Tournament Report: HNC Budapest

Hi folks!

Yesterday was the final preliminary tournament of our National Championship, held in Budapest. After this event the top 40 players will play the final tournament in two weeks to decide who will be our National Champion in 2010.

This time 38 players attended the tournament, 3 from them came from Belgrad and 1 from Kosice. Thank you guys for coming!

I decided to play with my Nana Buruku deck, which was a very good deck choice this time:

1st table: Ben Peal (Samedi bloat&bleed) - Ferenc Borbely (Omaya + 1 caps) - Me (Nana Buruku) - Mihaly Antal (Ishtarri bleed) - Robert Laszlo (Legendary Unmada)

The game started with a very good crypt draw for me and a bad one for my predator who didn't find Omaya in the starting crypt. The 3 weenies appearing behind me seemed scary at first, but then I remembered which deck this was and I knew that I can produce enough pool to be safe. I could focus on my prey, who seemed very strong early on, since he delayed a Parity Shift and bled Unmada quite hard. Fortunately he ran out of combat defense cards so I could torporize his minions. Meanwhile Ben Peal had many Samedis doing many actions and ~20 pool or so. I made my fast vp and started pushing my next prey, torporizing his lonely Unmada. Ben gave him a rescue and started to look for ways he could play against me. In my turn I played a Fear of Mekhet onUnmada, this way I could start rushing Ben. Unmada burned and I made my vp. To avoid being blocked by Omaya when bleeding my prey I played a Pentex on her. I made my second vp. My prey felt like pushing forward so I torporized all of his weenies. At this point it was clear that I had to deal with a 1 vs. 2 situation so I played my Dragonbound sacrificing my predator. The heads-up against Ben was pretty easily solved by a well timed Frontal Assault. 1Game Win and 4 Vp's.

2nd table: Zoltan Komora (Kabebe + Undele No secrets) - Csaba Pal (Samedi) - Tamas Csepregi (Gerald Windham) - Me (Nana Buruku)

When Gerald Windham hit the board I felt like back rushing. Tamas tried to convince me not to rush him, but you know what the combat deck doctrine says. I rushed him. I had some respect for the Samedi deck at this time so I tried to find a middle way: I didn't torporize Gerald, just left him at 0 blood. This gave me some extra turns I used to put pressure on my prey. Unfortunately Tamas played a Secure Haven on Gerlad. Notice: when in doubt always back rush first. Later on he recruited a Ponticulus, so the back rush option was no longer available. I had to use a crazy lot of resources against my prey, but after like 60 cards I finally mad my oust. I went for my next prey right away since he was low on pool. At this time I had already pressure coming from my predator, but I had some reaction cards in my hand, which allowed me to still take actions. I managed to block a bleed, which was more than helpful. :)

Basically this was another 1 vs 2 situation, but this time I felt like being fast enough. I made a big mistake at this point since I played a Frontal Assault and noticed after playing it, that I can simply oust my prey with all those Deep Songs played at inferior. I ousted my prey, but lost 4 pool, since my next prey Tamas had 4 minions. On the 1 on 1 situation the blood dolls kept me alive and a Pentex Subversion played on the only Tremere that had blood left gave me the game win. 2GW 8VP

3rd table: Gabor Veres (Salubri anti) - Peter Ducai (Louhi) - Istvan Cserdi (1caps vote) - Balazs Kaloczkai (Lodin and friends) - Me (Nana Buruku)

Terrible table here. I drew 4 Nana's in 5 vampires and Wider View didn't show up. My grand predator gave up on the game when he noticed that he was stuck between an early Fabricia and Lodin. He decided to totaly stop doing anything forward and didn't even block his preys Parity Shifts with his Carlton. Hard to understand. With 2 vampires and a very late 3rd one I couldn't play my game. 0 Vp

Final Seating:

1st: Ferenc Vasadi alias Frankie: Lucian the Perfect mega bleed

2nd: Goran Ivanovic: Kyasid stealth bleed

3rd: Me: Nana Buruku

4th: Balazs Pahi: Renegade Garou's

5th: Peter Korsos: Temporatrix

The seating:

P. Korsos -> Frankie -> B. Pahi -> Me -> G. Ivanovic

I choose to sit in front of the Garou deck, figuring that no one wants to sit between us. I was pretty sure that I can handle the Garou's with the Carrion + Aid from Bats module. The game started with the Kyasid pushing right away on his prey. My predator called a Gangrel Justicar and what a surprise! The Kyasid delayed it! The Kyasid brought out Omme and established vote lock at the table. Balazs asked Goran if he may pass a Gangrel Justicar and since the answer was not satisfying for him he rushed Omme with his Garou. Two Target Vitals torporized Omme. After this action he could path his Justicar and his Praxis Seizure. After this turn I launched my attack on the Kyasid and made my vp. Meanwhile: Frankie didn't draw enough stealth so Balazs's Unmasking and Carlton kept him safe. Peter, having no predator could build up and oust Frankie. This is were the playing stopped. With the 3 of us left this was the situation: Balazs had no chance to oust me, since I was stronger in combat and had a lot of pool. I could't oust Peter, since I have no way to deal with Goratrix. Peter couldn't oust Balazs since his "endless combat" trick is killed by Carlton's "endless dodge". What happened? Time out of course. Since I was the higher seated player, I won.

And here is the winning deck:

Deck Name: mINIMAL sTYLE

Created By: Mephistopeheles

Description:

Fast and aggressive rush combat. Make 1st vp asap and decide who to stay 1 on 1 with. Follow the basic combat doctrine to backrush first and than play without a predator.

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 8, Max: 32, Avg: 4,5)

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1 Beetleman obf ANI 4 Nosferatu

1 Bobby Lemon ANI pro 4 Gangrel

1 Bothwell ani for 3 Gangrel

1 Clarissa Steinburgen ani obf 3 Nosferatu

1 Lisa Noble ani 1 Caitiff

1 Mouse ani 2 Nosferatu

4 Nana Buruku ANI POT PRE 8 Guruhi

1 Stick ANI 3 Nosferatu Antitribu

1 Zip ani 2 Ravnos

Library: (76 cards)

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Master (21 cards)

3 Animalism

9 Ashur Tablets

2 Blood Doll

2 Fame

1 Fear of Mekhet

1 Frontal Assault

1 Pentex Subversion

1 Powerbase: Montreal

1 Wider View

/could need more copies of Animalism skill card. Fear of Mekhet was a metagame choice and burned a Legendary Unmada. Wider View never showed up when needed. Frontal Assault is pure gold!/

Action (13 cards)

13 Deep Song

/just the right number/

Reaction (8 cards)

2 Cats` Guidance

1 Delaying Tactics

3 On the Qui Vive

2 Sense the Savage Way

/my version is really not about blocking. Random intercept is good to

keep people guessing and blocking deflected bleeds/

Combat (33 cards)

10 Aid from Bats

2 Canine Horde

10 Carrion Crows

4 Target Vitals

5 Taste of Vitae

2 Terror Frenzy

/very solid combat package, Target Vitals and Terror Frenzy are extremly

useful/

Event (1 cards)

1 Dragonbound

/discarded when drawn too early and taken back into hand after a completed Ashur Cycle in the midgame. Awesome bonus to your ousting power/

by: Mephistopheles