Tournament Notes
Columbia, SC
December 2, 2000
~18-Player Constructed (3 + F)
Overall, I had the best four games of V:TES yet, in this tournament. Most of it is a blur at this time, but the quality of the games was largely due to tables comprised entirely of experienced, sharp players.
1st Round:
VPs Player (Deck)
2.5 David Davila (Malk Sneaky Vote/Bleed)
1 Traci Bitonti (!Toreador Sneaky Bleed)
0 Jose LaFuente (!Ventrue "Dawn Bleeders")
0 Conor Key (!Toreador Cel-gun combat)
0.5 Mike Perlman ("Sneaky" Blood Dolls of Kephran)
This game had a few interesting moments. Namely: (1) Traci and Conor alternated Palla Grandes, maintaining a constant +1 bleed for all their !Toreador, (2) Jose and Conor kept busy, via Jose's Dawn Op bleeds; Conor would maneuver to long and shoot, then Jose's minions would prevent. (3) I got to bluff Conor (who had 2 pool) with the threat of Night Moves bleeds, if he tried to oust me (with Palla Grande bleeds) and failed; So Conor walled up for a while, building strength and keeping Jose in check. I can't remember if Traci ousted Jose before being ousted herself, but I'll go with that for now. In either case, Conor was left extremely weakened, and was an easy VP for David. During the meantime, I was bloated up right nicely, and couldn't be ousted in the timeframe.
2nd Round:
VPs Player (Deck)
0.5 Trey Morita(?) (Weenie Protean Horde)
0.5 Justin Lacey (!Toreador Vote)
1.5 Mike Perlman
0 Chris Miller (Toreador Presence Bleed)
0.5 Traci Bitonti
Chris overextended this round, and I ousted him. That was the only VP earned during the round. At some time, Justin flipped his lid and put himself as my prey, where I promptly couldn't oust him, due to Greta's special (and some timely voter-caps on miscellaneous votes. I did bloat pretty well, though, enough to resist Traci's bleeds, and hang on for another .5 VP.
3rd Round:
VPs Player (Deck)
1.5 Mike Perlman
0 Rob Grau (!Ventrue Vote/Anti-vote)
2.5 Todd Banister (Nossie Prince voting)
0 ????? (Toreador Princes & Babies)
0 Chris Miller
I had my best library of the day in this round. Parthenon and Dreams on turn 1, Secret Library on turn 3, Storage Annex on turn 4. So I was busy setting up pool gain, and Chris pulled out Anneke. Having seen him play Aire during the second round, I started bleeding Rob some, to fish for the A.I. Then Anneke became Legendary. I stopped pool gain and went full-bore A.I.-fishing, by bleeding Rob and using the Secret Library. So, I cycled about 20 cards in two turns, and drew up the A.I., along with a D.I. and a Sudden. I marked the D.I. for a vote, the Sudden for a Minion Tap, and the A.I. for Anneke. The plan here was to not play an OOT master until I burned Anneke. So over the next two or three turns, Rob Minion Tapped Lazvernius, Todd damaged me for 10-pool worth of cross-table votes, and Anneke did non-bleeding actions. Eventually, I tapped out and Chris sent Anneke to her doom, which eliminated 5 votes, 4 bleed, 10 pool, and freed up the other two OOT masters. I eventually played the DI on a damage vote once Todd was my predator, and the Sudden on a Minion Tap or Tribute, I can't remember which.
I had to emergency bloat in this endgame, and have my minions hunt instead of waiting to equip Blood Tears. That resulted in loss of minions, from Todd's Second Traditions. I did lose minions, but also held on for the remaining .5 VP.
Finals:
VPs Player (Deck)
0 Wayne ______ (!Toreador Brainwash/Pentex Lockdown)
3 Todd Banister
1 Trey Morita(?)
0 Mike Perlman
1 David Davila
I had the brainpower for three rounds, but not four. Wayne immediately dropped a bunch of brainwash on Todd, who managed to bring out Nikolas Vermulen. The unpressured Trey brought out his minions, and provided constant bleed. (Critical Mistake #1) I should have just shelled up and looked for 1/2 VP, but when I used Scrying of Secrets to see that David didn't have any minion tap in his near future, I shifted gears forward and went for oust. David eventually ousted Wayne, with vote support from Todd. (Critical Mistake #2) At some point, I used my D.I. on Trey's Raven Spy, instead of holding out for something more important, like, say, a BUM'S RUSH that sank my 2-blood doll minion, which eventually led to my being ousted . No, I D.I.'ed the Raven Spy, and proceeded to handjam on stealth.
I put enough pressure on David to force him to switch with Todd, and use his vote lock as defense. I thought I was immediately done after watching Todd's pool gain in third round, but Todd's early minion taps had been eaten up by some heavy bleeding by Wayne and David. So I got Todd down to two pool, and had the VP lined up. Then, I was ousted when Trey bled me for 6, using his first Computer Hacking of the game (drawn during his master phase).
(Critical Mistake #3) When reporting my deck type to Joe, I laid out my crypt to determine my clan assortment. Out pops the Powerbase:Montreal, which I sleeved during the third round, and shuffled into my crypt afterwards. So instead of fourth place, I got DQ'ed. Just, damn.
Last Updated on 09/04/2002
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