TWD - 1st Great Symposium; St. Michel - 8.7.2017, Mikkeli Finland

1st Great Symposium, St. Michel
Mikkeli, Finland
July 8th 2017
2R+F
12 players
Petrus Makkonen

We decided to arrange tournament in Mikkeli, last spring there was a tournament in Helsinki where some Joensuu players came to play and in turn we attended there tournament once from Helsinki, the trip is something like 400km one way. So yeah a long way for just one little tournament, so instead of bringing Joensuu closer, what we asked, first... we decided to do the easy way and bring the tournament closer to both.

Mikkeli lies about midway, so it's close enough for both player groups to attend.

Because of my work schedule, I really don't have time to write extensive report this time, but I hope Petrus the winner do write something, and sorry for very late report in the first place.

Finals seating was:

Petrus (Guilaume shamblers) - Tero (Elimelech Salubri bloat & bleed) - Aapo (Ventrue AT grinder) - Lauri (Shalmat summon history) - Petro (Setite Anarch bleed and Enticement)

We kinda decided all players will submit there lists (just for fun), after Petrus has submitted his winning deck of course, Petrus and Aapo Managed to oust in the finals and Petrus won with first seed, after timeout.

Only table to timeout in the tournament was the final table, of course the tables in tournament were only 4 player tables, so they do timeout rarely..

Final Rank Name Prelim GWs Prelim VPs Final VPs TPs
1 1 Petrus Makkonen 1 6 1.5 114
2 2 Tero Aalto 1 4 88
2 3 Lauri Salmi 1 3 78
2 4 Petro Hirvonen 1 5 0.5 114
2 5 Aapo Järvelin 1 3 1.5 78
6 6 Jaakko Nurro 0 2 96
7 7 Simo Tiippana 0 1 76
8 8 Lasse Poyry 0 0 56
9 9 Petteri Teerika ngas 0 0 46
9 10 Teemu Pulkkinen 0 0 46
11 11 Jani Malmi 0 0 36
11 12 Samuel Mäenpää 0 0 36

Deck Name: Necrospace
Author: Petrus Makkonen
Description:
For the best results, alter mustache to all vampires. All of them.

The most important thing (after mustache) playing this deck is to not die.

Storage Annex just isn't worth it. Extra hand size isn't an effect, it's just utility, and should be taken as such.

Charigger is pretty nifty if you're seated next to another Nocturne deck, but that's not often. Could be something else.

Shroud of Night is good, but should probably be a third piece of Spectral Divination and Shroud of Absence - that it can't be used in bleeds is pretty devastating after all.

Even with so much boring dominate, it's actually a lot of fun to play!

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=1 max=9 avg=6.5)
==============================================
1x Almodo Giovanni 3 dom pot Giovanni:4
1x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:ANY
1x Don Michael Antonio Giovanni 7 DOM NEC POT Giovanni:4
1x Gianmaria Giovanni 5 dom nec obt POT Giovanni:5
4x Guillaume Giovanni 9 obt CEL DOM NEC POT Giovanni:4
2x Pherydima 8 obt pot DOM MYT NEC Kiasyd:4
1x Raphaela Giovanni 6 pot pre DOM NEC Giovanni:4
1x Thomasso Ghiberti 4 pot NEC Giovanni:4

Library (80 cards)
==================
Master (16)
1x Carver's Meat Packing and Storage
1x Charisma
1x Direct Intervention
1x Filchware's Pawn Shop
1x Line, The
1x Mausoleum, Venice, The
1x Metro Underground
1x Morgue Hunting Ground
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Cape Verde
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Storage Annex
2x Villein
1x WMRH Talk Radio
1x Wall Street Night, Financial Newspaper

Event (3)
1x Dragonbound
2x Unmasking, The

Action (11)
1x Dominate Kine
9x Govern the Unaligned
1x Graverobbing

Equipment (1)
1x Palatial Estate

Ally (14)
1x Brigitte Gebauer (Wraith)
1x Gianna di Canneto
8x Nocturn
4x Shambling Hordes

Retainer (1)
1x Charigger, The Axe

Action Modifier (12)
3x Call of the Hungry Dead
1x Foreshadowing Destruction
1x Shroud Mastery
2x Shroud of Absence
2x Shroud of Night
2x Threats
1x Trochomancy

Reaction (11)
5x Deflection
1x Delaying Tactics
4x On the Qui Vive
1x Redirection

Combat (7)
1x Boxed In
1x Fake Out
4x Target Vitals
1x Thrown Gate

Combo (4)
2x Murmur of the False Will
2x Spectral Divination

Created with Secret Library v0.9.4e. (Jul 21, 2017 11:20:41)

----

So there!

I always wanted to play something a bit more toolboxy and what looked weirder than what it actually is. Guillaume with Pherydima are such an excellent tag team for a mid-range grind game.

Mikkeli is an excellent town in the middle of everything (and nowhere at the same time, but hey, it's Finland) with relatively easy drive times from everywhere. Thanks for the venue and organization to those whom it may concern! It was a blast.

Not sad at all to celebrate my first proper tournament win ever (don't believe that stupid Lilith's Blessing Arika deck in the TWDA, the whole point of the tournament back in the days was to bury Lilith's as deep as possible and be all the happier for it) with this deck and this particular final.

I played preying on Tero's "Ellun kanat" on the first round so I knew roughly what was going on in there, and I knew it's such a drag to bleed through. You'll understand once you see his deck. Having played Serenna myself I knew roughly how to deal with her, but it's still really hard. Still, knowing the other decks in there as well, my seating was probably spot on, even though it was really, really iffy: I certainly didn't want to prey on Aapo knowing what kinds of decks he plays these days, and I knew that Petro's deck was the most aggressive of the bunch by far. Still, Shalmath had to be dealt with, and I knew I had no business blocking his actions. Leaving others to fend him off suited me better than other (worse) options.

And fended him they did - thankfully we had a practice match against Shalmath in the other game, and I know more or less how the deck plays. It's a powerful, but very, very delicate deck, and it has very limited options for stealth. Without the first Summon History out he can't do much anything but bleed constantly for two (which is much in itself), but both the Setites and !Ventrue packing plenty of intercept and minions (and Petro playing tons of unlock) it's just a matter of time and consistent, hard work before Shalmath was down.

Thankfully by that time I finally managed to grind Tero out of the picture as well (taking plenty of risks if I remember correctly, since the Setites can take turns completely out of the blue where you're down from 15 pool to 0), and we were left in a three-way with three renegade garous from Joensuu. With 20 minutes or so all I had to do was pass turns, hunt and survive. Petro on the other hand had to balance between offensive and defensive, and Aapo could go all in on offense. I knew that Petro could fend off any amounts of bleed, and all I had for my defense was my pool. After a heated skirmish none died, and I was declared the winner.

Now I'll have to buy some fake mustache.

DISCLAIMER!!

Come back to this thread to look at other finalist decks as well! They were all original, some very inventive, and all extremely strong! The Finnish meta is a blast at the moment.

See you all in Ropecon in a week's time! Swedes and central Europians still have time to book your flights!

Deck name: Ellun kanat
Author: Tero Aalto

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=8 max=11 avg=9.75)
5x Elimelech the Twice-Damned 11 pro AUS DEM DOM FOR OBF !Ventrue:5
2x Karif al Numair 10 for AUS CEL OBF QUI Assamite:5
4x Serenna the White 8 ani dem AUS FOR OBE Salubri:6
1x Unmada 10 cel for AUS DEM OBF VIC Malkavian:5

Library (90 cards)
Master (16)
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
8x Minion Tap
1x Monastery of Shadows
2x Watchtower: Four Ride Forth
2x Wider View

Action (8)
8x Renewed Vigor

Equipment (4)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Improvised Flamethrower
1x Ivory Bow
1x Sengir Dagger

Action Modifier (21)
5x Confusion
2x Enkil Cog
4x Freak Drive
7x Lost in Crowds
3x Repulsion

Reaction (19)
8x Eyes of Argus
3x My Enemy's Enemy
2x On the Qui Vive
6x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (17)
2x Claws of the Dead
1x Coma
6x Hidden Strength
6x Superior Mettle
2x Wolf Claws

Combo (5)
5x Gift of Sleep

- - -

First tournament my new favorite vampire, Elimelech. I'd experimented with quite a few different versions in the past few months and decided to give this one a try even though the deck is a bit random. The result was better than expected.

One thing I learnt, though, is that 90 cards is often simply too much. Two out of three games, I was in trouble because I didn't draw enough prevent, and I lost the final so easily largely because I didn't draw any stealth until it was too late. If I play this again, I'll definitely cut 10–15 cards. Cog was the best, Unmada rather useless.

I really like this deck, in all of its incarnations (this one was version 5b), but most of the time, it's too slow. It suits the aggressive Finnish meta, though, because it can fend itself in combat against almost everybody. The way I made it to the final was just that, sweeping a table with two combat-heavy decks that kept trying to knock Elimelech down but failed consistently.

I'm happy to make a final with a deck I've developed myself but I don't think I'd take it to a big tournament. It doesn't have enough ousting power and even the massive bloat isn't enough of a defense against heavy bleed. I've tried a few more wall-like versions, too, but I'm yet unsure if that's really the way to go.

Deck Name: Stare of the Snake Eyes of Los Angles
Author: Petro Hirvonen
Description:
Created around wanting to play Detect Authority effectively.
Plan is to play Temptation to self first and get into 1 blood for roundly unlocks.
Powerbase: Los Angeles is crucial on card flow and unlocking for reduce or block.
CrimethInc. is for some extra push for when necessary.
Bleed with Club Illusion, unlock from temptation, hunt and repeat on next turn.
After bleeds use enticement when possible; Cycle them and combat ends or reduce back as needed with Mokole Blood.
Hesha hunts extra normally and with Anarch Free Press and Hospital Food using Monkey Wrench works even with plan on being on 1 blood for unlocks.
Qufur may want to stay on higher blood for Serpent's Numbing Kiss for blocking with option to up to 3 intercept on ideal case.

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=1 max=7 avg=4.33)
===============================================
4x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:ANY
3x Hesha Ruhadze 6 ani obf pre SER Follower of Set:2
1x Nepata 4 obf pre ser Follower of Set:2
2x Qufur am-Heru 7 cel tha OBF PRE SER Follower of Set:2
2x Samat Ramal-Ra, Archon 6 pre ser tha OBF Follower of Set:2

Library (74 cards)
==================
Master (15)
1x Anarch Free Press, The
2x Club Illusion
1x Crocodile Temple, The
1x Hospital Food
1x Opium Den
2x Powerbase: Los Angeles
1x Twilight Camp
1x Vessel
5x Villein

Action (13)
4x Enticement
6x Skullduggery
3x Temptation

Equipment (2)
2x Mokolé Blood

Ally (1)
1x Saatet-ta (Bane Mummy)

Action Modifier (19)
2x Cloak the Gathering
2x CrimethInc.
2x Faceless Night
3x Lost in Crowds
2x Memory Rift
3x Monkey Wrench
2x Smoke and Mirrors
3x Spying Mission

Reaction (16)
2x Delaying Tactics
6x Detect Authority
2x On the Qui Vive
5x Ophidian Gaze
1x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Combat (6)
6x Serpent's Numbing Kiss

Combo (2)
2x Swallowed by the Night

Created with Secret Library v0.9.4e. (Jul 21, 2017 13:37:43)

This was my second time in final; First one being a local tournament in Joensuu, which was either my first or second tournament ever, with extreme luck. (Not that luck wouldn't been involved this time.) As 2nd seed I had fair deal of options for my location, but the decision was extremely easy even when not knowing one of the decks as !Ventrue wasn't optimal prey or predator and having !Ventrue to prevent Shalmat from being a threat made sitting in front of him good choice of course if Peetu would had selected spot in between those two there would have been some trouble, but I was pretty darn sure that Peetu would select to sit either in front or behind me which both were fine by me. (Even with knowing that he wouldn't actually like being on either side of me, but all the other choices would probably been worse for him.) Took some chances with not knowing what Tero would play, but I made a wild guess what type of deck he would play and rolled with it. The comments Peetu made when was his turn to select his spot were sweet music to my ears; Still he selected the spot just before me which I was wishing for not knowing what Tero played.

Peetu got fixed intercept on undirected actions early in game which was major inconvenience, but didn't have any Nocturns for some time; Which was totally great, but neither did I find any unlocks or bleed cards for the matter. Being tired, as probably all us were, and coping badly with it really showed during the first hour with few silly mistakes like tap-outing with reduce burning in my hands and not having unlocks, losing pool and card cycle which slowed my game a bit. With Tero being in a lot of trouble I resorted to bleeding for 1's instead 2's or 3's is the one major regret I have of this game. I feel like I would have been better with just being probably bounced and give Peetu earlier oust which would have saved time for me to try to oust Peetu, try to survive and win by the 0.5 VP. Then again given my suboptimal first hour more time would probably meant that Aapo would have managed to instead oust me. ...Sorry for excessive babbling

All glory to the new moustache Don of Mikkeli!