This tournament was played in Budapest on January 26 with 65 players from 6 countries. Reported by Máté Vaka, VEKN National Coordinator of Hungary, with comment by the champion:

Standings after three preliminary rounds:
1. Márk Virsinger 2 GW 10,5 VP
2. Tamás Glied 2 GW 8,5 VP
3. Balázs Sebestyén 2 GW 8,5 VP
4. Gyula Erdős 2 GW 8 VP
5. Goran Damjanic 1 GW 7 VP

Report by the winner: "Vampires were revealed, and I felt like a goner. I was second seed, so had some wiggle room where to sit. With four combat decks on the table my best shot was with Goran (Warghoul) as my prey, since his combat is weakest against Strike: Combat Ends, and Warghouls costing a pretty penny, probably the easiest for me to oust. I was also happy with Gyula (Banu Haqim) as my predator, as he is probably our best player, and I assumed he didn't want to turn the whole table against himself by killing me too quickly.

I was 3rd, and didn´t draw any ramp in my opening hand, but had a Monastery of Shadows so on my second turn I found Information Highway that lead to a 2nd turn Anson. Márk (Montano) had a opening Zillah's Valley, so I was somewhat happy with my decision to let one retainer arrive in front of me, as I had 2 Second Traditions in my hand, but blocked only Anarch Convert, and my gamble somewhat paid off, as Warghouls first 3-4 attacks was forward.

Mufti (Shalmath) had a slow start, took 6 bleed from Montano before anything happened. My next 2 vampires out was Alexandra and Leandro. I was doing the usual Villein, Ashur and Liquidation that the deck does, as for actions I rescued my vampires that Banu Haqim deemed unworthy.

My game had 2 big problems (besides the fact that there were four combat decks at the table 😅), one being the fact that my deck usually deal in pool for favors, unfortunatly pools were not much under pressure with combat boys, and the second one is that Gyula's first prince was Oluwafunmilayo, who's with the extra intercept plus Second Tradition was hurting a lot. Turning point of the game came in about an hour, as in one turn my dear Alexandra was torporized and eaten by the collective efforts of Banus and Warghouls, and Montano's good friend Nahir learned the hard way that True Brujahs not only deal you 2 aggravated damage before range, but they can Decapitate you too. From that point on, Shalmath was ready to go forward, picked up Enkil Cog and Eye of Hazimel which torporized some Banus.

My game was about laying low, and letting the combat decks go for each others throat. I was able to assemble Monastery of Shadows, Creepshow Casino and Camarilla Conclave so as far as stealth I was good for one sure vote per turn, but needed either my Anneke up to have the vote lock, or my Perfect Paragons. All of my 6 Perfect Paragons were on the bottom 1/3 of my deck, and having zero shot at getting the Edge my game was about false actions, I had like 3 votes in a row that didn't pass, trying to cycle.

By the time Anneke arrived, Gyula was able to transfer out Kasim Bayar, vote lock was not mine once more, so back to waiting for the Perfect Paragons. Goran was at 6 with a Failsafe in play, so i needed to oust him in one turn. Thankfully he was in a position needing to do something as time was slowly running out on us, so he had another Warghoul come into play.

As per usual if a card is missing for a long time, they arrive in numbers, and I drew like 3 Perfect Paragons in 5 cards. I had Anarchist Uprising on 4 stealth plus the Perfect Paragon for vote, and no Delaying Tactics meant oust. By the time I was able to oust, there was only 5 or so minutes left. Mufti was able to oust Gyula, but I was higher seed and at 18 pool he and Márk offered me the hand.

I got incredibly lucky how the table turned out, and laying low with Inner Circles was a hard task, but the combat decks turned on each other in just the right time for me. Huge grats to the four other finalists, it was a pleasure playing with you guys. Shout out to the Kecskemét community who helped me with testing the deck, Martin Weinmayer for general advice, Zsolt Gonda for staying with me during the finals, Alex Krizsán and Ferenc Kósa for their incredible support, and Máté Vaka for organizing the nationals. In general thanks for everyone who showed up, it's incredible that we had a 65 people national championship and it was a very fun and challenging tourney. Really happy to be Hungarian national champion. Hope to see as many of you in other tournaments throughout the year 🥰🥰"

Final result: Balázs 1.5 VP, Tamás 1.5 VP, Márk 0.5 VP = Tamás won by higher seeding, congratulations!

The tournament winning deck: “Vége van kicsi - it's over little one” by Tamás Glied

Crypt (12)
1x Alexandra 11 ANI AUS CEL PRE dom inner circle Toreador:2
1x Arika 11 DOM FOR OBF PRE aus cel inner circle Ventrue:2
1x Leandro 11 AUS OBF PRE cel dom inner circle Malkavian:2
1x Anneke 10 AUS CEL PRE dom justicar Toreador:1
1x Democritus 10 DOM PRE aus cel for justicar Ventrue:1
1x Don Cruez, The Idealist 10 CEL POT PRE ani dom pro justicar Brujah:1
1x Queen Anne 10 DOM FOR PRE aus obf prince Ventrue:2
4x Anson 8 CEL PRE aus dom prince Toreador:1
1x Emerson Bridges 8 DOM FOR PRE pot prince Ventrue:1

Library (90)
Master (45; 5 trifle)
9x Ashur Tablets
2x Camarilla Conclave
1x Creepshow Casino
2x Direct Intervention
1x Elysium: The Palace of Versailles
1x Giant's Blood
3x Information Highway
4x Liquidation
3x Minion Tap
2x Monastery of Shadows
1x Papillon
1x Parthenon, The
3x Protected Resources
5x Villein
7x Zillah's Valley

Political Action (18)
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
4x Banishment
3x Camarilla's Iron Fist
7x Parity Shift
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Reins of Power

Action Modifier (10)
6x Perfect Paragon
4x Voter Captivation

Reaction (11)
4x Redirection
7x Second Tradition: Domain

Combat (6)
6x Majesty

Thanks to all players, organisers and sponsors!