This tournament was played on September 5 with 16 Methuselahs. Words from the winner Nick Miller, conveyed by Steve Harris, VEKN National Coordinator of Australia:
I was playing the new Lasombra vote with Dominica + Saulot’s Guiding Wisdom. I had expected there to be some combat/direct action decks, so I added in an extra Secure Haven and Shadow Cloak. With the Ferry as well, I thought I would have a chance of surviving. The environment did turn out to have some combat decks and a Shattering Crescendo deck. A few vote decks, some bleed decks, only 1 ally deck and no anarchs. 16 players, so all 4-player tables, only 1 table out of the 12 went to time.
Round 1: Bert, my prey, was playing Shalmath multi-rush (Outside the Hourglass/Majesty/Disarm). And my predator was playing Shattering Crescendo. I was lucky to get a Secure Haven down early and played a Shadow Cloak with my other vampire whenever possible. My predator went backwards with Shattering early until going forwards. I was able to deal with my cross table (Ke) and he ousted my predator, and I ended up getting the rest.
Round 2: My prey played The Unmasking turn 1 and proceeded to bring out Bone Shamblers. They were trimmed down a bit by my crosstable Ben, playing Hecata guns. But I didn’t have enough stealth to go forwards. Justin, my predator playing Path of Power, had the votes and stealth to get my vp and the game win. Justin would go on to get a game win at each table.
Round 3: My prey was playing another Path of Power deck. But I was able to keep his votes in check with Power Structure + Dominica’s Saulot’s Guiding Wisdom and help from my crosstable playing Cailean Path of Cathari bleed. My predator, playing Salubri, wasn’t drawing into much bleed (and fortunately I escaped Kiss of Ra thanks to my vampires having Fortitude). I was able to go forwards and vote + Shroud of Decay to a vp, and then a second vp. In heads-up my prey ended up with enough bleed to get my vp, resulting in a 2-2 draw.
Standings before the final:
Justin Evans 3 gw, 9 VP
Bert Perry 2 gw, 6 vp
Nick Miller 1 gw, 5 vp
Ben Szymkow 1 gw, 5 vp
Ke Carlton 1 gw, 4 vp
Final: As third seed, I didn’t have much say on seating. I ended up with Shalmath as my prey (again), Justin as my predator (again), and Ben and Ke crosstable (again!). I had a Secure Haven in hand ready to play on my first influenced vampire, Yewon, to save me from backrushing. But Ke got a quick start with Unmada out early and played his own Secure Haven down. Ke did some early big bleeds.
Ben was on the backfoot from the start, brought out Lenelle (who has basic Auspex, so cannot misdirect bleeds) and was not able to recover.
Justin, with no predator, made some deals early to get vote support from Ke to pass some Cold War and other damaging votes on me. There was much discussion on burning Secure Haven with Cold War, but it did not eventuate.
Bert had multiple permanent rushes on Shalmath and I made deals each turn that I would not go forward if he did not backrush. But as I got lower on pool from Justin’s votes and bleeds, I stopped the deals, weathered a rush (with a Direct Intervention on the Outside the Hourglass to survive the combo) and managed to oust with a vote followed by a Shroud of Decay.
Ke got his vp. Justin was close to ousting me when I was on 5 pool with a Cold War vote followed by a few bleeds, but I was lucky to have a Delaying Tactics to cancel the vote. I went down to 2 pool from bleeds and the game timed out a few minutes later.
Final result: Nick Miller won with 1.5 VP. Ke got 1.5 VP and Justin got 0.5 VP.
Tournament winning deck: “New Lasombra vote with Dominica”
Crypt (12 cards)
2x Gnaeus Aemilius Augustinus 9 tha DOM OBL POT PRO Lasombra:6
1x Dafina Hanganu 8 for DOM OBL POT Lasombra:6
2x Yewon Ong 8 for DOM OBL POT Lasombra:6
2x María del Toro 7 DOM OBL POT Lasombra:6
1x Rinaldo Albizzi 7 pre DOM OBL POT Lasombra:6
1x Kamaluddin 6 for pot DOM OBL Lasombra:6
3x Dominica 3 aus for Salubri:7
Library (75 cards)
Master (14)
1x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Elysian Fields
1x Giant's Blood
1x Papillon
1x Power Structure
1x Saulot's Guiding Wisdom
2x Secure Haven
3x Villein
1x Visit from the Capuchin
Action (11)
7x Govern the Unaligned
4x Shroud of Decay
Ally (1)
1x Carlton Van Wyk
Equipment (1)
1x Zaire River Ferry
Political Action (13)
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancilla Empowerment
4x Camarilla's Iron Fist
5x Kine Resources Contested
2x Parity Shift
Action Modifier (20)
2x Amici Noctis
3x Closed Session
3x Freak Drive
1x Seduction
2x Shadow Cast
3x Shadow Cloak
3x Stygian Shroud
3x Where the Veil Thins
Combat (3)
3x Pass Through Shadow
Reaction (11)
6x Deflection
1x Delaying Tactics
1x On the Qui Vive
2x Second Tradition: Domain
1x Shadow Sentinel
Event (1)
1x Scourge of the Enochians
Thanks for the report (even though it could have more pics), and thanks to all organisers, sponsors and players!
Finalists: Niki, Pedro, Edd, Alex, Norbert
This tournament was played on August 29. Reported by James Freimuller, VEKN National Coordinator of the UK, with comment from the champion:
This year saw UK Nationals located in the lovely Dice Cup Cafe in Nottingham where 25 methuselahs came to duke it out.
Having hosted the nats for a few years now, it's interesting to see the meta shift over time. In the UK's case that's more combat and more allies.
Another welcome addition was several neonates! We had 3 new players join us from our recent recruitment drives (Thanks to Luke Kay for a solid effort there) and 1 return from a long torpor.
Going into the final, the standings were:
1 Norbert Flasko 2 GW 8 VP
2 Edd Phipps 1 GW 4.5 VP
3 Alex Shoemark 1 GW 4 VP
4 Niki Sehmi 1 GW 4 VP
5 Pedro Valentim 1 GW 4 VP
Here is Alex's report:
"Firstly, many thanks to everyone involved for organising such a great event and to everyone I played against for welcoming me to tournament VTES. I've played other CCGs competitively and this community puts them to shame. Special thanks to Mikey and the Liverpool coven for coaching and support; you've obviously taught me a lot in a few months!
Seating was a huge factor in the final. I figured I'd be happiest anywhere but between Banu rush and War Ghouls, so I positioned myself with Pedro's ghouls as my predator, assuming that Edd and Norbert were unlikely to choose to be prey to the only stealth-bleed deck. I suggested to Norbert that he might want me as prey as I have almost no intercept or votes, which worked out very well as Pedro's ghouls got busy bashing Aaradhya et al., leaving me without much pressure.
I also benefited from a dream start of double Zillah's Valley for a turn 2 The unnamed + Anarch Convert as 1st player.
Turn 3 Heart of the City + unlocking into Platinum Protocol began an onslaught of stealthy bleeds for 4+.
Niki bounced several and saddled me with Haven Uncovered, bringing Edd's wrath to bear upon The Unnamed, but he didn't muster enough stikes to torpor, and was low enough on pool that he shifted his attention to pressuring his prey.
Once Niki ran dry on bounce I was able to oust and finally deploy Enkil Cog. From here, Edd managed to sweep Pedro and Norbert, but I could Unleash Hell's Fury for protection and was well set up to chew through his remaining pool.
That I won despite missing 7 of 9 corruption counters from Platinum Protocol is testament to the power of the deck, and my biggest takeaway was that I should consider my words more carefully as I very nearly threw the game with poorly thought out and horrendously timed table talk early on. Sometimes, pointing out what is likely to happen in your turn just makes you seem like a big threat, best to keep quiet and hope nobody is thinking about you!"
Crypt(12 cards)
4x unnamed, The 10 CEL DAI OBF PRE PRO Baali:6
4x Anarch Convert 1 -none- Caitiff:ANY
1x Nonu Dis 8 OBF PRE PRO for Ministry:6
1x Crystal Lynn 6 OBF PRE PRO Ministry:6
1x Doctor Morocco 5 PRO cel obf pre Ministry:6
1x Jenny Silver 5 PRE PRO obf Ministry:6
Library (90 cards)
Master (22; 2 trifle)
7x Zillah's Valley
4x Dabbler
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Rötschreck
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Archon Investigation
1x Barrens, The
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Giant's Blood
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Villein
Action (17)
12x Platinum Protocol, The
2x Unleash Hell's Fury
1x Conceal
1x Entrancement
1x Heart of the City
Retainer (2)
2x Homunculus
Equipment (1)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
Action Modifier (27)
8x Revelation of the Serpent
4x Memory Rift
3x I am Legion
3x Instantaneous Transformation
3x Enchanting Gaze
2x CrimethInc.
2x Enkil Cog
1x Lost in Crowds
1x Monkey Wrench
Action Modifier/Reaction (3)
2x Sense the Sin
1x Form of the Bat
Combat (6)
3x Form of Mist
2x Earth Meld
1x Bollix
Ally (1)
1x Veneficti
Event (1)
1x Narrow Minds
Action Modifier/Combat (3)
3x Swallowed by the Night
Reaction (7)
7x Party Out Of Bounds
Huge congratulations to Alex, this was his first tournament having picked up VTES very recently! I'm very happy to see new people enter our community and feel so supported.
Thanks for this report, and thanks to players and sponsors!
This tournament was played in Saint Petersburg on August 1 with 16 players. Reported by Anatoly Chuhvicheff, VEKN Prince of Saint Petersburg:
Standings before the final:
1. Vladislav Ignatenko 2 GW 8.0 VP
2. Armen Khachikyan 1 GW 4.0 VP
3. Vitalii Zvonkov 1 GW 3.5 VP
4. Sergey Simonov 1 GW 3.0 VP 88 TP
5. Anatoly Chuhvicheff 1 GW 3.0 VP 78 TP
Vladislav Ignatenko is the winner by time limit (top seed, all players 0,5 VP).
The tournament winning deck: "Drawing the Line"
Crypt (12 cards)
2x Araceli "Celia" Rivera 3 dom obl Lasombra:6
2x Azucena 5 DOM OBL pot Lasombra:6
1x Aintzane Arriaga 6 DOM OBL POT Lasombra:6
1x Alek König 3 OBL Hecata:6
1x Braden White 4 dom obl pot Lasombra:6
1x El Monseñor 4 OBL dom Lasombra:6
1x Kamaluddin 6 DOM OBL for pot primogen Lasombra:6
1x María del Toro 7 DOM OBL POT prince Lasombra:6
1x Parijat, the Dark Oracle 7 AUS DOM FOR OBL Hecata:6
1x Rinaldo Albizzi 7 DOM OBL POT pre primogen Lasombra:6
Library (90 cards)
Master (13; 2 trifle)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Bleeding the Vine
1x Charisma
1x Coven, The
1x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Elysian Fields
1x Giant's Blood
1x Jake Washington
1x Life in the City
1x Line, The
1x Perfectionist
Action (21)
8x Computer Hacking
10x Govern the Unaligned
3x Shroud of Decay
Ally (8)
8x Spectral Servitor
Action Modifier (28)
4x Bonding
2x Conditioning
1x Foreshadowing Destruction
6x Shadow Cast
7x Shadow Cloak
4x Stygian Shroud
4x Where the Veil Thins
Combat (6)
4x Pass Through Shadow
2x Target Vitals
Reaction (12)
6x Deflection
1x Delaying Tactics
1x On the Qui Vive
4x Shadow Sentinel
Event (2)
1x FBI Special Affairs Division
1x Unmasking, The
Thanks for the report, and thanks to all the participants!
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