Happy BIrthday to James Coupe

Wishing you a very happy birthday and we hope it involved lots of alcohol and women. natter soon, Anam & Ian (and all the portsmouth crowd) btw: we wished your sarcastic sense of humour yesterday - rob T nearly didn't make the final!

17 Methuselahs turned up for Saturday's Second Byte tournament and it was especially pleasant to welcome Sid, Mike Nudd and Niki Sehmi to their first Portsmouth tournament. Each acquitted himself honourably, and Sid made it to the final, eventually placing 4th. This was an excellent tournament and saw a radical shift in the English metagame, in the greatly-to-be-desired directions of combat and BIG vampires. i reckon there were no fewer than 7 combat decks in this tournament, and three very strong ones made it to the final, along with Pierre Rebstock's Stanislawa bleed-for-9 deck, and my clone of a Jared Strait Ventrue/Setite takeover deck [going into the final, this had the most VPs - 12]. Unfortunately for me i drew no-one with DOM in my opening crypt so my redirections were useless against Pierre's bleeds and i was quickly ousted. Next Pierre fell, and that left Rob Treasure with a pot/ pro/for/dom combat deck bleeding Barney Baker with a pot/cel/for/pre deck who was bleeding Sid with a pot/for/dom deck. At one point there were three inner circle members on the table plus Lazverinus, and shortly thereafter out came Wynn. This was an absolutely stunning game which swung around between Barney and Rob until finally Rob got combat hand-jam and Barney got action hand-jam. Into the bin went Wynn, and Rob conceded. Here is Barney's winning deck - 3VPs to Rob's 1 and Pierre's 1. CRYPT [12 vamps] 2 Jimmy Dunn Anvil Antoinette duChamp Bianca Richter Volker Salinger Gwendolyn Jacob Bragg Jacko Crusher LIBRARY [90 cards] 16 Masters Direct Intervention Golconda Sudden Reversal KRCG NEws Radio Giant's Blood 2 Haven Uncovered Dreams of the Sphinx Fame Celerity 2 Fortitude 2 Blood Doll 2 Minion Tap 6 Presence cards: 5 Legal Manipulations Media Influence 3 Equipment: 2 Sports Bike Palatial Estate 7 Fortitude Cards: 5 Skin of Steel Skin of Rock Superior Mettle 18 Disciplineless cards: 2 Pack Tactics Elder Intervention 2 Ambush 3 Bum's Rush 4 Forced Awakening 2 Wake with Evening's Freshness 4 taste of Vitae 21 Potence cards: Decapitate 8 Immortal Grapple 4 Pushing the Limit 3 Undead Strength 2 Fists of Death 3 Torn Signpost 19 Celerity cards: Psyche Acrobatics Pursuit Rapid Thought 2 Flash 2 Sideslip 2 Side Strike 5 Blur Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.

In article <7t9sgs$mf6$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>, [ quoted text not captured ] Should be 15, of course. Sorry! [ quoted text not captured ]

>17 Methuselahs turned up for Saturday's Second Byte tournament and it was >especially pleasant to welcome Sid, Mike Nudd ah thankyou.... >and Niki Sehmi to their >first Portsmouth tournament. Each acquitted himself honourably, well, ish.... > and Sid >made it to the final, eventually placing 4th. > >This was an excellent tournament and saw a radical shift in the English >metagame, in the greatly-to-be-desired directions of combat greatly to be desired? hmmm..... > and BIG vampires. v. big vampires... meeting Dragos in the third round was *not* very much fun... >i reckon there were no fewer than 7 combat decks in this >tournament, and three very strong ones made it to the final, along with >Pierre Rebstock's Stanislawa bleed-for-9 deck, and my clone of a Jared >Strait Ventrue/Setite takeover deck [going into the final, this had the >most VPs - 12]. I had a weird Malkavian Dom/Aus combo with Muddled Vampire Hunters that fared well to begin with, but go hand-jammed against James' Setites in the second round and then failed heinously against pure beat in the third.. Well, judging from this newsgroup and some of the other e-mails I've seen, everyone's been making a big deal about S:CE and how to deal with it. With over a dozen decks in this last tourney using Immortal Grapple to very powerful effect, I suppose the question moves to How Can You Deal With Immortal Grapple and Come Away the Victor? S:CE is itself not an option, and neither are any other 'funny' strikes... I figure the best approach would be to load your deck with dodges, which should negate heavy potence or vicissitude single-strike decks.. Trouble is there's still Celerity out there, and unless you use Celerity yourself, you lose any chance of hurting the opposing minion... Anyone have the exact wording of IG, as I can't remember off-hand? Anyone have any better ideas? Cheers, ---- Mike Nudd mi...@darkness.org.uk <work in progress... www.darkness.org.uk>

Does somebody here know the best way to contact Matt Greening? Several people at the Portsmouth tourney mentioned that he can get boxes of cards, if we ask him nicely.. I'm certainly interested, but how do I let him know? [ quoted text not captured ]

Mike Nudd <mi...@darkness.org.uk> wrote: > I had a weird Malkavian Dom/Aus combo with Muddled Vampire Hunters > that fared well to begin with, but go hand-jammed against James' Could you tell me more about this one? Or even post it? -- -- for more info msaari finger msa...@tukki.jyu.fi @jyu.fi 276 "if in doubt, stab Austria"

In article <37f9b06f...@news.ftech.net>, mi...@darkness.org.uk wrote: > > > >17 Methuselahs turned up for Saturday's Second Byte tournament and it was > >especially pleasant to welcome Sid, Mike Nudd > > ah thankyou.... > > >and Niki Sehmi to their > >first Portsmouth tournament. Each acquitted himself honourably, > > well, ish.... > > > and Sid > >made it to the final, eventually placing 4th. > > > >This was an excellent tournament and saw a radical shift in the English > >metagame, in the greatly-to-be-desired directions of combat > > greatly to be desired? hmmm..... O yeah, it is MUCH more fun, and leads to happier games, as Rob pointed out to me afterwards - less bad feeling than if there is a lot of sneaky politics and bleeding. > > > and BIG vampires. > > v. big vampires... meeting Dragos in the third round was *not* very > much fun... That was Andrew, yeah? i master-phase bled him for 6 by doing a Hostile Takeover on Dragos. Strangely, he didn't want to give him up .. now i wonder why that might have been???? > > >i reckon there were no fewer than 7 combat decks in this > >tournament, and three very strong ones made it to the final, along with > >Pierre Rebstock's Stanislawa bleed-for-9 deck, and my clone of a Jared > >Strait Ventrue/Setite takeover deck [going into the final, this had the > >most VPs - 12]. > > I had a weird Malkavian Dom/Aus combo with Muddled Vampire Hunters > that fared well to begin with, but go hand-jammed against James' > Setites in the second round and then failed heinously against pure > beat in the third.. > > Well, judging from this newsgroup and some of the other e-mails I've > seen, everyone's been making a big deal about S:CE and how to deal > with it. With over a dozen decks in this last tourney using Immortal > Grapple to very powerful effect, I suppose the question moves to How > Can You Deal With Immortal Grapple and Come Away the Victor? > > S:CE is itself not an option, and neither are any other 'funny' > strikes... I figure the best approach would be to load your deck with > dodges, which should negate heavy potence or vicissitude single-strike > decks.. Trouble is there's still Celerity out there, and unless you > use Celerity yourself, you lose any chance of hurting the opposing > minion... > > Anyone have the exact wording of IG, as I can't remember off-hand? > Anyone have any better ideas? It's roughly as follows [don't have a copy handy]; BASIC POTENCE: Only useable if range is close. Only hand-strikes may be used in this combat. If a second round of combat occurs, range is close. SUPERIOR: As above, with an optional press. > > Cheers, > > ---- > Mike Nudd > mi...@darkness.org.uk > <work in progress... www.darkness.org.uk> Classic ways of dealing with IG are to move to long range, or to pack LOADS of damage prevention. [ quoted text not captured ]

Mike Nudd wrote: > Anyone have the exact wording of IG, as I can't remember off-hand? With the current errata: Immortal Grapple Cardtype: Combat Discipline: Potence Only usable at close range before strikes are chosen. Only hand strikes may be used {this round}. (S) As above, with an optional press. If another round of combat occurs, that round is at close range; skip the Establish Range step for that round. -- LSJ (vte...@wizards.com) V:TES Net.Rep for Wizards of the Coast. Links to revised rulebook, rulings, errata, and tournament rules: http://www.wizards.com/VTES/rules.asp

Mike Nudd wrote: >>Well, judging from this newsgroup and some of the other e-mails I've seen, everyone's been making a big deal about S:CE and how to deal with it. With over a dozen decks in this last tourney using Immortal Grapple to very powerful effect, I suppose the question moves to How Can You Deal With Immortal Grapple and Come Away the Victor?>> Immortal Grapple is powerful, but the decks that use them are very difficult to win with (unlike decks that use S:CE), so the effect is a wash--I wouldn't worry about IG skewing the tourney environment--it is a good card that is necessary to make certain strategies viable (i.e. combat), but doesn't make combat unbeatable. S:CE, on the other hand, single handedly makes combat useless, *unless* your opponent is playing IG. >>S:CE is itself not an option, and neither are any other 'funny' strikes... I figure the best approach would be to load your deck with dodges, which should negate heavy potence or vicissitude single-strike decks.. Trouble is there's still Celerity out there, and unless you use Celerity yourself, you lose any chance of hurting the opposing minion...>> You can't dodge while Immortally Grappled either--it isn't a hand strike. Only hand strikes. No weapons. No Tha strikes. No S:CE. No dodge. No Coma. No Qui strikes. Nothing. Just hand strikes. How do you compete against IG? Obediance. Manuvers. Fortitude. Flesh of Marble. Protean hand strikes. Blood of Acid. It isn't difficult to foil IG (as opposed to S:CE...), it just takes a bit of design effort. Peter D Bakija PD...@aol.com "Isn't it strange, G'Kar? When we first met, I had no power and all the choices I could ever want. Now I have all the power I could ever want, and no choice at all." -Londo

On 5 Oct 1999 11:26:30 +0300, Mikko Saari <msa...@tukki.cc.jyu.fi> wrote: >Mike Nudd <mi...@darkness.org.uk> wrote: > >> I had a weird Malkavian Dom/Aus combo with Muddled Vampire Hunters >> that fared well to begin with, but go hand-jammed against James' > >Could you tell me more about this one? Or even post it? Tsk.. Yeah sure... :¬> Well, I've dsimantled it alreay dbut it was something like: LIBRARY: 4 Obedience 2 Seduction 6 Deflection 3 Thoughts Betrayed 3 Kindred Coercion 2 Bonding 2 Govern the Unaligned 2 (card that stops tapped minions from blocking) 2 Telepathic Misdirection 4 Enhanced Senses 4 Telepathic Counter 2 Pulse of the Canaille 2 (more intercept) 2 Cloak the Gathering 4 Lost In Crowds 3 Closed Session 4 Wake Wirh Evenings Freshness 2 Forced Awakening 2 Muddled Vampire Hunter 2 Lextalionis 2 Conservative Agitation 2 Domain Challenge 2 Camarilla Exemplary 2 (vote that swaps seats with another player) 2 (vote that changes number of blood for killing a methuselah) 1 Asylum Hunting Ground 1 Information Highway 1 Sudden Reversal 1 Direct Intervention 2 Minion Tap 1 Elysium: Arboretum (some more masters I can't remember) CRYPT: Gilbert Duane Ohanna Cardano Walter Nash (bunch of other vamps with high aus, and/or high dom and/or camarilla titles) All in all a lot of fun, but not very useful against a full-on rush deck, or a full-on vote deck - I met both together in the third round... [ quoted text not captured ]