Templecon!

So what the heck happened? Where are the mad post event posts? I don't
get to go, so no one is there to pick up the slack?

Man...

Peter D Bakija
pdb6 DeleteThis @lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html

"Find hungry samurai."
-The Old Man

Peter D Bakija wrote:
> So what the heck happened? Where are the mad post event posts? I don't
> get to go, so no one is there to pick up the slack?
>
> Man...
>
> Peter D Bakija
> pdb6 DeleteThis @lightlink.com
> http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html
>
> "Find hungry samurai."
> -The Old Man

No patience, huh? We *asked* you to come, but you had to run off to
Europe instead...

Anyway, I missed you there. I'll give a short rundown.

Templecon was great, their staff put on a good show. Matt Hirsh was
the organizer of the Friday night tournament and the Saturday
tournament, and both ran smoothly. Friday was two rounds and a final
with I think 17 players. Greg Williams was in the final with a
Nephandus deck that included, among other things, what seemed to me
like a metric ton of dodges. He engineered my destruction in one of my
games (nice job with that Greg, btw). If I recall correctly, Matt
Morgan was also in the finals playing a Howler based Ahrimanes deck.
I think Matt won via time out. I don't remember who else made the
finals, since I played Quinton McDonnel multi-rush, and was of course
getting dinner after 0vps.

Saturday was a lot of fun. There seemed to be a fair mix of heavy
stealth decks and heavy combat decks (mostly involving Animalism and/
or Potence - I heard of one table consisting of a Beast and Mateusz
Gryzbowsky deck, a Caliean deck, a Cock Robin rush deck, and a fourth
player). I think there was at least one timeout, but I don't think
there were many. None of my tables timed out.

In the third round, the table behind me consisted of Black Hand
obfuscate bleed, Assamite breed/boon (John Eno's deck from the
finals), and I think two other stealth decks, including a Kindred
Spirits deck. My third round table, by contrast, was a Saulot combat
deck bleeding a Brujah rush deck involving Arm's Dealers and Grenades,
bleeding Gargoyles, bleeding me playing Xaviar multi-rush.

The Final was won by Ben Swainbank playing a sick Khazar's diary
deck.
Ben (Khazar's Diary) was bleeding
Jen Goldberg (Kindred Spirits), bleeding
Jason Wolfson (Kindred Spirits - and he ditched Magic to play VTES on
Saturday, yay Jason!), bleeding
John Eno (Assamite Breed/ Boon), bleeding
Dave Clooney (Xaviar rush).

John ousted me pretty quick, Jen bled Jason a lot, Jason bled John a
lot, then Ben destroyed the table for 4vps and a game win.
Congratulations to Ben.

I think Matt Morgan came in sixth, and I think that the seventh place
player (whose name escapes me) qualified.

Then we drank a whole bunch, and explored how broken Spell of Life is
in draft. If you draft Lords of the Night, just play Spell of Life.
It's the best.

Sunday was the draft tournament, run by Jesse Cross Nickerson, my
hometown pal. There were 10 players, and Jesse did not play, though
he did issue many cautions to us as players when we became mouthy and
unruly.

The final was
Matt Morgan (Spell of Life), bleeding
Ben Swainbank (all of the stealth cards and all of the payload),
bleeding
Matt Hirsh (looked toolboxy, with some bleed, Banshee Ironwail,
Akinsya Daclau, and some Ravnos), bleeding Ben Peal (Assamites with
AK-47 and 3 Haquim's Law- Leadership, and Lupine Assault!) bleeding
Dave Clooney (all of the untap cards, the Rack, and big fighty
minions)

Matt layed into Peal pretty hard, and Peal worked to stay alive with
Alu getting Leadership all the time. He was low on pool the whole
game, but got low cost AK-47 out with Izhim Abd Azrael, and got out a
Blow torch. I tried to stop Matt Morgan from getting his Spell of Life
to go off by attempting to block with Neighbor John and Special
Report, but he was using Porphyrion, and used a stealth card.
Swainbank then bled out Matt Hirsh, and had some off his guys Blow
torched or AK'd, or rushed by mummies. Then Matt Morgan lunged and
ousted him. A few turns later I managed to get the edge, and called a
Reckless Agitation when Matt was at five pool, ousting him. After
that I sent a few of Ben Peal's minions to torpor and was able to win
with 3 vps. A great showing by Matts and Bens at the draft.

I'll post the draft deck I won with later on.

Thanks again to the organizers and everyone who came out to the
tournament.

-Dave Clooney