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Monday, 17 October 2011

Legendary Hungarians

Hi folks!

I am proud to announce that 3 Hungarian players have made it into the top 20 of the Legendary Tournament list! Csaba Greguss, Martin Major and Péter Botos will be attending the struggle for becoming LEGEN - wait for it - DARY!!! 

by: Mephistopheles

Thursday, 13 October 2011

Netdecking ain't no good...

Hi folks!

It's not the first time that I realize that re-building other players decks just won't work out for me. No matter how successful that deck archetype is otherwise when I copy paste one I just suck with it. My most successful decks are those I don't think much about but build them following a sudden impulse. It seems to work vica versa since whenever I borrow somebody a deck of mine they just suck with it, too. 

So I reached the point when I say to myself: no more scrolling through the TWDA! I think the reason for all this is the difference in players play style. The same deck concept built with almost the same cards (more or less) will still differ very much. One player might put the focus on reaction cards and play the deck more slowly and defensively while the other player will put the emphasize on combat cards and play it more aggressively. When they switch decks they won't automatically switch playstyle so both will "screw up". 

In the case I see something interesting on the net I will just look at the basic idea and then open a deck builder and start building the deck myself instead of looking at the original deck list. Have you guys made similar experience with this? Comment!

 by: Mephistopheles

Saturday, 8 October 2011

Tournament Report: ECQ Belgrade

Hi folks!

I am writing this from the venue in Belgrade. Currently "the 5 five guys" are playing the final. As I wrote earlier I played my Ariadne toolbox deck, which was a terrible choice. Here is the very brief report since there is almost nothing to analyse.

1st table:

My predator was Peter Botos with his Trujah bleed deck. My prey played a Kiev circle Blood Brother deck. I blocked his first action an Unwholesome Bond and he aggravated his hand strike so I went right down to torpor. I counted on that might happen and took the risk. I did not count on him diablerizing me sacrificing his vampire since his prey had the vote lock. With my only vampire gone Peter made a fast vp and swept the table in like 25-30 minutes.

2nd table:

My predator was a Lucian the Perfect deck. He Brainwashed me, Pentexed me and when I rushed him he played Obedience. Oh and he bled me for 1000000000000000 pool. Played 5 minutes.

3rd table:

Another disappointing table. Yay! My prey is an imbued, so I can not rush him with Deep Song. My predator is a Nakthorheb deck. So I rushed backwards, but never saw an Aid from Bats. He caused me quite a lot of damage. His predator was an obf-pre stealth bleed who caused him a lot of damage but got Archoned (Adana di Sforza got burned ^^). The  imbued was fast enough to oust both of them. With all that pool loss I could not recover to deal with the imbueds who escaped from torpor by burning two convictions. 

So I finished with 0 VP total. Ariadne was just a bad choice. Shit happens. On the other side I met many nice guys, had great conversations and felt really good. Belgrade is a cool place to play v:tes, thank you guys for your hospitality! 

by: Mephistopheles 

Friday, 7 October 2011

Ariadne Toolbox it is!

Hi folks!

I will leave for the ECQ Belgrade tonight. Cipo, Gyula and myself will drive down to Szeged and spent the night at Colos' place. We will pick up Csaba at the train station Saturday morning and drive to Belgrade. Why am I writing this? I have no idea.

What I actually wanted to share is this: I didn't want to play any of my TWD decks again. Neither did I want to play with my new Toreador deck again. So I spent the entire week trying to figure out what to play until yesterday evening when it struck me like a lightning: Ariadne toolbox it is! I played all kinds of versions before and always ended up 6th or 7th place win 1 Game Win and a few VP's. Maybe this time I can make it to the final. I never build this deck twice the same, let's see what will come out this time. All I know is that such toolbox decks are the most fun to play. Since I am already qualified what else could be more important than having fun?

by: Mephistopheles

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Many Tournaments coming up!

Hi folks!

The EC date is closing in and the urge to test our decks results in organizing tournaments:

22, October: Grand Ball Hatvan
29, October: HNC Veszprém
30, October: Crusade Budapest

Hungarian players can find all the information on our forum. For players who want to visit from abroad please just write me an e-mail: major.martin.tibor@gmail.com and I will provide you with all the information you need. I can help to get you a place to stay for the night or organize somebody to pick you up at a train or bus station. 

by: Mephistopheles

Monday, 3 October 2011

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:


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