Who's Who in the V:TES Community

Vital Statistics:

Name:
Year of Birth:
Occupation:

Other Games Played:

Number of Cards owned:
Number of Decks ready to play:
Play in:

Adrian Sullivan
1976
Freelance Writer (Magic the Gathering Columnists, Resume Editing/Writing)
Wow. Magic, Carcasonne, Titan, Cribbage, Go, Deceipt, Chess, Lunch Money, Settlers of Cataan, Poker, Ra, Scrabble, and numerous others.
0
0
Madison, WI, USA (retired)

Q1: How (and when) did you begin your career as a VTES-player? Who introduced you to the game? Where did you play originally?
I introduced myself to the game when it first came out. I was already playing Magic, and the more complex nature of the game drew me out. I eventually ended up introducing numerous people to the game as I moved on to college.

Q2: Which of the Sets and Expansions to VTES is your favorite, and why is it your top choice?
Jyhad. I prefer the first printing of the game because it had yet to be tainted by the Design Team lead by Shawn Carnes.

Q3: What is your favorite deck to play, and why?
My favorite deck always ended up being the Nosferatu weenie vote deck I made to win the 1st night GenCon tournament back in around 2001. It's been posted online, but I don't know where it lives anymore. It was a deck that let you just kind of outplay your opponents, and made you look much weaker than you actually were, until it was too late. The deck packed a lot of Nossie combat stuff out of Potence, and a touch of Obfuscate to get through key actions (or Bum's Rushes) or Political Actions. The end game was dominated by lifegain votes and just mass bleeding. Lots o' fun.

Q4: If you could add something to the game, what would it be?
It would be nice to actually be able to go back in time and edit some of the cards that were put out. I can tell that L. Scott is trying to do that these days, but, I guess that I'm not too pleased by editing after they are already out. I'd rather leave them as is, or ban them.

Q5: What do you do to help promote the game / why are you in this list of people?
Well, this one is the big one, I guess.
I started the Madison Jyhad League many years ago. At the time (and I'm not sure if it still holds the record), it was the largest active Jyhad League in existence, with weekly meetings that usually gave us 3 tables of 5-6 players each, and over 30 active members.
I created the Sensible Player's Tournament Rules for Jyhad and eventually ended up having more players involved all over the world than the then official Wizards of the Coast rules. One of the big results of these tournament rules were the creation of the Golden Tenets of Jyhad (No Repeat Actions, No Vote Pushing (i.e., only one political action card per political action, per player). This was a big change for the game and created a much less biased tourney environment (a footnote: the No Repeat Actions rule has recently been abolished because, I assume, of errata on various cards). My last contribution to tournaments was creating the seating structure for the final round of tournaments (currently rule 3.1.3 of the official rules). This seating arrangement rewards both good play in the initial portion of the tournament and awareness of how your deck should be placed at a table (rewarding the better aware players).
I was a prolific poster on Usenet way back in the day, considered one of the "big voices" of the game.
(Examples on Google)
I could say more, but I won't. ;)

Q6: What is your favorite deck style for casual play / tournament play?
I generally don't play any game very casually. I like to play decks that have the ability to let you outplay your opponent. Interaction is a big part of this. Thusly, I've never really been too much into "overload" strategies like weenie vote, Stealth/Bleed, or the like.

Q7: Is there a difference between your casual play and tournament play?
Casual play? I only really play Magic these days, and in that, definitely not. Even when I played Jyhad in Madison, it was very much in a tournament style (everyone playing to win).

Back to the index of Who's Who in V:TES.

Q1: How (and when) did you begin your career as a VTES-player? Who introduced you to the game? Where did you play originally? I introduced myself to the game when it first came out. I was already playing Magic, and the more complex nature of the game drew me out. I eventually ended up introducing numerous people to the game as I moved on to college.	Q2: Which of the Sets and Expansions to VTES is your favorite, and why is it your top choice? Jyhad. I prefer the first printing of the game because it had yet to be tainted by the Design Team lead by Shawn Carnes.
Q3: What is your favorite deck to play, and why? My favorite deck always ended up being the Nosferatu weenie vote deck I made to win the 1st night GenCon tournament back in around 2001. It's been posted online, but I don't know where it lives anymore. It was a deck that let you just kind of outplay your opponents, and made you look much weaker than you actually were, until it was too late. The deck packed a lot of Nossie combat stuff out of Potence, and a touch of Obfuscate to get through key actions (or Bum's Rushes) or Political Actions. The end game was dominated by lifegain votes and just mass bleeding. Lots o' fun.	Q4: If you could add something to the game, what would it be? It would be nice to actually be able to go back in time and edit some of the cards that were put out. I can tell that L. Scott is trying to do that these days, but, I guess that I'm not too pleased by editing after they are already out. I'd rather leave them as is, or ban them.
Q5: What do you do to help promote the game / why are you in this list of people? Well, this one is the big one, I guess. I started the Madison Jyhad League many years ago. At the time (and I'm not sure if it still holds the record), it was the largest active Jyhad League in existence, with weekly meetings that usually gave us 3 tables of 5-6 players each, and over 30 active members. I created the Sensible Player's Tournament Rules for Jyhad and eventually ended up having more players involved all over the world than the then official Wizards of the Coast rules. One of the big results of these tournament rules were the creation of the Golden Tenets of Jyhad (No Repeat Actions, No Vote Pushing (i.e., only one political action card per political action, per player). This was a big change for the game and created a much less biased tourney environment (a footnote: the No Repeat Actions rule has recently been abolished because, I assume, of errata on various cards). My last contribution to tournaments was creating the seating structure for the final round of tournaments (currently rule 3.1.3 of the official rules). This seating arrangement rewards both good play in the initial portion of the tournament and awareness of how your deck should be placed at a table (rewarding the better aware players). I was a prolific poster on Usenet way back in the day, considered one of the "big voices" of the game. (Examples on Google) I could say more, but I won't. ;)	Q6: What is your favorite deck style for casual play / tournament play? I generally don't play any game very casually. I like to play decks that have the ability to let you outplay your opponent. Interaction is a big part of this. Thusly, I've never really been too much into "overload" strategies like weenie vote, Stealth/Bleed, or the like.
Q7: Is there a difference between your casual play and tournament play? Casual play? I only really play Magic these days, and in that, definitely not. Even when I played Jyhad in Madison, it was very much in a tournament style (everyone playing to win).