Once Upon a Midnight Dreary

Here's a little gem from the past when "Protect Thine Own" and "Kindred Restructure" were not banned, and you could play "Zip Guns" with "Dragon Breath's Rounds".

From: Jonathan Sushinsky
<...>.umd.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad
Subject: Results Crusade: Washington D.C. (Extremely Long)
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 10:15:10 -0800

Here are full results of Last Weekends Washington D.C. tournament.

The tournament was held on Nov 1st from 1:30 to about 7 at Guardian Comics in Waldorf, MD. If anyone wants the address or phone number let me know as our hosts were most accommodating and courteous.

The first game was scheduled to start at 1:00, but some registrants had some trouble finding the location, as it was a little out of the way. Even so at least two people showed up late, another one that had pre-registered never showed, and quite a few more who were expected never showed, but other than the low turnout everything went smoothly.

Due to the small number of registrants we ran three preliminary rounds of two tables.

Round 1
Table 1 was swept by Steve Holmer (the eventual winner of the tournament) Steve was playing a weenie with Zip Guns/ Dragon Breath Rounds/ and Computer Hackings deck. The other decks at the table were simply unprepared to deal with the relentless onslaught of the the gun wielding masses. (Steve's deck is listed in it's entirety at the end of this message.)

Table 2 was won by Jon Evers. His Presence/Progeny deck was able to do just about anything. Most of the Crypt were princes so he had Vote Defense, a fair amount of Auspex provided a bleed defense with Telepathic Misdirections and intercept against votes was a mixture of Second Tradition and Telepathic Misdirection. The decks combat consisted primarily of Majesty, but a smattering of Celerity (Acrobatics and Sideslip) enabled him to hold his own when a majesty was not present. His main offense was presence based bleed with a small amount of damaging votes. In the first round only one other Methuselah was able to gain any Victory Points. Dan's Lasombra/Vote/Dominate Bleed deck managed to finish off his prey before Jon Could oust him and sweep the table with his Princes and Embraces.

Both tables finished this round quickly helped in part at table one by Chris bringing out Leandro (all other Methuselahs must pay a pool at to influence), and at the second table by Brian's 2 Anarch Revolts early on.

Round 2
Round two provided an interesting prequel to the final as Table 1 matched Steve's Weenies against Jon's Embraces. Steve was not able to bleed as Jon/with Volker (practically single handedly) held off the hordes of weenie bleeders through a mix of Wakes and Second Traditions. Jon's use of Majesties and Dodges kept his minions alive through the zip gun/DBR combats and Jon slowly ousted his prey and then Steve to win the Table with 3 Victory Points. Jon however was not able to put much pressure on his first prey until he had torpored most of Steve's weenies. His Prey, Ian, was thus able to oust the two other Methuselah's at the table before Jon could finish him off. Ian's deck consisted of a Basic Ventrue Fortitude/Dominate Bleed deck which took some time to build up, and was only able to this one game, but the use of unblockable bleeds for large amounts and the infamous Fame/Day Op combination gave him two Victory points before Jon could muster enough offense to oust him.

Table 2 was much less exciting, but Brian was able to win with a Dominate Bleed Deck which seemed to have more Reactions in it than Bleed. Combat Defense consisted of Obedience/ and the Elysium. His offense consisted of Dominate Bleed Modifiers using a tap and bleed method with Sleeping Mind and Seduction to keep from being blocked. This worked fine except against Dan's Lasombra who simply deflected the bleeds, and managed to gain another Victory Point. Brian's deck was helped by a few Misdirections, hostile Takeover's and Anarch Revolt's, but simply appears to have gotten a decent draw this round and was able to oust the table including helping to oust Dan's prey for him...Brian's deck is also listed following this post as I asked permission of all three finalists with VP's in the final round to provide me with the contents of their decks.

Round 3
Table 1 again had a very interesting game. Jon Evers did not gain any Victory points in this round, but he knew he was already in the final after his last two rounds. Although he didn't gain any Victory Points his deck kept the playing field even throughout the game as he helped out two methuselahs who hadn't yet received any Victory Points. Jon threw votes around seemingly without any real alliances and after a successful Dramatic Upheaval called by Phil's Malkavian Rider deck, Jon let himself be ousted and left Phil to do battle with Chris's Presence Vote Deck. Chris eventually won this round and managed to make it to the finals on the 3 victory points he gained this round alone.

At Table 2 there was very little resistance as Steve's weenies with Zip guns managed to secure another win and the top spot in the final. Dan's Lasombra deck also managed one victory point and a place in the final.

The Final
Steve had the most victory points in the preliminary rounds and chose to sit at position one at the table. Jon chose to prey on Steve from position five. Dan chose to sit opposite both. Chris decided he would rather have Dan as a predator than Steve so Brian was stuck sitting to Steve's left.

Steve imediately gets his weenies out and starts pounding away at Brians minions and pool. after only a few rounds Brian is about ready to succumb to the intense bleeding pressure when in shocking move Chris ousts Dan at position 3 with a Kine Resurces Contested vote. This is in direct response to a Misdirection and then a bleed of 7 by Dan's Lasombras. With Dan ousted Brian gains 6 pool and a victory point and a brief glimpse of recovery. At this point Brian has one victory point and plays an entirely defensive game though he complained constantly about not drawing any Obediences and can't seem to keep his minions out of torpor for this reason.

Jon meanwhile is having a hard time getting his deck going. He only drew one Progeny the entire game and couldn't amount much of an offensive without them. In addition his combat was weak this game and the weenies managed to put his princes in torpor whenever they got the chance. This proved to be Jon's downfall as Chris managed to outvote him and oust him fairly quickly.

Brian is ousted soon afterwards and the final becomes a race between Steve's bleeding weenies and Chris's mix of Blood Gain and KRCs. Steve's minions are just too much as Chris begins to run out of the cards necessary to mount any real attack. Steve finishes the game with a floury of bleeds and takes the first place victory.

I am now going to list the contents of the three decks who got victory points in the finals. If anyone wants to see the contents of any other players deck let me know and I will try to get that for you. Thanks to everyone that made Crusade :D.C. possible including the registrants, Guardian Comics, Eric Cagle and WoTC, and to all of the passersby who were interested in knowing what we were up to. Thanks. If any one has any questions feel free to post them or send me personal email.

Jon

The decklists Jon mentioned I have put up on Secret Library, the original one's are somewhat hard to read.

• Steve's "Weenies with Blazing Guns"
  
• Chris's "Presence Vote/Blood Gain"
  
• Brian's "Dominate/Bleed Mod Deck"