The Novemebr 2009 Vampire Tournament

The November tournament was this weekend.

After it worked quite well at the previous social, I opted to try my Ventrue vote deck. Unfortunately, the deck decided to mock me, very badly, in both rounds.

The first round was one of the stranger games I've been involved in. Simon (Tremere Thaum combat & bleed) (starting) bleeding me, bleeding Richard (Guhuri Brutal influence bleed), bleeding Hendrick (Thau combat & some wall). Simon's deck was in several ways the rock to my scissors - he got out both Carna (+1 intercept) and Oliver Thrace (no S:CE), and, when he placed a Pulse on Oliver, was able to keep me under a fair bit of pressure. I suffered badly in that I drew very few votes early on, and, with the number of other votes on the table (mid-game, the 13 votes I could generate from my vampires and locations was only enough to tie the rest of the table) I was unable to exert enough pressure on Richard. I was fortunate to draw most of my Minion Taps, so I was able to farm back fast enough to prevent Simon being able to overrun me. Richard was also farming quite successfully, but wasn't cycling into the bleed cards he needed to pressurise Hendrick. Hendrick took some time to get setup. He never had enough ways around S:CE to bother Richard, and, while he was able to trouble Simon in combat, didn't have enough ways of getting into combat with Simon, and didn't have the bleed push to pressurise him much either. The game was much more attritional than most, and never looked that likely to fold before we timed out. I gradually whittled Richard down to lunge range, but, due to a Smiling Jack, and a turn when I was short an untap card to bounce a bleed from Simon, was left with 1 less blood on my minions than I needed, and was thus unable to play both a Govern and a Conditioning to oust Richard. Richard, right before time, lunged at Hendrick with a Strange Day bleed, but it was bounced to Simon, ousting him with the last act of the game.

The next game saw Matthew (weenie pot Swarm with Brutal Influence) (starting) bleeding Hendrick, bleeding me, bleeding Dave (Brujah Cel/Pot). While I was never under much pressure from Hendrick, Dave went backwards a great deal, and, drawing into his Immortal Grapples quite often, gave me a very hard time, especially after he got a KRCG down. I didn't draw a single Voter Cap until the very end of the game, and thus wasn't able to refill my minions, which hurt me quite badly. Hendrick was unable to hold off Matthew's swarm although it did leave several of Matthew's minions in torpor. I managed to get Dave down to a couple of pool, but he was able to torporise all my minions . With no prospect of getting another minion out, I transferred myself out, giving Matthew a second VP. Matthew was unable to survive against the Brujah, and Dave duly collected the remaining 2 VPs.

I didn't see much of the final, as I went off to find some lunch, but Dave eventually won that with 4 VPs and Richard collecting the remaining VP.