Tournament report: Darkling Trickery Washington DC
Joshua Duffin
at high noon (and a beautiful day - seemed sad
at the outset that we were going to be indoors
all day playing cards, although it did rain a
bit later which was some consolation... :-) in
Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington DC. (for
some values of "near.")
Eighteen players attended; we used the multi-judge
system so that I could play as well as judge. Not
that it did me much good. I played Inner Circle
stealth-vote/bleed/Hostile Takeover with Arika,
Leandro, and Harrod, but failed to win a single
game, though I had a good shot at it each round.
Not quite good enough, I guess.
The finalists were (scores may be slightly off as
they're from memory, don't have the Archon in front
of me):
Steve Holmer: 2 game wins, !Malkavian stealth-bleed
Emily Lloyd: 2 game wins, Tremere bleed/Theft
Tom Mickle: 1 game win, !Malkavian stealth-bleed
John M (aka sporemage37): 1 game win, pot/for combat (?)
Kurt Reese: 1 game win, Tzimisce intercept combat
In a hotly-contested game (which I have to admit I
only caught the end of as I was off playing another
game for most of it), Emily got 4 VPs to Tom's 1 and
came out the winner. Xian would be proud. :-) And,
of course, so am I, as Emily only started playing
V:TES about three months ago and has now won two of
her first four tournaments (the other being the
storyline tournament in Baltimore).
Here's her deck:
"Please pass the Edge" by Emily Lloyd
crypt (12):
1x Blythe Candelaria
2x Jing Wei
2x Ignatius
2x Sarah Cobbler
2x Merill Molitor
2x Thomas Thorne
1x Astrid Thomas
library (90):
4x Blood Doll
2x Thaumaturgy
2x Dominate
2x Sudden Reversal
2x The Barrens
1x Chantry
1x The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
1x KRCG News Radio
1x The Rack
1x Academic Hunting Ground
1x Mr. Winthrop
10x Govern the Unaligned
7x Cryptic Mission
2x Rutor's Hand
8x Seduction
7x Bonding
7x Conditioning
9x Theft of Vitae
5x Movement of the Mind
3x Blood Fury
7x Wake with Evening's Freshness
7x Deflection
-----
This deck had never been played before the tournament.
Turned out to be quite solid. :-) Congratulations to
Emily, and thanks to everyone else who came out for the
event. If any of the finalists want to post an account
of that game - heck, if anyone who played in the tourney
wants to post a report - please do.
Josh
v:ekn prince of washington dc
DJ Monet
Way to go Emily! Goes to show that a classic, solid deck can still
hold its own amoung the growing crazy bloodline creations. During the
3rd(?) round she was my predator, but my potence/celery/protean/fort
combat deck succesfully held her off, though it failed at much else!
(no big bleed opportunities) It was a great time and I'm happy to see
the Pennsylvania-D.C. "Bad Boys" Contingency dominate the final round.
Another interesting note of this tourney- a good age-mix played here,
establishing the V:TES demographic as more, um, mature. In addition,
the presence of several women, whose nasty decks showed no mercy, was
very welcome. Thanks for the logistics, Josh. See ya again- next
time at Dream Wizards(?) - which, by the way, is where I played alot
of D&D oh, about 20 years ago (ack!).
spinney99
> "Joshua Duffin" <jtdu...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<a7a8mm$jode5$1...@ID-121616.news.dfncis.de>...
> > This tournament was
> > Eighteen players attended; we used the multi-judge
> > system so that I could play as well as judge.
> > The finalists were (scores may be slightly off as
> > they're from memory, don't have the Archon in front
> > of me):
> >
> > Steve Holmer: 2 game wins, !Malkavian stealth-bleed
> > Emily Lloyd: 2 game wins, Tremere bleed/Theft
> > Tom Mickle: 1 game win, !Malkavian stealth-bleed
> > John M (aka sporemage37): 1 game win, pot/for combat (?)
out. I had also swept a 3-person "get-ready" game the night before.
> > Kurt Reese: 1 game win, Tzimisce intercept combat
> >
> > In a hotly-contested game (which I have to admit I
> > only caught the end of as I was off playing another
> > game for most of it), Emily got 4 VPs to Tom's 1 and
congrats to emily. she played solidly in a game that went quite a
while with all 5 of us jockeying for every inch. (2 major diableries
early on in this one; 1 vs me (vince day) and 1 by me of tom's biggest
!?malk!) later, as her grandprey, i underestimated how short of work
she'd make of kurt's tzimix. he had solid intercept and combat and
was moving forward fine against me with additional bleed on a couple
minions (laptop and retainer), inevitably followed by changeling. so
he got greedy and hacked/lapt/changeled and i burnt him w/ArchonInv.
I could've deflected this bleed, but I figured it was my only chance
to use up the AI. it took me low, but i knew how long my deck could
sit still against any(?) non-S&B with the one intercept I had, and
that i'd eventually increase my pool. I figured correctly that w/ 1
less minion, kurt would have to concentrate on emily. but i didn't
figure on her keeping him hunting with cryptic missions while she beat
his other minion down with seduction and combat. and she'd get a
bleed or two in each turn, and deflect only steve's biggest hits.
kurt's demise was a little too quick for my comfort. Though i'd hit
tom for a govern/conditioning early on, i was now holding a hand full
of combat. I had to give emily a bloody nose, or i was gonna get
dom-bullied right out of the game. she tried to do something with a
decent minion that i wanted to bother killing, and i caught it with
Truman, my best minion. i could've maneuvered with unflinching
persistence and thrown my sewer lid, but i figured she'd steal my
ramaining blood anyway, so i wanted to disarm her and let her start
the rescue/downward spiral... my second grevious misunderestimation:
i hadn't seen a single blood fury or the like all game. but i saw one
now. POW. and instead, i was sent into that spiral. but not for
long. she brushed me aside like a matchstick on her way to first
place. again, congrats.
> > came out the winner. Xian would be proud. :-) And,
> > of course, so am I, as Emily only started playing
> > V:TES about three months ago and has now won two of
> > her first four tournaments (the other being the
> > storyline tournament in Baltimore).
congrats, again.
(snip her decklist)
> > Josh
> >
> > v:ekn prince of washington dc
thanks very much for another enjoyable tourney, josh. it's a long
haul for us and it's worth it to hit quality players out to win. john
s (in from CO,) you, trey, tom m, and many others always make for a
strong field in DC. Hope to come down soon, though it might not be
til may...
again, thanks. john m
>
>
> Way to go Emily! Goes to show that a classic, solid deck can still
> hold its own amoung the growing crazy bloodline creations. During the
> 3rd(?) round she was my predator, but my potence/celery/protean/fort
> combat deck succesfully held her off, though it failed at much else!
> (no big bleed opportunities) It was a great time and I'm happy to see
> the Pennsylvania-D.C. "Bad Boys" Contingency dominate the final round.
i'd say Emily dominated the final round, but it was nice to see 4
graying married men in finals :>)
> Another interesting note of this tourney- a good age-mix played here,
> establishing the V:TES demographic as more, um, mature. In addition,
> the presence of several women, whose nasty decks showed no mercy, was
> very welcome. Thanks for the logistics, Josh. See ya again- next
> time at Dream Wizards(?) - which, by the way, is where I played alot
> of D&D oh, about 20 years ago (ack!).
-======-
my deck, which is just about to be re-tooled (needs 5-7 more
conditionings/governs)
-======-
"Dare you" for/dom/pot combat/toolbox
-vamps (12)-
8 emerson bridges
8 lucita
7 jan pieterzoon
6 truman
5 vincent day
4 ingrid russo
4 peter blaine
4 courtland leighton
3 tom
3 cameron
2 rufina soledad
1 march halcyon
-masters (20)-
6x blood doll
2x dominate
2x potence
fortitude
2x haven uncovered
2x krcg
rumor mill
ventrue HQ
2x archon investigation
direct intervention
-minion (69)-
2x mr winthrop
sport bike
ivory bow
6x immortal grapple
4x disarm
4x torn signpost
3x sewer lid
2x fake out
4x unflinching persistence
3x hidden str
3x rolling w/ the punches
3x skin of steel
4x embrace
3x govern the unaligned
2x ambush
bum's rush
far mastery
2x disputed territory
ventrue justicar
dramatic upheaval
4x dawn op
3x conditioning
2x freak drive
5x deflection
4x wake
===
it could use a few more presses too. it looks too spread out, but it
does either tend to go nowhere or sweep, and it fears little. i love
the disputed territories... handing my prey or predator's location to
someone across table with votes can be fun.
-sporemage37
Joshua Duffin
"spinney99" <spore...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:27f52a52.0203...@posting.google.com...
> mjoh...@earthlink.net (DJ Monet) wrote in message
news:<c5f82717.02032...@posting.google.com>...
> > "Joshua Duffin" <jtdu...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:<a7a8mm$jode5$1...@ID-121616.news.dfncis.de>...
> > > This tournament was
> (snip) ... really fun.
Oh good. :-) I'm always happy to hear that.
> > > Steve Holmer: 2 game wins, !Malkavian stealth-bleed
> > > Emily Lloyd: 2 game wins, Tremere bleed/Theft
> i think 1 in prelims, and of course, the final one.
> > > Tom Mickle: 1 game win, !Malkavian stealth-bleed
> > > John M (aka sporemage37): 1 game win, pot/for combat (?)
> actually, i got 4 vp at each of my first 2 tables before my luck ran
> out. I had also swept a 3-person "get-ready" game the night before.
> > > Kurt Reese: 1 game win, Tzimisce intercept combat
You're right, and sorry about the errors. In fact,
the seeding going into the final game was:
Steve Holmer: 2 game wins 9 VPs
John M (sporemage): 2 game wins 8 VPs
Emily Lloyd: 1 game win 6 VPs
Kurt Reese: 1 game win 4.5 VPs
Tom Mickle: 1 game win 4 VPs
I'd typed up the tournament report without having the
Archon available and was going from (faulty) memory
on game-win totals.
[snip description of finals]
Heh, sounds like quite a game. Blood Fury out of nowhere
is always good for a shock. :-)
> thanks very much for another enjoyable tourney, josh. it's a long
> haul for us and it's worth it to hit quality players out to win. john
> s (in from CO,) you, trey, tom m, and many others always make for a
> strong field in DC. Hope to come down soon, though it might not be
> til may...
You're most welcome, and thanks again for coming. We
always like seeing you guys from Pennsylvania, too,
except when you keep outnumbering us in the final rounds.
;-)
[djmonet wrote]
> > Way to go Emily! Goes to show that a classic, solid deck can still
> > hold its own amoung the growing crazy bloodline creations. During the
> > 3rd(?) round she was my predator, but my potence/celery/protean/fort
> > combat deck succesfully held her off, though it failed at much else!
> > (no big bleed opportunities) It was a great time and I'm happy to see
> > the Pennsylvania-D.C. "Bad Boys" Contingency dominate the final round.
[sporemage again]
> i'd say Emily dominated the final round, but it was nice to see 4
> graying married men in finals :>)
Yes, you just don't see that as often in other CCGs, do
you? ;-)
> > Another interesting note of this tourney- a good age-mix played here,
> > establishing the V:TES demographic as more, um, mature. In addition,
> > the presence of several women, whose nasty decks showed no mercy, was
> > very welcome. Thanks for the logistics, Josh. See ya again- next
> > time at Dream Wizards(?) - which, by the way, is where I played alot
> > of D&D oh, about 20 years ago (ack!).
Yup, Dream Wizards next time, April 6 at noon. I'll
post a reminder next week sometime.
later on,
Josh
dnd