[REPORT] Transfer of Power: Boston (Storyline)
Ben Peal
Heya! This past Saturday (2/9), 18 players from the Boston area
battled to stake their claim on the city of Baltimore:
Jonathan Scherer - "Ran'oruin" - Tremere bruise 'n bleed
Derek Guder - "Tiger in the Tank" - Ahrimanes bruise 'n bleed
Jason Schneiderman - "Voodoo You" - Ravnos toolbox (I think)
Ulysses Lateiner - "Signpost Assassins" - Brujah combat
Anthony Shubert - "Serpentor Goes Postal" - Setite weapon bleed
Jason Bilsky - "The Peeper" - Protean stealth/bleed/Garou craziness
Jonathan Mason - "There's a party at the asylum and everyone's invited" -
!Malkavian stealth-bleed
Tricia Hopkins - "Sneaky Snakes" - Setite stealth-bleed
Ben Peal - "Wall of Doom" - Ravnos bruise 'n bleed
Steve Marbit - "Question and Answer" - Malkavian stealth vote/bleed
Tony Lee - "Proteolicious Pier 13" - see deck name
Prescott Jenner - "I choose you, Gargachu!" - Gargoyle weenie rush
Scott Gomes - "Hag me jacket" - Ravnos toolbox
Rich Gentile - "With Friends Like These" - !Malkavian stealth-bleed
Matt Hirsch - "The Jacket Deck" - Malkavian flamethrower/bleed
Chris O'Brien - "Aching Target" - Aching Beauty/Change of Target
Kevin Scribner - "What _is_ that smell?!" - Giovanni power bleed
Steven Joyce - "Generic Ventrue" - uh...generic Ventrue
Pier 13 didn't really factor into anything during the tournament. Tony
Lee tried to get it out once, but I blocked it. Meddling of Semsith was
played twice during the preliminary rounds, and didn't live up to the
hype. The one shameful event of the tournament came in Round Two, when
I was called for a ruling on Shackles of Enkidu. I overcame the desire
to commit suicide, and confirmed that you still control the card when
you inflict it on an opposing minion.
Three rounds later we had our finalists - Rich Gentile, Ben Peal, Derek
Guder, Steven Joyce, and Jason Bilsky. Alas, Rich had to miss the finals
because he had to go to work, so Scott Gomes took the remaining spot.
Tough break for Rich, as he had the #1 position, with 2 game wins and
8.5 VP. Steven Joyce was quite the surprise, as he showed up late and
was only able to play the last two rounds - certainly taking advantage of
the time he had.
The seating order was:
Jason Bilsky (Gangrel)
Ben Peal (Ravnos)
Steven Joyce (Ventrue)
Derek Guder (Ahrimanes)
Scott Gomes (Ravnos)
Scott and I were caught without early intercept, and Jason managed to
recruit a pair of Garou. Seeing his opportunity, Steven called a couple
of KRCs, damaging myself and Derek. Derek took advantage of Scott's
inability to draw combat cards, and pummeled away. The werewolves made
repeated attempts to smack down my vampires, but were driven back by
Carrion Crows, and eventually met their doom when I finally drew into
accompanying Aid From Bats. Jason kept up the bleeding pressure on me
in the meantime, only to get stuffed by the Wall of Doom.
Scott eventually recovered from his beating and got to work bleeding Jason
w/Fata Morganas. Steven ran out of luck when Derek finally drew into some
intercept, and was held at bay. Having fended off the Garou, I got to work
bleeding Steven. I eventually wore Steven down to the point where I was
able to finish him off with Week of Nightmares. Derek then tapped out to
try to oust Scott, but Scott just managed to draw into one untap card and
one point of intercept on Derek's last bleed attempt. Haveing stayed alive,
Scott ousted Jason, who was at three, using Fata Morgana and the benefit of
my Week of Nightmares. I tried ousting Derek before he could get Scott, but
Derek managed to draw into enough untap to stop me. After ousting Scott,
Derek and I settled into the endgame. Unfortunately for Derek, his deck had
been mostly depleted by the time he ousted Scott, and I was able to run out
the rest of it, and eventually ousted Derek for the win.
Results of the finals:
1. Ben Peal - 3 VP
2. Derek Guder - 1 VP
3. Scott Gomes - 1 VP
4. Jason Bilsky - 0 VP
5. Steven Joyce - 0 VP
I'll see about getting the deck list for Derek's "Tiger in the Tank" deck,
as there's been a request on the newsgroup for lists for successful
Ahrimanes decks. Here's the winning deck:
Deck: Wall of Doom
Description: Animalism bruise with Dominate/permanent bleed, and heavy
Animalism/Chimerstry defense supplemented by Deflections.
CRYPT
Spleen 2, ani, chi
Vedel Esbreno 3, for, chi
Salbatore 4, for, pro, CHI
Khalil Ravana 5, for, ani, pri, CHI
Joaquina Amaya 6, ANI, FOR, CHI
Vaclav 6, for, pot, ANI, CHI
2 x Sarisha 6, dom, chi, FOR, ANI
Natalia 7, dom, for, chi, ANI
2 x Gabrin 8, dom, for, ANI, CHI
Konstantin 9, dom, cel, FOR, ANI, CHI
LIBRARY
1 x Park Hunting Ground
1 x Fortune Teller Shop
1 x The Path of Paradox
1 x Week of Nightmares
1 x Treasured Samadji
1 x The Barrens
1 x Powerbase: Montreal
1 x Antediluvian Awakening
3 x Blood Doll
4 x Sudden Reversal
5 x Wake With Evening's Freshness
5 x Forced Awakening
1 x Tasha Morgan
1 x J.S. Simmons, Esq.
1 x Mr. Winthrop
3 x Sport Bike
1 x Ivory Bow
8 x Carrion Crows
5 x Aid From Bats
2 x Speak With Spirits
6 x Cat's Guidance
3 x Guard Dogs
3 x Rat's Warning
6 x Draba
4 x Veiled Sight
4 x Ingis Fatuus
6 x Deflection
3 x Conditioning
5 x Superior Mettle
3 x Kiss of Ra
- Ben Peal, Prince of Boston
fu...@mindstorm.com
Joshua Duffin
"Ben Peal" <fu...@optical.mindstorm.com> wrote in message
news:bf72a12e.02021...@posting.google.com...
[snip
> 6 x Draba
> 4 x Veiled Sight
> 4 x Ingis Fatuus
But... but... Veiled Sight sucks! Why pay 2 blood when
you can pay 1 for Draba? Is it because it works at
inferior? But only 5 of your 12 vamps aren't CHI... or
because you can play both Draba and Veiled on the same
action with the same vampire? I dunno, I'd much rather
have 8 Draba and 6 Ignis Fatuus or something. I guess
it worked for you, huh? :-)
And congratulations on the storyline win. Apparently
Ravnos really can win... as long as they don't rely only
on their in-clan disciplines. :-)
Josh
what do you mean, dominate is good?
Ben Peal
> battled to stake their claim on the city of Baltimore:
>
Whoops. This was Setite/Samedi stealth/bleed with NEC.
Ben Peal
> Ben Peal wrote:
> > 6 x Draba
> > 4 x Veiled Sight
> > 4 x Ingis Fatuus
>
> But... but... Veiled Sight sucks! Why pay 2 blood when
> you can pay 1 for Draba? Is it because it works at
> inferior? But only 5 of your 12 vamps aren't CHI... or
> because you can play both Draba and Veiled on the same
> action with the same vampire? I dunno, I'd much rather
> have 8 Draba and 6 Ignis Fatuus or something. I guess
> it worked for you, huh? :-)
Because it works at inferior, because I can play both with the same
vampire, because it sometimes only costs one (Gabrin, Path), because
sometimes I can snag a blood back at superior, because sometimes I
only get out one vampire with CHI (5 of 12 with inferior is a pretty
substantial number)...It ended up working out just fine.
> And congratulations on the storyline win. Apparently
> Ravnos really can win... as long as they don't rely only
> on their in-clan disciplines. :-)
Hey, thanks! :) The Dominate definitely helps out a ton, as it's
the safety net when the intercept fails, and it helps finish people
off. Another key is that the deck centers around Animalism, so the
cost of cards is minimized to an extent. I've got some more Chimerstry-
based decks in the works, too...I'll post some when I'm done mucking
around with them.
jeroen rombouts
<snip report>
>Here's the winning deck:
>
> Deck: Wall of Doom
>
> Description: Animalism bruise with Dominate/permanent bleed, and heavy
> Animalism/Chimerstry defense supplemented by Deflections.
>
tourney here. Mostly because Ravnos are my favourite clan in the RPG, and I
don't want them gone. As I haven't had a chance to play it (so no
possibility to tweak it) I have a few Q's.
> CRYPT
>
> Spleen 2, ani, chi
> Vedel Esbreno 3, for, chi
> Salbatore 4, for, pro, CHI
> Khalil Ravana 5, for, ani, pri, CHI
> Joaquina Amaya 6, ANI, FOR, CHI
> Vaclav 6, for, pot, ANI, CHI
> 2 x Sarisha 6, dom, chi, FOR, ANI
> Natalia 7, dom, for, chi, ANI
> 2 x Gabrin 8, dom, for, ANI, CHI
> Konstantin 9, dom, cel, FOR, ANI, CHI
>
100% identical, still in doubt about Konstantin, though.
> LIBRARY
>
> 1 x Park Hunting Ground
> 1 x Fortune Teller Shop
> 1 x The Path of Paradox
> 1 x Week of Nightmares
> 1 x Treasured Samadji
>
> 1 x The Barrens
> 1 x Powerbase: Montreal
> 1 x Antediluvian Awakening
> 3 x Blood Doll
> 4 x Sudden Reversal
Mostly identical, I have 4 blood dolls, 3 Suddens and a Smiling Jack instead
of Anted. Awakening. Why is AA better?
And I tend to categorise Treasured Samadji with the rest of the equipment
:-)
>
> 5 x Wake With Evening's Freshness
> 5 x Forced Awakening
> 1 x Tasha Morgan
> 1 x J.S. Simmons, Esq.
> 1 x Mr. Winthrop
> 3 x Sport Bike
> 1 x Ivory Bow
One question here, why Sport Bikes and not Raven Spies? Afraid of ranged
damage?
>
> 8 x Carrion Crows
> 5 x Aid From Bats
> 2 x Speak With Spirits
> 6 x Cat's Guidance
> 3 x Guard Dogs
> 3 x Rat's Warning
>
> 6 x Draba
> 4 x Veiled Sight
> 4 x Ingis Fatuus
>
> 6 x Deflection
> 3 x Conditioning
>
> 5 x Superior Mettle
> 3 x Kiss of Ra
>
No Fata Morgana?
Jeroen
Ben Peal
> > CRYPT
> >
> > Spleen 2, ani, chi
> > Vedel Esbreno 3, for, chi
> > Salbatore 4, for, pro, CHI
> > Khalil Ravana 5, for, ani, pri, CHI
> > Joaquina Amaya 6, ANI, FOR, CHI
> > Vaclav 6, for, pot, ANI, CHI
> > 2 x Sarisha 6, dom, chi, FOR, ANI
> > Natalia 7, dom, for, chi, ANI
> > 2 x Gabrin 8, dom, for, ANI, CHI
> > Konstantin 9, dom, cel, FOR, ANI, CHI
>
> 100% identical, still in doubt about Konstantin, though.
Wow. That's creepy. :)
I used to not have Konstantin in the deck (I forget who I had in his
place...maybe a 3rd Gabri), but after the Boston storyline tournament,
and a couple other games played with him, I'm no longer in doubt about
him.
> > 1 x The Barrens
> > 1 x Powerbase: Montreal
> > 1 x Antediluvian Awakening
> > 3 x Blood Doll
> > 4 x Sudden Reversal
>
> Mostly identical, I have 4 blood dolls, 3 Suddens and a Smiling Jack instead
> of Anted. Awakening. Why is AA better?
I wouldn't say it's necessarily better. I just prefer Antediluvian
Awakening. The reasons:
- Hard to get rid of it...players are loathe to burn their vampire, so
AA tends to last a long time.
- Doesn't make you as much into the "bad guy" at the table as Smiling
Jack does...appearance is very important.
- Doesn't tax your defensive resources, as you don't have to spend untap
and intercept trying to defend it.
- Directly attacks their pool.
If you're going to use Smiling Jack, I recommend playing it in an endgame
situation - when there are only 1 or 2 opponents left.
> And I tend to categorise Treasured Samadji with the rest of the equipment
> :-)
For no reason other than habit, I group the cards in my deck lists into
"clan-specific", "non-clan-specific masters", and then by discipline.
Though grouping by discipline does help you adjust based on the disciplines
provided by your crypt. *shrug*
> > 5 x Wake With Evening's Freshness
> > 5 x Forced Awakening
> > 1 x Tasha Morgan
> > 1 x J.S. Simmons, Esq.
> > 1 x Mr. Winthrop
> > 3 x Sport Bike
> > 1 x Ivory Bow
>
> One question here, why Sport Bikes and not Raven Spies? Afraid of ranged
> damage?
No, it's about blood management - keeping the cost from the vampires
low, due to the cost of the Chimerstry cards and damage from lots of
blocking.
> No Fata Morgana?
None at all. The theory I'm working with is that +1 stealth isn't
enough, and that I shouldn't try to get toolboxy. I've seen too
many Ravnos decks play a toolbox style, and they don't seem to have
quite enough of either bruise or stealth to get the job done when
they need to. I chose to focus on bruise. Focussing on stealth
would involve lots of blood-costly Chimerstry cards, and a bunch of
Paths of Paradox...which is an angle I'll try in another deck.
jeroen rombouts
"Ben Peal" <fu...@optical.mindstorm.com> wrote in message
news:bf72a12e.02021...@posting.google.com...
> > > CRYPT
> > >
> > > Spleen 2, ani, chi
> > > Vedel Esbreno 3, for, chi
> > > Salbatore 4, for, pro, CHI
> > > Khalil Ravana 5, for, ani, pri, CHI
> > > Joaquina Amaya 6, ANI, FOR, CHI
> > > Vaclav 6, for, pot, ANI, CHI
> > > 2 x Sarisha 6, dom, chi, FOR, ANI
> > > Natalia 7, dom, for, chi, ANI
> > > 2 x Gabrin 8, dom, for, ANI, CHI
> > > Konstantin 9, dom, cel, FOR, ANI, CHI
> >
> > 100% identical, still in doubt about Konstantin, though.
>
> Wow. That's creepy. :)
>
> I used to not have Konstantin in the deck (I forget who I had in his
> place...maybe a 3rd Gabri), but after the Boston storyline tournament,
> and a couple other games played with him, I'm no longer in doubt about
> him.
I've only played my deck once and he didn't show up. But I think I'm gonna
take your word on it.
>
> > > 1 x The Barrens
> > > 1 x Powerbase: Montreal
> > > 1 x Antediluvian Awakening
> > > 3 x Blood Doll
> > > 4 x Sudden Reversal
> >
> > Mostly identical, I have 4 blood dolls, 3 Suddens and a Smiling Jack
instead
> > of Anted. Awakening. Why is AA better?
>
> I wouldn't say it's necessarily better. I just prefer Antediluvian
> Awakening. The reasons:
>
> - Hard to get rid of it...players are loathe to burn their vampire, so
> AA tends to last a long time.
>
> - Doesn't make you as much into the "bad guy" at the table as Smiling
> Jack does...appearance is very important.
>
> - Doesn't tax your defensive resources, as you don't have to spend untap
> and intercept trying to defend it.
>
> - Directly attacks their pool.
>
> If you're going to use Smiling Jack, I recommend playing it in an
endgame
> situation - when there are only 1 or 2 opponents left.
That was the idea, but in the one game I played it (and a couple of
'test-draws') Jack showed up 7/10 times in my opening hand. I'll have to
think about it.
>
<snip>
>
> > > 5 x Wake With Evening's Freshness
> > > 5 x Forced Awakening
> > > 1 x Tasha Morgan
> > > 1 x J.S. Simmons, Esq.
> > > 1 x Mr. Winthrop
> > > 3 x Sport Bike
> > > 1 x Ivory Bow
> >
> > One question here, why Sport Bikes and not Raven Spies? Afraid of
ranged
> > damage?
>
> No, it's about blood management - keeping the cost from the vampires
> low, due to the cost of the Chimerstry cards and damage from lots of
> blocking.
>
Didn't think about it like this. That's what you get when your head is
stuck in mantras like 'paying blood is better than paying pool.' They are
generally true, but not always.
> > No Fata Morgana?
>
> None at all. The theory I'm working with is that +1 stealth isn't
> enough, and that I shouldn't try to get toolboxy. I've seen too
> many Ravnos decks play a toolbox style, and they don't seem to have
> quite enough of either bruise or stealth to get the job done when
> they need to. I chose to focus on bruise. Focussing on stealth
> would involve lots of blood-costly Chimerstry cards, and a bunch of
> Paths of Paradox...which is an angle I'll try in another deck.
>
Agreed. But the "+1 stealth is not enough" is not true for every metagame.
thx,
Jeroen
Xian
"Ben Peal" <fu...@optical.mindstorm.com> wrote in message
news:bf72a12e.02021...@posting.google.com...
> > One question here, why Sport Bikes and not Raven Spies? Afraid of
ranged
> > damage?
>
> No, it's about blood management - keeping the cost from the vampires
> low, due to the cost of the Chimerstry cards and damage from lots of
> blocking.
Hmm. Well, you're at 15 masters, but if you went with a couple of Ravnos
Carnival, they might make the Raven Spies cheaper...but you've probably
thought about this already adn figured you like your 15 masters.
Xian
James Coupe
<fu...@optical.mindstorm.com> writes:
>> One question here, why Sport Bikes and not Raven Spies? Afraid of ranged
>> damage?
>
> No, it's about blood management - keeping the cost from the vampires
> low, due to the cost of the Chimerstry cards and damage from lots of
> blocking.
Any reason for not playing Ravnos Carnival?
--
James Coupe but I lust after the raw pow0r of c.
PGP 0x5D623D5D together with the humping great
EBD690ECD7A1FB457CA2 elephant arse of gnome.
13D7E668C3695D623D5D - Vashti
Ben Peal
>Hmm. Well, you're at 15 masters, but if you went with a couple of Ravnos
>Carnival, they might make the Raven Spies cheaper...but you've probably
>thought about this already adn figured you like your 15 masters.
...and James Coupe asks:
> Any reason for not playing Ravnos Carnival?
There are only three Sport Bikes in the deck, and I've found that
getting just one in play is sufficient for this deck. Sure, getting
out a second one can be nice, but it's just gravy. Other decks
can get more mileage out of two Raven Spies on the same minion, but
Draba really only needs to have one point of supporting intercept.
Another issue is that it adds another moving part to the deck. One
Ravnos Carnival for the sake of three Raven Spies (or one Ravnos Cache
for the sake of a couple of Sport Bikes) doesn't seem worth it. It'll
likely be the case that I draw a Raven Spy or Sport Bike without having
a Ravnos Cache or Carnival in play. I'm certainly not going to wait to
draw a Cache/Carnival before attempting to employ/equip, and since I'll
likely be paying the cost of the Raven Spy/Bike anyway, I'd rather take
the cost out of my pool than off the minion with this deck. Other decks
would much rather take the cost off of the minion, however. I'm also
not about to add in extra copies of Cache or Carnival in the hopes of
drawing one earlier, as that'd be adding extra moving parts for the sake
of only 3 non-mission-critical cards. There are master cards that would
be better for me to play with this deck.
Also, consider that Ravnos Carnival costs one pool. That's the cost of
one Sport Bike. If I was concerned about the cost of the three Sport
Bikes, I'd add a Short Term Investment before I'd add Ravnos Carnival.
This isn't to say that Cache and Carnival aren't useful cards. They are
definitely very useful, just not in this deck. That's something of which
I've found you have to be very mindful. The Ravnos have a wide assortment
of cards that can be very useful, and as such, it's easy to fall into the
trap of getting too toolboxy with them, to the point of having too many
moving parts. I think that with the Ravnos you have to take extra care
when considering the cards you include in your deck, and to stay as
focussed as you can with them. You can be toolboxy with them, but make
sure you pick the right tools for the job.