Pre-Qualifier VTES

We had a Great Lakes Qualifer recently in Michigan. August 22nd in Ann Arbor. Prior to that my friday night opened up, I sent out a call for players and managed to wrangle a few. Neil even came out from Royal Oak for some games. This has been sitting in my blogger queue waiting for a final edit for a bit. I guess I'll just let 'er rip.

Neil brought the strangeness with him, in the form of a hybrid imbued/vampire deck, which never really got off the ground. I asked him what the secret sauce in the deck was supposed to be, but he always deferred.


Robb had said he'd be there at 8 to play, but at 8 he wasn't there. So we played a 4-player game. Midgame Robb and Alayna arrived, and we suddenly had 6 players on our hands. Sean, Neil, Devin, and myself played the first game.


Game 1:


Me (Huge Setites Eternals Toolbox)---> Devin (Trujah prerange aggs)--->Sean (Kyasid sneak and bleed)--->Neil (Imbued and some vampires who were pretty large that had Demetation and Auspex)


Things went pretty well early. I started with 3 Eternals of Sirius and a Villein in my opening draw. My deck is pretty much a pile of only G2-3 Followers who are 9-11 cap (yes, Sutekh is in the deck). I was inspired by a deck I saw long ago on The Path of Blood, the Multi-taskimites. Originally built by Jay Kristoff, the only version I could find on the web was played by Jeff Kuta. My deck isn't that good, but getting Sutekh into play is a secondary win condition for me.


Alas, I had to settle for Nehsi this game. I got him out first, on turn two, without using transfers for him. I put 4 down on Khay'tall instead and 1 on Kahina the Sorceress. I drew yet another Eternals (there's 9 in a 70-card deck) and managed to get all three out in pretty short order.


However, my speed wasn't rewarded. Neil got out Marie Faucigny first off, having only drawn one Imbued. He claimed that his opening hand was seven Conviction cards, which sounds downright awful to me for one Imbued in opening draw. Marie's two votes, along with Dame Hollerton's CovinCraft, kept me from passing an early Reckless Agitation. After getting my huge crypt out i did bleed and vote Devin for some of his pool, which prompted him to play a one-minion game with Nehemiah. Instead of influencing out another Trujah (which is insane anyway), he just got an Ankara Citadel on N through Summon History and started pulling awesome allies out of his library instead. High Top was his first choice, and a good one at that.


Sean got Hollerton and Isanwayan, and eventually Roderick Phillips March as well. Sean's early bleed of three at one stealth got bounced into me, and although my deck has some Deflection (holy shit do FoS fatties have dominate!) I didn't have it early. I complained about Sean's terrible irresponsibility in bleeding.


Neil got Francois "Warden" into play and began to be all imbued in earnest. He pretty much just bled me with him every turn at effectively 1 stealth with Second Sight. That wasn't such a bad plan. I had no intercept and didn't intend to gain any. I also hadn't draw a second Villein yet. Further, Neil got Morrell up and bled me for 3 with some Eyes of Chaos at stealth. I was on two pool after that turn.


Robb and Alayna were excited that I would be leaving the table soon, and that perhaps another game could begin.


But wait! Nehemiah (Heart of the City'd up now) got bounced into Neil and played Domain of Evernight and Outside the Hourglass to send Morrell to torpor. Then during Sean's turn Neil used an On the Qui Vive to try and block a Kiasyd with his imbued. Draven Softfoot hit the table around this point for Sean.


With Morrell in the dust and Francois not untapping, I was free to take another turn, which I used to play a Villein and gain seven pool from Khay'tall. I still was having trouble passing votes without push, and now I needed stealth to do anything because of High Top. So my positioning wasn't great. I managed to push a Reins of Power through, and bled for 3 with a Tuth of a Thousand Lies, so Devin's pool was actually lower than mine.


On top of that, I was actually blocking Nehemiah Summoning History, because Nehsi could play Mental Maze and effectively end Devin's minion phase while avoiding Nehemiah's comboriffic combat. He was not happy. He still played Vaticination to make me discard a Lost in Translation, but that only kept me from being a force in the endgame.


Sean pecked away at Neil, eventually putting a Song of Pan into play and bleeding for two with all his guys, ousting Neil.


Then he ousted me with huge ridiculous bleeds, then he ousted Devin in short order.


I complained about Sean's terrible play at bleeding me irresponsibly, at which point he told me the Conditioning he used to oust me had been in his hand for some time, but he'd not played it while Neil was in the game because of the bounce.


So, I shut up then.


Sean, 4VP sweep.


Game MVP: Probably Song of Pan, as it helped Sean oust Neil and Devin quickly. Covincraft played a decent role as well. I'll get back to this.


Game 2:


Robb sat out to let Alayna play her new Dementation bleed deck. I decided to play a "good" deck as well, but it didn't work out for me.


Neil(Imbued do something with Dementation guys?)--->Sean(Nos Royalty featuring Cock jokes!)--->Devin (Cybeltron)--->Me(Are you an African or an African't?)--->Alayna(Dementation is a pretty good discipline, all told)


Neil got a better draw. Leif hit the table first. Sean had to pull his Cock out at first opportunity, probably because there was a lady there. That guy. Devin of course went for Cybele, but was complaining bitterly about not drawing a single Master Card in his opening draw, yet he failed to discard several times during the first few turns.


I have have some successes with my weenie Laibon bruise/bleed/vote deck, but this night was not one of them. I did not draw any of the Akunanse in the opening draw (which happens), did not get one with the two Mozambique Allure I played on turn three, and did not draw one of the 10 Abombwe skill cards in the deck for some time.


So the deck, which is like 25% Abombwe cards, didn't roll so well at first. In fact, I didn't get off the ground before Cybele started bleeding for 5 at a pop. I did get Ismitta, Misrak, Zhara, and Fish. Fish Founded some of that Ebony Kingdom to get my 4 pool back from Lumumba down, but I was having trouble with Cybele and her blasted Veneficti pal.


Alayna got Morrell, who Called his bros Sean Rycek and Arthur Denholm. Rycek got a Changling Skin Mask, which was pretty good for him. Neil wound up with Inez "Nurse216" Villagrande, Leaf "Potter116" Pankowski, Jennie "Cassie247" Orne, and Marie again. Sean got his giant Cock, Niklaus, and Calebos.


Cybele didn't need any help for a long long time.


I got bled out fairly early. without even the basic puppy, I couldn't play a fair amount of the cards I drew, though I did get a Shaman and beat the Venefecti up, and I did Computer Hack Alayna for at least four or five of her pool.


I was hoping Sean would oust Devin before it became an issue, but Sean did not draw his pool damage votes early, and couldn't cycle stealth. He even Darkly Influenced a Sense the Sing to give me an extra turn, but I was not worth his time. I squandered my extra turn trying to oust my prey, foolishly. But with the cards I was drawing I had little choice.


Cybele bled for five, and only five, until I was gone.


Sean managed to draw and play like three pool damaging votes in a row (Con-Ag, KRC, KRC) and ousted Devin, even with the table throwing mad votes at him. Alayna and Neil managed to combine their power with Marie, Confusion of the Eye, Wrong and Crosswise, the Edge, and the Rose Foundation, to keep Cybele in the game (is this ever a good idea?), but the Nos table presence was too strong and Devin got ousted.

At that point Neil became something of a predator, bleeding Sean for 4-6 pool every other turn with his Imbued. Things went south when Cock Robin started playing Second Tradition and Carrion Crows, which is pretty brutal with that guy. Marie wound up in torpor, and without other vampires Neil was in a tough spot.

Sean drew into nothing but Carrion Crows and pool damaging votes from that point forward, which meant that even if his votes got blocked bad things were happening. The Nosferatu ground their way into endgame domination. Alayna might've ousted Neil before Sean won the game, but I don't recall because there was a guitar there, and I was playing Stone Temple Pilots songs on it. Apparently Neil does not like the Stone Temple Pilots.


To be fair, he brought them up.


Sean 3-4 VP, Alayna 1vp?, Devin 1VP


Game MVP: Sean's tremendous Cock, hands down. That guy ruined a lot of minions in the middle and late game, all while pursuing a victory-based agenda.


Game 3:


Robb and Alayna left after the second game, which left the four of us to play another. Sean said he wanted to play one of my decks, so I reached into my bag and handed him one labeled "Tariqromancy."


I have a lot of decks at the moment. For a long time I had like 5 or 6 decks built, and I just worked with those or built newer ones to play for a while. But the issue was, I have a tremendous collection of VTES cards, having played since the game's beginning (and gone through stints of VTES obsession), or at least within three months of it. So one day I said to myself, "Merlin" (because I refer to myself as Merlin when talking to myself) "Merlin, why are you sitting on 7 Draught of the Soul if you're never going to make or play a Tariq deck, and ditto with all your Nos Royalty. . ." and so on. I basically decided that as long as I was hording awesome cards to "someday" make a deck with them, that the time should always be now.


The downside of this is that some of these decks have never been played, or at least not often. And they don't get updated with new sets, either. Gift of Experience is pretty much useless now that Wider View has been printed (it was probably useless before, but there's a GoE in my Tariq deck), and decks that have never been shuffled. . .


Sean didn't have a good game.


Neil(Not your Average Ravnos Trap deck)--->Devin(DoC Harmony)--->Me(The Truman Show)--->Sean(Tariqromacy)


Apparently Sean had 3 Freak Drive and 4 Eagle's Sight in his opening hand. That's not so good. All the Rowan Rings and Ivory Bows in the Tariq deck were in the bottom, so he never got started.


I saw that Devin was playing his DoC Harmony deck, which is incredibly aggressive, and decided that I needed to get all my guys out ASAP and save on pool in the process. I got Truman out first, as I always should, with 1 blood from the first turn 3-transfer on Ilse. My first two Masters were Effective Management (still good in BB decks!), and I drew a Thicker Than Blood, which is pretty awesome on turn three with one blood on Ilse. She Redistributed some blood to herself and then bled for three while Sean discarded a lot of cards with Dreams.


Sean got Tariq base, Rodolfo G, and Isabel G. Neil got Tatiana Stepanova and Gwen Brand, then bled the hell out of himself with Vessel on both guys, a Dog Pack for Tatiana, and two hunting grounds. Devin got up Gael first, then Celeste and finally Angela. I had absolutely nothing in my deck that says I could stop a Choir or a Harmony, so I figured I was on borrowed time.


Lucky for me, Devin was having trouble getting Freak Drives, so it was usually only a three pool hit every turn, sometimes six. It still stung a lot. I managed to get up Karl and Mark with Man-Love action cards and multiple copies of Dreams of the Sphinx, but I was running low.


Lucky for me, Sean had a death wish by this point in the game, and I managed to oust him with a Walk of Elvis bleed of five at Stealth.


Devin was hurting by this point, because the Ravnos had been bleeding pretty steady, and with no predator to speak of and a decent source of two pool per turn in play, Neil got Gharston Roland into play as well. Fata Morgana was pumping the bleeds that the DoC couldn't block very well anyway.


I did Wash two Command Performance, which apparently really was bad for Devin. Neil ousted him pretty quickly after Sean was gone.


The head's-up did not look good, and I considered conceding victory to Neil. But then, I thought that since Neil had driven a distance to play, I should try to make him drive home in shame with no game wins.


It didn't work out for me. The Ravnos were under a Week of Nightmares, and they blocked pretty much all my actions. After I ran out of Claiming the Body and Thrown Gates Tatiana put nearly all my guys in torpor in like a single turn (my turn), and then played an Edged Illusion to get the rest on Neil's next turn.


Me 1 VP, Neil 3 VP.


Game MVP: Tatiana Stepanova, Alastor. She got Neil an extra Hunting Ground for his Vessels, and then the Hunting Grounds kept his Ravnos from the ridiculous hunt loop sometimes caused by the Week of Nightmares. She also kicked all the other minions on the table into torpor one at a time.


Bleed Reduction + Vote gain reaction cards:


There were a lot of these around the table this night. Wrong and Crosswise, Covencraft, hell, Neil played quite a few Confusion in the Eye with Marie in games 1 and 2.


I'm not sold on how good they are. They did influence the game, and honestly, I like Confusion of the Eye, but mainly because it can ruin Parity Shift. That alone makes it better than the rest of them.


I'm not sure hanging onto these cards, and leaving guys up to play them, is entirely awesome. Maybe Deflection has jaded me? Wrong and Crosswise sucks because it costs a blood. I've decided that reaction cards that cost blood should be incredibly awesome, like Telepathic Midirection. Wrong and Crosswise isn't as good as T-Mis. Covencraft. . .well, I'm not sure I hate it. I have one or two in my Kiasyd deck, in fact, but I think I'm going to drop them for Delaying Tactics and more Deflection, sadly.


Why? Because I can. And Delaying Tactics is oust-tastic if your prey is one of those breed-boon style decks. Two lunges are better than one! And Deflection reduces a bleed by n, where n equals the bleeding minion's bleed, _and_ it bleeds your prey for n, potentially. I'd rather have two cards in my deck that do divergent things than two of the same card that does divergent things. This is why:


Two Covencraft in hand is not as good as two Deflection. It isn't as good as two Delaying Tactics. If your pred is going to bleed you you keep the Deflections. Because you'll play them. If not you'll discard them and move on. Utility cards like Covencraft are versatile, but they're also handclogging because of that versatility.


I think, I can probably play the bleed version of this next turn. I'll hang onto it. But reducing a bleed by one is scarcely enough. So then you need two guys untapped to play two reaction cards to make it worth it. If were talking about Wrong and Crosswise, you might be able to mix Telepathic Counter (which is pretty good as far as reduce cards go), which makes for a respectable bleed reduce of four, but doesn't bleed your prey for n.


"Aha!" say the bleed reducers of the world. "But this way I'm staying untapped to play multiple reaction cards!" Well, my response is "what the hell are you doing playing cards that force you to be untapped?" I tap out a lot. I admit that I play a lot of wake-type cards so that I can Delay and Deflect, but I lunge whenever I can. I'm a big fan of proaction.

Neil's deck seemed to hinge on Marie Foucigny not tapping all that often. For seven pool I want to tap her all the time. Alyana's !Malk deck routinely left a guy with DEM untapped to play Wrong and Crosswise. Seriously. I was stunned. But then, I've played a Kindred Spirits deck, and the KS is so insanely good I sometimes hate myself for playing it.

I play it anyway.

I have won a game because of Confusion of the Eye cancelling a Parity Shift. It was a qualifier final. So CotE gets a bit of a pass. But overall, I'm not all that sold on these reduce 'n' vote cards. Not until they can be played by tiny tiny tiny minions. Maybe a Kiasyd Embrace deck? Well, now I've got something to occupy my time. . .

-Merlin out