Draftevent 30.12.2011: Ebony Kingdom Frankfurt

Hi guys,
I report from the unfortunately small, but very funny draftevent we held in Frankfurt.

Due to some unforseen problems some players couldn't attend at that friday. We decided to play although we just had one table. We played two rounds and determined the winner looking at the scored VPs.

Final standings:

Joscha 3 VP Magaji Exile/Brutal Influence/Block with too few Orun
Robert 1,5 VP Akunanse/Guruhi bigcap with Tunnel Runners
Jörg 1 VP Sabbat low-/midcap Black Forest Base vote and bleed
Alexander 1 VP Orun/Aye goodies Brutal Influence
Manuel 0,5 VP Ishtarri low-/midcap Bamba/Despiral

We drafted following boosters: 3 3rd Edtion, 3 Legacy of Blood, 3 Ebony Kingdom. Every player got two of Orun and Aye each in addition.
As an additional feature there were the following three cards in the middle of the table, free to get for the players with an action:

Lore of the Wise
Unique master
During your discard phase, a ready Laibon you control may burn 1 blood to untap a ready younger Laibon you control. Any Laibon may steal this card for his or her controller as a -action.
"Listen to the elder, their wisdom is unrivalled." Cesewayo, Osebo magaji

Powerbase: Capetown
Master: unique location.
During a referendum you may tap this card to gain two votes. Any Laibon may steal this location for his or her controller as a action.
"This harbour is the gate to the world."Ngozi Ekwensu, Guruhi magaji

Ancient Junglepaths
Master: unique location.
After a Laibon you control successfully hunts, you may tap this card to untap that Laibon. Any Laibon may steal this location for his or her controller as a action.
"Prey on the animals and slake your thirst. But beware: Mother Earth created them to be our brethren." Tsunda, Laibon magaji.

People managed to draft good decks, each capable to do the job of ousting. This is mine:

Deck Name: Draft Deck Ebony Kingdom Frankfurt
Author:
Description:


Crypt (Capacity min=3 max=10 avg=7.2; 10 cards)
==================================================
1x Arriette Sylla 3 POT Osebo:4
1x Ayo Igoli 10 obf tha AUS CEL FOR PRE Ishtarri:4
1x Batsheva ADV 6 obt pot ANI PRE Guruhi:4
1x Cesewayo ADV 10 ani AUS CEL DOM POT THA Osebo:4
1x Fish 5 pre ANI POT Guruhi:4
1x Mamadou Keita 7 aus pot pre vic CEL Osebo:4
2x Ngozi Ekwensu 9 cel ANI POT PRE VIC Guruhi:5
1x Nkule Galadima 8 ani aus pre ABO FOR Akunanse:4
1x Socrate Cidibe 5 ani ABO FOR Akunanse:4

Library (52 cards)
=====================
Master (13 cards)
1x Archon Investigation
1x Art of Love, The
2x Aye
2x King's Rising
1x Mundane
4x Orun
1x Pallid
1x Special Report

Action (10 cards)
2x Bamba
3x Brutal Influence
1x Enchant Kindred
3x Exile
1x Force of Will

Political Action (1 cards)
1x Perpetual Care

Equipment (3 cards)
1x Bang Nakh -- Tiger's Claws
1x Combat Shotgun
1x Nkishi

Retainer (1 cards)
1x Elephant Guardian

Action Modifier (1 cards)
1x Changeling

Reaction (9 cards)
1x Familial Bond
1x Folderol
1x Guard Dogs
1x Instinctive Reaction
1x Legwork
1x Precognition
1x Redirection
1x Savannah Runner
1x Speak with Spirits

Combat (11 cards)
1x Claws of the Dead
1x Compress
1x Devil-Channel: Back
1x Devil-Channel: Feet
1x Devil-Channel: Hands
1x Glancing Blow
1x Invoking the Beast
1x Meld with the Land
3x Taming the Beast

Combo (3 cards)
2x Aura Absorption
1x Supernatural Resistance

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Jan 1, 2012 11:48:40)

My plan was to get magajis, pol. actions and Bambas. I planned to additionally get Brutal Influence and Excile, so I searched for presenceguys and Orun. I wanted to use Excile on pre to tap minions and untap to go in with a heavy BI-bleed. It turned out to be not the best plan, as succf. d-actions burn Oruns, making the following BI-bleed less good, which burns another Orun. So I clearly hadn't enough of those. Furthermore I overlooked the draft effect of cards like Despiral or 419 Operation, giving you Aye or Orun and lets the minion untap. Very strong.
As I strongly planned to make use of the cards in the middle and there were not much stealth in the sets I had to go for combatcards, equipment or specials. So I took Ngozi because of her special of making her hand strikes aggravated by tapping an Orun. A Bang Nakh and a Combat Shotgun are some kind of steath too. As I was lucky to draw two King's Rising I was able to play bigger minions.
I was a bit scared of Lucian, the Perfect with a bit of stealth. So I drafted every intercept card I could get and ended up with 8 cards (mostly outferior or draft-effects), quite a lot for a draft.
Unfortunately I didn't see good pol. actions. No Con Boons, no Anarchist Uprising or Conservative Agitation, doh. I ended up with a bigger deck as I planned. Normally it is better to have a very tight deck in a draft. But it turned out to be an advantage because all the other guys had to play with exhausted decks in the endgame, whereas I had cards left. Decks built with these expansions seem to cycle faster than others, maybe because of the trifle-effects of Oruns and Ayes and the many untap-effects of the cards.

First Round: Robert (Tunnel Runner) -> Jörg (Sabbat vote and bleed) -> Alexander (Orund and Aye Brutal Influence) -> me -> Manuel (low cap bleed)
My prey quickly influenced out low Ishtarri, making Bambas and getting Despirals for + bleed. So Robert was under pressure right away, getting little help from me, as I was slowly building up getting Mamadou Keita with a Bang Nakh and Ngozi Ekwensu with an Orun. I went for Lore of the Wise to counter Alexanders three minions (Titi Camara, Patrick and Nana all tooled up with Ayes for wake effects and Oruns for BI). With the possesion of that card I was able to relief Robert to some extend with the use of Mamadous special, making 1 damage on a minion as a pol. action. After some rounds two Bambas were in torpor, despite Manuels many maneuvers. So there was the chance to make some serious damage with Perpetual Care. But Manuel managed to block the vote and prevent the aggr. damage done by Ngozi with Jua Vema, argh. Robert finally got his Tunnel Runner (right after Jörg had discarded his ally-stealing Legend of the Leopard) and had four minions to defend against Manuel. As I had the vote lock with my two magajis Jörg was a bit handicapped. Finally Alexander was at around 4 poll and Jörg suggested a deal of ousting Alexander and after that Manuel. I agreed but the important My Kin Against the World was blocked by Alexander, leaving Jörg on three pool tapped out. Robert, down on four pool, ousted Jörg and shortly after that the game timed out. Everybody was at the edge of being ousted and the game was very exciting. Cool, that everybody was playing that aggressively.

Second round: me -> Jörg -> Manuel -> Robert -> Alexander

I chose to go for Igo Ayoli. Seeing Jörg getting his Black Forest Base in the sedond round I knew I had to go for a magaji or never would oust him. So I influenced on Ngozi again. With that highcaps I had to have Lore of the Wise again. I equipped Ayo with the Shotgun and shortly after that really got the master card from the middle because nobody wanted to get shot from it (Alexander mostly played set range with Neebi and avoided my combat that way in the previous round). Shortly after that Ngozi got the Elephant Guardian and now she was quite a blocking machine, mostly untapped because of Lore of the Wise, the card from the middle. I obtained Ancient Junglepaths too, so the untapping cost wasn't that problem anymore. After a King's Rising I couldn't use Ayo's special anymore to get pool so that combo was of even more use. So I was at 4-5 pool but could defend quite nicely and had votelock again. In the meantime Jörg was putting four minions in play without having pressure from me. Manuel was dying rather quickly, as his equip-actions were blocked and his Bamba was soon in torpor. So he influenced out Lucian, the Perfect to get Robert who was on only 4 pool again after putting Matata, Inuki and Hasani into play. Robert told Jörg to bleed Manuel with all he can and then used one of those bleeds to put a Major Boon in play. After that, Manuel was doomed, being on four pool, bled for four with Lucian and was ousted through the Boon. Jörg was on 20 pool after that and it looked very good for him. But Matata and my Ngozi torporized minions from Jörg and I could sucessfully bleed now and then. Although Jörg and Alexander rescued minions from each other their pool was going down. Eventually Alexander got his Black Gloves and a Guardian Angel on Nana with three Aye. So he had a good defense and become threatening again. Then it was my turn. Jörg had two minions in torpor and I had a Perpetual Care in hand. Jörg had the dreaded !Ven-card Demonstration and Alexander two votes because of his many Oruns. So I had to go for the third card in the middle, Powerbase: Capetown. Nobody blocked. I bled the tapped out Jörg and got the Edge. With my last minion I called the Perpetual Care and pushed the referendum through with the edge, leaving Jörg at three pool. I got him in the next turn with a Brutal Influence bleed, after I barely survived a bleed for four by playing an outferiour Speak with Spirits. Now Robert was stripping me of Lore of the Wise and Ancient Pathways and I couldn't block him because I was so low on blood. Time was running out. Robert tried to get past Alexander's defence leaving him on just 1 pool, but was tapped out after having to rescue one of his vampires from torpor. So my time had come and I managed to bleed away his seven pool with a Brutal Influence, a bleed for one and a most welcome Force of Will from Ayo for a bleed for three. Game timed out right after that and I barely had won.

Thanks guys for that cool event. We will surely repeat that draft.