Winter Court 2018 – Decklists

Winter Court 2018 – Decklists

The Winter Court this year was described as a ‘bloodbath’ with a super competitive environment and many upsets. To try to get an idea of what happened, let’s look through some of the decks that players have posted.

We don’t have a great selection of decks unfortunately. Without FFG actually posting the decklists they collected we have to rely on players posting them. With the new roles out and the future Kotei season to look forward to the focus for competitive players from Winter Court is to the future. Below are the decklists we have been able to find. Special shout out to BushiBuilder where they’ve been putting together their own list.


Crab had a super poor performance, but Pablo made the brave choice to step away from the typical wisdom and instead developed what essentially is a new deck type for Crab. It’s had to know whether the key elements of fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms will remain in the future.

Pablo Pintor EspinosaTop 8
Alexander DiazTop 32
Daniel SchroderTop 32
Alex DunsethTop 64
Jared WrightTop 64
Max WilliamsTop 64
Stephen DidionTop 64
Hussain BandyDay 2
Robert PerryDay 2

Crane came out as the unexpected top clan. The expectation had been that Scorpion and Dragon would take that slot with Phoenix and Crane following closely after. Instead, Crane edged the other clans out in day 2 players with Erik going on to claim the title of Shogun. The three decks we’ve seen all share the same core idea of controlling the board with the option to win through either dishonor or conquest.

Erik Baalhuis Shogun
Bradley EmonTop 16
Ronny SzutuTop 16
Tony KwokTop 32
Travis CooperTop 32
Yanik RichardTop 32
Alexander MagoulasTop 64
David WinnerTop 64
Elijah TeedTop 64
Gilles MolinaTop 64
Jeremey CampshureTop 64
Joel HjortnessTop 64
Marc SoifermnaTop 64
Nicolac SimonpietriTop 64
Adam HorvathDay 2
Christian SzlorazDay 2
Erick LeongDay 2
James BalthisDay 2
Kyle WslockyDay 2
Paikan Brabant le FaouDay 2

Kingsley’s deck was the classic ‘test’ with -1 mendicant and +1 Wandering Ronin for a bounty. Aneil and Christopher would have most likely been running the same without the adjustment. Unfortunately, that specific deck no longer has a copy posted with Aneil’s version already moving into the new environment. I think by now we’ve all encountered it. Dragons terrifying province line, solid characters, using Void Fist to win out.

Davis KingsleyTop 4
Daniel TrujilloTop 8
Aaron FredeTop 16
Christopher PottorfTop 16
Luiz Bretas-FerreiraTop 16
Daniel HabesTop 32
Aneil SeetharamTop 64
Arash AfghahiTop 64
Joseph EckstromTop 64
Kyle WolfsonTop 64
Anthony EdwardsDay 2
Emran OmarDay 2
Gabriel CabanDay 2
Jasper MangusDay 2

Not a great event for Lion. The top Lion Philippe-Andre made top 32 with a Scorpion splash deck that had a dishonor option. For clans without many options, you’ve got to get creative.

Philippe-Andre PelletierTop 32
Andreas LundinTop 64
Elliot DawsonTop 64
Trevor HolmesTop 64

Phoenix had a great showing, but performed worse than most of us expected. They received some super efficient cards in recent releases like the Ethereal Dreamer and the Feral Ningyo. The decks that performed well seemed to run a few interesting 1-off options like Consumed by Five Fires and Karmic Twist which have the potential to win games in the right situations. I guess those situations didn’t present themselves or the cards didn’t appear at the right times.

Jose Luis SaenzTop 8
Travis McDanielTop 16
Alexey SidorenkoTop 32
Evan GibbsTop 32
Matthew BeckTop 32
Dustin HornTop 64
Even SorgherdTop 64
Joseph ScalcoTop 64
Merlin DavisTop 64
Austin CareyDay 2
Richard ReinhartDay 2

Scorpion had a great showing. Not only did they have a great performance but there was a significant variation between decks. This reflects the great pool the Scorpion have to draw from which allows different players to find their own rhythm and style.

Johnny ShenFinalist
Samuel BeniesTop 4
Andrew CaseTop 8
Marc PaymentTop 16
Zachary DevineTop 16
Benjamin SzymkowTop 32
Josh JohnsonTop 32
Kyle GeorgeTop 32
Liang ZhongTop 32
Steve PalumboTop 32
Brandon LaneTop 64
Jakub IrzykTop 64
John PerryTop 64
Kevin HoTop 64
Marcos YergaTop 64
Mark ArmitageTop 64
Dustin DrakeDay 2
Matthew SwinburneDay 2

Despite all the new cards, Unicorn didn’t have a great performance. These seem to be the other side of the Scorpion variety coin. While Scorpion had lots of successful decks, Unicorn had a great amount of variety but poor performance. This suggests that the winning formula has yet to be found and the Unicorn puzzle hasn’t quite been solved yet.

Ben WootenTop 32
Antoine LepagnolTop 64
Robert JordanTop 64
Scott SimsTop 64
Lynden EngelhardDay 2

As you can see there are still lots of gaps. There are also a few decks out there on BushiBuilder and FiveRingsDB that are from Day 2 of Winter Court but aren’t attributed to anyone yet! If you see a deck that could be added to the above list please post below.

If you have any comments or feedback please post them in the comments section below. Check us out on the Imperial Advisor website, podcast, and YouTube channel for more discussion about the L5R LCG.

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