TWD Whistling Up the Beast San Jose, CA 6/30/12

I had such great games that day (except for the round that
sat 5 L.A. players together, grrr) that I will describe more
than just the final this time.

Round 1

Oliver Stacey - Lutz with young anarchs vote/revolt
Ky Merritt - Lasombra/Kiasyd sb with Nocturns
Robert Scythe - Anarch Setite voters
Kenneth Davenport - Samedi bleed/bloat w/Reanimated Corpses
Ian Lee - !Brujah vote/combat

I started off conservatively worrying about the inevitable
dominate bleed losses I was preparing to take. An early
Unmasking dropped by Kenneth put me in a little ally
blocking sandwich which wasn't horrible but made me wonder
why the hell I removed The Uncoiling from the deck. Kenneth
was steadily bleeding away at Ian who was forced to play
defensively, which left Oliver free reign to set up. With a
small Baron, Sean Rycek and now Lutz out Ky started to go
down fast. 3 voters on the table and Anarch Revolts plus his
anarch getting Banished it was all over. I helped with some
cross table FSR's but thanks to Lutz they still hurt Ky.
Then I came into an interesting position: I could Reckless
Agitation my prey out of the game, knocking out Ky in the
process, or knock out Oliver and Ky at the same time giving
Ian and Oliver a vp each but none for me. Due to the amount
of votes that would be on the table if I went for the
former, I chose more cross table shenanigans. By the time I
ousted my prey and took over the table the time was running
short as was I by one pool. Only 1 and a half for me, not a
great start.

Round 2

Robert Scythe - Anarch Setite vote
Jeff Poole - Nergal calls The Great Beast SPI/FOR/AUS
??? !Malk with some intercept agg and Rotschrek
Ian Thompson - weenie dom with DBR Graverob
Sean - Some kind of Torry/!Torry anarchs

The question mark guy could've been Brett Schofield. Anyhow
he got screwed early by bringing up Rudolpho who got rushed,
DBR'd and Graverobbed immediately. I brought up Ankh-sen-
Sutek who immediately Tempted herself. Jeff brings up Nergal
and I realize what he is playing and thought 'Great, so much
for this tournament.' Intercept rush in front of me and DBR
dominaters heading over real soon, I was already planning
which pickup deck I was going to play. Did some cross table
Tempting and FSR'ing to keep my predator alive a bit longer
and Jeff left me alone because he wasn't thrilled with the
DBR guys either, so he went forward and his prey was dying
quickly though he did bring up Idalia (I think) and Kite. I
got out Bupe Kuila who had to go anarch the hard way then it
happened: The Great Beast went forward on Kite who proceeded
to Disguise an Improvised Flamethrower and Rot the Beast!
Whoah, Jeff and I had no idea that his deck was built for
that! He then stopped the rescue from Dirk which I was going
to try to get since I had an OTQV for Bupe when Jeff decided
to self rescue with TGB since he had a Swiftness of the Stag
in hand, but he failed to notice that I had an Anarch Free
Press in play and untapped. He get's by Kite but not Bupe
and she munches away! This game is Tricksy and not always
predictable. Ian takes out Sean and I get past the other
2 and even though he DBR/Graverobs A-s-S (heh) I am still
able to use her because of the self-Temptation and I take
the table with 4 vp's, now that's better.

Final

Low and behold, I am top seed, yowza! Now the finalists
include Matt Wedge playing ANI rush/intercept, Jeff Poole
TGB rush/intercept, Oscar Garza HoS bleed with
Troch/Slaughter/intercept and Nick Coelius Cesewayo Adv wall.
This doesn't look good. I decide to sit behind Oscar and in
front of Cese, which I felt comfortable knowing was the most
viable position, though it would be far from easy. So, game
begins with:

Jeff Poole - Nergal Calls TGB SPI/FOR/AUS
Nick Coelius - Cesewayo Adv wall
Robert Scythe - Anarch Setite vote
Oscar Garza - HoS bleed with Troch/Slaughter/intercept
Matt Wedge - ANI/pro rush/intercept

I was hoping that the HoS and Cese would be a bit busy with
their prey and pred respectively and I could get some actions
through, WRONG! The only important thing I managed early was
a Self-Temptation on Clea. Oscar had brought out Carlton as
his first action and things progressed quite crappily for me
after that though later a Waters got out and hunted
successfuly, waddyaknow. meanwhile Jeff manages to bring out
TGB, WTF? And then Nick Pentexes him! But then Jeff
talks him out of it with some deal and Cese's li'l buddy
removes it, WTFF!! Cese tools up with a Sniper, Oscar's HoS
do their thing and Matt and Jeff do some facing off with no
real headway. Matt starts playing conservatively with some
bloodfarming to deal with Oscars bleeds and get into a good
late game. Jeff prematurely (by his description) breaks his
deal with Nick and does some ineffective rushing. So now I
get to do some things, right? WRONG. Everybody still has
time to keep the Setites quiet. Major actions stopped
include 2 Reckless Agitations one Enticement and a Set's
Curse to get rid of Carlton. They worked as a well-oiled
machine and the FoS were just squeaky wheels. Oscar even
cashed in on a Brothers Grimm, just humiliating. But finally
the table started breaking down, Matt had a Tasha Morgan and
a Robert Carter (on Danielle Diron, damn that was hot!) and
was starting to really hurt Jeff, who in turn was finally hurting
Nick's pool. Bam! Matt goes for a lunge and TGB Speaks With
Spirits 3 times and knocks a couple of Matt's vamps down!
Wap! Cese goes down to a GB rush! Pow! CVW get's Pentexed
and the Setites finally get through plus pull off an
Enticement knocking out Oscar! Kpow! Cesewayo get's rescued
by the Setites. Shazam! Matt get's back on his feet and
ousts Jeff! Zoinks! Time hit's before Matt can get through
Cese and before the Setites can take out the Animals. Higher
seed takes the table and we're done. Sheesh!

Whistling Up the Beast
6/30/12
San Jose, CA
2r+f Standard Constructed
29 players
Winner: Robert Scythe

Deck Name: The Gospel According To Set
Created By: Robert Scythe
Description: This deck can be rather difficult to play, but
is pretty fun. With self Temptations, Firebrands and
Abdelsobek a lot of Multi-acting nonsense ensues. One of the
Obfuscate cards should be a Serpentis, CVW should probably
just replace the Set's Curse and The Uncoiling was in here,
dammit, it even fits thematically.


Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 4, Max: 26, Avg: 3.83)
1 Abdelsobek for nec obf pre ser 5 Followers of Set
5 Anarch Convert none 1 Caitiff
1 Ankh-sen-Sutekh obf PRE SER 6 Followers of Set
1 Bupe Kuila pre OBF POT SER 7 Followers of Set
1 Clea Auguste d`Holford OBF POT pre ser 6 Followers of Set
1 Ogwon OBF PRE SER for 7 Followers of Set
1 Renenet OBF PRE ser 5 Followers of Set
1 Zhenga obf pre SER 5 Followers of Set

Library: (76 cards)

Master (16 cards)
1 Anarch Free Press, The
1 Anarch Railroad
2 Ferraille
1 Giant`s Blood
1 Heidelberg Castle, Germany
2 Obfuscate
1 Opium Den
1 Lilith's Blessing
1 Presence
4 Villein
1 Pentex Subversion

Action (18 cards)
2 Enticement
1 Fee Stake: Boston
1 Fee Stake: Corte
1 Fee Stake: Los Angeles
1 Fee Stake: New York
1 Fee Stake: Perth
1 Fee Stake: Seattle
1 Set`s Curse
6 Temptation
3 Waters of Duat

Action Modifier (16 cards)
3 Cloak the Gathering
2 Elder Impersonation
2 Faceless Night
2 Lost in Crowds
1 Spying Mission
2 Veil the Legions
4 Voter Captivation

Political Action (15 cards)
3 Consanguineous Boon
1 Disputed Territory
2 Firebrand
7 Free States Rant
2 Reckless Agitation

Reaction (2 cards)
2 On the Qui Vive

Combat (4 cards)
4 Majesty

Ally (1 cards)
1 Gregory Winter

Equipment (1 cards)
1 Heart of Nizchetus

Combo (3 cards)
1 Form of the Serpent
2 Swallowed by the Night


Brandon put on a great set of tournaments with 9 players from L. A. showing up for an almost 6 set's of 5 players for the first tournament! In the second one I had a great face-off with Jeff Kuta which left neither one of us in the finals but may have been the most fun game I played all weekend. thanks to the Haases for another incredible day in San Jose!

Good games all around, glad to have you guys up for the tournaments. We had like 4 different metagames meeting-- a clash of the titans to be sure.

By the way, is that Path of Lilith supposed to be Lilith's Blessing?

And yes, 29 players. Fucking A.

Yeah, it is. Had this deck on FELDB, don't know if they have added Lilith's Blessing to it yet but my version doesn't have it. Will edit it in.

Yeah, that Round 2 game was pretty epic. Four political decks and Ian Lee with Aus/FoW bleeders. The two-player end game was a back and forth pool slugfest between bleeds for a lot and bloats for just as much.

A couple clarifications:
Ian Thompson, Baron of Berkeley, was playing weenie Dom/DBR.
Nick Coelius, also from Berkeley group, was playing Cesewayo/Aye wall in the final.

Great to see Oscar still involved in flopping some VTES cards!

Thanks, Jeff, I'll edit those names in. Oh, and you also helped stop my streak, 3 tournament wins in a row, thanks for that as well, Punk.