HNC Ranking updated

Hi folks!

I've updated the HNC ranking. There are still 2 archon files missing, so further updates will hopefully follow soon.

by: Mephistopheles

Tournament Report: HNC Hatvan

Hi folks!

As I mentioned before I played 2 tournaments this weekend. Here is the report for the tournament I played on Saturday. I played a brand new deck that I had built on Friday and took to the tourney without any testing. It is a Group 3-4 Toreador deck. You will find the deck list at the end of this post. So here is what happened:

1st table:

Márk (obf-dom) - Myself - Máté (Renegade Garou) - Csaba (Reversal Malks)

We knew what Csaba was playing so he was the declared table threat. We managed to stop him from starting his combo. Meanwhile the Máté didn't rush me back and I gathered a sufficient amount of s:ce cards in my hand. There was a brief moment when the table decided to play against me, so I offered Csaba a vp for a vp and a heads-up for the game win. Csaba was ina pretty lost position by that time, so he accepted. Máté rushed me backwards with 3 Garous and I cycled my 3 s:ce cards. I ousted Máté with a Parity shift + Ancilla combo and helped Csaba to make his vp as promised. I won the heads up since I had vote lock. A pretty fast 1GW 3VP.

2nd table:

Can't remeber the exact seating.

One of the most boring tables ever. I had a bad crypt and didn't see any grand balls. Basically I spent the entire game just trying to survive. With a wall deck around and a Dmitra deck without Dmitra the whole table went time out. Really nothing to report about here.

3rd table:

Myself - Frankie (Classic Alexandra Grand Ball) - Dávid (Massassi) - Botos (Trujah) - Csaba (Reversal)

Actually I am not 100% sure about this...

Another bad table. I had an early Toreador Justicar but contested the title with Anneke. I had a lot of pressure from behind so I had to go for a backoust. Meanwhile the Massassi deck built up very well. I had a few chances to oust Frankie, but either missed that 1 transient vote push or that one +bleed action so I couldn't oust him. In the end the Massassi deck killed us all.

Final table:

Dávid (Massassi) - Milán (Cel Princes) - Máté (Garou) - Myself - Csaba (Reversal)

I don't know how on earth it happened but Csaba decided to play only backwards against me. So I already played against two players, but kept myself well in the game. At this point Csaba could convince Dávid to cross table rush me. During the entire final Dávid didn't take a single action against his prey, but instead started playing cross table against me. What the FUCK???  My deck is quite defensive, but no deck can survive playing against 3 players, especially with Garous behind and a Potence combat comming from cross table. What could I do? I offered Milan to backoust Máté, if he lets me get Csaba. This wasn't enough though. I had to cut a second deal with Dávid saying that I don't go forward until he ousts Milán. So I backousted Máté and killed Csaba. Milán and Dávid were both higher seat than me, so currently Milán was winning the final. I counted on Dávid to try to win the final, but even in this situation he did NOTHING against his prey. I cycled my deck like hell, to draw damage causing votes. Meanwhile I am totally against breaking a deal, but in this situation? I would have totally tried to oust Dávid if I could. Unfortunately I drew nothing good and we timed out. Milán won te tournament by being a higher seat than me. Very, very poorly played by Dávid. If you have no intentions at all to try to win a final than go home and let the 6th place play...

So here is my deck list:

Deck Name: The Thorne of the Rose 1.0

Created By: Mephistopheles

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 13, Max: 32, Avg: 6)

-------------------------------------------

  1  Antoinette                         AUS cel obf PRE6  Toreador

  1  Emerson Wilkershire III            pre            2  Toreador

  2  Epikasta Rigatos                   cel AUS DOM PRE8  Toreador

  2  Fleurdumal                         AUS cel DEM PRE tha8  Toreador

  1  Ira Rivers                         ani AUS CEL pre7  Toreador

  1  Kateline Nadasdy                   AUS CEL PRE    7  Toreador

  1  Lucina                             AUS cel PRE pro7  Toreador

  1  Michael Luther                     aus pre        4  Toreador

  1  Thomas De Lutrius                  aus cel pre    4  Toreador

  1  Yvette                             aus cel        3  Toreador

Library: (80 cards)

-------------------

Master (15 cards)

  1  Art Museum

  1  Elysium: The Palace of Versailles

  1  Papillon

  1  Pentex Subversion

  1  Powerbase: Montreal

  1  Society Hunting Ground

  6  Toreador Grand Ball

  3  Vessel

Action (2 cards)

  2  Entrancement

Action Modifier (12 cards)

  2  Aire of Elation

  3  Awe

  3  Bewitching Oration

  4  Voter Captivation

Political Action (17 cards)

  1  Anarchist Uprising

  1  Ancilla Empowerment

  3  Kine Resources Contested

  3  Neonate Breach

  4  Parity Shift

  3  Toreador Justicar

  2  Consanguinous Boon

Reaction (22 cards)

  4  Eyes of Argus

  6  My Enemy`s Enemy

  4  On the Qui Vive

  2  Second Tradition: Domain, The

  6  Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (10 cards)

  4  Charismatic Aura

  6  Majesty

Equipment (2 cards)

  1  Heart of Nizchetus

  1  Sniper Rifle

After the tournament I took out the 2 Boons and added another 2 KRC's. I'll write the tourney report for the ECQ Vienna tomorrow.

by: Mephistopheles

Wow, what a weekend coming up!

Hi folks!

Somebody just spilled AWESOME all over my schedule: a v:tes tourney in Hatvan on Saturday and an ECQ in Vienna on Sunday. I am going to play both events with a brand new deck I want to play on Day1 during the EC in Warsaw. Six tournament rounds of v:tes should be a nice way to test the deck. After tomorrow I might swap some cards and test those changes on Sunday. 

It is going to be "Legen - wait for it - dary!!!"

by: Mephistopheles

What goes around comes around...

Thanks goes to Tiago Brum for noticing this. There is really nothing new under the sun. 

What would you do?

Hi folks!

I wonder what would you do with a card or 1-2 cards in your otherwise tight deck, which will prove useful or even a game winning cards once in every 10 games, but just simply be discarded in the other 9 games? Should I keep it? Or should I replace it/them with cards that are always useful, just no game winners?

What's your point? Please comment?

by: Mephistopheles

Tournament Report: ECQ Kosice

Hi folks!

Really just a brief report now. After a very long time not playing v:tes I finally played again. I joined the event for one reason only: getting back into the game. It turned out this was really necessary! Let's start with this funny thing: I forgot to bring counters with me. Not because I was careless, but because it didn't occur to me that this game needs counters! Wow!!!

I played with my Dmitra Alastor deck, because I will play this deck at the EC for sure (don't know on which day yet). There is not much to report, but here are a few thoughts:

1. table

My predator was Tzimisce wall deck, which is my archenemy number one (with this Dmitra deck). Obviously my only chance was to make sure the wall dies. However there was a secondary problem: after the Tzimisce is gone I'll be stuck between 2 other vote decks! My prey ousted his prey and the 3 voter decks were left on the table with both of them being afraid of my Alastor combat. I had a small window open to win this one, but didn't draw the necessary cards. 

2. table

This was a 4 players table. Peter Botos was my predator with his Rock Cat deck. By the time I could bring out 2 vampires the same time (with my cross table buddy bringing out 2 vamps the same time, too) Peter had already 4 Rock Cats. He knew my deck and he was afraid of the Alastor, too, so he rushed my right away. I made a serious technical mistake here by playing a Resist Earth' Grasp with Carlak instead of saving it for Dmitra. I still somehow managed to get back into the game with the help of a Forced March and called the Alastor. Unfortunately I ran out of second trads. I had a Fame in my hand, but just before my turn Peter played the Fame on Carlak. Since Dmitra was tapped out he could torporize Carlak and I died. If I hadn't made that mistake with the Resist, I would have had the Alastor 1 turn earlier and quite certainly either won the game or made a 2/2 vp split. I think it is amazing such small mistakes can have a strong effect on the entire table! I can't afford to make such mistakes at the EC!

3. table

Great opening crypt and hand! I had a strong predator with Chaundice (kind of a wall/combat deck), but maaged to set up well and make a fast vp thanks to New Carthage. This was also a 4 players table. As always with Dmitra I was the table threat once more. I am used to play against 2-3 players the same time with this deck, but sometimes it a little annoying. In this very balanced situation I made tons of technical mistakes. Too many to list them all. Most of my decisions very bad. This would have been a table which I could have won easily and a few month ago I would have won it. With all these mistakes I made I got ousted backwards by Milan who than made a Game Win with 2 vp's.

Conclusion

Generally spoken I can distinguish two types of v:tes decks: the rock-paper-scissor deck and the versatile deck. Rock-paper-scissor decks are one-trick decks like Giovanni Powerbleed, Obf-Dom stealth-bleed, Embrace swarm toreador antitribu, weenie potence, etc.

When the Archon randomizes the seating each of these decks show rock, paper, or scissor and supposed the players are roughly on the same level the outcome of the game is mostly determined by the seating. I think this is the reason why many of the pro players play the other deck type.

The versatile deck is per definition a deck that can answer almost every game situation. However this comes at a price: you must play technically flawless. You will have to make many decisions on how to intervene in the game. There is no script you can just run. In order to win almost every decision you make has to be the right one. I believe my Dmitra deck is such a deck. Other decks for this category are the Girls will find decks, or the Arika decks I have seen from Erik Torstensson. Of course there are many more.

If played right my deck would have made a 1 game win with 6 vp's, which maybe would have been enough for the final. Well it didn't because I screw up. I would say that my mission was accomplished, since this was why I joined the event: re-learning the game. I did re-learn many things.

Next week I will play a HNC tournament on Saturday in Hatvan and maybe join the ECQ on Sunday in Vienna. Preparations for the EC continue! 

by: Mephistopheles  

EC2011 I'm coming!!!

Hi folks!

I've booked my flight today. After a couple of weeks of trying to decide whether to play the EC or not I've finally decided to join the event. I really need to play some games again...

by: Mephistopheles