Tournament Report w/TWD: TempleConcordance, Providence, RI

Hi all,

We had 12 players for our TempleConcordance 2R+F constructed
tournament on Friday, February 1st at TempleCon in Providence, RI.
This was our kickoff event for the TempleCon weekend.

Final standings:
1. Matt Morgan 1gw, 5vp, 2.5vp final
2. Greg Williams 1gw, 4vp, 1.5vp final
2. Oscar Garza 1gw, 4vp, 0vp final
2. Jesse Cross-Nickerson 1gw, 2vp, 0vp
2. Jason Wolfson 0gw, 3vp, 0vp final
Jen Goldberg
Scott Gomes
Matt Hirsch
Amber Kanner
Dave Clooney
Marc Lussier
Ben Peal

The finals boiled down to a grueling timeout between Greg Williams and
Matt Morgan. Matt Morgan won by virtue of having more vp's.

Finals table:
Jesse (Ash Harrison aus/cel/tha) ->
Greg (Mata Hari w/Nephandi) ->
Oscar(Falhu Shibaba chi/pre) ->
Matt M.(Ahrimanes Anarch Revolt) ->
Jason(obf/dem s/b)

Thanks to everyone for playing.

-Matt H.

Matt Morgan's Deck:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Deck Name: Howling Anarchs
Created by: Matt Morgan
Description: Continuing in my quest to with a tournament with every
clan
alphabetically, I had to put together an Ahrimanes deck. I hadn't
ever
played them much and generally felt like they were a decent clan, but
Howler always goes to torpor, so that's a pretty major liability. I
asked
for some advice on the #vtes irc chat and eventually jhattara gave me
the
idea of playing your traditional blocking felines with some Anarch
Revolts
to speed the table up. Great idea! Still not having much experience
with
Ahrmanes, I basically copied David Quiñonero's famous deck and
shoehorned
some Anarch Revolts. It turned out pretty well, if a little slow. I
won
my first round by the skin of my teeth and had to settle for a 2-2
split
in the 2nd as my prey sort of ran away with the table. The deck was
ideal
for the more deliberately-played final and I won with 2.5 VPs.

Crypt [12 vampires, average capacity: 5.75]
4x Howler ANI PRE SPI obf 8 Ahrimane:2
2x Siamese, The PRE SPI ani pro 7 Ahrimane:2
1x Cynthia Ingold SPI ani for pre 6 Ahrimane:2
1x Nettie Hale ani cel pre pro spi 5 Ahrimane:2
1x Bobby Lemon ANI pro 4 Gangrel:3
1x Juanita Santiago ani pre spi 4 Ahrimane:2
1x Dani ani 2 Nosferatu antitribu:2
1x Gillian Krader ani dem 2 Pander:2

/* I decided to throw a couple small guys in, but in general they
weren't
super helpful. The deck is basically Howler with maybe The Siamese
or
Cynthia filling in if Howler is unwilling or unable to perform her
duties. */

Library [90 cards]
Master [19]
1x Anarch Free Press, The
/* Not free and doesn't provide a press. Can we get some errata? The
one
time I tried to play this it was Suddened. */
4x Anarch Revolt
1x Animalism
2x Direct Intervention
1x Fame
1x Giant's Blood
1x Guardian Angel
1x Rack, The
1x Seattle Committee
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
5x Vessel

/* The Anarch Revolts and Fame were responsible for both my game
wins. I
think I nailed a couple Blood Dolls with Vessels, but I mostly
included
them over Blood Dolls because I was worried about master hand jam. */

Action [11]
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
6x Enchant Kindred
4x Nose of the Hound

/* Didn't need Aranthebes because of a lack of weenie predators. I
mostly
played the Enchant Kindreds at inferior, so they might've been better
bleed cards (Legal, Social, Entrancement?). 4x Nose of the Hound was
pretty nice. */

Combat/Action Modifier [5]
5x Swiftness of the Stag

/* Okay, so I actually got my firsts ousts in the games I won by
bleeding
for 2 at 1 stealth, but I like to think the Anarch Revolts and Fame
are
what got me there. These were pretty good for keeping things up
close
and personal with Flash Harrison. */

Equipment [1]
1x Flak Jacket

/* Never when I needed it. Sigh. Same with the Guardian Angel. */

Event [1]
1x Dragonbound

/* This was mostly only good for backousting Jesse when he wouldn't
let
Howler out of a Pentex. */

Reaction [22]
4x Cats' Guidance
4x Falcon's Eye
3x On the Qui Vive
3x Sense the Savage Way
8x Speak with Spirits

/* I nearly lost the first game because I just couldn't draw any untap
or
intercept and my prey was getting away with murder for it. It's
weird
because this looks like plenty to me. */

Retainer [11]
6x Murder of Crows
1x Owl Companion
4x Raven Spy

/* The Murders are pretty good here in that they make up for the fact
that
the support crew have inferior Animalism (not too scary on its own)
and
let Howler save on blood by doing a good amount of damage from long
range. */

Combat [20]
5x Aid from Bats
2x Canine Horde
3x Carrion Crows
8x Pack Alpha
2x Taste of Vitae

/* Pretty light combat package, especially since 8 of those cards
don't
actually do anything to hurt the opponent or protect my minion. The
deck obviously relies heavily on Howler's natural abilities and
whatever permanents it can put together. Some Leapfrog or Majesty or
something might've been good, but I didn't feel like there was room
for
it and it was more important to be able to hurt opposing minions. */

On Wed, 6 Feb 2008, Salem wrote:

>> Combat [20]
>> 5x Aid from Bats
>> 2x Canine Horde
>> 3x Carrion Crows
>> 8x Pack Alpha
>> 2x Taste of Vitae
>>
>> /* Pretty light combat package, especially since 8 of those cards
>> don't
>> actually do anything to hurt the opponent or protect my minion. The
>> deck obviously relies heavily on Howler's natural abilities and
>> whatever permanents it can put together. Some Leapfrog or Majesty or
>> something might've been good, but I didn't feel like there was room
>> for
>> it and it was more important to be able to hurt opposing minions. */
>
> This seems remarkably light on Carrion Crows. That card is just too awesome
> not to run 8+ copies of.

This deck uses Murders of Crows in place of Carrion Crows because only
Howler can play Carrion Crows at superior. The Murders pay off better in
the long run and make the support crew a lot more dangerous than they
otherwise would be.

Matt Morgan