Not Dead Yet

It’s been nearly two weeks since the tourney, so I guess I should really get this down. I’ve got a bad WarMachine habit these days. Maybe I should blog about that too. But, on with the VTES. . .

Not Dead Yet

26 Players

I decided to bring a “fun” (well, “annoying”) deck to the tourney, as I can’t make Origins and the NAC this year anyways due to the due date of my daughter. While I didn’t want to be super-competitive, I did want to try out a weird deck to see if it could hang. I also wanted to bring a deck that had Toy in it, because my friend Tom did the artwork, and he was going to be playing in the tournament as well. Represent.

My deck is called “MacBeth was a Bitch”, and it’s a Lorrie Dunsirn superstar deck, with !Malks on the side to help poolgain/Lorrie cost with Kindred Spirits. Lorrie clears a bleed lane and then the Malks step into the breach and regain some of the pool lost by taking actions with Lorrie. To me, it’s strictly inferior to a straight weenie kindred spirits bleeder, and it also has the bonus complication of falling prey to a lot of the common foibles of superstar decks: actually beating up the superstar, well-defended Pentex Subversion, super-aggressive predation, poor initial crypt draw, etc.

Strangely, it did pretty well, and much better than I expected. I really don’t expect to get GWs with this thing. It leans a little too far left, and I tend to wreck and/or oust my first prey and then fizzle out. At least, it does this in most games I play. The tournament was a little different.

Crypt: 12 dudes

4 Lorrie Dunsirn 4 cap POT for nec Abomination Indy can’t play reaction cards, have equipment or retainers, maneuver to long, press to end. Has an additional strike once per round and a press every combat (not optional). Non-hunt actions cost her a _pool_. +1 strength. Scarce & Sterile.

1 Toy 2-cap Samedi POT DEM THN obf for Sabbat Malk Anti Slave. Can’t act or block.

1 Bela 3-cap Malk DEM obf ani pro Indy Can’t attempt poliactions. -1 stealth.

1 Cassandra Langely, the Waif 2-cap Malk dem Camarilla.

1 Keller Thiel 4-cap Malk dem aus Camarilla while ready and untapped, any minion who successfully bleeds me burns 1 blood or life.

1 Sean Rycek 4-cap Malk dem aus Camarilla once each referendum he may tap or burn a blood for 2 votes. He can burn a boon in play as a +1 stealth D action.

1 Apache Jones 5-cap !Malk DEM obf aus for Sabbat.

1 Marta 3-cap !Malk dem aus Sabbat when she diablerizes an older vampire she gains a blood before receiving a skill.

1 Jackie 3-cap !Malk DEM Sabbat.

Looking at the crypt again Toy seems less awesome (I modified it by adding G5 Malks when KoT came out; used to have 2X Jackie and more !malks), but he can still assist Lorrie in getting intercept, and I really dig for the minions with DEM (2 of which are !Malks) because they add a lot to the deck.

Library (89 cards)

Masters (16)

1 Coroner’s Contract (can go; not really that useful)

1 Centralized Background Check (I feared guns, and rightly so)

1 Sudden Reversal (counters always seem useful to me)

1 Dementation skill

2 Agent of Power

2 Blood Doll (mainly to push back to Lorrie when necessary)

2 Special Report (she _can_ block!)

2 Fame

2 Perfectionist (blood management on the Tasmanian devil is a bitch, too)

2 Wider View

Actions (19)

2 Blessing of Chaos (not sure it’s worth it; earned me style points in the finals; it’s prayer tech)

8 Kindred Spirits (my only real bloat to pay for Lorrie’s expensive habits)

2 Big Game

3 Bum’s Rush

2 Harass

2 Ambush

Action Mods (13)

5 Freak Drive (if rushing is good, multirushing is better)

1 Eyes of Chaos

5 Confusion

2 Mind Tricks

Action Mods/Combat (2 cards)

2 Deny (love this one)

Combat (24)

4 Taste of Vitae

4 Thrown Sewer Lid

4 Skin of Steel

12 Immortal Grapple

Reactions (15)

2 WWEF

4 On the Qui Vive

2 Delaying Tactics (I fear the vote)

7 Babble (untap Lorrie or give her intercept; with Special Report I’ve gotten her to +4 intercept against a bleed deck. That’s not going to happen often, but the bleeder certainly didn’t make it after I caught them)

Round 1: Woody (EuroBrujah+Beast)>>>John (Flurry of Activity)>>>Me(MacBeth was a Bitch)>>>Sean M(Kiasyd bleedbox)>>>Sean S(Tremere Blockbox)

Things were looking punchy at the outset. I got out Jackie (who is superimporantawesome for my deck) and Lorrie, while Jimmy Dunn popped up on my right, and Volker showed up behind him. On my left Isanwayan was the first blueskin to show its face, and across the way Sean S got Carmen. That first turn little of note happened, but then Volker rushed and beat the hell out of Jimmy Dunn. When I see Jimmy I always wonder just how much Kung Fu he’s packing. He’s got the potential to be an absolute animal with FIST BOLT rock. Volker’s signpost/grapple/slam beat all the blood off of Jimmy before John could Blur with him, but he’s a new player and tried to Blur anyway. We explained that he couldn’t do that, but it was a significant misplay.

It was significant because John’s next minion was Parnassus, and Parnassus + Blur is a serious slap however it goes down. Woody didn’t take many forward actions after Parnassus hit the table, and he started influencing another vampire to go with Volker and newly minted Donal O’Conner.

I got a couple more Malks (Sean Rycek and Marta), and I bled a little every turn. Sean M took most of those bleeds and didn’t do much to stop me. I had a rush but I decided to not nuke Sean’s minions immediately. I wanted there to be some left-ish dynamic. Sean M summoned a Nocturn and bled with it like every turn, and got Ermengildo and Omme Enberbenight, reducing his pool to dangerous amounts with me bleeding a little each turn. He was playing enough Deflection, Covencraft, and Faerie Wards to slow me down though.

Sean S got Ash Harrison to go with Carmen, and he tried to tool up a lot, and got blocked by Brujah Princes a lot. Volker had run out of signposts (or was saving them), so the violence wasn’t nearly as extreme as it had been against Jimmy Dunn, but the !Tremere were having a tough time setting up.

And there we sat for a number of turns. John got up Taco Bell ADV, which seemed to perturb Woody a bit, as he then moved a lot of blood off of the next minion he wanted to influence out and started looking for someone else. Taco Bell and Parnassus did a lot of tooling up, getting Leather Jackets, Deer Rifles, etc.

I didn’t have a predator, so despite Sean M’s willingness to play mean reaction cards like Faerie Wards I just kept leaning into him. He never Warded Lorrie, however, and that might have been his undoing. Eventually I got him on a push, and then Sean S was really concerned about my kung fu and got up Gerald Windham.

So with some oust pool, the table then looked like this: Me with 10ish pool, Lorrie, Marta, Sean, and Jackie. Sean S had Gerald, Ash, and Carmen, with 3 or 4 pool left. Carmen had two intercept with a Bike and Winthrop, so she had to go if I wanted to sneak past his warlocks. Volker and Donal eventually found a Leatherface of Detroit. Parnassus had a Leather Jacket, Theo had a Deer Rifle and a Sport Bike. Parnassus was also Famous, which was a thorn in my side, as Fame is a significant component of my offensive capacity.

Parnassus and Taco Bell had been bleeding for one here and there, and from this point onward they each bled with Flurry of Action every turn. I let them. I basically was working on a clock to get the next oust, and I had 4-5 turns to do it. Sean S turtled up (he hadn’t been able to do much to the Brujah all game anyway) and played defensively. Beast decided that Famous Parnassus needed to get punched hard. Unfortunately Parnassus had a jacket for that punch and a Blur to hit back. Beast hit the bin instead and the Flurries continued.

I essentially lunged at Sean every turn for three turns. I made a huge mistake in allowing a 2 blood Lorrie to get in a fight with a 2 blood Carmen when I didn’t have a Grapple, and since Sean had played like 5 Theft of Vitae I should have been thinking about that. Carmen stole two blood from Lorrie to survive the first round, and when Lorrie was forced to press empty we both hit the bin. That really slowed me down. Still, I tried to oust Sean with just my Malks several times as well, and he always had one more Wake than I needed him to have to win.

When I was down to two pool I knew I might get ousted, but I did try to save myself by pushing a wee Malk in front of Parnassus. Then Parnassus played Crocodile’s Tongue on my empty, On the Qui Vive’d blocker! Snap! Flurry gets the oust.

I’m not sure who took that table, actually. I don’t think the Flurry deck did, and I’m pretty certain Sean S was in bad shape when I got ousted. It might have timed out, or perhaps Volker and Donal managed to call some 3-player Parity Shifts? Woody had discarded several during the course of the game. I’m pretty sure nobody got 3VP and a GW out of the deal, because then they probably would have been in the finals. . .?

Me: 1 VP John: 1 VP

Round 2:

Mindy (Stanslavia has DOM!)>>>Linc(Harbingers + Matthias)>>>Robb(Imbued Don’t Need Travis; Travis is for Pussies)>>>Me(MacBeth was a Bitch)

This game collapsed quickly. Mindy got up Stani, Linc got Agaitas and Matthias, Robb got 4 Imbued, including Shophet, Nurse, and Potter, as well as Moise and the Vagabond Mystic. I got Lorrie, Jackie, Keller Thiel (ha!), and Marta.

Mindy got up Illiana and bled like crazy with Stanislava. Linc did what usually is done and bounced it, but Robb DI’d the bounce. Snap! Linc put himself into ousting range of huge Gangrel by getting Gisela. Robb tooled up like the tool he is with bleed retainers and powers. I put Fame on Stanislava, and since Linc was on the ropes I rushed and beat the tar out of her. She hit the bin easy. I bled for 4 with my other minions to add insult to injury.

Mindy was in a tough spot. She put a Blood Doll on Stani, rescued, and bled for 3 again, but Linc again had bounce. Imbued don’t have much to say about Stanislava bleeding from two to the left. Determine isn’t going to work, and allies can’t block her. Linc bled at Robb with a Pulsed up Agaitas, but Robb had the untappy that he needed to survive. I ousted Mindy next turn, and Linc bled at Robb a bit, Robb bled at me.

Mindy started talking about how I’m going to get a sweep, and I told her that I didn’t think I could handle Robb in a one-on-one confrontation. Then I realized that I’m playing a rush+Kindred Spirits deck and that most of my D actions can go anywhere. Robb began to bleed me in earnest for 4-6 per turn with Second Sight and bleed retainers on his guys. After he completed his turn I decided to Rush Potter, even though he’s just going to tap her and Forsee or Abjure combat. It still forced him to overextend as she was his only untapped imbued. Then I bled him for 3 with Jackie using Kindred Spirits and Confusion.

Robb gave me that look that says having two predators sucks. I realized that I talk about backousting Robb a lot on this blog, and that it can be a totally valid path to victory. I might rename this blog “Backoust Robb Dudock if you want to win” and give some helpful statistics on how often that it has worked for me.

Robb had an Angel of Berlin, but combined efforts of bounced Stanislava, Harbinger bleeds, and my bleeds had hurt him enough that he was low on pool and by forcing him to defend against me as well his fate was sealed. Linc ate the morsel I’d handed to him (and gladly), ousting Robb. In the head’s-up I drew enough rush+grapple to outlast Linc’s Spiritual Intervention and prevent cards. After I beat up his last minion he conceded. Robb glared at me for a bit. He’s totally justified in doing that, but man backousting that dude is a blast.

Me: 3VP and 1 GW, Linc 1 VP

Game MVP: Probably Lorrie, but Kindred Spirits is also a key component of the deck’s ability to work a table, and that bleed of three put a serious hurt on Robb. Might have to say KS.

Finals:

Somehow I’d managed to get third seed with a Game Win and four Victory Points. I was a little pissed that the 25 other players had allowed me into the finals, but I decided that if I was gonna be there I was gonna try to win it. Sean M had also made it, as well as three other decks I hadn’t seen yet. Sean was a lower seed than me, so I got to side after him, and I chose to bleed him. This might have been a mistake, but it had worked for me alright earlier, and I thought it was worth the chance.

Finals Matt(FoS bleeds w/ DOM for bounce)>>>Eddie (HoS Slaughterhouse Brinksmanship)>>>Me (MacBeth was a Bitch)>>>Sean (Kiasyd don’t get into fights at all)>>>Brad (Toreador Princes w/ guns)

Things started out nicely enough, and I had again decided to slow play a bit in an attempt to keep things going smoothly. Everyone knew I had a tactical nuclear device when Lorrie hit the table on turn 2 to join Jackie, and I thought that we could all look past it. This was not the case.

Sean got up The Arcadian and Roderick Phillips March. Brad got Marcellus and Dorian Strack. Matt pulled Black Lotus and Amenophobis, and Eddit influenced Zoe and Agaitas, with Eggotha joining them soon thereafter. After turn two I got Toy and Sean Rycsek.

Sean was defensive from the start because I’d ousted him earlier, and it turned out I was the table bleed sink. I had to deal with two bleeds from Marcellus “Does he look like a bitch?!” that had been bounced from Matt to Eddie to me fairly early on, and after playing nice once Brad told me he intended to shoot my minions if I blocked. I did get some style points from Brad by playing Agent of Power on Lorrie to give her Dementation and then having her get a Blessing of Chaos. It was, as it often is, a pointless move. Might drop that little module.

Matt also bled irresponsibly, and Eddie was packing enough Telepathic Misdirections to keep firing them down the lane at me. I was feeling like I had three or four predators early. When the table decides you’re the threat, and you don’t feel like just wrecking everyone’s game (because that doesn’t earn many VPs), you oust your prey. I finally rushed at Sean and murdered most of his guys with Lorrie, bleeding with the backup dancers a bit.

Sean had gotten Isanwayan up by this point, and was summoning Nocturns with the blessing of the blocky Toreador in front of him to chump block my rushes. Francois Villon joined the poseurs in Brad’s controlled region, and Marcellus had a .44 and knew how to fire it.

Matt bled every turn, and eventually got up Anhk-Sen Sutehk to go with his other midcaps.

Eddie milled my deck. He played a couple Slaughterhouse. He burned stuff with Eggotha. He drew from my deck with Agaitas. He didn’t bleed me much himself. I largely ignored him. He did burn a Sewer Lid that would have met a Toreador face later from the top of my library, so that wasn’t cool. The table wouldn’t pass his Brinksmanship, however. So that plan went down the toilet.

I eventually ousted Sean with bleeds after the Nocturns blocked Lorrie.

Things got pretty ugly then. Brad had whittled Matt’s pool down with consistent bleeds, and he ousted him soon after. In the three-way Brad basically told Eddie they should mug me and then sort things out. I started to argue, but it’s tough when the main components of the counter argument are “hey, I’m just asking the guy to osut his prey”. Being a fan of standard left-facing VTES, I just poured full bore into the Toreador. Brad was low on pool due to getting guns on all of his 22 pool worth of Toreador, so I dropped Fame on Dorian Strack and influenced out Apache Jones.

Then when Francois came to get blood from Jackie I blocked with Lorrie, but I ran out of prevent and Taste while throwing multiple Sewer Lids at Francois. My non-optional press on Lorrie sealed her fate, and she hit the bin while Francois got away pretty easy. Marcellus bled, leaving just Dorian up. Eddie didn’t do much but mill my library.

I did what I often do with this deck when Lorrie hits the bin: I rush Famous minions with my Malkavians. I had a Deny and a Skin of Steel, and several Maneuvers or Presses attached to Bum’s Rush and Harass, so maybe Apache and Sean could seal the deal. Knocking Dorian into torpor wouldn’t have ousted Brad outright, but it

might have bought me an extra turn to lunge later.

Turns out Brad’s deck has a lot of untap, intercept, and combat cards to go with his guns. He told me he didn’t want to wreck my game, but of course I was relentless and so he gunned down my dudes. If he’d left anyone ready I’d have rushed or bled the next turn.

That’s just how I roll.

Eddie ousted me soon thereafter with Trochomancy bleeds. Brad made easy work of Eddie after that, as Eddie didn’t seem to do much other than mill cards. Alas.

Robb asked me why other people’s Toreador gun decks are so much better than mine, and I told him it’s because they have room for lots of combat cards. Brad dropped a lot of Blur, Pursuit, Sideslip, Side Strike, and so forth. Those cards would be great in my Masika deck, but I’m so busy paying for my ridiculously large crypt I don’t seem to have the cards. James Messer’s Masika/Cog gun deck is better than mine as well, because he’s not using Villon and Anneke as backup minions. But hey, I like to live on the edge with 3 ten-caps in my ready region.

-Merlin out