Tournament Report: Constructed at Cantina

Hi folks!

Wooo-hoooo!!! Finally back from torpor! I was quite exited to play a tournament again after two month without almost any gaming going on. I was lazy, as expected, so I didn't build any new deck. Well that is not totally true, I've started building it, but after sleeving like 30 cards I got so bored that I didn't want to fish for those 45 remaining cards needed for my new deck and then play it untested. The deck I wanted to build was a Gabrin based deck with a bunch of Sensory Deprivations. Instead, I went for the currently only ready to play deck I have: Broken Brujah (Dmitra + Alastor). My Nana Buruku and Hardestadt are already de-con-struct-ed. 

Altogether 18 players joined this event, 8 from them came from Slovakia (Kosice) to join us. Thank you guys for making this event more interesting. Now, let us take a look what happened:

1st round: Me -> Frankie (Lucian the Perfect mega bleed) -> Guyla Ferdos (weenie malk wall with madness network) -> Mark Virsinger (weenie presence bleed enngine) -> Maros Chomjak (Black Hand and Marijava Thugee with bloating)

I started pretty slow with a very bad opening hand. My deck packs 13 master cards (78 card deck) and I had a brutal master card hand jam. The only master I didn't see was Grooming the Protege (I play 6), which basically means that I drew all the other 7. Yes, I shuffled my deck. I also play 7 Parity Shifts, I drew 0 in the opening phase of the game. This card draw forced me to play my emergency strategy, which most people disagree with, but it works for me. Since I had only 1 Dmitra in play and 4 pool on Carlak and my predator had already 4 minions and was on a bloating strategy I went for my "predator is right" rule. The last thing I wanted to see was my predator having some allys with Unmasking and FBI in play + 4-5 vampires. I drew an early Alastor, which I could pass, so I could back rush. I also played a Pentex on one of the vampire. A few turns later Maros got ousted.

I was much more happy with my new predator. I weenie presence bleed deck seems frightening in the first place, but when you play a dozen Second Trads + Psyche! and you are already equipped with an Assault Rifle, than you don't have to worry too much. By this time I started to draw my Parity Shifts and Groomings, so I could pop out another vampire (Karen Suadela) and play a New Carthage. While all the above happened, Frankie was doing a lot of pressure on Gulya. Both players had bad luck. Guyla because he didn't drew any Telepathic Misdirections, instead he drew My Enemey's Enemy (3 of them). Every time Frankie got bounced to me I had to make deals with him so he won't back oust me. So basically I kept promising not to rush him and so on. Frankie had bad luck, because he didn't drew the Hide the Minds in time and when he could have done without, than he didn't drew stealth. So basically Frankie was using up resources and locked down Gulya, who couldn't bloat the way he wanted. Frankie play 2 Spying Missions and a Tangle Atropo's Hand to not oust me. He knew that though I was a potentially danger for him, at this time of the game the presence weenie was still strong. In the case I die, Mark would have gotten a 2nd vp and still be able to oust Frankie (Mark had still 5 minions at the time the bleed bounces happened). 

Mark lost his patience and decided to crash into me. Actually at this point I was happy that he decided to do this. He passed the Anarch Troublemaker and bled me with Daring the Dawn. That was not enough for the oust, but he thought it will hurt me a lot. Well it didn't. I call Parity Shifts again and have the Troublemaker! Meanwhile I had a Fame played on Frankie support vampire and torporized it. I had Frankie down to 2 pool with a Fame in torpor. This means that Frankie survived and could take another action with Lucian. Right before that I contested the Ivory bow with Guyla, which he didn't block (he needed the intercept against Frankie). Now came a strange part: Frankie tried to oust Guyla and asked me to give him a stealth with my Monastery of Shadows. Guyla at this point was pretty much set-up with nasty permanents in play, like Improvising Flamethrower, .44 Magnum, Madness Network + Victoria, etc. Remember that the Troublemaker was passed to me (destroying my only Assault Rifle). At this time I was very much afraid that after I oust Frankie I will have no chance at all against Guyla. So I gave Frankie the stealth. Weird. Fortunately Frankie didn't make the oust. Guyla survived and ousted Mark. I started my turn with playing another Pentex Subversion targeting Victoria, which Frankie did Sudden Reversal. Arrgh! I ousted Frankie and we were heads-up with Guyla. 

The heads-up started with Gulya playing a Pentex Subversion (altogether 6 Pentex Subversions were played at this table, I didn't mention any single one) on my Dmitra. Ouch! In my turn I used the Troublemaker to get rid of the Improvising Flamethrower. This left Guyla with no aggravated damage available. Guyla played a Smiling Jack which should have won him the game. Meanwhile of course actions happened. My strategy was to torporize as many of his weenies as possible. With no Assault Rifle and Dmitra Pentexed (she had a Preternatural Strength) I had to do this with "hands for one" and my Celerity cards. I managed to send some weenies into torpor and payed for the Smiling Jack with the blood on Dmitra. I played my only "joker" I had: Dragonbound. Since I started the heads-up with more pool and more blood on my vampires I had a very little advantage. I managed to keep Guyla's vampires in torpor. Guyla needed to pay for the Dragonbound and also 1 pool for the Jack! In the last turn of the game I had 3 pool 2 tapped vampires, one with 0 and one with 1 blood. Guyla had two vampires in play, one of them had +1 bleed; also he had many torporized minions. If Guyla survives his turn he wins. Well I had another Second Trad, which made it impossible for Gulya to either bleed me dead or rescue a vampire and he died from the Dragonbound. 1 Game Win 3 Victory Points for me.

2nd round: Peter Ducai (Giovanni + Gehenna anarch bleed) -> Me -> Csaba Pal (Maris wall) -> Zsolt Varga (Anatole toolbox, shifting more towards bleed) -> Tomas Varga (Akunanse (based on Brian Moritz's 15 wakes)) 

After the first turns excitements I was still a little, hm, shocked. With Maris showing up, I was pretty sure that I won't have any Alastor here. Peter Ducai bleed me constantly. So what did I do? Remember my first rule in v:tes: Predator is right. Can't emphasize this enough, especially when playing combat. So I kept dealing with Maris and played all Parity Shifts backwards, basically back ousting Peter. Now I had to face a new predator: a very strong Akunanse. Hurray! Remember: Predator is right. Even more dealing with Maris. He let me play my Alastor with the condition that I never attack him with the Alastor. He did this, because the Akunanse was a table threat at this time. Should the Akunanse oust me he would basically vaporize Maris in combat. Once I had the Assault Rifle on Dmitra I played another Alastor with the same condition on Karen Suadela. Since I promised not to rush Maris he let me do it. The Alternative would have been losing a vampire in combat with Dmitra. I turned to Zsolt Varga and offered him a simple deal: I back oust the Akunanse and he back ousts Maris. He accepted. Of course Tomas and Csaba made the same deal. I played a Dragonbound and started to rush the Akunanse. I had plenty of Celerity cards in my hand so I could stay long and additional strike. Unfortunately Zsolt forgot about the Dragonbound. Csaba bled him hard earlier and Zsolt was down to 2 pool. He tried to cycle cards and lost 2 vampires against the Akunanse and died from the Dragonbound. Meanwhile Maris got very low on blood, because he needed to give the Akunanse intercept. Since we were 2 vs. 1 I needed to turn this in a 1 vs. 1 game. I torporized every single Akunanse. Meanwhile I had to contest a Pentex Subversion and was very low on pool. Csaba, being afraid of getting Parity Shifted spent his pool, too. He was well prepared against bleed. Since I couldn't rush him (I keep my deals) and bleed was not an option, my only ousting power was Parity Shift. Csaba didn't calculate with me spending pool. He was down at 2 pool and I had 3 pool. I carefully gathered 2 Parity Shift's in my hand. In my turn I payed 1 pool for the Pentex contest and 1 pool for the Wider View! So I was down at 1 pool! I played my first Shift which was blocked, but Maris got emptied. My second Parity Shift passed and I ousted Csaba. Tomas had only torporized vampires at 0 blood, so he gave up. 1 Game Win 3 Victory Points.

3rd round: Jan Harcarufka (big cap bleed with obf+dom) -> Me -> Tomas Varga (Akunanse) -> Silvester Miklos (Lodin) -> ??? (Dominate Brujah, Asnek, if you are reading this please give me a name here)

Really not much to say here. Tomas started with Fakir al Sidi. Since he was afraid of my deck he made it pretty clear that I will never ever get my Alastor. I made sure Jan won't oust me. The Dominate Brujah ousted Jan and the ousted me (Jan bled me for like 20 somewhat pool before he died). Tomas made the Game Win. 0 VP's here.

T E H  F I N A L

Peter Botos (Nergal + Infernal Servitor) -> Martin Varga (Carna toolbox) -> Tomas Varga (Akunanse) -> Me -> Adam Horvath (Nana Buruku)

Tomas was first seat in the Final and he sat behind me to make sure I wont have an Alastor. My prey was another animalism deck. Stuck between 2 decks that can crush weapons, block and having the Carrrion Crows + press combat, I was doomed. Tomas, of course started with Fakir. Game Over. My strategy was to stay in the game for as long as possible.

Peter Botos put some early pressure on the Carna, but failed to oust him. Adam crushed and ousted him. After this nothing happened for like an hour. I didn't understand Martin Vargas game. He never really tried to make his vp. With a vp gone and him not being the first seat the only chance of winning the tournament is getting a vp himself (he was better seated than Adam). There was a Situation when he had the Anarch Troublemaker, 4 vampires with a possible bleed for 6 and his prey down at 3 pool. He didn't try. We had a good conversation about this after the final. His point was that if he ousts Tomas, but looses some minions he can't build up and bloat more. Also he was afraid of me, which I still don't get, since I was denied basically everything. I had two vampires and nothing on them. All my earlier attempts got blocked, delayed or canceled by Fakir. And I did try. Though I understand his point of view I totally have to disagree with him. In any final were you are not top seated, giving up on gaining a vp equals giving up the final. To be fair, I have to say, that I gave up the final. The difference is that he had a very realistic chance of getting his vp. I am totally sure he could have made it. Adam never back rushed me. I got pressure from the Akunanse only  and I was still totally locked down. Any move from me in a forward direction would have resulted in Adam rushing me backwards. My plan was to maximize my vp's with 0,5 being more than 0. Adam had 5 vampires very fast and never went below 18 pool, also he had fix intercept. I almost managed my goal to get that 0,5 vp's, but 2 minutes before the end of the final Tomas ousted me.See, even with me playing only for defense I got ousted. Tomas won the tournament with 1,5 VP's in the final. Well done!

Finals Standing:

GW VP VP(final) TP

1 Tomas Varga 2 8 1,5 162
2 Martin Major 2 6 0,5 144
2 Adam Horvath 2 7 1,5 168
2 Martin Varga 2 7 0,5 168
2 Peter Botos 1 6 0 132
_______________________

6 Matus Kovacik 1 5 96
7 Gyula Erdos 1 4 126
8 Ferenc Vasadi 1 4 96
9 Mark Virsinger 0 3 120
10 Szilveszter Miklos 0 2 114
11 Csaba Pal 0 2 108
12 Vladimir Korl 0 2 90
13 Zsolt Varga 0 1 84
14 Jan Harcarufka 0 0 82
14 Balazs Sebestyén 0 0 82
16 Robert Laszlo 0 0 76
17 Mihaly Antal 0 0 72
18 Maros Chomjak 0 0 66
18 Peter Ducai 0 0 66 

And the tournament winning deck:

Deck Name:   15 Wakes

Created By:  Tomas Varga

Description: Inspired by Brian Moritz's 17 wakes

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 15, Max: 40, Avg: 7)

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  2  Fakir al Sidi                      abo ANI FOR PRE PRO THA11 Gangrel

  2  Matata                             aus cel obf ABO ANI FOR9  Akunanse

  2  Amavi                              pre pro ABO ANI FOR8  Akunanse

  1  Uchenna                            ABO ANI FOR    7  Akunanse

  1  Jubal                              ANI ABO pot for6  Akunanse

  1  Sanjo                              abo chi ANI FOR6  Akunanse

  1  Nestor Kaba                        abo ani for    4  Akunanse

  1  Dolie                              abo ani        3  Akunanse

  1  Meno Ngari                         abo            2  Akunanse

Library: (83 cards)

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Master (20 cards)

  2  Abombwe

  1  Mbare Market, Harare

  3  Blood Doll

  1  Coven, The

  1  Dreams of the Sphinx

  1  Giant`s Blood

  1  Information Highway

  2  Mapatano Utando

  1  Powerbase: Luanda

  2  Powerbase: Montreal

  1  Rack, The

  4  Villein

Action (10 cards)

  8  Deep Song

  2  Well-Marked

Action Modifier (4 cards)

  1  Devil-Channel: Throat

  3  Predator`s Mastery

Reaction (16 cards)

  4  Cats` Guidance

  1  Terra Incognita

  6  Predator`s Communion

  5  Sense the Savage Way

Combat (26 cards)

  2  Canine Horde

  6  Carrion Crows

  4  Devil-Channel: Back

  7  Invoking the Beast

  2  Rolling with the Punches

  5  Taste of Vitae

Retainer (6 cards)

  1  Mr. Winthrop

  5  Raven Spy

Equipment (1 cards)

  1  Reliquary: Akunanse Remains

Conclusion:

It was an interesting tournament with 2 awesome games and 2 terrible ones for me. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks guys for coming and making this a great v:tes event. Dragonbound rocks (I had to realize this one more time) and while the vast majority out there will always argue with me, always remember that: predator is right.

by: Mephistopheles