New Haven: Uncovered! Report!

So Ira has skipped town and won't be able to post an actual report for a few days, so I figured I'd pitch in and talk up the event now that it is over. Ira will post an actual tournament report eventually with Asif's deck (unless Asif wants to post it here and now).

Ira Fay, who now lives in New Haven, CT, hosted a 2R+F tournament at Quinnepiac University this past Saturday. We had a solid 10 players--3 from Team Ithaca (myself, John Stevens, Asif Chaudrhy); 5 from Team New York City (Adam, Sonam, Selen, Pete K, Whelan); 1 from Team Slightly Eastener New York (Aaron); and Ira who was running the event. We had 2 rounds of 2x5 player tables and a 5 player final that was won by Team Ithaca's own Asif, playing a g5/6 (? might have been 4/5) Harbingers wally kinda deck. A fun event, but kinda wacky.

I have always indicated mostly a sense of befuddlement at the large number of games that time out in 2 hour tournament rounds, as in the vast majority of the tournament games I play and see, games don't time out. This tournament was nutty, as all 5 tables (2x preliminary rounds, final) timed out. Not a single actual game win happened in any of the rounds. Sonam was top seed going into the final with 3xVP that he got as 1.5 VP and 1.5 VP. Asif won the final as he was the only person at the table with a VP when the game timed out. It was crazy.

To be fair, a lot of people were playing very defensive decks; I know a lot of us picked decks based on "I don't want to get ousted in 10 minutes, so I'll play something with good defense". I was playing a weenie Victoria/Zoe themed AUS deck with Anarch Revolts and guns. I totally sucked, getting .5 VP for the day. In my first round, all 5 decks at the table were arguably wally/defensive decks (my deck, Pete had a +1 permacept Malk deck; Ira was playing a 7 Raptor Enkidu monstrosity; Asif was playing Harbingers wall; Adam was playing No Secrets Assamites). I got close to ousting Pete when time ran out, and all 5 players were still at the table. My second game, Ira's 7 Raptor Enkidu deck was my prey and the only actions I took all game were to go anarch once before anyone else had a minion next to me and a couple cross table rescues, getting killed in the last 5 minutes by Sonam when he finally got a Toreador Grand Ball into play and killed me with an unblockable Parity Shift when he had 1 pool and I had 4. It was insane. Ira's Enkidu deck certainly made both games I was in very not so active due to not wanting to be decked by Earth Meld/Psyche/Raptor Enkidu (Ira got 1VP in the tournament 'cause he managed to pull off a Brinksmanship and decked Aaron). But the other two tables without Ira's deck also timed out, and they had reasonably offensive decks.

In any case, man. 5 games. 5 time outs. Not a single GW in any game of the tournament. I'm filled with shame.

That being said, it was a fun (if occasionally frustratingly futile) event. New Haven is a great location for a lot of groups to meet up (New York, Mass) even if it is a 5.5 hour drive for Team Ithaca. Hopefuly, we'll be able to pull something off again in the future.

Here is the winning decklist, plus my own view:

So Team Ithaca piled into Bakija's car and drove on down to CT. We actually met Ira in the parking lot, which was good as he was able to guide us to the correct building/room.

Personally, I had a blast meeting a bunch of people and playing the games, but the time out nature of the games was definitely odd for me - in Ithaca, we generally get somebody (ANYBODY) winning the table at some point.

Having lost at the finals of the last tournament I was at to an Imbued deck, I designed this new deck around being able to effectively nerf the imbued, with the added bonus of hopefully getting some VPs along the way.

In Round 1, I had Ira's Enkidu deck as my predator, and Adam Hulse and his Assamite AUS/Qui Truth in Blood deck as my prey, with Bakija's AUS weenies, and Peter Kapsalis (sp?) with his Malkavian 2/3 wall deck.

Ira's deck kind of crapped out, as he never drew any Taste of Vitae to refill Enkidu, and my Carrion Crows from some early blocks helped deplete Enkidu's blood to very low levels.

Because I didn't understand that Adam's deck was a non-fighty Assamite deck, I was very tentative about going forward, lest he hit me with unpreventable damage that my fortitude couldn't stop. I only realized my error after Adam had Villein'd twice and gotten off some Khabar: Leadership actions to effectively put his pool total out of my reach, especially with no significant bleeds coming from behind me to bounce. The fact that I never drew a single Trochomancy until 3 minutes were left in the game also didn't help my cause. So, we ended up timing out.

Round 2: My prey was John Stevens' AAA Toreador deck, with Peter Kapsilis, John Whelan with his Nosferatu weenie princes, and Selen Turkay with Ahrimane Block/bleed as my predator to round out the table.

Whelan came out of the gate and attacked Selen's pool aggressively, at one point making a Faustian deal with Kapsalis to fire off 2 Parity Shifts in one turn and get Selen down to 9 pool quickly. With Selen completely on the defensive, I decide to bleed only a little bit into John, while mainly playing some Eagle Sight blocks to help prop up Selen, as well as stay untapped so Selen could bounce some bleeds into me to block and beat up Whelan's minions.

The table pretty much stagnated that way for most of the game, with Stevens getting foiled by two permacept wall decks on either side of him, until only a few minutes were left in the game.

At that point, I managed to push through some bleeds on Stevens and oust him while Kapsalis was at 1 pool. Because of the way the games had been going so far, I knew 1 full VP in round 2 would get me onto the final table, so I got greedy and tried to oust Kapsalis as well to try and get a Game Win, but I ended up getting blocked and torped instead, which left a hole for Selen to exploit and oust me with some massive presence bleeds, literally as time was called.

Final Table:

Sonam was in seat 1, with me as his prey, followed by Selen, Ira, and John Whelan.

A critical early play was Selen playing Scourge of the Enochians - this put a stop to Whelan playing any "create-a-kid" cards, as well as not influencing out any of his 2 or 1 cap minions in his crypt.

Sonam got off some early bleeds on me while my deck crapped out with a lack of untap, so I was forced to sit around and do nothing in order to block and protect myself from getting ousted.

This ended up working in my favor, because Ira got off to a very fast start, and seeing that I was doing nothing to impede Selen whatsoever, Enkidu and his ever growing flock of Raptors blocked just about every action that Selen tried to take. This resulted in Selen self-ousting fairly shortly into the game in complete and total frustration at being able to do nothing, netting me 1 VP.

After that, the table stagnated, with Sonam constantly bloating, while getting frustrated by some timely Delaying Tactics on his Parity shift attempts, while Whelan doggedly kept bleeding into him for 1 with all his minions.

Meanwhile, Ira got to the magic spot of 7 Raptors, which immediately made him the table threat to everyone on the board. Despite his attempts to get John and Sonam to go forward, they both recognized that if Ira got off Brinksmanship, we were all 3 of us going to die horrible messy deaths. This resulted in us sort of walling up, and doing what we can to prepare for the end.

Which came when Ira played his Dia de los Muertos, followed by a Brinksmanship. I barely managed to block the action, even after a Form of Mist at Superior and losing 28 cards from my library, and that effectively neutralized Ira, at which point it came down to John trying to kill Sonam, who was trying to kill me, but everyone managed to stay alive until time was called, netting me my first Tournament win ever. Even though it was more a case of being in the right seat rather than clever and strong deck design.

Anyways, here's the deck list:

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Name of Event: New Haven: Haven Uncovered!
Date of event: Saturday, Nov 19, 2011, 1pm.
Location of event: Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT. USA.
# of Players: 10
Format: 2R + F
Winner: Asif Chaudhry

Deck Name: Mordechai Ben Nun & Friends HATE THE IMBUED!
Author: Asif Chaudhry

Description: After snatching defeat from the jaws of victory one too many times while facing the imbued, I decided I wanted to make a deck that could effectively deal with them.
Thus, the inspiration for this deck.

Mordechai is the super star. Want to :
- burn allies (Mercy of Seth)
- block actions (built in +1 int, plus AUS)
- burn ash heap power/conviction cards (Trochomancy)


Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=5 max=8 avg=7.08)
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3x Babalawo Alafin 7 ani AUS FOR NEC Harbinger of Skulls:4
5x Mordechai Ben-Nun 8 ANI AUS FOR NEC Harbinger of Skulls:5
1x Nicomedes 5 aus for nec vic Harbinger of Skulls:4
1x Phagian 8 dom for AUS NEC THA Harbinger of Skulls:4
1x Solomon Batanea 5 nec AUS FOR Harbinger of Skulls:4
1x Zygodat 6 pot AUS NEC Harbinger of Skulls:4

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (9)
2x Archon Investigation
1x Direct Intervention
1x Maabara
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Slaughterhouse, The
2x Vessel

Equipment (1)
1x Shaal Fragment

Action Modifier (10)
2x Mind of the Wilds
8x Trochomancy

Reaction (33)
6x Cats' Guidance
4x Delaying Tactics
4x Eagle's Sight
3x Enhanced Senses
5x Eyes of Argus
2x On the Qui Vive
2x Sense the Savage Way
7x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (34)
7x Carrion Crows
5x Dead Hand
3x Hidden Strength
5x Mercy for Seth
2x Rolling with the Punches
2x Skin of Rock
2x Skin of Steel
2x Soak
3x Taste of Vitae
3x Unflinching Persistence

Combo (3)
3x Spectral Divination

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Nov 20, 2011 18:34:02)

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- How am I going to oust my prey?

=> Bounce bleeds into him, block his actions that gain pool, otherwise appear relatively innocuous until ready to lunge with some Trochomancy bleeds for 3.


- How am I going to keep from being ousted?

=> Extensive amounts of intercept/untap with combat, coupled with fortitude to keep my blockers going


- How many minions do I expect to have in play, and how much pool will I have left when they are ready?

=> Expect to have Mordechai + 1 friend out (preferably Babalawo), leaving me around 15 pool. If I manage to gain pool (via keeping the edge, vessel, cross table ally, etc)
, get a third minion.


- What should my turn look like? What actions will I prefer to take?

=> Will generally not take many actions other than equipping the Shaal Fragment and the occasional bleed for 1. Maybe a cross table rescue of a torpored vampire.
Eagle Sight actions cross table that would destablize the table.


- What should my prey's turn look like for me? Will I interact with him directly?

=> For the most part, let my prey play his game. Try to block pool gain actions, create (too many) minions actions, or actions
otherwise obviously detrimental to my game. Make sure to collaborate with my grand prey to keep our common enemy in check.


- What should my predator's turn look like for me? How will I be defending my pool?

=> Block bleeds and damaging votes. Allow predator to bloat up and defend himself from my grand-predator. If he wants to pass a KRC and only allocate the 1 point to me,
(instead of 3) then allow that, to promote some good will and not demoralize my pred into killing himself trying to blast through my wall.


- what can I do to improve the deck?

=> Add a 2nd Maabara (best card in the deck). Add 1-2 Call of the Hungry Dead. Maybe a Guardian Angel and a Powerbase Montreal.