TWD - Standard homologué

I was waiting for Vincent to post my winning deck (and the report I wrote some times ago) but since he posted his own but not mine, here I am

Standard homologué
September 4 2021
Paris, France
3R+F
19 players
Timothée Daudé
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/9874

Final was :
Vincent (shattering crescendo) > Gilles (Malgorzata with tupdogs but without grapple) > me > Édouard (Turbo inside Dirt) > Axel (Tzimisce Wall)

-- 2GW6 + 1.5VP in final

Author: Tim
Description: The deck is a very solid defensive deck which abuses 2 of the most strong defensive cards in VtES : second tradition and Earth Meld. The ousting power is based on a strong combo of permanent : Homunculus, +1 Bleed on Rachel and Madness Network. For the full package there is also perfectionist and Enkil Cog for the possibility to bleed for 3 during the turn of every player without cards nor cost. Actually having only part of the full combo can already be strong and Madness Network should not be defended at all cost Enkil Cog being already very strong.
The specificity of my version of the deck is the fact that it abuses Rachel card text with 62 cards total, the Heart of cheating and Fragment+Barrens to kind of always have the perfect hand. I regularly have the 3 in play and after that I can change 3 cards in my hand beginning my turn (and keep the master and permanents I want to play) and I can change up to 4 cards at the end of the turn reshuffling what I will need for the rest of the game without depleting my library. The 2 directs are very strong for a deck that is active during the turn of the other players and allows alongside the 4 maneuvers to keep IG players at bay.

Crypt (12 cards, min=14 max=40 avg=6.75)

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5x Rachel Brandywine 10 ani AUS DEM OBF PRO prince Malkavian:3
1x Greger Anderssen 7 dom pro AUS OBF prince Malkavian:2 (He is a weak 6th Rachel only useful in very good or very bad situations)
3x Victoria 5 cel obf AUS Malkavian:2
2x Zöe 3 cel obf AUS Malkavian:2
1x Milo, The Invisible Horror 3 aus obf Malkavian:3

Library (62 cards)
Master (15)
1x Barrens, The -- can be used during the discard phase and you can shuffle back the discarded card with Rachel Special
1x Coven, The
2x Direct Intervention -- important in a wallish deck, priceless in a Madness Network deck and one of the reasons the deck doesn't straight die against Immortal Grapple
1x Fragment of the Book of Nod -- a better Barrens in a defensive deck
1x Giant's Blood
2x Madness Network
1x Monastery of Shadows
2x Perfectionist
1x Rack, The
2x Vessel
1x Wider View

Ally (1)
1x Carlton Van Wyk

Equipment (2)
1x Bowl of Convergence -- can easily be cut
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Retainer (2)
2x Homunculus

Action Modifier (7)
1x Elder Impersonation
2x Enkil Cog
2x Faceless Night
2x Lost in Crowds

Action Modifier/Combat (3)
3x Swallowed by the Night

Reaction (17)
4x Eyes of Argus
1x My Enemy's Enemy
7x Second Tradition: Domain
5x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (15)
1x Claws of the Dead -- having 1 in your deck make your opponent tread more carefully when coming your way because you can discard it and then shuffle it back and it double up as an other anti-grapple card
10x Earth Meld
4x Form of Mist



We were 19 players at our local store with a drop after the 2nd round.

It was our first in-store tournament since the first French lockdown 18 months ago, so I didn’t want to play some new and funky deck and rather chose a deck I play since a few years ago and which is very solid: Rachel Madness.

Round 1:
Paul (!ventrue grinder) > Antonin (Valerius Maior + !trem infernal pact) > Evgueny (€Brujah) > Toff (Ventrue Grinder + Eurayle) > Moi (Rachel)

Beginning the game, I don’t feel very well because being placed between 2 wallish decks I think I will have some difficulty playing my permanent cards.

And yes, my Rack is washed and my Homunculus is blocked.
But between the Fragment and Rachel special I can easily keep a good hand for my present plan which is “to not die” and so I try to have at all time tele midsi + wake + tele misdi in my hand for the inevitable lunge from my predator.
On the other end of the table, we learn that the €Brujah deck is more toolboxy than the average and we see Theo bleed with govern and Beast bleed for 1. Of course sometimes they Torn some Signposts and play some additional strikes but I feel that the combat package should not exceed 20/25 cards. And we have the DAI agg dealt by Valerius and Selena combined with being regularly hit on the head by Walking Sticks which cost some bloods and progressively deplete Donal, Beast and Theo with Rake being the only one with some blood to spare.
At one moment, we have Paul which lunge for the oust and lock all his minions to oust his prey. Feeling confident with 18 pools he decide to influence 4 more on a new vampire.
Evgueny having a New Carthage go for a bleed for 5 with Donal (with no stealth) which is twice bounced to me and then to Paul who take it without playing a card.
Beginning his turn, Toff ask to Paul if he can go forward and Paul answers that he should be careful. Toff states that he knows my deck and I don’t have any means to add to the bleed which is already on the table (so 2 bleeds for 1 and 1 bleed for 2). He tries and fails to steal Rachel with a Spirit Marionette and then proceed to bleed for 2 with an outferior SM. I try to fake wanting to block the second bleed which would follow and Toff add 3 to the bleed with a bleed for 5 that then go to Paul effectively killing him my turn being 2 bleeds for 1 and 1 bleed for 2 (and I play Enkil Cog).

Toff is then ousted very quickly and we begin the duel. Evgueny seems to be sure he will lose this duel but I keep my focus because a bad combat could be the end of it.
I play Giant’s Blood on Rachel and begin bleeding for 3 every turn. Evgueny begins his turn with Theo and Donal empty and having a direct in hand I decide to torporize the first and Earth Meld the second in order to have an additional bleed. Theo hit for 6 with Torn and roundhouse but I decide not to play earth meld a torpor being worth it for 6 blood with the vessel and the perfectionist on Rachel.
I sweat a little but with Evgueny vampires being low in blood and Rachel bleeding for 3 during each of our turns I win the duel without too much troubles.

GW3 for me and 1 VP for Paul and Evgueny. Not bad for a game I was playing the first half “not to die”.

Round 2 :
Nothing special, 0 VP for me and Vincent take the sweep (4 players table)

Round 3 : me (Rachel) > Candice (Weenie Computer Hacking) > Pierre V (Nephandus) > Pierre LR (classic Goratrix) > Chris (Hardestadt Alastor)

Candice has a very strong start with T1 Info Highway and Veil of Darkness and 3 vamp out.
Pierre V decide to delay Antonio and bring out Beatrix Tremblay with a strike with conviction.
Chris being stuck between 2 wall decks has great difficulty playing and see about half his actions being blocked. The interesting drama is on the other side of the table with everyone wanting to know if Candice will be able to oust Pierre V.
Pierre LR and I help Pierre V me blocking empty vampire hunts and Pierre LR using an eagle’s sight. And finally, Pierre V manage to stabilize with Antonio and 2 Nephandi but with 1 pool.

Meanwhile, I have an Enkil Cog and I bleed Candice for 3/5 each turn and I have a good shot to oust 2 preys in a short time. The other player saw it and I decide to offer 2 VP to my Hardestat predator if he does not kill the Nephandus deck with a bounced bleed.

Once the deal is made, it is nearly a formality to take GW3 for me and 2VP for chris.

Finale:
We are playtesting the new finale rule with each finalist showing 3 random crypt cards before deciding where we sit.

The finalists are:
1 Axel with 2GW 9,5 who reveals 3 mid cap Tzimisce
2 me with 2GW 6 who reveals 2 Rachel and 1 Victoria
3 Vincent with 1GW 5.5 who reveals 3 Daughters (I already knew he played Shattering Crescendo)
4 Gilles with 1GW 3 who reveals Keith Moody, Frondator et Tupdog but I know he is playing Malgorzata + Tupdog with a minimal combat package
5 Édouard with 1GW 3 et less TP than Gilles who reveals 3 !Nosfe with OBF (I heard during the break that there were 2 Inside Dirt decks in the tournament, I guess it should be one of them).

Sitting goes:
Gilles > Édouard
Gilles > Édouard > Vincent
Gilles > me > Édouard > Vincent (I chose to sit here in order not to be Edouard prey and to be far away from the Shattering Crescendos)
Gilles > me > Édouard > Axel > Vincent
Several people (including me) seems to find strange for Axel to sit himself as prey to the very aggressive deck but he explains that he played this match up during the tournament and he won.

Vincent is randomly designed to be first to play.

When I sit for this finale I have a game plan which is to play it slowly in order to let my prey soften and ideally kill the scary wall while stacking telepathic misdirection for the big bleeds from the !Tremere.

The game goes better than hoped with Edouard having T1 Info highway and a very aggressive start.

I play Fragment of the Book of Nod and heart of Cheating very early giving me a nearly perfect hand at all time.
Vincent goes for an early frontward Shattering Crescendo on Tupdog and Carlton. What I don’t know at this moment is that Gilles had in hand Raking Talon and Graverobbing to effectively steal my lone Victoria with her precious Heart.

The game is very alike the 3rd round with a very aggressive prey and a predator with a lot of difficulty going through my defense.

After only few turns, it seems a given that Axel will quickly die Forgotten Labyrinth and Elder Impersonation being more efficient than Enhance Senses and Eyes of Argus.

For my part, Having an early Heart + Fragment, I quickly have a nearly complete combo with Homunculus + Perfectionist + Madness Network lacking only Enkil Cog and with Victoria, Rachel and Carlton I am in a very comfortable position.

When Axel is ousted, Vincent goes straight for the back Crescendos. Edouard begin to look on his right rather than going straight forward and he goes for the Madness Network which he easily burns.

Edouard being effectively stopped and with very few pools, Vincent begin to go on me. After a first Directed Shattering, Vincent explain to Gilles that he needs to cycle in order to draw another Shattering and he cycles bleed cards on Gilles which his after that with 5 pools and no unlocked minions.

Vincent seems not to be sure about the right thing to do at this point and I propose to back bounce if he goes for a bleed for 5 and playing afterward for a duel between he and me (we would both have 1 VP at this point me being favored by the seating).
Vincent accept and goes for a bleed with Legal + Virtuosa + Daring. Gilles goes for a lot of cycling playing 4 different wake but does not draw the 2nd (or maybe the 3rd ?) bounce he is looking for and bounce on Edouard killing him.

I honor my deal playing only defensively having nothing to gain doing otherwise.
When Edouard his ousted, there is still 15 min to the time limit but Gilles manage to stay alive and nobody else is ousted and so I win with 1.5 VP in the final.

Wow, so much information; much appreciated!

Plus, I would be interested to see the list of the Inside Dirt deck.