Constructed at Cantina, Budapest, Hungary

hunfragment.blogspot.com/2011/02/tournament-report-constructed-at.html

Constructed at Cantina
Budapest, Hungary
February 5, 2010
19 players
3R + F

Tomas Varga's Tournament Winning Deck

Deck Name: 15 Wakes
Created By: Tomas Varga
Description: Inspired by Brian Moritz's 17 wakes

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 15, Max: 40, Avg: 7)

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2 Fakir al Sidi 11 Gangrel
2 Matata 9 Akunanse
2 Amavi 8 Akunanse
1 Uchenna 7 Akunanse
1 Jubal 6 Akunanse
1 Sanjo 6 Akunanse
1 Nestor Kaba 4 Akunanse
1 Dolie 3 Akunanse
1 Meno Ngari 2 Akunanse

Library: (83 cards)

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Master (20 cards)
2 Abombwe
1 Mbare Market, Harare
3 Blood Doll
1 Coven, The
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Giant`s Blood
1 Information Highway
2 Mapatano Utando
1 Powerbase: Luanda
2 Powerbase: Montreal
1 Rack, The
4 Villein

Action (10 cards)
8 Deep Song
2 Well-Marked

Action Modifier (4 cards)
1 Devil-Channel: Throat
3 Predator`s Mastery

Reaction (16 cards)
4 Cats` Guidance
1 Terra Incognita
6 Predator`s Communion
5 Sense the Savage Way

Combat (26 cards)
2 Canine Horde
6 Carrion Crows
4 Devil-Channel: Back
7 Invoking the Beast
2 Rolling with the Punches
5 Taste of Vitae

Retainer (6 cards)
1 Mr. Winthrop
5 Raven Spy

Equipment (1 cards)
1 Reliquary: Akunanse Remains

hunfragment.blogspot.com/2011/02/tournament-report-constructed-at.html

Hi folks!

Wooo-hoooo!!! Finally back from torpor! I was quite exited to play a
tournament again after two month without almost any gaming going on. I
was lazy, as expected, so I didn't build any new deck. Well that is
not totally true, I've started building it, but after sleeving like 30
cards I got so bored that I didn't want to fish for those 45 remaining
cards needed for my new deck and then play it untested. The deck I
wanted to build was a Gabrin based deck with a bunch of Sensory
Deprivations. Instead, I went for the currently only ready to play
deck I have: Broken Brujah (Dmitra + Alastor). My Nana Buruku and
Hardestadt are already de-con-struct-ed.

Altogether 19 players joined this event, 8 from them came from
Slovakia (Kosice) to join us. Thank you guys for making this event
more interesting. Now, let us take a look what happened:

1st round: Me -> Frankie (Lucian the Perfect mega bleed) -> Guyla
Ferdos (weenie malk wall with madness network) -> Mark Virsinger
(weenie presence bleed enngine) -> Maros Chomjak (Black Hand and
Marijava Thugee with bloating)

I started pretty slow with a very bad opening hand. My deck packs 13
master cards (78 card deck) and I had a brutal master card hand jam.
The only master I didn't see was Grooming the Protege (I play 6),
which basically means that I drew all the other 7. Yes, I shuffled my
deck. I also play 7 Parity Shifts, I drew 0 in the opening phase of
the game. This card draw forced me to play my emergency strategy,
which most people disagree with, but it works for me. Since I had only
1 Dmitra in play and 4 pool on Carlak and my predator had already 4
minions and was on a bloating strategy I went for my "predator is
right" rule. The last thing I wanted to see was my predator having
some allys with Unmasking and FBI in play + 4-5 vampires. I drew an
early Alastor, which I could pass, so I could back rush. I also played
a Pentex on one of the vampire. A few turns later Maros got ousted.

I was much more happy with my new predator. I weenie presence bleed
deck seems frightening in the first place, but when you play a dozen
Second Trads + Psyche! and you are already equipped with an Assault
Rifle, than you don't have to worry too much. By this time I started
to draw my Parity Shifts and Groomings, so I could pop out another
vampire (Karen Suadela) and play a New Carthage. While all the above
happened, Frankie was doing a lot of pressure on Gulya. Both players
had bad luck. Guyla because he didn't drew any Telepathic
Misdirections, instead he drew My Enemey's Enemy (3 of them). Every
time Frankie got bounced to me I had to make deals with him so he
won't back oust me. So basically I kept promising not to rush him and
so on. Frankie had bad luck, because he didn't drew the Hide the Minds
in time and when he could have done without, than he didn't drew
stealth. So basically Frankie was using up resources and locked down
Gulya, who couldn't bloat the way he wanted. Frankie play 2 Spying
Missions and a Tangle Atropo's Hand to not oust me. He knew that
though I was a potentially danger for him, at this time of the game
the presence weenie was still strong. In the case I die, Mark would
have gotten a 2nd vp and still be able to oust Frankie (Mark had still
5 minions at the time the bleed bounces happened).

Mark lost his patience and decided to crash into me. Actually at this
point I was happy that he decided to do this. He passed the Anarch
Troublemaker and bled me with Daring the Dawn. That was not enough for
the oust, but he thought it will hurt me a lot. Well it didn't. I call
Parity Shifts again and have the Troublemaker! Meanwhile I had a Fame
played on Frankie support vampire and torporized it. I had Frankie
down to 2 pool with a Fame in torpor. This means that Frankie survived
and could take another action with Lucian. Right before that I
contested the Ivory bow with Guyla, which he didn't block (he needed
the intercept against Frankie). Now came a strange part: Frankie tried
to oust Guyla and asked me to give him a stealth with my Monastery of
Shadows. Guyla at this point was pretty much set-up with nasty
permanents in play, like Improvising Flamethrower, .44 Magnum, Madness
Network + Victoria, etc. Remember that the Troublemaker was passed to
me (destroying my only Assault Rifle). At this time I was very much
afraid that after I oust Frankie I will have no chance at all against
Guyla. So I gave Frankie the stealth. Weird. Fortunately Frankie
didn't make the oust. Guyla survived and ousted Mark. I started my
turn with playing another Pentex Subversion targeting Victoria, which
Frankie did Sudden Reversal. Arrgh! I ousted Frankie and we were
heads-up with Guyla.

The heads-up started with Gulya playing a Pentex Subversion
(altogether 6 Pentex Subversions were played at this table, I didn't
mention any single one) on my Dmitra. Ouch! In my turn I used the
Troublemaker to get rid of the Improvising Flamethrower. This left
Guyla with no aggravated damage available. Guyla played a Smiling Jack
which should have won him the game. Meanwhile of course actions
happened. My strategy was to torporize as many of his weenies as
possible. With no Assault Rifle and Dmitra Pentexed (she had a
Preternatural Strength) I had to do this with "hands for one" and my
Celerity cards. I managed to send some weenies into torpor and payed
for the Smiling Jack with the blood on Dmitra. I played my only
"joker" I had: Dragonbound. Since I started the heads-up with more
pool and more blood on my vampires I had a very little advantage. I
managed to keep Guyla's vampires in torpor. Guyla needed to pay for
the Dragonbound and also 1 pool for the Jack! In the last turn of the
game I had 3 pool 2 tapped vampires, one with 0 and one with 1 blood.
Guyla had two vampires in play, one of them had +1 bleed; also he had
many torporized minions. If Guyla survives his turn he wins. Well I
had another Second Trad, which made it impossible for Gulya to either
bleed me dead or rescue a vampire and he died from the Dragonbound. 1
Game Win 3 Victory Points for me.

2nd round: Peter Ducai (Giovanni + Gehenna anarch bleed) -> Me ->
Csaba Pal (Maris wall) -> Zsolt Varga (Anatole toolbox, shifting more
towards bleed) -> Tomas Varga (Akunanse (based on Brian Moritz's 15
wakes))

After the first turns excitements I was still a little, hm, shocked.
With Maris showing up, I was pretty sure that I won't have any Alastor
here. Peter Ducai bleed me constantly. So what did I do? Remember my
first rule in v:tes: Predator is right. Can't emphasize this enough,
especially when playing combat. So I kept dealing with Maris and
played all Parity Shifts backwards, basically back ousting Peter. Now
I had to face a new predator: a very strong Akunanse. Hurray!
Remember: Predator is right. Even more dealing with Maris. He let me
play my Alastor with the condition that I never attack him with the
Alastor. He did this, because the Akunanse was a table threat at this
time. Should the Akunanse oust me he would basically vaporize Maris in
combat. Once I had the Assault Rifle on Dmitra I played another
Alastor with the same condition on Karen Suadela. Since I promised not
to rush Maris he let me do it. The Alternative would have been losing
a vampire in combat with Dmitra. I turned to Zsolt Varga and offered
him a simple deal: I back oust the Akunanse and he back ousts Maris.
He accepted. Of course Tomas and Csaba made the same deal. I played a
Dragonbound and started to rush the Akunanse. I had plenty of Celerity
cards in my hand so I could stay long and additional strike.
Unfortunately Zsolt forgot about the Dragonbound. Csaba bled him hard
earlier and Zsolt was down to 2 pool. He tried to cycle cards and lost
2 vampires against the Akunanse and died from the Dragonbound.
Meanwhile Maris got very low on blood, because he needed to give the
Akunanse intercept. Since we were 2 vs. 1 I needed to turn this in a 1
vs. 1 game. I torporized every single Akunanse. Meanwhile I had to
contest a Pentex Subversion and was very low on pool. Csaba, being
afraid of getting Parity Shifted spent his pool, too. He was well
prepared against bleed. Since I couldn't rush him (I keep my deals)
and bleed was not an option, my only ousting power was Parity Shift.
Csaba didn't calculate with me spending pool. He was down at 2 pool
and I had 3 pool. I carefully gathered 2 Parity Shift's in my hand. In
my turn I payed 1 pool for the Pentex contest and 1 pool for the Wider
View! So I was down at 1 pool! I played my first Shift which was
blocked, but Maris got emptied. My second Parity Shift passed and I
ousted Csaba. Tomas had only torporized vampires at 0 blood, so he
gave up. 1 Game Win 3 Victory Points.

3rd round: Jan Harcarufka (big cap bleed with obf+dom) -> Me -> Tomas
Varga (Akunanse) -> Silvester Miklos (Lodin) -> ??? (Dominate Brujah,
Asnek, if you are reading this please give me a name here)

Really not much to say here. Tomas started with Fakir al Sidi. Since
he was afraid of my deck he made it pretty clear that I will never
ever get my Alastor. I made sure Jan won't oust me. The Dominate
Brujah ousted Jan and the ousted me (Jan bled me for like 20 somewhat
pool before he died). Tomas made the Game Win. 0 VP's here.

T E H F I N A L

Peter Botos (Nergal + Infernal Servitor) -> Martin Varga (Carna
toolbox) -> Tomas Varga (Akunanse) -> Me -> Adam Horvath (Nana Buruku)

Tomas was first seat in the Final and he sat behind me to make sure I
wont have an Alastor. My prey was another animalism deck. Stuck
between 2 decks that can crush weapons, block and having the Carrrion
Crows + press combat, I was doomed. Tomas, of course started with
Fakir. Game Over. My strategy was to stay in the game for as long as
possible.

Peter Botos put some early pressure on the Carna, but failed to oust
him. Adam crushed and ousted him. After this nothing happened for like
an hour. I didn't understand Martin Vargas game. He never really tried
to make his vp. With a vp gone and him not being the first seat the
only chance of winning the tournament is getting a vp himself (he was
better seated than Adam). There was a Situation when he had the Anarch
Troublemaker, 4 vampires with a possible bleed for 6 and his prey down
at 3 pool. He didn't try. We had a good conversation about this after
the final. His point was that if he ousts Tomas, but looses some
minions he can't build up and bloat more. Also he was afraid of me,
which I still don't get, since I was denied basically everything. I
had two vampires and nothing on them. All my earlier attempts got
blocked, delayed or canceled by Fakir. And I did try. Though I
understand his point of view I totally have to disagree with him. In
any final were you are not top seated, giving up on gaining a vp
equals giving up the final. To be fair, I have to say, that I gave up
the final. The difference is that he had a very realistic chance of
getting his vp. I am totally sure he could have made it. Adam never
back rushed me. I got pressure from the Akunanse only and I was still
totally locked down. Any move from me in a forward direction would
have resulted in Adam rushing me backwards. My plan was to maximize my
vp's with 0,5 being more than 0. Adam had 5 vampires very fast and
never went below 18 pool, also he had fix intercept. I almost managed
my goal to get that 0,5 vp's, but 2 minutes before the end of the
final Tomas ousted me.See, even with me playing only for defense I got
ousted. Tomas won the tournament with 1,5 VP's in the final. Well
done!

Finals Standing:

GW VP VP(final) TP

1 Tomas Varga 2 8 1,5 162
2 Adam Horvath 2 7 1,5 168
2 Martin Varga 2 7 0,5 168
2 Martin Major 2 6 0 144
2 Peter Botos 1 6 0 132

Conclusion:

It was an interesting tournament with 2 awesome games and 2 terrible
ones for me. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks guys for coming and making
this a great v:tes event. Dragonbound rocks (I had to realize this one
more time) and while the vast majority out there will always argue
with me, always remember that: predator is right.

by: Mephistopheles