This was a mistake.
After having a leisurely breakfast, I decided to doublecheck the starting time, for my own peace of mind, at around 9:30AM.
We were 30 minutes late. Weak. Devin and I raced down to see what was going on, but Robb was in the shower and said he'd be a few. Kevin Mergen was just seating people as we arrived, and graciously rearranged some 4 player tables so that Devin and I could play. Robb missed the first round.
I decided to play Baali. I wasn't going to do this; I had offered to loan the deck to Dave McCarty out of Southwest MI, who I'd run into the day before. Dave said he didn't have a deck. I really wanted someone to play the Baali deck in a tourney, because I think it's got some interesting things going for it. It's still a huge gamble playing Baali, but what the hell.
No, seriously.
Anyway, Dave didn't show up for the tourney, and I decided, with what little time I had to think while setting up to play, that I would play my Baali deck instead. It went okay. I played badly a number of times. I don't think I could have done much better than I did, even if I'd played better. I got hosed more by luck than by my own failures, particularly in the third round. It makes me feel better to think so, anyway. On Sunday I just plain failed. I'll get to that next time. . .
Deck Name: Flock Off
Created by: Merlin
Description: I wanted to play Tend the Flocks, so I put together a crypt that would give me the most out of the minions while leaving the actual crypt draw to less of a chance. Wider View makes it moot after you get moving, but get out the biggest guy in your opening draw and Tend down, a la Govern, seemed like an itneresting idea. Most of the bleed actions gain me a pool, so the minion is paying for itself, hopefully. If I can get the unnamed and play some I Am Legion, mores the better. I've found that having the Ruins in play is actually clutch for this deck's success. I'm considering adding another copy or two so that I get them earlier. Seems like I should really have a Giant's Blood and a Pentex in there. I was worried about not having enough stealth, but really, it hasn't ever been an issue. I am Legion doubles as dai stealth in a pinch, and Greater Curse has some built-in sneakiness. The new Baali toys are great. Unleash Hell's Fury is awesome, and Infernal Servitor can be really good if he's recruited at superior.
Crypt [12 vampires, average capacity: 6.33333]
3x unnamed, The CEL DAI OBF PRE PRO 10 Baali:6
2x Annazir DAI OBF POT PRE 9 Baali:5 2 votes
1x Xeper, Sultan of Lepers OBF PRE ani dai pro 7 Baali:6
1x Arishat DAI OBF PRE 6 Baali:6 1 vote
5x Horde, The dai obf pre 3 Baali:6
Library [88 cards]
Master [20]
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Dummy Corporation
2x Information Highway
2x Ruins of Charizel (I might need more of these because it's so awesome)
1x Sudden Reversal
9x Tend the Flock
2x Villein
2x Wider View (These were Effective Management at Origins, which is so far inferior to Wider View in this I'm not even sure what I was thinking)
Action [15]
4x Greater Curse
4x Legal Manipulations
5x Social Charm
2x Unleash Hell's Fury
Action Modifier [23]
4x Cloak the Gathering
2x Elder Impersonation
2x Faceless Night
3x I am Legion
2x Lost in Crowds
2x Psychomachia
6x Spying Mission
2x Veil the Legions
Action Modifier/Combat [2]
2x Swallowed by the Night
Ally [3]
2x Infernal Servitor
1x Veneficti (Mage)
Reaction [8]
3x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
2x On the Qui Vive
3x Wake with Evening's Freshness
Reaction/Action Modifier [8]
8x Sense the Sin
Combat [9]
1x Flames of the Netherworld
1x Ignore the Searing Flames
7x Majesty
Crafted with: Anarch Revolt Deck Builder [Mon Jul 26 08:20:05 2010]
Game 1:
Me--->Player A (Temptation Halim Bey)--->Player B(Nos Royalty)--->Player C(ANI Weenies Rush combat)--->Player D (Anarch Midcap !Gangrel Baron Vote)
Player B and D didn't get to play much this game. Player C's animalism weenies were ferocious and wild. He rushed and torped two minions per turn. This left me, playing poorly, and my prey, playing crafty Temptation, in a weird two-player situation at the other side of the table.
I screwed up my opening. I assumed I was influencing Annazir, who I had down, but I'd mistakenly transfered 9 to Xeper. Whoops. This is how flustered I apparently get when I'm 45 minutes late for a tournament game. Bad Merlin. I guess I wanted to bleed myself for 2 and have a _much_ worse minion for my game. Xeper sucks compared to Annazir for so many reasons: doesn 't untap from Unleash Hell's Fury, doesn't get superior Infernal Servitors, can't gain me extra pool with I Am Legion. It's all kinds of bad for me.
It turned out okay.
I also got a couple Horde through Tend the Flocks. I kept another down for respiration.
Player A tempted some Nos with his midcap setites. Halim Bey was the one to keep an eye on. He was all bouncing bleeds and whatnot. Every time a Nos got Tempted, player C nuked it with a Deep Song Crowbat rush. In fact, nearly any titled vampire that Player B got into play or voted a title onto was immediately destroyed. Player B still managed to bleed C a bit with KRC, but shit was serious over there.
Player D got a minion, Harry Reese, I think? I don't recall because he was Famed and dunked before he took an action, and someone crosstable ate him as a favor to us all. Celeste came up next for D, but she got binned too.
Player C got up Stick, Fish, and some other ANI weenie (I don't recall who). The one I don't recall wound up Tempted crosstable by the Setites, and Player C basically sacrificed him by diablerizing Murat soon after. He recruited a Gregory Winter in exchange, though. The Setite player looked at Player C and then looked meaningfully at Xeper, whose text says "I steal allies", and said something about it. Player C shook his head and said something about moving cards.
So. Having no predator, my deck did okay for quite some time. The Setites didn't like me not having a predator, but hilariously, they couldn't stealth Temptations onto my guys. Turns out he was running lots of no stealth actions and not a lot of black box cards (or perhaps not drawing them, but it was a theme for him all game). So my 8 untaps and Sense the Sin (which I couldn't use on bleeds anyway because Xeper is sub-par) were saving my demonflesh bacon. After a Horde Unleashed Hell's Fury the Setites decided that taking actions my way wasn't a good idea after all. Besides, one of my Horde had been knocked into torpor, and I was really only bleeding with Xeper every turn, which was bounced by Halim every turn. Eventually he let a Setite get binned by the Fury in order to get it off the table.
The Nos and the Gangrel got ousted by their respective predators. The game took a weird turn at this point. My two active Baali were on one blood. I needed two actions to oust Player A, or at least one to Unleash Hell's Fury again, and another to summon a Veneficti or maybe bleed for a bunch.
Player C had used his vampires to oust D, and Greg Winter was untapped. I thought for sure I'd be looking at a hunt loop for an Infernal minion, which is all kinds of lose. But wait! He taps Greg and equips a Heart of Nizchetus! For reals!
My next few actions were then prescribed. I stole the now-invaluable Greg, who couldn't even be the target of a Deep Song rush, and Unleashed Hell's Fury with my Horde. I didn't have much pool, but from that point on I always had a Tend the Flocks to play, always had a combat card, and Gregory Winter stole Halim Bey's only blood every single turn so that I could bleed without fear of bounce. I ousted Player A soon thereafter.
Player C did okay during the head's-up, but I managed to get up the aforementioned Annazir. The next turn he decided to rush him with both of his remaining guys, but I Unleashed Hell's Fury on one and dropped Flames of the Netherworld on the other. I ousted him moments later.
Player A 1VP, Player C 1VP, Me 3VP and 1 GW.
Game MVP: Player C's Gregory Winter and Heart of Nizchetus. Clutch.
Game 2:
Player E (Ravnos G2 with dom Crowbat)--->Me--->Player F(Baron Reanimated Corpse Zombo Combo)--->Player G(!Malk Voters)--->Player H(Permarush POT/cel)
This was a sad game. My crypt draw was actually what I had accidentally played the previous game, Xeper and three Horde. I got 'em all up with Tend the Flocks, but it turns out paying 3-4 pool per turn to play your game with inferior Baali disciplines sucks. I was trying to mug the Zombo Combo before it started getting ridiculous amounts of minions and pool. Alas, I couldn't keep up with it. I made it totally clear that I would steal any Shambling Hordes Player F recruited, but that he could keep his Reanimated Corpses to go forward.
He didn't get to do much early on. I bled him lots.
However, my predator was tenacious, bleeding me with Nadia using Deep Song and Fata Morgana nearly every turn. Bleeds for four hurt a lot. When he did that with all his minions in one turn I was on the ropes. He did it again and I was ousted.
I don't recall Player G's deck much. It did okay at first, but the Theo Bell/J-Mac tag team kept going backwards and mugging his guys. I got the feeling that Theo and Jeremy didn't have the cards to destroy Nadia and her Crowbats, so they kept bullying backwards instead.
I passed by the table after I got ousted and saw that The Baron had managed to oust Player G, but that the three player had stagnated. Player E was still lamenting a turn one discard of Week of Nightmares. I think this might have gone to time, though I was ousted in like 35 minutes. Probably because I bled myself for a lot.
So I left.
I think the table timed out. No Game MVP without a GW!
Karl Schaefer and I went to North Market (I think?) for some grub. Now I hadn't been to the North Market despite being to Origins several times now. And I'm a bit pissed about it. It's like a Flea Market, or a "Dirt Mall", as Kevin Smith's Mallrats call them. But instead of a collection of greasy pawnshops, there's eateries of all kinds. It was awesome. I bought some sushi for me and pad thai for Devin, who had skipped breakfast due to our tardiness.
Karl seemed keen on the beer store at North Market, and he promptly purchased a nice bottel for himself. I was right behind him. Place was awesome! I picked up a huge 22 oz. Stone I.P.A, wallet in hand, and then. . .put it back.
"Jesus, Karl!" I said.
"What's the problem?" he replied.
"I can't drink a huge beer between rounds at a major tournament. Christ, I'm playing bad enough already."
Karl shrugged.
I should have quaffed that beer.
Game 3:
This round was stupid. I finally saw the unnamed, decided to go for him first, and as soon as I get him, Player K's (my prey) face falls. "Apparently we should have been talking," he said. He pulled up Arishat on the next turn, but there were already 6 beads on another vampire in his uncontrolled region.
I Villeined my unnamed for eight, anticipating the contest. I then bleed for 3 with him, gaining 3 with his special and an I Am Legion. So I gained eleven from my ten-cap. Player K said something like, "now you've gotten all your pool back for him, so I'll contest until you yield."
I tried to think of a scenario wherein I yielded the contest and still was able to get VPs and the game win, but it seemed like allowing my prey to have a 10-capacity minion to Villein, who gains him roughly 3 pool per turn, is not good for me at all.
So I didn't yield. Shit got really ugly after that. Arishat got a couple Maleficia skills, which was really bad for me. Whenever I did something that required an action card (say, Legal Manipulations, or Unleash Hell's Fury for defense), it got the Evil Eye.
Evil Eye is incredibly strong.
I did get a Horde and Annazir up with my spare pool, but Player J's Mary Anne was just ruthless with the bleeding. He piled into me for a bunch early, dropping Governs and Conditionings like it was going out of style.
With me unable to get defensive cards into play, and contesting, and being Infernal. . .well, it wasn't so good.
While all this was going on, Player L popped Troius and Mistress Fanchon. Then he was begging Mary Anne and her Ventrue Headquarters to pass his votes. Mary Anne wanted all that incidental vote damage to go my way, which was bonus bad.
Everyone sort of ignored the weenie giovanni thing Player Z was running until it had 4 minions. Then he started bleeding the ever-lovin' dogshit out of Mary Anne, who failed to bounce most of it. I was shocked about the lack of reaction cards from the Ventrue.
Suddenly the Ventrue were on the ropes as well. They teamed up a bit to do more damage to Player Z and the weenie bleed horde, but Player Z was Delaying a Parity Shift every turn and then fishing it back out of his ash heap with the Sargon Fragment. Ruthless. Giovanni weenies overran the Ventrue on the back of tons of wee bleeds (Leonardo bleeds for one, every turn!). Player J was ousted.
Player L made his move, popping Oriando and giving himself a ridiculous amount of votes. The table had deteriorated badly. He had to wait a turn to use Oriando, and he'd let himself get pretty low on pool. So Player K made his move as well, bleeding for three with Arishat ("I can't bleed for more than three with this deck," he said, with. . .pride? I think I might have squinted at him quizically). That got bounced to the weenie Gios, who apparently were also lacking bounce cards at the time.
Votes and Fanchon's bleed were enough finish the deal. I might have ousted my prey in the final moments, but it was a hollow, short-lived, bitter-tasting victory.
Me 1VP? (I don't recall; it was a slog; he was on one for a time), Player Z 1 VP, Player L 3 (or 4) VP and GW.
Game MVP: Player K and I contesting the unnamed, giving Player L no predator for like seven turns. Go us.
Next time: Nehemiah!
-Merlin out
"Infernal Servitor can be really good if he's recruited at superior, bleeding for 5 at stealth with Greater Curse+Sense the Sin"
ReplyDeleteIS can't play Sense the Sin at superior.
Right! This is why my techniques are so strong. They aren't limited by crass rules. I always forget that recruiting at DAI gives it dai/obf, not DAI/OBF.
ReplyDeleteIt's nearly always been good for me, even considering it only bleeds once.
Pretty sure I sat with Player K as my predator one round earlier than you had, and I was similarly perplexed by the way he seemed to think that not bleeding for much with a deck based on infernal 10-cap vampires was awesome. He gave me a ride to the airport later, though, so he's okay by me.
ReplyDeleteAnd remember: Always drink the mighty beer. The mighty beer gives you strength.
Look, Player K was awesome as we ruined each other's games. We were trading Baali jokes while our horrible grudge match played out.
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly drinking the mighty beer next time. Karl had the right idea.