Reverend Blackwood (TWD and report), Paris, France

Name of Event : Reverend Blackwood
Location : Troll2Jeux shop, Paris, Franc
Date : December 12th, 2010
Number of players : 21
Winning player : Philippe LANG
Deck :

Crypt (12 cards)
4 Carna
1 Selena
1 Hannigan
1 Blythe Candeleria
1 Richard tauber
1 Aisling Sturbridge
1 Almiro Suarez
1 Masika St John
1 Martin Franckel

Library (90 cards)

Masters : 18
1 Arcane Library
1 Rack
1 Powerbase Montreal
1 Chantry
2 Blood Dool
4 Vessel
1 Pentex
1 From a sinking Ship
2 Direct Intervention
3 Life Boon
1 Fragment of the Book of Nod

Action : 14
2 Ponticulus
1 Talbot Chainsaw
1 Snipper Riffle
3 Magic of the Smith
2 Nose of the Hound
1 Bowl of Convergence
1 Ivory Bow
3 Govern The Unaligned

Action Modifier : 9
3 Mirror Walk
3 Conditioning
2 Foreshadowing Destruction
1 Bonding

Reaction : 19
2 Force Awakening
3 On The Qui Vive
4 Eye of Argus
3 Eagle's Sight
3 My enemy's Enemy
2 Telepathic Misdirection
2 Enhanded Sense

Combat : 30
2 Aura reading
7 Apportation
9 Theft of Vitae
3 Blood Fury
1 Burst of Sunlight
2 Rego Motus
2 Walk of Flame
4 Telepathic Tracking

A full report can be found in french at
www.veknfrance.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16316

A brief report in english (or approximate english, bear with me) :
I organized this tournament to honor the work of our National Coordinator,
Philippe Lang aka Reverend Blackwood, who did a great job as French NC for 3
years and who did most of the work in organizing the 2010 European
Championship in Paris. I traditionnally organize the last tournament of the
calendar year without playing in it, but since 19 players were present in
round 1, they asked me to join them so we could have 5-players tables. Then
Floppy had to drop for round 2 but another player joined in round 2, hence
the 21 players indicated in the TWD.

Here are the standings with a brief description of the metagame :
Final Rank Name Prelim GWs Prelim VPs Final VPs TPs
1 Philippe LANG (Carna) 2 6 4 144
2 Nicolas BIGOT (Howler) 2 7,5 1 168
2 Orian GISSLER (Army of Allah) 1 4,5 0 120
2 Pierre-Benoît LAGOEYTE (Nana Buruku Deep Song Ashur) 1 5 0 144
2 Pierre TRAN-VAN (Derjudge's Kiev Circle S&B) 2 7 0 174
6 Margaux DAQUINO (Muricia) 0 3 126
7 Vincent RIPOLL (Nergal/Great Beast/Contagion/Pocket out of Time) 0 2 108
8 Julien OHLER (Anson Slaughterhouse) 0 2 90
9 David FLEURY (Mictlantecuhlti rush) 0 2 84
10 Raphaël ACQUAVIVA (!Malk S&B) 0 1,5 108
10 Franck BERNARD (Midcap pot / dom) 0 1,5 108
12 Christophe BOLOGNINO (Goratrix from outer space) 0 1,5 102
13 Daniel UJHELJI-VARGA (Velya wall with strange set-up) 0 1 96
14 Jeff CORNELIUS (Uta Kovacs) 0 1 90
14 Antonio COBO CUENCA (Rockcat Graverobbing) 0 1 90
14 Nicolas VERHILLE (Shambling) 0 1 90
17 Patrice LASCOMBES (!Ventrue) 0 1 78
18 Lucas BONROY (weenie pot) 0 0,5 84
19 Karim BALOUL (Uta rush) 0 0,5 78
20 Jérome GOYET (Theo Bell Amaranth) 0 0,5 54
21 Pascal BERTRAND (Shalmath wall) 0 0 24

1GW 4.5VP was necessary to hit the final. As a side note, a special prize
was awarded to the player who played the most "Reverend Blackwood" deck,
basically either a deck that won with Life Boon or who toasted minions using
Thaumaturgic combat. Karim won the prize with his Uta rush deck.

Final was Philippe Lang aka Reverend Blackwood (Carna) -> meh (Kiev Circle
S&B) -> Nicolas Bigot aka Dimple (Howler) -> Orian Gissler aka TTC (Army of
Allah, i.e. Assamite swarm vote) -> Nhetic (Nana Buruku Deep Song)

TTC was sandwiched between 2 intercept decks and couldn't do much. Philippe
didn't want to help him. I was also stuck between 2 intercept decks so
couldn't perform set-up actions. Even if TTC had some narrow openings at
some point when Nhetic began thinking it wasn't his job to kill Dimple's
prey, he was in rough shape. So Dimple moved forward with Howler, Cynthia,
Lena Rowe and TTC was ousted. Nhetic initially had the upper hand against
Blackwood in combat, but Blackwood benefited from Montreal and Arcanle
Library early in the game, so had plenty of vampires and he had Ponticulus
as well.
Nhetic and I helped each other with cross-table rescues from torpor; I tried
to go for an oust on Dimple and he resisted. I tried again the turn after,
full tapping my Kiev vamps but Blackwood prevented me from ousting Dimple,
first with an Eagle Sight, second with a Life Boon. I had hesitated on
pushing the ousting bleed in "overkill" mode (i.e. a bleed of 5 with Walk of
Caine even though Dimple was at 1 pool), to dissuade Blackwood from playing
Life Boon (the player is quite famous in Paris for playing it), but that
would have left my vamps without blood and Blackwood had too much permacept
so it wouldn't have paid off in the long run. Anyway I took the risk that he
had a life boon which he did, so he saved Dimple after agreeing on ousting
their respective preys then going for a duel. Philippe ousts me the turn
after that. Nhetic couldn't win a 1 versus 2 and falls. The duel began 15
minutes before the time limit and both sides had fairly equal chances of
winning at first but Blackwood got the upper hand and torporized nearly all
of Dimple's minions. Dimple concedes, 3 minutes before the time limit.

Philippe therefore wins the tournament that was organized in his honor.
Congratulations to him !
Thanks to the Troll2Jeux shop for providing the venue, as always ; to
Floppy, our new National Coordinator, who took care of providing a nice
surprise gift for Philippe ; to the players, who made the tournament a nice
one with good mood ; to Philippe, for his extraordinary commitment to the
game and contribution to the growth of the VtES french community, as well as
taking the burden of so many tasks in the organization and running of the
2010 EC in Paris .

Greeting from Paris
Stone