Well I had always regretted previous years where I didn't take any
notes, since I could never remember who played what and what actually
happened in a game. So my own views and thoughts on Origins. I have
no plans on going to the NAC this year, so doing well and qualifying
was never in my thoughts. This actually led me to have more fun
playing untested(for me) decks and moving away from my usual comfort
zone in tournament deck style.
Any misspelled names/whatever are actually intentional to protect the
guilty. My bad grammar is due to being a victim of public education.
Wednesday:
Several of us picked up at the airport by Jay(thanks Jay) and
proceeded to hotel. After a quick checkin the group went to the usual
bar(ask the alcoholics the name) and had a nice pre-Origins gathering
of V:TES.
Wednesday night: Jay Kristoff Invitational
I usually choose to play an off the wall deck in this tournament. and
this year was no exception. My note taking was almost non-existant
this day so I don't have much.
Round 1: ?(Stealth Bleed) -> ?(Stealth Bleed) -> Me(Nizzam intercept
hand agg) -> Hugh (Shalmath)
I can't even remember who the other players were in this game since
Hugh and I seemed to be chatting more and watching the other players
kill each other. Shalmath got a Heroic Might and I did a few things
with Nizzam and friends. I had a few bleeds bounced into me which
hurt, but didn't make much difference in the end. S/B deck 1 ousted
2, Hugh then ousted S/B deck 1.
Final battle between Hugh and I was slowly leaning in my favor, when I
finally caught Shalmath and sent him down with 5-6 blood on him. I
wanted to leave him there so he couldn't influence up another being at
20 odd pool, but I had no way to prevent several rescue attempts a
turn. So I went and ate Shalmath and started whittling Hugh down. He
played a Dragonbound and i quickly dropped a Carver's Meat packing
which was huge in my oust attempt of Hugh with several small guys in
torpor.
Shalmath shows up again very late, and I have an oust my next turn.
Shalmath rushed my last vampire Nizzam with Domain of Evernight. An
outside the Hourglass before range forced me to tap both Corporal
Reservoirs, and my last card in my library was a Strike: Dodge that
could have let me win for 2VP. Believe Hugh got 3VP if memory served
right.
Round two:
Sat as the predator of a funny Imbued deck. He was playing all the
'bad'(if any are really bad) Imbued and used Glancing Blows and Dodge
for combat. Worst combat package I ever saw that shutdown a deck.
rather amusing. Nizzam wasn't much use against the Imbued, but having
the Target Vitals prevented repeatedly kept me from ever doing much.
Imbued ended up getting the GW.
Finals:
Left in shame of playing such a bad deck and went to aforementioned
bar to wallow in pity. General good times ensued and the first of
many late returns to the hotel room.
Thursday Morning V:TES: (24 players)
I decided to play a version of Edward Vignes deck here. I had always
wanted to see how that deck won since I didn't think it was all that
great.(The answer is Dominate.)
Round 1: John Eno(Kindred Spirits) -> Loughman(Ventrue PRE/DOM bleed) -
>Conner Bell (Kindred Spirits) -> Me(Vignes)
After seeing the first minions brought up I knew this was going to be
a short game. Minions bleeding left and right for a ton of pool
damage was the norm. Not much to really be said about this game,
except we should all try to banish those memories and move on.
Main things I remember was bouncing a few bleeds into John on turn
4-5? which dropped him down to 16 pool. Three actions later on my
turn and I had a VP. The rest of the table collapsed soon after that
to the fun of Vignes' friends(since he seemed to not want to play this
game). Game ended within 25 minutes.
1GW 4VP.
Round two:
Eric Chiang(Tremere AUS) → Karl Schaefer (Vitel weenies) → Dave
Pennington (Imbued) → Me (Vignes) → Stiltsen (Assamite something)
Not much note taking for this game, since it ended up timing out. I
ousted the Assamites fairly quick, and did some moderate damage to
Eric when I managed to get a bleed through and not bounced. I spent
the rest of the game fishing for a Daring the Dawn fully expecting it
to get bounced, but didn't have much choice with the little Tremere
wall I had to get through.
Karl eventually got the Imbued abomination off the table, and the rest
of us timed out.
1.5 VP for me, 1.5 Karl, .5 Eric
Finals:
Today started the long trend of Hyatt Room 627 representation in the
finals. Two in this final.
I had no clue what any of the other players in the Finals was playing,
so I didn't have much intelligent choice in where to sit. I was
second going in, and chose to sit across from Matt Morgan (room 627
represent) for no other reason than I knew he was playing decks of
clans he never won with, and many of those are bashy. Hugh was first
going in and chose to sit as my predator.
David Baker (???) → Matt Morgan (Euro Brujah) → Evan Loyd (Khabar
Bleed) → Hugh → (Kindred Spirits) → Me (Vignes)
This game looked like it wasn't going to take very long, and if I
recall the final was over in 40 some odd minutes. I started out with
the usual Govern down tricks with Gracis Nostinus since Edward chose
not to play again. I proceeded to quickly oust my first prey, and I
can;t even remember what he had. I believe it was a Setite bleed deck
but my memory fails me.
I was sitting fairly well with Hugh not drawing as much bleed as I had
expected, but things started to go downhill when he stopped two
Deflections in a row with Touch of Clarity. I did should have just
held onto the second Deflection in retrospect anticipating another
Touch of Clarity. Even with all the bleeds Evan had Hugh down low,
and needed one Khabar Glory two turns in a row to oust Hugh. I was
hoping for this assuming I had the rest of the table if Hugh was
removed from play.
This failed to materialize and I slowed down my bleeding of Matt
trying to play some bad defense and wait for an opening in the Brujah,
and not wanting to just give Hugh the sweep. My chance to lunge into
Matt never came about and I eventually fell to the Malks. This short
reprieve had allowed Matt to shore up and I even remarked to Hugh
before being ousted I think Matt was going to take the table and he
agreed.
Not sure what eventually happened to Matt but Hugh managed to get past
his defense and oust him, then quickly the Assamites.
1 VP for me, 4VP Hugh.
Thursday Afternoon: (29 players)
After making a Final I decided to really get into the exploratory
deck, and bought out a Cessewayo^ Aye block everything I care about
deck.
John Flourney (!Salubri unusual combat) → Matt Morgan (Owain Evans) →
Karl (Kiasyd Bruise/Bleed) → Me (Cessewayo) → Will Kristoff (Ishtarri
Vote/bleed?)
This game started out with John's unusual !Salubri combat package of
Loving Agony and Morphean Blow rushing into Will and sending several
vampires to torpor. The table kept choosing to rescue these thinking
Cessewayo was going to just go eat them, which I had no intention of
doing.
Matt was still on his Crusade: Columbus to knock off clans from his no
win list, and I gave him my !Ventrue deck with all the usual tricks
the previous night with him intending to play it in the afternoon
tourney. A deck I built in response to Rhelow's 'I hate the typical
Ventrue anti-tribu deck' fully hoping to play it against him.
Matt brought out a Powerbase: Montreal and John spent several turns
and roughly 10-15 cards trying to steal it to no avail. Finally he
did manage to get it once, which Matt promptly went and took back,
saying he will be dead before anyone else gets the Powerbase.
Karl and I kind of stared at each other, him not willing to rush or
bleed me for much, and an untooled Cessewayo not willing to risk an
Entombment if he can't get to long range, being willing to take Earth
Swords all day.
I did spend two turns Deflecting seven bleeds into Will which drew a
few muttering of meetings in the parking lot after the game. I got
will down to 3-5 pool, or rather Karl did. Will then managed to take
out John who seemed to run out of steam, and Matt the killed Karl.
I did steal the Powerbase from Matt and defended it the rest of the
game. It looked like a timeout was in our future as Matt fished for
one of the 2-3 Pentexs that deck played, as I desperately tried to get
mine to get it into play. He won the race and a Pentexed Cessewayo
rolled over and died. Last laugh for Cessewayo though was he
controlled PB Monty at the end of the game.
4VP Matt M. 1VP Will.
Round Two:
Cameron Domer (Anarch Lucita rush) → Loughman (Nocturne) → Me
(Cessewayo) → Jeff Thompson (Qawiyya el-Ghaduba death) → Hugh (Ravnos
ANI)
This game couldn't have gone any worse for me. I had an incredibly
slow start and never got Cessewayo going, even having more than enough
turns to do so.
I took very few actions at Jeff and didn't even threaten to block any
of his actions(+2 strength stealth does that), so he generally left me
alone and I was content to do the same to him at that point with
Lasombra Nocturnes showing up. I normally would have been more than
happy for that predator, since I should have been able to trump it
fairly easy. However I saw very few Aye(1 I believe), never got to
tool up and never drew a single Deflection for the big bleeds. I did
have an Anarch Convert in play and Lucita played a Flames of
Insurrection, but sadly the Nocturnes kept Shadow Twinning the Convert
and I never got a chance to benefit from the Insurrection.
I eventually fell to the Nocturnes with a rather leaky wall defense.
I had went off to do other things at this point being rather annoyed
with my deck, so I didn't see much more of the game. Hugh ended up
getting the rest of the table which led to him making the Finals and
winning it all, making him2 for 2 so far. Seems
...
read more »
