This last Saturday the 20th of February, the Ventrue triumphed in 
driving the Sabbat out of the city of Austin and managed to take 
the Praxis Seizure.

In spite of the best prize support on record (display box for top ten
 players, plus WOTC's prize support), only 8 players showed up.  Four 
from Austin, one from Dallas, and three from Kansas City, Missouri.

With their victory points in the initial 3 rounds, here is a list of the entrants:

(8) William Simpson -- Traditional Malkavian sneak and bleed (KC)
(6) Michael Jones   -- Tremere Combat/Bleed with significant bleed bounce (Dallas)
(5) Greg Faulkner   -- Animalism Horde with significant combat and intercept (Austin)
(2) Ethan Burrow    -- Ravnos/Tzimisce Intercept/Combat (Austin)
(2) R. Brian Smith  -- Traditional Ventrue Bleed (Austin)
(1) Shawn Harrison  -- "That's My Minion" Followers of Set (KC)
(0) Stephen Wyatt   -- Toreador Intercept/Combat Avoidance (KC)
(0) Jeff Thompson   -- Lasombra Mind Rape/Banishment (Austin)

In the third round and in the final round we were finally presented with proof 
that Stealth Bleed can be stopped by not ever blocking because Will suffered major 
hand jam in both games and got no victory points in either one, after sweeping his 
table on both of the first two rounds.

Mike received a major benefit from his 10 deflections in the third round when 
sitting as Will's prey and ended up taking 3 victory points that round.  He also 
took 3 victory points in the second round.

Greg proved once again the value of weenie vampires.  When you always have 5-8 
vampires in play, you can always bleed with 3-4 and leave enough up to block that 
you have a significant advantage.  Of course, he was also helped by Animalism being 
one of the best combat disciplines and the least blood intensive.

Ethan managed victory points in two games in spite of having to have vampires from 
two different clans in play to make his deck work.  

Brian suffered from hand jam the first two rounds and took two victory points in 
the third round with Day Operations and Daring the Dawn type bleed actions.

Shawn lost two vampires to Golconda the first round but still managed to steal 
a victory point. Effective use of other people's Tempted vampires was key, but 
his deck also had significant stealth bleed to help it along.

Stephen's deck was the victim of hand jam and table seating in all three rounds 
and contained significant presence bleed and auspex intercept with a few guns 
and an amazing number of dodges.

Jeff was hampered by not ever drawing a Heidelburg Castle, Germany.  He was effective 
at using the combo of Mind Rape and Banishment in the first two games, but ran out of 
blood on his vampires so effectively stalled and took too long to recover and was ousted.  
In the third game he also suffered from hand jam having 7 combat cards in his hand for 
4 turns and discarding every turn.

In the final's, despite having to sit first, Brian managed to out bleed the stealth 
bleed deck to oust him first.  Ethan managed to jam Will by not blocking and forcing 
him to discard an obfuscate card every turn so that he never cycled to his plus bleed 
cards.  Brian also ousted Ethan.  Greg was Ethan's prey and managed to oust Mike who 
was Brian's predator.  It ended up with Brian against Greg, Greg having 8 minions 
and Brian having 2.  With some masterful play on Brian's part, and two unblockable 
actions, Brian managed to oust Greg to take the tournament.

The final round went like this:

Will, the leader, got off to a slow start.  He had only 2 minions for
most of the game.  His prey, Ethan also had two minions for most of
the game.  Ethan was using the Ravnos Hunting Ground, a Palatial
Estate, and two Blood Dolls to gain 2 pool every turn.  With that in
place, Ethan chose to avoid combat in an attempt to maintain blood on
his vampires and hand-jam his predator with stealth.  Ethan's strategy
was effective, but it did not improve his position with his prey, Greg.

Greg got off to an average start for a weenie deck, but it was greatly
enhanced by the lack of pressure from his predator.  Although the
retainers did not come up, Greg was able to get an early Tier of Souls
and a News Radio Station.  His prey, Mike, got off to an equally quick
start with two low-capacity Tremere and backed by Spiridonas.  Mike
was able to ignore much of the early pressure, then he began
deflecting several bleeds.  His prey, Brian, ignored the deflections,
and he chose to only block serious threats by his prey. Brian had a
good start, and was always able to apply some amount of pressure on
his Prey, Will, with several rounds of Mind Numbs.

Will fell first.  It was mostly due to the hand-jam.  Discarding one
stealth card a turn was not quick enough to gain the bleed modifiers
and the deflections that he needed to oust his prey.  Mike fell
second, but it took longer than Greg had wanted.  Seeing Mike
teetering on the brink, Greg sent all 5 minions bleeding turn after
turn after turn.  Eventually, Mike ran out of wakes, deflections, and
blood to siphon off his minions.  The attrition had left Brian a
chance to focus on Ethan.  Ethan was down to 4 pool when Brian called
a Hostile Takeover.  Greg used 5 pool to buy Ethan's vampire and
improve the buffer that he had between himself and Brian.  This left
Ethan with one minion and 9 pool.  Brian moved extremely quickly to
take Ethan out 2 turns later with a Daring the Dawn action.  This left
Brian with only 2 minions to Greg's 8 minions.  Brian held off one
more round of Greg's attack, and then bled him out with two Day
Operation/Govern the Unaligned/Bonding combos.  Brian had no ready
minions when he finished the game, but it didn't matter... he was the
winner.


Thus, in the final round, we end with Brian having taken 4 victory points and Greg 
having taken one.

The Victorious Ventrue/Ventrue Antitribu Deck follows:

Crypt:
	Arika (2)
	Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla Scholar (2)
	Jazz Wentworth
	Sir Walter Nash
	Melissa Barton
	Ingrid Russo
	Samson
	Vanessa
	Timothy Crowley
	Emerson Bridges
	Gideon Fontaine
	Violette Prentiss

Library:

Actions: (26)
	Fifth Tradition (2)
	Force of Will (2)
	Govern the Unaligned (6)
	Kine Dominance
	Legal Manipulations (2)
	Mind Numb (3)
	Propaganda (2)
	Restoration (3)
	Slaughtering the Herd (2)		
	Social Charm (3)

Action Modifiers: (21)
	Bonding (5)
	Conditioning (2)
	Foreshadowing Destruction (2)
	Freak Drive (2)
	Seduction (4)	
	The Sleeping Mind		
	Daring the Dawn (3)
	Day Operation (2)	

Combat: (7)
	Majesty	
	Skin of Steel
	Superior Mettle (2)
	Skin of Rock (2)
	Unflinching Persistance

Masters: (18)
	Dreams of the Sphinx
	Minion Tap (2)
	Dominate (2)
	Misdirection (2)
	Presence
	Blood Doll (4)
	Pentex Subversion (2)
	Hostile Takeover
	Anarch Troublemaker
	Corporate Hunting Ground
	Uptown Hunting Ground

Reactions: (12)
	Wake with Evening's Freshness (2)
	Forced Awakening (3)
	Deflection (4)
	Second Tradition: Domain (2)
	Obedience

Retainers: (1)
	Marijava Ghoul


In spite of the poor turnout, a great time was had by all, and we plan to meet again 
for Praxis Seizure: Dallas on June 4th, 1999 at Project A-Kon 10 (more details to follow).

The winning deck as well as the decks of all the other participants will be archived at:

http://members.tripod.com/~Lasombra/praxis_decks.htm

Carpe Noctem.

Lasombra

http://members.tripod.com/~Lasombra