Vampire : the Evaluated Situation : Asian Championship Qualifiers

The day of 5th September, in the year 2010, Games Garage.

It was a pretty last minute decision (or rather, approval) for me to be able to participate in this qualifier, given the recent health crisis in the family and the issue that it was actually being held on a Sunday AND in the morning wee hours at 9am! (Must miss Church, must miss sleep, must entice wife...you know the drills...)

Nevertheless I managed to start preparing for the qualifiers around Saturday midnight, and after pondering for about 5 minutes, decided to use my Forest of Blood deck in the tournament (mainly because it was lying conveniently in sight), but made the most idiotic decision to replace all the Week of Nightmares with (you wouldn't believe this) Lilith's Blessing. I was to regret this decision in every round that I played in the tournament.

Goes to prove the Week of Nightmares is so so so powerful. Don't leave home without it, or it'll make your Ravnos really weak.

After a walk in the rain, I finally reached GG. Despite being late for almost 7 minutes, it seems that most Methuselahs have difficulty Daring the Dawn, and we all waited for about an hour more before the game started. Proudly, I was the first to register for the qualifiers.

Randomized Seating for Game 1

Derek's Tremere Bruise Bleed, bleeding

My Forest of Blood, bleeding

Bann's Nosferatu, bleeding

Dzaki's Saulot Marionette, bleeding

YiPeng's Imbued.

Sitting below a DOM bleeder is a nightmare for every deck, and Derek is a very aggressive bleeding predator. Immediately at the start of the game I started getting consistent Governs and Conditionings from Derek's Selena and gang and I was forced to shift to full defense for the entire game. I was the best predator the whole world could ask for, since I did absolutely nothing to my prey.

Despite this, Bann wasn't able to do too much due to Dzaki's very defensive nature and Saulot's early Biothaumaturgical Experiment cancelling many of his Aid from Bats' advantage in combat. Not to mention that he didn't draw any master ANI cards for his little weenies. On the other hand, YiPeng was being ultra conservative despite having almost no pressure from Dzaki, his Imbueds spending most their time getting bloated, and occasionally bleeding me since Derek was able to happily bounce most bleeds to me. The NSA Trio played by YiPeng destroyed my only hope of using my Paul Forest's Karavaranisha Vrana's ability to bloat a little. (Despite Bann's hints (twice), I forgot the blood discount that Karavaranisha gave me, and proceeded to actually use Paul's blood for all the CHI things he did.)

The only reason I was able to survive was because of Derek's consistent lack of stealth, and my numerous minions blocking most of his bleeds. Of course, eventually I ran out of blood since I didn't draw any Sense Dep for defense, and no Chimestry Master card AND no Path of Paradox.

Surprisingly, maybe it was due to the early morning syndrome, the game lasted the entire 2 hours. I was the first to be ousted, though it was a close one, as Derek was down to 3 pool when YiPeng was done with him, and he used that opportunity to oust me, getting the first VP in the qualifiers (Every other table's Methuselahs were surviving their battles pretty well, no one was ousted until me, so not only was I the first to register, I was the first to be ousted, and by the end of the first game the ONLY one with no VP!). YiPeng did finally ousted Derek before time out.

Final VP Count -

YiPeng - 1.5 VP

Derek - 1 VP

Everybody else but me - 0.5 VP

Me - 0 VP. ZERO. Zip.

Randomized Seating for Game 2

Edward's DOM weenies, bleeding

Derek's Tremere Bruise Bleed, bleeding

Danz's Toreador thing, bleeding

My Forest of Blood.

I got lucky this game with Danz as my predator, as historically he always do a lot of work to eliminate his allies, whom usually holds the exalted position of being my prey. This game was no exception.

Ed started off as aggressive as any DOM weenies are, bleeding CONSISTENTLY with Scouting Mission/Governed the Unaligned + Conditioning/Bonding, with the occasional Sleeping Mind. Derek was having a really hard time handling that, but with his signature doggedness, bounce and bleed Danz whenever he could. Meanwhile, Danz's first vampire was sent into torpor, and after that, had to withstand consistent attacks from the DOM bleeder.

At one point, Derek bounced a 5-point bleed to Danz, and that sent Danz into an extremely defensive mode, though Danz got back on his feet with a Parity Shift (on me), he kinda made Ed's life extremely difficult after playing a successful My Enemy's Enemy (also of a 5-point bleed, now this is retribution).

My Edged Illusions against Ed was devastating, especially after Danz played a Tension in the Ranks. Ed was down to 1 pool when he tried his final turn to oust Derek. He wasn't successful, but was able to reduce Derek to 3 pool (This number seems to be Derek's favorite key number in this qualifier) before I ousted him. After that I was able to cruised through Derek's badly weakened defenses, and finally through Danz to sweep the table.

I was a happy Methuselah.

Final VP Count -

Me - Mine, All Mine. 4VPs plus GW.

Randomized Seating for Game 3

YY's Daughters Vote, bleeding

Bann's Nosferatu, bleeding

My Forest of Blood, bleeding

Keith's Khazar's Diary.

I had very little pressure in playing this game since I know I'm almost definitely going to make it to the finals. But I wanted more VPs, getting in as the top seed was a highly attractive thing. However, I was up against 3 of the best players in my area, and Danz was not my predator.

Strictly speaking, I had the best crypt draw in this game, all my vampires in the opening crypt had superior CHI, making my early attacks rather efficient, and with Tsunda on table I could actually speak in YY's political attempts, keeping most damaging votes to my predator and prey. However, Keith, as usual, had about a ton of minions blocking my bleeds, and with an early Unmasking, (and I have no Path), forced me to be more conservative in bleeding.

Bann was having a bad day against the Daughters, with his only vampire with Raven Spy Sense Dep-ed by me. His attempts to block YY wasn't very successful, but got a lot out of his investment in his minions by bleeding me with Deep Song.

I wasn't able to survive despite reducing Keith's pool to a single row of 5 (after many Liquidation...). YY paid for his inability to oust Bann to give me the chance to oust Keith, and was ousted by Keith straight after my death.

After Keith's pool reached about 20 by playing enough Liquidation, Bann decided to give up and yielded the game.

Final VP Count-

Keith - 3 VPs plus GW

Bann - 1 VP

This was the VP situation as I know it, please visit Domain Singapore for a clear and concise battle report for the finals (coming soon) since I saw YY writing A LOT of notes on the game and LF taking A LOT of pictures. Suffice to say that it was a great game!

Final VP Situation at Finals -

Robin - 1 GW, 5.5 VPs

Me - 1 GW, 4 VPs

Keith - 1 GW, 3.5 VPs

Danz - 1 GW, 2.5 VPs

Derek - 3 VPs

Other Methuselahs present were -

BK, Bann, Dzaki, Edward, YiPeng, YY (for standing in), LF (organizer and photographer) and Faiz.

Too bad Sheena was sick (I heard) and Paul wasn't able to turn up. Really wanted to play with you guys again! Missing Methuselahs please register for Last Chance Qualifiers - we still have a lot of excellent players here to trump the world!

Looking forward to the LCQ!

(o.o)

My Deck in the Asian Qualifiers

Deck Name : Forest of Blood

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 6 average: 4.5

------------------------------------------------------------

2x Paul Forrest, False Phrophet

1x Ganesh

1x Tsunda

1x Callirus

1x Papa Legba

1x Brian Thompson

1x Devyn

1x Gharston Roland

1x Johann Matheson

1x Gwen Brand

1x Marion French

Library [90 cards]

------------------------------------------------------------

Action [22]

10x Edged Illusion

4x Fatuus Mastery

2x Sensory Deprivation

6x Tumnimos

Action Modifier [10]

1x False Resonance

8x Fata Morgana

2x Mirror's Visage

Action Modifier/Combat [12]

6x Mirror Image

6x Occlusion

Ally [1]

1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)

Combat [13]

10x Apparition

3x Trap

Equipment [4]

1x Camera Phone

1x Karavalanisha Vrana

1x Shilmulo Tarot

1x Treasured Samadji

Master [24]

7x Chimerstry

1x Dreams of the Sphinx

1x Fortune Teller Shop

1x Jake Washington (Hunter)

1x Park Hunting Ground

3x Path of Paradox, The

2x Ravnos Carnival

4x Vessel

1x Visit from the Capuchin

1x Wash

2x Lilith's Blessing

Reaction [2]

2x Ignis Fatuus

(o.o)