Water Dog - Lasombra Shift

Why write such a lengthy report??? Because, I had so much fun playing!!! Oblivion is a powerful discipline. It makes Lasombra very versatile. When it comes to combat, Lasombra has a great combat package. Dafina Hanganu is your star vampire. She is better than Theo Bell because of her title. The ability to play Second Tradition is just unfair. Umbrous Clutch gets you into a combat at +1 Stealth. Then use your Potence setup with Torn Signpost and Immortal Grapple. But, the main combat card is Shadow Shift. The ability to maneuver as much as you need and get an additional strike is money. The deck was built around that card hence, the name of the deck. The payoff card of the deck is Dead Pool. Dead Pool gives you a payoff for all that toporing you end up doing. It is a must have in Lasombra combat. Round 1: (GW 3.5VP) My predator, Tom, was playing a Brujah combat deck. It was a better combat deck, heads-up, to mine. But, Oscar, playing Path of Caine got Tom’s Saku Pihlajamäki down to one blood. Then Tom made the mistake of taking an action against me, He beat up my Dafina Hanganu but she topored him and Tom was playing from behind the rest of the game. With no predator, I worked my way around the table. Tom lasted and was close to ousting me but time ran out. Round 2: (NOTHING) Dafina Hanganu was banished twice. Brad just took control of the table. Watching Brad play that round was a treat. He is a great manipulator of his decks. He is playing chess while we’re playing checkers. I watched carefully what he was doing and kept that in my memory bank because I knew we would see each other in the finals. Round 3: (GW 4VP) Easiest round for me. Everything went smooth. I just controlled the table. Final Round: (GW 3VP) Tom: Brujah Anarch Combat Norm: Path of Caine Water Dog: Lasombra Combat Joey: Toreador V5 Vote Brad: Path of Power One of the best finals and games of V:TES I’ve been a part of. The politicking and gamesmanship was second to none. Just a lot of fun. Joey took off running with 3 Zillah’s Valleys in a row. Then called a Reins of Power and Tom and I haven’t even gotten a vampire into play yet. Joey had 3 vampires in play with a fourth one fixing to come out, lots of pool, and all the momentum. Brad was a sitting duck and Norm had no predator because Tom was also off to a slow start. By the time I got Dafina to take her first action I was at 10 pool left. My only chance to stay alive was to crush Joey and help Brad. I just started taking down Joey’s vampires one at a time. VEY-LIN (Villein for the uncultured) and Taste of Vitae kept me a float and allowed me to get out a second vampire. At this point Brad took control of the game. Joey tried to banish Dafina. Brad owed me a solid and helped vote the banishment down. I was hurting Joey so bad, that I was able to talk him into giving me a pool from his Camarilla's Iron Fist vote. Brad ousted Tom and was moving in on Norm. I had to make my move. Using Dead Pool, I ousted Joey and it became a 3 player game. Brad’s ability to control the game with votes was just so strong. While he was finishing up Norm I was setting my hand for enters combat. Norm is ousted and Brad and I then go heads up. Learning from Round 2, I prepped my hand and had my strategy. I had votes on the table. I knew if I could topor Brad’s biggest voting vampires I could at least control the voting when it was my turn. So, I began the process. Topor a vampire. Bleed and get the edge. Diablerize a vampire. Repeat each round. Game win. I want to thank Norm Brown for Hosting and the great gumbo. Thanks to Dan Boudreaux for housing us again at Sanctuary Games in Lafayette, Louisiana.