon, a Return for Training, an In Search of the Future, a Deadly Dround… good stuff. I consider ditching the ISOTF, but decide I’ll just make him play it and hang on to the Under-Hand. I attach Light Infantry to Yudoka, attack, tactician a 4, and get In Searched. Because I know what is in his hand for the rest of the game, I’m in no danger, as I keep ahead of him in force totals and take province after province. Bayushi Tai performs his usual duty of ensuring my opponent gets lots of gold and few personalities. I Kolat Assassin a Slidge, to keep his force totals down, and roll over him, despite not getting any Rallying Cries. He Geisha Assassin/Poisoned Weapon/Kolat Masters a Paneki, but later in the game, I pull him into my the province where my army is defending with Paneki XP and kill him.
MVP: The Uberhand. No surprises makes for easy gameplay.
The second game, he gets personalities out faster whereas I have slower gold. As of turn 4, he has two 6 force personalities (but not much gold), whereas I have a Higatsuku and another 3 force samurai, plus a Kwanchai. I have Charge in hand, and think a while, before declaring an attack, Outmaneuvering in Court one of the oni’s. I Sneak, he Falls, I Sneak again, and bow his oni with Kwanchai, then Charge, killing the oni and taking the province. Had I not had the second Sneak, or a Fall of my own, he would have played Deadly and wiped out my army for the loss of half of his. Losing the 6 force permanently puts him behind in the force totals, which is good because I have no Yudoka’s and no Superior Tactics in hand. His defending with the one oni tells me he has a Deadly Ground or Night Battle in hand, so after that I take one province at a time, always well ahead of him in force, leaving behind a defender or two in case of a Counterattack. It’s over on turn 8.
MVP: Outmaneuvered in Court
I was fortunate in that my matchup in the final round was a good one for me: once I outforce the Shadowlands, it’s pretty well over. Immediately after the match, Rich Wulf read the Revelation story, which was damn cool. Jokes come across much more clearly live than on the page, so it was cool to hear it read in the midst of a sea of pumped-up L5R players. I found it very appropriate that Bayushi Tai was the Scorpion who assisted Tsudao in defeating Daigotsu, since he figured very prominently in my deck.
I picked up a number of bounties, including Top Corrupt Scorpion (a wooden sword), the Fried Chicken Bounty (for ensuring neither Phoenix or Crane won GenCon — 2 pounds of Chicken wings), and the Eliminating the Last Dynasty player bounty (200 some-odd bucks in change — we went to a Casino to turn it into bills, which is a story unto itself). Plus there was the Sword, the Scorpion Banner, the Top of Scorpion medal, a complete set of foils from Broken Blades, and 3 Boxes of L5R boosters (Gold, AOF, BB). And a great honking big trophy. I needed help carrying it all. It was trippy.
My adrenaline crash was spectacular, but I managed to pull myself together to go to the Safehouse afterwards, where I was bought drinks and threw ice at people and had a great time. Apparently it was the first time Scorpion have won GenCon, too, which is pretty damn cool. I met a lot of people I had seen only online before, and all in all had a rocking time of it, although the win STILL hasn’t really sunk in.
peace out, yo,
Eugene Earnshaw-Whyte (aka Eugene Earns….)
a.k.a. Shosuro Arunsa
The Winning Deck: “The Lesser of Two Evils”
Stronghold: The Towers of the Yogo
Wind: Toturi Tsudao
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The following text is from the L5R Wiki:
Bayushi Tai was a spy in the service of Bayushi Yojiro, and the student of Shosuro Yudoka. [1] ...
The Shadowed Tower recruited Tai for its dark purposes. Secretly he was a double agent, having been sent by his sensei Yudoka to spy on them. During his mission however, Tai began to find the philosophy of the Shadowed Tower appealing. He was very close to the Imperial Chancellor's son, Bayushi Ogura, who step by step were introducing Tai in the organization and its goals. ...
Tai was instrumental in Daigotsu's defeat by Toturi Tsudao during the Fall of Otosan Uchi. In the fight between Tsudao and Daigotsu the Steel Throne became tainted, and Tai suggested to Tsudao that the Scorpion Clan had the knowledge to cleanse it. Tsudao ordered him to send it to Kyuden Seppun. Tai's true intention was to permit to the Shadowed Tower to study the throne and its magic, and eventually, to cleanse it. With this gift Tai's station inside the Shadowed Tower was considerably increased. Tai also recovered Sezaru's Mask and passed it to his sensei, Yudoka. It eventually made its way to Bayushi Kaukatsu, who chose to send the recovered mask as a gift to Toturi Sezaru, its true owner.
Tai met his sensei Yudoka in the Plains of Thunder, and was informed that the Shadowed Tower had a spy among Yojiro's council. Not even Yojiro knew the name of the agent Yudoka had within the Tower, but he deciced to increase the security of Tai. After Tai returned Ogura asked him to become a Witness of a young shugenja. His duty would be to watch for symptoms of the taint's madness and eventually kill the Maho-tsukai if she fell using the dark powers. The Shadowed Tower looked to Tai as masters of preparation and concealing,and the spy began to doubt Shosuro Yudoka and to doubt himself.
Tai finally knew were his loyalties were and in 1160 gave to Yudoka all the information he had gathered in one year as spy. Sunetra orchestrated simultaneous raids against all the Shadowed Tower Strongholds with the information provided by her spies Tai and Yogo Tjeki. In the Tower's hideout at Pokau the leader of the Tower, Atsuki, was cut in half by his own minion, Bayushi Kamnan, after Sunetra ordered so. What was not known by them was that the true Atsuki and Kamnan were safe in the Burning Sands. Atsuki had used an Ashalan amulet to cast a gaijin spell of illusion, creating a duplicate from distance.
Since the Tower's destruction, Tai returned to his previou duties, as a trusted and skilled spy.