Day 2 EC Final Table Turn by Turn Coverage

So here comes, as promised, the coverage on the Day 2 Final of Vtes EC 2011. Enjoy!

EC Day 2 Final Coverage

1. Enrico de Stefano – Cats and Dogs
2. Izaak Havelaar – Tryphosa Bleed and Block
3. Otso Saariluoma – Nana Buruku and Nangila Were Animalism Bruise and Bleed
4. Milan Horvath – Obfuscate Presence Stealth Vote
5. Marcin Watras - Celerity Gun Princes

Enrico played in the final yesterday as well, he was then playing a Week of Nightmares Ravnos Breed deck and was third seed into the final. Repeating the feat and even improving his seeding for the second day in a row is an incredible feat – especially for a guy who’s attending the European Championships for the first time!

Being 4th nd 5th seed, Marcin and Milan has to hunt on each other, and then let the three higher seeds determine the final seating. Otso is first to choose and opts to hunt on Milan. Izaak put himself in between, becoming Milans new predator. Enrico, however, gets the last word as he places himself between the two non-combat decks. Popular spot, I must say, hunting on Milan…

Enrico → Milan → Marcin → Otso → Izaak


Turn 1

No master for Enrico, he transfers up a Tupdog, discards a combat card.
Milan plays no master, 2 transfers, discards Bewitching Oration.
Marcin plays no master, 3 transfers, discards a combat card.
Otso plays no master, transfers 4, discards Archon Investigation.
Izaak plays Dreams of the Sphinx, and then asks Milan how the two of them should approach the table: Enrico will have Rock Cats and Tupdogs to rush probably 2 and possibly 3 minions to torpor for Milan and Izaak. They start counting their transfers and how many turns they will need in order to be able to bring out 4 minions. They agree that they will bring out two minions each on turn 5. Izaak uses Dreams of the Sphinx to put one blood on vampire in his uncontrolled region, then transfers 4 and discards Giants Blood. Enrico asks why Izaak discards the card instead of playing it on his Tupdog, and Izaak answers ‘becaue I played a master card already this turn’, tapping his finger on his Dreams of the Sphinx.

Turn 2

Tupdog enlists Rock Cat for Enrico, he then transfers up Ember Wright and a new Tupdog as his first one is burned at the end of his turn. He discards and passes the turn to Milan who plays no master and then transfers 4, now having a total of six blood on two minions in his uncontrolled region. He discards and passes the turn.
Marcin plays no master card, transfers 4 and ends up with 7 blood on one of his minions in his uncontrolled region. Discards.
Otso plays Wider View and brings out Nana Buruku. Discards.
Izaak uses Dreams and transfers 4, resulting in him having a total of 10 blood on two different minions. Discards.

Turn 3

Enrico has Rock Cat recruit Vagabond Mystic. He then has Ember Wright take the action to put Soul of the Earth on his Tupdog which then recruits a new Rock Cat at a bargain price. His Tupdog dies at end of turn but he transfers up a new one, ending up with a board looking as following: 1 Tupdog, 2 rock cats, Ember Wright and a Vagabond Mystic. This is quite a table presence, considering that there’s only one other minion out: Nana Buruku. Enrico discards and passes the turn.
Milan confirms with Izaak on when to bring out vampires: They want to bring out 2 each in the same turn, so he transfers 4 to a second vampire, discards, and passes the turn.
It’s notable that by this time each player has discarded 1 card each turn…
Marcin brings out Anson, then passes the turn (and he doesn’t discard, first time in the entire game!).
Otso starts his turn by asking Marcin ’can we be friends for a while?’ and gets a yes for answer. He Villeins Nana for 8 and plays Giants Blood. Expected gasps from he audience ensue. Enrico, Milan and Marcin together remark that Izaak should have played his Giants Blood on a Tupdog instead of discarding it, but Izaak responds with ‘I was hoping on drawing another master’. No blame on Izaak, or? It’s hard to tell the competitors real opinions on the matter (though yours truly suspect at least Marcin were quite dismayed and not so happy by this happening) Otso continues his turn by having Nana play a Well Marked, then passes to Izaak who starts by using his Dreams of the Sphinx for the third and last time, then transfers 4 and ends his turn after discarding.

Turn 4

Enrico plays no master, then has his Tupdog bleed Milan for 1 and then he has Ember Wright create an Embrace, which hunts successfully. He ends his turn after transferring out Mofair.
Milan transfers, then discards.
Marcin asks Otso if he can bleed for one, but Otso says no. ‘I can bleed instead during my turn if it’s important for you that Enrico does not have the edge when it becomes his turn.’ Marcin replies with ‘no, I want to bleed you…’, a hint of whining in his voice. This draw out a small laughter from parts of the audience. In the end, Marcin elects not to bleed his prey, he just transfers and passes turn.
Otso bleeds Izaak for 2 with Deep Song and then brings out Fish.
Izaak transfers but doesn’t bring out any vampire, he then discards and passes the turn.

Turn 5

Enricos has Ember Wright play a Soul of the Earth on a Tupdog and said Tupdog recruits a third Rock Cat. Mosfair bleeds for 1 and Embrace bleeds for 1. He then passes his turn.
Milan confirms with Izaak that this is the turn they will go for it and then brings out Alicia Barrows and Stavros, a hard-set look on his face. He ends his turn after discarding.
Marcin plays no master and then says he wants to rush Stavros with Anson. Milan objects loudly ‘I’m going to be rushed by my predator, there’s no reason for you to rush me! can’t we talk about this? can’t I make you a deal?’ Marcin answers: ‘We can talk, but it’s final, you know, people breaks deals.’ Anson Bum’s Rush’es your Stavros. Marcin plays a Concealed Weapon .44 Magnum and shoots for 2. Stavros plays Majesty. Marcin elects o play Psyche! (yes, actually, the exclamation mark is part of the name of the card, look for yourself!) on superior. Milan is clearly frustrated ‘Why are you doing this?!’ and Marcin answers ‘Because I’m scared of you, and I would rather have Tupdog as my predator than your vote deck’. Milan counters with ‘but I’m no threat to you! he’s (referring to Enrico) going to rush me to torpor and I won’t be able to do anything to you!’ Marcin replies with ‘you play a vote deck and if I don’t keep you in check there is risk you will make me much, much damage in one turn and I don’t want that.’ The combat ensues. In the new round (or, rather, new combat due to superior Psyche!) Anson uses the maneuver from his Magnum and then shoots Stavros for 2. No presses from either player and combat ends. Marcin brings out Marcellus and passes the turn. Milan looks even more sour when his prey ends his turn than he did when he ended his own.
Otso bleeds for 1, transfers and passes the turn.
Izaak plays Jake Washington and brings out Maris Streck and Quentin King III. He discards and passes the turn after a short conversation with Enrico. ‘I want to be able to play my game, I don’t want you to cripple me. if you rush me to torpor I will ask to be rescued by Marcin and then call an Anarchist Uprising. that’s eight pool damage to you. if you don’t cripple me I’m prepared to call another vote that doesn’t do any damage to you but that will help me.’ Enrico asks ‘no pool damage and no problem for any of my minions or anything? nothing that damages me in any way?’ and Izaak answers: ‘yes, exactly, no aggression towards you or anything if you don’t rush me to torpor…’

Turn 6

Enrico play Powerbase Montreal, rushes Alicia Barrows (which Milan brought into play just the turn before) with a Rock Cat. Rock Cat hits Alicia once and plays Disarm, sending her to torpor. He then has Tupdog play Raw Recruit on Alicia and brings her to his ready region: ‘so, this is a gargoyle that looks very very much like Alicia, but it ain’t Alicia, she doesn’t have the same skill set or name, but she has the same capacity, that’s all.’ Enrico then has Mosfair play Soul of the Earth on Alicia. He then tells Milan that he’s willing to leave Stavros in play ‘I want you to die, sure – you’re my prey, but I don’t want to kill you just yet’. Milan thanks for being spared to act with Stavros, but the taste in his mouth can’t be other than bittersweet (at best) after losing his 9-pool investment (Alicia). Enricos Tupdog dies at the end of the minion phase but he brings out a new one. He passes the turn with 9 (!) minions.
Milan starts his turn by playing Villein for 2 on Stavros then has him play Entrancement on one of Enricos untapped Rock Cats. Enrico cries out ‘this is how you repay me for letting one of your minions stay in play?!’ Izaak scornfully remarks ‘it’s only fair that he gets a minion for which you paid 4, you got one of his that costed 9!’ Enrico doesn’t block the Entrancement and Milan now has two minions again. Milan ends his turn.
Marcin asks Otso ‘can I hunt?’ – ‘sure’. So he plays a Villein for 6 on Marcellus and then hunts. Otso doesn’t intervene. Marcin then ends his turn with Anson untapped.
Otso plays Fame on Quentin King III, then Deep Song rushes Quentin with Fish. Izaak elects that Jake Washington is to jump in the way and take one for the team, which happens. Otso leaves Nana Buruku untapped and brings out Nangila Were, then he passes the turn.
Izaak starts his turn with both his two vampires ready, something that not many in the audience were expecting, I’d guess. He wastes no time and announces that Maris Streck wants to call a Parity Shift: ‘I want to buy votes for pool. I can either take pool from Marcin or Otso, who will it be?’ Marcin is willing to sell his votes for 0 pool if Izaak Parity Shifts from Otso, which is (probably more than) fine by Izaak. Maris calls the vote and the Toreador princes supports the Malkavians and the referendum passes. Izaak proceeds with having Quentin King III bleed Otso with Kindred Spirits, enhancing the bleed with inferior Faceless Night (Nangila Were attempted to block) and Confusion to deal another 3 damage to Otso, who remarks that back-ousting might not always be so constructive, but Izaak replies with ‘I just balanced the cheat: You started on 38 pool and now it’s even.’ Otso can only shake his head and accept that he just lost 8 pool to his predator. Izaak is done with his actions and passes the turn.

Turn 7

Enrico has his Gargoyle Alicia Barrows recruit a new Rock Cat (going up to having 3 again) and then sends one of his other two Rock Cats into combat with the Rock Cat Milan stole with Entrancement the previous round. Both Rock Cats hit each other for 3+3 and dies. He brings out 2 new Tupdogs and passes the turn. His table presence now is: Embrace, Mosfair, Ember Wright, Vagabond Mystic, 2 Rock Cats, 2 Tupdogs, and a Gargoyle Alicia Barrows. Pretty big.
Milan starts his turn. ‘I think I’m going to play another Entrancement…’ Enrico tries to talk him out of it but Milan arguments ‘I don’t really see my future in this game, and I need to do something to stay in it!’ Izaak interjects: ‘We’re both in the same boat, we both feel the same…’ Milan then progresses in playing Entrancement but Enrico plays a Direct Intervention in order to save his cat.
Stavros is untapped and can do something that is not entrancement, so he elects to call the vote Conservative Agitation. He wishes for Enrico to take 4 damage and Marcin to take 1 damage, dealing more damage to his predator than to his prey in order to buy votes. It’s successful as Izaak votes 5 in favour and Milan votes 3+1 in favour (priscus plus the vote in the card). Marcin votes 4 votes against. Milan plays Bewitching Oration for another 4 votes and then uses Voter Captivation, gaining a bit of blood and pool. He transfers to a campire in his uncontrolled region and then ends his turn.
Marcin says he wants to take the Powerbase from Enrico but that he wants Enrico to block so that he can cycle cards, he promises no damage will be dealt to Enricos blocking minion. Marcellus heads for the Powerbase and Enrico blocks with a Tupdog. In the combat Marcellus play: maneuver to long, dodge, press, maneuver to long, dodge, no press. 5 cards successfully cycled. Ka-ching! With (basically) a new hand of cards Marcin ponders his what his next move should be. He’s eying Izaaks minions (among other things) and Izaak tells him: ‘If you don’t rush me and Otso doesn’t rush me, then I think I can oust him [referring to Enrico].’ Marcin asks ‘what about the Anarchist Uprising you were talking about before?’ and Izaak replies ‘I lied about the Anarchist Uprising, I lied to stay alive.’ Marcin decides to leave Anson up for block and passes the turn.
Counting table presence, Enrico was really the #1 table threat, so Izaaks offer to oust him was maybe nothing that both Milan and Marcin had anything against, but Otso wouldn’t have any of it: First action he takes in his turn he has Nangila Were rush the famed Quentin King III to torpor (dealing 3 pool damage to Izaak as well). Second action for Otso is Fish rushing Maris with Deep Song but Maris plays Second Tradition: Domain, blocks and plays an inferior Obedience. Both vampires untap but Fish cannot perform the same action again this turn, so Otso leaves him and Nana Buruku untapped and ends the turn.
Izaak takes 1 damage for having a famed vampire in torpor, he then plays a Blood Doll on Quentin and moves 1 blood to him and rescues him from torpor with Maris (she pays the 2 blood required), Quentin then bleeds Enrico for 3 with Kindred Spirits and Confusion. Enrico goes down to 2 pool. Izaak passes the turn, shaking his head.

Turn 8

Enrico plays no master card even though he expresses that he wants to (he can’t because he played DI in the previous turn), he then proceeds with rushing Quentin to torpor again with a Rock Cat. Izaak exclaims, frustration clear in his voice: ‘oh, and I take another 3 pool damage… what if, what if I’d drawn Tryphosa in my starting crypt instead? You’d be dead, I tell you, but now I’m going to die, just because of a bad crypt draw…’
Enrico then continues his turn with having Ember Wright play Raw Recruit on Quentin – he’s now a gargoyle and serving Enrico. He has his Rock Cats (plural) rush Stavros but they don’t manage to torpor him, they only manage to push him down to 0 blood (Stavros was full after his Voter Captivation last turn, he played one Majesty and then got hit for 3+3). Enrico bleeds for 1 with Mosfair, uses he powerbase to withdraw one newly placed uncontrolled blood to his pool, and then passes the turn.
Milan plays Villein for 0 on Stavros (but has to pay 1 pool for it as it’s the second Villein played on him – he curses himself for missing this, but lets it go an keeps on playing), then plays Anarch Troublemaker but tells Marcin he won’t be using it, he just wants to cycle cards. Marcin doesn’t look like he really wants to trust Milan, but at least decides to not argue about it. Milan has to hunt with Stavros and then brings out Aristotle de Laurent – ‘everybody gets +1 hand size and should be happy, but please remark that this will only be for as long as he’s ready…’ Milan passes the turn.
Marcin starts his turn by playing Fame on Fish, then hunts with Marcellus and transfers out Jimmy Dunn. He ends his turn.
Otso starts his turn. ‘If you can oust him, I crush you.’ He says to Izaak. Here I didn’t see or hear if Izaak responded to this threat in any way, but Otso however has Nangila rush Ember Wright to torpor (Enricos minion) cross-table and then Public Trust bleeds (successfully) for 3 with Fish. He passes the turn with Nana Buruku untapped.
Izaak plays a Metro Underground and then opts to play Parity Shift targeting Marcin, offering to give all 5 pool to Milan if Milan back ousts Enrico. Milan agrees and prepares to take his 5 pool, but Enrico plays Delaying Tactics. Izaak discards down to 7 cards and instead Kindred Spirits bleeds Enrico with Maris for 1 (inferior Dementation is not as good as superior dementation!). He gains a pool from the bleed, anyhow, which can’t be a bad thing.
At this point in the game Enrico has 2 pool, Milan has 8 pool, Marcin has 15, Otso has about 15 and Izaak has 7 pool (and 4 blood on a minion in his uncontrolled region).

Turn 9

Enrico plays Golconda on Alicia Barrows and Milan threatens to play Sudden Reversal or Wash, Enrico begs him not to do so and offers to not rush him and not bleed him until there are only 5 minutes left until time – at this moment there’s a little less than half an hour left. Milan accepts the offer even though Izaak tells him not to, arguing that they had a deal that Milan should back-oust Enrico – yet the Parity Shift was cancelled (or rather: postponed), so the first part of the deal wasn’t fulfilled so there’s no active deal for Milan to take into account argues Enrico. Milan ponders his two offers and his previous deal and decides to let Golconda be played on Not-Alicia successfully and Enrico gains 9 pool. Enrico uses Vagabond Mystic to heal a Rock Cat once, and then passes his turn as he promised not to rush or bleed.
Milan starts his turn. He Villeins Aristotle de Laurent for 4 and then has the same vampire call Banishment on Marcellus (Marcins vampire). Marcin votes 4 nay, and Izaak votes 3 votes nay as well, motivating it by ‘you broke the deal. we said you were going to back-oust, but that’s not the case anymore so I can’t support your vote.’ Milan nods in understanding and then plays Perfect Paragon, Awe for 4 (emptying Aristotle of his 4 remaining blood) and Bewitching Oration, and when the referendum passes by 1+3+3+9+4-4-3=13 he gets a -lot- from Voter Captivation (i.e. a full Aristotle and 2 pool). Marcellus (with 3 blood) is sent back to the uncontrolled region. Stavros steals another Rock Cat from Enrico with an Entrancement. Milan then ends his turn on 10 pool.
Marcin plays a Vessel on Anson and then says he wants to cycle cards again so he sends Jimmy Dunn to fetch the Powerbase: Montreal. Enrico blocks with a Rock Cat and the same kind of maneuver, dodge, press dance happens again like last time. It doesn’t look like Marcin drew what he wanted to, however, as he just drags 2 blood back from the uncontrolled Marcellus to his pool and passes the turn.
Otso plays his third Ashur Tablets and then gains 3 pool and shuffles some (I guess like 13, but I didn’t relly see…) cards into his deck. By the time Otso played his third Ashur Tablets Marcin also had 2 on the table – there’s been so much other action going on that I didn’t really have a chance to note them being played, however. As a second master phase action Otso plays Pentex Subversion on Maris Streck. This move raises some eyebrows both from his co-players and from the audience. ‘so that she doesn’t Wake – Obedience’, he explains helpfully. He then proceeds and then rushes Maris with Nangila Were. Maris goes to torpor and Otso continues by Public Trust bleeding (for 3) with Nana Buruku and then lets Fish bleed for 1.
Izaak untaps, drags 2 blood back to his pool from his uncontrolled region and then passes the turn on 5 pool, with a Pentexed Maris in his torpor region.

Turn 10

Enrico spends his turn making more and more minions, but not moving forward (rush or bleed). He’s just preparing and building up for the 5 minute mark. He plays Unmasking in his discard phase.
Milan plays Heart of the City on Aristotle (Prince wake from Anson but Aristotle plays superior Faceless Night and another stealth, tapping down Anson) and calls a Domain Challenge with Stavros. It passes, as there are now only 5 votes on the table – 3 from Stavros (Milan) and 2 from Anson (Marcin). Interestingly enough this vote doesn’t really damage any of the players who’re very low on pool (Izaak and Enrico) as it’s only Marcin and Otso that’s tapped out during their own turns. Milan passes the turn.
Marcin plays a an Ashur Tablets and then starts bleeding Otso with Anson, apparently interested in getting into combat with Otsos minions. Otso wakes with Nana Buruku and the two vampires duke it out big time. The combat ends with Anson going to torpor but Nana staying ready. I’m not really sure how many combat cards were played in this combat, but there were loads… Marcin ends his turn, probably a bit dismayed by the result of the combat that just ensued.
Otso plays 2 Ashur Tablets and then Public Trust bleeds with Nana, and bleeds for 1 with Fish and Nangila – resulting in a total of 5 pool damage, just what’s needed to oust Izaak! The audience gives Otso and Izaak a round of applauds. Otso is tapped out but has gained 6 pool, so he passes the turn, probably not overtly afraid of being ousted in Marcins next turn.

Turn 11

4 minutes and eleven seconds left.
Enrico plays Pentex Subversion on Milans Rock Cat and then bleeds for 1 with all his minions, getting Milan down to 5 pool, but it’s not enough. He ends his turn.
Milan has Stavros hunt and Aristotle to bleed Marcin for 3. He then passes his turn.
Marcin has Jimmy Dunn bleed for 1 and Otso opts to take the bleed. ‘crap’ was the only thing Marcin could say about it – he obviously wanted to do combat.
Otso started his turn by playing a third Ashur Tablets and shuffling cards back into his library (and gaining 3 pool), but didn’t get any time to do any actions before time ran out.

Congratulation Otso Saariluoma, the winner of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle European Championships 2011!





After the game I got the chance to have a quick talk with Otso:

Me: Congratulations to your win Otso! What was your game plan during the game?
Otso: Well, either the Rock Cats gets ousted early on, then there would be 4 players and I would be able to have good control over the Malkavian deck. It was either that, or the Rack Cats would have ousted the stealth vote dock and I would have had to oust my prey while The Rock Cats and Celerity Guns were beating down on each other… Now neither happened and I managed to oust my prey with five minutes left which was good for me.

Thanks Otso for that answer!

I also got the chance to have a quick talk with Milan:

Me: Your deck very much looked like the punching sack on the table – what’s your thoughts on your seating in the final and what was your game plan?
Milan: I really couldn’t have a good seating – 3 combat decks at the same table is very hard for my deck to tackle. I guees I was hoping that the combat decks would fight each other, especially that Marcin and Otso would team up and fight Enrico, but that was probably a bit of wishful thinking…
My game plan was basically: Survive. Survive, make new minions and bloat. I have many Villeins in my deck and I play a couple of Voter Captivation, and I figured that if I managed to stay alive with my minions the first turn after they come into play, so that they can act, then maybe I could have a chance. I knew I would pass votes – I run a lot of vite psush. I just needed to stay alive that first, crucial turn. I believe it all would have worked a lot better if Marcin hadn’t back rushed that first turn: I was saving up my Majesties in order to be able to defend myself against the Rock Cats and it would have worked if just for that back rush… Oh, yeah, and the Entrancements. Stealing Rock Cats was a part of the game plan, too.
It was a hard table though: There was five very active decks that sat down to play it out, so there were bound to be some action…

Thank you Milan for that answer!

It's come to my attention that my notes were wrong at one point in the report: When Otso ousted Izaak he didn't play Public Trust + bleed for 1 + bleed for 1, actually this is what happened:
Deeo Song bleed with Nana, Deep Song bleed Nangila, and bleed for 1 with Fish. Total 5 damage and an oust.

We didn't have a chance to talk after the final.
My plan for the game was simple. Rock Cats, Nana and Anson (myself) stay at the table around minute 40 or so and we fight for the win .
Unfortunately my predator (Milan) had some bloat options and Enrico didn't manage to oust him.
Somewhere by turn 7-8 it was clear for me that Otso is going to win the game. He was at 10+ pool and it would take me at least 5-6 turns (without Fame) to bring him down to 0 (especially with Marcellus being banished). When I was sure that there is not much time left for my predator to oust me I tried to do anything to my prey but his combat was simply better than mine.

ANother great report. Well written.
Thank you for taking your time to do this.
Well done!

From my perspective the game ended when Enrico played the Golconda and didn't get it suddened. That made me unable to ever oust him and him unable to ever oust Milan assuming he stuck to the accompanying deal. Since I was going to get ousted in either case, Otso basically got the win given at that point.

I was talking to Enrico afterwards and there were basically two ways he could have won. He could either have just get the Golconda Washed and bleed Milan out in that turn. Or he could have struck the deal anyway and bleed him out regardless of the deal.

The second way was to play Golconda on my Maris. I take the 9 pool, we go to timeout and he wins by being first seed.

Izaak wrote:

From my perspective the game ended when Enrico played the Golconda and didn't get it suddened. That made me unable to ever oust him and him unable to ever oust Milan assuming he stuck to the accompanying deal. Since I was going to get ousted in either case, Otso basically got the win given at that point.

I was talking to Enrico afterwards and there were basically two ways he could have won. He could either have just get the Golconda Washed and bleed Milan out in that turn. Or he could have struck the deal anyway and bleed him out regardless of the deal.

The second way was to play Golconda on my Maris. I take the 9 pool, we go to timeout and he wins by being first seed.

This is all true. I thought that Enrico would take the first VP around turn 5-6. In that case I might have helped you (if you had any vampires) to take your VP and help my with ousting Otso . But without any rushes in my hand I had really nothing to offer, so I just wanted to stay alive as long as possible and try some Kamikaze rush to top Otso getting his VP. How did it end up ? You all could see