NEW YORK CITY Tournaments - Results

New York Tournaments!

First off, thanks to all who attended. I was a lot of fun to see
everyone come down and play. I saw a lot of interesting decks and it
was cool to see every have fun.

Here is the run down.

Friday May 23th
"Domain Challenge" - Constructed

Players: 10 (12)

Notes: Some weirdness all around for this tournament. Had some
funkiness with the Archon, due to the fact that some people did not
shown, so I was the 11th person. I sat out for the first round.
Sadness Adam. Then a new person came in the 2nd round so then I got to
play! (I actually got to play some this weekend.) Then the finals got
postponed to Saturday due to one of the finalist discovering that his
car was towed. Fun times for him! But it all worked out in the end.

PLAYERS VP GW TP

Selen Turkay 1 4 102
Jesse Cross-Nickerson 1 4 96
Shawn Stanley 1 3 78
Cory Seigel 1 2 78
Peter Kapsalis 0 2 84
Matt Morgan 0 1.5 78
Ray Ramos 0 1.5 72
Adam Hulse 0 1.5 60
Ray Lambert 0 1 48
Rod Schmidt 0 0 30
Sonam Adniolf 0 0 36
John Whelan 0 0 30


Final: The final actually worked out pretty simply. Selen Turkay got
1st place (5VP 1 GW) and everyone else got second place! Congrats
Selen! Her prize was a piece of art from Fred Harper (Tereberous Form
I believe.) She graciously ceded the art to Jesse Cross-nickerson in
exchange for pack prizes. All in all a lot of fun! I will have her
deck up soon.

Interesting Tidbits:
1) Apparently the card Blood Hunt is not used that often elsewhere. I
caught Matt Morgan talking to people about how Olugbenga became
useless once Selen's Brujah Prince caught wind of this Magaji
nonsense. [I think the Archon program likes to put Matt next to Selen
in every tournament.] Blood Hunt is a good card. Pity us New Yorkers
have to suffer through it all the time. :(

2) Assuming that I wasn't going to play in the tournament, I gave Ray
Ramos my Cailean deck to play in my stead. Of course, in my rush of
running things I gave him my Akunsase deck instead! Which worked out
well in the end since I could play in the 2nd round. [And that the
Akunsase doesn't have a lot of answers as long range cailean
awesomeness.] Still, it was nice to see Ray play that deck to good
effect dispite him never drawing adequate pool gain for it.

3) Watching Shawn gain 20 something pool with 3-4 con boons was pretty
funny. Then watching Matt bleed for 10 (I think) in one made Selen (as
Matts pred) realize that she needed his VP before he got another. In
the end, that might have been a mistake because shawn then just had to
many minions and selen was quickly voted off the table dispite her 6
extra pool. Good game though!

Feel free to add any comments of you own guys!

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NEW YORK CITY QUALIFIER
Date: Saturday May 24th

Notes: It was a smaller qualifier then last year, with 17 players.
Next year I will not doit on Memorial day weekend. (I thought that the
not needing to run back to work on monday would make people more
inclined to come. My mistake.) Eight of the players were from out of
town. Thanks to all who made it. As stated before the winner of this
was Matt Morgan with a interesting Spell of Life deck. Congrats. I
will attach what Matt already wrote about his deck so it all under one
post.

Player GW VP

Matt Morgan 2 7 138
Peter Bakija 2 6 168
Jesse Cross-nickerson 1 6 144
Dave Conroy 1 5 114
Cory Seigel 1 4.5 126
Rod Schmidt 1 4 132
Shawn Stanley 1 4 114
Sonam Adinolf 1 3.5 126
Ben Peal 1 3 96
Peter Kapsalis 1 2 102
Selen Turkay 0 2 120
Kurt Resee 0 1 94
John Mickle 0 1 84
Ethan Levi 0 1 78
Ben Kalb 0 0 70
Ray Romos 0 0 70
John Whelan 0 0 60


Finals were:
Matt Morgan (wins final): Spell of Life Mummy deck.
Cory Seigel Ambrogino Giovanni Powerbleed deck
Peter Bakija: Gangrel weenie vote deck.
Dave Conroy: Weenie dom/obf S+B deck.
Jesse Cross Nickerson: Assamite/Obf BH deck.


Notes on Final: As stated, this was over in 46 minutes. I was watching
it for a while, and it seemed that some players (Peter Bakija...) were
taking pleasure in talking as fast as they can.
[NoMoreActionsImGoingToDiscardOkayGo!] :) Great game guys!


Interest Tidbits on Tournament:
1) I must admit. Not a big fan of S+B decks. So I took some perverse
pleasure watching my New York players hit Dave Conroys deck upside the
head in rounds one and two. However, he showed me up with a strong GW
in the third round. Ethan, Peter K. and Ray shame on you! :) Nice work
Dave!

2) Yes, the rumors are true. Peter Kapsalis got a game win in Round 2.
With *** Swords. 'Nuff said. Nice work!

3) Watching John Whelan play Anarch Revolts like they were going out
of style and then seeing Ben cashing in on it with War Ghouls running
all over the place was pretty funny. Will they ever make a Ally as
good as that? [Ally meaning War Ghoul... not John Whelan.] I doubt
it... :)

4) Seeing High Art of Museum in play led to some silly/stupid math
jokes by yours truly. Shawn being at "3+4i pool" was said I believe.
[And yes, Ben Peal was down to "i" pool at one time.]

5) I actually missed Matt's Spell of Life go off each time. The game
was over before I knew it. Although Cory's Automatic Mastery did blow
one up, it was just not enough. Where's Pentweret when you need him!
Although chances are he would be contested as a mummy...

6) Ben Kalb had a chance in round 3 for funniest play when it was
realized that he had Drusilla Euphemia and his prey was Shawn's Group
1 Ventrue. Unfortunately for Ben Kalb, the turn before he chose to
block the akunsase and was in torpor and then quickly ousted.

7) Apparently I just can't understand John Mickle's toreador fighty
deck. I witnessed it floundering in games one and two, and remember
wondering "but what does it do?" but then it apparently destroyed Matt
Morgan's FoS before it could even get started. Unfortuately, then Ben
Peal's War Ghouls joined the fray and took the game win.

Feel free to write any comments about the qualifier!

Here is Matt's deck:
Deck Name: Mummy Strength!
Created by: Matt Morgan
Description: Get mummies. Block, fight, rush, bleed, win!

Crypt [13 vampires, average capacity: 7]
1x Nakhthorheb OBF PRE SER 10 Follower of Set:4
1x Seterpenre AUS NEC OBF PRE SER 10 Follower of Set:5
1x Neferu OBF PRE SER THA dom nec 9 Follower of Set:4 2 votes
1x Pentweret OBF PRE SER aus for obe 9 Follower of Set:5
1x Porphyrion CHI OBF PRE SER for 9 Follower of Set:5
1x Shemti OBF POT PRE SER vic 9 Follower of Set:5 1 vote
1x Amenophobis OBF SER dom pre 7 Follower of Set:4 primogen
2x Halim Bey DOM SER obf tha 6 Follower of Set:4
1x Black Lotus DOM aus obf ser 5 Follower of Set:4
1x Sahira Siraj obf ser tha 4 Follower of Set:4
1x Sisocharis cel obf pre 4 Follower of Set:5
1x Ahmose Chambers obf ser 3 Follower of Set:5

/* The larger vampires are obviously not meant to be influenced out
and
never were. They might as well have been Enkidu, Hazimel, Sha-
Ennu,
Saulot, etc., but it never really mattered as I rarely had a mummy
burned by losing all its life. Two copies of Halim and 3x
Effective
Management meant I got him out in every preliminary round. In the
final he showed up late and ended up having to join the ranks of
the
mummies. */

Library [61 cards]
Master [14]
2x Blood Doll
1x Centralized Background Check
1x Channel 10
1x Charisma
3x Effective Management
1x Fame
1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Mob Connections
1x Opium Den
1x WMRH Talk Radio

/* The media outlets helped a lot. I'm a firm believer in Unmasking +
media locations in an ally deck. It really gets the job done.
Centralized Background Check was in my starting hand in the first
two
games, but I didn't see it in round 3 when I was killed by .44s.
Ah
well. It's good in theory. */

Action [11]
1x Set's Curse
10x Spell of Life

/* Set's Curse was originally Far Mastery, but more of my crypt can
play
Set's Curse and there are more available targets. In round 1, I
was a
little slow with it and Meno Ngari got a skill card before I could
hit
him with it. In round 2, I turned Lupo into a snake, which was
really
cool, even if it probably didn't cause me to win any more than I
was
already winning. I died too quickly to make use of it in round 3,
but
turning one of Ben Peal's War Ghouls into a snake would've been
pretty
great. There were small vampires that would've made good targets
for
this in the final, but sadly I had nobody with SER to play it, so
it
had to be discarded.

10x Spell of Life was pretty good in a 61 card deck. I normally
got
the Spell off around turn 7 or so, I think. I never tried to get
it to
happen again and never needed it. Each game concluded a turn or
two
after I completed the Spell (or in the case of round 3, the game
concluded for me the turn before I would've completed it). */

Action Modifier [13]
2x Cloak the Gathering
2x Conditioning
1x Domain of Evernight
2x Faceless Night
2x Lost in Crowds
2x Spying Mission
2x Veil the Legions

Action Modifier/Combat [2]
2x Swallowed by the Night

/* Heavy intercept would've probably been a problem for me, but
luckily
there was none. My first prey of the day was an Akunanse deck,
but I
managed to block it tooling up with intercept permanents. Veils
were
good to add stealth to mummies (since I never had anyone with OBF
for
cloak). Conditioning, just because I'd be crazy not to. */

Ally [8]
1x Amam the Devourer (Bane Mummy)
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Kherebutu (Bane Mummy)
1x Nephren-Ka
1x Ossian
1x Qetu the Evil Doer (Bane Mummy)
1x Tutu the Doubly Evil One (Bane Mummy)
1x Vagabond Mystic

/* Carlton made frequent appearances. I had Ossian in round 2, but he
really only served to cycle my prey's Swallowed by the Night
maneuvers.
I got Qetu out in the first round and actually successfully bled
my
prey twice, which I think is pretty good (she bleeds for 2). An
early
Nephren-Ka probably gave me the final, because I rushed the dom/
obf
deck a lot to keep it from having the steam to oust me. I sadly
never
had the pool to get Kherebutu or Tutu. I'll have to keep playing
the
deck until I make good use of them. Vagabond Mystic was the 61st
card
in this deck (originally designed at 60), but I never drew him. */

Event [3]
1x Dragonbound
1x FBI Special Affairs Division
1x Unmasking, The

/* I believe the only one of these I ever played was FBI Special
Affairs
Division, which was really useful when Carlton was blocking Matata
at 1
blood. Matata couldn't take the risk of going to torpor and never
coming back, so Carlton got away with dodging three or four times.
*/

Reaction [10]
5x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
3x On the Qui Vive

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Sunday May 25th
"Urban Jungle" - Draft (Recursion) - 7 Packs

Notes: We had 8 players joining us for this draft. Because of lack of
goods at the store (I know I know...) we played a weird draft but was
a lot of fun!

3 Sword of Caine
3 Black Hand
1 3rd Edition

Since there were no grouping rules we saw some pretty cool stuff.

Since people where tired of a weekend of playing and some people had
to go, we did not play a final.

[This is a little off I believe can't seem to find the record of this.
But the GW are correct.]

PLAYER GW VP

Adam Hulse 1 4
Selen Turkay 1 4
Sonam Adinolf 0 0
Matt Morgan 2 7
Ben Peal 0 0
John Whelan 0 0
Jesse Cross-nickerson 0 0
Shawn Stanley 0 1


Interesting Notes:
[I can really only comment on my stuff here, but maybe some others
will pipe up.]

1) I got lucky and drafted some ridiculous cards. Owen Evens. Gang
territory. Con Boon. Grooming the Protege. Miguel Santiago. It was
enough to win in Round 1. But Matt with him using two Seraphs with two
Tattoo Signals wasn't enough. But that he was using them to untap my
prey's minions just made it impossible. Oh and he also had Watchtower:
Four Ride Forth. Oye! Congrats to Matt for the win!

2) Blind spot is real good in draft. Although, mine didn't work out in
round two when I had Elimelech the Twice-Damned as my prey and Appius
Claudius Corvus as my pred. Oh well...

3) I need to have a talk with John Whelan. I think he passed Matt TWO
Eppiphany's during the draft (I know I didn't). Besides the draft
part, I mean come on! I only have two Eppiphany's! Once again... oh
well...


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Okay, that's it! That's the weekend! Hope you guys liked the report!
And for all who came, I hope you guys had a good time! See you guys
hopefully at the Nationals!

Adam
Baron of New York
.