Asian Continental Championship 2011 results!

A total of 25 players went to Schizo Cafe for the VTES ACC 2011. 5 players from Singapore and 3 players from Japan managed to take part in the epic blood bath.

From a metagame perspective it looks like a lot of players went for sneak-bleed decks which was kinda appropriate given the status of the tournament. I saw at least 2 Malk 95 sneak bleed, one of which made it to the finals and 2 DOM/OBT bleed decks (Lasombra and Kiasyd respectively)

The only straight forward combat deck that I noticed was Haig’s weenie potence deck. All other decks that had an element of combat also had another way to win/oust/defend such as intercept or votes/bleed. Mark’s Ventrue Alastor deck, Toad’s Raptor wall and Eric’s Cock Robin wall deck (which also made the finals) are just some of the decks with mixed combat themes.

Like the last major tourney we had, voting/political decks were in short supply. The only decks I could see that used political actions as a primary way of ousting was YY’s Ayo Igoli with Ventrue support deck and Paul’s Ravnos Kholo deck. Both of these decks barely got a VP after three rounds so I guess it was a good call not to play politics on that day. This is in contrast to last year’s ACC in Singapore where I saw a lot of political decks, 2 of which made the finals! (Le Fei’s Daughters of Cacophony and Gee Hwan’s Ravnos Kholo)

I played a deck I’ve always been curious about. The Girls deck. This deck has been making waves on the TWDA for some time now and when I saw the deck list, I’ve always wondered how/why it was successful. I actually researched the deck and followed some discussions on it and it’s eventual evolution. Btw, that’s an awesome thing for a deck. I love the way it evolved! From an OBF/PRE module to it’s current incarnation of just using ANI.

Based on my limited play experience with it, I can see the potential for the deck. It is indeed hard to oust. My main problem was how to oust my prey. Asides from Cybele bleeding for 3 every turn (with no stealth) I don’t see any lunge opportunities other than Fame. This is especially hard since in all three rounds of the tournament, my prey was always a wall deck with permanents (murder of crows, guardian angel Ahrimanes in the first round, .44 magnum and flak jacket Tremere with chantry in the second round, and Cock Robin with Raven Spy in the third round)

I must say, with the amount of bloating the deck can definitely survive almost any kind of sneak bleed/harmful votes. Villein/Giant’s Blood is just insane. Villein and Golconda on your own vamp is also an excellent panic button. Giving you enough pool to survive and still bring out another big cap vamp. I just question the ousting power but then again I might just be playing it wrong.

The finals table was pretty interesting in that it was mostly a bleed table with three players playing bleed and two wallish decks (although Stephen’s Ahrimanes were more of a toolbox than a focused wall)

The shocking play was seeing Eric reduced to 5 pool after just 5 minutes of play time. Gee Hwan certainly made everyone in the finals table nervous enough that they all ganged up on him in an effort to stop the big bleeds.

I saw some opportunities where Karl could’ve had a chance at winning, especially when he managed to oust Gee Hwan and Eric in one turn! This of course made the other meths nervous so a Sensory Dep on one of his Trujah stalled him. Very interesting plays in the end game by all three players!

In the end, Stephen defended his title as Asian Champion, congrats Stephen!

A nice write up on the finals table can be found in Stephen’s blog (singingvtes) and thanks to all who attended the event! A fun time was had by all! (I hope)

Can’t wait for next year’s tournament!