V:TES Tournament Report: Raleigh, NC (2000)

Tournament Report
Raleigh, NC
Summer 2000
Constructed (3+F)
12-15 players

Round 1:
     (0VP) :
     (VP) : Me: Ventrue/Toreador Princely Patience
     (VP): Jose LaFuente: Tremere ashtray
     (VP) :
     (VP) :

I don't remember what happened here, except that Jose burned some more vampires, and I had to have pulled a few VP out of this round, since I made the finals.

Round 2:
     (4VP) ???:Malkavian Sneak'n'Bleed
     (VP) Jason Daniels: Brujah rush/intercept princes with auspex
     (1VP) Me:
     (VP) Steve Coombs: Assamite bruise'n'bleed
     (VP) ???:

After lots of cajoling and such, I ended up ousting Steve, having three consecutive ousting bleeds negated by an Eagle's Sight, a Life Boon, and a D.I., provided by Jason over the course of several turns. Actually, I think Steve was initially my predator, and we were switched via Kindred Restructure (although I don't remember who called it). The Sneak'n'Bleeder took advantage of all the confusion to win the other four VP through standard means.

Round 3:
     (VP) Rob Grau: Anson/Arika all-masters deck
     (VP) Jason Daniels:
     (0VP) Me:
     (1VP) LSJ: Weenie animalism?
     (1VP) ???:

To make things short, I got rushed by my predator, blocked by my prey, and received miscellaneous damage and non-support from cross table, so I got squished in short order. I spent the majority of this round checking out the tasty cheap pizza joint on the corner. It was good to see the all-masters deck make an appearance. I hadn't seen it since Dragon-Con, and it was collecting VP in the Anarch/Minion Tap/Golconda way.

Final: with preliminary tournament rankings
     (0VP) Me:
     (?VP) Mr. X: Ventrue Law Firm votes
     (?VP) Rob Grau:
     (?VP) Jeff Dai:Tremere bleed/kill
     (?VP) Mr. Y:Malk Sneak'n'Bleed

I've screwed up many a time in V:TES games, but this one is my gold standard for snafu. I've got a Law Firm vote deck to my left, and the sneak'n'bleeder chose to sit to my right (probably based on his succes in round 2. I was kind of in a screwed position, since I didn't have enough deflection to bounce a steady stream of 4 and 5 bleed, and only had one Archon Investigation to play. So my only hope lay in the Kindred Restructure that sat in my hand. I influenced Queen Anne, my prey influenced some prince or another, Rob influenced Arika and surprisingly didn't play a minion tap, and Jeff influenced Justine (I think).
So I went fishing for an Awe, and came up with one after about 6 or 7 cards. All of a sudden I had a chance to go from bleed bait to a VP or more. I stealthed the Restructure past somebody's block attempt, dropped the Awe, and decided that I could just spend blood for Awe as needed over the course of the referendum. Wrong. So instead of emptying Queen Anne (for 22 votes total), I spent four blood (10 votes total) to pass the vote by 1, was shot down by a stray vote card, and remained as bleed bait for the first oust of the game. What a total pisser. The obvious play was to empty out Queen Anne, and if the vote was delayed (or worse), then I was ousted anyway. There was no need to try a safety vote. I was so absolutely pissed with myself that I just sulked around the store, looking at art and books while the finals played out.

Last Updated on 09/04/2002
evilpootcat@yahoo.com
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