Origins 2021

A few years ago, I noticed something weird.  As time was passing, I was getting older.  Just bizarre.

Anyway, due to declining mental faculties, my recollection of events will be haphazard.

Nope, I didn’t cancel at the last minute.

Tuesday

Get virtually no sleep, even though I didn’t have a ton I needed to do.  Sure, I didn’t build much in the way of VTES decks and so could spend time on that, but I know how long it takes to pull cards, so I gave up before too late.

Nothing real special about getting to hotel.

Get this over with – staying at Hampton was extremely convenient.  I didn’t really take advantage of how easy it would be to go back and forth to hotel for stuff swaps, but it wasn’t just far better than walking six blocks to a hotel on mostly deserted streets after midnight, it was just easy.  Breakfast buffet wasn’t Embassy Suites Indy level, but it was free breakfast better than a motel.  I never used the pool even though pool hours were like 5AM-10PM (11PM?) and I keep taking swim trunks to these hotels.  I don’t actually like swimming pools – they are boring.  Nothing to explore.  No current to fight against.  No sense of changing location.  My room was on 5th floor, so, other than checking in and checking out with my luggage, took stairs every trek.  Helped burn some of the far too many calories I was consuming and/or requires some actual physical exertion for underused musclelike body parts.  With no roommates, it was relaxing to use the room, though I got virtually no sleep because my body hates me.

I drop my stuff off and head over to The Happy Greek to socialize [gasp!] with VTESfolk.  I order the Keftedes Kebob.  It suffers from the general issue I have with Greek food – it’s too bland.  Greek food, IME, is like less flavorful Persian food.  I also consider yogurt as only for smoothies.  Could have been juicier or more tender.  Overall, it was okay and not hard on the system after not having any other meal all day.  I get water to drink.

Everyone else is wrapping up as they close at 10PM, where the finals will be held at an Air BnB.  Doesn’t take me long to eat, so I join some others going to UDF for malts.  This is, of course, a perfect example of my low life wisdom.  The food would have been fine.  Gorging, especially given that I’m lactose intolerant and have run out of Lactaid, late at night was suboptimal, I guess.  But, I didn’t know if I was going to have another shot at a malt.  It was okay, would have preferred thicker.  Marshall paid for it, so already the psychological warfare that all VTES players feed upon begins.

Wednesday

The change in Origins’ normal schedule meant I had zero reason to go to the convention center, so I changed my order of which shirts to wear on which days.  Back to The Happy Greek.

Beef Shawarma Pita and well done fries.  A few of the fries were cooked enough.  Insert french fry rant.  I am bewildered by why so many bad french fries get made.  Anyone who has had good french fries should know that french fries are supposed to be red and crunchy.  Anyway, the rest of the fries were better than most.  The pita sandwich, though, was a mess.  It was basically a way overstuffed taco with chewy meat.  Still didn’t have much flavor.  More than half the meat was eaten non-taco style.

I, on two separate occasions during the day, ask about grenadine and the mix they would use to make a Tom Collins.  I fail to actually order anything besides Coke/Mello Yello.

First event is draft.  Two rounds, no final.  We basically get a precon (except Jyhad clans?) and are in draft pods that use similar sets.  I get 3e Tzimisce so draft Third Edition.  Kind of a wasted opportunity to me.  I prefer to see greater variety of possibilities with draft.  The 3e boosters were incredibly redundant, which is a 3e problem for a set that has a ton of different cards.

As is typical with VTES drafting, one pack will have mediocre stuff and another will have four possible first picks.  I passed Tribute to the Master multiple times.  I think the only one I got was one that came back to me!  I debated drafting the Pentex Subversions, but I didn’t want someone playing them against me as I was a blocky deck.

Origins 2021 Draft – Tzimisce

Crypt (12)
2x Ilias cel Frumos
1x Guedado
1x Elizabeth Westcott
2x Yuri Kerezenski
1x Duality
1x Laika
1x Lady Zara Slatikov
2x Radu Bistri
1x Sha-Ennu

Master (16)
1x Auspex
2x Blood Doll
2x Danse Macabre
1x Fame
2x King’s Rising
2x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Barranquilla
1x Rötschreck
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1x The Rack
1x Tribute to the Master
1x Vicissitude

Action (6)
1x Fiendish Tongue
1x Forgery
2x Scouting Mission*
2x Zillah’s Tears

Action Modifier (4)
4x Changeling

Combat (21)
2x Aid from Bats*
1x Amaranth
1x Aura Reading
1x Breath of the Dragon
2x Burst of Sunlight*
1x Canine Horde
2x Carrion Crows
1x Chiropteran Marauder
1x Claws of the Dead*
1x Dodge
2x Horrid Form
2x Inner Essence
1x Meld with the Land
1x Song of Serenity
1x Starvation of Marena
1x Weighted Walking Stick

Equipment (1)
1x Local 1111

Political Action (6)
1x Consanguineous Boon
1x Crusade: Pittsburgh
1x Finding the Path
2x Perpetual Care
1x Sabbat Priest

Reaction (24)
2x Eagle’s Sight
5x Enhanced Senses
3x Forced Awakening
5x Guard Dogs
1x Minor Irritation
1x My Enemy’s Enemy
1x Precognition
1x Read the Winds
1x Redirection*
2x Spirit’s Touch
2x Telepathic Misdirection

Combo (2)
2x Plasmic Form

From a deck construction standpoint, I think this was a mixed bag.  Sure, I might not have gotten ousted if I had permacept.  But, the play problems were more so the lack of VIC and how pointless Perpetual Care was after taking out a bunch of offensive combat.  I used Aid from Bats twice at draftferior, once to go to long against Hardestadt and burn Sport Bike with Canine Horde, but that was far too late.

First round, I don’t remember this game.  I think Vinny playing !Trem was in this game as my predator.  I just don’t remember what else was being played and by whom.  Wait, I’m remembering pressing against !Trem due to Weather Control to torp one of Vinny’s vamps.  Will this help me remember how I got less VPs than I could have?

Nope.  I do remember finding the lack of VIC annoying.  King’s Rising got played and got cleared.

It was the second game that was memorable for how frustrating it was.  Kelly was my prey with Ventrue, and I just couldn’t get by Hardestadt when I needed to even with Sha-Ennu in play (I had five vampires in play for a considerable amount of time) and even with getting Hardestadt taking Kelly down to 2 pool.  Vinny, as my axe, blocking my bounced bleed of 1 rather than blocking Kelly’s kill wrecked my easy table win.  Karl, playing Ministry, I mean, FoS was impotent early to where I even voted him pool, but, eventually, as I played bounce badly and wasted unlocks needlessly (one Zillah’s Tears use was awful), I stopped being able to block every single forward action.  Being flooded with Unholy Penances was an annoyance I didn’t have a great answer for as long as I was trying to get key actions through on my prey.

Historically, I’ve been a way, way, way better limited player than constructed player.  Now, one could argue that a key difference is that I eschew strong decks in constructed and embrace putting the best decks together in limited.  That has something to do with it, as I often feel I have one of the two best decks in sealed/draft VTES and can put together a reasonable Magic limited deck and maybe even knew what I was doing with B5 limited.  But, my preferred style of play is to minimize use of resources, to play opportunistically, to not expect to have multiple copies of key cards.  To only come in third in this event was … one might say … a harbinger of future mediocrity.

Wednesday Constructed

I play Vic/For.  Sure, that meant playing mostly Budapest, but I had two non-BB in my crypt, only one of which appeared in three rounds.

Round 1:

Darby was my predator with Serpentis annoyance.  Brad was his predator with FoS Free States Rant.  Kelly his predator with … I vaguely recall Dmitra and votes, but I could be wrong.  Mark was my prey with AUS/PRE/OBF.  Somehow, people keep expecting me to Walk of Caine bomb people into oblivion.  I mean, sure, that could happen.  It’s just not probable when running 2x WoC and would, somehow, have to get around bounce.  I did rush Darby’s ally but got blocked by a vampire.  Dorka got a lot of hate, getting stolen.  I brought out another one, later, but I had no real way to not get ousted.  I just didn’t accomplish much, even with four minions in play for a bit.

Round 2:

Late in the game, with my two minions, I bleed Marshall for 2 with inferior Sanguinus and Force of Will bleed with SAN for the WoC kill.  Alex doesn’t care if I get more VPs, so I oust him for a second VP.  Other people were at this table.  One of them ousts me.

Sometime, I get dinner at The Happy Greek.  Now, I didn’t need food, so my enjoyment of this meal was reduced.  However, my Spicy Gyro Over Hummus was actually flavorful, with tender meat.  Add some crunchy french fries (and a desire for a significant amount of food), and this would have been a strong meal.  I can see getting this dish and a side and splitting between two people.  Actually spicy, where one never knows whether spicy dishes will actually be spicy at various places.

Just to get this out of the way, once convention starts, mostly smoothies and root beers with miscellaneous North Market food.

Finals:

Darby is my prey.  Brad (or someone else I can’t remember) his prey, with something with PRE as he steals Darby’s Mylan and Impundulu, I guess?  Alex his prey with !Toreador w/ Protean.  Marshall my predator with stealth vote.  I remember blocking a bleed at one stealth with Steadfastness and playing Poison Pill on a Con Ag in quick succession, as I made the comment to Darby about just doing what Blood Brothers do – react.  My Dr. Morrow does give a Graft Counter to Impundulu.  I really didn’t have much to do before my inevitable demise.  Since this was at the Air BnB, which isn’t superclose to my hotel, I bail to try to get some work done.  I hear later that Darby’s Temptation on Adana(?) leads to ousting people.

Thursday

I had stuff I needed to do, which made playing in first tournament a problem.  Then, I had to stand in badge line for 1.5 hours to get my badge.  Then, I stood in customer service line to get 63/65 generic tickets.  So, pretty much just waiting until second tournament.

Thursday Constructed 2

I keep wanting to play Blessed Resilience builds, as it’s kind of interesting to play a deck that goes forward, and the possibilities for what can happen amuse me.

Round 1:

Robert is my prey with Brujah with weapons.  Mark axe with Kindred Spirits.  Alex my predator with Ass vote breed.  Alex doesn’t survive long.  Robert doesn’t do anything much which affects the game besides spend pool, so I oust him.  While Mark got me and would have likely always gotten me, I was calculating how much I could do to him if I survived one more turn.  I think I could have bled him for 18 on my next turn, which might have ousted him.  Again, if I wasn’t already gone.  I played Carlton late, and that might have done me in.  Carlton never blocked a bleed, so it was take an action to lose 2 pool.

Round 2:

Darby first with Khazar’s.  Kelly my prey with Trem.  Just blanking, maybe Marshall again, as predator.  Khazar’s didn’t go off for quite a while.  Kelly lacked bounce.  Sure, I could have killed him.  I should have tried to get 2 VPs in a smallish tournament, but I was so excited by how much pool damage I could do to Darby if the right sequence of events occurred.  I missed my window on both bounced to Darby for excitement and for ousting Kelly for excitement.

I get back to hotel and work on a deck for Friday night.  My plan is to go with vote in the morning, less thinking involved Friday night – +1 stealth AUS/PRE.

Friday

Friday Constructed 1

I took some cards to build decks with me to Origins.  Not a lot.  Took a lot of master cards, where the rest were new stuff to try out new stuff.  I went with modified Lasombra precon.  Obviously, I removed all of the Governs and Conditionings.  I put in some Murmurs for bleed since I can’t put Murmur of the False Will on my personal banned list due to the Kiasyd w/ Animalism tournament winning deck.

Round 1:

Further sign that my mind is gone.  I think Marshall was my predator with Kiasyd – wait, he definitely was as we talked about Priscus voting.  Matt was my prey with Ravnos bleed.  Darby was playing Legacy of Pander as my grandprey, Logan my grandpredator with Tzimisce.  New Lasombra are not weak.  I brought out Cardinal, Archbishop, and Priscus – all 8 caps.  Marshall keeps bleeding me with The Arcadian …  So, I had a bunch of Murmurs for his other guys.  Gabrin on my left was my only combat concern, so I ditched Obedience for the obvious reason.  Darby couldn’t pass votes on his own with any sort of consistency.  He did get out 7 Pander.  Logan’s game was not that exciting, trying to function off of Lambach and advanced Sascha.  I had an okay amount of pool much of the time.  I added Con Boons to the deck.  I did virtually nothing to my prey.  When I finally tried to bleed my prey, I forgot Illusory Resources was in play.  Darby and I negotiated him killing his prey and predator and he only killed his prey …

Darby had Bleeding the Vine in play and cancelled a Kiasyd Blood Doll.  Matt drops Week of Nightmares, which we all knew was coming after a bunch of Suspensions of Disbelief, and he got Darby.  I eventually bleed Matt for 1 at zero stealth and oust him.  I bleed Marshall for 2 at zero stealth, then 1 at zero stealth and oust him.

I get blamed for not ousting my prey before he got Darby.  Amazingly enough, illusory bleeding and having votes like Con Boon doesn’t put a lot of pressure on.

Round 2:

I got irritated in this game.  I guess having to play with Imbued can do that.  Alex was my prey with Brandywine.  Mark my grandprey with Carna.  Logan grandpredator.  Karl predator with Imbued.

This game was tedious.  I called an early Anarchist Uprising that did more to Mark than anyone else, and he gave me grief for that even though I knew that this table was set up for slowness.  Also, slowness is pro Imbued.  Now, I did bring out a certain 9-cap who couldn’t be damage by allies and an 8-cap who could steal 2 blood as a strike.  My being not a l33t player meant that when that second ability mattered, I totally forgot about it.  I think that might have prevented my getting ousted and losing the .5 VP I was playing for.  I did try to oust Alex, but Logan shot the vote down even while Imbued’s Talbot’s was already in play.  Maybe Logan thought I was a quality player and would remember to just steal 2 life from allies like a boss monster.

Veil of Darkness got put into play, cancelled my Oubliette, and my Famed life stealer went down, then I took lots of bleeds.

Finals:

Darby was my prey.  Alex his prey.  Karl his prey.  Mark my predator.  Imbued had intercept in front and behind and two vote decks across table.  So, of course, Imbued won.

Darby and I danced around a lot on how to carve the table as I got out the Cardinal on turn two, so he could never pass a vote on his own.  I figured I had no way to oust Alex, so I did want Darby to do that, but I was leery of him ousting both Alex and Karl, so I made this game suck.  Still, playing with two minions, with my predator being happy to block me to ‘schreck half my minions, where I couldn’t even draw much in the way of Murmurs for plus bleed and having little reason to give Alex 5 pool with Ancient Influence until Darby self-ousted, meant my not being into carving the table doomed us all to mortality.  I also ran out of stealth at the end to get off such things as Reins of Power (not called due to lack of stealth) or Ancient Influence, so I was locked out when the +1 (bleed, stealth, intercept, damage, …) mortals came.

The only final I deserved to be in, and I didn’t execute.  Made me want to not play vote again, though.  I keep forgetting how annoying playing vote is when someone else also votes.  I shouldn’t forget, except I don’t play vote that often, and I hadn’t played at all in more than 18 months, and those 18 months have been … taxing.  Well, and I’m not a l33t player.

Friday Constructed 2

Round 1:

Guy is my predator with Elimelech.  Marshall my prey with Ventrue.  Alex axe with werewolves.  This was painful.  Elimelech got Robert Carter to my chagrin.  I was forced to Archon him.  I kept forgetting to use Greta to reduce bleeds by Luc.  I thought about DIing Alex’s bounce early on, but I didn’t know how much kill Marshall was going to whip out.  Alex became unstoppable.  Multiple Garou, Double Deuce, Fermor, Inyanga.  I hung around a bit.  I did Jost bleed for 6 to cycle, but I had too little evasion to actually oust Marshall.  Just a werewolf rampage.

Round 2:

Darby axe with Ira wall.  Predator Logan with Memory Rift.  My prey Brad with Nehemiah (and Carolina).  I have a ton of bleed defense to use in this game, reducing more than bouncing, so I get Rebekka, Cornelius, Anarch Convert w/ Blood Doll, Sheila with intercept.  Memory Rift keeps preventing Sheila from blocking until we take a long pause to find out whether Martinelli’s Ring stops that.  Rebekka gets Heart of the City, gets bounced a lot, I finally get to play Tangle of Atropos’ Hand when bounced to Darby, then bleed out Brad.  I had Archoned one of Logan’s vamps, so he was crippled and eventually removed.  Darby just destroys my guys in combat.  I enjoyed this game.  I got to first turn discard Subdued by the Blood and could both defend well and threaten ludicrously.

I go back to hotel and give up on building Toreador deck with how tired I am.

Saturday

I build a Toreador deck.  I have to pull cards from my AUS/PRE deck because the two Toreador precons I brought with me are … in Latin.  I thought I only ordered one of each precon in Latin, but I can’t keep straight what stuff I get.  The whole point is to play Laecanus, who I thought hated me more than any other vampire, even more than Kill-ian.

Not seeing enough anarch stuff to do what he should do – anarch CEL rush either with guns or sticks.  I do a quasi-Obtenebration build.  By quasi, I mean I had two Obtenebration cards in my deck and never played them.  Can’t really call my recent creations toolbox decks as they are mostly unfocused messes that play individually good cards but in an incoherent whole.

Round 1:

I don’t get Laecanus.  I do get Rafael de Corazon.  And, Tyler McGill and Vasily.  Prey is Mark with Nocturns, Karl his prey with … … … a bad crypt draw.  Alex my grandpredator with !Toreador w/ Protean.  Matt !Salubri rush as my predator.  I block Bowl early.  I never burn Path of Night, but, then, nobody else does, either.  My Vesseling Karl’s New Blood maybe took one of Mark’s actions to end Karl.  Alex Archons after getting Matt.  Wonders why I do things like Con Boon – if Mark doesn’t get Alex when he does, I have zero wakes, so Palla Grande will end me.  I get Mark to 3 pool with Rafael still functional, but I don’t have what I need to get by Unmasked Nocturns and get finished off.

Round 2:

Marshall my predator with Primogen.  Vinny my prey with Shamblers.  Matt axe.

Vinny gets Matt down to 1 pool when Matt has his shields down.  Marshall sucks lots of rushes, preventing him from hurting me much.  I oust Vinny eventually.  The endgame is interesting where one more blood on Eugene would have led to an incredibly cool play in a fight with Matt’s main vamp that I think torps, but, instead, just remove some counters.  I can’t outmaneuver !Salubri weapons nor punch through damage prevent with Allanyan with Weighted Walking Stick, so Matt grinds me out.

Round 3:

John prey with Stanislava (mostly precon).  Marshall his prey.  Brad my grandpredator with Lord Tremere.  Guy playing Dracon as my predator.

This was just a game to play cards and not expect anything to happen.  Dracon kept fighting me and playing a bunch of Horrid Forms.  Sure, I had three vampires in torpor at one point, with Laecanus eaten when trying to leave torpor, but, most of the time, Celerity and Presence and Eugene’s dodge stopped beatings.  Meanwhile, my prey was concerned when I bled for 4 early, but I had nothing to go forward after that.  Stanislava kept bleeding crosstable, leading to Brad getting ousted.  Table timed out with a bunch of impotence as I got all three of my vampires rescued.

I still have never played Zephyr.  I’m not a believer in putting in cards that are designed for failure, well, failed actions.  I’m all about expecting failure with my masters choices.  But, I was on a play stuff I hadn’t played before kick, and I expected to get actions blocked playing no Aching Beautys and no real evasion.  I never thought I’d get ousted in third round, but, then, I never expected to oust my prey, either.

I do some work and stay up way too late listening to The Voice videos on Youtube, listening to Nico Traut’s blind audition multiple times, for instance.

Sunday

Of course, I can barely sleep.  I modify Sea Pirates Redux with some anarch stuff I hadn’t played before, like, um, er, em, hmmm, eh, Hackerspace.

I read my Origins reports for 2018 and 2019 after the con, and it’s funny to read how consistently mediocre I am in these tournamentfests and how I keep running the same deck archetypes – Sea Pirates, Blessed Resilience – rather than creating new stuff.

Round 1:

I go first.  Brad is prey with worst Alastor strategy ever.  Karl across with !Malk Creation Rites.  Mariya Kiasyd behind me.  I do not understand how I survive.  Mariya ran out of stealth at a terrible time.  Twice, I blocked Song of Pan and also blocked a Nocturn.  My Nadima and Carlton did a lot of work.  Brad didn’t put any weapons in his Alastor deck, so he had to beat Anathemaed !Malks the punchy way.  I took out one of the Anathemas with a Protection Racket block and a .44.  At one point, Mariya had three vampires in torpor.  Karl ousts, I oust, endgame is not completely uninteresting as I do have Heidelberg, Laptop, and Tasha(?).  I probably screw up trying to remove Pentex on Nadima with bleeding in the same turn.  Don’t have enough blood on guys to be cooler … ooh, Cooler would …

Round 2:

Brian is my prey with !Salubri rush.  Alex axe with Ass Breed Vote.  Marshall predator with Form of Mist bleed, Ariadne Abactor.  I can’t stop Marshall.  Marshall gets 1 VP.  Brian ends the tournament with 1 VP.  Someone else has 1 VP.

We start a learning game with one table not done, yet.  John borrows my Horseshoes deck and gets beaten up a lot.  We call the game when the other table is done because there’s a four-way tie for fifth place.  I improbably end up in the finals.  As I said, only one deserved finals, and that was a cluster with us not murdering mortals.

Finals:

After going to North Market due to the con closing to where we need to play finals at the house, I quickly get eliminated from the finals as my Anarch Convert with Sport Bike and Nadima can’t stop Ass breeding or Ass voting.  However, due to the improbable double Hackerspace early game with how Anarch Convert interacts with them, everyone got excited by free Assault Rifles or whatever.

I stuck around for much longer to hang out.  Eventually, Marshall and I went to UDF where I got tea and I didn’t pay for his malt.  I’m working the long game.  A couple decades from now, when I don’t remember that Ozmo has +1 bleed and stop putting Extremis Boon in decks, this ploy will totally cause me to win some casual game in the heads up after Subdued by the Blood in my Faithful Servant, Burnt Offerings deck.

Thanks to Ben and Darby for running stuff.  Congratulations to Alex for NAC championship.  Nice to meet folks.  Just one more year or so and a bunch of folks are going to surpass my tournament win total.  Though, I put down maybe one of those wins as a quality win, and I’ve never won a constructed tournament on the road – every single win is, weirdly**, in California.

**  Well, since I rarely play tournaments outside of California and some of the ones I have were either limited events or storyline events and because there’s little evidence I’m actually more than competent, maybe weird is the opposite of the right word.

Okay, and thanks to Marshall for getting my malt and putting up with *a lot* of my rambling.