Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Acquisitions

It's been a very busy April, in terms of acquiring new cards. If I wasn't trading for them, I was buying them.

Tonichi arrived mid-April, and brought home with him my 3 KMW decks (!Gangrel, Alastor, Anathema), !Malkavian, and a Brujah deck.

I did some major trading/buying with Charlie, and got a whole load of stuff. The notables: 8 Calls of the Hungry Dead, 14 Computer Hacks (love that card!), 12 Shambling Hordes, 1 Freak Drive (VTES!), Sengir Dagger, 3-4 Eagle Sights, Tansu Bekir, Watenda, Persia, and Ramona.

From Roy Caamud, I got Fatima, Tansu, and Beckett, as well as a Psyche!, and about 8 Forced Awakenings.

My last major acquisition plan for the summer (I hope) will be getting some packs/decks from Katya and Tin, and I'll be set (somewhat), having enough cards to build the decks I've been envisioning.

Now if only I can get more Freak Drives ...

April Tourney

The April 2 tourney saw 10 people come over to Kensai's, 12 if you count Kensai and Dave B., who only played a round each. The other players were myself, Martin, Haig, Charlie, Jay, Danz, David Pimentel, and three of the new players (I guess Dante's brood): Eric, Eerie and Ayeen. Except for Eric, David B. and Kensai, I saw the other decks used:

Me - Animalism anarch weenies
Martin - Ravnos Embraces
Haig - Potence weenies
Charlie - Gangrel dominate-bleed/bounce
Jay - Giovanni bleed
David - !Nossies
Danz - Harbinger Slaughterhouses
Eerie - Toreador voters
Ayeen - Nossies

My first round was horrendous, as I got ousted without getting a VP. I got 3 in the second round, and my first GW in a sanctioned tourney. I got Jay in the third round for a 4th VP, and a place in the finals.

Finals table:Haig ---> Eerie --> Martin --> Ayeen --> me (four transfers, baby! Boo-yah!)

It was apparent that the weenies were just too much. Eerie, who was sandwiched by Haig and Martin, was able to fend off Haig's Mongols, but couldn't break past Martin's numerous Embraces. Ayeen had decided to bring out the biggest Nossie, Harrod, promptly had him Sensory'd by Martin, and was unable to do anything else; apparently, she had packed 3 Minion Taps in her deck, but none of them were coming out. She was reduced to pleading with the rest of us to burn Khalil Ravana, the Sensory's source. Haig wanted to help, but had to deal with Eerie and me.

With Ayeen safely walling Martin, I was free to harass Haig, who, fortunately, does not wake and block. Since he was attacking Eerie, and torporing some of my vamps, the rest of the swarm got through and bled him out. By this time, Ayeen was gone, and Martin played the Week of Nightmares, so that finished me off. He then dispatched Eerie a few minutes later for the finals win.

So, the finals ranking (as far as I can remember) was:
1st - Martin
2nd - Me
3rd - Ayeen
4th - Eerie
5th - Haig

Haig and I went over my Animalism deck and noted two things: one, the anarch component was clunky and didn't work well enough to justify its inclusion in the deck, and two, the deck had no means of controlling the predator. So we removed the anarch component, and added some rush cards to protect my back. Haven't tried it out yet, but I hope to the next time I play.