Written by James Coupe.
Greetings, fellow Methuselahs, and apologies for my tardiness, caused by a holiday in the South West of England, and trying to sort out things in advance of arriving at University.... There were some good things about the organisation (good prize support, being one) and there were some bad things (a complete mis-representation of the timing in the programme, leading to at least 4 players not knowing what the right time for it was), which will hopefully be resolved with WotC and the DCI some time soon. But on with the report, in the usual long winded way which you've all come to know and love. 15 players ensured that we managed to get three rounds with three tables of five - a perfectly acceptable number, and probably the best to try and organise around, for me. And 5 player tables are always the best in terms of game play, IMHO. Each player had a distinctive deck, showing off most of the different facets of Jyhad well, IMHO. Steve Wright showed up with a weenie presence deck, which combined some bleed capability with some voting capability. He suffered somewhat from the environment. The voting was difficult to pull off due to there being quite a few votes floating around, and the bleed wasn't sufficiently backed up by stealth to enable consistency in performing them - and there were quite a few Wakes being thrown down to nullify the benefits of his deck having weenie vampires. Majesty was, of course, his combat defence mostly. Rob Treasure played the now infamous Legacy of Pander deck, more details later. James McClellan played a weenie Brujah/Nosferatu type potence deck. From the looks of it when it was being played, it was probably the closest thing that the UK Jyhad scene has come to a 'proper' weenie rush deck, the sort of thing that Josh and Peter are exceptionally good at creating. However, it also, as can be seen from James' deck list in <7r0m6b$prr$1@nnrp1.deja.com> (go to http://www.deja.com/forms/mid.shtml if you need to find the article), it also combined quite a bit of Computer Hacking enabled bleed. That he didn't go all out on the combat, and benefited from that slight diversification - shutting out some extra rush, mostly - meant that his deck not only could hit out at vampires, taking out his prey's defences, but could also speed up the time taken to oust them from bleeds - an essential element to its success, IMHO. I was somewhat surprised by the presence of Mighty Grapple, it has to be said which, despite only being in the deck 5 times, seemed to turn up quite regularly. Still, the ability to hit out hard AND press is not to be sniffed at. And 15 Immortal Grapples shut down any chance of combat defence being likely, though a highly maneuver capable deck could have been more difficult - only the Rushes and 5 Fake Outs providing much in the way of maneuvers. Baz played an interesting Malkavian deck, which seemed to try and combine a little too much, I fear, meaning that the deck was rarely consistent in what it was trying to do. He also lucked out quite badly at times, getting *all* the combat cards, or all the intercept cards and so forth. It contained a lot of weenie Malkavians, and had a large portion of intercept and stealth. More bizarrely, though, it contained quite a few Lucky Blows, Dodges and at least 1 Vial of Garou Blood. Now, creative deck construction is one thing but this seemed to hit him hard, by meaning that he couldn't ever do one thing solidly - if he wanted to stealth something, he didn't have enough stealth at one time, because of the intercept, or the combat or whatever. However, despite it only featuring in his deck once (later conversations revealed), he managed to draw Revelations in all three rounds. Pat Vance turned up with an Anti-Brujah combat deck. It suffered somewhat from being much higher capacity than most people would recommend - including Jacko and Sela, when twos and threes would have been more beneficial, given the environment. Beyond that, a fairly standard attempt at a Celerity/Potence combination, though he lacked the Immortal Grapples to make his assault less easy to circumvent. Mike Nudd turned up with a combination of Tremere and Tremere Antitribu, playing an intercept deck, backed up with Thaumaturgy combat. However, despite the best of intentions, his deck showed up the *big* hole in Thaumaturgy combat - the problems with dealing with Strike: Combat Ends and Strike: Dodge. His vampires were too small to have made Thoughts Betrayed a real possibility (mostly threes and fours), and in one combat early on, he managed to intercept his way in, throw down a Trap, sitting gleefully with a Walk of Flame in his hand. He then got hit with a Majesty - oops. Andy Smith, who several of us remembered from GenCon 1997, was playing, as it happened, a very similar deck to then - a weenie stealth bleed deck, packing Computer Hacking, Obfuscate and all the assorted paraphernalia. When I dealt out the table for the second game, I saw that I'd placed Rob Treasure as his predator, a deck that I knew Andy's deck wouldn't be able to cope with, at all - and indeed it didn't. It showed the vulnerability of stealth bleed to not being the be all and end all of deck strategies, and especially that anyone playing a stealth bleed deck is not guaranteed to automatically win - ideas which have been explored on the newsgroup recently. Anam Sheader played an interesting weenie presence deck, too, making for interesting times when she ended up next to Steve Wright in at least one game. Of course, Majesty was in abundance as combat defence and Steve was noted as commenting that her Majesties meant that he didn't have to bother playing his - a tactic that possibly ending up preventing him from cycling cards as effectively as he should have done. Marijava Ghouls were around for a little stealth - something that Steve's deck didn't have - but the vampires seemed to be too small to carry off playing with the Ghouls effectively - they then became perilously close to zero blood, meaning that Legal Manipulations or something similar forced her to hunt. Will Lee was playing a weenie Malkavian deck and that, it appears, is all I managed to note down about it - odd, given that Will's decks are normally quite exciting to watch and innovative in their approaches to winning the game. Jon Cooper was playing a Tzimisce deck that packed quite a lot of Horrid Forms and Body Arsenals. Anton with a Sports Bike in one round provided quite a substantial amount of intercept, though it seemed more difficult to duplicate that - probably good fortune, rather than planned to happen, if you see what I mean, with only a limited amount of intercept. A couple of Blood of Acids featured too, if I recall correctly. Matt Green turned up with his Ventrue Aikido deck. An interesting choice of deck, in that it very much relied on being able to turn people's own offensive strategies against them - Elder Kindred Network for votes, bleed bounce and so forth. Unfortunately, this hindered an advancement of any strategies of his own meaning that, once someone decided to stop playing ball and give him the ammunition to hit back at them. It could probably have done with more bleed or vote on its own account, and relying less on being able to hurl things back at people. Barney Baker turned up with something I noted as a presence vote deck. Anson turned up at least once, to make Master cards easier to flow with and, whilst achieving some considerably success , he was hindered somewhat by the environment making it difficult to proceed with votes unopposed. However, good deck construction and excellent play meant that he was able to garner enough votes to make mince meat of his opponents. Chris Booth played with large Ventrue Princes. Quite a few votes knocked around, making for interesting times with Parity Shift and KRC. He also had a good arsenal of wakes, deflections, 2nd Traditions and Obedience. Ian Stubbington played a fun little weenie bleed deck, similar to that of Andy Smith. However, Andy at least managed a little Dominate in his, whereas Ian seemed far more focused on the Computer Hacking element, perhaps meaning that, in the grand scheme of things, his deck was not as effective, point for point, as it could have been. Niki Sehmi (my apologies to him for originally mis-spelling his name) had a fun deck with lots of Lasombra in it. Gratiano seemed to feature heavily, or he was just lucky with his crypt draws, meaning that he had quite a political clout, no-one else on having any reliance on the Prisci votes. A few Banishments meant that, when he and Rob Treasure combined there forces on one table, there combined political output was highly difficult to stop. However, he was also backed up by considerable bleed power, the voting seeming to be a somewhat secondary strategy that came good a few times, with Elysian Fields, Seduction, Govern the Unaligned and Conditioning. Hindered in the first couple of rounds, he managed a minor comeback in the third round when his deck managed to pull the cards it needed at the right times. The final was composed of Rob Treasure, Barney Baker, Andy Smith, James McClellan and William Lee. The seating order ended up as: Rob Treasure Andy Smith James McClellan Will Lee Barney Baker James was the first player to leave the table, by way of a Life Boon. In the situation he was in, his deck's effectiveness was neutered. When Rob ousted Andy, James threw himself out of the game, garnering himself a victory point. Whilst, perhaps, a slightly 'cheating' way of gaining victory points, though a tactic that I myself am not averse to, it was the only real option for him, under the circumstances. Rob then finally got Andy out, and also ousted Will, getting himself two victory points. Barney fought to the very end, and managed to oust Rob, getting himself two victory points as well, but Rob's superior play in the earlier rounds meant that he was, for the third year running, proclaimed the UK V:TES champion. And now to the deck itself. Rob kindly faxed me the deck list, so I have it sitting her on my computer for transcription (a bizarre fax to e-mail thing which is actually quite useful), along with a few comments regarding it. His main suggestions would be swapping out the .44 Magnum and, maybe, the Ivory Bow for another Legacy and another "lovely" Banishment. "A deck that I have been playing for about 2 years. I believe that it is the most points effective deck that can be constructed for current tournament play. It does not really what crypt <<James' Note - I think he means Uncontrolled Region, if you get technical about it, but many players refer to the Uncontrolled Region as their opening crypt>> and to a certain extent what seven library cards you draw. Ok, it has a few nasty enemies (weenie IG bash/rush, anti vote) but with the amount of alliance making and breaking cards in the library it is so easy to intimidate and shut down a 'problem' deck. No offence intended, but strictly not for the novice or even the intermediate player. The deck normally runs away and rolls the table for you but when it gets ugly, the deck allows you to agitate on a horrible level. It sounds odd but it draws the worst out of the player, no other deck I have ever played requires such intimidation and co-ercion of the opposition. An evil deck in every sense of the word that cuts down tables and changes the way you play the game. I shall not ever be playing it again with people I respect. <<James' Note: So that's the next tournament in Portsmouth for it to be played, then? ;)>> (I may, however, take it to the USA next year...... ho ho ho.)" Crypt (14 cards) (Min: 4, Max: 15, Avg 2.08) 1 Angela Decker Pander, 1, pr 1 Antointette Du Champ Caitiff, 1, ce, pr 1 Basil Pander, 1, ob 1 Christine Boscacci Pander, 2, do vi 1 Frederick the Weak !Bru, 2, pr 1 Gillian Krader Pander, 2, an, de 1 Huang, Blood Cultist Pander, 1, pt 1 Jost Werner !Tor, 6, an AU PR 2 Lena Rowe Pander, 3, au, ob, pr 1 Lolita ! Tor, 3, fo, pr 1 March Halcyon Pander, 1, fo 1 Mitchell, the Headhunter Pander, 2, ot, po 1 Royce Pander, 1, do Library (90 cards) 1 .44 Magnum 1 Anarch Troublemaker 1 Archon Investigation 1 Autarkis Persecution 4 Awe 2 Banishment 2 Bewitching Oration 2 Change of Target 3 Consanguineous Boon 1 Conservative Agitation 2 Cryptic Rider 1 Direct Intervention 1 Disputed Territory 3 Dodge 1 Dramatic Upheaval 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Effective Management 4 Elder Intervention 2 Elysium: The Arboretum 1 Entrancement 3 Fake Out 3 Forgotten Labyrinth 1 Heidelburg Castle, Germany 1 Humanitas 2 Information Highway 1 Ivory Bow 6 Kine Resources Contested 1 KRCG News Radio 3 Leather Jacket 8 Legacy of Pander 3 Legal Manipulations 7 Majesty 1 Major Boon 2 Media Influence 1 Misdirection 1 Mr. Winthrop 3 Presence 1 Rumours of Gehenna 1 Sudden Reversal 1 Tribute to the Master 5 Wake with Evening's Freshness Why is this deck so successful? It is very, very hard to stop. In the first round, a slight error by Rob meant that he didn't bleed and get the edge before calling his vote (meaning that it got stopped), leading to only 2 victory points, but without that, it would have run away with that table as well. It's a very difficult deck to stop. The sheer speed with which it can get votes onto the table (when other players may not have even got their first vampire out) mean that other vote decks have a hard time opposing it - they're trying to get out Praxis Seizures, Princes and so forth, and don't have that much time for Dread Gaze. It has enough votes to make life very, very hectic for other people - 6 KRC, 2 Banishments and so forth, mean that other people have a hard time opposing it. Yet it will also shut down other people's vote decks very easily. It's quite easy for this deck to get 36 votes onto the table (it's been done at least twice, and anyway, once you get above about 20 votes, it's unlikely that the entire rest of the table will be able to oppose you), so you'll never get rid of the Elysium that way - contesting it (difficult for you, because of the pool cost) or location destruction (not abundant) would be the only really viable options. So it has excellent possibilities against other vote decks, and should hopefully be able to rip through its prey like nobody's business to get more pool, more vampires and fend off bleed decks - and its initial investment in vampires is small - it doesn't need to speed 15 or more pool to get out a few vampires, he can do it in probably 6 or 7 pool. It can get out a lot of vampires, in the end, so it would require a very focused intercept deck to have a good go at it, but the sheer number of vampires it can get out, in the end, mean that the intercept deck just can't block them all - and the ones it can't block will quickly kill it, especially since he has the option of Majesty, and intercept/potence is rare. Bleed is also in there so when he does mess up, he has enough vampires to just take out your pool as and when he wants. It's just a frighteningly effective deck, that does very, very well against all opposition. True, there are decks that *can* stand up to it - Rob noted before the final that the only deck he was truly scared off was James McClellan's weenie combat deck, meaning that he tried not to sit anywhere near it, whilst still keeping a sensible position regarding the other decks on the table. -- James Coupe (Prince of Mercia, England) Vampire: Elder Kindred Network http://madnessnetwork.hexagon.net http://www.obeah.demon.co.uk