My experience in Atlanta

I had better success in Atlanta than at the previous tournament the week before in Charleston.  I played a Masika deck, using Aching Beauty and Enkil Cog to bleed in the hopes my prey would either take the bleed or block and burn pool anyway.

First Round:

The first round was dominated by the Ashur Tablets.  Both David Tatu and Jeff Brandon had (I think) two run offs to each get the 3rd Tablet into play.  David was playing a rather small deck, but he would use the Tablets to regain cards.  He was playing a Malk bleed deck that had some stealth, but a lot of fire power with Disguised Weapon and guns.  But unforunately his prey destroyed two of his guns, including an Assault Rifle David had payed 5 pool for a turn earlier.

Meanwhile, Oscar Garza and Jeff Brandon got into combat when Oscar tried to get a Warghoul in play.  Jeff got Siamese knocked into torpor, who I later rescued.   Jeff was playing another Anarch deck, just as he did in Charleston the week before.  This time it was Arhimaines instead of Gargoyles.  He would put Vessels on his Arhimaines and then have them either Engling Fury or hunt with Vulture’s Buffet to gain blood and pool.   He would use D’habi Revenant in his own ash heap for the Buffet to work.

I thought John Newquist had the best chance of winning.  He had Smiling Jack in play for sometime, earning 4 counters on the card.  He also had two or three Underbridge Strays in play, The Unmasking and FBI Special Affairs Division.   He blocked with the Strays, they burned in combat and the FBI would do damage to his opponents.  John was able to tap out and oust Jeff B. for the first VP of the game. But John did get low on pool and allowed David to burn Smilling Jack.

I had a terrible crypt and hand draw.  I had several cards in my hand that required a Prince to play.  Sadly, I drew no Princes in my opening crypt.  If I had then things would have started off better and I would have had a faster start.  I also drew 10 cards in my hand without noticing it.  I think I just got so use to counting in segments of 10 when I count my cards that I mistakenly drew 10.  As soon as I realized this, I informed the table.  They were understanding I dumped the 3 extra cards.  But that still didn’t fix my bad draw.

Despite my slow start and bad draw, I was able to put two Aching Beauties on Masika and bled David down to 5 pool.  But I never drew a single Aire of Elation the entire game.  If I had then things would have been very different.  David  was able to use his Vessels and third Ashur Tablet to get back up to 9 pool.   He then was able to oust John for a VP of his own.

Since I drew no Princes in my crypt, I started discarding the 4th, 5th and 2nd Tradtions in my hand.  I was able to keep my pool up with my Minion Taps, but my vampires were slowly getting low on blood.   My hunting ground help keep Masika up and active, but my other two vampires were not able to get much done.

Oscar was worried I had bounce cards in my hand, so he chose not to bleed me for most of the game. Instead of bleeding, Oscar put an Army of Rats and a Dragonbound into play and knocked my Isabel into torpor.   With those two cards in play Oscar was able to get rid of 6-8 of my pool counters. That hurt more than anything, and I knew he had the intercept and more than 12 pool of his own, so blocking a rescue attempt was no problem for him.  I did try once to get rid of the Army of Rats, but Changed Target once he blocked me.  My end came when Oscar put a Fame on Anson and rushed him with a Deep Song, knocking him into torpor, burning my last 3 pool.

Second Round:

The second round was my best effort.  I got 1 VP and my crypt and library were much better.  I drew Tatiana in my opening crypt, but no Anson.  I did have a lot of Masters in my hand, so if Anson was available right away I would have been able to get a faster jump on Jeff, who was my prey in this new round.

Mike Perlman, who would end up winning the tournament by day’s end, got bled out by Jeff very quickly.  Mike’s deck as it turned out only had one Deflection and Jeff got up 3 vamps and started to stealth bleed with Power of One.  Jeff ousted Mike pretty quickly, surprising us all.

My predator this round was Matt Guin, who was playing another Tzimisce deck.  He didn’t have any bleed modifiers and I wasn’t going to let myself get into combat with him after seeing what Oscar did to me the first round.  I drew a lot of Telepathic Counters and Misdirections throughout the game, so I was able to fiend him off for a while.

I put three Aching Beauties on Maskia and two on Tatiana.  Maskia was getting low on blood throughout most of this game.  I never drew the Rack or hunting ground, but I would try to have Tatiana 5th Tradition him.  I thought making people burn 2 pool to block her would be a good deterrent,  but it was not.  Jeff willingly blocked and did what he could to knock Tatiana into torpor.  I was able to Majesty for a while, but even that cause her blood to get low.

I drew several Aire of Elations in this game and twice bled Jeff for 5 with Masika.  I also drew my Enkil Cog this round and had Masika hunt and do some other things during Danielle’s minion phases.  No one blocked Masika for the rest of the game once he got 3 Aching Beauties.   I was able to get Jeff down to 2 pool and I sent in Tatiana for the final +1 bleed while she had 2 Aching Beauties on her.  If Jeff  was in a Catch-22, block and get ousted or allow the bleed and get ousted.  Matt wanted to Eagle Sight the bleed, but did not have one in his hand.  I was able to score a VP and 6 pool, which  kept me alive for a little while.  Danielle had too much pool for me to bleed through and she often Deflected me to Matt.  In the end Matt was able to bleed me out and go onto a 3VP win.

Here is my Deck.  If I had to do it over again, I would drop the Traditions and add more combat.  Use  Taste of Vitae to regain blood.

Crypt:
———————————-
3 Masika
3 Anson
2 Tatiana Romanov
2 Isabel de Leon
2 Mariana Gilbert

Library: (90 cards)
—————————————-
Actions 14
2 Entrancement
4 Fifth Tradition: Hospitality, The
4 Fourth Tradition
4 Dark Mirror of the Mind

Action Mod 22
7 Aire of Elation
8 Change of Target
2 Enkil Cog
5 Crocodile’s Tongue

Combat 10
10 Majesty

Masters 20
10 Aching Beauty
6 Minion Tap
1 The Rack
1 Society Hunting Ground
1 Art Museum
1 Elysium: The Arboretum

Reaction Cards 24
8 Telepathic Misdirection
4 Eyes of Argus
4 Second Tradition
4 Telepathic Counter
4 On the Qui Vive