Tournament Weekend

Well, what a busy weekend! I drove over to Andy's house on Friday night to meet Aaron, Andy Fernandez and Eric for a couple games of VTES. We crashed by about 2:00 AM and met incoming tournament players from around 9:00 on. We got started around 11:30, only a half hour late. I find that seating takes a significant amount of time because of the need to organize the cards, herd cats, etc.

Regaining the Upper Hand
17 players
Game One:
Me (obt dom The Rising)> AJ Wiley (Daughters Vote)> Andy Fernandez (Torrance Circle)> James Lin (Corrupt Construction)

I got a strong start, stronger than I really even wanted. I find it better to avoid looking like a table threat than to get a quick vp, but you have to do what you can with the cards you draw. No events showed up for a while, so I bled for three at stealth a lot. The deck flowed nicely and I got some early help by Andy. One of his Blood Brothers smashed a Corrupt Construction with about eight strength and life, sparing me some nasty combat.

James got out WMRH and proceeded to bleed himself with it every chance he got. His deck was pretty fun, even if Lunatic Eruption should have been Bum's Rush or Harass. !Malks with vicissitude brought out about three corrupt constructions, which didn't get time to do too much. They had crazy strength, however, from burned D'habi Revenants. I put an early hurt on AJ, who eventually hit me for four with a Reckless Agitation. Why didn't I put Poison Pill in my deck?

My deflections came at the wrong time, so they were mostly worthless. James bled a little, but not enough to provide a big swing. I ousted AJ. Andy ousted James by tricking him into accepting a bleed for four instead of what he expected to be one to move the edge. I don't think James expected to win, but he wanted to play his game and resented not getting another turn to rush and/or bleed me.

When it came my turn to oust Andy, I miscalculated and probably could have ousted him if I had bled for four with a Conditioning instead of three (DOM vs dom bleeders). Right before that I forgot to use the coven, which Andy forgot to use and gave to me untapped. Had I used it early in my turn instead of trying to be clever and use it at the end, I could have saved an action that I had to use hunting. Andy bled a couple times and then bled me for four when I was tapped out, winning the game.

Andy GW 3vp me 1vp

Game Two:
Eric Haas (imbued)> Dennis Lien (Eternal Mask/IC tricks)> Me> Sean Ryan (AUS CEL +strength intercept combat)

Another very close game. I brought out dudes and tried to bleed responsibly, but was tooled pretty quickly by Sean's combat. With my minions low on blood and rescuing/hunting, Sean still didn't apply pressure to Eric. Eric was bounced to me and I ate a bleed for two, plus had a vampire banished and Might of the Camarilla'd. Before that, I had an incoming six-cap with two pool on him Mightily Mighted to my great dismay. Dennis took his burned dudes and animated them via Eternal Mask. A Heidelburg showed up, as did Martinelli's ring, so Eternal Mask was burned and Amenophobis was free to make more IC members. Neat trick.

I was almost out of blood and had only two mid-caps left when I eventually ousted Sean. Eric prevented me from being ousted by playing Determine on two of Dennis' actions. Had Dennis just bled me, I think he would have had the GW. I had a few pool, one minion in torpor with no blood and one ready with zero blood. The coven was out and was passed to me untapped. Since there were only us two players left, I unfortunately had no opportunity to use it before my turn, meaning that I could not pull of a rescue and prevent the hunt by giving Banjoko two blood. I don't think it would have mattered. I bled for six, hoping to draw into something, not sure what, and came up one short for the second game in a row.

Eric GW 3vp, me 1vp

From the Finals:

Eric ousted his first prey or no one was ousted, either way Eric was top seed and won. He was playing imbued and incurred a lot of table hate, but no one else ousted their prey.

Here's Eric's TWD:

Deck Name : Superstar at the Gay Bar
Author : Eric Haas
Description :

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 5 average: 4.25
------------------------------------------------------------

3x Travis "Traveler72 5 mar def Imbued:4
2x Jack "Hannibal137" 4 def jud Imbued:4
2x Paul "Sixofswords2 4 def vis Imbued:4
1x Jennie "Cassie247" 5 inn jud vis Imbued:4
1x John "Cop90" O'Mal 4 jud ven Imbued:4
1x Lupe "Cabbie22" Dr 4 def ven Imbued:4
1x Marion "Teacher193 4 red jud Imbued:4
1x Francois "Warden" 3 def jud Imbued:4


Library [73 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [1]
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal

Ally [4]
1x Moise Kasavubu
1x Ossian
1x Vagabond Mystic
1x Wendell Delburton (Hunter)

Combat [3]
3x Target Vitals

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

Equipment [8]
1x .44 Magnum
1x Crusader Sword, The
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
2x Saturday-Night Special
1x Sniper Rifle
1x Sport Bike

Event [5]
1x Anthelios, The Red Star
1x Dr. Marisa Fletcher, CDC
1x Dragonbound
2x Unmasking, The

Master [20]
6x Angel of Berlin
1x Church of Vindicated Faith, The
2x Direct Intervention
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Fame
1x Fortschritt Library
1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
1x Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter
1x Parthenon, The
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Society of Leopold
1x WMRH Talk Radio
2x Wider View

Power [10]
1x Champion
3x Discern
3x Rejuvenate
3x Vigilance

Reaction [4]
4x Determine

Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Sat Aug 13 20:01:06 2011]

Fire in the Blood
20 players
Hey look, the 2r+f seating matrix is mis-printed!

Game One:
Me (Antimalism !Tor AUS PRE)> Jeff (Become....)> Andy (Baali bloat and bleed)> AJ Reddy (sigh....)> AJ Wiley (!Malks with +1 bleed KS)

This game was not obviously un-balanced for the first half hour. Everyone took a little pool damage (AJR mostly inflicted it on himself), Jeff made a Becoming or two and made Procurers, stuff like that. I managed to block AJW a fair amount and hurt him with Catatonic Fear + TV. I Enchanted down to make a couple free or cheap guys.

When AJ had two minions and about 10-12 pool, Jeff and I started asking him about pool gain; namely, did he have any. He wasn't sure. Elysium: PV cost him two and Pappion cost him three. 3x Con Ag really messed up AJW, but without a way to deflect bleeds or pull blood off his minions, AJR would be taking at least three bleed a turn. He got close to ousting AJW when Andy did his Beast + Soul Gem trick, sneaking in three bleeds of three in one turn (Mylan helped). AJW continued to bleed forward and was ousted.

At this point, Jeff has 4-5 vampires and about 2 procurers, maybe an Army of Rats, too, but has made no significant inroads to Andy's pool due to lack of trying and lack of +bleed. I had been somewhat threatening with a +1 bleeder, Unholy Penance and a couple other minions, but Jeff only paid for 14 pool of minions. I told him I would provide no forward pressure until Andy was ousted. I managed to block basically anything that Andy did and Pentex the Great Beast, but Jeff's deck didn't have the ousting power to seal the deal before time. I eventually told Jeff I'd have to start taking the edge to keep him from gaining pool and he walled up. Staying alive and getting .5 vps was my best course of action from that point, so I did.

Andy GW 2.5 VP, Me and Jeff .5 vp, AJR and AJW get the boobie prize, 0.0.

Game Two:
Me> Eric (Weenie Tzim War Ghoul)> James Lin (Shemti + Fatty POT PRE)> Jeff Yin> Aaron Clark (Etrius and friends)

Jeff provided about the same amount of pressure on his prey as game one, but at least I was on the other side of him and had the defense to survive it. I let Eric do what he wanted and only bled him a little. He brought out a war ghoul, which he had exactly one turn to do something with before Aaron stole it. Aaron rushed me every turn with the War Ghoul, but Catatonic Fear and the occasional T:V took care of it. When Eric had James down to maybe 4-8 pool, I started to apply some forward pressure. I ousted Eric, then James drew into his Villeins and walled-up. I gave up trying to oust James after making no real inroads on his ~20 pool with hardly any time left. I walled up and managed to keep Aaron at bay until time, but not by much.

Me 1.5 vp, Aaron, James and Jeff .5 vp, Eric 0

I played another casual game, so I didn't get to see much of the finals. When I did make it in there, it was down to Andy Haas, Robert and Aaron. Robert had too much pool for Andy to really oust him and Aaron came up slightly short of ousting Andy. Robert and Aaron were tied at the time-out with 1.5 vps each, but Robert was the top seed.

Here is the TWD(the formatting is all messed up when I try to cut and paste so here is the link):

http://www.vekn.net/index.php/forum/9-event-reports-and-twd/8303-re-twd-fire-in-the-blood-san-jose#8629

Sunday, Bloody Sunday
6 player draft

We had a disappointing turn-out for the draft, but it was interesting nonetheless. We drafted 9 boosters (6x 3rd edition 3x BH), which turned out to be too much. I got a ton of good cards and hate drafted some, too. Even though we wouldn't normally have a recursion with 8+ boosters, we decided to have one because I think that makes drafts more interesting.

Me (aus dom w/obf & for)> James Lin (weenies + weapons B&B) Aaron (weenie !Nos bleed + wall)> Andy Fernandez (stealthy B&B)> Robert (Lasombra tool up and knock you out)> Matt Wedge (Black Hand B&B)

All decks were, of course, toolboxy. Notably, Aaron had Pentex Loves you, Vermin Channel, Raptors and The Rack, Andy had Rumor Mill, Robert had Major Boon, Agg damage stuff, and Black Metamorphosis, and Matt had a lot of weenies. Matt eventually stole the Rumor mill, which discouraged me from taking many undirected actions. I started out by playing a Slave Auction for six, which I followed later with a Ventrue Investment for two or three and King's Rising.

James spent some pool bringing out a Bang Nak and I bled him out with a sneaky beed or three. Aaron put up a good defense with the Rack + Rapor. I would have Washed The Rack, but I wasn't paying attention when it was played and only noticed on the next turn. Oh well. Robert took some heavy pool loss from Andy and eventually Major Booned Andy, ousting himself. Matt was on the ropes for a while, but came back. I had enough S:CE and prevent to deal with a lot of his combat, plus I brought out more minions than I would have without the constant pool gain. I didn't have any wakes, so I had to time things carefully.

Aaron killed Andy and Matt, but I eventually stripped his minions of blood and locked him down. Succubus was key to slowing Aaron down and bully bleeding him.

Here's my deck, which was much better than previous draft decks I've made. I think it was the number of boosters rather than any particular drafting superpowers.

Crypt:
2x Orlando Oriundus
Jefferson Foster
Ulrike Rothbart
Jephta Hester
Kestelle Hayes
Polly Kay Fisher
Malgorzata
Carmen
Aksinya Daclau
Rashid Stockton

Masters:
2x Cadet
Wash
Trophy: Chosen
Drop Point Network
Framing an Ancient Grudge
Art of Love
Slave Auction
Ventrue Investment
King's Rising
Tribute to the Master

Actions and things like actions:
Enchant Kindred
Cardinal Benediction
Peace Treaty
Transfer of Power
Ruins of Ceoris
Succubus
Hexaped

Action Mods:
2x Shadow Play
2x Empowering the Puppet King
Foreshadowing Destruction
Veil the Legions

Combat:
2x Superior Mettle
2x Psychic Assault
Chript. Marauder
Burst of Sunlight
Staredown
Rolling with the Punches
Dodge
Theft of Vitae

Reactions:
3x Forced Vigilance
Darksight
Instinctive Reaction
Precognition
Redirection