(Tournament Report) Create-A-Clan: Ithaca, 2006!

So as it was inevitable, and Jon Darbro has superior orgaizational-fu,
team Ithaca hosted a wildly successful Create-A-Clan tournament last
night. We got 12 players with crazy hysterical decks with players from
Ithaca, Binghamton, and a surprise guest from PA, James Hamblin. We
were using slightly modified Create-A-Clan 2004 rules (as found on the
White Wolf website), with the only really significant modification
being that no clan could use Dominate as an in clan discipline (for, ya
know, obvious reasons). The winners of the various categories were:

-Legitimate Tournament Winner: Sean Wiedman with a 4VP victory at the
final table.
-Most Entertaining Deck: James Keiser Willhelm's Monty Python and the
Holy Grail deck.
-Best Graphic Design: Also James Keiser Willhelm.
-Path Least Traveled: Jason Dettman for using Serpentis, Obtenebration,
and Presence.

The players and their decks:

-Jon Darbro: Clan Denezins of the City (The Tick, Sewer Urchin,
American Maid, etc). FOR, POT, PRE. A very fighty deck with a lot of
really good screen cap proxy cards (Disarm and Brick Laying being
particularly hysterical).

-Peter Bakija: Clan Evil Vampires from Sunnydale (Darla, Angelus,
Drusilla, Spike, etc). POT, PRE, THA. A fighty bleedy deck with a
splash of Auspex and Fortitude. Accidentally won the technology arms
race due to IG/Torn Signpost/Blood Fury/Taste action.

-Ben Stein: Clan Crew of Serenity (Mal, Inara, Jayne, etc). ANI, OBF,
PRE. Very bleedy stealth deck, with Presence for Hotness; Obfuscate for
sneakiness; and Animalism to play Song of Serenity...

-Jason Dettman: Clan Hot Women I Work With or am Married To. SER, PRE,
OBT. Bleedy and stealthy deck with lots of really slick photoshopped
vampires made out of photos of friends. Winner of the most obscure
discipline combo award.

-Sean Weidman: Clan Angels of Mythology (Gabriel, Metatron, etc). AUS,
CEL, FOR. Blocky and bleedy deck with a lot of Freak Drive action. The
legitimate tournament winner.

-James Rodriguez: Clan Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny. OBF, POT,
QUI. A very fighty deck with a bloodline of scarce vampires with OBE,
so Chuck Norris and Mr. Rogers could kill you with viscious Vitae
Block/Thin Blood/Torn Signpost/IG/Anesthetic Touch combat.

-Dave Conry: Clan Japanese Movie Monsters. ABO, FOR, POT. Very fighty
deck with a lot of high comedy new names for regular cards (at least in
theory) such as Mecha Form (Potence Skill) and Written out of the
Sequel (Amaranth). Luckily, Dave went with the appropriate Japanese
name for Godzilla (i.e. Gojira), as otherwise, he would have
accidentally contested with James Rodriguez's Godzilla.

-Andrew Sackett: Clan Sackett's Mom. AUS, FOR, OBF. Breeding 3rd
Traditon deck made up of Advanced Pimp Daddy Sackett and all of our
mothers.

-James Hamblin: Clan Team Ithaca. AUS, FOR, QUI. James showed up
unexpectedly, and played Andrew Sackett's second deck made of the
various members of Team Ithaca. Sadly, there was no card for Devil
Channel: Spite!

-Sierra: Clan Alice in Wonderland. CHI, DEM, PRE. The only deck I
didn't see in action, but it had really cool looking crypt cards. I
think this deck failled to win the Path of Least Resistance in terms of
discplines as Drusilla on Team Sunnydale came with useless out of clan
Dementation.

-James Keiser Willhelm. Clan Monty Python and the Holy Grail. AUS, FOR,
PRE. A fighty wall deck with a bloodline (The Holy Grail) using FOR,
POT, VAL. Also lots of really good screen cap proxy cards, with Disarm,
Decapitate, and Political Stranglehold as particular gems.

-Gregg. Clan Resivior Dogs. CEL, OBF, POT. A very cool disguised gun
deck with a lot of bloody action.

Presence was the most commonly used discipline (6 out of 12). There was
a lot of fighty decks, a reasonable amount of bleed, and not much
intercept.

After 2 preliminary rounds, going into the finals were:

1. Peter Bakija/Team Sunnydale with 2GW/6VP
2. Ben Stein/Team Serenity with 1GW/5VP
3. Sean Weidman/Team Angels with 1GW/4VP
4. James Willhelm/Team Monty Python with 1GW/3VP
5. Andrew Sackett/Team Your Mom with 0GW/1VP (tie breaker spot)

The seating ended up as James: Peter: Sean: Ben: Sackett.

The game started quickly with Ben bleeding Sackett for huge amounts and
Sackett failing to draw into much bleed bounce, and so Sackett fell
over quickly (1VP Ben!). The game kind of evens out, with James setting
up a good blocking position, Peter getting a few vampires with Rutor's
Hand and whittling Sean down some, Sean setting up a reasonable but
tenious defensive position, and Ben bleeding into James consistiently.
Then James calls a Political Stranglehold which is passed by virtue of
his predator, Ben, helping him pass it, giving James 3 pool, Peter 3
Pool, Sean 6 pool, and Ben 3 pool. Sean, being the recipient of 6 free
pool, is free to bolster his position while pushing into Ben. The game
slows down now, as James and Sean are in pretty defensive postions,
Peter is having trouble getting through Sean's permanent intercept and
Sniper Rifle, and Ben failing to draw the bleed he needs. Peter
eventually takes drastic action, resulting in Sean's Sniper Rifle
vampire and Drusilla being sent to torpor, Evil Vampire Xander burned
in the blood hunt from diablerizing Sniper Rifle dude, and then
Drusilla getting diablerized by the Angel Gabriel, who surivies the
blood hunt. Ben makes a mad lunge forward to bleed out James, but
fails, resulting in both Ben and James being left at 1 pool while Peter
is down to a single vampire and about 10 pool. Sean ousts Ben (1VP
Sean!), James holds on for a bit, but the Sean ousts James (2VP Sean!),
and even with only Darla in play, Peter holds on for a while and get's
Sean in range of a prayer bleed/Rutor's/Fame dunk oust which
unsurprisingly fails, getting Peter ousted (Sean 4VP!).

A fantastic event which comes highly reccomended. Thanks to Jon for
organizing and judging the whole thing.

Eventually, when I get the files, I'll post the various crypts on my
website.

-Peter

> -Path Least Traveled: Jason Dettman for using Serpentis, Obtenebration,
> and Presence.

I just wanted to add that Jason rightfully shares this prize with
Sierra. I made the calculations of who followed the Path Least
Traveled before learning that another guy with dementation as an
in-clan discipline in his crypt had dropped from the tournament at the
last minute, and that was the difference for Sierra between
tied-for-first and second. Drusilla's out-of-clan Dementation, while
appropriate, had nothing to do with it.

I, on the other hand, won the award for Path Most Traveled by a
comfortable margin.

Spoon!
-Jon