TWD Tension in the Ranks

Powerbase: Berkeley Tension in the Ranks
August 9, 2014
Berkeley, CA, USA
13 players
2r + final

Winner: David Corson-Knowles (after not playing for several years he came to take the tournament win!)

Deck Name: "Perfect Victory"
Created by: d from JOL
Deck notes: Graverobbing was a mistaken inclusion, probably in the same card box from when Anson and a few different Malks were in a previous version of the deck. (I've been playing variations on this "quick Malks & friends" deck since Kalinda came out). Not realizing that there isn't a single level of Dominate in the crypt, I actually drew and held on to Graverobbing for a few turns in Round 2 and considered fishing for a vamp to use it (thankfully I didn't!). This deck used to have more Perfectionist, but I dropped them for 2x Giant's Blood, managing to play one in 2 out of 3 rounds (although one of those plays was for just 1 blood).
Strategy: Get Victoria and a support vamp and hopefully a high capacity vamp. Try not to die until you win. Mix up actions, bleed, block and combat to keep the hand flowing. Didn't draw my titled vamp or either of my Political Cards during this tournament.

Deck List:
Crypt: (15)
3x Victoria(G2)
1x Antoinette DuChamp(G2)
1x Brazil(G1)
1x Cornelius Ottavio(G2)
1x Dancin' Dana(G1)
1x Dollface(G1)
1x Franciscus(G2)
1x François Villon(G2)
1x Kalinda(G2)
1x Sarah Brando(G2)
1x Smudge the Ignored(G1)
1x Volker, The Puppet Prince(G2)
1x Zöe(G2)

Library: (91)

Master: (22)
4x Blood Doll
2x Giant's Blood
2x Madness Network
1x Asylum Hunting Ground
1x Celerity
1x Effective Management
1x Fame
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Humanitas
1x Information Highway
1x Life in the City
1x Minion Tap
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Perfectionist
1x Rötschreck
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch

Action: (3)
2x Bum's Rush
1x Graverobbing

Action Modifier: (8)
2x Cloak the Gathering
2x Faceless Night
1x Elder Impersonation
1x Mask of a Thousand Faces
1x Spying Mission
1x Veil the Legions

Action Modifier/Combat: (2)
2x Swallowed by the Night

Ally: (3)
3x Muddled Vampire Hunter

Combat: (21)
5x Disguised Weapon
3x Blur
3x Taste of Vitae
2x Acrobatics
2x Fast Hands
2x Psyche!
1x Lightning Reflexes
1x Pursuit
1x Sideslip
1x Zip Gun

Equipment: (13)
5x .44 Magnum
2x Ivory Bow
2x Palatial Estate
1x Assault Rifle
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Flash Grenade
1x Rowan Ring

Political Action: (2)
1x Camarilla Exemplary
1x Malkavian Justicar

Reaction: (15)
3x Forced Awakening
3x Spirit's Touch
3x Wake with Evening's Freshness
2x Telepathic Misdirection
1x Eagle's Sight
1x Lost in Translation
1x Precognition
1x Telepathic Counter

Retainer: (2)
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Tasha Morgan

Highlights: There was one really interesting card play for me in each of the three rounds, that weighed heavily on the outcome and my survival. First round it was Eagle's Sight, second round it was Rotschrek and third round it was Pentex Subversion. Highlights the toolbox-y nature of this Master-heavy bleed/block/bloat/combat deck.

Tournament play notes
Round 1:
'Insanely' lucky play of Eagle's Sight let me keep my !Ventrue prey from bleeding out the last 1 pool of Jeff Kuta's Madness Network/Parity Shift deck Soon after, managed to oust prey and then Jeff for a 3-1 game (Jeff got the Daughter's deck, my predator). Very selective and occasional use of the Vampire Hunter contributed to the victory. Victoria, Sarah Brando and Franciscus were the only vamps who made it out of the crypt due to early damage from the Daughter's deck. Interestingly (to me) I managed to get Humanitas and Perfectionist on a support vamp, but only used it one time in a cross table rescue for Jeff.

Round 2:
Timed out against Infernal Unnamed prey in round 2. "Terrible" decision to use Rotschrek against my predator and not to block my prey's Unleash Hell's Fury left me stymied for several rounds. Infernal's burned 2 of my vamps and ousted the Daughter's deck while Alex's Immortal Grapple deck across the table ousted the Lasombra Arm's of the Abyss Entombment deck that was preying on me. Would have at least bled out my prey using Ottavio on the next turn if the last round hadn't taken so long to play through.

Round 3:
In the tournament final, Pentex Subversion saved me from going down to David's Daugher's deck with Shattering Crescendo after he Famed Franciscus at the beginning of the game, and apparently taking small bleeds and failing to block him kept his hand combat-jammed with ag damage cards. Despite pushing as much as I could against my !Ventrue prey again, he was able to oust the Infernal Unnamed, in part due to stopping the equip of Homonculus in a 5 intercept to 5 stealth showdown, followed by a satisfying play of Target Vitals, but not before the Unnamed and accompanying Horde did heavy damage to Brandon's Anson deck. Anson recovered (literally coming out of the crypt again) after the Toreadors outbled the Daughters. I finally pushed through the !Ventrue after that with some help from Fame and Muddled Vampire Hunter. Francois had J.S. Simmons support to throw bleeds of three, which helped with the race to tap out and bleed that we were all engaged in during the last few rounds.

91 cards in library makes this deck illegal for tournament play.


6.2. Constructed Deck Size Limits

Standard Constructed decks must contain a minimum of sixty cards and a maximum of ninety cards. The crypt must contain a minimum of twelve cards.

Wow you are right. I even asked him if the deck was 90 or fewer cards before he started. I will double check with him to see if there is a mistake in the deck list.

What does it mean for the results of a tournament if the winner is disqualified?

brandonsantacruz wrote:

Wow you are right. I even asked him if the deck was 90 or fewer cards before he started. I will double check with him to see if there is a mistake in the deck list.

It's probably that Graverobbing that wasn't supposed to be in deck in first place. But that should have been handled during tournament by removing it from deck and giving player a warning about it and then continue playing like normal. Problem is that he noticed that he had card in his deck that shouldn't be there and did nothing about it during the tournament, like notifying a judge about it.

Deck is illegal, but that one extra card can't be used by any vampire in the deck, so it only makes deck worse and doesn't give any advantage to player.

Judges call I suppose. To DQ or not to DQ, that's the question.

This was already mentioned in the original post

brandonsantacruz wrote:

Deck notes: Graverobbing was a mistaken inclusion, probably in the same card box from when Anson and a few different Malks were in a previous version of the deck. (I've been playing variations on this "quick Malks & friends" deck since Kalinda came out). Not realizing that there isn't a single level of Dominate in the crypt, I actually drew and held on to Graverobbing for a few turns in Round 2 and considered fishing for a vamp to use it (thankfully I didn't!).