Tournament Report
DragonCon 2002
Atlanta, GA
Unsanctioned Standard Booster Draft (3 + F).
August 31, 2002
12 Players
Round 1
(3 vp): Tom Sanford: Tremere bruise'n'bleed.
(0 vp): Card Miner A: Political Action Card vote push.
(1 vp): me: Nosferatu blocking weapons
(0 vp): ___x___: I couldn't tell.
Someone passed me a Baltimore Purge in the draft, they were too busy drafting Minion Taps..:P The straight booster draft went very well; I actually put together a coherent deck for the first time in draft, Tom got a Termere Bleed'n'ash deck, and the other two guys got jack.
Miner apparently didn't know about the no-vote-push rule, and drafted every political action he could find, hoping to drop two or three on an action and pass a vote. Well, that didn't work, per c. 1997 errata, and my predator transferred himself out via Secret Horde, and bailed from the tournament.
My prey was doing something wacky with malkavians and toreador, I think he drafted the dementation and obfuscate of the pod, and included some toreador masters in his deck. So I just bled him out, and was quickly ousted afterward by Tom's tremere horde.
Round 2
(0 vp): David Quinones:
(2 vp): David Tatu:
(2 vp): Joe Churchill:
(0 vp): me:
I'm not quite clear what happened here, although the game was over very quickly, and I got squished. I remember bringing out Gemini, moving two or three blood off of David's uncontrolled vamps, and getting ousted. Someone drafted an effective deck, apparently.
Someone from nathair.com wandered in and snapped a picture[66kb] during the round, providing a rare illustration of a V:TES tournament in progress; The V:TES tourney is on the green tables. This game is in the middle, David Q. is in the red shirt center-frame. Steve Wieck and Robyn Tatu (both facing camera) play on the near table with someone I can't remember. One day, I'll actually scan in those pictures I took of these tournaments. Assuming I can find where I put the film, of course :D
Round 3
(.5 vp): ___p___: ????
(.5 vp): ___q___: Malkavian/Toreador bleed/vote
(.5 vp): Chad Brinkley: Toreador bleed/vote.
(.5 vp): me:
This game was a mess. Prior to starting, I was informed of a ruling on Maris Streck: She can burn as much blood as she wants for a given action, to give +x intercept to a minion. When she is tapped. Which meant I could add as much intercept as I wanted. Kind of wierd, not really in line with the printed text, so, like the Lunatic Eruption ruling at Gencon earlier in the month, I got to playtest some errata. With that in mind, I got a powerbase:DC, a Secret Horde, an Ivory Bow, and dug in, to see just how effective the 'new' Maris would be.
Maris generated about 10 or 11 cheap intercept over the course of the game, and single-handedly saved my butt. (ok, maybe with assistance from an occasional wake or transient intercept) for a half-VP.
Dragon's Breath
V:EKN Constructed (3 + F)
September 1, 2002
16 Players
After GenCon's impromptu errata of Lunatic Eruption, I pulled all the Lunatic Eruptions from the deck, and replaced them with Kindred Spirits and stealth. When I found out we'd be playing 4-player tables, I switched to "Big Potence Beatdown." Then I found out I was missing a vampire from that crypt. So back to the Malk-Anti's I went. As it turned out, I should have left the Lunatics in there.
Round 1
(1 vp): Me: Malkavian Antitribu Refitted Sneak'n'Bleed
(0 vp): David Quinones: Toreador something-or-other.
(2 vp): Tom Sanford: Toreador First Tradition/Anarchs.
(1 vp): ????: Protean/Dominate Form of Mist bleed.
Well, David brought out Anneke, then Tom contested Anneke, I got some bleed/stealth on top, and bled my way to a VP. Then Tom, regaining control of Anneke, dropped a 1st Tradition and a couple of KRC, and introduced Millicent Smith to the scene.
A small note: the new Millicent Smith artwork casts Audrey Hepburn as the Puritan Vampire Hunter.
I took 2 of those KRC damage, which cost Tom another VP, because ???? was consistently bleeding me for 3-6 per turn, with Protean sneakiness. I dropped a derange on Anneke to prevent further Traditions from hitting the table, which put Tom in the nice position of having to burn two pool to attempt to move the derange, with Kite hanging out ready to block. So that slowed him down a while, but not slow enough to throw another 2 pool of KRC damage my way. So ???? bled me out before Tom could oust him. The whole round lasted about 45 minutes.
Round 2
(.5 vp): Ben Peal: Gangrel/Ravnos Protean/Chimerstry/Dominate contraption.
(.5 vp): Me:
(.5 vp): Jeff Thompson: Lasombra blocking wall.
(.5 vp): Robyn Tatu:
I picked up a good game here. Jeff was playing the deck I saw cross-table in Origins' Sunday tournament. Robyn was playing what looked like David's Nossie-vote deck. Ben had brought some sort of Protean/Dominate/Chimerstry conglomeration, involving Deflection, Conditioning, Draba, and Form of Mist. Yuck. I thought I had a chance for a VP, until (a) Jeff put the second Guardian Angel on Angelica (the Canonicus), and (b) Robyn avoided putting Jeff's vamps in torpor. I did manage to get Jeff down to 2 pool, however, the multiple Guardian Angels nullifed the disguised Ivory Bow, and the Lucky Blow I'd played.
So I had no other option but to wall up and hope Jeff ran into some potence from Robyn. And that didn't happen. Actually, Robyn was extra careful to not put any of Jeff's vampires in torpor. She's knows that I keep an eye on my grandprey, and may have been afraid that I would oust her quickly if I ousted Jeff. So I had nothing to do but hang on to my A.I. and try to draw Robyn's attention to her prey.
Ben got an Ivory Bow on one of his pro/chi/ani guys, and I contested, hoping to remove Robyn's deterrent by negating the agg. damage and bleeding her prey for one a turn. She didn't take the bait, Jeff got into some bloat, and I yielded the Bow for pool retention.
Wackiness happened on the last turn. Jeff rescued my Artemis, who was in torpor after running low on blood and blocking some bleed or another. Robyn didn't do much, Ben tried to bleed through. I reduced one bleed, blocked one bleed (sending Artemis to torpor), took a bleed of 3, and with four pool left, played my A.I. on Ben's last bleed of four. I got through my turn with one pool left, and time expired before Ben got another turn. So I increased at least one rank on Ben's Least Favorite Prey list.
Round 3
(0 vp): Kat Sanborn: Malkavian Dominate Sneak and Bleed (tm).
(0 vp): Jason Bell: Weenie Dominate Tap and Bleed (tm).
(4 vp): Derek Ray: Giovanni Dominate Power Bleed (tm).
(0 vp): Me: No-Auspex-in-the-Crypt-Draw Bounce Sink.
Moment of Karma: Kat took some time to read a card from her hand, when I announced a bleed for 2. I had that gut feel she was reading Archon Investigation, especially after I had used one about 10 minutes earlier. And if I'd known it was Tom's deck, I'd have definitely bled for three, given Tom's comments about A.I. earlier in the weekend. But I said 'What-the-hell, I'll push the bleed to 4 anyway'. So Kat played the A.I., burning Artemis, and the loss of minion left me without the bleed power needed to outrun Derek. Actually, that screw-up (well, actually, it's not a screw-up if you really don't care to begin with) cost me two VP, because Jason had a go-forward deck that was all jammed-up on something. So Derek beat me to the first VP, then rolled up Kat and Jason in short order.
Last Updated on 09/09/2003
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