TWD - Jann Berger's "L" is for Lunatic Eruption, Los Angeles, CA, September 1, 2013

Rowlen wrote:

It´s possible to view the Sylvie Helgon deck? Thanks

That deck belongs to Dennis Lien, who isn't active on this forum, as far as I know.

You might try posting your request in the Los Angeles VTES Google group. groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/vtesinla

However, I don't think he looks at that either.

The next time I see him, which may not be for some time, I'll mention it to him if I remember.

Final tournament report:

Julien Guérand (g1/2 Ventrue law firm) ->
Michael Courtois (1st) (mid-cap Dementation stealth/bleed) ->
Dennis Lien (Sylvie Helgon wall) ->
Aaron Clark (2nd) (!Nos/Nos Pot/obf rush) ->
Michael Summers (g1/2 Toreador fatties)
(I only know first and second seed.)

My second prey in the second preliminary game self-ousted, giving me a game win and second seed in the final. I chose to sit to the left of Dennis, since I knew he would provide little initial pressure because of the nature of his deck. When the Dementation bleed deck chose to be his predator, I figured I would have no pressure at all for quite some time.

My initial vampires were Olivia, Agatha, and Krid. Mr. Summers got out Alexandra, followed by François Villon. Julien got out Gideon Fontaine, Sir Walter Nash, and Timothy Crowley. Mr. Courtois got out General Perfidio Dios, Uncle George, and The Colonel. Dennis got out a couple of 1-caps, Sylvie, Mylan, and then Carlton.

The initial action of the game was watching to see what the Dementation deck would do and to see whether I could send Alexandra to torpor. At first Mr. Courtois sent a couple of Dementation bleeds forward against Dennis, who either didn’t have Sylvie out yet or didn’t have the permanent intercept he needed on her yet. In the meantime, Julien took the opportunity to bleed Mr. Courtois for quite a little bit using his friends with Dominate and Presence. He only bled for three at a time, however, because he knew from a previous game that Mr. Courtois was packing AIs. Mr. Courtois, who apparently didn’t have bounce or bounce in hand, reacted by bleeding backwards heavily with Kindred Spirits. This was a problem for me, since I didn’t want Mr. Summers to get Julien’s VP and six pool. Julien was able to bounce at least one bleed back to Mr. Summers (it may have been bounced back, however).

I bled Mr. Summers for one a lot and rushed Alexandra at every opportunity. She was Disarmed once but came back. My guys got Leather Jackets, and Olivia got the Ivory Bow. Then François came out, and got Villeined for almost everything. “Well,” I thought, “at least he’s got less blood to go through when I rush him.” Then I realized that it just gave him space to put all the blood he was going to steal from my vampires!

Julien, who had also suffered at least one power bleed from Mr. Summers, went quickly down to four pool. I had a rush in hand, and although it was more important for me that François go away since he was stealing my vampires’ blood, I had to target Alexandra since she could do more immediate damage to Julien. Down she went with zero blood, only to get Golconda’ed on Mr. Summers’ next turn! Mr. Summers was not able to oust Julien on his turn, but Julien was able to oust Mr. Courtois using power bleeds.

Now Julien turned his attention Sylvie, while I continued to whittle away at the Toreadors. At some point I got out Gerard Raffin, who employed Tasha Morgan. This phase of the game centered on big minion removal. I was able to send François to torpor, but he also got Golconda’ed and was replaced by Anneke. Meanwhile, Sylvie attempted to block a dastardly action from Sir Walter Nash, only to find out that the one discipline she really needed was Fortitude: Sir Walter played Kiss of Ra, and Sylvie fell into the deep sleep of torpor. We then understood why Julien had wanted to make sure that diablerie was a repeatable action. Gideon failed to diablerize and Majestied with one blood. Timothy then successfully drank the soul of Sylvie, receiving a Heart of Nizchetus and Bowl of Convergence as a reward. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for me, Carlton didn’t like that, meaning that by the end of Dennis’s next turn, Sylvie, Timothy, and Carlton were all lying in their respective graveyards!

It was Gideon and Sir Walter against a couple of weenie blockers while Dennis scrambled to resurrect Sylvie with the help of the Powerbase: Montreal. On my end I was able to send Anneke to torpor. Having learned my lesson, I promptly sent Krid to eat her before she could find inner peace. Krid got burned in the blood hunt, but that was the end of Mr. Summers’ game as he decided to sit on his considerable amount of pool and help Julien in any way he could.

Julien bled forward and directed some votes cross table. I was able to delay a KRC that would have been aimed at Dennis, but I later became the target of a Parity Shift and Banishment on a full-to-capacity Gerard, my plus-bleeder. The Banishment was a simple delay in the race between Julien and me to bleed out our respective preys. Although Michael had a ridiculous amount of pool, once I influenced out Amelia, I had a standing bleed of 5 and no reason not to tap out every turn. I had also gotten out a Blood Doll and kept the Edge for a couple of turns, meaning my pool was healthy enough.

Despite his depleted condition and the power of Sir Walter, Dennis proved a resilient prey, and between his weenies blocking, my Delaying Tactics, and Powerbase: Montreal, he survived to get Sylvie out again. Dennis was able to send a hunting Gideon to torpor, where he stayed. However, Sylvie ended up Pentexed and was not able to block a KRC from Sir Walter that killed Dennis, and I did not have another Delaying Tactics.

Michael was still in the game at that point, two turns from being ousted. Julien used his ousting pool to bring out Queen Anne. However, it appeared that he had used all his Majesties in his final battles with Dennis. I rushed Queen Anne with an Ivory-Bow-wielding Olivia, and Anne had no answer to the aggravated damage. I then rushed a depleted Sir Walter and got him with a more traditional Torn Signpost hand-strike. I diablerized Queen Anne, and my guy was saved from the blood hunt by bishop Olivia and the Edge versus tossed vote cards from Michael and Julien.

At this point my opponents had no more ready minions, so I figured the only opponent I had left was the clock. I influenced out Arnold Simpson in preparation. However, Michael had one last surprise for me: a Giant’s Blood for Sir Walter Nash on his final turn. On Julien’s turn, Sir Walter self-rescued. Hmm, this could be bad since my pool was low enough that Sir Walter, with the right combination of cards, could conceivably have ousted me in one turn. Luckily for me, that did not happen. On my next turn I (finally) ousted Michael and started to bleed Julien. One or two turns passed as Julien and I worked to oust the other. After a successful Dominate Kine bleed, Sir Walter was tapped and low on blood. On my subsequent turn, it looked as though I had enough bleed to get Julien. Sir Walter woke and blocked one of my Nossies, but he didn't have a Majesty and got sent to torpor via a Leather Jacket/Disarm combo. Julien then conceded.

I had never played this deck before the tournament, but I had a good feeling about it. I think the vampires are fun. It certainly needs some tweaking, and my lack of experience led me to make at least one crucial combat error in a preliminary round.

Kudos to Julien for his strong showing with his old-school Ventrue Law Firm deck. The game was close: he told me afterwards that he had an Ancilla Empowerment in hand that would have ousted me had he survived another turn. Julien left his principal VTES collection in France when he came to California, but he has done very well with the more basic collection he has cobbled together here. He also won one of the tournaments that weekend with his Potence/Dominate deck, so maybe we will see a tournament report from him one of these days.