Infernal Familiar: Boston Tournament Report

We had 13 people show up for our Infernal Plague tournament, in
Boston, on Sunday November 21.  5 people were new to our tournament
scene.  Welcome to the players from Dorchester and Rhode Island!

The Infernal team got 28 additional pool.

The players (in order of final standings) were:

Jack Rizutko - non-Infernal Ventrue - Winner
Scott Gomes - non-Infernal Setites
Ben Swainbank - Infernal Nosferatu
Josh Feuerstein - non-Infernal Toreador
Alex Skrabut - non-Infernal Nosferatu Antitribu

Greg Burlingame - Infernal Tzimisce
Jonathan Scherer - Infernal Ravnos
Declan O'Connell - non-Infernal Salubri Antitribu
Peter Jehlen - Infernal Malkavians
Matt Hirsch - non-Infernal Gargoyles
Jesse Rizutko - Infernal Gangrel
Matt Allain - Infernal True Brujah

Tony Lee (left early) - non-Infernal Giovanni

Congratulations to Jack for winning his first-ever tournament.

Here are some of the more important "Storyline-relevant" events;
please let me know if there's something I missed.

Quentin King
-------------------
Peter Jehlen's crypt consisted of Malkavians, with 2 Arika and 1
Etrius as his non-affiliated vampires.
In round 1, Peter influenced out Quentin King -- remember, Peter was
also playing for the Infernal team.
Quentin King's first action was to play Petra Resonance.
His controller revealed another copy of Quentin King.
His prey (me) revealed Alexandra.
Next (Tony Lee) revealed Isabel Giovanni.
(The other two vampires revealed were greater than 5-caps).
I (the Toreador) collected 3 pool from my prey (the Giovanni) (thanks
to Quentin King's Petra Resonance).
In the next turn, Quentin King was merged.
Then Alexandra was influenced out by his prey.
Quentin King attempted a bleed, and it was Telepathically Misdirected
by Alexandra (the bleed was then Deflected further downstream by
Gloria Giovanni, and the Tzimisce took the bleed.
Next, Quentin's controller influenced out Arika.
Quentin called a Parity Shift, stealing 5 pool from his prey, and
giving 3 pool to his grandpredator (the Tzimisce, who at this time had
out Meshenka), keeping 2 pool for himself.
Later, Etrius was also influenced out by the Malkavian player.

As a possibly storyline-relevant note, the Giovanni player had to
leave after Round 2, after getting a game win and 4.5 victory points. 
If he had not left, he would have been in the final round.

The Final Round
------------------------
Some of these are kind of hard to split up between questions 4-8, so I
will simply list all of the interesting events that were recorded:
The Finals seating was Nosferatu -> Nosferatu Antitribu -> Setite ->
Ventrue -> Toreador.

- Dorian Strack called Praxis Seizure: Paris.  He knew it was going to
fail, since his (my) prey controlled Cock Robin, and my predator
controlled Arika.  Cock and Arika both voted it down, and Dorian
played Scorn of Adonis.

- Dorian Strack diablerized Cock Robin after the Nosferatu Antitribu
sent him to torpor.

- Anson and Casino Reeds contested the title of Prince of Seattle. 
Anson (with only one blood) immediately yielded the title to the full,
fresh Casino.

- Nefertiti put a Form of Corruption into play, then went Into the
Fire and became a Cardinal by Cardinal Benediction.

- Anson called 2 Parity Shifts that had to be negotiated around the
table, due to all the titled vampires.  In his first Parity Shift, he
conceded 2 of his prey's (the Infernal Nosferatu) pool to his predator
(who controlled Arika).  In his second Parity shift, he conceded 1
pool to his grandpredator (who controlled Cardinal Nefertiti).

- Arika called a Kine Resources contested, which failed; nearly every
Methuselah discarded a Political Action card to stop it.

- Casino Reeds performed the Third Tradition, creating a non-infernal
Nosferatu vampire with obfuscate.

- The Toreador were ousted by Natasha Volfchek calling a Kine
Resources Contested.

- The Infernal Nosferatu played a Judgement: Camarilla Segregation. 
After a few rounds in play, it was destroyed by the Nosferatu
Antitribu burning Tommy.

- Casino Reeds and Mateusz Gryzbowsky were in combat and sent each
other to torpor using animalism combat.

- Casino Reeds performed a Baltimore Purge.  After being rescued from
torpor, Casino rescued his prey's Christianus Lionel, on the grounds
that Christianus would diablerize Natasha Volfchek and voluntarily be
burned to the Blood Hunt.  However, the diablerie attempt was blocked
by Arika who played Wake with Evening's Frsehness.

- The Ventrue ousted the Infernal Nosferatu.

- Nigel the Shunned burned Arika's Flamethrower (did I mention Arika
equipped with a flamethrower?) with a Canine Horde.

- Arika, blocked by Mateusz Gryzbowsky, played Kiss of Ra.

- Now that Arika's new prey was the Nosferatu Antitribu, he had to pay
upkeep for the Shanty Town Hunting Ground, and was quoted as saying
"But Hobos are tasty!"

- Arika called Domain Challenge (prey was Nosferatu Antitribu,
predator was Setite Cardinals). It passed.

- With Arika at 5 blood, the (Sabbat) Setites burned the Form of
Corruption and took control of her.
- This caused the Ventrue to have to pay the "Arika tax" for the
Ventrue Headquarters.

- Nigel the Shunned ambushed Cardinal Nefertiti.. Carrion Crows + Torn
Signpost + Immortal Grapple + Disarm.

- Nefertiti, with "no arms", called Kine Resources contested with
Bewitching Oration.  Quote: "Look, I'm a snake!"

- Ventrue, with one remaining pool, finally burn the Ventrue
Headquarters to avoid paying due to the stolen Arika.

- Ventrue made a deal with Nosferatu Antitribu, which caused the
Nosferatu Antitribu to tap all his vampires at 3 pool.  The Nosferatu
Antitribu upheld his side of the deal, but on the Ventrue's turn, he
broke the deal by bleeding with Natasha Volfchek using a Scouting
Mission, thus ousting the Nosferatu Antitribu

- Cardinal Nefertiti ousted the Ventrue with a Kine Resources
Contested.  But the Ventrue still won the Final Round, 3-2.

Here is Jack's winning deck list:

"2 for 1 Special"

Crypt:
Sir Walter Nash X 2
Arika X 4
Timothy Crowley X 2
Violette Prentiss
Gideon Fontaine
Natasha Volfchek
Emerson Bridges

Masters:

Ventrue Headquarters
Uptown Hunting Ground
Zillah's Valley X 2
Blood Doll X 2
Minion Tap X 3
Sudden Reversal X 2
Perfectionist

Gear/Actions:
Ivory Bow
Flamethrower X 2
Fifth Tradition X 2
Govern The Unaligned X 3
Scouting Mission X 3
Enchant Kindred X 3
Kine Resources Contested X 6
Domain Challange X 2

Action Modifiers:
Seduction X 2
Bewitching Oration X 3
Bonding X 4
The kiss of Ra
Freak Drive X 6
Cloak the Gathering X 5
Voter Captivation X 4
Awe X 2
Bribes X 2
Change of Target X 2

Reactions:
Wake with evening's freshness X 2
Deflection X 2
Redirection

Combat:
Majesty X 9
Catatonic Fear
Skin of Rock X 4
Rolling with the punches X 6