Tournament Report
Lafayette, LA
January 12, 2002
15-Player Constructed (3+F)
Game Wins. Whether they suck or not, they sure gave us something to run our mouths about for an entire weekend.
Round 1:
(0VP) Ethan Burrow: !Tor celerity Hand damage
(1VP) Brian Reed: weenie potence rush
(0VP) Me: !Malk Derange and Bleed
(2VP) ????: !Tor Bleed/Bounce/Run Away
(2VP) Norman Brown: Pot/For/San Blood Brother Rush n' Bloat
I botched this round with a mega-critical error, in that I saw Brian flip a potence weenie on turn 1, and waited for Ethan to apply pressure. Ethan was crushed by the blood brothers horde and couldn't apply pressure, so Brian got too much of an advantage, and I was unable to acquire lockdown. Ethan was ousted either right before or after I was (near the 20- minute mark), and Brian fell to Norm's horde some time afterward. Norm eventually succumbed to the !Tor over the next hour.
Round 2:
(2.5VP) Me
(0VP) Rob:
(1VP) Norman Brown
(0VP) Mike Ooi: Tzi block and bleed (and occasionally kill)
(1.5VP) Oscar Garza: Tzi block and kill
While I was transferring out Anatole in the first two turns, Rob brought out a dom/DOM minion and bled Norm for 5 or 6, unblockably. Just in case Norm didn't have a rush in hand, I stuck a Lunatic Eruption on the offending minion, which went to torpor shortly afterward. I eventually acquired lockdown on Rob with a few Hauntings, a few Eruptions, a rush or two from Norm, and one timely SUMMON THE ABYSS (which scored my first moral VP of the tourney). I ousted Rob with help from his own Anarch Revolt, sometime after the halfway mark.
Mike and Oscar were pretty much slugging it out; Oscar jammed on combat early, and when the jam was cleared, got to trade mutual Rotschreks with Mike, among other vic/ani nastiness. Mike got most of his bleeds through early, and put Oscar on the defensive. I eventually had to put a Haunting on Mike's Royce, to slow him down a bit. Oscar ended up surviving due to (a) a Rack/Blood Doll combination on Little Tailor, and (b) some timely untap/intercept. Norm ousted Mike on a few Walk of Caine bleeds.
Norm was an extremely tough oust, due to his Blood Dolls, Unwholesome Bond, Victory Point, and their consequent pool gain. Lockdown using The Haunting was not possible, due to the Blood Dolls, but it cut down on the pool gain. I brought out Gisela after midgame, and used her to nuke a 4-blood vamp, which would either have been pool gain, or an extra minion. Madman's Quill allowed me to bleed for 2 with my minions, and the thin Fortitude and Reality Mirror (to use one of Norm's prevent cards) were enough to turn Norm's upstream rushes into wasted actions. I think I got the second VP with 10 minutes left, then walled up with The Call and a Blood Doll for the half-VP and game win.
Round 3:
(2VP) Chris Boget: Brujah Princes and Archons cel/pot Rush
(1VP) Me:
(0VP) Edgar ???: Malk Sneak 'n Bleed
(1VP) Chad Brinkley: Ventrue Law Firm
(1VP) Mike Ooi
Last round, the Freak Drives rose to the top, this time, the Lunatic Eruptions did. Edgar brought out Gilbert Duane, Mariel, and one other Malk, which were sent rushing to their left in short order, but not before bleeding Chad for 10 or so (with two actions). Chris stuck an Anathema on Theron, put an Archon on some Brujah or another, and burned Theron shortly afterward. Still, Edgar was stuck with rushing left while I nibbled at his pool.
At some point in this round, Mike decided that he wanted to do a 3-2 split with his prey, and took no forward pressure actions or blocks after turn 3 or 4. Hence, Chris had a free hand in calling votes, although the Ventrue cross-table made passage somewhat difficult. I had to talk Mike out of removing the Eruptions cross-table, by using the (valid) logic that if Edgar had freedom of action, Edgar would be bleeding Mike out at stealth, either directly, or via Deflection.
Things got a bit testy when Chris and Mike started discussing terms of the split. Much discussion ensued, and Edgar (with nothing to do but rush his prey) ultimately transferred himself out to break up the deal. Mike did toss a superior Revelations on Chris, which turned up some very revealing information about Chris's deck: Second Trad, Archon, maneuver, grapple, and punch.
I held on as long as possible, to try and drive the game towards timeout. Anatole's special was instrumental in this effort, as I was able to see some Auspex-based bleed defense lurking at the top of the library. I cycled out my actions, dumped a few Hauntings on Chad, cycled a few Freak Drives, and loaded my hand with the Auspex cards, some prevent, and another Reality Mirror, which were successfully used for defense.
Eventually, Chris ousted me, but after more futile jockeying, the three remaining players took a withdrawal.
Round 3 1/2 (dinner):
The entire crew
We drove eastward from town, out highway 90, to a side-of-the-road seafood place. We sat down, put in our orders, and were each (except those that ordered differently) presented with about 1 pool worth of boiled crawfish. One pool apparently buys about 8,000-10,000 crawfish. We whittled down the pile of mudbugs until we were dragged out the door by those that had finished earlier. As we piled out of the restaurant and into the cars for the trip back to Norm's for the final, I heard a voice, at once from nowhere and everywhere: "Bleed for one, successful."
Final: with preliminary tournament rankings
(4)(0VP) Me
(2)(5VP) Rob
(4)(0VP) Oscar
(3)(0VP) Jeff Thompson: Pre/Spi Bleed and Untap with a Mark V
(1)(0VP) Chris
Rob played a Parthenon/Info Highway combo on round 1. Chris chose to sit to my right. Those two factors guaranteed that I could not gain VP by moving left, as Chris would oust me in a matter of a few turns. Fortunately, Chris made a critical mistake by choosing to sit to my right, when he actually had a predator this time. Rob spent the first half of the game governing down, making deals to not Sudden Reversal various master cards to buy himself time. Oscar kept an eye on Rob, Jeff got in Chris' way a few times, and Chris pulled off an Anathema (and burn) on my Anatole. At that time, my only chance to get VP at all, was to last until Rob made his move, and hope he lost enough minions to the two intercept/untap/kill decks for me to take him with one minion (Ian Forrestal). The only way to last was to keep Chris from bleeding. So, I tossed a Lunatic Eruption on each of Chris' three ready minions, in hopes that he would handjam on non-combat cards like he did in Round 3 (while the Revelations was in play, so I had an idea of how Chris' deck flowed).
The breaking point of the game happened when Oscar blocked a few of Jeff's actions. Combat ensued, and I think both players lost a vamp or two. Chris mandatorily rushed, and amaranthed Gisela with vote help from Oscar. Rob took this opportunity to bleed Oscar out with his seven dom/DOM vamps, at a cost of two vamps in torpor, and some other wandering damage.
Jeff regrouped and prepared defense, Chris mandatorily rushed again, and had two minions sent to torpor. I stuck a haunting on Chris' last minion, forcing it to hunt. Rob brought out an Anarch Revolt, a Powerbase:Montreal, and bled into Jeff's handful of untap, maneuver, and Mark V, losing two or three more minions. and some more scattered damage. Jeff came up a wake short, and was ousted. Chris, having no usable minions left, was ousted either the same or next turn. I stole the powerbase, brought out a minion, and used that to pay for the Revolt.
Rob ousted Chris, and had three vamps left with four blood between them. So I let Ian play a Summon the Abyss, to force two hunts next turn. Rob then drew into (and played) two more Anarchs, which ousted me, before I could try to acquire lockdown. Prior to being ousted, I pulled off the Summon the Abyss, forcing two of his three minions to hunt.
Pickup games, in no particular order (Deck owners are listed in parens, when played by someone else)
Pickup 1:
(4VP) Oscar: Toreador bloat
(0VP) Norman: !Brujah vote and fight
(0VP) Me: aus/obf Intercept/Disguised Weapon
(1VP) Edgar: Weenie presence bleed/vote + clan hosers (Oscar)
(0VP) Chris: Daughters of Cacophony voting.
Chris swapped places with me, and used Echo of Harmonies to keep the vote around, but his deck lost effectiveness from the ~20 table votes controlled by Norm and Oscar. I stonewalled the weennies, and then blocked Chris' alternating attempts to oust his prey and predator. Oscar got out a ton of permanents (Antediluvians, Smiling Jack, Toreador Grand Ball, etc.) and ousted Norm and Chris in order. I eventually let Edgar bleed me out to break up the sweep.
Pickup 2:
(2VP) Rob: "CRUSH!" (me)
(?VP) Mike O.: Ravnos voting swarm
(0VP) me: Homework Assignment: "Break Ian with Bloodlines"
(0VP) Brian: Setite multi-venenation Corruption deck. (Sorrow)
My submission for the !Tor Newsletter Homework Assignment: "Agaitas, Scholar of Ian Forrestal". I only had two Ians; I transferred them from my tourney crypt to this deck, where they ended up vamps #10 and 11 in the crypt. So I spent most of this game watching Rob tear up the table with my superior potence rush deck, and Mike bring out a vast assembelage of Clan-Impersonated Ravnos and vote-related locations. At some point, Mike called an Upheaval to switch with Brian. We decided to keep our seating positions and track Predator/Prey separately, which resulted in the Coven being uncontrolled for most of the remaining game.
Big highlights from this game included a 2-action corruption of Jimmy Dunn: Qufur bleeds (Jimmy blocks), then venenation/mask(Nepata)/venenation/mask(Count Ormonde(?)/venenation/change of target/Corruption. Consequently, all three offending Setites were sent to torpor or burned the next turn or two.
Pickup 3:
I don't remember what happened here, just that we called the game due to sunrise.
Pickup 4:
(4 (2.5?)VP) Ethan: A lot of +bleeders
(0VP) Norm: Ravnos Mass Reality/Zip Gun
(0VP) Me: Tha/Pot experiment: Pot strike, Tha maneuver/press.
(0 (.5?)VP) Brian: Toreador Prince/Justicar
This was another 20-table vote game. I gave my new tha/pot deck a test run; it ate up Norm's Ravnos, then succumbed to Ethan's Inner Circle/10-cap deck. I drained (and should have torped) Brian's Anneke; I figured an effective bleed of 10 was good enough (I was wrong). Out came the 5th Trads and Minion Taps, and I couldn't do anything but send most of Norm's vamps to torpor. Ethan swept through Norm and I, then spent about an hour trying to oust Brian. I can't remember if he did, or enough people had awakened by that time to play another game.
Last Updated on 09/04/2002
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