Here's my write up for AUSNZ 2013 VTES Championship that happened on October 5th in Sydney.
15 players (3 tables of 5)
I decided to take my Kiasyd bleed deck again as I’m quite comfortable with it and it’s proven itself in many games. It’s had a couple of modifications since I played it in Melbourne, which bring it up to version 6.
Round 1
Tony (weenie ani / aus wall) > Simon (Baali vote / bleed) > Pete (Carna toolbox) > Me (Kiasyd bleed) > Craig (Toreador crazy bleed of some kind)
Decent crypt and library draw, I was happy. My predator decides to tool up most of the game, leaving me to bleed hard into my prey. Most of the bleeds land with only the odd one or two being flicked which makes mincemeat out of Craig. The pressure now gets put on Tony but he manages to flick a bleed of 4 at 1 stealth to Simon which ousts him, not so good. Pete decides to start taking some actions towards me now and I’m able to block some and bounce a bleed to Tony. Tony’s starts attacking Pete with his “death from a thousand paper cuts” strategy. I managed to get my 3 star vamps out so I was feeling quite confident of being able to out Tony and have a good shot at Pete.
Tony ends up going down and it does indeed end up being a faceoff with Pete. Pete blocks one of my bleeds with Carna who happens to have an Ivory Bow and puts The Arcadian into torpor. Not to worry, as I was then able to bleed him out with Omme.
The most helpful card on this table was the Antediluvian Awakening I played in the 2nd or 3rd round.
Me 1GW 4VP, Tony 1VP
Round 2
Jim (Nos Princes breed/boon) > Nick (Stani and friends vote) > Simon (Baali vote / bleed) > Steve (Synesios vote) > Me (Kiasyd bleed)
I was surrounded by vote decks. Votes as far as the eye could see. Thankfully Omme Enberbenight was in my opening crypt giving me 3 votes and lock in the Prisci sub-referendum, which amounted to cancelling out my prey’s votes and not much else.
Steve was being pressured by Simon but still managed to get the odd vote through and a bleed or two. I took the tiny window I had to oust Jim but missed him by 1 pool. On Jim’s next turn he managed to bloat back out to about 9 pool.
There was a lot of vote talk on this table and it was great to see everyone calm and level headed. I spent a turn or two on 4 pool and Steve had a chance to oust me as time was running out but he didn't draw into what he needed. The table timed out and we all got 0.5 VP.
Round 3
Steve (Synesios vote) > Dave > James Bonham (!Tremere wall featuring Una rush) > Tony (weenie ani / aus wall) > Me (Kiasyd bleed)
My turn to have a crack at Steve this round and I had to go about it rather quickly as I had Tony’s weenie ani/aus on my back and I thought Steve would try and back-oust me.
The details of this game are a bit hazy for me and I remember trying not to get too involved in the politics of the game. I bleed hard into Steve as much as I could for at least 2 or 3 as a base and boosting it if I could, not fearing the Archon. Eventually I ousted Steve but I soon fell to Tony who just kept chipping away at me with little bleeds or 1 and 2 with his many minions.
Chris 1VP, Tony ??
Final Round
Me (Kiasyd bleed) > Tony (weenie ani/aus wall) > Simon (Baali Vote) > Will (Ventrue Lawfirm) > Pete (Carna toolbox)
So I made it to the final table in 1st seed with 1GW 5.5VP achieving the goal I set for myself, make the final table. I sought some advice from Jim about where I should sit and in the end I chose to sit as Pete’s prey and Tony’s predator. In hindsight I may have been better off being Tony’s prey and Simon’s predator, but if my library draw was the same, the outcome would have been identical for me. I chose to sit between Pete and Tony because I knew Pete would tool up and give me about 5-6 rounds of peace with maybe 1 or 2 bleeds to me. Also since Tony was packing intercept it would help cycle through the stealth in my deck (Ha!).
The game starts and it goes as I had planned, and my opening hand looks alright as I have a bit of everything, even a Pentex. I managed to get my 3 main vampires out and things are still looking okay but I'm not drawing into much stealth at all and I end up getting into combat with Tony way too much.
The next thing to happen is probably one of the craziest things I’ve seen happen in a game. Simon bleeds Will for 3. Will flicks it to Pete. Pete flicks it to me. I flick it to Tony. Tony flicks it back to me. I flick it back to Tony. Tony flicks it back to me. 6 flicks later it stays with me and I’m bleed for 3. I see it as an even up, as one of my bleeds of 4 landed on Simon earlier in the game, however during this crazy flick-a-thon I'm trying to cycle into more flick but instead I draw into 4 of the 6 Wakes in my deck, all sitting on top of each other! How the heck that happened I have no idea.
Soon after I made my final mistake of the game, which cost me possibly an oust. During Tony’s Master phase he backwards Pentexs one of my 3 vampires. On my next turn I try to remove the Pentex but since I’m having a terrible time drawing anything useful from my deck like stealth, I'm blocked. On Pete’s next turn I get ousted. However, if I had not been so unsettled by my bad crypt draw and just the pressure of the whole game, I would have realised I could Pentex forward with the Pentex that was still in my hand and contest it with my prey. I can only assume Tony Pentexed me because he was running out of flick or intercept.
The next to fall was Will and then Pete came for Tony and got him. With about 5mins to go Pete managed to lunge enough to oust Simon to give him the Championship. Well done Pete.
Final Thoughts
I played something like 11 games of VTES in 3 days. That's about the same number of games I get to play in a year in Townsville. I learnt a LOT of new things about deck types and synergies I’d never thought of. Thanks to Steve, Simon, Jon for the extra games, DC Comics: Deck Building Game is awesome, and the hilarity that was Cards Against Humanity, but most of all for being great guys to hang out with.
Thanks to Andrew Chirgwin for organising the venue and running the Championships and the Bruce Cup on Monday, and to Steve for running the LCQ. Thanks again to Steve and Andrew for the prize support across the whole weekend. Lastly, thanks to everyone who showed up and made it a successful event!
