TWD: The unnamed; Cape Town (11 Apr 2010)

[Hodgestar]

Tournament: The unnamed
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Date: 11 April 2010
Number of Players: 13
Winner: Marc Pitterman

Deck Name : !Ventrue Block and Bleed

Author : Marc Pittermann

Description :

Block important actions, bounce big bleeds and wait for the right
moment to put three or four solid bleeds through.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 9 average: 6.75

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2x Owain Evans, The W 8 AUS DOM FOR cel pre !Ventrue:
3

2x Neighbor John 5 AUS dom for !Ventrue:
4

1x Konrad Fleischer 9 ANI AUS DOM FOR tha !Ventrue:
4

1x Jesse Menks 8 AUS DOM FOR ani archbishop !Ventrue:
3

1x Titus Camille 8 AUS DOM OBF for !Ventrue:
4

1x Blackhorse Tanner 7 AUS DOM FOR !Ventrue:
3

1x Charice Fontaigne 6 AUS DOM for pot !Ventrue:
3

1x Jefferson Foster 6 AUS DOM for tha bishop !Ventrue:
4

1x Mariel St. John 6 AUS FOR dom pro !Ventrue:
4

1x Jephta Hester 5 DOM FOR aus !Ventrue:
4

Library [90 cards]

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Action [11]

2x Abbot

2x Dominate Kine

2x Govern the Unaligned

1x Graverobbing

4x Scouting Mission

Action Modifier [8]

3x Bonding

1x Daring the Dawn

1x Foreshadowing Destruction

3x Threats

Action Modifier/Reaction [4]

4x Murmur of the False Will

Combat [18]

4x Absorb the Mind

4x Psychic Assault

4x Rolling with the Punches

5x Soak

1x Superior Mettle

Equipment [6]

1x Bowl of Convergence

3x Cooler

2x Phased Motion Detector

Master [14]

3x Blood Doll

1x Corporate Hunting Ground

1x Dreams of the Sphinx

1x Dummy Corporation

1x Framing an Ancient Grudge

1x Hungry Coyote, The

1x KRCG News Radio

1x Pentex(TM) Subversion

1x Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper, The

1x Ventrue Investment

1x WMRH Talk Radio

1x Wall Street Night, Financial Newspaper

Reaction [29]

2x Deflection

5x Eagle's Sight

3x Enhanced Senses

4x Eyes of Argus

4x Forced Awakening

3x Precognition

4x Telepathic Misdirection

4x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Sun Apr 11 19:30:04 2010]

[Hodgestar]

The Google Group web interface ate my formatting. :/

[Hodgestar]

[Hopefully now with better formatting.]

[Hodgestar]

Sunday saw the second tournament of the year take place at Tokai
Library. As always library cat was in attendance -- much to the
delight of all thirteen methuselahs present. The tournament saw a
rather sudden shift in the local meta game. The sea of rush combat was
gone and replaced with a fair amount of heavy bleed, a decent amount
of bounce and a scattering of outlandish or toolboxy decks.

The first round went well for me. My prey John (playing Imbued) didn't
draw into his key card (Lock) and spent a fair amount of pool tooling
up which meant my Daughters didn't have to pass too many Lily
Prelude's to oust him. Neil (!Brujah bruise and bleed) put in some big
bleeds but my good start allowed me to mostly ignore them and
concentrate on ousting Kevin, which I did. I was a little worried that
Jame's Setites who had out a fair bit of permanent intercept would
cause me problems but he was quite low on pool and I managed to push
through a Virtuosa bleed for my third VP. Neil was left in a bad
position facing the Daughters in full cry and with a big pool
advantage and I took the table a couple of turns later.

I didn't see much of the other tables in the first round but Marc's !
Ventrue Wall / Bounce / Bleed deck swept the third table and O'Neill's
Akunanse deck got three out of four VPs on the second table, losing
the one VP to Ruan's crazy Malk and !Malk Prank / Game deck.

The second round I had Neil as my prey. I got off to an awesome start
playing a Dreams and the Bastille Opera House in my first turn and put
a lot of pressure Neil's Brujah with solid early bleeds and votes.
O'Neill's Akunanse deck was my predator but his bleeds for one were
only a minor irritation. The real danger was across table where
Yancke's bleed and bounce !Tremere deck was putting the hurt onto the
Akunanse by repeated application of Govern + Conditioning and the
occasional stealth card. With the Akunanse and !Brujah gone I was left
facing Yancke's !Tremere. Neither of us had much in the way of defence
and it was a race to see who could whittle their oppoents pool down
the fastest. The end was brutal and extremely close. Starting his turn
with a handful of pool Yancke lunged hard, bleeding me for eleven --
just one short of the twelve needed to oust (and making me very
pleased to have burnt Wider View the turn before). I used the reprieve
to good effect and ousted the !Tremere for the last two VPs.

In the other games in the second round Ruan's Malks got two VPs before
falling to Dan's experience and Kevin's !Toreador game very close to a
table sweep before being stopped at the last minute by Peter. Kevin
greatly regrets not remembering his minion's inbuilt bleed after the
final was well underway.

The final saw:

Kevin (!Toreador S&B) bleeding
Ruan (Malk and !Malk S&B w/ pranks) bleeding
Marc (!Venture Wall / Bleed / Bounce) bleeding
O'Neill (Akunanse toolbox) bleeding
Me (Daughters Vote and Bloat)

The final got off to a bad start for me with Kevin Villeining and
Giant's blooding a 10-cap early on to put him out of immediate lunge
range. O'Neill was slow to get going and suffered badly after Ruan
pumped and stealthed bleeds bounced onto O'Neill by Marc's !Ventrue.
Ruan's pranks and malkavian games benefited mostly his !Ventrue prey
who consistenly beat him at rock-paper-scissors although they
generally provided reasonable farm for the rest of the table too. Ruan
eventually ousted himself by losing yet another game of rock-paper-
scissors to Marc, pushing Kevin once more outside lunge range. Marc
ousted O'Neill shortly afterwards leaving me facing a horde of !
Ventrue wielding a solid set of permanent intercept. I managed to
force a couple of Lily Prelude's through using a combination of
unblockable actions and Siren's Lures but ended up slightly short on
the blood needed to get the last unblockable action through. Marc did
a good job of bleeding me hard after pushing the votes through left me
vulnerable and after ousting me, ousted Kevin shortly afterwards.

Marc's first tournament win is long overdue. He made a lot of final
tables last year without much luck and this victory is richly
deserved. Also, he becomes the twelfth South Africa to enter the TWDA
(pending acceptance of the deck by The Lasombra).

Current SA tournament standings for 2010 can be found at
http://locustforge.za.net/wiki/PrinceOfCapeTown/Standings2010.

Schiavo
Simon
Prince of Cape Town