Gates of Chaos Environmental Analysis: Spider

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by Andrew Ornatov

“I have this really cool deck, but it just folds to Kalani’s Landing.”

A phrase heard many-a-time during playtest nights.

With the most recent ban list, those decks can breathe a bit easier. Not only did Kalani’s Landing get banned, but also several other powerful cards have been removed from EE tournament play, leaving room for new and innovative decks to shine. Spider, in particular, benefits from the bans in more than one way.

Throughout the EE arc, Spider has struggled with fielding a tournament-winning deck. The combination of going second most of the time, the presence of such powerhouses as Kalani’s Landing, Lizard Wizards (Phoenix with Quelsa and other Naga), and several blitz decks left Spider half-a-turn behind in most games. Out of the 5 available Spider strongholds – The Shadow’s Lair and Steel Soul Dojo have been able to field reasonably successful decks, with the other 3 strongholds taking a back seat.

The Shadow’s Lair shone as Spider’s most versatile stronghold, with several powerful military decks, an enlightenment deck, and some wacky honor decks popping up that ran out of that stronghold. By far the most successful of those was the Ninja military deck that relied on building a unit or two made up of a ninja and a weapon, and using various ninja tricks to take unopposed provinces. The combination of unopposed movement, a powerful stronghold ability, and province-breaking units made the deck fairly powerful, but it did have its downsides. The standard predators of that deck were Kalani’s Landing, blitz decks that were resistant to stronghold ability, and decks that could unit-kill the ninjas outside of battle.

With the most recent ban list – Kalani’s Landing is gone. Lizard Wizards lost their star player and their star removal card, and any deck that ran the Theological Indecision + Frozen in Place can’t Action-Phase-kill ninjas anymore. The Ninjas are safe, the Ninjas’ weapons are safe, and large units powered by Quelsa’s economy boost are no longer possible. The other bans – while definitely helpful – don’t address decks that Ninjas normally had a problem with. What they do is open up the field to other decks, decks that Ninjas can prey on.

Whenever an environment slows down, and star-decks get taken down a notch, a field of wacky, off-the-wall decks appears out of the woodwork. A deck with a solid stronghold, with solid personalities, and an arc-worth of proven deck builds behind it does great in a field of newly-built, and potentially unproven, decks. There will be Lion and Unicorn swarm decks – Ninjas do well against those. Dishonor decks out of Scorpion and Crab thrive in slower environments – and Ninjas do well against those. A couple of Enlightenment decks will pop up here and there – and The Shadow’s Lair is as close to an auto-win against Enlightenment as one can get.

Overall, Spider got quite a boost in these bans – not only because the decks that Spider have historically been weak against were taken down a notch, but because other decks that Spider does well against are now contenders in the EE tournament scene.

If you’re interested in seeing a successful Ninja build, visit the following thread on the Spider forums – there’s quite a bit of healthy discussion over the evolution of the deck:

http://www.spiderclan.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=181

My take on a ninja deck is below. I don’t believe there’s anything note worthy for the build below that has come out of Gates of Chaos, other than enabling more swarm decks, which strengthens the build against the field. I’ve opted for a more battle action oriented build, since I believe that the post-ban, GoC environment will be full of mid-range military decks, such as Lion and Unicorn. The deck offers board control with Shinobi Assault, the ability to come back from losing a couple of provinces with Retribution, and has good resilience to swarm due to a large number of ranged attacks. Unopposed movement from Help from the Shadows and A Brave New World allow for an easier game against honor/dishonor and control, and the Stronghold ability tricks are one of the strongest in the environment.

Overall, I think that Spider is poised to perform very well for the remainder of the EE arc, and I look forward to reading some reports from Spider tournament winners.

The Shadow’s Lair
Border Keep, xp
Bamboo Harvesters, xp

Celestials
1x Jurojin’s Guidance

Events
1x Imperial Gift
1x Harsh Choices

Regions
3x Low Market

Holdings
3x Platinum Mine
3x Prosperous Village
3x Colonial Farm
3x Small Farm

Personalities
1x Takasho
1x Fukuzo
2x Ninume Hajime
3x Ninube Onchi
3x Ninube Shiho
3x Goju Sawaki
3x Goju Kobashi
3x Ninube Tsukau
3x Yamazaki

Items
1x Renyu’s Wrath
3x Wyrmbone Katana
3x Tsuruchi Daikyu
3x Sankaku Yari

Strategies
1x Creating Order
1x Closing the Gap
1x A Game of Dice
1x Serenity in Air
2x Ninja Tricks
3x Power of the Night
3x Heart of Darkness
3x Siege Volley
3x Sundering Strike
3x Shinobi Assault
3x Retribution
3x Help from the Shadows
3x A Brave New World

Andrew Ornatov resides in the Pacific Northwest with his wife – Marike – and their 3 cats – Nom, Kitten, and Bucket. He’s the 2005 Unites States National Champion, the 2009 World Champion, has won multiple Koteis and Sword Tournaments, and raised over $40,000 for charity through L5R.

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