Invitational Player Preview - MindsDesire World Number 1

MindsDesire is a US player from Indiana and is the current top ranked ELO player in the L5R world. He first appeared on the radar in the preseason with a 5-1 record that promptly shunted him to a rating of 1762

Pre-Season

wins vs Lion Bill.jr [1787], Scorpion Shosuro Wild [1500], Crane LtMechanicus [1900], Lion TheGreatWestie [1500], Crab FanFloor [1500]

losses vs Crab Yageru [1500 

The wins versus Luke and Bill.jr really helped with this though as a long term competitive Magic player MindsDesire deserved a  much higher rating than the default start point everyone gets perhaps.

Season 2 Start Rating 1762

Showing that his pre-season results were not a fluke MindsDesire took 1st place in his pod with 7-0 actual record (amusingly perhaps MindsDesire also has the record for most amount of new players who play a single game against him and are so crushed they promptly drop from the league, though he is a pleasant player to play against so this is more 'bugger I am crap at this' from the opponent not realising who they are up against?)

wins vs Crane Suzume Jake [1500], Crab Pimittens [1548], Phoenix Kaza [1753], Scorpion Anemone [1803], Unicorn Hiruma Chorded [1500] Phoenix Professor Lust [1500], Crab Sideshow the Welcome Bot [1724]

The pod was strong one with impressive wins versus Anemone, Kaza and Sideshow

Season 2 Cup

In the Season 2 Cup MindsDesire was the 1st seed and then hit round after round of Crane players.

T64 beat Crane Tessarakonteres [1681]

T32 beat Crane Erik [1854]  (Erik was at this point the top ranked Crane player (by 1 point) this loss dropped him below Micah and he has been slowly clawing his way back since)

T16 lost to Crane Daidoji Micah [1853]

Season 3 Start Rating 1965

The pods went allright for MindsDesire with  a 4-2 actual (5-2 plus drops) though when above 1800 any loss will hurt badly

{ wins vs Crane Daidoji Zorzo [1657], Lion Akodo Agresso [1500], Dragon Khrytos [1530] and Phoenix WHW [1283]}

{losses vs Phoenix Isawa Eujin [1841] and Lion Tenerim [1630] }

Season 3 Cup

The Cup proved another interesting experience with a key match versus fellow Dragon the (at that point) 1st placed player (and the first Candidate Master Kingsley). In retrospect this was almost the point in which the flame of top player was past from one to the other. Kingsley will be back up there again soon enough in which case, who knows, it might switch back. Like Wydwen and Bayushi Nomen I think MindsDesire and Kingsley are the two top Dragon clan players.

T64 beat Lion sruman [1651]

T32 beat Dragon Kingsley [2020]

T16 beat Scorpion Heinzel [1821]

T8 lost to Lion Grraaaahhhh [1478]

Season 4

Finally MindsDesire's season arrived with another 1st place in pods and 6-0 actual (7-0 with drops)

wins vs Zombiecorn SirLargeness [1911], Dragon Mirumoto Magu [1500], Crane Jitawa [1500], Scorpion Insance Maniac [1500], Scorpion Athos [1533] and Phoenix Jake [1500]

Season 4 Cup

T64 beat Zombiecorn Demagogue [1660]

T32 beat Lion MaverickMartell [1590]

T16 beat Scorpion Heinzel [1812] (again in the T16, Wydwen appears SirLargeness's nemesis and MindsDesire appears to do the same for Heinzel)

T8 beat Crab pimittens [1762]

T4 beat Crab Jokingly [1792]

T2 beat Crane (temp re-tread) Toreadory [1590] - Champion..

Season 5 Start Rating 2042

Another strong season saw another 1st place in pods and another 7-0 actual rating taking his 2nd top seed….This is getting repetitive with all the 'winning'

wins vs Crane PrinceRobot [1500], Crane Zorzo [1529], Lion Bloodarcane [1500], Phoenix Kasumi [1332], Scorpion Zephyr [1316] and Lion Brood [1500]

Season 5 Cup

Having retained Candidate Master status and made a strong push for National Master status MindsDesire faced Csont in the T64 but decided to drop probably to give someone else a chance and focus on Casting.

For ratings the invitational is an excellent opportunity for the player with the best chance of reaching International Master. MindsDesire makes it on his cup win (though could probably have made it on points too).

In the paper world MindsDesire is also a Dragon Hatamoto having gone 7-0 in swiss (but had to take an flight so missed the top cut) at PAX South.

MindsDesire also was helpful in filling the questionnaire in so here it is

Did you play a lot of Original L5R? and if so how long/when

I had never heard of L5R prior to GenCon 2017

Do/have you played other competitive card games at a high level?

I've been a competitive Magic the Gathering player for 15 years, played magic since 1997 and made 1 pro tour and cashed a bunch of GPs.

What were your experiences of the Discord League – any highlights ?

I experience every up and down of the discord league being an admin, I love the community and their support makes it easy to give back. The highlight has to be winning season 4 and bringing some glory to the Dragon clan.

Do you have any advice for the other lower ranked players?

Practice, practice, practice. Get a good list and learn every matchup's ins and outs.

What is there that you like/dislike about new L5R and what would you like (or not like) to see moving forward.

The constant interaction is incredibly fun and engaging. I personally dislike a lot of cards that stop such interaction ie: Tadaka and would prefer them to not make such cards in the future.

What are your favourite/least favourite matchups?

I like every matchup but least favorite is probably vs Crab as sometimes they naturally flip Karada district and I have to work 10x as hard to win as they do.