Tournament Report: Fee Stake: Budapest

Hi folks!

As promised here is my tournament report. First of all let me say that I was very surprised about us ending up with 21 players! That is really good. As all my cards are still somewhere in the attic I went with the one deck I still had ready to play: Eze, The Demon Prince. It is a deck that is fun to play, doesn't generate much table hate the way I built it (no flashy Helicopter, Rutors Hand and what not multi actions, no aggressiveness early on) and play it and overall has never let me down. For a long time it was its last appearance though as I want to play so many different decks now.

First table:

It was the only five player table. My prey played a weenie War Ghoul deck and had basically the most perfect start you can ever wish with such a deck. My cross table buddy played a weenie Setite deck based around Waters of Duat and Dream World. Sort a stealth-bleed deck basically. Next in line was an Enkidu deck with Raptors. My predator started with Hardestadt an followed up with a 9 cap Giovanni if I recall correctly. Well my deck does heavily rely on Banishment so I was not happy about Hardestadt. In hindsight this table was winnable though. I made several mistakes this game. for example I forgot to play my Villein the turn after I brought Eze to the field. I had to play this game very defensively as I didn't want the War Ghoul deck to attack me. My second BIG mistake was that with my Magic of The Smith I went to fetch Kduva's Mask instead of Heart of Cheating. I couldn't cycle my cards as fast as I wanted to and because I only drew 1 Majesty altogether I didn't dare to pressure forward. Third mistake was that I discarded my Ancilla in the first turn. Should not have done that! Thinking back I am almost sure that if I played better I could have made at least 2 vp's here or maybe even a Game Win if I help ousting Enkidu cross table. I had one shot when I tried to oust my Prey with a Reins of Power, but he had delaying tactics and see: if I hadn't discarded that Ancilla I could have gotten through with it with Nana Buruku using Monastery of Shadows + Perfect Paragon. This way I managed to stay alive until the table timed out. 0,5 VP

Second Table:

This was the kind of table you play vtes for! This was a four player table. I got to start with two transfers and got luck enough to draw a Dreams of the Sphinx in my opening hand. My prey played an Assamite mid cap combat deck with some auspex support and a decent amount of "wake" cards. My cross table buddy played the Gangrel antitribu Dual From deck that ended up winning the tournament. It was based on Aksinya and Una with Cardinal Benedictcumberbatch. My predator was the Setite bleed deck from table one. In all honesty I thought I will get nothing here. My combat defense against Psyche! is worthless and I can't stop 10 minions bleeding with stealth. But Fortuna decided to help my out with this one. The Assamite deck didn't want to right away kill my 11 cap with a stealth bleed behind me so I return that I don't pressure him he let me be and focused on his prey. Well guess my first Master card on my turn? Exactly! With Secure Haven on Eze I temporarily felt safe. I am not sure if I remember correctly, but I think I got Kduva's Mask in my hand and managed to equip it. Meanwhile my crossy started really well, with enough combat cards to defend him self and he got his dual form + cardinal benediction combo off. He was up to a good start. However nobody could stop my Setite predator from bloating and getting minion after minion.Thirty minutes in to the game it felt like all four of us have a good chance of winning this table as well as being on the edge to getting ousted. At a given point I had to call Political Stranglehold to stay alive, but this game the anti Gangrel 9 additional pool. This brought him close of getting out of control so I banished his vampire burning the Dual From to reset the balance. But on the other hand he brought back Una (or Aksinya, can't remember) with full blood, so he could protect him better. As we continued playing everybody kept degenerating in resourced, you know less blood on vampire, less pool until you met a point where you had to commit. The Gangrel-anti almost ousted the Setite. At this point with Nana in torpor (meanwhile the Assamite did attack me and Nana had a contract on her) and only Eze up I decided to steal the Setite's Jake Washington with Entrancement. This sealed his fate as really every chance to block, every piece of pool counted. It was obvious that the Gangrel-anti will get his VP. I managed to convince my prey to rescue Nana so I have a chance to defend. Remember this was a 4 player table, if the Gangrel anti gets me as well my predator has no chance for the game win anymore. So he rescued Nana and I used Jake to restore 4 blood on her. I figured my best chance was to let the VP's split and go for the one vs. one against the Assamite as he was really low on blood on his vampires. We agreed I let him in peace until he oust his prey so he only focuses forward and doesn't attack me. This happened within 2 turns. I was well prepared for the 1 vs 1. I had Enkil Cog ready, Banishment on his main vampire and I had a Sudden in my hand against his Pentex he tried to play on me. He managed to torporize Nana though and I got really short on pool. It was now or never and I had to go for a bleed of 5 with Eze in my turn. He didn't have an Archon Investigation, so I ousted him and finished this table with a Game Win with 2VP's.

Third Table:

My prey was a Nephandus deck, cross table I had a big cap voter with Queen Anne and one of the new vampires, a Setite Prince , some advanced version of an older one. My predator was a Saulot deck with Neighbour John as support, who started with an early Ivory Bow. The Nephandus Deck had a very impressive start. Not only did he spa Nephandi he also had 2-3 Hexapeds and several vampires. Since neither his prey nor me could block his actions, oh and he started with a first turn Montreal as well. Being the threat he was my crossy offered a deal to oust him and my predator together and go for the 1v1. I was very happy with this so I gladly agreed. He called an Ancilla, but the Nephandus player had a Delaying Tactics. Next turn he didn't want to play it again as he rightfully realized that he had no real chance in a one vs. one against me anymore. I can totally understand that. My problem was that this version of Eze is opted against mid cap decks with all my Banishments. I only have one Ancilla in my deck and it never showed up despite having a Heart of Cheating out. The next 10-20 minutes was the usual passive degrading phase you see so often. Nobody wanted to commit too hard, but everybody was getting weaker, except for the Nephandi who became even more of a threat. The pressure was on my crossy. He decided to commit, but couldn't oust his prey due to another delaying tactics. I rescued him from Torpor to give him a chance and he actually did manage to survive the Nephandi's turn. And now comes the part I am still feeling bad about: he had little left in the tank and it was sure he would not have another turn. He tried to oust his prey again and we reached a point were he had 1 pool, 1 ready vampire with only 1 blood left. He considered going for the Ancilla again which would have killed his prey, himself and the Nephandus deck, meaning he gets one VP the Nephandi one and I get the Game Win with 2 VP's. He already showed the card and tapped his vampire when the Nephandi sayed he should not give me the Game Win. He had no stealth in his hand anymore and Saulot was standing. He took back the card and went for a bleed with Govern hoping in a top-deck stealth to get his vp, which he didn't drew so he got nothing. My predator was so brought down though, that the Nephandi got a free 2 Vp's and faced me with +12 pool and a huge army bringing even more Nephandi out. Obviously I didn't stand a chance at all and the Nephandi took his sweep. It wouldn't have bothered me if the "King Maker" makes a call against me. What bothers me is making a call against me by also choosing the worse result for him self. He had to choose between him getting a VP and the table ending 1-0-2-1 or getting nothing and giving the Nephandi 1GW 4VP. 

Summary:

The meta didn't fit my deck at all. Too many 11 caps, too many allies (Strange Day, Flaming Candle don't work, having many minions with 1 intercept from Unmasking hurt me a lot, no real Banishment targets as I can't banish 11 caps or whats the point is banishing 2-3 caps?) too many Psyche/Immortal Grapple decks. Pretty much sort of the worst meta for my deck. Despite this I managed to get 1GW 2.5 VP's all together after more than 3 years without playing a single game. So overall I am satisfied. I could have played much better on the first table. 2Vp's from there wold have been enough for the final. I could have gotten my ticket from the third table, but well it wasn't meant to be. Overall I had fun and I am looking forward to the next tournament. 

Final Results:

PlayerName / GW / VPs / TPs


1 DávidWittmann 2 7,5 156
2 MártonGuttyán 2 7 148
3 MátéVaka 1 5 114
4 ZsoltHernádi 1 4,5 138
5 ZsoltCziráki 1 3,5 126
6 MátéVida 1 3,5 124
7 BalázsKalóczkai 1 3 100
8 NorbertBróda 1 3 84
9 MartinMajor 1 2,5 124
10 AttilaFerencz 1 2 106
11 SándorNagy 0 3 130
12 JózsefGál 0 3 114
13 ZsoltSzekeres 0 1,5 112
14 AttilaTormási 0 1,5 102
15 KristófTóth 0 1,5 102
16 ÁdámPéter 0 1,5 94
17 RóbertLászló 0 1,5 90
18 LászlóWalter 0 1 100
19 GáborMartók 0 1 78
20 MarcellVarjasi 0 0,5 72
21 ZoltánTóth 0 54

Final


ZsoltHernádi 0
ZsoltCziráki 0,5
MártonGuttyán 0,5
DávidWittmann 0,5
MátéVaka 1,5


Congrats to Máté Vaka for winning with his stylish Gangrel-anti Dual cucumberbatch deck! GG well played! I didn't stay for the final as I was starving for food and I was already too tired. I hope next time I can make notes and report of a final as well.

f.y.i.: there is now a tournament winning deck archive HUN TWDA on this site. It will feature only winning decks from Hungarian tournaments.