Report: Atlanta Mini-Qualifier March 15, 2008

I’ve been out of VTES for the past 3 years. The last tournament I played in was the Kindred Most Wanted Pre-Release in Columbia, SC in 2005. I’ve kept up with the game and continued to buy the new cards as they came out. I’ve played casually the past few years since, but I haven’t been able to play a VTES game in 9 months since our playgroup got too busy with life. So I was worried I’d be rusty. I brought six decks with me and was unsure up to the moment of play which one to chose. I’d hate to have driven 4 hours just to record a 0. As long as I made it to the finals I’d be happy.

I played a modified version of Peter Bakija’s Slaughterhouse Deck he posted on the VTES user group. It uses Harbingers of Skull and Nagaraja with Auspex and Necromancy. I used the Slaughterhouses to burn my prey’s deck, then I used Trochomancy to bleed for 3 and remove their ash heap. So hopefully if it all works well they lose their important cards and are unable to get away from you.

The deck worked well on this day. Fourteen Players showed up. After 2 Rounds I was tied with John Newquist (Auspex Black Hand) for 1st Seed going into the finals with 2 GWs and 7 VPs.

Highlights: This round was a terrible draw for me. I never drew a Slaughterhouse the whole time. I was worried it would be a quick end for me. My predator had lots of Potence and my prey had lots of permanents in play.

I discarded the Trochomancys until late in the game since my prey had a very slow growing ash heap. I got lucky in that my predator was more worried about his predator than me. My grand-predator was bringing out Princes right and left, calling votes and stealth bleeding, and my Predator had to rush backwards to stop him. I finally managed to get my prey’s ash heap through nature causes and was able to bleed him out with two Trochomancys back to back. The Vote Deck got a VP. I made the mistake of rescuing Emerson Bridges twice. The second time I should have let him rot.

Highlights: The first round was terrible, but the second couldn’t have been better. I drew 2 Slaughterhouses and Therbold Reality in my opening hand. By the end of the game I had 5 Slaughterhouses in play. I always seemed to have the right hand combos when I needed them.

Early in the game I had out Zygodat and my prey brought out Nizzam al-Latif, who has aggravated hand damage. He “Hand Contracts” me and at close range he hits me with Mercury’s Arrow for 3R at close range. I played Breath of Thanatos and sent him to torpor. Next turn I have Zygodat eat Nizzam. My grand-prey had a Bishop, I had the Edge and my predator had a Prince. I just suggested to my grand-prey to vote in my favor since I did her a big favor getting rid of the Agg Damage guy. She was very nice and agreed and the Blood Hunt failed 2-2.

I ousted my prey the next turn when I bled his last pool with Strange Day. I then put the Erebus Mask on Zygodat and she successfully bled out the !Brujah and the Princes. It was a quick game, only lasting an hour.

Finals Table:

David Tatu - Temptation Serpentis Deck
Jeff Thompson - Imbued 2008
John Newquist - Auspex Black Hand (who also got 2 GW and 7 VPs)
Jerry Jackson - Old school Malkavian Stealth Bleed
Jordan Beall - Harbingers Slaughterhouse

The final round was my worst. David Tatu was playing a Temptations deck and he couldn’t play them on Jeff’s Imbued since they don’t qualify. So David went backwards and placed them on all my vamps. So with my minions constantly being taken away from me and a heavy stealth bleeder as my predator, I was the first player ousted.   However, I was able to get David down to 3 pool before I was ousted.

Jeff Thompson’s Imbued won the final table with 3 VPs. Jerry Jackson’s Malkavians got the other 2 VPs.

It wasn’t a total disaster. I still officially finished in Second Place and I won 11 boosters in total.

Description : Neutralize your prey by destroying his library then his ash heap, then his pool.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 7 average: 5.75
———————————————————————————–
3x Balbawo Alafin (7) AUS, NEC, Laibon, extra cycling.
3x Zygodat (6) AUS, NEC, burn 2 cards when she bleeds.
2x Sennadurek (6) AUS, NEC, untaps all the time.
2x Solomon Batanea (5) AUS, nec, Laibon
2x Prejudice (4) aus, nec
————————————————————————————

Library: 90 Cards

Masters 16
8x Slaughterhouse
4x Vessel
1x Therbold Reality
2x Jake Washington
1x Giant’s Blood

Actions 3
3x Revelations

Equipment 1
1x Erebus Mask

Action Mod 23
11x Trochomancy
11x Call the Hungry Dead
1x Strange Day

Combo 12
8x Spectral Divination
4x Ancestor’s Insight

Combat 12
8x Spiritual Intervention
4x Breath of Thanatos

Reactions 23
5x Telepathic Misdirection
3x Telepathic Counter
3x My Enemy’s Enemy
4x Enhanced Senses
4x Wake with Evening’s Freshness
4x On the Qui Vive

My White Wolf Experience

I attended the Atlanta Mini-Qualifier on Saturday at the White Wolf Headquarters.

In between rounds, Oscar Garza, the Organized Play Coordinator, took us all on a tour of the building. He showed us the Eve Online offices, the cubicles for the office staff, the store room, the conference room, the gym, wine cellar, game room, private zoo and aviary (and related pet cemetery), tennis courts, a waterfall and a large swimming pool area.

At the end of the tour I felt oddly ill at ease, as if I had missed something. I wandered into the White Wolf gift shop, looking at all the official Vampire gear.

Then I heard a “Pssst.” I turned toward the sound and saw a man in a black t-shirt with the words “White Wolf Inc.” embroidered on the front. He asked me in a low voice, “Are you a reporter?”

“Well..” I replied. “I do have a blog, so I’m practically a journalist.”

“Did I hear you saying something about ’something missing’?”

“Well, yes, as a matter of fact.”

“Well then, how would you like to see the building’s hidden basement?”

“What?”

“Come here, follow me.”

He took me out of the gift shop and down a hallway that lead to the basement. “Just follow me,” he said “I’m Joe Bobby Thorne (not his real name) — I helped design and put together some of the games here.

I followed Thorne downstairs to the massive basement below ground. Thorne flipped on the lights and low and behold there was a multitude of gaming exhibits, crates and boxes lined up. The room itself was huge. It was like the storage warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

“These are the forgotten and abandoned games White Wolf never put out” he said.

We walked over to one of the forgotten displays, entitled “Swampy Critters Carovan.”

“What’s this?” I asked

“This was going to be White Wolf’s next big project. Their way of getting their foot in the door with really young kids. It was going to be the World of Darkness for pre-schoolers - a fantasy world about cute lizard-like beings who entered our world from a strange mystical swampland. The bosses feared they were losing out on this key demographic. If little kids were thinking up their own fantasies and using their own imaginations, then where would that leave White Wolf if they couldn’t do it for them?”

“Wow, I had no idea,” I said.

Then we walked further in and I saw something that interested me - boxes and boxes of VTES boosters stacked on crates. But I didn’t recognize the names of these expansions. Even the artwork looked different.

“Those are the future unreleased expansions of VTES. They won’t be coming out for a few more years.” Thorne said.

“Really? They print this stuff that far ahead of time?”

“Oh yeah” replied Thorne. They’ve always done it like that. They printed Sabbat War all the way through Gehenna in just 2000 alone. Then they just release it a little bit at a time.”

I saw expansions that I never heard of before - one booster box entitled “Garou Gone Wild” was sitting on top. It had illustrations of werewolves on the sides. Another said “Fangs for the Memories” - it was a special 15th anniversary expansion that looked like a special DVD box set.

Other expansion boxes: Broods of Blood, Catiff United, Inconnu Incoming, and Caine Comes Calling were also sitting in the stack. I tried to take a closer look at all of them, but Thorne thought he heard someone coming and said we had to go.

We left the basement and Thorne went back to work. He mentioned something about having to put together a giant miniature castle they made him take apart just the night before.

I made my way back to the cafeteria for the rest of the tournament, of course I grabbed a few boxes of Caine Comes Calling on my way out

Atlanta Mini-Qualifier Alert

Information from White Wolf Web site:

Each year, the Vampire: Elder Kindred Network (the VTES players’ association) organizes invitational Continental Championship tournaments. Players receive invitations to compete in these by doing well in any of a series of qualifying events held around the world. Though this event is not a full qualifier, it still offers one determined player a spot in the Continental Championship.

The V:EKN is coordinating four invitational V:TES continental championship tournaments in 2008, in Australia (Melbourne), Europe (Prague), North America (Montreal) and South America (to be determined).

There is an entry fee of $5, but coffee and refreshments will be provided. All participants will receive promo cards, and the winner will take home an uncut sheet of VTES: Blood Shadowed Court. Click here for full details.

Rogue Nation: The Louisiana Qualiifer - April 5th

Rogue Nation: The Louisiana Qualiifer
April 5, 2008 at 12 noon - 3 rounds and Final

Where: Days Inn
1620 N. University Ave (I-10 & University Ave)
Lafayette LA United States 70506

337-237-8880 contact: Gina, ask for “Louisiana Qualifier”
Room Rate $40 per night
Fee: FREE

Tournament! Beware the Ides of March - March 15th

Beware the Ides of March
Saturday March 15, 2008
Mini-qualifier
2R + F

Come to the White Wolf Headquarters on Saturday the 15th of March at 1:00 PM for a mini-qualifier event.
2 Rounds and a Final.
Soda and Coffee will be provided.
Doors open at 12:45 PM.

Boosters and swag for the winner.

Please let me know in advance if you will be attending so we make sure to wait for you if necessary.

Mapquest can show you the way:
2075 Park Place Blvd.
Stone Mountain, GA 30087

Look for the Target. The WW building is just to the left. Plenty of parking in front.

Hope to see you then.
David Tatu
VTES Atlanta
djtatu/ /at/ /mindspring/ /dot/ /com
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/VTES-Atlanta/