Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (More info?)
Hi,
I just couldn't wait for an official report from the Prince (forgive
me Marlo), 'cause I'm all to happy with our Qualifier last weekend -
be it for the good level of organization and great attendance at the
SP SAC Qualifier or for my performance on it.
42 players, 40 non-qualified, showed up in our biggest SAC Qualifier
to date. It was great fun with plenty of variety in strategies, from
simple sneaky bleed to weenie decks, from fierce combat to Camarilla
vote, from indie tricks to Gangrel Force of Will + Movement of the
Slow Body + Rapid Healing, and the return of the 'Roaches at the hands
of another player.
These were the top 5 players in the preliminary rounds:
1. Cassio ('Roaches Final Solution, or !Toreador + Embraces, Palla
Grande, Foundation Exhibit, Gehenna Events) - 3 GW + 14 VPs
2. Pedro Serrano (Toreador group 1/2 with many masters, intercept,
Obedience) - 3 GW + 11 VPs
3. Fabio Sooner (Ravnos group 4 don't pay for Chimestry and Tumnimos)
- 3 GW + 10,5 VPs
4. Giovanni Cisterna (EuroBrujah with Beast) - 2 GW + 9 VPs
5. Irwin (said Gangrels Force of Will and come back from torpor with
even more blood) - 2 GWs + 8 VPs
The final table ended up like this:
Irwin (Gangrels) ->
Pedro (Toreador) ->
Fabio (Ravnos) ->
Giovanni (EuroBrujah) ->
Cassio ('Roaches)
I've taken the stance of doing nothing but conserving pool until
something was done to my intercept-y predator - I could generate at
most 3 stealth per action, easily blockable with a 2nd Tradition and a
token intercept location. To makes things worse, he got Anneke as
first vampire and KRCG and WMRH in the first two rounds. I announced
early that I was not going to bleed my prey no matter how little
intercept he had until Anneke was out - I was simply not going to
attract my prey's Beast and Theo Bell attention just to ease things
for my predator and let him pick two easy VPs. At the worst, acting as
wall in front of him would grant me 3rd place.
Cassio was in a bad position, being rushed by a predator with no
pressure, but he didn't help me playing Slow Withering and Port
Authority very early. I couldn't call for Fatuus Mastery - my predator
wouldn't let me most of the time - and even if I could, I would be
burning extra blood for the most needed effects - Sens. Dep and Mirror
Image. So I persisted on keepin' all 4 minions I had untapped and
stripping the blood out of them via Tribute to the Master. (the
minions were Tatiana Stepanova, Paul Forrest, Gharston Roland and
Devyn).
To make things worse for Cassio, Giovanni kept asking for the extra
intercept from WMRH to keep the !Toreadors from making "babies"
(Embraces) and torporizing them with +1 strength and Disarm. I
should've told him to keep playing Gehenna cards and stop influencing
out more minions, but nobody knew at the time if Giovanni had Dominate
modifiers - for the rest of the entire game we didn't see any.
The Slow Withering was also seriously hampering Irwin, who couldn't
make the most out of his stuff - he needed most superior effects, and
though Movement and Rapid Healing didn't cost nothing, it negated his
ability to keep coming back from torpor with no blood loss. He also
had to pay double to bounce - he had Iliana just for that - and kept
hunting most of the time.
I've struck a deal with Giovanni for him to use the freedom he had to
split the table with me, hoping he could do so in time to come to my
predator and cripple him, making 3 VPs and lefting the 2 remaining for
me. But then Cassio played Fall of the Camarilla, and Pedro was
somewhat stuck also. He couldn't bleed without being blocked, he
couldn't vote - the only votes left were Zayatt's 2, controlled by his
predator, Irwin - and he couldn't play 2nd Tradition. So he kept using
Minion Taps and getting them back via Anthelios, also played by
Cassio, and the second master phase action granted by Anson.
With Anneke, Anson, Alexandra and Masika ready at my back, I could do
nothing except to discard and wait for the next untap to try to draw
more Tributes, but Pedro helped me much with a single Gehenna card:
Nightmares Upon Nightmares. With 5 Gehenna cards at the table, 3 out
of 4 of my ready minions would need discarding to keep untapped, which
granted me 3 "free discards" every untap phase. Thanks to that, I
could ditch out every undirected action I had - Tumnimos, part of the
Patshivs, part of the Fatuus Mastery, Tasha Morgan etc. - and keep
drawing a Tribute to the Master and/or a master to swap for a Tribute
on my ash heap via Anthelios. That kept me alive, maintaing pool on
the 15-16 range for most of the game, even if I was not acting lest
for a hunt every two turns when I saw that I would not be blocked.
Giovanni left Cassio with one empty minion ready and 4 pool, but felt
it would be no good for him to oust his prey and see the Camarilla
back. Seeing how good Pedro was at poolgain and influencing big
minions, he started rushing him. We had a minor discussion with the
judge if it was legal play or not - Giovanni had a good "barrier" with
15 pool between him and his target; his prey was almost dead; and his
next prey had only 5 pool. The play was allowed based on the Camarilla
issue - Pedro also had a Elysium: Arboretum, which would be hard to
run around once the Camarilla was back. Giovanni used mainly Immortal
Grapples - I've seen no Psyche! at all - so it was a good excuse, I
think.
He torporized Masika with Theo Bell after Beast being told to
Obedience, with prevented Pedro from taking back another Minion Tap
and gain at least 6-7 pool - Zayatt, the voting man, diablerized the
annoying Toreador.
So we had only 10 minutes left. Seeing that my prey had only 6 pool,
all minions tapped, was not able to fulfill his part of the deal
ousting 3 preys, and I had the chance to try the lone VP that would
win me the tournament, I broke the table split deal and tried to bleed
Giovanni out. At worst, I'd be blocked by Anneke, would be rushed once
or twice, and could survive the endgame with still 15 pool and two or
three minions to block 3 Toreadors. This scenario would also prove
that I was right all the time - better to survive and end 3rd place
than to throw myself on the wall, tap a bunch of minions, get bled and
be ousted, ending in 5th place.
Of course, Anneke blocked me at the final bleed, and I was so in a
rush to tap her out of the way to the point of playing Red Herring -
and forgetting that I couldn't bleed anymore with my two minions left!
Bad move, but later Pedro confessed that he had an Obedience in hand,
so Anneke wouldn't be tapped anyway regardless of letting her block or
not.
As I imagined, Giovanni proceeded to guarantee his VP and torporize
Tatiana, but that was all before the end of the table by timeout.
So Giovanni Cisterna won with 1 VP, Pedro was 2nd, me 3rd, Irwin 4th,
and Cassio 5th.
Barring the tension at the finals, it was a great tournament overall,
and the region placed 13 players in SAC (10 qualified in here, 2 in
the Vitoria Qualifier, and 1 from last year's finals). Let's see if
this year we can manage to win - it's been three years in a row with
players from Rio grabbing the Championship in our own turf! ;-)
Next stop: the SAC,
Fabio "Sooner" Macedo
V:TES National Coordinator for Brazil
Giovanni Newsletter Editor
-----------------------------------------------------
V for Vendetta on the big screen!
http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/
Hi,
I just couldn't wait for an official report from the Prince (forgive
me Marlo), 'cause I'm all to happy with our Qualifier last weekend -
be it for the good level of organization and great attendance at the
SP SAC Qualifier or for my performance on it.
42 players, 40 non-qualified, showed up in our biggest SAC Qualifier
to date. It was great fun with plenty of variety in strategies, from
simple sneaky bleed to weenie decks, from fierce combat to Camarilla
vote, from indie tricks to Gangrel Force of Will + Movement of the
Slow Body + Rapid Healing, and the return of the 'Roaches at the hands
of another player.
These were the top 5 players in the preliminary rounds:
1. Cassio ('Roaches Final Solution, or !Toreador + Embraces, Palla
Grande, Foundation Exhibit, Gehenna Events) - 3 GW + 14 VPs
2. Pedro Serrano (Toreador group 1/2 with many masters, intercept,
Obedience) - 3 GW + 11 VPs
3. Fabio Sooner (Ravnos group 4 don't pay for Chimestry and Tumnimos)
- 3 GW + 10,5 VPs
4. Giovanni Cisterna (EuroBrujah with Beast) - 2 GW + 9 VPs
5. Irwin (said Gangrels Force of Will and come back from torpor with
even more blood) - 2 GWs + 8 VPs
The final table ended up like this:
Irwin (Gangrels) ->
Pedro (Toreador) ->
Fabio (Ravnos) ->
Giovanni (EuroBrujah) ->
Cassio ('Roaches)
I've taken the stance of doing nothing but conserving pool until
something was done to my intercept-y predator - I could generate at
most 3 stealth per action, easily blockable with a 2nd Tradition and a
token intercept location. To makes things worse, he got Anneke as
first vampire and KRCG and WMRH in the first two rounds. I announced
early that I was not going to bleed my prey no matter how little
intercept he had until Anneke was out - I was simply not going to
attract my prey's Beast and Theo Bell attention just to ease things
for my predator and let him pick two easy VPs. At the worst, acting as
wall in front of him would grant me 3rd place.
Cassio was in a bad position, being rushed by a predator with no
pressure, but he didn't help me playing Slow Withering and Port
Authority very early. I couldn't call for Fatuus Mastery - my predator
wouldn't let me most of the time - and even if I could, I would be
burning extra blood for the most needed effects - Sens. Dep and Mirror
Image. So I persisted on keepin' all 4 minions I had untapped and
stripping the blood out of them via Tribute to the Master. (the
minions were Tatiana Stepanova, Paul Forrest, Gharston Roland and
Devyn).
To make things worse for Cassio, Giovanni kept asking for the extra
intercept from WMRH to keep the !Toreadors from making "babies"
(Embraces) and torporizing them with +1 strength and Disarm. I
should've told him to keep playing Gehenna cards and stop influencing
out more minions, but nobody knew at the time if Giovanni had Dominate
modifiers - for the rest of the entire game we didn't see any.
The Slow Withering was also seriously hampering Irwin, who couldn't
make the most out of his stuff - he needed most superior effects, and
though Movement and Rapid Healing didn't cost nothing, it negated his
ability to keep coming back from torpor with no blood loss. He also
had to pay double to bounce - he had Iliana just for that - and kept
hunting most of the time.
I've struck a deal with Giovanni for him to use the freedom he had to
split the table with me, hoping he could do so in time to come to my
predator and cripple him, making 3 VPs and lefting the 2 remaining for
me. But then Cassio played Fall of the Camarilla, and Pedro was
somewhat stuck also. He couldn't bleed without being blocked, he
couldn't vote - the only votes left were Zayatt's 2, controlled by his
predator, Irwin - and he couldn't play 2nd Tradition. So he kept using
Minion Taps and getting them back via Anthelios, also played by
Cassio, and the second master phase action granted by Anson.
With Anneke, Anson, Alexandra and Masika ready at my back, I could do
nothing except to discard and wait for the next untap to try to draw
more Tributes, but Pedro helped me much with a single Gehenna card:
Nightmares Upon Nightmares. With 5 Gehenna cards at the table, 3 out
of 4 of my ready minions would need discarding to keep untapped, which
granted me 3 "free discards" every untap phase. Thanks to that, I
could ditch out every undirected action I had - Tumnimos, part of the
Patshivs, part of the Fatuus Mastery, Tasha Morgan etc. - and keep
drawing a Tribute to the Master and/or a master to swap for a Tribute
on my ash heap via Anthelios. That kept me alive, maintaing pool on
the 15-16 range for most of the game, even if I was not acting lest
for a hunt every two turns when I saw that I would not be blocked.
Giovanni left Cassio with one empty minion ready and 4 pool, but felt
it would be no good for him to oust his prey and see the Camarilla
back. Seeing how good Pedro was at poolgain and influencing big
minions, he started rushing him. We had a minor discussion with the
judge if it was legal play or not - Giovanni had a good "barrier" with
15 pool between him and his target; his prey was almost dead; and his
next prey had only 5 pool. The play was allowed based on the Camarilla
issue - Pedro also had a Elysium: Arboretum, which would be hard to
run around once the Camarilla was back. Giovanni used mainly Immortal
Grapples - I've seen no Psyche! at all - so it was a good excuse, I
think.
He torporized Masika with Theo Bell after Beast being told to
Obedience, with prevented Pedro from taking back another Minion Tap
and gain at least 6-7 pool - Zayatt, the voting man, diablerized the
annoying Toreador.
So we had only 10 minutes left. Seeing that my prey had only 6 pool,
all minions tapped, was not able to fulfill his part of the deal
ousting 3 preys, and I had the chance to try the lone VP that would
win me the tournament, I broke the table split deal and tried to bleed
Giovanni out. At worst, I'd be blocked by Anneke, would be rushed once
or twice, and could survive the endgame with still 15 pool and two or
three minions to block 3 Toreadors. This scenario would also prove
that I was right all the time - better to survive and end 3rd place
than to throw myself on the wall, tap a bunch of minions, get bled and
be ousted, ending in 5th place.
Of course, Anneke blocked me at the final bleed, and I was so in a
rush to tap her out of the way to the point of playing Red Herring -
and forgetting that I couldn't bleed anymore with my two minions left!
Bad move, but later Pedro confessed that he had an Obedience in hand,
so Anneke wouldn't be tapped anyway regardless of letting her block or
not.
As I imagined, Giovanni proceeded to guarantee his VP and torporize
Tatiana, but that was all before the end of the table by timeout.
So Giovanni Cisterna won with 1 VP, Pedro was 2nd, me 3rd, Irwin 4th,
and Cassio 5th.
Barring the tension at the finals, it was a great tournament overall,
and the region placed 13 players in SAC (10 qualified in here, 2 in
the Vitoria Qualifier, and 1 from last year's finals). Let's see if
this year we can manage to win - it's been three years in a row with
players from Rio grabbing the Championship in our own turf! ;-)
Next stop: the SAC,
Fabio "Sooner" Macedo
V:TES National Coordinator for Brazil
Giovanni Newsletter Editor
-----------------------------------------------------
V for Vendetta on the big screen!
http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/
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