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.

European Championships 2011 - Last Chance Qualifier Tournament Report

As I had already managed to qualify I wanted to play a high risk deck. The one I picked for the day was one I had never won a game with before but that still felt like it was competent enough to do so. It is also featuring Gerald Windham as a star and my only deck in the TWDA so far is a Gerald deck so I was hoping for him as a lucky charm.
Before I continue I need to say that since I played three tournaments in three days my memory might have faded or even been altered so the reports might not be as detailed and correct as the ones I use to write. Hope you enjoy them anyhow. Here is the deck list:

Deck Name : War Saw Superstar
Author : Stefan Karlsson (with some great support from Isak Esbjörnsson Bjärmark)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 9 average: 6

6	Gerald Windham	9	AUS DOM FOR THA	Tremere	5
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	Stephen Milliner	3	nec pre	Giovanni	5
1	Cristobal Ghiberti	2	nec	Giovanni	4
1	Eric Milliner	2	pot	Giovanni	5

Library [80 cards]

Action [21]
  1x Big Game
  1x Bum's Rush
  1x Command the Legion
  1x Dark Mirror of the Mind
  1x Far Mastery
  2x Govern the Unaligned
  6x Magic of the Smith
  1x Mind Rape
  1x Pulse of the Canaille
  1x Revelations
  1x Scouting Mission
  4x Sudario Refraction

Action Modifier [35]
  1x Call of the Hungry Dead
  3x Conditioning
  28x 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 Giant's Blood
  1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
  2x 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

The deck is a Freak Show that does many actions per turn. It’s not like an Una-deck where everything happens in one turn, instead you opt for 5-10 actions per turn where one hopefully is a relatively big bleed. There are several useful cards for specific situation but most of them are more all-round than your usual silver-bullet. This deck discards almost always and needs to get Ankara Citadel as soon as possible. The Giovannis are there for the purpose of playing Sudario Refracion only and that makes this deck so much better than my previous versions and when it runs smoothly it can take on almost anything. The Sargon Fragment are also fantastic for this recursion purpose and once enough cards are in the ash heap you can start playing almost the cards you want every turn.
If you have questions and/or suggestions, please comment on this post since I this deck is still under development. Very well, lets start the reporting:

Round 1

1	2	3	4	5
Maciej Klaudel	Marco Vassallo	Stefan Karlsson (me)	Manuel de jesus Fraga	Dawid Cyran
Sebastian Goulet with Shadow Court Satyrs	Assamite Anarch Rush	Gerald Windham Freak Show	!Tremere Toolbox	Weenie DBR Saturday Night Special

This is one of those games where your deck and play flows perfectly that you don't get many of. My predator Marco is playing some sort of Anarch Assamite rush deck. He rushes with Steely Tenacity and his combat is mostly Blood Sweat and additional strikes. I get Gerald, one Giovanni weenie, Ponticulus and Tye Cooper in play pretty soon so there is not really much he can do about me since he doesn't pack that much stealth. My prey Manuel influences Paul Cordwood and Ladislas Toth, The Torch. Maciej is putting Shadow Court Satyrs into play, giving them Earth Meld, and he has some defence against Dawid's horde of weenies that are bleeding him but he can not do much forwards towards Marco.
I bleed my prey some and play a Mind Rape on Ladislas Toth. In my next turn I use him to equip the Ivory Bow, Freak Drive, Big Game Paul Cordwood and send him to torpor. Gerald takes the bow from Ladislas and then diablerizes Paul to get his blood, surviving with the votes from Ladislas. This is pretty much it for Manuel and when I bleed him out.
Gerald now has a Kevlar Vest, Talbot's Chainsaw and the Ivory Bow so he is immune to Dawid's combat and doing the aggravated damage to send his minions to torpor. I bleed him out pretty easy as well. Maciej plays Far Mastery on Tye Cooper and Marco manages to rush Gerald and damage him so he is empty unable to hunt because of Talbot's Chainsaw but one of Gerald's sidekicks borrows the saw and Gerald can hunt some times with his free Freak Drives to get the machine going again.
I exhaust my library and kill Maciej and Marco with just five cards in my hand (3xMagic of the Smith, Call of the Hungry Dead and Ambrosius, the Ferryman) not playing a single one of them until the final ousting bleed where I play Call of the Hungry Dead just for fun. Such is the power of this deck and it's permanents once it works smoothly. Great start of this event for me!

Me GW 5VP

 

Round 2

1	2	3	4	5
Jefrey Thompson	Marcin Pinczewski	Yannik Pont	Me	Rafal Nowak
Gargoyle Combat	New Salubri	Kindred Spirits Midcaps	Gerald	!Gangrel Toolbox with Aksinya

I realize from the beginning that this is going to be a costly game. Yannik starts bleeding me with his midcaps and I take some serious damage. Fortunately I manage to play both Mind Rape and Pentex Subversion backwards to slow him down. Rafal is struggling and has a bad draw being able to do almost nothing at all. Jefrey tries to attack Marcin but those Anesthetic Touches keeps bothering him if I remember correctly. I payed far too much attention to my predator’s and prey’s game early on to actually know what was going on cross table.
Marcin was doing some pool damage to Yannik as well and I was lucky to have Revelations on my hand when Rafal influenced Aksinya out. I see my chance ousting him with a big bleed when she is tapped and I play Revelations to discard his only wake card on hand. Now I am too strong for Yannik to get me but he keeps going. Jefrey walls up against me with three minions but I play Command the Legion tapping them all and go for the oust. Soon thereafter Marcin gets Yannik. I have not afforded any expensive equipment this game so I have no chainsaw. My strategy in the duel is to bleed him for more than he bleeds me and even if I am at less pool it looks like it is working out.
When I have him in ousting range for the next round my brain collapses and I leave Gerald untapped for a block. Untapped? Against Salubri? Silly silly me. A Spirit Marionette later and Gerald bleeds me for five when at four pool. I asked Marcin after the game how much he could have bled me for with his one vampire that didn’t have to hunt that round and his answer was 2. I then asked him if he could have defended against a bleed of 7 at 2 stealth in my next round and his answer was no. Do I need to tell you that that mistake gnawed my mind the whole weekend and that I still hate myself for it?

Marcin GW 3VP
Me 2VP

 

Round 3

1	2	3	4	5
Antonin Pospisil	Remigiusz Flasinski	Julius Thy	Ola Szajkowska	Me
Stanislava and friends	Kiasyd Toolbox	Protean Computer Hacking	Toreador royalty with guns	Gerald

It starts bad. Ola blocks my first Magic of the Smith at +4 Stealth as it was the most natural thing in the world to do. She soon has Gerald in torpor and keeps blocking almost everything I and Julius do. Julius survives thanks to loads of Earth Melds and Form of the Mists and I get Giant’s Blood on my hand to play on Gerald when he is empty in torpor. I still thinks it is a lost game but now Ola stops blocking me. I am not lying if I say I saw more than 10 each of Second Tradition: Domain and Eyes of Argus played by her during the game. Probably she stops blocking me because Julius is influencing out lots of minions and she figures she needs her wakes for defence.
Antonin has a bad start with no Stanislava and Remigiusz doesn’t do anything to his prey. He has the Hungry Coyote in play and he plays lots of Vessels so my guess is he is trying the old hunt-trick. Seriously - any Kiasyd-deck should be able to oust a weenie Protean deck that hits the Wall of Hell but this one just doesn’t. Ola is getting low on pool even if she blocks a lot and she tries a Parity shift and some lengthy table talk starts. Antonin has the final decision and I convince him to force her to take the pool from Remigiusz instead of me. A great anti-climax occurs when Julius blocks the Parity Shift.
My play starts running and by having and recursing Revelations and Command the Legion I manage to grind unlucky Antonin out. Ola is also ousted and the Kiasyd deck can’t do much against me.
It has been a very verbal and slow game with talking about almost every action that Julius and Ola has taken since Remigiusz tried to influence their play all the time. People around are also getting loud as the tournament are finished for most of them so I am getting stressed here. For two turns in a row I forget to use Heart of Nizchetus and in the end I think that is what makes me draw too few bleed cards to be able to oust Julius before he gets me. I lose to my own mistakes again. Not as obvious and certain this time but still I blame myself again and again. Julius also played good in the duel – he blocked all my recursion attempts and he didn’t play like the beginner he claimed to be. Well done!

Julius GW 3VP
Me 2VP

 

1GW 9VP and an eleventh place is not a bad result in my first big international tournament but thinking I could have had 3GW 13VP by not making the above mentioned mistakes really takes all satisfaction away.
I really love this deck and have actually increased it’s size to fit in one more copy each of Revelations and Command the Legion. Those two cards alone helped me score many Victory Points during the tournament and only one each is too risky.
As I said earlier in this report – please give me suggestions or ask questions about this deck and try it out, it is very rewarding to play when it goes well.