Swedish National Championships 2012 – Tournament Report

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 Rape

Action Modifier [17]
  3x Conditioning
  2x Elder Impersonation
  1x Enkil Cog
  4x Faceless Night
  1x Foreshadowing Destruction
  4x Lost in Crowds
  2x Spying Mission

Action Modifier/Combat [3]
  1x Hide the Mind
  2x Swallowed by the Night

Equipment [1]
  1x Heart of Nizchetus

Master [23]
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Giant's Blood
  2x Information Highway
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  6x Villein
  5x Wash
  6x Zillah's Valley

Political Action [4]
  1x Ancilla Empowerment
  2x Banishment
  1x Reins of Power

Reaction [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 is not willing to enter the three player game with the two Shambling Hordes decks and won’t try and oust Pauli until at least Otto is ousted.
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 bleed as much as I would have liked as I draw few Flurry of Action and have to stay untapped.
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 range when I can bleed with Suzanne Kadim with Mind Rape but I am out of stealth cards when its time for Rafael to try and finish it off and I desperately cycle a Conditioning to top deck but that doesn’t work.
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!

Creating a draft set

For the upcoming Swedish National Draft Championships its time to try something new. Isak and Ida have created a customized draft set and have worked hard gathering all ~3000 cards for it.

Now its late night work sorting, sleeving, distributing and packing everything but in the end it will hopefully be worth all the work.

Tournament Report – Göteborg June 2012

16 players showed up for our monthly tournament which is a lot for being during the summer. I felt I have tried too hard the latest few tournaments and decided I would go for a risky deck and have some fun and learn something. I had only played my deck once before and it is influenced by Emiliano Imeroni’s Wallghouls.

Deck Name : Marewolves
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 9 average: 5

4	Maris Streck	9	AUS OBF ani dem dom	justicar	Malkavian	3
2	Panagos Levidis	3	ani obf		Gangrel	2
2	Sarah Raines	2	for		Gangrel	3
1	Ramona	4	for pro		Gangrel	2
1	Ramona Adv	4	for pro		Gangrel	2
1	Bothwell	3	ani for		Gangrel	3
1	Chandler Hungerford	3	PRO		Gangrel	2

Library [60 cards]

Action [1]
  1x Army of Rats

Action Modifier [10]
  4x Cloak the Gathering
  2x Lost in Crowds
  1x Telepathic Vote Counting
  3x Veil the Legions

Ally [9]
  8x Renegade Garou
  1x Vagabond Mystic

Combat [6]
  4x Target Vitals
  2x Weighted Walking Stick

Equipment [1]
  1x Heart of Nizchetus

Event [3]
  1x Dragonbound
  2x Unmasking, The

Master [11]
  1x Dark Influences
  1x Erciyes Fragments, The
  1x Fame
  2x Jake Washington (Hunter)
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  1x Powerbase: Montreal
  1x Rack, The
  2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
  1x Temptation of Greater Power

Political Action [9]
  2x Anathema
  2x Gangrel Justicar
  5x Parity Shift

Reaction [10]
  1x Malkavian Rider Clause
  6x On the Qui Vive
  3x Telepathic Misdirection

The idea is to get a Gangrel out and get a Renegade Garou as soon as possible to start defending your pool. You then get Maris and try and gain some pool by Parity Shift or Anathema to get more Garous and wall everyone to death. Compared to War Ghouls, Renegade Garous makes the set-up a little easier and with their maneuver and additional strike they don’t need as many combat cards to function against a variety of opponents. They are of course more squishy but that is a calculated risk.
It’s not an easy deck to play and you have to go low on pool before the tide can turn your way.

Round 1

1	2	3	4
Jonatan Sjöberg	Peter Kärrberg	Stefan Karlsson	Sten Düring
Lasombra Vote	Vignes Bleed	Marewolves	!Toreador Breed/Boon

I start without Maris in my Crypt so I just get Panagos, a Garou and Unmasking to play and start fishing for her. To avoid getting blocked by me, Sten decides to only play directed actions towards Jonatan so no Embraces and no votes - only bleeds for 2. Jonatan has a good start with crypt acceleration and bloat and Peter struggles to do damage to me.
Thanks to Fame and some bleeds I manage to get Sten low on pool as he cant outbleed Jonatan’s bloat. I have been fishing for Maris and on the second attempt I get her. Both Peter and me are also low on pool even if my table presence starts to look good. Sten knows he won’t get another round and taps out bleeding. Jonatan deflects two of the bleeds for 2 and they are deflected further to me. I have to take them going down on 3 pool. Jonatan gets Peter down to 3 pool as well and has one action left pretty sure Peter has got no more Deflections since he used them up on Sten’s Bleeds.
Jonatan don’t want to give me another turn so he tries to convince Peter that calling a political action that ousts both him and me is Peter’s best shot at getting any points at all from the table. The thing is that I have plenty of blood on Maris and I can make Peter block whatever action Jonatan is planning. A lengthy discussion starts and since Peter has four vampires and I only have three untapped minions and an On the Qui Vive I know that if Peter gets another turn and has a Misdirection I am ousted.
I want Jonatan to simply bleed Peter out and Peter wants intercept from me to stay in the game, something that I can’t grant him. I should have lied here and told Peter that I would give him intercept and then immediately break the deal getting him bled out but instead I am honest and stupid and Jonatan gets his wish trough and plays Neonate Breach for a double oust with no Block attempts.
The thing is also that the table could have voted this down if we wanted but since Sten, with Foundation Exhibit in play, knew that the only way he would get another round was if both me and Peter died he let it pass. He is then an easy prey for Jonatan.
I played bad this game. I shouldn’t have fished for Maris at all and instead stayed on more pool and more minions. Both my initial prey and predator couldn’t produce more than 1 stealth and I had Unmasking from the very start. I should also learn how to play more dirty.

Jonatan GW 3VP
Peter 1VP

Round 2

1	2	3	4
Adam Esbjörnsson	Ida Olsson Bjärmark	Daniel Teige	Stefan Karlsson
Arika Huitzilopochtli Mind Rape / Baltimore Purge	Kite & Anatole Toolbox	AUS midcaps with some dominate	Marewolves

Again I don’t get Maris in the starting crypt. Adam has a perfect start with the crypt acceleration he needs and Ida is in trouble from the start. This time I decide to influence three Gangrel out before starting to fish for Maris and I start putting the little pressure that I can on Adam since I know decks like his have to go low on pool. In the beginning I misinterpret what Daniel is playing as some kind of Carna bleeder so I feel I will have a short game with no pressure on my predator.
Adam plays Mind Rape on Chandler Hungerford and burns him with Abactor and acts aggressively towards Ida from there. When Ida has two vampires with DEM in play and very few pool I try to talk her into bleeding with Kindred Spirits backwards since that combined with my 1-bleeds would actually oust Adam. She doesn’t talk back to me at this moment and I am yet to know if she were out of Kindred Spirits or if she just had hopes of surviving Adam’s pressure. No actions backwards and she is ousted next turn.
I am now starting to understand that Daniel’s deck is mostly a wall and my hopes are up again. We both agree that Adam has to go and since that scenario means a duel between me and Daniel when any of us can take the game win we start cooperating. I can safely go pretty low on pool getting Maris to play and together we can start blocking most of Adam’s actions. Fortunately, one of the actions he gets trough is a Banishment on an almost empty Carna. When Adam is on three pool Arika with 3 blood and Fame attempts an undirected action that Sarah Raines manages to block and the combination of Weighted Walking Stick and Target Vitals kills Adam out of turn.
In the duel Daniel has Sennadurek with a .44 Magnum and Maldavis. He also has Smiling Jack with some counters on. I get my first Garou for the entire game (have played trough ~30 cards before seeing one). The Magnum together with enough wakes are enough to kill me on its own but a well-timed Pentex subversion on Sennadurek gives me the game. For once I am actually happy with the way I played my game and that my play paid off.

Stefan GW 3VP
Adam 1VP

Round 3

1	2	3	4
Stefan Karlsson	Alex Ek	Alex Båskman	Archibald Zimonyi
Marewolves	!Ventrue Grinder	Lasombra Black Hand Stealth Bleed	Malk 94 with 10 Sudden Reversals

From the beginning I know I will have a hard time ever ousting Alex E, the !Ventrue Grinder as prey being far from a perfect match-up. I also know I have to be doing some serious backousting towards Archie.
I get a Gangrel, a Garou and Maris as by the book and Archie surprises me a little when Gilbert Duane starts bleeding at once instead of playing Govern at DOM. When my initial set-up is done Archie has two vampires and I have very few pool. I have two Telepathic Misdirection and a couple of On the Qui Vive on my hand so I am hopeful I will survive and be able to torporize one or two of Archies Malkavians.
Alex B bleeds Archie twice and I use both my Telepathic Misdirections on those bleeds and opts to try and block Archie instead. When it is his turn he bleeds me at 4 stealth and Maris burns 4 blood to make my Garou block but he then plays Elder Impersonation and since Maris only has 3 blood left and my wake doesn’t topdeck me another bounce the bleed sticks for six and that is enough.
I should really have taken one of Alex B’s bleeds that wouldn’t have ousted me and saved a bounce in case what happened were to happen. Well, that’s me and my poor play again. I didn’t stay and watch the table end so I have no more details to tell from this game but Alex E got the rest of the victory points.

Alex E GW 3VP
Archibald 1VP 

As always in a small tournament you hope that your 1GW xVP will be enough to reach the finals. The Archon from the tournament showed the strangest result table I have ever seen in this game. From the 12 tables that were played none timed out and only one were a table split. All 11 game wins went to 11 different players. That meant Archibald Zimonyi was top seed with GW 6VP. Second place were shared by Alex Båskman and Mattias Colliander eith GW 4VP and the same tournament points. The real fun begun when we realised 8 players were at GW 3VP 96TP. Beatrice Düring and Jonatan Sjöberg won that lottery and no more play for the Marewolves this tournament.
I knew my deck wasn’t tuned enough and that is a difficult one to play but I will stick with it and try to improve it and see where it goes. I think I’ll try and get some more combat cards in and I will probably change one Garou to a Muddled Vampire Hunter. I got a good feeling playing a reactive deck for once so don’t be surprised if you see me start playing AUS weenies in the future.
Last but not least I would like to apologize for this late report. Having two kids now (not sleeping at the same time) makes it hard to get the time writing these kinds of things. Hopefully I’ll manage to keep up the work writing tournament reports but please don’t stone me to death if I have to skip writing about a tournament or two in the near future.

Tournament Report – Göteborg May 2012

We expected a small tournament with about 5-7 players but many last minute sign-ups made the number pretty decent 13 (12 players until round 3 when our prince joined in). I have been merging my deck from the Swedish ECQ with an old !Tremere Create Gargoyle deck and tweaked and optimized it the last few weeks to a result I am quite happy with so I decided to go with that deck.
Sorry for this report being so late but my second child was born somewhere after writing the report for the first round so I have been a a little busy.

Deck Name : Tupdog bleeds for 6
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [13 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 7 average: 3.07692

5	Tupdog	1	POT VIS		Gargoyle	3
1	Bryan Van Duesen	7	DOM THA aus pre		!Tremere	2
1	Reverend Blackwood	6	DOM THA obf	bishop	!Tremere	2
1	Selena	6	AUS DOM THA		!Tremere	3
1	Kurt Strauss	5	DOM aus tha		!Tremere	2
1	Brooke	3	dom tha		!Tremere	2
1	Ember Wright	3	aus dom		!Tremere	3
1	Saiz	3	aus dom		!Tremere	3
1	Heinrick Schlempt	2	tha		!Tremere	2

Library [74 cards]

Action [17]
  5x Create Gargoyle
  10x Govern the Unaligned
  2x Magic of the Smith

Action Modifier [12]
  2x As the Crow
  6x Conditioning
  4x Mirror Walk

Ally [2]
  2x Nephandus (Mage)

Combat [5]
  5x Raking Talons

Equipment [2]
  2x Heart of Nizchetus

Master [14]
  1x Anarch Troublemaker
  5x Dominate
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  3x Lilith's Blessing
  1x Misdirection
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  1x Secure Haven

Reaction [22]
  10x Deflection
  4x Delaying Tactics
  5x On the Qui Vive
  3x Wake with Evening's Freshness

The idea is to bleed a lot. The over sized reaction package works because of Heart of Nizchetus. 4 Delaying Tactics might seem like over the top but having that many is not really a problem but instead a great boon when you face vote decks. Create Gargoyle is very good with Lilith’s blessing, getting superior Dominate if everything goes according to plan.
The Tupdogs are great early rushers and a good way to get rid of Raking Talons and As the Crow if there is no real use for them in the current state of game. They are also nice early bleeders if you put a Dominate skill card on them. With Lilith’s Blessing or hunt followed by As the Crow I have actually managed to bleed for 5 with them a couple of times. I am still to make that bleed for 6 but there need to be someone to diablerize and you need to have As the Crow on hand to make that happen.
I am starting to like this deck a lot and will probably keep tweaking it in the coming months.

Round 1

1	2	3	4
Erik Cardell	Stefan Karlsson	Adam Esbjörnsson	Mattias Thörnkvist
Tremere with Fortitude and Burst of Sunlight	Tupdog bleeds for 6	Imbued	Carna Toolbox

I have played with Adam enough lately to know that the sleeves meant his obnoxious Imbued deck were hitting the table. I had little hopes of get anything out of this game since Imbued are one of the worst possible preys. I have two Tupdogs in my starting Uncontrolled Region and I can use them as slaves on my first actions not to get spanked with my real vampires.
When it is time for Adam to start tooling up with Powers, Mattias helps me block some of the attempts effectively using Theft of Vitae on the hunters. My vampires bounce up and down from Torpor and I am soon forced into a passive game. Even if Adam doesn’t get the perfect set-up he has Unity in play and recycles the same Angel of Berlin to stop me from doing anything to him.
Erik has a slow building start and when I am getting low on pool he doesn’t have the bleed cards to finish me off quickly. My hope lays in a series of bounces to Adam before a finishing round but neither Mattias nor Erik makes any large bleeds that goes my way.
Eventually I am ousted and after a couple of more rounds so also Mattias. Adam and Erik struggles for the win and it looks like Adam is going to have it with all his permanents but the table times out without a winner. There were many bleeds bounced around the table but most of them ended up being blocked so very little damage was dealt which might be a main reason for this table to time out.

Erik 1.5VP
Adam 1.5VP

Round 2

1	2	3	4
Archibald Zimonyi	Erik Cardell	Roger Carhult	Stefan Karlsson
Saulot + Uriel	Tremere with Fortitude	Followers of Set with Dominate	Tupdog bleeds for 6

I get a Tupdog in my starting crypt and a Raking Talons om my starting hand. As soon as Archie gets Saulot in play I rush and torporize him. Both Erik and Roger influences and bloats early game and I get Lilith’s Blessing and plays Create Gargoyle. Roger then tries to play Banishment on my new dry Gargoyle and he is about to talk Erik into voting with him on that vote because he doesn’t have vote lock himself. I tell Erik I can’t play against the three of them so I might need to just die if he votes in favour and he changes his mind.
Archie gets Saulot from torpor and influences out Uriel, giving him superior Obeah with Spontaneous Power. Archie is tapped out and I expect wakes and bounces but still attempts to lunge for an oust. Surprisingly he has no wakes and I easily bleed him to death.
As I know from the previous round Erik packs a lot of defence but I feel I have a good shot long-term with all my bounces combined with my own bleeds. I am even more surprised to be able to soon bleed him out as well as he also taps out with no wakes in his hand.
Roger does his best but I have a lot of pool and my Delaying Tactics are cycled to my hand when I need them.
A good game with a perfect seating for me.

Stefan GW 4VP

Round 3

1	2	3	4	5
Erik Torstensson	Erik Cardell	Daniel Viberg	Bea Düring	Stefan Karlsson
Carna is Vignes	Tremere	Puppeteers Powerbleed	!Gangrel Toolbox	Tupdog bleeds for 6

Again it looks like I have a good seating. Bea’s deck isn’t that aggressive to prey’s pool and she will soon enough be busy defending against Daniel. Erik C builds up steady giving Daniel extra room to hurt Bea. Erik T is afraid of the Tupdog I bring to play and doesn’t put a minion to play and instead waits and gets two to play at the same time. I manage too bleed him for quite a lot before he can defend himself (Dominate skill cards on Tupdogs are fun!).
I am hoping for a three player game with Erik C and Daniel where I have the most bounces ousting Erik C and entering the duel in good shape. That doesn’t happen. Bea and Erik T goes very low on pool and for a while all is good.
It is Daniel’s turn and he is getting over confident using Le Dinh Tho’s special to look at my hand. The round before I had two On the Qui Vive and one Deflection on my hand and decided to discard one of the Deflections. Le Dinh Tho now discards the other one. I am getting a little annoyed (but not really afraid at this point). He then bleeds Bea for 6, a bleed she happily sends to me with Lost in Translation. I can afford taking that bleed (having 11 pool) but I feel I need those pool for later in the game. The bleed is at stealth so I make a mistake cycling the two On the Qui Vive hoping to replace with a Deflection. I don’t and am at 5 pool.
Bea survives and she has three !Gangrel and a Shadow Court Satyr in play. One of the !Gangrel has a bleed increasing retainer so she is within ousting range. I have no more defensive cards but I have an untapped Nephandus Mage. Shadow Court Satyr bleeds first and I opt to try and block it but Bea’s only vampire with superior Obfuscate plays Cloak the Gathering. I now make my second mistake – I try and block said vampire with superior Obfuscate just to get tapped by Faceless Night. If I just had let that bleed trough Bea would have needed one more stealth card to get me which she probably didn’t have.
Daniel gets Bea before she can oust Erik T who has started to bloat some pool back. Erik C now starts to bleed Daniel and he gets ousted next somehow. In the duel it looks like Erik T is having a good comeback but Erik C is a little too tooled up for him to handle so Erik C wins in the end.

Erik C GW 3VP
Daniel 1VP
Bea 1VP

I am not that happy knowing that Adam will be higher seed than me (probably top seed) and he will chose to sit as my prey. These are the standings before the final:

1. Adam Esbjörnsson 2GW 8.5VP
2. Erik Cardell 1GW 4.5VP
3. Ida Olsson Bjärmark 1GW 4VP
4. Stefan Karlsson 1GW 4VP
5. Erik Torstensson 1GW 3VP

The Finals

1	2	3	4	5
Adam Esbjörnsson	Ida Olsson Bjärmark	Erik Cardell	Erik Torstensson	Stefan Karlsson
Imbued	Kiasyd Stealth/Bleed with Masters	Tremere with Fortitude	Carna Bleed	Tupdog bleeds for 6

I had a bad feeling about this final Adam being seeded higher than me and as I suspected he decided to sit as my prey. Erik T was also worried long term about the seating and we agreed without any kind of deal that Adam had to go - the sooner the better. With this in mind I could confidently play Pentex Subversion on Adam’s first minion.
Ida and the Eriks do their build-up and I try and do some damage to Adam without ending with all my vampires in torpor. It looks quite bad for Adam having to fish to try and get Travis “Traveler72” Miller without success. Ida soon has a plethora of bleeders and it is just a matter of time until she gets Erik C. Erik T is also starting to get confident because he sees that Adam won’t survive this game. The mid-game is mostly a lot of bounces and when Adam is on three pool and Ida gets a bleed bounced all around the table with superior Tenebrous Form as stealth Adam is ousted.
I do some damage to Ida and it looks very good since my card flow is being excellent even if my table presence is inferior to the other players. Unfortunately Ida manages to oust Erik C and get a series of Ashur Tablets played for some well needed pool gain.
The three player game is an open affair. Erik looks stable with four vampires in play with enough blood on them to be really threatening. Erik bounces a bleed for 4 from Ida to me while I have 3 Wake with Evening’s Freshness and 3 Deflections on my hand and here I make my big mistake. I don’t want to waste resources bouncing backwards since I only need to oust Ida to win the tournament being higher seed than Erik. I have 5 pool and take the bleed for 4 leaving me on 1. In Erik’s turn he can confidently bleed me for one and when I deflect his first stealthed bleed to Ida he even plays inferior Conditioning to get her down low. I block and bounce him again and it is a nail biter but he gets me in the end. If I had bounced that bleed back to him I might have ousted Ida by using the two remaining bounces on bigger bleeds.
The duel is an open affair as well but Ida manages to win the game. Congratulations!

Ida GW 3VP
Erik T 1VP
Stefan 1VP

Below is Cause & Effect’s video from the finals. As an experiment I haven’t watched it before writing this report so you can all compare and see how much I am making up as I write. Could be a good measurement of the credibility of this blog.

I think I made an okay result. I should have managed to get at least one Victory Point in round 3 and I should have won the finals but I am not as dissatisfied with my performance or my deck. I will try and get one more Misdirection and a couple of Bondings to the deck as a further development but the concept works well enough to be reliable. The Tupdogs are great and if I learn to influence them out at the right timing they can really be key to success.