What has become known as “Suicide L5R” is a format played using only boosters. Each player in the event starts with a single booster, adding to it by winning games. The rules can be found on our official Rules site for those who may not be aware of it. But to save you the time, the rules are also posted after the break.
Stronghold
You play a stronghold (Shiro No Name) with the following stats:
5 Province Strength
5 Gold Production
5 Starting Honor
Shiro No Name has no traits or abilities.
You do not start with either of the Celestial Edition starting Holdings in play.
Clan Alignment
You are your own Clan and all Personalities in your deck (even if unaligned) are aligned to you in addition to printed alignments. You still lose honor for Shadowlands cards.
Rounds
Find another player that is at Round 1. Open a booster pack, and keeping the cards face down without looking at any of them, sort your cards into Fate and Dynasty. Put the Koku into the collection bin. Shuffle each deck. Roll off for starting player.
For each round a military win is taking all the opponent’s Provinces, for other wins:
Round 1: 15 honor, 1 ring or -10 honor
Round 2: 20 honor, 2 rings or -15 honor
Round 3: 30 honor, 3 rings or -20 honor
Round 4: 40 honor, 4 rings or -20 honor
Each round you have a different number of Provinces and cards in starting hand:
Round 1: 2 provinces, 3 fate cards
Round 2: 3 provinces, 4 fate cards
Round 3: 4 provinces, 5 fate cards
Round 4: 4 provinces, 5 fate cards
The rounds do not have time limits and the highest number of rounds allowed is 4. Players who find themselves at a stalemate, with no playable cards left in decks and no way to take Provinces or win by honor, should roll off for the win. In all rounds, if any deck is empty when drawing a card or refilling a Province is necessary, re-shuffle the discard and use the cards again. At the end of each game, the winner must take all the loser’s cards and combine them with his own, making a new deck. They then find someone else that has the same number of wins and they play off. There is no sequence to pairing players, just take whoever is finished and ready to play.
Two-Headed Oni Variant
Two-Headed Oni is played the same as Suicide, only in this version there are two-player teams, with one player on each team controlling the Dynasty cards, and the other player controlling the fate cards. The only communication allowed between team members are things such as:
Dynasty player (turning to fate player): Do I have any open actions?
Fate player (revealing a follower): I would like to attach this follower to this personality, do you pay the costs?
Dynasty player (looks at costs): Nah. (Fate player returns card to hand)
Battles can easily result in the following:
Dynasty player: I defend with these two units.
Opposing dynasty player: You get first action.
Dynasty player (turning to fate player): Do I have any actions?
Fate player: Pass.
Dynasty player: #$%^!
(Thanks to Ookami Leon for the examples of Two-Headed Oni. Yeah, that’s right, we remember your old handle.)
