[REPORT] The Stranger Among Us: Boston 1/5/02
Ben Peal
Heya! I finally got time to write this up...this was a tournament we
had back in early January...
Thanks to everyone who played in the tournament! We had 16 players,
which is the largest we've ever had for a constructed deck tournament!
It wound up being a brutal combat environment, with nearly half the
decks being combat-oriented.
In the end, the player who emerged from the mayhem on top was Kevin
Scribner! After a string of 3rd place finishes, Kevin finally won one.
:)
Here're the assorted stats from the tournament:
Round One
Jonathan Scherer 4
Ulysses Lateiner 0
Ben Peal 0
Brad Kellogg 0
Kevin Scribner 0.5
Lance Shope 2.5
Ben Spaulding 0
Ben Swainbank 0
Chris O'Brien 0
Rich Gentile 3
Matthew Krohn 0
Kevin Mullen 1
Scott Gomes 3
Chris Robert 0
Matt Hirsch 1
Chris McMahon 0
Round Two
Chris McMahon 0
Matthew Krohn 0
Lance Shope 2
Jonathan Scherer 2
Ulysses Lateiner 0
Ben Spaulding 4
Kevin Mullen 0
Scott Gomes 0
Ben Peal 0
Ben Swainbank 2
Chris O'Brien 2
Chris Robert 0
Brad Kellogg 0
Kevin Scribner 4
Rich Gentile 0
Matt Hirsch 0
Round Three
Lance Shope 0
Ben Peal 3
Jonathan Scherer 1
Chris O'Brien 0
Matt Hirsch 4
Kevin Mullen 0
Kevin Scribner 0
Ulysses Lateiner 0
Ben Spaulding 0
Brad Kellogg 0
Scott Gomes 4
Rich Gentile 0
Ben Swainbank 3
Chris McMahon 0
Chris Robert 1
Matthew Krohn 0
Results of finals (in order of ranking entering the finals):
Scott Gomes 1.0
Jonathan Scherer 0.5
Matt Hirsch 0
Ben Swainbank 0.5
Kevin Scribner 1.5
Final Standings:
Kevin Scribner 1 game win, 6.0 VP (1.5 VP in finals)
Scott Gomes 2 game wins, 8.0 VP (1.0 VP in finals)
Jonathan Scherer 1 game win, 7.5 VP (0.5 VP in finals)
Ben Swainbank 1 game win, 5.5 VP (0.5 VP in finals)
Matt Hirsch 1 game win, 5.0 VP (0.0 VP in finals)
Lance Shope 1 game win, 4.5 VP
Ben Spaulding 1 game win, 4.0 VP
Rich Gentile 1 game win, 3.0 VP, 116 TP
Ben Peal 1 game win, 3.0 VP, 106 TP
Chris O'Brien 0 game wins, 2.0 VP
Kevin Mullen 0 game wins, 1.0 VP, 104 TP
Chris Robert 0 game wins, 1.0 VP, 84 TP
Ulysses Lateiner 0 game wins, 0.0 VP, 84 TP
Brad Kellogg 0 game wins, 0.0 VP, 84 TP
Chris McMahon 0 game wins, 0.0 VP, 64 TP
Matt Krohn 0 game wins, 0.0 VP, 54 TP
Here's the deck, plus some comments from Kevin Scribner:
"tzimisce - go: counterspell deck"
crypt [12]:
lolita houston [4]
terrence [4]
devin bisley [5]
caliban [6] x2
corine marcon [6]
meshenka [8] *
anton [8]
sascha vykos [8] *
little tailor of prague
stravinsky [9] *
lambach [10] *
* = titled vampires
minimum crypt draw: 19
maximum crypt draw: 35
average capacity: 6.8333
library [90]:
master cards [16]:
2 anarch revolt
6 blood doll
1 library hunting ground
1 powerbase: montreal
1 the rack
3 rötschreck
2 smiling jack, the anarch
action cards [6]:
3 tier of souls
3 revelations
retainer cards [2]:
2 revenant
equipment cards [2]:
1 ivory bow
1 femur of toomler
reaction cards [40]:
6 cat's guidance
6 forced awakening
6 read the winds
6 eagle's sight
4 enhanced senses
3 spirit's touch
3 precognition
6 telepzthic misdirection
combat cards [24]:
8 inner essence
10 chiropteran marauder
6 breath of the dragon
notes:
-- special thanks to jay kristoff, for his deck on thelasombra's site,
which was the inspiration for this one, and to david d'avila-anderson,
for his incredible articles on the subject of intercept-combat decks...
-- i've been playing this deck for over a year now, in various forms,
but it wasn't until bloodlines and 'read the winds' that i was able to
really get it off the ground... the raw power and efficiency of that
one card opened up so many card slots, which i was able to dedicate to
forward pressure, without compromising my ability to fend off 4-on-1
onslaughts turn after turn...
-- in light of the lessons i learned at this tournament, i think i'll
need to change the 2 anarch revolt to either 2 more smiling jack, or 2
war ghoul... the anarch revolts organize the table against me too much,
and turn my cross-table buddies into enemies... with smiling jack, they
at least think twice before coming at me... removing 2 revolts also
allows me to drop 2 of the eagle's sight, so maybe i'd go with 3 smiling
jack, 3 war ghoul, and exchange the femur of toomler for one more
revenant...
-- i'm seriously considering swapping out the duplicate caliban in the
crypt for either goratrix, matteus, omaya, or [most likely] jost
werner... the duplicate crypt draw doesn't really hurt me much, but
having jost's inherent stealth might make a big difference in some
games...
There ya have it! Thanks to everyone for attending!
- Ben Peal, Prince of Boston
fu...@mindstorm.com
Joshua Duffin
[snip]
> Ben Peal
> Ben Spaulding
> Ben Swainbank
> Chris O'Brien
> Chris McMahon
> Chris Robert
> Kevin Scribner
> Kevin Mullen
> Matthew Krohn
> Matt Hirsch
Is there a dire shortage of first names in Boston? ;-)
I thought having three VTES-playing Dans around was
funny, but this is much more impressive.
> Here's the deck, plus some comments from Kevin Scribner:
>
> "tzimisce - go: counterspell deck"
> combat cards [24]:
> 8 inner essence
> 10 chiropteran marauder
> 6 breath of the dragon
I'm confused by seeing so many Inner Essence in two
different Tzimisce decks here lately. I mean, I can
understand playing *some*, but there are more Inner
Essences here than there are blood-costing-combat-cards
to benefit from them. Is "gain one blood for free"
that good by itself? (Everyone knows Inner Essence
doesn't work on Chiropteran, right?)
I guess gaining a blood in combat for free is better
than taking an action to do it (ie hunt). But most
of the time I'd expect that a card has to net a two
blood advantage to make the "really good" cut. But
given this deck's success, maybe I'm just wrong. :-)
Thanks for the report, and congratulations Kevin!
Josh
eww, dragon breath