Tournament Notes
Dragon*Con
August/September 2001
3 (of 3) Tournaments
Tourney: Eternal Vigilance
~20-Player Constructed (2 + F)
First Round:(0vp)
(0VP) Me: Got Bribes?
(2vp) Oscar Garza: Tzi block/kill
(1vp) TJ "Filler" Fullington: Crypt Machine
(0VP) Jason Daniel: Brujah Rush (w/Theo)
(2VP) Chad Brinkley: Tzi block/kill
Well, this one was over early. My +1 Stealth vote deck, stuck between two +x intercept decks. TJ kept trying to bring out minions, got blocked and killed by either Oscar or Jason. The Crypt Machine eventually claimed Jason as a victim, then Chad and Oscar wussed out with a 2-2 split deal.
Second Round:(3vp)
(0VP) Larry Strait: Ravnos lockdown and bleed
(3VP) Me
(1VP) Steve W: Obt/Dom sneak&bleed
(0VP) "Iron" Jack: Malkavian Sneak&bounce&bleed
(1VP) Kelly Nine: Dom/For/Pro Stanislava and friends.
Karma came around. After sitting through nasty intercept and B.S. table splits, I got stuck between two stealth decks. Woohoo! "John Doe" tossed some Sensory Deprivations backwards to shut down Kelly's bleed monsters. Kelly played about 5 Force of Wills and bled the guy out anyway. :) In the meantime, Steve ousted Jack with heinous amounts of Sneak&Bleed, and I acquired vote lock. I then called a ton of votes, bled some, and ousted Steve. Kelly almost got me, and probably would have in another turn or two, but I managed to have just enough bleed/vote in hand to pick up the other 2VP.
Tourney: Dragon's Breath
~45-Player Constructed (3 + F)
First Round:(1vp)
(1VP) Me: Big Potence will punch for lots.
(0VP) Shane Strait : Nossie Vote
(3VP) Chad: Setite Sneak&bleed
(1VP) Rob Grau: Big Aus/Tha block/bleed/kill
(0VP) Jason Daniel: Brujah Princes w/ Theo Bell
I was way late to this tournament, after spending some quality time talking to Steve "Shambling Hordes" Ellis in the art room. Or, I just overslept, I can't remember which day I did which. In any case, I had to choose a deck while everyone else was cutting their decks. So, I grabbed my pre-Final Nights "All Potence, All the time" deck.
The first round, I swarmed my prey, who didn't help his own cause by throwing KRC damage to my predator, who sent a Brujah over to torporize some hapless Nossie prince or another. With little pressure, Chad established his Setite bleed machine, and proceeded to Legal Manipulate/Entice Rob out of the game. Jason fell shortly afterward, and Chad and I exchanged several turns of "Does he have an Immortal Grapple in hand" vs. "Does he have a Majesty in hand?", until Chad finally ousted me with some more presence bleed.
Second Round:(0vp)
(0VP) Kevin: Weenie Presence Vote
(0VP) Me:
(2VP) Patrick O'Shea: "Brains...."
(2VP) Larry Strait: Brujah cel/pot/pre Bruise/Bleed
Kevin lives in New Hampshire, I believe. How and why he turns up in Atlanta for Dragon*Con every year, I don't know. I do know to beware of him, as he's an excellent player. So I had to torp all of Kevin's vamps(Gideon, Violette P., Delilah E.) that "John Doe" didn't take care of, just to stay alive. Then I wasted a couple of Patricks Shambling Hordes (and a Giovanni), and then all of "John Doe"'s Brujah (Constanza, Theo, Anvil). On my last turn, I had to tap out to torp Constanza, due to a timely Obedience played by "John Doe". Patrick then struck the only legitimate 2-2 split deal I've ever seen, by which he would rescue Constanza, "John Doe" would use Constanza to oust me, and then "John Doe" would roll over. Constanza comes out, calls a Domain Challenge, and ousts me. So instead of disposing of all Patrick's minions on my next turn, and rolling to 3VP and a shot at the finals, I was left with 0VP and the taste of chewed-up aspirin.
Third Round:(1vp)
(2VP) Jared Strait: Serpentis/Fortitude/Presence
(2VP) Foolboy: Nossie prince bleed for one.
(0VP) Norm Brown: Caitiff causing trouble.
(1VP) Me:
(0VP) Ethan Burrow: Setites!
My Grandpredator's name is irrelevant; I'll call him Foolboy. I've never seen him before, and hope to never sit at a table with him again, unless (a) he gets a clue, or (b) he's my prey. Jared played this guy like a hand puppet, using Foolboy's votes to push damage and/or Banishment to Norm and Ethan, ousting Norm (preventing a likely sweep from Norm), and neutering Ethan. And Foolboy was clueless to the whole thing. Jared was sitting there with Suhaliah, ready to take Calebros' title from Foolboy at Jared's convenience. But why do that, and draw attention to yourself, when you can give your prey a sense of purpose, give the rest of the table another target? So Jared used his clueless prey to set up a (sweep - 1). In the meantime, I was getting embarrased by Basil the Flamethrowing Hidden Lurker, who always seemed to catch me without an Immortal Grapple in hand. So my guys kept bouncing in and out of torpor, and/or staying untapped to block the 7-9 Caitiff behind me.
Ethan eventually said 'screw this' and self-ousted to keep Jared from getting Ethan's VP. Foolboy's usefulness had elapsed by this point, so Jared swiped Calebros' title. I rushed into another Obedience (this one by Jared), then turned the other way, and wiped out two of Foolboy's remaining three vamps, except for Nikolas Vermullen. I then ousted myself, to give someone other than Jared my VP. As Jared played a Form of Corruption to steal Foolboy's Nikolas, and was reaching over to take the Prince, Foolboy looked at me with the vacant look of cluelessness. I went upstairs to join Ethan and Norm, where we bitched and moaned in our Newcastle.
Tourney: Night Moves
~25-Player Constructed (2 + F)
First Round: (1vp)
(1.5VP) Kevin ____: Brujah Rush
(0VP) Conor Key: Big Tremere Bleed/burn/block
(1.5VP) Me: Freak Drivin' Looneys
(0VP) David Tatu: Weenie Fortitude Undead Persistance Rush
This tournament was the first test of the dementation/fortitude concept, later played in Lafayette, Jan. 2002.
The idea is to stick as much sticky cards (Haunting, Total Insanity, Lunatic Eruption, Derange) as possible on your prey and/or predator, giving them something to do besides get VP. This deck is especially rough on Weenies, as the Hauntings take effect quickly.
Basically, I glued a bunch of Lunatic Eruptions and Hauntings on Tatu's fortitude weenies. The Loony ones rushed Kevin's Brujah, which was vastly entertaining to watch from my seat. Kevin took some damage, but not enough to keep him from unleashing his Brujah on Conor's Tremere, to great effect. David's minions eventually either went to torpor from over-combat, or stayed tapped hunting. Conor attempted to bleed me out with a Govern, but fortunately for me, Javier Montoya doesn't have dominate. I ousted David, and tied up Kevin enough to score a timeout.
Second Round:(0vp)
(0VP) Rob Grau: Big Aus/Tha block/bleed/kill
(4VP) Jared Strait: !Ventrue Atonement block/kill/bleed
(0VP) Robyn Merril: Mid-cap Presence bleed/vote
(0VP) Me
This one was my fault. I allowed a sweep because I wasn't paying attention to what was going on cross-table. I should have just ousted myself after Robyn's third Hostile Takeover. After losing Dolphin Black, and paying twice to keep Anatole (or the other way around, I can't remember), I was left with two minions and not a lot of pool. This was after I'd tied up all of Rob's minions either hunting, or rushing into Jared's "+2/3 intercept with a Sniper Rifle" deck. Jared drew into his dominate bleed and played it with perfect timing, ousting Robyn after she tapped out to bleed me. After that, neither Rob nor I had enough viable minions to block the assaults.
Last Updated on 09/06/2002
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