Lasombra -- OBT/PRE/DOM (Won Toronto Qualifier -- May 3, 2003)
CRYPT (12 vampires)
Aaron Duggan 2 -- obt
Mitchell, The HH 2 -- obt
Cameron 3 -- dom
Sela 6 -- obt PRE
Tobias Smith 7 -- OBT PRE DOM
Gratiano 8 -- OBT DOM
Antonio Delgato 9 -- OBT DOM
FD de Polonia 9 -- OBT PRE DOM
2 Marcus Vitel 10 -- OBT PRE DOM
2 Moncada 10 -- OBT PRE DOM
Total 86 -- Average 7.2 -- Best 13 -- Worst 40
LIBRARY (90 cards; 18 Master, 72 Minion)
7 Minion Tap
3 Info Highway
2 Direct Intervention -- 1p
2 Zillah's Valley -- 5p
Dreams of the Sphinx -- 1p
Effective Management
Golconda - Inner Peace
Power Structure
8 KRC
4 Honour the Elders
Ancient Influence
Banishment
Disputed Territory
Dramatic Upheaval
Political Stranglehold
6 Shroud of Night
5 Shadow Play -- 1b
4 Arms of the Abyss
3 Entombment -- 2b
7 Majesty -- 1b
6 Voter Captivation
4 Bewitching Oration
4 Bonding
4 Deflection -- 1b
2 Graverobbing
2 Redirection
6 Wake with Evening's Freshness
2 Baltimore Purge
Tourney Report -- Toronto Qualifier Saturday May 3rd
We played at a sports bar called O'Reilly's which is notable in that they
have the most attractive wait-staff in the known universe and have some
great beers on tap. I would honestly hang out there if I lived in Toronto...
and I hate sports.
I don't have the list of players. If you are interested in seeing it, you
will have to wait for Peter Muto to post it. I believe there were 21 players
total if I am not mistaken.
Normally, the Detroit crew (which includes me sort of) come the farthest for
the Toronto games, but this time we had two players from Boston, Scott Gomes
and Matt Hirsh, both of whom got into the finals. I think I've seen both of
their names on this newsgroup, but I'm not sure. Great players in any case.
One player had to leave after the second round. I think he got SARS.
==================
ROUND ONE
Adam Lee (Tremere and True Brujah)
--> ME (Lasombra OBT/PRE/DOM)
--> Neil Mack (Setite Enticement)
--> Scott Gomes (Lazvernius POT/FOR)
Kind of a weird game. Adam was very new to the game (as were many players
that day) and kept making a lot of mistakes. As my predator, I can't say
this bothered me that much.
He seemed to have all the wrong vampires for his library and pretty much
none of his cards worked as he thought they did. Scott was very mean to him
by sending almost all of his vampires to torpor. At one point he had Nu the
Pillar and only 1 pool. Scott and I had been doing the old "Cold War across
the table" thing because we knew we would eventually be enemies. When Adam
hit 1 pool, I knew I had to do something so I played Golconda Inner Peace on
Nu the Pillar, which Adam *could not afford* to cancel (it costs 2 pool to
cancel). So Adam gained 9 pool, a nice cushion to stop Scott from getting to
me until I managed to oust my own prey.
My prey Neil was not doing all that great either. Oddly, his deck seemed
like it was designed to mess with my head. He cancelled my votes with Dread
Gaze of all things (my vote control was often tenuous at best) and then
Treachery. I was dumbfounded. As a votey-type deck, I was ashamed that I had
these cards used against me, though it was also very funny.
After Neil and Adam were ousted, I pulled a few KRCs in a row and ousted
Scott who had neither intercept or vote control... or rushes, thanks be to
Caine.
Results --> Wes 3 VP, Scott 1 VP
====================
ROUND TWO
Shawn Wood (Gangrel)
--> Tim Rafuse (Malk Stealth Bleed)
--> ME (Lasombra OBT/PRE/DOM)
--> Cliff Goodman (Setite Stealth Bleed)
This game looked dire right from the start. I was being bled for at least
five per turn with Governs and Spying Missions. It hurt badly.
Meanwhile, my cross-table ally wasn't doing much better either as he seemed
to have none of the rush cards that would have helped us both out.
I was down to only 2 pool when my predator decided not to bleed me out and
instead equipped a Laptop Computer. I was getting ready to pack my cards and
go for lunch and suddenly I was SAVED!
So, on my turn I Minion Tapped Moncada for 9 played a KRC and Voter Capped
him back up, and then played another KRC that replaced the Voter Cap to oust
my prey Cliff. I gained 17 pool and suddenly things looked a lot better.
Meanwhile, my predator's hand jammed up considerably since I wasn't blocking
him much. I took my new prey Tim with a few stealth bleeds of my own. And
pretty soon it was just me and the Malkavian.
My pool was growing steadily from Minion Taps and Voter Caps and I brought
out Marcus Vitel, whose special made all three of my Sabbat Vampires a
significant threat to my prey. It was just a matter of time before I ousted
him.
The moral of the story is: Never assume that you are dead. There is always a
chance that you will survive. Moral #2 is that even after all these years,
Malkavian Sneak Bleed decks still annoy the fuck out of me.
Results --> Wes 4 VP (Sweep)
=============================
ROUND THREE
Samer Sayegh (Assamite starter, or so I was told)
--> Joanne Tornambe (Malk Stealth Bleed)
--> Riziq Sayegh (Ravnos Stealth Bleed)
--> ME (Lasombra OBT/PRE/DOM)
This game was unique in that I was the only person that had been playing
V:tES for longer than a few weeks.
If that wasn't enough reason to do well, my predator seemed more interested
in getting his little brother (my prey) off the table than ousting me
(though to be fair he was bleeding me for 1 a lot).
At one point, my Assamite prey had 1 pool and decided to rush Moncada, which
would have ousted him. Fortunately, someone else saw it and he changed
targets (I know this is illegal, but nobody cared that much) so that he
attacked Joanne's Malkavian prince instead. He also left his 1 pool
undefended... a good deed that would not go unpunished by me.
Joanne amused and confused us all by playing... wait for it... Curse of
Nitocris! Which ended up not being all that bad actually. I'm thinking it
might go well in a Kiasyd Bleed Control deck. But I digress... the Curse was
flying around the table like mad and we all took at least 4 pool damage from
it at some point.
After I knocked Joanne out, the Ravnos didn't have much of a chance. He had
about six vampires but lost his main one to my Entombment followed by a
diablerie. He had about three cards on the vampire, including a
Flamethrower.
So that pretty much finished him off I think. Although he was new and did
not win, Riziq played very well and I hold high hopes that he will
eventually become a very challenging opponent in the future.
Results --> Wes 4 VP (Sweep)
============================
FINAL GAME
James Something (Salubri Marionette/Heidelburg)
--> Matt Hirsh (Animalism combat?)
--> Dave Stevers (Weenie AUS/CEL Concealed guns)
--> ME (Lasombra OBT/PRE/DOM)
--> Scott Gomes (Lazvernius POT/FOR)
This game was a lot of fun because we were all a little drunk, as were some
of the spectators. Although I was sure that I was in the finals, I was not
sure that I would play because our ride Linc was looking pretty tired
(though not drunk) and I felt bad for him. But we decided to stay anyway, I
think mostly so Aaron Steele could keep drinking (bar tab $55 CDN).
Dave Stevers was first seed in the final as he managed to sweep *all four*
of his tables (a round of applause for Dave! :). Dave and I have a history
of friendly but very fierce rivalry in this game. The games when we sit next
to each other tend to be short and brutal for both of us. This one was a
little different.
I was so tired and tipsy that I forgot to play the Info Highway that was in
my hand for the first two turns of the game heheh. In retrospect, it
wouldn't have made much difference. Speed does not always equal efficiency.
Dave was struggling to buy his guns and I think he only managed to get one
on Sarah Cobbler the whole game. He offered me a deal such that he would
leave me alone a bit so he could defend against his predator, despite the
fact that everyone else kept trying to tell him this was rather silly. Can't
say I disagree since my deck could do very little to my predator aside from
the occasional 1 point of KRC damage, which I know better than to throw at a
predator in a precarious position. And of course at the exact same time as
Dave stops bleeding me, my hand jams up with Deflections... grrrr.
Oh yeah, Dave also bought me a pint of Caffreys, in a shameless attempt to
affect my play. Is that considered an out-of-game consideration? I don't
care. It's damned good beer.
Eventually, the table was looking pretty beat up. I had lots of blood on my
vamps and enough pool to survive but everyone else had anemic-looking
vampires and even more anemic looking pool totals.
A Fame on James' Matthias made everyone but me nervous. And that Fame ended
up ousting James a few turns later. Thanks to a cross-table rush from Matt
(I think), I managed to diablerize Lazvernius before he could be rescued. So
Scott ended up with an oust but only one Blood Brother who had himself seen
better nights (he was empty IIRC).
So, just to be a mean drunk, I banished Scott's one remaining vampire and
then took my sweet time ousting him while doing most of my cross-table KRC
damage to my grandprey Matt. Matt eventually ousted Dave but at that point I
was drawing into all the cards I needed.
In a few more turns, it was over.
Many amusing moments in the game. For some reason, everyone kept rushing
Mitchell the Head Hunter. He survived something like three rushses, don't
ask me how. I'm not exactly sure why everyone kept doing that but it was
funny because I really couldn't care less if he was torped. I guess he's
cheaper to rush than Moncada is.
Second, when my hand was full of stuff I didn't need I played a Disputed
Territory. The only location that made any sense to steal was Matt's
cross-table Hunting Ground. I was honestly just cycling cards. So Dave
offers to Delaying Tactics the vote so Matt could keep his HG and meanwhile
I'm telling them I don't even want it that badly... whatever. Matt wisely
decided not to work with his prey but Arsons the HG a few turns later. I
dunno... I found it funny. Frankly, I was so knackered and tipsy at that
point that I would have happily just offered a fourway draw.
I don't know how I won really... it was not that great of a game. I think
basically that everyone else spent a lot of time beating each other up while
I desperately tried to get rid of the master jam in my hand. By the time, I
started paying attention, there wasn't a lot left to stop me.
But I still contend that my deck wasn't all that great. It was however a lot
of fun to play with.
Results --> Wes 3 VP, Scott 1 VP, Matt 1 VP
===========================
Here's the deck. It started out as an exact duplicate of one of "The
Lasombra's" decks called "In the Presence of the Lasombra" but was quite a
bit different after some last-minute tweaks. And it could use a lot more
frankly. I still contend that this deck is not that fantastic. I welcome any
comments, and if people are interested, I will reveal what changes I think
should be made based on all the hand jam I was getting all day.
LASOMBRA -- OBT/PRE/DOM
CRYPT (12 vampires)
Aaron Duggan 2 -- obt
Mitchell, The HH 2 -- obt
Cameron 3 -- dom
Sela 6 -- obt PRE
Tobias Smith 7 -- OBT PRE DOM
Gratiano 8 -- OBT DOM
Antonio Delgato 9 -- OBT DOM
FD de Polonia 9 -- OBT PRE DOM
2 Marcus Vitel 10 -- OBT PRE DOM
2 Moncada 10 -- OBT PRE DOM
Total 86 -- Average 7.2 -- Best 13 -- Worst 40
LIBRARY (90 cards; 18 Master, 72 Minion)
7 Minion Tap
3 Info Highway
2 Direct Intervention -- 1p
2 Zillah's Valley -- 5p
Dreams of the Sphinx -- 1p
Effective Management
Golconda - Inner Peace
Power Structure
8 KRC
4 Honour the Elders
Ancient Influence
Banishment
Disputed Territory
Dramatic Upheaval
Political Stranglehold
6 Shroud of Night
5 Shadow Play -- 1b
4 Arms of the Abyss
3 Entombment -- 2b
7 Majesty -- 1b
6 Voter Captivation
4 Bewitching Oration
4 Bonding
4 Deflection -- 1b
2 Graverobbing
2 Redirection
6 Wake with Evening's Freshness
2 Baltimore Purge
NAVIGATION
Jyhad Resource Page -> Deck Archive -> Deck 11