KMW Pre-release Report - Bethlehem, PA

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (More info?)

Eight methuselahs presented themselves for battle at Adventurer's Realm in
Bethlehem, PA on Sunday, February 20, 2005. The starters were assigned
randomly and came out this way:

John - !Gangrel
Pat - Anathema
Jim - Baali
Jevon - Alastor

Jared - Alastor
Eric - !Gangrel
Vinnie - Baali
Dave - Anathema

After taking a few minutes to review the starters, we drafted 4 boosters
each in 2 pods of four. (One of each deck type, natch.) Since there were so
many new cards, vamps, etc., it took about an hour to draft and tweak decks.

The first round wound up like this:

TABLE 1

Dave bleeding
John bleeding
Jared bleeding
Jim

Jim had a relatively typical experience with the Baali deck: enough stealth
& bleed for one oust, then he ran out of steam. Jared did some interesting
tweaks to his deck, including splashing in some Giovanni and Mercy for Seth,
which seemed to give him enough hit-back vs. the Enkidu-less !Gangrel.

Result: Jim 1 VP, Jared 3 VP & GW

TABLE 2

Pat bleeding
Eric bleeding
Jevon bleeding
Vinnie

This was a very interesting table. Eric had Jevon down to one pool but
wasn't able to roll on for the oust. I had good luck with table bloat votes
and blood dolls, so I had enough pool to bring out 3 big vamps to pressure
Eric. I had enough stealth & bleed & votes to kill him and then to oust a
weakened Jevon.

Vinnie got out Valerius Major Adv with a Rutor's Hand and I think he got
Concordance on another vamp, plus he had Ossian, so he was pretty well
tooled up. We fought hard at the end, but my 12-pool advantage turned out to
be too much, and I ousted him for the sweep. (I could have killed him a turn
or so quicker if I had remembered to mark the Red-Listed Ossian for rushing.
Germaine would have been able to take him out with ranged combat.
Fortunately, my error didn't cost me in the end.)

Result: Pat 4 VP & GW

Second round:

TABLE 1

Pat bleeding
Jim bleeding
Eric bleeding
Jared

I did a little scouting at the end of the first round and realized that
Jared had some Governs but little or no bleed kicker modifiers. So I fairly
consistently took his bleeds for one, even from DOM minions, so that I could
be ready to block the GtU bleeds. Once I was tapped out but had a Wake, and
sure enough, he came in with a Govern that I was able to block.

I had really good card flow this game, thanks to Germaine's Learjet and a
well-timed Dreams of the Sphinx. I was able to throw away a lot of cards I
didn't need, like Mob Rule.

Jim came out fast again but ultimately had problems with Eric's combat. He
was also unhappy with his choice of lead vamp; he thought Cybele was too
fat, even with her built-in sort-of Govern. He Conflagrated me a time or
two, but his infernal penalty caught up with him, and I ousted him with a
Reins of Power. (Marcus & Neferu had vote lock after I burned Jared's Madame
Guil with a Society of Leopold.)

Eric was hurt a bit by the Reins and wasn't able to last long after I ousted
Jim.

Jared had three vampires plus Samuel Haight at the end, but they were very
low on blood, thanks to my Free States Rants and Eric's combat, and my
minions were nearly full, and I was about to merge Marcus to give me a plus
bleeder. He conceded to give me the sweep. (Unfortunately for him, he was
caught up in a judging issue with a concurrent MtG tournament, but I think I
would have gotten him in time anyway.)

Result: Pat 4 VP & GW

TABLE 2

Jevon bleeding
Dave bleeding
Vinnie bleeding
John

I didn't see much on this table, since ours went nearly to time, but rumor
had it that Dave was ever so close to getting an oust.

Result: 0.5 VP for everybody, no GW.

FINAL

The top finisher for each deck was thus:

Anathema: Pat 8 VP, 2 GW
Alastor: Jared 3 VP, 1 GW
Baali: Jim 1 VP
!Gangrel: John 0.5 VP

Jevon and (I think) Vinnie (or maybe Dave, sorry I don't recall) were tied
for 5th, but the three of them preferred to get home rather than sticking
around for the final. Eric stepped in at 5th seed.

Seating was as follows:

Eric bleeding
John bleeding
Jared bleeding
Pat bleeding
Jim

I wanted to stay away from the heavy fighting so it worked well for me that
the two !Gangrel were next to each other. I felt I had a better chance
against Jim, because of his infernal penalty, than against Jared with
several Minion Taps.

This was a well-played and hard-fought final.

I knew I needed a blocker to defend against Jared, and my crypt draw was
full of fatties. I got out Germaine (basic) in 2 turns, then did nothing for
3 turns while influencing out Neferu.

Jared was working on Juggler, Echo, and a 5-cap Setite with DOM.

Jim brought out Maureen, Valerius, a mid-cap Setite, and Azaneal. (He got 2
Blood Dolls to help with all those vampires, and a Concordance to help with
Valerius's untap.)

John got out Jesus, Janey, and Enkidu. And, oh yeah, the 2-cap with obf. He
got a Blood Doll on two vamps, which helped him a lot.

Eric brought out Hartmut, Scarlet, & Harry. I don't think he had the Black
Spiral Buddy this time. He got a lot of pool gain from Scarlet hunting with
a Blood Doll, especially later in the game when Jim was not able to put
pressure on him.

John later contested Scarlet, but I believe he eventually had to concede
about 1 or 2 turns before the game timed out.

Jim later got out Mylan, but none of his vamps were big enough for the
Goblin to untap. So Mylan bled for 1 a lot. (not a terrible deal, to be
honest)

Once Enkidu was out, John came after Jared hard and torped many of his
vamps. Jared had o.k. combat, but not so much of the prevention, so he was
fairly low on blood and wasn't able to minion tap for much (if any).

Meanwhile, Eric was putting moderate pressure on John, and Jim was going
forward pretty strongly.

I finally started getting some momentum with FSR, a bit of bleed, etc. John
ousted Jared in about 1 hour 15 mins, and I was really afraid he was going
to get me as well.

Fortunately for me, Eric started getting a nice run of combat and weakened
Enkidu a lot. I had a lot to do with that, as I was hurting Jim a lot by
then, so he was stopped from going forward very much.

Once again, the Reins of Power were key. I needed Eric's help to pass it and
oust Jim, but since it did 4 damage to Eric's prey, it made sense for him to
support it.

I lost 5 pool because of Enkidu, but I voter capped to have a net gain of 3
on my ousting action.

At this point, John was hovering around 4 pool, and Eric had 10ish or so. I
clearly couldn't oust Eric, but I didn't need to, as I was now back in first
place based on preliminary finish.

I walled up to protect my pool (which was at about 10-12) and Eric went
after John hard, but he wasn't able to oust before time was called. (He
probably needed just one more turn, as Hartmut had Games of Instincted
Enkidu into torpor.)

Final finish was:

Pat 1.5 VP
John 1.5 VP
Eric 0.5 VP
Jared 0 VP
Jim 0 VP

The Anathema show the rest of the undead world who's boss! (Although in the
final game, I didn't get out a RL vamp until the turn after I ousted Jim,
when I brought out Jayne Jonestown as an additional chump blocker.)

It was a great tournament, thanks to Jared & his store for hosting and to
John for organizing.

- Pat