What to expect from Prince of the City?

  So I'm in a bit of bind.  The local Prince of the city event is coming up very soon and, while I've had Rivals for a while and have read everything several times,  I've only had one night to play, in which a friend and I tried each of the decks once.  Still, I'm considering going to the tournament in part just because I grew up with V:TM and I want to support it.

  I have no idea what works when building a deck (i.e. pick a clan or two to build the deck around? pick a discipline or 2? just go for any card that gives extra influence or extra damage (depending on whether the deck intends to vote or fight)).  How many turns could I expect a typical competitive game to go?  Like, if I can consistently get an average of 1.5 agenda per turn, (and I plan on winning through agenda) is that going to be enough to be competitive?  I consider myself a competitive player, not because I have to win, but because I find that games aren't really fun unless the outcome isn't decided until the end..  so what do I need to do to have a chance of winning in the tournament setting?

  Are there some strategies that I should be ready to defend against?  If I play a Toreador based playthings deck, am I just gonna get bullied out of the street (any more so then when I was going 1v1 against the base Brujah deck)?

  In multi-player tables, do people actually tend to cut deals and do other politics, or are politics mostly eshewed as people figure that if they're doing any of their opponents any favors, then they're less likely to win the game themselves? (Which is how I've seen it work out in MTG commander)

  Also, how many people have been showing up to PoC events and how many rounds should I expect?

  any other basic comments or advice?

Oh: P.S...  How much do I really need the expansions before I go to the tournament?  If I can only get either blood and alchemy or the rat and the wolf, which do you suggest I get?

Hey Gothik_Knight! Thanks for posting your questions! Here's some info I hope will help.

First off, myself and Matt Hyra did a stream a few weeks ago about Prince prep. There's some good info there! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD2IYV1vUN8

Second, if you are not on our discord yet I highly recommend that. There's a very active community with quick answers to questions and advice on decks. Discord.gg/renegadegames, and then just navigate to the Rivals category.

One of the nice things about Prince events are that there's some pretty solid participation prizes, so even if you end up learning a few harsh lessons you will go home with some cool swag. That said, expansion-wise, I'd get whichever expansion has the clan and themes that you're most interested in. If you want to try out an animal deck of course you'll want The Wolf & The Rat. If you like the idea of rituals, it'll be Blood & Alchemy. It's super common for decks to have 2-3 different clans present, and sometimes more as well. Sometimes a vampire is included just for their disciplines or for a powerful ability (Trinity Voss comes to mind).

Multiplayer Rivals definitely ends up with some political calculus and table talk influencing the game. It's not uncommon for players to coordinate stopping a leader for a fast win, or taking some pressure off a player that's about to be knocked out. While that usually doesn't directly advance your own win condition it does at least prolong the game to give you a chance to win yourself.

Tournaments will generally be no more than 6 rounds, usually 3-4 of swiss, than a top cut of 4 or 16 (with four player tables that is 1 or 2 rounds of top cut).

Hope that helps!