With potence combat decks at the ready, twelve methuselahs competed in the Potencious Combatathon Storyline Tournament. Unfortunately I thought the tournament was the Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers not the “who can be the most boring potence combat player” tournament. In any case, below are the tournament results and my own personal tournament report which is mostly me just making blunders in a manner most unpotent.
Round 1
Thomas Solway (Osebo preternatural strength potence aye) bleeding Travis Flaman (Brujah potence) bleeding Jason Campbell (Giovanni bruise bleed potence) bleeding me (Toreador celerity guns)
Being the only methuselah playing Motivated by Knowledge as opposed to Gehenna, I knew I was in for a treat. The table was mostly a “red smear” with little emphasis on bleeds, with the exception of Jason who bled me for three a couple times. Otherwise there was a lot of rushing, blocking, and minions getting dunked and rescued. Thanks to Jason Campbell rescuing Thomas’s minion, Travis having diablerized the other, Thomas managed to stay in the game and rebuild while Jason Campbell being janked from both sides, fought to keep his minions alive. The game then froze up after a while with Thomas Mbare Marketting down and not taking any actions, Travis tentatively rushing, Jason rescuing his minions, and me cycling. With a few one point bleeds, Travis sank Jason, then proceeded to rush me while saying that I should weaken Thomas because he’s just going to sit there and then attack while I give no pressure. I thought this was odd since I wasn’t sure how to weaken Thomas if my resources were going to defending myself from Travis. In any case the end result was with like 38 seconds left, I asked Thomas what presence bleed modifiers existed as Travis was bleeding with his guys for one and plinking away my pool. The only one he could provide was Aire of Elation, so I, being the idiot that I am, declined to block figuring I’d still have a couple of pool left and the game would go to time on my turn. What I should have done was block one bleed anyway just because it was the safe thing to do or stall out my decision to time. Not wanting to be a dick however, I simply declined the block and took the Iron Glare and was ousted. To be honest, that was pretty much the shittiest way to get ousted, lack of card knowledge, but I’ll bitch about that in another entry.
Winner: My celerity gun Pursuit combat which trumped all combat in the match but somehow made me still wary of entering fights, and in a more tangible way, Travis and Iron Glare
Loser: Me presuming that in thousands of cards, not every discipline has the potential to do anything
Honorable Mention: Roy Kim for being the best host for these events
Round 2
Jason Switner (Ishtarri vote with Remnant of the Endless Storm) bleeding Peter the Jacket (Ventrue Keepers Starter) bleeding Ryan Hatman (Malkavian Keepers Starter) bleeding me
This match was one of the worst matches I’ve had in a while. If I recall correctly, in the last four tournament games I’ve played, three of them have been with a Malkavian predator. I have a hard time deciding if I hate stealth bleed or potence combat more, but by the end but that was pretty much all I saw. In my starting crypt I drew no superior celerity minions, and was faced at one point with three Malks to my three Tors, with no intercept. I drew two sets of Concealed Weapon and .44 Magum, and managed to draw into three rushes. My pool was already low so I rushed his minion with the Codex who had already nailed me for like five, but was blocked by some other doofus. So I rushed again, and took her down to 0 blood. Good enough since she’d have to hunt the next turn, but he still had one guy who I called a doofus earlier with all three disciplines at superior, so I cycled desperately for another .44 Magnum since I had the rush and a Concealed Weapon in my hand. Four blood later from my Motivation, and a few other cycles and no luck. I rushed in desperation, cycled a Pursuit, hoping for a press and a gun, but got neither, and so my game was over as Malkavians came across and ousted me for like a gazillion more than I had in the beginning. Regarding the rest of the match, it was Remnant beating guys up, Jay KRCing, and a couple large bleeds but nothing really crazy.
Winner: Me for eating like six Nanaimo bars after getting ousted while everyone was too busy to notice it. I also ate a lot of potato chips, licking my fingers each time I went back for more, which would have been gross except I ended up eating all of them
Loser: Inferior celerity which doesn’t give me the additional strikes I need to put a minion down
Honorable mention: Ryan who played a very simple, very effective stealth bleed, far better than I ever would have, and Jas who got her first tournament VP in her match
The end result? A fistful of promos and a free pack and going home early. I have no idea who won but I’ll bet it was one of the seven potence combat decks that were in the tourney. Seriously, so lame.
Nottingham by Night 