10 brave souls turned up on a BEAUTIFUL winter's afternoon to play in
the Unicorn pub, Fratton road, last Sunday. Actually and most
unfortunately, 11 turned up, and 11, as we all know, is the Number
Which Thou Shalt Not Have, unless it cometh between 10 and 12. So, i
Did My Princely Duty and [ulp!] volunteered to be judge.
Those who actually played were:
Mark Baxter, who fielded a very solid pre/aus deck, strong on attack
AND defence, and much praised by:
Rob Treasure, playing the Crypt Machine, UK style. Rob reckoned he
was so tired after a night of debauchery that he needed to not so much
run his deck as be run by it.
Matt Stockton, fielding his weird Setite intercept shit again -
actually doing so for the first time in a tournament, and good for
him!
Garry Scarlett, playing a Ravnos deck with dominate. Somewhat of a
chequered history, this has - it started as an ani/dom deck and then
growed like Topsy .... but converged so to speak on a Ravnos deck
archetype.
Phil Mattingley playing a Lasombra vote deck.
Michael McClellan aka Anklebiter, playing a !Brujah combat deck.
Joe Dempsey, playing a presence/obfuscate vote deck
John Eagles, playing a Ravnos intercept deck.
Barney Baker, playing a Lasombra toolbox deck.
John Keech, playing a Gangrel bleed and combat deck.
We played three rounds, and here's how they went:
Round 1 table 1:
Mark baxter 0
Rob Treasure 5
Matt Stockton 0
Garry Scarlett 0
Phil mattingley 0
Looks fairly straightforward, but in this game a crucial play was
garry Kissing Gratiano's Ra which essentially killed Phil off. Votes
could have made a difference but once they were off the table the
issue was, whose bleed was faster and whose bounce was better - Rob's
or Mark's?
Round 1 Table 2
Michael mcClellan 1
Joe Dempsey 1
John Eagles 0
Barney baker 3
John Keech 0
Interesting game with Joe getting the first VP and calling on me for
my first difficult ruling: Can Leandro play a superior Cloak the
Gathering even while he is in torpor? i said he could, which did John
Eagles in. Then Barney and Michael did a bit of table-splitting.
Round 2 Table 1
Joe Dempsey 0
Barney baker 0.5
Matt Stockton 0.5
Mark Baxter 1.5
Phil Mattingley 1
A time-out, and quite a weird game with some strange deals done.
Round 2 Table 2
John Eagles 2
Michael McClellan 1
Rob Treasure 2
Gary Scarlett 0
John Keech 0
Here Rob's deck ran up against its nemesis in the form of Atonement
played by John E. Rob still fought well and at one point rhough
misreading a card we thought he had John, but then had to back-track
when we realised that Atonement is not blocking for the SAME AGE or
younger.
Round 3 Table 1
Rob Treasure 1.5
Mark Baxter 0
John Eagles 0.5
John Keech 1.5
Barney Baker 0
Another time-out, lots of tight play but poor John E by this time
looking VERY green about the gills.
Round 3 Table 2
Michael McClellan 0
Phil Mattingley 2
Matt Stockton 0
Joe Demspey 0
Garry Scarlett 3
Perhaps the best game of the tourney that i saw but i actually didn't
see that much of it except towards the end. garry came up with a
BRILLIANT use of sensory deprivation - playing it on someone who is
NOT your predator or prey and who is running away with the game [Sens
Dep is not a D action, so if you play it on such a target they can't
block without an Eagle's Sight].
And so to the final tallies:
Rob treasure 8.5
Mark Baxter 1.5
John Eagles 2.5
John Keech 1.5
Barney baker 3.5
Michael McClellan 2
Phil Mattingley 3
Matt Stockton 0.5
Joe Dempsey 1
Garry Scarlett 3
John, Michael and Mark had to go for various reasons so the final
actually took place between:
John Keech 0
Barney Baker 0
Phil Mattingley 1
Garry Scarlett 0
Rob Treasure 4
i had to go too but through the miracle of modern technology i stayed
the judge through the phone. i only had to make one call, but it was
wrong. Phil asked, can Gratiano vote in the Priscus vote after he has
been Cardinalised? i said no, but actually the answer is Yes, as a
recent thread demonstrates.
Thanks to all who played and to White Wolf for Prize support. Next
tourneys are on January 13th and after that February the 17th - same
place, more details nearer the time. Rob has kindly undertaken to post
his winning deck and comments in this thread, and congratulations to
him!
legbiter wrote:
> Interesting game with Joe getting the first VP and calling on me for
> my first difficult ruling: Can Leandro play a superior Cloak the
> Gathering even while he is in torpor? i said he could, which did John
> Eagles in. Then Barney and Michael did a bit of table-splitting.
Vampires in torpor can only play action modifiers on their own actions.
[RTR 06-MAR-1997] A ready Leandro can cloak the action of a vampire
acting from torpor, though.
> Perhaps the best game of the tourney that i saw but i actually didn't
> see that much of it except towards the end. garry came up with a
> BRILLIANT use of sensory deprivation - playing it on someone who is
> NOT your predator or prey and who is running away with the game [Sens
> Dep is not a D action, so if you play it on such a target they can't
> block without an Eagle's Sight].
Sensory Deprivation is always directed if you don't control the target.
It can be blocked by (and only by) the controller of the target.
[6.2.2.1]
--
LSJ (vte...@white-wolf.com) V:TES Net.Rep for White Wolf, Inc.
Links to revised rulebook, rulings, errata, and tournament rules:
http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/
"legbiter" <legb...@mailandnews.com> wrote in message
news:22fea992.01121...@posting.google.com...
[snip]
> Thanks to all who played and to White Wolf for Prize support. Next
> tourneys are on January 13th and after that February the 17th - same
> place, more details nearer the time. Rob has kindly undertaken to post
> his winning deck and comments in this thread, and congratulations to
> him!
Thanks again James damn shame you didn't play, a pox on 11. See you on
Wednesday, as promised here she blows (literally).
Deck name: "The smell of victory"
Crypt: (15 cards)
1 Aleph (Malkavian, 4, AU do)
1 Courtland Leighton (Ventrue, 4, do fo pr)
1 Francesca Giovanni (Giovanni, 4, do ne po)
1 Ignacio, The Black Priest (Lasombra, 4, do ot po)
1 Ignatius (Tremere, 4, au do th)
1 Laurent de Valois (Nosferatu, 4, an do ob)
1 Ohanna (Malkavian, 2, do)
1 Ramiro (Lasombra, 4, do ot vi)
1 Roland Bishop (Malkavian, 4, au do ob)
1 Royce (Pander, 1, do)
1 Sarah Cobbler (Tremere, 4, do TH)
1 Shane Grimald (Gangrel Antitribu, 4, an do po)
1 Thelonius (Tremere Antitribu, 4, au do th)
1 Violette Prentiss (Ventrue, 4, do PR)
1 Peter Blaine (!Ventrue, 4, do fo au)
Library: 82 cards (22 masters)
8 Bonding
1 Catacombs
10 Change of Target
2 Conditioning
8 Deflection
9 Dominate
4 Embrace, The
8 Fake Out
1 Foreshadowing Destruction
12 Govern the Unaligned
1 Humanitas
4 Information Highway
2 Parthenon, The
2 Sudden Reversal
4 Tribute to the Master
6 Wake with Evening's Freshness
Well, what can I say ? I had to try it someday, the voices made me. My
version of the infamous Crypt Machine made surprisingly resilient by the
Fake Outs and the three stage actions of each minion - rescue (if
necessary), Bleed, Govern younger vamp. Liberally spray in CoT where needed
in between. Obviously you would need to clean it up with a sponge if you
came up against weenie POT but then again that's the game you play with most
focussed decks.
If you get the Info. Highway out, the superior Govern actions allow you
bring another vamp into play (1 transfer) and get another out of your crypt
every turn (4 transfers) all for the bargain price of 2 pool. Important to
try and keep all vamps equal in the eyes of the table ie. Don't put a DOM
skill card and Humanitas on the same vamp, spread it about (so to speak).
The deck does come with a serious health warning. Make no mistake it is
utter sleaze, only play if you are prepared to get erased with EXTREME
prejudice (8 vamps burned in one game). Might as well sit at the table and
roll the dice before the game to see if you are going to sweep or buckle
like a glass-jawed prize fighter. About as much fun to play as "slap the
serial killer".
I don't want to talk about it any more :o)
Rob.
LSJ <vte...@white-wolf.com> wrote in message news:<3C15227C...@white-wolf.com>...
> legbiter wrote:
> > Interesting game with Joe getting the first VP and calling on me for
> > my first difficult ruling: Can Leandro play a superior Cloak the
> > Gathering even while he is in torpor? i said he could, which did John
> > Eagles in. Then Barney and Michael did a bit of table-splitting.
>
> Vampires in torpor can only play action modifiers on their own actions.
> [RTR 06-MAR-1997] A ready Leandro can cloak the action of a vampire
> acting from torpor, though.
>
> > Perhaps the best game of the tourney that i saw but i actually didn't
> > see that much of it except towards the end. garry came up with a
> > BRILLIANT use of sensory deprivation - playing it on someone who is
> > NOT your predator or prey and who is running away with the game [Sens
> > Dep is not a D action, so if you play it on such a target they can't
> > block without an Eagle's Sight].
>
> Sensory Deprivation is always directed if you don't control the target.
> It can be blocked by (and only by) the controller of the target.
> [6.2.2.1]
DOH!!!! That's 3 rulings and every one of them was WRONG. Sorry,
everyone. Now, however, i can officially claim the title of Worst
Judge in the World.