Godverdomme – Tournament Report

Time for the traditional Glögg-tournament in Göteborg and one of the rare occasions when alcohol is consumed during a Swedish tournament. I stayed pretty sober during the games (as did most or all) but it is always a nice atmosphere at this tournament. Another important thing to write about is that I tasted Baconaise for the first, but definitely not the last, time in my life during the lunch break.
For the first time I have a new feature in a tournament report that I call “Thoughts from the Guest Star”. I have asked one other player some questions about his/her perspective on one game that we played together and publish a short interview at the end of this report. Enjoy!
I wasn’t sure which deck to play but when I knew we would be 14 players I skipped my idea of playing a pure rush-deck which were my plan if we were going to be 12 or 16. I double checked with my friend Peter Kärrberg that he wasn’t going to play his deck featuring Ankara Citadel (your first pick next time mate) and picked the heavy box of the following 102 cards up from my bag:

Deck Name : Glöggansiktet Gerald
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 9 average: 6.16667

6	Gerald Windham	9	AUS DOM FOR THA	Tremere	5
1	Nicomedes	5	aus for nec vic	Harbinger	4
1	Kay Polerno	4	dom nec pro	Giovanni	5
1	Primo Giovanni	4	dom nec pot	Giovanni	4
1	Almodo Giovanni	3	dom pot	Giovanni	4
1	Cristobal Ghiberti	2	nec	Giovanni	4
1	Eric Milliner	2	pot	Giovanni	5

Library [90 cards]

Action [27]
  1x Big Game
  1x Bum's Rush
  2x Command the Legion
  1x Dark Mirror of the Mind
  1x Far Mastery
  3x Govern the Unaligned
  8x Magic of the Smith
  1x Mind Rape
  1x Pulse of the Canaille
  2x Revelations
  1x Scouting Mission
  1x Soul Scan
  4x Sudario Refraction

Action Modifier [39]
  1x Call of the Hungry Dead
  3x Conditioning
  32x Freak Drive
  1x Mirror Walk
  1x Perfect Clarity
  1x Trochomancy

Action Modifier/Reaction [1]
  1x Spectral Divination

Ally [3]
  1x Ambrosius, The Ferryman (Wraith)
  1x Ponticulus
  1x Tye Cooper

Equipment [7]
  1x Ankara Citadel, Turkey, The
  1x Heart of Nizchetus
  1x Ivory Bow
  1x Kevlar Vest
  1x Laptop Computer
  1x Sargon Fragment, The
  1x Talbot's Chainsaw

Master [6]
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
  3x Pentex(TM) Subversion

Reaction [5]
  3x Deflection
  1x Delaying Tactics
  1x On the Qui Vive

Retainer [2]
  1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
  1x Tasha Morgan

This is basically the same deck that I played during the Last Chance Qualifier but I have made some changes. First of all I added 10 more cards since the original version actually ran out of cards sometimes and I found myself of being too careful with my recourses. 6 Magic of the Smith in 80 cards were a little too few so I went up to 8 in the 90 card version. I added Nicomedes and Soul Scan and am very happy with that decision. His special really is good and in this deck it is fantastic. Most Important though is the addition of one more Revelations and one more Command the Legion, that really makes the difference. 32 Freak Drives are about right, I seldom miss them and they are seldom too many on my hand.

Round 1

1	2	3	4	5
Jonatan Sjöberg	Isak Esbjörnsson Bjärmark	Max Widén	Stefan Karlsson	Henrik Ericsson
AAA	Speed Shamblers	!Brujah Rush	Gerald Freak Show	Brujah Vote

I have all three wraiths on my starting hand and it looks like its going to be a game for Talbot’s Chainsaw. Isak tells the table he has built a brand new untested deck and when he starts by bringing out two Tupdogs we all think he is trying the Rock Cat deck. Henrik gets Carlak and Karen Suadela out together with New Carthage and Jonatan gets Anson and Alexandra. Because of Gerald’s special none of them has vote superiority. Max gets Jacko and one other !Brujah and Isak gets some Giovanni and converts his Tupdogs to Shambling Hordes.
Max draws no early rushes (I later gets to know his deck is built around Theo Bell and Beast so that explains) and has to focus his few resources backwards and I can focus on tooling up and attacking Henrik with bleeds and Talbot’s Chainsaw. Henrik’s blood gain is insane though with Voter Captivation and Carlak’s special and I don’t get his vampires dry. He also has the occasional Majesty. His pool on the other hand is constantly reduced.
Jonatan manages to do some serious damage to Isak who don’t really gets his deck rolling. I go quite low on pool influencing Nicomedes out but am pretty confident as I have both Ponticulus and Tye Cooper to block potential Presence bleeds from Max. I think I use Nicomedes special 4 times during the game and it is really a great addition to this deck.
Jonatan asks me if I will vote in favour of Reins of Power ousting Isak and firstly I’m negative but the thought of the greater pressure the AAA deck will put on Max is tempting. Then I make a decision and announce my reasoning: “I saw a V:tES TV show once and one of the experts there told the audience not to be scared of letting your cross table buddies get ousted.” Isak mumbles something about “that being a stupid expert” and threatens to chose no vampire for Reins of Power giving Max 6 pool but that is of little concern to me at this point, it might even be a good thing.
As soon as Isak is ousted Max and me starts dealing a little. He wants to leave me alone if I use Talbot’s Chainsaw on Jonatan’s vampires. Since it is of little use rushing forwards and straight out lethal to rush backwards I have nothing against it. Max still draws few rushes and Jonatan’s minions survives but he don’t get the massive pressure and the quick oust that could have been. Max needs to negotiate with Henrik to make his votes pass and he constantly gives Henrik pool from the Parity Shifts played damaging Max.
Eventually Max gets ousted and Henrik’s pool slowly goes down and I oust him quickly thereafter. Jonatan planned to trade a Direct Intervention to his hand with Anthelios but instead went for something else and I could do a really good round torporising his remaining Vampire and having his Mind Raped Anson in my ready region when he conceded the game to me.

Me GW 3VP
Jonatan 2VP

Round 2

1	2	3	4
Stefan Karlsson	Erik Cardell	Daniel Viberg	Jonatan Sjöberg
Gerald	Nosferatu Ani/Obf	Puppeteers Powerbleed	AAA

Jonatan gets a quick start with good crypt acceleration and Erik tools up with Raven Spies. I get blocked by him early and realise that this is going to be a hard game as I start taking early vote damage.
I am at 14 pool and looking at Pentex Subversion on my hand. The best thing would of course have been to play it on one of Jonatans vampires but I reason that I need to get a good rolling round with no block from Erik’s guy with Raven Spies so I play it on him instead. As a replacement card I draw Ambrosius the Ferryman and I have a Magic of the Smith on my hand and here is where I make the real mistake. I recruit Ambrosius and goes for Talbot’s Chainsaw. I also has a rush on my hand so my thinking is to go all backwards. I go down to 6 pool and Jonatan plays Direct Intervention on my Freak Drive after getting Talbot’s Chainsaw. He gets bled heavily by Daniel and can play a Parity Shift followed by a bleed for two to oust me.
I don’t look at much of the game thereafter since I instead scout the rest of the tournament being the first one ousted for the round. Erik managed to stop Jonatan and Daniel could take him out and when I glanced at the duel it looked good for Erik but he ran out of wake cards and Daniel got the win.

Daniel GW 3VP
Jonatan 1VP

Round 3

1	2	3	4	5
Peter Kärrberg	Stefan Karlsson	Archibald Zimonyi	Alex Ek	Daniel Viberg
Toreador Breed/Boon/Bleed	Gerald	Brujah Vote	Kiasyd S/B with Masters	Puppeteers Powerbleed

The set-up goes good for me and Alex and since he brings Pherydima and Omme Enberbenight we are seriously competing with Peter and Archie at vote superiority. Both my Tye Cooper and Daniel’s Puppeteers blocks some of Peter’s actions but he still manages to do some damage to me. Archie doesn’t get it going and apart from Alex everyone goes below 10 pool.
I manage to oust Archie by tapping all his vampires with Command the Legion and bleed with everything I got. Peter does some damage again and it gets critical as Daniel also is low on pool. When it is my turn the terror balance looks as follows: I need to oust Alex my turn and I have exactly the amount of bleed (permanent and on hand) to do so on the table but he has three untapped vampires and I have only Gerald who can play stealth. If I don’t there is a pretty big risk that Alex ousts Daniel and if he survives he might oust Peter with a good hand. Peter has a pretty big chance of ousting me if he in his turn survives.
I am lucky and draws my second Command the Legion. I play it but Alex plays Direct Intervention. As I have the Sargon Fragment I just fetch it back to the hand and play it again, Alex is cursing because he didn’t simply play the DI on the Freak Drive.
Before making the last bleed for 1 I start tooling up a lot with Gerald since Daniel has Unmasking in play and I don’t want to get blocked. Easy to forget when the oust is in range but this time I managed to restrain myself.
When Alex is ousted Daniel gets a good turn and bleeds Peter out. In the duel I fetch Talbot’s Chainsaw and gets some rushes to my hand and Daniel concedes the game to me with only one ready minion left.

Me GW 4VP
Daniel 1VP

Two game wins is a good result and I soon gets to know that I am first seeded in the finals. Complete seeding looks like this:

1	Stefan Karlsson	2GW 7VP
2	Adam Esbjörnsson	2GW 6.5VP
3	Daniel Teige	1GW 6VP
4	Daniel Viberg	1GW 5VP
5	Henrik Ericsson	1GW 4VP

Daniel T decides to hunt on Henrik being hunted by Daniel V. This is probably because he has a lot more bleed defence than vote defence in his deck. Adam sits down between Daniel T and Henrik and its my turn to chose. The seating is perfect for me as my primary goal was to not have Adam or Daniel T on either side of me since they pack the most intercept of the finalist. I simply place myself between Henrik and Daniel V.

The Finals

1	2	3	4	5
Adam Esbjörnsson	Henrik Ericsson	Stefan Karlsson	Daniel Viberg	Daniel Teige
Imbued	Brujah Vote	Gerald	Puppeteers Powerbleed	!Ventrue Grinder

Daniel V gets a terrible start and doesn’t draw a Govern the Unaligned. Daniel T gets none of the usual suspects (Owain or Blackhorse) in his starting crypt and as an extra bonus Adam plays Pentex Subversion on his first vampire. This is a Pentex that will stay on that vampire for several rounds. Daniel V has to bleed instead of playing superior Govern and Daniel T doesn’t have an early bounce. I have a good flow for tooling up and Henrik draws no early Parity Shifts to my great relief. He plays superior Entrancement on Ponticulus though and gets a nice blocker against the Imbued that also does pretty well.
The both Daniels keep struggling and I do constant damage to the one whose surname begins with a V. I get a fantastic card draw and gets both my Revelation, both Command the Legion and Perfect Clarity soon after each other. This is more than enough to oust Daniel V.
About at this time Henrik’s deck starts to spin and in addition to his Brujah he also has Undele. I am getting low on pool again and need to oust Daniel T quickly. I play Revelations and looks at his hand. He has one Telepathic Misdiresction, one My Enemy’s Enemy and one Wake with Evening’s Freshness on his hand as defence and he tries to trick me into discarding one of the bounce cards by asking who of the other two I wish to punish with the next bleed. I discard Wake with Evening’s Freshness and play Command the Legion. He is at 5 Pool and that is exactly what Gerald bleeds for with Govern the Unaligned, a bleed retainer and a Laptop Computer. Unfortunately he has replaced into an On the Qui Vive and plays Telepathic Misdirection. Me and Adam starts to talk and I am offering him to let him get Henrik before I try and oust him if he plays the Direct Intervention he has told he has on his hand. Adam thinks for a while and then plays it. Daniel instead plays My Enemy’s Enemy and the bleed lands at Henrik’s pool. I have Almodo Giovanni, Eric Milliner and Tye Cooper left and as I have a Conditioning I end up with just the amount I need to get my second Victory Point. I don’t know why I made some sort of deal with Adam – the DI didn’t matter since I most likely would have ousted Daniel anyways.
Even with my new 6 pool I am the weakest on the table when it comes to defence. Especially since Henrik plays Entrancement on Tye Cooper and adds him to his wraith collection. My library is low on cards (not even 20 left) but the Far Mastery is nowhere to be found on my hand or in my ash heap so I have to live without my two favourite ghosts.
I know that without Talbot’s Chainsaw I have no chance against Adam in a duel and I know I have to get it somehow. Problem is I am at 3 pool when it is time to get it. Second problem is I draw it to my hand and with only 2 stealth equipping it I will never get past Adam’s Imbued since he has two with Discern and the Unmasking in play.
I now know that my best chance of winning this tournament is to be ousted by Henrik and cheering for Adam in the heads-ups. I don’t want to win that way and I absolutely don’t want Adam to think I am playing to get ousted. I reason with Adam and tells him I have to get Talbot’s Chainsaw somehow and asks if it is okay if I get the Ivory Bow and play Sudario Refraction getting Bum’s Rush, Big Game and Dark Mirror of the Mind and he is all in. What happens now is that Henrik draws both Freak Drives from my hand when making room for new cards after playing Sudario Refraction. One rush only on Tye Cooper and Henrik ousts me when it is my turn.
Henrik goes trough his ash heap and asks Adam what his game plan is and Adam says he is going to sit on the edge and try and slowly oust Henrik. Then Henrik reveals that all his Forgotten Labyrinths is in his ash heap and he won’t get a single action by Adam’s blockers and he concedes the game. The newly arrived spectators who just finished a casual game in the other room looks surprised when I raise my hands in victory.

Me 2VP
Adam 2VP
Henrik 1VP

A very odd way of winning a tournament but I keep telling myself I deserved the win even during the crazy circumstances. I now have two different decks in the TWDA and both featuring Gerald as a star. Very different decks but still. The question is now if I can come up with three more iterations with this vampire so I can get to the hall of fame with only Gerald decks?

As promised I will now introduce a new feature of my tournament reports, Thoughts from the Guest Star and this time it is of course poor Adam that gets the questionable honor of answering some questions. Enjoy!

Thoughts from the Guest Star

Me: What was the reasoning of your chosen seating and what was your basic game plan?
Adam: I wanted the time to set-up. I felt that I couldn't have you or Henrik as predator to be sure I would get that time. I chose to have hunt on Henrik and to be hunted by DT since I was fairly sure you wouldn't sit on either side of me if I did. Hunting on Henrik is an added benefit since it means I could start drawing out his stealth early if I need to block him.
Me: When you chose to play the Direct Intervention on Daniel's Telepathic Misdirection to help me oust him, how did you reason there? Or was it really sweet talk to me and just a way for him to use My Enemy's Enemy and get my big bleed to your prey instead?
Adam: I agreed to have the Pentex removed and the Telepathic Misdirection would end up in me if I let it be played. That's two more actions than I planned for, would DT have stayed alive until his turn. He would likely have been able to do some damage to me and I really can't take any pool damage. He wouldn't have killed me that turn, but I would have been severely weakened. The deal you offered was a motivator as well.
Me: Were you confident of a win against me in a duel even if I would have got Talbot's Chainsaw somehow?
Adam: Absolutely. I was fairly certain you didn't play any combat cards and I had a Zip Gun in play, I could just transfer it to the minion with an optional press. I knew I wouldn't take any damage from the chainsaw and I was also fairly certain I could torpor Gerald eventually with a few target vitals together with strike with conviction (since the Chainsaw press is mandatory).
Me: Did you ever consider self-ousting and king-making Henrik instead of me when I was ousted?
Adam: No. I never threatened you with it. And frankly, I thought it was illegal play before the recent RTR. You showed no self-ousting tendencies, so I didn't even want to talk about the possibility. I was just hoping you stayed alive, no matter the reasoning. It was truly out of my hands, I just played for the maximum points I could at every turn I got.

EC Aftermath

As promised I will post some more thoughts when the impressions has settled in my busy brain.

• None of the three different decks I played during the three tournaments contained a single combat card. I’m almost ashamed of that and promise I’ll better myself.
• There were quite a few decks playing for 0.5 Victory Points played. Of course none of the players behind them aimed for timing out and claiming 0.5 VPs but that is the reality for some decks in most their games. I am mainly talking about wall decks that can block Predator’s every action but put little or no pressure on Prey. If they field Smiling Jack the don’t have enough blocking capabilities to defend it from the whole table. I am actually toying with a rule change suggestion here removing 0.5 VP as a result and convert that to 0 VP instead. 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 should still be valid results but making people that can’t oust do their most to stay in the game to gain their half point I believe is bad for the game. This is not fully thought trough so there is probably effects I have overseen.
• The V:tES community is great. I had lots of fun with very nice people. I’ll do it again if real life allows.
• I made some nice trades and purchases. I have never thought I would build a Derange-deck since I didn’t own a single copy of the card but somehow I brought 5 copies home. I don’t know what to do with them yet but I’ll figure something out.
• Polish pizza is the best in the world. Yes – you read it. The pizza at The local pizza place was simply perfect for a hungry knickedick between games.

I have started a giant sorting project of all my cards inspired by Adam’s and Kevin’s reasoning in this thread on the V:EKN forum and I have bought the Super Monster Boxes recommended by Boris the Blade in the same thread. I have started the work sorting my crypt alphabetically and will at the same time enter them into ARDB as my crypt inventory got distorted after the last update. I then have the even harder work remaining sorting all library cards after card type and then alphabetically left. I’ll probably post you some pictures along the way.

Tomorrow its time for a local tournament and we are expecting between 10-15 people to show up and I feel its time for me to get my second entry in the TWDA so I will really try tomorrow. Event report to follow.

European Championships 2011 – First Chance Qualifier Tournament Report

Time to try and qualify for 2012 and why not play the deck that secured my qualification this year at the Swedish Nationals. I have made some minor changes since the last version but the concept and the play style is the same. Here is the updated deck:

Deck Name : Geezers will find
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 8 max: 11 average: 10.25

4	Huitzilopochtli	10	AUS DAI DOM OBF POT PRE		Baali	2
2	Arika	11	DOM FOR OBF PRE aus cel	inner circle	Ventrue	2
2	Etrius	11	AUS DOM OBF THA pro	inner circle	Tremere	2
1	Leandro	11	AUS OBF PRE cel dom	inner circle	Malkavian	2
1	Ur-Shulgi, The Shepherd	11	CEL DOM OBF QUI THA aus	2 votes	Assamite	2
1	Baron, The	9	FOR NEC OBF THN dom	2 votes	Samedi	2
1	Gratiano	8	DOM OBT obf pot	priscus	Lasombra	2

Library [76 cards]

Action [7]
  1x Abactor
  2x Govern the Unaligned
  2x Mind Rape
  2x Unleash Hell's Fury

Action Modifier [13]
  3x Conditioning
  2x Elder Impersonation
  1x Enkil Cog
  2x Faceless Night
  2x Into Thin Air
  3x Lost in Crowds

Action Modifier/Combat [1]
  1x Swallowed by the Night

Event [2]
  2x Anthelios, The Red Star

Master [38]
  6x Ashur Tablets
  1x Blind Spot
  1x Coven, The
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Giant's Blood
  1x Golconda: Inner Peace
  2x Information Highway
  1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
  4x Liquidation
  1x Metro Underground
  1x Misdirection
  1x Monastery of Shadows
  2x Parthenon, The
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  7x Villein
  1x Wash
  5x Zillah's Valley

Political Action [5]
  1x Ancient Influence
  2x Banishment
  1x Political Stranglehold
  1x Reins of Power

Reaction [10]
  5x Deflection
  1x Mental Maze
  1x Obedience
  2x On the Qui Vive
  1x Redirection

You can read about the reasoning behind this deck if you follow the link above so I jump right into reporting:

Round 1

1	2	3	4	5
Jakub Hrbaeck	Martin Randers	Jan Erik Söderman	Stefan Karlsson	Pierre Tran-Van
Salubri G2 with Malkavians	Fortitude weenies	Dementation weenies	Geezers will find	Theo/Beast and Brujah Princes

This is the one and only time I have an impossible seating for the whole EC. Jan Erik bleeds me for an extreme lot and Martin has a terrible start not drawing any rushes and can’t do anything to Jan Erik’s minions. I manage to use both Banishment and Unleash Hell’s Fury backwards but still I am soon within ousting range. I manage to play Villein-Giant’s Blood-Villein on Huitzilopochtli but I am still soon in ousting range again. For my whole duration of the game I think I manage to make one bleed action and that bleed gets bounced. Also Pierre doesn’t have to take a single action my way.
With no real predator Pierre can do a lot of damage to Jakub. Martin starts his offence but it’s too late and Jan Erik bleeds me out. Problem is Jan Erik’s deck is emptied while doing so. Martin manages to oust him soon thereafter. From here (or from the start actually) it is a safe trip for Pierre to balance the table and take the remaining three Victory Points.

Pierre GW 3VP
Martin 1VP
Jan Erik 1VP

Round 2

1	2	3	4	5
Stefan Karlsson	Michal Krupa	Dawid Cyran	Vincent Ripoli	Lauri Salmi
Geezers	!Malkavian Bleed	Tzimisce Wall	Huitzilopochtli Great Beast	AUS Weenies

Lauri plays an early Smiling Jack and since Michal and Dawid are not that interested in removing it it goes to 3 counters causing some pool damage to me and Vincent. Michal starts bleeding but as Dawid gets his minions out that soon comes to an end. After I influence Huitzilopochtli out Vincent tells me his crypt consists of Huitzilopochtli and no one else but Huitzilopochtli (I am getting quite good at writing Huitzilopochtli). We both know that we have to cooperate here not to let Lauri to an easy win. We agree that the first of us drawing Golconda plays it on Huitzilopochtli.
Fortunately Vincent does pretty soon and we can start the real game. Just before Vincent plays Golconda on Huitzilopochtli and brings out his own copy Dawid removes Smiling Jack. Me and Vincent keeps cooperating and does our best to damage Lauri. I do some damaging votes that I by some effort and top decking manages to stealth trough. Vincent starts rushing Lauri’s minions with the Great Beast.
Dawid seems to only have Army of Rats and some bleeds for 1 as his offence which means Vincent can concentrate on damaging Lauri. Michal tries some bleeds but he gets nowhere and when he starts getting low on pool he desperately bleeds me with Kindred Spirits. Somehow I manage to talk him to stop. I have a Mind Rape on my hand and I am waiting to finish my Ashur Tablets to bring Abactor back to my hand. This combo is planned for Vincent’s Great Beast. I have Arika and The Baron in play and it looks pretty good. Then Michal makes an effort again at Dawid and sighs as he gets blocked. He is tapped out and at 6 pool so I have to go for the oust using the Mind Rape. I influence Ur-Shulgi out as defence against the Great beast.
Vincent manages to oust Lauri and starts attacking me. Dawid keeps blocking and does nothing forwards. I manage to escape some combats and do some rescues but it looks bad. I see playing both Blind Spot and Pentex Subversion in the same turn as my best possibility of getting a bleed past Dawid as he has only two minions. I start fishing for them with Anthelios (I have the Parthenon) but the table times out before I get to play them.

Me 1.5VP
Vincent 1.5VP
Dawid 0.5VP

Round 3

1	2	3	4	5
Djordje Bjelajac	Tomasz Kowalewski	Stefan Karlsson	Michal Kaszubski	Anton Dudko
Parity Shift / Shattering Crescendo	Saulot + !Tremere	Geezers	Gabrielle di Righetti Toolbox	Saulot Rush

My predator Tomasz gets a bad start putting a !Tremere into play and then fishing for vampires in his crypt. I get a good starting hand and a good starting crypt so I can start my attack at Michal pretty quick. Anton brings Saulot to play and Tomasz plays Heidelberg Castle. Here it is revealed that Tomasz’ deck is also a Saulot-deck and some discussion arises. Djordje is talking the table well (as a matter of fact I spotted him as the greatest threat even before he influenced his first minion) and somehow talks Tomasz into going for contesting Saulot.
Michal tries to play Villein on Gabrielle di Righetti but I play Wash and recycle it with Anthelios so Michal has to cycle his Villein as well. This way I delay his momentum until he has two Villeins in his hand. Anton now starts rushing cross-table to prevent Tomasz from getting Saulot out and Djordje is having a good time.
The votes are spread around the table with me having Arika and Gratiano, Michal having Gabrielle and a Primogen (might remember that one wrongly) and Djordje having Unmada and Scout Youngwood. Djordje wants to call a Parity Shift taking 5 from Tomasz and giving them to Anton who has taken quite some damage from Michal’s bleeds and the ones bounced from me. I agree to the vote if he votes in favour for me playing Banishment on Gabrielle di Righetti my turn. The deal is made, the pool changes owner and the newly drained Gabrielle is banished.
Now I have the vote lock. Anton desperately rushes cross-table even if he controls Millicent Smith (that he has played himself). He is probably hoping to cycle into a Psychomachia but Tomasz blocks him and Saulot burns. Djordje probably hopes that he can control the whole table now dealing with me but the next round I diablerize one of Tomasz’ vampires that is in torpor having Fame and call a Banishment on Unmada to give Tomasz one more turn to live. After that turn Djordje makes the oust.
Michal is low on pool as is Anton and Michal lounges for the oust playing Pentex Subversion on Anton’s only vampire Neighbor John. Anton also has Mylan and he untaps Huitzilopochtli for me as bleed defence or just not having to pay the infernal cost. For this favour he wants me to remove the Pentex Subversion. I say I’ll try but I don’t promise since I don’t know if I have enough actions. I have to play defensive against Djordje and I don’t get the spare action.
The next round Michal bleeds Anton (at 8 pool) for 6 and he starts reasoning that he wont play My Enemy’s Enemy on the bleed. I first see it as an attempted favour to me but I encourage him to do so since I have On the Qui Vive and Deflection in my hand and would gladly send the bleed to Djordje. Then he claims I should have removed the Pentex not to put him in lost position and he rather spread the Victory Points then give me the table. He is going to take the bleed and transfer out during his turn. The discussion gets quite heated here as I see Anton’s reasoning as being bad sports to me. I am thinking of calling the judge over to possibly stop the self-oust but we are short on time and I don’t actually know how the judge would see the situation so I let it happen. One VP for Michal. I know that I still can win the game – it just gets harder. In hindsight I see that he was surely in a lost position but he should have threatened me to self-oust when he asked me to remove Pentex Subversion and I would have agreed to remove it. Also, if you read this Anton – sorry for getting pissed but it was a tight game and I saw it slipping away from me for a moment.
Well, I put all my resources towards ousting Michal and manages to do so but I am not properly prepared for the duel with Djordje who now also has Ossian and Carlton Van Wyk as well as Unmada again, Scout of course and one other Vampire. Scout plays Shattering Crescend sending Arika, The Baron and Huitzilopochtli to torpor with a single action. I have transferred to Leandro and I play Golconda on Arika in my turn and brings him out. Djordje does his best to remove all my pool but Leandro bleeds his last 5 pool away with some stealth and a Conditioning.
Fun to know I was the only one beating him this day since he ended up winning the tournament. I see why – he played and talked very well.

Me GW 3VP
Djordje 1VP
Michal 1VP

1 GW 4.5 VP is not good but it is no bad result either. It got me a 19th place and I am qualified for next year’s events. I had a great fun tournament and I’ll try my best to be able to make it to next year’s EC as well. Hopefully I will post some over all impressions from the EC any of the following days and as I will be attending a local tournament next weekend another tournament report is not far away.

European Championships 2011 – Day 1 Tournament Report

Time for the real deal and time to get serious. My goal for the day was easy – to qualify to day 2. I wanted a deck that could take 1GW 4.5VP or more as reliably as possible and I chose my Maris Streck / Lutz von Hohenzollern deck that has good offensive capabilities and at the same time some real staying power and good defence. Here is the deck:

Deck Name : Maris på linjen
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 9 max: 11 average: 10

4	Lutz von Hohenzollern	11	AUS DEM OBF PRE pot	inner circle	Malkavian	4
4	Rachel Brandywine	10	AUS DEM OBF PRO ani	prince	Malkavian	3
4	Maris Streck	9	AUS OBF ani dem dom	justicar	Malkavian	3

Library [76 cards]

Action Modifier [15]
  3x Elder Impersonation
  1x Enkil Cog
  2x Faceless Night
  2x Forgotten Labyrinth
  4x Lost in Crowds
  1x Old Friends
  2x Telepathic Vote Counting

Ally [4]
  1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
  2x Muddled Vampire Hunter
  1x Ossian

Master [22]
  1x Coven, The
  2x Direct Intervention
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Giant's Blood
  1x Information Highway
  1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
  2x Madness Network
  1x Metro Underground
  1x Monastery of Shadows
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  4x Villein
  5x Zillah's Valley

Political Action [15]
  1x Anarchist Uprising
  1x Ancient Influence
  1x Ancilla Empowerment
  3x Banishment
  7x Parity Shift
  1x Political Stranglehold
  1x Reins of Power

Reaction [20]
  1x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
  2x Eyes of Argus
  6x Mental Maze
  3x My Enemy's Enemy
  1x On the Qui Vive
  1x Rat's Warning
  3x Second Tradition: Domain
  3x Telepathic Misdirection

Earlier versions of this deck had a more varied crypt but you only ever bring two-three vampires to play and I just kept the three best ones. Maris goes first and Lutz second. Rachel is there for when things work out and I can afford a third vampire.
The Master module might seem too big but the deck don’t spin that many cards and I have never experienced it to be a big problem. The crypt acceleration is very important and the other Master cards are needed as well. Last but very important – Don’t play Villein on Maris. But if you do, just do it for a couple of blood.

Round 1

1	2	3	4	5
Kristoffer Åkesson	Stefan Karlsson	Andrei Kashpar	Krzysztof Szwed	Jesper Boje
Assamite Hand Contract	Maris	PRE weenies	Ravnos Draba Wall	Nergal Great Beast

The first tell is Marla Kenyon influenced by Andrei. We have a Presence Weenie deck at the table. When Krzysztof brings out Gabrin I suspect I have to work quick not to let my prey away. Jesper influences Nergal and Kristoffer starts with Nizzam.
Kristoffer starts attacking Nergal and soon brings him to torpor with 0 blood. I know I am next so I have to help Jesper by diablerising Nergal so another one can come out via the Soul Gem of Etrius. I take a rush or two before this but I have Mental Mazes on my hand so I survive. The new Nergal plays Call the Great Beast and it looks a little better for Jesper. Kristoffer is at very little pool and is definitely in ousting range from Jesper. I have a start without crypt acceleration but am still able to play Parity shift targeting Andrei and a Banishment the round after. With his momentum gone I oust Andrei and Krzysztof doesn’t look that strong as my next prey.
Now it’s time for the table to work against me. Jesper offers Kristoffer to live until I am ousted as he “is the only one capable of stopping my deck”. Kristoffer is really in lost position here with four pool and no blocking capabilities so he has to trust Jesper. I come with a counter offer that he will get 2VP if he helps me take out Krzysztof and Jesper. We discuss a little and I ensure that it is legal for me to keep such a deal for with 3 Victory Points I have the game win and can self oust in a duel if I want to. It is a cheesy deal we are talking about, especially since we are both Swedish players. The bad thing is Kristoffer doesn’t know me and he thinks I will break the deal so he doesn’t pick up on it and instead tries to go for his 1 VP by ousting me.
I keep defending good with Mental Mazes and even some ally if I remember correctly so I can keep my pressure forwards. It’s now I realise how beardy the wall I am about to try and climb is. Aranthebes, Kumpania, some other perma-intercept and shitloads of Drabas. Combine that with Carrion Crows, Apparition and Trap and a casual Deflection now and then and there is very little I can do. Time runs and Jesper bleeds Kristoffer out for his Victory Point but I bloat enough to survive till the game times out.

Me 1.5VP
Jesper 1.5VP
Krzysztof 0.5VP

Round 2

1	2	3	4	5
Martin Schumacher	Vincent Ripoli	Stefan Karlsson	Jeffrey Thompson	Yannik Pont
Tzimisce Wall	Dom/For Grinder	Maris	Lasombra Vote	Inner Circles with CEL

I start with playing Jake Washington and when I replace my discard I draw Carlton so I have two allies in play round 2. Jeffrey brings Ayelea, the Manipulator and Yannik Mistress Fanchon. On top of that Martin influences John Paleologus out so there will be some work to get any votes passing on this table.
I get a slow Maris to play and manages to Parity Shift Jeff with the votes from Yannik. Jeff brings enough vote push to be able to do damage to Yannik and Martin plays Fear of Mekhet on Mistress Fanchon. Parts of the table thinks that Martin doesn’t know the correct card text for that card since Maris is on the table and he does nothing to tell them otherwise but it was really a daring and good play from his side to screw the table balance. I fear Vincent’s deck will be able to run past me but he shows far less bleed than I have expected. He also has Heart of Nizchetus some turns before Martin contests it but that doesn’t seem to help.
John Paleologus uses his special to do constant pool damage to Vincent combined with some bleeds. Fear of Mekhet bounces to the newly influenced Lutz and then to the second Inner Circle member Yannik has influenced out. We try and talk about me playing a Villein on Maris and Yannik playing Banishment on her with Fear of Mekhet on her but I don’t draw a Villein and Yannik’s Banishment comes to late. Fear of Mekhet hits Maris and then Yannik’s new IC with just a couple of blood. Jeffrey ousts him with a vote before Fear of Mekhet has any effect. Jeff now plays his Fear of Mekhet and now its time for Maris to burn. What a grim game.
I have Metro Underground in play and Lutz gets Enkil Cog so I can bleed for 4 two times each round and Jeff’s Deflections isn’t numerous enough to stop it. Vincent keeps sitting with poor cards and Martin grinds him out. Martin wants me to oust Jeff and together we manage to do so. I have saved two Banishments on my hand for the duel and I plan on doing them both in one round with help from Enkil Cog. Martin is now at three minions and my first Banishment succeeds. On the second one he has drawn into a Delaying Tactics and he manages to rush Lutz to torpor with Deep Song and then bleed me out. Martin played this very well and this game should actually be used as reference material to how a Wall deck should be played. Perhaps some of the 0.5VP-players could pick something up. Well done Martin!

Martin GW 3VP
Me 1VP
Jeffrey 1VP

Round 3

1	2	3	4	5
Marcin Pinczewski	Tomasz Zygavski	Leonardo Bensi	Ivan IC-Oddish	Stefan Karlsson
New Salubri	Lasombra Vote	Blood Brothers Kiev Circle	Imbued with Luc	Maris

This game starts nice and aggressive. Tomasz influences quick and starts doing damage to Leonardo who starts even more aggressive towards Ivan who has a bad draw. I am not that quick and Marcin plays the same deck he did when I lost to him in the duel during the LCQ the day before so I am out for revenge.
After some rounds its pretty clear that Leonardo is going to oust Ivan if no one (read Maris) intervenes and if he fails Tomasz will oust him the next round. I of course want the deck that goes bad to stay but I am not selling myself cheap. Ivan promises me two rounds without a single aggressive action or block attempt to me if Maris gives him 2 intercept. She does but Leonardo plays an Earth Control and 2 more is needed. Tomasz then offers a cross-table Giant’s Blood for Maris for 2 additional intercept and who am I to turn down such a deal? Everything goes according to plan. Ivan survives, Maris gets the Giant’s Blood and Tomasz ousts Leonardo.
The first thing I do in my turn is playing Banishment on one of Tomasz’ voters and with the help of Telepathic Vote Counting I secure vote lock. Tomasz seems to be surprised by this but he has too much pool so I have to start working him already. In the following rounds I play two more Banishments cross-table but I have a hard time ousting my prey. Serenna the White’s special really made Lutz a 1-bleeder this game and there were quite some bounce and intercept as well.
What has gone well so far starts to get frustrating as time runs. Marcin plays pretty slow but I don’t blame him since he has some tough decisions to make to survive. Ivan really sits bad and he is trying his best to influence the table in every player’s turn. Again I don’t blame him but it is really time consuming. Eventually Tomasz ousts Ivan with bleed since he cannot do any votes and I hope for a quicker game. Tomasz is a real gentleman and plays pretty quick even if he has the Game Win in the current state of the game but unfortunately its not enough. Marcin is at 1 pool when I start my turn and game times out. I would have played a Parity Shift on Tomasz for 3 pool doing that 1 last damage to Marcin and would have been very strong in the duel. But these things happen and no Day 2 tournament for me.

Tomasz GW 2.5VP
Me 0.5VP
Marcin 0.5VP

3 Victory Points is nothing I am happy with but I am actually not that disappointed. The worst mistake I made was picking the wrong deck. I should have played a quicker deck, no doubt about it. I had three really exciting games and hopefully I learned something.