Tourney Report: Praxis Seizure Buffalo
PDB6
This weekend, Praxis Seizure Buffalo was held in Buffalo NY at UBCon 99. In the
face of excellent competition and great decks, using my traditional Nosferatu
IG based Rush deck ("The Nosferatu Hate You!" as posted on the VEKN web site
Nosferatu newsletters, although I managed to replace the Elder Library with a
second Dreams--thanks, Xian!--and fit a Beast in the crypt), I managed to rip,
claw, defenestrate, and decapitate my way to victory.
There were 12 players total, and the tournament was run with 3 preliminary
rounds (the first was 2 games of 5, 'cause a couple people showed up late, and
the next 2 consisted of 3 games of 4) and a 5 player final. The players and
their decks were (I apologize if I misspell anyone's name, as my notes are
sloppy):
Patrick Downes: Toreador Cel/Pro/Aus intercept combat with light bleed.
Peter Bakija: Nosferatu Pot/Obf IG based pure Rush.
Jason Dettman: IC/Justicar/Prince huge vampire Minion Tap/5th tradition pool
gain vote deck.
Eric Howd: Very quick weenie Pre vote.
Nathan Helfinstine: Gangrel Pro/For Rush.
Howard Sanders: Obf/Dom/Pro Form of Mist stealth and bleed.
Nate Shelly: Brujah/Toreador bleed and combat.
Gary Gaule: Quick weenie Obf/Pre bleed with light stealth.
Keith Rice: Weenie Pro/Pot IG backed Rush combat with Amaranth and vote power.
Will Johengen: Ventrue vote and bleed bounce.
Dan Infamtino: Tremere intercept/burn.
Tony Mangaser: Ventrue bleed and light vote.
The run down on deck types was 3 vote decks, 4 bleed decks, 2 intercept decks,
and 3 Rush decks. Of these decks, at least 5 of them used significant amounts
of S:CE (only a significant statement because of recent discussion regarding
the make up of US vs UK tournaments).
Going into the finals, the players and scores were:
Peter's Rush deck: 6 vps
Jason's Pool Gain deck: 5 vps
Will's Vote deck: 5 vps
Howard's S+B deck: 4 vps
Gary's S+B deck: 4 vps
The seating ended up to be, in order: Peter, Howard, Gary, Will, Jason. The
early game was pretty weird, with lots of odd cross table action (Gary Mind
Numbed my Beast to keep me from killing Howard's vampires for a turn, Will
Parity Shifted 5 pool away from Howard, my prey, and gave some to himself and
Jason, his prey). Eventually, Will was ousted by Gary's weenie S+B, but by
then, the table situation was pretty precarious for everyone, pool wise (except
for Jason who had, like, 40 pool), and Howard and Gary fell quickly to my Rush
deck. Jason conceded after I managed to demolish all of his huge vampires, and
he was left with only 8 pool and an uncontrolled Harrod.
The tourney was run by Ian Blumenthal and his pal who's name I never managed to
catch (my appologies), both of whom did a great job and were very organized and
knowledgable of the rules (which is quite a feat, considering the amount of
errata...).
The tourney was excellent, with very skilled and knowledgable players, and
everyone was incredibly good natured and had a great time.
Peter D Bakija
PD...@aol.com
"I dunno, Marge.
Trying is the first step towards failure."
-Homer
carl_pi...@my-dejanews.com
> The run down on deck types was 3 vote decks, 4 bleed decks, 2 intercept decks,
> and 3 Rush decks. Of these decks, at least 5 of them used significant amounts
> of S:CE (only a significant statement because of recent discussion regarding
> the make up of US vs UK tournaments).
I have to point out, that in Vienna (Austria) S:CE is also not a problem,
even in tournaments (and we have a regular league running, also).
>
> Going into the finals, the players and scores were:
>
> Peter's Rush deck: 6 vps
> Jason's Pool Gain deck: 5 vps
> Will's Vote deck: 5 vps
> Howard's S+B deck: 4 vps
> Gary's S+B deck: 4 vps
>
> The seating ended up to be, in order: Peter, Howard, Gary, Will, Jason. The
> early game was pretty weird, with lots of odd cross table action (Gary Mind
> Numbed my Beast to keep me from killing Howard's vampires for a turn, Will
> Parity Shifted 5 pool away from Howard, my prey, and gave some to himself and
> Jason, his prey). Eventually, Will was ousted by Gary's weenie S+B, but by
> then, the table situation was pretty precarious for everyone, pool wise
(except
> for Jason who had, like, 40 pool), and Howard and Gary fell quickly to my Rush
> deck. Jason conceded after I managed to demolish all of his huge vampires, and
> he was left with only 8 pool and an uncontrolled Harrod.
It would be interesting to know how long the finals lasted.
> The tourney was excellent, with very skilled and knowledgable players, and
> everyone was incredibly good natured and had a great time.
As it is supposed to be!
Carl
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PDB6
>>I have to point out, that in Vienna (Austria) S:CE is also not a problem,
even in tournaments (and we have a regular league running, also).>>
I'm not quite sure what you mean here. I mentioned how many decks were using
S:CE in the above tournamnet simply becuase james Coupe mentioned that he
rarely saw S:CE used in Portsmouth tournaments, which I found surprising, as
S:CE tneds to be fairly common in my experience, as illustrated by the above
tournament.
>>It would be interesting to know how long the finals lasted.>>
The game lasted about an hour. Just because everyone is using well tuned,
competetive decks, it doesn't mean a game is gonna last 3 minutes.
James Coupe
<pd...@aol.comANTISPAM> writes
>I'm not quite sure what you mean here. I mentioned how many decks were using
>S:CE in the above tournamnet simply becuase james Coupe mentioned that he
>rarely saw S:CE used in Portsmouth tournaments, which I found surprising, as
>S:CE tneds to be fairly common in my experience, as illustrated by the above
>tournament.
Well, it's ended up like this:
If you're facing a combat deck, they'll kill you anyway, so putting in
S:CE slows you down and doesn't really stop them. Or they won't even
let you S:CE (IG and now, latterly, OOT Malkavian)
If you're not facing a combat deck, you don't have anything to fear,
really.
It stinks to high heaven of cheese.
--
James Coupe (Prince of Mercia, England)
Vampire: Elder Kindred Network
http://madnessnetwork.hexagon.net http://www.obeah.demon.co.uk
carl_pi...@my-dejanews.com
pd...@aol.comANTISPAM (PDB6) wrote:
> Carl wrote:
> >>I have to point out, that in Vienna (Austria) S:CE is also not a problem,
> even in tournaments (and we have a regular league running, also).>>
>
> S:CE in the above tournamnet simply becuase james Coupe mentioned that he
> rarely saw S:CE used in Portsmouth tournaments, which I found surprising, as
> S:CE tneds to be fairly common in my experience, as illustrated by the above
> tournament.
What I meant was: although we have a highly competitive environment, few
(if any) players use that much S:CE that *each* of their strikes is a S:CE.
Yes, every now and then a S:CE is played, mostly Form of Mist to bring a
crucial action through (Raven Spy, Atonement, etc.) or in defence (Majesty,
Earth Meld) while blocking.
>
> >>It would be interesting to know how long the finals lasted.>>
>
> The game lasted about an hour. Just because everyone is using well tuned,
> competetive decks, it doesn't mean a game is gonna last 3 minutes.
Don't get me wrong. I never assumed that your games would only last 3
minutes! But I got the impression that your 4-5 player games would be
finished *well* under an hour. ;)
Typically, our finals last also one hour.