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.