Games from Memorial Day Weekend in LA

Casual game:
Dennis (Sylvia)> Lex (Gangrel)> Chris (!Brujah)> me (Gabriella de R. Toolbox)> Fred Scott (Saulot)

I get bled for around 3 by chris, then I start emptying his minions with Gabriella’s ability, plus some intercept combat. Dennis DI’s Fred’s Magic of the Smith. I comment that he is good at resource management. In this case he is managing Fred’s resources by denying an early permanent card. It was also too early for Dennis to risk combat with Saulot.

Ashurs were a big deal with players Saturday. Two players in this game were playing them without being too exploitative.

Chris bleeds repeatedly with his !Brujah weenies. I stomp his dudes and selectively block Fred. I forget what exactly happened in this game. I was probably consoling myself after missing the finals.

Pick-up game:
Mike Zajak ( Assamite Death Star)> Fred (Goratrix wall)> Preston (Kiasyd S&B)> me (!Brujah wall)> Robert Scythe (War Ghouls)

I did get to see a war ghoul deck this weekend, but no war ghouls…

I block Preston a lot. Fred blocks him some, too. Antonino V. gets Mr Winthrop, Sport Bike and Abbott early. I block Robert’s tool up actions and take his blood early with Tastes. Esprit de Corps was played for strength, but was never useful for the superior effect.

I oust Robert and make a deal with Mike that he should oust Fred before I try to oust him. With Revolutionary counsel #1 Mike burns Fred’s Ruins of C., bow, bowl, kevlar vest, powerbase montreal, and does 1 pool damage. With #2 on the next turn Mike does enough damage to Fred to oust him and burns my Sport Bike. I push blood onto Miguel Santo Domingo and hunt with him to get just enough blood for +bleed to oust Mike. Preston concedes.

About the pick-up game:

I listened to Sun Tzu’s Art of War on CD recently and found that some of the ideas in the book have implications for VTES.

1) Know the game state is the first command of VTES. Can I kill my prey? Do I need to defend? Who can’t I deal with?

For example, I helped oust Fred and then Mike because I couldn’t deal with Fred’s blocking/combat machine. With Fred off the table I could focus on ousting my prey.

2) Know yourself and your enemy and you will win all of your battles.

I had an advantage in the game in that I had constructed Mike’s deck. I was also familiar with Preston and Fred’s decks from playing against them before.

When you don’t have this advantage, how can you know what someone else is playing?

Studying decks (i.e. TWDA, blogs, forum, Hall of Fame)
Playing decks (net deck)
Manipulating people into revealing what their deck does?
Reading tournament reports?

Sun Tzu might say that by making your opponent move to you, you can learn a lot about their decks. What do you think?

brandonsantacruz wrote:

When you don’t have this advantage, how can you know what someone else is playing?

Studying decks (i.e. TWDA, blogs, forum, Hall of Fame)
Playing decks (net deck)
Manipulating people into revealing what their deck does?
Reading tournament reports?

Sun Tzu might say that by making your opponent move to you, you can learn a lot about their decks. What do you think?

Nice report!

I agree with Sun Tzu here (he's a hard to disagree with). I don't currently play V:tES, but I'm still interested in what happens in the tournament scene. When I was an active player, I read all the TWDA entries that were posted here and newsgroups. I still do.

I'd say that my method is to study them and reading tournament reports. Since I'm not a player who can easily adopt different play styles of different decks, I usually find that playing a TWDA copy doesn't suit me.

Casual games are good for testing TWDA decks, either by playing them or playing against them. But, only tournaments reveal how decks truly perform when played by players who get them - I mean, really GET them.

For instance, notorious variants of Girls... decks are (were?) quite popular in tournament and casual games. They are strong decks, but they are tough to win with and most players (including me) don't actually know how to play them. That said, I also know how to play against one - I've had enough experience with them.

I'd say, that every time you lose, you should consider other players' decks: What were the strengths and tricks as well as weaknesses of the decks. You can also think what deck could overcome those decks (not necessarily the one you played at the time).

And lastly, the more you play in tournaments, the more insight you get how other decks work and what decks you can't deal with and what decks work in favor of you.

Brandon,
lets make a few correct info, here.
Dennis (Sylvia)> Lex (Dayan Anarch Deck)> Chris (!Brujah)> me (Gabriella de R. Toolbox)> Fred Scott (Saulot)

It was the only game that I sweep the table.
Dayan Infamous Insurgent anarch deck that was also beeding every turn.

The quote of the day for that game was from Dennis "Lex, you have too many Diversion! what the Hell!"

Sorry, my notes from that game trailed off. I didn't take any notes from Sunday's tournament. We only had 8 players, unfortunately.

What is a Dayan?

This is probably a Dayan: