The day of 9th October, in the year 2011, Schizo Art Cafe, Quezon City, Philippines.
After a very stressful work week before the tournament, I finally got the green light to fly to Manila on the very last day on Friday. D-1 Day was a hectic day of trying to tune the deck sufficiently to stand a chance in the tournament. And since I've only brought 3 decks and a very limited cache of cards to Manila, I don't really have much options available to me. Thank goodness Bann had the 3 Aid from Bats that I needed so badly!
Turning to my Ahrimanes for help (and that decision took me a whole day!), I braced myself for my first battle in Philippines.
Apologies for all my Philippines Methuselahs, the blood is thin with me that day and many names eluded my memory - someone must have played Memory Fading Glimpse on me, so please pardon me if I could not recall all the names correctly of my esteemed opponents.
Round 1
Johann's Girls Find Inner Peace (Vendetta!), bleeding
Charlene's Harbingers Slaughter, bleeding
My Howling, bleeding
Ryunaito's Imbued, bleeding
A Salubri Marionette deck. (sorry, your name truly eluded my best efforts~)
As this is the first time I'm fighting in the Manila environment, and pretty much everyone on the table was unfamiliar (and Danz is a bad example of Philippines Meta), I started my Jyhad very conservatively. My opening Crypt was very lucky, both Howler and Siamese were there, with a Tupdog and Nettie, probably among the best opening Crypt one can get.
I called out Siamese as my first vampire instead of Howler because I had multiple Legal Manipulations in hand with the necessary stealth. Squirrel Balance is a great card for bypassing the Imbued's early defense. Meanwhile, Johann was having a good time putting incredible pressure on my predator - a bleed for 6 and sending her vampire into torpor didn't make Johann any friends on the table. I quickly rescued Charlene's vampire and gained myself an allied-predator.
The Imbued got all the hate for a while - everyone targeted him. Bleeds were bounced to him (and not by me), powers were blocked, Crows and Bats bit his minions. He did managed to Lock Matthews for a while, but the final straw came when his Imbued with the Ivory Bow (the one thing that was stopping him from suffering too many blocks and incursions from my Ahrimanes) was Entranced by Johann (again across the table!).
Charlene was the first to succumb to Johann's bleeds - Cybele's bleed actions was deadly. Due to that much pressure applied to Charlene I had about 4-5, maybe 6 turns of free time to promptly set up my Howler-Siamese tag team. After Charlene was ousted I quickly eliminated the Imbued with PRE bleeds.
I went into a Ashur Tablet race with Johann, but with so many Master phase actions I lose my 2 precious Ashur Tablet after Johann let me thought that I might had pulled it off, now that was classic cat toying with mouse~ :) Meanwhile, the Salubri deck was happily marionetting Johann's vampires to bleed Joahnn, kinda cool to see.
For a long part of the game, on most turns I was waiting for Johann to finish enjoying himself with his Master Phases and salivating over his mountain of pool. He Golconda-ed like 3 times, and after that I stopped counting his pool. The Salubri never really recovered from the Imbued's early attacks and I had a relatively easy time in ousting him with my high stealth Songs.
Time was short on ousting Johann, especially with his Anthelios-Golconda combo already in place. I was lucky however, to have Howler pretty much immune to his Ivory Bow due to a timely Guardian Angel. That helped me to quickly send all his vampires into torpor, and me without a grand-predator made Aksinya so much less of a threat. The race for time was truly stressful, but I did finally bled Johann out with my PRE bleeds - by then I have like 2 minutes left before time out.
My VPs after Round 1
4 VPs + 1 GW
After a much needed breakfast-lunch, we sat down for the second round.
Round 2
Malkavian Prince Bleed, bleeding
Kiasyd Bleed, bleeding
Mara's Presence Bleed, bleeding
Haig's weenie Potence Beat, bleeding
My Howling
3 Bleeders - predator, grand predator and grand grand predator, all with the ability to deflect. I kinda pity Haig's position. That said, weenie POT is a deadly deck, especially against decks with very little combat defense, such as bleeders.
I influenced Howler as my first vampire (of course), and again Siamese was in the opening Crypt, giving me a good bleeding vampire with decent combat defense. An early combat with my prey sent one of his Malkavian Princes into torpor, giving him a very good recommendation on not blocking my bleeds too aggressively (the first bleed was blocked by a Second Tradition).
Meanwhile, the number of Grapples and Pulled Fangs on the table was terrifying. The POT weenies were having a good time tending to the dental needs of Haig's predators. 12 vampires were sent into torpor by the end of the game by Haig's little boys and girls - luckily he didn't have much time to look my way and only succeeded in getting rid of my 1 Tupdog who jumped in the way.
The main struggle in this round was to fend off Haig's combat attacks, and several battles were concluded with my combat end techs such as Majesty and Leapfrog. The POT weenies simply do not have enough maneuvers to bypass my Stags to come anywhere near my girls to hug them, meanwhile my Bats and Crows aren't too friendly with them - a great deterrent for combat invasions.
The Kiasyd bled out the PRE bleeders rather quickly, with heavy Governed bleeds combined with Conditioning. He in turn was bled heavily by the Malkavian Prince. Haig sent his weenies to teach the Kiasyd all about dental care, and soon the Kiasyds had absolutely nothing to defend against the Malkavians and was bled out by the Malkavians. I then proceeded to happily pound the Malkavians into nothingness and claimed that VP, and then stealth through Haig's tired weenies to claim the table with high-intensity bleeds. (Granted, by then Haig had not many pool left)
My VPs after round 2
7 VPs plus 2 GWs
Feeling rather happy with myself (since 2 GWs probably guaranteed my presence in the final table), I strolled around looking at other tables (and giving support to all the enemies of Johann). After a while the 3rd round was ready to begin.
Round 3
YY's Ishtarri vote, bleeding
My Howling, bleeding
Paul's Ravnos Kholo, bleeding
Mark's Pre vote, bleeding
Momura-san's Flash deck.
YY was in a terrible position in this game, with a combat to the right, and a wall to the left. Because of this I got very little pressure from YY in this game. Momura-san started the heat by sending his combat weenies to eliminate YY's Victor Pelletier. Here we had a very interesting situation - apparently Mark was not familiar with Victor's special disadvantage, and therefore did not choose to bring out his own Justicar, severely limiting his options in this game - that had probably meant the death of YY, since for pretty much the whole game Mark was very passive against his prey.
I therefore got the free time to look only at my prey, and send Howler in putting Tumnimoses to sleep everytime I came across one. Mata Hari was a very expensive vampire for Paul to bring out, and she also had very little defense against my attacks. My bleeds were quite successful, but Paul kept coming back with Consanguineous Boons and it took me a long time to finally bled him out.
Meanwhile, YY eventually fell prey to Momura-san's consistent attacks and blocks, while getting very little help from his grand predator. Mark, with his 2 Procurers, happily bloat for the necessary pool to equip a Flamethrower, aweing the whole table - Momura-san then happily proceeded to Fast Hand the Flamethrower with Victor Tolliver - making me (by then his prey) a very sad Methuselah.
An epic battle happened between Howler and Momura-san's weenies. After many Stags and many Flashes, Howler was finally put to rest by a Stunt Cycle. At least she brought down the opposing vampire as well. Momura-san quickly diablerized Howler, gaining the support of every other vote on the table to keep his vampire alive. I was trying to negotiate for the table to burn the diablerizing vampire, but vote superiority was firmly in the hands of my prey with Tsunda and Mata Hari. Oh well, rest in peace Howler.
Still having Siamese and Cynthia (and eventually Bobby, thanks to another Ashur Tablet trio's pool support) on table was enough for me to pay back Paul's support on Momura-san's lunching on Howler - Stealth bleeds with Legal Manipulations and Aire of Elation allowed me to finally eliminate both Paul and Mark and went head to head with Momura-san.
This was the most intense combat period I had in the whole game. Without Howler I had to make do with Cynthia and Bobby Lemon while leaving Siamese alive to bleed. (Cynthia had the busiest day of her life catching all those over-zealous !Brujahs trying to throw cars and cycles at Siamese) I was lucky to draw into Terror Frenzy, the deadliest problem for Momura-san's little weenies that played so many Flashes, and that reduced the number of weenies Momura-san had at his disposal. Several interesting combat occurred, for example, I Canine-Horded Victor's Flamethrower, Carrion Crowed and Aid from Bats with Cynthia, with both the vampires in the combat going into torpor. The good thing about my Ahrimanes was that they had Engling Fury to replace their expenses, while Momura-san's weenies didn't have very good blood recovery tech. Even without Howler my younger Ahrimanes (and Bobby Lemon) were able to overwhelm Momura-san's defenses and stealth through his Sport Bikes. I bled him to death to claim my final table win.
My VPs after round 3
11 VPs + 3 GWs
Final Table Seating Decision
At this point, the following positions were in the final table when it was my turn to put in my choice - I was again lucky enough to be the last player to make that decision, giving me a strategic advantage that I had every intent to exploit.
Eric's Cock Robin, bleeding
Troy's Ravnos Equipment, bleeding
Karl's Trujah do everything, bleeding
G1's Malkavian Stealth Bleed.
I knew jolly well that sitting below G1's ultra-efficient bleeding deck was suicide, and my Ahrimane Wall had no defense against the Trujah's Outside the Domain combo, so these 2 seats were excluded immediately. I had not had the chance to face Troy or Eric on previous tables and had very little idea on what they can or cannot do, but I was as usual afraid of Sense Dep and therefore slotted myself in between Eric and Troy, hoping that Eric could fend off G1 for as long as possible with his ANI intercepts, and that Troy would look down wind on Karl's Trujah instead of upwind at me.
Final Table
G1's Stealth Bleed, bleeding
Eric's Cock Robin, bleeding
My Howling, bleeding
Troy's Ravnos Equipment, bleeding
Karl's Trujah do everything.
The game started with G1 hyper bleeding Eric for 6 with Didi Meyers, and then another 4. Coupled that with the 7 pool that Eric spent on Teresita, effectively removing Eric from the game. I wasn't paying much attention to my prey at all, all my time spent trembling at the whole idea of facing the hyper Conditioning from G1.
I sent Howler to Deep Song Didi and sent her into torpor, knowing very well that it would only slow down G1 by a bit, hopefully increasing my chances of survival. Suddenly, my prey also Deep Song G1's other vampire, and sending that vampire into torpor too! Now that was a surprise! That act had significantly reduced G1's chances of survival, forcing him to go down to 4 pool in order to bring out enough vampires. What a most interesting development!
Karl didn't hesitate to take advantage of such a great opportunity. Lydia Vaticinated - I managed to block that with a helpful Draba from Troy, but Karl played another one with his other Trujah, removed Deflection from G1's hand, and proceeded to oust G1. Karl then ousted the severely weakened Eric, gaining 12 pool and 2 VPs all in a single round!
At this point things were looking quite bad for both Troy and me. Prior to the exciting death screams of the ousted Methuselahs, I had Entranced Troy's Carlton Van Wyk, and had Howler, Bobby Lemon and Nettie on table. I was down to 11 pool, but decided that the Outside Domain combo would require me to throw young vampires as a distraction for Lydia for me to survive - so I brought out Juanita nevertheless, bringing my pool down to 7. Things were worst for Troy, with so many pool committed to his 2 old vampires and a lot of equipment, he was down to 4 or 5 pool with some help of my howling lawyers.
Striking a deal with my prey, I focused on entering combat with and blocking the Trujah, with average success. Meanwhile, Karl DI-ed a Sense Dep from Troy and Lydia was already fully set up with Ankara, and had summoned the Veneficti. I was lucky enough to have Carlton there just to counter him. But Karl eventually got me to block Lydia with Carlton, and promptly killed him off with Outside the Hourglass.
Luck came to my rescue at this point again. Ashur Tablets trio activated and I drew back into hand the Entrancement, taking the Veneficti away from Karl, that probably saved me a lot of pool. Multiple Engling Fury replenished my Ahrimane's blood, and a timely Vulture Buffet topped it up to make my position a lot stronger.
By then Karl had several vampires too, and a bucket load of pool. Mind Numbs were used to reduced my available blockers (usually Bobby, he got mind numbed twice in the game), and a Codex of Edenic Groundskeeper made me play very carefully and always keep at least 2 if not more vampires untapped to deal with Karl's bleeds.
Troy however, finally successfully Sense Dep Lydia while she was tapped, giving both of us a breather. I slowly bled Troy for 1 or 2, making sure he didn't recover from the damage that I've done, but with enough juice to go forward. With Troy at 4 pool most of the time, it was a painful decision not to claim that 6 pool and 1 VP - but keeping Troy's Sense Dep in play give me a much better chance to prepare myself in the final showdown against Karl. Also, I held on to the edge like there's no tomorrow, gaining pool round after round.
Due to the Sense Dep, Karl's effort turned towards Troy, and the two of them had quite a bit of combat interaction going on. I had another 3 Ashur activated, and now had a good healthy pool and 5 active minions to fall back on. When Karl finally diablerized Troy's Sense-Depping vampire, I saw no more need to keep Troy between us and ousted him to get close to Karl.
The battle went to and fro for a while, Veneficti was destroyed with an Outside the Hourglass (again); some of my bleeds went through; a couple of Karl's vampires went torpored; Bobby was Mind Numbed again; I was however, pretty successful in keeping the Edge.
Nothing very interesting happened until I sent Howler into combat with Lydia. By then she wasn't in very good shape, and Howler is a great vampire in combat. With Crows and Bats and some presses I sent Lydia to torpor; needless to say I quickly diablerized her with Juniata, gaining quite a few equipment along the way - including a Heart from Troy. (Equipment and allies were very mobile in this game). Prior to diablerizing Lydia I was pondering whether or not I should just leave her there and disallowed Karl to bring out another Lydia (Karl had only a single vampire left with 4 blood) - that would be a complete crippling blow to Karl since he had no easy way to use all his TEM powers any more. But looking at his stack of pool, I felt that maybe it was easier to force Karl to transfer those pool for another Lydia. Afterall, a new Lydia would still need time and blood to do all her setup again, giving me lots of option to send her to torpor all over if necessary. And of course, there was the Heart to think about.
Karl didn't manage to recover in time to deal with my bleeds. When a new Trujah finally hit the table, a Legal Manipulation with Aire of Elation bypassed his Quicksilver Contemplation to give me the win.
Final Table VP
Karl - 2 VPs
Me - 3 VPs + GW
Great game!
Deck Name : The Howling
4x Howler
2x Siamese, The
2x Tupdog
1x Cynthia Ingold
1x Nettie Hale
1x Bobby Lemon
1x Juanita Santiago
Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [22]
8x Deep Song
4x Engling Fury
1x Entrancement
5x Legal Manipulations
2x Muricia's Call
1x Public Trust
1x Vulture's Buffet
Action Modifier [9]
2x Aire of Elation
1x Mole's Tunneling
6x Squirrel Balance
Combat [24]
9x Aid from Bats
6x Carrion Crows
3x Leapfrog
3x Majesty
1x Song in the Dark
2x Terror Frenzy
Combat/Action Modifier [6]
6x Swiftness of the Stag
Master [17]
1x Animalism
9x Ashur Tablets
1x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Guardian Angel
1x Wash
2x Wider View
Reaction [9]
1x Ears of the Hare
8x Speak with Spirits
Retainer [3]
1x Murder of Crows
2x Raven Spy
(o.o)v
1 comment:
Congratulations on defending your title, Stephen! Until next time. :)
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