Report: Ithaca: Is Not A Discipline!, July 30, 2011

So in a fit of acidental tackiness, I won my own tournament. And I'll point out that I did nothing at all *to* win my own tournament except sit at that final table, make some dudes, bleed forward some, bounce a few bleeds, and have everyone else around me crash and burn. I'm pretty sure the only thing I said during the whole final game (other than mechanical instructions) was "Andrew! I love that you brought me this sandwich! Except it has bacon!", as I forgot to eat all day and felt like utter crap in the last game.

In any case, due to critical attendance failure, we only had 8 players (3 guys were driving up from NYC, but their car literally broke down in PA; a couple guys who were going to come from Binghamton didn't show for reasons that remain mysterious). John Stevens actually did all the heavy lifting in the tournament, getting 3 GW and 11VPs in the 3 preliminary rounds with his weenie obf bleed deck, and getting 2VP in the final before he crapped out, leaving me to get 3VP and win. Oh, the humanity.

Ithaca: Is Not A Discipline!
July 30th, 2011
Providence Hobbies, Ithaca NY
8 players
3R+F

Going into the final round, the players and their decks:

1) John Stevens 3GW, 11VP. G1/2 weenie Obfuscate bleed.
2) Peter Bakija 1GW, 3VP. G5/6 Samedi Corpse Bride/Shambling Horde deck.
3) Dave Conroy, 0GW, 2.5 VP. Aksinya/Rachel Brandywine wall deck.
4) Ben Kalb, 0GW, 2VP. Nana Buruku Brutal Influence bleed.
5) Bob Miller, 0GW, 1.5 VP. Imbued weapon tech deck.

6) Alex Erhardt, 0GW, 1VP. G2/3 !Tremere toolboxy bleed.
7) Andrew Sackett, 0GW, 1VP, Jennifer Vidisania and caitiff concealed guns rush.
8) Greg Galyanov, 0GW, .5VP, G4/5 Ventrue vote.

With 8 players, we had 2x 4 player games in each of 3 preliminary rounds, 1 of which ended with a 2/2 tie and one ended with a no GW time out.

The seating in the final game was:

Peter>Bob>John>Ben>Dave.

In the early game, Bob, Peter, and Dave tooled up while John bleeds Ben down pretty quickly. Bob played the Events Veil of Darkness (the one where you show a card the first time a vampire plays a discipline card each turn, and if it is a master, the card has no effect) and Blood Cult Awareness Network (cards like Govern and Embrace cost an extra blood and have -1 stealth), which mostly just hosed Ben's Brutal Influencing, but the Veil of Darkness managed to foil a few important plays. Ben is bled onto the ropes, but John's killing Night Moves is foiled by the Veil. Ben tries to gain some pool with a Brutal Influence, but that fails too. Dave tries to The Summoning an Ossian to slow down John, but that too is foiled by the Veil. Meanwhile, Bob keeps tooiling up while torping a few of John's minions; Peter bleeds him down slowly but consistently, while making zombies and generating pool. Soon, John ousts Ben (1VP John!). Peter makes a lunge to kill Bob with a Trochomancy, which isn't foiled by the Veil, so Bob is ousted (1VP Peter!), saving us from the Events. The game evens out some, with John bleeding Dave, Dave bouncing bleeds into Peter, and Peter generating pool and zombies. Eventually, John gets through Dave with a timely Pentex Subversion, ousting him (2VP John), but is almost out of deck and low on pool. John pulls off an Ashur Tablets and gets back in the game, but in the head to head, Peter's pool gain and zombie rush wears John down. John decks himself getting Peter to 2 pool, but Peter ousts him after that (Tournament Win/3VP Peter).

So, as noted, I won my own tournament. With a goofy Samedi Zombie deck. Again, John should have, by every right, won. But I was in a good seat and things fell my way. Here is my deck:

"Every Girl's Crazy for a Sharp Dressed Corpse"
by Peter Bakija

Crypt (12, avg. 5):
3x Baroque (7) NEC, THA, aus, for, obf
3x La Viuda Blanca (6) AUS, NEC, for, obf
2x Brigitte Mandisa (5) NEC, for, obf, thn
3x Angel Chavarria (3) THN
1x Veejay Vinod (3) AUS

Library (90):
6x Wider View
2x Houngan
2x Vessel
1x Charisma
1x Perfectionist
1x Mob Connections
1x Direct Intervention
1x Giant's Blood
1x Failsafe

12x Reanimated Corpse
6x Under My Skin
1x Pressing Flesh
6x Shambling Hordes
2x Call the Hungry Dead
2x Spiritual Intervention
1x Chair of Hades
2x Trochomancy
8x Telepathic Misdirection
8x Veil the Legions
2x Into Thin Air
4x Freak Drive
4x Hidden Strength
2x Soak
6x Off Kilter
2x Camera Phone
1x Ivory Bow
1x Sawed-Off Shotgun
2x On the Qui Vive
1x Delaying Tactics
1x The Unmasking

Thanks to everyone for a fun and reasonably efficient event (3R+F in about 6 hours total play time), and Providence Hobbies for putting us up and being a nice place to play.