I played my very succesful Tzimisce-Vote-Deck which gave me 7th place at last EC and best preliminary at last Tournament. This decision was made 10 minutes before registration. Until then I was sure to play my usual choice of Dem-bleed with Dios de la Muertos and Dram. Upheaval, which hit hard at the training games at Saturday night. But somehow I got a bad feeling and imagines of Theo Bell and Beast by my prey beating my poor Malks to oblivion. I took that as a hint and decided to trust my belly ;o). First mistake of a lot more to come.
First round:
Me -> Yuri (Old school Ventrue vote) -> Ruben (later Champion, Inner-Circle + Streck) -> Sascha (old school Malk S&B) -> Wouter (cool Qadir-ul-Ghani deck with Concert Tour, some dom and late Anarch Revolts)
I had a perfect crypt, Lambach and Velya both showed up plus Corine Marcon. Sascha was dying fast because of heavy pressure by Ruben and some vote damage from Yuri (I still don't figure why). Wouter changed clan to Daughter of Cacophony, Yuri tried to survive my votes, which I got through with Ruben's help for also damaging poor Sascha. Meanwhile Ruben got Maris Streck, Arika and Leandro. At that point we all knew, we had only small chances against him. I was desperately waiting for a Private Audience, to get my Templar through and was finally getting an Awe. Hurrah. But Yuri blocked it with intercept from Maris. At that point, I should have talked to him to let it pass, so I could damage his prey. Mistake. But on the other hand Wouter was offering Ruben a 2-3 at this time, so I'm sure, he would have blocked my vote. With a well placed Misdirection on a small bleed from Wouter I was able to oust Yuri at last, who heroically damaged Ruben with two KRCs before with my supporting votes. We were pretty near Time out, so Ruben got a bit nervous of slow play. So we were speeding up a bit and he took the promised GW, after I was ousted by him and Wouter (Banishment and PTO were too much for my poor Tzimisce).
The game was fun. At least now I know that it has to be a Fear of Mekhet in my deck. With that things had been dramatically different. Imagine the Fear bouncing between the Inner Circles, lovely.
Second round:
Me -> Johannes (Lasombra-Creation Rites) -> Christoph (Stanislava-Baltimore Purge) -> Martin (Titled intercept with weapons) -> Gregory (Matthias and friends Spirit Marionette).
As I saw the table my heart missed a beat. Johannes AND Martin at my table. And I know Christoph at a very good player too.
Again I had a good start. Only Velya was missing. For him I had Sascha Vykos and Meshenka in the uncontrolled region. Bad because I expected Gratiano to show up at Johannes. So I influenced only Lambach and Corine again. I drew three Dreams of the Sphinx in perfect time and used them to gain pool. Mistake. I didn't expect, that Johannes gave his little ones Archbishop titles. So I had better used them to get Votes to throw against his early attempts or at last some Suddens against the cursed Power Structure. Of course this broken card hit the table at round three. I managed to damage Johannes a bit with Stanislava's help, but then Martin influenced out Michael Luther (lucky bastard
) and my voting was over. Again. Martin got an early Ivory Bow and torpored some minions of my Predator. I had nearly no pressure, until now that meant almost always GW for my deck. But I couldn't do much more than to bleed for a bit, which I should have done more often. But most of my bleeds hit Christoph, so I had to be careful. As Martin and Johannes feared Christoph a lot they made a deal early on for at least two points each and battling over the third. With some well placed DIs Martin managed to shut down the BP danger. Just one passed through with Martin loosing his Ira Rivers to a Vulnerability. As Johannes got through two Consangenious Boons in one turn it was over for the Christoph, Gregory and me. Johannes changed places with me and bled me out. Gregory followed soon. But Johannes didn't have a chance against Martin's intercept , even his Blankets of Night didn't help him.This time I really had a bad seating. With Christopher and me swapping places it would have been a much better match up. With my aggravated damage I could have hurt Martin a lot. Some clever deals could have give me the table or at least two points.
So I had still just one VP. And I still didn't encounter a combat deck. Hm.
Third round:
Me -> Jeroen (Great Greta S&B) -> Arnauld (Black Hand, Ser, Dom, Obf with Thugee) -> Jeroen (Dom w. For) -> Kamel (!Tori-embrace)
Good heavens, even more superb players at my table. This time they shouldn't get me. Ha.
I had again a good crypt w. Lambach, Velya and Christine Boscacci. After round four Kamel had 6 minions and I began to panic. So I tried to stop him and blocked some hunts. As he didn't have a minion with AUS, Kamel had to block Jeroen's heavy bleeding horde. Nearly each block resulted in a torporized minion because of Heavy Weighted Walking Sticks (or sth.). So Kamel was soon in a bad shape. But he got the Succubus Club. That meant danger. Red alert! He offered me GW, if I gave him pool to let him survive. As Kamel never screwed me at a deal and he was in a really bad shape I believed him. But he was too weak already and was ousted next round, because my prey played a Mind Numb on his Jost Werner, his only chance for a Misdirection. After damaging Jeroen I with some KRC Jeroen II bled me heavy with 3 Governs and 2 Conditionings. I had enough Wakes to block all of it. But he drew 3 Daring the Dawns and with just one Tel. Misdirection against it I was out. I died with full Vampires because I didn't drew any poolgain. The first table with votelock for me and I was bled out like nothing. Frustrating!!! Jeroen II swept the table after that.
So it was over for me. But I had a great day with close games and nice people to play with. As I encountered not one combat deck my !Malks had been a better choice. But you never know before.
At least I saw difficult tables with two finalists.
And my biggest mistake was: I wore a TREMERE T-Shirt and played a Tzimiscedeck. That's the reason I lost. Now I know it. It wasn't me, it was fate.
Joscha, you loser.
Probably I should have dealt differently with Martin only promising him 1 VP and after that deal with you (Joscha) for one to take the table with 3 but I doubt Martin would have agreed on rescuing my vamp after the first and only BP came with a 1 VP deal.