The Madness Network

US National Championship This Weekend!

2011-09-11T18:07:00.001-04:00

US National Championship This Weekend!
http://www.thegrandmasquerade.com/events/vtes-schedule

Will you be joining White Wolf's fans at the US National Championship tournaments for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle?

Saturday September 17th, starting at noon.
Be there!

Friday Night
– Midnight run –
– 7:30 PM to 1:30 AM
– Open Games & Duffin Draft
– Duffin Draft consists of building a deck out of a single booster pack and starting with 12 pool and unlimited transfers.
– For new players, it is a great way to focus on specific areas of the game.
– For experienced players, it is great way to take a quick break from the standard game while building your collection.

Saturday
- Cardinal Benediction
- US Championship
- 12:00 Noon – 9 PM
- 3 Rounds with 2 hour limit. Untimed Finals
- Standard Constructed. 90 card limit. VEKN Tournament Rules.

Sunday
- Border Skirmish
- Draft
- 10 AM to 5 PM
- Drafting starts promptly at 10AM. Drafting and deck construction should last no longer than 30-45 minutes
- 2 Rounds & Final. 2 hour time limit
- We will be drafting 7 to 10 packs of boosters.

Kindred Restructure: Charlotte, North Carolina

2011-07-17T14:10:00.001-04:00

http://www.vekn.net/index.php/event-calendar/event/6297
http://charlottebynight.wordpress.com/
http://twitter.com/CharlotteVTES

Above Board Games
985 Market Street, Suite 103
Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States
http://www.aboveboardgames.net/

Kindred Restructure
Fort Mill, South Carolina
July 16, 2011
8 players
2R + F

There were 8 players that ended up in Fort Mill, South Carolina on Saturday the 16th of July. Two lived close by in Charlotte, three made the trek from Charleston, and three made the trek from Atlanta. As it was an eight player tournament, multi-deck, multi-judge rules were used.

Entering the finals:

Jeff Brandon    1 GW 6 VPs
Jeff Thompson    0 GW 3.5 VPs
Jordan Beall    0 GW 2 VPs
Jose Lafuente    0 GW 2 VPs
Mike Perlman    0 GW 0.5 VPs

Marijane was just out of the finals, tied with Mike, separated only by a few tournament points. Being on a table with a sweep that goes to another player is better than being on a table that has two players split the victory points. Food for thought.

Finals results:

Jeff Thompson 1 GW 4 VPs
Mike Perlman 0 GW 1 VP

Round one:

In the first round, I played an untested deck that is called Eye Prime. The eleven copies of Eye of Unforgiving Heaven meant that there were always vampires in torpor all around me, but my absence of vote lock meant that the Chantry was able to save the Tremere way too many times.

(0.5) The Unnammed + Santaleous bled
(0.5) Etrius + Spiridonas + Blythe Candeleria bled
(1.5) Uriel + Dela Eden + Aredhel + Anarch Convert bled
(0.0) Hermanas (large and small) + Angelo

The Blood Brothers were the only ones successfully ousted at this table, though I did have vote lock with Uriel's Bishop vote in the closing minute of the game and Etrius did get himself diablerized. Another 10 minutes could probably have seen a sweep, as the Salubri Antitribu were the only ones gaining blood and having more than 1 blood. Both the Tremere and Salubri Antitribu deck were down to the cards in their hands and in play. Santaleous the Famous was in torpor as well.

Round one second table:
(0) The Hordes bled
(0) Tariq and friends bled
(2) Imbued bled
(2) Ventrue Antitribu

Ventrue Antitribu get 2 VP, Imbued get 2 VP. Finished probably half an hour before time.

Round two:

This round saw the Brujah Antitribu have vote lock throughout the game with Armin Brenner being the only titled vampire for most of the game, with a single bishop controlled by his prey near the end. Black Forest Base/Creepshow Casino also made a very significant difference for the Brujah Antitribu, resulting in three pool gain per turn for 3-4 turns in a row before the Bowl of Convergence put an end to that nonsense. :) Azrael hunted for 4 (Perfectly) for most every turn of the game, except the very last one, when he was one of 7 vampires to bleed for one. Smiling Jack took the last 5 pool off the table.

(2) Brujah Antitribu weenies + Armin Brenner bled
(0) Tremere Antitribu + Succubus bled
(0) The Unnammed + Santaleous bled
(2) Azrael + almost entire crypt (only Kestrelle Hayes was unable to be found)

Round two second table:
(0) Tremere bled
(4) Samedi / Baron + Reanimated Corpses bled
(0) Lucian the Perfect using Brutal Influence bled
(0) Hermanas (large and small) + Angelo

This second table finished in less than 40 minutes. Large bleeds were flying all over the place, and no one had significant intercept. Archon Investigation made Lucian go away very early in his career, on a bleed for ~8. consistent bleeds of ~6 per turn from the Samedi let them work their way steadily and quickly all the way around the table.

Finals:
(1) Toreador Triple A bled
(0) Uta Kovacs Rush bled
(0) Ian Forestal + Rafaele Giovanni + Anarchy bled
(4) Nosferatu Antitribu Vote bled
(0) Zygodat Slaughterhouse

Games like this show the true power of the value of seating. Jeff B. made the mistake of choosing to sit as the prey of the one rush deck, as his vampires were always empty or in torpor, or on one blood and tapped from having to hunt. This absence of pressure allowed the Nosferatu Antitribu to build up uncontested and to control the voting situation. An Anarchist Uprising that would have ousted the Uta Kovacs and Ian Forestal decks at the same time was a victim of
Delaying Tactics. Banishment followed up that same turn to ensure that Uta couldn't take revenge on the vote caller, and Anneke + Alexandra's bleeds were finally able to get past Uta's seemingly unlimited Forced Awakenings to oust him. Beast ensured that Anneke would stay tapped for the rest of the game (Toreador Grand Ball) by removing Alexandra and Anson. The double Fame dunk in a single turn ousted the Toreador. The Anarchist Uprising made another appearance once it was down to two players, removing Ian Forestal at last.

Deck Name : Eye Prime
Author : Lasombra
Description :

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 11 average: 7.41667
4x Uriel 8 AUS FOR VAL ani obe bishop !Salubri:4
3x Dela Eden 8 AUS FOR VAL cel dom !Salubri:3
2x Saulot, The Wanderer 11 AUS FOR OBE THA VAL dai Salubri:4
2x Aredhel 5 FOR VAL aus !Salubri:4
1x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:0

Library [90 cards]
Action [11]
2x Abbot
2x Renewed Vigor
7x Sense Death

Action Modifier [7]
6x Freak Drive
1x Repulsion

Ally [1]
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Combat [29]
3x Armor of Vitality
6x Death Seeker
11x Eye of Unforgiving Heaven
4x Skin of Rock
5x Soak

Equipment [4]
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers
1x Flak Jacket
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Master [15]
2x Code of Samiel
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Fame
1x Guardian Angel
4x Rotschreck
4x Villein

Reaction [20]
4x Eyes of Argus
10x Hide the Heart
5x On the Qui Vive
1x Telepathic Misdirection

Retainer [3]
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Mr. Winthrop
1x Tasha Morgan

Deck Name : "The Robyn"
Author : Lasombra
Description :

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 7 average: 5.41667
4x Azrael 5 AUS VAL for !Salubri:6
2x Matthew 7 AUS FOR OBE cel Salubri:6
1x Ariel 6 AUS FOR VAL !Salubri:6
1x Kestrelle Hayes 6 AUS dom for obt !Ventrue:5
1x La Viuda Blanca 6 AUS NEC for obf Harbinger:6
1x Dr. Morrow 5 AUS VIC for Tzimisce:5
1x Silas 5 FOR aus dom val !Salubri:6
1x Veejay Vinod 3 AUS Nagaraja:6

Library [90 cards]
Action [8]
3x Abbot
2x Anonymous Freight
3x Harvest Rites

Action Modifier [5]
5x Freak Drive

Combat [30]
4x Morphean Blow
4x Psychic Assault
6x Skin of Rock
4x Target Vitals
3x Taste of Vitae
3x Telepathic Tracking
6x Weighted Walking Stick

Equipment [5]
2x Aaron's Feeding Razor
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Ivory Bow
1x Sport Bike

Master [22]
1x Barrens, The
3x Blood Doll
2x Hungry Coyote, The
2x Information Highway
2x Perfectionist
2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1x Sunset Strip, Hollywood
9x Vessel

Reaction [19]
5x Enhanced Senses
5x Eyes of Argus
3x On the Qui Vive
6x Telepathic Misdirection

Retainer [1]
1x Mr. Winthrop

Deck Name : Nosferatu Antitribu Vote In The Win
Author : Lasombra
Description :
Kendrick and Beast made a great team, and tend to come out first together every game in which this deck wins. Kendrick likes to recognize Beast's contributions by calling an early Cardinal Benediction that always passes.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 10 average: 7.91667
2x Cailean 10 ANI OBF POT PRE dom archbishop !Nosferatu:2
2x Yong-Sun, Harmonist 10 ANI OBF POT THA aus cardinal !Nosferatu:2
2x Beast, The Leatherface 7 OBF POT ani cel !Nosferatu:2
2x Kendrick 7 ANI POT aus obf priscus !Nosferatu:2
1x Julio Martinez 9 ANI DOM OBF POT nec bishop !Nosferatu:3
1x Calebos 8 ANI OBF POT cel bishop !Nosferatu:2
1x Cicatriz 5 ani obf pot bishop !Nosferatu:2
1x Olivia 5 OBF POT vic bishop !Nosferatu:2

Library [90 cards]
Action [4]
2x Deep Song
2x Vermin Channel

Action Modifier [15]
5x Bribes
7x Forgotten Labyrinth
3x Veil the Legions

Combat [23]
3x Canine Horde
10x Carrion Crows
10x Thrown Gate

Master [14]
1x Fame
2x Legendary Vampire
2x Nosferatu Kingdom
3x Sudden Reversal
6x Villein

Political Action [22]
4x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
4x Banishment
2x Cardinal Benediction
4x Consanguineous Boon
2x Conservative Agitation
4x Kine Resources Contested
1x Political Stranglehold

Reaction [12]
6x Cats' Guidance
2x Confusion of the Eye
4x On the Qui Vive

SE Regional Qualifier, Winner

2011-05-21T23:22:00.001-04:00

Oscar Garza swept the table in the finals, picking up all 5 victory points.

Congratulations to all four the newly qualified players! (Matt was already qualified by winning a 10+ player event earlier in the year.)

SE Regional Qualifier, Finals

2011-05-21T18:55:00.001-04:00

Jose 1 GW, 6 VP
Oscar 1 GW, 5.5 VP
Mattias 1 GW, 5 VP
Norman 1 GW, 5 VP
Matt 1 GW, 4 VP

Seating:
Oscar, Jose, Mattias, Matt, Norman

SE Regional Qualifier, 3rd Round results

2011-05-21T18:52:00.001-04:00

Mattias 3, Mike 2
Norman 4, Jose 1
Oscar 5

SE Regional Qualifier, Round 3 pictures

2011-05-21T16:52:00.001-04:00

Mattias, Robyn, Mike, Greg, Matt

Norman, David T., Jose, David A., Danielle

Oscar, Jordan, Shaun, Marijane, Jeff

SE Regional Qualifier, Round 2 results

2011-05-21T16:49:00.001-04:00

David T. 4, Jeff 1
Jose 4, Matt 1
Robyn 1.5, Mattias 1, Danielle 0.5, Marijane 0.5

SE Regional Qualifier Round 2

2011-05-21T15:21:00.001-04:00

Jose, Matt, David A., Jordan, Oscar

Mike, Jeff, Greg, David T., Norman

Shaun, Danielle, Marijane, Robyn, Mattias

SE Regional Qualifier

2011-05-21T15:16:00.001-04:00

Stone Mountain, Georgia
May 21, 2011
15 players
3R + F
9 players from Atlanta, Georgia
3 players from Charleston, South Carolina
2 players from Charlotte, North Carolina
1 player from Birmingham, Alabama

Pictures from the first round.

Matt, Marijane, Jose, Mattias, David T.

Jeff, David A., Mike, Oscar, Robyn

Danielle, Greg, Shaun, Norman, Jordan

Results of first round:
Matt 3, Jose 1, Mattias 1
Jeff 1.5, Mike 0.5, Oscar 0.5, Robyn 0.5
Greg 4, Norman 1

SE Regional Qualifier (update 1)

2011-05-21T15:00:00.001-04:00

Play areas from ~30 minutes into round 1.

Matt’s Brujah, group 4/5

Marijane’s Ventrue Antitribu were later joined by Salubri, group 2-3

Jose’s Malkavian Antitribu, group 2-3

Mattias’ protean Anarch Barons

David’s Masika (No Confidence x2), Anneke (later Patsy-ed)

Jeff’s presence dominate Anarchs

David A.’s True Brujah/Caitiff

Mike’s Toreador Antitribu, group 2

Oscar’s Samedi

Robyn’s protean animalism Anarchs

Danielle’s Black Hand Auspex Wall

Greg’s weenie presence bleed

Shaun’s Followers of Set

Norman’s Auspex Justicars

Jordan’s weenie obfuscate group 1/2

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle News

2011-05-14T19:30:00.001-04:00

http://www.white-wolf.com/old-world-of-darkness/news/vampire-the-eternal-struggle-news

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle News

Friday, May 13, 2011

VTES Players,

We wanted to take a moment to give you an update on the future of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. White Wolf will continue to host North American support for VTES for the rest of 2011 (although European event support will be provided by http://VTES.de).

However, starting May 20th, 2011, VTES will no longer be sold through standard distribution channels. Instead, you will be able to purchase displays at the White Wolf Store in North America and VTES.de in Europe.

As part of this change in distribution, pricing for displays will be decreased on 5/20. Booster displays will be sold for $50USD/€50, and starter displays will be sold for $35USD/€35. North American sales do not include sales tax, while European sales do include VAT.

Further, European customers can purchase a package of five booster displays for €225, and ten booster displays for €400. These packages can be a mix and match of displays.

If you have any questions, you can contact VTES Support at vtessupport@white-wolf.com.

http://vtes.de/catalog/
http://store.white-wolf.com/

Southeast Regional Qualifier

2011-05-02T19:00:00.001-04:00

Join us in Atlanta for the Southeast Regional Qualifier. The top 25% of the players in the tournament will be qualified to play in any of the Continental Championship events that take place in 2011!

Mark your calendar.
V:TES Atlanta will be hosting the South East Regional Qualifier in Atlanta on Saturday May 21st.
The event will be held at WW/CCP in Stone Mountain.
3 rounds and a final. Boosters and promos for all.
The top 25% players will be qualified to attend any of the Continental Championships this year.
We will start at 12 Noon, not our normal 1 PM.
More details to follow.
Hope to see you there.

Fee Stake: Marietta (TWD)

2011-01-15T21:31:00.001-05:00

Fee Stake: Marietta
Marietta, Georgia
January 15, 2011
10 players
2R + F

Robyn Tatu's Tournament Winning Deck

Deck Name : The Baron is Off Kilter after Ben Peal
Author : Robyn Tatu
Description : Tournament winning deck

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 9 average: 7.75
------------------------------------------------------------
4x Baron, The           9 FOR NEC OBF THN dom      2 votes Samedi:2
3x Reg Driscoll         8 OBF THN aus for pre              Samedi:2
2x Jorge De La Muerte   7 OBF THN cel for nec              Samedi:2
1x Genina, The Red Poet 8 CHI OBF THN aus cel for          Samedi:3
1x George Frederick     6 FOR THN nec obf                  Samedi:2
1x Lithrac              5 OBF for thn                      Samedi:2

Library [77 cards]
------------------------------
Action [20]
1x Conceal
5x Dark Mirror of the Mind
5x Little Mountain Cemetery
8x Off Kilter
1x Priority Shift

Action Modifier [31]
5x Cloak the Gathering
4x Forgotten Labyrinth
9x Freak Drive
6x Lost in Crowds
2x Stiff Contempt
5x Under My Skin

Combat [10]
2x Ashes to Ashes
4x Dust to Dust
2x Olid Loa
2x Skin of Rock

Master [12]
1x Archon Investigation
2x Direct Intervention
1x Houngan
2x Information Highway
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Perfectionist
2x Sudden Reversal
1x Wider View

Reaction [4]
2x Deflection
2x Forced Vigilance

2011 Rules for Continental Championships

2011-01-02T12:00:00.001-05:00

The VEKN has published the 2011 Rules for VtES Continental Championships:

January 1, 2011
Each year, the V:EKN organizes invitational Continental Championship tournaments. Players receive invitations by doing well in any of a series of qualifying events held around the world.
The V:EKN is coordinating five invitational V:TES Continental Championship tournaments: in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

How to Qualify
To play in a championship tournament, players will first have to qualify.

Anyone who played in the finals of a Continental Championship in 2010 is automatically qualified in 2011.

The top 25% of players in constructed Continental Qualifying events qualify. The threshold for “Last Chance Qualifiers” on the weekends of the Championships is 33%.

For the Australian and Asian Championships: 50% of the players (round up) up to a maximum of 10 players, qualify.
If multiple players tie for a qualifier spot, then all the tied players qualify.

To reward the organizers who put so much time and effort into organizing these events, the organizers for Regional continental qualifiers automatically qualify.

Finalists of constructed National Championship events qualify for the Continental Championships.

The winner of a sanctioned, rated, standard constructed tournament of 10 or more players will be qualified for all Continental Championships for the calendar year of the upcoming championship in that tournament's continent.

For example, if you win a 10+ player tournament in North America before the 2011 NAC at Origins, then you are qualified for all Continental Championships in 2011. If you win a 10+ player tournament in North America after the 2011 NAC at Origins, then you are qualified for all Continental Championships in 2012. (Note: this is exactly how qualification works for First Chance Qualifiers!)

Only the winner will be qualified. If a previously-qualified player wins a tournament, the qualification does not pass down to the 2nd-place player.

Event organizers may play in regular tournaments and qualify if they win the tournament. The multi-judge system may be used as per VEKN tournament rules.

In addition, the results of the tournament MUST BE SUBMITTED.

This new qualification system will start on January 1, 2011. Tournaments prior to this date will not count.

All qualifier tournaments are handled equally regardless of order. Players who qualify in one qualifier are not handled any differently in other qualifiers. They can continue to qualify in each qualifier in which they play.

Championship Format
There are two formats for the championship tournaments. Each Championship will be run in one of these formats.

Standard Championship Format
The standard format is a normal 3-round tournament with a final round, following the standard V:EKN rules for constructed deck tournaments (but in which only qualified players are allowed to play, of course).

Tiered Championship Format
The tiered format is basically two tournaments. The top forty players from the first tournament continue on to the second. Players may change cards or whole decks before the second tournament. Each tournament is three rounds. The final, if any, of the first tournament has no bearing on the second.

So, the most significant change is that the mini-qualifier tournaments have been dropped, and instead any winner of a 10+ player tournament held in 2011 is now qualified.

Dragon’s Breath: Regional Qualifier

2010-09-07T23:28:00.001-04:00

Dragon's Breath: SE Regional Qualifier
DragonCon 2010
September 5, 2010
Atlanta, Georgia
12 players
3 R + F

Jeffrey Brandon's Tournament Winning Deck with 4 VPs in the Finals

Deck Name : Evil Genius 2.0
Author : Jeffrey Brandon
Description : Based on Ben Peal's deck (2 GW 6 VP to tie for 2nd
going into the finals)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 8 average: 6.83333
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Arcadian, The          8 DOM MYT OBT chi for          Kiasyd:5
2x Pherydima              8 DOM MYT NEC obt pot bishop Kiasyd:4
2x Omme Enberbenight      7 MYT OBT cel dom      priscus Kiasyd:4
2x Roderick Phillips      7 DOM MYT cel obt tha          Kiasyd:4
2x Isanwayen              6 DOM MYT OBT                  Kiasyd:4
2x Dame Hollerton         5 DOM OBT myt                  Kiasyd:4

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [17]
5x Govern the Unaligned
9x Gremlins
3x Song of Pan

Action Modifier [21]
9x Bonding
4x Shadow Play
4x Shroud of Absence
4x Stone Travel

Action Modifier/Combat [4]
4x Fae Contortion

Ally [10]
10x Nocturn

Event [1]
1x Scourge of the Enochians

Master [16]
1x Barrens, The
4x Blood Doll
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Great Symposium
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
6x Sudden Reversal
1x Wider View

Reaction [17]
7x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
6x On the Qui Vive
2x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Reaction/Action Modifier [4]
4x Aura Absorption

-----------------

Other finalists and qualified players:

David Cherryholmes (2 GW 6 VP) weenie quietus

David Tatu (2 GW 6 VP) Tzimisce (Lambach, Velya, Meschenka Eternal
Vigilance Abbot Bowl of Convergence)

Mattias Kallenberg (1 GW 5 VP, 1 VP in Finals) Anu Diptinatpa + Arms
Dealers

Simeon Nagel (1 GW 5 VP) Fast Eddie

Outstanding results by a player tied for 5th (lost on the die roll):

Forrest Nielsen (1 GW 5 VP) Choir Harmony Siren's Lure, swept a 4
player table

Evaluating a limited card pool for optimal selection

2010-08-13T21:39:00.001-04:00

This short article was originally posted on the White Wolf Forum in response to Atomweaver's Deck Mashup Challenge. This is intended to be a primer on how to review a pair of starter decks to see if you can, and how you should, combine them to make the best deck that you can from them.

In this example, we will consider the Toreador and Brujah starters from Keepers of Tradition.

This is the complete list of cards that we can choose from, after which we'll review each section and type of cards.

    The Two Decks Together:

    Crypt [24 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 11 average: 6.58333
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    2x Adana de Sforza       11 CEL OBF POT PRE PRO aus  inner circle Brujah:4
    2x Rafael de Corazon     11 AUS CEL DOM OBF PRE      inner circle Toreador:4
    2x Jann Berger           10 CEL POT PRE dem for      prince       Brujah:4
    2x Epikasta Rigatos      8  AUS DOM PRE cel          prince       Toreador:4
    2x Eugene                8  AUS CEL FOR PRE          primogen     Toreador:4
    2x Kateline Nadasdy      7  AUS CEL PRE                           Toreador:4
    2x Tomaine               6  CEL POT PRE              primogen     Brujah:4
    2x Herbert Westin        5  OBF PRE pot                           Brujah:4
    2x Reginald Moore        4  PRE                      primogen     Brujah:4
    2x Thomas De Lutrius     4  aus cel pre              primogen     Toreador:4
    2x Garret                3  pot pre                               Brujah:4
    2x Sean Andrews          2  cel                                   Toreador:4

    Library [154 cards]
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Action [21]
      4x Enrage
      1x Entrancement
      2x Entrenching
      5x Harass
      9x Public Trust

    Action Modifier [11]
      4x Approximation of Loyalty
      4x Crocodile's Tongue
      3x Suppressing Fire

    Action Modifier/Combat [5]
      5x Resist Earth's Grasp

    Combat [46]
      6x Brute Force
      2x Concealed Weapon
      3x Immortal Grapple
      6x Psyche!
      6x Pursuit
      3x Relentless Pursuit
      4x Slam
      4x Stutter-Step
      6x Taste of Vitae
      3x Torn Signpost
      3x Weighted Walking Stick

    Equipment [25]
      4x Bang Nakh -- Tiger's Claws
      5x Beretta 9mm
      1x Bowl of Convergence
      2x Bundi
      3x Desert Eagle
      1x Drum of Xipe Totec
      2x IR Goggles
      1x Ivory Bow
      1x Mark V
      1x Phased Motion Detector
      1x Sengir Dagger
      3x Sniper Rifle

    Master [20]
      1x Auspex
      2x Celerity
      2x Contingency Planning
      2x Fame
      1x KRCG News Radio
      2x Major Boon
      1x Nod
      1x Potence
      2x Presence
      1x Rack, The
      1x Tension in the Ranks
      4x Vessel

    Political Action [10]
      2x Finding the Path
      4x Kine Resources Contested
      1x Praxis Seizure: Houston
      1x Praxis Seizure: Washington, D.C.
      2x Year of Fortune

    Reaction [16]
      3x Eagle's Sight
      4x Minor Irritation
      5x On the Qui Vive
      4x Telepathic Misdirection

We will start with the crypt. If you are combining two crypts, you want to be able to ensure that you get the best vampires in your opening crypt in as many games as possible. With the Keepers of Tradition starters, this is eased by having all of the vampires duplicated. If we wanted to be able to do some voting, we would keep duplicate copies of Princes/Justicars and might even consider including an Inner Circle member, if the pool regaining abilities of the starters will support it. Unfortunately, these two starters cannot support 11 capacity vampires, so we will drop all of the vampires that are above 8 capacity. We'll duplicate the 3 vampires that can play bleed bounce (Telepathic Misdirection) to ensure that we have some effective defense against large bleeds sent towards us at stealth. This leaves us room for 6 more minions, and we'll choose the 6 that are best able to help us overload our prey after a bounced bleed (i.e. the cheapest ones with Presence).

These are the 12 vampires we'll use for this deck.

    Crypt:

    Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 6.08333
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    2x Epikasta Rigatos      8  AUS DOM PRE cel  prince   Toreador:4
    2x Eugene                8  AUS CEL FOR PRE  primogen Toreador:4
    2x Kateline Nadasdy      7  AUS CEL PRE               Toreador:4
    2x Herbert Westin        5  OBF PRE pot               Brujah:4
    1x Tomaine               6  CEL POT PRE      primogen Brujah:4
    1x Reginald Moore        4  PRE              primogen Brujah:4
    1x Thomas De Lutrius     4  aus cel pre      primogen Toreador:4
    1x Garret                3  pot pre                   Brujah:4

Having decided our crypt, our next simplest choice is the master cards selection. In most 5 player games, there are ~8 turns before the first player is ousted and rarely more than 14 turns in the entire game. With that in mind, we will want to keep our master selection to 12-18 cards, as we aren't likely to see the entire deck but we would like to be able to play a master card on every turn. Ones that gain us pool or that recover pool spent on our vampires are our top priority. The second priority is to use our master phase to protect our pool or our minions, so anything that can help with that is next. Cards which are situational or require too much cooperation from the rest of the table will be bypassed. We are not likely to have more than three vampires in play, so the actions we choose later will be critical to ensure that we get the most bang for our buck.

    Master Cards:

    Master [13]
      1x Auspex
      2x Fame
      1x KRCG News Radio
      2x Major Boon
      1x Nod
      1x Rack, The
      1x Tension in the Ranks
      4x Vessel

Normally we would not expect to have enough untap in two starters to be able to defend The Rack, but our opponents don't have to know that this is what we are playing, so careful play can keep them from attempting the steal action to begin with. If our predator does take an action to steal The Rack, we aren't out any pool, and that was an action that could have been an attempt to bleed us or remove our pool with a vote. The Rack will be our Red Herring to distract our opponents from the non-wall nature of our deck whose offense will be strong bleeds. The Major Boons will allow us to pre-emptively take a bleed that will be for 1 so that we have defense against larger bleeds from our predator. Getting a Major Boon on your predator is a very strong defense, particularly as they get to be closer to being ousted themselves. The Auspex master will allow us to upgrade Thomas de Lutria into a bleed bounce defender, so we will keep it. If we had a wider selection of vampires, we'd choose a better minion that already had superior Auspex and play another pool gaining master instead.

Now that we know what our minions will look like and the options we have to regain pool, we will next consider how best to defend our pool. We will take as much untap as we can as well as all of the bleed bounce. As there are some pieces of equipment that will help us a lot when blocking, we can safely splurge here on reaction cards. We'll actually take all of them, from both decks.

    Reaction Cards:

    Reaction [16]
      3x Eagle's Sight
      4x Minor Irritation
      5x On the Qui Vive
      4x Telepathic Misdirection

The Minor Irritations are only useful to us when we start defending against the action while we are untapped and are only useful to us against younger vampires, so we know that we'll need to equip Epikasta or Eugene with a defensive weapon and plan for them to stay untapped when we have Minor Irritations in hand. If we don't have opponents minions that are less than 8 cap coming against us, we'll discard these as soon as we can.

Now that we know a bit of our plan for defense (large minion with superior Auspex untapped at the end of our turn with a weapon), we can consider how we will oust our prey. Suppressing Fire and Resist Earth's Grap are our only options for stealth (but they do mesh well with our plan to have a gun and with the amount of superior Celerity we plan to have in play), and our minions won't reliably be old enough to play the others, so we will keep all of the Suppressing Fire and Resist Earth's Grasp cards.

    Action Modifiers:

    Action Modifier [3]
      3x Suppressing Fire

    Action Modifier/Combat [5]
      5x Resist Earth's Grasp

We have 25 pieces of equipment to choose from to optimize our defensive and offensive combat abilities. As we know we will need to be defensive, we'll keep the Sniper Rifles and Desert Eagles as they are our cheapest options. We'll throw in the Bowl of Convergence and Ivory Bow as they are simply too good to leave out.

    Equipment:

    Equipment [8]
      1x Bowl of Convergence
      3x Desert Eagle
      1x Ivory Bow
      3x Sniper Rifle

As we now know our defense and our ability to force our actions to succeed, the next thing to decide with what other actions we should include. The strongest actions that we can take are those that do 3 points of damage to our prey. We'll include the Kine Resources Contested and the Public Trusts. The Entrancement is also very strong, so we'll include it as well. Harass will be good for us once a copy of Fame is in play, so a few copies of it will go in.

    Actions:

    Action [14]
      1x Entrancement
      4x Harass
      9x Public Trust

    Political Action [4]
      4x Kine Resources Contested

With the amount of stealth available to us, and the amount of blocking we know that we will have to do, the choices for combat are made last, but they are not the least important. Only 3 of our final minions have Potence, so all of those cards will be removed. We'll keep all of the Celerity and disciplineless cards to ensure that our combats are as effective as they can be.

    Combat:

    Combat [27]
      2x Concealed Weapon
      6x Psyche!
      6x Pursuit
      4x Stutter-Step
      6x Taste of Vitae
      3x Weighted Walking Stick

Now we have our finished deck, made only from the contents of two starters.

    Final Deck Mashup:

    Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 6.08333
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    2x Epikasta Rigatos      8  AUS DOM PRE cel  prince   Toreador:4
    2x Eugene                8  AUS CEL FOR PRE  primogen Toreador:4
    2x Kateline Nadasdy      7  AUS CEL PRE               Toreador:4
    2x Herbert Westin        5  OBF PRE pot               Brujah:4
    1x Tomaine               6  CEL POT PRE      primogen Brujah:4
    1x Reginald Moore        4  PRE              primogen Brujah:4
    1x Thomas De Lutrius     4  aus cel pre      primogen Toreador:4
    1x Garret                3  pot pre                   Brujah:4

    Library [90 cards]
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Action [14]
      1x Entrancement
      4x Harass
      9x Public Trust

    Action Modifier [3]
      3x Suppressing Fire

    Action Modifier/Combat [5]
      5x Resist Earth's Grasp

    Combat [27]
      2x Concealed Weapon
      6x Psyche!
      6x Pursuit
      4x Stutter-Step
      6x Taste of Vitae
      3x Weighted Walking Stick

    Equipment [8]
      1x Bowl of Convergence
      3x Desert Eagle
      1x Ivory Bow
      3x Sniper Rifle

    Master [13]
      1x Auspex
      2x Fame
      1x KRCG News Radio
      2x Major Boon
      1x Nod
      1x Rack, The
      1x Tension in the Ranks
      4x Vessel

    Political Action [4]
      4x Kine Resources Contested

    Reaction [16]
      3x Eagle's Sight
      4x Minor Irritation
      5x On the Qui Vive
      4x Telepathic Misdirection

What thoughts and feedback do you have on this process?

Battle Lines: Atlanta, Storyline Results

2010-06-19T20:58:00.001-04:00

Battle Lines: Atlanta, Storyline Results
Date of event: June 19, 2010
Location of event: Atlanta, Georgia
Number of players: 8
Winning Player: Jeffrey Thompson
Winning Clan: Salubri Antitribu
Winning Faction: Bahari/Lilith
Key Minion: Adonai

We had 8 players and we played 3 rounds without a final. We ran the event as a multi-deck multi-judge tournament. In the six games, I believe there were only 2 Loyalists. Lilith’s Blessing is too strong not to play, and the motivation for an action for an alternate hunt action is lacking that Guide and Mentor was only played by decks that didn't think they would ever have empty vampires. (Neither of those two decks got victory points, to my recollection.)

This is my memory of the results:
Salubri Antitribu (I am I) 2 GW, 6 VP
Baali (Hordes + Unnamed) 1 GW, 5.5 VP
Nagarja (Anu Diptinatpa + Sennadurek) 1 GW, 4 VP
Daughters of Cacophony (Lilly Prelude) 1 GW, 4 VP
Harbingers of Skulls (Byzar + Slaughterhouse + Brinksmanship) 1.5 VP
Daughters of Cacophony (Scout + Shattering Crescendo) 1 VP
Baali (Nergal + Saulot) 1 VP

Other decks that were played:
All Gargoyles with only some Tupdogs
Another Nagaraja deck with the same crypt
Salubri Antitribu (Laibon + Kerrie?)
Salubri Antitribu (The Loving Agony of Targeted Vitals)
Hermanas Menor Love Lilith and Thrown Sewer Lids
Saulot brings all his buddies to the Marionette show
Huitzilopotchli Soul Gem Super Bleed with extra block fails

This is basically the same deck I played in Charleston last February for a tournament win, with a second Kervos replacing Richard Tauber to be 75% Salubri Antitribu. No changes were made to the library.

Deck Name : I am I
Author : The Lasombra
Description : This is a great 4 player deck. Everyone is close
enough to be touched by the intercept and combat.

1st round, I played the The Loving Agony of Targeted Vitals and couldn't stand up to Nergal my predator and then Arishat and the Hordes as my new predator (Arishat swept) I did convince the Hordes to tap once to make Nergal's bleed for 4, so that the Archon Investigation in my hand would burn him. That deck will be posted later, here:
http://www.TheLasombra.com/decks.htm

2nd round, 3 VP, with grand predator getting 1 (Burned Huitzilopotchli
backwards before he got a Soul Gem)

3rd round, 3 VP, with grand predator getting 1 (Blocked a number of
Hermanas)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 5.5
------------------------------------------------------------
3x Dela Eden              8 AUS FOR VAL cel dom   !Salubri:3
3x Adonai                  7 AUS VAL for           !Salubri:2
1x Remilliard, Devout Crusader 4 AUS pre        !Toreador:2
1x Thomas Steed, The Angry     4 ani aus val      !Salubri:2
1x Isabel de Leon         3 AUS                   Toreador:2
2x Kervos, The Lieutenant      3 aus val         !Salubri:2
1x Zoe                 3 AUS cel obf           Malkavian:2

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
1x Abbot
2x Anima Gathering
4x Sense Death

Combat [25]
4x Armor of Caine's Fury
9x Blissful Agony
7x Eye of Unforgiving Heaven
5x Soak

Equipment [1]
1x Bowl of Convergence

Master [14]
4x Blood Doll
1x Blooding by the Code
1x Dark Influences
1x Fame
1x Giant's Blood
2x Guardian Angel
3x Path of Retribution, The
1x Rotschreck

Reaction [42]
3x Eagle's Sight
3x Enhanced Senses
4x Eyes of Argus
6x Forced Awakening
2x Forced Vigilance
3x My Enemy's Enemy
7x On the Qui Vive
3x Precognition
3x Telepathic Counter
8x Telepathic Misdirection

Retainer [1]
1x Mr. Winthrop

Liquefy the Mortal Coil: Atlanta

2010-05-08T23:47:00.001-04:00

Liquefy the Mortal Coil: Atlanta
Stone Mountain, Georgia
May 8, 2010
8 players
2R + F, Multi deck

As we only had 8 players show up for what was scheduled as a mini-qualifier, we played 2R + a final using the multi-deck rules. A number of the attendees have posted to the newsgroup in the past, so perhaps they will add their recollections to the thread there.

Round 1, Kaymakli Nightmares shredded two turns of my predators transfers and only 1 turn of my own, so I had to play it. This meant that it was 4 turns before Graham Gottesman was my predator. He governed out a younger version of himself (Mustafa, The Heir) and João Bilé. My prey was playing group 1-2 Ventrue princes with guest stars Anarch Convert and Victoria Ash. A First Tradition successfully removed ~24 pool from the table, as everyone always took their turn. The eventual tournament winner was cross table from me with a Harvest Rites Hungry Coyote deck. My deck started up slowly because of the Kaymakli and so I was only able to force an Anarchist Uprising to be my death (also ousting my prey) for an ending of 3-1 (three for my prey the 1-2 Ventrue and one for me).

[If he hadn't played that vote to oust us both, I would have ousted him with the standing 7+ bleed I had on the table on my next turn.]

Round 2, My prey was celerity guns. I got him down to 5 pool, then my predator swept the table as he had no predator himself. My grand-prey this game was the Ventrue 1-2 deck from the first table. He blocked a bleed and the celerity guns deck used two Psyche! to get around his two Majesty to put Victory Ash in torpor and then lost two pool to Perpetual Care! My predator was playing Black Hand - Reunion Kamut - Guarded Rubrics - Tattoo Signal - bleed for 3 at stealth and swept in 3 turns once he was set up.

Results going into finals:

Player 1 - 2 GW, 8 VP, two different decks
Player 2 - 1 GW, 3 VP, two different decks
Player 3 - 1 GW, 3 VP, same deck both games, lost tie breaker
Player 4 - 1 VP, same deck both games
Player 5 - 1 VP, same deck both games

Finals, As it was officially multi-deck, I swapped out my Samedi Reanimated Corpse deck for my Enkidu Raptor deck. I was exactly tied for 5th. The third place player sat as my prey, the second place player sat as his prey, and the first place player sat as his prey! (All trying to be my grand-predator, as I have exhibited some back ousting combat with some frequency in the last few months.)

My grand prey in the finals ousted all of the players at the table except himself, and his votes brought him down far enough to allow my initial predator to oust him on the turn that he ousted me backwards.

Final result:
My predator 3 vp,
Me 1 vp,
grand prey 1 vp

My predator did end up playing the same deck all three rounds. The player resented two decks to me in blind boxes to choose from, or the player would have played something else in the finals.

Scourge of the Enochians did remove 2 vampires from the game and prevented a third from entering play.

The winner walked away with the print for Liquefy the Mortal Coil and 12 deck backers of the same art as well as ~10 boosters from various sets. Other finalists received ~4 boosters. The three players that played Dominion during the finals also received consolation prizes, either an UltraPack of cards for Kiasyd from Heirs to the Blood or an UltraPack of Harbingers/Nagaraja or ~5 Third Edition boosters. (An UltraPack is all of the commons, vampires, and rares specific to a clan and their disciplines acquired from opening 4 booster display boxes.)

Here is the deck I constructed in 20 minutes before driving to the tournament from 4 starters. (Cards that don't appear in the HttB starters used: Poison Pill x2, Giant's Blood, Kaymakli Nightmares, Perfectionist, Lubomira, Morlock.)

Deck Name : Morlock Rocks
Author : The Lasombra
Description :
The Samedi-Nosferatu starter has a lot of Reanimated Corpses. I hadn't seen any decks locally made for them, so I felt safe from contesting when bringing this deck. I did review Fletcher Gibson's tournament winning decks for inspiration. Lubomira is in the deck to provide cheap Obfuscate for the Cloaks and Veils. (During the tournament, I had a Hungry Coyote in the deck mistakenly. Perfectionist will replace it.)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 10 average: 7.08333
------------------------------------------------------------
3x Troglodytia         10 AUS FOR NEC THN obf pot   Samedi:4
2x Morlock             8 FOR NEC THN obf           Samedi:4
2x Baroque             7 NEC THN aus for obf       Samedi:5
2x Tangine             7 OBF THN ani nec pot       Samedi:4
2x Abebe               4 nec obf thn               Samedi:4
1x Lubomira Hradok     3 OBF                       !Nosferatu:5

Library [90 cards]
----------------------------------------
Action [16]
7x Computer Hacking
7x Little Mountain Cemetery
2x Off Kilter

Action Modifier [31]
7x Cloak the Gathering
8x Freak Drive
4x Lost in Crowds
1x Mask of a Thousand Faces
4x Under My Skin
7x Veil the Legions

Ally [12]
12x Reanimated Corpse

Combat [7]
2x Compress
5x Soak

Master [18]
3x Coroner's Contact
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Dummy Corporation
1x Giant's Blood
1x Houngan
1x Kaymakli Nightmares
1x Perfectionist
7x Villein

Reaction [6]
4x On the Qui Vive
2x Poison Pill

Here is the deck I played in the finals:

Deck Name : Enkidu's Raptor Training Camp 2010
Author : The Lasombra
Description :

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 11 average: 6.66667
------------------------------------------------------------
4x Enkidu, The Noah     11 ANI CEL OBF POT PRO for   !Gangrel:4
2x Celeste Lamontagne   5 ANI PRO for               !Gangrel:4
2x Petra                5 ANI OBF aus               Nosferatu:4
2x Beetleman            4 ANI obf                   Nosferatu:4
1x Effie Lowery         5 ANI SPI obf               Ahrimane:4
1x Stick                3 ANI                       !Nosferatu:4

Library [90 cards]
-------------------------------------
Action [6]
2x Constant Revolution // first one blocked by Maris Streck intercept, second in hand when ousted
1x Jack of Both Sides // discarded, no Raptors in hand when it showed up
2x Muricia's Call
1x Shadow of the Beast // didn't see

Action Modifier [11]
1x Cloak the Gathering
1x Earth Control
1x Enkil Cog // didn't see
5x Forced March
1x Forgotten Labyrinth
2x Lost in Crowds

Combat [37]
13x Earth Meld
5x Pack Alpha
12x Psyche!
4x Pursuit
3x Taste of Vitae

Event [1]
1x Scourge of the Enochians

Master [12]
1x Coven, The     // didn't see
1x Fame   // didn't see
1x Giant's Blood
2x Guardian Angel
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany // didn't see
1x House of Sorrow // put in play, never used as the masters I didn't see and put it in for never showed up
1x Perfectionist
1x Rack, The   // didn't see
1x Sudden Reversal // saved for Pentex Subversion, worked
2x Wash // saved for Pentex Subversion, worked

Reaction [10]
2x Cats' Guidance
3x Forced Awakening
2x On the Qui Vive
3x Sense the Savage Way

Retainer [13]
1x Homunculus
12x Raptor

Tragic Love Affair: Atlanta, Georgia

2010-03-13T20:38:00.001-05:00

Tragic Love Affair: Atlanta
Stone Mountain, Georgia
March 13, 2010
12 players
2R + F

Mattias Kallenberg's Tournament Winning Deck with 3 VPs in the finals

(Entered finals on coin flip/dice roll, was tied with 2 other players for 5th place.)

Deck Name : We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives
Author : Mattias Kallenberg
Description :

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 4 average: 4
------------------------------------------------------------
3x Jennifer "Flame61" Vidisania 4 ven vis Imbued:4
3x John "Cop90" O'Malley    4 jud ven Imbued:4
3x Lupe "Cabbie22" Droin    4 def ven Imbued:4
3x Pedro Cortez               4 mar ven Imbued:4

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [8]
2x Ambush
2x Arson
2x Bum's Rush
2x Harass

Ally [1]
1x Vagabond Mystic

Combat [20]
8x Cleave
2x Dead-End Alley
2x Fake Out
3x Pulled Fangs
1x Target Hand
2x Target Vitals
2x Trap

Conviction [18]
7x React with Conviction
5x Second Sight
6x Strike with Conviction

Equipment [19]
2x Crusader Sword, The
8x Dagger
2x Flak Jacket
3x Hawg
1x Ivory Bow
1x Joumlon's Axe
1x Kevlar Vest
1x Living Wood Staff

Event [3]
1x Dragonbound
1x NRA PAC
1x Unmasking, The

Master [14]
7x Angel of Berlin
1x Archon Investigation
1x Barrens, The
2x Church of Vindicated Faith, The
1x Direct Intervention
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Tension in the Ranks

Power [4]
1x Rejuvenate
2x Surge
1x Vigilance

Reaction [3]
3x On the Qui Vive

Georgia Qualifier

2009-08-22T21:31:00.001-04:00

Georgia Qualifier
Alpharetta, Georgia
August 22nd, 2009
12 players
2R + F

John Newquist's Tournament Winning Deck with three game wins on the day, 2 vp, 2 vp, and 4 vp.

Deck Name : Judgment Day
Author : Witness1 - John Newquist
Description :
Pretty standard Vigilance bleed. I went power-light this time.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 6 average: 4.25
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Jennie "Cassie247" Orne         5 inn jud vis      Imbued:4
2x Jack "Hannibal137" Harmon    4 def jud           Imbued:4
2x John "Cop90" O'Malley            4 jud ven          Imbued:4
2x Francois "Warden" Loehr        3 def jud          Imbued:4
1x Earl "Shaka74" Deams             6 jud mar vis    Imbued:4
1x Travis "Traveler72" Miller        5 mar def         Imbued:4
1x Erick "Shophet125" Franco     4 inn jud          Imbued:4
1x Marion "Teacher193" Perks     4 red jud          Imbued:4

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [1]
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal

Ally [5]
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Gregory Winter
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
1x Ossian
1x Wendell Delburton (Hunter)

Combat [13]
9x Concealed Weapon
2x Target Vitals
2x Weighted Walking Stick

Conviction [24]
8x React with Conviction
8x Second Sight
8x Strike with Conviction

Equipment [15]
1x Crusader Sword, The
9x Flash Grenade
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Laptop Computer
1x Leather Jacket
1x Orb of Ulain

Event [6]
1x Dragonbound
2x NRA PAC
1x Narrow Minds
2x Unmasking, The

Master [13]
5x Angel of Berlin
1x Channel 10
2x Church of Vindicated Faith, The
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
2x Specialization
1x Sudden Reversal
1x WMRH Talk Radio

Power [8]
4x Discern
4x Vigilance

Reaction [5]
2x On the Qui Vive
3x Poison Pill

The Bitter and Sweet Story: Atlanta

2009-07-28T21:37:00.001-04:00

The Bitter and Sweet Story
Stone Mountain, Georgia
July 18, 2009
13 players

The bitter and sweet story: no one played Laibon as they were all
afraid of contesting! 4 of 13 players specifically mentioned this
concern in deciding what they chose to play on the day.

Todd Banister's Tournament Winning Deck

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 8 average: 3.75
------------------------------------------------------------
4x Anarch Convert         1                        Caitiff:0
2x Amaravati              8 DOM OBF QUI ani chi   Assamite:4
1x Hafsa, The Watcher     6 OBF QUI aus cel       Assamite:5
1x Vardar Vardarian       6 OBF QUI cel pre       Assamite:4
1x Layla bint-Nadr        5 CEL OBF qui           Assamite:4
1x Michael diCarlo        5 CEL obf qui           Assamite:4
1x Alu                    2 obf                   Assamite:5
1x Basir                  1 qui                   Assamite:4

Library [76 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [16]
4x Embrace, The
1x Fee Stake: Boston
1x Fee Stake: Corte
1x Fee Stake: Los Angeles
1x Fee Stake: New York
1x Fee Stake: Perth
1x Fee Stake: Seattle
1x Khabar: Glory
5x Web of Knives Recruit

Action Modifier [21]
3x Cloak the Gathering
4x CrimethInc.
2x Cryptic Rider
1x Into Thin Air
3x Faceless Night
3x Lost in Crowds
3x Spying Mission
2x Veil the Legions

Action Modifier/Combat [3]
3x Swallowed by the Night

Event [1]
1x Uncoiling, The

Master [15]
3x Alamut
1x Archon Investigation
1x Barrens, The
1x Black Throne, The
3x Blood Doll
1x Club Illusion
1x Dark Influences
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Seattle Committee
1x Twilight Camp
1x Yoruba Shrine

Political Action [20]
1x Anarch Salon
5x Consanguineous Boon
1x Exclusion Principle
2x Firebrand
5x Kine Resources Contested
1x Patsy
5x Revolutionary Council

Above is the deck listing for my version of the Death Star. Nothing
super revolutionary - I simply tweaked my deck more for the raw damage
while giving up slightly on the number of untaps.

Recap: Amaravati was simply worth his price and then a whole lot more.
Without him on the table, I would have had a great deal of issue
getting my votes passed. Alamut got some counters but bleeding at
times was problematic (fear of deflects with a weakened grand-prey, the
Lasombra wanting me to bleed him so he could Rat's Warning his Sense
Dep’d monster, etc).

Voting was still difficult at times as most of my votes would take
close to 10 votes to pass due to so many table votes - and Jeff's
House of Sorrow/Ventrue HQ trick - yuck). So in the end, I had to
basically have Amaravati sit still (due to lots of intercept) and be a
machine that generated votes for me. Totally worth it.

I had a blast playing with everyone and I apologize for my numerous
mistakes. Man, you don't play competitively for a little bit and some of
your skills get rusty ... a lot rusty. I think I can write a nice book
on 1000 ways to mis-play CrimethInc. Sheesh... that was so
embarrassing. :oops:

As for my tweaks to the deck, I am happy with them for the most part.
The only thing I wish I would have put back into the deck was the
Pentex Subversion. Didn't think it was that great since I had no way
to defend it but there were a few times that I could see it would have
been worth its weight in gold if I had it in my hand (for the ability
to take one key blocker out for just one turn). Oh well, I guess you
always are learning with this game...

Other comments? Lets see... Yoruba rocked. I only got it out in one
game but I had a pot rush deck behind me and Yoruba allowed me to
quickly eat away at his rush actions. He flat out beat the crap out of
my vamps but it would have been even nastier if I didn't have the
protection of the Shrine on my side. Never saw Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
or Twilight Camp all day long - I had to find them in my deck later
just to convince myself that they was there. Seattle Committee only
showed up once, but the Anarch Converts took care of most of the 'Go
Anarch' issues so this wasn't too much of a problem.

Conquest of Humanity: Atlanta

2009-06-21T14:36:00.001-04:00

Conquest of Humanity: Atlanta
Stone Mountain, Georgia
June 20, 2009
10 players
2R + F

Mattias Kallenberg's Tournament Winning Deck with 3.5 vps in Final

Deck Name : Wheelchair Vampire
Author : Mattias Kallenberg
Description :
Based on a deck by Andrew 'Wes' Weston
http://www.thelasombra.com/newsletter/gangrel_october_2006.htm

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 5.16667
------------------------------------------------------------
3x Nadima                  8 FOR PRO SER ani aus   Gangrel:3
3x Mirembe Kabbada         5 PRO SER ani           Gangrel:2
2x Chandler Hungerford     3 PRO                   Gangrel:2
1x Dr. Allan Woodstock     5 PRO ani aus for       Gangrel:3
1x Daliyah                 4 PRO obf               Nosferatu:2
1x Ramona                  4 for pro               Gangrel:2
1x Ramona              Adv 4 for pro               Gangrel:2

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [18]
1x Abomination
1x Army of Rats
8x Computer Hacking
6x Enticement
1x Form of Corruption
1x Gather

Action Modifier [6]
6x Earth Control

Action Modifier/Combat [3]
3x Rapid Change

Ally [3]
2x Procurer
1x Walks-With-Might

Combat [26]
4x Claws of the Dead
8x Earth Meld
2x Flesh of Marble
10x Form of Mist
2x Quick Meld

Master [16]
1x Backways
1x Barrens, The
1x Bleeding the Vine
4x Blood Doll
1x Coven, The
2x Ecoterrorists
1x House of Sorrow
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
3x Perfectionist
1x WMRH Talk Radio

Reaction [8]
8x Forced Awakening

Retainer [10]
1x Homunculus
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Jackie Therman
1x Mr. Winthrop
4x Raven Spy
1x Robert Carter
1x Tasha Morgan

Atlanta's Rise of the Imperator Results

2009-05-10T10:08:00.001-04:00

Atlanta's Rise of the Imperator Results
Stone Mountain, Georgia
Saturday May 9th, 2009
12 players
2 R + F

Winning Player: David Quinonero-Santiago
Winning Clan: Nosferatu (three Nosferatu decks in the finals + 2 Tremere)
Key Minion: Sheldon, Lord of the Clog
Imperator Nominee: Sheldon, Lord of the Clog

Finalists:

David Q., Nosferatu Princes, Group 1/2, 2 GW / 7 VP
     featuring Sheldon, Selma, Nikolaus Vermuelen
Danielle N., Tremere Princes, Group 4/5, 2 GW / 6 VP
     featuring Gerald Windham and Orlando Oriundus
David L., Nosferatu Princes & Friends, Group 2/3, 1 GW / 4 VP
     featuring Cock Robin and Casino Reeds
Jeff T., Fidus & Rock Cats, Group 1/2, 1 GW / 2 VP
     featuring Fidus and Thomas Thorne
David T., Nosferatu & Greensleeves, Group 4/5, 0 GW / 2 VP

Seating in the Finals:

Group 1/2 Nosferatu Princes
Tremere Princes
Fidus & Rock Cat
Group 2/3 Nosferatu Princes & Friends
Nosferatu and Greensleeves

With three different sets of Nosferatu, the Consanguineous Boons in the Sheldon & Greensleeves decks bloated the Cock Robin deck horrendously. He had 20+pool and 6 large minions before the game timed out.

------------

As we had 12 players, I only took notes during the round where I was ousted early.

Round 1, ~30 minute mark

Table 1
David Q. (eventually 4 VP sweep)
    -Duck
    -Murat with Ivory Bow
    -Sheldon, Lord of the Clog
    -The Labyrinth
Jeff
    -(ousted at this point)
    -2 Rock Cats, Thomas Thorne, Sarah Cobbler, Fidus, Mustapha Rahman
Vincent
    -Normal
    -Didi Meyers
    -Dollface
    -Gilbert Duane (Spying Mission) - Banished, never to return
Andrew
    -Vidal Jarbeaux with Aching Beauty, the Rack, and a Blood Doll
    -Eugene

Table 2
David T. (1 vp)
    -Foureyes
    -Topaz
    -Wolfgang with Vessel, Praxis Seizure: Amsterdam, and Tasha Morgan
    -The Embrace
    -Petra
    -Carver's Meat Packing and Storage
    -Ashur's Tablets x2
Shaun
    -Lutz von Hohenzollern
    -Arthur Denholm
    -(also ousted by this point)
Danielle (3 vps)
    -Dr. John Dee
    -Gerald Windham
    -Trois
    -Zane
Mattias
    -Fabrizia Contreraz
    -Sean Rycek
    -(Lutz von Hohenzollern) lost to contesting and Praxis Solomon
    -Elysium, The Arboretum

Table 3
David L. (3 vps)
    -Calebros, the Martyr
    -Casino Reeds
    -Kendrick with Villein
John
    -Dre
    -Angel
    -Volker
    -Rake
Norm (1 vp)
    -Francois Villon with Fortitude discipline master, in torpor
    -Kyoko Shinsegawa had been burned by Society of Leopold
    -Madame Guil later made an appearance but was not in play at this point
Robyn
    -Queen Anne was a Perfectionist
    -Timothy Crowley

Power of All: Atlanta

2009-03-29T20:10:00.001-04:00

Power of All: Atlanta
Stone Mountain, Georgia
March 29, 2009
10 players
2R + F

1 Matt Guinn         1    4    3    120
2 David Leader     1    5.5    1    108
3 Oscar Garza         0    1    1    72
4 Jeffrey Brandon     0    2    0    96
5 Greg Mitchell     0    1.5    0    84
6 Robyn Tatu         0    0.5        60
6 David Tatu         0    0.5        60
8 Mattias Kallenberg     0    0        48
8 Mike Perlman     0    0        48
10 Simeon Nagel     0    0        24

We had 11 players show up again for our 2nd day of the Georgia V:TES weekend.
(A different 11 players...)

I sat out and was the judge again at this event.

Round 1    Table 1
Player        Play area at the 1 hour mark
Robyn
    -Information Highway
    -Lernean with Rutor's Hand
    -Ash Harrison with Ruins of Ceoris
Greg
    -Ashur's Tables x2
    -Failsafe
    -Park Hunting Ground
    -Path of Paradox
    -Tumnimos
    -Gabrin with Karavalanisha Vrana
    -Vaclav Petalengro with Fatuus Mastery
Mattias
    -Adana de Sforza (Sensory Deprivation)
    -Maldavis with Anima Gathering targetting Adana
David L.
    -Warsaw Station
    -Dreams of the Sphinx
    -Calebros, the Martyr
    -Nikolaus Vermeulen
    -Casino Reeds
    -Krid (with a Weighted Walking Stick he gaine via diablerie)
Mike
    -Hasina Kesi
    -Basil
    -Dan Murdock
    -Franciscus
    -Huang, Blood Cultist
    -Antoinette Duchamp
    -(Navar had been diablerized)

Results of table 1 = David 4, Greg 1

Round 1    Table 2
Player        Play area at the 1 hour mark
David T.
    -Chantry
    -Arcane Library
    -Ashur's Tablets x2
    -Carna with Vessel, Ankara Citadel, Sniper Rifle, Bowl of Convergence,
    Rebel, Heart of Nizchetus, and The Rack
    -Aisling Sturbridge with Palatial Estate
    -Martin Frankel
    -Neighborhood Watch Commander
Matt
    -Warzone Hunting Ground
    -Tomaine
    -Carlak
    -Tara with Heroic Might
    -Jann Berger with Villein
Simeon
    -Neighbor John with Fortitude discipline master
    -Mariel St. John (Disarm)
    -Jephta Hester with Abbot, Flak Jacket, Perfectionist and Vessel
Jeff
    -Political Hunting Ground
    -Onaedo
    -Otieno
    -Anton de Conception with a Vessel
    -Ermengildo, The Rake
Oscar
    -Baron Dieudonne with Blood Doll
    -Enkidu, The Noah with Blood Doll x2

Results of Table 2 = Matt 1.5, David-Jeff-Oscar 0.5

Round 2    Table 1
Player        Play area at the 1 hour mark
Oscar
    -Narrow Minds
    -Trophy Library, Trophy Domain x2
    -Baron Dieudonne with Blood Doll (Sensory Deprivation)
    -Enkidu, The Noah
Robyn
    -Information Highway
    -Lernean with Vessel
    -Ash Harrison
Jeff
    -Political Hunting Ground
    -Ermengildo, The Rake
    -Onaedo with Vessel
    -Andrew Emery with Vessel
    -Owain Evans (graverobbed) with Vessel and Pulse of the Canaille
    -Neighbor John (graverobbed)
Simeon
    -Mariel St. John
Greg
    -The Parthenon
    -Failsafe
    -Fortune Teller Shop
    -Path of Paradox
    -Park Hunting Ground
    -Tumnimos (Red Listed)
    -Joaqina Amaya with Blood Doll and Fatuus Mastery
    -Vaclav Petalengro with Fatuus Mastery
    -Khalil Ravana

Results of Table 1 = Jeff 1.5, Oscar-Robyn-Greg 0.5

Round 2    Table 2
Player        Play area at the 1 hour mark
Mike
    -Nik
    -Igo the Hungry
    -Huang Blood Cultist
    -Antoinette DuChamp with Leather Jacket
    -Julius
    -Basil
    -Lena Rowe
David T.
    -Chantry
    -Carna with Vessel, Sniper Rifle, and Ivory Bow
    -Martin Frankel
David L.
    -Nikolaus Vermeulen
    -Cock Robin
    -Casino Reeds
Mattias
    -Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
    -Feo Ramos was in torpor
    -Maldavis
    -Adana de Sforza
Matt
    -Dreams of the Sphinx
    -Papillon
    -Tomaine with Villein
    -Tara with Vessel
    -Karen Suadela

Results of Table 2 = Matt 2.5, David 1.5

Finals
Player        Play area at the 1 hour mark
Jeff
    -Path of Night
    -Dreams of the Sphinx
    -Conrad Adoula with Vessel
    -Henri Levanent
    -Otieno
Matt
    -New Carthage
    -Warzone Hunting Ground
    -Karen Suadela with Heroic Might and Vessel
    -Dmitra Ilyanova with Heroic Might and Vessel
Oscar
    -Cock Robin with Trophy Domain and Trophy Hunting Ground
    -Enkidu, The Noah
Greg
    -Ravnos Carnival
    -The Parthenon
    -Joaqina Amaya with Blood Doll x2 and Ivory Bow
    -Tumnimos in torpor
    *Gabrin had been Decapitated twice by this time.
David L.
    Casino Reeds
    Darva Felispa
    Calebros, The Martyr was Disarmed
    Krid
    Mouse
    Nikolaus Vermuelen

Results of the Final Table = Matt 3, David L. 1, Oscar 1

Matt Guinn's Tournament Winning Deck

Deck Name : Return of the Brujah
Author : Matt Guinn
Description :

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 6 max: 10 average: 7.75
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Jann Berger         10 CEL POT PRE dem for prince   Brujah:4
2x Dmitra Ilyanova     9 CEL FOR POT PRE obf justicar Brujah:5
2x Karen Suadela       7 CEL POT obf pre      prince   Brujah:5
2x Tara                6 POT PRE cel          prince   Brujah:5
1x Hektor              9 CEL POT PRE QUI for priscus !Brujah:4
1x Carlak              8 CEL PRE dom pot      prince   Brujah:5
1x Shawnda Dorrit      6 CEL obt pot pre      priscus !Brujah:4
1x Tomaine             6 CEL POT PRE          primogen Brujah:4

Library [88 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [17]
3x Enchant Kindred
4x Fleetness
4x Fourth Tradition: The Accounting
1x Heart of the City
5x Heroic Might

Combat [43]
3x Blur
3x Decapitate
6x Immortal Grapple
1x Infernal Pursuit
2x Psyche!
6x Pursuit
4x Pushing the Limit
4x Sideslip
8x Taste of Vitae
6x Torn Signpost

Master [16]
2x Blood Doll
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
2x New Carthage
1x Papillon
2x Vessel
2x Villein
1x Warzone Hunting Ground
3x Wash

Political Action [4]
4x Parity Shift

Reaction [8]
8x Second Tradition: Domain

Kindred Manipulation: Marietta

2009-02-21T22:13:00.004-05:00

Kindred Manipulation: Marietta
Mini-qualifier
Stone Mountain, Georgia
February 21st, 2009
15 players
2R + F

Round 1 Vampires in play at the 1 hour mark:

Table 1
-David Tatu
Persephone
The Colonel
Ruth McGinley
-John Newquist
Zip
Stick
Janey Pickman
Celeste Lamontagne
-Jeff Brandon
The Siamese (Anarch Convert)
Gideon Fontaine
Marianna Gilbert (Anarch Convert)
Anarch Convert
-Oscar Garza
Lady Zara Slatikov (Sociopath)
Count Vladimir Rustovitch (Sociopath)
-Jordan Beall
Isabel de Leon
Masika (Aching Beauty x3)
Anson

Table 2
-Greg Mitchell
Yuri Kerezenski
Beetleman
Petra
-Mike Perlman
Roland Loussarian
Arika
Bindusara, Historian of the Kindred
-Jose Lafuente
Ozmo
Count Ormonde
Roland Bishop
Laurent de Valois
-Matthias Kallenberg
Epikasta Rigatos
-Shaun Whitt
Nizzam al-Latif
Dominique Santo Paulo

Table 3
-Danielle Newquist
Ian Forestal
Ingrid Russo
-Robyn Tatu
Alexandra
Francois Villon
-David Shoup
Victor Pelletier
Mukhtar Bey
Mustafa, The Heir
-Matt Guin
Lambach
Corine Marcon
John Paleologus
-Vincent Liebbrandt
Zebulon
Didi Meyers
Roland Bishop

Round 1 results

Table 1
David Tatu 1 vp
John Newquist 1 vp
Oscar Garza 3 vp
Table 2
Mike Perlman 3 vp
Greg Mitchell 2 vp
Table 3
Danielle Newquist .5 vp
Robyn Tatu 1.5 vp
Matt Guin 1.5 vp

Round 2 45 minute mark

Table 1
-Mattias
Suzanne Kadim
Madame Guil
-Vincent
Zebulon
Roland Bishop
Mariel, Lady Thunder
-Shoup
Carlak
Tara
Horatio Ballard
-John
Lisa Noble
Yuri Kerezenski
-Greg
Beetleman
Bobby Lemon
Effie Lowry
Jezebelle

Table 2
-Oscar
Jane Sims
Count Vladimir Rustovitch
Procurer
-Shaun
Reza Fatir, The Dark Angel
Izhim abd Azrael
Joe "Boot" Hill
-Jose
Guido Lucciano
Roland Bishop
Didi Meyers
Badr al-Budur
-Robyn
Fleurdumal
Francois Villon
-Tatu
Ruth McGinley
Tears, The Dark Pierrot
The Colonel

Table 3
-Jeff
Cynthia Ingold
The Siamese
Gideon Fontaine
Anarch Convert
-Mike
(Ousted before I started recording)
-Danielle
Ian Forestal
Bryan Van Duesen
Ingrid Russo
-Matt
Meshenka
John Paleologus
Velya, The Flayer
Piotr Andreikov
Lolita Houston
-Jordan
Anson
Tatiana Romanova (Aching Beauty)
Masika (Aching Beauty x2)

Round 2 results
Table 1
Shoup 3 vp
Greg 2 vp
Table 2
Oscar 4 vp
Jose 1 vp
Table 3
Matt 3 vp
Jordan 1 vp
Jeff 1 vp

Final Round 50 minute mark

-Greg Mitchell
Gustavo Morales
Bobby Lemon
Yuri Kerezenski
-David Shoup
Mukhtar Bey
Mustafa, The Heir
-Oscar Garza
Count Vladimir Rustovitch
Jane Sims
Mylan Horseed
-Mike Perlman
Luccia Paciola
Jan Pieterzoon (Adv)
Emerson Bridges
-Matt Guinn
Velya, The Flayer
Meshenka (Fame)

Final round results
Mike 3 vp
Oscar 2 vp

Mike Perlman's Tournament Winning Deck

Deck Name : Law Firm says "Get off my lawn!" II
Author : Mike Perlman
Description :
This is a minimally tweaked version of a Millenium Cultist Storyline Tournament Winning Deck.
One game win 3 vp to get into finals, one game win 3 vp in the finals.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 11 average: 7.41667
------------------------------------------------------------
1x Arika 11 DOM FOR OBF PRE aus cel inner circle Ventrue:2
1x Democritus 10 DOM PRE aus cel for justicar Ventrue:1
1x Lazverinus, Thrall of Lambac 10 AUS DOM FOR POT pro archbishop !Ventrue:2
1x Queen Anne 10 DOM FOR PRE aus obf prince Ventrue:2
1x Bindusara, Historian of the 9 AUS DOM FOR PRE tha Ventrue:2
1x Emerson Bridges 8 DOM FOR PRE pot prince Ventrue:1
1x Jan Pieterzoon 7 DOM FOR pot pre Ventrue:2
1x Jan Pieterzoon Adv 7 DOM FOR pot pre Ventrue:2
1x Heather Florent, The Opportu 6 FOR PRE dom Ventrue:1
1x Luccia Paciola 6 DOM for pre Ventrue:1
1x Roland Loussarian 3 for pre Ventrue:1
1x Rufina Soledad 2 for Ventrue:1

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [11]
1x Ablative Skin
7x Govern the Unaligned
1x Resilient Mind
2x Victim of Habit

Action Modifier [11]
2x Bonding
3x Conditioning
4x Freak Drive
2x Seduction

Combat [41]
11x Concealed Weapon
18x Indomitability
1x Rolling with the Punches
2x Skin of Night
2x Skin of Rock
1x Skin of Steel
3x Taste of Vitae
3x Unflinching Persistence

Equipment [12]
1x .44 Magnum
10x Grenade
1x IR Goggles

Master [14]
3x Fame
2x Fortitude
1x Instability
1x King's Rising
4x Minion Tap
1x Misdirection
2x Vessel

Reaction [1]
1x Deflection

Monkey Wrench: Charleston

2009-02-16T21:33:00.000-05:00

Monkey Wrench: Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
February 14, 2009
12 players
2R + F

This event was Twittered by Charlotte By Night.com.
http://twitter.com/cbnvtes

Jeffrey Thompson's Tournament Winning Deck with 3VPs in the finals

Deck Name : I am I
Author : The Lasombra
Description :
1st round, sweep, 4 vp
2nd round, tied, 2 vp / 2vp with prey
Final round, won, 3 vps with grand prey taking 2 vps

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 5.5
------------------------------------------------------------
3x Dela Eden 8 AUS FOR VAL cel dom !Salubri:3
3x Adonai 7 AUS VAL for !Salubri:2
1x Remilliard, Devout Crusader 4 AUS pre !Toreador:2
1x Richard Tauber, Ayelea's Puppet 4 AUS tha !Tremere:2
1x Thomas Steed, The Angry 4 ani aus val !Salubri:2
1x Isabel de Leon 3 AUS Toreador:2
1x Kervos, The Lieutenant 3 aus val !Salubri:2
1x Zoe 3 AUS cel obf Malkavian:2

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
1x Abbot
2x Anima Gathering
4x Sense Death

Combat [25]
4x Armor of Caine's Fury
9x Blissful Agony
7x Eye of Unforgiving Heaven
5x Soak

Equipment [1]
1x Bowl of Convergence

Master [14]
4x Blood Doll
1x Blooding by the Code
1x Dark Influences
1x Fame
1x Giant's Blood
2x Guardian Angel
3x Path of Retribution, The
1x Rotschreck

Reaction [42]
3x Eagle's Sight
3x Enhanced Senses
4x Eyes of Argus
6x Forced Awakening
2x Forced Vigilance
3x My Enemy's Enemy
7x On the Qui Vive
3x Precognition
3x Telepathic Counter
8x Telepathic Misdirection

Retainer [1]
1x Mr. Winthrop

Round recap:

In the first round, I went first. My prey was playing 2-3 cap Sabbat vampires that called Crusades and Kine Resources Contested while occasionally getting Saturday Night Specials and Camera Phones. My grand prey looked an awful lot like the KoT Toreador starter with possibly a few tweaks. My predator was playing a Shambling Hordes deck and he discarded one on his first turn. He didn't see another for 7-8 turns though.

I was able to block many of my prey's pool gaining votes and I let the Toreador deal with the damage dealing votes. I was also able to consistently bleed for 3-4 as my prey was playing like a shark (i.e. move forward 100% of the time or die). Blocking the pool gain votes and out racing him on the pool damage allowed me to take him down when his prey had ~5 or 6 pool. Eye of Unforgiving Heaven put Thomas De Lutrius with his Sniper Rifle into torpor, and the Toreador folder before me.

Zoe blocked and killed my predator's Procurer, and Dela Eden blocked Shambling Hordes twice. Once to Soak the 4 damage, the second time to play Eye of Unforgiving Heaven at inferior to burn and gain me two pool. Successfully diablerie of all of the Giovanni vampires completed the sweep of that first table.

In the second round, my predator was playing Saulot/Spirit Marionette and went first. My prey was playing Followers of Set/Allonzo Montoya and bleeding large with Revelation of Ecstasy / Revelation of Desire. My grand prey was the weenie vote deck from the first round. The weenies jumped out and put an awful hurting on Saulot, but was unable to seal the deal before the Followers of Set were able to barrel thru them. The Followers also got Saulot shortly thereafter. When it came down to the two player, Eye of Unforgiving Heaven again enabled multiple successful diableries (as the Edge was the only vote remaining on the table). Two victory points for the Followers of Set, two for Adonai.

Standings before the finals:

James Medors 2 GW 8 VPs - Malkavian Antitribut stealth bleed
Jeffrey Thompson 1 GW 6 VPs Salubri Antitribu intercept bounce
Jeff Brandon 1 GW 3.5 VPs Anarch Gargoyle intercept combat
Greg Mitchell 1 GW 2.5 VPs Huitzilopochtli's inner circle stealth vote
Jason Joy 2 vps Followers of Set/Allonzo Montoya Revelation

Seating in the finals:

Jason going first bleeding
Jeffrey bleeding
James bleeding
Greg bleeding
Jeff, who bled Jason

Jason went first. I brought out Zoe and Adonai as my first two minions, with Dela Eden third. James brought out Blood Feud, General Perfidio Dios, and White Lilly. Greg started the game with Leandro, and eventually added Maris Streck and Huitzilopochtli. Jeff brought out Erinyi and one other Gargoyle who's name escapes me. James brought out Allonzo Montoya, Bupe Kuila, and possibly Renenet?

My first master card was Guardian Angel, which was Washed, and I followed up that same turn with a Blood Doll on Adonai. Everyone paid Leandro tax for quite a while. My third master card was Fame on Bloodfeud. Dela Eden Sense's his Death, and though White Lilly attempted to block with an auspex intercept card, it was discovered that she has no Auspex and Bloodfeud went to torpor after seeing the Eye of Unforgiving Heaven. A combination of bounced bleeds and Fame ousted James not much later (1-2 turns later).

Leandro was removed by Adonai's special ability (Adonai can enter combat with any ready Camarilla vampire controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action). Zoe sacrificed herself after the successful diablerie attempt and her passing was mourned. Maris Streck was able to call and pass a Parity Shift to oust Jeff''s Gargoyles. Maris Streck Banished Adonai, twice. I was happy to return him to play with 7 blood. Maris was blocked by Dela Eden on a Parity Shift that would almost have taken out the Followers of Set, and she met Heaven with a Rotschreck. Remilliard, Devout Crusader diablerized Maris after Huitzilopochtli had ousted the Followers of Set by bleeding for 5 at stealth. Remiliard was also burned in the Bloodhunt. So it was down to two vampires, Huitzilopochtli and Adonai. Huitzilopochtli had Obedience, but Adonai had Abbot and Mr. Winthrop. Huitzilopochtli attempted to bleed and Adonai came up with 4 intercept (Eyes of Argus) to successfully block and torporize Huitzilopochtli. Having retained the Edge, Richard Tauber was about to join Adonai when Greg realized that he had too few pool to bring out another vampire and no chance to stealth past Adonai to have Huitzilopochtli leave torpor.

Greg 2 vps, Jeffrey 3 vps

Crusade: Philadelphia

2006-03-31T21:46:00.000-05:00

Here's the original art for Crusade Philadelphia that I purchased at Total Con. This picture doesn't do the framing justice, the framer really did a good job with it.

- Pat

Legacies of Rockville - Nov 13, 2005

2005-11-23T19:49:00.000-05:00

Foreground: Amanda plotting her next move with the Ishtarri deck.
Background: A surprising number of guys in plaid shirts.

Shawn, clearly suspicious of Amanda's next move, prepares to defend his pool with the Akunase starter.

Ahoy from Buda-Pest!

2005-11-05T16:48:00.000-05:00

Yes indeed, we're all here! Well, all of us except "Luscious" Scott Johnson, who appears to be denying us his lusciousness. I don't know what's up with that. :-)

So far, so good: Budapest is really cool, everyone is very nice, and it's amazing how many different languages all these people speak.

In the finals of the last-chance-qualifier right now, there's Jay Kristoff, Beatrice During, Stefan Ferenci, Tibor whose last name I do not know, and somebody else who I know neither name of (sorry!). I hear a rumor three of them are playing weenie Auspex, but I don't know which three (though I might be able to guess some of them, heh...)

In the Legacies of Blood super-pre-release, the finalists were Zsolt whose last name I don't know, Ben Peal, me, Martin whose last name I don't know, and Max whose last name I don't know. (It's kind of a theme here.) Three of us were playing Ishtarri, one Guruhi, one Osebo, no Akunanse, though I don't know if that pattern will hold up in other prereleases... I managed to get really lucky and win the game even though I was contesting a vampire with Ben (my predator) for the entire game (well, until he got ousted by his predator, Zsolt). So it was 4 VPs Josh, 1 VP Zsolt, I believe. Too bad it wasn't sanctioned, I could really use the rating points again these days... ;-)

So I should really be going now, I don't know if I'll have time to post again while in Europe, but after I get back on the 12th, maybe I will, and if we're really lucky, maybe someone else will actually post something before then!

Szia,

Josh

Powerbase: The Ram

2005-08-27T19:27:00.000-04:00

Matt assisting Stewart Wieck to a game win during the WoN. If this continues, will Stewart become broken too?

That's the Thursday sanctioned draft final table in the background, btw.

Duffin Draft for Jyhad?

2005-08-24T23:40:00.000-04:00

Suppose one were interested in Duffin-drafting Jyhad boosters:

(1) Would the 19 cards in each pack require any changes to the format?
(2) Would the base-settiness of it all make the "decks" too good?

Not the Week of Nightmares

2005-08-24T11:55:00.000-04:00

So, with Josh and Matt posting about everything, I feel like I should add something. I'll keep it short though, since this is so after-the-fact.

I arrived late Wednesday night (about 11pm, after 11 hours of driving, and 2 of resting/eating...mmm...food), the plan had originally been to leave home Tuesday evening, stop halfway to Indianapolis, and then drive the second half on Wednesday morning, arriving in time for draft or whatever was going on in the evening. Unfortunately, I was kept late by work on Tuesday night, so I basically missed out on all the WoN events, except for the creation of Duffin Draft. Which was the best part, I guess.

Note to self: don't try to drive 600 miles in one day on your own in the future. At least bring a friend.

Thursday, as Josh has pointed out, I won the sanctioned draft tournament. I didn't destroy the deck, because I want to go through it and see why it worked. I mean, aside from the fact that it was a draft event. It didn't suck as much as I thought it did. We drafted 4x Camarilla, 2x Anarchs, 2x Gehenna, and 2x KMW. I got passed a lot of Anarchs stuff, and I hung onto it. It seemed like a lot of people were holding out for the "power" stuff in Camarilla, and weren't really playing with the Anarch cards, which seemed like a mistake to me. I ended up with what looked like a pile of poop, but man, those Anarchs cards are strong.

I somehow made it to the final, where I was seated between Ben Peal (playing I don't know what...he got hammered a lot early on and spent about half an hour hanging onto 1 pool) and Dave Setty, who got out Enkidu right away. I spent most of the game looking innocuous and not bleeding Dave, who focused all of his efforts on trashing his prey. Enkidu never rushed me, which was a good thing...I didn't have a lot of combat defense. I think I bled Dave for about 3 points until the endgame. He eventually got his prey (Stephan Lavrut) down really low, and I realized I was going to have to do something, or I'd never oust Dave. As his Discard, Dave played Dragonbound (!!!! in draft?!?!!) and that, with some diablerizing thinking on Stephan's part, got Stephan down to 1 pool (though Dave had thought it would kill him). Dave used a Special Report to attempt to block one of Stephan's actions, meaning that I only had to worry about Wake/Guard Dogs/etc. I had an Anarch Revolt that had been sitting in my hand for a couple of turns, but it would instantly kill Ben, and I hadn't wanted to warn him, telegraphing my play to the other people at the table. Additionally, at this point, Dave had 1 more pool than I could do to him by bleeding with all my minions and the AR. During his turn, Ben put down the 4th Gehenna card on the table, making Nightmare Upon Nightmares affect 2 of my minions. This turned out to actually be what I needed. I got rid of 2 cards, and drew into a Smash & Grab, which I could use at dem for +1 bleed. I played the AR, bled for 4, and then let the AR kill Dave. Then it killed Stephan. Then Josh F took his turn, then Ben died, then it was down to the two of us, but I had a lot more pool, and stronger minions, so I got greedy and went for 4 VPs. Which I got. Woo.

Friday, I played the usual Tremere group 1-2 bruise & bleed. I sucked a lot at the first table, because my predator was the highly effective Legacy of Pander thing played by Brian Moritz. At the 2nd table, I got screwed by my predator being weenie DEM, crippling me, and then getting ousted by his weenie OBF predator. I lasted a few more turns, but couldn't hold out against the weenie OBF. Finding some equipment would have helped. Also not immediately getting crippled would have been good. So, going into the 3rd round, I only had .5 VPs, and I was getting kind of excited about playing in the draft tournament the next day. Unfortunately for that plan, I actually did well in the 3rd round, getting a table win with 3 VPs. There were 2 interesting things about that game:

1) my prey was playing the best Mata Hari deck I've seen yet.
2) Astrid Thomas' special came in useful. Yes. Astrid Thomas. Go go 1994 tech!

me -> Darcy playing Mata Hari -> Ethan playing Tzi vote -> Albert playing 2/3 Tremere with Carna -> Carol playing Anson/Spiridonas (key player)

I had 4 pool on Astrid, and was about to take 3 damage from a KRC that Carol played. I convinced Ethan that if he failed the vote, I would bring out a minion that would provide us with vote control between the two of us. Ethan asked if it was Etrius, to which I responded, "no, but you'll like it when you see it." Ethan looked puzzled, mentioned that we'd need a 4 vote swing, but failed the vote anyway. On my turn, I brought out Astrid, swinging Carna and Spiridonas. Heh. Good times. Eventually, Ethan got ousted due to a well played Sensory Dep, Albert bounced a lot of bleeds into Carol and then ousted her, and then I won the 3-player, after Albert bleedzooka-ed into me which was Deflected to my tapped-out prey. I finished Darcy and Albert on the following turn. Barely.

2nd day of the qualifier, I played a Sascha Vykos deck that Josh and Matt advised me on the night before, and the morning of. I didn't do so well, seeing as how I had never played the deck before. I think it's a good deck though, and I just need to figure out how to play it better.

Uh. That's it, I guess. Longer than I expected.

More Week of Nightmares stuff from Matt

2005-08-23T14:21:00.000-04:00

I still have four days left to summarize. Might as well do so before I forget stuff. Oh, wait. I never forget stuff. Might as well do it before I get to busy with something else then.

At Thursday's draft, both Josh and I proved that you can be a top-ranked drafter and still suck. I never played against him (too bad, as he might've out-sucked me). We both got some pretty good stuff and we both made our decks way too large. I had some nice damaging votes (KRC and 2 Domain Challenge, I think), some other fun tricks, some titles, a good amount of Animalism untap (The Mole, Cats' Guidance, Rats' Warning) and some +bleed as well as a Labyrinth for my Ellison Humbolt. I hand jammed on junk I should've trimmed for four solid hours and wound up with something like 0.5 VPs total. Josh fared similarly for similar reasons. Let this be a lesson to you, my friends. Make your draft deck SMALL! Even if you aren't Swainbanking it's better to run yourself out of 40 cards than not be able to play 70. I think I already mentioned that on this blog, but there it is again.

I guess we played some more vtes or something after that. Why wouldn't we? Anyway, then there was much discussion about how to make Josh's NAC decks better and not very much about how to make mine better. What's with that? Has my generous nature and uncontrollable need to criticize everything been taken advantage of?

I played my Ignazio rush/bleed deck the next day. My deck is pretty solid and I win a lot of games with it, plus it's fighty, which I like. Here's the key to success, readers: no Freak Drives. I know you want to, but there just isn't room. If you Govern up a small army of POT/DOM guys, there's just no need. You're going to win. Well, sometimes, anyway.

Game 1
Shane Strait playing dom/obt stealth bleed with Kiasyd
Wallace (forget his last name, guy from Winnipeg) playing EuroBrujah
Nick Watkins playing dom/obt stealth bleed with Kiasyd
me
Ankur Gupta playing Undue Influence Anarchs with sticks

This game started nicely with me having a stealth bleed predator who may contest with someone else on the table and my playing a Fame on Ankur's Illyana Radiovich right after he'd discarded two Diversions (he didn't discard any more after that), then getting Ignazio and Governing out Baldesar and two other guys. Then things went south. Nick's Julia Prima tried a superior Govern and I asked Wallace (who had untapped Jaroslav Pascek) to try to block so Nick would have to play some of that expensive Obtenebration stealth (I had a Divine Sign in hand, so I figured I'd be able to block Julia after I got that on her). To my surprise, Nick played no additional stealth. Jaroslav slapped Julia around a little and kept pressing until there was no Grapple and Julia Entombed him. Dang! Wallace's game was pretty much over. He got out Constanza, but was soon ousted by Shane.

Ankur got a lot of guys out and bled a lot with Undue Influence. Shane contested Julia Prima, which ended up being kind of bad for both he and Nick. I tried to work on Ankur, but both Shane and Nick were getting low and I was afraid of bounced bleeds or Fame damage ousting them. I rushed Ankur a bit, but his combat was surprisingly good. I had him pretty low, but it looked like he'd probably oust Shane before I got him. Time was called before anyone else died.

Game 2
Michael Perry (Parry? sorry can't remember) playing Omaya + Nadima and Smiling Jack
Will Kristoff playing Ahrimanes maybe with Smiling Jack?
me
Robyn Tatu with Maris/Casino vote/bleed/fight stuff

I knew my Earthshocks would serve me well this game and they faithfully showed up when I needed them most (actually had an extra in hand at all times). The first action of the game was Omaya getting a Bowl of Convergence which surprisingly was not blocked. Then Howler went for a Flak Jacket and Omaya blocked, manuvering close twice and sending Howler to torpor. Looked like I might get a free ride for a while. Nope, Will tried his best to keep the forward pressure and blocked two superior Governs, but I dealt him some serious pain for his trouble, torporizing The Siamese. I bled Robyn a little and it didn't seem like she had very good combat because she kept her distance.

After a few turns, Jack was collapsing the table and Will was good as dead with both his minions in torpor and only a few pool. Robyn was unable to cut through Omaya often enough, so she bled me a little just to move cards and generate some pool. After Will was ousted, I played Fame on Maris and put her down. Then I bled for a bunch, torporizing Casino when he blocked. Jack was going to kill Robyn, but Michael played a Life Boon to keep her in the game, thinking he could oust me on his turn. Then Jack would automatically oust Robyn. Knowning my hand and doing the math (he would've had to land two bleeds or somehow knocked a bunch of blood off my guys), I don't think he would've got me, but it was a fair shot. Anyway, Robyn had no desire to sit around and wait for death and no way to oust her prey, so she transferred out.

I had great combat in the endgame, managing to torporize Omaya despite claws and a Flesh of Marble (had to press like four times doing only one point of damage each turn, ha!). I bruised my way into the death of Jack, which was very important. Then I stole all of Michael's stuff like The Rack and Powerbase: Montreal and beat up Nadima for good measure. I think he conceded as his death was certain. A game win made it certain I'd advance to the next round, so I breathed a sigh of relief and wiped away a tear because that meant I wouldn't play in the Shadow Twin draft event.

Game 3
me
Ben Peal playing Cheesequake
Stefan Ferenci playing Tzimisce intercept (with Jack?)
Josh Feuerstein playing Louhi bleed/block
Peter Charnley playing Arika (deck he won the next day with)

Ben was despairing his lack of winning so far and him now having a rush predator and intercept prey. I guess I could've been really bad for him if I wanted to wreck his game and then die, leaving him for Peter. Peter was just too dangerous a predator for me to go forward full-throttle. I think all I ever did to Ben was bleed him for 1 and Fame one of his guys (later torporized by Stefan).

Much of this game was a stealth/intercept contest between Ben and Stefan. Ben won that quite a bit and Stefan helped me to dislike My Enemy's Enemy just a little bit more. I rushed Peter when I could and Governed down for pool gain the rest of the time. I only had out Ignazio and Baldesar. If Stefan had had some intercept permanents he might've stopped Ben and even been able to follow through with his threats to Eagle's Sight Michael. Unfortunately, he just couldn't keep up and it made things worse that Ben had Korah and Kite, so Peter always threw the extra KRC point on Stefan. Meanwhile Josh was bleeding and blocking some, but couldn't keep up with the Minion Tap/Voter Cap action.

Eventually, inevitably, Peter PTO'd Ignazio. He also Banished Stefan's Kazimir, which was kind of odd because he could've Banished Baldesar, which would've left me without minions and on very few pool. Ben was at four pool at that point, tapped out with a Famed guy. I checked his ashheap (he'd spent more than half his deck) and found only one Wake. What are the odds of him having a Wake? Like 99.9%. Even if I'd had some form of stealth (Haven Uncovered), I would've been blocked by Kite, so I didn't even try to oust Ben. Instead I tried to punish Peter more and torporized Arika. Stefan was kind of crippled without Kazimir and Ben ousted him quickly, around the time I died. Ben had a few cards left to oust Josh, then I think he allowed Peter to withdraw. Peter hadn't rescued Arika and didn't feel he could get her out of torpor (no stealth and Kite again?) or win without her.

Turned out everyone in our hotel room (me, Josh, Ben, Christian and Devin) all advanced to the next round. Well, nearly 2/3 the tournament did because the day one event wasn't quite as large as the NAC had been in the past.

After all that, we again worked on Josh's deck and also Christian's but not so much mine or Devin's. Ben kept his aloof and secret while the rest of us blabbed about what great tech we had. I actually got a little advice for my deck and it was pretty solid already, having won a tournament at Totalcon and not having made many changes since then. My deck uses group 2/3 Malks and !Malks with lots of The Call and titles and stealth and Parity Shift and stuff like that. My new tech was to include Harzomatuili as "combat defense" (my deck otherwise has none other than a Jake, a Secure Haven and a few Swallowed by the Night) figuring I'd Parity Shift his cost back.

Saturdays games went thusly:

Game 1
Andreas Nusser playing Toreador Grand Ball
Norm Brown playing Cock Robin and Enkidu get Trophies
Alex Harmon playing Presence princes with Anson
me
Bill Troxel with weenie Auspex and some combat and stuff

This table was terrible for everyone! Andreas couldn't get an action off without his Grand Ball due to Bill's intercept, Norm was seated between two vote decks that would both hate his combat, Alex had a combat predator that could destroy him and I had two other vote decks at the table to contend with. Bill had the unlucky prospect of sitting between the only two decks he couldn't block all the time (me because I had tons of stealth and Andreas because of his Grand Balls).

Everyone proceded cautiously for the first few turns until Andreas played a Temptation of Greater Power on Norm's Cock Robin. Alex had an untapped Bleeding the Vine, so immediately Norm started dealing for Alex to cancel the card. I was pretty much in favor of that happening as well because I liked the idea of Enkidu smashing all the voters. Eventually Andreas and Alex made the standard kill each others' prey deal and the TGP went through. Norm "won" the bid and got to start his turn on 2 pool. It was pretty humorous as both Norm and Andreas were promising to serve me up to Alex in exchange for his help/non-interferance.

Soon Andreas got his Toreador Grand Ball out and killed Norm. I now had two predators and had to work with Bill a little bit, which wasn't great as he was the guy I was supposed to want dead. I played several The Call and used a hunting ground, merged Quentin King III and Hannibal Adv to keep Alex at bay. I could only afford just the two minions. I kept wanting to bring up Korah, but I don't think the extra votes would've helped and it was important to have someone to Call.

Eventaully time was running down and Alex couldn't kill me. Andreas knew he'd have to oust Alex to win the table and I just wasn't dying fast enough. He hit me with KRCs twice, but even that wasn't enough and I don't think he wanted to completely unload on me because then he'd never oust Alex. Andreas announced that Bill was just killing him and called an Anarchist Uprising, reducing Bill to 2 pool. On my turn I bled for 2, expecting bounce and wound up bleeding Alex (not for the first time). Then I called a Domain Challenge, but Alex DI'd it. Andreas had another unblockable Anarchist Uprising and Bill was out, Alex was low and I was effectively out of Alex's reach. Andreas started bleeding and voting against Alex. Alex played a Second Tradition against Alexandra's bleed. I offered to DI it if Andreas would let me withdraw (after all his Minion Tapping and not having anything done to him, he had a huge heap of pool and still had more votes than me so I didn't think I could get him in the few minutes remaining). Andreas agreed, but Alex had another Second. Then time was called anyway. I walked away from the table with 1.5 VPs, pretty glad to have done so considering the whole two predators thing (to be fair, my extra "predator" ousted my prey for me, so it's not like he was that bad for me).

Game 2
Eric Chiang playing fatty Brujah Antitribu rush/bleed
Emiliano Imeroni playing low/midcap Animalism fight/bleed
Devin Villegas playing !Nos rush
Hugues Bertrand playing Arika and friends
me

Another fairly bad table. Hugues despaired of Beast as his predator and then even more when I brought out Maris. He started bargaining with Devin for a table split. To my surprise, Devin accepted the offer and refused my counter-offer of Maris giving him all the intercept he wants. I figured he'd just splatter Arika and be done with it. That deal forced the remaining three of us to form a pact against the pair of them. I bled Hugues a little with Kindred Spirits and both Eric and I gave Emiliano the room to go forward against Devin. Devin rushed me a little, but I had two Swalloweds to get away. On my turn, I unleashed the kind of unholy vengeance that only a vote deck can muster. I Parity Shifted away five of Devin's pool, then hit him with a KRC for 3. I had the Kindred Spirits in hand to finish him off, but I figured Emiliano should do a little work on his own. He did and Devin was ousted, leaving me with only one predator, which is more the way I like things.

After that Eric went forward full-force and it didn't take long to oust Emiliano. Hugues played it cool, probably looking for an Elder Impersonation or something to get past Maris. He called a KRC or two and I made him blow some stealth trying to block with Kite, but never used Maris' ability. In fact, I never used Maris for anything all game except to call a Parity Shift and hunt for 1 once she got a Blood Doll. After Emiliano was ousted, Hugues said all he cared about was a single VP, he didn't care if it was from ousting me or from withdrawing. I was all "yeah, me too!" since I knew I couldn't deal with an alliance between the two. Eric had out Theo by that point and his combat would've just squished me. Eric agreed to the deal because it would give him the win and Hugues and I withdrew.

Game 3
me
Will Kristoff playing the Ahrimanes deck from the day before
Shane Schneider playing !Toreador vote/bleed
Ben Swainbank playing Giovanni bleed/Hordes
Jay Kristoff playing Nosferatu weenie vote/boon/Justicar abuse

Rough game here. My first vampire out was Rachel Brandywine and Jay's first one was Selma, the Repugnant. I had the Parity Shift and a load of stealth in hand as well as a friendly Priscus across the table. The other vamps I'd drawn were Quentin King (adv - the one with no title), Kite and Hannibal. I really needed a prince! I brought up Quentin and Kite and hoped something good might happen. Something kind of good happened: Jay was unexpectedly ousted by Ben bleeding for like 11 while he was tapped out. Also, I blocked Howler getting Mr. Winthrop with my Jake Washington and Ben's Unmasking.

With my prince title back, I had a little more freedom to act, but it was still tough going as Shane was kind of pinned down by light intercept on both sides and Ben was bleeding steadily. I got Will down to 6, then the Hordes rushed Quentin and put him down. I Restructured the Hordes, but I should've called the KRC I had in my hand because I immediately drew another. Shane suggested I call KRC with 3 on Ben and then he'd be able to oust him and then wait for me to oust Will before he came for me. We went for that, but Ben had wake/bounce for the ousting bleed and instead I was ousted. Serves me right. KRC is better than Restructure. KRC is better than Restructure. KRC is better than Restructure. KRC is better than Restructure. KRC is better than Restructure. That's my new mantra.

After that I got to watch Josh be hopelessly pinned down between two vote decks (one with intercept) for two hours, but congratulated him on his stunning finish anyway. We went to eat, drink and play more vtes after that.

There was a lovely draft on Sunday, but I've written enough for now.

NAC Day Two report

2005-08-22T22:07:00.000-04:00

As seen on the newsgroup - there is, I am sorry to report, no new information here if you've already read it there. :-)

Hi there everybody! As you might have heard by now I got to play four games on Saturday, on account of winning one of them (and having good tiebreakers from the other two - 3 VPs in round 3, 2 VPs (no GW, went 2/2/1) in round 2, 1 VP in round 1 - almost magical, huh?) to go into the finals as third seed. Here's my short story of the day's VTES. (Warning: story may not actually be short.)

So we came to the Ultimate North American Championship VTES Tournament of 2005 on Saturday morning after having taken it relatively easy the night before... just playing the NAC Day One from noon till sixish, going out for dinner, playing a couple single-booster "Duffin Drafts" at the Hyatt, and then a couple constructed games, getting back to the hotel room at, what, maybe 2 am, working on decks for an hour or two... I'm sure we must have been asleep by like 4 or 5 am the latest. So you know, get up at 9:30, get some breakfast, shower, make some last minute deck tweaks (dropped one Perfectionist and one Majesty, myself, for a Jake Washington and a Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)), and stroll on over to the convention center with a brief stop on the way for another Giant Iced Coffee (tm)... good times.

The deck I was playing came out of an idea I had for trying to "abuse" (or maybe just "use") Disengage - the concept was to play with, like, twenty Majesties, a smattering of Disengages, and thus be mostly guaranteed of being able to end combat and untap whenever I might happen to get blocked (or rushed). It was appealing to me that it seemed a more elegant solution to combat defense + untap than trying to manage the card-flow of the classic Freak Drive/Majesty/Fortitude prevention in a traditional Ventrue Law Firm deck, along with the slight advantage in being able to use smaller-capacity vampires. As it turned out, though, Matt Morgan convinced me that it would make the deck better for a Continental Championship tournament if I dropped the Disengages entirely, because it seemed rather unlikely that I would have to play as predator or prey of an Immortal Grapple deck more than one time in the three rounds, and the rest of the time, those card slots would be much better devoted to improving the offense of the deck (which was, I must now admit, somewhat low on KRCs and Parity Shifts when it still had the 7 Disengage in). Props to Matt for giving me very solid deck advice for both days of the NAC. :-) (He had also had some good ideas for the dirty dirty Lasombra stealth-vote-bleed I played on Friday's NAC Day 1.)

My first round table was like this:

Shane Schneider, !Toreador vote-bleed (?)
Christian Herro, Tzimisce toolbox
Nick Smith, Giovanni Shambling Hordes/bleed
Wayne Chin, Giovanni bleed/fight/toolbox (?)
Josh Duffin, Presence vote/bleed Majesty-abuse (group 1+2)

Here we not only had two people that I play with pretty regularly, but one of them was sharing my hotel room and I had just the previous night helped him make his deck... (That would be Christian, with about ten Wakes, a fair amount of intercept, and the Ivory Bow...) At least he wasn't my starting prey, heh.

So this game started out with Shane getting Remilliard, Devout Crusader, and then Lachlan, Noddist, while I got, mmm, I think it was Gideon Fontaine, Timothy Crowley, and uh, Sela? Meanwhile Christian got Sascha Vykos (advanced) and Corine Marcón, Nick got Rudolfo Giovanni and then Isabel, a couple Shambing Hordes, and Carlotta, Wayne got Nedal the Careless and Mario Giovanni, and then Marianna (!!). Shane tried an early Crusade, but I voted against it with Mr. Crowley and Xian voted against with Sascha, and Wayne's Mausoleum: Venice wasn't enough to get Lachlan and Remilliard into the appropriate city. So when I played Ventrue Headquarters a turn or two later, I had vote lock for at least one referendum per turn, I think - not for two though, usually, since Xian and Shane each had Archbishops, someone else usually had the Edge, and Wayne's Mausoleum was still worth one vote. Anyway, I voted and bled quite a bit of damage to Shane, Xian played NSA Trio to keep
everybody honest on the S:CE front (I didn't feel like I could take a turn off of acting to burn it until Xian was my prey, since Wayne had bled me for enough early on (and I'd influenced enough) that I was below 10 pool most of the game), Xian got Magic of the Smith for a Bowl of Convergence, equipped the Ivory Bow, and had a Raven Spy on Corine, but didn't bleed much early that I saw, or block Nick much early that I remember; Nick bled Wayne quite a bit since Wayne didn't really have intercept I don't think, and rushed him with Hordes some. Wayne's Marianna started costing Nick a pool a turn when she came into play, plus Xian had bled Nick some by then, so Nick was pretty low, and so was Shane. If I remember right, I got Shane down to 2 pool, then Nick played Fame on Marianna and torporized her, Wayne bled me once or twice, and I think I Deflected one, making Shane tap one of his guys, then on my turn I used From a Sinking Ship to convince his freshly influenced Jost Werner to get off that boat before it went down and join my team, tried a Parity Shift that would have stolen pool from Xian (my about-to-be-prey) except that he saw that coming and Eagle's Sighted it, sending, hmm, probably Timothy Crowley to torpor with Ivory Bow (stupid NSA Trio, heh), then got a Kine Resources Contested through to do 1 to Shane and 3 to Xian, ousting Shane with Fame on his untap phase. Xian bled Nick some more, I think, then Nick ousted Wayne either that turn or right afterwards. Sadly for me, even after I burned NSA Trio by not taking any actions for a turn, the Hordes rushed me and Xian blocked all my rescue attempts (even with my ill-gotten Jost!), so Nick ousted me too. Xian had played Fame on one of Nick's vampires, then Nick contested Fame on one of my vamps (possibly a fresh Walter Nash? or maybe it was Sela?), then yielded Fame on his next turn due to being too low on pool, then ousted me, I think. If I remember right the game timed out like that, though it's possible it did finish before time, it's a bit blurry now.

So, VPs: Nick 2.5, Wayne 0, Josh 1, Shane 0, Xian 0.5 (?)

Round two was another interesting one for me:

Josh Duffin, still Presence vote/bleed
Jonathan Scherer, Euro-Brujah fight/2nd Tradition/etc
Stefan Ferenci, Celerity guns rush combat
Alex Harmon, big Presence princes
David Tatu, Kanimana + Iliana pro/dom/? weirdness

David was clearly playing the most unconventional deck at the table - I don't know exactly what it was intended to do, since he never managed to pull off whatever tricks might have been going on, but he played one Gehenna card (Torpid Blood), took at least two Research actions with Kanimana, played a bit of stealth, KRCG News Radio, at least a few combat cards (Flesh of Marble I think? and Form of Mist?), and maybe even a Bum's Rush? And he definitely looked like he might have Claws, but I don't think he ever actually played any.

Meanwhile, Alex and I were both playing vote decks, but Jonathan got Constanza Vinti first and then Anvil and then Volker, giving him another five table votes and a good number of Second Traditions to keep me from actually getting my votes to referendum in the first place, plus a fair pile of Celerity and Potence combat with Immortal Grapples to (mostly) keep me from Majestying away. Stefan got Parmenides, who Jonathan very considerately didn't do anything nasty with on the borrowed turn, as Stefan and Jonathan didn't end up wanting to fight much anyway - Stefan was concerned with trying to hurt Alex without making Alex want to Parity Shift backwards to punish him, while Jonathan spent pretty much the whole game leaving at least one or two vampires untapped to block possible bleeds (or Deflect them, which happened a couple times). Alex got Anson, then hmm, I think it was either Walter Nash or Rake?, and definitely Klaus van der Veken. Alex threatened to Parity Shift Stefan when Stefan had rushed him once or twice, so Stefan agreed to not rush for two turns in exchange for not getting Shifted, and David got Shifted (or is that Shafted?) instead (Stefan could still bleed, by the deal's terms).

The game seemed kind of wheel-spinning for quite a while, as I couldn't really call votes unless I had run both Jonathan and David out of intercept (well, David might have skipped blocking if he were expecting to take just the 1 end of a KRC, but I think Alex was requiring 2/2 to let me pass the votes at this point), Jonathan couldn't do much of anything, and Stefan would be running a pretty big risk of back-ousting if he did anything too drastic (he didn't seem to draw many Psyches this game so wasn't able to just blow Alex's vamps out of the picture). David pretty much also had to do nothing but block the occasional vote of Alex's and gain pool with Blood Doll or something, and sometimes bleed me for 1, although I think he got a bleed of 4 through one time when I was tapped out with no Deflections. As time started running low there was some discussion of maybe withdrawing for the extra half-VPs, but we kept going with at least sort of trying to oust people, and I was lucky enough to survive two rushes from Jonathan by double-using my Erciyes Fragments to have Mariana Gilbert (yay otherwise-useless Celerity!) block, Flash to long with one of Jonathan's ash-heap Flashes, Majesty to untap, block again, and Pursuit to long. If I remember right, that was the turn that left Jonathan tapped out on about 4 pool, and on my next turn, I suggested to Alex that if he would vote for my first KRC doing 3 to Jonathan and 1 to David (letting me oust Jonathan with a bleed of 1), I would call any more KRCs I could get through unblocked as 3 to David, 1 to Stefan, until David was ousted (at which point the three remaining players would fight it out as normal). Standard evil cross-table-vote-deck alliance, basically. I think this happened with around 20 minutes left, Alex agreed after some not-incredibly-lengthy arguments on all four sides (heh), and it turned out that David wasn't able to block too much that turn, so I think there were two unblocked KRCs immediately, ousting Jonathan and reducing David to somewhere below 10 pool (can't remember exactly how much), then Stefan and Alex had turns, where not terribly much happened that I can recall, David took a turn and probably stayed untapped, and I tried for a few more KRCs (one might have been with Charming Lobby which kept the actual KRC in my hand when blocked? or that might have been the turn before), one or two of which sufficed to oust David. After that time was running pretty low, so I think we might have gone one more turn around the table trying to earn a game win, and then Stefan, Alex, and I agreed to withdraw, burning through our libraries pretty quickly (at least, two of us did, Alex had the biggest library so was going to sit and wait to be the "last player standing" when Stefan and I withdrew - a lesson about withdrawing in tournaments I learned the previous day when in round 3 my table TRIED to withdraw as time ran out, but failed because we didn't have quite enough time to actually discard through all our libraries)... then Alex realized and pointed out that we had forgotten about his Famous vampire in torpor (Stefan had managed to finally do this to a Progeny, I think, pretty recently). DOH! We had to call the legendary Mr. L. Scott Johnson over to help us resolve this error - Stefan would have rescued the torporized vampire right before starting the withdrawal attempts, then we would have allowed it to hunt, if we had been paying attention, so we "rewound" to that point and went on properly. How embarrassing. :-)

VP results: Josh 2, Jonathan 0, Stefan 1, Alex 2, David 0.

Third round was kind of wacky from my perspective...

Ben Peal, Mata Hari War Ghouls with burn-option cards
Josh Duffin, the usual
Martin Laganière, some kind of Baali + Anson deck
Scott Gomes, Potence/Dominate bleed/fight
Tobin Lopes, Fatime al-Faqadi & friends block/fight/bleed (?)

Martin got out Sargon for his first vampire when I got um... first turn Gideon? I don't think so, ah yes, now I remember, it was second turn Jazz Wentworth for me, just ahead of his Sargon. Meanwhile Scott got, hmm, Cameron, Tobin went for second-turn Fatima, Ben got Piotr Andreikov, and then Mata Hari, and Ana Rita Montaña, and much later Krid, I got, um, I think Timothy Crowley, and Sela, and the Ventrue Headquarters. Surprisingly (to me) Martin got Anson as his second vampire and Minion Tap/Golcondaed him the next turn to (re)gain 16 and be above 20 again (after I'd hit him for maybe 3 or 6 in KRCs and bleeds, I'd guess), but that just let me Parity Shift him once, then he got Huitzilopochtli and was back to not being terribly high in pool. Ben didn't draw a War Ghoul or an intercept permanent for a while, bled me for 1 a bit and tooled up some, put Chanjelin Ward and then Secure Haven on Mata Hari to make sure Tobin didn't nail her (after he omitted nailing her the first turn or two), and burn-optioned a bunch of Riddle Phantastique and D'habi Revenants. Martin Majestied several times when I attempted to bleed him (knowing that I had bleed modifiers), but I was Majestying too (most of the time, I did save some for the expected War Ghouls) and called votes damaging him some and Scott a little bit (or was I hitting Ben? I don't think so - Ben was pretty low on pool the whole time Tobin was in the game). Scott tried to bleed Tobin some but Tobin seemed to have an unending supply of Forced Awakenings for Fatima, who didn't get a gun (.44 Magnum) until quite late in the game, but did Blood Sweat and Taste of Death people some. Tobin also got Abd al-Rashid and like three Web of Knives Recruits, but wasn't able to do much to Ben - I think he bled for 1 a little bit before Ben got a War Ghoul, but that first War Ghoul stayed untapped quite a while keeping Tobin from bleeding. Basically, I was lucky here that neither of my neighbors had any intercept or substantial opposing votes (Mata Hari's 2 weren't doing it) for a long time - I killed Martin pretty quickly, then killed Scott in another couple turns (Martin hadn't done much to him that I can recall, but he had bought quite a few vampires looking to be able to go forward). Then I ran into the Fatima problem, as she still had a lot of Forceds and a Sport Bike. I had to shift to pretty much just bleeding for offense at this point, since Ben had gotten KRCG and then The Unmasking, so I needed to avoid being blockable by two people calling votes... but Tobin did eventually run out of Forceds and I was able to get a couple bleeds through (I had also been influencing out more vampires throughout here, getting Violette Prentiss and Sir Walter Nash, I think, as the Voter Captivations were paying off well and I had an Uptown Hunting Ground too) to oust him.

At this point time was running fairly low (there was at least half an hour left though) and Ben and I seemed kind of evenly matched - he had two War Ghouls (at least one had gotten killed by Blood Sweat and my Catatonic Fears) and like four vampires, but I had five or six vampires and still had library cards to draw Majesties, and he needed to keep multiple minions untapped to be able to block votes. Neither of us really lost any pool for quite a while, I played the Coven and gained from that and Hunting Ground, while Ben gained from just Coven and maybe hunting. But neither of us could hold the Edge so much either, since I could try to block any of his vampires bleeding without much fear, and Piotr and Krid had to hunt pretty frequently if they got blocked (he did have stealth for Krid and Mata Hari though). Then I ran out of library as time was running down, Ben played Dragonbound and was able to get two and then three of my vampires in torpor (though I was staying fairly even with that due to Blood Dolls + Coven + Hunting Ground for a while), and I misplayed my Entrancements (I played the first one in a momentary lapse of remembering his KRCG News Radio, having run out all but that one of his intercept permanents, and then the second one got Direct Interventioned). I might have made it to time (it was less than 10 minutes left) but maybe not, as I was finally out of Majesties and about to start losing more and more vampires to torpor/Dragonbound, since Ben would be able to block my rescue attempts. So having the game win already, I conceded the last two VPs to Ben.

Resulting VPs: Ben 2, Josh 3, Martin 0, Scott 0, Tobin 0.

At this point I wasn't expecting to be in the finals at all, since I figured there would be at least a few people with two game wins and then a few more with one GW and a lot of VPs. Apparently I was wrong... I turned out, when the round ended, to be third seed going into the finals, ahead (on tournament-point tiebreakers) of two other people with 1 GW and 6 VPs (those would be Stefan Ferenci and Jared Strait, I don't know who was 4th and who was 5th). I was behind Ben Swainbank, second seed with, I suppose, more than 6 VPs, though I don't know for sure, and Peter Charnley, who was apparently the only person with 2 GWs on the day.

Seating went like this from my view:

Jared and Stefan were predator and prey
I inserted on the Stefan -> Josh -> Jared side
Ben put himself in to make it Ben -> Stefan -> Josh -> Jared
Peter put himself in to make it Ben -> Stefan -> Peter -> Josh -> Jared

My thinking here, such as it was, was that Stefan was the only person whose deck I had seen that day, and given the limited Psyches he had shown at the time, I thought he would make a better predator than prey (since as prey he would probably leave vamps untapped to block bleeds). Better the devil I knew than the one I didn't, or something. It was later pointed out to me that it might have been smarter to pick Stefan as prey, since if he couldn't nail my vamps by rushing them, he would be pretty defenseless against my main offense. My foresight wasn't up to thinking that cleverly, though. :-)

I don't know if Ben or Peter had seen any of the other finalists' decks - I think Peter mentioned something at some point about knowing Jared had plenty of votes to call, but then again, it might have been Stefan that mentioned that, heh.

It was randomly determined that Ben went first (after Scott managed to roll about four 6s in a row on his lucky die). This was when I discovered that the decks were...

Ben Swainbank, Giovanni bleed/block/allies?
Stefan Ferenci, Celerity guns rush
Peter Charnley, Arika & friends Freaky vote/bleed w/stealth
Josh Duffin, still the same Presence vote/bleed
Jared Strait, group 1+2 Princes with some Obf/Pot/Ani

Oops. I was sitting between two other vote decks. Bad news there. Worse news was that Arika was Peter's first vampire, so I discarded my opening-hand Ventrue Headquarters, thinking I wouldn't be able to afford to pay a pool a turn for it for the entire game. That was probably sloppy thinking since I could have held it in hopes of Arika eventually getting torporized, or in hopes of being able to pass one important Parity Shift with it, etc. But it looked to me like the most useless card in my hand at the time.

I could try to do a play-by-play recap of the game, but my memory is probably not accurate enough to get it all right, so I'll leave that to the videotape and just relate some key points and anecdotes...

Ben got Gloria Giovanni on his second turn, Ambrosius the Ferryman, WMRH and Channel 10 pretty early, and Le Dinh Tho and Andrea Giovanni not too far in. Stefan got Jesús Alcalá on his first turn, later adding Scarlet Carson O'Toole, maybe Carter?, and Jimmy Dunn I think. Peter played first-turn Zillah's Valley for second-turn Arika and followed up with Ranjan Rishi. I got first-turn Gideon Fontaine and third-turn Timothy Crowley I think (and Walter Nash if I remember right). Jared got Selma the Repugnant first, then Fourth Traditioned for Murat, Rake, and Volker. Eeesh! Though I was kind of glad I hadn't drawn Rake myself, since that would have given Ranjan +1 bleed against me.

I was pretty useless vote-wise in the early game, since my prey had 6 standing votes by the time I had 4, and my predator had 4 before I even had 2. I might have gotten a couple bleeds through, but Jared seemed to have enough Second Traditions to block almost anything scary I might try. Meanwhile, Stefan slapped a Haven on Arika pretty early and rushed her with a CEL minion with a Concealed .44, but Peter had Majesty plus three Rolling with the Punches straight (!) to keep her from losing too much blood before she burned the Haven. I don't think Ben bled Stefan much at this point, maybe for 1 to 3 a few times, but Stefan probably still had over ten pool, while Peter was also in the 10-15 range - he drew Minion Taps a few times but only Tapped for 3 at a time, presumably not wanting to make it too easy to torporize his vampires. Jared seemed to have spent almost nothing on vampires with those Fourth Traditions he'd played - he probably had about 15-20 pool. Ben was OK on pool in the early game, but he kept steadily losing pool to Jared's KRCs (with Forgotten Labyrinths most times he tried a block).

Somewhere in here, Stefan found a Fame for Arika and managed to dunk her with a run of maybe three Psyches and/or presses/additionals. Unfortunately, he didn't follow it up with diablerie, and I didn't think to suggest that he do so - Peter was down to about 6 pool and it looked like the Fame was likely to get him ousted. But Peter had the crucial Giant's Blood in hand, played it on his turn, and she escaped torpor immediately. Peter turned out to be hardly slowed down here, with his Freak Drives and bleeds and votes and stealth (he didn't show much vote push - just a couple Awes - or any reactions that I can recall, though). In hindsight, Stefan would have had a much better shot at a VP if he had diablerized when he had the chance. (It also would have been good for me, of course, since I would have been relatively predator-free for at least a turn or two...)

With Arika back out, Peter called a Protect Thine Own against Stefan's Scarlet (who had both Stefan's only Blood Doll and one of his two guns), which passed with Jared's support, so Stefan was pretty weak after that. He got a couple more rush cards and I think played them against Ben to try to stay alive, but Ben was able to block with Ambrosius most of the time. Then, on the bleed with Conditioning that would have ousted Stefan, Jared played Direct Intervention, leaving Stefan alive with 4 pool, but Jared's Camarilla Segregation was going to make him burn 1 (or a vampire) - that was hitting both Ben and Stefan, but not Peter, me, or Jared, of course. Ben was low on pool himself and seemed likely to be ousted on Jared's next turn (barring unprecedented success at blocking Jared's KRCs), so, seeing himself as being kept alive only to score Jared a second VP in a single turn, Stefan instead burned the Segregation *and* a pool and transferred his remaining couple pool to oust himself to Ben instead. Jared was understandably unhappy about that, but to me it did seem reasonable for Stefan to think he had no chance of getting more VPs before Jared rolled through Ben and him.

The 6 pool from Stefan's oust kept Ben a viable player a little longer. I got Carlton van Wyk and blocked a few of Peter's bleeds and votes (though definitely not all of them, since Peter did have +2 or +3 stealth modifiers with some regularity, or Cloaks for votes). That was probably around the time that Peter got Victorine Lafourcade (having gained probably a decent amount with Minion Taps and Voter Captivations by now) - which contested Rake's Prince of Atlanta title. I don't even know how long it's been since I saw that happen in a tournament. :-) Jared and Peter contested that title for a couple turns, then made an agreement to help each other oust their preys (Ben and me, respectively) and fight it out at the end, and Jared yielded the title. (He probably didn't really need to do that, since they had collective vote control anyway, and it would have been far better for him in the endgame if he had kept the title, and he had more ability to hunt or Blood Doll on to do so than Peter did...)

Ben was ousted when he and I were unable to block one of Jared's KRCs even with Carlton and Ben's media locations. I was ousted no more than two turns later - it might have been the same time around the table - when Arika bled me for 5 at 2 stealth. That was my second significant misplay of the game, I think (counting not getting Arika diablerized as the first): I actually had two Deflections in hand at the time, and even though Walter Nash only had 1 blood, I should have left him untapped instead of going for the Erciyes Fragment (a rather significant factor in the game itself, I probably should have mentioned it earlier, heh) and leaving Gideon Fontaine untapped. I still might have gotten ousted (if Peter had gotten to use the Erciyes Fragment he could have called one of my KRCs) but I would at least have had a better shot at another turn or so. Overall, really, I probably should have played total defense in the three-player game, but I'm not sure it would have helped enough, considering that I just didn't have that much defense available against stealthy Arika (there were only four Deflections in my deck, and no defense against being outvoted at all).

After I was ousted, Jared had minion advantage (6 to 3, counting his two Progenies), but Peter had some vote advantage (9 to 6 standing, counting the Ventrue Headquarters), and Arika's +2 bleed and stealth probably about made up for Jared's +3 vampires. It did look like Peter was likely to oust Jared in the next turn or two when time was called, but since he was top seed going into the finals, he was the winner regardless.

Final VPs: 1.5 Peter (first place), 0 Josh (fourth), 1.5 Jared (second), 1 Ben (third), 0 Stefan (fifth).

We got all kinds of cool swag from White Wolf, including uncut card sheets (I got a 10th Anniversary set sheet, there was also a KMW rares sheet, Anathema starter deck sheet, Sabbat War rares sheet, and ... a KMW printing plate that Peter got! The actual aluminum plate they used to print the cards - very cool), booster packs, a Mage Zippo (I guess they didn't make Vampire lighters?), a Vampire: The Masquerade vanity license plate (ha!), and some Werewolf stick-on tattoos (ha ha!).

Thanks to White Wolf, Scott, Oscar, Steve, Stewart, and everyone else for running a great set of tournaments. And thanks to all the cool folks I played games with over the Week of Nightmares - great fun, all of you.

Next year in Atlanta!

Josh

out like a lighter with no butane

Gentlemen... behold!

2005-08-22T14:24:00.000-04:00

Stéphane Lavrut reveals his inner beauty. Picture courtesy of Matt Hirsch. Clothing courtesy of White Wolf.

On Being a Central PA Player in NAC

2005-08-22T08:52:00.000-04:00

Back from NAC. I loved the 4 days of play. Did drafting and played in NAC. Unfortunately being in an area that plays rarely I had only one quality deck built. The same Assamites the q'd me in DC. They got me 1GW, 5VP in rd. 1 to get me to rd. 2 and then it gumped me on the second day (1.5 vp).
The best single reason to go to these things is that now I have not only a face, but a haircut, a personality, a voice, a laugh, a memory for all these names that I've seen on the net. I met Xian, Ben P, Ben S, Jay and Will Kristoff, Stefan F, LSJ, Wes Weston, Robyn and David T. These are now people with personalities instead of just names on a screen. I got to see Pat L, Josh D, Oscar G, Jon S, Carol O'Bryan, and many others I can't remember right now.
I was my first NAC, and after it I hope it's not my last.
It was truly a privilege to play with everyone.
Congrats to the final Table especially Josh. Who admitted and apologized for using cheese to oust me (and 2 others) in game 3 (rd. 2) to get his GW to get to the final table. Although Fatima did hold on and put a couple of his minions down before I went. ;)
-tpl

NAC Final Table!

2005-08-20T22:40:00.000-04:00

Details to follow...

"Blood Doll is broken anyhow..."

2005-08-20T12:21:00.000-04:00

-L. Scott Johnson(*)

For some reason I seem to still be pretty incoherent right now and unable to write much that makes any sense... nonetheless! Uh... yeah... so... now back from the shower but have to go to the convention center to start Day 2 of NAC! Doh!

ps, The Mole is really good in draft. But you need to also be sure to bring out a vampire with Animalism.

(*) Quote taken dramatically out of context.

This post no good title

2005-08-20T04:47:00.000-04:00

So we just played the first day of the North American Championships... well... by "just played" I mean that the preliminary rounds ended around 7 pm, and then we ate and played another couple rounds of Duffin Draft (though we have yet to manage (or in fact even finish inventing) the fabled Double Duffin Draft) and a couple pickup games, and at long last came back to the room to work on decks and, at some point, sleep.

Pictures exist of Stephane Lavrut in a rather astounding fairy-queen costume that he wore all day on account of losing a bet... and of Andreas Nusser in an even more astounding Princess Leia slave-girl sort of outfit, though for most of the day he kept it pretty well hidden under a red cape, on account of that same bet... but I don't have them yet. Tomorrow!

Stefan Ferenci won the first day of the championships with some kind of weenie Auspex deck that totally shunned permanent intercept... Matt, Xian, Ben, Devin and I (out of people from my hotel room) all qualified for day 2 with a game win each and assorted plus or minuses beyond that... a whole bunch of other people (exactly 35 in fact) also advanced to day 2... and I should really go to sleep now unfortunately, though I would love to tell you more... I played Lasombra dirty dirty stealth-vote-bleed, Matt played Ignazio Giovanni rush/bleed/deflect, Ben played Cheesequake Still Kills You, Xian played the Tremere bleedy deck he played at the Origins qualifier, Devin played a mighty mighty Beast Eats Your Head deck...

In the draft tournament that I succeeded in throwing together yesterday afternoon (sorry about the lack of blogging, we've been busy and away from the room and its sweet sweet wireless), we acquired sixteen players (whee!) and the finalists were Xian, Dave Setty, Stephane Lavrut, Josh Feuerstein, and Ben Peal... Xian won that with a REALLY HOT play involving Anarch Revolt and two of his preys dying on the same turn around the table... Matt Morgan and I lived up to our reputations by, uh, getting 0.5 VPs and 0 VPs respectively... and that's just about all I know right now. Time for bed!

Pick-up game at the Week of Nightmares. The huge stack of cards is all on Una!

2005-08-19T23:44:00.000-04:00

Broken Una Equips World archetype courtesy of Dave from Denver. :)

IIRC, there's 2 Raven Spies, a Raptor, a Flak Jacket, a Sniper Rifle, an Ivory Bow, a Ghoul Retainer, a Murder of Crows, a Shadow of the Beast, a Learjet, an Eternal Vigilance, and about 9 other things.

(Apologies for not recalling Dave's last name.)

Success at last!

2005-08-18T12:47:00.000-04:00

We spent yesterday morning eating, laundering and working on Josh's Create-a-Clan deck so we didn't play vtes until 4pm when the first Create-a-Clan deck. I hadn't had time to work on anything new so I played my deck from the DC Create-a-Clan tournament last year. My disciplines are auspex, dementation and vicissitude.

First table was
me with aus/dem/vic
Ben Peal with aus/for/qui
Jon Sushinsky with for/obf/ser
Devin Villegas with dom/obf/qui

Ben quickly destroyed Jon with goofy Quietus combat and mighty bleeds of 1. Devin got me pretty quickly with his stealth bleeds and my not drawing bounce until he drew Revelations. Ben got Devin in the endgame because Devin couldn't pull enough stealth to get through Ben's intercept and Ben's crappy Quietus combat was better than Devin's crappy Quietus combat. I should've Rotshrecked them both all over the place, but my deck just didn't perform.

Second table:
me with aus/dem/vic
John Pattie with pot/pro/tha
Jon Sushinsky with for/obf/ser
Oscar Garza with cel/dem/for

Jon killed Oscar quickly with bleeds for 1 and Enticements. John was a little hapless because he couldn't block me due to my stealth and didn't want to rush me due to my Rotschrecks (never played any, but they still did their job). Too bad, because John's deck was based on Trogdor the Burninator, so I have to have a lot of respect for that. I even sang the Trogdor song for John. He pretended he didn't like it much, but eventually he was singing along, so I think he appreciated it. Anyway, it was soon a two-player game and I destroyed Jon with Vicissitude combat. Hurrah! We played no final, and Ben and I were the only ones with game wins (the other table timed out both times). Ben beat me with half a VP, so he won the tournament and I got second place. Another good showing for my created clan.

There was a pickup game followed by the third Swainbank draft of the week. My draft pod had just wack stuff with a few Cam packs, some Anarchs, a Bloodlines and some Black Hand and KMW. We didn't all have the same stuff so it was really great. Anyway, I'm very proud of my deck, so here it is:

Vampires
Amaravati
Doyle Fincher
Janey Pickman
Mata Hari
L'Epuisette
Gustavo Morales
Yazid Tamari

Actions
Go Anarch x2
Web of Knives Recruit
Cat Burglary
Fee Stake: Corte
Fee Stake: Los Angeles
Army of Rats

Reactions
Black Sunrise
The Mole x4
Friend of Mine

Action Modifiers
Bear-Baiting
Deed the Heart's Desire x2

Masters
Specialization
Anarch Revolt
Traditionalist x2
Secret Horde
The Slaughterhouse

Events
Nightmares upon Nightmares

Equipment
Drum of Xipe Totec
Sengir Dagger
Erebus Mask

Politics
Rumors of Gehenna
Anarch Salon
Domain Challenge

Allies
Abyssal Hunter x2

Combat
Form of Mist x2
Form of the Ghost
Mayaparisatya x2
Diversion
Shape Mastery
Masque of Judas
Leathery Hide

Isn't that a thing of incredible beauty? Naturally I won the (again no-finals) tournament. I got Mata Hari out in both games, but obviously the Anarch Gustavo was MVP for the defensive team with all those The Moles. I did get an Abyssal Hunter out in the first game, but unfortunately couldn't get past Dan's KRCG in the second game. I later (after reshuffling my deck) Specialized the two Abyssal Hunters for a pool. I actually got 4 pool from Specialization that game which is way better than I've ever done with it in constructed.

I also had fun with Mata Hari and the Drum playing Mayaparisatya. She torporized two of Darby's vampires in the first game.

I think I'm short on time to write more about this tournament, but I'd be happy to answer any questions about my beautiful deck. I guess Josh's deck was pretty nice too, but we didn't play against one another and I managed like 1 more VP in the tournament, so he had to settle for second place.

Then we came back to the hotel room and Josh had a brilliant idea! We ran a draft with one pack each starting with only 10 pool. It was great fun and only took about 15 minutes. Then we did it again (with 12 pool this time as an experiment, but it didn't seem to make much difference). I won the first game and Ben won the second one. This will henceforth be known as Duffin Draft. Get used to do the idea! You must Duffin Draft!

Today will be the last-chance qualifier (which I'm not playing in) and the first sanctioned draft. Tell you how it goes later.

Swainbanking at Week of Nightmares

2005-08-17T14:41:00.000-04:00

I had this great idea: Decade of Nightmares! Who's in?

Yesterday we showed up at The Ram around noon for some Swainbank draft. Ben was still asleep so we played a pickup game. I played my Brujah Debate deck, which is fun even though it needs work. Devin had me down to around 3 pool with his dem/tha deck, but lacked the stealth to oust me around the time Ben showed up. We decided everyone wins and prepared to Swainbank.

First we did 3 Cam and 3 Anarch packs. I got some princes and a Parity Shift as well as some Gangrel and two Renegade Garou and Thadius Zho! I also snagged a Minion Tap and some decent combat. I preyed on Josh at the first table who preyed on Steve Wieck who preyed on Mike Ooi. Sadly, my totally freaking awesome allies didn't show up in time to be useful and despite getting a Parity Shift off, I despaired of being able to oust Josh. Then Steve made a fiendish deal with Mike to get me ousted but accidentally ousted Josh instead because we all forgot about Josh's oh-so-useful Arms Dealer. Then Steve ousted Mike. My Sengir Daggered Nadima had Steve's number in the endgame until he contested her. That proved to be the crucial move and Steve killed me.

I was preying on Ethan preying on Oscar preying on Ben in the second round. Ethan and Ben contested Menele. It was so great! Naturally they both died. Oscar got me in the end because he's broken and got lots of stealth and bleed. I did AI Quentin King III, but it wasn't enough. Ah well. 2 VPs with no real work. That's just the way we like it.

We moved on to Swainbank numero dos because more people showed up to play. This time we did three Cam Ed and four Bloodlines. I made an awesome Tremere/Gargoyle deck! It was so much fun. I got two Conscripted Statues, some cool Visceratika combat and some Fourth Traditions and Third Traditions for Anastaz di Zagrab's use.

Josh already recounted the ill-fated first table below. He didn't mention how he kept wondering why I didn't oust him by bleeding with Pugfar. It's because I'm not a cheater! Anyway, I had him in another two minutes since I managed to torporize all his guys and had him down to six pool. Oh well.

Next round had me preying on Jon Sushinsky preying on Ben Peal preying on Mike Ooi preying on Darby Keeny. I had to pay to see Anastaz, but he showed up soon enough. I also got out my two slaves, Fidus and Saxum as well as Pieter van Dorn and eventually Pugfar (thanks to Fourth Trad action). Darby was super-scary early on bleeding me for 2 over and over at stealth, but for some reason many Autarkis Persecutions were called and I gained lots of pool. It ended up becoming sort of a game of attrition. Darby and Mike fought a lot and I was set up with a Razor Bat and Jackie on Saxum. Darby was afraid Saxum would Collapse some Arches on the Improvised Flamethrower-wielding Mouse. Sadly, that was not to be. It would've been so great!

Meanwhile Jon not only got Bartholomew and never tapped him, he Minion Tapped the sucker! Between that an the Autarkis Persecutions, he probably gained like 30 pool. I bled him for 2 most turns but he'd gain 1 back right away. Things kind of looked like Mike might get Darby after Darby had an unsuccessful lunge at me, but Darby saved himself with a Speak with Spirits or two. Then Ben ousted Mike. I propped Darby up for a little bit, mostly because I liked the idea of Mouse Improvising some Flame on Ben's minions. I eventually got Jon because I could practically tap out bleeding by that point since Darby wasn't up to the task of coming after me. Darby fell after another turn or two. Not sure what would've happened with Ben and I, but there was only about five minutes left at that point so we just decided the game went to time.

I like the format mostly for the seven card crypt. That really made my deck go since I only managed to draft two Tremere. If I'd had to pad my crypt out with another five vampires, I'm sure my deck would've just been useless. I'm not sure how I feel about reshuffling the library. I think I have a little disadvantage actually just because I tend to play very conservatively in draft while it seems like Swainbankers would want to spooge cards in hopes of seeing the good ones again. One of the things I like about draft is the diminishing resources and need to be very careful about deploying them. Additionally, I think keeping libraries to not many more than 40 cards is almost always a good strategy in limited. It's better to play 40 good cards and run out than not be able to move 70 cards at all.

Anyway, if it means I get to draft more, then I'm all for Swainbank. We'll probably do it again tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully I'll put together a deck that can win games rather than just not get ousted.

Day three: the nightmares continue

2005-08-17T05:37:00.000-04:00

Jon says since there isn't any no-pants draft going on here, he's going home.

I think he means to his hotel room rather than "home home". That would seem like kind of an overreaction to the lack of no-pants draft.

In the Swainbank drafts today (played with pants as far as I could tell), Jon Sushinsky in fact won the first one, and then I won the second one. They were both played as 2R, no finals, though, so as to get us into the second one faster and keep people from having to wait around, so we didn't actually play final rounds to determine these winners, they were just based on two-round results.

[Jon] Winning Swainbank draft was my prize for playing a Pariah deck during my only constructed game. If only it had been any good, although it did work surprisingly better than expected. Chandler with an Eye of Hazimel is a great co-pilot for that deck. Now if I can only remember that Pariah can't take undirected actions...[/Jon]

So... yeah... first tournament, I ended up trying to draft Pot/Ani/For/stuff with Anarchs (as the first draft was 3 Camarilla plus 3 Anarchs, while the second was 3 Camarilla plus 4 Bloodlines), and got two Immortal Grapples, a Fists of Death, and an Increased Strength... but no Potence strikes except Shattering Blow. Doh. I got ousted in embarrassing ways twice, the first time it was by my prey (Steve Wieck) calling Ancilla Empowerment thinking it was going to let him make a nice 2/2 VP split with his prey (Mike Ooi) after I was reduced to 1 pool and Mike would be able to oust Matt Morgan (my predator) and then me pretty easily - instead, I was ousted by the Ancilla Empowerment instantly (giving Matt the VP) as none of us (including me) had noticed that the Arms Dealer was my fourth minion taking care of my fourth pool here. Oops. Second round, I embarrassingly neglected to notice that my predator (Jon Sushinsky) had untapped his Jara Drory with Raven Spy with Metro Underground at the end of his turn... and so blocking my not-so-well-timed Smash and Grab on his recently-played Anarch Railroad (that ended up killing me on account of my inability to block his 1 stealth bleeds of 2 every turn) was not a difficult decision.

Second tournament I drafted (naturally!) Baali! And Ahrimanes, and Malkavians, and uh some other vampires too, but ended up putting just 3 Baali, 2 Ahrimanes, 2 Malkavians in my 7-vamp crypt... thanks to Matt for convincing me to not play a 9-vampire crypt when I didn't have to. Both my table wins were built on some pretty tricky tricks ... the first one, Matt (as always, sheesh) had me down to one pool with his Gargoyles/Anastaz deck when I attempted to rush my prey Craig's tapped Jara Drory with 3 blood with my 3-strength 2-maneuver Howler (Wildebeest) at 0 stealth with Nose of the Hound, so Craig blocked with his untapped 2-blood Gisela Harden... and Howler Majestied at superior and bled for 1 to oust him. Luck-y. Then I ousted L. Scott Johnson with a couple turns worth of William Biltmore action. Then time ran out, luckily, cause Matt was pretty much about to oust me, having torporized all my vampires...

Second round, I preyed on John Pattie's Ahrimanes (!), who preyed on Oscar Garza's Gargoyles/Tremere/Brujah, who preyed on Ethan Burrow's Krassimir/Howler (!!)/somebody else deck... I got a couple good bleeds in early with Psychomachia/stealth and my one Sense the Sin and Aire of Elation, then bled a little at a time for a while (so infernal!), then ousted John with a timely Eyes of Chaos from Quentin King III (just after Minion Tapping him I think). Then I cycled through my deck (yay Giotto, he is SO my favorite) and trickily ousted Oscar with an unblocked Nose of the Hound by Cynthia Ingold on his 1-blood Arnold Simpson (2 damage -> Oscar's own Tension in the Ranks) and then a blocked Nose of the Hound from Quentin, with Coma to oust him with the second Tension damage (as Oscar was down to 2 at this point, I think I had snuck a bleed of 3 in the turn before). Then Ethan conceded. Heh heh heh. I love Bloodlines draft.

Okay, it's REALLY late now. Time to quit already. Ooh, let me see if I can put a picture on this.... score! For your reference, the guy in the green shirt with his back to the camera is me, clockwise from there around the table, that's Albert Chang in white shirt with glasses, Stewart Wieck in white shirt without glasses against the wall, Steve Wieck in black shirt at table, Ben Peal behind Steve talking to Stewart, and Jon Sushinsky about to oust me in the white shirt with the grin. I am eating a french fry. (Thanks to Scott for the photo!)

Live From Chateau des Buis

2005-08-16T11:57:00.000-04:00

There's a painting on the wall which says Chateau des Buis.

We've played a lot of games so far, too many to recount all of them. Looks like the lowcap intercept swarmy things are doing well. I hate those things.

So like Josh said, I got 4th place in the tournament yesterday. I was at the table with Josh in the first round. I was playing my Marcus Vitel the Bad Babysitter deck. Marcus isn't a very good babysitter and when the babies are bad, he puts them on meat hooks and farms their blood. Whee! Unfortunately, Marcus didn't show up for a long time so I barely participated in the game until the 10th turn or so. Lame! Josh was in the grandprey spot between LSJ and Ben Peal and he was killed by their intercept even more than I was. Albert Chang was my predator playing anarch Daughters and !Toreador vote.

I played my Malk/!Malk vote deck in the next round and completely messed up the game. I couldn't kill Devin, my prey because of his amazing ability to come up with like four intercept out of the blue and kill my Parity Shifts with Confusion of the Eye. Albert beat up Ethan Burrow and then Jon Sushinsky to gain 2 VPs. I should've at that point ousted Devin and had a good shot at killing Albert after that (Secure Haven on Rachel Brandywine would've been key here), but Rachel was Confused again and my KRC failed. Devin got Albert and then finished me off.

With no VPs so far I had to pull out a big gun, my Ignazio fight/bleed deck. I preyed on Ethan's !Ventrue bleed deck who preyed on John Pattie's Thelerity deck preying on Jon Sushinsky's Ravnos breed deck preying on Ben Peal's zillion Raven Spies. Everything went right for me this game. Ben couldn't get Raven Spies and was totally pinned down by Jon and unable to do anything to me or even think about blocking my superior Governs. Soon I was destroying Ethan's minions and bleeding him for 5. After that, I took down Goratrix with a couple Earthshocks and diablerized him with Ignazio, getting the Drum of Xipe Totec! Jon managed to get Ben, but I had an easy time of it in the endgame.

Josh mostly recounted the final already. For some reason I suffer terrible handjam with that deck even though the master count isn't that high. Not sure why that always happens, but I clearly need to do something to correct the problem. I had five masters in hand when I died. I had hoped 10 pool would be enough to survive for a turn and give me the chance to oust Devin, but Ethan was bounced to me for 4, then Josh bled for 4 and 5 (reduced to 4 by Greta - big deal!).

After that, I played a Phased Motion game with John Pattie, LSJ, Jon Sushinsky and Oscar. That was pretty cool and I won. I really enjoy the format, although we all need to build decks to better take advantage of it. Then we left The Ram and played more games in some hotel somewhere. We played some game that had something to do with a bottle (no, it was not spun). Actually, I didn't play that one, but I watched it which was good enough because I was sobering up a little after drinking all day. Then we played Bang twice and that was fun. I may have to buy that one. Then there was another round of VTES. I played my stupid gun deck and screwed up the game for everyone and everyone had a great time!

We're soon off to Swainbank twice. It'll be great. You should've come.

Day two: And it's tournament time

2005-08-16T03:26:00.000-04:00

So we had our first official tournament today, it got ten players (me, Matt Morgan, Jon Sushinsky, Oscar Garza, L. Scott Johnson, Ethan Burrow, Devin Villegas, Albert Chang, John Pattie, Ben Peal), and was three rounds plus final, multi-deck and multi-judge rules were used.

I played an 80-card version of Snapcase's Rock Cat deck for the first round (80 instead of 90 cause I only could come up with 8 Rock Cats instead of 10 and also I didn't have enough Soul of the Earth, although the latter was easily remedied as it turned out, thanks Xian!) and promptly sat between two intercept decks that totally shut me down - Ben with small-vamp Thaumaturgy permanents (lots of Magic of the Smith) on my left, Scott with Tzimisce and a bunch of small Auspex guys (all four of his non-AUS ANI vamps allegedly) on my right. It was a slow and painful death.

Second round I figured I'd try to play something not as sucky and played my Obt/Dom vote and bleed deck (much like everyone else's, really, the only hot new tech I think was Disengage and that was only hot, like, once in this game). My predator was John Pattie with Thelerity and Lucas Halton and Anastaz di Zagreb and Blythe, prey was Scott with a Black Hand deck with Shakar and Soldat, Henry Taylor (don't think he got Blooded this game but maybe he did), and later Jalan-Aajav, grandprey was Oscar with Dem/Aus/Obf stealth-vote (and a little bleed), great-grandprey was Ben with Assamite probably vote-bleed but his Amaravati got smacked early and didn't have much blood to make votes with, and he didn't draw Alamut till pretty late. I got Francisco D.d.P., Ambrosio L.M., and pretty late, Gratiano. Oh, and then really late, Henri Lavenant. Things looked good for me for a while as I bled a bunch and voted some, and annoyed Oscar by voting against his stuff when he stopped putting damage on Scott on account of Scott being so low. Then they looked worse when John kept rushing my guys and Thefting a bunch, and bleeding some, and me not gaining much pool. Then I Giant's Blooded and Minion Tapped on consecutive turns, and then managed to oust both Oscar and Ben in like one turn (gaining something like 19 in that turn - it must have been the same turn as the Minion Tap?), and that's when I bought Henri. John put up a pretty good fight but couldn't quite handle the four guys.

Third round I played a newish Majesty-based bleed/vote deck, also with Disengage as the hot new tech (17 Majesties, 7 Disengage, 4 Catatonic Fear I think?). Oscar was my prey with a Ravnos Tumnimosish deck, Devin was cross-table with Nos anti fight/bleed/block things, Scott was my predator with Kiasyd toolboxiness. Nobody really had an answer to Majesty in the first place, or any titles except Gratiano after I had already Seized some Praxis and had three Princes, so I kind of ran all over everybody and killed them. A lot. With Erciyes Fragments. And stealing Devin's Ox with From a Sinking Ship. It was mean.

In the finals I was top seed, so naturally I sat down in the really bad place in front of Ethan, who was playing Synesios+Setites stealth-vote/bleed. Who knew? I didn't know. I was playing Colin's new Bouncin' Baali... with Dominate?! (group 3+4) deck... got Maureen and Suzanne and that was it for a really really long time on account of Ethan zapping me for about 10 at stealth in a time period where I could only Deflect once. Matt was my prey, playing his Palla Grande/Undue Influence deck, Devin was his prey, playing a slightly-modified version of the round-3 Nos anti deck, and Ben was my great-grand-prey, with I think an unmodified version of the round-1 weenie Thaumaturgy intercept/fight permanents/Magic/Theft deck. So I mentioned the Ethan zapping for 10, then I miraculously survived for like three solid turns on the strength of Wake + Sense the Sin for 1 intercept (and the occasional Deflection) and Majesty - somehow Ethan didn't manage to oust me at more than 1 stealth for a really long time. Meanwhile I got lucky on a Deflection and two Legals and a Sense the Sin to oust Matt, then Devin who Matt had down to about two pool, and I looked kind of reasonably alive for a while, except that Ben's wall was impenetrable. Ethan continued to not be able to oust me, as Ben now blocked pretty much all his votes, and I blocked or Deflected his bleeds of more than 1. Ben wore Ethan down and ousted him, then wore me down and ousted me too (the latter not taking long). Victory Ben, second place me. Ah well. (Third Ethan, fourth Matt, fifth Devin, for you completists.)

That's all for me for tonight, it was a longish account, no? We played a few more pickup games afterwards and one before the tournament, but this is long enough already, and it's late. Bye for now!

Our First Night of Nightmares

2005-08-15T11:34:00.000-04:00

Yes, the Week of Nightmares has officially begun at about 7:15 pm on Sunday night. Matt Morgan and I arrived at the Ram around 5 last night to find Oscar Garza several beers into his own Week, as for some reason he was sent in early Sunday before any other VTES players showed up. So we hung out for a while and then John Pattie of Winnipeg arrived to rescue us from our VTESless fate. Probably about three four-player games were played at the Ram before Jon Sushinsky rolled in from Denver to make our first full table... though by then the Ram was actually closing up since it's not quite twenty-four-hour gaming time yet (for them at least). So we went back to the Best Western and played two more games before calling it time for some rest. Now, of course, having woken up, we shall soon be returning to the Ram for yet more VTES, and the first scheduled tournament (2 pm constructed, I believe).

If you're not in Indianapolis yet, you still have time! Come on down!

Shared Nightmare Round Three

2005-07-30T16:39:00.000-04:00

Colin plays an illegal (i.e. good) deck.

The Suckening Round 2

2005-07-30T15:35:00.000-04:00

Jason takes the upper hand in Shared Nightmare.

Hey, who has the edge?

2005-07-23T14:16:00.000-04:00

KMW @ GCS, GB, MD

2005-07-18T01:04:00.000-04:00

More testing of the mobile blogging, this time featuring the final table at Dan Coleman's KMW pre-release.

That's Dan in the red hat, Vinnie Crisafulli in plaid, Greg Williams's friend from Kentucky in red (sorry I don't recall his name), me in grey and no hair, Josh looking at Pete's cards, and Pete Oh.

It was a great tournament with a fine turnout at Games Comics & Stuff in Glen Burnie, MD.

Final seeds were (IIRC) Pete (Anathema), Vinnie (Alastor), me (!Gangrel), Greg's friend (Anathema), and Josh (Baali). I think we timed out to finish in that order, but I won't swear to it.

TotalCon: Late >> never

2005-07-18T00:51:00.000-04:00

Josh, just after killing me during the 2005 TotalCon Friday constructed. (I blame my loss on a failed Bakija gambit.)

A whole lot more from the floor

2005-07-09T13:43:00.000-04:00

Rather belatedly (isn't that my middle name?), here are some more reports from the Origins tournaments. Next time, with greater live-ness! If we can manage some kind of clever wireless access. Or maybe we'll try the audioblogging via cell phone thing.

So we rolled into Columbus right around 6 pm on Wednesday night, got Xian from the hotel, zipped on over to the lovely & talented Guardhouse game store, and played some games. Luckily none of us made the finals, because if we had, well, we might have had an even harder time getting dinner and beers afterwards. (As it was we had to ask advice of the first bartender we talked to (at the lovely & non-food-serving-late Elevator) as to where we might find food after eleven pm.)

So, (1): I played a now-newsgroup-posted Waters of Duat/Temptation/Truth of a Thousand Lies Setite deck for two rounds, earning a most impressive double-zero-VPs with extremely low tiebreakers. Now that I have the physical deck in front of me, it seems I wasn't actually deterred by the 30-master-card barrier, and my posted decklist was slightly off: I did in fact put in the 2x Perfectionist and 1x Giant's Blood to fill it to 90 cards; also I had dropped the 2x Skin of the Adder for 2x Wake with Evening's Freshness. Anyway, let's see: round 1, I sat with Kevin Mergen as my prey with some Honor the Elders jank, uh, I think Cory Atwill cross-table (four-player game, my apologies to Cory and anyone else who I may be unsure of as I write a week later...), with some weenie Praxis Seizure/Legacy of Pander vote sleaze, and the always-nemesiacal Dave Pennington II (right? boy, I hope so) with another vote deck as my predator, uh, that one was more... KRC and er, oh yeah, Ventrue oriented? Classic Law Firm guys I think? So yeah, there was some confusion where I got switched to another table to fix the seating, and then switched back when it turned out the extra player we thought we had did not actually exist (I think it was a second copy of Oscar Garza, as if one weren't enough). On my return, the weenie vote deck got a much poorer draw than his first test draw and failed to pass his second-turn Praxis (or Crusade, whichever it was) on account of lacking a Bewitching, thus rapidly finding himself helpless against the many opposing titles that surrounded him. Kevin got some pool with Honors, I lost some pool to KRCs, and bleeds, got one Temptation on Dave's Emerson Bridges or something, then expired to the votes and such without having played a single Waters (as far as I remember).

Second round went even worse if possible; my predator played an early Anarch Revolt, I spent a couple early actions trying to become Anarch, but he kept blocking and torporizing me (with a .44 Magnum or something? and Aisha, and KRCG?). Meanwhile my prey had Beast - I want to say that was Bob Joseph? - and could have squished me at any time, but luckily (at least, I got to take a few more actions because of it) I managed to talk him out of doing so by pointing out how useless and helpless he was, and that he might as well bleed his prey for 1 a bunch while said prey (Nick Smith, several-time winner of these pre-Origins events) sat there bringing out three vampires all at once (they turned out to be an assortment of Dem/Obf bleeders). Those bleeders ousted my predator (...I don't know who it was... Brandon, maybe?) the turn after they came out, even though Beast got one of them; they got me very shortly thereafter, as I had wasted all my blood and vampires on trying to go Anarch to survive my predator's single Anarch Revolt, instead of thinking about the longer-range future. Oops. I think Beast then finished off all the vampires one at a time and Bob ended up tying the table 2-2, but I could be wrong. Regardless, you can now see how I accomplished my 0-0-30TP feat. My party then adjoined to Betty's Cafe (Diner? Lounge? Bar & Grill?) for some rather good beers on tap and entrees. Mmm, food.

(2) Thursday part one! Yes, the 10 am tournament, hideous though the hour was, we headed over there anyway. I mean really, what are you doing at a convention if you're not going to play VTES instead of sleep, right? Xian and I were I think the last getting out of the room and got to the card room just in time for everyone to be waiting for us to sit down and play. I brought a weenie Auspex Anarch Revolt deck that I had recently copied from Jason Babbitt's design (hence my interest in seeing the one Wednesday night, as I hadn't seen any new-Revolt-combat designs until Jason's version at the DC Qualifier). It performed reasonably well, if I remember correctly, though not spectacularly: first round, I think, I blocked a bunch of stuff and managed to oust my prey (Carol from Denver, unless that was second round that I'm now confusing with first round) and then my second prey (Bob from Columbus with Beast again?), but uh... is this the one where John Bell totally killed me after that with freaking Edged Illusions? It seems like it, unless I am again confusing first/second round. I blocked, like, the first two Illusions, but my blood kept getting lower, and then everyone went to torpor. Doh. Second round, um... I seem to have no clear memories of second round. I think I had like 3 VPs and no game wins and snuck into the finals at fourth or fifth seed based on that, then got killed again by fightiness or something. Not a very satisfactor account, I know...

(3) The third Thursday tournament! (I missed the second one's start on account of being in the finals of the first one.) Ah yes, I believe this is the one where I played that stupid Harbingers Brinksmanship deck. (Adapted from a Harbingers + Bartholomew Brinksmanship deck that David Cherryholmes came up with.) If I recall correctly, first round is where I sat with Ben Peal playing his silly Henry Taylor/Smiling Jack/Waste Management Operation deck as my prey, which was rather comical as not only was he already planning to burn through his own deck (with burn-option cards) to set up the Henry/Earth Meld recursion, but he was using Dirty Contracts as the burn cards... meaning that my Egothha gained blood about four straight turns from pulling those off the top of his library. Sweet, I tell you, very sweet. Meanwhile David Tatu's Nos (!Nos?) guys were getting pretty minimal pressure from Ben most of the game, and let's see... I can't remember who was David's prey, but I kind of think Xian was my predator (five-player game) with some kind of Tremerey thing that maybe bled me some and got Telepathic Countered, but also maybe threatened to block my Brinksmanship, meaning I needed the full Dia de los Muertos/Brinksmanship/Daring the Dawn combo to actually get my ousting setup set up. It was almost further screwed by Ben getting Carlton Van Wyk (he's awake at Dawn!) but Mr. Tatu, though not quite alert enough to Directly Intervene Carlton himself, did Intervene on the stealth that was going to get Carlton past my Spectral Divination (or something?). But I think in the event, my Dia de los Muertos got Suddenly Reversed and my game was hopeless. I ignominiously eventually allowed Ben to withdraw (never got Brinksmanship in play) and I think the game timed out with me and a couple other people still in it. Second round, uh, I believe Peter Bakija was my predator with that old Tock vote magic, somebody else had another vote deck, and I got ousted by votes eventually (after reducing a fair number of bleeds for 1). No finals for me this time.

(3) The fifth and final of the Thursday marathon series! It didn't end up starting till something like 9 pm and the finals ran, just as you would expect, until nearly 3 am. Woo! I played a very sleazy Malk/!Malk stealth bleed deck, full of Kindred Spirits and stealth and bounce, as well as a bunch of Dreams, Suddens, and DIs. Uh, I'm starting to think the attempt to describe entire games is going to kill me here (see, another reason why it really needs to be done as the convention runs, or at least soon after), so to make it short: I believe I won one game and got at least one VP in the other and made the finals on the strength of that, like second seed or something. Or maybe top seed, I don't know.

In the finals, I was the prey of the seven-year-old Connor Bell with hardcore Setite stealth bleed, grandprey of his father John Bell with Enkidu/Karsh rush; my prey was Matt Morgan with his Yazid Tamari/other Assamites vote-bleed-Church-Alamut-Heartblood deck; my grandprey was Jens Rasmussen with a cool Baali thing that included Undying Thirst (sa-WEET!). Connor bled me a bunch and I didn't draw enough bounce to keep my pool high and kill my prey better; I bled my prey a bunch anyway and nearly ousted him except not quite when he said he thought I could get him down to 1 but not quite oust him (I got him down to 1 but didn't quite oust him); that led to my downfall when one of the bounced bleeds to Jens, I played stealth on thinking that Jens had said I should cycle stealth; in fact I think he must have said NOT to cycle stealth (a little problem of hearing what you want to hear rather than what's actually said I suppose, heh), and Matt ousted Jens on account of that. I still got Matt the next turn or so but had lost a VP through my carelessness; I then got hit some by Enkidu I think, and Connor kept bleeding for a bunch, finishing me off. In the endgame Enkidu looked strong and all, but I think he ran out of blood or something (and certainly he had been impaired for a while by Undying Thirst making him want to either eat someone in torpor (and get burned in a blood hunt) or do nothing and be relatively useless), and Connor's guys kept bleeding for a bunch, and the outcome was about what you might expect. Connor 3 VPs, Josh 1, Matt 1, for Connor's first (I believe) tournament win. As someone said, he must be, pound for pound, the best VTES player on the planet. :-)

(4) The Friday tournament! I was a little tired of playing my own decks by this time and borrowed Pete Oh's "rushless rush deck" (Beast, advanced Jeremy MacNeil, Amelia, Theo Bell) for a change of pace, while lending him my "turbo War Ghoul" deck (one of those Warghoulator types with 9 Ghouls in like 70 cards). This was probably the tournament I was thinking of where I played with an odd number of cards; I had filled out Pete's library a little bit with extra Wakes (figuring they're very cyclable) and played it at like 82 cards. Anyway, first round I experienced maximum carnage with Jay Kristoff as my prey playing another Potence combat deck (his had Celerity! unfair!) and Brian Hess as my predator being all bleedy and votey; David Tatu, my grandprey, cruelly stole Brian's Marcus Vitel with a Graverobbing after my grandpredator (or was it me?!) torporized Marcus (I think it was my grandpredator, uh, Todd Holland, yeah?) with a Walk of Flame from Carna (or possibly Anastaz). I got ousted by Brian eventually, after missing an oust of Jay when I should have dropped Dragonbound and sucked up the pool damage it would have done to me because the damage to Jay, plus a bleed I was holding, probably would have gotten Jay the next turn. Maybe. Instead we were sort of mutually annihilated, and I think Brian ended up cleaning the table. No VPs for me. Round two, Mark Loughman was my prey with some Julio Martinez-using nonsense, or no, that's not right is it, Mark was my predator with some Ambrogino and Isabel Giovanni bleeding nonsense, someone else was my prey with Julio Martinez. Meanwhile Ben Peal was cross-table with his crazy "Anarchs make a run for the Border Skirmish" thing that also bled at stealth or something; the random discards did keep Mark from ousting me for a while but eventually he did the deed while I narrowly ousted my own prey with a big bleed (Legal plus Iron Glare I think). Then I think Ben got Mark, perhaps, maybe. 1 VP for me, not enough for the finals, which was again clever since I went and played in... the draft!

(5) The Friday-night draft! Sabbat War versus Camarilla at like eleven-player draft pods. The card quality seemed really high, though it's a little hard to tell whether that was due more to (a) all the packs being base set packs, (b) the large size of the draft pods (bigger card pool to draft from), and/or (c) the tenth pack (we usually do nine-pack drafts in DC; this draft used ten boosters per player). Anyhow, I thought I had a pretty good draft deck with a few Princes and Justicars, a bunch of good votes (including a Parity Shift), a couple bounce, a little stealth, and a couple Second Traditions, but I was quickly disabused of my smugness on seeing the stuff that other people had come up with. First round I narrowly managed to oust my initial prey (one of those Matt guys) as he brought out perhaps too many 8-caps, but then fell to... uh... whoever my predator was, or perhaps my starting grandpredator, yes, that was it. Not Xian, I don't think (my starting grandprey) but the other guy, er... uh... I'm sorry, I can't remember! Anyway, I didn't win that round.

The second round, Pete Oh was my predator with, like, my deck EXCEPT BETTER. Better votes, better bleed, better crypt (Toreador more I think). Jared Strait was my prey with uh... stuff. Some other people were cross table. Jared almost tried to prop me up by putting a Govern back in my hand with Jara Drory's ability for me to re-use for pool-gain, but that turned out to be pretty futile since Pete could block or something, so I was given up for lost and quickly ousted. Then I went home. (Or to the hotel at least. Well, the bar first.) Chris Berg won this one, and Matt Morgan and Pete Oh both made the finals. DC what what! I taught them everything they know, I tell you. OK, so maybe I didn't so much teach them as they figured it out, and the learner is now the master, and all that....

(6) The qualifier! I played sleazy Malk/!Malk stealth bleed again. This was a surprisingly fun event considering the cheese I was playing (and that other people were also playing). First round had the vastly entertaining lineup of Jared Strait (with Daughters/Ventrue (?, no actual Ventrue appeared in this game, but he did discard some Deflections), heavy bleed), me, Aaron Steele with Alexandra/Anson shenanigans, Jeff Thompson (TheLasombra, with a Lasombra fight-bleed deck), Xian, with Tremere heavy-bleed/intercept/fight stuff. As somewhat recounted elsewhere, Jared bled for like a million (I was shamed by my own much lower bleed output), I bounced like nine of it to Aaron before he had a vamp in play, Aaron got Alexandra and was tragically ousted before Anson made an appearance, I kept sucking a lot of bleed because there just isn't enough bounce for all that bleed, Jeff killed my non-Secure vampire and his Dragonbound started killing me, Xian killed Jared just before Jared would have killed me (I was at 1, I think, with a guy in torpor and Dragonbound in play), then Jeff might have been nearly able to get Xian if he'd gotten to blow up the Sniper Rifle with my passed Anarch Troublemaker, but instead all Jeff's guys got blocked and shot into torpor, and Xian got the win. 4 VPs Xian, 1 for me.

Second round things fell more my way. This was the game in which Connor paid the price for his manhandling of me on Thursday night - this time I was the predator and he was the prey. :-) I bled him for about fifty, and not having bounce as the Setites, he pretty much took it. My Sudden Reversal on his Blood Doll turned out to be a key play, as he pointed out afterwards, since he would have had at least one more pool on the turn I ousted him with just as much bleed as he had pool. After getting Connor I benefited from his hard work in having run down, um, was that masked man Paul Bowles? with the Nos princes fighty thing, he was at only a few pool when I got to him, though he still almost got within range of ousting his prey, Dave Setty, who had a Democritus/other Ventrue nonsense vote-bleed deck with Political Ally and a bunch of Second Traditions and Obediences and Sport Bike on Democritus and stuff - I think Paul got Dave's Famous guy into torpor and had Dave down to like six pool when I ousted Paul. Again luck falling into my lap there, of course. Meanwhile Dave ousted his prey, my predator, Bob Joseph again I think, who had been playing a cool-looking but somewhat fragile-seeming Setite votey deck with Nehsi and such. In the endgame I actually out-fought Dave's soft and squishy Ventrue with my soft and squishy Malkavians - Democritus was down to only one or two blood, and he blocked several of my actions, but when he ran out of blood before my vamps did, he either went to torpor or would have gone, and that was the end of that. 4 VPs for me, 1 for Dave Setty.

The third round was rather grueling but again a very interesting game. In this one, my prey was Shane Strait with a Malk/!Malk stealth-bleed deck that was (not terribly surprisingly) fairly similar to my own - but definitely better suited to being on the prey end than mine would've been, as he had more Blood Dolls, not to mention Carlton Van Wyk (argh!). His prey was Greg Pettigrew with a rather cool Leandro/other guys Crocodile's Tongue/stealth/bleed/vote deck; my grandpredator was Nick Smith with a Nosferatu royalty vote deck; my predator was the always-formidable Robyn Tatu with a Maris Streck/Casino Reeds stealth-vote/block/fight/bleed deck. I was worried from the first that Robyn would make it impossible for me to oust Shane with Maris's intercept powers, but in the event, she never actually needed to (and therefore didn't bother). I got Shane quite low on pool in the midgame (like maybe three) but every turn after that, it seemed, he made up his losses on his immediately following turns, with Blood Dolls and Kindred Spirits of his own. Shane managed to oust Greg after Greg ousted Nick with a bunch of bleeds and maybe somy me votes; Parity Shifts went off a few times (including one memorable one where Nick took five of my cross-table pool to gain Robyn's blessing, in hurting me and keeping her otherwise-fairly-ineffectual predator alive); the game then timed out with me, Robyn, and Shane still in it; despite our efforts to play fast, we were at a bit of a stalemate (though I think Robyn might have gotten me in several more turns if Shane didn't miraculously stop being able to fend me off). 1.5 VP Shane, 1 VP Greg, 0.5 VP Robyn, 0.5 VP Josh.

So my 1 GW, 5.5 VPs turned out to be just BARELY enough for me to sneak into the sixth and lowest-ranked qualifying spot. Whew! I really didn't want to have to take my chances in the meatgrinder at GenCon Indy (pretty obvious from my choice of deck at Origins, huh?), and now I luckily don't have to. It's a good thing too, I'd have been pretty embarrassed if I couldn't qualify playing something not far off of the notorious Cheesequake. :-)

(7) At long last, the final Origins tournament! Probably not really what you've all been waiting for, but a pleasant coda, perhaps. The Sunday morning tournament (started at 11 am, not SO outrageous) brought a fairly relaxed crowd of eighteen or so; I played my Yazid Tamari/other Assamites/Church/Heartblood/Alamut deck (yeah, it's quite a bit like Matt's, and in fact substantially derivative of Matt's version). First round I sat down as Ben Peal's prey and found my game quickly written off at the hands of Lasombra vote/bleed (doh!). Second round I sat there for the whole two hours as John Bell's predator (weenie Animalism fighty-blocky toolbox) and Karl Schaefer's prey (amusing Vampiric Disease/Society of Leopold/Waste Management Operation recursiony master-based deck with Black Hand stuff). I think this game timed out with all five players still in it? Or at least, I know I wasn't ousted, and John and Karl weren't, and my grandprey Jens with his Lasombra Shadow Twinny thing wasn't, and David Tatu with his grandpredator Nosferatu/"vampires with hands" Animalism thing wasn't... so yeah, 0.5 all around. My 0.5, of course, did not put me in the finals, so I went with Xian and Brian across the street to get ice cream (mmm, thai chili peanut butter, and zinfandel-chocolate, and papua new guinea coffee - great ice cream they have over there), then took Xian to the airport, came back to find out that Matt had not quite won the finals (congratulations Robyn, nice votey use of Tzimisce, not something you see every day there), had some lunch/dinner at Barley's across the street, and promptly hit the road to return triumphantly (or at least, still being slightly awake and coherent was a triumph for me) to Washington DC. We seemed to make pretty good time on the night of the 3rd, saw some early fireworks displays off the highways, dropped people off between 1 and 2 am, and slept for, what, like twelve hours. Ahhh, sleep.

So yes, as Xian and Matt mentioned, if you weren't there, you totally missed out, and should do it next year. Origins is Much Fun. And it is still the only VTES convention at which you will be able to find and bug Peter Bakija, who nearly invented the rush combat deck. :-)

Phased Motion Variant

2005-07-05T15:22:00.000-04:00

Check this out: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2122

We gave this format a try in the wee hours at Origins. Unfortunately, we somewhat misinterpreted the rules and thought that as the number of players decreased, the number of phases chosen would similarly decrease. Turns out, all phases (including the cheating phase!) are chosen every turn, continuing around the table until they've all been selected.

Anyway, it was a highly entertaining game. I love the default political action ("Neferu calls the vote of Josh loses a pool"). Also, you can't go wrong with the cheating phase. Furthermore, the format makes the edge more important. Could Esteem see play in this format? Regaining the Upper Hand?

Anyway, none of us had decks that were specifically crafted for Phased Motion, so I don't think we got the most out of it. I'm looking forward to building some seriously toolboxy decks that cover all the major bases (bleed, politics, combat, intercept) and giving it a real try. I think those sorts of decks are probably what Richard Garfield had in mind when he designed the game. A casual glance at the tournament scene suggests that anyone who isn't named Tatu has a hard time winning with a toolbox.

I also thought Phased Motion would be great in a draft format. After all, it allows for a way to do a damage to one or more Methuselahs (hopefully including one's prey) at stealth. In draft, it's common to not have any great actions to take. I think the default political action could make things very interesting. Also, the default rush action could be quite useful even though it sort of devalues vampires who already have this ability.

Anyone have other thoughts on this format? Anyone else tried it? Those if you in the DC playgroup better make Phased Motion decks because I will force you to play and if you don't have proper decks, you'll just lose.

You missed out!

2005-07-05T11:50:00.000-04:00

If you didn't come to Origins, then you missed out on the opportunity to play in eight tournaments in just five days. I hadn't gone before, but when I heard about the vtes-stacked schedule, I couldn't stay away.

1) I went with a CEL/.44 deck for the pre-Origins tournament on Wednesday night. Mine uses Black Cat for cheap equipment and Nod to move it around. I'm not sure if this is a good angle or not, but I completely bombed in the tournament. I had a good shot at a VP, but like an idiot, I didn't blow up Cailean's Mark V with the Anarch Troublemaker my predator passed to me. Probably would've had the table win had I done so, but whatever. I was too tired for a final. Also, I don't think CEL/.44 is right for me.

2) Thursday morning at 10 AM I shuffled up my new group 3/4 Giovanni bruise/bleed/rush deck starring Ignazio Giovanni. My memory is a little hazy, but I remember ousting Ben Peal by tapping his War Ghouls with an Anarch Troublemaker someone passed to me. That's totally illegal, by the way. I made the finals, but without a misplayed Anarch Troublemaker, I couldn't overcome Ben's Mata Hari War Ghoul deck and he won the tournament.

The moral of this story is pretty simple. If you are my predator, discard the Anarch Troublemaker. You will not oust me with it. Instead you'll pass me a tool which I will either use to cheat or embarass myself with bad play. Discard it. Everyone will be better off.

3) I played a kind of disgusting Anarch Toreador antitribu deck with Undue Influence and Palla Grande. I think I only got like 1 VP. Not sure why the deck didn't work. Too toolboxy?

4) I whipped out my new & improved Yazid Tamari/Church of the Order of Saint Blaise/Alamut/Heartblood of the Clan deck for the last Thursday tournament. I got mashed by the same Enkidu deck twice and only scored 1 VP. However, due to a massive number of drops due to the excessively late hour (we started the final at 1 am) I squeaked into the final at 4th or 5th seed. I managed a VP in the final due to a happy misunderstanding between my predator and prey, then was ousted anyway. 7-year-old Connor Bell cleaned up the rest of the table.

5) Friday brought us the first 3R+F tournament of the week followed by the first draft. Because the final was to take place at the same time as the drafting, I deliberately chose a terrible deck to play. My deck was a group 1 small/midcap Toreador vote deck with lots of Scalpel Tongues. To my surprise I came close to game wins twice and was a Toreador Grand Ball away from at least 1 VP on my third table. I ended up with only 2.5 VPs and no wins, but I was pretty happy to do that well and certain to not have to worry about dropping from any finals. Scalpel Tongue isn't actually that bad, especially if there are other vote decks at the table. I could probably think about making this a good deck without crappy vampires like Tatiana Romanov.

6) Draft! We had an excellent number of players for this Cam vs. Sabbat draft. With 11 players per faction, we were able to draft in gigantic pods with each player only seeing one card per pack. I didn't indicate a preference and was randomly assigned to the Sabbat faction. My first pack contained a Nosferatu Kingdom. I normally consider Nosferatu antitribu to be a fairly weak clan in draft, but I thought this card to make up the difference nicely if I drew it early in a small deck. As the draft progressed, I wound up with a lot of Obtenebration Stealth and several Scouting Missions and Threats. I also landed two copies of Gratiano. My !Nos deck gradually became a Lasombra stealth bleed. This may have been the best draft deck I ever made. Here are some of the highlights:

2 Gratiano
6 Threats
1 Command of the Beast
3 Scouting Mission
3 Shadow Play
1 Blanket of Night
1 Swallowed by the Night
2 Guard Dogs (and Animalism Masters to put on Gratiano)
1 Forced Awakening
2 Redirection
1 Tribute to the Master
1 Eternal Vigilance
1 Cardinal Benediction
2 Conservative Agitation
1 Anarchist Uprising

I kept some of the Nosferatu antitribu angle, but ended up mostly just drawing and relying on Lasombra stuff. In fact, I drew Gratiano in every game. Anyway, all that got me 2 wins. I think I was top seed in the final. Word was going around how fast this final would be because of the number of highly effective decks. I ended up choosing to prey on Ben Peal. As we know, Ben is a top-notch drafter and player and so he obviously had to die first if I was going to win the game. If you want something done right....

Other finalists included Dave Buerger (Ben's prey), Chris Burgh (Dave's prey) and Pete Oh (my predator). The final was indeed fast. I had a first turn Pentex Loves You! and was soon bleeding Ben for 6 at stealth. Ben got Dave really low, but Dave had Menele + Secret Horde + Rumors of Gehenna, which kept him alive. Chris brought up a pile of Tzimisce. Pete got Madame Guil and bled me down to 2 since I was tapping out trying to kill Ben. Then Dave got bounced to Pete for 3 and Pete took it. I guess he had the same plan. Chris killed Pete. I killed Ben. Dave tried to deal for a VP, giving me the game win (it was obvious I could oust him as he was on 2 pool and the Pentex Loves You! would be enough). I probably should've gone for it, but I was afraid Chris would kill me before I got another turn. Had I thought about it more, I would've realized that in that case I'd still be getting 2nd place. Oh well. I killed Dave and then Chris brutalized poor Gratiano with Lambach and ousted me.

7) Draft again! While most of the Origins vtes community tried desperately to qualify, Pete Oh, Dan Keller, Peter Bakija, Oscar Garza and I had a fantastic KMW/Final Nights draft. Oscar eventually had to man the White Wolf booth, so his deck was piloted by a guest cast of thousands and was dropped from our final. I would have expected that KMW + Final Nights would have resulted in a virtually unplayable mess, but we actually came up with some good decks.

Pete drafted Setites with lots of Truth of a Thousand Lies and True Love's Face. His finest moment was ousting me with massive bleeds and then ousting me again with massive bleeds after I took over Oscar's deck. He proved he's broken by blocking Shambling Hordes and playing Revelation of Despair at inferior to reduce their life.

Dan drafted Giovanni with some nice Dis Pater and Ambrogino Giovanni (adv) tech to get stuff for toasting his ashheap. He also got a pair of Shambling Hordes and the allies he needed to sacrifice to them. Holy crap! He proved he's broken by Daemonically Possessing Peter's Paul DiCarlo after he was burned in a blood hunt.

Peter drafted some Ravnos stuff. He got Spider Killer out in one game and Lorrie Dunsirn in another. Seemed like he might've gotten the short end of the stick in competing for Ravnos stuff with Oscar, but he did manage to prove he's broken by rushing and toporizing Lorrie Dunsirn and then playing Tortured Confession!

Oscar went with a Mata Hari deck, but sadly didn't get to play it much. Looked like it was pretty good with lots of allies and clan-requiring stuff. He proved he's broken by gaining VPs despite being on the other side of the con doing demos.

I of course drafted Assamites. Assamites are the very best clan in draft and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Worst in constructed and best in draft. I sadly only managed to snag one Web of Knives Recruit (who I never even got out), but I did get three Khabar: Glories, three Black Sunrises and a Khabar: Loyalty. I also played a lot of Quietus combat, which is much better when everyone else's combat is crap. I proved I'm broken by burning Mata Hari in combat with Bajazet al-Nasir and gaining three trophies.

The final was fast and furious. Dan's early Shambling Hordes and Dis Pater meant that Pete had a lot of pressure and couldn't hurt me much. I got a very nice crypt draw with Tegyrius, Jalal, Michael DiCarlo and Badr. I got them all out and was able to do pretty good stuff with my deck. Tegyrius' +1 strength and CEL/FOR combo for Forced March was exactly what I'd been lacking in prior rounds. After a little scuffle between Peter and Dan that left them both weakened, I was able to oust Peter with Khabar: Glory in play and from there it was a walk.

8) For the last tournament of the week, I agreed to play Pete's rushless rush deck. I've always felt this deck is rather strong and have been tooled on by Pete in the past. We tweaked it a little to my liking and prepared to play. Pete borrowed my Ignazio deck (see above) and ended up being at both my tables in the preliminary rounds. I won the first four-player table against three other combat decks by avoiding contact with the other decks in the early game and then getting mean later on when they were out of good cards. Then I suffered utter deck-gag in the second round and got destroyed by Mark Loughman's Synesios bleed/vote deck without ever having drawn much in the way of combat cards. I could've rushed him several times, but I would've been hitting for 1. Doh.

Anyway, my sweep landed me in the finals at 4th seed. Other finalists included David Tatu, playing a group 3/4 animalism toolbox, Ben Peal playing a Lasombra Creation Boon deck, Robyn Tatu playing Tzimisce voters and Greg Pettigrew playing Leandro with Crocodile's Tongue. I didn't have very high hopes of doing well in this tournament as Ben's deck has some real payload and bloats and swarms well. Robyn's deck includes Lambach. Enough said.

Greg sat as my prey, which gave me a hope as I could crush his big bleeders and hopefully outrace Ben, my predator. I had a first turn Dreams and got Beast out, followed by Jeremy MacNeil (adv). I got two Blood Dolls and didn't influence any more after that, so I hovered around 16-18 pool in the early game. I rushed Ben a bit. Just enough to keep him from coming forward full-throttle. I bled Greg, getting bounced to David. The Tatus played it mostly cool. Greg bled David a bunch. I bled Greg for 5 without getting bounced. Then I rushed him a bunch and played Dragonbound. It was clear I was in for a VP. Robyn got more aggressive with Ben. Ben bled and voted at me a little, but mostly just tried to live. I ousted Greg. Robyn ousted Ben. I ousted David with a Fame on Clarissa Steinburgen.

40 minutes left. Robyn slid down the table and I got a better look at what she had out. She hadn't drawn Lambach (yay!), had less pool than me (yay!) and had Sascha Vykos (adv), Stravinsky, Velya and John Paleologus all in play and all near capacity (boo!). I was doomed. I took her head on, hoping she wouldn't have the combat to face me, but of course she did. Soon all my vampires had been diablerized and I'd been KRC'd twice. As a final act of definance, I played Tension in the Ranks (knowing there was no way it could hurt me because I couldn't get out any more vampires), then conceded Robyn's victory.

I must develop some anti-Tzimisce tech as they defeated me in the finals twice. Oh well. See you at Gen Con I suppose.

PhD in VTES?

2005-07-05T07:07:00.000-04:00

I recently posted the following hierarchy for winning to a discussion thread on another site. I thought I would put it here to start some discussion...maybe. John Mickle and I, while traveling to and from the DC qualifier had some time to talk while we drove through central PA on the way home. A large part of this post had its origins in that dark ride.

Each game (ccg, board, traditional card) has a hierarchy of factors that determine who wins. For example:
A hand in poker
Owning and using Rares in Star Wars CCG
the skill of your opponents
Team based or solo games

But each of these can be maximized or minimized by another factor. For instance in poker you might be holding a Straight Flush (one of the best hands) but if you can't bluff and play the betting correctly in order to get the other players to stay in and challenge you by upping the bets you won't win much money. You might have heard about someone having or not having a "poker face."
I've got some thoughts on what the VTES winning hierarchy is. In order of determining factors that lead or don't lead to a win are:
1) Deck-to-deck relationship between you and your predator (the person to your right trying to oust you from the game)
2) Deck-to-deck relationship between you and your prey (the person to your left whom you are trying to oust)
3) Your ability to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the above relationships
4)(tie) Random chance (the cards that you draw and the sequence you draw them in
4)(tie) Your ability to interact with other players and form cooperative relationships
5) Your ability to play the cards in order to exploit predator/prey weaknesses while minimizing yours and to minimize the predator/prey strengths while taking advantage of yours. And so on...
I can have the best deck at the table but if it's designed to defend against bleeding but my predator never bleeds and instead gets into combat then I will have a hard time trying to win because the part of my deck built to defend against bleeding is useless. However if my predator is a constant bleeder then I should be fine...until #2-5 kick in.

The bottom line is that VTES is about the relationships between decks more than the decks or the players. Being the only political or combat deck in a game is can be a HUGE advantage but if you and your predator have similar decks (not even the same clan is needed) then it's going to be harder for either of you to do well unless... You cooperate with other players and make deals.

So what do you think?

-tpl

Ben Peal Mean Face: Origins 2k5

2005-07-05T01:13:00.000-04:00

So every convention with a VTES presence requires its very own "Mean Ben Peal Face of Doom," so here's the 2K5 Origins Model, complete with a Pillsbury Doughboy Edge.

still not entirely coherent

2005-07-04T11:56:00.000-04:00

So I appear to have contracted some sort of evil plague, of which we were warned by a Fantasy Flight employee while talking to him about the Game of Thrones board game.

Sadly, I was too cheap to purchase $40 for a month of wireless access at Starbucks and Hyatt hotels across the nation. That's $10 a day for Origins, and it just didn't seem worth it. Largely my fault I guess, though maybe Josh was at fault too?

Personally, I sucked all weekend, playing lots and lots of new decks at Warning Sirens: Columbus on Wednesday night, the 20 hours of V:tES madness on Thursday (played in 8 games), and at the tournament on Friday. In those 12 games, I believe that I played with Mark Loughman in 4 of them, and we were playing pretty much the exact same deck 3 times. Both of us playing Nosferatu POT/FOR wasn't that surprising, and it didn't entirely suck, as I was playing Cock Robin Trophy weirdness, and he was playing a much more solid Group 1-2 deck. Also, John Bell playing Enkidu wasn't his predator. One of the other games, however, we had both been planning on getting out Cardano. Cardano! I was playing Cardano multi-rush, he was playing FOR/THA stuff. He had other options, I didn't. Luckily, we decided to play nice, being cross-table. I think at another table, we were both playing Assamites or something. I can't remember anymore.

On the plus side, I got all the suckage out of my system for the qualifier on Saturday. I managed to get 2 TWs and 8 VPs with Group 1-2 DOM/THA bruise-bleed. I was 2nd seed going into the finals, where my deck utterly failed me...I saw 1 Govern and 1 Threats over about 8 turns. I sat as the predator of a 12 Cybele & Great Beast deck, because I thought that Seduction would work pretty well against that. Little did I realize that I would be forced to suffer the shame of bleeding it for 1 point per action approximately 8 or 9 times. I tried to get a little too tricky a couple of times (not DI-ing the Political Ally my predator put into play, using a Wake to kill it later, needing that wake to deflect Democritus' bleed for 6, using the DI on the Foreshadowing instead), and mostly ended up as the endpoint of all the stealthy bleed coming down the line.

Origins is good fun. That is all. Maybe a post on the actual finals later.

Josh Keeps Yelling

2005-07-04T02:57:00.000-04:00

We're back! At only, like, three in the morning. And it really is "only", considering that the earliest I got to sleep the last four nights was somewhere in the five a.m. range. Origins is, obviously, too much fun to sleep through.

I do apologize to our readers who have been waiting impatiently for up-to-the-minute news from the convention floor - it seems I vastly overestimated the likely availability of wireless internet access at Origins. Hopefully we can do better next time.

I was lucky enough to qualify on Saturday... just barely, as I was the sixth and final newly qualifying person at the Origins tournament. I played, as you may have heard on DJ Feng Shui's sweet sweet blog (of which I was until very recently unaware, http://vtesintel.blogspot.com), a Malkavian/!Malkavian stealth bleed deck. Yes. I have no shame.

In other news, I didn't personally any tournaments, but Matt won the (four or five player!) draft on Saturday opposite the qualifier, Chris Berg won the qualifier, and seven-year-old V:TES prodigy Connor Bell ousted me in the finals of the fifth and latest-running (somewhere around the fabled... 3 a.m.?) Thursday tournament, going on to oust his father (John Bell) and win the tournament. The kid's good! Then, for cosmic balance (or something), we played THE EXACT SAME DECKS in Saturday's qualifier, but with the seating reversed, in the second round (I preyed on Connor), and I ousted him for a change. So, stealth bleed preying on stealth bleed, being on the prey side is bad? I'm sure it's this kind of shocking insight that has drawn you to this blog.

Okay, now it's somewhat past three and I seem to be getting tired. Hopefully my compatriots will have something to say about Origins, and I'll have more later too, I'm sure...

The last deck I played...

2005-07-01T19:38:00.000-04:00

The world seems sad that Josh is so far not posting so much from Origins... which is understandable, as he does have to focus on actually qualifying at some point. (TotalCon must surely have taught him that you only try unwinnable decks after you've already qualified.)

So, anyway, I thought I'd start a thread (is it a thread when it's on a blog? or is that only for newsgroups?) for everyone to post a short note about the most recent deck (or couple of decks) he's played.

I played in a tournament in Holmes, PA last weekend, meeting the south-of-Philly group for the first time... nice crowd, had a ball! Was lucky enough to win with my Owain/Matthias OBE-DOM-FOR-AUS deck (as if you would have other disciplines with those vamps). A rather fun deck to play, but mostly I won because my pred & grand-pred spent the whole final beating each other up. Torpor is definitely the best place for your predator's Lambach.

Anyway, the actual last deck I played was my version of the Pochtli Twister. (Almost typed "Ben Peal's Pochtli Twister," but IIRC, it wasn't original with Ben... forget who gets original credit.)

I made the support crypt a little more focused... 4 G1 Malks, 3-4 Fredericks, the rest Pochtli. Freddy, as the cheapest !Bru, is there just for the Carriage Return Whatever. The G1 Malks are there for superior AUS (Telepathic Counter, Telepathic Misdirection), plus using the DOM & OBF cards when Pochtli's not using 'em. And Ozmo's +1 bleed came in handy as well.

I have 24-25 burn option cards (mix of Tracker's Mark, Dhabi Revenant, and a couple other Bloodlines cards), plus I added a couple more Telepathic Counters, and a Disguised Weapon for the .44. I lost the Harbingers support vamps and HoS clan stuff (believe Ben's version had both Lazarene Inquisitor and Erebus Mask).

Also added Erciyes Fragments to get my prey's ash heap in on the recycling fun.

Last two times I've played it, I've gotten 3 VP in a 4-player game, which is surprisingly effective for a "fun" deck. (The time before, it was shut completely down by a walled-up !Ven prey.)

So what about you, what was the last deck you played?

Step one: build decks.

2005-06-28T23:39:00.000-04:00

Step two: ???
Step three: win.

We're still working on step two...

Results so far: Sleazy War Ghoul absurdity, no good. Ridiculous Waters of Duat/Truth of a Thousand Lies, no good. Sleazy stealth bleed, kind of almost good.

More testing is indicated.

Westward Ho!

2005-06-28T16:09:00.000-04:00

Almost time to head for Columbus, and I really have just one deck put together and another written down (that actually seem like reasonable choices for trying to qualify with - I have, of course, plenty more decks that are Not Good).

And then, of course, the last couple times I've tried to drive to the midwest for these things, my car has had some very poor luck. This time for sure! (knock on wood)

Welcome to the Madness Network!

2005-06-28T16:07:00.000-04:00

This is intended as a cooperative blog for VTES players around the world. I envision a place where people can put their tournament reports, travelogues, or amusing ramblings. It's all about community, you know.

The Madness Network

US National Championship This Weekend!

Kindred Restructure: Charlotte, North Carolina

SE Regional Qualifier, Winner

SE Regional Qualifier, Finals

SE Regional Qualifier, 3rd Round results

SE Regional Qualifier, Round 3 pictures

SE Regional Qualifier, Round 2 results

SE Regional Qualifier Round 2

SE Regional Qualifier

Stone Mountain, Georgia May 21, 2011 15 players 3R + F 9 players from Atlanta, Georgia 3 players from Charleston, South Carolina 2 players from Charlotte, North Carolina 1 player from Birmingham, Alabama

SE Regional Qualifier (update 1)

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle News

Southeast Regional Qualifier

Fee Stake: Marietta (TWD)

2011 Rules for Continental Championships

Dragon’s Breath: Regional Qualifier

Evaluating a limited card pool for optimal selection

What thoughts and feedback do you have on this process?

Battle Lines: Atlanta, Storyline Results

Liquefy the Mortal Coil: Atlanta

Tragic Love Affair: Atlanta, Georgia

Georgia Qualifier

The Bitter and Sweet Story: Atlanta

Conquest of Humanity: Atlanta

Atlanta's Rise of the Imperator Results

Power of All: Atlanta

Kindred Manipulation: Marietta

Monkey Wrench: Charleston

Crusade: Philadelphia

Legacies of Rockville - Nov 13, 2005

Ahoy from Buda-Pest!

Powerbase: The Ram

Duffin Draft for Jyhad?

Not the Week of Nightmares

More Week of Nightmares stuff from Matt

NAC Day Two report

Gentlemen... behold!

On Being a Central PA Player in NAC

NAC Final Table!

"Blood Doll is broken anyhow..."

This post no good title

Pick-up game at the Week of Nightmares. The huge stack of cards is all on Una!

Success at last!

Swainbanking at Week of Nightmares

Day three: the nightmares continue

Live From Chateau des Buis

Day two: And it's tournament time

Our First Night of Nightmares

Shared Nightmare Round Three

The Suckening Round 2

Hey, who has the edge?

KMW @ GCS, GB, MD

TotalCon: Late >> never

A whole lot more from the floor

Phased Motion Variant

You missed out!

PhD in VTES?

Ben Peal Mean Face: Origins 2k5

still not entirely coherent

Josh Keeps Yelling

The last deck I played...

Step one: build decks.

Westward Ho!

Welcome to the Madness Network!

Stone Mountain, Georgia
May 21, 2011
15 players
3R + F
9 players from Atlanta, Georgia
3 players from Charleston, South Carolina
2 players from Charlotte, North Carolina
1 player from Birmingham, Alabama