blackday#
The Asian Continental Championships pushed through on Oct 9, 2011 at Schizo Art Cafe in Katipunan Ave., Quezon City Philippines. This cozy and secluded area was the chosen location for this year's ACC, the event started close to 10am after almost an hour of registration and organizing the prizes. We had a total of 25 players (17 from the Philippines, 3 Japanese and 5 Singaporeans) and we had a multijudge event and had 3 rounds+ Final (for an even 5 tables of 5). The host of Scizo served the players breakfast/lunch and dinner for the said event, so we made good time on the tourney time. This is because we eliminated the need to wait for players to come back to start the table. Each round was 2 hours long which was sufficient except for one notable exception which involved the Salubri. Free giveaways for the participants included a VTES ACC shirt and booster packs (1 Httb and 1 3rd ed) and a starter randomly drawn.
Players:
(Philippines)
1) Johann Ong (Cybele/Aksinya girls deck)
2) Karl Cheng Chua (Trujah Lydia/Al Muntathir summon history deck)
3) Khervin Cheng Chua (Gr4 Tzimisce raptors deck)
4) Troy Espiritu (Gr2 Ravnos Ivan deck equipment /bleed)
5) Francis Godoy (Gr2 Lasombra)
6) Mark Villareal (Gr 3 Cam Ventrue rush/bleed)
7) Hannibal Bobis ( G1-2 Potence Weenies)
8) Charlene Bobis (Gr2 Harbingers/Salubri support)
9) Khristine Bartolome De Guzman(Gr2 Tremere bleed)
10) Louie De Guzman (Imbued toolbox)
11) Edmund Ruaro (Salubri Matthias Spirit Marionette deck)
12) David Balingit (Tremere Gr2-3 Aisling/Carna)
13) Jeremiah Faustino (Kiasyd Gr4 bleed)
14) Jeyson Docalios (Malkavian prince with Lucian bleed)
15) Mara Narciso (Gr4 Toreador bleed)
16) Frederick Tomas (Nossie/Nossie anti with Teresita, Niklaus Vermulen intercept/wall)
17) Paul Jonathan Tio (Gr4 Ravnos political/tuminos deck, Mata Hari and Tsunda)
Japanese players:
1) Nomura (Brujah anti celerity weenie Gr2)
2) Taka'aki Ayukata (Malk Gr1-2)
3) Hayakawa Hidetoshi(Goratrix/Anastasz Di Zagreb bleed/intercept)
Singapore:
1) Stephen Sing (Ahrimanes Howling bleeding)
2) Bann Lum (toreador antitribu anarch bleeder)
3) Law Gee Hwuan Jared (Malk Gr 1 dom bleed)
4) Yeo Le Fei (Samedi)
5) Zheng Yongyan(Ventrue/Ishtarri vote/bleeder)
Standings after 3 rounds
1 Stephen Sing 3 11
2 Frederick Tomas 1 5
2 Troy Espiritu 2 8.5
2 Karl Ian Cheng Chua 1 4.5
2 Gee Hwan 2 10
6 Francis Godoy 1 4
7 Le Fei 1 3.5
8 John David Balingit 1 3.5
9 Kristine Bartolome-De Guzman 1 3
10 Jeremiah Faustino 0 3
11 Edmund Ruaro 0 2.5
12 Kohei Nomura 0 2
13 Johann Ong 0 2
14 Bann Lum 0 2
15 Takaaki Ayukata 0 1
16 Hannibal Bobis 0 1
16 Paul Jonathan Tio 0 1
18 Jason Docallos 0 1
19 Hidetoshi Hayakawa 0 0.5
20 Zheng Yongyan 0 0.5
20 Khervin Cheng Chua 0 0.5
22 Charlene Fernandez-Bobis 0 0
22 Lucinio De Guzman, jr 0 0
24 Mara Angela Narciso 0 0
25 Mark Raymund Villareal 0 0
Final Table
Gee Hwuan's Stealth Bleed, bleeding
Eric's Cock Robin, bleeding
My Howling, bleeding
Troy's Ravnos Equipment, bleeding
Karl's Trujah Summon History deck
(This is mostly extrapolated from Stephen's accounts phrased in the 3rd person perspective)
The game started with Gee Hwuan hyper bleeding Eric for 6 with Didi Meyers, and then another 4. Coupled that with the 7 pool that Eric spent on Teresita, effectively placed Eric on a precarious position trying to defend against a very aggressive and relentless predator.
Stephen sent Howler to Deep Song Didi and eventually sent her into torpor, knowing very well that it would only slow down Gee Hwuan by a bit, hopefully stalling the hyperbleed deck. Troy follows suit and also plays Deep Song by Ivan Krenyenko, Gee Hwuan's other vampire(Roland Bishop) and sending that vampire into torpor as well. This gave Eric some breathing room as Gee Hwuan was forced down to four pool to influence his next vampire Ozmo, to have any chance of gaining a VP before he loses his advantage.
Karl not hesitating to take advantage of such a great opportunity, proceeded to play Vaticinated by Lydia. Stephen blocks it with the help of a Draba from Troy, but Karl played another one with his other Trujah(Al Muntathir), and removed Deflection from Gee Hwuan's hand, and proceeded to oust Gee Hwuan with a bleed. Karl then ousted the severely weakened Eric, gaining 12 pool and 2 VPs all in a single round!
At this point things were looking quite bad for both Troy and Stephen. Stephen proceeded to use entrancement on Troy's Carlton Van Wyk, and succeeded in gaining control of the pesky ally. This bolstered Stephen's minions as he had Howler, Bobby Lemon and Nettie on table but was down to 11 pool, fearing for the Domain of evernight/Outside the Hourglass combo of Karl which would require him to throw out young vampires as a distraction for Lydia for him to survive, Stephen took the risk of bringing out Juanita bringing his pool down to 7. Things were worst for Troy, with so much pool committed to his 2 old vampires and a lot of equipment(Shimulo Tarot, heart of nizchetus, seal of veddartha, etc.), he was down to 4 or 5 pool with some help of of Stephen's howling Ahrimanes.
Striking a deal with his prey, Stephen focused on entering combat with and blocking the Trujah, with average success. Meanwhile, Karl DI-ed a Sense Dep from Troy and Lydia was already fully set up with Ankara, and had summoned the Veneficti. Stephen was lucky enough to have Carlton but the +1 intercept proved futile. Eventually, Karl got Stephen to block Lydia with Carlton, and was promptly killed him off with Outside the Hourglass.
Luck came to Stephen's rescue at this point again. His Ashur Tablets trio were activated and he drew back into his hand the Entrancement, taking the Veneficti away from Karl, which probably saved him a lot of pool. Multiple Engling Fury replenished his Ahrimane's blood, and a timely Vulture Buffet topped it up to make his position a lot stronger.
By then Karl had several vampires too(Lydia, Al Muntathir, and Andre Le Roux), and a bucket load of pool. Mind Numbs were used to reduce his available blockers (usually Bobby, he got mind numbed twice in the game), and a Codex of Edenic Groundskeeper made Stephen play very carefully and always keep at least 2 if not more vampires untapped to deal with Karl's bleeds.
Troy however had managed to successfully place a Sense Dep on Lydia while she was tapped, giving both Troy and Stephen a breather. Stephen slowly bled Troy for 1 or 2, making sure he didn't recover from the damage that Stephen's small bleeds had done, but with enough juice to go forward. With Troy at 4 pool most of the time, Stephen made a calculated risk that keeping Troy weak but in play was a better option as he needed Troy's Sensory Deprivation and so put the game speed into a crawl. Karl played a more defensive game as he tried to recover from Lydia's predicament, and Troy was wary of tapping his minions for bleeds, which gave Stephen the advantage of gaining pool from the edge as much as he could (about several turns worth).
Due to the Sense Dep, Karl's effort turned towards Troy, and the two of them had several combats as Al munthatir tried to engage Ivan Krenyenko. During the confusion, Stephen had another 3 Ashur Tablets activated, and now had a good healthy pool and 5 active minions to fall back on. When Karl finally diablerized Troy's Sense-Depping vampire with Lydia, Stephen saw no real need to keep Troy alive and ousted him to get close to Karl.
There were several combats which went to and fro for a while, in the end the Venficti was destroyed with an Outside the Hourglass (again); some of Stephen's bleeds went through; and couple of Karl's vampires were torpored(Andre and Al Muntathir); Bobby was Mind Numbed again but Stephen was however pretty successful in keeping the Edge.
Nothing very interesting happened for several turns until Stephen sent Howler into combat with Lydia. By then she wasn't in very good shape, and Howler is a great vampire in combat. With Crows and Bats and some presses Stephen sent Lydia to torpor; needless to say he quickly diablerized her with Juniata, gaining quite a few equipment along the way - including a Heart from Troy. (Equipment and allies were very mobile in this game). Prior to diablerizing Lydia, Stephen was pondering whether or not I should just leave her there and disallowed Karl to bring out another Lydia (Karl had only a single vampire Al Muntathir left with 4 blood) - that would be a complete crippling blow to Karl since he had no easy way to use all his TEM powers any more. But looking at his stack of pool, Stephen felt that maybe it was easier to force Karl to transfer those pool for another Lydia. Afterall, a new Lydia would still need time and blood to do all her setup again, giving Stephen plenty of opportunity to send her to torpor all over if necessary. And of course, there was the Heart to think about.
Karl didn't manage to recover in time to deal with Stephen's bleeds. When the new Trujah(Lydia) finally hit the table, a Legal Manipulation with Aire of Elation bypassed his Quicksilver Contemplation to give Stephen the win.
Final Table VP
Karl - 2 VPs
Stephen - 3 VPs + GW
Deck Name : The Howling
4x Howler
2x Siamese, The
2x Tupdog
1x Cynthia Ingold
1x Nettie Hale
1x Bobby Lemon
1x Juanita Santiago
Library [90 cards] Action [22]
8x Deep Song
4x Engling Fury
1x Entrancement
5x Legal Manipulations
2x Muricia's Call
1x Public Trust
1x Vulture's Buffet
Action Modifier [9]
2x Aire of Elation
1x Mole's Tunneling
6x Squirrel Balance
Combat [24]
9x Aid from Bats
6x Carrion Crows
3x Leapfrog
3x Majesty
1x Song in the Dark
2x Terror Frenzy
Combat/Action Modifier [6]
6x Swiftness of the Stag
Master [17]
1x Animalism
9x Ashur Tablets
1x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Guardian Angel
1x Wash
2x Wider View
Reaction [9]
1x Ears of the Hare
8x Speak with Spirits
Retainer [3]
1x Murder of Crows
2x Raven Spy