TempleCon 2006 Tournament Reports

On the weekend of January 27-29, we held the Northeast Regional
Qualifier, and two other tournaments, at the brand new TempleCon
convention, in Providence, RI.

First off, I would like to thank the organizers of TempleCon once
more; especially Grant Garvin, who made sure that the VTES events
went smoothly.  TempleCon was awesome, and I look forward to next
year.

Secondly, thanks to everyone who made travel plans to come out to
TempleCon.  You're always welcome in New England.

There were three tournaments throughout the weekend.  This (LONG)
document is a report about all three of them:

Congratulations to all of our winners: Oscar Garza, Jonathan Scherer,
and Ben Swainbank.  Congratulations to all of our qualifiers (see the
list below).  Congratulations to all the creative deckbuilders out
there, too.  I saw a lot of interesting decks out there that weekend!

Friday night, we held a 2 Round + Final tournament, entitled
"Communal Haven: TempleCon".  We had 28 participants, from all over
the country.

Here were the final standings:


1  Oscar Garza
2  Kevin Mullen
3  Pat Lusk
4  Matt Hirsch
5  Nik Lima

6  Matt Flint
7  Josh Duffin
8  Matt Morgan
9  Josh Feuerstein
9  Ben Peal
11 Lance Shope
12 Ben Turner
13 Stephanie Turner
14 David Tatu
14 Chris Barter
16 Vincent Cristafulli
16 Charles Burke
18 David Bowles
19 Robert Williams
20 Eric Chiang
20 Travis Delange
22 Jared Strait
22 Jonathan Scherer
24 Robyn Tatu
24 Peter Oh
24 Andy Kempton
27 Chun Lee
27 Shane Strait

It's typically unusual to see "new tech" in major tournaments;
usually there is about a 2-expansion lag before people start to grasp
new strategies.  But I noticed quite a few Legacies of Blood cards,
throughout the whole weekend.
Congratulations to Kevin Mullen for getting an Ishtarri deck to the
finals on Friday, and gaining 2 VPs in the finals with it.  If the
finals had timed out, he would have won the tournament after being
ousted.

But congratulations to Oscar Garza for winning!  Here is his
decklist:

Deck Name : Deploy the Hannibal
Author : Oscar Garza
Description :
one of my pet decks. finally won something. now that i look at it...
how the hell did i win?

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 10 average: 6.84
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Hannibal           Adv 10 AUS DEM OBF cel dom  cardinal
!Malkavian:2
1x Hannibal               10 AUS DEM OBF cel dom  cardinal
!Malkavian:2
1x Korah                  7  AUS DEM OBF ani      priscus
!Malkavian:2
1x Colonel, The           5  AUS cel dem obf
!Malkavian:3
1x General Perfidio D     5  AUS dem obf          bishop
!Malkavian:3
1x Claven                 4  aus dem obf
!Malkavian:2
1x Idalia, Prophet of     4  AUS dem
!Malkavian:2
1x Roger Farnsworth       4  OBF aus
!Malkavian:3
1x Zoe                    3  AUS cel obf
Malkavian:2

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

Action [9]
 1x Blessed Audience
 1x Dive into Madness
 5x Kindred Spirits
 1x Mind of a Killer
 1x Victim of Habit

Action Modifier [19]
 4x Cloak the Gathering
 4x Crocodile's Tongue
 3x Eyes of Chaos
 4x Lost in Crowds
 4x Telepathic Vote Counting

Action Modifier/Combat [4]
 4x Swallowed by the Night

Ally [3]
 1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
 1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
 1x Procurer

Combat [10]
 2x Behind You!
 1x Gemini's Mirror
 3x High Ground
 4x Read Intentions

Master [16]
 3x Blood Doll
 1x Church of the Order of St. Blaise
 1x Creepshow Casino
 1x Dreams of the Sphinx
 1x Giant's Blood
 1x Hungry Coyote, The
 1x Kingston Penitentiary, Ontario
 2x Minion Tap
 1x Parthenon, The
 1x Perfectionist
 1x Powerbase: Madrid
 1x Powerbase: Rome
 1x Society of Leopold

Political Action [10]
 1x Ancient Influence
 3x Consanguineous Boon
 5x Deploy the Hand
 1x Rumors of Gehenna

Reaction [19]
 12x Telepathic Counter
 4x Telepathic Misdirection
 3x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Wed Feb 01 14:02:59 2006]


******

On Saturday, we held the Northeast Regional Qualifier for 2006,
affectionately named "Saqqaf, Keeper of the Grand TempleCon of Set".
We had 39 players, including 3 players for whom this was their first
tournament ever:  James Aloia, Mark Danko, and Keefe Kennedy (who
nearly qualified with a Malkavian starter!)
Of course, this tournament was 3 Rounds + Final.

Again, a Laibon deck made it to the finals (Matt Morgan's Akunanse),
with a very strong showing, and there was a lot of new Legacies stuff
going around...

Here were the final standings; those marked with a * were qualified
before the event (or otherwise not playing for a Qualifying Spot);
therefore, everyone in the top 10 Qualified (including one of the
newcomers, Jay Aloia), as well as myself for being the Organizer.
Thanks to Oscar for instantiating this new controversial rule, but
I'm still going to try to make it to other qualifiers and prove I
could have done it anyway.

Finalists:
1  Jonathan Scherer
2  Matt Morgan
3  Jared Strait*
4  Peter Oh
5  Ben Peal

The rest of the qualifiers (plus me):
6  Matt Flint
7  James Aloia
8  Scott Gomes
9  Robyn Tatu
10 John Eno

11 Keefe Kennedy
12 Eric Chiang
12 Shane Strait
14 Peter Bakija
15 Ben Turner
16 Mark Danko
17 Kevin Mullen
18 Matt Hirsch
19 Lance Shope
20 Pat Lusk
21 David Bowles
22 Jesse Cross-Nickerson
23 Gregory Burlingame
24 Chris Barter
24 Andy Kempton
26 Ben Swainbank*
27 Stephanie Turner
28 Nick Watkins
29 Oscar Garza*
29 Vincent Cristafulli
31 Chun Lee
32 David Tatu
33 Josh Duffin*
34 Robert Williams
35 Sean McKeown
35 Jon Darbro
35 Gary Kwan
38 Peter Kapsalis
38 Jason Schneiderman

Congratulations to Jonathan Scherer for being the big winner of the
Northeast Regional Qualifier!  Amongst his other prizes, he also is
the new owner of the original Ken Meyer Jr. artwork for Khalu.
Here is his decklist and comments:

Slippery When Wet

Ricki Van Demsi
Ramona
Chandler Hungerford x2
Raven
Caitlin x2
Iliana
Faruq
Ingrid Rossler x3

Protean
Earth Control   5
Form of Mist    5
Earth Meld      13
Claws of the Dead       5

Fortitude
Restoration     2
Day Operation   1
Freak Drive     4

Dominate
Govern the Unaligned    4
Conditioning    3
Foreshadowing Destruction       1
Deflection      4

Animalism
Raven Spy       3
Cats' Guidance  5
Instinctive Reaction    1

Skill-less
Computer Hacking        2
Anthrebes The Immortal  1
Mr. Winthrop    1
Palatial Estate 1
Procurer        1
Wake With The Evening's Freshness       8
Second Tradition: Domain        2
Renegade Garou  3

Master
Club Zombie     1
Zoo Hunting Ground      1
Ecoterrorists   2
KRCG News Radio 1
WMRH Talk Radio 1
Smiling Jack the Anarch 1
Dreams of the Sphinx    1
The Barrens     1
Blood Doll      3
Dominate        3

This deck is an old friend of mine. It has been
heavily modified over the years, with the most recent
modification being the addition of dominate to the
deck. The Gangrel were the first clan that I really
got to work in casual play, many years ago. I tried it
a few times in tournaments but it lacked the speed
necessary to win a table. After the addition of
dominate for some added pressure it has been much more
effective, with several strong showings. While a good
position and some luck was key in winning the day,
this deck showed itself to be a strong competitor.

******

Finally, on Sunday, (amidst a small, inconsequential and forgettable,
controversy), we held a Draft tournament, entitled "Refruitment".
The notorious Fruitcake of New Hampshire was donated by John Eno as
the grand prize for this event.
4 Legacies of Blood boosters, 4 Camarilla Edition boosters, and 2
Anarchs boosters were drafted, and then we played 2 Rounds + a Final.


An honorable mention in this tournament goes to Pete "Double Leopard"
Oh, for twice stealing allies (a Rock Cat and Gregory Winter) with a
blocked Legend of the Leopard followed by an unblocked one.

Here were the final standings for this event:

1  Ben Swainbank
2  Matt Flint
3  Josh Duffin
4  Matt Hirsch
5  Peter Oh

6  Jonathan Scherer
7  Matt Morgan
8  Jared Strait
9  Josh Feuerstein
10 Oscar Garza
11 Eric Chiang
12 Robert Williams
12 Pat Lusk
14 Shane Strait
14 Robyn Tatu
14 Kevin Mullen
17 Vincent Cristafalli
18 David Tatu
19 Peter Kapsalis

Congratulations (?) to Ben Swainbank for keeping the Fruitcake alive
in its home state, and winning the tournament.  The finals were a few
seconds away from Matt Flint taking it home, but the clock ruled in
favor of the Live Free or Die state.
Here is Ben's winning deck and comments:

What?!? Oh I'm posting it now.

My Fruitcake-winning deck:

Deck Name : Oh Magaji!
Author : Ben Swainbank
Description: The crypt is mostly crap. Tsunda, Matata, and Falhu are
key. Its got good pool gain blocks pretty well. For offence I was to
hoping to set up tables to blast with my big votes, but I never
really
did. No Secrets + .38 special and/or Elephant Guardian would have
been
sweet but I didn't see it all day.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 11 average: 6
------------------------------------------------------------

1x Eze, The Demon Pri     11 ANI NEC POT PRE THA aus  magaji Guruhi:3
1x Matata                 9  ABO ANI FOR aus cel obf
Akunanse:3
1x Wamukota               9  ANI CHI FOR PRE aus             Ravnos:4
1x Etienne Fauberge       8  ANI CEL CHI FOR                 Ravnos:3
1x Falhu Shibaba          8  CEL CHI FOR PRE ani      magaji
Ishtarri:3
1x Cedric                 6  FOR obf pot vis
Gargoyle:4
1x Tsunda                 6  CHI abo ani dem          magaji Ravnos:4
1x Elizabeth Westcott     5  AUS ani cel vic
Tzimisce:3
1x Gustavo Morales        4  ani cel for
Gangrel:3
1x Aiyana, The Wolfca     3  pre spi
Ahrimanes:4
1x Aimee Laroux           2  for pre                         Daughter
:4
1x Sandra White           1                                 Caitiff:3

Library [62 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [9]
 1x Army of Rats
 1x Baltimore Purge
 1x Cat Burglary
 2x Go Anarch
 1x Mozambique Allure
 2x No Secrets From the Magaji
 1x Rapid Healing

Action Modifier [1]
 1x Devil-Channel: Throat

Action Modifier/Combat [1]
 1x Predator's Transformation

Ally [1]
 1x Gregory Winter

Combat [14]
 1x Dead-End Alley
 1x Devil-Channel: Hands
 1x Hidden Strength
 1x High Ground
 2x Indomitability
 1x Infernal Pursuit
 2x Invoking the Beast
 3x Manstopper Rounds
 1x Weighted Walking Stick
 1x Zip Gun

Equipment [3]
 1x Grenade
 1x Laptop Computer
 1x Saturday-Night Special

Master [14]
 2x Anarch Free Press, The
 3x Dummy Corporation
 1x Fortitude
 1x Frenzy
 1x KRCG News Radio
 1x Masquerade Endangered
 1x Metro Underground
 1x Minion Tap
 1x Orun
 1x Powerbase: Chicago
 1x Secret Passage

Political Action [8]
 1x Ancient Influence
 2x Ancilla Empowerment
 1x Autarkis Persecution
 2x Domain Challenge
 1x Overseer
 1x Year of Fortune

Reaction [7]
 2x Car Bomb
 1x Cats' Guidance
 2x Mole, The
 2x Predator's Communion

Retainer [4]
 1x Elephant Guardian
 1x Raven Spy
 2x Swarm

*****

So, thanks again to everyone who came, and feel free to share any
additional comments that you may have about the weekend.

See you at TempleCon next year!

Josh "Jozxyqk" Feuerstein
Prince of Boston