Reporting back from the NAC (2): LCQ

Hi folks!

I've just came back to my hotel room from the Last Chance Qualifier. As I wrote earlier, I played my Ahrimane Wall Deck. Here's what happened:

1st round: Kelly Schultz (Baali Striga) - Robyn Tatu (Sabbat OBF+AUS) - John Flourny (Nosfi! ally swarm bleed) - Jason Schneiderman (Tzimi vote deck) - Me (Ahrimane Wall)

Howler didn't show up in the starting crypt, so I had to call down a new vampire which was Howler. This delay cost me a couple of pool, but that was worth it. Basically the only deck I couldn't oust was my prey. He did play a bunch of Ashur Tablets and Tend the Flocks. Even worse, he played Hexe. All those Scobax cards were also pretty annoying. Once I got Holwer in play my predator wasn't a threat anymore so I could build up. Slowly John ousted Jason and Robyn could oust John, since I was putting pressure on the Baali deck and also Falcon's Eyed him. Then we timed out. I finished the game with 23 pool and 4 vampires. The closest I got to oust my prey was bleeding him down to 4 pool. 0,5 VP

2nd round: Alex Broadhead (Assamite bleed) - Micah C. (Tzimi Vote) - Frankie (Lucian powerbleed) - Peter Oh (Brujah 4-5 vote) - Me (Ahrimane Wall)

I had such a great start! First turn Smiling Jack, then Holwer hits the board. I could successfully block my prey attempt to burn it and torporized him. Then came the pain. I still had only Holwer and 1 pool on the Jack. Frankie just put Lucian in play. Remember he has superior OBF+DOM and +3 bleed. My predator, Peter Oh plays a Brujah deck and has no bleed bounce. Peter plays his Pentex Subversion on Howler without any table talk, just to remove the Jack for sure. Come on!!! Why for fucks sake couldn't he tell me to let him burn the Jack so he will put the Pentex on Lucian??? Of course I'd have agreed!!! After this it's no wonder that Frankie made a game win. Well before Frankie won some things happened. My grand prey totally tapped himself out without having any defensive cards and died. WTF??? A free VP and six pool for my prey. Before Frankie got me I managed to oust my prey. In the 1 on 1 situation Frankie Pentexed me and got the game win. I really should have won this table, but my cross table allies decisions not only killed themselves, it also cost me the game win. 1 VP

3rd round: Me (Ahriman Wall) - Pascal Bertrand (Khazar's peasants) - Wayne Halsey (Tzimi combat with Horrid Form) - Mark Loughman (Nakhthorheb Chameleon) - Sebastian Roullard (Blanche Hill power bleed)

My start was good. Howler pops out, gets the Rack and plays Army of Rats. I totally crushed into Pascals face. I played against the Khazar's peasants many times and knew that you have to stop that deck right in the beginning. Mark managed to steal Blanche Hill, which totally took the pressure from me. Mark of course made a fast VP here. Luckily I managed to DI his Banishment he wanted to play on Howler. I few turns later I played a Pentex Subversion on him. Wayne and me came to a gentleman's agreement to get our VP's and play the heads up. This happened pretty soon. Both of us had an Army of Rats in play and two vampires. I had Howler and the Siamese, he had Dragos and Caliban. Since I had the Rack and 3 vessels I had better pool gaining. Wayne in return had a stronger combat, but his vampires were low on blood and he started the heads up with less pool. We spent a couple of turns fighting without any significant result. After a couple of turns Wayne managed to torporize the Siamese. Since I had the edge Siamese tried to self rescue, which was blocked by Wayne. He was tapped out this point and had 3 pools only. I noticed that his deck wasn't a wall, so I tried to bleed with Howler. He didn't block and an Aire of Elation gave me the game win. 1 GW 3 VP's.

I finished the tournament with 1GW 4,5 VP's, which was enough to save the honor (I finished tied 7th place), but I am still disappointed. Let's hope I will be better tomorrow.

by: Mephistopheles

/I'll try to find out what happened in the final and report it back to you guys/