file TWD - Veiled Sight, Cape Town (2 April 2011)

16 Apr 2011 05:46 #3429 by hodgestar
Tournament: Veiled Sight
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Date: 2 April 2011
Players: 12
Winner: Neil Muller
Winning deck: www.secretlibrary.info/index.php?deck=view&id=5893

Deck Name: Alicia Burrows Vote (This is not a Lutz deck)
Author: Neil Muller
Description:
Obf/Pre vote with Lutz

Notes:
This deck was meant to exploit the OBF/PRE/pot synergy between Aristotle and Alicia. When I realised that Lutz matched as well, it became impossible to leave him out.

The deck is far too fat. Due to the large minions, and limited number of actions, it cycles slowly, and I don't think I've ever played more than about 50 cards in a single game. Lutz's special massively accelerates the speed of a vote deck, so it works well even with the small number of actions in a game. I chose Minion Tap over Villein as I a) hope to Minion Tap minions multiple times and b) want to recycle them with Reinforcements and Antehlios. The recycling aspect has never really come up for me, though, and I have felt a bit jammed on Master cards at times, so maybe the trifleness of Villein is the better choice.


Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=7 max=11 avg=9.33)
================================================
4x Lutz von Hohenzollern 11 pot AUS DEM OBF PRE Malkavian:4
4x Alicia Barrows 9 AUS DEM OBF POT PRE !Malkavian:4
2x Stavros 7 dem AUS OBF PRE !Malkavian:4
2x Aristotle de Laurent 9 pot AUS DEM OBF PRE !Malkavian:3

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (15)
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
5x Minion Tap
1x Powerbase: Madrid
5x Zillah's Valley
2x Secure Haven

Event (1)
1x Anthelios, The Red Star

Political Action (15)
5x Conservative Agitation
5x Kine Resources Contested
2x Rumors of Gehenna
3x Reinforcements

Action Modifier (34)
7x Sleep Unseen
5x Lost in Crowds
4x Forgotten Labyrinth
4x Bewitching Oration
4x Iron Glare
5x Voter Captivation
5x Cloak the Gathering

Reaction (10)
1x Wake with Evening's Freshness
3x On the Qui Vive
6x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (15)
6x Charismatic Aura
2x Staredown
7x Majesty

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16 Apr 2011 05:48 #3430 by hodgestar
Neil's Tournament Report
========================

[The victor gets to write history - Ed.]

We had a good turnout for the tournament, with 12 players for the Saturday.

I decided (via die roll) to try the "Not a Lutz deck" again, which
ended up being a good choice and did quite nicely for itself.

The first round saw me (starting) bleeding Hendrik (Assamite trophy
deck) bleeding Dave (Kiasyd group 4 & 5 sleaze) bleeding Yancke (group
2 & 3 Tremere / !Tremere DOM & Mirror Walk stealth bleed). I had a
fast start, with two early Zillah's Valley's, which saw Lutz out on
turn two, and Alicia on turn three, and an early secure haven on Lutz
essentially shut down Hendrik's deck. I took a couple of turns to
reach a Minion Tap, though, and, had Yancke drawn an early
conditioning, I would have been the first ousted. I was able to oust
Hendrik, but, due to a Covincraft from Dave, needed one more vote card
to do so than I had hoped. At this point, I suffered a critical deck
failure, and didn't draw the votes I needed to oust Dave, and, with
not enough bounce, was rapidly whittled down by Yancke's DOM. Yancke
critically ran out of bounce a turn too soon, and was ousted by Dave
who then ousted me.

On the other tables, Brendan (Tzimisce wall with DOM) took 3 VPS, with
Simon (Spiridonas bleed and vote) taking 1, and Marc (Torrance Circle
Blood Brothers) and Richard (Weenie Liabon Vote) getting none. James
(Imbued) took 3 on his table with Kevin (Settites) getting 1VP, with
Anthony (Kiasyd) and Evan (!Salubri with Q) getting 0 each.

For the second round, my table was James (starting) bleeding Anthony
bleeding Richard bleeding me. I didn't get as fast a start as the
first game, but I did start by contesting James' first turn Dreams of
the Sphinx immediately, as contesting with your prey is usually worth
it. I got Lutz out on turn 3, only for James to Pentex him
immediately. Richard was gradually building up, and not blocking any
of Anthony's actions, and succeeded on jamming the Kiasyd on stealth.
I was extremely vulnerable for a turn while I got out Alicia, and got
going again, and, had Richard had a extra bleed card, I may have been
ousted before I got to act.

Once I had Alicia, I drew a Minion Tap, which gave me a buffer, and
started to dent James' pool a bit. There was also a cross table rush
on Richard by James, followed by some Gregory Winter blood stealing
that helped me, by keeping on of Richards minions trapped in a hunt
cycle . I made a misjudgment when I wasted a couple of actions trying
to burn the Pentex before realising that I didn't need to. Due to
another Minion Tap, I was able to bring out Aristotle, which was
important, as, without his extra stealth, I was struggling to get past
the intercept of the Imbued.

There was one critical vote by Richard, which, as it was called with a
Charming Lobby, would have led to my being ousted, but frantic
negotiation with Anthony saw him cycle a Covincraft to save me. This
however left Anthony without a wake, and he fell to James' lunge
immediately afterwards. At this point, the table looked to be falling
for James. Richard, however, was worried about the threat of the
Imbued and cut a deal to pass a couple of votes with me, which hurt
James, and, combined by a bounced bleed (by the still Pentex'd Lutz)
which forced James to tap his blockers, I was able to land a couple of
votes and get him within range again. James then played Gambit
Accepted, and, thanks to a Minion Tap on Aristotle, I was able to buy
myself enough breathing space to oust James, although, had he chosen
to block rather than Determine my Kine, I wouldn't have been able to
make my lunge stick. In the end game against Richard, I was able to
block a Founders, and, although Richard had managed to secure the vote
lock, he couldn't call aggressive votes due to Lutz's special. Once I
remembered that, with James ousted, Lutz was free to act again, I
could bleed faster at stealth than he could, and so I was able to oust
him for the sweep.

I didn't see what happened on the other two tables, but Yancke & Marc
both swept, but my extra VP from the first round saw me enter the
final as top seed. Brendan, James and Dave were all tied, and Brendan
lost the roll off for a place in the final. Yacnke and Marc also
rolled off to see who would choose seating first, with Marc rolling
lowest (and so choosing first).

For the final, Marc (unsurprisingly) chose to sit upstream of Dave's
Kiasyd. Yancke then chose to sit between the Blood Brothers and the
Kiasyd. As I didn't want to sit downstream of the DOM decks, I chose
to sit between James and Marc, hoping that the upstream pressure would
keep the Imbued busy and that I could oust Marc before he got the wall
part of his deck setup. I rolled highest, so I started.

I got a first turn Dreams, which allows me to get Lutz out on turn 3
and Alicia on turn 5, despite starting, and although I had an early
bleed for 3 from James, an early Minion Tap saw me up to a decent pool
again. Dave got up to 3 minions fairly quickly with the help of a
Govern, while Yancke pulled out two quickly, with Carna putting in an
appearance in the midgame. Yancke went for some big bleeds, but Dave
drew a truly astonishing number of bounce cards, so James was left
trying to block 5 bleeds a turn, which took all the pressure off me. One
of the early key plays saw James try to Pentex Subversion Dave's the
Arcadian, but Dave had a Sudden in hand, which meant James never got
the breathing room to go forward for the rest of the game.

I had the votes come up nicely, and was able to whittle down Marc
quickly, and, after he brought out a third minion (to get more
intercept from the Gestalts), he was down to 4 pool. Thanks to a
Forgotten labyrinth, I was able to stealth over Marc and oust him
despite his intercept, and, with the extra pool, was able to get
Aristotle out and into play as well. A couple of votes saw we whittle
down Yancke, and then James eventually ran out of blockers (although
there was one 4 bleed that was bounced to Yancke who then bounced it
to me, which itched a bit), and was ousted. I had been able to Minion
Tap Alicia, but at this point I wasn't that far ahead of Dave on pool.

Yancke was looking quite vulnerable, and, as I had a Rumors of Gehenna
in play I could vote away at will, I was fairly certain I had him
next, but I was worried about the heads up against Dave, who had shown
considerable bleed potential, no shortage of bounce and was looking
pretty good on 14 pool. Yancke bled forward, though, and it turned out
that Dave was out of wake and bounce, and was soon down to only 4
pool. He was also short on bleed, so I started my next turn looking
quite healthy, especially as I was then able to Minion Tap Arisotle. A
Kine and a Conservative Agitation saw me oust Yancke, and the
incidental damage reduced Dave to 1 pool, and then voting away the
Rumors saw me oust Dave for the win.

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