Results July 24 Great Lakes Regional Qualifier - Milwaukee
Rehlow
- Milwaukee so I'll start one. This qualifier was run by David Robins
at HobbyTown USA in New Berlin. An excellent location for me, since my
parents live in New Berlin I was able to drop off my 4 month old
daughter and both my wife and I were able to play in the qualifier.
Besides the two of us, there were 7 other Methuselah's competing. 3
from Madison and 4 from the Greater Chicago area. We were hoping for
around a 15 player turn out, but some Minnesota players were unable to
attend and some other local Methuselah's had some issues with leaving
torpor or something.
After three preliminary rounds the finals standing was (I don't know
exact GW and VPs, but order was)
Kit Strehlow - G4/5 Kiasyd
Matt "Rehlow" Strehlow - Nana Buruku Ashur Tablets and Liquidation
Boris - cel/for Anarchs
Eric Chiang - Tremere Antitribu with a focus on obfuscate
Cat - G3/4 Kiasyd
Boris and Cat have last names; I just never remember what they are.
Finals seating was Kit -> Boris -> Rehlow -> Cat -> Eric. I can't
remember who went first (should write these reports sooner or start
taking notes). I do know that Cat and Kit already played 2 games at
the same table, so they were very familiar with what vamps they
overlapped in their crypts. Boris had a pretty good start, but was
concerned about being the last stop on the Deflection chain. I
remember having a mediocre mix of cards and knew Boris could be
powerful if he had time to build up. I considered getting him killed
off early with a backwards Pentex, but decided I didn't want to be the
end of the Deflection chain, so I just discarded it (love throwing
away anything early and getting it back later with Ashurs). I did drop
an early Scourge of the Enochians to fry one of Boris's vamps and make
him think twice about bringing out any 1 or 2 caps. Midgame I stayed
mostly defensive and watched the table beat on each other. For the
most part Cat responsibly bled Eric, but even bleeds for 1 eventually
got bounced to Kit when Eric's pool started to drop. Then it looked
like Eric was in a now or never position and let loose his bleeds on
Kit. She didn't have any Deflections (unsure if she even drew any all
game) and was ousted. Cat was disappointed because Eric was at maybe 4
pool at this point and now 10. Boris had some concerns about his new
predator’s ability to oust him and went backwards with some Open War
rushes with Weighted Walking Sticks and Diversions for prevent and
additional strikes. I wanted anyone to oust Boris, be it Eric for his
second VP or Cat to get Eric and Boris. Boris also figured out that I
didn’t have any Aid from Bats in hand and Open War rushed me, dunking
some of my vamps including Nana Buruku. I spent the next couple turns
rescuing Nana over and over, having her hunt and then get beat back
down to torpor, trying to discard draw into some Aid from Bats. I had
a Jake Washington in hand that I thought would really get me back on
my feet, but Jake was one Open War rush away from being killed before
I got to an untap to use him so I held onto him. Cat got Eric low
again and then Eric ousted Boris. In the short amount of time between
Eric’s oust of Boris and Cat ousting him in a couple turns I was able
to get Nana out of torpor and keep her out. Now it was heads up with
Cat. I knew I could still win with only 2 VPs since was higher seed
than Eric. I didn’t know if I could survive Cat’s 4 Kiasyd and stealth
bleed. Also, I knew Cat was playing some Earth Swords and a timely
Earth Swords to Nana’s face would end it for me. Fortunately for me I
had just finished an Ashur Tablets set and loaded my deck with untap/
wakes and intercept. Nana got herself a Sniper Rifle and my other vamp
had an Ivory Bow that he was clutching the whole game, but rarely used
to good effect. I started the showdown with a good chunk of pool
(probably 15+) and Cat often didn’t have +bleed and +stealth at the
same time. I let some small bleeds hit me and tried to block the big
ones. I was successful for the most part and once I drew my Archon
Investigation I shuffled back in waited for the Govern + Bonding or
Threats bleed. The Archons ended up frying that space alien that taps
for additional master phase actions. Cat did draw into an Earth Swords
at one point and torpor'd Stick and his Ivory Bow, followed up with a
diablerie. She then got out a Heidelberg Castle and was able to move
the bow around, which made me skip blocking some bleeds. I saw my
library running out so I decided it was time to lunge with my other
liabon bleeding with Strange Day and then it was Nana’s turn to bleed
with stealth from Monastery of Shadows. I was going to do 1 more pool
than Cat had, so I could still get past a single Folderol. Cat had an
Aura Absorption and was able to block. The spectators noticed that I
had forgotten I could shuffle Shaman back into my deck for another +1
stealth, but I totally missed it. So my lunge missed, but Nana
survived the combat. I was worried I wouldn’t survive the next couple
turns but held on. Eventually there was another opportunity and I bled
Cat out by just bleeding with everybody. At that point Cat had
depleted her library and was down to maybe 3 cards in hand. There was
a chance this could have been disastrous, but Nana assisted by
Monastery of Shadows proved that Cat had run out of intercept. I know
I missed using Powerbase: Tshwane a bunch of times in the end game and
a few other mistakes (like Shaman’s stealth ability) and Cat admitted
she made some mistakes due to a long day and no dinner break between
round 3 and finals, but I think everyone played a good game in the
finals.
At the end of the tournament I declared that I was retiring this deck
(even though I just started playing it at Origins), since I rarely
play a deck again that I have won with. However, this deck will
probably make another appearance since 9 players means to TWDA entry
for me. I really like this deck’s ability to play a lot of single
copies of a card that might be really useful and then tune the library
in game with Ashur Tablets.
The following deck list has some differences than the version I played
at Origins. I dropped 3 Ashur Tablets and upped 2 Liquidations and
also filled out the library from 80 to 90 cards. I also made some
other changes to some of the card ratios after doing a great job at
staying alive at Origins, but a terrible job of ousting. This
tournament taught me that this deck loves a 3 player table. Get the
table to 3 players as soon as possible, even if that means letting
your prey have 2 VPs. Then sweep the 3 player end game for the Game
Win.
Deck: Liquidation and Ashur Tablets Fun
Author: Rehlow
Summary: Mass Liquidation for pool gain and to seed your discard pile.
Then mass Ashur Tablets to get back what you need based on table
dynamics. Nana Buruku's two master phases makes it all possible and
her +1 hand size compensates for Liquidation's do not replace until
discard phase.
Crypt: 12
4x Nana Buruku
1x Fish
1x Petra
1x Bobby Lemon
1x Lumumba
1x Urenna Bunu
1x Zhara
1x Dolie
1x Stick
Library: 90
Master: 31
12x Ashur Tablets
7x Liquidation
1x Archon Investigation
1x The Barrens
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Fear of Mekhet
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x The Parthenon
1x Pentex Subversion
1x Powerbase: Tshwane
1x Sudden Reversal
1x Wider View
Action: 10
6x Deep Song
1x Entrancement
1x Founders of the Ebony Kingdom
1x Heart of the City
1x Well-Marked
Ally: 3
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
1x Underbridge Stray
Retainer: 4
3x Raven Spy
1x Shaman
Equipment: 2
1x Ivory Bow
1x Sniper Rifle
Action Modifier: 4
1x Edge of the World
1x The Guruhi Are the Land
1x Make an Example
1x Strange Day
Combat: 19
10x Aid from Bats
1x Canine Horde
6x Carrion Crows
2x Taste of Vitae
Event: 1
1x Scourge of the Enochians
Reaction: 16
3x Cat's Guidance
3x Delaying Tactics
3x Guard Dogs
1x Lost in Translation
3x On the Qui Vive
3x Sense the Savage Way
Later,
~Rehlow
Meej
> Boris - cel/for Anarchs
I'm curious about this one - especially with the mentions of Open War,
which I haven't yet figured out how to get into my cel/for Anarch
build, since nearly all the crypt is 4-and-under, making Barons not
real likely.
Is Boris a newsgroup reader? Anyone able to share either a decklist
or at least an impression of the crypt?
- D.J.
Wedge
Crypt: (20 cards, Min: 4, Max: 20, Avg: 3.04)
---------------------------------------------
1 Caroline Bishops cel for pot 3 Pander
1 T.J. cel for 3 Gangrel
1 Abu Nuwasi cel for 3 Ishtarri
1 Fahd al-Zawba`a cel for pre 4 Toreador
1 Gustavo Morales ani cel for 4 Gangrel
1 Kenyatta cel for pre 4 Ishtarri
1 Janni cel for obf qui5 Assamite
1 Kyoko Shinsegawa aus cel dom for5 Tremere
1 Maria Stone (ADV) cel obf pre pro spi FOR5
Ahrimanes
1 Shasa Abu Badr cel for PRE 5 Ishtarri
1 Victor Pelletier cel dom for PRE5 Ventrue
1 Elizabeth Conde pre CEL FOR 5 Ishtarri
8 Anarch Convert none 1 Caitiff
Library: (1 card)
------------------
Master (1 card)
1 Flames of Insurrection
Meej
> On Aug 3, 11:31 am, Meej <djchag...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Aug 3, 1:57 pm, Rehlow <newsgr...@rehlow.com> wrote:
>
> > > Boris - cel/for Anarchs
>
> > I'm curious about this one - especially with the mentions of Open War,
> > which I haven't yet figured out how to get into my cel/for Anarch
> > build, since nearly all the crypt is 4-and-under, making Barons not
> > real likely.
(Snip Wedge's impression of the crypt... which I'm guessing is a
guess, or there'd have been a library to go with it.)
Yeah... I mean, I'm running Flames, and Elizabeth Conde (since CEL/FOR
is nice for the deck), and Janni (since her weapon special is, again,
nice), but I just can't see paying an extra pool for Victor, Kyoko,
Shasa, Mowgli (who I notice you left off), or Maria basic, let alone
Maria ADV. Heck, I'm unhappy with the draw when I see too many of the
4 caps rather than the 3 caps. I guess my question was more "Is there
some other tech in there to make it worthwhile to run the bigger
vampires?" as well as "Does anyone have a sense of which of the bigger
folks Boris was bothering with?"
My crypt is the 6 little folks, Janni, and Elizabeth, and 5 (I think?)
Converts. (Bernard, the Scourge and his buddy Karsh the Imperator had
a field day with me last night, but that's so corner-case it doesn't
bother me, just amuses me.) I've got a bunch of Camera Phones for
forward motion, and (rather than Sticks) Desert Eagles, but I can see
the Stick idea.
I've been debating whether it's worth it (given that I've already got
some Hell-For-Leather and Friend of Mine in there) to graft in some
Obtenebration skill cards, which would have the benefit of pushing the
4caps up to 5 to enable a quick Fee Stake followed by Open War, plus
the Fee Stakes would provide a little vote defense. I might look at
that and play with the ratios.
John Flournoy
He's not, but I can ask him for a decklist for you.
> - D.J.
-John Flournoy
Prince of Boris's city
brandonsantacruz
> some Hell-For-Leather and Friend of Mine in there) to graft in some
> Obtenebration skill cards, which would have the benefit of pushing the
> 4caps up to 5 to enable a quick Fee Stake followed by Open War, plus
> the Fee Stakes would provide a little vote defense. I might look at
> that and play with the ratios.
cel/for + pre anarchs means you can play Undue Influence, forced
march, then rush or whatever. Bad synergy with Camera Phones, but it
could be worth it for the pool gain. There are four five-caps in group
4/5 with cel/for/pre, so you could use 2x fee stakes and 1x open war
just to see if it would ever work and use the presence for extra
bleed. Power of One is good at potence or presence for that extra
bleed boost to get the job done.
Brandon
John Flournoy
Here's the decklist:
-----------------------
Deck Name: for cel anarch vote
Created By: Boris Zaretsky
Description:
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 7, Max: 20, Avg: 3.58)
---------------------------------------------
1 Elizabeth Conde pre CEL FOR 5 Ishtarri
2 Anarch Convert none 1 Caitiff
1 Victor Pelletier cel dom for PRE 5 Ventrue
1 T.J. cel for 3 Gangrel
1 Janni cel for obf qui 5 Assamite
1 Abu Nuwasi cel for 3 Ishtarri
1 Maria Stone cel obf pro FOR 5 Gangrel
Antitribu
1 Mowgli ani cel FOR PRO 5 Gangrel
Antitribu
1 Sarah Raines for 2 Gangrel
1 Kyoko Shinsegawa aus cel dom for 5 Tremere
1 Caroline Bishops cel for pot 3 Pander
Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (22 cards)
4 Galaric`s Legacy
3 Seattle Committee
1 Barrens, The
5 Vessel
1 Anarch Railroad
1 Powerbase: Los Angeles
4 Effective Management
2 Anarch Revolt
1 Flames of Insurrection
Action (11 cards)
1 Status Perfectus, The
2 Fee Stake: Boston
1 Fee Stake: Corte
1 Fee Stake: Los Angeles
1 Fee Stake: New York
1 Fee Stake: Perth
2 Fee Stake: Seattle
2 Open War
Action Modifier (10 cards)
10 Forced March
Political Action (24 cards)
1 National Guard Support
4 Reckless Agitation
3 Kine Resources Contested
3 Conservative Agitation
4 Firebrand
5 Anarch Salon
2 Finding the Path
1 Disputed Territory
1 Year of Fortune
Combat (20 cards)
11 Diversion
5 Weighted Walking Stick
4 Flash
Retainer (1 cards)
1 Mr. Winthrop
Equipment (2 cards)
1 Ivory Bow
1 Heart of Nizchetus
This deck was last saved at 12:20:48 AM on 8/5/2010
I've made a few small changes since the tourney: namely -1 Villein, +1
of Vessel/Galaric`s Legacy/diversion/Kine Resources Contested, Forced
March.
I've been trying to come up with a viable vote/rush hybrid for years,
this is probably one the better of many such attempts. Open war and
diversion card slot economy allows surprisingly effective rush in the
right circumstances.
Anyone is welcome to try something like this out, any feedback is
appreciated.
-Boris Z
------------------------------
> - D.J.
-John Flournoy