AUNZ Championships Qualifier Blacktown

Lorenzo Detuono the Misogynist

Deck Name : Lorenzo the Misogynist
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
This is a Lorenzo Detuono-based Anti "Girls who..." deck.
Specifically aimed at neutering it as your prey, but can do some damage if it is the predator.
A lot of this deck's nastiness lays in Lorenzo's special.
"If Lorenzo is ready at the end of combat and the opposing minion is not, Lorenzo may burn 5 blood to move the opposing minion to your ready region (with 1 life for an ally with no life) instead." So you try king-hit your the chosen vampire (hopefully the girls), then effectively Graverob them. If Lorenzo can't take them, then just rush, smash and eat. If you lose a minion to the Bloodhunt, that's what the Possessions are for.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 9 average: 7.58333
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4x Lorenzo Detuono 9 DOM NEC POT aus dem Giovanni:5
2x Baldesar Rossellin 8 DOM POT aus for nec Giovanni:4
2x Phagian 8 AUS NEC THA dom for Harbinger:4
1x Muhsin Samir 6 DOM THA aus pot Tremere:4
1x Sennadurek 6 AUS NEC dom Nagaraja:4
1x Zygodat 6 AUS NEC pot Harbinger:4
1x Donatello Giovanni 5 DOM aus pot pre Giovanni:4


Library [90 cards]
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Action [20]
6x Govern the Unaligned
4x Heroic Might
6x Nose of the Hound
2x Possession
2x Preternatural Strength

Action Modifier [12]
4x Crocodile's Tongue
8x Trochomancy

Ally [1]
1x Tye Cooper

Combat [28]
8x Dead Hand
2x Death of My Conscience, The
6x Fists of Death
6x Immortal Grapple
6x Taste of Vitae

Master [16]
4x Ashur Tablets
2x Fame
2x Haven Uncovered
2x Tension in the Ranks
4x Tribute to the Master
2x Wash

Reaction [13]
8x Deflection
5x On the Qui Vive

Teaching New Players: Don't Hoard

This is an issue that a number of moderately experienced players have: they see a card in their hand they know they will want to use later (that has multiple copies) and they hoard it. The old "bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush" mentality. However, in VTES I think this is a weakness in many people's playstyle.

I understand that many people observe the play of a deck and immediately cut cards they discard often (and that's perfectly valid) but to hoard onto cards, and thereby keep a hand that you can't efficiently use, is not a good choice.

Why should you nearly always discard?
Unless your deck wants to specifically manipulate discard phase actions (either on vampires, Event Cards, etc) the Discard Phase Action is the least utilised action in the game. Also, the "Deck Gods" always seem to decide that the one card that could save you is the card sitting on the top of your library just when you are ousted.
So, you should discard. Unless your hand is the perfect hand for your situation at the end of the turn, there is something in you can discard. If you can't see yourself playing that card during this turn, everyone else's turn or even in your next turn... then I'd say you should dump it and see what else you get.

Why people don't discard?
Fear of placing their fate even further into the hands of the "Deck Gods" or disillusionment (or very rarely... they've got so little library left that discard a card represents >10% of their library). There is also the fear of the opportunity costs: how long will it be before I see another XYZ?

Opinion
Of course this is mostly my opinion, from watching the players in my playrgoup (some who have plenty of experience and others who are very new). The tendency is far stronger in MtG converts and converts of other card games with limited-drawing of card. But please, if you think otherwise... add a comment below. I'd love to hear the opinions of people like Hugh Angseeing and Ben Peal on this idea because of their long successful competitive VTES history.

Potential Qualifier

I'm planning to run a tournament on Saturday April 16th in Blacktown. The plan is that it will be a Qualifying Tournament. I'll let you all know the details when more become available... but at the moment it will be known as:

Blooding by the Code
April 16th 2011
Blacktown, Sydney

Winter of our Discontent Round #2

This week we had 6 people participating, Brian the Malk from last week had to leave before this started but as it would have been 7 it would have been exceptionally long.

Chen (AAA Variant; Taditionalist) bleeding
Me (Anarch Vote'n' Bleed that had the crypt modified; Anarchist) bleeding
Marty (Assamite Wizards; Org Crime) bleeding
Joe (Trogloditia Anarch; Anarchist) bleeding
Will (New Ven Lawfirm; Traditionalist) bleeding
James (Baali Unnamed + Horde Nuke-Bleed; Org Crime)

Chen got out Anson as his first vampire, I had out Vanessa and made her Anarch w/ Anarch Convert, Marty brought out Parnassus, Joe brought out Trogloditia (who was using 5 of her disciplines all game), Will had out Lodin and James brought out Arishat (or Ass-hat as she gets called around here) + 2 Hordes.

Chen attempted to aggressively bloat pool in the early part, but seemed to want to do little other than that and was fairly efficiently ousted by James. Chen at one stage to the end effectively stopped defending. By the time James reached me, I had Vanessa (Libertas + Baron of Perth), Vincent Day (Libertas + Baron of Corte) and Ranjan Rishi (Baron of Seattle)... but I hadn't seen a political action and few of my Undue Influences but PLENTY of action modifiers and Majesties.

James fairly quickly demolished by ~10 pool and quickly moved through Marty (although there was a fairly epic bash involving Parmenides and a lot of presses, Taste of Vitae & hands for 2). Then Will turned around and nearly got himself into a draw-position when James went to oust Joe while the centre deck was showing a Life Boon. Will saved Joe and donated 7 of his 11 pool to his predator. Joe basically waited for James instead of taking actions on his turn. Will then Parity Shifted James for 3 and handed 2 to Joe putting Joe on 9 pool. He followed that up with calling Political Stranglehold which gave Joe 3, Will 6 and James 3.

Because of the event cards special to this storyline, James was regularly going backwards removing blood from Will's minions. When it came to Will's turn he would then use his own special event to hunt off James' Hordes slowing him down to keep Joe in the game further.

In the final turn of the game (before Will conceded), Will called a Conservative Agitation on James using Johannes Castelein which was cancelled with Evil Eye causing James to lose 2 pool from Johannes' special and leaving James on around 5 pool. Will had drawn another KRC and went for the kill on James but James cancelled that KRC and a second KRC that Will drew. James' Hordes were then not forced to hunt and that was enough to oust Joe.

Quotable Quote of the Night...
"Yeah shake that like a British Nanny!" - Marty the Man

Storyline Standings
Organised Crime 6VP 1GW
Traditionalists 5VP 1GW
Anarchs 0VP 0GW

Monday Night VTES

We only got one game in last night, but it was good to have Sutekh23, Shane Hill, Brian 'the Malk', James around...

Breaking with tradition, Will wasn't the source of this weeks first quotable quote...

"I love you deck, you're the best deck out of all them, you're my favourite... (draws top card) *&^F#*&&^$$$ deck!! &%#$%*&^%#$" -Brian 'the Malk'