Camarilla Pre-Release Tournament Report

Heya!

We had 16 people show up for the Boston pre-release at Danger
Planet, including 2 new players.  The format was a sealed
starter deck and 3 drafted boosters.  The starters were
randomly assigned, but players were allowed to trade unopened
starters.  The top player for each clan would be eligible for
the finals, with the weakest of the best-of-clan players being
left out of the finals.

The standings after 3 rounds:

BRUJAH - 1 GW, 5 VP
Scott Gomes - 1 GW, 3 VP
Ben Spaulding - 0 GW, 2 VP
Josh Feuerstein - 0 GW, 0 VP

MALKAVIAN - 3 GW, 16 VP
Matt Hirsch - 2 GW, 9 VP
Peter Jehlen - 1 GW, 7 VP
Jason Schniederman - 0 GW, 0 VP

NOSFERATU - 1 GW, 5 VP
Alex Skrabut - 1 GW, 5 VP
Patrick the Bearded One - 0 GW, 0 VP

TOREADOR - 0 GW, 1 VP
Brad Kellogg - 0 GW, 1 VP
Just Sarah - 0 GW, 0 VP
Chris Hurd - 0 GW, 0 VP

TREMERE - 0 GW, 4 VP
Jerry Spaulding - 0 GW, 3 VP
Serge Massoda - 0 GW, 1 VP

VENTRUE - 5 GW, 17 VP
Ben Peal - 2 GW, 7 VP
Chris O'Brien - 2 GW, 6 VP
Ulysses Lateiner - 1 GW, 4 VP


In the finals, the seating order was:

Alex (Nos) -> Jerry (Tre) -> Matt (Mal) -> Scott (Bru) -> Ben (Ven)

There wasn't much Scott could do against Matt's small vamp Obfuscate
bleed assault, as Matt stripped out the Dementation and large vamps
and replaced them with small vamps with Obfuscate that he drafted.
Too many vamps for Scott to handle, so he eventuall fell.

Despite a heavy pounding by my Ventrue, Alex's Nosferatu held firm,
eventually bolstered by two Blood Dolls and a hunting ground.  Alex
returned fire upstream, but my Ventrue resisted all attempts at 
rushing.

Among the pressure I was putting on Alex, Jerry's own Blood Dolled,
Rutor's Handed Muaziz, and my ability to withstand Matt's bleed
onslaught (lots of pool, some bounce, and a Major Boon on Matt),
Jerry's Tremere were able to slowly chip away at Matt's Malkavians.
Eventually I cashed in the Boon when Gregor Anderson's Spying Mission
triggered, bringing Matt down to one.  Eventually Jerry drew into a
Conditioning and finished off Matt.

Somewhere along the line Jerry burned Alex's Blood Dolled Gemini
via Tremere combat shenanigans, and torporized Elison Humbolt as
well.  After drawing out Alex's untap with some Redirected bleeds
and some probing with heavy combat defense, I eventually bleed out
Alex.  In the one-on-one endgame with Jerry, I managed to catch 
one of his vampires while hunting with a 2nd Trad, and knocked 
another to torpor with my chainsaw-wielding Mazz.  I diablerized
both vampires, creating a 4-1 minion advantage against the Tremere.
Jerry eventually fell, giving me and the Ventrue the win.

I credit my success to being able to draft a Minion Tap, a Freak
Drive, a Hostile Takeover, a Ventrue Headquarters, a Ventrue Justicar
vote, and 2 x Obedience, along with some smaller vamps.  I stripped
out Arika, Bindusara, Suhailah, and replaced them with Mazz, Alan
Sovereign, Katarina Kornfeld, and Edward Neally.  Despite having
only two Princes in the deck, I was consistently able to either
steal Calebros's title or successfully call Ventrue Justicar.
The Ventrue Headquarters wound up being critically helpful for
vote push.

Of the 6 decks, I consider the Toreador deck to be the only one
that's actually weak.  The other 5 are all highly competitive.
The Ventrue took the day today, but at GenCon, the Tremere were
strongest in Bernie's sealed tourney.  And for all the dissing of
the Nosteratu starter, I pity anyone who underestimates it.


- Ben Peal, Prince of Boston
  fudjo@mindstorm.com