From: Rubbe (rubbe@pandora.Be)
Subject: Re: [Tournament Results] German Championship 2004 Constructed & German Qualifier
Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad
Date: 2004-04-26 08:22:08 PST
As requested my view on the final, and my deck.
I was a little surprised to reach it, sure I had 2 / 6, but with 65+
participants I didn't think it would have been enough. So I was last
seed, and didn't have to worry about seating. Emiliano, who played a
political deck was 4th. Jo pleaying DEM stealth bleed choose to be my
prey and Emiliano's predator, Erol playing also DEM stealth bleed
choose to be my predator (he had ousted me in the prelims rather,
so...) Finally Martin playing weenie AUS (more on that later
chooseto be Emiliano's predator and Jo's Prey.
I had a good opening hand with a Minion Tap and Infohighway, but a bad
crypt, no Maris Streck (to stop the bleeds) not even Lucinde, so no
justicar meaning no Parity Shifts bummer. 1 Arika and 3 Leandro.
Influence all around, I went for Arika, Jo went for Persia, Blythe for
Martin came into play, Emiliano brought out Zoe, Midget popped up for
Erol, I got bled for 3 by Midget, Jo DI'ed a Magic of the smith from
Blythe, Zoe wanted to become Malk justicar. It was halted first by a
vote from Erol (a prayer dramatic upheaval) and Persia, then Persia's
vote was telepathically recounted and finally stopped by my
banishment. I was told Emiliano played big 'uns like me, so giving him
3 easy votes so soon didn't look like a good idea. I allowed him a
prince of Barca the next turn, turned out ok.
Then the game really started. We knew Martin played Weenie Aus. At
least we knew it was auspex and we saw Blythe, Isabel, ... so Jo was
haunted by nightmares of a certain other final, and claimed if we
didn't do anything about this deck we would either go to time (Martin
was top seed), or whoever was left with this deck would be ousted by
many bleeds for 1 and blocks of whatever you tried to do. Unfortunatly
for Martin the image of a deck with 40 transient intercept didn't
sound appealing to any of us. No consensus was reached, but Zoe did
Parity shift backwards to remove 5 pool from Martin. I backed up his
vote, and got 1 for the favor. Emiliano was cross table to me, and I
didn't like the idea of ousting Jo and running against a wall with
Erol in my back (moreover I knew in order to survive Jo would deal
with the the other DEM (Erol) and back oust me if Erol would help him
bleed out the weenie.
Then Emiliano's Gilbert Duane called a restucture. Not much of a
debate. Emiliano was also convinced of the treath of the AUS weenie,
and imagined it would make the best possible Grand Predator. Lot's of
minions, block everything it's prey did. He also didn't like a bleeder
in his back so put Jo and Erol in front of him, and I got the lucky
place next to the Weenie. I voted in favor of this because : a)
Emiliano had only Zoe en Gilbert and 11 pool left. I had vote lock,
except for Martin Luther (curse his name), and I didn't have any
political actions in my hand. (In fact I was getting slowly stealth
jammed) so I figured I would beeld him out, and the weenie only had 3
minions and would get pressure from Erol and possibly jo.
New Situation:
Emiliano(11 pool)[Gilbert Duane],[Zoe] prince of Barca
Jo(15 pool)[Persia],[The Colonel],[Dolphin Black] (should have been
Kite)
Erol(12 pool)[Quentin King],[Uncle George],[Midget]
Martin(9 pool) [Martin Luther],[Isabel] with flamethrower,[Blythe]
Ruben (14 pool) [Arika],[Leandro]
I was able to get out Leandro because of the early tap of Arika,
followed by a Banishment of George backed by the Malkavians. I
votercaped 9 and filled Arika. Then Leandro was Tapped as well to get
me going.
In the next few turns a few things became clear :
a) The Weenie AUS after discarding 5 Second Traditions was clearly
missing something. He took a few bleeds from Erol and didn't even make
attempts to block anything from me.
b) Emiliano realized 2 Inner Circles with stealth Jam behind you is a
quick way towards 0 pool.
c) When a Cam segregation from Gilbert hit the table and an Anarch
revolt from Emiliano, Jo allowed Erol free reign if he would burn
Midget to the Segregation. An attempt to burn the revolt succeded, but
with a rider clause from Gilber Duane.
Onward:
Jo bled backward on Emiliano in revenge of the revolt and Segregation.
Erol brough out another Vampire: Artemis and his superior OBF was a
good help to get through the wall (Poor George was getting rather
adept at catching flames thrown by Isabele)
Martin was hard pressed without a prince. and with help of a palatial
Blood Doll, Powerbase montreal and Aranthebes could dance around the 5
pool range.
I kept bleeding but allowed byself to be blocked as Jo claimed to have
no wake/ Intercept, and didn't want Emiliano to have less pool then
him. (I didn't believe him about the wakes, but allowing myself to be
blocked by Zoe and emptying Zoe, meant jo could block her hunt with
Persia and with only Gilbert I had a good chance in the next few
turns) Here I made a mistake (at least one I know about) With his
rider clause we all knew a parity shift or restructure would follow.
and I influenced on my new vampire Maris, but only put 3 extra on her,
where I could/shold have added 6. With the logical result of -5 pool
for me... In the end not such a bad thing as Emiliano, in a last ditch
attempt came up with a bleed with Foreshadwoing Detruction, enough to
near oust Jo (who Di'd the Foreshadowing). On the next turn I played
my reigns of Power, Jo could Delay, doubted but finally delayed
anyway, Keeping Emiliano alive one more turn. Emiliano repayed in kind
with more revolt, and another bleed. Jo tried to recover pool and went
looking for Eyes of Chaos with the Sargon Fragment, but he could't
bleed Erol too hard in fear of ousting his grand prey. Dolphin
gathered 2 Spying Missions on Martin in the process.
Next turn I bled out Emiliano at stealth. My first 'Block fails' was
Di'ed by Martin, the Faceless Night put it at 1 stealth, and Jo
doubted about Di'ing for about 5 mins. (The longest bleed in history I
think) after much more debate Jo decided not to DI, so Emiliano was
out, and I could discard 1 of my 3 spying missions.
At that point Erol asked me to allow him to oust Martin. I had Maris
and with her Intercept and Martin's untap there was no way erol could
get through. He did try to bleed me directly and voted against my
stranglehold, so I had no intention of trusting him, after all I was
very happy with my predator who didn't take a single bleed action
against me in the entire game... Finally with time nearing Jo realized
he couldn't back oust me, he couldn't go forward without killing
Martin and he would die to my bleeds, and politics eventually if he
did nothing. After much debate he asked my help against Erol. I
accepted as I could allways keep bleeding Jo so he was low enough on
pool, and with my politics in hand, and 2 Inner Circles I had little
to fear from any backstab. Jo bled out Erol, and with a little help
also took down Martin. We played on for a few more moments so he could
die to his own Dreams of the Sphinx.
What have we learned : If you create a horrible archtype of a deck,
you better make it horrible, people will expect it to be, and will act
accordingly anyway. Martin had 0 chance from the start, only because
we assumed he played weenie AUS. In fact he needed a prince and had
none in his openings crypt, and with Leandro getting a prince of 8
would have costed him 11 pool... so there it is.
Without further delay :
3 Arika
2 Lucinde
3 Leandro
3 Maris Streck
1 Etrius
5 Minion Tap
5 Zillah's Valley
4 Infohighway
3 Dreams Of The Sphinx
1 Giants Blood
1 Metro Underground
1 Golconda
20 Masters
5 Parity Shift
6 Banishment
4 Protect Thine Own
1 Reigns of Power
1 Ancient Influence
1 Political Stranglehold
2 Voter Captivation
2 Far Mastery
22 Actions
5 Lost In Crowds
4 Faceless Night
4 Spying Mission
4 Elder Impersonation
3 Forgotten Labyrinth
20 Mods
5 Wake With Evenings Freshness
5 Majesty
4 Obedience
6 Deflection
For those interested: I didn't PTO a single vampire in any of me 4
games
It plays fairly simple. Get out a justicar quickly, parity shift to
recover, bring out Arika or Leandro. Tap him, and start bleeding. In
essention it kills by bleeding, but the votes allow you an enourmous
impact on the table. I never got more then 3 points with this deck, so
in the future I would add more ousting power.
thanks everyone for attending, the judges for a 'relaxed though
correct environement' => my kind of vampire , and everyone for keeping
their deals
Congrats to those who qualified, see you in Antwerp on AUG 1st for
those who haven't.
Ruben.
