English Continental Qualifier TWDA 15th May 2010
squidalot
Date: 15th May 2010
Number of players: 29
Head Judge and Organiser: Mike Nudd
Qualifiers:
1 John Best 1005984 1 6 4 150 Kiasyd bleed
2 Tiago Brum 8671027 2 8 1 168 Ven sticks
2 Hugh Angseesing8180022 1 4.5 0 114 Eurobrujah
2 Phil Thompson 3350050 2 6 0 138 !tor undue
2 Johnny Harden 3680039 1 5.5 0 162 Tremere bleed
6 Frank Connell 1004004 1 4 144 PRO/CEL
7 Martin Major 3540165 1 4 132 New Brujah
8 Rafal Matysiak 8020009 1 3.5 114 Enkidu/Neph
Organiser: Mike Nudd 3130001
Other players & Standings
9 Pascal Bertrand 1 3 102 Shalmath
10 Christian Nislev 1 3 90 Entice
11 Maciej Bernart 0 3.5 126 Ani
12 Csaba Greguss 0 3 120 !tre bleed
12 Andrew Stothard 0 3 120 !ven sticks
14 Eliseu Angelo 0 2.5 120 Gio bleed
15 Artur Siupik 0 2.5 108 Ishtarri bruise/bleed
16 Steve Read 0 2 114 Dom/pot
17 Niki Sehmi 0 2 108 Pot/for multi rush
17 Dan Baines 0 2 108 Dem bleed
19 Mike Wilson 0 2 102 Dem/pre
20 Matt Cook 0 2 96 Blood brothers
21 Matthew Baker 0 1.5 96 Gio shambling
22 Paul Reid-Bowen 0 1 96 War ghoul
23 Paul Coffey 0 1 78 !ven attrition
24 Jeffrey Leung 0 0.5 72 Tre & Cesewayo
25 Paul O'Connor 0 0 78 Ani
26 Guy Wilson 0 0 72 Lasombra bleed
27 Teresa Neves 0 0 66 Mal 2-3
27 Matt Green 0 0 66 Nakthorheb purge
29 Lee Lawrence 0 0 36 Oil Barons of Ventrue
Prizes:
All players received a booster and promos.
John Best won the original artwork for Montecalme
Lee Lawrence won a cultist deck for playing a deck most closely
resembling the events of the Standard Oil break up!
John Best’s deck
• http://www.secretlibrary.info/index.php ... ew&id=2580
Deck Name: Suddenly - vampires and faeries, oh my!
Author: John Best
Description:
Kiasyd s/b deck. It needs to be slow played at the beginning,
governing down. Stone travel is an amazing card, if you fail to
stealth past a blocker, you don't need to worry about getting your
face ripped off. Fae contortion + oubliette to cancel a grapple and
S:CE saved me twice on the day. Star of the deck is definitely
Arcadian, his special is invaluable.
Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=3 max=8 avg=6.17)
===============================================
2x Arcadian, The 8 chi for DOM MYT OBT Kiasyd:5
1x Dame Hollerton 5 myt DOM OBT Kiasyd:4
1x Ermenegildo, The Rake 5 pot DOM OBT Lasombra:4
2x Isanwayen 6 DOM MYT OBT Kiasyd:4
1x Keith Moody 3 DOM !Tremere:4
1x Lucy Markowitz 3 dom obt Lasombra:4
1x Omme Enberbenight 7 cel dom MYT OBT Kiasyd:4
2x Pherydima 8 obt pot DOM MYT NEC Kiasyd:4
1x Roderick Phillips March 7 cel obt tha DOM MYT Kiasyd:4
Library (83 cards)
==================
Master (15)
3x Blood Doll
1x Coven, The
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Great Symposium
2x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Perfectionist
4x Sudden Reversal
Event (1)
1x Scourge of the Enochians
Action (16)
1x Far Mastery
12x Govern the Unaligned
1x Gremlins
2x Riddle Phantastique
Equipment (1)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
Action Modifier (22)
4x Bonding
4x Conditioning
4x Shadow Play
3x Shroud of Absence
2x Shroud of Night
5x Stone Travel
Reaction (16)
6x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
6x On the Qui Vive
2x Redirection
Combat (5)
5x Oubliette
Combo (7)
3x Aura Absorption
4x Fae Contortion
John’s lovely tourney notes
4 from the group made it down to Burton - Tufty having guts or alarm
clock issues :( .
Dan was playing his KS deck, Jonny his Malgorzata deck, Andrew the !
ven grinder, and I took my Kiasyd.
Game 1:
Nicky (gargoyle/brujah? rush) > GreenO (Baltimore cog) > Jonny
(Malgorzata) > Mat Cooke (anarch blood brothers) > Me (Kiasyd).
Some very unusual decks here!
As soon as my first DOM minion hit the table, Nicky was eyeing up how
to stop me. A back-rush and an immgrap was responded to with a fae
contortion (to cancel the grapple) and a s:ce.
Much of the early running in this game was down to Jonny. Mat seemed
to be struggling with card draw, and all of his masters were getting
washed/suddened. With selective seductions, and the odd mirror walk,
Jonny made it past the Blood brothers before they'd even got rolling.
GreenO's deck then came into its own to slow the table down.
Nakhthorheb and Lucy Markowitz combined to purge Baltimore, meaning we
were all dropping into torpor, then coming back out again. This was
costing us blood and actions, so fortunately the pace of the game
dropped, and Jonny wasn't able to push his momentum. With 4 players
left, it helped me even more, as I was able to choose, whilst my pred
and prey were dunked as per Matt's instructions. When Nakhthorheb got
an Enkil Cog, to purge twice a round, and recruited Gregory Winter to
pop vamps, the situation looked bleak.
Nicky rushed forward, and battered Nakhthorheb into torpor. He was
soon out again, and Nicky looked shaky. With 2 minions on low blood
and 9 pool, I made a deal to leave him alone so he could hurt
Nakhthorheb more. After that, I bounced a 2 bleed from Jonny
downstream, and the purge went off, leaving Nicky on 7 pool and 1
active minion.
Casting aside the agreement, I greedily ate Nicky's vamp (Jonny
burning my diablerist in the the blood hunt) then bled Nicky out for
my first VP.
Shortly after, I pentexed Nakhthorheb, then took out GreenO for my
second VP. Heads up with Jonny, he power bled me out.
Result: Jonny 3 VPS, Me 2 VPS, Mat, Matt and Nicky 0VPS
(I planned to bleed to gain the edge to tie the blood hunt, but
forgot. I don't think it made a huge difference, but it was the
biggest mistake of the day)
Game 2:
Guy (Lasmombra black hand) > Frank (pro/cel/obf rush) > Majiec
(aniweenies) > Me (Kiasyd) > Martin (Brujah Alastors).
Martin started strongly, bringing out Dmitra and Carlak quickly with
Info highway and pulling pool down with grooming. Downstream, Guy
brought out Banjoko, and Frank got Alexis Sorokin, and Majiec brought
out Beetleman, Stick, etc.
Martin called Alastor, but Frank and I discussed how this was a bad
thing(tm) and so I played delaying tactics. Of course, the next turn
the vote passed, and Dmitra got her assault rifle. Her next action was
(of course) to back rush me. Fortunately, 2 Oubiettes saved me. I
returned the favour the next turn by using my only copy of Gremlins to
pop the assault rifle.
I had to be really careful here, pinned between assault rifles and
crows and bats. Ours was the least celebrity table ever, 4 copies of
fame being washed/suddened.
Mid-game, Martin was still strong, with 3 minions, assault rifles, and
heroic might. Guy was suffering in combat, but had pressed Frank hard,
lowering his pool. Frank and Majiec had bounced off each other in
combat, with Majiec just staying ahead. We discussed how it might be
too late to stop Marting sweeping.
It looked bleak, Guy having 0 active minions, Frank having 1, and me
hanging on in front of deep song bleeds by governing back. The next 2
bleed I bounced downstream, reducing Martin to 11 pool. I made my
lunge, bleeding him for 11 at stealth. Guy had no minions left, so I
went through him thereafter, and following that I pentexed Frank's
only remaining vampire and ousted him. This allowed me to just stay
ahead of the 5 aniweenies, who were all bleeding for 2 or 3 a turn!
Head's up and I was bled out.
Result: Me GW and 3 VPS, Majiec 2 VPS, Martin, Guy, Frank 0VPS
Heading into round 3, I knew I had a reasonable chance of making the
final, I just had to get *something* from the game.
Game 3
Reidbowen (warghouls) > Quiet guy whose name I missed, sorry (tremere)
> Rafal (enkidu plus nephandus) > me (kiasyd) > Floppy (Shalmath
wall)
Coincidentally I'd been looking at the sabbat in France site the night
before, and had seen Floppy's deck, but hadn't studied it in detail. I
knew it was wall-y, used Shalmath...and that was about it. I was more
pleased that I'd stopped Rafal trying to go through my discard pile
whilst I was playing game 2. He did the same thing at the Nat's last
year, then was my prey. This year he tried to do it, and became my
pred. Its fine looking through my discard pile in-game, but not if
you're not playing at the table. Even more so if you don't ask, you
just grab it.
The game started, and I saw both pred and prey transfer out something
huge. I'd drawn Pentex in my first hand, so I felt more secure than I
would do ordinarily. The Kiasyd came out and started doing their
govern down chain. Cross-table Reidbowen brought out Horatio, and as
the first vamp on the table bled and kept the edge. A mid-cap tremere
appeared cross table. I was totally focussed on my prey and pred. I
knew I wasn't going to survive long, so I had to act quickly. Shalmath
and Enkidu appeared, with supporting cast. As soon as the first
Nephandus popped out upstream, I started my push, suddening a villein,
then bleeding Floppy for 5. Warghouls appeared, and their prey was
made famous. Enkidu equipped, giving me a turn of breathing space.
When it was my turn again, I made my lunge. I put Pentex on Shalmath,
leaving Floppy with a single auspex weenie tapped, and another unable
to untap under an anima gathering. I bled hard, and Floppy was unable
to draw into a bounce. I'd got my VP.
Just as I predicted, it went quickly downhill. I was backrushed by
warghouls, then forward rushed by Enkidu. I held on a little longer,
long enough for my prey to get his oust, then pop down a dragonbound.
With Nephandi bleeding, and Enkidu slapping down anyone that appeared,
I didn't last much longer. With only Reidbowen and Rafal left, I went
off to find Floppy feeling bad about the speed of the oust. We played
a quick friendly with Christian, Mike, and and the Portuguese lady.
Result: Rafal 3 VPS, Reidbowen 1 VPS, Me 1VPS, Floppy, Quiet guy
0VPS.
Final total: 1 GW and 5 VPS
The qualifers were announced, and since 8th place had a lower total
than I did, I knew I had qualified, which was my aim. I was stunned to
find I was 3rd seed going into the final! Even better, Jonny qualifed
and was 5th seed! Go powerbase Manchester!
The Final.
Tiago (ven with sticks) > Jonny (malgorzata) > Hugh (eurobrujah) > Me
(kiasyd) > Phil (Undue palla grande)
I was playing this in a haze, I still don't really believe it.
I drew badly, couldn't bring out one of my crypt because I would have
contested with Tiago, and early game had to soak up a bounced 6 bleed
from cross table.
Fortuantely, I wasn't the only one drawing badly, and Hugh was having
trouble getting started. His initial rush and immgrap was again met
with a fae contortion and oubliette.
Jonny was the first casualty, stick combat and bounced bleeds at
stealth from Tiago along with his own big bleeds overwhelmed Jonny. We
remarked it would be a quick final.
I pentexed Hugh to give me a bit of breathing space, then dropped the
coven into play, which allowed him to claw some pool back with blood
dolls (I was happier having him there as a buffer in front of Tiago
than not). At this point I looked like I was doing so badly Jonny and
Andrew hurried back from the bar in case I was annoyed at being ousted
early.
It was still looking like Tiago's table at this point, and if it went
to time, it was his game as he was 1st seed going into the final. Hugh
removed the pentex. I tried to hang on to my 6 pool. Hugh called
Parity Shift, but Tiago delayed it. Hugh backrushed under threat of an
Anarch troublemaker Tiago had played. Phil pressed hard, but Tiago
held on. With both my pred and prey focussing on Tiago, I seized my
moment, lunged and got through Phil's pool.
Now it was Tiago, Hugh and I, I influenced out Keith Moody to contest
with Tiago (reducing his chance of ousting Hugh, and making my own
game easier) then pressed on. A turn later it was just Hugh and I, and
I had weight of numbers, it took another few turns, but I took the
last VP.
Result: Me 4VPS, Tiago 1 VPS, Jonny, Phil, Hugh 0VPS
My first ever TWD entry and its the ECQ. I took the awesome prize of
the original artwork for Montcalme, and even now I still can't quite
believe it.
Thanks to Mike and Hugh for judging/organising and everyone for making
it an awesome tournament. See you in France!