This event was held at Hobby Master Events Centre in Auckland on August 30. Report by Ke Carlton and Simon Reed:
Fourteen players gathered for the Auckland Grand Prix which doubled as the New Zealand Nationals, eight locals joined by two up from Wellington and four Aussies crossed the ditch, three from Melbourne and one from Brisbane. Preliminary rounds were ruthless with hardly a timeout and in the end only five players had at least one game making the final table cut off a game win. A good cross section of decks, some new oblivion & Lasombra decks, some old school bleed, Nergal made an appearance, and overall a surprising amount of violence.
Standings before final:
1. Ke Carlton Auckland New Zealand 2 GW 10 VP
2. Andrew Stott Auckland New Zealand 2 GW 7 VP
3. Andrew Young Auckland New Zealand 1 GW 7 VP
4. Riley Willimott Auckland New Zealand 1 GW 3 VP
5. Simon Reed Wellington New Zealand 1 GW 3 VP
All Kiwi final. Ke was top seed choosing to sit away from Massassi and the Zombies taking Banu as the least bad option.
The final was an up and down affair with at one point or another all players looking likely. All players got off to reasonable starts except for Andy playing Massassi guns, he had a combat in which 21 cards were played via several infernal pursuits which still did not produce the required .44 ! Once Massassi found her weapon of choice, a quick fame dunk and Dragonbound put Andrew and his zombie horde under some pressure and he was immediately on the back foot. Andrews prey Riley was looking good against Ke who was under some pressure, not helped by Simon playing two Condemnation Mutes backwards to deny blood and an Unleashed Hell's Fury lurking with intent. Simon managed the odd vote but didn't have the required stealth to get past Massassi on a regular basis. Andrew was saved by a cross-table diablerie of a famous minion by Simon, cue long discussion about burning Atiena as Ke tried to remove one of his prey's minions, ultimately Atiena survived and the diablerie was enough to just stop Andy from getting Andrew.
Riley eventually got over the top of Ke via bleeds with Andy's Dragonbound doing the final couple of pool. At this point Riley looked pretty good, he just needed to not let Andy get Andrew or Simon get both Andy and Andrew and he was good. Andy was stalled as the fame was gone and Simon didn't have enough stealth still and now also didn't have a voting friend so was having to wait to build a hand. Then out of nowhere Andrew managed to get some cards going and all of a sudden, Riley had a collection of vampires in torpor and Dragonbound was suddenly not his friend. From 13 pool and 5 minions, he was in danger of getting ousted with 3 minions in torpor and low pool. Simon went for a lunge on Andy but the Reckless that would oust was blocked by Riley, several of Simons minions went to torpor as a result of rescues and blocks, but he was able to fetch them all at the end of his turn and the influence out another minion leaving himself on 2. Andrew then had a massive bleed turn and left Riley to be ousted unless he could do the two pool to oust Simon. Unfortunately for Riley, Simon had bounce in hand and was able to survive which then ousted Riley as Dragonbound claimed it's second victim. Then Simon had the turn he had been attempting to build a hand towards and ousted Andy with a Reckless and then same turn called the Ancilla Empowerment to oust the Zombie hoard and claim the win with around 2 minutes to go.
Final result: Simon Reed 3, Andrew Young 1 and Riley Willimott 1.
Great to see four Aussies travel over and we hope that they had a great time - results not withstanding of course.
The tournament winning deck: ”Arishat Barons” by Simon Reed
Creators comment: Classic Arishat - Barons deck, nothing too tricky or unexpected. Deliberately avoiding bleeding with this version to jam my prey on flick as best I can, previous versions have had 3 copies of Protected Resources but it's not always a good investment of 2 pool, two copies might be better though as I really wanted it out in a couple of games and didn't get it.
Crypt (13 cards)
5x Arishat 6 DAI OBF PRE Baali:6
2x Jacques Rouge 6 ani pot pre OBF Nosferatu:6
1x Atiena 6 obf pot pre CEL Brujah:6
2x Elisha Tucker 6 cel obf pro PRE Follower of Set:6
2x Vivian VI 7 obf tha PRE PRO Follower of Set:6
1x Sergio Bueno 8 aus pot OBF PRE PRO Follower of Set:6
Library: 82 cards
Master (20 cards)
1x Ferraille
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
3x Information Highway
1x Opium Den
1x Protected Resources
6x Villein
2x Wider View
1x Direct Intervention
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
Action (11 cards)
2x Entrancement
3x Unleash Hell's Fury
1x Conceal
5x Condemnation: Mute
Action Modifier (22 cards)
2x Elder Impersonation
2x Faceless Night
6x Forgotten Labyrinth
2x Lost in Crowds
4x Bewitching Oration
6x Voter Captivation
Action Modifier/Combat (2 cards)
2x Swallowed by the Night
Political Action (17 cards)
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancilla Empowerment
8x Kine Resources Contested
4x Reckless Agitation
1x Disputed Territory
2x Eat the Rich
Combat (4 cards)
4x Majesty
Reaction (6 cards)
2x On the Qui Vive
4x Bait and Switch
Thanks to Hobbymaster.co.nz and Australia's Online VTES Card Store for their support.
Thanks for this report, and thanks to all participants!
