TWD - Powerbase: Berkeley - Yawp Court

Powerbase: Berkeley - Yawp Court
Eudemonia Game Store
Berkeley, California USA
05 August 2017, 18:00 – 00:30
Standard Constructed
2R + F
Organizer: Mark Jasper

12 players
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/8716

Winner: Kenneth Davenport
Tournament Winning Deck with 1.5 VPs in the final

Deck Name: Maris' Rivers of Blood (Years of Darkness)
Author: Kenneth Davenport
Heavily based on VENI VIDI VICI (Malkavian Princes) by Danilo Torrisi
www.secretlibrary.info/index.php?deck=view&id=20267

Replaced a banned card with a Wash and added 2x No Trace for Berkeley's combat-heavy meta. The S:CE came in handy when mobile intercept trumped my “measly” stealth... Still didn't beat Rötschreck, which hit Maris AND Orlando in the final.

Maris, Lutz, and Mental Maze are great deterrents to keeping Madness Network on the table (yeah duh I know, but I seldom play with or against Maris OR Lutz, and seeing people's ire toward them was eye-opening).

I only used My Kin Against the world once (in game 1), with Lutz and Maris. Discarded the rest; would have been way better if I had more Malks, but hey an extra action is an extra action (plus prey burns 1 pool with Lutz out), right?

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=7 max=11 avg=9.5)
===============================================
3x Lutz von Hohenzollern 11 pot AUS DEM OBF PRE Malkavian:4
3x Maris Streck 9 ani dem dom AUS OBF Malkavian:3
3x Orlando Oriundus 9 obf AUS DOM THA !Tremere:4
1x Quentin King III 7 obf pre AUS DEM Malkavian:3
1x Rachel Brandywine 10 ani AUS DEM OBF PRO Malkavian:3
1x Tryphosa 10 AUS DEM DOM OBF POT Malkavian:4

Library (80 cards)
==================
Master (20)
1x Creepshow Casino
1x Direct Intervention
1x Giant's Blood
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
3x Madness Network
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Wash
10x Zillah's Valley

Political Action (20)
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancilla Empowerment
4x Kine Resources Contested
4x My Kin Against the World
10x Parity Shift

Equipment (2)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Sargon Fragment, The

Action Modifier (14)
4x Elder Impersonation
4x Forgotten Labyrinth
6x Into Thin Air

Reaction (20)
10x Mental Maze
2x My Enemy's Enemy
4x Second Tradition: Domain
4x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (2)
2x No Trace

Combo (2)
2x Swallowed by the Night

And here is the full tournament report from winner Kenneth Davenport:

Tournament report:

Round 1:
Alex Con Hon - G2 Tzimisce wall > Rick Phillips - !Malkavian S&B w/Le Dinh Tho > Mark Jasper - Trujah (Lydia) Tooling with DoE/OtH/Disarm/Decapitate > Me - Maris/Lutz/Orlando Parity Shift

Alex got a horrible deck shuffle and couldn’t get into combat to cycle. I got no Zillah’s Valleys until turn 6 or so. Early game when Mark tried giving Lydia the Bowl of Convergence (from his hand instead of with a Summon History), I offered Rick Maris-based intercept and a rescue to block it, which he did, calling Mark’s bluff of burning Rick’s vamp if he blocked. Mark did have the Disarm but not the Decapitate... I made good on the rescue, a win-win for Rick and I. With steady Tho-ing, Mark couldn’t tool up as fast as Rick could S/B. Mark was off the table fairly quickly and I got the next 2 ousts with Lutz and Maris votes. Game 1 ended in 50 mins.

Round 2:
Eric Haas - Lasombra with Improvised Flamethrower Abyssal Arms > Alex Con Hon -G2 Tzimisce wall > Carol Gail Vaughan - EuroBrujah > Me

Alex CH again, this time cross-table. Better for me… or was it..? This time, after shuffling the crap out of his deck and with Sascha at the ready to cycle cards, Alex became a more effective wall. Zillah’s blood quickly flowed to Maris, but Virginie (Prodigy), Advanced Sascha Vykos, and Constanza Vinti made voting a louder and longer process, at least until Lutz woke up. Despite a timely Under Siege by Virginie, Eric couldn’t power through Alex before I ousted him. A boneheaded deal on my part gave Alex pool for the votes to oust Eric (which I didn’t need as I controlled the edge and miscounted table votes); this was probably enough to keep him alive until I was ousted. In the 3-P, Alex had Meshenka and Sascha totaling 5 votes, and with Carol’s Roman Princedom, Maris and Lutz needed the edge to pass a vote. This didn’t happen often because I either couldn’t manage the timing or couldn’t pull the stealth to bleed for the edge with Madness network.

I pitched some Zillah’s Valleys to make a few of Chas Giovanni Tello’s dom bleed actions fail, but Alex let his prey dom-bleed me steadily until I folded, then got the last oust in the heads-up.

Final:
Alex CH - G2 Tzim wall > Eric Schultheis - G1-2 Tremere mid-cap bleed/bounce/block w/Muaziz, > Brandon Haas - G1 Toreador mid-cap bleed with intercept guns > Jonathan Scherer - G2 Gangrel with dominate > Me)

Maris sat in front of a bloaty Dominate deck for the final, though I was second seed… Poor seating choice perhaps, but I thought the other decks would take mine apart, and I knew what Alex’s deck was capable of. Like the last two rounds, I never got more than two minions out (Maris and Orlando this time). Mostly I couldn't muster the nerve to shell out 9 to 11 more pool in the face of heavy bleed potential, despite Parity Shifting with Maris once/turn... though that was often for less than 4, with some going to others for their votes. With plentiful other Camarilla and Sabbat titles on the table (G2 Tzimisce, Ingrid Rossler, and/or G1 Toreador Princes), I could seldom establish vote lock and needed to hold the edge to pass votes or make deals to get VPs.

One funny thing I did was make a deal with Brandon (my Grandpredator) to KRC myself for 1, my Predator for 2, and my Grandprey for 1 to get Brandon’s support for the referendum, thus making my prey (Alex) a legal target for Parity Shift. After KRC passed (despite AlexPrey's attempt to block), the follow up Parity Shift was blocked by Alex’s mobile intercept, and Maris got 'shrecked. She had it coming, though. Surprisingly she survived until Brandon was able to rescue her.

It’s notable that nearly all (7 or 8) of Maris’ blood was spent giving Brandon intercept early and mid-game to stabilize his side of the table, while Eric’s Superior Mirror Walks saved his minions from a barrage of gunfire. Brandon couldn’t get many bleeds through nor gun down Jonathan’s two minions (Ramona and Ingrid Rossler) due to SO MANY Earth Melds (with the occasional Cat’s Guidance, dominate bounce, and Raven Spy).

I managed to bounce a pumped up Dominate Kine bleed of 4 (5?) from Jonathan to my prey, which let me lunge for my 1 VP next turn. That lunge, requiring Brandon’s votes, involved two KRC’s doing 5 pool damage to my predator (and two to my prey).

At some point I got a Brandon bleed bounced to me and decided to burn tapped Maris’ last blood for a 2nd Tradition (we played nice in combat). Heart of Cheating let me pull a Heidelberg Castle, which I played and used next turn to shuffle blood from Orlando to Maris, so she never had to lower herself to hunting (the mad spoiled brat).

After my oust, Brandon began voting against me so I decided to save Maris’ blood and allow Eric S to dom bleed him out after near constant pressure all game.

Shortly afterwards, the final went to time with no more ousts. The tournament win was decided by either seeding or Tournament Points (that was so close, sorry Eric!).