Stanhope Arms, Burton-on-Trent, UK March 19, 2011

AnarchFreePress

Stanhope Arms
Burton-on-Trent, United Kingdom
March 19, 2011
13 players
2R + F

Dave Knowles' Tournament Winning Deck

Deck Name: Bitey Wizards
Author: Dave Knowles // Shockwave @ #vtes
Description:
Thanks to #vtes on SorceryNet for critiqueing this
deck a million times for me, and Hugh & John for
putting up with oddball ideas when I should be
playing something more sensible.

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=3 max=5 avg=4.33)
===============================================
5x Antonio d'Erlette 5 dom for pot THA !Tremere:4
2x Béatrice Oracle171 Tremblay 3 inn ven Innocent:4
2x Earl 4 dom for pot Ventrue:3
2x Esoara 5 aus for pot DOM !Tremere:4
1x Keith Moody 3 DOM !Tremere:4

// Beatrice is *golden*. Leech, burn the Second Sight when
announced, untap, bleed with pot options that worry people.
I'm tempted to have an extra one. Keith and Esoara have never
seen play.

Library (81 cards)
==================
Master (14)
3x Blood Doll
1x Channel 10
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Erciyes Fragments, The
2x Fame
1x Fortschritt Library
1x Major Boon
1x Rack, The
1x University Hunting Ground
1x Wall Street Night, Financial Newspaper

// Seems to flow just about right, maybe needs
another Intercept location.

Event (4)
1x Slow Withering, The
2x Unmasking, The
1x Veil of Darkness

// Veil of Darkness kills tables. Everyone will hate you
for it (and with good reason), but it's pretty much a key
card to drop via Fortschritt if necessary. It saves me
repeatedly, including killing the Stealth on the Ancilla
Empowerment that would have killed me in the final.

Conviction (1)
1x Second Sight

// I've tried running three, you just recycle the Second
Sight every time anyway.

Action (17)
4x Computer Hacking
4x Harass
9x Leech

// Probably needs 1-2 more Actions, no idea what to lose
to manage it, though.

Equipment (1)
1x Unlicensed Taxicab

// Never saw play.

Ally (10)
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
7x Nephandus (Mage)
1x Ossian
1x Young Bloods

// I have no idea why the more common Nephandus deck runs 10.
I never see 10, I never can afford 10, and I run out of turns
before I'd get 10. Young Bloods and Carlton can also Leech.

Action Modifier (3)
1x Conditioning
2x Empowering the Puppet King

// Once again, a smidge too light, really.

Reaction (12)
8x Deflection
4x On the Qui Vive

Combat (19)
2x Armor of Vitality
4x Disarm
5x Glancing Blow
6x Target Vitals
2x Trap

// The kicker. Nobody expects a Nephandus to Disarm you,
and nobody expects a Nephandus to survive a Torn Signpost
*and* Disarm you.

Adonai wrote:

// Veil of Darkness kills tables. Everyone will hate you for it (and with good reason), but it's pretty much a key
card to drop via Fortschritt if necessary. It saves me
repeatedly, including killing the Stealth on the Ancilla
Empowerment that would have killed me in the final

I can attest for Veil's effectiveness!

In yesterday's tournament here in Helsinki Juha was playing with !Tor breeder deck and used Veil of Darkness which repeatedly kept of screwing people up.

I'd guess that Girls deck with its master reliability also "loves" Veil of Darkness...

Report (as ever from my perspective).

Game 1:

Laurie (serpentis/Gangrel) > Cos (g2 Tzim) > Steve (g2 Tzim) > me (garou)

Thematically this was an awesome game, a schism in the ranks of the Tzim and the Gangrel! In game terms it translated to me getting out lots of minions, and locking Laurie down, whilst the Tzim slugged each other to a standstill on the other side of the table.
There were early rumblings about the number of minions I had, but I garnered some measure of trust from Cos with a cross table rescue. Despite my bravado about agg not affecting the garou, I'd seen Steve drop some starvation of Marena, which would pop them instantly, so I focused on throwing them forward and having the Gangrel recruit some underbridge strays to chump block.
By midway through the game I had 7 minions, and was bleeding for 5 a turn / rushing with a chump blocker or two. With Steve and Cos preoccupied with pulling lumps off each other, I felt confident in going forward. Laurie wasn't able to weather the constant pressure, and started losing minions. Eventually, I ground through his pool, and with Cos and Steve weakened I went through them too (whilst losing a couple of pups).

Result - Me GW and 4Vps, Laurie, Cos, Steve 0Vps

Game 2:

Majiec (tor with guns) > Me (garou) > Lee (gargoyles) > Steve (g2 Tzim) > Boris (!trem)

There is an unwritten rule about Burton VTES, it seems. When Lee and I meet we must DESTROY each other. Now, I *like* Lee, he's an affable, pleasant bloke, who builds neat decks. Why fate conspires to make us have this mortal enmity, I don't know. So it was with this game.
It was a game (to dabble in punditry) of two halves. Majiec and Boris had met in the previous round, and Majiec assured us that whilst Boris was terrifying, he knew how to keep him locked down. One scrap developed there. Lee and I got down to annihilating each other on the other side of the table.
Quite early on, Boris had an Ivory bow, a heart of cheating, and smiling jack on the table. Whilst this was terrifying, it kept my pred occupied. Majiec had got an early powerbase baranquilla, and was ignoring the effects of jack. Boris was trying to destroy the PB, and Majiec was tooling up to stop him.
I'd drawn all my agg in my opening couple of hands, so I was tossing it away. I think that gave some people pause, and certainly Lee and I were wary of combat at the start. Fairly early on, Jacob Fermor became famous (I think its his hair), and I was wary of acting with him. I was nibbling at Lee for one or two a turn and bemoaning that Jack was killing me. Boris let me destroy it on two counters. That's pretty much where the game equalised.
Eventually I acted with Jacob, he was intercepted by Ferox, and although he survived a turn of combat, Ferox pressed and dumped him. This stopped my wolves bleeding for so much. At about the same time Majiec stole the Ivory bow, so he was less concerned with Boris.
Suspecting that Majiec might now oust us both, Lee and I came to a non aggression pact, which (of course) went wrong when I forgot the dogs got a maneuver, and their add strike is mandatory, so I torporised one of his blockers. Majiec promised he wasn't going to try to oust me, then got a heart of the city. Somehow doubting his honest intentions, I threw a pentex backwards, then torporised anyone trying to remove it.
The game timed out thereafter.

Result - 0.5 VPs all.

My GW and 4.5vps was enough to get me 2nd seed in the final.

I chose to sit between Boris (not having seen him play stealth, so I thought I could hold him off) and Sven who I heard was playing a poli deck, so assumed he wouldn't have much combat.

Boris (!trem) > me (garou) > Sven (!Gangrel royalty) > Dave (nephandus) > Hugh (ani/dom)

A weird game this one.
Boris' first minion out was Selena, which given my deck had a scary downside. I didn't manage to get any Garou until a third of my deck was gone, and with DOM upstream, and Boris having Suddened my Ecoterrorists, I was concerned I was going out early. Hugh came to my rescue (indirectly, and for more ways than one) by scrapping with Boris, and throwing down a lot of red. This made Boris focus backwards, freeing me up to act more. Hugh also put a PB Montreal into play, making up for the ecoterrorists as I "borrowed" it turn after turn.
Sven had enough earth meld to keep me at arms length, and superb blood management. Dave was scared of going forward for fear of bats and crows, so initially it seemed like Sven had it all his own way.
A DotS gave me some serious cycling, and I drew into a DI, a DT and the Unmasking. All of which were needed to save Dave, who was on 5 pool. An Erciyes with a DT on it was passed around the table. Having blunted Sven's offence, I famed and dunked a minion, then dropped another, leaving him on 3 pool and one vamp, but the game timed out. If I had to say anything it was that the table (and the decks) seemed well balanced. Another turn and I might have had my oust, but that can't be helped.

Result: 0.5vps all. Dave default win as 1st seed.

Thanks for a fun tournament all.

BeAst wrote:

Boris (!trem)

Actually, it was supposed to be a Carna wall, but in the last 2 rounds only Selena could play Magic of the Smith safely: against Majiec I had 6 transfers on turn 2 so Selena could come out and retrieve the Ivory Bow before Majiec got a minion out (I know he can get 3 Intercept easily), and Hugh played this !Nosferatu bitch that can get unlimited Intercept against Camarilla.

At about the same time Majiec stole the Ivory bow, so he was less concerned with Boris.

I DIed the Fast Hands, but in the same turn Steve had a Canine Horde

Suspecting that Majiec might now oust us both, Lee and I came to a non aggression pact, which (of course) went wrong when I forgot the dogs got a maneuver, and their add strike is mandatory, so I torporised one of his blockers.

Remember, kids: Garous are NOT friendly