WARLORD CCG : DRAGON LORD / DAEMON LORD - HIVE MIND MEDUSAN LORDS - MEDUSAN LORDS - STOLEN DESTINIES AND
APOCALYPSE SHIP CHALLENGES.

As explain in the

I will just explain here the Challenge system from Phoenix and not from the AEG Times. So we have already seen in fact the Low Level (Tier 1) and high Level (Tier 2) who's a Overlord Attack type challenge. The Dragon and/or Daemon Lord are a challenge of Tier type 3. As we have seen previously, you must win a specific tournament to have a free challenge or for this type of challenge you must own a Unsigned ''Iron Golem'' or 2 Unsigned pre-4th ed Overlord.

Now two types of challenge are possible:
- You can try to challenge against a Dragon Lord (Aldrich for the 4th ed or Drasek Resplendant).
- Or you can try also a Daemon Lord challenge (Sin Marduk for the 4th ed or a Eresh q'Shedim (Chosen Daemon type character)).
If you win ..., you'll win so the character as Trophy, depend wich Dragon Lord or Daemon Lord you have play against and wich one was possible as challenge.

As you can suppose, you have enter to a higher level type of challenge so the things will becomes more harder with a higher level character than the lower level as for example Loki. The Dragon Lord and/or Daemon Lord replace the usual Overlord or Warlord. Al'drich von Grossynkiir begin the game with some Dragons in their ranks. Sin Marduk generate as for resume; some Daemon from your hand when he performs melee strikes or launch spells that kill some characters. Those Daemons enters into play were the character was killed.

Note that : Al'drich von Grossynkiir was printed first like a ''usual'' Warlord design card, this version owns a complete picture frame were the Dragon beside him can be seen entirely, you can see it

This was the first version dated from 2002 (Origins Convention). Few copies because this version was used only by the AEG Staff at this time. The second version was reprinted in a Feel bleed type card as the release of

Same layout design card except that this version owns for most of them (even if few in circulation) square corners. Some round corners versions exist also in circulation and can be found at this time in some L5R Boosters Boxes. This version are dated from 2002 but were only put in circulation in 2003 for a few times. This Al'drich version can be see

is of course the most usual ones and were reprinted for the Campaign format tournaments.

tournaments. So a old Dragon Lord that still active for the Ancients format (that owns some banish and restricted cards) and Open format.

Even if Al'drich von Grossynkiir is a old Dragon lord he still active in the Phoenix Challenge Tier 3 (Level 3) as for of course

and the brand new one (Since November 2011)

The other Dragon Lords from AEG times can be yet used to pay the cost of some higher challenge ; Hive Mind Medusan Lord challenge (Tier 4) and/or Medusan Lord challenge (Tier 5). All of this of course always in the Phoenix Challenge system.

The latest one as seen above, published by Phoenix Interactive are :

The seventh Dragon Lord, revealed at GenCon 2010.

As seen above Sin Marduk or Eresh q'Shedim are a DaemonLord. They are similar character creature as the Dragon Lord except the name of his sub-class.
Sin Marduk was revealed at Gen Con 2008 and Eresh q'Shedim was revealed at Kohit X Germany mid-november 2011.

The Challenge : Each Dragon Lord runner (player who's have been rewarded by AEG or Phoenix with the opportunity to play the decks of Dragon Lords) gets to built their own decks.

As seen above for the '' Dragon Lord and Daemon Lord challenge '' for Tier 3 (or Level 3), it is it is time now to enter in the most higher challenge level of the game; the Tier 3 called '' the Hive Mind Medusan Lord challenge '' and the Tier 4 called the '' Medusan Lord Challenge '' who's the highest and the harder challenge of the Warlord CCG game.

So to begin, the Tier 3 is '' a Hive Mind Medusan Lord Challenge (HMML)'' who's in fact a Warlord that is no longer legal in the current environment and owns a Epic Class card (a '' Power Boost '' style card) and Reflection Item attached to him in symbiosis at the beginning of the game.
If you win the challenge, you'll received those two special cards. Note that there's only one Epic Class in print and three Reflection card in print. So those two cards are of course very hard to find and only the Runner owns them ... or the Slayer of the Runner of course.

To play this Challenge, you must win the specific tournament or own a Unsigned Dragonlord or submit an unsigned DragonLord to pay the cost of the challenge.
The owner of the HMML, the runner will sign your card and then take your challenge.
You must play of course with a deck legal to the current format.

Special Rules :
If the HMML is defeat a special rules is affected :
For each Hive Mind Medusan Lord that is defeated, the other Hive Mind Medusan Lords who share the defeated Hive Mind Medusan Lords "Reflection" card start with an additional charge on their Epic Class card.

As for example :
If the Shadow Singer is defeated, the other two Hive Mind Medusan Lords with “Reflection of Fortune” will start with 2 charges. The last Hive mind Medusan Lord with “Reflection of Fortune”, will start with 3 charges. After players have revealed their starting army, for each charge on the Hive Mind Medusan Lords Epic Class card, the runner may do one of the following:

- Search their collection for an item of level 6 or lower that may be legally equipped, and equip it to their Hive Mind Medusan Lord. This item must be legal to the current format.
- Search their collection for a level 5 or lower non-warlord character of the same faction as their Hive Mind Medusan Lord and put it into play within 1 rank of their Hive Mind Lord. This character must be legal to the current format.

Note : The Epic Class cards cannot be targeted by any means. They modify the players Warlord, and any bonuses (but not abilities) from the Epic Class card are assumed to be "Printed" on the Warlord.
As for example :
- Charges cannot, by any means, be added to or taken away from the Epic Class card. Adding charges to the Warlord does not increase the bonuses from the Epic Class card.
- "Epic Mantle" treats the level bonuses from the Epic Class card as printed, so will not give any bonuses for them.
- If the Warlord is targeted by "Forget", they will still be able to use abilities printed on their Epic Class card.
The "Reflection" items that the Hive Mind Medusan Lords begin the game with cannot be targeted by opposing player's card effects.

Each Epic class and Reflection card pic can be found in this

Here is the list of the Hive Minds with their Epic Class and Refection card :

Epic Class card: The Shadow Singer / Reflection card : Reflection of Fortune.

Epic Class card : The Angel's Vengeance / Reflection Card : Reflection of Faith.

Epic Class card : Rage of the red Wolf / Reflection card : Reflection of Glory.

Epic Class card : Whisper of the Condemned / Reflection card : Reflection of Power.

Epic Class card : Dark Genesis / Reflection Card : Reflection of Glory.

Epic Class card : Soul of the Storm / Reflection card : Reflection of Faith.

Epic Class card : The False Emperor / Reflection Card : Reflection of Glory.

Epic Class card : The Lord of Ash / Reflection Card : Reflection of Fortune.

Epic Class card : Paragon / Reflection Card : Reflection of Fortune.

Epic Class card : The Devouring Earth / Reflection Card : Reflection of Faith.

Epic Class card : Favored of Bascaron / Reflection Card : Reflection of Power.

Epic Class card : The Undying / Reflection card : Reflection of Power.

It's time now to see the Highest Level of the Challenge the Level 5 (Tier 5) and we are speaking now of course about the Medusan Lord themselves.

For this challenge, you must first find, of course, a tournament where this challenge will be played ... That's not like a common or usual tournament of course, because there's usually only one Medusan Lord in print so only one proud owner.

Now if you have find the tournament ..., you must have win a specific tournament, you must own a unsigned Al'drich (Dragon lord), a unsigned Sin Marduk (Daemon Lord)and 2 unsigned Pre 4E edition Dargon Lord and submit them for signing.

During the AEG Time the system was a little bit different now Phoenix Interactive currently operates this five tiered system with some new specifications for this challenge.

So as seen above, there's only one Medusan Lord in Print (except for 2 of them : ''Gixu the Jester'' and ''Archos Loth'' (6 copies of each one)). They are the stronger character from the game and in supplement each of them owns some specific powerful items or Actions that could be also qualify as unique. So only one of this items are in print, except of course for the 6 copies in print of the Medusan Lords notify just above.

If you win against the constructed deck build by the Medusan Lord Runner (The owner of the Medusan Lord), you win the card and of his unique items.

As for example, you have just here on the left the Medusan lord ''Irad Syneri'' owned by L.C. (Note that the real name of the owner has been hide for privacy) win at KoHIT IV in November 2005. This was the first apparition of this Warlord CCG Medusan Lord.

MEDUSAN LORD LIST AND THEIR ITEMS AND ACTION CARDS :

Most of the time after a number of too high challenges in which the Medusan Lord does not fall, it is then retired. Those one are often auctioned off for charity. So of course, some of them are retired, other ones still yet active , and if some of them are defeated, new player hands old them.

Medusan Lord List Challenges (A = Yet Active - R = Retired - D = Defeated - Date = Reveal date) :

No items and no actions card.

NOTE THAT : Baruuk al-Semmeya and Lady al-Semmeya can only challenged in Doubles.

Medusan Lord Fiction :

About Medusan Lord Background : The background of some Medusan Lord Character can be seen in each pic if I own it.

ACTUAL RUNNER :

To prevent and to protect the privacy of each ones, I have just notify the first name and the first letter (or sometimes the ToL forum knickname) of the actual runner for each living Medusan Lord. This list is present because some challenge still yet possible for them.

- Orvac Granitefall : Runner : Chris V. (Reveal : Gen Con 2010)- ACTIVE.

- Atu the Fallen : Runner : Arne R. (Reveal : Gen Con 2009)-ACTIVE.

- Queen Mother Nyssara : Runner : Oliver S. (Reveal : Summer Campaign 2009 Osnabruck - Germany)-ACTIVE.

- Gixu the Jester (10 or 11 in Print - Reveal : Gen Con 2009) still 9 ACTIVE. Runners : Florian H., Jeremy H., Tommy P., Vann L., Vic P., Gigi C., Carlos A., Matt C X 2. -ACTIVES.

- Alex Venator : Runner Jeremiah U. (Reveal : July 2008)-ACTIVE.

Defeated Gixu :

First runner : Jeremiah U. slaying by John Z. with Krenthor Gouge Warlord at NJ Fall Event 2009. / First runner: Tony W. slaying by Bobby Z. with Gethseme Steelshard Warlord at Gen Con 2009 / First runner : Rich C slaying by Bobby Z. with Krenthor Gouge Warlord at ? February 2011 / First runner : Don T. slaying by Matt C with Inquisitor Dmitir at Minnesota Winter Campaign April 2011.

L. defeated a Gixu at Florianopolis in august 2011 / First Runner : M. Velez slaying by Nick Bush (October 2011).

Pending Confirm : Orvac Granitefall has been defeated by ? (GenCon 2011).

NB : If I have made a mistake or forget something thanks to correct me. It's difficult for me to update all those informations at every moments.

The Stolen Destinies Challenge Type.

As an introduction, first do not confound with the Stolen Destiny cards it's a complete different thing. The Stolen Destinies Challenge is a outside challenge if we compare with the one we have already seen before and just above. So to challenge a Destiny Lord, the player must submit an unsigned DragonLord.

This type of challenge has been played from first month of 2007 until first days of January 2008, last days of AEG times.

So, The challenge difficulty is approaching the Medusan Lord level describe abobe. The main difference is that the Destiny Lord begins with a Epic Class card attached to him and the deck you'll challenge contains seven Cohort Mercenary type card(s)(Epic Bugged) that correspond to the Destiny Lord himself.
If you kill any Cohort(s) during your challenge, you will get to keep one at the end of the game (There's only 7 in print of each one).
If you have defeat the deck, you'll also get the Epic Class card (who's a kind of trophy, not tournament legal) attached to the Destiny Lord.

All the ''Cohort'' cards owns the same Art picture draw by Brent Chumley but of the course the title of each card and the rules text are different, here is the card list name of them :

When AEG announced they were stopping to produce Warlord CCG in 2008, all the undefeated Destiny Lords and Cohorts cards were returned to them.
There were twenty four Destiny Lords, one for every Dragonlord runner :

* Destiny of Ancient Oaths and his 7 Ancient Oath Cohort.
* Destiny of the Black Banner and his 7 Black Banner Cohort.
* Destiny of the Bleeding Eye and his 7 Bleeding Eye Cohort.
* Destiny of the Broken Axe and his 7 Broken Axe Cohort.
* Destiny of Builder and his 7 Builder Cohort.
* Destiny of the Calif's Heir and his 7 Calif's Heir Cohort.
* Destiny of the Dark Reserve and his 7 Dark Reserve Cohort.
* Destiny of the Final Purge and his 7 Final Purge Cohort.
* Destiny of the Gilded Tongue and his 7 Gilded Tongue Cohort.
* Destiny of History's Tears and his 7 History's Tears Cohort.
* Destiny of Noble Blood and his 7 Noble Blood Cohort.
* Destiny of the Ogre Lord and his 7 Ogre Lord Cohort.
* Destiny of the Raging Mind and his 7 Raging Mind Cohort.
* Destiny of the Returned and his 7 Returned Cohort.
* Destiny of Robert's Savior and his 7 Robert's Savior Cohort.
* Destiny of the Scarlet Rose and his 7 Scarlet Rose Cohort.
* Destiny of the Silver Skin and his 7 Silver Skin Cohort.
* Destiny of the Silvered Fount and his 7 Silvered Fount Cohort.
* Destiny of Unfinished Mercy and his 7 Unfinished Mercy Cohort.
* Destiny of Wisdom Lost and his 7 Wisdom Lost Cohort.
* Destiny of Worldfall's Ally and his 7 Worldfall's Ally Cohort.
* Destiny of the Abyss and his 7 Abyss Cohort.
* Destiny of Allied Moon and his 7 Allied Moon Cohort.
* Destiny of the Maker and his 7 Maker Cohort.

If we own some of those cards, you can perhaps find some in this