The Australian National VTES Championship 2012

So, it was a great day, we had plenty of players (approximately 16 IIRC) and it made for an interesting day of VTES.  I'd decided a couple of weeks out, that I planned to use my "We Don't Need No Stinkin' Disciplines" Deck.  It had done well against some of the sleazier decks my playgroup will drag out when we want a 'quick game' (e.g. Las S&B, !Tor Vote'n'Bloat, Malk Kindred Spirits, Malk 'You will see the three bleed coming... at 4 stealth' and an obnoxious combat deck or two).  The deck itself is basically a swarm deck using Prince Titles (Rake, Volker, Praxis' and Justicar votes) to make a little swarm of baby Brujah that get most of their 'red cards' via 3+ Brujah Debates (there are also Pulled Fangs and T:Vs in there to really ruin the odd day if there is a really painful vampire on the table).  It bloats through votes and also breeding (Con Boons, Anathema + Archon and a few blood dolls around the place).  Defence is easy... 10x 2nd Tradition.  Sure it won't stop S&B sleaze from stealthing past me, but sending in a 1-cap which has 3 maneuvers, a handstrike of 4 + Target: Vitals and maybe a Pulled Fangs puts a dent in most S&B decks.  Especially since it isn't a huge problem to make another baby which can go forward while I devote a 1-cap Archon to keep my predator slow-enough.  The other effect is that it punishes disciplines: Blood Weakens, Veil of Darkness and Slow Withering.  I don't use any discipline cards in the whole deck.  There are clan cards (and I tell you now that this deck ROCKS if I can get a New Carthage on the table... *drools*) and they are really useful, but there are no discipline cards in the deck.

The Nationals went something like this...

I turned up on Table 1, my predator and cross-table brought out 7 votes between them before I got my chance to take a Brujah Justicar action... there goes the chance of getting a decent amount of early titles to then be able to push the rest through and get a little cadre of blockers and voters.  Also, most of my crypt is fairly small (6cap is the largest) and my cross-table was the, now famous, Sha-Ennu Deck (bleed for 6 + Will'o'Wisp to make it unblockable, then do it out of turn with Enkil Cog).   The Sha-Ennu deck demolished 19 pool off my predator in two goes around the table.  While I'd spent basically nothing on minions (about 8-10 pool), I couldn't do much when It takes Sha-Ennu (due to card text) 2 blood to make a 7-bleed unblockable and by then I didn't have the vote-power to also be able to push through those nice Con Boons or even Archons I could use to go upriver against Sha-Ennu and beat some of that Will'o'Wisp blood off (which had already been replaced via Giant's Blood so I knew that if I could get Sha-Ennu down that potentially losing an Embrace to diablerie was a tiny price for the 2 turns I'd be able to buy myself to get set up).  Ousted at the end of my own turn by Sha-Ennu bleeding for 7.  I had plenty of 2nd Traditions in hand at all times during this game, even when I was discarding them (or other more expensive luxuries like Nocturn Theatre).

Result: Screwed by circumstance mostly.  I watched 7 vote come up onto the table (Sha-Ennu is a Regent) because of one player speed-influencing (Dreams turn 1 + 3 transfers, Dreams turn 2 + Zillahs + 4 transfers was more than enough) 11cap Sha-Ennu and my predator bringing out a Priscus immediately before I had my first non-titled minion take an action to become Justicar.
The opening hand I got for this game was good, but I would have loved it during the second game.

Table 2: Sha-Ennu was my predator this time. That was *fun*. Because I got bled by Sha-Ennu for 4+ while I had an Archon Investigation in my opening hand... it was an easy enough start... if it wasn't for the fact that I drew my breed actions and no vote actions... it was just wall-to-wall Third Trads without any Boons to provide the buffer it needed in the later parts of the game.

Result: I bought the time I needed, crippled the Sha-Ennu deck and I got 2VPs from a 5VP table.
The opening hand for this would have been far better in the third game. (It had the minions and I could have stopped buying crypt cards to breed in the third game, but unfortunately I needed the extra minions to get off the Justicar vote on the third table and that, combined with not being aggressive enough on my predator, cost me the game).

Table 3: AAA Prey, Vignes Predator.  This was always going to be a rough ride.  A block-capable of prey can be a real hassle for this deck and you have to choose your action sequence carefully to get through the actions you want.  The Vignes deck did what they do... "Please lose 3+ pool 3x this turn".  Since I spend little on minions, I can usually wear a turn or two of that kind of punishment and be okay.  The later actions, such as making 2 more minions, gaining a title and then having last-turns baby call a Con Boon usually get you through another turn and you can keep on setting up.  PROBLEM: Pool - about 12. Prey blocks the first Con Boon in hand (I would have gained 3 or 4 pool).  I call another Con Boon and get it DI2'd from the Vignes Deck.  This basically spelled the end.  In the next turn I turn around and negotiate an Archon vote through so I can go upriver on the Vignes Deck on the proviso that Archon doesn't rush forwards (which is fine by me, I planned to Anathema backwards anyway).  Ranjan Rishi takes a little nap and in the next turn I made my mistake which cost me the game... I didn't follow it up by smacking another minion into torpor.  My pool was about 6 at the end of that turn.  Two or so bleed were flicked and I was down to under 4 pool, I had myself down as a 50-50 chance of survival... it all depended on a Day-Op/Daring being in my Predator's hand... it was there. 4 bleed, no block possible... game over.  I drew into VERY few of my 2nd Trads and losing all chance of early-to-mid bloat really hurt.  I didn't admit to the others my mistake had been to not go hard enough backwards, but I knew I should have possibly gone "Salmon Method" around the table making deals with my prey not to stop my Archon votes which I could probably get agreement for while I had the Vignes predator (and then just keep on going up the river until I met my prey and then crater his minions and bleed out with the swarm).

Result: 0VP, first off the table.  This opening hand was good, but again would have been great for the first game of the day.



Overall
I spent most of the day feeling like I'd brought a knife to a gunfight.  I know the reliability of that deck, its a fair deal stronger than it performed on the day and it drew the worst I have had it draw for a long time.  It was really disappointing and I suppose I also underestimated the pure sleaze that would be there (in particular the Sha-Ennu deck which I was tabled with twice).  It's one of the few times I've walked away from a tournament and wondered if I wanted to keep playing tournament VTES.  Very demoralising.  I suppose I've been leaving off dissecting this tournament purely because of how much of a mental crush it was... A deck that I have had humming and can easily take whole tables (4 out of 4VPs) getting unceremoniously smashed in 2 out of 3 games and not really having much but a little luck on my side to get 2VPs.