rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad

TWD - Acquired Ventrue Assets Zaragoza 15-XII-2007

77 messages from 26 participants · 31 December 2007 – 05 January 2008
original thread on Google Groups

i_red...@hotmail.com

Number of players: 21 Deck Name: Me pareció ver un lindo gatito Created By: Miguel del Valle Crypt [(17 vampires, average capacity: 2) ------------------------------------------ 2x Mata Hari CHI OBF aus for qui 7 Ravnos:4 2 votes 1x Shawnda Dorrit CEL obt pot pre 6 Brujah antitribu:4 priscus 14x Tupdog POT VIS 1 Gargoyle:3 Library (60 cards) ------------------- Master (10) 3x Direct Intervention 1x Jake Washington (Hunter) 3x Memories of Mortality 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion 1x Waste Management Operation 1x Zoning Board Action (2) 1x Arson 1x Concert Tour Action Modifier (5) 5x Skin of the Chameleon Ally (20) 1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter) 1x Gregory Winter 2x Mylan Horseed (Goblin) 1x Ossian 11x Rock Cat 3x Vagabond Mystic 1x War Ghoul Event (3) 1x Dragonbound 2x Unmasking, The Political Action (8) 7x Autarkis Persecution 1x Mark of the Damned Reaction (4) 4x Bloodstorm of Chorazin Retainer (1) 1x D'habi Revenant Combat (7) 3x Disarm 4x Immortal Grapple

Peter D Bakija

In article <432c6181-86bc-407f...@l6g2000prm.googlegroups.com>, i_red...@hotmail.com wrote: > Crypt [(17 vampires, average capacity: 2) > ------------------------------------------ > 2x Mata Hari CHI OBF aus for qui 7 Ravnos:4 2 votes > 1x Shawnda Dorrit CEL obt pot pre 6 Brujah antitribu:4 priscus > 14x Tupdog POT VIS 1 Gargoyle:3 I'm deeply confused by this deck. What does it do? And how does it do it? > Library (60 cards) > ------------------- > Master (10) > 3x Direct Intervention > 1x Jake Washington (Hunter) > 3x Memories of Mortality > 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion > 1x Waste Management Operation > 1x Zoning Board > > Action (2) > 1x Arson > 1x Concert Tour > > Action Modifier (5) > 5x Skin of the Chameleon > > Ally (20) > 1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter) > 1x Gregory Winter > 2x Mylan Horseed (Goblin) > 1x Ossian > 11x Rock Cat > 3x Vagabond Mystic > 1x War Ghoul Ok. A lot of Rock Cats. That are expensive and can fight. Kind of. Ok. > Event (3) > 1x Dragonbound > 2x Unmasking, The And some Ally based intercept. But not tons, ok. > Political Action (8) > 7x Autarkis Persecution > 1x Mark of the Damned And some Autarkis Persecution to potentially gain a ton of pool, sure, but not really any good way to pass the votes and when they do pass, will just be handing out tons of pool to everyone else too. > Reaction (4) > 4x Bloodstorm of Chorazin > > Retainer (1) > 1x D'habi Revenant > > Combat (7) > 3x Disarm > 4x Immortal Grapple Is there something important I'm missing? I mean, clearly, there is something very clever about this deck. I just can't see what it is. Peter D Bakija pd...@lightlink.com http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html "Find hungry samurai." -The Old Man

Daneel

On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:18:54 -0500, Peter D Bakija <pd...@lightlink.com> wrote: >> Political Action (8) >> 7x Autarkis Persecution >> 1x Mark of the Damned [...] > Is there something important I'm missing? I mean, clearly, there is > something very clever about this deck. I just can't see what it is. Dude. Get a grip. This is a Mark of the Damned deck!!! ;) -- Regards, Daneel

adam....@gmail.com

On Dec 31, 2:10 pm, Daneel <dan...@eposta.hu> wrote: > On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:18:54 -0500, Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> > wrote: > > >> Political Action (8) > >> 7x Autarkis Persecution > >> 1x Mark of the Damned > > [...] > > > Is there something important I'm missing? I mean, clearly, there is > > something very clever about this deck. I just can't see what it is. > > Dude. Get a grip. This is a Mark of the Damned deck!!! ;) > > -- > Regards, > > Daneel Mark of the Dammed? Doesn't that need serpentis?

Peter D Bakija

In article <opt37ri0...@news.chello.hu>, Daneel <dan...@eposta.hu> wrote: > Dude. Get a grip. This is a Mark of the Damned deck!!! ;) Ahh. Clearly that was the cog I was missing out on... Boggle. [ quoted text not captured ]

Peter D Bakija

In article <f94a373f-8967-412a...@n20g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>, "adam....@gmail.com" <adam....@gmail.com> wrote: > Mark of the Dammed? Doesn't that need serpentis? No, no. That is Mark of Damnation. Mark of the Dammed is a PA that makes everyone burn a pool for every vampire in their ash heap (?!?!?!?!?) [ quoted text not captured ]

Peter D Bakija

On Dec 31, 6:41 am, i_reden...@hotmail.com wrote: > Number of players: 21 > > Deck Name: Me pareció ver un lindo gatito > Created By: Miguel del Valle Like, again, I'm in no way trying to be mean here--this deck clearly looks like it is doing something really clever (if really obscure). And it won a tournament, so clearly it worked against a presumably average field of decks. But still. I'm totally not seeing at all what it is doing to do something other than maybe get out a bunch of allies, call Autarkis Persecution, gain a bunch of pool, give a bunch of pool to everyone else, beat some folks up with Rock Cats (assuming they have no combat defense whatsoever) and then eventually get Mata Hari out and see her get killed for being Red List. Could someone who was near this deck enlighten us? > Crypt [(17 vampires, average capacity: 2) > ------------------------------------------ > 2x Mata Hari CHI OBF aus for qui 7 Ravnos:4 2 votes > 1x Shawnda Dorrit CEL obt pot pre 6 Brujah antitribu:4 priscus > 14x Tupdog POT VIS 1 Gargoyle:3 Ok. If you can get out both Mata and Shawnda, you can theoretically have 5 votes. Which makes passing the Autarkis easier. But you are unlikely to draw Mata or Shawnda till you play a whole bunch of Tupdogs. Which is costing pool and Tupdogs can't take D actions. So you spend a bunch or pool and turns getting out Tupdogs who maybe get some Rock Cats as you fish for Mata Hari. And then get ousted? > Library (60 cards) > ------------------- > Master (10) > 3x Direct Intervention > 1x Jake Washington (Hunter) > 3x Memories of Mortality > 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion > 1x Waste Management Operation > 1x Zoning Board Ok. The Memories help the Rock Cats. But they don't keep you from being ousted. > Action (2) > 1x Arson > 1x Concert Tour > > Action Modifier (5) > 5x Skin of the Chameleon > > Ally (20) > 1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter) > 1x Gregory Winter > 2x Mylan Horseed (Goblin) > 1x Ossian > 11x Rock Cat > 3x Vagabond Mystic > 1x War Ghoul Ok. Lots of allies. So you get out lots of allies. Including Rock Cat, who is really good at killing weenie vampires. But not real good against bigger vampires with things like manuevers or guns. Or Potence. And they cost 4 pool. And can't bleed. But in any case, you get out a lot of allies and call Autarkis. Which gives you a bunch of pool. To get more allies. That can't bleed much. And gives out more pool to your prey, which you can't really take away from your prey. > Event (3) > 1x Dragonbound > 2x Unmasking, The Unmasking is good. Gives your allies +1 intercept. But it stops there. Dragonbound is good. If your prey has a lot of little vampires in torpor from getting beat up by Rock Cats. > Political Action (8) > 7x Autarkis Persecution > 1x Mark of the Damned Ok. The Autarkis is key, certainly. But it gives you pool, gives your prey pool, gives your predator pool, and makes sure folks never get ousted. Especially your prey? And the Mark of the Damned is likely to make you lose a lot of pool (due to the burned Tupdogs) and not make anyone else lose much pool. > Reaction (4) > 4x Bloodstorm of Chorazin Reasonable. If Mata Hari could reliably block anyone. > Retainer (1) > 1x D'habi Revenant Good. > Combat (7) > 3x Disarm > 4x Immortal Grapple Good for Rock Cat, sure. Unless someone Manuevers to long with a Gun or something. Like, again, really, I'm not trying to be mean or slag the deck or anything. It looks clearly very well thought out. And looks like it could do well in a really specific, weird environment (where everyone else is, say, playing lots of little weenie vampires with no combat defense at all, and not a ton of bleed. And not a ton of intercept. And no combat offense.) It is also possible that there is a rules/card text misunderstanding somewhere that everyone missed out on that could use some illumination. Anyone? -Peter

librarian

Peter D Bakija wrote: > In article > <f94a373f-8967-412a...@n20g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>, > "adam....@gmail.com" <adam....@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Mark of the Dammed? Doesn't that need serpentis? > > No, no. That is Mark of Damnation. Mark of the Dammed is a PA that makes > everyone burn a pool for every vampire in their ash heap (?!?!?!?!?) > Burn a pool for every vampire in their *prey's* ash heap. This deck obviously goes backwards and crosstable a lot. Still can't get around the fact that Rock Cats cost 4. best - chris -- Super Fun Cards http://stores.ebay.com/superfuncards/ auct...@superfuncards.com

Frederick Scott

"Peter D Bakija" <pd...@lightlink.com> wrote in message news:pdb6-62F7A2.1...@news-server.stny.rr.com... > In article > <f94a373f-8967-412a...@n20g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>, > "adam....@gmail.com" <adam....@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Mark of the Dammed? Doesn't that need serpentis? > > No, no. That is Mark of Damnation. Mark of the Dammed is a PA that makes > everyone burn a pool for every vampire in their ash heap (?!?!?!?!?) er, burn a pool for every vampire in their _prey's_ ash heap. So, like, if you had a bunch of Tupdogs in your ash heap and this in your hand, you usually will have the power of life or death over your predator. Especially useful as a finisher when you're down to two players. Fred

Frederick Scott

"Peter D Bakija" <pd...@lightlink.com> wrote in message news:pdb6-62F7A2.1...@news-server.stny.rr.com... > In article > <f94a373f-8967-412a...@n20g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>, > "adam....@gmail.com" <adam....@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Mark of the Dammed? Doesn't that need serpentis? > > No, no. That is Mark of Damnation. Mark of the Dammed is a PA that makes > everyone burn a pool for every vampire in their ash heap (?!?!?!?!?) er, burn a pool for every vampire in their _prey's_ ash heap. So, like, [ quoted text not captured ]

Morgan Vening

On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:40:39 -0800 (PST), Peter D Bakija <pd...@lightlink.com> wrote: >> Political Action (8) >> 7x Autarkis Persecution >> 1x Mark of the Damned > >Ok. The Autarkis is key, certainly. But it gives you pool, gives your >prey pool, gives your predator pool, and makes sure folks never get >ousted. Especially your prey? And the Mark of the Damned is likely to >make you lose a lot of pool (due to the burned Tupdogs) and not make >anyone else lose much pool. You don't burn pool foryour TupDogs when you Mark of the Damned. Your predator does. >Like, again, really, I'm not trying to be mean or slag the deck or >anything. It looks clearly very well thought out. And looks like it >could do well in a really specific, weird environment (where everyone >else is, say, playing lots of little weenie vampires with no combat >defense at all, and not a ton of bleed. And not a ton of intercept. >And no combat offense.) It is also possible that there is a rules/card >text misunderstanding somewhere that everyone missed out on that could >use some illumination. The only thing I can think of is the possibility of a misinterpretation of Mark of the Damned. Mark of the Damned Type: Political Action If this referendum is successful, each Methuselah burns X pool, where X is the number of vampires in his or her prey's ash heap. If it was interpreted in reverse (prey takes damage). Or, he went backwards until it got to 2, then played it. Or, he sent out the "Don't shoot us, we're pathetic!" transmission.* and was able to mop up sufficiently. Which I could see working in the first rounds, but with only 21 people in the tourney, you have to figure at least one of the people at the final table knew what the deck did. * $1 to John Chricton. Morgan Vening - I've won individual games with worse. But never anything competitive. Congrats for pulling it off.

The Name Forgotten

On Jan 1, 12:40 am, Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> wrote: > On Dec 31, 6:41 am, i_reden...@hotmail.com wrote: > > > Number of players: 21 > > > Deck Name: Me pareció ver un lindo gatito > > Created By: Miguel del Valle > > 1x Waste Management Operation I'm guessing the Waste Management Operation was this deck's saving grace? Although one sudden/wash/successful arson would've shutdown the deck entirely then. > > Political Action (8) > > 7x Autarkis Persecution > > 1x Mark of the Damned Is this correct? Only 1 Mark of the Damned in a deck that is supposed to run off of the card? > > Ok. The Autarkis is key, certainly. But it gives you pool, gives your > prey pool, gives your predator pool, and makes sure folks never get > ousted. Especially your prey? And the Mark of the Damned is likely to > make you lose a lot of pool (due to the burned Tupdogs) and not make > anyone else lose much pool. No. Mark of the Damned, Political Action, C2 , [AH:C2] Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any vampire at +1 stealth. If this referendum is successful, each Methuselah burns X pool, where X is the number of vampires in his or her ***PREY'S*** ash heap. It's gonna make your predator lose a ton of pool. How that makes you win is beyond me (with only one MotD and one way of recovering the card and no vote push)? Although I'd place my bet on recurring MotD and backwards ousting. That, or they misread the card and read that your prey receives the damage from your burnt vampires. > Like, again, really, I'm not trying to be mean or slag the deck or > anything. It looks clearly very well thought out. And looks like it > could do well in a really specific, weird environment (where everyone > else is, say, playing lots of little weenie vampires with no combat > defense at all, and not a ton of bleed. And not a ton of intercept. > And no combat offense.) It is also possible that there is a rules/card > text misunderstanding somewhere that everyone missed out on that could > use some illumination. > > Anyone? > I'd also guess this only won due to some weird environment or table play in the finals. Maybe some king-making was involved? The deck seems very fragile to me, way too many moving parts, and way too much that can go wrong. It must've had a really lucky run. I'd be interested, like you, to find out how it really won.

Peter D Bakija

In article <50de7b7a-7b8f-41a4...@e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com>, The Name Forgotten <tex...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > Is this correct? Only 1 Mark of the Damned in a deck that is supposed > to run off of the card? Heh. Even with the actual understanding of how Mark of the Damned works, I'm not seeing how Mark of the Damned is actually helping this deck oust anyone. Other than its predator. > Mark of the Damned, Political Action, C2 , [AH:C2] > Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any vampire at +1 stealth. If > this referendum is successful, each Methuselah burns X pool, where X > is the number of vampires in his or her ***PREY'S*** ash heap. Ah. Clever. With the Tupdogs, you can *really* backoust your predator. Well, unless you have already given him 15 pool with the Autarkis Pursecutions. > It's gonna make your predator lose a ton of pool. How that makes you > win is beyond me (with only one MotD and one way of recovering the > card and no vote push)? Although I'd place my bet on recurring MotD > and backwards ousting. That, or they misread the card and read that > your prey receives the damage from your burnt vampires. Yeah, see, that is what I'm figuring is actually going on here--there is some minor text understanding error somewhere that makes a huge difference in the running of the deck. [ quoted text not captured ]

Peter D Bakija

In article <98fej.40722$1C4....@newsfe10.phx>, "Frederick Scott" <nos...@no.spam.dot.com> wrote: > er, burn a pool for every vampire in their _prey's_ ash heap. So, like, > if you had a bunch of Tupdogs in your ash heap and this in your hand, > you usually will have the power of life or death over your predator. > Especially useful as a finisher when you're down to two players. Yeah, now that that is apparent, that is at least something tricky. Maybe it, uh, just tries to stay alive while its prey gains 3VPs by killing everyone else at the table, and then when you and the other guy are left at the table, and no one expects it, you call a Mark of the Damned with 15 Tupdogs in the ashheap to make your predator (now the last guy at the table) lose 15 pool? Asusming he can't block you, vote you down, or survive the 15 pool loss, given that he has ousted 3 people and benefitted from the multiple Autarkises called to keep you alive? And then you end up with 2VPs. And not a table win... Still confused. [ quoted text not captured ]

Peter D Bakija

In article <A6fej.12892$Gr4....@newsfe08.phx>, librarian <auct...@superfuncards.com> wrote: > Burn a pool for every vampire in their *prey's* ash heap. This deck > obviously goes backwards and crosstable a lot. Still can't get around > the fact that Rock Cats cost 4. Goes backwards and crosstable doing what? The Rock Cats can certainly beat up little vampires with no defense at all. But if the opponents have mid cap vampires with some kind of combat defense (fortitude, manuevers) *or* actual combat offense, the Rock Cats cost 4 and die (except for the Memories, but only 3 of those). The the Tupdogs can't do anything other than call votes, recruit allies, and, uh, hunt? The only pool defense this deck has is Autarkis Persecution (which helps everyone else out too). The only combat defense this deck has is Tupdog or an ally blocking the Redlist Rush on Mata Hari. Not much stealth--yeah, Tupdog can get +3 stealth occasionally, but likely not enough to get past an even half consistent intercept deck. [ quoted text not captured ]

The Name Forgotten

On Jan 1, 5:56 pm, Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> wrote: > In article <A6fej.12892$Gr4.8...@newsfe08.phx>, > > librarian <aucti...@superfuncards.com> wrote: > Goes backwards and crosstable doing what? The Rock Cats can certainly > beat up little vampires with no defense at all. But if the opponents > have mid cap vampires with some kind of combat defense (fortitude, > manuevers) *or* actual combat offense, the Rock Cats cost 4 and die > (except for the Memories, but only 3 of those). The the Tupdogs can't do > anything other than call votes, recruit allies, and, uh, hunt? I'm guessing that's all the Tupdogs really need to do. The Rock Cats is decent combat pressure if you can pull out enough of them. Nothing worse than wasting a bunch of combat cards on a crappy ally for a combat deck - and combat decks aren't that popular to begin with. > The only pool defense this deck has is Autarkis Persecution (which helps > everyone else out too). The only combat defense this deck has is Tupdog > or an ally blocking the Redlist Rush on Mata Hari. Not much > stealth--yeah, Tupdog can get +3 stealth occasionally, but likely not > enough to get past an even half consistent intercept deck. Small deck, lots of things that can get out of your hand quickly. If someone blocks, so what, you can pull out another and another, until they can't. As I said, I really think the only way a deck like this could win is either through king-making, or by successively backousting everyone on the table, one at a time, using Waste Management Operation and Mark of the Damned, and keeping everyone else afloat by autarkis persecution until you get through to them. That way everyone ends up with 1VP and you end up with 2. Still, like you said, with very little stealth, it's surprising nobody was there with a smattering of intercept to stop the deck flat. Maybe not a GW, but good enough to get you into the finals, and good enough to win the tournament at the end. I've seen some pretty crummy last-seed decks win tournaments in the past, because all the other big bad decks proceeded to knock the snot out of each other and pave the way for others to take a couple of VP's and win.

sul...@aol.com

On Dec 31 2007, 2:40 pm, Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> wrote: > On Dec 31, 6:41 am, i_reden...@hotmail.com wrote: > > > Number of players: 21 > > > Deck Name: Me pareció ver un lindo gatito > > Created By: Miguel del Valle > > Like, again, I'm in no way trying to be mean here--this deck clearly > looks like it is doing something really clever (if really obscure). > And it won a tournament, so clearly it worked against a presumably > average field of decks. But still. I'm totally not seeing at all what > it is doing to do something other than maybe get out a bunch of > allies, call Autarkis Persecution, gain a bunch of pool, give a bunch > of pool to everyone else, beat some folks up with Rock Cats (assuming > they have no combat defense whatsoever) and then eventually get Mata > Hari out and see her get killed for being Red List. > > Could someone who was near this deck enlighten us? Could always build and play it yourself. It's something I've done in the past when I was confused as to how a deck could function. In general, I find playing other people's decks on occasion to be valuable for getting out of a particular mindset/generating new ideas. The less the deck makes sense (while seeming to have some functionality, which a TWD is more likely to), the better a candidate.

The Name Forgotten

[ quoted text not captured ] Using my rusty understanding of Portuguese, and using it to translate their spanish forum, this is what I can gather: On the first table: Giovanni (shambling hordes deck), some sort of auspex deck (likely to be !Malk), rock cat's deck, imbued and setites (with dragon breath rounds???). The rock cat's deck got 2.5 VP's. On the second table: Auspex deck, A wall-deck revolving around Justine (had smiling jack), "sacred/holy" giovanni, then Rock Cats deck, then another Giovanni deck. Not sure which one was the shambling hordes deck. There was also a third table. Can't find out what happened with this deck on that table tho. No report on the final table either - although (from the reports of the prelims) it's likely that the weenie potence, the Tzimisce warghoul/political, Imbued and the !Malks were there alongside this deck. Other decks floating around were: !Ventrue, Tzimisce political/war ghoul deck, !Toreador, Tremere, and ? weenie? ('tortas') potence Seems like it was the Dragonbound in the end that did the most damage though. Looking at the likely decks at the final table, I could see how it could possibly win. Pretty strange ally-intensive environment, with the 2 non-ally decks being weenie potence (which Rock Cat's will probably eat up), and !Malks, which can't handle just about any combat. Still, don't know how this deck would've really handled the Imbued short of that Mark of the Damned. Don't know if that helps any, but that's the best I can do as an outsider.

The Name Forgotten

On Jan 1, 8:56 pm, The Name Forgotten <tex...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > On Jan 1, 7:54 pm, The Name Forgotten <tex...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > > > > > > > On Jan 1, 5:56 pm, Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> wrote: > > > There was also a third table. Can't find out what happened with this > deck on that table tho. > Other decks floating around were: > !Ventrue, Tzimisce political/war ghoul deck, !Toreador, Tremere, and ? > weenie? ('tortas') potence > > No report on the final table either - although (from the reports of > the prelims) it's likely that the weenie potence, the Tzimisce > warghoul/political, Imbued and the !Malks were there alongside this > deck. > Sorry, my 3lit3 backtracking skills failed me... writing the response by adding bits and pieces in between as I found them might not have been so clever. I put it back in the correct order here tho.

sg3kmb6...@gmail.com

On Dec 31 2007, 11:40 pm, Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> wrote: > On Dec 31, 6:41 am, i_reden...@hotmail.com wrote: > > Anyone? > > -Peter When you put your first vampire into play, there will be ~3 Rock Cats waiting to rush it. How would you handle it?

Frederick Scott

"Peter D Bakija" <pd...@lightlink.com> wrote in message news:pdb6-9AA1BC.1...@news-server.stny.rr.com... [ quoted text not captured ] Well, I sort of gathered that the main part of the deck was really the Rock Cats, who presumedly rushed opposing minions, pummeled them, put them into torpor and moved on. It doesn't look terribly effective the way it's implemented in the deck (other than what someone else pointed out - that the Rock Cats will begin to make their entrance very fast given the 1 cap Tupdogs) but there you go. Maybe it's the MI5 persecution that really makes it tick. :-P Fred

Peter D Bakija

In article <d0917c2a-df25-4db4...@i72g2000hsd.googlegroups.com>, sg3kmb6...@gmail.com wrote: > When you put your first vampire into play, there will be ~3 Rock Cats > waiting to rush it. > > How would you handle it? A) Fortitude. B) S:CE D) Kill the Rock Cats. But if all the other vampires in play have zero combat defense and are capacity 3 and smaller, I can see a lot of troubles. [ quoted text not captured ]

sul...@aol.com

On Jan 1, 5:04 pm, Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> wrote: > sg3kmb613sdf...@gmail.com wrote: > > When you put your first vampire into play, there will be ~3 Rock Cats > > waiting to rush it. > > > How would you handle it? > > A) Fortitude. > > B) S:CE > > D) Kill the Rock Cats. > > But if all the other vampires in play have zero combat defense and are > capacity 3 and smaller, I can see a lot of troubles. > > Peter D Bakija There are many more situations where first turn x3 Tupdog, second turn x3 Rock Cat is a problem than just when playing zero combat defense and tiny vampires. S:CE is likely to run out against three rushes a turn, nevermind IG. Fortitude is in a lot more trouble due to the Cat's press. How many decks just beat Rock Cat in combat? Animalism, sure. If you have the Concealed .44 as soon as you bring out a vamp, sure. Others too, but not so many. Even a trade isn't productive - in the early game, trading a RC for a vampire should be in favor of this deck. That being said, if you know the deck, there are some things I'd consider early in the game even when not facing x3 Cats before bringing out a vamp. First, the general strategy would be to attack the player's pool. Down low enough and the pool cost of Tupdog/Cat becomes prohibitive. Of course, this is where Autarkis comes in; given a Cheetah start, the pool gain can go off before there's opposition or the Cats can take out voters first, which provides the fuel to flood the table with more Cats. Second, bring out more than one minion at once with the idea that one of them can get through for pool damage. Third, coordinate with the player on the other side. If the predator of the deck, then bringing out minions right behind the deck's prey puts a lot of targets in play, though the deck would still likely try to maim the predator first. If the prey, plan on rescuing the deck's predator to put pressure on it. Even the deck's grandpredator may like the idea of its prey getting beaten down repeatedly before either ousting the deck or failing to. It would be interesting to know how much game there is without a strong start, but the potential out of the gate does seem to be an important part that is getting missed. Then, many players aren't mentally prepared for every deck, so the potential for making a mistake against this one seems much higher than normal. Most of this thread is about not understanding the deck, which should be evidence enough of this angle to it.

Salem

Peter D Bakija wrote: >> Retainer (1) >> 1x D'habi Revenant > > Good. ...but only for the burn option. "The Baali with this retainer gets +1 bleed." I thought Mata only counted as a Baali for playing the card and any lingering duration effects, but not for 'minion with this card...' type effects? -- salem (replace 'hotmail' with 'yahoo' to email)

Salem

i_red...@hotmail.com wrote: > Number of players: 21 > > Deck Name: Me pareció ver un lindo gatito > Created By: Miguel del Valle > > > > Crypt [(17 vampires, average capacity: 2) > ------------------------------------------ > 2x Mata Hari CHI OBF aus for qui 7 Ravnos:4 2 votes > 1x Shawnda Dorrit CEL obt pot pre 6 Brujah antitribu:4 priscus > 14x Tupdog POT VIS 1 Gargoyle:3 > 2x Mylan Horseed (Goblin) I assume Mylan is there either for his bleed (which is fairly cheap), and/or blocking other people's allies attacking your guys? Since he can't untap Mata.... [ quoted text not captured ]

The Name Forgotten

On Jan 2, 8:56 am, Salem <salem_christ....@hotmail.com> wrote: [ quoted text not captured ] Your assumption on this appears correct. From the spanish forum: Llevaba Mata Hari, Shawne Dorrit (la brujah priscus) y el goblin para ir sangrando muuuuuuy poco a poco. Tambien usa dragonbound y autarkis persecution para ganar pool y un toque magico que vereis cuando Miguel publique el mazo que es en lo que se quedo. (excuse my poor translation) It uses Mata Hari, Shawne Dorrit (the brujah priscus) and the goblin to bleed very little by little. Also uses dragonbound and autarkis persecution to gain pool and a magic touch ??? very carefully Miguel manipulated the table with it ??? I'm not so sure about the last part. Anyone spanish want to translate it for us? The original posts are here: http://dnn.vtes.net/Foros/tabid/403/forumid/5/tpage/4/view/Topic/postid/40781/Default.aspx

The Name Forgotten

On Jan 1, 8:56 pm, The Name Forgotten <tex...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > On Jan 1, 7:54 pm, The Name Forgotten <tex...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > > > > > > > On Jan 1, 5:56 pm, Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> wrote: > > > > In article <A6fej.12892$Gr4.8...@newsfe08.phx>, > > > > librarian <aucti...@superfuncards.com> wrote: > > On the second table: > Auspex deck, A wall-deck revolving around Justine (had smiling jack), > "sacred/holy" giovanni, then Rock Cats deck, then another Giovanni > deck. Not sure which one was the shambling hordes deck. Ahh... 'sangrando' is 'bleeding' not "sacred/holy" - so it's a bleed giovanni deck. Which would make the latter giovanni deck the shambling hordes one.

Damnans

[ quoted text not captured ] The last sentences mean: "...and a magical touch you will see when Miguel posts his deck, as we agreed". -- Damnans http://www.almadrava.net/damnans http://www.vtes.net http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/vteshispania/ http://iuturna.sorcery.net (IRC channel: #vtes)

The Name Forgotten

[ quoted text not captured ] > enough of this angle to it.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - Yeah, look it might be able to nab that 1st VP on the table, but then what? While we might not understand the deck so well here, if you were sitting in a game and just watched it race through it's first prey, something tell's me you won't be making any silly mistakes of underestimating the deck. And your second prey will have had a decent amount of time to get out vamps and get going - especially since this Rock Cat deck will not be bleeding out it's first prey too quickly, unless that player is a complete idiot and brings out tons of vamps and leaves themselves on incredibly low pool - which, I admit, happens. Still, after realising this deck is going to be rushing at you consistently at the start, I'd make damn sure I'm prepared for it before bringing out any vamps in the finals. It seems very unlikely that I won't know what that deck does by that stage if it had been in three games before that. Also, there was an imbued deck floating around which would've given it tremendous problems - dragonbound would've been useless, and the imbued would've kept bouncing back out and slowly knocking the rock cats down, plus having an easy time blocking any more coming out (with so little stealth in the deck). So my vote is more luck going in favour of this deck than anything else. It reminds me of the one time a player came down here from a nearby city with 2 very powerful trick decks. After he played them and took the table, I smirked and said they were nice decks, but neither would last past it's first game here, cos once everyone saw them being played, and figured out how they worked, they wouldn't get going again. He disagreed - I smiled. Needless to say, the next time he played the same group with the same decks, he got completely pommeled into the ground - and it wasn't revenge (no table gang-up or anything), just the moving parts of the deck were too apparant for the second time round, and once one or two essential cogs were stopped, the whole deck fell apart. (In context - one of the decks was a multi-rush star-deck, and the other relied on getting vote-lock). Plus, I'd really love to see these Rock Cats go toe-to-toe with the Warghouls or the Shambling Hordes that were apparantly lurking around in this tournament. Something tells me the Rock Cats would lose out - and at their tremendous cost, so would the player. So, I'm putting the win down to either an incredible amount of luck and table stupidity (which I find more likely) or a stroke of genius in playing the table.

The Name Forgotten

[ quoted text not captured ] Ah. Thanks, makes much more sense now. Hopefully I wasn't so far off on the rest of the translation...

LSJ

Salem wrote: > Peter D Bakija wrote: > >>> Retainer (1) >>> 1x D'habi Revenant >> >> Good. > > ....but only for the burn option. > > "The Baali with this retainer gets +1 bleed." > > I thought Mata only counted as a Baali for playing the card and any > lingering duration effects, but not for 'minion with this card...' type > effects? Correct.

Damnans

On Jan 2, 12:19 pm, The Name Forgotten <tex...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > On Jan 2, 5:45 am, sule...@aol.com wrote: [...] > > Also, there was an imbued deck floating around which would've given it > tremendous problems - dragonbound would've been useless, and the > imbued would've kept bouncing back out and slowly knocking the rock > cats down, plus having an easy time blocking any more coming out (with > so little stealth in the deck). So my vote is more luck going in > favour of this deck than anything else. The guy playing the imbued deck wrote in the Spanish forum that he had no chance: "llevé imbuidos y me cazó en la primera mesa... no pude ni moverme... ni siquiera me dejó jugar a hacerle el trabajo sucio aunque le ofreciera hacerlo gratis..." Translation: "I was playing imbued and was his prey in the first game... I could not even move... He did not even let me help him out, even though I offered my help for free". [ quoted text not captured ]

The Name Forgotten

On Jan 2, 1:33 pm, Damnans <damnansv...@ono.com> wrote: > On Jan 2, 12:19 pm, The Name Forgotten <tex...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > > > On Jan 2, 5:45 am, sule...@aol.com wrote: > [...] > > > Also, there was an imbued deck floating around which would've given it > > tremendous problems - dragonbound would've been useless, and the > > imbued would've kept bouncing back out and slowly knocking the rock > > cats down, plus having an easy time blocking any more coming out (with > > so little stealth in the deck). So my vote is more luck going in > > favour of this deck than anything else. > > The guy playing the imbued deck wrote in the Spanish forum that he had > no chance: > > "llevé imbuidos y me cazó en la primera mesa... no pude ni moverme... > ni siquiera me dejó jugar a hacerle el trabajo sucio aunque le > ofreciera hacerlo gratis..." > > Translation: "I was playing imbued and was his prey in the first > game... I could not even move... He did not even let me help him out, > even though I offered my help for free". > > -- > Damnans Sure, as it's first prey it might have problems. Afterall, it'll take the Imbued a few turns to prepare for such an onslaught. After that though, I figured they'd just proceed to wipe each other out slowly. It was clever of the winner to not give the Imbued an inch though.

Jozxyqk

[ quoted text not captured ] > Correct. I think the D'habi Revenant is probably there for this: > 1x War Ghoul

RedVenom

The deck is really SLOW but effective and hard to kill once the game goes long as it first rushes backwards to get rid of the preasure and the starts rolling forward. The final was something like this, Aus Weenie (3 caps) with Justine and tons of equipment --- Rock Cats --- !Malk Bleed Stealth --- Palla Grande --- Giovanni Bleed The rock cats deck started 2nd and brought out 2 tupdogs. The Aus weenie wasn't able to block the 2 rock cats that followed next turn and was forced to deal on no blocking any more rock cats as he would be rushed backwards. The malk had Kite that was crushed and dind't influence more. The palla Grande eventually managed to kill the Gio. After lots of time the game was, Rock Cats with Mata, Shawne & the oblin for bleeding, 4-5 Rock Cats, Vagabond, tons of pool (as every other player except the malk) and unmasking. The malk with kite and other vamp in torpor at 6 pool. Palla Grande with tons of minion and pool. Aus weenie with 3-4 3 caps and Justine with some equipment to block the embraces and weenies. The rock Cats took out Dragonbound, killed the Malk and crushed the palla grande deck in 2-3 turns as it took nearly 10 pool lose each turn for the dragonbound. With just 2 players remaining mata hari cast Mark of the Dammed after some rushes with the library empy and waste management online. I don't remember if time was called before the aus weenie was ousted but the Rock Cats deck won the tournament. All the answers you need to play this deck are the rock cats. If someone is against you torporize him to dead ;-)

Damnans

On Jan 2, 2:06 pm, Jozxyqk <jfeue...@eecs.tufts.edu> wrote: [ quoted text not captured ] Yes :) But the 1 D'habi Revenant, the 4 Bloodstorm of Chorazin and the 1 Concert Tour are there mainly for their burn option. http://dnn.vtes.net/Foros/tabid/403/forumid/8/tpage/1/view/topic/postid/42831/Default.aspx#42866 [ quoted text not captured ]

Patrick Chaos

I´ll translate a bit more of the topic you guys posted before, only when it mentions the rock cat deck First table: Giovanni Bleed+shamblings> Me (playing !Malks with combat) > Rock Cats > Imbued > Setites All the table is amazed when the rock cat player (at that time nobody knew the deck) brings a first turn Jake Washington, he recrutis a vagabond mystic, then 3 tupdogs. Nobody knew what to thinkg, but well we continue. I get my first vampire, Dolphin Black, and the rock cat player says "oh, a bleeder" and plays a pentex on Dolphin. My prey gets 3 rock cats, and I see my future pretty black. Besides, the imbued player seeing as he is dead, saves his skin by renegotiating a memories of mortalities on dolphin, in exchange for peace. I got the memories but the imbued died anyway. I contest the Pentex, try to bleed, and Dolphin gets knocked down. I state to the rock cat playe I ´m no bleed deck, so he leaves me alone. From there everything slowed down, rock cat player bleeding for 2 per turn, and getting more minions and getting pool via Autarkis. Imbued player is destroyed in all senses, setites bleed but cannot oust the giovanni. Giovanni player cannot oust me and me clinging to the table barely. finally, the giovanni ousted me, the rock cats ousted the imbued and the seittes. Rock cats: 2.5 VP, Giovannis 1.5 VP

CthuluKitty

> The rock cats deck started 2nd and brought out 2 tupdogs. The Aus > weenie wasn't able to block the 2 rock cats that followed next turn > and was forced to deal on no blocking any more rock cats as he would > be rushed backwards. This more or less explains how this deck was able to win the final table. This guy's predator made a patently stupid deal along the lines of "don't backrush me and I'll never ever try to win". It's not hard to see why dealing like that is a bad plan, yet people still seem to love doing it.

Frederick Scott

"CthuluKitty" <vtana...@riseup.net> wrote in message news:86bf4332-ea15-419c...@e50g2000hsh.googlegroups.com... [ quoted text not captured ] I guess the deal works only if you plan on breaking it at a critical moment as his predator. The hope would be that the Rock Cats wear themselves out rushing forward eventually running himself down on pool and checking the numbers every turn to see if an oust is possible. It really depends on the Rock Cats' prey's deck. If it's combaty, you might have some hope with that approach. If it's squishy, oh well. Either way, it might sound better than just taking the Rock Cat rushes if you'll just wind up dying horribly. (It also depends on your attitude about 'taking one for the team', I suppose.) Fred

Peter D Bakija

On Jan 1, 10:45 pm, sule...@aol.com wrote: > There are many more situations where first turn x3 Tupdog, second turn > x3 Rock Cat is a problem than just when playing zero combat defense > and tiny vampires. Ok. So what this deck comes down to is getting out 3 or 4 Rock Cats quickly before anyone can block them or is set up, and then the 3 or 4 Rock Cats killing everyone at the table. And the rest of the deck is mostly just window dressing. That at least makes more sense. I'm not seeing that it is going to be that effective most of the time, but ok. If I were building a deck to really win off the Rock Cats, I'd have more potence combat for the Rock Cat to use (Immortal Grapples and Sewer Lids/Stunt Bikes for when folks run to long). > S:CE is likely to run out against three rushes a turn, nevermind IG. > Fortitude is in a lot more trouble due to the Cat's press. How many > decks just beat Rock Cat in combat? Plenty from my experience, but different play groups certainly are going to have different experiences. Celerity/Guns (even sideline Celerity/Guns) are going to kill the Rock Cats dead. Mid cap potence. Fortitude with hitback (Weighted Walking Sticks?). Shambling Hordes. Pretty much any reasonably common combat offense/defense will likely make this deck not work real well. -Peter

reyda

Peter D Bakija a écrit : > On Dec 31, 6:41 am, i_reden...@hotmail.com wrote: > >>Number of players: 21 >> >>Deck Name: Me pareció ver un lindo gatito >>Created By: Miguel del Valle > > > Like, again, I'm in no way trying to be mean here--this deck clearly > looks like it is doing something really clever (if really obscure). > And it won a tournament, so clearly it worked against a presumably > average field of decks. But still. I'm totally not seeing at all what > it is doing to do something other than maybe get out a bunch of > allies, call Autarkis Persecution, gain a bunch of pool, give a bunch > of pool to everyone else, beat some folks up with Rock Cats (assuming > they have no combat defense whatsoever) and then eventually get Mata > Hari out and see her get killed for being Red List come on, the guy made a deck, he brought it to the finals and then won. You can't believe it, yes, but your life will not be changed forever by this simple fact, so why the urge to post like 6 times in a row about it ? -_-

reyda

Peter D Bakija a écrit : > > Yeah, see, that is what I'm figuring is actually going on here--there is > some minor text understanding error somewhere that makes a huge > difference in the running of the deck. > > Peter D Bakija > pd...@lightlink.com > http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html > > "Find hungry samurai." > -The Old Man It's an ally deck. Allies are recruted on first turn by tupdogs. allies act, block, rush. (unmasking, arson etc...) Allies are in great number at the table. The reason is : allies can recruit more allies, tupdogs do the recruitment also, and your predator does not bother you because he won't influence much since you have rushing allies. If he influences, memories of mortality takes care of the problem. Tupdog calls autarkis, and you benefit more than any other players since you have lots of minion. Opponents have few minions. The reason is : fear of allies, fear of dragonbound, unmasking to catch governs and stuff. If you ruin your predator to stay afloat, then you have a new, stronger predator, but he dies because of Mark of the damned : essentialy you may give 2 VP away and still win. That's how simple the mechanics is... :)

reyda

The Name Forgotten a écrit : > Also, there was an imbued deck floating around which would've given it > tremendous problems - dragonbound would've been useless, and the > imbued would've kept bouncing back out and slowly knocking the rock > cats down you mean, if the deck had neither vagabond mystic or 3 str with a inbuilt press rock cats ? yeah yeah yeah :) > plus having an easy time blocking any more coming out (with > so little stealth in the deck). Skin of the chameleon = recruit @ 3 stealth ... > So my vote is more luck going in > favour of this deck than anything else. yes, it's a well known fact that players from places other than your hometown are just noobs ;)

reyda

Peter D Bakija a écrit : > Plenty from my experience, but different play groups certainly are > going to have different experiences. Celerity/Guns (even sideline > Celerity/Guns) are going to kill the Rock Cats dead. Mid cap potence. > Fortitude with hitback (Weighted Walking Sticks?). Shambling Hordes. > Pretty much any reasonably common combat offense/defense will likely > make this deck not work real well. Celerity gun ? Memories of mortality. Direct intervention on the concealed weapon. Mid cap potence ? Memorirs of mortality. And the smaller guys won't even strike against a rock cat. You can't taste or play disarm either => hand jam... Fortitude with hit back ? You'd better have the stick ready first hand. And that does not kill the cat right away. Shambling horde ? rush the recruiting vampires. ther is always a solution ready : the guy who built the deck must be damn good :)

James Coupe

In message <477bc539$0$31203$79c1...@nan-newsreader-07.noos.net>, reyda <true_...@hotmail.com> writes: >Peter D Bakija a écrit : >> Like, again, I'm in no way trying to be mean here--this deck >>clearly >> looks like it is doing something really clever (if really obscure). >> And it won a tournament, so clearly it worked against a presumably >> average field of decks. But still. I'm totally not seeing at all what >> it is doing to do something other than maybe get out a bunch of >> allies, call Autarkis Persecution, gain a bunch of pool, give a bunch >> of pool to everyone else, beat some folks up with Rock Cats (assuming >> they have no combat defense whatsoever) and then eventually get Mata >> Hari out and see her get killed for being Red List > >come on, the guy made a deck, he brought it to the finals and then won. >You can't believe it, yes, but your life will not be changed forever by >this simple fact, so why the urge to post like 6 times in a row about >it ? -_- But his playing skill could be changed by learning how other groups work, and other play dynamics work. So finding out how a particular deck works and why is fun. It can also provide a lot of interest to people who might travel to that area, or who might be wondering what sort of tech comes out of a given area when thinking about travelling to a continental qualifier. I can't remember seeing a successful Rock Cat / Tupdog ally deck posted to the group before, so picking it apart to try to learn how to make better decks is a good thing. -- James Coupe PGP Key: 0x5D623D5D YOU ARE IN ERROR. EBD690ECD7A1FB457CA2 NO-ONE IS SCREAMING. 13D7E668C3695D623D5D THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.

Peter D Bakija

On Jan 2, 12:07 pm, reyda <true_re...@hotmail.com> wrote: > come on, the guy made a deck, he brought it to the finals and then won. > You can't believe it, yes, but your life will not be changed forever by > this simple fact, so why the urge to post like 6 times in a row about it Dude. What are you even talking about? It is an interesting discussion. At first I was totally confused by what the deck did. Now I'm no longer confused, and trying to figure out how it does what it does. Why do you care how many times I post about something? -Peter

Peter D Bakija

On Jan 2, 12:29 pm, reyda <true_re...@hotmail.com> wrote: > Celerity gun ? Memories of mortality. Direct intervention on the > concealed weapon. On a whole crypt of vampires? There are only 3 Memores and 1 DI. > Mid cap potence ? Memorirs of mortality. And the smaller guys won't even > strike against a rock cat. You can't taste or play disarm either => hand > jam... Yeah, if everything falls your way, sure, it might work. But on paper, it looks fragile. -Peter

Peter D Bakija

In article <477bc6bd$0$26378$79c1...@nan-newsreader-05.noos.net>, reyda <true_...@hotmail.com> wrote: > It's an ally deck. > Allies are recruted on first turn by tupdogs. Yes. This is now apparent. Which was deduced through, ya know, discussion. So in the end, the deck is: "I get out as many Tupdogs as I can on the first turn. On the second turn, I get out as many Rock Cats as I can. Repeat as needed. Beat up everyone at the table." The rest of the cards are kind of filler. And burn option jank. Check. At first glance, this is not readily apparent. And second glance too. So now that we have got to the crux of the issue (that the deck is basically "get out a lot of Rock Cats and kill people"), we can then move on to discuss the merits of such a plan. Which, in an appropriate environment, could probably do pretty well. But also might just end up making your grand prey sweep the table. But that is a flaw for all Rush decks. [ quoted text not captured ]

Peter D Bakija

In article <477b357f$1...@dnews.tpgi.com.au>, Salem <salem_ch...@hotmail.com> wrote: > I assume Mylan is there either for his bleed (which is fairly cheap), > and/or blocking other people's allies attacking your guys? Since he > can't untap Mata.... I suspect that is the case. I also suspect that Mata Hari is really only an opportunistic sideline for the deck--she might come out if you are doing well, but if she never sees play, the deck still can probably do what it is going to do if it can do anything (i.e. it is either winning or shutdown regardless of Mata Hari showing up ever) [ quoted text not captured ]

Peter D Bakija

In article <fa72991f-da9a-4d6e...@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com>, The Name Forgotten <tex...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > So, I'm putting the win down to either an incredible amount of luck > and table stupidity (which I find more likely) or a stroke of genius > in playing the table. Now that I am no longer blinded by the 40+ cards in the deck that aren't really important, I can see how, in the right environment, such a deck could do ok. You spend, like, 3 or 4 pool on vampires, 12-16 pool on Rock Cats, and rush-rush-rush. And if you aren't facing any other significant combat or combat defense, the Rock Cats eat your lunch. If only I could see such an environment. Instead, I keep playing in environments where 2 out of 3 preliminary rounds, my opponents play Carrion Crows at superior, maneuver to long, and hit me with Sewer Lids... [ quoted text not captured ]

librarian

Peter D Bakija wrote: > In article > <fa72991f-da9a-4d6e...@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com>, > The Name Forgotten <tex...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > >> So, I'm putting the win down to either an incredible amount of luck >> and table stupidity (which I find more likely) or a stroke of genius >> in playing the table. > > Now that I am no longer blinded by the 40+ cards in the deck that aren't > really important, I can see how, in the right environment, such a deck > could do ok. You spend, like, 3 or 4 pool on vampires, 12-16 pool on > Rock Cats, and rush-rush-rush. And if you aren't facing any other > significant combat or combat defense, the Rock Cats eat your lunch. > > If only I could see such an environment. Instead, I keep playing in > environments where 2 out of 3 preliminary rounds, my opponents play > Carrion Crows at superior, maneuver to long, and hit me with Sewer > Lids... > And whose fault is that, oh master of the Nosferatu newsletter? best - chris -- Super Fun Cards http://stores.ebay.com/superfuncards/ auct...@superfuncards.com

demonturtle

Heh. Among others, my fault! We are fighty beyond all reason; we played at least one game on New Year's Eve where everyone had a deck with a significant combat component. I was floored when I went to Origins last year and saw people play decks with little or no combat defense. Unfortunately, that did not prevent my rush deck from sucking big time. . . . I only interject this to put Peter's comments in context. I was thoroughly befuddled and intrigued by the TWD on this thread for pretty much the same reasons as Peter, being from the same playgroup and all. I can see all kinds of ways for this to go wrong, yet it did its job and won. It makes somewhat more sense now that it has been picked at and the idea behind it explicated, although I still can't figure out how the cats don't get worn down after a couple of combats. It seems to depend a lot on Waste Management and MoM cycling. With MoM now banned, it seems that it would be a much less effective deck. . . . Heh, and I wonder how adding a few Frontal Assaults might improve its work? Cheers, John On Jan 2, 6:10 pm, librarian <aucti...@superfuncards.com> wrote: > And whose fault is that, oh master of the Nosferatu newsletter? > > best - > > chris > > -- > Super Fun Cardshttp://stores.ebay.com/superfuncards/ > aucti...@superfuncards.com

Peter D Bakija

In article <rRUej.2$DR...@newsfe07.phx>, librarian <auct...@superfuncards.com> wrote: > And whose fault is that, oh master of the Nosferatu newsletter? Man. Spend all the time convincing folks that combat is worth playing and ya know what it got me? Killed by combat... [ quoted text not captured ]

Peter D Bakija

In article <a42abd98-52e9-442d...@e10g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, demonturtle <cranky...@gmail.com> wrote: > I only interject this to put Peter's comments in context. Oh, I'm not even talking about playing locally. I'm talking about out of town tournaments--that Carrion Crows/Sewer Lid comment was about the NYC Qualifier this last year. It was crazy. [ quoted text not captured ]

Salem

Peter D Bakija wrote: > In article <477b357f$1...@dnews.tpgi.com.au>, > Salem <salem_ch...@hotmail.com> wrote: > >> I assume Mylan is there either for his bleed (which is fairly cheap), >> and/or blocking other people's allies attacking your guys? Since he >> can't untap Mata.... > > I suspect that is the case. I also suspect that Mata Hari is really only > an opportunistic sideline for the deck--she might come out if you are > doing well, but if she never sees play, the deck still can probably do > what it is going to do if it can do anything (i.e. it is either winning > or shutdown regardless of Mata Hari showing up ever) Bleeding for 1 with Mylan, and not being able to play Waste Management (unless you got Shawndra) might reduce the deck's legs somewhat. I'm also hoping they weren't playing that Mata counted as a !Trem to allow the Tupdogs to bleed.... that would be awfully unfortunate. but I can believe ousting through Dragonbound could maybe work...so hopefully not! -- salem (replace 'hotmail' with 'yahoo' to email)

Kevin M.

Peter D Bakija <pd...@lightlink.com> wrote: > Now that I am no longer blinded by the 40+ cards in the deck that > aren't really important, I can see how, in the right environment, > such a deck could do ok. You spend, like, 3 or 4 pool on vampires, > 12-16 pool on Rock Cats, and rush-rush-rush. And if you aren't facing > any other significant combat or combat defense, the Rock Cats eat > your lunch. > > If only I could see such an environment. Instead, I keep playing in > environments where 2 out of 3 preliminary rounds, my opponents play > Carrion Crows at superior, maneuver to long, and hit me with Sewer > Lids... Peter, how is it that you haven't metagamed that environment yet, and started winning all the tournaments? Win, damnit! Win! Win! Win! =) Kevin M., Prince of Las Vegas "Know your enemy, and know yourself; in one-thousand battles you shall never be in peril." -- Sun Tzu, *The Art of War* "Contentment... Complacency... Catastrophe!" -- Joseph Chevalier

Fizeront

On 3 ene, 04:26, "Kevin M." <youw...@imaspammer.org> wrote: [ quoted text not captured ] Ok guys, being the Spanish that I am, I'm going to try to translate to all of you a very clever comment from a spanish player who usually plays tournaments with the tournament winner, about how the deck works. Please excuse any translation errors I make. "The key to this deck is that it is a very "political" deck. As it is has been said, in the first turn you may put into play 2, 3 or even 4 Tupdogs, which means that with a bit of luck you may even put 4 Rock Cats into play second turn, so in the third turn, when most decks have just put into play their first vampire, you already have 4 Rock Cats to go fighting with. It's true that 4 Rock Cats plus 4 Tupdogs means spending 20 pool in just three turns, so you have to start playing Autarkis Persecution in the Third turn, meaning the first thing you have to do is depleting the votes from table, so the first Rock Cats rushes voter vampires, even crosstable, or you make a deal with any player with votes you can have a dealing opportunity with, in exchange for not sending your "little cats" against them. You have to note that that third turn Autarkis will likely give you around 6 or 7 pool, most times even more since it is rare that Jake washington, some Vagabond, Mylan, Carlton, Gregory or Ossian (remember that the Rock Cats can recruit them too) will not have appeared in the table yet. In a middle game situation Mata Hari and Shawnda help you win Autarkis by means of their votes. The key is always have the political control of the table, torporicing voter vampires at will or making deals. The primordial function of the Bloodstorm, Concert Tour, D'habi is their burn option, which makes the deck efectively have less than 60 cards, which translates in that it's rare that you don't have a Rock Cat, Autarkis, ... in your hand when you need them, and in case of need thay are perfectly playable by Mata herself. Zoning board / Arson get rid of these pesky Secure Havens in voter vampires and Mark of the Damned is simply espectacular in a long game. Waste Management lets you pick cards "at will" once the deck is depleted, which should be quick (maybe I need a Rock Cat, maybe an Autarkis, maybe a Direct Intervention...) You have to try the deck, it's spectacular. Most people are surprised by you putting 4 Rock cats into play on the Third turn. In combat heavy enviroments the deck suffers, but against voters, bleeders or even toolboxes and intercept, the deck goes really well" In my personal view, I must say I just played against this deck once and it was a table it didn't won, mostly because as it has been said, there was a CelGuns deck playing, and that deck is mostly the bane of this. What does the player do in these situiation? makes a losing deal with the Cel/Guns player.

Reyda !

[ quoted text not captured ] ok, to be honnest from the first time you spoke about the deck, you were like "this thing is crap and cannot win". But it won nonetheless. So I was pretty sure this would degenerate into the "european guys can't play" thing we've seen before ... but ok, your interest was genuine (barring the "when i play this everyone will be carrion/ sewer lids" stuff) so let me drop my apprehensions on this, pal :)

Reyda !

On 2 jan, 21:43, Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> wrote: > (...) But also might just end up > making your grand prey sweep the table. just scroll up and read the second part of my incredibly complex post ^^

oriang...@aliceadsl.fr

I am surprised the deck has won, the reason why I say that is merely because the killing cards are too few and just one sudden reversal or one not to be could ruin all your efforts. also, it could be very sensible to time limit because you give pool to the other metuselahs all way long that being said, if the other people are not expecting that you cross rush, you're probably also never die, because you will be able to kill all your predators and preys minions, then your cross table buddy minions, without being too much pressured. surprise was the key element: well done. very interesting deck... even if I cannot understand why there are no 3 dragonbounds in it to start making damages as soon as possible

Peter D Bakija

On Jan 3, 6:02 am, "Reyda !" <Rey...@gmail.com> wrote: > ok, to be honnest from the first time you spoke about the deck, you > were like "this thing is crap and cannot win". Umm, no, no I was not. Please find and quote me saying anything like this. My first post on the subject said: "Is there something important I'm missing? I mean, clearly, there is something very clever about this deck. I just can't see what it is." followed by me saying in a later post: "Like, again, I'm in no way trying to be mean here--this deck clearly looks like it is doing something really clever (if really obscure). And it won a tournament, so clearly it worked against a presumably average field of decks. But still. I'm totally not seeing at all what it is doing to do something other than maybe get out a bunch of allies, call Autarkis Persecution, gain a bunch of pool, give a bunch of pool to everyone else, beat some folks up with Rock Cats (assuming they have no combat defense whatsoever) and then eventually get Mata Hari out and see her get killed for being Red List." None of which translates as "this deck is crap and cannot win". It translates as "I don't understand what this deck does". Sure. There were jokes a plenty about Mark of Damnation (which, as it turns out, it probably a pretty good finisher in this deck). And a lot of "I don't really understand...". But no one anywhere, especially not me, ever said "this deck is crap and cannot win". > So I was pretty sure this would degenerate into the "european guys > can't play" thing we've seen before ... Umm, I have never been involved in such a discussion. So while you might like to envision this sort of thing, it isn't coming from me. > but ok, your interest was genuine (barring the "when i play this > everyone will be carrion/ sewer lids" stuff) Why barring that? What are you talking about? When I play decks like this, everyone *does* play Carrion Crows/Sewer Lids. That wasn't me making fun of anything. That was me expressing the belief that decks like this, in my experience, run into trouble a lot. Due to me apparently seeing more combat than one would generally expect to see. Yes. This thread was very jokey. And contained dreaded sarcasm. But not 'cause anyone was trying to denigrate the deck or player therof. Just mostly 'cause the deck looked very confusing and was difficult to figure out. In the end, it turns out the deck is "get out 3 or 4 Rock Cats by T3", which in the right environment, seems like it could do ok. -Peter

The Name Forgotten

On Jan 2, 7:22 pm, reyda <true_re...@hotmail.com> wrote: > The Name Forgotten a écrit : > > > Also, there was an imbued deck floating around which would've given it > > tremendous problems - dragonbound would've been useless, and the > > imbued would've kept bouncing back out and slowly knocking the rock > > cats down > > you mean, if the deck had neither vagabond mystic or 3 str with a > inbuilt press rock cats ? yeah yeah yeah :) Ok, the vagabond mystic would help a little. Admittedly, I'm also more used to the gun-totting imbued deck styles, which would've given it a bit more grief. Maybe the Imbued deck there was playing something else for their combat module... flash grenades or some-such. > > plus having an easy time blocking any more coming out (with > > so little stealth in the deck). > > Skin of the chameleon = recruit @ 3 stealth ... Yeah, the skins will help, but there was hardly oodles of it in the deck, and unmasking would certainly not be your friend in that one. Just one extra sport bike or media location etc. and then it's over. > > So my vote is more luck going in > > favour of this deck than anything else. > > yes, it's a well known fact that players from places other than your > hometown are just noobs ;) Yes, because it's also a well known fact that luck never factors into a game ;) My point is that it probably ended up in good seating positions and against really favourable decks - which I assume to be luck. It's possible that the winner predicted there would be poor/no combat decks floating around, and few votes to boot, but I'm just giving an opinion here, not fact, and have never claimed to do otherwise. I've never said it was impossible to win with this deck using skill, and certainly made no mention of players experience. Even the best of us are capable of making stupid deals that we later regret, or misreading a deck's power until it's too late. So you can get off your high horse now. That being said, we have a large amount of noobs in my hometown of Cape Town anyway.

The Name Forgotten

On Jan 3, 5:26 am, "Kevin M." <youw...@imaspammer.org> wrote: > Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> wrote: > > > Now that I am no longer blinded by the 40+ cards in the deck that > > aren't really important, I can see how, in the right environment, > > such a deck could do ok. You spend, like, 3 or 4 pool on vampires, > > 12-16 pool on Rock Cats, and rush-rush-rush. And if you aren't facing > > any other significant combat or combat defense, the Rock Cats eat > > your lunch. > > > If only I could see such an environment. Instead, I keep playing in > > environments where 2 out of 3 preliminary rounds, my opponents play > > Carrion Crows at superior, maneuver to long, and hit me with Sewer > > Lids... > > Peter, how is it that you haven't metagamed that environment yet, and > started winning all the tournaments? Win, damnit! Win! Win! Win! =) > Yeah, I admit that we face a fair whack of strong combat modules here as well. Celerity and potence or guns is pretty common. Good thaum combat would be a killer (also pretty common), animalism is pretty often lurking around. Heck, with 4 clans having animalism and fortitude in common, you'd think one would make an appearance and stop a deck like this. I remember the last storyline tournament we had, there were 3 !nossie combat decks running around. The general weakness around here is that we don't have too many intercept decks floating around or too many vote decks - occasionally, you might get lucky and get away with things you shouldn't.

Johannes Walch

The Name Forgotten schrieb: [ quoted text not captured ] I don´t know. You need to have all the cards basically in your starting hand because 3-4 rock cats will be coming after your first vampire. Even with the combatty decks I have, I can see that there can be a problem. -- Johannes Walch

oriang...@aliceadsl.fr

I don't see why those decks would be killer. If you manage to have 3/4 rock cats against one vampire, then even if you lose 1 rock cat during first combat '(don't forget rock cats can counter press and have 4 lifes, so it is not that easy to get rid of them). same for guns... if you're facing a cel/gun deck, well it is not obvious that your opponent will have the combo in his starting hand... at worse memories are here for this, right.... If you have animalism, you're likely not to have more than 1 carrion crows in your starting hand + rock cat is not killed by aid from bats + carrion crows...

Peter D Bakija

In article <DEYej.27655$yV5....@newsfe15.phx>, "Kevin M." <you...@imaspammer.org> wrote: > Peter, how is it that you haven't metagamed that environment yet, and > started winning all the tournaments? Win, damnit! Win! Win! Win! =) I have a long history of failing to metagame well. Back when Duffin played here, he had the ability to randomly always choose the exact right deck for a table. I, on the other hand, continue to always pick Rock. And then get tooled by Paper. Over and over again. Stupid Paper... [ quoted text not captured ]

The Name Forgotten

On Jan 3, 5:07 pm, Johannes Walch <johannes.wa...@vekn.de> wrote: > > I don´t know. You need to have all the cards basically in your starting > hand because 3-4 rock cats will be coming after your first vampire. Even > with the combatty decks I have, I can see that there can be a problem. > > -- > Johannes Walch Why do you (and some others) insist on treating this as a 1-on-1 game? Essentially there would be 3 other players (prey, grandprey, and predator) who would very quickly get involved in this if such a deck were getting out of hand. Sure, it makes a quick start, but I imagine in normal table situations it would run out of steam very quickly. Sure it would get a quick VP, but that won't win you the game and probably not the final table either (altho it might if time is short). To me, this deck seems to be just about the same as bringing weenie dominate to the table. Sure, you'll probably get your first VP quickly enough, but I can't see how it can hold up after that unless it was in an ideal metagame, or people didn't clamp down on the obvious table threat (which is what I meant by playing stupidly especially after seeing it around for 3 games prior to the finals). Heck, if anyone anywhere on the table had a decent set of manuevers and a .44, this deck would have serious trouble. Even things like arson for the Waste Management Operation, or some cross-table shamblers/ war ghouls, or a Tension in the Ranks, or a well-timed wash etc. would be expected to give this deck a great amount of problems. My point is that there are too many weak chains in this deck, and I'm just surprised that it got so far without falling apart, a feat I put down to the metagame. If the winner called it, then there was a tremendous amount of skill involved in picking this deck. More likely IMO is that it was pure luck that he didn't get terrible seating and/or unfavourable decks that could utilize his weaknesses (plus he got decent draws - Dragonbound or Waste Management Operation at the bottom of his deck might have caused problems). I wonder how many people could put this deck together, go to their next tournament, and win with this deck as it stands (banned cards aside).

Salem

The Name Forgotten wrote: > On Jan 2, 7:22 pm, reyda <true_re...@hotmail.com> wrote: >> The Name Forgotten a écrit : >> > plus having an easy time blocking any more coming out (with >> > so little stealth in the deck). >> >> Skin of the chameleon = recruit @ 3 stealth ... > > Yeah, the skins will help, but there was hardly oodles of it in the > deck, and unmasking would certainly not be your friend in that one. > Just one extra sport bike or media location etc. and then it's over. The Unmasking only give allies intercept when blocking Vampires. It will have no effect at all while your Rock Cats are acting. [ quoted text not captured ]

Salem

[ quoted text not captured ] which, uh, means nothing since it's your Tupdogs acting. argh. sorry. I'll shut up now. [ quoted text not captured ]

ira...@gmail.com

On Dec 31 2007, 8:18 am, Peter D Bakija <p...@lightlink.com> wrote: > i_reden...@hotmail.com wrote: > > Crypt [(17 vampires, average capacity: 2) > > ------------------------------------------ > > 2x Mata Hari CHI OBF aus for qui 7 Ravnos:4 2 votes > > 1x Shawnda Dorrit CEL obt pot pre 6 Brujah antitribu:4 priscus > > 14x Tupdog POT VIS 1 Gargoyle:3 > > I'm deeply confused by this deck. What does it do? And how does it do it? I was really confused about the deck, too. I'm playing a JOL game against something very similar, and I now have a much better understanding of why it's strong. Basically, Rock Cat rush is good in many cases. 6 damage in 1 combat is hard to deal with for many decks. If you want to look at the game so far (which is just a 3 player game, but it's still illuminating), you can go here: http://deckserver.net/jol3/Quick44 By turn 7, the deck had recruited 3 rock cats, played 8 tupdogs, passed 2 autarkis, and torped two of his prey's minions. Of course, the deck I'm playing against is tweaked to include things like Narrow Minds, Ventrue HQ, Glancing Blow, Vagabond Mystic, and who knows what else I haven't seen yet. But the idea is the same, and it generally works. Ira

oriang...@aliceadsl.fr

On 3 jan, 23:49, The Name Forgotten <tex...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > On Jan 3, 5:07 pm, Johannes Walch <johannes.wa...@vekn.de> wrote: > > > > > I don´t know. You need to have all the cards basically in your starting > > hand because 3-4 rock cats will be coming after your first vampire. Even > > with the combatty decks I have, I can see that there can be a problem. > > > -- > > Johannes Walch > > Sure it would get a quick VP, but that won't win you the game and > probably not the final table either (altho it might if time is short). this assumption proves that you fail to understand how to play this deck. You will get your VP very late but when you get one VP then you're most likely to get all VP's consequently.

Peter D Bakija

On Jan 4, 6:04 am, oriangiss...@aliceadsl.fr wrote: > this assumption proves that you fail to understand how to play this > deck. > You will get your VP very late but when you get one VP then you're > most likely to get all VP's consequently. It is this sort of difficult table balancing that, if truly necessary, that makes decks like this really prone to not working when they don't work. The need to go upstream, the need to go cross table, the plan on not ousting your prey quickly--all of these *can* add up to a win once and a while, but more often than not, they add up to making someone else win. Again, clearly, the deck *can* win, as it did. But it isn't at all unreasonable to expect that folks will view the deck is difficult and fragile. -Peter

Johannes Walch

The Name Forgotten schrieb: > On Jan 3, 5:07 pm, Johannes Walch <johannes.wa...@vekn.de> wrote: > >> I don愒 know. You need to have all the cards basically in your starting >> hand because 3-4 rock cats will be coming after your first vampire. Even >> with the combatty decks I have, I can see that there can be a problem. >> >> -- >> Johannes Walch > > Why do you (and some others) insist on treating this as a 1-on-1 game? > Essentially there would be 3 other players (prey, grandprey, and > predator) who would very quickly get involved in this if such a deck > were getting out of hand. In most of the games I played the table should have been looking out after some deck, but everybody was more concerened about their own issues and didn愒. > Sure, it makes a quick start, but I imagine > in normal table situations it would run out of steam very quickly. > Sure it would get a quick VP, but that won't win you the game and > probably not the final table either (altho it might if time is short). Not really. This deck won愒 make a quick VP. It will build up and try to balance the table, perhaps crush his predator if he cannot be cowed. > To me, this deck seems to be just about the same as bringing weenie > dominate to the table. Sure, you'll probably get your first VP quickly > enough, but I can't see how it can hold up after that unless it was in > an ideal metagame, or people didn't clamp down on the obvious table > threat (which is what I meant by playing stupidly especially after > seeing it around for 3 games prior to the finals). It愀 fundamentally different. If you take peoples pool they always have a chance to recover, even with big minions. Minion Tap, Voter Cap we know how it works. But when you take their vamps, they have no possibility to act and that makes recovering quite difficult. > Heck, if anyone anywhere on the table had a decent set of manuevers > and a .44, this deck would have serious trouble. Even things like > arson for the Waste Management Operation, or some cross-table > shamblers/ war ghouls, or a Tension in the Ranks, or a well-timed wash > etc. would be expected to give this deck a great amount of problems. > My point is that there are too many weak chains in this deck, and I'm > just surprised that it got so far without falling apart, a feat I put > down to the metagame. Of course there can be found numerous situations where this deck will fail. But the possbility to act quickly gives this deck the advantage of the initiative when it comes to deal with those situations. A lot of players can be bullied into submission by acting quick and harsh. > If the winner called it, then there was a tremendous amount of skill > involved in picking this deck. More likely IMO is that it was pure > luck that he didn't get terrible seating and/or unfavourable decks > that could utilize his weaknesses (plus he got decent draws - > Dragonbound or Waste Management Operation at the bottom of his deck > might have caused problems). There is always quite some luck involved in seating and picking deck unless you go for something near-broken (e.g the old Imbued). > I wonder how many people could put this > deck together, go to their next tournament, and win with this deck as > it stands (banned cards aside). A few. Copying decks from the TWDA has only rarely led to tournament wins for me ;-) The situation is always different. -- Johannes Walch

Kevin M.

Peter D Bakija <pd...@lightlink.com> wrote: > "Kevin M." <you...@imaspammer.org> wrote: >> Peter, how is it that you haven't metagamed that environment yet, and >> started winning all the tournaments? Win, damnit! Win! Win! Win! >> =) > > I have a long history of failing to metagame well. Back when Duffin > played here, he had the ability to randomly always choose the exact > right deck for a table. I, on the other hand, continue to always pick > Rock. And then get tooled by Paper. Over and over again. Stupid > Paper... You should then choose decks based on what you absolutely feel will NOT do well that day. =) [ quoted text not captured ]

The Name Forgotten

[ quoted text not captured ] Thanks. The point I was trying to make is that you would nullify your prey pretty quickly. Even with this mistake, it still doesn't debunk my argument though. Perhaps my judgement comes from our playgroup here, but generally, a deck like this, that pulls out hordes of minions, will get a whole lot of table hate here, especially since the deck is also doing a whole lot of stuff. The threat appears too immediate and obvious, even if it was unfounded. That, combined with the ease at which it can completely and utterly fall apart when the table does turn against you, is what makes me think the person got more lucky than anything else. However, I do think that the deck archetype (Tup Dogs and Rock Cats) is quite clever, just this particular version of it seems particularly fragile. For me, I'd definitely include a bit more of the lynch-pin cards (another Dragonbound for starters) and some fail-safe options (like IR Goggles and/or maneuvers). Again, I find it hard to imagine a tournament with 21 players and 3/4 rounds of play that somebody on my table would not have some style of deck that could completely tear this specific deck apart, and would consider myself extremely lucky if I didn't face one of these decks. Although, knowing my luck, I'd probably have one as my prey and another as my predator in at least one of the rounds.

Salem

[ quoted text not captured ] i also find that in games where it looks like one deck is trying to line up all the vps, one of the other players, staring into the face of 0 vps anyway, will transfer themselves out to give one of the other players a 6-pool boost at trying to curb the deck (at least in non-tournaments. obviously in a tournament you get more TPs if only one person at a table gets VPs). [ quoted text not captured ]

Frederick Scott

"Peter D Bakija" <pd...@lightlink.com> wrote in message news:pdb6-80C5FD.1...@news-server.stny.rr.com... > So now that we have got to the crux of the issue (that the deck is > basically "get out a lot of Rock Cats and kill people"), we can then > move on to discuss the merits of such a plan. Which, in an appropriate > environment, could probably do pretty well. But also might just end up > making your grand prey sweep the table. But that is a flaw for all Rush > decks. When I see an idea like this, I want to throw in support that will tend to keep the main piece - in this case Rock Cats - bright shiny and new. That would tempt me to use Eurayle Gelasia Mylonas with a bunch of Heaven's Gate, Resurrection, and maybe a few Renewed Vigor cards. (Eurayle could also untap a Rock Cat from time to time, as well.) I'm just not sure how to run the bloat you'd need for pool management for a thing like that, though, as the Autrarkis Persecutions wouldn't be working. Of course, Renewed Vigor/Minion Tap is great bloat but you'd need another vampire and I don't think the services of another fatty could be procured to make that cog work. Fred