Those darn Giovanni have done it at last. The top two seeds were Giovanni decks going into the finals, and one of them won the tournament. (Three in the competition altogether.) My remembrances of the event are as follows: 13 participants, with a brief appearance of Steve Wieck to talk to everyone, but he wasn't able to stay and play. Judged by Todd Bannister, V:EKN Prince of Atlanta. In no particular order, the participants and their decks: David Davila - Giovanni Bleed, Call of the Hungry Dead / Seduction Conor Key - Giovanni Hordes, Shambling Hordes / +bleed Jeff Thompson - Lasombra Bloat, Embrace - Boon Robyn Rose - Animalism Weenies, Cats and Rats and Bats Oh My! Sam (last name unknown) - Mirembe Cabada and Canopic Jars and Extortion Fred Parker - Nosferatu Princes L. Scott Johnson - Tremere/Tremere Anti Intercept Joe Churchill - Ventrue Antitribu (Vote?) Traci Bitonti - Giovanni (Toolbox?) David Tatu - Toreador Antitribu Intercept with Palla Grande Mike Perlman - Setite Corruption (?) Chad Brinkley - Setite Enticement Patrick O'Shea - Caitiff Computer Hack 3 rounds, 3 tables per round, plus the final round. 10 games played. 7 games went to the time limit. My round 1 (4 player): Robyn preying on Sam preying on Jeff preying on L. Scott preying on Robyn. Three of the four players take Embrace actions as one of their first two actions. The forth takes an equip with Pier 13 action first (which he uses to acquire Canopic Jars). I ended up playing one or two Consanguineous Boons on Robyn, as she appears ready to fall to Scott. Scott had played one Burst of Sunlight to take her down early and she was in fear of it the rest of the game. Sam only took actions to gain intercept equipment, only rarely bled, and spent a lot of time untapped. I embraced, hunted at the Hungry Coyote, and called Consanguineous Boons, I had 3-5 minions hunting every turn as Scott's Cryptic Missions all came upstream to keep me off his back. I did end up just barely ousting him, but Sam played a Life Boon and I wasn't able to oust him a second time. This game went to time, and I had in excess of 60 pool, two counters of 10 borrowed from Robyn, and all of the 60 counters I brought being used either as blood or pool. Sam got Scott's half vp for staying in until the end, so he ended up winning the tournament points for the table. Robyn 0.5vp, Sam 1vp, Jeff 0.5vp, Scott 0vp. My round 2 (4 player): Tatu preying on Conor preying on Jeff preying on Pat preying on Tatu. Pat got the sweet spot that game, he went fourth, brought out four weenies, and went to town on Tatu with his computer hackings. Tatu took one action forward the entire game, a bleed for 2 at one stealth, that got bounced three times to land on me (Conor to me, back to Conor, back to me). I Embraced and Booned, having 74 pool at one point (and 5-6 vampires in torpor due to the Shambling Hordes). I managed to swarm over Patrick just before he got Tatu, and then the combination of Shambles and Tatu's 16 untaps/guns/intercept kept anything else from happening. The three of us agreed to discard and withdraw to get full vps rather than the half each (as no one was ever going to oust me, even if they could get all of my 11 vampires in torpor, and Tatu couldn't put enough pressure on Conor to ever oust him). Tatu 1vp, Conor 1vp, Jeff 2vp, Pat 0vp. My round 3 (5 player): Jeff preying on Conor preying on Tatu preying on Scott preying on Davila preying on Jeff. Having the two intercept decks next to each other managed to slow the table down, and kept Scott from putting a lot of pressure on Davila. I always had a deflection for Davila's bleeds, but once he got an Anarch Troublemaker in play I ended up tapping out before his turn and was at my lowest pool levels of the tournament. I never passed 30 pool after I began transferring, and was actually down to 10-11 pool before I began to recover. Conor recruited some right-footed Shambling Hordes that went against my vampires each time they acted, so I had to oust him as quickly as I could. Due to some well managed stealth, a more fortunate flow of dodges, and having 9 minions to bleed with, I managed to oust him. I wasn't able to get Tatu in time, no one else was able to oust their prey. I ended up with only 25-30 pool, but had been bled for 3-6 by Davila on most of his actions after the Anarch Troublemaker had come into play. Jeff 1.5vp, Conor 0vp, Tatu 0.5vp, Scott 0.5vp, Davila 0.5vp. The Finals David Davila and Conor Key had the most vps going into the finals, and I was in third place with 4 victory points. Robyn was 4th and Sam sneaked Fred and into the finals due to the tournament points he received for having the most victory points in the first round (damn Life Boon). I had to choose which intercept deck I wanted as my predator as both Giovanni decks knew they couldn't oust me and would not sit as my predator. I choose Sam over Robin because Sam was using Earth Melds for combat and that was better for me if he did ever manage to intercept me. Conor sat as my prey, as he hadn't played against Sam and had no idea what his deck did, and he thought that if the managed his Hordes a little differently he should be able to hold me off indefinitely. Conor (went first) preying on Robin preying on Davila preying on Sam preying on Jeff who preyed on Conor. My deck went into a serious stall this game, giving me no Embraces and very few Consanguineous Boons for the first hour of the game. Fortunately, I was getting the stealth and Change of Targets I needed to keep Sam from playing Extortions on me. As Sam had wasted all of his intercept on me, he was demolished by Davila's Seductive Call of the Hungry Dead bleeds fairly quickly. I had Conor down to three pool at one point (due to bounced bleeds - five Deflections in my hand when Sam was ousted), but was unable to finish him off as the Hordes came backward in a serious fashion and he pretty much stopped acting against Robyn. Robyn was relatively effective against Davila, having him down to 8-10 pool before he ousted Sam, but was unable to recruit her War Ghouls so she wasn't able to stomp him as her deck can do. The table played very defensively, and once again, the table timed out. I had 22 pool and 2 Deflections in my hand at the end. Conor 0.5vp, Robyn 0.5vp, Davila 1vp, Sam 0vp, Jeff 0.5vp. Davila takes first, Conor second, Jeff third, Robyn fourth, and Sam fifth, exactly as original seating predicted. Here is the deck that I played, that has never been ousted. Deck Name: Long Live The Lasombra! Creator: Jeff "Lasombra" Thompson Concept: Don't die. Embrace and Boon until you have 8-10 Lasombra in play then start bleeding. Use Deflection as your main offense until you can swarm your prey out in one turn. Crypt 2 Aaron Duggan, Cameron's Toady 2 Cameron 2 Ignacio, The Black Priest 2 Ramiro 1 Guido Lucciano 1 Aurora Van Brande, Paladin 1 Lisette Vizquel 1 Talley, the Hound Library 10 The Embrace 8 Dodge 3 Fake Out 2 Blood Doll 5 Dominate 1 Elysian Fields 2 Hungry Coyote 1 Parthenon, The 1 Political Hunting Ground 6 Power Structure 1 Powerbase: Montreal 5 Tribute to the Master 7 Change of Target 4 Cryptic Rider 3 Shadow Play 4 Shroud of Night 10 Consanguineous Boon 10 Deflection 7 Delaying Tactics 90 Total Library Cards 50 common 10 action 21 uncommon 11 combat 19 rare 24 master 18 modifier 10 political 17 reaction Game Environment: 90 card library limit, no card limit, post Final Nights rules. Power Structure is essential to your success. Keep the threat of tapping it available if at all you can and work deals to get the Consanguineous Boons to pass. (I will call one for you now, if you will pass the one next for me.) The Blood Dolls should be replaced with Gird Minions, if I had been able to act forward with more of my minions, I would have doubled my victory points at Crusade: Atlanta 2001. Embraces shouldn't act beyond their initial hunt unless they are forced to do so for lack of blood. They should be untapped to Delay votes that aren't called on your terms and to bounce bleeds to your prey. Lisette Vizquel was the MVP of the deck, playing 5 Deflections in a row in one round between my turns during the finals. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is David Anderson-Dávila's tournament winning deck. Deck Name: Giovanni Power Bleed Created by: David Anderson-Dávila Description: Bleed with Seduction, Call of the Hungry Dead and the occasional Sleeping Mind. This combo should shut down even the most dedicated intercept decks. Use Obedience and Spiritual Intervention for combat defense. Use liberal bleed bounce to enhance the defence. Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 16, Max: 30, Avg: 6] 2 Andrea Giovanni DOM NEC pot vic 7, Giovanni 1 Carlotta Giovanni dom NEC obf POT 7, Giovanni 1 Chas Giovanni Tello DOM POT 4, Giovanni 1 Enzo Giovanni ani DOM NEC pot tha 8, Giovanni 2 Gillespi Giovanni aus DOM NEC POT 7, Giovanni 1 Gloria Giovanni DOM nec 4, Giovanni 2 Isabel Giovanni DOM NEC pot 5, Giovanni 1 Pochtli cel dom NEC OBF POT 8, Giovanni 1 Rudolpho Giovanni NEC 3, Giovanni Library: (80 cards) Master (11 cards) 1 Anarch Troublemaker 5 Blood Doll 1 Jake Washington (Hunter) 1 Morgue Hunting Ground 1 Path of Bone, The 2 Sudden Reversal Action (13 cards) 4 Govern the Unaligned 1 Haunt 4 Scouting Mission 2 Slaughtering the Herd 2 Summon Soul ActionMod (28 cards) 4 Bonding 6 Call of the Hungry Dead 3 Change of Target 3 Foreshadowing Destruction 6 Seduction 3 Sleeping Mind, The 3 Threats Reaction (16 cards) 3 Deflection 3 Obedience 3 Redirection 7 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (3 cards) 3 Spiritual Intervention Ally (1 card) 1 Leonardo, Mortician Equipment (2 cards) 2 Leather Jacket Combo (6 cards) 6 Spectral Divination