North American Continental Champion for 2011

extrala wrote:

Yeah, congratulations to Matt. A nice guy and having won so many tournaments before he truly deserved this.

He should have won last year already, imo.

Final Table:

Matthew Morgan
Nana Buruku and animalism friends sing deeply (NB skipped the finals, allowing the friends to do all of the work)

Martin Randers
Kiasyd (Arcadian)

Jennifer (Boston)
Kiasyd (Arcadian)

Norman Brown
Janni / Ventrue votes, Reckless Agitation, Parity Shift, Zip Gun

Mattias Kallenberg
Anu Diptinatpa, Arms Dealers, Jake Washington

Matthew got 2 VPs, with each of his predators dying in order. I don't know how much he contributed to those deaths, or if their defense simply failed after making their ousts.

Other decks seen or heard about:
Johannes - Ahrimanes, Howler
James - Ahrimanes, Muricia
Mindy - Devin Bisley's weenie animalism Deep Song
Jeff - Lasombra mid-cap bleed, Wash, Bounce
David - Lasombra group 2 titled stealth vote
Sara - Malkavian Antitribu mid-cap stealth bleed (Dolphin Black, Rodolfo)
Bill - Auspex Potence, Kisha Bhimji + Jeremy MacNeil
Karl - Mukhtar Bey, Third Tradition obfuscate bleed with Procurers and Dream World
Robyn - João Bilé as Edward Vignes
Brian - Lucinde, Alastor visits the Island of Yiaros
Darby - First Tradition and Parity Shift
Randy - Girls who ...
Hugh - EuroBrujah dominate bounce/bleed, with Theo Bell


Yes, you read that right, there were four formidable females in the top 25 tournament. There were 5 or 6 in Day 1.

picture of the day


day 2 round 2 i believe

-dB

a couple more of our beloved IC...

Thanks guys. It was a really fun Origins this year and of course winning makes it all the better. It has been observed that this was my fourth NAC final. What was really different here was I was able to put myself in exactly the right frame of mind to play the game properly and not make any mistakes. The thing that trips me up the most is when winning becomes too important. When I'm able to just relax and play is when I'm the most effective.

I played my own version of Martin Major's deck that I had played in the final the prior year. There are a few slight differences but it's basically the same deck. Mine includes Archon Investigation, has a couple fewer Deep Songs, a couple more combat cards and has a copy of Fish so the deck can count as a Guruhi deck for TWDA purposes.

But back to the right frame of mind. I played a Nephandus deck on day 1. It's a very strong deck. In round one I had the game win well in hand and made a dumb mistake because I really wanted to advanced to day 2. I only took a single VP from that table instead of the three I should have had. Then I only got one on my 2nd table. My third table looked pretty dismal, but I relaxed my mind and trusted the deck. Victory came very late after I'd finally muscled through my first prey and my second failed a lunge, then died to another player's Dragonbound. Good things can happen.

So I was safe for day 2. I chose the Nana deck. I think it's really good in an environment like this. People don't play all the stealth bleed in a 25 player tournament because they don't need multiple game wins for the final. I got a VP from the first table, but found myself battling the combined forces of Norm Brown (who ended up top seed in the final) and Robyn Tatu and they were able to force me from the table. My 2nd round was a nice 4 VP win. It was a perfect table for me. Two squishy decks in front and two decks contesting Lucinde behind. Can't get much better than that. I let a VP get away to stop the vote decks from working against me. Jeff Thompson bled me out pretty fast in the third round with his Lasombra midcap deck. But I wasn't that worried as I knew 1 and 5 was almost certainly good enough for the final. Hearing Norm got a second win was good news. Hearing most of my pals report their totals at 1 and 4 or 1 and 4.5 was better.

I didn't sit down with the intent to salmon the table, but very early on my predator, Matthias, and my grandpredator, Norm, were very low on pool. It was best for me if Matthias would die so that Jen (higher seed than me) wouldn't get two VPs. I had a Delaying Tactics in hand when Norm voted Matthias out but declined to play it because I preferred that Norm get the point and then die to Jen - much better than Jen getting two.

I probably should have rushed Norm right away, but I wanted to keep my powder dry. That was perhaps a mistake since he bounced a bleed for 5 to me, which I had to take, then banished Stick. As Jeff mentioned, I was unable to draw Nana this game, but I put out Bobby Lemon, Mouse, Stick, Fish, Beetleman and Zip. That's a pretty strong crew. My problem was eventual master jam.

On my turn, I put all of Norm's guys in torpor. I believe Martin rescued, but I had drawn a Cats' Guidance and was able to block a Parity Shift. Of course by this point I had decided on a 2 VP win. Norm had to go because he is too dangerous. I dealt with Jen to not come forward right away, but really I was going to give her the same treatment if Martin didn't do the job himself. My lower pool total made Martin realize he had to go forward in order to have a shot at winning. He lunged and got Jen, but was out of combat. He seemed out of pretty much everything good, really. I had another Ashur go off and was able to Fame and rush him to death. My hand was pretty bad by the end as well, but it didn't matter because I had more minions with more blood.

It was a nice game that lasted only about 80 minutes. There wasn't a lot of table-talk and everybody seemed to have fun. I'd like to thank the other finalists for being such good sports, Kevin for running another excellent Origins, Jeff for doing such a great job promoting the game and Martin Major for putting me on to an awesome deck. I know I've been off the radar since last year at least, but I'm back and playing and I'll be around - not in Warsaw this year, but maybe EC2012 and certainly Origins every year for the foreseeable future.