Sunday, November 20, 2011

EC day 3 - First chance qualifier

So there it was. Third day, third tournament. Since I was pretty frustrated by my acomplishments by then, I decided to play my Guruhi vote deck, which I am enjoying lately.

1st table: Me - Lutz vote - Unmada+Scout Yongwood - Auspex turbo block - Hazimel powerbleed

This table was really full of pressure. I was trying to do my best do mamage Lutz with votes, which ultimately damaged my cross table buddy because of Lutz ability. Lutz wasn't doing too much to his prey, but it was enough thanks to my political actions. He was then able to talk through parity shift taking 5 pool from Lutz. In the end, Scout Yongwood did backwards crescendo, sending Lutz and Marcus Vitel to torpor.Marcus was targeted by Golconda and that was basicaly it for his controler. He was conserving his pool and trying to survive until the end. Auspex block deck brought out three minions, Smiling jack and was doing his blocking. Hazimel put pulse of canaile on himself and was bleeding me for 6 almost each turn. I have tried to destroy smiling jack with three minions and called Ancient influence afterwards. All my actions were blocked by auspex block deck, including Ancient influence with eagles sight. He was ousted right after this because of lack of wake cards. After this it was basicaly one after another and Unmada + Scout cleared entire table. Congrats, I really loved that deck.

2nd round: Me - Salubri Marionette - Dmitra and friends - Saulot with tremere support - Cybele + Friends vote

This game was pretty catastrophic from the start. Dmitra was playing KRC from the start 3 points to saulot and one point to me. At one point I was trying to make a deal with Dmitra player, but he was offered better one from Cybele. Help with Saulot if he will help him finish me. I was hoping that Dmitra will eventualy break the deal, but in the end, I was ousted 10 seconds before time-out. I could have stalled, but it just is not my style.

3rd table - Me - Tzimisce block - Fortitude swarm - Tumnimos breed & bleed

We had only four player table, because someone was leaving early. As I was told, six other tables had the same problem.This was a great game for me, although it did not look like that from the start. I was just laying low, doing nothing except hunts and moving couters to my uncontroled region. After my prey had made a mistake and tapped his minions, used rotshreck and some wakes, I went for kill and in two turns, I was able to oust him. Fortitude swarm ousted his prey too and I was able to oust him pretty fast after this. I 've got a lot of full minions thanks to votercap, lots of pool thanks to oust and he did not have much chance here. Still it was a great game.

1 GW and 3 VP total for me. I was hoping to qualify with this, but after I saw the list, with highlighted names of 30 players, well lets say I was 6 TP short. So first one under the line.

I have not achieved any of my goals, so huge dissapointment here. On the other hand I am glad that I went. It was pretty epic event and I want to once more thank all organizers for a great event.

Next post will be again about EC, but I promise it will be the last one. I will try to write more about games, decks, strategies and players.

Deck Name: Guruhi vote
Author: Silmegil
Description:


Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=4 max=11 avg=7.5)
===============================================
 1x  Aren, Priest of Eshu    7  ani obf POT PRE          Guruhi:4
 1x  Batsheva ADV            6  obt pot ANI PRE          Guruhi:4
 2x  Eze, The Demon Prince  11  aus ANI NEC POT PRE THA  Guruhi:3
 1x  Fode Kourouma           5  ani aus pre POT          Guruhi:4
 1x  Iniko, The Black Lion   9  cel ANI OBT POT PRE      Guruhi:4
 1x  Lumumba                 4  ani PRE                  Guruhi:4
 1x  Maskini                 7  abo ANI POT PRE SER      Guruhi:4
 1x  Nana Buruku             8  ANI POT PRE              Guruhi:4
 1x  Sobayifa                8  aus pot pro spi ANI PRE  Guruhi:3
 1x  Ugadja                 10  dom for ABO ANI POT PRE  Guruhi:4
 1x  Urenna Bunu             4  ani pot pre              Guruhi:4

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (14)
 1x Archon Investigation
 1x Golconda: Inner Peace
 1x Grooming the Protégé
 1x Lilith's Blessing
 3x Misdirection
 7x Villein

Action (10)
 5x Enchant Kindred
 5x Founders of the Ebony Kingdom

Political Action (21)
 2x Anarchist Uprising
 1x Ancient Influence
 4x Conservative Agitation
 1x Domain Challenge
 9x Kine Resources Contested
 1x My Kin Against the World
 1x Neonate Breach
 1x Reins of Power
 1x Snipe Hunt

Action Modifier (34)
 4x Aura of Invincibility
 6x Bewitching Oration
 6x Change of Target
 2x Edge of the World
 6x Iron Glare
 2x Make an Example
 8x Voter Captivation

Combat (10)
10x Majesty

Combo (1)
 1x Guruhi Kholo

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Nov 20, 2011 11:43:55)

See you next time...

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Second day of EC

So after my huge failure at LCQ, I have decided to play deck with which I have played most recently and scored some pretty good games - Guruhi vote. I had prepared it night before the actual European championship Day I and in the morning, I have decided to go with a deck which is capable of bouncing bleed - so I chose my Tremere Politics v 0.2 for this event. I was pretty confident, because I have playtested this deck probably most of all my creations and I knew all its capabilities. Well, I can kiss my confidence goodbye now:)

1st game (Me - Nakhthorheb bleed - !Salubri toolbox maybe - Giovanni powerbleed - Nergal vote)

I had great start, Nergal was practicaly dead when he came out and I influenced out Malgorzata and started to get out more minions. I had dealt some damage with KRC, but Nakhthorheb has equiped Sport bike and started to play defensively. Nergal was ousted very quickly, but he dealt some damage to giovanni and with pressure from salubri, they were ot bleeding me, so my bounce was useless and my prey stabilised. Giovanni were ousted some time after that. Rest of the game was just my prey and predator blocking my actions. I have killed two Carltons, burned one !Salubri and sent Byzar to torpor twice. But in spite all of this, we timed out. Four minions out I was not able to push enough actions through. Very sad from me. After the game I found out, that there was only one Sport bike in my preys deck and he equipped it in like third turn. What to say. Bad luck maybe. 0,5 VP for me.

2nd game (Me - Girls will find something - Khazar Diary giovanni - True brujah bleed - Dragon Breath Round Swarm)

So not the best table for me either. I knew, that my predator has waited for my second minion to go out to reduce my pool. But I did it anyway, hoping my grandpredator will do something to him with his hands untied. So my Anastaz di Zagreb was hit by Pentex and Ladislas Toth, The Torch went to torpor and was graverobbed. What to say about next part of the game? I do not know. For three long turns I have begged for someone to remove Pentex. My cross table buddies had 9 vampires in total, but both of them told me, that they had no action to spare even when I have promised them political actions in return. So Orlando Oriundus came out. He was rushed six times. Five minions equipped with Saturday night specials and all of them were left without blood. Sixth had taken Orlando down to torpor. Only one was left, but thanks to Pentex still on Anastaz, I was not able to block. So my predator took vote lock by this action and I was left with only one minion with pentex. What to say more? Game eventualy ended with Girls... taking entire table except one point taken from them by Trujah. I may have been able to slow them down or do something, but... I am not ashamed by this game at all. The removal of the Pentex was the key to changing this table outcome. 0 VP for me.

3rd table (Me - IC Ashur/Liquidation/Villein/Lilith blessing something - 3rd player - Anti ventrue  grinder - 5th player)

Ending of this game was so frustrating for me, that I have totaly forgotten about two of the players decks on this table. They were ousted pretty soon as I remember it. At this point I was succesfully defending against grinder and trying to bring down that IC deck. Well my last political action was blocked by grinder deck and I was unable to oust it in a given turn. On the other hand, grinder have discarded his only wake and was killed. I would have been able to finish the IC deck, but time out stopped me once again. So again 0,5 VP for me.


Total of 1 VP is not very impressive, but I am not dissapointed. Players had to team up against me, in two of the games and second game was just awful work of my table buddies. I am not saying, that I've made no mistakes, but I stand behind this deck. It works, is enjoyable and had a chance. Still I have learned a few new thing from theese games. Still I was little sad not to go to Day II, but I have been looking forward to FCQ and playing Guruhi vote, since I have wanted to play them at this tournament. So that will be next report.

For those who have forgotten:

Deck Name: Fee Stake Ostrava: Tremere politics 0.2
Author: Vystavil Silmegil (Regis)
Description:
Fee Stake: Ostrava
Ostrava, Czech Republic
January 15, 2011
13 players
3R + F

http://czechvtes.blogspot.com/2011/01/fee-stake-ostrava.html



Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=6 max=9 avg=7.92)
===============================================
 1x  Alfred Benezri              6  aus dom PRE THA      Pander:3
 2x  Anastasz di Zagreb          8  ani cel dom AUS THA  Tremere:3
 1x  Carna, The Princess Witch   7  AUS DOM THA          Tremere:3
 2x  Ladislas Toth, The Torch    7  for AUS DOM THA      !Tremere:3
 2x  Malgorzata                  9  pre AUS DOM THA VIC  !Tremere:4
 2x  Orlando Oriundus            9  obf AUS DOM THA      !Tremere:4
 2x  Polly Kay Fisher            8  for pot AUS DOM THA  !Ventrue:4

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (14)
 6x Blood Doll
 2x Dreams of the Sphinx
 1x Erciyes Fragments, The
 1x Giant's Blood
 1x Legendary Vampire
 1x Powerbase: Madrid
 1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
 1x Wash

Event (1)
 1x Scourge of the Enochians

Political Action (17)
 1x Ancient Influence
 1x Ancilla Empowerment
10x Kine Resources Contested
 3x Neonate Breach
 1x Political Stranglehold
 1x Reins of Power

Action Modifier (4)
 4x Mirror Walk

Reaction (26)
 1x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
 2x Enhanced Senses
 3x Forced Awakening
 4x On the Qui Vive
 3x Precognition
 5x Spirit's Touch
 8x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (28)
11x Apportation
 1x Burst of Sunlight
10x Theft of Vitae
 4x Walk of Flame
 2x Weather Control

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Nov 17, 2011 00:17:52)

See you next time...

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Back from the EC

Returning from EC, I am full of impressions. I will try to break it all dow to smaller pieces, starting with last chance qualifier. Iwas already qualified so I chose one of my weaker decks - Striga wall deck. I actually loved Scobax card from the start and this deck was my dream for a long time. After I started to test it in our playgroup, its obnoxiousness to other players became pretty clear. But I continued to test it just to be ready for a major tournament. Since this deck needs some time to build up, I benefit from aggresive decks on the table. Others see them as a threat and leave me be.

So what to say. I will not go game by game here, since this was fail after fail. First thing was, that I actually could not draw enough of striga cards in any of the three games and was forced to cycle a lot of Scobax cards for almost no effect. Secondly I have made a wrong call about decks. I have met sooooooooooo many bloating decks, covens, racks, montreals, giant bloods etc. And thirdly - well players were going slow and more static than I have expected. With this kind of deck on the table, It was pretty smart but still. I have pissed one player so much, that it wasn't looking pleasant.

Well that is it for this deck. I really did not enjoy playing with this deck and so did hardly anyone on theese tables. I have scored 2 x 0,5 VP for timeout so that aslo says something. Despite all that I am glad that I had tested it and I know its potential and weaknesses. I am prety sorry for all people I pissed though. So that is for the LCQ and I will continue with the main tournament as soon as I have time.

Deck Name: Scobax Wall
Author: Silmegil
Description:


Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=3 max=3 avg=3)
============================================
12x  Horde, The   3  dai obf pre  Baali:6

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (26)
 1x Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter
 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
 1x Powerbase: Chicago
 1x Powerbase: Montreal
 3x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
 1x Society of Leopold
18x Striga

Event (4)
 1x Hunger Moon
 1x Restricted Vitae
 1x Rising, The
 1x Slow Withering, The

Reaction (60)
60x Scobax

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Nov 15, 2011 17:44:33)

So wait for it...

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Tournament coming up

So it seems there are lots of tournaments held lately. It is no mystery. EC is really close now and people are trying to qualify. So it is not a surprise, that even my city - Ostrava is a place where will be one of those tournaments. Not a championship or qualifier, only regular tournament, but still. One more person to go with me to EC. At least I hope. The tournament will be held 1.10.2011, so less then a week to the future and I still do not know, what to play. Well my tremere politics is always a possibility, but I would rather risk and try something new in tournament enviroment. So these are my choices:

Scobax wall - well i know, probably not a first choice, but what the hell, it is too evil for casual games, but for tournament it can be ok and I am willing to try

Frederick the weak multirush deck - my one and only deck copied from the internet. It is slightly modified, but the core - 60x Indomitability is still there and that is what counts. Another deck, which is not really tournament win likely, but what the hell, I just like this baby

Guruhi vote - I have just built it and it shows a lot of promise. I would like to see it in really tight spots, so tournament is the right place to go

Something safe and boring - so either my IC politics, Public trust bleed or Giovanni powerbleed - this would be a safe choice, but I am already qualified and realy not in the mood for something this boring.


Still, we will see night before tournament. I could go for some of my less tested or perfected decks.

See you next time, hopefuly with the report...

Monday, September 19, 2011

2 vs 2

Since I have not posted for some time now, I will try to catch up a little. 2 vs 2 is very interesting format, which we have played and tested within our playgroup. Basic rules of V:tes apply to this format with only few exceptions.

1) As the title of this format suggests, two pairs of people compete against each other, therefore you need 4 persons for each game and only 4 player tables exist at this event.
2) Pairs register for this event simultanously and have to agree to play with each other. They build decks in advance to support each others strategy and to work together well.
3) Teams (or pairs) remain constant for the entire event and there is no switching.
4) Seating of players is not decided at random as usual. Players seating is chosen, so you have prey and predator from oposite team. Your teammate is across the table. Starting order is chosen randomly as usual.
5) Deck for this event is limited with standard rules of V:tes. This means no banned cards and of course deck is limited only to 80 cards, because of the constant 4 player tables.
6) You and your teammate play with your pool joint. This means that entire team has 60 pool aviable from the start. They do not have to be distributed evenly. Team looses after there pool is totaly depleted.

We have played more than a few games of this format, but only two tournaments - which both were awesome. We didn't find any problem with cards, which would be troublesome or overpowered in this format, but we could not test everything. Some cards or strategies proved to be very offective and we have found some pretty cool combinations. Overall this format is very enjoyable and I recommend it.

Pros: New format, new strategies, combination play, different gameplay

Cons: Usually more time to set up the event because of training and combining decks and also if someone cannot find him a partner for this event, he can't play

See you next time...

Sunday, September 18, 2011

One and only

Few weeks ago, I have participated in tournament, in which every card ind both crypt and library was limited to only one copy. Well, that is basically the entire concept of this format. This event was organized in the past, but I could not attend because of the exams. I have built a deck though - vic/aus/tha with a few high cups and a weenie support. It was a good deck, but I took it apart after some time and built a new one for this tournament. It was an attempt to build a ventrue grinder and it did not went well. Weenie bleed decks and weenie aus block decks just devastated me, but I enjoyed playing in that tournament. I am planning to build rush deck next time and I am curious how that will go. This format is probably better suited for other games than V:tes, but I am not giving up on it. I hope that this was not last time I have participated in such event.

See you next time.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Draft

It was some time ago, that I noticed topic at vekn.net about other formats of competitive vtes games. Firstly I must say, that I love constructed tournament. In its pure form with five-player table and when all of them are really good, game just becomes really great. Of course at table of seven people, where every other player does stupid things, which do not make sense, it just sucks. Lately we have started league, so my needs of constructed competitive play are mostly satisfied. But there are other formats, which we have played and enjoyed them very much. So next few posts will be about that. I will start with draft tournament. I am sure that this format won't be anything new for almost anyone, but it will be good start.

So my first draft was special. Each player was allowed to bring 4 vampires (only 2 copies of same vampire could be used - I remember bringing 2* Menele and 2* Hektor) and 20 cards as foundation for his deck(only one copy of each card could be used - so no 20* Freak Drives). Rest of the deck was built from cards, that were drafted in classic way. You can se, that this type of draft makes much stronger decks, because everyone can add very strong vampires to his crypt, or cards to library. Games tend to be a lot faster too, because usual toolboxy draft strategies tend to be more focused and smooth. Faster games are one of the reasons to choose this type of draft. Main reason is to save money. Because of cards you have prepared, you can lower the number of drafted boosters. And saving money is a huge selling point.

Classic draft on the other hand very much adds to variety of play and can display trully great gaming skills. Sixteen boosters had proven to be a number, which is enough to provide variety for building decks as much as enough cards for playing. We have tried few combinations of V:tes sets and they work almost in any combination. But you will always need one core big set - for example 3rd edition(nowadays that is pretty much your only choice). Sometimes you will need to remove crypt restrictions. Sets that provide cards with draft effects are even better for the game. Four sets are ideal for card diversity. If you are not able to use four different sets, you should be able to replace missing sets with core set. Too much of small edition boosters (SoC for example) would make the cards very monotonic. After my last draft (with LoB, EK, HttB and LotN) I am fairly confident that almost every set may be combined with others with optional crypt restriction removal. Ok i know that EK is not entirely usefull without LoB, but some of the cards still can be used and I believe that Even NoR could provide interesting game developments.

There is nothing much I could say without boring you, because like I said, this format is pretty well known. One thing, which can give you the edge is to study possible cards and combinations, which you can make before starting and try to prepare some strategies, but last time I thought I will try to build solid Dominate based deck, with some support and ended up with magaji wall, so that is preparation for you. But still - to know, what you may find and to be aware of draft effects will give you a great edge.

Pros: Fun format, which can improve your skills of combination, make you play a very different strategies, than you usually do and bring you a lot of fun.

Cons: Cost and secondly time heftiness.

See you next time with other format...