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On the theory of dueling
This is a repost of a mail that I sent to the Crane list about the basics of dueling. It was aimed at a new player with a lot of questions, but might be valid for any new players here as well.
Over the years I have played and played against an awful lot of dueling decks so I know that there are a number of ways to win (and lose) duels. Some people will advise you to play in one style, some in another, but I think all are valid.
How to win duels
1. Have more Chi
This is the easiest way to win a duel, and certainly the one that most decks can manage. If you have a great enough Chi advantage over your opponent (6 or more is great but 4 will do) then you are almost certain to win a duel against them. Even if they have a very high focus card and can equal your Chi you can simply focus yourself and they are back to square one. In addition much of the bluffing factor is removed with a huge Chi advantage. If you *know* they cannot possibly have focused enough in a single card to beat you then you can strike without hesitation rather than being drawn into a sort of 'focus war'.
Simple ways of getting more Chi include attaching big weapons (Clan swords are a must) using tokens or spells for Chi bonuses, or finding non-weapon items you can stack on your personalities. In Gold players using this strategy tend to go for Clan Swords, weapons with a 3C bonus, and items like the Mantle of the Jade Champion or the Porclain Mask of Fu Leng to get their insane Chi values. In Open Bloodswords are another fantastic choice. Its also worth noting that Geisha Assassin is just another way of creating a very high chi personality (albeit a transient one) to fight a duel for you.
The downside of this method is that you are investing a lot into a single personality. If you lose the duel you also lose the weapons, items and followers. Furthermore it takes more time and costs more gold to assemble your uber-duelist, and a single Touch of Death or Vengful Dead can destroy your defence. Big Chi also prevents you from using Iaijutsu Art as well.
2. Focus
Another option for winning a duel is simply to out focus your opponent. All dueling decks will try to have high focus values if they can of course, but there are many cards in L5R whose only function is to let you focus more. 'Focus' (5 focus and no ability) is the most obvious of these, but Burning your Essense, Let your Spirit Guide you, and so forth all let you focus 5, 6 or even 7 at a time. High focus values can turn a small Chi advantage (1 or 2 points) into a duel winner, and have the advantage of working in duels not based on Chi as well.
Unfortunatly the downsides of winning duels just by focusing are clear. At the very least it is card intensive. Any card you focus with is a card you cannot then use for something else, and a small number of cards in hand limits your options. You are already a card down for starting the duel (one of many reasons why players love reusable duels like Judgement) and will probably be many more down once the duel is over. Indeed many players being dueled will throw away low focus cards just to make the dueling deck waste its hand, because without cards to focus with you cannot start another duel. These 'focus wars' can decimate your hand for little benefit. Note that this is why the new FOU 'shadows claw' is so popular, as it lets you focus without reducing your hand size at all.
Another obvious downside is that its not just dueling decks that like high focus cards *every* deck prefers them. Sure a card with a 5 or 6 focus is great, but not every card you focus can be so good, and a 6 plus two 3's still ties with three 4 focus cards. Once you start focusing its hard to stop in time for your big cards to make a difference.
There is another wrinkle in the focusing game however, the double chi trait. This makes every card you focus add twice, so a 4 focus card adds 8. With double chi personalities you don't need to fill your deck with otherwise useless special focus cards because any 4 focus card is better than a 'Focus'. With a double chi duelist even a tiny chi advantage is crushing, and most people will not even bother focusing unless they have double chi as well. This allows your double chi personalities to start dueling as soon as they are in play, and does not require you to invest many cards to create a duelist. Crane, naturally, has more double chi personalities than any other clan.
3. Cheat
The final option for winning a duel is to cheat. By this I mean using other cards (often reactions) that modify the duel in some way to help you win. There are so many different dueling reactions that there are plenty to choose from. Before I talk about some of them I think its worth pointing out that many of these cards are *the* way in L5R of representing the superior dueling techniques of various schools and clans. Don't shy away from these cards because you feel they are 'unfair' or 'not the soul of dueling', it is much more in spirit to 'Bend like a Reed' or execute a 'Strike with no thought' than just to slap down lots of focus cards and hope.
(a) Modifying the Duel
One class of reactions modifies the way the duel is played, who focuses first, when people can focus, and so forth. One of the best of these is 'Kakita Technique' which can allow you to strike first against a lower honor opponent. If you have a higher Chi than them then it allows you to win the duel in a single stroke without letting them focus. Similarly good (and very honorable) is 'Bend like a Reed' that effectively allows you an extra focus when your opponent strikes. Its companion 'Strike with no thought' that gave you a bonus when striking is, sadly, not available in Gold.
(b) Modifying the Focuses
Once you are in a duel involving focusing another set of reactions come in that let you control the value of your focus cards, or which can get rid of your opponent's cards, or which can make your opponent focus when they don't want to. Although making your opponent focus more seldom works very well (though it can empty their hand) there are innumerable cards that do this. Much better is discarding your opponent's focus cards (which can get rid of their best cards and things like Kharmic strike), or increasing the value of your own cards. 'Strike of Flowing water' is very popular since it does both of these things, either discarding all cards focused so far, or doubling your next focus. Many dueling decks will say that Kakita Technique and Strike of Flowing water are all you need. Another popular card in this class is the Snow Crane Tattoo, that increases all your focus values while in play.
(c) Modifying the Chi
The most 'cheaty' thing you can do in a duel is alter people's chi values directly. There are a number of weapons that can give your opponent a chi penalty, but by far the most popular card in this class is the infamous 'Poisoned Weapon', which reduces your opponent's chi by 3 (for a loss of honor). Reasons it is so powerful include the fact that its played *after* focuses are revealed (so you know if you have won without it) and that the penalty remains all turn, so a 3C personality will be killed by it after the duel is over if the duel didn't kill them. In some places PW is the most popular dueling card, in other places its not used at all. Sadly I have found that if all your opponents use it then you may well need it as well, or something else to counter it.
(d) Modifying the Duel result
Finally you can modify the result of the duel directly. The most notable cards that do this are Kharmic Strike (which ends the duel in a draw) and Another Time (which ends it without a result). Others have been printed over time that let you avoid dying from a duel and so forth. Note that both of these are focused and so can be discarded by Strike of Flowing Water. Also note that, because of Doji Reju (who wins duels on a tie) Crane's entire dueling machine used to revolve around Kharmic Strike (or the fear of it).
Putting it all together
So, now that you can see all the different ways to duel, how do you put them all together? How many duels do you need compared to 'dueling tech' and so on?
Obviously high focus cards are good, but as you are often better with a 4f card that does something than a 5f card that doesn't. 'Focus' is best for Iaijutsu Art, but for other duels you can't dedicate too much of your deck to focusing only. The same is true of weapons and other items that give you higher Chi. You want some, but you don't want to go overboard. I have seen decks that put all their energy into creating a single uber-duelist, and had nowhere to go if he was destroyed. Usually most decks for for no more than 4 or 5 high quality weapons or items, anything more and you dilute your deck too much. Items that can also start duels or which have high focus values are best, though sadly many of these are rare. Look out for Clan Swords, Judgement, Bitter, Blade of Truths, Naishi, and so forth. Although weapons with a +2C bonus (like naginata and crystal katana) will do, most people look for +3 if they can find it. If not some other ability is needed to make it better.
For Double Chi the more the better in most people's books. Most decks that can will play 3 or 4 double chi personalities at least and some will play 5 or even 6.
Then you need some duels. A lot of novices think that the more duels the merrier, but you don't want a hand clogged with duels you can't win and no cards to help win them. Duels also have low focus values (with some notable exceptions), and so a hand full of duels to focus with doesn't tend to help you win. Most serious dueling decks will go for 3 each of Iaijutsu Challenge and Duel, but many will not have any more. Most will add perhaps a couple more, such as 2 'For the Empire', Iaijutsu Art, 'Come one at a Time', 'Iaijutsu Lesson' (in Kakita Dueling Academy), Facing your Devils (in phoenix) or Geisha Assassin (in Kyuden Doji). A lot of decks try to get in one or more reusable duels as well, such as Judgement, Kyruko, Kurohito xp., Bitter and so forth. This is almost always worth it if you can.
Finally you have the duel reactions. I never play a dueling deck that has less than 6 duel enhancing cards, but what they are differs wildly from deck to deck. For a Scorpion dueler I might go for 3x Poisoned Weapon and 3x Kharmic Strike, for a Crane 3x Kakita Technique and 3x Strike of Flowing Water works well, or 3x Kakita Technique, 2x Strike of Flowing Water and 2x Bend Like a Reed if using Arts. Some players will go overboard and use 9 or 10 duel support cards, but you will often find yourself with special cards and nothing to start a duel, focus with, or defend yourself with!
So to put it together a combined dueling deck probably has
6-8 duel starting actions (maybe as high as 10)
1 reusable duel (if you can find one)
6-8 duel enhancing reactions
3-5 weapons with +3C (and high focus)
As many useful 4f cards as possibleThis means that between 15 to 21 cards out of your 40 are dueling related, with some (the items) serving defensive duty as well. Decks that 'splash dueling' like Lion Tactician will have only 3 duels and maybe 2 or 3 enhancers, while decks that are 'anti dueling' tend to have 6 or so anti-dueling reactions.
Oh and a final word about 'cheating' in duels. If you *really* don't like the idea of reactions and special focus values getting in the way of your high chi duelists there are steps you can take to avoid them. 'Fall on your knees' cancels a number of dueling reactions in battle, while 'Judgement of Toshiken' shuts down *almost* all duel modifiers. A couple of weapons can prevent reactions while Kakita Rensai prevents your opponents from using them entirely.
