Made in Hungary: Trujah Bleed

Hi folks!

This column is about decks that were made in Hungary and achieved international attention. I am not claiming that we alone invented it, neither do I want other players to give us credit. It's simply about showing what our v:tes community came up with. 

This time I want to introduce a deck built by Peter Botos. He achieved several game wins with this deck before he won the Hungarian National Championship with it in 2010 and got chosen Deck of the Month on extrala. The basic idea of this deck is to slowly build up for a "Big Turn" when you try to oust your opponent using two permanent bleed equipment. This needs a good set-up. Like almost all new Trujah decks this one also focuses on the Domain of Evernight + Outside the Hourglass combination to avoid block attempts. It also uses 7 copies of Tangle Atropo's Hand which will drive everybody insane and also leads to responsible bleeding. 

Another strength of this deck is the powerhouse Vaticination. Maybe the strongest card from the set. It is very useful to discard nasty cards from your preys hand, like Archon Investigation or wake/bounce cards, but also makes adds survive ability to the deck since you can stop your predator from playing nasty cards like Parity Shift. 

Also many people didn't really know what the deck was about. If you influence on a Malkvian! or Gilbert Duane people will cry stealth-bleed. Lydia was not that threatening. She is now. All in all this is a very smart and technically challenging deck. Peter made it to the finals with it at ECQ Belgrade, too.

Here are the 2 similar decks from the TWDA:

Karl Cheng Chua's version 

Dave Pennington's version

And here is the original deck:

Hungarian National Championship
Nagymaros, Hungary
November 27, 2010
40 Players
3R + F

Peter Botos' Tournament Winning Deck

Deck Name: True Power
Created By: Botos Peter

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 13, Max: 36, Avg: 6,75)
------------------------------------------------------
1 Tyler McGill   AUS pre    4 Toreador
1 Andre LeRoux   aus     3 Toreador
2 Veejay Vinod   AUS     3 Nagaraja
4 Lydia   AUS FOR POT TEM dom pre 9 True Brujah
4 Al-Muntathir   AUS FOR PRE TEM obf qui 8 True Brujah

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------------
Master (16 cards)
1 Tabriz Assembly
3 Perfectionist
3 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Anarch Troublemaker
4 Villein
1 Wider View
1 Pentex Subversion
1 Giant`s Blood
1 Remover

Action (12 cards)
7 Vaticination
3 Summon History
2 Mind Numb

Action Modifier (24 cards)
11 Domain of Evernight
2 Crocodile`s Tongue
2 Recurring Contemplation
7 Tangle Atropos` Hand
2 Freak Drive

Reaction (18 cards)
3 My Enemy`s Enemy
3 On the Qui Vive
6 Eyes of Argus
6 Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (10 cards)
10 Outside the Hourglass

Ally (1 cards)
1 Veneficti (Mage)

Equipment (3 cards)
1 Guarded Rubrics
1 Heart of Nizchetus
1 Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers

Combo (6 cards)
6 Quicksilver Contemplation

by: Mephistopheles

Made in Hungary: Ashur Anson rush

Hi folks!

This new column is about decks that were made in Hungary and achieved international attention. I am not claiming that we alone invented it, neither do I want other players to give us credit. It's simply about showing what our v:tes community came up with.

I won't introduce these decks following a chronological order. The first one I want to introduce is the well known Anson Ashur rush deck, which was first built by Péter Korsós. 

The deck is basically an enhanced weenie celerity rush deck. It sacrifices being all weenie, but has access to two master phase actions and titled vampires so it can add Second Tradition: Domain. The key to success is the Liquidation / Ashur combo, which generates pool to pay for the .44 magnum and recycles the needed combat, rush or reaction cards depending on what you need. It is another one of those decks that can be played very defensively if needed and still be able to eliminate it's prey in one turn with a Fame + Frontal Assault + Dragonbound combo. 

The first real success was when Gyula Erdős won the Hungarian ECQ on May 16th, 2009 with it. I was watching the final and had a great time doing so. In that final Gyula's predator was a Tzimisce Wall and there was another Wall deck, a Tremere weenie cross table (grand-prey). With 2 walls in the final the game was progressing only slowly. Gyula's prey was an Animalism based Ravnos deck. Sitting between Canine Hordes and aggravated range damage Gyula had to play very carefully. He waited for the time out to be close enough and than launched a sudden attack which scored him 1 VP and won him the Final.

A few weeks later on June 13th, 2009 Marcin Watras won a mini qualifier with this deck and was chosen as Deck of the Month on extrala. Marcin gave credit to Péter Korsós for which we are very thankful! After this success this new Deck Archetype has seen two more tournament wins:

Carlos Martín's version

Marcin Watras' another version

Besides winning tournaments I often met this deck archetype at tournaments were it achieved more or less success. I remember seeing it at least twice in a final. 

So here is the original decklist as it was played by Gyula Erdős:

Hungarian ECQ
Budapest, Hungary
May 16, 2009
47 players

Gyula Erdos' Tournament Winning Deck

Deck Name:   Ashur CEL
Created By:  Péter Korsós
Played By: Gyula Erdos

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 13, Max: 32, Avg: 5,33)
----------------------------------------------
  4 Anson             aus dom CEL PRE  8  Toreador
  3 Volker            pot CEL          5  Brujah
  1 Carter            cel              2  Toreador Antitribu
  1 Jimmy Dunn        for CEL POT      4  Pander
  1 Parmenides        qui CEL          4  Assamite
  1 Sarah Brando      CEL              3  Brujah Antitribu
  1 Victor Tolliver   pot CEL          4  Brujah Antitribu

Library: (77 cards)
-------------------
Master (18 cards)
  6 Ashur Tablets
  3 Dreams of the Sphinx
  2 Fame
  2 Haven Uncovered
  3 Liquidation
  1 Tension in the Ranks
  1 Powerbase: Montreal

Action (9 cards)
  9 Bum`s Rush

Reaction (8 cards)
  8 Second Tradition: Domain, The

Combat (34 cards)
  4 Blur
  7 Concealed Weapon
  9 Psyche!
  6 Pursuit
  3 Sideslip
  4 Taste of Vitae
  1 Fast Hands

Equipment (7 cards)
  7 .44 Magnum

Event (1 cards)
  1 Dragonbound

by: Mephistopheles