Origins Reportage #1: Inauspicious Beginnings

This year, I didn't make it to Columbus in time for Jay Kristoff's traditional pre-Origins tournament. I was a bit relieved, since I've never gotten even a single victory point in the previous three such tournaments I attended, and I've got just enough of a superstitious streak to begin to suspect that I might be cursed to suck in those Wednesday night tournaments. I thought that starting on Thursday morning would work out better for me. Hmm.

Round One: Well, That Was Fast
me (Art of Memory stealth/bleed) -> Mark (Ventrue tap and bleed) -> Connor (Kindred Spirits stealth/bleed) -> Dave (Vignes)

Once we all had our first vampires out, Mark said, "At least we're not going to time out." Dave commented that this was possibly the most boring table of V:TES he'd ever played, and I agreed. Aside from attempting and failing to start a conversation about whether Luccia Paciola was a better vampire with +1 strength or the two hand damage listed on the copy Mark was using, I don't remember a lot about what happened during this game. The game went so quickly that I really didn't have time to make notes, but I suspect that there just wasn't anything noteworthy going on.

I was ousted first, in about fifteen minutes. Dave bled out Mark next, and then Connor, and we walked away from the table with our faces burning in shame. Twenty-four minutes had passed since the judge had started the tournament. No one said it out loud, but in my heart I know that we four players had made a tacit agreement never to speak of this game again. I only feel that I can write about it now because people need to know. People need to know.

While I wandered away from the playing area to get more coffee, I began to wonder if my formulation of the method by which I suck was wrong. With another game to go, though, I figured that I could at least get one VP, given that I was playing an extremely aggressive deck. Ahem.

Round Two: The Black Hand Gives Me the Finger
me -> Darby (Dancing In Kiev) -> David (Lasombra anarch toolbox) -> Dave (Twelve Models of Saqqaf and Allonzo) -> Hugh (Kindred Spirits stealth/bleed)

Apparently, the Black Hand decided to punish me for allowing them to be disgraced with such ease by Edward Vignes's pals. I started the game with the worst crypt draw that I could get, literally - one Black Hand vampire and the other three non-BH guys. When Darby brought out one of the new Blood Brothers, I thought I'd be able to oust him quickly and then use the oust-bonus pool to cycle my crypt to get to more Black Hand vampires and get them out cheaply via Reunion Kamuts. Once Hugh brought up one of the standard Kindred Spirits vampires, I knew that I was doomed no matter how much I chastised the wily Brit for playing such sleaze. I launched into haranguing him anyway, figuring that I might as well get in some cheeky comments before I was ousted and forced to remain silent, lest I secretly coach one of the remaining players via an elaborate system of coded insults and snark. Or have I said too much already?

I have no idea what Dave's deck was supposed to do. He got out an Edge Vitiation and didn't do much else. I'm sure he had a plan, but like the cylons, he didn't seem to be able to execute it in any meaningful way. I thought I had a pretty good chance of ousting Darby, but his bloat dance was both mysterious and powerful, the kind of artistic statement that both beguiles and entrances, and I didn't seem to be able to make his pool go away in any fashion that he chose to regard as permanent. David tried to help out, at one point torporizing one of Darby's guys and giving him the Hell-for-Leather treatment, but Darby just kept putting those pool beads back.

Hugh ran out of bleed cards, presumably because he was choking on stealth since I never tried to block him, but since my deck foolishly didn't have any bounce, I had to eat every bleed up until that point. My Reunion/Freak/recur Reunion engine wasn't working, due to my awful crypt draw. Darby was taking so many actions with each of his four vampires every turn that David started using counters to keep track of which vampire had performed which action, just so that we didn't accidentally violate NRA. Fortunately for him, keeping tabs on who was up to what didn't prevent David from ousting Dave, which meant that I had bounced Dominate bleeds to look forward to, in addition to the other troubles I was encountering as a result of being snubbed by the Hand.

All in all, things were looking grim. I got Darby down to a lowish amount of pool, so he shifted to a more aggressive choreography and began rushing me during the dreaded Oppugnant Night. After diablerizing poor Marge Khan, my only Black Hand vampire, Hugh's priscus decided that the Blood Brothers were good little tools and didn't burn the diablerist. Though I pleaded with him to do so, David wasn't able to save me from my own sorriness, and Hugh kindly put me out of my misery by ousting me. Hugh then proceeded to oust Darby and David.

After the second round, I realized that it's my first game at the week of Origins that will go horribly and result in me gaining zero VPs. I bemoaned my scientifically unavoidable fate to Will Kristoff, who is a smart lad and conceived of the notion of a five-player invitational tournament the night before Jay's tournament, in order to work the stagnant mojo out of my system before the rated events begin. Evan apparently has about the same track record as I do for his first Origins tournament each year, and agreed that this was a fantastically out-of-the-box idea. We just need three more takers. Are you going to Origins next year, and do you expect to be an easy VP during your first tournament there? Let's work this out together.

Decklist
Deck Name : Imitation Keeney
Author : John Eno
Description : Stealth/bleed with Art of Memory for hand management.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 8 average: 7
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1x Bloody Mary 8 AUS DEM OBF pre primogen Malkavian:5
1x Persephone Tar-Ani 8 AUS DEM OBF cel pot !Malkavian:4
3x White Lily 8 DEM OBF cel dom for !Malkavian:4
3x Marge Khan 7 DEM OBF POT aus for !Malkavian:5
3x Hagar Stone 6 AUS DEM obf !Malkavian:5
1x Apache Jones 5 DEM aus for obf !Malkavian:4

Library [80 cards]
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Master [10]
4x Ashur Tablets
1x Giant's Blood
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
4x Villein

Action [19]
11x Kindred Spirits
2x Restructure
6x Reunion Kamut

Action Modifier [40]
11x Art of Memory, The
4x Confusion
4x Elder Impersonation
5x Eyes of Chaos
4x Faceless Night
5x Freak Drive
4x Lost in Crowds
3x Spying Mission

Action Modifier / Reaction [3]
3x Touch of Clarity

Action Modifier/Combat [8]
3x Deny
2x Hide the Mind
3x Swallowed by the Night

Darby wanted to have a look at this bastard child of his after the tournament was over, so I spread it out on a table and he gave it a going-over. He said that it's probably not significantly different from his, though he mentioned that the Ashur Tablets (a new addition) aren't really useful, and I totally agree with him. We also agreed that the Restructures are a bit iffy - it's nice to be able to steal every single War Ghoul or Nephandus or Shambler that hits the table, by recycling Restructures, but whether or not the Restructures come up in time and whether or not it's better to spend those actions ousting preys are certainly open for debate.

I think this deck's time to be retired may have come for me, though, so I doubt I'll be making any changes to it. It's fun to play and is both more interesting and less matchup-dependent than most stealth/bleed decks, but it generally needs to be very aggressive during the whole game, and that doesn't suit my normal playstyle very well. On the other hand, I like to keep a variety of deck archetypes on hand, and I don't have any other use for that many Arts of Memory, so maybe this deck still has a reserved parking spot in my decks box.