TWD - Games of Instinct, Bonn (Germany) (09. Oct. 2011)

Games of Instinct
Bonn, Germany
October 09th, 2011
3R+F
18 players
Martin Schumacher

Deck Name : The great wall
Author : Martin Schumacher
Description : The deck of resource superiority



Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 6 max: 10 average: 8.66667

---

3x Lambach 10 ANI AUS DOM VIC pre cardinal Tzimisce:2
2x Stravinsky 9 ANI AUS VIC pot archbishop Tzimisce:2
2x Little Tailor of Prague 8 ANI AUS VIC dem Tzimisce:2
1x John Paleologus 9 ANI AUS CEL VIC pot archbishop Tzimisce:3
1x Velya, The Flayer 9 ANI AUS PRE VIC for cardinal Tzimisce:3
1x Meshenka 8 ANI AUS VIC priscus Tzimisce:2
1x Sascha Vykos, The Adv 8 AUS THA VIC ani dom archbishop Tzimisce:2
1x Caliban 6 ANI AUS VIC Tzimisce:2


Library [90 cards]

---

Action [9]
3x Abbot
3x Deep Song
3x Eternal Vigilance

Action Modifier [2]
2x Changeling

Combat [27]
1x Canine Horde
7x Carrion Crows
6x Chiropteran Marauder
3x Quick Jab
7x Starvation of Marena
3x Taste of Vitae

Equipment [3]
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow

Event [1]
1x Fourth Cycle, The

Master [21]
1x Lilith's Blessing
1x Direct Intervention
1x Erciyes Fragments, The
1x Fear of Mekhet
1x Giant's Blood
1x Gurchon Hall
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Papillon
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
2x Vessel
5x Villein
2x Wash
1x Wider View

Reaction [26]
2x Delaying Tactics
4x Eagle's Sight
4x Enhanced Senses
4x Eyes of Argus
4x My Enemy's Enemy
4x On the Qui Vive
4x Telepathic Misdirection

Retainer [1]
1x Mr. Winthrop



So i decided to take my good old reliable Tzimisce BigCap deck to our local tournament with 18 players. Being fairly confident that one GW would get me to the finals I didn’t bother too much with offensive power but rather have a great deal of table control.

Round 1

Triple A ->Ventrue multiact bleed&vote -> Weenie computer hacking -> Tzimisce Wall (Me) ->(!)Tremere Bleed/Block/Bloat

Bad luck for me the first round being the prey of an ultra aggressive weenie bleeder. Having played against the deck in our casual rounds before I was happy to see no Cairo Int Airport in my predators starting hand. Having 4 influence I brought out Sascha Vykos in round 2 , giving me the ability to cycle into my wakes and pool gain. I managed to fight off the weenies with the help of my grand predator and his parity shifts, but could not develop my defense properly. The weenie player was ousted quickly, Triple A fell almost fell victim to the !Tremere, but Eagles sight and Dark influences prevented the second oust. Other than that a pretty boring table timing out with 4 players remaining.
Results: 1,5 VP for the Ventrue, 0,5 for everyone but the weenies

Round 2
Ravnos Anarch bleed -> Nana Buruku Ani Rush -> Tzimisce Wall (Me) -> Tori Aus/Cel Gun -> Ventrue multiact bleed&vote

A much better table for me than the last one. The Nana Deck was busy fighting of the ravnos hordes while my prey was no match in combat ability for my Tzimisce. Having Little Tailor I was steadly bleeding for 2 and blocking with Meshenka and Lambach. The ventrue played one parity shift backwards because it needed my votes and almost ousted the Ravnos deck but the Ravnos managed to survive another round and oust Nana with a cumulative bleed of 12 with 5 or 6 actions.
After that the Ventrue ousted the Ravnos easily with dom bleeds while I managed to gain my firs vp from the torporous Toris. The heads up became interesting for 2 Rounds when first my Lambach was Pentexed having 5 Ventrue behind me, but Eternal Vigilance and some saved up wakes helped fight off the attack. I removed the Pentex only to be hit with a Temptation of greater power on lambach. Luckily I was on 10 pool while my prey was on 5 after paying for the TogP, so I had to bid 10 pool (5 as a credit) to keep my lambach but after surving the ensuing bleeds and torporizing several vamps I ousted my prey for the Game win.
Results: 3 VP,GW for me, 1VP Ravnos, 1 VP Ventrue

Round 3

Tzimisce Wall (Me) -> Tremere Toolbox w/ Muaziz Abactor -> Weenie Computer Hacking-> !Salubri Melee Combat

I always like 4 player tables with my deck, especially if my predator has weenie bleed behind him.
The weenies have a good start with drawing enough combat evasion using multiple dodges and glancing blows to survive the blocks and rushes of the 2 !Salubri that managed to hit the table.
Luckily for me the !Salubri do not die too fast due to the use of Blessing of the name.
Meanwhile I torporized Cohn Rose and Muaziz in front of me and managed to get 2 Eternal Vigilances on the table.
After I also played Erciyes Fragment to use a total of 3 Abactors in my prey’s ash heap plus The Rack I had enough blood to use Eternal Vigilance often enough to torporize a total of 11 vampires of the weenie bleed deck. Killing Carna with an Eagles Sight during a bleed I swept up the remains of the table for another game win with 3VPs.
Results: 3 VP, GW for me, 1VP Weenie Bleed

Finals
1st Tzimisce Midcap, lots of intercept+War Ghouls
2nd Nosferoyalty with J:Camarilla Segregation
3rd Tzimisce Wall
4th Nana Buruku Ani Rush
5th Ravnos Anarch Bleed

The seating in the finals was not trivial since the Ravnos would give me too much pressure early on and the Nosferoyalty deck would probably have too much stealth for me to block it. I also knew that it packed a lot of Sudden Reversals to kill my Villeins and played quite a few Judgement: Camarilla Segregation. Lastly I didn’t want the other Tzimisce deck as my prey since it would block my Eternal Vigilances/Abbot and equip actions, plus it played Rötschreck.
So as 3rd seat ‘I chose the Nana Buruku Ani Rush deck as my predator and the Ravnos as my prey.
Nosferoyalty then set down to the left of me to prey on the Ravnos, but the Tzimisce squeezed in between the Nossis and the Ravnos (probably a mistake, I would have placed that deck between my Tzimisce and the Nossis). The seating was like this

Nana -> Tzimisce Wall High Cap–> Nosferoyalty -> Tzimisce Midcap -> Ravnos Anarch

I felt save having Nana to my right having to deal with the Ravnos again, but being second and having Caliban, Little Tailor, John Paleologus and Velya in my Crypt I brought out Caliban followed by the Little Tailor as not to need another round for a second vampire. This meant I had no votes against the Nossis but my starting hand had 4 Intercept plus 3 combat cards.
Actions started with the Nossies (having Murat, Nikolaus Vermeulen and Duck) trying to play 2 Parity Shifts in one turn, one of which was blocked and sending Murat to torpor. The Tzimisces behind had Lolita Houston, Corine Marcon and The Rose plus a Yawp Court, which was pure gold since the Nossies didn’t play any combat cards. Despite loosing 5 pool to the PS, it still brought out a War Ghoul and back rushed Murat again after he had come out using a Warsaw Station. The Ravnos never really got up to speed and the Nana Deck could afford the occasional rush in my direction.
After I defend against the first rush with Quick Jab+Marauder, on the second one Little Tailor fell victim to a Song in the dark but got out of torpor on my next turn. No harm done.
The deciding moment was when the Nossies tried to play a KRC on the Tzimisce which were on 3 pool but got blocked despite having 6 stealth on the action. Losing his last minion and Dragonbound on the table the Nossies were ousted. The Tzimisce Midcap deck then quickly ousted the Ravnos with some bleeds, leaving 3 at the table. I invested my new gained pool in John Paleologus and managed to get an Eternal Vigilance on the Table. My famed Caliban went to torpor on a rush action but I wasn’t too unhappy about it since it also put pressure on my new prey, who had to pay 1 for Fame, 1 for Dragonbound for a torporized minion and had Smiling Jack in play with 1 counter on which he had to put one each turn. I then made my biggest mistake of the whole tournament when my prey was on 1 pool and would die a certain death to the special of my John Paloeologus but I played a My enemies enemy on a bleed by my predator, which was consequently blocked and the bleeding minion sent to torpor. The following rescue action was blocked and Nana died to it’s own Dragonbound giving my prey a VP and six pool.
Still I was confident I could win the game having two minions, The Rack and Papillion plus a new found Erciyes Fragment against a lonely Corine Marcon. So I sent my Caliban on a suicide mission using one of my preys Breath of the Dragon to torporize his last minion. With over20 minutes left on the clock the game ended with 3VP,GW for me, 2

Final Standings

1. Martin S. 2GWs 6,5VPs Final 3Vps - BigCap Tzimisce Control
2. Joerg A. 2GWs 7VPs Final - Nosferoyalty
2. Frederick E. 2GWs 7VPs Final 2Vps - MidCap Tzimisce w/VIC ToolBox
2. Ed Trollope 1GWs 6 VPs Final - Anarch Ravnos Swarm Bleed
2. Sebastian (R.) K. 2GWs 6,5 Final - Nana Buruku w/ ANI support

6 Ali A. 1 4 Dom Weenies 1/2
7 Manuel D. 1 3 ???
8 Michael H. 0 3,5 Lawfirm
9 Maximilian G. 0 2 MataHari +Princes WarGhoul
10 Michael R. 0 2 ComputerHacking
11 Gerhard R. 0 1,5 Aus/Nec Trochomancy w/ Slaughterhouses
12 Ralf W. 0 1 ???
13 Ben H. 0 0,5 Tremere ToolBox
13 Michael B. 0 0,5 Toreador BigCap
15 Christian H. 0 0 Saulot w/ Euralye
15 Martin E. 0 0 Auspex/Celerity w/ guns
15 Marcel N. 0 0 Arika
18 Thomas K. 0 0 ???

18 players, that's 3*4 tables, a total of 12 GW possible. 11 were taken.
9 out of these 11 were in the finals, that's quite unusual.