Last Chance Qualifier Tournament!

First Game

Enkidu Rush > Malk Stealth Bleed > !Gangrel Presence Stealth Bleed > Me (Matata Rush) > !Salubri Laibon Kerrie

Started off bad and didn’t get better! 5 copies of one vamp and I had to bring out 8 vamps to see him bah! anyway by the time I had him in my uncontrolled I didn’t have enough pool left. Wasn’t too bad though as my predator was the only one on the table not yet qualified. Enkidu got the game win, !Salubri / Malks couldn’t really hurt him so he had a free reign.

Second Game

Nos Princes > Me (Matata Rush) > Arkunase Wall (No Secrets) > Toreador Grand Ball Embrace > Ahrimanes Toolbox

Awful game! Nos Princes basically plays Zilla’s Valley then parity shifts it back with a whole load of stealth. His predator did nothing for the entire game (he kept complaining that it was pointless!!!), anyway it came down to who could cycle fast enough between me (needing rushes) and him (needing parity shifts) to see who would get ousted first. I was winning the battle but then his cross table ally decides to put all damage from his votes onto me, effectively ousting me! His excuse was that Matata could burn anyone on the table and wanted him gone! bah! My prey just sat their and built up a load of ‘No Secrets’ vamps, which after I was gone locked down the table, the deck had no ousting strategy or effective combat however so the game timed out.

Third Game

Weenie Vote > Potence > High Cap Princes > Me (Matata Rush) > Salubri & aus weenies

Another awful game! Weenie Vote gets about 8 1/2 cap vampires out by the 5/6th turn but had no way of generating votes, the High Cap Prince player was abstaining (didn’t want to get into deals) so the weenies just sat there. I didn’t manage to scroll into the right kind of rushes to go backwards so ended up going forwards, effectively crippling my prey who only had aus weenies (must of had a bad draw).

Around about the 10th turn the Prince player made a deal with the weenies and wanted the votes split between his prey and me, 7/8 Con Aggs later me and his prey are out. Sigh! The weenie vote then bleeds out the rest of the table taking the win (the high cap prince player threw a fit when the weenies would not make another deal, I don’t know what was going on in his head!).

Well thats the game write ups, what an annoying day. I hope tomorrow’s games aren’t like todays, people just didn’t seem to care if they helped someone oust someone else even if they were the persons predator! it felt like the normal ‘Play to win’ went right out of the window. In some ways it is to be expected I suppose, but I even heard that on one table 3 french players just ousted the 2 non-french then just sat their until time-out. I am glad that I am already qualified.

EC Day 1!

What a crappy day! Did not enjoy one single game I played today, the meta game is completely different from that back home. The players here will make deals after 4 turns and the French will make deals before the game even starts. I have never seen so much cross table ousting, oh well… live and learn. Other than that I managed to purchase quite a few vamps I was looking for and am looking forward to playing in the Silence of Death or the draft tournament tomorrow.

Here are the game write ups.

First Game

Tzimice Allies > Me (Snakes on a table) > Gangrel Bleed > Ravnos Sense Dep

Tzimice Allies get out a warghoul very early, fortunately I had a secure heaven and Nefertiti lasted the one turn until I could play it on her, thank god for no suddens! 5/6 turns in and the Tzimice Allies and the Ravnos make a deal where they would not harm each other (they were both french, of course!) which allowed the Tzimice to bring out about 3 warghouls, 4 Absosnam Ghouls and various other small allies.

I very nearly ousted my prey, reduced him down to 1 pool, but then the ally horde crushed all my vamps not helped by the bleeds being bounced to me from the Ravnos. Once I was out the Gangrel player conceded he had 3 minions 2 were Sense Dep’ed! and the Tzimice took 3vp’s and the Ravnos 1vp.

Second Game

Assamite’s > Legacy of pander > Me (Snakes on a Table) > Nos Vote Toolbox > Toreador Grand Ball

Sigh! Nefertiti comes out and then the 2nd or 3rd turn after a ‘Tempatation of Greater Power’ is played on her by the Nos costing me 16 pool which left me on 2. I survived 4 turns by Blood Dolls but was eventually bled out by the pander. The game then went very strange with about 20mins of arguing between the remaining players to try and make deals. In the end the Legacy of Pander and Assamites joined forces and the Nos and Toreador did the same (what the…!), lots of cross table votes and bounced bleeds but in the end Toreador took 2vp, Nos took 2vp and the Legacy of Pander took 1vp. I was very, very… confused by the end of that game.

Third Game

Me (Snakes on a Table) > !Malk Kindred Spirits > Nos Princes > Giovanni Bleed

Giovanni got a good start and was bleeding me heavily luckily a combination of deflections & ecstasy’s limited the damage but he still had the whole table working against him. A few of his minions got torpored by the Nos and I was able to go forwards. As soon as I showed the table what I was capable of I was instantly hated and put down heavily (not much I could do to be honest the deck only does one thing and maybe it does that to efficiently…) anyway !Malks bleed me out after many deflected bleeds to me for 1 (Nos would ask Giovanni if he had bounce and then would bleed sigh!). Did not know the end result as I went in search of beer!

Silence of Death tournament.

Here are the game write ups…

First Game

Tha Cel > Me (Matata rush) > Tzimice Warghouls > Ahrimanes > Prince Parity Shift

Started off very well with me rushing and torporing all of the Tzimice starting weenie vampires, no warghouls for him! My predator was bleeding me often for 1, occasionally for 3. I blocked one of his vampires and learnt not to do that again in a hurry! Acrobatics > Theft > Press > Dodge Additional Theft > Blood Fury etc… my prevention cards were useless so avoided confrontation until I had a better hand (I was not too worried about the occasional bleed and he was not packing any rush).

Ahrimanes were spending a lot of pool bringing out minions and werewolf allies and the Princes were keeping a low profile. I slowly worked down my prey with lots of bleeds for 1 and kept torporing his minions to stop any warghouls appearing, he then played some Anarch Revolts which changed the game completely. Ahrimanes were the first to get ousted, not helped by the Parity shifting princes. I then torpored all of the Tzimice vampires letting the Anarch Revolts oust him. I finally scrolled into a Fame so the the Princes were ousted very quickly then it was just me and the Tha Cel. Lots of really good combats later (I lost Matata he lost 2 minions) I came out on top and ousted him with the help of my second Fame. Thew! really good game and everyone at the table enjoyed it.

4vp GW to me and 1vp to the Tzimice.

Second Game

Enkidu > Prince Combat (Splash of serpentis!) > Me (Matata Rush) > Brujah > !Tremere Bloat

Strange game, again I had a really good start and managed to out combat Theo Bell and other Brujah princes, they were playing Potence combat but had no prevention so Matata kicked them really hard. Enkidu was slowly building himself up and had the event in play where you could not call a blood hunt on a vamp with a higher capacity than 10 so he was eating anyone that went to torpor, good for me! Prince Combat was scared, of the way I was destroying everyone I rushed so held back and did not apply any pressure (Enkidu also worried him ). I ousted my prey but in doing so I left myself open and the Prince Combat bleed me heavily. Enkidu was burned by Carlton by the !Tremere player the look on his face was funny to say the least!
I was ousted shortly after ousting my prey, I lost Matata to a Form of Corruption and had little defense without him. Princes went on to oust the remaining players (he played a very good game, I had no idea of his capabilities until it was to late).

1vp and 4vp GW to the Princes.

Third Game

Ravnos Toolbox > Ishattari > Assamites > Me (Matata Rush) > Giovanni \ Lorrie

Another game in which I put really early pressure on my prey, I was having problems with Lorrie (she torpored 2 of my minions ugly biatch!) but eventually managed to put her in torpor (she is a strong vamp though…deck ideas ). I then just bled and torpored his minions when he brought them out. The Assamites were concerning but they did not seem to want to come forwards, except for bleeds of 1 so I stayed clear and did not block, I imagine he had a whole hand of combat. The Ravnos were building up and causing the Ishttari problems mainly bleeds at stealth which the Ishattari did not seem to be able to manage even though he had lots of Auspex, anyway he had to Golconda Ayo Igoli to stay in the game. I eventually ousted the Giovanni and the Ishttari back ousted the ravnos with a KRC his excuse was that he could handle combat better than bleeds at stealth, oh well I wasn’t complaining. I then had a choice of whether to try and oust the Ishattari, then try and deal with the Assamites one on one or help the Ishattari oust the Assamites via KRC, I decided on the later and many back rushes later and very… very nasty combats the Assamites were ousted. I then went full throttle into the Ishattari and managed to torpor or burn all his minions after which he conceded.

4vp GW to me and 1vp for the Ishattari.

Final

Imbued > Tha Cel > Malk Madness Network > Ally Hoard > Me (Matata Rush)

How I cried! yet was unable to say anything to the table once I saw that the Imbued was my prey not helped by the fact that the Tha Cel player had never seen them before!

This was a very slow game the Imbued had all the nasty events out and was playing with tons of Determines not forgetting Memories of Mortality (there were 6 on the table at one point!), nearly every rush I made got Determined and every bleed got deflected back to my predator. He had a master in play where he could burn a pool to get 2 cards from his ash heap, you guessed it Determines every time. The Ally hoard player was effectively shut down by Maris Streck so I had no pressure. I had Mbare Market in play and built up a load of pool and had 4 minions in play. Tha Cel player came good and managed to block and theft most of the life from the imbued but had to defend almost the entire game, I kept going forwards and finally managed to put two imbued into uncontrolled then eat one.

I had to keep the pressure on even though it was killing my predator via deflected bleeds which it did giving the Malks 1vp (I was quite happy though as the Ally Hoards were first seed I was second so that meant 1vp would be enough for me to win!), the imbued player then made a mistake and brought out a 3 cap vampire with DOM (deflection) all my cards suddenly work again! I famed him then sent the chumps in to tap the Imbued and rushed the vamp and torpored him gaining the oust. Ousting the Imbued took about 2 hours and 45mins and the whole table including spectators cheered like crazy, even the Judges

The remaining time was spent holding off the Malks and putting pressure on the Tha Cel deck, Tha Cel came close to ousting the Malks and I came close to ousting him but then we timed out.

Woho! I win the Silence of Death Tournament!

I think there most be some something to learn from this as I have done very horribly in two tournaments where talking & deal making is allowed but have done really well in the Silence of Death tournament. Maybe I need to improve my table talk or maybe it is just a coincidence and I had good positions on the day. There were lots of combat oriented decks in the Silence of Death tournament so Matata was in his element.