TWD - Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die - Melbourne Australia, 20 Aug 2011

Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die
Melbourne, Australia
August 20th, 2011
2R+F
10 players
Winner: Craig Love

Ten players showed up to 'Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!', yet another Melbourne tournament with a title inspired by The Simpsons. Most decks were aligned to vote, bloat or bleed strategies, with few combat decks hitting the field.

Decks that saw play in the preliminary rounds that didn’t make the final included a Maleficient Cybele, an Annazir-led Baali voter, a heavy-bleeding Ventrue, a Dragonsbreath-toting weenie horde, and a new-school Setite tempter.

With only two tables and two rounds, a game win was guaranteed entry to the final table. In the end, the five decks that made it into the finals were as follows;
1. Craig Love’s G1/2 Potence weenies (1 GW, 6 VP in two qualifying rounds)
2. Justin Shearer’s G3/4 Tremere wall (1 GW, 5 VP)
3. Eli Bateman’s G4/5 Ventrue vote-bloat (1 GW, 4 VP)
4. ‘Disco’ Stu MacLeod’s G4/5 Gerald Wyndham multi-act (1 GW, 2 VP)
5. Stu Jaques’ G4 BH/Seraph Assamites (0 GW, 1.5 VP)

Seating was Potence weenies > Assamites > Ventrue > Gerald multi-act > Tremere wall.

Craig’s weenies crushed the Assamites both early and hard via a combination of devastating combats, Fame and Computer Hacking to clear the pool. Poor StuJa didn’t stand much of a chance; the three other players all had votes, but none trusted anyone else sufficiently to actually diablerise the dunked, Famed vampire (and we all believed that Craig had another in his hand, at any rate).

Without any predatory pressure to speak of, Eli’s deck managed to bloat early and often, using Mary-Anne Blaire’s special text, Governs and Enchant Kindreds to bring out a number of medium- to high-capacity titled vamps while barely touching his pool. Seeing the Ventrue’s rapid set-up, I made a deal with Justin to let him have the Ivory Bow - an item we both had in our decks, and coveted due to the lack of damage prevention in every deck - if I could multi-act through my deck to find another weapon and some rush to weaken my predator. Justin accepted, and Gerald tooled up fast, eventually ending up with a Blade of Enoch (something I thought could be highly useful if Craig’s vamps came knocking without a Grapple). Whilst my rushes failed to bin any of the Ventrue (there was simply more Majesty there than I could deal with), I did manage to score a couple of key permanents that gave Gerald a potential edge in later combats.

Justin did indeed get the Ivory Bow, but Craig’s honed combat module and sheer number of minions still made him a scary prospect. Being relatively low on pool, Justin sought to neutralise Gerald with a Pentex Subversion before moving forward. I ended up contesting the Pentex on my next turn, which changed Justin’s game dramatically. The Tremere made some forward movement and came within an action or two of ousting the Brujah, but he wasn’t able to generate sufficient pressure to shut down the Potence horde. Craig then made a deal with me, offering Justin back-ousted for no forward pressure until the Ventrue were off the table. As I was on low pool I accepted, and Justin’s Tremere were Famed and salmon-rushed. The six pool I gained didn’t last long, as a series of votes and bleeds from the Ventrue brought me down half that within a couple of actions. Thankfully for me, with no predator to speak of Craig could now turn his rushes forward, and he hammered Eli over a series of combats. The Ventrue’s early bloat meant they remained pool-strong though, and Craig’s half-dozen weenies weren’t enough to oust Eli. Eventual VP split of the final table was Craig 1.5 VP, Eli 0.5 VP and Disco Stu 1.5 VP; Craig won on countback.

Congrats to Craig for his strong performance. He was the only player of the day to get at least 1 VP on every table he sat at. Craig’s deck wasn’t rare-heavy by any means, and was a reminder that well-played old-school strategies can beat other, apparently more ‘broken’ designs.

(Deck list to follow.)

cheers

Disco Stu
Prince of Melbourne, Australia

As promised, Craig's winning deck...


Deck Name: Old School
Deck description: Immortal Grapples with a splash of fresh new hate.

CRYPT (12) Capacity min: 2, max: 4, average: 3

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2x Lupo (2) Brujah (group 1)
1x KoKo (2) Nosferatu (group 1)
1x Mitchell the Headhunter (2) Pander (group 2)
1x Paul DiCarlo (2) Giovanni (group 2)
1x Dre (3) Brujah (group 1)
1x Jacob (3) !Brujah (group 2)
1x Agatha (4) !Nosferatu (group 2)
1x Hector (4) Brujah (group 1)
1x Hugo (4) !Brujah (group 2)
2x Jimmy Dunn (4) Pander (group 2)


LIBRARY [90 cards]

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Action (23)
3 Ambush
1 Aranthebes, the Immortal
8 Bum's Rush
7 Computer Hacking
2 Harass
2 Leather Jacket

Combat (54)
2 Disarm
3 Fake Out
10 Immortal Grapple
3 Increased Strength
3 Pulled Fangs
2 Slam
4 Target Vitals
5 Taste of Vitae
4 Thrown Gate
7 Torn Signpost
11 Undead Strength

Master (13)
3 Dreams of the Sphinx
3 Fame
1 Jake Washington
3 Life in the City
2 Potence
1 Storage Annex

Notes: The core of the deck is meant to be a Fame / Disarm / Pulled Fangs ousting combo, with 3 copies of each. Ideally, I can lunge by dropping all three cards on a vampire, leaving it on 2 blood, then rescue it (forcing them to pay) so that the Fangs send them back down to torpor for a total 6 pool loss. Double Fame is the same pool loss as just a regular Fame dunking + Computer Hack would do, but is:
-a touch more card efficient
-not as easily foiled by some common counters, like Deflection or selective blocking
-more likely to 100% empty a big vampire
-good for a laugh
The Dreams and Storage Annex support is meant to ensure that the combo comes off once per prey.
This has never actually happened. At some point before the tourney, I lost or pulled out the Storage Annexes, and I must have Disarmed someone and not got the card back, leaving me with just 2, not 3. Just before the start of play, I realised the deck was only 87 cards, so I stuffed in the 2 Leather Jackets and a Potence skill card to bring it up to 90.

The only other noteworthy point is that I have tweaked the combat focus a little to deal with Imbued and gun decks: less reliance on Torn Signpost and Taste of Vitae, to make way for a splash of master blood gain and range combat. I sometimes gate people for 6, which means I can occasionally take out a Sniper Rifle, or other things that would normally shut a Grapple deck down.


cheers
Disco Stu
Prince of Melbourne, Australia