Unofficial Results Crusade: Atlanta
The Lasombra
The top two seeds were Giovanni decks going into the finals, and one
of them won the tournament. (Three in the competition altogether.)
My remembrances of the event are as follows:
13 participants, with a brief appearance of Steve Wieck
to talk to everyone, but he wasn't able to stay and play.
Judged by Todd Bannister, V:EKN Prince of Atlanta.
In no particular order, the participants and their decks:
David Davila - Giovanni Bleed, Call of the Hungry Dead / Seduction
Conor Key - Giovanni Hordes, Shambling Hordes / +bleed
Jeff Thompson - Lasombra Bloat, Embrace - Boon
Robyn Rose - Animalism Weenies, Cats and Rats and Bats Oh My!
Sam (last name unknown) - Mirembe Cabada and Canopic Jars and Extortion
Fred Parker - Nosferatu Princes
L. Scott Johnson - Tremere/Tremere Anti Intercept
Joe Churchill - Ventrue Antitribu (Vote?)
Traci Bitonti - Giovanni (Toolbox?)
David Tatu - Toreador Antitribu Intercept with Palla Grande
Mike Perlman - Setite Corruption (?)
Chad Brinkley - Setite Enticement
Patrick O'Shea - Caitiff Computer Hack
3 rounds, 3 tables per round, plus the final round.
10 games played. 7 games went to the time limit.
My round 1 (4 player):
Robyn preying on Sam preying on Jeff preying on L. Scott preying on Robyn.
Three of the four players take Embrace actions as one
of their first two actions. The forth takes an equip
with Pier 13 action first (which he uses to acquire
Canopic Jars). I ended up playing one or two Consanguineous
Boons on Robyn, as she appears ready to fall to Scott.
Scott had played one Burst of Sunlight to take her down
early and she was in fear of it the rest of the game.
Sam only took actions to gain intercept equipment, only
rarely bled, and spent a lot of time untapped.
I embraced, hunted at the Hungry Coyote, and called
Consanguineous Boons, I had 3-5 minions hunting every turn
as Scott's Cryptic Missions all came upstream to keep me
off his back. I did end up just barely ousting him,
but Sam played a Life Boon and I wasn't able to oust
him a second time. This game went to time, and I had
in excess of 60 pool, two counters of 10 borrowed from Robyn,
and all of the 60 counters I brought being used either as
blood or pool. Sam got Scott's half vp for staying in until
the end, so he ended up winning the tournament points for
the table. Robyn 0.5vp, Sam 1vp, Jeff 0.5vp, Scott 0vp.
My round 2 (4 player):
Tatu preying on Conor preying on Jeff preying on Pat preying on Tatu.
Pat got the sweet spot that game, he went fourth, brought out
four weenies, and went to town on Tatu with his computer hackings.
Tatu took one action forward the entire game, a bleed for 2 at one stealth,
that got bounced three times to land on me (Conor to me, back to Conor,
back to me). I Embraced and Booned, having 74 pool at one point (and 5-6
vampires in torpor due to the Shambling Hordes). I managed to swarm over
Patrick just before he got Tatu, and then the combination of Shambles and
Tatu's 16 untaps/guns/intercept kept anything else from happening.
The three of us agreed to discard and withdraw to get full vps rather than the
half each (as no one was ever going to oust me, even if they could get all of
my 11 vampires in torpor, and Tatu couldn't put enough pressure on Conor to
ever oust him). Tatu 1vp, Conor 1vp, Jeff 2vp, Pat 0vp.
My round 3 (5 player):
Jeff preying on Conor preying on Tatu preying on Scott preying on Davila
preying on Jeff.
Having the two intercept decks next to each other managed to slow the table
down, and kept Scott from putting a lot of pressure on Davila. I always had a
deflection for Davila's bleeds, but once he got an Anarch Troublemaker in play
I ended up tapping out before his turn and was at my lowest pool levels of the
tournament. I never passed 30 pool after I began transferring, and was
actually down to 10-11 pool before I began to recover. Conor recruited some
right-footed Shambling Hordes that went against my vampires each time they
acted, so I had to oust him as quickly as I could. Due to some well managed
stealth, a more fortunate flow of dodges, and having 9 minions to bleed with, I
managed to oust him. I wasn't able to get Tatu in time, no one else was able
to oust their prey. I ended up with only 25-30 pool, but had been bled for 3-6
by Davila on most of his actions after the Anarch Troublemaker had come into
play. Jeff 1.5vp, Conor 0vp, Tatu 0.5vp, Scott 0.5vp, Davila 0.5vp.
The Finals
David Davila and Conor Key had the most vps going into the finals, and I was in
third place with 4 victory points. Robyn was 4th and Sam sneaked Fred and into
the finals due to the tournament points he received for having the most victory
points in the first round (damn Life Boon).
I had to choose which intercept deck I wanted as my predator as both Giovanni
decks knew they couldn't oust me and would not sit as my predator. I choose
Sam over Robin because Sam was using Earth Melds for combat and that was better
for me if he did ever manage to intercept me.
Conor sat as my prey, as he hadn't played against Sam and had no idea what his
deck did, and he thought that if the managed his Hordes a little differently he
should be able to hold me off indefinitely.
Conor (went first) preying on Robin preying on Davila preying on Sam preying on
Jeff who preyed on Conor.
My deck went into a serious stall this game, giving me no Embraces and very few
Consanguineous Boons for the first hour of the game. Fortunately, I was
getting the stealth and Change of Targets I needed to keep Sam from playing
Extortions on me. As Sam had wasted all of his intercept on me, he was
demolished by Davila's Seductive Call of the Hungry Dead bleeds fairly quickly.
I had Conor down to three pool at one point (due to bounced bleeds - five
Deflections in my hand when Sam was ousted), but was unable to finish him off
as the Hordes came backward in a serious fashion and he pretty much stopped
acting against Robyn. Robyn was relatively effective against Davila, having
him down to 8-10 pool before he ousted Sam, but was unable to recruit her War
Ghouls so she wasn't able to stomp him as her deck can do. The table played
very defensively, and once again, the table timed out. I had 22 pool at the
end. Conor 0.5vp, Robyn 0.5vp, Davila 1vp, Sam 0vp, Jeff 0.5vp.
Davila takes first, Conor second, Jeff third, Robyn fourth, and Sam fifth,
exactly as original seating predicted.
Hopefully David Davila will either post his deck to the newsgroup or Patrick
will feature it in his newsletter to share his secrets of success with us.
Here is the deck that I played, that has never been ousted.
Deck Name: Long Live The Lasombra!
Creator: Jeff "Lasombra" Thompson
Concept: Don't die. Embrace and Boon until you have 8-10
Lasombra in play then start bleeding. Use Deflection
as your main offense until you can swarm your prey out
in one turn.
Crypt
2 Aaron Duggan, Cameron's Toady
2 Cameron
2 Ignacio, The Black Priest
2 Ramiro
1 Guido Lucciano
1 Aurora Van Brande, Paladin
1 Lisette Vizquel
1 Talley, the Hound
Library
10 The Embrace
8 Dodge
3 Fake Out
2 Blood Doll
5 Dominate
1 Elysian Fields
2 Hungry Coyote
1 Parthenon, The
1 Political Hunting Ground
6 Power Structure
1 Powerbase: Montreal
5 Tribute to the Master
7 Change of Target
4 Cryptic Rider
3 Shadow Play
4 Shroud of Night
10 Consanguineous Boon
10 Deflection
7 Delaying Tactics
90 Total Library Cards
50 common 10 action
21 uncommon 11 combat
19 rare 24 master
18 modifier
10 political
17 reaction
Game Environment: 90 card library limit, no card limit, post Final Nights
rules.
Power Structure is essential to your success. Keep the threat of tapping it
available if at all you can and work deals to get the Consanguineous Boons
to pass. (I will call one for you now, if you will pass the one next for me.)
The Blood Dolls should be replaced with Gird Minions, if I had been
able to act forward with more of my minions, I would have doubled my
victory points at Crusade: Atlanta 2001.
Embraces shouldn't act beyond their initial hunt unless they are forced
to do so for lack of blood. They should be untapped to Delay votes that
aren't called on your terms and to bounce bleeds to your prey.
Lisette Vizquel was the MVP of the deck, playing 5 Deflections in a row
in one round between my turns during the finals.
Carpe noctem.
Lasombra
--
Posted from rr-163-53-90.atl.attbroadband.com [24.163.53.90]
via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
Henrik
keep Sam from playing
>Extortions on me.
Does CoT prevent Sam from playing extortion because the action is cancelled?
It would seen to me that Mirembe had successfullyblocked the action and
could have played Extortion... Is it the same with, say, Cat's guidiance,
i.e. that it can't be played after a CoT?
/Henrik
The Lasombra
the winning deck.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I just wanted to let you know for the tournament report that the deck I
played yesterday was Giovanni Power Bleed (from the October Giovanni
newsletter). Here is the deck listing:
Deck Name: Giovanni Power Bleed
Created by: David Anderson-Dávila
Description: Bleed with Seduction, Call of the Hungry Dead and the
occasional Sleeping Mind. This combo should shut down even the most
dedicated intercept decks. Use Obedience and Spiritual Intervention
for combat defense. Use liberal bleed bounce to enhance the defence.
Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 16, Max: 30, Avg: 6]
2 Andrea Giovanni DOM NEC pot vic 7, Giovanni
1 Carlotta Giovanni dom NEC obf POT 7, Giovanni
1 Chas Giovanni Tello DOM POT 4, Giovanni
1 Enzo Giovanni ani DOM NEC pot tha 8, Giovanni
2 Gillespi Giovanni aus DOM NEC POT 7, Giovanni
1 Gloria Giovanni DOM nec 4, Giovanni
2 Isabel Giovanni DOM NEC pot 5, Giovanni
1 Pochtli cel dom NEC OBF POT 8, Giovanni
1 Rudolpho Giovanni NEC 3, Giovanni
Library: (80 cards)
Master (11 cards)
1 Anarch Troublemaker
5 Blood Doll
1 Jake Washington (Hunter)
1 Morgue Hunting Ground
1 Path of Bone, The
2 Sudden Reversal
Action (13 cards)
4 Govern the Unaligned
1 Haunt
4 Scouting Mission
2 Slaughtering the Herd
2 Summon Soul
ActionMod (28 cards)
4 Bonding
6 Call of the Hungry Dead
3 Change of Target
3 Foreshadowing Destruction
6 Seduction
3 Sleeping Mind, The
3 Threats
Reaction (16 cards)
3 Deflection
3 Obedience
3 Redirection
7 Wake with Evening's Freshness
Combat (3 cards)
3 Spiritual Intervention
Ally (1 card)
1 Leonardo, Mortician
Equipment (2 cards)
2 Leather Jacket
Combo (6 cards)
6 Spectral Divination
The Lasombra
news:9t8scg$11csr$1...@ID-99227.news.dfncis.de...
> >Fortunately, I was getting the stealth and Change of Targets I needed to
> > keep Sam from playing Extortions on me.
>
> Does CoT prevent Sam from playing extortion because the action is cancelled?
Yes.
No reaction cards can be played after Change of Target, because
the action is cancelled, and you cannot react when there is no
action.
> It would seen to me that Mirembe had successfullyblocked the action and
> could have played Extortion... Is it the same with, say, Cat's guidiance,
> i.e. that it can't be played after a CoT?
Correct.
Mirembe would not burn blood for failing to block with Forced Awakening,
but cannot play Extortion (or Cat's Guidance) because the action is cancelled.
Pat Ricochet
Dead are Calling even more...and they're Calling "We Win!" =)
> The top two seeds were Giovanni decks going into the finals, and one
> of them won the tournament. (Three in the competition altogether.)
Which makes me all the happier that I didn't play Giovanni for this
tournament, and contest away. Besides, I figured Davila would be playing
his, and I also had to test a theory. (more below)
But, it does make me proud, and confirms what most everyone already
knew, that Call of the Hungry Dead and Shambling Hordes are the most
tournament-viable new cards for the Giovanni, and the crypts in both decks
were ~50% Final Nights vamps, showing the help there, too.
> In no particular order, the participants and their decks:
>
[snip]
> Traci Bitonti - Giovanni (Toolbox?)
More of a Seduction/Call deck, similar to Davila's.
> Patrick O'Shea - Caitiff Computer Hack
Also dubbed the "120 second deck," from how long it took me to put
together for "testing" on Monday. I showed up a bit late, and I was told
"You're just in time!" and had to toss a deck together. All 14 1-caps, 60
Computer Hackings, ~12 Masters.
I guess if you add the time spent tweaking it Saturday morning, maybe
it's a "200 second deck," or so. I did think quite a bit during the week
about tossing in Dodges, Leather Jackets, Delaying Tactics, all that. I
didn't, though. I pulled 2 1-caps, Hasina and Basil, as disadvantageous,
and the Masters were Gird Minions, Anarch Troublemaker, Direct Intervention,
Sudden Reversal, 2 Tribute to the Masters, Info Highway, Humanitas and 6
Effective Management. 74 card deck, cycled like a banshee, and never got
close to running out of cards.
There was an odd strategy to it's simplicity, though; if I played and/or
discarded 8 masters, I'd have 6 left, and my hand would NEVER jam. I could
play Computer Hacking and have a 100% chance of drawing another Computer
Hacking. As it was, I never had any handjam of any kind at all. Can't
necessarily be said of my opponents.
> My round 2 (4 player):
>
> Tatu preying on Conor preying on Jeff preying on Pat preying on Tatu.
>
> Pat got the sweet spot that game, he went fourth, brought out
> four weenies, and went to town on Tatu with his computer hackings.
Tatu had seen my deck before, and I had seen his. He did confess that
his deck choice was based partially upon being able to handle the 1-cap
horde or a Shambling Hordes deck (He had lots of untap, .44s, and some
intercept). He's only the only round I didn't crush my prey in 4 turns, and
I still got him pretty low. I could have gotten him lower, but didn't
bother since I knew I couldn't get him, and would just give the game to
Jeff, so I backed off for a bit, to let Jeff work for getting me, since it
became clear with Tatu walled, Jeff having LOTS of minions, and Conor coming
cross table at me with his Hordes, that I wasn't getting a VP.
Had I actually gotten Tatu (and it was close), I would have snuck ahead
of Sam and into the finals, but would have been at the mercy of seating
position to see if I got my 1VP to get second or third place.
The weenie 1-cap deck basically operated as expected: crushed one prey
flat before they could do anything, and then ran into a new prey who had had
no pressure, and knew what was coming down the pipe, and so went on the
defensive. Round 1 I blasted Mike Perlman, and ran into Chad totally on
defense, who had enough wake and block to put on no forward pressure, but
stay alive long enough to sacrifice me to Conor and his Hordes. Round 3 I
paused one turn to get off a Tribute before my new prey became Robyn, ready
to intercept my hunts, but couldn't wait any longer because Rafaele was
bleeding backwards at me, and my only defense was just ousting.
In both cases, any idea of "weenie defense" NEVER got cycled to (Traci
even made a comment about "if she had gotten to the Hordes instead of
Brigitte,") and one time I didn't get a VP took heavy bleeding from behind,
a huge untap/guns deck prey prepared (nearly specifically) for the 1-cap
deck, and cross-table hordes, just to deny it that one VP.
There are several conclusions to draw from all of this, many of which I
already have, but I just wanted to put the theory into practice.
[snip finals]
> The table played
> very defensively, and once again, the table timed out. I had 22 pool at the
> end. Conor 0.5vp, Robyn 0.5vp, Davila 1vp, Sam 0vp, Jeff 0.5vp.
Pointless nitpick, but was that 1.5 VP for Davila?
> Hopefully David Davila will either post his deck to the newsgroup or Patrick
> will feature it in his newsletter to share his secrets of success with us.
Well, we've got both. Not only is the deck now posted, but it is, card
for card, the deck that we developed together and that was published in the
October Newsletter:
http://www.thelasombra.com/newsletter/giovanni_october_2001.htm
And I probably would have played that exact deck, but Davila had more
practice with it, so I kept away from it and possible contesting.
Congrats to Conor and Davila both for their success, and honorable
mention to Sam, who combined 2 maligned cards (Canopic Jar, Extortion) in a
clever and surprisingly effective way, getting into the finals with a
totally untested deck!
--
Pat Ricochet
Soul Jar'rn Fool of Atlanta