Ascendance: Columbia, SC Tournament Report

Ascendance: Columbia, SC Tournament Report April 27, 2002 10 players VTES Draft Format: 1 Starter, 5 Boosters All vampires (from one player's cards) placed together and "horseshoe" drafted. All library cards (from one player's cards) placed together and then "booster" drafted fifteen at a time. Resulting decks (over-generalized) and players: Draft table 1 L. Scott Johnson - Brujah Fight (with many guns) Lide Windburn - Malkavian Bleed Traci Bitonti - Toreador/Ventrue Vote David Tatu - Nosferatu/Gangrel Toolbox Chad Brinkley - Tremere Toolbox Draft table 2 Joe Churchill - Ventrue/Brujah Vote Todd Bannister - Toreador Toolbox Robyn Tatu - Gangrel/Nosferatu Toolbox Derek Ray - Brujah Fight (with much potence) Jeff Thompson - Tremere Toolbox Two rounds played, one table timed out of the four possible games. Top five going into the finals: 1. L. Scott Johnson 2. Derek Ray 3. Joe Churchill 4. Chad Brinkley 5. Jeff Thompson Results of the finals: The Tremere took all 5 victory points in the finals. Chad took the first two for ousting Derek Ray with a well timed Misdirection and 12-13 points of bleed on one turn, then ousted Joe Churchill with another Misdirection, some Seduction, and 7-9 more points of bleed on one turn. Many turns later, Jeff ousted L. Scott Johnson with 11-12 points of bleed on one turn, then intercepted the few remaining minions of Chad Brinkley and bled him out as well. Results after finals: 1. Jeff Thompson 3vp in finals 2. Chad Brinkley 2vp in finals 3. L. Scott Johnson 0vp in finals (1st going in) 4. Derek Ray 0vp in finals (2nd going in) 5. Joe Churchill 0vp in finals (3rd going in) The winning deck was played as follows: Crypt (avg=5.4) 2x Cardano, Tremere, Prince 1x Gilbert Duane, Malkavian, Prince 1x Mariel, Lady Thunder, Malkavian 1x Lydia Van Cuelen, Tremere 1x Thomas Thorne, Tremere 1x Merill Molitor, Tremere 1x Sabine Lafitte, Tremere 1x Ignatius, Tremere 1x Sarah Cobbler, Tremere 1x Jing Wei, Tremere 1x Dr. John Casey, Tremere 1x Roreca Quaid, Tremere Library (90): Masters (16): 1x Asylum Hunting Ground 1x Auspex 1x The Barrens 3x Blood Doll 1x Chantry 1x Dominate 1x Elder Library 1x Elysium: The Arboretum 2x Frenzy 1x KRCG News Radio 2x Thaumaturgy 1x Vast Wealth Equipment (4): 2x Deer Rifle 1x Sawed-Off Shotgun 1x Sengir Dagger Actions (10): 1x Bum's Rush 2x Dominate Kine 2x The Fourth Tradition: The Accounting 1x Govern the Unaligned 2x Graverobbing 2x The Third Tradition: Progeny Allies (2): 1x Outcast Mage 1x Thadius Zho, Mage Political Actions (11): 4x Conservative Agitation 1x Disputed Territory 5x Domain Challenge 1x Kindred Restructure Action Modifiers (7): 1x Bonding 2x Seduction 4x Threats Reactions (10): 2x Deflection 2x Eagle's Sight 1x Enhanced Senses 1x Spirit's Touch 1x Telepathic Counter 3x Telepathic Misdirection Combat (30): 1x Aura Reading 5x Blood Fury 7x Blood Rage 3x Boxed In 2x Cauldron of Blood 2x Movement of the Mind 5x Read Intentions 4x Theft of Vitae 1x Weather Control Cards drafted but unused: Masters: Animalism Asylum Hunting Ground Brujah Frenzy Chantry Elder Library Game of Malkav Gird Minions Illegal Search and Seizure Letter from Vienna Life Boon Malkavian Dementia Protracted Investment x2 Unnatural Disaster Modifiers: Faceless Night Reactions: Elder Kindred Network Political Backlash Pulling Strings x2 Combat: Amaranth Dragon's Breath Rounds Nosferatu Putresence Shattering Blow Skin of Steel x2 Thrown Sewer Lid x2 Ally: Muddled Vampire Hunter Equipment: Bomb x3 Hawg x3 Submachine Gun Politcal Actions: Ancilla Empowerment Autarkis Persecution Consanguineous Condemnation Disputed Territory Lextalionis x2 Peace Treaty x2 Praxis Seizure: Miami Regaining the Upper Hand Vampires: Democritus Cassandra, Magus Prime x2 Ignatius Lazarus x2 Colin Flynn Dieter Kleist Kallista, Master Sculptor Lucretia, Cess Queen Sebastian Marley Sheldon, Lord of the Clog Didi Meyers Roxanne, Rectrix of the 13th Floor Angus, the Unruled Quinton McDonnell Navar McClaren Uriah Winter x2 Crusher Highlights of the Draft process: At one point, there were 3 copies of Sheldon, Lord of the Clog to be chosen from among the 10 available. Regaining the Upper Hand is passed as the last card no less than 4 times. A great time was had by all, with promises to play again at the regional qualifier event at the end of May in Atlanta. Hope to bleed some of you there. Carpe noctem. Lasombra http://www.TheLasombra.com -- Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

"The Lasombra" <thela...@hotmail.com> wrote: >Ascendance: Columbia, SC Tournament Report >April 27, 2002 >10 players Yeah. 4 from Columbia and 6 from Atlanta. What's wrong with that picture? (Thanks for the quick tournament report, Lasombra. Saving me some typing again, as usual.) >VTES Draft "Mixed Draft" is the official VEKN classification. >L. Scott Johnson - Brujah Fight (with many guns) It's got as many Toreador as Brujah, plus a few Ventrue. It's a celerity gun vote presence bleed deck, actually (with some potence toss and slap to go around as well). >Top five going into the finals: > 1. L. Scott Johnson (1 GW, 5.5 VP) 2. Derek Ray (1 GW, 5 VP) 3. Joe Churchill (1 GW, 4 VP) 4. Chad Brinkley ( 1.5 VP) 5. Jeff Thompson ( 1 VP) Robyn Tatu was tied for 5th, but loss the coin toss. >Results of the finals: > >The Tremere took all 5 victory points in the finals. Chad took >the first two for ousting Derek Ray with a well timed Misdirection >and 12-13 points of bleed on one turn, then ousted Joe Churchill >with another Misdirection, some Seduction, and 7-9 more points of >bleed on one turn. Many turns later, Jeff ousted L. Scott Johnson >with 11-12 points of bleed on one turn, then intercepted the few >remaining minions of Chad Brinkley and bled him out as well. Just 8 bleed, actually, since that's all the pool I had (perhaps you were planning on doing more if I blocked, eh?) I stupidly forgot about the Blood Doll on Black Cat for many turns, so could have had 2 or 3 more pool as a buffer for you to chew through (and would've ousted Chad myself on my next turn if you didn't have any more plus bleed in your hand). :-( Hopefully I'll act more aware in the Atlanta tournament next month. -- L. Scott Johnson (sjoh...@math.sc.edu) http://www.math.sc.edu/~sjohnson

Warning: wordy. In message <aaje05$aehn8$1...@ID-99714.news.dfncis.de>, sjoh...@math.sc.edu (L. Scott Johnson) mumbled something about: >"The Lasombra" <thela...@hotmail.com> wrote: >>Ascendance: Columbia, SC Tournament Report >>April 27, 2002 >>10 players > >Yeah. 4 from Columbia and 6 from Atlanta. >What's wrong with that picture? I don't see anything wrong with it. =D Other observations from the tourney: My deck was roughly as Jeff described, although I had 4 guns in it, Al's Army Apparatus, Vast Wealth, and nearly as much Celerity as I did Potence: the 9 Brujah that I drafted meant that almost all the combat cards I had were playable in some form. It also had around 8 PRE bleed modifiers wedged in, two Governs, and two Threats (Don Cruez, Anson, Ramiel DuPre, and Anvil all having Dominate). Don Cruez and Anson are a little big for draft, normally, but I had managed to snarf 3 Minion Taps and one Golconda during the draft. First round was seated as follows: Yours Truly (thumpy-thumpy deck) Todd Banister (Toreador PRE/CEL with votes and some thumpy) Robyn Tatu (Gangrel Animalism-pokey nastiness) Jeff Thompson (Tremere; see other post for deck list) Joe Churchill (PRE vote stuff) My opening crypt was Yuri, Delilah Easton, Hasina Kesi, and Ramiel DuPre, and I had a POT and CEL skill card in hand, as well as a Vast Wealth. Delilah and Hasina came out first; Delilah got Potence while Yuri came out next and got Vast Wealth. His first trip to the well for a gun turned up my single Laptop; d'oh! He was able to snag a .44 on the next go-round, though, and I had two strong combat minions after putting a CEL skill card on Yuri. Todd, Jeff, and Joe influenced out Tatiana, Gilbert, and Rake all at the same time, making my heart sink, and sure enough, damage votes started dropping everywhere. Fortunately, I managed to escape the brunt of most of them due to my seating position, and I was able to bleed into Todd fairly regularly for 3 or more... although he was dropping plenty of Bribes and I was hampered by having to leave two minions untapped at all times since Joe had plenty of PRE bleed available; fortunately, Jeff had plenty of DOM bleed available and Joe was forced to mostly defend. Todd brought out Anson later, who I was able to Golconda for a bleed of 2 (yay!) before Todd Minion Tapped him down to 3; two early Bum's Rushes came to nothing as Todd had Majesty available, and the third Rush ended up with Anson playing Fast Hands on my .44 -- oops. This took him down to 1, though, and next turn I put the Society of Leopold on Anson, locking him down for the game. I put an Anarch Troublemaker in play and managed to oust Todd with a couple well-timed bleeds, and was sitting staring at an Anarch Revolt in my hand with Robyn on two pool and Jeff on four, trying to figure out how to get one measly point past. I hung onto the AR for the time being, and in next turn around the table Jeff put one of Joe's bleeders in torpor with Blood Fury, then Robyn ousted Jeff. So much for careful; I put the AR out, and it stayed on the table for a couple of turns before someone finally voted it away. About that time I was able to Minion Tap Ramiel for 4 and use the extra pool to influence Anvil (despite Joe's Brainwash), who I was able to Minion Tap for 5, and then oust Robyn with the help of the Troublemaker, and Joe soon after. 4VP and a table win; enough to guarantee the finals as the other table was busily timing out. Second round was seated: Our Hero (thump! thump!) Lije Windburn (obf/dom bleed) Robyn Tatu LSJ (similar deck to mine) Todd Banister Opening crypt was Yuri, Dre, Hector, and Black Cat. Couldn't ask for anything better... at least, until LSJ influenced out Black Cat as his first vampire while I still had one pool on her. d'oh. I started with Al's Apparatus in my hand, which after a few false starts and blocked equip actions, finally gave way to a .44 for Yuri and a SNS for Dre. Lije brought out Violette Prentiss and gave her Obfuscate right away, and then brought out Agrippina and Didi Meyers. Robyn fetched out a couple Gangrel and then recruited a Renegade Garou as proactive defense against Lije... eek. LSJ brought out Angel, Colin Flynn, and Elliot Sinclair and started collecting and passing out weapons on the cheap, while generally making life miserable for Todd with votes and bleeds. Todd pulled out Felicia, Tatiana Romanov, and Ramiel, but I was carefully leaving minions untapped and Todd seemed to have run out of votes temporarily. Didi Meyers never got to take an action, as I put a Haven on her right away and sent Hector in with a Torn Signpost and a Mighty Grapple; Dimple blocked a Legal Manipulations and went away on his own as well. About this time I had fished for another vampire and gotten Anson, and had cycled to a Minion Tap and Golconda in my hand at the same time. I left everyone untapped for two turns while I transferred out Anson, which left me at 7 pool despite taking only little damage from Todd. The two votes changed the political structure of the table; I was able to garner some KRC points on Lije before I Minion Tapped Anson down to 1. It was tempting to MT him to zero and Golconda him right away, but I had a Con Boon in hand and used it on Toreador, helping keep Todd around as defense a bit longer. Next turn around I did play the Golconda though, which left me quite a bit of pool to let me tap out and turn up the offense. I tapped the Troublemaker that I had brought out earlier and ousted Lije with two bleed cards I'd been hanging onto. Dre had acquired superior Potence earlier, and when the Garou came backwards that turn, he was ready with an Undead Strength to remove the threat; LSJ ousted Todd immediately afterwards (and sure enough, Todd was sitting on about 12 pool worth of bleed cards... ouch). I absorbed a bunch of bleed from LSJ while bleeding Robyn down to 1; she left all three remaining minions untapped in response. I had 4 tapped out minions (I had picked up Delilah Easton after the oust) with 10 pool and 1 on an uncontrolled Black Cat, while LSJ had 4 pool and a full Black Cat loaded up with equipment and a Blood Doll, Tatiana Romanov, and Colin Flynn. I had the Anarch Revolt in hand again, so I contested Black Cat, figuring that since he had just bled for a lot, he wouldn't have the bleed in hand and wouldn't be able to generate 6; and I knew I'd be gaining 6 pool on my own turn anyway from the Anarch, which combined with being able to leave my OWN vamps untapped, would tip the tables. LSJ *was* out of bleed cards... unfortunately, he was not out of Domain Challenge, which didn't even give me the extra VP because Robyn had no tapped minions. =) double d'oh! Only 1VP for me, but still enough to get into the finals at 2nd. Finals went pretty much as per Jeff's report; I chose to sit as Chad's prey and Joe's predator because I knew Jeff had Deflections, while Joe was dependent on Fortitude for his combat defense (mostly NOT skin of steel though), and Chad didn't know what I was playing; I figured I'd have better chances selling a bluff as his prey than as his predator with such a predictable deck. When I was ousted, I had a full Don Cruez with a .44 and the Rack, Hector Sosa, Hasina Kesi with a SNS, and an untapped KRCG available for use (along with Al's Apparatus). I had influenced Don because I knew I had the MTs and Golconda coming, and having his 3 votes available turned out to be mandatory with all the OTHER votes on the table (not to mention the 3 superiors and 4th discipline to let him bleed with Govern twice). I wasn't able to cycle to a MT in time, though, and Chad had the Misdirection and 12 points of bleed available. all in all, quite fun. the mixed starter/booster draft worked out quite well; while my deck wasn't as good as a constructed version would have been, it certainly flowed well and didn't seem awkward. -- "There's no gray. There's just white that's got grubby." -- T.P.

"Derek Ray" said the following. " Warning: wordy. " [ quoted text not captured ] All correct up to this point. " I hung onto the AR for the time being, and in next turn around the table Jeff put one of Joe's bleeders in torpor with Blood Fury, then Robyn ousted Jeff. " Because there was an Anarch Revolt in play, and the three minions Robyn had could only ever bleed for one. I still had 5 minions at that point, and she would not have bled me on any other turns, except for the introduction of an Anarch Revolt by my Grand Prey. " So much for careful; I put the AR out, and it stayed on the table for a couple of turns before someone finally voted it away. " It was already out. So much for careful. :> " About that time I was able to Minion Tap Ramiel for 4 and use the extra pool to influence Anvil (despite Joe's Brainwash), who I was able to Minion Tap for 5, and then oust Robyn with the help of the Troublemaker, and Joe soon after. 4VP and a table win; enough to guarantee the finals as the other table was busily timing out. " [ quoted text not captured ]

Jeff Wrote: > Because there was an Anarch Revolt in play, and the three minions > Robyn had could only ever bleed for one. I still had 5 minions > at that point, and she would not have bled me on any other turns, > except for the introduction of an Anarch Revolt by my Grand Prey. ummmm hmmm.....and me with one pool and Jeff is trying to talk me in to calling a vote to burn that Anarch. I remember saying, "Gee, this is a hard choice." Thinking: "I could try and live thru the next turn....or, I could use this Form of Mist to tap out Sabine and bleed thru.....hm.....Jeff would certainly advise me to be aggressive and go for the VP....." So I followed his advice, and killed him. Thanks, Jeff! and......congratulations! Robyn T

In message <47fe95f3dfc9e9c1f39...@mygate.mailgate.org>, "The Lasombra" <thela...@hotmail.com> mumbled something about: >"Derek Ray" said the following. > (snip) > managed to oust Todd with a couple well-timed bleeds, and was sitting > staring at an Anarch Revolt in my hand with Robyn on two pool and Jeff > on four, trying to figure out how to get one measly point past. " > >All correct up to this point. > >" I hung onto the AR for the time being, and in next turn around > the table Jeff put one of Joe's bleeders in torpor with Blood Fury, > then Robyn ousted Jeff. " > >Because there was an Anarch Revolt in play, and the three minions >Robyn had could only ever bleed for one. I still had 5 minions >at that point, and she would not have bled me on any other turns, >except for the introduction of an Anarch Revolt by my Grand Prey. Yeah, this is actually correct. I remember being unable to remember the exact order of things when I was writing this; as it turns out, I think I pointed out to Robyn that she shouldn't bother voting down the Anarch Revolt, because it was much better for her if someone else had to. While it DID provoke her to tap out bleeding in front of me, it also provoked a gain of 6 pool. =/ >" So much for careful; I put the AR out, and it stayed on the table > for a couple of turns before someone finally voted it away. " > >It was already out. So much for careful. :> Yep. I actually thought I had her ousted, except that her last blocker had a Cat's Guidance available... Oops. But I got to Cat-Burglarize Lije in round 2. That made up for it. :) [ quoted text not captured ]