Re: Belgrade: First Blood tournament raport

On 7 huhti, 12:59, "ResurrectioN" <ishallkill...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
'Twas a chilly, ominous spring morning when ten of us gathered to
perform mystical rites of demon invocation. Having realized that we
forgot to bring some of the more important ingredients, we decided to
settle for a VtES tournament instead. More to the point, a Sword of
Caine release tournament.

Three rounds were to be played, followed by a final round. It might be
of interest to note that this was the first time Belgrade ever saw a
three-round tournament and this was the wery first official tournament
- all in one. Ten players were in attendance, which seemed fortunate
at the time as it allowed us to have two five-player tables.
Unfortunately, after round one we had two players leave, so the
remaining two rounds were played with two four-player tables. Woe is
us.

The three rounds passed in a somewhat predictable manner, three
players establishing obvious dominance early on. These were Milos
Krstic (Toreador Antitribu vote/bloat deck), Djordje Bjelajac (Ventrue
vith obf) and Nikica Novakovic (Salubri annoy-everyone-with-the-
goddess-damned-spirit-marionette-Obeah-***-card). The only notable
moment would perhaps be the second round in which Nikica's Salubri
obliterated both his predator and prey (which happened to be me)
within first four turns (steal Arika form predator bleed prey for 5
and dunk Arika to torpor. Yey!). The running concensus from now on is
that both predator and prey of a player with a Salubri in his crypt
are allowed to play with baseball bats.

At the end of the third round it was established that the five players
in the final round, aside from the three players already mentioned,
would be Djordje Sutic with his Brujah Antitribu and Marko Vujnovic
(which would be yours truly), with a really crappy Nosferatu/Nosferatu
Antitribu deck. The only truly strange thing about the final round was
the fact that I had even gotten into it with my measly half a vactory
point. Just to note, if you decide that it is a good idea to create a
new deck from scratch at 5am, and decide to do so with a clan you have
never even played with - just don't. On the other hand, it did get me
into the final round so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

The seating order in the final round was:

Nikica Novakovic (Salubri)
Marko Vujnovic (Nosferatu/!Nosferatu)
Djordje Bjelajac (Ventrue with obf)
Djordje Sutic (!Brujah)
Milos Krstic (!Toreador)

The game was very indicative of Belgrade playstyle, at least
considering tournament finals. For over 90 minutes, pretty much
nothing was happening, somewhat due to the fact that everyone was
making sure to have all their minions tapped so that the ***
Salubri couldn't steal them with Spirit Marionette and everyone trying
to put back the balance if anthing disbalancing occured. The !Toreador
kept bloating and bloating with neither his predator nor prey having
enough Intercept and untap to prevent most of his political actions
and since he wasn't aggressively attacking there was no need to
intervene too much. Briefly there was a clash between the Ventrue and
the !Brujah, initiated by Arika calling Protect Thy Own on Hector (the
referendum didn't pass) but soon enough it was forgoten. Some fifteen
minutes before timeout, my Nosferatu were ousted. Arika is to be
blamed again. This would remain the only oust in the final round and,
as a result, Nikica with his Salubri claimed his torunament victory
with 1.5 VP.

We remain hopeful that one day we will see a final round of any
tournament be finished with an actual game win and not with the darn
timeout. But, all things considered, it was a fun tournament.

Raport by Dawngreeter.

Some additional notes: The reason we didn't play SoC draft is simple:
Serbia is Thirdworld country and giving away >=10 EUR for entry fee
would be to much and after counsulthing with all potential players it
was decided to be standard constructed so that as many players as
possible show up.
Irony is that those who were for constructed from the start didn't
attend.
Another reason is that we have never played draft and didn't want to
experiment in tournament enviroment.

And, yes, name of the tourmanent is reference to Rambo: First blood :D

Wining deck:

Belgrade: First Blood
Belgrade, Serbia
Date: 24.3.2007.
Number of players: 10
Winner: Nikica Novakovic

Deck Name : Salubri getting dirty
Author : ResurrectioN

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 8 average: 6.75
------------------------------------------------------------
4x Matthias 7 AUS FOR OBE nec Salubri:2
3x Owain Evans, The W 8 AUS DOM FOR cel pre !Ventrue:3
2x Blanche Hill 6 FOR OBE aus Salubri:2
1x Blackhorse Tanner 7 AUS DOM FOR !Ventrue:3
1x Vanessa 6 DOM FOR aus pre !Ventrue:2
1x Ingrid Russo 4 DOM for !Ventrue:2

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [24]
1x Far Mastery
5x Govern the Unaligned
1x Graverobbing
5x Renewed Vigor
12x Spirit Marionette

Action Modifier [22]
4x Change of Target
4x Conditioning
5x Daring the Dawn
5x Freak Drive
1x Kiss of Ra, The
3x Repulsion

Combat [13]
8x Anesthetic Touch
5x Rolling with the Punches

Master [14]
1x Demonstration
1x Giant's Blood
4x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
5x Minion Tap
2x Perfectionist
1x Secure Haven

Reaction [17]
7x Deflection
4x Delaying Tactics
6x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Notes on deck:
The main reason i've picked to play with this deck was that i was
pretty shure what every player is gonna play.
My predictions came true and of 10 participants only 3 didn't have for
or dom in their crypt (note that 5 players who didn't show up would
play dom or for).

The dack itself needs some tweeking and this are potential changes:
-Perefctionst/ +Secure Haven
-Renewed Vigor/ +Conditioning
-Kiss of Ra/ +Dawn Operation

I have never influenced Blanche and she will probably be replaced with
Samson and Lana Bucher.

Salubri spirit marionette decks (at least ones not using Saulot) are
really only good in low intercept environment, as they have serious
trouble getting more than 2 stealth to marionette, without using
daring the dawn which is not only very risky, but also burns both
secure haven and repulsion from your guy. But congratulations on the
tournament win anyway, that should teach others to play more intercept
and less Arika. ;)

.