x1 Toby
x1 Louis Fortier
x1 Paul Forrest
x2 Mata Hari
x1 Aksinya Daclau
x1 Club Illusion
x1 Failsafe
x1 King’s Rising
x1 Libertas
x1 Sermon of Caine
x1 Svadharma
x1 Trophy: Safe Passage
x1 Warning Sirens
x1 Chameleon
x1 Fee Stake: Corte (all players were allowed to add these three)
x1 Fee Stake: Los Angeles
x1 Fee Stake: Perth
x1 Shattering
x1 Tumnimos
x1 Undue Influence
x1 Waters of Duat
x1 Zip Line
x1 Changeling
x1 Command of the Beast
x1 CrimethInc.
x1 Burst of Sunlight
x1 Song of Serenity
x2 An Anarch Manifesto (thought I had 3)
x1 Baseball Bat
x1 Sport Bike
x1 Consanguineous Boon
x1 Conservative Agitation
x1 Exclusion Principle
x1 Black Sunrise
x1 My Enemy’s Enemy
x1 Power of All
x1 Steely Tenacity
Here's his write-up:
The whole event first-
http://iclee.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/bay-area-qualifier/
Now the draft-
"I try to joke about it to seem less arrogant, but I’m a way better draft player than constructed player. I don’t screw around in draft. I know how to draft. And, yes, I was the second ranked limited player in the world for nearly a year and had won 5 straight limited events, including one in the DC area, playing with Josh Duffin and Matt Morgan. Might have even won the next event I played with them if someone hadn’t passed Matt a Mbare Market, giving him two(!!!), and if my grandprey in the finals had trusted me a bit better so that I could oust Josh (my prey, his predator), which I almost did anyway before Matt’s horde of minions rose up. Not that I’m as good as I was, as I don’t really enjoy draft anymore.
Nevertheless, even though I got zero Monkey Wrenches, zero Anarch Converts, passed most bleed cards and almost all Zip Lines, didn’t draft Assamites even though that was my preferred KMW strategy, and banked my deck on my two Mata Haris, I played 33 cards in my deck rather than the minimum 30 (with 1 recursion) because there was nothing to cut. For one thing, it helped that people didn’t realize how import An Anarch Manifesto is when drafting Twilight Rebellion. Second, I wisely didn’t try to draft a deck that Laecanus would fit into since he hates me and causes me to always lose. Third, people rare draft. Fourth, people often don’t know how to draft. Sure, I passed Garibaldi, which is insanely good. But, I got passed Failsafe(!), which made me incredibly happy as I now play Failsafe in most of my decks*. I got passed King’s Rising. I’m pretty sure I got passed Club Illusion. I got passed My Enemy’s Enemy. My first library pick? Tumnimos. By the way, we drafted vampires first.
* Friday night, after the game in which I sat at 1 pool for a bunch of turns, I commented that it’s really hard to play the game at 1 pool … but, at 2 pool, there’s a lot of things you can do. Failsafe is my way to get off of 1 pool, which happens far too often.
Of course, the real strength of my deck, besides pool gain, was Aksinya Daclau. Mata Hari really wasn’t that important, the only cards I needed her for were Waters of Duat, Black Sunrise, rushing with Steely Tenacity.
Round 1:
Andy -> Ian T. -> Eric -> Ian (I think Andy is the starting player)
In my opening hand, I have Failsafe and King’s Rising. It would have been hilarious to end my game on turn one with bodacity, but I only play the Failsafe. Mata Hari comes out, gets Tumnimos and Waters quickly. Andy and I keep up in minions. Eric threatens my pool with Steely Tenacity and stuff. I let Eric know that if I’m still at 6 pool, I’ll bring out another vampire. I stay at 6. I bring out Aksinya to go to 2. I defend well. I pop Failsafe, later play King’s Rising. Andy’s Anima Gatheringed Joe Boot Hill, btw, also encourages me not to go forward. Eric plays Constant Revolution, which actually ends up being his death both because he taps a guy to do it when he’s low on pool and Ian has obvious offensive potential and because it causes me to randomly lose Con Boon which I was thinking of using to give him pool. Eric goes for the 5 bleed, which I bounce, of course, but I stupidly didn’t try to block first as he had a Zip Line, so I actually have to tap a few more guys to oust Andy, Eric dies. I outminion Ian and had dropped Club Illusion for extra beats.
Round 2:
Gerrentt -> Eric -> Dan -> Ian
It doesn’t make sense that I’d go last twice, so in the previous game, maybe Andy wasn’t first. Anyway, Gerrentt brings out Convert, bleeds, gains like 5 pool from the Edge. Dan doesn’t bleed me forever, though his deck is full of bleed. I get Aksinya much earlier but don’t have my pool gain. Gerrentt amasses a ridiculous number of dudes. I bounce a 2 bleed at stealth. Dan tries a real bleed of Force of Will Monkey Wrench 6 at 1 stealth which I, of course, bounce, putting Gerrentt into kill range. I keep hoping Eric will oust Dan as I’m not nearly as scared of Eric’s deck; he doesn’t do that, but he kills Mylan with Keystone Kine, which I was all happy about. I sweep.
Finals:
Mike -> Sean -> Ian -> Gerrentt -> Matt
I’m top seed, winning a flip against Matt. I’m fine with being behind Gerrentt. I’m fine with having the only player without a brutal aggro deck (I don’t count) being behind me.
The game was actually quite interesting, involved, strange, and surprising. Let’s see. My predator brings out Lorrie Dunsirn! Wow, what a terrible choice. I transfer 1 to each of my three 5 caps rather than Mata Hari and know Aksinya is on top of my crypt since she’s upside down. If my predator, who I knew had Aksinya in his crypt didn’t bring her out, I would have decrypted, but he brought her out. Matt lent Gerrentt The Rumor Mill to stop my getting An Anarch Manifesto, which he regretted when Gerrentt got Heart of Nizchetus, which Matt was far more concerned about than I was. In fact, Matt was incredibly worried about me all of the time, which I think was mostly due to my being top seed and because he knew I had cards like Failsafe and King’s Rising, rather than knowing my true power. He lent Rumor Mill to Gerrentt later to stop me from getting a Sport Bike, and Gerrentt proceeded to get a Pulse of Canaille. Gerrentt put out Twilight Camp and Crypt’s Sons – damn, what hot rares!
Meanwhile, back in my world, it was pain. Mike conned Sean into rushing Mata Hari, which really didn’t affect me since I had no plans to go forward for the first 1.5 hours of the game, anyway. Sean also kept tapping Aksinya to do things, which was nonsensical as everyone knew Mike had two Monkey Wrenches. Mike contested Louis Fortier with me, which was probably accidental, so he spent all of the rest of the game trying to kill me as his grandprey, well, at least, put me down to where he could take Sean and me right away. So, I tried to kill him back. Mike cut deals with Matt to contest Crypt’s Sons with Gerrentt, so he was contesting 2 cards for a while.
It was hilarious. Sean kept hurting me with rushes or bleed of 4 or Perpetual Care for 4, but all I did the entire time was try to figure out how to keep him alive and keep his predator under control. As I expected, Matt finally lunged and took Mike out, something anybody should have expected given that Matt and I were tied with 7 (out of 8) VPs. Gerrentt was free, though, to Pulse bleed on Matt. I Power of Alled a Patsy that would have killed Sean. Fortunately, Matt had called a Peace Treaty when I was at 3 pool, so I kept my Baseball Bat and gained 4 pool from Failsafe, making me unkillable. I played King’s Rising, which was when two of the observing Haases knew I was going to win. Sean died. I ousted Gerrentt. When I contested Toby with Matt with about a minute left, Matt conceded in a very sportsmanlike move since he was dead on my turn.
Spend half the game contesting a 5 cap in limited? Have a grandpredator trying to kill me? Have a predator unwisely use his actions to maximize damage to me? Explain to my predator that keeping Aksinya untapped would do more pool damage to me than he could do by taking actions with her? Not ever bring out my Aksinya who pretty much gave me two table wins? Wait about 100 minutes to bleed my prey for the first time? Of course, my prey would concede in the endgame with 1 minute left. What other choice did he have? What other choice did any of my opponents have? Oh, right, they could have done less pool damage to me – that would have screwed me …"
Just because I'd feel left out of I didn't post my Tournament Losing Deck:
Theme: Sabbat vote and bleed
Orlando Oriudus 9 AUS DOM THA obf !Trem bishop doubles votes +1 bleed
Anton de Concepcion 9 ANI DOM OBT POT aus Lasombra archbishop, maneuver
Virginie, Prodigy 6 DOM POT obt Lasombra bishop burn 1 blood for +1 bleed
Mariel St. John 6 AUS FOR dom pro !Ventrue
Sean Rycek 4 aus dem malk 1 blood or tap for 2 votes
Bill Butler 3 pot pro !Gangrel
Master:
Ventrue Investment
The Art of Love
Mob Connections
Pentex Loves You!
Trophy: Diablarie
Actions:
Bloodbath
Soul Decoration(misread the card, it was useless)
Sunrise Service
Zip Line
Propaganda(got my only VP in round 1)
Creation Rights
Pulse of the Canaille
Recure the Homeland
Fee Stake: Corte
Votes:
Anarchist Uprising
Cardinal Benediction
Revolutionary Counsel
Equipment:
IR Goggles
Allies:
Mylan Horseed
Action Mods:
Lost in Crowds
Foreshadowing Destruction
Telepathic Vote Counting
Combat:
Shoulder Drop
Backstep
Haymaker
Shadow Strike
Undead Strength
Leathery Hide
Reactions:
Confusion of the Eye
Sonar
I figured that people would mostly ignore the Sabbat and go the Anarch angle and I was right. I passed up some good assamites, Ravnos, and a couple Followers of Set, not knowing how often breed cards would go past me. We did an Elder Draft, so my decisions were pretty much made for me when it came to drafting library cards. One of my first cards was a Cardinal Benediction. I had hoped to pick up a KRC, Con Ag or something, but only an Anarchist Uprising showed up to damage people. I had good control over votes in game two, but in game one I had to contest Sean Rycek with Matt to lock it up. Action modifiers that I could use were almost unattainable. Lost in crowds did have a protean +1 stealth draft text, so at least it was versatile.
Noteworthy events from my games:
-I was just short of a killing blow one turn against Dan Ryan because he failed to block in the right order. I bled him down to ~two anyway with Sunrise Service, Pentex Loves You! and Foreshadowing Destruction from Anton. The next turn, Dan ordered his blocks correctly, leaving his Malgorzata to block last. I played Propaganda at potence ftw.
-Game two, I had to convince Ian Thompson to not over-spend in the face of Mike's stealth bleedzooka(my fault, I drafted him too much anarch manifesto + Keystone Kine). Just when I was going to make life especially difficult for Mike with Pulse on Mariel, Mike Power of All'd the action card. I was so looking forward to beating up his minions. As it turned out, he had four maneuver cards(!!!!) to run away so that even with Mob Connections, Bill butler couldn't put a beat down on him(like he so desperately wanted to do the whole game).
-When Bill Butler blocked Sean's Aksinya Daclau(instead of Janey Pickman), he was ready to deliver a brutal Haymaker + Leather Hide combo. Apparently, Sean was packing a Claws of the Dead, which ruined Bill's day.
-Matt Wedge's Rumor Mill totally ruined my game. I forget how, but an intercept every turn is really strong.
-Mike's bleed bounced to me in game two burned Mylan, reducing the offense I could apply on Mike. This would have been bad for Sean, but my one VP and his 10-16 extra tournament points was enough to put him ahead of Ian Thompson and myself. This put him in the finals. I was charging up an Anarchist Uprising to nuke the table and give Sean and myself a VP, but was about one turn short.
I was pleased with the draft. Everyone seemed to have a fun time and make a reasonably effective deck. Gerentt somehow drafted a Heart of Cheating, Twilight Camp, Saturday Night Special, and other powerful stuff. He said he swept a table by only playing 5-7 cards. Ian won the final with a well-rounded deck. Matt probably had a moral victory by conceding when he could have timed the game out(but not ousted Ian) and equipping someone with two berettas in the final for total combat pwnage.
As a side note, thank you Matt and Robert for trading me Waters of Duat and Tuminos. I shall make good use of them.
