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A New Kind of Draft

It's always fun to crack open some packs and make something on the spot, but we have no more booster packs.  Enter the new Draft Kit.  Rumors of this magical draft cube have been floating around for a while and my friend Serge talked about it on his blog.  Black Chantry Productions is still in the final stages of testing and tweaking the Draft Kit, so this is a preview.  Also, note that as contents could change, cards and draft effects that I talk about may differ from the final Draft Kit.

Montreal Cup Weekend Draft

The North American Cup weekend in Montreal featured the Cup event on Saturday and a draft event on Sunday.  The attendance for the Cup event was great, but as we had a lot of travelers, only 9 folks returned for the draft on the following day.  That's actually plenty, as we had 2 tables each round, plus the final.  However, it did mean that we were drafting 8 packs each, which is quite a lot.  This was the first draft event for some folks.  For others of us, we've drafted before.

If you've never drafted before, the first few cards can often tell you which direction to go.  Because you see what folks on either side pass you, you can get a sense of what they are drafting as well.  If no one is drafting Presence, maybe you should, etc.  I started off with a Blood Doll in my opening pack.  I couldn't tell you what the rare was because I was never taking anything else.  I saw Bait and Switch in the first pass, and Massimiliano in the next pass.  The cards were telling me to play Gangrel.  I was able to lean into that.  There ended up being someone else that drafted Gangrel, but fortunately for me they were at the opposite end of the draft pod, which meant I got to see plenty of Gangrel goodies.

Because the Draft Kit is so tight and well-conceived, I was more concerned about putting my deck together than "hate-drafting" cards.  In fact, I passed Darby (to my right) Heart of the City and told him I put the card he was taking on top of the pack.  He took it.  He kept half-heartedly bemoaning passing me the agg-poke cards, but we each had something we wanted to draft over something we didn't want someone else to draft.  The first-time drafters were able to make cogent and cohesive decks.  Chris, who had not drafted VTES before, had a decent stealth/bleed + stealth/vote deck, featuring a lot of Baron titles.  Tremere plus agg weapons and big bleed.  A decent Creeping Sabotage deck, which may be better in draft than it is in constructed.  Etc.  The decks almost felt like real decks.

My Deck

Given our pack counts the decks required 8 vampires and 40+ library cards.  I had drafted 8 Gangrel and 50 library cards that seemed right.  I had 5 cards that were in a maybe stack and everything else was out.  I ended up excluding the maybe stack, which had Anarchist Uprising, Ancilla Empowerment, and Day Operation, plus a couple of utility combat cards.  I decided to add a completely useless vampire for my deck, Aline Gädeke.  I had the pool recoup to afford her and the title, plus multi-action ability was appealing to me.  I never saw her.  I guess that was the draft gods making up for a mistake.  Essentially, I took my playable cards, double-checked the ratios, and just played it.

Deck Name: Montreal Draft Deck
Author: Karl Schaefer

Crypt (9 cards, min=16 max=27 avg=5.33)
---------------------------------------
2x Massimiliano       7 ANI FOR pro       baron   Gangrel:6
1x Aline Gädeke       7 POT PRE cel       baron   Brujah:6
1x Casey Snyder       6 PRO ani cel for   baron   Gangrel:6
1x Hanna Nokelainen   4 ani for pro               Gangrel:6
1x Joaquín de Cádiz   3 for pro                   Gangrel:6
1x Kamile Paukstys    5 PRO ani for               Gangrel:6
1x Mickey Wheeler     5 ani cel for pro           Gangrel:6
1x Nathan Turner      4 PRO ani                   Gangrel:6

Library (50 cards)
Master (11; 3 trifle)
1x Anarch Free Press, The
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Archon Investigation
1x Blood Doll
1x Club Illusion
1x Life in the City
2x Minion Tap
1x Vessel
1x Villein
1x Zoo Hunting Ground

Action (3)
1x Embrace, The
2x Thing

Political Action (1)
1x Reckless Agitation

Equipment (5)
3x Leather Jacket
1x Saturday-Night Special
1x Sport Bike

Action Modifier (1)
1x Change of Target

Action Modifier/Combat (1)
1x Swallowed by the Night

Action Modifier/Reaction (1)
1x Form of the Bat

Reaction (9)
1x Bait and Switch
1x Cats' Guidance
2x Deep Ecology
1x Delaying Tactics
1x Forced Vigilance
2x Guard Dogs
1x Party Out Of Bounds

Combat (18)
1x Amaranth
1x Carrion Crows
2x Claws of the Dead
1x Diversion
2x Dodge
2x Earth Meld
1x Fake Out
1x Flesh of Marble
1x Form of Mist
1x Skin of Rock
1x Terror Frenzy
1x Voracious Vermin
2x Wolf Claws
1x Zip Gun

Some of the cards had draft text, a gray box containing alternate effects for the cards, sometimes with alternate requirements or no requirements at all. Important draft text:

  • Swallowed by the Night: Maneuver. Do not replace until after combat. (Basically it's a Fake Out at draft.)
  • Forced Vigilance: Reduce a bleed by 2. (I only used the draft text even though the Gangrel could have played it normally.)
  • Guard Dogs: This vampire wakes. (Played normally because unlock is awesome and at the draft level.)

My decks only had 4 rare cards: The Embrace, Anarch Troublemaker, Terror Frenzy, and Club Illusion.  While each is a powerful effect, the deck survived by having the right commons: Vessel, Villein, Blood Doll, and Minion Tap x2.  Given that there are 17 Master cards in the set for pool gain, I had an obscene amount of them, almost 1/3.  I knew that I'd be able to survive a lot with that amount of pool gain.  That's also the reason that I decided not to play the Anarchist Uprising and Ancilla Empowerment.  With all the pool recoup, Thing x2, and an Embrace, I fully expected to have the most minions at any table.

The Tournament

The decks really felt like real decks from every angle.  My opening hand and crypt for round one were ridiculous.

I began Blood Doll farming almost immediately as my predator bled for 2 at stealth for every action.  The reduction, plus blood recoup kept me from getting behind in pool and frustrated my predator.  I ditched the Club Illusion because my predator was playing Anarchs and I didn't want to power his deck.  The table developed slowly for me, but Thing and The Embrace came along to speed it up.  I managed 4 VPs.

Round two, I had a predator playing Creeping Sabotage and a grand-prey that I helped prop up, who responded to my kindness by playing Judgement: Camarilla Segregation.  I ended up burning my Embrace to it, which kept him from getting a double-oust.  I put Club Illusion in play even though my predator's sidekicks were Ministry.  My prey was slipping away and I needed to rein him back in.  My prey grabs a VP and my predator was low on pool.  I drew my Reckless Agitation and offered a deal to oust my prey, leaving us heads-up and to take no further actions on my turn.  My predator could have easily blocked me, but was having trouble with the Dominate bleeders stealth and Seduction tactics.  He takes the deal.  After several turns of back and forth I was able to come out on top thanks to agg-poke.  I not only grabbed the VP that I expected to put me in first place going into the finals, but I also topped it off with a game win and 3 VPs total.

Finals

I head into the finals as first seed (something I had done the day before) and hoped today that I would pick a better seat and have better results. I did.

Me ->
Yan with Tremere big bleed ->
Darby with Toreador with bleed permanents ->
Chris with Anarch obf/pre stealth vote/bleed ->
Alessandro with Creeping Sabotage and weenie obf wingmen

In the finals, I knew what everyone was playing, but had not played with Darby, who had the only other game win, as his first table timed-out with only one ousted player.  I actually put myself in the exact same seating position as round two with big Dominate prey and Creeping Sabotage predator.  I spent a lot of actions going backwards on the Creeping Sabotage and was lucky that he drew only one Nosferatu.  He might have blocked one too many times on occasion because he ate some bleeds that I thought he should have prepped for.  However, I had to get that table poison removed or it was going to eat into me and prevent me from gaining the width that I needed to bypass my prey.

Chris, my predator from round one, decides that he needs to cycle cards and calls a Political Stranglehold, which was fine, except that he called it via Charming Lobby.  I attempted to vote it down lest the hanging automatic vote do something I didn't like.  Alas, the vote passed and the rest of the table was cycling cards to find a vote.  I did not find any political actions.  Darby has a vote and calls Banishment to remove one of Chris's vampires.  Darby eats up some of Chris's pool and he's backpedaling now.

I'd been holding my Amaranth for a couple of turns.  My prey had 3 full Dominate vampires, one with Pulse of the Canaille.  Darby was definitely nervous about the amount of bleed that could be uncorked, having witnessed it during game 1.  Ayelech blocks Hanna, we trade hands, I play agg-poke, and prevent, so empty Hanna won't go to torpor.  Then, without consultation, play Amaranth.  Hanna fills and this shakes up the table completely.  Two votes were removed because Hanna ate a Prince and my grand-predator votes with me to save Hanna.  The rest of the table did not have enough to sway it.

Darby finishes Chris and makes almost no headway on Alessandro.  It's clear Darby wants him to work on me a bit. I did find my Reckless Agitation by the following turn.  With Darby having enough votes to prevent me from passing it, I ask what he's looking for.  He says 3 pool.  So, I turn to my prey and ask will you take 1, if Darby takes 5.  Darby backpedals and offers 1.  My prey, who has been playing defensively tells me he'll block the vote.  So, I pocket the vote and wait.  It may come in handy later and my prey knows I'm willing to deal.  I make a couple of small bleeds, but most take a defensive stance as I'm unsure what will happen on Darby's turn.

Yan makes a little bit of headway.  Darby unleashes a few bleeds and torpors Alessandro's only Nosferatu in the process and leaves him low on pool. On Alessandro's turn, I tell him that I will be rescuing his torporized vampire and suggest that he may wish to help get Darby's 5 vampires, 4 with +bleed, off the table.  Alessandro plays Misdirection on one of Darby's two unlocked vampires.  My turn arrives.  I rescue as promised.  I ask my prey if he could oust Darby, if I do 1 to him and 5 to Darby.  He says that he can.  I call the vote, but failed to grab the Edge first, which I thought for a brief moment would cost me.  It doesn't and the vote passes.  I hunt my vampire's up and let Yan take his turn.

Yan uses Misdirection to lock Darby's last remaining unlocked vampire and fires off 7 bleed between his two vampires to oust Darby.  It doesn't matter to me if Alessandro lives or dies, though living would make it easier to oust Yan.  Alessandro can't manage to last another turn and after back-to-back turns my prey is up 12 pool.  We're heads-up where I have Club Illusion, some blood, and a hunting ground.  At 13 pool, I take some forward actions, but leave a couple of blockers.  I have the minion advantage and as long as I don't eat too many big bleeds, I can take it.  I discard The Embrace, which came too late this game.  The replacement is Archon Investigation.  That safety net virtually assures that I can win.  I get more aggressive with my bleeds and Yan, who is not holding any bleed pump, takes a defensive stand with 4 pool.  An Anarch Troublemaker to lock his vampires and the last 2 VPs are mine.

Final Results:
Me -> 2 VPs
Yan with Tremere big bleed -> 2 VPs
Darby with Toreador with bleed permanents -> 1 VP
Chris with Anarch obf/pre stealth vote/bleed -> 0 VP
Alessandro with Creeping Sabotage and weenie obf wingmen -> 0 VP

Thoughts on the Draft Kit

I really enjoyed the Draft Kit and can't wait for Black Chantry Productions to finalize the set, so we can get this available more widely.  Overall the Kit is well designed and balanced.  During each of my games, I felt as if any one of several people might take it and the decks played well and were reasonably balanced.  The value of draft is to get you out of the mindset of playing with "all the best cards" and "all of the right tools."  Simply taking what's available you and making something from the muck.  I've never been so happy to see a Dodge or a Fake Out as I was during the draft.  I look forward to seeing you in a drafting pod in the near future.

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