Without further ado, I present you a tournament report told from the perspective of one Dave Berkes.
Round 1
Dan Macahonic (Malk! Kindred Spirits) bleeding Kourch Chan (Tupdog) bleeding Chad Fraser (Tumnimos) bleeding me.
Chad started dropping master cards left and right and brought a few mid cap Ravnos out. He only saw like three Tumnimos that game which was good for me. Dan brought out Persia and Uncle George, I think, and started bleeding Kourch, for like around ten pool in the second and third turns. I meanwhile bled Dan with Tobias Smith and Lord Vauxhall for two or so every turn. Kourch, a little hurting, brought out his first Tupdogs and torporised Dan’s Uncle George and Midget, leaving Persia with the rescues next turn. By this time I was getting worried since Chad had about five or six Ravnos on the field and I knew a Week of Nightmares would show. Fortunately, with a few small bleeds, Kourch ousted Chad who had brought himself really low. I bounced a lot, and eventually managed to oust Dan. After that, it was a resources game with Kourch unwilling to bring out more than one Tupdog or so and balancing his Procurer, Nikolai the Survivor, and two Blood Dolls, and then Graverobbing a Konrad Adoula and Lord Vauxhall. Thanks to the pool lead I had, and the constant pressure, I managed to stealth bleed him out.
Round 2
Shawn Zinyk (Aristotle de Laurent) bleeding Jason Cambell (Ishtarri Vote) bleeding Cory Hrushka (Anarch Toolbox Combat) bleeding me.
Shawn brought out Aristotle de Laurent early and proceeded to bleed Jason who immediately started feeling pressure. He directed his KRCs with Shasa towards his predator to weaken him. Cory meanwhile brought out a couple Gangrel, anarched them, and then began setting Constant Revolution, Smiling Jack, and Anarch Revolt out. An Army of Rats would also show later. Thankfully he didn’t get much interecpt, so it was easy to remove the Constant Revolution, later the Jack, and then move forward, bleeding Shawn. Jason had recovered fairly well with his Voter Caps, and then started moving forward, but by then, I had ousted Shawn with a few bleeds here and there. I waited while Jason finally ousted Cory who had jammed on combat because no one was blocking or getting blocked. Then, it was a simple matter of a few stealth bleeds to take him out.
Final
Shawn Zinyk bleeding Thomas Solway (Dominate Bleed with Potence) bleeding John Pattie (Assamite Stealth Bleed Bloat) bleeding Dan Macahonic bleeding me.
I don’t know what happened but I made the most boneheaded choice when I picked my finals spot. Not knowing what John Pattie’s deck did but hearing it was Assamite Stealth Bleed, I figured I would sit in any one of the terrible spots. Unfortunately, John’s deck did a lot of things like bloat and tool up and recruit Web of Knives, and if I had expected that, I would have sat to his left. Instead, worrying about big stealth bleeds and combat, I sat next to Dan where I simply got run over before I could oust Shawn. There was no question, that Dan had the best spot given the deck compositions since John was putting the least forward pressure on his prey and the best defense. After I got ousted I can only presume it was just a matter of who bled the most and fastest because after leaving to take a phonecall for like three minutes, Shawn and John had been ousted, and Thomas followed as I approached the table.
Whatever. It was fun. The sort of fun one gets from playing VTES on a Sunday afternoon in a tournament. I have to admit I was a little disheartened, coming into the finals as the 1st seed with the only two table wins, and then getting ousted first, but such is life.
Next up… Alastors and Anarchs October 4th and 18th! A dubiously heartfelt “yay” for draft tourneys, the most time consuming and boring of all the myriad of draft and constructed tourneys, but V:TES nonetheless.
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