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.