Decks What I Lost with at Origins 2010 #3

I’ve been sitting on this report for a few weeks now. I figure I should just publish it.

The Sunday tournament felt a little more relaxed. This is in part due to the fact that we weren’t running nearly an hour late for it. But also, since it was merely a standard constructed tournament and not either a Qualifier or the U.S. Championships, it didn’t feel quite as cutthroat to me.

But then I started actually playing in it.

My deck was a Nehemiah + Obtenebration for stealth deck, backed up by huge voters with Presence and Obtenebration. I’ve been working with it since Legacies of Blood came out. I wrote the True Brujah newsletter for a time, and of all the various decks that I built and played, this one seems to be the most competitive. This is because Nehemiah is friggin’ awesome.


Deck Name: The Shadow Out of Time
Created by: Merlin
Description:
This deck has gone through several iterations. This is the latest. I'm considering a few Agent of Power because most of the time I'm lacking a discipline it's when I'm acting. Having the POT I need for an Iron Glare at +bleed or the additional Stealth from Shadow Play at OBT would be nice.
Crypt [12 vampires, average capacity: 8.58333]
1x Melinda Galbraith AUS CEL DOM POT PRE obt 10 Lasombra:4 cardinal
1x Melinda Galbraith (Adv) AUS CEL DOM POT PRE obt 10 Toreador antitribu:4 bishop
5x Nehemiah POT PRE SER TEM obt 9 True Brujah:4 2 votes
1x Tyler CEL POT PRE dom for obt 9 Brujah:3 primogen
2x Giangaleazzo, The Trait OBT POT PRE dom 8 Lasombra:4 prince
1x Tobias Smith DOM OBT PRE pot 7 Lasombra:3
1x Shawnda Dorrit CEL obt pot pre 6 Brujah antitribu:4 priscus

Library [87 cards]
Master [18]
2x Archon Investigation
2x Creepshow Casino
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
2x Tabriz Assembly
6x Villein
2x Wider View
1x Zillah's Valley (there were two Zillah's and 7 Villein at Origins, and zero Wider view)

Action [3]
1x Charming Lobby
1x Entrancement
1x Kiss of Lachesis (There were two Kiss and zero Entrancement in the deck at Origins, as well as an extra Charming Lobby, which was exchanged for Iron Glare)

Action Modifier [34]
1x Approximation of Loyalty
2x Awe
3x Bewitching Oration
2x Blanket of Night
4x Domain of Evernight (there were two Clotho's Gift in the deck at Origins, but Domain makes the deck more lunge-tastic)
4x Iron Glare
2x Pocket Out of Time
2x Recurring Contemplation
2x Shadow Play
3x Shroud of Night
2x Tangle Atropos' Hand
1x Tenebrous Form
6x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier/Reaction [1]
1x Hall of Hades' Court

Ally [1]
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Equipment [1]
1x Seal of Veddartha

Political Action [15] (this was an odd mix at Origins, there were 3 Con Ag in the deck, two of which have been dumped for another Neonate Breach [as it won me two games at Origins] and another KRC)
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
1x Conservative Agitation
6x Kine Resources Contested
2x Neonate Breach
1x Political Stranglehold
2x Reckless Agitation
1x Reins of Power

Reaction [7]
4x Deflection
2x On the Qui Vive
1x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Combat [7]
7x Majesty

Crafted with: Anarch Revolt Deck Builder [Thu Jul 29 00:35:54 2010]


Game 1:

Player A (Tupdog)--->Me---> Player B (G1 titled Brujah with New Carthage)--->Player C(Torrance Circle Blood Brothers Rush)--->Player D(Mary Anne Blaire and friends)

I feel really good about my gameplay in this game. Three of the players at the table were Hall of Fame members, and since I wound up with gamewin, through no fault of my own, I felt like a pretty good VTES player for perhaps the first time all weekend. I ruined it with poor play in the finals, but this game was excellent.

I felt I was in a bad spot, having sat next to a Tupdog deck. That’s because it was a bad spot. Player A got Antonio D’Erlette out first, which faked me out a bit. I didn’t bring up a minion right away, going for Nehemiah instead, and Antonio bleed me with some Dominate for 3. Then Keith Moody and another wee !Tremere popped up. But no Nephandus yet? I should have been suspicious.

I got out Nehemiah and Leila Monroe (since excised from the decklist for Melinda ADV) and that’s where things stayed for me, for most of the game. There was enough Dominate behind me to keep me worried, and the rest of the table was moving sort of slowly.

Player B got up Crusher, who Enchanted down to Tura Vaughn, and then they both Enchanted out Rake. I was worried about Crusher. That guy punches hard. Player C was having a dream draw and cardflow with the Torrance Circle, getting up his first guy, who Unwholesome Bonded/Freak Drove/Hive Minded out another BB, and then they both did the same the next turn. He had nearly the whole circle by turn four or so.

Mary Anne popped first for Player D, and she Governed down to Graham Gottesman. Then she got beat up on an Oppungnant night and the Ventrue had to slow down a bit. When Mary Anne got back from torpor she did manage to get out Mustafa as well.

Tupdog finally showed up after I got Nehemiah, and things went south. The damn thing rushed (using Dive Bomb stealth so Leila couldn’t block) with its Raking Talons and Immortal Grapple, and Nehemiah hit the dirt. Leila blocked the next rush and managed to survive, and the !Tremere had run out of Dominate, but still bled me for one. Player A bemoaned his lack of Graverobbing. Then he bemoaned his lack of Tupdogs after his active one burned after this minion phase.

Nehemiah managed to get rescued, and he bled for 4 with an Iron Glare and the recently equipped Seal of Veddartha, but I didn’t really feel like much of a predator. I still said “Haha! I’m a predator!” triumphantly. Player B smirked and played New Carthage. This altered the vote dynamic in a terrible way for both myself and Player D, whose Ventrue found themselves short of votes. Player B then began to bleed with his guys for 2 with Flurry of Action, using Resist Earth’s Grasp for stealth, and then call KRCs after untapping from Flurry. It was pretty sound stuff.

Player C didn’t like it. After a pretty stable turn where I got a Tabriz and stayed untapped and lots more damage came the Blood Brothers’ way, they fought back. The next Oppugnant Night saw Blood Brother rushes going all over that corner of the table. Mary Anne hit the dust again, but so did Rake.

The next turn saw everyone rebuilding: Mary Anne got rescued, another Ventrue bled for 3 and got bounced into me, but I showed my super-secret bounce tech (which everyone had already guessed about because of the Seal) and fired it down the pipe at my prey. The Brujah took that bleed. The !Tremere couldn’t finish their checks. The next Tupdog rush that came Nehemiah’s way had Raking Talons, but no Grapple, and I had Nehemiah Majesty himself out of that trouble.

Player A’s Tupdog deck wasn’t cycling well. He wasn’t drawing Dominate bleed to oust me, he wasn’t drawing the combat cards in the right sequence, and he was having trouble because he only had one Tupdog per turn to work with. I decided that one Tupdog was all he needed to end my game with a well-placed rush and that he needed to go. While Rake was down I called a Neonate Breach and named my pred and prey as the targets. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but the Ventrue loved it as I hit Player A for four, and I managed to cap Nehemiah back to healthiness.

Players A and B were both on 6 pool at this point. Player C was doing better, sitting on over 10, and myself and Player D were in between, both of us around 8 or 9 pool.

Player B couldn’t do much on his turn. He rescued Rake to regain vote lock, and moved some Majesties against Player C, who apparently didn’t have grapples. B left some guys up to defend against me, as I was bleeding at no stealth here and there, and he didn’t have a lot of pool lying around.

Player C failed to do anything of consequence on his turn. I think he might have rushed some Ventrue, but his punches bounced off Mary Anne this time, though
Graham hit the dust. The Ventrue had two minions to do six pool damage to the Tupdog player.

At this point I began speaking in earnest about getting rid of Player A. I told Player D that I’d done four damage to Player A in good faith that he could be ousted this turn. This would help us both. Player D played a KRC. Player A was of course against it, and actually lobbied Player B, who had most of the votes on the table, to stop the vote. He offered his Tupdog rush the next turn to Player B should he survive the turn. Furthermore, Mark was in play for Player C, and he didn’t like Player D getting a victory point and more pool.

However, Player D and I had some action mods, vote cards and the edge up our sleeves, and we managed to pass not only the first KRC, but the second as well, ousting Player A and giving me a slightly-worn Vote ‘n’ bleed predator.

During my next turn I called a Reckless Agitation. This was met by groans from the audience. Player B was of course against it. Player C was surprisingly game. I don’t think he was digging the multiple bleeds and votes coming from the Brujah. It took some convincing, but I managed to get Player D to vote for it as well, since New Carthage was pretty much ruining his vote game. With 7 less votes against and 2 more for, he might just do okay.

I honestly had no master plan for the endgame. I just knew that my prey had to go in order for me to get any VPs. I had an Awe in hand to force the vote through, but I wanted to save it for the late game against the Ventrue. The Brujah mustered a lot of votes against, however, and I needed to play it anyway, but for much less votes than I thought I’d need.

Nehemiah untapped with a Domain of Evernight and bled for two at stealth for the oust. Player B graciously left the table, asking to see the crypt of my “masterpiece” after the game. I’m pretty sure there was sarcasm in his voice, but the delivery was good enough that it sounded complimentary and snarky at once.

Player C had talked about rushing my guys to Oblivion with a well-placed Oppugnant Night during the big vote discussion, but he failed to play it over the course of the next two turns. The first turn I bounced a bleed from the Ventrue into Player C and he mugged Mustafa without hesitation. The other Ventrue rescued, and D went for another minion with his spare pool. During my go, I just bled for 2 with Nehemiah and Leila for 1, at stealth. Player C was on only 8 pool then. I put four down on Melinda Galbraith, having drawn a Villein and hoping to get oust pool to pay for her. Player C left two minions untapped after taking some respiration-type actions, taking two pool from uncontrolled guys to bring him back up to 10. One of the untapped Brothers was Mark, who has +1 intercept against bleeds.

I think Player D actually wanted C gone, because his Ventrue were getting quite the kicking. Still, he didn’t want them gone enough to give me an oust. He called a KRC and I lost some pool, and he took the spare pool loss himself. Then he bled again, and I again bounced it. C and D decided to play nice this time, but C had tapped his non-Mark blocker.

Nehemiah bled for 2 with the Seal, and I played the awesome Recurring Contemplation to tap poor Mark, leaving Player C blockerless against my next actions, as I didn’t think he was drawing wake-up tech. I pumped it to four with an Iron Glare, and Nehemiah untapped with another Domain. Leila bled for one. Then Nehemiah called another Reckless, and I forced it through with vote push, ousting Player C by a hair. I pulled up Melinda base with the oust pool.

This actually left me in a weird spot. Nehemiah, Melinda base, and Leila only have 3 votes between them, and I don’t have a lot of bleed pump in the deck. I resigned myself to trying to stay alive with bloat tech until the game timed out in order to secure a Game Win. The Ventrue had Governed out yet another voter but has also lost one to diablerie (Prince for a Primogen, I think), and now I was faced off against 6 votes if I wanted to pass anything.

Here I got really lucky. Nehemiah’s greatest attribute is that he allows a “free” discard of cards to the bottom on the library in untap, and moreover, the discard is not public knowledge. I often use this to hide cards I don’t want others to know I’m playing until I need them. Archon Investigation is the sort of card that I don’t like discarding, especially if I have a second copy in hand and they’re clogging up my flow. I don’t like telegraphing my punches that much.

Nehemiah allows me to play multiple copies of AI, but never discard one. I can nearly always have one in hand and with luck no one knows the better. Until they read this blog. Fuck. Anyway, Tabriz Assembly helps with this as well with extra handsize.

I was packing an AI in hand for most of the game. I drew a second one, but moved it below decks for later. This particular insurance policy paid off big time. Player D, who hadn’t bled for more than three the entire game, dropped a Govern + Bonding bleed with Mary Anne, and everything changed. I AI’d the Justicar, and then I wasn’t at much of a vote disadvantage at all, and since I was now up on pool I managed to mop up the Ventrue with votes and bleeds.

I showed Player B my crypt and he asked me whether I was playing Wider View. I replied that I hadn’t updated this deck much since HttB, and he suggested I add one. It was good advice.

Me, 4VP and the GW, Player D 1VP.

Game MVP: Tie between Neonate Breach (backoust for the win, again!) and Archon Investigation. The Seal of Veddartha really helped Nehemiah’s bleed output this game as well.

Game 2:

Me--->Player E (!Toreador anarch Palla Grande)--->Player F(Una kills everybody)--->Player G(Anson Toreador Votes that didn’t get to play much)--->Player H (Ondine !Toreador rush and block)
This game had such potential. Player E wasn’t suited to dealing with a votey predator, and Una wasn’t drawing the right cards to pop (or perhaps he was just biding his time). The early game went well. I got Nehemiah and Giangaleazzo, and Villeined them both for several extra beads, gaining the blood back with Voter Caps. I went for Shawnda as well, but she came later.

Player E pulled up a bunch of small- to mid-cap !Toreador, including Mercy, Remiliard, and Sabrina, I think. Player F got Una and a pair of 1-caps to do her dirty work. Player G got Anson, who was rushed into oblivion after being Villeined for most of his blood. This will be important later. Player H pulled Redbone McCray and Ondine Sinclair.

There was a lot of forward motion in my corner. Player H bled at me, and sometimes rushed. I let him bleed, but got beat up in the rushes. Turns out he was running some kinda weird agg-poke with !Toreador thing, probably had an Art of Pain in there somewhere. He didn’t see it this game. He still binned Famous Nehemiah early, but couldn’t do anything with the body afterward.

I bled and voted at my prey, who bounced my bleeds into Una (I played nice early) or reduced them, but took most of the vote damage. I sent incidental vote damage at H or Una/F, and Anson was down with that when he wasn’t in torpor.

E bled a lot. Most turns he bled with all of his minions using Undue Influence for Stealth. Sometimes he pumped the bleeds with presence mods like Power of One or Aire. Una hated that.

The table kinda went that way for a few turns, pool lowering all around. Suddenly Player F/Una started talking about rushing Shawnda, who’d hit the table by this point. Player H was all about ganging up on my deck, and I guess it was doing pretty well, but. . . Una’s on the table. If Una pops, we all go. I figured that I gotta go forward while I could. Player H had run out of rushes, but he’d gotten a Super Bowl on Redbone, and since he had no predator he could afford Spider in his ready region. Redbone’s Bowl was bothering me big time. I needed mad stealth to get my votes through, and it turns out Obtenebration stealth is goddamn expensive.

Well, when Player E was on the ropes, and most everyone knew I’d get him, I drew a Reckless Agitation. I had the votes to pass it, but I needed to get past Redbone. I didn’t even bother trying to make a deal with H to not block in exchange for me ousting Una, because it really wasn’t Play to Win for him; If I ousted E and then F/Una, I’d almost certainly get Player G as well, minionless with Anson in torpor, 14 pool and a handful of beads in the uncontrolled region, should she ever get the chance to play.

Her deck might have been good, but at that point I’d have serious momentum, and might even be able to afford a fourth voter; Tyler was down. Tyler is the shit.

So I didn’t bother asking H if I could call my Reckless without his interference. I knew I’d have to burn my blood and action modifiers to get it through. This might have been a mistake. It couldn’t have hurt, though H is a serious Hall of Fame player and probably would have said no. . .Una was still looking sort of lame over in her corner. I called my vote, but in the process I had to tap Giangaleazzo to fail Redbone’s block, using Blanket of Night. If I had had another stealth card instead I might have won this game. Alas. I pushed the Reckless through, ousting E and doing the rest of the damage to F/Una, leaving her on 5 pool.

Nehemiah Domained and bleed for 4 with the Seal and Iron Glare. And I was out of actions. Una went into overdrive, now only needing to torpor 6 minions to take the table, and did exactly that.

Player H looked at me and said, “I don’t think we stand a chance, but we can both transfer out to Player G and thereby deny F the game win.” I nodded. It sounded like the only sensible thing to do. We worked that angle over.

But here’s the thing: G had played a second Villein on empty Anson in torpor to cycle it, and it had cost a pool, bringing her total to 8. Una was showing a bleed of 7, with a Heart of the City on Una herself and three one-caps and Mylan Horseed in play.

Una happened to have the one Deep Song in the deck, and bled for eight, ousting G before H and I could put the master plan into action. Weak. I did transfer out to H, but Una took the table

Me 1VP, Player G 1 VP, Player F 3VP and the GW.

Game MVP: Una? Yeah.

Unfortunately, both Player F and I made the finals with our totals. So we had to sit down at the same table again. I wasn’t really looking forward to that. The Una deck, to me, sits at a finals table like the Nergal deck from the Infernal Plague Storyline: If the rest of the players in the final don’t agree that it’s a threat and needs to be hanged immediately, it has a certain chance of winning the game.

Finals:

Player F (Una)---> Player X (Midcap Setite Temptation)--->Me(The Shadow Out of Time)--->Player Y(Cesawayo wall)--->Player Z(PRE weenie bleed)

Player Z deliberately wanted to be the predator of the Una deck. It’s not a bad call. He was playing a very aggressive deck, and he’s not going to have much difficulty convincing us that Una needs to go. Being top seed in the finals is good, but being top seed in the finals with a table-granted VP is even better.

My deck didn’t draw a Villein early, and Player Y had dropped Smiling Jack on turn one, bleeding the table for 2-3 beads apiece. On top of that, he put a Pentex Subversion on my Zillah’s Valley+Dreams turn two Nehemiah. Player Y got out Saiz and left him untapped to block actions to destroy his toys.

Player Z got out a whole bunch of smallish dudes with superior Presence. I think Shasa “I totally rock if your deck has a dozen or more Presence bleed actions” was one of them. He also had an early Pentex, and Z, X, and myself agreed that if X got rid of the Pentex on me early, Z would play his on Una, and I would use Nehemiah’s first action to rid us of Smiling Jack.

All that shit went down. Cesawayo hit the table, but he wasn’t drawing the Aye he needed early. I went for Melinda despite my pool woes, and I was nearly ousted very early on. I had drawn a Villein before getting her, but I was low on pool; something like three. Player X had drawn into some Legal Manipulations of his own and bled me pretty good with his midcap Followers of Set, Hesha among them.

He came at me hard while I was on the ropes, but I managed to bounce his three bleed, take two more for one, and then bounce what would have been the ousting bleed with a wake. He was pissed when I Villeined not just Melinda, but Nehemiah as well the next turn, giving me a whole pile of pool. I got Shawda up soon after and Villeined her as well.

The Setite player had no real predator for some time, and kept coming at me with Temptations, Form of Corruption, and so forth. Thing is, since those actions are all at no stealth, I tried to block most of them with untapped guys and Majesty out of fights to block again. This was an issue for him; his ousts were bleed and Enticement based, so he needed black cards to do just about anything.

He did get a Form of Corruption in play, which was bad. He also was running enough Free States Rant to be annoying. He also destroyed the Pentex for Una when F was on one pool, effectively neutering Una, as she couldn’t pay for the Ivory Bow, but could still rush backwards and beat up Presence guys with her army of birds and wolves. Eventually Shawda played one blood too many and wound up working for the Settites, which was all kinds of bad.

So Player Z got a raw end of things, unable to oust Una in the midgame, and Player X was looking strong. Player Y was setting up Cesawayo still, and I was plinking him here and there, but only with votes, and now with Shawnda gone it was going to be difficult.

So, I played a Neonate Breach and hit Y and X for four pool apiece. Una voted it up, and I had the push to pass it. This left X in a precarious enough position that he didn’t want to tap out at me every turn anymore. He left Hesha up to block in case the Presence weenies got through Una.

They did, and then Player Z dropped a second Pentex on Hesha, and bled out Player X as well.

So now, in a three player game, things got down to the wire. I think it might have been my game to lose. Player Z was trying to catch a plane, and he was playing fast. I was honestly trying to oblige him myself, but quick play is bad for me. I forgot to do Nehemiah’s special at least twice by the time had come for me to lunge, and then things just got worse and worse.

I couldn’t draw any damaging votes, and Cesawayo was going to be able to block any D actions I threw at him, since he was merged and had 4 or 5 Aye. However, he hadn’t shown a lot of Wakes, and since he only had that many if I could force him to block an action I could make him Tap his Aye to block a damaging vote.

I eventually drew into a Reins of Power, which would have been great on so many levels. I felt that this was the turn I needed to oust Y, and so I set about doing it. I called the Reins with Nehemiah, and when Cesawayo tapped the Aye to block I played Tangle Atropos Hand, cancelling the action and getting ready to recall it. Then Y said, “but you can’t call that one again, right?” This was, of course, true. I had drawm a Reckless Agitiation during the whole affair, and proceeded to play that instead. If I’d had proper vote push (2 cards down, damn forgetting Nehemiah’s special) I might have ousted Y.

Instead I pushed most of the Reckless damage on Z, since I felt he was probably going to oust me otherwise. Then Z, realizing that he was top seed and had two victory points, self-ousted, hoping that I’d pull through the victory and thereby make him winner by default. Then he left to catch his plane.

The remaining turns were spent watching the counters on Smiling Jack pile up, while Cesawayo got more and more Aye. I managed to stealth a vote through to completion here and there, and I did have the Edge most of endgame. But Jack got up to something like six counters and I never really drew the stealth to burn Jack.

Also, I’d started drawing all the cards I’d put on the bottom of my library through Nehemiah’s special early on, and which were surprisingly useless to me in the late game: Approximation of Loyalty, Hall of Hades Court, Archon Investigation, Zillah’s Valley.

I conceded victory to Y after several turns of searching for the right cards to get to him, and perhaps if he hadn’t had the 6 pool from Z’s oust I might have gotten him.

It was a tough situation, as even if I won I lost. Bah.

Player Z 2VP, Player Y 3VP and the GW.

Game MVP: Smiling Jack (Cesawayo himself didn’t impress me much).

I got an Enkil Cog in my meager prize support, however, so Nyah Nyah.

-Merlin out