Ritual Challenge: PA (tourney report)
Matthew Heslin
First off, thanks to all of you who made the
trip out to the sticks for participate in the PA half
of our two-day event. You made this Methuselah one
happy camper with such a full turn-out. I promise
next time I'll force the store owner to take me
seriously when I say "25 to 40 players."
Second, this report will be rather brief as
there has already been a more detailed report in the
other Ritual Challenge thread about the styles and
decks being played. My first time running a tournament
and my slack ass forgets to take decklists, make
notes about which decks ousted which, etc. Hence
the brevity.
As already stated, we had 22 players show up
for the event -- bridging the country both ways from Boston
to Atlanta, and New Jersey to Denver. The PA half of
the day seemed a little more reserved than Saturday's
blood-soaked combat rampage, but then Bakija and his
jack-booted thugs had gone back to Ithaca by then.
I knew there would be mad combat on the field when
PDB greeted Josh Duffin by asking if he was weak,
and Josh told him he was "strong like bear." There was
a lot of "strong like bear" that day... but I'll let Christian
comment on the NJ day.
There was no dominant deck type on Sunday,
but I thought I saw at least two of each kind of deck
present, with the exception of Marty Henley's Setite
Showcase (stealth, bleed, corruption, Marks). There
were two Malk-Antitribu decks - one S&B&Block that
made it to the finals, helmed by Christian Alipounarian,
and one with all the funky Sabbat War Dementation
cards (Total Insanity, the Haunting) built by Jose LaFuente
and driven by Chris Coleman. Chris had never played
in a constructed deck tournament before, and had never
seen Jose's deck before Sunday -- but he still took 3 VPs
in the first round.
Temptation of Greater Power reared its ugly head
under Josh Duffin's control, and featured Sheldon and his
Nosferatu friends for voting love. Combat appeared in the
focussed deck form of Andrew Ahern. He was using the
threat of multiple mid-size Brujah and Brujah-Antitribu --
I believe he told Trey Morita who he was "allowed" to fill
up using the Fifth Tradition at one point. Weenie style
came from Boston (Ben Peal) using Auspex and Obfuscate
and The Embrace.
Lastly, and I think it merits mentioning because
he won Saturday's tournament (w/a different deck) and made
it to the finals on Sunday: Justin Lacey and his Vicissitude/
Dominate thing. Justin, in my opinion, needs to get into
a ten-player game with Rob Treasure at the other end of
the table, to see who can agitate more players out of the
game first. Justin, no matter what deck he plays, seems
capable of making outrageous claims believable. His deck
was good, almost primarily because you can't really tell
what it does even after it gets out a few vampires. Justin
will calmly let you believe it's a VIC combat monster if
it'll get his bleeds in easier. He made it to the last three
seats in the final before Christian's !Malks ousted him.
The final came to:
Ben Peal (Weenie AUS/OBF) bleeding
Christian Alipounarian (!Malk S&B&Block) bleeding
Josh Duffin (Bitter Princes w/ToGP) bleeding
Justin Lacey (Vic/Dom S&B plus) bleeding
Colin Riggs (Three Big Toreador vote/bloat) bleeding Ben.
Josh was out first (in the first hour?), and Colin
followed soon after because of Justin's bleed and bounce
of Christian's stealth bleeds. The final three players had
an odd setup, as Ben and Christian were packing intercept
and Christian and Justin were packing bleed. Christian's
position as a Dementation bleeder also made him the
recipient of many offers to bleed upstream or downstream.
I believe the even playing field and the time deadline (we
were forced to play a two-hour final because of the store's
closing schedule) forced players to play hard and think
hard about their actions and reactions.
Justin went down to the forces of Fort Lee's
prince, and in the head-to-head Christian couldn't stop
enough of Ben's (11?) minions to stay afloat. Ben and
Christian tied at 2 VP, and Ben takes the win based
on his prelim VPs.
Here's his decklist: or rather, here's where his
decklist would have been if I hadn't deleted it. It'll be up
later this week, promise. And I'd like Christian's deck
posted as well, if possible, since it tied for the final and
was a fine example of how much fun those !Malks can
be. Christian?
Thanks again to all who attended -- congratulations
to the Washington DC crew, who seem to do well in
Philly-area events -- and I'm still waiting for the $240 in rent
payments from you four who crashed at my house.
Make with the money, or I'm telling my mom what you
said about her.
-matt
--
________________________________________
Fight the power and the power will fight back;
You're only as good as the system you hack.
-MDFMK, "The Revolution Will Be Synthesized"
Matthew Heslin
> Here's his decklist: or rather, here's where his
> decklist would have been if I hadn't deleted it. It'll be up
> later this week, promise.
And, as promised:
Deck Name: Wonderwall
CRYPT (12 cards)
Dollface Malk 3cap aus obf
Zoe Malk 3cap AUS obf cel special
Roland Bishop Malk 4cap aus obf dom
Aleph Malk 4cap AUS dom
Regilio Nos 3cap aus obf
Agrippina Nos 4cap OBF pot
Claven !Malk 4cap aus obf dem
Dan Murdock Cat 3cap aus obf special
Tansu Bekir Ass 4cap OBF cel special
Lena Rowe Pan 3cap aus obf pre special
Isabel deLeon Tor 3cap AUS
Remillard !Tor 4cap AUS pre
LIBRARY (90 cards)
2 x Tribute to the Master
4 x Blood Doll
1 x Asylum Hunting Ground
1 x Inbase Discotek, Frankfurt
1 x Gird Minions
1 x Direct Intervention
1 x Sudden Reversal
1 x The Barrens
2 x The London Evening Star
2 x KRCG News Radio
6 x Obfuscate
1 x Muddled Vampire Hunter
14 x The Embrace
2 x Eagle's Sight
5 x The Spirit's Touch
4 x Precognition
5 x Telepathic Misdirection
9 x Telepathic Counter
1 x Psychic Veil
5 x Faceless Night
4 x Lost In Crowds
5 x Swallowed By the Night
5 x Cloak the Gathering
8 x Fake Out