Robert Goudie
9/6/2010 6:14:00 PM
At least 20 different Methuselah's participated in the events of the
weekend including a handful of new players from around the area. Had
at least 6 teenagers playing--all of whom are starting to show real
promise as players. In years past the 4th event of the weekend tended
to be the least attended as tired Methuselah's skipped the Sunday
night event favoring sleep instead. This time we still had 13 for the
last event. The convention's dealer room was buzzing with activity as
V:TES players cleaned-out these retailers of their V:TES production.
These sellers took note and at least one has decided to stock-up in
the future.
Thanks to Fred and Michel for making the trip from Phoenix. Thanks to
Fresno and Fullerton for representing as well.
Decklists to follow:
September 4th - 14 Players. Event #1 - Matt Wedge won with his Eze
bleed deck.
September 4th - 13 Players. Event #2 - Mike Courtois won with his
Arika bleed deck.
September 5th - 12 Players. Event #3 - Mike Courtois won with
Tumnimos WoN Bleed + Sense Dep deck
September 5th - 13 Players. Event #4 - Cameron Goudie won with Malk
'94
The highlight for me was judging the final round of the last event. My
son, Cameron, had already played all of his legal decks (we use some
proxies in his favorite Stanislava deck) and resorted to a Malk '94
deck in the last event. In round 1 Matt Wedge put a Last Stand in
play early before seeing the other decks. Cameron got the benefit of
that and got a sweep in round 1.
In round 2 talented youngster, Shane Taylor, playing Brujah princes
dueled Matt Wedge down to the last two players. Both players were
dealing with low pool. Wedge had one of Shane's two princes under a
Pentex Subversion. Matt attacked the other prince with Ossian
followed by Muddled Vampire Hunter. Shane played a Sideslip to save
his remaining prince. On Shane's turn he bled Wedge, played two
obfuscate stealth cards (prince had an Obf master) to get past Matt's
blocker and then top deck the Foreshadowing Destruction needed for the
kill.
At Cameron's round 2 table he was preying on Aaron Clark's capable
Toredator blockers who, IIRC, fight and also use Wolf Claws (I think
he's got Gangrel in there). Cameron had no stealth and was struggling
for much of the game dealing with the loss of 1 vamp from nasty
combat. When Cameron finally got a stealth card he discarded it and
did so again for five straight turns to look, quite convincingly, like
he was stealth jammed. Aaron found himself tapped out at one point,
presumably expecting to take a few very small unmodified bleed but
instead got bled massively. Cameron ousted Aaron shortly thereafter
to earn himself a critical top seed.
What made the finals so special was that we had veteran, Matt Wedge,
playing along with 4 players who had never made the finals before.
Rookie, Jeff Lake, played Nosferatu vote. Returning player, Corey
Ryken, had fine-tuned his Nos toolbox deck and was preying on his new
student, Shane Taylor. Cameron Goudie selected to sit his Malk's
between the two Nos decks, expecting the large vamps to slow both his
predator and prey significantly and give him time needed for the
oust. Matt Wedge played a weenie deck of Malks and Pander for Madness
Network, Legacy of Pander and Reversal of Fortunes fun.
Matt clearly had an experience advantage but was hurt by predator
Shane's quick transfer of Volker, the Puppet Prince. Matt needed
Cameron's Malk's help for a Malkavian Justicar vote but Shane blocked
with 2nd Tradition. Corey had a rough time of it. To get Cameron's
agreement to help on the Malkavian Justicar vote, Wedge put a Madness
Network in play. Cameron benefited from it and Corey lost extra pool
from bleeds. After Corey was ousted and Shane got very low on pool
from Cameron's bleeds, Wedge offered a Reversal of Fortunes deal to
Shane and Jeff; Shane and Jeff had all the votes but Wedge offered to
use Madness Network and Reversal of Fortunes each turn to keep Cameron
from ever taking a turn again, thereby protecting Shane from ouster.
The cabal was formed and Reversal of Fortunes was played repeatedly to
keep Cameron from taking a turn.
After a few turns Jeff called Domain Challenge and Neonate Breach to
lower Cameron to just a few pool and to oust Matt. With Matt and the
Reversal of Fortunes player done, Cameron now got another turn. He
ousted Shane over a couple of turns with Jeff failing to get the
damage dealing votes needed to kill Cameron first. Jeff eventually
called a vote to simultaneously oust Cameron and himself to gain 1 VP
at the end. Cameron won with 3 finals VPs (ousting Corey, Shane and
Jeff), Jeff finished 2nd with 1 VP (ousting Cameron) and Shane
finished 3rd with 1 VP (lower seed than Jeff - ousted Matt). Congrats
to Cameron and to all of our rookies who stepped-up in this last
tournament.