Vampire : The Evaluated Situation : 16-03-10

The Night of 16th March 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.


Was violently sick, so took me a while to get well enough to chronicle the events on that fateful night of the initiation of the 8 brand new entries into our Vtes community. It was also the first tournament I've organized, and my wholehearted thanks goes to all who have helped. To YY the Prince for being head judge and generally organizing the table while I was busy blowing my nose and gathering money and taking photos. Many thanks to Bann the ex-Prince for trying to figure out (and eventually figured out) the Archon software and registering everybody online. Thanks to G1 the judge who though late, did eventually arrive. Thanks to PI for the venue, to Donkey and Damien for bringing down the promo cards and prize packs. To Sherman who drawn us a superb Deflection card for used only in PI. And of course to all players who participated, especially to Joseph who had to give up the game because of work. Finally, thanks to me who made all this possible. \(O.o)/ Anyway, the tournament attracted 8 players, and the game started right on time around 730pm, YY time. 8 players were divided into 2 tables of 4. Randomized seating as follows: Table 1. Alvin's Computer Hacking weenies, bleeding Ben Sum's PRO weenies, bleeding YeQi's Malkavian Prank, bleeding Nick's Tremere Bruise Bleed. Table 2. Sherman's Ventrue Vote, bleeding Khris's Malgorzata Vote, bleeding Jeff's Slave Gargoyles, bleeding BK's Black and White.

Table 1 Start Table 2 Start

Table 1 was dominated by YeQi's excellent use of the Prank and effective bleeding. Alvin's weenies entered a no-win combat against Ben's backwards PRO weenies, and was not able to generate the kind of bleed that was associated with his deck. Even his Brainwash wasn't that effective given Ben's many and cheap minions. Nevertheless, Ben still suffered greatly from Alvin's bleed, but was helped timely by YeQi's Prank. Meanwhile, YeQi spent no time eliminating Nick's Tremere and then went ahead to oust Alvin. A final Night Moves ousted Ben when he had 1 pool left. It was worth noting that YeQu refrained from using the Pranks in her hand when her prey's pool was low and she had the possibility of killing - this was a great improvement from her previously uncontrolled Pranks. Final VP Count for Table 1 Ye Qi - 4 VPs plus GW, she had 31 Pool.

See how many pool YeQi had at the end of game.

Table 2 was also very interesting, with Khris dominating the table with his Malgorzata bringing out titled minions and thus achieved vote superiority. With his predator's offensive vote thus controlled, Khris needed only to deal with the mighty Gargoyles. He was greatly aided by his predator when Sherman called a Reins of Power and reduced Jeff's pool by 5, Khris followed with a Domain Challenge, and ended Jeff's reign in the game.

That must've hurt a lot for the Gargoyles when Domain Challenge was called.

With the Gargoyles' intercept ability gone, Khris went ahead to sweep the table with his offensive votes. Curiously, both tables ended up in a sweep. Final VP Count for Table 2 Khris - 4 VPs plus GW - Khris had 24 pool.

Many vampires Khris had, and the tutututututu Helicopter.

Since all players don't have any Tournament points, it was decided that we used pool, followed by oust order to decide who gets to go into the final table. YeQi had 31 pool and thus she became the top seed, and Khris followed. Ousting order, from 1st to last, was - Nick, Jeff, Alvin, Ben, BK, Sherman. Therefore, the final table of 5 were, in order of selecting seating - Ben, BK, Sherman, Khris, YeQi. We got the final players settled down, selected their seating, and started the final table around 9pm, YY time. The selected seating was - Ben, bleeding BK, bleeding YeQi, bleeding Sherman, bleeding Khris.

Final Table Start

Round 1 saw Khris suffering the first of his many setbacks in this game. YeQi, IMO, foolishly sudden reversed Khris's Zillah's Valley, slowing him down one turn, and thus, in hindsight, gave Sherman the ability to somehow dominate the vote and made it difficult for YeQi to kill her prey. Round 2 we had Scarlet on table for Ben, Moriel for YeQi and Victor Donaldson for Sherman. Round 3 saw first bleed, with Ben's Scarlet bleeding BK and the first Path of the Feral Heart on table for Ben to economize his blood use for the many Claws of the Dead that he'd play. Ben supported his retinue with Lula. BK brought out Serenna. YeQi started her Kindred Spirit bleeds and Sherman was unopposed and quickly capitalize it with a Governed the Unaligned bleed. Sherman then brought out Mustafa. Khris finally had Malgorzata on table. Ben immediately rushed Margolzata and sent her into torpor (see how sad Khris was?). Much negotiation went on between Ben and Sherman, with Ben asking Sherman's support to allow his Lula to diablerize Margolzata. Sherman decided to flip a coin to decide, and the coin said that Sherman should burn Lula if she diablerize Margolzata. This was probably the worst mistake Sherman made in this game, since eliminating Margolzata would effectively give Sherman free control of the table. But, well, the coin had spoken. Meanwhile, BK's Serenna went ahead to Repulsion, Lord of Serenity and started her bloat process. And then, the first Malkavian Prank. For the record, YeQi failed miserably in all her Pranks in this game.

Prank 1, 2 and 3, all failed miserably for YeQi, gaining her only a total of 2 pool while giving pretty much everybody else pool, extending the lifespan of the game.

Undaunted, YeQi brought out Quentin King III and continued her stealth bleeds to remove the pool that she had given Sherman. With Malgorzata in torpor, no one was there to control Sherman's vote, and he quickly KRC Khris (3) and YeQi (1) plus Govern bleed to really endanger Khris. Sherman then had Emily Carson on table. Khris Minion Tap Malgorzata to survive, and Malgorzata left torpor.. Ben then called forth his famous Five Star Cab, and bleed a little bit with his minions, not that BK was really that concerned over that. Spider was then summoned to help Ben to control his prey. BK slapped a Guardian Angel on Serenna, and from then on she was major problem for Ben's Claws of the Dead. Qawiyya el-Ghaduba then arrived, and became the most powerful combat element on the table. YeQi called the only Prank that gave her anything at all this game, netting 2 pool from BK and gave everybody else pool, including Sherman. Quentin recruited a Muddled Vampire Hunter while the other Malkavians bled Sherman. Sherman called 3 KRCs this turn. the first went through with a Bewitching, and Sherman Voter Cap to recover some pool. The next 2 KRCs were both thwarted by Khris discarding KRCs in response - quite cool actually.

KRCs vs KRCs

G1 arrived. Khris brought out Mistress Fanchon. The 6th turn saw Ben going aggressively after BK, with all his minions bleeding with either Flurry of Action or Computer Hacking. However, all his bleeds were either reduced by Serenna's ability, or blocked and absorbed by Serenna's Guardian Angel, or FOR cards. Even an excellent attempt to use Psyche to press for another round after a Claws of the Dead was defeated by Serenna's superior Anesthetic Touch. BK had his first Vessel on Serenna, and Qawiyya found a Sengir Dagger lying somewhere in her drawers. Serenna then recruited Mylan Horseed. BK down to 4 pool at this point. Another failed Prank by YeQi, and she pretty much given up Pranks after this and focused on bleeding. She brought Dr Douglas onto table, putting her table minions at 4. Malgorzata finally tried to do something more by calling Political Stranglehold, and with YeQi's help the vote went through. Round 7's star player was definitely BK. Putting Pulse of the Canaille on Serenna and untapping her with Mylan, he then started heavily bleeding YeQi, supported by the on-board Repulsion and Penitent Resilience. YeQi's suffering officially started this round. Qwayyi employed Mr Winthrop - the star retainer of this game. YeQi however, tried Haunting Victor, and then bleed with his minions. An attempt to Coma Emily was defeated by a Majesty.

Khris, in the meantime, put a Rutor's Hand on Mistress, which spelled doom for the Mistress since Ben took that as a very very serious threat. Ben sent Spider after Mistress and sent her into torpor. Scarlet then diablerize the Mistress, and burnt in the subsequent Blood Hunt. Ben brought out Scarlet again. Calvin was successful in bleeding BK for 1. At this point YeQi tried to offer BK to let her have 1 VP from Sherman and then will let BK do whatever he wanted. The deal didn't make any sense, and therefore was rejected. BK bled YeQi down to 3 pool. YeQi quickly bled Sherman with all her vampires, although one of the bleeds was bounced to Khris, she managed to reduce Sherman's pool down to 2. Khris tried to kill off his predator by calling Ancilla Empowerment, but he needed YeQi's vote to push it through. Since the referendum would also kill YeQi, she cannot say yes, and the referendum failed. Round 9 was the turning point of the game. It started off with Ben's bleed bounced to YeQi yet blocked by the Vampire Hunter. With the Flesh of Marble Calvin was able to survive the hunting. BK bled successfully with both Serenna and Qawiyya and ousted YeQi, and he had enough to then bring out Matthew. Sherman called KRC with Victor, pitched the Edge that he gained earlier with a successful bleed from Mustafa in response to Khris discarding a Neonate Breach. Emily then bled with Seduction and ousted Khris. From turn 10 onwards, Ben charged forward with all his vampires, but most if not all of his attacks were stopped by the Salubris. BK's attacks were also often bounced to Ben, but with Mr Winthrop he was much more successful in blocking Sherman's political actions, and his blocks with Qawiyya proved deadly with the Dagger, burning Mustafa and sending Victor to torpor.

 With 4 minutes left in the game, BK finally succeeded in ousting the now defenseless Sherman before the end of the game. Final VP Count BK - 2.5 VPs plus GW Sherman - 1 VP Ben - 0.5 VP Victory goes to BK!!!!!

Many thanks to the players! From left to right: (Sitting) Alvin, BK, Khris (Standing) Jeff, Ben, YeQi, Sherman (Missing) Nick

BK's winning Deck -
Deck Name : Black and White

Crypt [12 vampires]
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6x Serenna the White
5x Qawiyya el-Ghaduba
1x Matthew

 Library [70 cards]
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 Action [8]
1x Ailing Spirit, The
5x Lord of Serenity
2x Pulse of the Canaille

 Action / Reaction [1]
1x Treat the Sick Mind

 Action Modifier [9]
2x Confusion
4x Freak Drive
3x Repulsion

 Action Modifier / Reaction [2]
2x Gift of Sleep

 Action Modifier/Combat [2]
2x Penitent Resilience

 Action Modifier/Reaction [3]
3x Random Patterns

 Ally [1]
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

 Combat [7]
3x Anesthetic Touch
4x Skin of Rock

 Equipment [2]
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Sengir Dagger

 Master [18]
1x Auspex
2x Dementation
2x Guardian Angel
1x Information Highway
9x Vessel
3x Zillah's Valley

 Reaction [16]
4x Eyes of Argus
5x Glare of Lies
4x On the Qui Vive
3x Telepathic Misdirection

 Retainer [1]
1x Mr. Winthrop

(o.o)