I don't know if many people are interested in blow-by-blow accounts, but I've got some time to kill, so here's a quick sketch of my three rounds. I was playing a deck based around all /nine/ of the Princes under nine capacity with potence, a pile of fourth traditions, and Archon rush with Burning Wrath and Amaranth. 1st round: Me -> Halcyon2 (Arika 'n such) -> Xzeolot (Omaya Pulsed Amaranth Wall n' weenies) -> Mike Perlman (Nos Baltimore Purge) -> ?? (Nu Bruise n' Bleed) The first noteable event was Perlman trying to Purge the table with his ten cap. Surprisingly, nobody much cared for that; Nu dunked his vampire and then I ate him. His game sucked, but he was playing a deck that pretty much guaranteed he'd play against the whole table. My opinion: do it with Tyler and Moncada or don't bother. Still, he was a good sport about it all. Halcyon was playing mainly vote and deflect. I wouldn't bleed for more than one, and he was bouncing into Omaya, so that was a wash. Vote-wise, after I got my fourth Prince on the table, his game was over. He hung in there until his Majesties ran out, since I was rushing every turn with an Archon'd Volker with a Flamethrower on his Marcus, who was Anathema'd. He asked Norm (Xzealot) if he had a trap, and then fed Marcus to him, giving him ten pool, after which he was soon ousted. Meanwhile, Norm had taken out Mike, so the game was now a three-way. I had the Rowan Ring on one of my Archon's by this point, did the Ring/Amaranth trick a few times on Norm (took out Omaya after Anathema'ing her, too), and put him away with Legendary Vampire bleeds. My predator had no vampires, nobody to influence down to, and I then took him out. This was by far my best game of the day. I ended that game with seven Princes on the table and 30+ pool. Round 2, or "When Things Go To Poop": Mike Ooi (Malk Dem bleed with The Chick Who Gives Intercept) -> Me -> Conor (Ahrimanes WALL WALL WALL... that's a ;) for you, Conor) -> Oscar Garza (Marcus Vitel and Friends) -> Josh "My goddamn arch-nemisis" Duffin (weenie CEL guns) I just want to say that, before we'd even shuffled out cards, I looked over at Josh and said "You're going to fuck me. I don't know how yet, but I'm sure you will." Josh happily agreed. Conor and I live near each other, and I'd played against his Ahrimanes WALL deck many times. I knew it blocked all damn day, maneuvered to long, and eventually got Sniper Rifles. That is pretty much death for my deck. I got Rake up as my first Vampire. Rake's first action was to Fourth down. Conor, obviously not a member of the "Don't mess with my predator's pool management" school of thought, blocked. Not having guns yet, I caught him with his pants down and Amaranthed him. Josh had the edge. My predator had a Justicar, and I had a Prince. Josh let me burn. I got another vampire up, but Conor blocked every single action I took that game, with the exception of my one self-rescue from torpor action that was at +4 stealth, and he tried to block that one, too. Big goose egg that game, and I don't know what happened after that. The evil bastards probably all congratulated each other. Round 3: David Tatu (Princes... OBF/DOM mostly, but Volker showed up too) -> Joe Churchill (!Ventrue) -> Me -> David Santiago (OBF/DOM titles with *20* Obedience and a pile of stealth) -> Jordan Beal (Friendmaker's bigger, slower brother) This was a good, tense game. Joe didn't have such a good time with it, but hey. I Amaranthed Quinten, he started influencing out in disgust, and I Kindred Restructured to become his predator and oust him. Then I hit the wall of Obey. I rushed David 12 times, and got Obedienced twelve times. It became a very interesting three-way between David, Tatu, and I. At the three minute mark I suggested a mutual withdrawal, since it didn't look possible for anybody to oust anybody. They agreed. That left David and I with 2 VP's and Tatu with 1 VP, so no table win. I ended up tied with Tatu and Steve Wieck at 1 GW and 6 VP's, but I was low man on the TP's, so didn't make the finals. If I had, I'm pretty sure I would have eaten the table alive. At the very least, the two IG Eurojah decks would have been toast, and Matt and I agree that his Ventrue deck would have gone down. Not sure about Steve, since I haven't seen his decklist. It also would have been three Durham players sitting at the table. I am glad I qualified for the nationals at GenCon, though, since that was my main aim in going. Thanks again to the whole Atlanta crowd for their hospitality and effort. Here's my deck: Deck Name: Potent Princes Created By: David Cherryholmes Description: Comments for Matt: 1) I don't want IR Goggles; I want Patagia 2) Tried a bunch of draws with one Sheldon; didn't like it 3) 75% chance of a vamp with DOM in the opener, and it just goes up from there -> chucked in a few deflections (*** actually, I didn't ***) 4) Cut Disguised Weapon; probability of it being useful approaching nil. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 23, Max: 32, Avg: 7.00) ---------------------------------------------- 2 Selma the Repugnant ani for OBF POT 8, Nosferatu, Prince 1 Emerson Bridges DOM FOR pot PRE 8, Ventrue, Prince 1 Donal O'Connor CEL DOM POT 8, Brujah, Prince 1 Constanza Vinti CEL DOM POT 8, Brujah, Prince 2 Nikolaus Vermeulen ani for obf POT 7, Nosferatu, Prince 1 Murat OBF POT ser 7, Nosferatu, Prince 1 Rake aus cel pot PRE 6, Brujah, Prince 1 Volker CEL pot 5, Brujah, Prince 1 Calebros ANI obf pot 5, Nosferatu, Prince 1 Theo Bell cel dom POT pre 7, Brujah Library: (80 cards) ------------------- Master (13 cards) 1 Animalism 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 3 Effective Management 3 Fortitude 1 Information Highway 1 Labyrinth, The 1 Storm Sewers 1 Tension in the Ranks 1 Vast Wealth Action (10 cards) 1 Fifth Tradition: Hospitality, The 8 Fourth Tradition: The Accounting, The 1 Patagia: Flaps Allowing Limited Flight Action Modifier (9 cards) 3 Forgotten Labyrinth 6 Freak Drive Political Action (10 cards) 2 Anathema 5 Archon 1 Kindred Restructure 1 Kine Resources Contested 1 Parity Shift Reaction (4 cards) 4 Second Tradition: Domain, The Combat (31 cards) 7 Amaranth 8 Burning Wrath 3 Drawing Out the Beast 7 Immortal Grapple 3 Rolling with the Punches 3 Skin of Steel Equipment (3 cards) 1 Flamethrower 1 Ivory Bow 1 Rowan Ring This deck was last saved at 3:38:00 AM on 5/19/2003 David Cherryholmes Prince of Durham, NC