Jonathan Scherer was top seed going into the final, and won the Championship
when time was called with all five Methuselahs still standing. Unlike previous
years when this has happened, there was almost no deal-making talk. Rather, this
was the result of intercept, rough combat, and a little bloat. The game never
seemed to stall at any given point; the players simply had a rough time getting
any traction.
Here are the final standings (and, with 18 players, the top 5 qualify for the
Continental Championships):
2 7.5 Jonathan Scherer (Gangrel)
1 5 Shane Strait (Malk princes)
1 3.5 Robert Dudock (Imbued)
1 3.5 Jared Strait (Chicago Blood Brothers)
1 3 Catrina Ahlbach (Kiasyd)
1 3 Patrick Keane (Tor/Tre/Ven princes)
1 3 Jacob Baugh (Mexico City Blood Brothers)
0 5 Drew Bates (!Malkavian)
0 4 Eric Chiang (!Tremere)
0 4 Mark Loughman (!Malkavian)
0 3.5 Jeffrey Thompson (Lasombra)
0 2 David Buerger (Assamite)
0 2 Griffin Schnitzler (Imbued)
0 2 Brad Cashdollar (Laibon Ravnos)
0 1 David Idoux (Baali)
0 0 Justin Brummer (Ravnos SenseDep)
0 0 Josh Whelan (Anarch Followers of Set)
0 0 Stuart Straub (!Salubri)
(And, no, Robert's turns didn't take any longer than the other finalists' turns.)
Seating in the final was Jared, Shane, Catrina, Robert, Jonathan.
Congratulations, Jonathan.
Sorry, that should say "Ishtarri", not "Imbued".
Sad to see both Jeff Thompson and Eric Chiang missing the finals, was
rooting for those guys.
18 players at the US nats? Is it always this few? Never really noticed
before :S
I've noticed Gencon's numbers dropping steadily over the last couple
of years. Last year we had mid-30s, the year before was higher than
that. I know that White Wolf as a company has a bigger involvement
with Gencon than Origins, but Origins numbers are consistantly higher
for VTES events. Perhaps we need to consider making the US Nationals
nomadic amongst the larger conventions (Origins, Gencon, Dragoncon,
etc) .
It would be nice for the US Championship to migrate.
>Yes, congratulations Jonathan :) Decklist incoming?
Deck Name : Gangrel
Author : Jonathan Scherer
Description :
US National Championship Tournament Winning Deck
GenCon 2008
Indianapolis, Indiana
August 16, 2008
18 players
3R + F
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 9 average: 6.08333
------------------------------------------------------------
4x Ingrid Rossler 9 ANI FOR PRO dom prince Gangrel:2
2x Caitlin 6 ANI PRO aus dom bishop !Gangrel:2
2x Chandler Hungerford 3 PRO Gangrel:2
1x Iliana 7 DOM FOR PRO tha Gangrel:2
1x Camille Devereux, The Raven 5 FOR PRO ani Gangrel:1
1x Ramona Adv 4 for pro Gangrel:2
1x Ricki Van Demsi 3 for pro Gangrel:1
Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [10]
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
1x Army of Rats
2x Computer Hacking
4x Govern the Unaligned
2x Restoration
Action Modifier [13]
3x Conditioning
1x Day Operation
5x Earth Control
1x Foreshadowing Destruction
3x Freak Drive
Ally [3]
3x Renegade Garou
Combat [22]
4x Claws of the Dead
13x Earth Meld
5x Form of Mist
Equipment [1]
1x Palatial Estate
Master [17]
1x Archon Investigation
3x Blood Doll
3x Dominate
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Ecoterrorists
1x Giant's Blood
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper, The
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1x WMRH Talk Radio
1x Zoo Hunting Ground
Reaction [21]
5x Cats' Guidance
4x Deflection
4x Second Tradition: Domain
8x Wake with Evening's Freshness
Retainer [3]
3x Raven Spy
>Eighteen players showed up for the US Nationals at Gen*Con Saturday morning.
>Jonathan Scherer was top seed going into the final, and won the Championship
Jonathan also won the constructed event on Friday with Brujah Princes
/ Theo Bell, so it was definitely his weekend.
I blame Zopf.....
>Jeffrey Thompson (Lasombra)
There were a number of players in attendance that I had not
seen/played against previously. Three from Madison and three or four
locals. Some of the locals were amazingly prey focused, with their
decks 100% incapable of interacting with their predator beyond a
simple block of an action at no stealth. These decks were very quick
and made for extremely quick games. 3R + F over with in 6.5 hours,
with only 1 five player table and the finals going to time.
The deck below was only ousted once, when it was the prey of a Hermana
deck with 7 minions in play. It wasn't ousted by the Hermanas, but
the stealth voters of Shane Strait were able to finish the job.
Deck Name : Sense the Savage Lasombra Way
Author : Lasombra
Description :
A rebuild of my Lasombra with Animalism deck.
First games were at the US National Championship tournament at GenCon
2008.
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 10 average: 8.25
------------------------------------------------------------
3x Anton de Concepcion 9 ANI DOM OBT POT aus archbishop Lasombra:4
2x Nahir 10 ANI DOM OBT POT tha Lasombra:3
2x Servius Marius Pustula 10 ANI CHI DOM OBT POT obf !Nosferatu:4
2x Conrad Adoula 8 DOM OBT POT ani cel Lasombra:4
2x Otieno 6 OBT POT ani dom Lasombra:4
1x Paulo de Castille 4 ani dom pot Lasombra:4
Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [10]
3x Abbot
7x Govern the Unaligned
Action Modifier [5]
5x Shadow Play
Combat [29]
7x Arms of the Abyss
7x Carrion Crows
3x Concealed Weapon
3x Pack Alpha
4x Shadow Step
5x Taste of Vitae
Equipment [4]
4x .44 Magnum
Master [19]
1x Coven, The
1x Fame
1x Giant's Blood
2x Information Highway
5x Minion Tap
1x Political Hunting Ground
4x Vessel
4x Wash
Reaction [20]
2x Cats' Guidance
7x Deflection
2x Eyes of the Night
2x On the Qui Vive
7x Sense the Savage Way
Retainer [3]
3x Raven Spy
Recorded with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Mon Aug 18 17:19:20 2008]
Sounds like a nice setup, I like this sort of metagame a lot
actually :) Was there any deal makings and such?
>Sounds like a nice setup, I like this sort of metagame a lot
>actually :) Was there any deal makings and such?
I did not observe any dealmaking.
The decks of the new players really didn't have anything to offer, it
was just bleed, bleed, bleed.
Heh. I'm turning into the Kato Caitlin of VTES; couch-surfer of the Stars
Ah well, those who can, do... Those who can't, enjoy success vicariously
through their friends.
;-)
Good on ya, Scher'.
DaveZ
You say this like it is a *bad* thing...
:-)
-Peter