[REPORT] Berkeley, CA, Feb 5, 2005
jeff_kuta
Date: Feb 5, 2005
Location: Eudemonia, Berkeley, California
Time: 1pm
Format: 2+F
Players: 12
I've been working on my Tegyrius, Wall deck for quite some time now
and finally decided I was ready to inflict it on a tournament. Walls do
have a justly deserved bad rap, but I thought mine was solid and had
enough forward motion to justify it. The addition of Bowl of
Convergence was huge as was the elimination of seat switchers since my
deck can't really lunge when it needs to. Most walls are slow
grinders and mine is no exception.
ROUND 1: Me (Tegyrius, Wall) > Tim (Fat G1/2 Toreador Toolbox) > Brian
(Ravnos anarchs) > David (Ublo-Satha Wall)
I had a first turn Smiling Jack and put it into play. Brian was the
only one with a first turn vampire, Lazar Dobrescu, so instead of
burning Jack, he stole blood from his prey. I got Tegyrius out on my
third turn and no one had the chane to burn Jack while it had 2 blood
on it. David got Ublo-Satha and I had poor combat in hand at the time
so I let him burn Jack at 3, after inflicting 18 damage on the table at
cost of 3 to me.
Tim tried to Alastor up an Assault Rifle for Anneke but Tegyrius
blocked and torpored her with Taste of Death. Brian sent a weenie
Ravnos in to eat her leaving the Toreador with only Anson in play. The
Ravnos pressure forced David blocking upstream a fair bit. At a certain
point he looked light on his combat, so Tegyrius Contracted against
him, rushed, torpored and Pulled his Fangs out.
After that, it became a slow grind for the table. The Toreador and
Gargoyles were crippled, so the Ravnos and I got our respective VPs.
Parnassus eventually suffered a torporization via Mayakamasutra, but my
permanents (Rack, HG, Edge) that he couldn't break through and I took
the table.
Result: 1 GW, 3 VP.
ROUND 2: Alex (Gio/!Trem Nec/Tha/Pot) > Me > Ian (Trujah with Obf/Aus),
Tim (see above)
Tim was my ally this game and I was kind of happy for that, but kind of
not. I wasn't sure if my predator or prey had the intercept to deal
with his bloat and vote so I was justly concerned that he might start
cross-tabling me eventually.
I got a turn 2 Felicia, turn 4 Tegyrius, turn 6 Parnassus, all three
with Blood Dolls. Tim was able to get Isabel, Alexandra and Anneke in
play and worked the Tap/Cap magic. He was looking like a very big
threat to the table. The Gio/!Tremere were rather toolboxy so I was
able to deal with their bleeds and combat. At first I thought Ian's
deck was Obf/Pre weenie bleed, but once Synesios came out, I Eagle's
Sight blocked and torpored him. He never re-emerged from torpor the
rest of the game.
Eventually, with some persuasion by Ian, who was looking weak with his
Trujah down, Tim started in with KRCs against his prey and me for 2
each. Eventually Ian went for the lunge and ousted Tim at a weak moment
with Legal/Aire bleeds.
I managed to get the Ghouls into play and whittled down Ian's
vampires (Ghouls had 8 counters when I took it all for Tegyrius) while
the !Tremere walled up. I dropped Jack and with one more Eagle's
Sight block of Ian sealed up the table.
Result: 1 GW, 3 VPs.
Cumulative Result: 2 GWs, 6 VPs.
I went into the finals as the top seed with 2 GWs. Each of the 6 tables
had a game winner, so that's what it took to get into the finals. I
only played against Ian's deck, so I really didn't know what to
expect. I had seen a glimpse of Oliver's deck and guessed it was some
sort of Setite bleed. I know from experience that Ira likes slower
developing decks usually with some sort of Presence component with
them, often Toreador based. Greg is a solid player but unpredictable
when guessing what he'll play. I play Assamites. As such, I chose
myself to be Ira's prey and Oliver's predator. It turned out to be
a very fortuitous choice.
FINALS:
Greg (OBF Black Hand Thuggee) > Ira (Fat IC Bloat/Croc w/Helena) > Me >
Oliver (FoS Power Bleed) > Ian (Trujah)
I influence out Colin Flynn on turn 1, fooling no one. Greg brought out
Roger Farnsworth. I grabbed the Edge, hoping Greg would Kamut instead
of bleed so I could keep it. But I couldn't have predicted what
happened next. Oliver brought out Suzanne Kadim, and Ian did too!!
Immediately, Ira started to negotiate with the contestants, as is his
style, while Greg and I shook hands across the table. Of course, Ira
didn't want me gaining 2 VPs off this fortunate series of events, and
he also wanted some pressure on Greg who was going to runaway with a
horde of his own.
There was lots of negotiation the entire game, so I had a feeling it
would time out. Many of the other games also ran close to our 2hr 05min
time limit and since this was the first five-player game of the
tournament, with some of the better local players, I knew it would be
slow going. Oliver, who was second place after the rounds, offered the
best deal to me, which would be to allow him to get 2 VPs and then
he'd roll over after assuring second place. I felt I could trust him
on the deal, but I didn't think that we'd have enough time. I also
kind of wanted to prove my deck could actually earn VPs rather than
just sitting on its ass. It was ironic to me that most of my turns were
the fastest during this game since everyone needed to negotiate my
downfall, which I just wasn't going to let happen.
Blood Doll Colin's next action was to get Palatial Estate. Oliver's
second minion was Sir Marriott while Ian got Nu. I let Sir Marriott get
in one good shot on Ian, but I didn't want him to have too much free
reign since he was working free Social Charm bleeds while sucking blood
off his vampires to doubly bloat. Tegyrius sent Marriott to torpor with
a Contract and he stayed there most of the game, barring a couple
rescues from Ira. Tegyrius next Pulsed up and I became even more of a
table threat when that went unblocked.
Parnassus also came into play, but I felt in a rather risky position
with Ira having Etrius and Helena in play. I couldn't afford to go
forward too fast because he had some serious bleed potential.
Fortunately, Greg's Black Hand/Thuggee horde was building up nicely.
Greg also put a Form of Corruption into play which curtailed Ira's
forward motion significantly.
Eventually, I was able to get an Underworld HG into play, plus The
Rack. After falling victim to one if Ira's jedi mind tricks, I played
much more cautiously, and didn't block many of his actions at all. I
did bait everyone with Jack and let it go when Greg burnt it. Ira and I
traded The Rack a couple turns but it became clear he couldn't keep
it, so he bloated most of the table via Political Stranglehold and
Ancient Influence, with my prey getting the weakest part of that deal
having only Qufur ready. Ira eventually also influenced out Arika, who
my Estate, Rack and Underworld HG very costly, but still worth paying
for.
Tegyrius' steady bleeds for 3 whittled down Oliver since he
couldn't bounce. Oliver gained some pool via Social Charm bleeds, but
it wasn't enough and I eventually ousted him.
I thought I might have a chance to get Ian, so I tried to Eagle's
Sight block a bleed for 7 of Greg, but failed. The table timed out a
few minutes later. I think if we had more time, I would have taken the
entire table, probably in a 3/2 split with Ian. My bloat machine was
going strong, Greg (still with the Form of Corruption) had dropped Fear
of Mekhet on Ira's Inner Circle Members, Ira had a ton of pool, but
Ian was bleeding strong again with Nu and uncontested Suzanne.
FINAL RESULT:
Me 1.5 VPs, Ian, Greg, Ira 0.5 VPs, Oliver 0 VPs.
Thanks to Ira for again running a very smooth event. Thanks also to
Eudemonia for hosting us. Finally thanks to Tim, who works at Eudemonia
but often plays VTES anyway, for participating in the tournament to
give us 12 players instead of doing what else he had planned for the
afternoon.
Jeff
==========
If anyone wants to see how this deck evolved, I've been keeping a
running thread on The Path of Blood here:
http://www.thepathofblood.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=988
TEGYRIUS, WALL
CRYPT (13 vamps, Avg 6,92; Max 36; Min 15)
5x Tegyrius, AUS CEL FOR pre QUI
2x Fatima al-Faqadi, aus CEL for OBF QUI
2x Parnassus, aus CEL QUI tha
1x Felicia Mostrom, AUS CEL pre
1x Dorian Strack, AUS cel
1x Colin Flynn, aus cel
1x Isabel de Leon, AUS
LIBRARY
MASTERS (21)
6x Blood Doll
3x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
3x Contract
1x Giant's Blood
1x Underworld Hunting Ground
1x Society Hunting Ground
1x The Rack
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Auspex
1x Vast Wealth
1x Direct Intervention
1x Milicent Smith: Vampire Hunter
ACTIONS (1)
1x Pulse of the Canaille
ALLY (2)
1x Ghouls of the Plaza Moreria
1x Carlton Van Wyk
EQUIPMENT (6)
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Sport Bike
1x .44 Magnum
1x Ivory Bow
1x Flak Jacket
1x Palatial Estate
REACTIONS (30)
9x Forced Awakening
3x Wake with Evening's Freshness
6x Eagle's Sight
3x Quicken Sight
3x Precognition
3x Telepathic Misdirection
3x My Enemy's Enemy
COMBAT (30)
4x Pursuit
4x Psyche!
4x Taste of Vitae
2x Flash
2x Thin Blood
2x Sideslip
2x Acrobatics
2x Blur
2x Skin of Steel
2x Rolling with the Punches
2x Taste of Death
1x Pulled Fangs
1x Fast Hands
echia...@yahoo.com
jeff_kuta wrote:
> TEGYRIUS, WALL
>
> CRYPT (13 vamps, Avg 6,92; Max 36; Min 15)
> 5x Tegyrius, AUS CEL FOR pre QUI
> 2x Fatima al-Faqadi, aus CEL for OBF QUI
> 2x Parnassus, aus CEL QUI tha
> 1x Felicia Mostrom, AUS CEL pre
> 1x Dorian Strack, AUS cel
> 1x Colin Flynn, aus cel
> 1x Isabel de Leon, AUS
Hmm...I'm curious how you'd change your build if you went Group 2/3
instead of Group 1/2 (mainly since you've been an advocate of changing
FN to Group 3).
Colin can be replaced by Yvette, but it would be harder to get
replacements for Dorian and Felicia. Mercy, Tzimisce Spice, The
Colonel, and Victoria each have "AUS cel" at capacity 5, though they
are clearly less efficient than Dorian. (Given the choice among them,
I'd say Victoria would slightly edge out the others due to her added
special). But in Group 2/3, you don't get AUS CEL until capacity 7 so
that might hurt the deck quite a bit. And of course, this diversifying
in terms of crypt means you can't rely on Society HG as much either.
What are your thoughts? How would you redesign your crypt using Group
2/3?
jeff_kuta
If I went for ultra-low caps, it would be Malks. I'd probably use 1x
Zoe, 1x The Colonel and 2x Victoria because her special is so good.
Felicia really is great. I've had her torpor plenty of minions with
Blurs and Psyches! so she'd be sorely missed. Zoe's drawback is not so
hot, but considering I'd still have 4 perma-bloat locations available,
it shouldn't be that much of an issue.
The biggest change I'd consider is working in Owain Evans, and that is
probably the next direction I'll take this deck just to see how it
works. His special rocks. He has inferior Celerity. Work in the Seal of
Veddartha so Tegyrius can Govern at superior eventually too. Work in
the Drum of Xipe Totec so Owain can get CEL. Lots of options available.
Dylan, Joseph O'Grady and Quentin all also have Celerity. Could even
work more Blood Dolls, Into the Fire and Hungry Coyote for massive
hunt/bloat action, and risk exposing Tegyrius to PTO.
Of course, if FN were G3, I'd have to see what +1 strength Assamites
come in G4, which I'd certainly expect to see at least 1 in KMW. Hard
to say where things would end up, but I'm sure Antara would team with
Tegyrius in some fashion.
Jeff