Decklist at the end.
So:
Yesterday, I went totally against the grain of deal-keeping (partially motivated by Derek's eloquent defense of bastardly behaviour) and manipulated and lied to my heart's content.
I played weenie potence with a sprinkling of dominate.
Round 1:
Me -> Arvid (Lasombra political) -> Emiliano (Gangrel wall) -> Hardy (Giovanni powerbleed) -> X1 (Anson Masterdeck)
In round 1, I got my prey low on pool (and minions) over and over, but minion tap, superior govern and golconda's kept him in the game so long that I only managed to oust him really late, then dying to the fully tooled-up gangrel deck. (It helped that the Giovanni power-bleed, that had become my predator after ousting Anson & his protected resourced with ease, didn't cycle into bleed modifiers for a few turns. If he had, the table would've probably been his.) So just 1 VP for me, 1 to Hardy, 3 to Emiliano.
Table 2:
Me -> Dieter (!Malk/AR) -> X2 (Giovanni powerbleed) -> X3 (Giovanni powerbleed)
And me packing only 5 deflections.
I told the giovanni´s I was also playing a giovanni deck (well, sort of), so I wanted to talk about influencing. The reason: I had Isabel in the opening crypt (and some other giovanni that don't belong in powerbleed decks), so I wanted to pretend I was 'giving' something away by not influencing certain minions. I did put 1 pool on isabel at some early point so that I could immediately contest her when my predator put her into play.
Anyways, contesting (of Isabel, and at a crucial moment of the secure haven on Dieter's vampire) and a litte cross-table spite between Dieter and my predator made it clear that the endgame would be between me and my crosstable 'buddy'. In the end, I cycled to my bleed modifiers one action to late, and was ousted. Again, only 1 VP, and the familiar frustration of 'so close'. 3 VP to X2.
Round 3:
Me -> X4 (Beast/Kendrick) -> X5 (Tzimi) -> Izaak (Ventrue obf vote)
When round 3 came up, and it was ANOTHER 4 player table, I knew I had to sweep or not be in the final (28 player tournament, IIRC). I went full-bore into famous beast with my guys, and knocked him to torpor quickly. However, my prey got Kendrick back out, and my predator also had votes I could do nothing about - and 2nd/obedience defense against my droogs.
My prey (correctly) called me the table threat (since I was going to oust him), and was working together with my predator to call 2-2 split KRCs on my and my crosstable buddy. With no chance to survive that if it continued too long (my predator had gotten me low, but a mis-played vote really saved my day), I looked over to my buddy and said "if you'll let me oust my prey and defend me a bit, I'll help you oust your prey and then we'll fight out the 1-on-1". Two very 'normal' alliances were thus formed, and I managed to oust my prey when I was at 1 pool. Then I started rushing my predator like the good boy I promised to be, but I couldn't really dent him. My new prey's turn was fairly inactive, and the next moments were spent by him defending against my predator's actions (I'm not sure any more if this took 1 or 2 turns). Any way, my predator's movement against me was hampered, but I noticed my prey running out of the reaction and defensive cards he was using to stop my predator. So, with both my prey and predator low on pool like me, I decided to be the bastard and started bleeding forward with my horde of guys, catching him with a dom-boosted bleed and ousting him - after which the game was effectively over.
1 GW, 6 VP wound up being enough for 3rd place in the finals. The first 2 decks down were Ravnos and Tzimisce (a different one from my third round). Knowing that Luc (a somewhat known quantity) was playing the Ravnos and an unknown player the Tzimisce, and that being the predator of Tzimisce could be a good 'road to pain', I decided to sit as predator to Luc/Ravnos. But, when placing my vampire, I didn't place a random potence weenie - I placed Isabel Giovanni, thus shouting 'Giovanni powerbleed' to the table. Jochem, whose deck was "1 starring blocker with support" decided that being the prey of that deck would be a 'bad thing', so sat as my predator. Wouter, 1st seeded with his presence/aabbt/anarch deck knew he was in for a lousy final - too much intercept on the table, and my rush could kill his minions. In the end he sat as my prey, which was a tough place to be, but not illogical - the Tzimi and Jochem's deck were guaranteed to pack too much intercept, so he'd never get a vote off, and at least I had no intercept (and Luc proved to have not so much either, but I don't know if Wouter knew what type of Ravnos Luc was playing).
So:
Me -> Wouter (presence anarch vote) -> Luc (Ravnos) -> X6 (Tzimi wall/Fiendish) -> Jochem (Aus/Cel block with guns)
I went full-tilt into Wouter (who only had Jost and 1 Aabbt in the whole game, and Jost took only 4 actions, 1 being a self-rescue) and was set to easily oust him, when wouter got out - Aranthebes. With so few minions to torporise (Jochem had played a Tension in the Ranks), and Famed minions being eaten, and NOT drawing much dominate bleed boost not my 5-cap minions) I was effectively set into park due to that. Luc had 0 pressure and was hurting my cross-table tzimi buddy, the tzimi had previously hurt Jochem, who had to fight defensively (and all those frisbees I was discarding must've been discomforting to his sniper-rifle toting minions). Then came the second bastardly action: I needed to deal to get rid of Aranthebes, or Luc would be sweeping the table. I'm not sure if the Tzimi came up with it or I did, but he suggested removing the Aranthebes for me, if I would rush Luc's minions. Wouter was at 3 pool at that time, and there were no voting decks (although you never know if a surprise dramatic will come along), so I could've taken that deal very well. So I took it, and he removed the aranthebes. As a thank you, I kept the first part of our deal - I rescued a Tzimisce from torpor. Then I sent a probe bleed for 1 into wouter. That was ok. When I sent the second one, Luc woke with freshness and played an ignis fatuus (iirc) to reduce that bleed to 0. Damn. That meant I'd have to bleed with my other 2 minions to oust wouter immediately, if I wanted the VP and the oust right away, so no rush of Luc was possible. Since I had only 1 rush against the Ravnos
anyway, and with uncertain use of that rush (since Luc had many minions, mirror images, stealth, and his prey was at 1 pool it was hard to predict if the tzimi wall-ness would be totally sufficient, barely sufficient, or without a prayer) I decided to take the certain thing, break the deal, and bled wouter out, thus having no more rush on Luc. Another consideration was that I'd be much better able to fight against the ravnos and jochem's deck (at that point) than against a Tzimi. The danger was in Luc getting the table from that point. So Luc indeed ousted the Tzimi, and that player was rightfully pissed at me. After that both luc and I were in the driver's seats, and it could've gone both ways (certainly because Week of Nightmares would've been very effective at that point), but luc didn't get through Jochem very well and spent some of his gained pool on another minion, at which point it became clear I could offer a 2nd-place deal to Jochem and take 1st myself - and thus the second deal that 'made' the game for me was set. I ousted Luc after a while, and Jochem was allowed to withdraw for his 2nd place (since he was seeded higher than Luc).
I got 3 VP, 1 to Jochem, 1 to Luc.
So breaking deals and talking up deals a lot from me. And that with me complaining of the amount of talk in the Belgian ECQ last year...
The interesting question to me, at this point (and the whole reason for the long post), is: what has this done to my reputation? The tzimi I screwed in Round 3 I had not played against before, so he'll be wary of me - and he'll inform others about me. The tzimi I screwed in the final was a German lad I hadn't played against before (sorry for the name thing, again), and he'd be right to take tales of my evilness back to his playgroup as well. No hard feelings, I hope? (The Germans must have a different picture of me than the Belgians and the Dutch folk do. The Belgians and Dutch folk know I got absolute crap results from 2000 to 2003 in all tournaments - however, in 2003, things got better - and I started travelling to germany for the first time around that time).
Anyway, it was very much to play with everyone again, as always. I'll rub Dietmar's belly again for luck the next time I see him. Hope to be coming over to Germany soon, and hope to be organising a tournament again soon.
Deck Name: Serial Killer (VNV)
Created By: Tobias
Description:
"I know it's right and I know it's time for freedom:
to kill another and to kill another child of the flag
'till there are none left...
to kill another and to kill another
Gaze in horror at what you've become
and take a look at what you've done. "
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 9, Max: 19, Avg: 3,50)
---------------------------------------------
1 Arnold Simpson pot 2, Brujah:3
1 Paul DiCarlo pot 2, Giovanni:2
1 Cristofero Giovanni nec pot 3, Giovanni:2
1 Mario Giovanni nec pot 3, Giovanni:2
1 Cameron dom pot 3, Lasombra:2
1 Chas Giovanni Tello DOM POT 4, Giovanni:2
1 Banjoko obt pot DOM 5, Lasombra:3
1 Wah Chun-Yuen cel dom pre POT 5, Brujah antitribu:3
1 Isabel Giovanni DOM NEC pot 5, Giovanni:2
1 Hugo POT pre vic 4, Brujah Antitribu:2
1 Agatha obf POT 4, Nosferatu Antitribu:2
1 Mitchell obt pot 2, Pander:2
Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (13 cards)
1 Anarch Troublemaker
1 Barrens, The
2 Blood Doll
3 Fame
2 Haven Uncovered
1 Morgue Hunting Ground
3 Potence
Action (20 cards)
8 Bum's Rush
5 Computer Hacking
4 Govern the Unaligned
1 Graverobbing
2 Harass
Action Modifier (3 cards)
3 Conditioning
Reaction (8 cards)
5 Deflection
3 Wake with Evening's Freshness
Combat (45 cards)
4 Disarm
9 Immortal Grapple
4 Increased Strength
5 Taste of Vitae
6 Thrown Sewer Lid
7 Torn Signpost
10 Undead Strength
Ally (1 cards)
1 Leonardo, Mortician
(edited for legibility)
