White Wolf Online

North American Championship Enjoyed By All
Over 80 players attend the Week of Nightmares
Posted: 2006-10-18

VTES, VTES, VTES, and a couple beers. That about sums up the Week of Nightmares. Read on for Organized Play Director Oscar Garza's day-to-day account of the longest Vampire: The Eternal Struggle event of the year. If you want to see pictures of the event, you can download them as a Quicktime slideshow or view them in this website gallery.

Sunday, Oct 1.

Sunday afternoon the first couple of attendees joined Mike Perlman and I for a day at the park. Atlanta Braves played my Houston Astros and won. Poor 'stros.

The VTES action got started soon after, we had 9 players and some product, so we did a draft. Winner of the first event of the Week of Nightmares Sunday Draft: Josh Duffin.

Monday, Oct. 2.

Jeff Thompson held a Create-a-clan tournament for 9 players on Monday afternoon. Winner of the event was Matt Morgan with "10 ways Dick Cheney can kill you."

I ran an 8 player Duffin Draft with packs from Sabbat.

Jon Sushinsky ran a late constructed event with 13 players. Hugh Angseesing won the event (Sleepy Time Constructed) which finished around 3:30AM Atlanta time with a Ahrimane Animalism combat deck featuring Howler.

Tuesday, Oct. 3

During the day, I rented a van and took ~20 attendees to the White Wolf offices for a tour to meet the employees and get some product. Brian Glass, the Exalted Art Director, rocked that grill for us.

Jeff's Tuesday constructed tournament featured the art for Gemini's Mirror as the prize. 25 people participated in the event and Brian Moritz came out with the win.

Jon then ran a "Brokeback" draft. 6 boosters of 3rd Edition and 3 boosters of Jyhad. This was Ben Peal's first tournament win of the week.

Wednesday, Oct. 4

Jeff's Wednesday constructed tournament prize was Fee Stake: Los Angeles that went to Fletcher Gibson of Seattle with an impressive win over Ben Peal and Stefan Ferenci in the finals. Congratulations, Fletcher.

The late constructed tournament finished up at 5:45AM. 25 players fought long and hard. Ginés Quiñonero, Spanish National Coordinator, dazzled the event with his Nergal deck that bled for 13 many, many times. He is my hero.

Thursday, Oct. 5.

The Prince of the City tournament brought in 45 players on Thursday, with Hugues Bertrand coming out on top.

10 of us went to the Atlanta Thrashers season opener for some hockey action. We got back in time for the late night draft.

Friday, Oct. 6

This was a big day for VTES. We had the Last Chance Qualifier in one room (LSJ), and a Sect Wars tournament (Jeff Thompson) in another. Jay Kristoff won the Last Chance Qualifier. Other Finalists were Alex Harmon, Andreas Nusser, Steve Boyd-Bucy, and David Zopf. Newly qualified players were: Andreas Nusser, Steve Boyd-Bucy, David Zopf, Magnus Hultin, and Dave Feldman.

Jay Kristoff's winning deck:

NAC Last Chance Qualifier
Atlanta, Georgia USA
10/6/2006
43 players
Beef Chunks 'n' Gravy
designed and played by Jay Kristoff

3x Erinyi
3x Fidus, The Shrunken Beast
3x Obsidian
2x Ferox, The Rock Lord
1x Ferox, The Rock Lord (advanced)
5x Blood Doll
1x Club Zombie
1x Direct Intervention
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Fame
1x Mob Connections
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x The Rack
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1x WMRH, Talk Radio
1x Aranthebes, the Immortal
3x Armor of Terra
4x Hatchling
1x Rampage
2x Sanguine Instruction
1x .44 Magnum
1x Hawg
2x IR Goggles
1x Palatial Estate
1x Mr. Winthrop
3x Razor Bat
2x Stone Dog
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
2x Skin of the Chameleon
8x Crawling Chamber
8x Pounce
3x Raking Talons
4x Rockheart
4x Stonestrength
1x Swoop
4x Taste of Vitae
14x Forced Awakening
2x Patrol
2x Scry the Hearthstone
1x Dragonbound

Jeff Thompson reports on the Sect Wars event:

"The Sect War event proved very popular, and two new factions were introduced to handle the overflow players (Black Hand and Kindred Most Wanted). Twenty six players played, with the finals taking the top 5 players regardless of starting team, as there were 7 teams. Two Imbued made the finals, and the three vampire decks made a pact to out them first. After an hour and forty minutes, an unblocked Conservative Agitation ousted them both, and then the vampire decks played until time without another oust. Many players commented on the enjoyment of the cooperative deck building, even going so far as to state that it was the most fun portion of the day. The Laibon team officially won the tournament, with Adam Hulse's Akunanse gaining 1.5 VPs in the final to allow his prior round 4 place seat to put him above the KMW Gangrel Antitribu of Hugh Angseesing and the Brujah antitribu of 3rd Edition piloted by Matt Strehlow." – Jeff "The Lasombra" Thompson.

I ran a 20 player draft late on Friday as well. Brian Moritz won that tournament.

Saturday Oct. 7, Day 1

Day one of the NAC was composed of 65 players. Matt Morgon got 2 VPs in the final to secure his win against players such as Johannes Walch (2VPs), Hugues Bertrand, and Mark Loughman.

His decklist plus comments.

Deck Name : Ayo Stuffs the Ballot Box
Author : Matt Morgan
Description : Gain massive vote dominance with Ayo's special. Vote at 5 stealth or more. Gain pool. Kill.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 10 average: 8.25
------------------------------------------------------------

5x Ayo Igoli 10 AUS CEL FOR PRE obf Ishtarri:4
1x Alicia Barrows 9 AUS PRE OBF archbishop !Malkavian:4
1x Falhu Shibaba 8 CEL FOR PRE magaji Ishtarri:3
1x Quentin King III 7 AUS pre obf prince Malkavian:3
1x Stavros 7 AUS PRE OBF priscus !Malkavian:4
1x Ubende 7 CEL for PRE obf magaji Ishtarri:4
1x Mustafa, The Heir 6 cel FOR PRE prince Ventrue:4
1x Victor Pelletier 5 cel for PRE Ventrue:4

Good crypt draws all day. I think all my minions saw play at one point or another. The cel/for is only for Forced March, so I don't need all my minions to have that. The ones without obf can just sit around giving me votes if I have intercept to contend with. Although Ubende is really good in this deck, I only want one copy because I don't want to have to double anyone other than Ayo.

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [1]
1x Entrancement

Stole a Reanimated Corpse in round 1 and a Procurer in round 2. I would've liked to have another and maybe some more bleed, but couldn't find room.

Action Modifier [26]
3x Bewitching Oration
1x Cloak the Gathering
1x Domain of Evernight
1x Faceless Night
4x Forced March
4x Forgotten Labyrinth
1x Lost in Crowds
1x Spying Mission
1x Strange Day
3x Uncontrolled Impulse
6x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier/Combat [1]
1x Swallowed by the Night

The intention here is to get past casual intercept and occasionally break a wall. I was imagining a Strange Day Banishment on Howler or something like that, but I never actually had to deal with much intercept. I lowballed the vote push because of the strength of titles. Since Ayo has inferior obfuscate, I play one of each obf card, plus the Uncontrolled Impulses, Forgotten Labyrinths and Forced Marches. That could add up to a lot of stealth.

Action Modifier/Reaction [5]
2x Ishtarri Kholo
3x Scalpel Tongue

I didn't get the Kholos all that often, but they aren't that important. Scalpel Tongue is a great card. I didn't have to use it defensively, but it's still nice to have. I originally had Telepathic Vote Counting, but I think Scalpel Tongue is a stronger card here.

Combat [6]
6x Majesty

No room for strong combat defense. These were mostly in case I get blocked, not if I got rushed.

Master [16]
1x Ancestor Spirit
1x Blood Doll
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Glutton
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
1x Mbare Market, Harare
4x Minion Tap
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Secure Haven
1x Ventrue Headquarters

Most of these cards were important at one point or another. I sort of wanted to put in an Obfuscate skill card for Ayo, but couldn't think of what to take out. I never played the Pentex. That was put in for wall-busting only. I don't imagine this deck could defend it well.

Political Action [22]
2x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
3x Banishment
1x Conservative Agitation
1x Disputed Territory
2x Domain Challenge
2x Eldest Command Undeath, The
8x Kine Resources Contested
2x Secret Must Be Kept, The

Heavy payload here. Could probably drop one each of Eldest Command Undeath and Secret Must be Kept. I haven't gotten a lot of use out of those. Banishment was very important to my 2nd round victory.

Reaction [13]
7x Telepathic Misdirection
6x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Just enough bounce/intercept to keep my predator guessing.

Sunday Oct 8. Day 2.

Jeff Thompson had this to say about the 2nd day of the championship:

"Patrick Lusk won the North American Continental Championship and more prizes that he could carry in both hands with items draped over both shoulders. He will definitely be visiting the Post Office in the airport prior to his flight home."- Jeff "The Lasombra" Thompson

Here is Pat's decklist:

North American Continental Championship
Day 2
Atlanta, Georgia
October 8th, 2006
40 players
3R + F

Patrick Lusk's Tournament Winning Deck

Deck Name: Got Confusion?
Created By: Pat Lusk

Description: Here's my TWD from the second day of the 2006 NAC. It's basically my version of Ben Peal's Cheesequake, with a couple of toolboxy elements. The DIs and Confusion of the Eye were huge in 3 out of 4 games, cancelling numerous Alastors and Parity Shifts. Blessing of Chaos never had to be used, but it was a good threat to the voters in a couple of the same games.

In the third round, where I picked up my GW, Restructure snagged me a Procurer, who took a Tupdog rush for the team, and Sinking Ship stole Paul Forest from Rehlow, who had literally every minion stolen from him during that game. (Christian took Tsunda with a Graverobbing in the second turn.) The Laibonized Paul was later burned to remove one of Adam Hulce's Judgment: Cam Segs.

In the final, after I had ousted Bob Joseph, there was talk of letting Bill Troxel get out a War Ghoul to take proactive rushes at my guys, since Stefan wasn't running rush in his deck; this never happened, as it turned out, but since I didn't need to bleed any more at that point, I made sure to keep Restructure and 4-5 stealth cards in hand at all times. I was trying to steal Gregory Winter with that hand when time expired.

Thanks to all the players during the WoN and in particular to Matt Morgan, Bill, Bob, and Stefan Ferenci for such an enjoyable final, and to Jeff, Oscar, LSJ, the Tatus, et al. for organizing.
- Pat

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 28, Avg: 5.58)
----------------------------------------------
1 Ruth McGinley aus cel obf DEM 6 Malkavian
1 Anatole dom for AUS DEM OBF8 Malkavian
1 Claven aus dem obf 4 Malkavian Antitribu
1 General Perfidio Dios dem obf AUS 5 Malkavian Antitribu
1 Korah ani AUS DEM OBF 7 Malkavian Antitribu
1 Midget obf pre DEM 3 Malkavian Antitribu
1 Uncle George aus dom obf DEM 5 Malkavian Antitribu
1 Kite obf pre AUS DEM 7 Malkavian Antitribu
1 Persia aus obf DEM 5 Malkavian
1 Artemis aus cel for DEM OBF6 Malkavian Antitribu
1 Colonel cel dem obf AUS 5 Malkavian Antitribu
1 Dolphin Black AUS DEM OBF 6 Malkavian Antitribu

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (14 cards)
4 Blood Doll
2 Direct Intervention
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 From a Sinking Ship
2 Wash
1 Barrens, The
2 Obfuscate

Action (18 cards)
16 Kindred Spirits
1 Restructure
1 Blessing of Chaos

Action Modifier (29 cards)
3 Cloak the Gathering
5 Confusion
5 Eyes of Chaos
3 Elder Impersonation
3 Faceless Night
5 Lost in Crowds
5 Spying Mission

Reaction (23 cards)
2 Confusion of the Eye
9 Wake with Evening`s Freshness
1 On the Qui Vive
3 Telepathic Counter
8 Telepathic Misdirection

Ally (1 cards)
1 Procurer

Combo (5 cards)
4 Swallowed by the Night
1 Random Patterns

Congratulations to all of the winners during the week.

Bounties collected:
Ahrimanes (Strength of the Bear) -- Hugh Angseesing
Anarchs (Fee Stake: Corte) -- John McGlynn
Followers of Set (Truth of a Thousand Lies) -- Bob Joseph
Ravnos (Wamukota) -- Shawn Stanley
Trophy (Safe Passage) -- Norman Brown
Tzimisce (Soul Decoration) -- Stefan Ferenci

The Third Edition, Assamite and Gargoyle bounties were not collected.

Instability was awarded to Fletcher for his Shadow Twin tournament win.

The EdgeKeeper award (Esteem) went to Hugh Angseesing with 21 game wins during the week.

Jeff Holt showed up on Sunday, and spent 2-3 hours conversing with players, watching the finals, and playing other games with L. Scott Johnson." Jeff "The Lasombra" Thompson.

Jeff also ran the Shadow Twin constructed tournament won by Fletcher Gibson using a Samedi deck.

Special thanks go out to Jeff Thompson whose organization, reporting, and sales made this event run incredibly well. Also to Jon Sushinsky for running all the late-night events.

See y'all next year.

http://nac.vtesinla.org

http://www.white-wolf.com/index.php?line=news&articleid=600