Round 1: Paul (ishatarri ven Tap/bleed)-->> John K(? Muaziz does something)-->> Sean K( g6 Salubri Marionette)--> Me (Shadow Out of Time v5)
Things went pretty badly for John and myself early. The tourney was 16 players, so that meant 4 player tables. I find that this sort of thing makes for odd tourneys. Alas.
I had a slow start. John got up 4 Tremere (3 little ones and Muaziz). I got Nehemiah and Tyler. Tyler got Mind Numbed early, which hurt. Nehemiah still brought a Reckless into the house, but Sean was a consistent bleeder and I hadn't draw a Villein yet.
Paul was the winner for all this. His Mustafa and Ubende were hurting my votes a lot, and Shasa was bleeding hard with Legal Manip and Uncontrollable Impulse. Usually after some Mind Numb/Freak Drive action.
John stayed alive for awhile, but eventually succumbed. The table leveled a bit. I was gaining pool each turn at least, and Paul was hurting now as he'd gotten up Victor P and made him Prince of Paris. Worse for him, Sean had Serena the black, who is Greta Kirscher with a third eye bonus.
The game turned on a single play. Sean got a Pulse on Serena, and then bled with the Marionette. I had an Archon Investigation. I knew that burning her would help Paul immensely, but he was low on pool and I had the cards in hand I needed to oust him.
I played the Archon. Tyler bled for two at stealth, but Paul had the Scalpel Tongue he needed (and I didn't have the Hall of Hades Court) to cancel Nehemiah's votes during the KRC ousting referendum.
Paul then ousted us both in quick succession.
Paul: 4VP and GW
Game MVP: Mind Numb. Slow down your predator, oust your prey.
Round 2: Me--> Dave S (Alan Sovereign wall street wall)--> Devin (The Reg Driscoll show)--> Matt (!Sal bleedbox)
Matt was an effective predator. His deck actually had a lot of blood denial elements with burning touch, hide the heart, and Greg winter all making an appearance. He got out Langa, Nketchi, two Bros in Arms, and Greg early. That was a lot of minions coming my way.
I got Nehemiah and Giangaleazzo, but Gian got mugged early by Langa after an aggressive Villein. He never quite recovered. Nehemiah stole Greg, but Dave blocked pretty much everything for a while.
Dave got General Perfido, Alan merged, and Piotr. Alan got a gun and the general anima gathered him. Piotr got a lawyer for plus bleed.
Devin got a Soul Gem and a Presence skill on Reg. Then he played Little Mountain every turn and forgot to draw a Freak Drive for a bit.
I did not do well with a single minion and Alan blocking everything. Worse, Matt got Uriel with Bashee Ironwail. He bleed for 5 using all his guys.
I made a crazy deal to refill Nehemiah by voting for something that wouldn't hit Dave. I called a neonate breach and hit Devin for 1 and Matt for 4. Devin saw his chance and became a sudden predator, bleeding for 5 unblockable with Reg, burning him with Daring the Dawn, and then bleeding again with new Reg.
With Matt gone I managed to hit Dave for 3-4 pool per turn, but his portfolio was too deep for me to do lasting damage. I begged Devin not to oust me, but he did. Dave got him in the two player. No GW and no MVP.
Round 3: Ryan (HoS bleedbox)--> Me--> Kevin (Weenie vote with TEN Kaymakli Nightmares)--> Alayna (DoC vote)
I knew what Kevin was playing because he'd wrecked Robb earlier in the day. I'd also played against his deck on another occasion so it was known to me. So. . .when I had the opportunity to bring up Shawda Dorrit by turn two I took it. Her three votes turned his deck from a table nightmare at a four player to a weenie bleed nightmare for Alayna.
She got two DoC, but the weenie pressure was high and she could not afford more. Ryan got Byzar and Viuda Blanca.
I also got Nehemiah and Mylan up, but it took a long time. I actually didn't do much until Nehemiah showed up, though I did make Kevin put some damage on himself with KRCs, while he was bleeding the hell out of Alayna.
I didn't get any Dominate, so my Deflections were dead cards. Ryan did bleed me a bit with Trochomancy, and got a Pulse on Byzar later. His main contribution to predatorhood was milling two cards per turn with a Slaughterhouse.
The game fell into my lap from there. I waited until Kevin was going to oust Alayna on his next turn and ousted him before he had the chance. Alayna was on 3 pool by then. She lunged unsuccessfully at Ryan, passing a big nasty Reckeless that was unblockable, but her three bleed got blocked.
Ryan failed to oust me, but I actually did not draw another pool damaging vote with my 8 cards + Nehemiah goodness. Still, with Mylan I was able to bleed for three with my three guys. Ryan bled ms a couple times, but now Giangaleazzo had joined my ready region and I did draw some KRCs.
Me 4VP and GW.
Game MVP: Shawda Dorrit, for being cheap and votey and just what I needed to win this game.
I did not make the finals by a half VP ( I was actually 7th of 16 players with a single game sweep, behind Alayna's 4VP and GW on tournament points. David Wilson, who organized the event, posted a redaction of the finals on the Michigan VTES Facebook page.
I'm having trouble generating a link to a Facebook page for linkiness here. Perhaps David will mosey by and leave some info in the comments here. I'd quote him out of context but. . .
I played my Al Muntaquim Chainsaw deck in a pickup game during the finals, but the Lambach on my left wouldn't let me get a Magic Chainsaw, and the game devolved into mutual bullying. It broke when my predator decided to oust me, and then the Lambach player, in quick succession. My Caitiff had just finished munching on the last Tzimisce, too.
Ah well. It does what combat decks often do: it wrecks it's predator and then loses spectacularly.
-Merlin out
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz
Location:Ypsilanti MI
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