Tournament Report: HNC Kecskemét

Hi folks!

Altogether 27 people played a wonderful tournament in Kecskemét. Our Croatian and Serbian friends visited us so it was a real international event. Thank you guys for coming! After my rather disappointing performance at the EC I decided to explore new decks and be more creative. So I've built a new deck finally. I've posted the deck on vekn.net earlier, but unfortunately I got almost no feedback on it. So I decided to play it the way I've built it. We are talking about a deck built on Eze, the Demon Prince. An 11 cap Guruhi, who can not bounce bleed (Lost in Translation is a no-no for me). The deck is not entirely my own creation. We co-worked the 1.0 alpha version of it with Frankie during the EC in Warsaw. So here is how it went:

1st round:

Me - János Barcsik (Malkavian Toolbox) - Attila Ferenc (Petaniqua Infernal Servitor) - Nikica Novakovic (New Blood Brother stealth-bleed) -  Mihály Antal (Tatu Sawosa Orun Brutal Influence)

Nikica started with an early Narrow Minds and bringing his 5 vampires out very fast. This made Mihály play very defensively, especially because he didn't see any Oruns. He drew one to be specific. Due to this situation I was left with very little pressure and so I could tool up. An Infamous Villein  Giant's Blood combo together with an Ancient Influence helped me to a lot of pool. I had Eze, Ugadja and Nana in play and still more than 20 pool! Meanwhile I was also gathering stuff on Eze: Kduva's Mask, Enkil Cog, Well-marked, Preternatural Strength, Heart of Cheating and Perfectionist. I constantly grind my prey with bleeds for 3, which he could either block and take 3 damage, deflect it for 3 blood or let it in and loose 3 pool. When a vampire was low on pool I played a Banishment on it. There was one moment of stress here though. One time János played a Coma and Eze went to torpor. My first rescue was blocked, but I had a Majesty and thanks Lucifer rescuing  from Torpor is a repeatable action. My second attempt was successful.

By the time it was obvious that I will oust my prey Attila played an Unleash Hell's Fury with Petaniqua and he felt pretty save. Well, not for long. I played a Magic of the Smith and equipped Eze with a Signet of King Saul! So neither Petaniqua nor the Hell's Fury could block me. I ousted my prey, however meanwhile Nikica ousted his prey too. Attila realizing that he has no chance to stop Eze went forward to oust Nikica and he almost did it. He left Nikica at 1 or 2 pool, who then tried to oust me. He bled me for 7!!! with a Blood Brother, but I had an Archon Investigation in my hand. He bled me for another 5, but ran out of Walk of Caines, so he decided to stop and try to defend. He finished his turn with 3 pool.

In my turn I managed to oust Attila and could play Edge of the World on the oust with Eze! Bitch please!!! My next action was a bleed for 3 with Nana Buruku + Iron Glare and I had a Monastery of Shadows in play. 1 Game Win and 4 Victory Points.

2nd round:

Denes Kocis (Anarch Weenie Auspex) - Me - Balázs Pálffy (Blood Brother rush) - Djordje Sutic (Lucian the Perfect combat deck)

This table started worse than the average Nightmare on Elm Street. Denes played 2 Anarch Revolts, a Constant Revolution and kept bleeding me with weenies like hell. Even though I managed to replace a Villein on one of my early discards I was positive to die pretty fast. Thanks Lucifer this was a 4 player table and my prey as well as my cross table buddy were both very much afraid of Denes. So we kept removing all the cards: Constant Revolution, Anarch Revolt and Madness Network. I somehow survived. Lucian was hurting those spex guys with Carrion Crows. Denes got weak and suddenly I could play again. I got my Enkil Cog on a bleed for one and Magic of the Smith-ed myself a Kduva's Mask. Meanwhile Balázs saw his chance to make a Vp and started pushing Djordje. Balázs counted on me bleeding for three, but he didn't count with a Reins of Power. That was what happened and suddenly I had my Vp. Too bad I used up my Strange Day on this. Lucian ousted Denes and the two 11 cap Guruhi were heads-up! Bitch please! 

When building the deck I had one thing in mind: defend against Pentex! So besides playing it myself I put 2 Sudden Reversals in the deck with the following attitude: once I draw a Sudden I will keep it in my hand until a Pentex is played on me! I will never ever play Sudden on anything else, but a Pentex on Eze. Of course neither a Sudden nor Pentex showed up. When Djordje played his Pentex on me I had only 2 outs: draw my Pentex asap so I can contest it or alternatively draw my Archon Investigation. Even though I cycled the crap out of my deck neither card showed up so I lost this game to Djordje. 

3rd round:

Márk Virsinger (Lutz and friends) - Denes Kocis (Anarch Auspex Weenie) - Ferenc Kósa (Guillaume Giovanni) - Zsolt Cziráki (Salubri! Wall) - Me

I had a pretty bad draw here. Even though I started with a Signet of King Saul and a Kduva's Mask on Eze and was therefore nearly unblockable (Zsolt started with Nahum Enosh) I failed to draw any pool gaining card. Neither a Villein nor any of the pool gaining votes showed up. I didn't dare to block Zsolt because he would have hit the crap out of me. When I was low on pool he caught me by surprise and ousted me with a Blessing the Name. It was very nicely done Zsolt, respect!

So I had a 1 Game Win 5 Victory Points after the preliminaries. Not bad, considering this was the very first time that I played this deck. We were 27 guys, so I counted on ending up 7-8th place. I was a little surprised when it turned out I finished 5th and therefore can play the final! YEAH!!! There were many people with 1/4 and 1/3, even the 16th place had still a Game Win!

Final:

Balázs Kaloczkai (Turbo Una) - Zsolt Cziráki (Salubri!) - Péter Botos (Ventrue! Grinder) - Milos Krstic (Nana Buruku) - Me

From my point of view this was a terrible table. Milos started with 2 weenies and bled me right away with the Deep Songs. Once I had Eze in the Game he Pentex-ed him right away and nobody on the table tried to help me. I didn't had the pool to bring out a second vampire and died. That's it from my side.

The only question in the final was if Una or Nana will win it. Since Zsolt managed to block many important actions Una made and Péter blocked a Sire's Index Finger with an Eagle's Sight cross table, Balázs wasn't strong enough to beat Nana. Milos won the tournament. Another Nana deck in the TWDA. Yawn. Congratulations though to Milos, he is a very good player and the tournament win was well deserved.

Conclusions: 

First: 

I once wrote here on my blog that I didn't play many decks earlier because I was afraid of bleed decks as a first predator. I also wrote that I realized that I hardly ever have a bleed deck predator anymore. That is why I decided to give decks like this Eze deck a chance. I was right! The only bleed deck predator I had was Tatu Sawosa with brutal Influence. However that deck needs time, so I could have answered that with cards like Banishment. In this current Hungarian meta bleed decks are very rare and those bleed decks you will meet are also nothing like a weenie Dominate or weenie Dementation bleed. 

Second:

Signet of King Saul is pure gold. Our meta is so heavily filled with 8-11 cap vampires that on many tables a Signet will basically make you unblockable. Also Equipment worth mentioning is Blade of Enoch or Sire's Index Finger since that Nana deck runs only Deep Songs. Deep Song is a frenzy card! So if you equip yourself with a Blade or Finger it's like a Secure Haven. 

Third:

When playing a star vampire deck running 2 Suddens and 1 Pentex is not enough to protect your main guy from a being Pentex-ed. 

The Deck:

Deck Name: Eze will slow roll you
Created By: Martin "Mephistopheles" Major


Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 27, Max: 44, Avg: 8,91)
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  1  Aren                               ani obf POT PRE7  Guruhi
  4  Eze                                aus ANI NEC POT PRE THA11 Guruhi
  1  Lumumba                            ani PRE        4  Guruhi
  2  Nana Buruku                        ANI POT PRE    8  Guruhi
  2  Sobayifa                           ANI aus pot PRE pro spi8  Guruhi
  2  Ugadja                             ABO ANI dom for POT PRE10 Guruhi

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (18 cards)
  1  Ancestor Spirit
  1  Archon Investigation
  2  Dreams of the Sphinx
  1  Giant`s Blood
  1  Monastery of Shadows
  1  Palace Hunting Ground
  1  Pentex Subversion
  1  Perfectionist
  1  Secure Haven
  2  Sudden Reversal
  5  Villein
  1  Wider View

Action (15 cards)
  2  Entrancement
  5  Founders of the Ebony Kingdom
  3  Magic of the Smith
  1  Preternatural Strength
  2  Rutor`s Hand (This was never useful, I always discarded it)
  2  Well-Marked

Action Modifier (24 cards)
  4  Call of the Hungry Dead
  1  Edge of the World
  3  Enkil Cog
  4  Iron Glare
  2  Mirror Walk
  6  Perfect Paragon
  1  Strange Day
  3  Voter Captivation

Political Action (8 cards)
  1  Ancient Influence
  1  Ancilla Empowerment
  3  Banishment
  1  Neonate Breach
  1  Political Stranglehold
  1  Reins of Power

Reaction (9 cards)
  9  Sense the Savage Way (the more the merrier)

Combat (8 cards)
  8  Majesty

Equipment (5 cards)
  1  Gran Madre di Dio, Italy (will be removed for a Blade of Enoch)
  1  Heart of Nizchetus
  1  Ivory Bow
  1  Kduva`s Mask
  1  Signet of King Saul, The

Event (2 cards)
  1  Narrow Minds
  1  Scourge of the Enochians

Combo (1 cards)
  1  Guruhi Kholo