Malkavian Dementia

How often do you see Leandro and Lutz controlled by the same player? Note that he in this situation doesn't have a single vote on the table.

Cause and Effect–VtES Podcast Pilot

The pilot episode of the new VtES Podcast Cause and Effect is up on YouTube. The pilot is discussing the winning deck from the Swedish National Championships 2011.

The Podcast can be watched here and it has a Facebook page that you can like as well. Enjoy!

Upcoming Vtes Podcast

Rumour has it three Swedish gentlemen by the names Isak Esbjörnsson Bjärmark, Adam Esbjörnsson and Anders Löf are cooking something together. If things go as planned we might be able to listen to some quality rants for an hour a week. I’ll try and keep you updated and will link as soon as possible. Comment here if there is something special you want them to discuss and I’ll try and use my dark influences.

Swedish National Championships 2011–Tournament Report

49 players from Sweden, Finland and Portugal was attending this year’s championships in Örebro and I knew it was going to be a tough but fun day for some intense card-flipping. We arrived just in time for the start and I took some deep breaths and jumped in the first game. I knew which deck I was going to play and it is one I have played a lot (at least with my measures). I give you the decklist first and then some comments on it:

Deck Name : Geezers will find
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 8 max: 11 average: 10.1667

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	Queen Anne	10	DOM FOR PRE aus obf	prince	Ventrue	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 [73 cards]

Action [6]
  1x Abactor
  2x Govern the Unaligned
  2x Mind Rape
  1x 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 [1]
  1x Anthelios, The Red Star

Master [37]
  6x Ashur Tablets
  1x Blind Spot
  1x Coven, The
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Fortschritt Library
  1x Giant's Blood
  1x Golconda: Inner Peace
  2x Information Highway
  4x Liquidation
  1x Metro Underground
  1x Misdirection
  1x Monastery of Shadows
  2x Parthenon, The
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  7x Villein
  1x Wash
  4x Zillah's Valley

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

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

This is Girls will find with a better crypt but a worse library. To not having to include Aksinya is a blessing and a curse. Her special is insanely good but all Vampires in this crypt has +bleed written on them. I think the original Girls deck is better but this is a nice version that work pretty good.
The most common question I get from people taking a look at the deck is why the hell I include the Baron. For me Queen Anne is more of a dark horse, the Baron’s OBF is worth more than her DOM and they fill the same purpose for this deck him being a pool cheaper to influence out. I think the deck pretty much explains itself but don’t hesitate to comment if you have any questions.
Well – here is how I played it last Saturday:

Round 1

1	2	3	4	5
Tomas Wallmur	Marcus Berg	Joni Huumonen	Anders Löf	Stefan Karlsson (me)
Malgorzata bleed/bloat	Maris & Friends	Potence rush	Inner Circle + Orlando Oriundus	Geezers will find

My starting crypt consisted of the three Inner Circle members and Queen Anne. Fortunately I wasn't that master heavy on my starting hand and hoped for a pretty early Parthenon. Anders quickly influenced out Rafael de Corazon and put Legendary Vampire on him. I had to take an early bleed for 8 but I had plenty of Villeins and could influence out Etrius and Arika. Tomas brought out Malgorzata and then Mistress Fanchon contesting Etrius' title making it impossible to vote the Legendary Vampire away. Marcus was playing defensively and Joni had a bad draw with few rushes so he was mostly bleeding Anders for 1.
When Anders brought out Orlando securing vote lock I played Golconda on Etrius and brought Leandro out instead. Joni managed to torporize a couple of Marcus' vampires and I bled constantly and bounced some of Anders' bleeds to Tomas so his resources started to run out. On of Rafael's bleeds for 5 was bounced all around the table to Joni and Marcus managed to oust him. Quickly thereafter I managed to bleed away Tomas' last pool. During all this time I had a really good card flow drawing very few master cards (and no Parthenon) and the only times I saw a bunch of masters together was when I played Liquidation so I was really lucky.
With three players left Anders did his best to convince Marcus to aim for the two of them in the duel and I had to put my energy towards arguing for a all versus all-game which worked out. In that game I had the best set-up (Queen Anne also on the table) and could bleed them both out for a win.

Me GW 4VP
Marcus 1VP

Round 2

1	2	3	4	5
Janne Lönnqvist	Me	Tiago Brum	Akseli Jalava	Otso Saariluoma
Aus/Tha Powerbleed		Vignes	Tupdogs	Tzimisce weenie block

I get a pretty good start with few masters and this time I choose not to influence Huitzilopochtli out as the first minion but instead Arika. Janne early discards a Perfect Clarity and he gets Pulse of the Canaille for his first Vampire Paul Cordwood meaning I had to be conservative with my pool. The Tupdogs were struggling to get their thing done and I suppose Akseli drew too many !Tremere for him to be effective since he ended up with four of them on the table. Otso looked strong early and defended well and made constant damage to Janne.
As a second minion Janne brought out Drusilla Euphemia and because of her special an interesting situation aroused. I played Mind Rape on Drusilla with the plan of stealing one of Tiago's Ventrue to be able to bleed him out the next turn. Akseli rushed Arika to torpor with a Tupdog not to get a stronger predator so I had to change plans a little to instead stealing a Ventrue and use that Ventrue to rescue Arika. I was almost making a mistake here aiming for Edward Vignes but remembered his special the last minute and went for Catherine DuBois instead. Otso now very cleverly used Eagle's Sight to block Drusilla's attempt of stealing Catherine. Drusilla went to Torpor and Otso could oust Janne when it was his turn.
I had a recovery turn and Tiago could oust Akseli. I put heavy pressure on Tiago and eventually bled him out but didn't stand a chance of beating Otso in the duel so I had to settle with one Victory Point. This was the second game in a row where I only saw one Ashur Tablet in my deck so I had to check the leftover library to see that they weren't left back home or something.

Otso GW 3VP
Me 1VP
Tiago 1VP

Round 3

1	2	3	4	5
Oskar Jansson	Samuel Mäenpää	Randal Rudstam	Me	Jonatan Sjöberg
Dmitra Alastor	!Malkavian vote	Aus/Obf vote Old School		Create Gargoyles with Dominate

 
This time I had an early Parthenon and lots of Ashur Tabets so I actually finished the first series with just about 9 or so cards in the ash heap only bringing 7 of them back. The first half of the game was much about table balance. I was supporting Oskar in his attempts on getting Alastor on Dmitra but when we had vote majority Jonatan always had a Delaying Tactics to play. At the same time I had to work a little together with Samuel as well. Fortunately Oskar and Randal contested the Istanbul city title (Mustafa and Murat) so Randal could never play Parity shift or any other major pool damage to me early in the game. He had Lucian with Legendary Vampire so he was making decent damage as it was.
Unfortunately I have to bleed irresponsibly with my deck and some of those bleeds ended up with Oskar. Jonatan did a good job breeding and bleeding and Oskar was ousted soon followed by Samuel. I was also doing good damage but I ran out of stealth cards and couldn't bleed because he had untapped Gargoyles and I had seen Raking Talons in his ash heap. I had to rush trough the last parts of my deck to get my last Ashur Tablets while Randal started to seriously hurt me with votes. Time was also tense and both me and Randal had to get things done to get the chance of a game win.
I had one Ashur Tablets in play and another one in my Ash Heap so when I drew the third I could use my three Master Phase Actions to bring the last two into play and create a finishing library consisting of only stealth and bleed. I bled out Jonatan who in his absence still had a chance of the Game Win with the limited time left. The duel was stressed and tough and I don't remember much from it. A spectator told me after the game that I forgot to use the Coven at one point and instead performing a mandatory hunt action. This is mistakes you shouldn't be able to afford against a player like Randal but with the sheer power of my remaining library and the inherent bleed of all my Vampires I managed to oust him with less than two minutes left.

Me GW 3VP
Jonatan 2VP

The Finals

1	2	3	4	5
Otto Kukkasniemi	Me	Ville Kaijasaari	Daniel Teige	Henrik Klippström
Shambling Hordes		Guruhi master heavy rush	!Ventrue grinder	Ventrue grinder with votes
1st seed	3rd seed	2nd seed	5th seed	4th seed

I had done some quick scouting and I knew both Ville and Otto were playing combat of some form. I also knew Daniel and Henrik were playing pretty similar decks so I chose not to sit as Daniel's prey as I know him as a very agressive predator. The top seeders decided to squeeze me away from the grinders and I had a bad feeling about the game from the start.
I had a good crypt and a good starting hand so I went for a quick Arika (no need to pretend that you play a funny Etrius-deck once you reach the finals). I had Mind Rape and Abactor on my hand and as quick as Ville brought out Nana Buruku I played Mind Rape on her and got a Famed Arika in return. Nana was emptied by a Villein but my idea of an Abactor hunt and burn were still the plan. Otto's Shamblers rushed Arika to Torpor and I had to use the Abactor for her instead otherwise I would have risked both her and Etrius torporized and possibly burned.
Otto played stable and I had to take two Trochomancy bleeds removing plenty of recursionable cards destroying my hope for a long-term success in the finals. I had to continue going forwards aiming for at least one Victory Point and when Etrius bled for 8 Ville played an Archon Investigation. I got Huitzilopochtli out but Otto used his Dominate to finish me.
On the other side of the table Daniel was very aggressive against Henrik who had to defend himself. Otto also always had several untapped minions so Henrik couldn't try any launches for an oust. Ville slowly recovered from my aggressions and the game went slow. With only some minutes left Daniel ousted Henrik and the table timed out.

Otto 1.5VP Tournament win
Daniel 1.5VP
Ville 0.5VP

I am very happy with my result as my goal was to take this my last opportunity before the real Last Chance Qualifier to qualify for the European Championships. My deck performed well in an environment where I didn't play against a single bad player or deck for the whole tournament and all of the games were intense in their own way. As was the gathering after the tournament. As were the draft tournament the day after. I don't know how to end this other than saying I love this dead game and its players.