Gen Con - First Blood?

I haven't seen a report on Sunday's First Blood event. If there is one, could someone point me to it? If not, how did that go?

sul...@aol.com wrote: > I haven't seen a report on Sunday's First Blood event. If there is > one, could someone point me to it? If not, how did that go? Four players, counting myself. Eric Chiang won the first round. I won the second (playing a Tremere 2nd-round combat deck). Highlight of the second: I used Redline to steal cross-table Eric's Anvil. I won on my following turn.

On Aug 23, 1:50 pm, LSJ <vtes...@white-wolf.com> wrote: [ quoted text not captured ] First game was: David Setty (!Ventrue bleed with Alan Sovereign investment equipment) --> Eric Chiang (boring Brujah combat) --> Robert Dudock (Ingrid Rossler deck with hordes of minions) --> LSJ (Tremere 2nd round combat) I was bled for 5 (Ulrike Rothbert Governs + Conditioning) before I even got out a minion, putting me on the defensive. Robert brings out Ingrid, but she is quickly torporized by Oliver Thrace (or maybe Ardan Lane). And I then diablerize with either Anvil or Volker. LSJ eventually has Oliver Thrace, Ardan Lane, and Hector Trelane. Does a good job blocking the Gangrel hordes, and bleeds reliably against the !Ventrue. David has Merged Alan Sovereign, Ulrike, Neighbor John, and another mid-cap. Can't get bleeds through because I remain untapped. Most equip actions get blocked by the Tremere. I have Volker, Anvil, Beast, and Theo. I don't put much pressure on my prey. Just an occasional bleed for 1. I mainly need to stay untapped because the !Ventrue run the risk of bleeding me out. Robert has hordes of minions. Besides RIP Ingrid, there is Chandler, Daliyah and Dual Formed Daliyah, Ricki van Dempsi, an Embrace, and maybe someone else. Don't have any real pressure from his predator (me). Gets occasional bleeds for 1 on LSJ. But since his whole deck is centered around superstar Ingrid, he can't do too much. Since Hector is already an honorary "anathema," I decide to cycle an actual Anathema card on Oliver Thrace. I'm running low on pool and LSJ is close to ousting David Setty. I send Theo, Beast, and Anvil over to get me 4 pool via Hector but they are all unsuccessful. Theo gets blocked by Ardan (and I choose to save my Disarm). Beast and Anvil get torporized by Walk of Flame (didn't want to waste combat cards cause I might need them against Oliver). Beast gets rescued. And the following turn, LSJ relents and lets me kill Hector since I really need the pool. LSJ almost gets David Setty. And David Setty almost bleeds me out (he was just needed a single bleed card to do it). Previously, I had promised (correctly) that there were absolutely no Presence cards in my deck. Robert had thought it also meant that there were no bleed cards, so he tapped out and was at 5 pool. Govern bleed plus two bleeds for one ends the game. Second round: Robert (Ingrid + Gangrel) --> Eric (Boring boring Brujah) --> David (! Ventrue) --> LSJ (2nd round for the 2nd round Tremere) Robert gets out Ingrid and a pair of weenies. I have Donal, Theo, and Anvil. David has Neighbor John, Alan Sovereign, and someone else. LSJ has Oliver and another two minions. I'm in a rush (want to attend a True Dungeon event), so I play much more aggressively (some say recklessly). I beat up a few of David's minions. LSJ does a good job working on Robert. Neighbor John and Ingrid keep trying to block Donal but none are able to torporize him even when Donal is empty. Between Ingrid blocking my hunts and the other punk protean weenies bleeding me for 1, I decide I got to rough up my predator a bit. I Disarm one of his 4-caps. Looks like he's almost ousted anyway. Oh well. Game's almost over so I'll go and diablerize. Theo gets blocked. Anvil does it and gets Redlined. LSJ ousts Robert (though he doesn't even need Anvil to do it, though it would have been poetic if Anvil had done the ousting bleed). The end. Normally, I'm not a big fan of variants, especially since you have to go through the extra effort of building a special deck. For First Blood, it seemed like everyone just used normal decks, and it played just fine. Surprisingly, I actually quite enjoyed the First Blood variant. I think it may actually be a *very* helpful format for new players, since it teaches valuable principles of table dynamics and balancing the table. Many newbies don't realize that if you completely wreck your predator, it's just an easy VP for your grandpredator, and you just end up with a more dangerous predator. First Blood is a bit of an exaggeration (since the game ends immediateyl), but emphasizes such a concept. (Of course sometimes you might want to do this *intentionally* which is okay, but far too many players do it by accident).