Time for the long awaited Swedish Nationals and high hopes of at least repeating last years feat and enter the finals. Recently I have been playing a Flurry of Action deck with Inner Circles a lot and have had a very good game win percentage with it (well over 50% of my games which is a lot for me) and I swept the final table of last month’s 6-man Göteborg tournament. When latest episode of Cause and Effect aired I almost changed my mind for which deck to play since my very archetype was discussed and dissected but I still felt I needed to try it out in real action now that the European Championships are closing in.
Deck Name : Aelvorna
Author : Stefan Karlsson (based on a deck by Benoît Moyen, fine tuned together with Randal Rudstam and the Wash / Crypt Acceleration-module is an invention by Tomas Wallmur (well all of it is probably copyrighted by PCK anyways so who cares?))Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 7 max: 11 average: 10.3333
4 Mistress Fanchon 11 AUS CEL DOM OBF THA VIC inner circle Tremere 4 3 Rafael de Corazon 11 AUS CEL DOM OBF PRE inner circle Toreador 4 2 Adana de Sforza 11 CEL OBF POT PRE PRO aus inner circle Brujah 4 1 Helena 10 AUS CEL DOM obf pre tha Toreador 3 1 Yazid Tamari 8 CEL QUI ani dom obf Assamite 3 1 Suzanne Kadim 7 CEL PRE aus dom obf Toreador 3 Library [69 cards]
Action [9]
8x Flurry of Action
1x Mind RapeAction Modifier [17]
3x Conditioning
2x Elder Impersonation
1x Enkil Cog
4x Faceless Night
1x Foreshadowing Destruction
4x Lost in Crowds
2x Spying MissionAction Modifier/Combat [3]
1x Hide the Mind
2x Swallowed by the NightEquipment [1]
1x Heart of NizchetusMaster [23]
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
2x Information Highway
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
6x Villein
5x Wash
6x Zillah's ValleyPolitical Action [4]
1x Ancilla Empowerment
2x Banishment
1x Reins of PowerReaction [12]
5x Deflection
1x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
2x Eyes of Argus
4x Obedience
I started out with a 60 card version of the deck but when the deck worked I actually ran out of cards more than once so I had to add a little of each for this version. The idea is to play Wash on your opponent’s crypt acceleration and play your own to get early table presence and hopefully vote lock. Then you bleed for 2-3 (and sometimes more) every single turn. Mistress Fanchon goes first and she can fish for utility card after playing Flurry of Action. An early Enkil Cog is the most common pick but a Mind Rape, any of the politicals or even a Deflection or Hide the Mind can save the day.
Round 1
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
 |  |  |  |  |
| Pauli Kiova | Otto Kukkasniemi | Jens Johansson | Tomas Wallmur | Stefan Karlsson |
| FIN | FIN | SWE | SWE | SWE |
| Lutz / Unmada vote | Shambling Hordes | Shambling Hordes | Presence Princes | IC Flurry of Action |
I have a terrible start with no sign of any crypt acceleration. Pauli, on the other hand, plays Zillah's Valley after Zillah’s Valley and as I have no Wash either it looks really dark from the beginning. I have three copies of Mistress Fanchon and one Yazid Tamari in my uncontrolled region so I decide to get Yazid to play first. Otto and Jens builds and Tomas also gets his build pretty good because of no early Unmasking in play.
With some help from Jens and surprisingly some from Pauli I manage to survive Tomas’ early attempts in ousting me. Pauli doesn’t trust Tomas when he states that he 
Mid game Jens’ deck is building a little bit better that Otto’s and Tomas’ early good start is coming to an end even if I still struggle to survive. I have Pauli down at only a few pool a couple of times (down to one once if I remember correctly). My best hopes for this game is to gain 1.5VPs since all the talking about everything all the time is certain to time the table out.
Pauli packs a lot of bounce and manages to oust Otto with not much time left. Here I play Villein on both my vampires and the hope for anyone to gain any more points are out. A very annoying game for all five of us.
Pauli 1.5VP
Jens 0.5VP
Tomas 0.5VP
Stefan 0.5VP
Round 2
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
 |  |  |  |  |
| Daniel Wiberg | Stefan Karlsson | Michael Holmström | Jari Vulli | Randal Rudstam |
| SWE | SWE | SWE | FIN | SWE |
| !Toreador breed & bleed | IC Flurry of Action | Lutz / Unmada vote | Obf weenies | !Tremere / Tremere vote |
Michael and Randal are vote buddies from the beginning and dictate the table. I influence Mistress Fanchon and fortunately also Helena is in my uncontrolled region so I can bring her as good defence against Daniel. Jari gets a quick aggressive start and Randal is down low. I have enough wakes, Obediences and blood on Helena to fend of Daniel’s first attempts in ousting me but Michael sits safe since I can’t ble
Randal and Michael agrees that they want Daniel and Jari ousted. That doesn’t stop Randal from stealing Lutz with a Temptation of Greater Power (paying 17 if I remember correctly). Daniel plays his first Palla Grande the same round as I have already Washed a Villein from Michael and I can’t defend any more. You can see that Wash as bad play but for me to have any chance of any victory points I had to be as aggressive at Michael’s pool as possible. Daniel also told me he saved for his second Palla Grande on hand before playing it because of my Wash heavy deck.
Randal and Michael ousts their preys and Randal has an easy win with the stolen Lutz.
Randal GW 3VP
Daniel 1VP
Michael 1VP
Round 3
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| | | | | |
| Stefan Karlsson | Jonatan Sjöberg | Isak Esbjörnsson Bjärmark | Marko Lindroos | Robert Doktorow |
| SWE | SWE | SWE | FIN | SWE |
| IC Flurry of Action | Create Gargoyle with Dominate | Kiasyd S/B with Masters | Lasombra with Animalism | !Tremere Bleed and Allies |
Jonatan gets a good start and Isak struggles with Marko’s very cool deck (my thesis is that Marko makes the coolest decks around and its always a pleasure seeing them in action). He packs rushes, bleed, combat, block and bounce in what looks like a very well-built toolbox. Robert has a slow start but Marko is mostly defending early game so he steadily builds up.
My start is decent and I have Jonatan at ousting rang
Instead Jonatan can oust Isak and put one of Marko’s big caps in torpor with Raking Talons. One of Jonatan’s created gargoyles diablerizes him and at the small price of a weenie burned in a blood hunt Jonatan secures his second victory point. Robert has started to build a good table presence and I think Jonatan underestimates his deck a little, having two Hexapeds in his ready region. I have to play Banishment backwards and stay untapped a lot but Robert packs a lot of Mirror Walk and Bonding so in the long run I can’t stop him from ousting me. In the duel Robert’s allies is what wins him the game (and later the tournament).
Robert GW 3VP
Jonatan 2VP
This was a terrible tournament for me. I realised my deck is not good enough. Sure – it really shines in the right circumstances but seriously – which deck doesn’t? I also want to apologize for the not so very detailed report but I simply can’t remember enough to be able to do it better.
Next time this blog is updated with tournament reports will be after the EC and I give you two promises right now:
1. I will perform much better than I did during the nationals.
2. I will give you an enjoyable reading afterwards.
See you in Budapest card-flippers!
All your reports ( even this last, which is a little bit shorter) are really great.
ReplyDeleteThe way there are constructed is fantastic.
Even the shirts you wear on tournies are cool.
Thanks! I wear those shirts everyday. No need to dress up for tournaments if you already are as well-dressed as can be.
ReplyDeleteI like your report style as well, looking forward to a new one after the EC.
ReplyDeleteMy advice to you, Stefan, for EC is, with your vast playing experience it´s far better to play other type of decks rather than those obnoxious bleed decks.
ReplyDeleteI think from what I´ve read on the reports that an active control deck would fit you quite well...whether you make it through combat, actions or politics( or combination of) is your choice.
You might be right there Doctor. I don't think I will be playing any bleed deck like that during the EC but rather than active control I might lean towards passive control. Probably a mix and three very different decks for the three different tournaments.
ReplyDeleteAnd the thing about vast playing experience.. I have only been active since 2008 so I still see myself as a beginner.
You know how desesperately slow games at great tournies can be. On the other side you have to take notice that probably a 20-25% of the players will be experienced hungarish players, tough as coffin nails and very tricky. Expect to encounter a lot of timeout games. So, if you choose passive control decks, see that it includes pretty much active control parts ( like two PB: Luanda on an Akunanse wall for example) or be enough agressive to your prey ( including anarch revolts on auspex blocker for example).
ReplyDeleteI wish you good luck for the EC, and looking forward to see your report.
What inclines you to believe that the deck isn't good enough?
ReplyDeleteIts weak against any kind of dedicated deck. It doesn't outbleed a bleed deck, it doesn't defend good enough against combat, it doesn't push the actions trough against a wall and it won't get vote lock if there are dedicated voters.
ReplyDeleteAgainst toolboxy decks or with a good seating and start it does very well, it almost plays itself, but in the tough climate of the Swedish tournament scene it simply isn't on par.
That or I just had a bad day with it and don't feel like playing it soon again.
So, strategically bad. I was wondering if you thought it was more the build or something else, like this.
DeleteActually, I would say the weakest part of the deck is Flurry of Action. As you said for one of the rounds, you were dependent upon it. Nice with Enkil Cog, nice to multiact with your few votes, nice to be up to bounce. The middle doesn't concern me that much since there are only 4 votes (and Mind Rape and Mistress Fanchon, also ignoring that Flurry can be played at inferior to flush cards). The last is easily fixed with more wakes. The first can still work with more Eludings to untap on actions you can't block, but I'm okay with dropping Enkil when dropping all of the Flurrys.
Btw, I would also say that the deck has poor control elements outside of master control, with Banishments being the main ones.
If you think about it, you could have played a Malk94 deck with a similar plan for winning, far less voting power which likely means losing the votes and putting in some vote defense, but which frees up a host of slots - Zillah's Valley, votes, Flurry, Enkil.
Or, another way to look at it is that this is a deck full of power plays that aren't necessarily as powerful as the power plays of other decks with ICMs. That is, the deck basically stealth bleeds for a bunch with some vote stuff. Stealth bleeding for a bunch is easy enough that other decks can do something similar while having a more powerful vote angle or run some other power cards. On the other hand, that isn't necessarily the deck; a few different card choices can address this.
I'm reluctant to suggest changes to the decklist, since you play in a very different metagame, but it sounds like it would have been helpful to have Wider View.