Re: Results NAC 2009
- From: "Matthew T. Morgan" <farquar@xxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 09:45:05 -0500
Not such a good showing for team USA this year. The Euros swept all the main tournaments and Americans only had one seat at each of the LCQ, day 1 and day 2 tournaments. In fact, I was the only American to score a game win on day 2. I tried to confuse the issue by insisting that Michael was in fact the American and therefore should be ousted first, but for some reason that didn't work. I really think that was my strongest strategy and best opportunity to win, but maybe one of the observers can point out where I went wrong.
The only solution I can think of to this problem is to start claiming Ruben for Team USA, since he lives in New York now.
At 3rd seed, I had the choice to prey on Michael (Guruhi block/combat) or Hugh (!Ventrue block/bleed/some combat). Since I knew Hugh's deck didn't rush and didn't come forward too quickly (at least not without an irresponsible bleeder behind it), I chose to prey on Michael, figuring he wouldn't rush me out of existence right away, giving a VP to someone else. I was right about that at least. Ferenc chose to sit as Hugh's prey, then Ruben chose to sit as Ferenc's prey. Michael went first.
Michael had a horrible crypt draw, but unfortunately for me, Ruben came at me so fast, I had no opportunity to capitalize on Michael's bad luck. Ruben played The Parthenon and Zillah's Valley, getting Selma on turn 1. I put four on Anson. On turn 2, Ruben played Legendary Vampire on Selma, then played Kaymakli Nightmares, which gave me basically the same crypt draw, but meant I wouldn't get Anson until turn 3. It also improved Michael's draw. Luckily, Ferenc had played a Dreams and already had Baron Dieudonne in play. Ruben hit me for 8 again (Parity Shift/bleed) on turn 3, so I had just 6 pool remaining when I put Anson into play.
Team not-Ruben (me, Ferenc and Hugh, who had a vote from Joseph O'Grady and didn't want Ruben to run the table so quickly) managed to vote away the Legendary Vampire and Ferenc gave me 3 pool by shifting Ruben. I survived another turn as Ruben got out Suhailia and another Legendary Vampire. I Minion Tapped Anson and avoided the 4 bleed from Suhailia by tapping her with Scalpel Tongue before she could bleed me when Selma called a vote. Ferenc asked me if I would help him kill Ruben. There was obviously some discussion, but I agreed to help and in exchange, he wouldn't come forward until I had a 2nd vampire, so Ruben was out first. I had 11 pool left.
Meanwhile, Michael was tooling up undisturbed and had a Fame on Hugh's Neighbor John. Hugh was attempting to conserve fortitude cards and still make some headway against Ferenc. Nothing much happened for a few turns other than Hugh's Owain feeding Anson blood, so I could Minion Tap again (costing 3 due to Villain!). I put Alexandra into play in an attempt to have some kind of game. By now Michael had three Guruhi out, including Nanglia Were. He had some Raven Spies and stuff and quite a lot of pool. It looked glum. I was hoping he might get overconfident and go too low and I could kill him with a TGB vote, but those odds were slim. Ruben had taken Anthelios with him when he died, so there was no recycling for me.
Ferenc eventually Parity Shifted some of my pool to him and bled me kind of low with Petrodon. Hugh saw his time was up as Michael was very close to killing him, so he tapped out Ferenc and Pentexed one of his guys and went for the lunge. Ferenc had sufficient wakes and survived. He also AI'd Owain on a bleed for 6. Very bad for Team Not Gonna Get VPs. Ferenc hit me again after removing the Pentex and I was almost dead. Michael was at 13 pool with one untapped vampire. I had two Aires and a KRC. If Michael had zero wakes (fat chance, as he had hardly played any), I could kill him. Any chance is better than no chance, so I played my own Pentex and called the KRC. Michael blocked, so I resigned myself to death. Hugh and I both died around the same time.
Once strong, Ferenc was much weaker than Michael now. Michael had a ton of pool and four minions, including a rusher. There wasn't much doubt how things would come out at that point.
Fun game. I look forward to some rematches in Palma. Hopefully I will have a better deck. Mine is okay, but it's a bit slow and a lot can go wrong. This is the first tournament in which Villeins really hurt me. I could've played Villeins myself, but they aren't recycleable with Anthelios, since they stay in play. That's why I played Minion Taps. My deck wasn't really a big Parity Shift deck. It only has two in sixty cards. The six Ashur Tables I played weren't a huge help in three of my games, but they were somewhat instrumental in the 3rd round which I won. The Ambulance angle was never useful, which is too bad, because it's a fun trick, but I was never able to put more than one Aching Beauty into play, so it wasn't that huge. It would probably be better as just a plain TGB deck with or without the Ashur Tablets or as an Aching Beauty deck that has more defense.
Anyway, I had a great time and wish I could've come for the full week. Thanks to all the organizers and congratulations to the winners, especially our champion, Michael "The American" Heyder!
Matt Morgan
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