Archipelago Jones - Tournament Report

For the first time in my career as a Vampire player I am organizing the event. Not organizing as in being a prince and managing the Archon and such but organizing as in being the host of the venue. With the new regular tournament place in Göteborg not allowing alcohol I was worried for our traditional Glögg-tournament. I got permission from my parents in law to use their summer house on the beautiful island Brännö in Göteborg’s southern archipelago.

Our prince, Sten, couldn’t participate but our NC Isak took his place handling the paperwork. 15 player showed up and Kortedala Enskilda Hinkbryggeri even brewed us a special Glögg for the event.

At the tournament I was far too busy with practical stuff and all my games lasted long for me so I didn’t take any proper notes. The reports of the games might be a bit short and lacking but its the best my memory can reporoduce.
I choose to play one of my favourite decks for the moment and it hasn’t changed much since I played it at the First Chance Qualifier in Budapest.

 

Deck Name : Mar Ghouls
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [13 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 9 average: 5.53846

5	Maris Streck	9	AUS OBF ani dem dom	justicar	Malkavian	3
2	Horatio	2	vic		Tzimisce	2
2	Piotr Andreikov	2	aus		Tzimisce	3
1	Corine Marcon	6	AUS VIC ani		Tzimisce	2
1	Devin Bisley	5	ANI AUS vic		Tzimisce	2
1	Elizabeth Westcott	5	AUS ani cel vic		Tzimisce	3
1	Wendy Wade	3	ani aus		Tzimisce	2

Library [63 cards]

Action Modifier [5]
3x Cloak the Gathering
2x Veil the Legions

Ally [10]
1x Muddled Vampire Hunter
2x Ossian
7x War Ghoul

Combat [8]
3x Fake Out
5x Trap

Equipment [1]
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Event [4]
2x Dragonbound
2x Unmasking, The

Master [13]
1x Erciyes Fragments, The
1x Fame
6x Jake Washington (Hunter)
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch

Political Action [4]
1x Anathema
3x Parity Shift

Reaction [15]
2x Delaying Tactics
2x Eyes of Argus
6x On the Qui Vive
5x Telepathic Misdirection

Retainer [3]
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Mr. Winthrop
1x Tasha Morgan

Round 1

1	2	3	4	5
Daniel Wiberg	Alex Båskman	Stefan Karlsson	Ida Olsson Bjärmark	Ivan Marin-Rivas
!Toreador breed and bleed	Kiasyd + Lasombra stealth bleed	Mar Ghouls	Kite and Anatole toolbox	Ventrue Lawfirm

As soon as I know which deck Ida is playing I know it will be hard for me to get my setup. With either Kite or Anatole as her first minion she won’t easily let me get any allies to play. Fortunately Alex plays mostly low- to mid-caps and Ida knows he will make a quick victory point if I am not allowed to defend myself so she agrees to let me recruit one War Ghoul. I also have an early Pentex Subversion on his Isanwayen and I manage to defend myself pretty good.
Ivan is having a slow start and Daniel is free to build up as he like. I reason I have to help Ivan with some intercept from Maris for Ida not to oust him too quick. In return he agrees to vote in favour of my Parity Shifts. I probably shouldn’t have done that, not because I needed every drop of Maris’ blood but because Daniel would have had much more pressure coming his way with Ida as predator.
Daniel bleeds Alex down low and my defence is enough to not take much damage but Daniel stops his momentum and lets Alex survive for a while trying to lunge at me. At this stage I have to take some damage but I survive. I try to call a Parity shift, stealthing with Cloak the Gathering but forgets that I can tap Erciyes Fragments to steal a stealth card from Ida and I am blocked.
Alex have barely any ready minions and is of no use to Daniel anymore so he is bled out. Ida also bleeds Ivan out and we are at the three player game. At this stage the game win is out of my hand and I am not going to survive if I try and oust Ida before she gets Daniel with only one War Ghoul so I am aiming for a 2-2 table split. Ida agrees after some talking to let me call Anathema on Anatole and rush him with my War Ghoul playing a Trap for 8 more pool. Not a happy decision for Ida but she is toast in a duel against Daniel. It doesn’t help that long though and I am ousted.
The duel is surprisingly long but Daniel wins in the end.
Daniel GW 4VP
Ida 1VP 

Round 2

1	2	3	4	5
Stefan Karlsson	Daniel Wiberg	Randal Rudstam	Peter Kärrberg	Isak Esbjörnsson Bjärmark
Mar Ghouls	!Toreador breed and bleed	Baali Malefecia denial bleed	Asguresh block and rush	Girls will find Apache Jones

Since my first game was the last to end the first round I didn’t scout anything so no clues on what the others are playing besides Daniel. Having him as prey feels a little better as I can let him expand and hopefully kill him with Dragonbound. Isak knows what Peter is playing and is not deploying Aksinya as defence. Randal bleeds hard into Peter who manages to bounce some but Psalm of the Damned, I am Legion and Hide the Mind deals enough damage for Peter to be in a bad spot. Isak is also very low on pool, partially because of Peter’s bounces and partially from influencing out Cybele and an Inner Circle without playing Villein on any of them.
I get my first War Ghoul at my second attempt since Daniel plays some slight intercept and blocks the first. In the best of worlds Daniel would grab two victory points and I the last three since Asguresh’s combat should beat my War Ghouls and I don’t like to be near it. This is not going to happen and its up to Maris Streck if Peter or Isak should be the first one to be ousted. I can’t let Peter get ousted since Randal’s deck (especially after 12 new pool) has the potential to deny it’s way trough my defence. I present a deal with Peter that I am helping him if he let me have another War Ghoul and let me oust Daniel before he goes for me. He can’t do anything but accept. It cost Maris 5 blood for Peter to survive Randal’s lunge but instead he manages to bleed Isak out and sits a little better.
Randal is trying his best to talk Daniel into letting him survive to be able to kill Peter but I argue that he would get two quick victory points if he is allowed. Daniel decides to oust Randal and we are at my beloved three player game.
Peter is not kind to my pool bouncing bleeds and bleeding himself but I get my second War Ghoul and start to pound all of Daniel’s vampires to torpor. I don’t have Dragonbound yet and it is taking too long to oust Daniel. Peter is going to win this if I don’t do anything. When I get the feeling Peter is not having enough combat cards on his hand I decide its time to trust my gut feeling and I play Pentex Subversion on Asguresh who is his only vampire with a .44 Magnum. I then defend it with my War Ghouls and apart from a couple of additional strikes and presses to end combat when I have played Trap he is not able to do anything. I manage to lock him down as well and take the win. Thank you gut feeling (or maybe - thank you glögg)!
Stefan GW 3VP
Daniel 1VP
Peter 1VP

Time for a lunch break and a 20 minutes walk in the winter landscape that has started to melt during the day. It is a jolly and glöggfryntlig bunch who enter the island’s tavern for some pre-ordered and very good food. We even manage to time the short opening hours of the grocery store and make some additions to the evening’s dinner.

Round 3

1	2	3	4	5
Hanna Båskman	Ivan Marin-Rivas	Stefan Karlsson	Randal Rudstam	Archibald Zimonyi
Dementation stealth bleed	Ventrue Lawfirm	Mar Ghouls	Baali Maleficia denial bleed	Tzimisce wall

I don’t draw any War Ghouls early and Randal contests Jake Washington which will give me a rough start. Archibald builds his defence and Hanna bleeds Ivan hard. Randal plays Villein followed by Giant’s Blood and I know this will be a one hell of a game to gain anything from. I decide to try and stay high on pool surviving and waiting for an opportunity to do something.
Maris gives Ivan’s vampires quite some intercept to be able to survive Hanna and in return I am allowed to Parity Shift first Randal and then Hanna. Archibald is a little overconfident in defending against Randal’s deck which is designed just for cracking Auspex decks and is the first to go.
From Parity Shift, some bounces and heavy influencing Randal is very low on pool and I start one of my turns on three pool where I only have two vampires that can bleed for one each. Thing is he is tapped out and his two vampires, Nergal and Cybele, are both Infernal so if I bleed him for two he can’t untap and oust Hanna. Hanna has enough table presence to potentially oust both Ivan and me quickly if she survives so I have a problem whatever I chose to do. I propose the following deal to Hanna: If I bleed Randal for two she bleeds him out with Kindred Spirits before trying to oust Ivan. I also offer to let her be until she ousts Ivan if she fails in her first attempt. She is giving it a serious thought but decides that she have to hope for Randal not having enough bleed to oust her and go for the Game win instead of what would probably only be one victory point in a duel against me.
I let Randal be and he has enough bleed cards to oust Hanna and after that me and Ivan are easy preys and we have a sweep.
Randal GW 5VP

It was a fun tournament and I am still very much in love with my deck. I just need to learn to not make any mistakes at all with it since its setup is very unforgiving. I talked to my parents in law today and they asked us if we would like the venue next year as well and I told them that would be great so I hope to repeat this and maybe even make it a tradition. I want to thank Isak, Lars and Michael for cooking our dinner and Henrik, Ivan, Lars, Michael and Randal for keeping me company almost all weekend. Hell I want to thank all that showed up - we had a great time!

No to the most important announcement. Who became Archipelago Jones? Fasten your seatbelts and read this - Isak Esbjörnsson Bjärmark, our reigning European Champion secured this important title with his 0 vicory points and lowest tournament points ever seen on Brännö. As that isn’t enough he did it with the same deck that he won the EC with. I leave you thinking about that for now with this beautiful picture:

White hat deck

Henrik Klippström is playing according to the topic's brilliant theme.

European Championships 2012 - First Chance Qualifier report

So - no Day 2 tournament for me and I should probably play one of my more relaxed and/or aggressive decks for the First Chance Qualifier but I had this one prepared for the weekend with Day 3 in mind and it has been my favourite deck for a time so why not play it? It is based upon a deck by Emiliano Imeroni and I have played another take on his concept on a smaller tournament before but I have changed it into something more similar to the original.

Deck Name : Mar Ghouls
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [13 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 9 average: 5.53846

5	Maris Streck	9	AUS OBF ani dem dom	justicar	Malkavian	3
2	Horatio	2	vic		Tzimisce	2
2	Piotr Andreikov	2	aus		Tzimisce	3
1	Corine Marcon	6	AUS VIC ani		Tzimisce	2
1	Devin Bisley	5	ANI AUS vic		Tzimisce	2
1	Elizabeth Westcott	5	AUS ani cel vic		Tzimisce	3
1	Wendy Wade	3	ani aus		Tzimisce	2

Library [62 cards]

Action Modifier [6]
  3x Cloak the Gathering
  1x Lost in Crowds
  2x Veil the Legions

Ally [10]
  1x Muddled Vampire Hunter
  2x Ossian
  7x War Ghoul

Combat [7]
  3x Fake Out
  4x Trap

Equipment [1]
  1x Heart of Nizchetus

Event [4]
  2x Dragonbound
  2x Unmasking, The

Master [12]
  1x Fame
  6x Jake Washington (Hunter)
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  1x Powerbase: Montreal
  1x Rack, The
  2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch

Political Action [4]
  1x Anathema
  3x Parity Shift

Reaction [15]
  2x Delaying Tactics
  2x Eyes of Argus
  6x On the Qui Vive
  5x Telepathic Misdirection

Retainer [3]
  1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
  1x Mr. Winthrop
  1x Tasha Morgan

Round 1

1	2	3	4
Niina Stenberg	Stefan Karlsson	Ferenc Koczka	Julien Ohler
Setites with Potence	Mar Ghouls	Shalmath multiact	The unnamed Shatter the Gate

No early War Ghouls but I have Jake and Ossian on my starting hand (thanks Adam Esbjörnsson for talking me into fielding two copies of Ossian). Ferenc’s first discard is a Muddled Vampire Hunter and when he has 7 blood influenced to his first vampire and I have 4 on Maris I ask him if he is bringing up a Malkavian. He sais yes and when I tell him I will influence out Maris Streck he sighs and looks down. I am thinking to myself if I should contest or not and decides to go for the contest influencing 4 more pool, having a stealthy deck that can contain Entrancements as my predator. Ferenc influences out Shalmath and I have just been a fool at one of the most beautiful bluffs I have seen as a Vtes-player.
Niina’s first vampire is Shemti and I played a casual game against her and probably that very deck two days earlier so I am guessing she is playing Potence. An early Pentex Subversion backwards solves that temporary. Julien starts to act with the unnamed and get both Homunculus and Enkil Cog early and I figure he is playing some iteration of the standard unnamed deck so aiming for a duel against him feels reasonable.
My biggest problem is Shalmath. He will probably recruit allies with Summon History after getting Ankara Citadel and worst case Remnant of the Endless Storm can easily destroy my game. I rush Shalmath with Ossian first opportunity I get and plays a trap but Outside the Hourglass x 3 (superior for two damage, inferior for a dodge and superior for two more damage round 2) kills Ossian leaving Shalmath unharmed. Maris also attempts a Parity Shift but that is cancelled by Rewind Time.
Shalmath tools up a little but doesn’t get anything devastating. Niina takes some bleeds and I defend Pentex Subversion. I have Cloak the Gathering, which is needed because Niina has influenced Bupe Kuila as her second minion, when I recruit my first War Ghoul and I am ready for my second attempt at Shalmath. This time it goes much better and a Trap is all that is needed to put Shalmath in torpor.
When it is Julien’s turn I ask him to diablerize Shalmath but he instead goes for the rescue. It is looking tough for me now having lost quite some pool to Tension in the Ranks played early by Ferenc. I let Niina remove the Pentex since she is also low on pool and needs to defend against Julien. I manage to get Shalmath to torpor again and diablerize him myself this time.
In Ferenc’s turn Julien taps Enkil Cog and plays Shatter the Gate. Niina doesn’t have any untapped minions and I offer as much intercept from Maris’ special as she needs (Maris is at 7 or so blood) but she doesn’t have any wakes. The second Shatter the Gate is played in Julien’s own turn and when it is Niina’s turn we try to discuss a solution. I tell her that she needs to stay untapped with both her vampires and block with help from Maris but she wants to cycle cards and burn one of the Shatter the Gates and cycle in to a wake or two and when I know she won’t change her mind I let her bleed for the edge, stealthing some and then she manages to remove a Shatter. Julien plays another Shatter in Niina’s turn and she have no wakes. I try and rush the unnamed but one of Julien’s members of the Horde wakes and blocks and the third Shatter the Gate is a fact.
Now I have to cooperate with Julien to be able to grab a victory point (and a theoretical game win) since I am the first to go by the new element of 3 pool damage each untap phase. I have played Anathema on Bupe Kuila before so my best hope is to rush him to 0 blood and gain 7 pool but Niina has a strong combat hand and my War Ghoul is dead doing almost no harm thanks to multiple Typhonic Beast. I am at three pool and I don’t realise that I have the opportunity to bleed Ferenc for the edge, ask Julien not to bleed at all and block Niina’s both actions for a victory point in Ferenc’s next untap phase.
That mistake costs me that point and Julien his game win and we both blame ourselves for not seeing that possibility. Me and Ferenc gets ousted and Nina fights hard in the duel but lots of Majesties and a late Giant’s Blood makes Julien grind the duel to a win.
Niina 2 VP
Julien 2 VP

Round 2

1	2	3	4	5
Danilo Tomisi	Olivier Roure	Boglárka Bóna	Stefan Karlsson	Tibor Spada
Lutz and Maris	!Toreador breed and boon	Kiasyd stealth bleed	Mar Ghouls	Nosferatu princes and trophies

Danilo’s first vampire is Maris Streck and I have to do without her. I get an early War Ghoul and manages to rush Boglárka’s Arcadian to torpor at the first attempt so I might do just fine without Maris. Tibor is my main problem since he is packing both combat and stealth. He also plays Red List on a War Ghoul and it that isn’t confidence, what is? Olivier gets a good start and is able to gather both minions and pool not pressing for an early oust.
Nikolaus Vermeulen manages to kill the Red List War Ghoul and gain a Trophy but I rush with two more War Ghouls and diablerize him. Now Danilo has his back free and can use all his resources ousting Olivier who no longer is able to vote with no help from Tibor. Tibor is on his knees but Danilo grows stronger and soon has his third vampire.
I bleed Tibor down so he is supposed to die from my Smiling Jack in his untap phase but I have forgotten that Danilo has Madness Network in play. He removes Smiling Jack easily. He also attempts to play First Tradition but I play Delaying Tactics.
When it is Danilo’s turn anew he plays Kine Resources contested and deals 3 damage to me leaving me at 4 pool. He then plays First Tradition. Third action - another First Tradition. If this vote is passing no one else is going to be able to play any more turns and I desperately tell Danilo that I will self-oust if he votes it trough but he is fine with that. I give Boglárka a victory point as compensation for her hopeless game and Danilo wins the table from very clever play.
Danilo GW 4 VP
Boglárka 1 VP

Round 3

1	2	3	4	5
Csaba Pál	Máté Vaka	Stefan Karlsson	Martin Major	Matthew Boon
Ravnos breed and boon	Stanislava	Mar Ghouls	Eze vote and bleed	Reanimated Corpses and Anu Diptinapta

Last game for this EC and no win yet. Still I have had loads of fun and no dull games at all but a win would sweeten the bitter taste of loss after loss. And this would be the perfect game to do it as I have already faced three of my opponents in the tournaments the days before. Csaba killed me with his Nephandus deck round 3 at the Last Chance Qualifier, Máté walled against my Auspex weenies round 3 at Day 1 and Martin killed me with his Assault Rifles round 1 at the LCQ.
Martin is not drawing Eze in his starting crypt and he lets us know he is in a bad spot. He instead brings Ugadja out and plays Villein for a lot. Meanwhile Máté gets Stanislava and I fear this is going to be another quick game for me. My first War Ghoul rush goes backwards and I manage to torporise her with a Trap. I also torporize Ugadja and it is looking good. Good enough for me to gain three enemies. Matthew plays his game and builds up. Csaba also builds up but he is rescuing Stanislava from torpor in the process and my heavy ally recruiting (now at two War Ghouls, Ossian and Muddled Vampire Hunter) has removed a lot of my pool so it is a critical moment for me. I take a heavy bleed but gets another chance to survive and have to use all my four rushes to beat Stanislava to torpor again and this time I have the action to diablerize her. My only Tzimisce is burned in the blood hunt and I am left with Maris and the allies.
Martin has lots of pool. I put Smiling Jack and Dragonbound in play and Csaba plays Week of Nightmares and bleeds for his victory point. I try and stop him with all my rushes but he is just in time to oust Máté before his ready region is empty.
I have saved several wakes and Pentex Subversion on my hand and those come in handy now when Matthew has also turned against me. Martin talks Matthew into going for removing Smiling Jack and I try to talk him into getting his victory point. Martin has started influencing on Eze and he sais he has loads of Majesties on his hand and will use his political actions to backoust me. Matthew makes a couple of attempts at Smiling Jack but I block him. He then uses the rest of his resources to oust Csaba and manages before I have the time to rush all his minions.
Martin gets Eze to play and I play my Pentex Subversion on him and rush all of Matthew’s minions to their death or torpor. With no ready minions that can act Martin and Matthew gives up and I get my victory at last.
Stefan GW 3 VP
Csaba 1 VP
Matthew 1 VP

I want to thank Budapest, the organisers and all my opponents for three great days of card-flipping at its best. See you in Stockholm next year!