Night of 16th September 2008, Paradigm Infinitum.
10 Methuselahs gathered for the Anarch and Alastor Storyline Draft Tournament, and of course, yours truly is amongst them.
Since we get to choose whatever expansions that we wanted, in whatever order and numbers, the cards available on the table would be very random where expansions were concerned, and therefore, many options would be available. Since the storyline was to favor Anarch and Trophy Hunting techs, I decided to take 2 packs of KMW, and 2 packs of 3rd Ed. My reasoning was simple : open up the KMW first, and try to get some of the more useful Vampires in the expansion - Enkidu, Mata Hari, or even Count Germaine (I can possible bid for the basic Count Germaine on the table and have a Baron, which I'm pretty sure all those Methuselahs drafting TR will not be taking the Baron-required cards.) The 3rd Ed have great all-round options, and I'll open them after the KMW, hopefully by then I'd know what my options are and focus on the required tech/disciplines.
My first rare was NSA Trio, which is an expensive rare, but I felt that it was too easily removed in a draft environment, and decided to pick up a Groundfighting instead, especially since the players to my left and right are both drafting TR I expected to be quite into Anarch tech. Lo and Behold I ended up with quite a few Anarch cards, which included a Twilight Camp, a Chameleon and an Anarch Convert. My second KMW pack yielded an Enkidu, and with him my draft strategy was pretty much decided.
I decided to go Anarch combat, and was blessed with good luck. My rares in the 3rd Ed was expensive but not really much of an addition to the strategy - an Inconnu Tutelage and a Left for Dead; but my draft was more successful - here's what my deck look like after the draft.
Crypt (4 Vampires) :
Enkidu, Anarch Convert, Izhim adb Azrael, Paulo de Castille
Library (20 cards) :
Master (5)
Twilight Camp
Major Boon
Frenzy
Blood Turnip
Guardian Angel
Action (3)
Haven Hunting
Steely Tenacity
Rave
Combat (6)
Groundfighting
Mercury Arrow
Lam Into
Projectile
Flesh Bond
Scorpion Sting
Reaction (2)
Fillip
Rooftop Shadows
Equipment (3)
Baseball Bat
Kpist m/45
Bloodstone
Modifiers (1)
Missing Voice
I threw in the Fires of Inquisition promo card and the deck is ready to go.
The voice behind the counter had decided our table position before the draft, and I was to be the 4th player, preying on Ed and being bled by Richard. On the table the Voice behind the counter was my grand predator, and Zen was my grand prey.
The bidding was fun, it started off with Zen going after the Seattle Commitee. He finally got it after a bid of SEVEN pool, beating the 6 pool bid from Richard (it was pretty much between them). TVC (The Voice Behind the Counter) got himself a nice Tatiana, Richard a Count Germaine, and myself the Molotov Cocktail. (all of these are free I think). Ed ended up with Lucinde, which on hindsight I thought was a really good deal. The reason that I went after the Molotov Cocktail was because I felt that that was one troublesome combat defense against Enkidu, and I wanted it at least out of the table.
Richard was playing a semi-combat bleed deck, with Monkey Wrench as one of his killing card, and some Potence combat such as Brute Force and Hell for Leather to cause damage. Ed was using a weenie bleed, also with Monkey Wrench, but there was a Jackie with Confusion and Kindred Spirit too. Zen had lots of vampires too, and he was focused on defending against Ed's big bleeds and just kept many of his vampires untapped. TVC had Jack Drake and several other vampires, the fact that he used a Fires of Inquisition probably spoke of his combat capability. (But I never saw any combat involving his vampires)
The game went on pretty well, I brought out Enkidu and an Anarch Convert on turn 3, got a Twilight Camp up immediately while TVB played the Fires of Inquisition. Enkidu went after the predator as Richard was aggressively trying to bleed me, and pretty much destroyed his vampire resources. I brought out Paulo, and eventually Izhim with the Fire's help, grabbed the Rack from Zen and pretty much dominated the table after that. Ed's weenie bleeding deck had very little defense against Enkidu so I basically just went around waving my fists at everyone. Enkidu is supported by an Izhim that was equipped with a baseball bat and a Steely Tenacity, which made the duo very dangerous killing machine. Twilight Camp and the Rack kept my vampires pretty fat and supported the combat expenditure.
Zen eliminated TVC, and I got my VP from Ed. Richard had pretty much given up the game by then and it was in his best interest to help Zen sweep, so he surrendered his VP to Zen while keeping pressure on me. Zen quickly ended his misery and it was then between me and him.
Zen was running a weenie deck and outnumbered me 2-1, and I was unable to wrestle the edge from him for many turns. With only 2 vampires available (Paulo went into torpor after a while), I kept Enkidu untapped to block, and let Izhim went in to beat up his vampire one by one (as Izhim wrestled the Rack from Zen after he took it back from Enkidu) I was down to 3 pool before I finally got rid of Zen's last standing vampire. I got my last VP after that.
Final Standing for the table
Me : 3VP
Zen : 2VP
Final Standing for the round
Bann : 3VP
Me : 3VP
Zen: 2VP
Robin: 1VP
Paul: 1VP
We had time to finish the draft for the second round, but will have to complete the deck and continue the battle next week.
I chose to draft a pack of 3rd Ed, hoping to get more utility cards. I declared publicly that I was craving for a Dreams of the Sphinx, and VOILA!, I got myself a Dreams of the Sphinx! Boy, the lucky star was with me.
The draft went ok for me where my strategy is concerned. I got a Hell for Leather, a Sense the Savage Way and a Janni to add to my minimum crypt, and some other rather useless cards.
From espionage I got to know that my predator Paul is playing a Spell of Life FOS deck with many Spells of Life, and a Lucinde. (most probably a Mummy) I was told that he had ample stealth. My prey Robin had an equipment heavy deck, I knew they drafted heavy on LotN, so I might be looking at an AK-47, some Bundis and Nightsticks - which is a big problem for Enkidu. And since I'm going to be player 2 I will be having issues bringing out my Enkidu fast enough to prevent being run over.
I might have to re-do my deck a little next week, perhaps even moving Enkidu out of the deck, or at least rely on Izhim more. I have Janni, and she is a natural combo with my Kpist m/45. I also have quite a few Assamite cards, such as Haqim's Law : Leadership, and Open Dossiers. I might make my deck a little more Assamite then~
(o.o)y
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