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.