TWD: Shroud Mastery-February 6th, 2022

Shroud Mastery
Newark, Ohio
February 6th, 2022
2R+F
12 Players
Deck Name: Daylily
Author: Alex Romano
Description: This deck is based on a similar deck I saw Randall Rudstam play back in 2011. It's pretty straightforward with what it does. Get out 2-3 PRO ANI vamps and abuse the combo of deep song and earth meld to tap down all of your preys vamps and launch massive bleeds with codex and heidelburg. Selectively block actions you don't like and earth meld out of those combats.

The final of this tournament was pretty interesting as we had 5 protean decks including three gangrel anti decks at the table. Seating was

John Mathys--->Ministry stealth bleed
Kurt Kopp--->Gangrel ANI wall
Karl Schaefer--->Enkidu Anarch multi rush
Me--->ANI PRO shenanigans
Jeremy Thompson--->Gangrel Anti with dominate

The game started fast as almost right away Jeremy had John down to less than 8 or so pool. Shortly thereafter Kurt got blocked by Enkidu and his Gangrel with a murder of crows, the rack, vessel, blood doll and a raven spy got burnt by an additional hands for 3 agg from enki. This put both Kurt and John in a tough spot maybe thirty minutes into the game. Jeremy made a miscalculation and dropped very low on pool, within ousting range if I drew a card. I didn't draw it unfortunately but Jeremy was at 1 pool as John was able to stick around for another turn, thus ensuring a chance at getting both of them. Next time around Karl rushed a famous Celeste four times in one turn and it was not until the last combat he was able to dunk Doyle so he couldn't benefit from the fame dunk. Due to this I was able to get Jeremy before he could get through John who was down to 2 pool. I had the oust of John in my hand but decided not to get him because if he got Kurt(who was down to 3 pool while tapped out) then all I had to do was get John and I win. So John gets Kurt quite quick and Karl only had one rush for one of my minions which I was able to earth meld out of. I had to do a little bit of drawing but due to a club illusion, played by John, I was able to bleed for two unblockable due to a horrific countenance and then just conceded my VP to Karl because it didn't matter much beyond that. A pretty quick game clocking in at just over an hour but a really fun one.

As far as the deck goes I considered trimming it down, and it appears the original version of it was only 75ish cards, but our local meta is so combat heavy, having all of the end combat is almost essential to make it flow correctly. In the final round I played 14 earth meld and still had gotten a combat that didn't go the way I was hoping earlier. The misdirection is about the only card I know I would take out as I ended up discarding it multiple times throughout the tournament. One of the daring the dawn could come out too, but I'm not sure what either of them would be better off being,

Also too much Janey is way worse than not enough as although her text is such a deterrent you end up generally using it once or twice a game, so upping the number of her in the deck would be an error, but it certainly has an effect on the table when she comes out.

A big thank you to Mark and the Comic Shop Plus for hosting as always.

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=1 max=7 avg=3.625)
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1x Iris Bennett 1 pro Caitiff:5
3x Janey Pickman 6 for ANI PRO Gangrel antitribu:4
1x Leo Washington 2 cel pro Gangrel antitribu:4
1x Lillian 3 ani pro Gangrel:5
1x Robert Price 2 pro Gangrel:4
1x Joseph Fischer 3 PRO Gangrel antitribu:5
2x Celeste Lamontagne 5 for ANI PRO Gangrel antitribu:4
2x Doyle Fincher 7 aus for obf ANI PRO Gangrel antitribu:4

Library: 90 cards

Master (20 cards)
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1x Ennoia's Theater
1x Fear of Mekhet
2x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Giant's Blood
2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Animalism
1x Information Highway
1x Archon Investigation
1x Misdirection
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Twisted Forest
3x Vessel
1x Campground Hunting Ground
1x Coven, The
1x Direct Intervention
1x Dreams of the Sphinx

Action (12 cards)
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10x Deep Song
2x Abbot

Action Modifier (8 cards)
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5x Freak Drive
1x Horrific Countenance
2x Daring the Dawn

Combat (30 cards)
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8x Form of Mist
3x Pack Alpha
19x Earth Meld

Retainer (8 cards)
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1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Owl Companion
5x Raven Spy
1x Tasha Morgan

Equipment (3 cards)
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1x Heart of Nizchetus
2x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers

Reaction (9 cards)
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4x On the Qui Vive
4x Cats' Guidance
1x Delaying Tactics