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:

Peter D. Bakija
1970
High School Teacher
Star Fleet Battles, Titan, Shadowfist, Advanced Civilization.
Many. Many, many.
12?
Ithaca, NY, USA

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 started playing VTES soon after it was released (1994?) 'cause I picked up a copy of The Duelist that included an oversized Jyhad rulebook (who woulda thought such a marketing ploy would have worked out so well?). After reading it over, it looked pretty cool, so I picked up some cards, figured out the game, and taught some friends how to play. Living in Ithaca, I was surrounded by college students, so most of my playgroup consisted of Cornell undergrads, who have since graduated and moved on, setting up play groups of their own.

Q2: Which of the Sets and Expansions to VTES is your favorite, and why is it your top choice?
Overall, I think the Sabbat set was the best expansion as it included the most new stuff and had the most playable components.

Q3: What is your favorite deck to play, and why?
My favorite deck is The Nosferatu Hate You, an archtypical Nosferatu based Pot/Obf Rush deck. After trying to win with it for years and years unsuccessfully, I finally won the 2002 North East Quallifier with it, and decided to retire the deck from tournament play. Then, after losing horribly with a non Rush deck in a tournament not soon after, I vowed to never again play in a big tournament without a Rush deck...

Q4: If you could add something to the game, what would it be?
Worm. Nosferatu, capacity 3. POT. Worm has -1 stealth on all actions.

Q5: What do you do to help promote the game / why are you in this list of people?
I talk a great deal of smack. I have been a pretty prolific and regular contributor to rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad for a long time (since 1995?), and spent most of my time convincing people that the Rush deck was a viable strategy and tournament contender that could actually win games. Sadly, I was successful at convincing folks of this, so now no one is surprised when I Immortally Grapple them.
At some point, I became the official organizer of the newsgroup Clan Newsletter effort, which involves folks writing strategy newsletters for their favorite clans and posting them on the VTES newsgroup every month. Some newsletters have been posted continually for, like, 2 or 3 years now, others not so much, but we still get some good stuff every month. My own Nosferatu newsletters (and above mentioned Rush deck) are archived at:
http://www.myplanet.net/pdb6/vtes.html

Q6: What is your favorite deck style for casual play / tournament play?
For tournament play, clearly, I enjoy Rush decks. In casual play, I play all sorts of goofy stuff, but mostly various Nosferatu based decks.

Q7: Is there a difference between your casual play and tournament play?
In tournament play, I'm pretty focused on killing folks and trying to win. In casual play, I still try and win, but I'm more likely to play a deck of questionable utility.

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 started playing VTES soon after it was released (1994?) 'cause I picked up a copy of The Duelist that included an oversized Jyhad rulebook (who woulda thought such a marketing ploy would have worked out so well?). After reading it over, it looked pretty cool, so I picked up some cards, figured out the game, and taught some friends how to play. Living in Ithaca, I was surrounded by college students, so most of my playgroup consisted of Cornell undergrads, who have since graduated and moved on, setting up play groups of their own.	Q2: Which of the Sets and Expansions to VTES is your favorite, and why is it your top choice? Overall, I think the Sabbat set was the best expansion as it included the most new stuff and had the most playable components.
Q3: What is your favorite deck to play, and why? My favorite deck is The Nosferatu Hate You, an archtypical Nosferatu based Pot/Obf Rush deck. After trying to win with it for years and years unsuccessfully, I finally won the 2002 North East Quallifier with it, and decided to retire the deck from tournament play. Then, after losing horribly with a non Rush deck in a tournament not soon after, I vowed to never again play in a big tournament without a Rush deck...	Q4: If you could add something to the game, what would it be? Worm. Nosferatu, capacity 3. POT. Worm has -1 stealth on all actions.
Q5: What do you do to help promote the game / why are you in this list of people? I talk a great deal of smack. I have been a pretty prolific and regular contributor to rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad for a long time (since 1995?), and spent most of my time convincing people that the Rush deck was a viable strategy and tournament contender that could actually win games. Sadly, I was successful at convincing folks of this, so now no one is surprised when I Immortally Grapple them. At some point, I became the official organizer of the newsgroup Clan Newsletter effort, which involves folks writing strategy newsletters for their favorite clans and posting them on the VTES newsgroup every month. Some newsletters have been posted continually for, like, 2 or 3 years now, others not so much, but we still get some good stuff every month. My own Nosferatu newsletters (and above mentioned Rush deck) are archived at: http://www.myplanet.net/pdb6/vtes.html	Q6: What is your favorite deck style for casual play / tournament play? For tournament play, clearly, I enjoy Rush decks. In casual play, I play all sorts of goofy stuff, but mostly various Nosferatu based decks.
Q7: Is there a difference between your casual play and tournament play? In tournament play, I'm pretty focused on killing folks and trying to win. In casual play, I still try and win, but I'm more likely to play a deck of questionable utility.