TWD Hardestadt's Birthday, Newark, Ohio 2/17/12

Hardestadt's Birthday
Newark, Ohio
2/17/12
10 Players
John Bell

Deck Name : The Princess and her Mistress
Author : Mark Loughman (slightly modified by John Bell)
Description :
When I came back to VTES about 2 years ago, I built Mark Loughman's "Traditional Princess" deck www.thelasombra.com/decks/twd.htm#2k9glrqco and played it a few times casually. It really changed the way I looked at the game and deck construction in general. I give him (and this deck) a big credit to my successes since then. I did make some changes for the tournament - mostly adding Mistress Fanchon and Villeins. Fanchon's ability is so good for this kind of toolboxy deck, I may even add more of her the next time I update it.


Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 11 average: 6.91667

---

4x Carna, The Princes 7 AUS DOM THA primogen Tremere:3
3x Mistress Fanchon 11 AUS CEL DOM OBF THA VIC inner circle Tremere:4
2x Martin Franckel 3 AUS tha Tremere:3
1x Valois Sang, The W 6 AUS DOM nec tha Tremere:3
1x Cohn Rose 5 THA aus dom pre Tremere:3
1x Neighbor John 5 AUS dom for !Ventrue:4

Library [80 cards]

---

Action [9]
5x Govern the Unaligned
3x Magic of the Smith
1x Rutor's Hand

Action Modifier [6]
3x Conditioning
3x Mirror Walk

Ally [2]
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Ponticulus

Combat [10]
4x Apportation
2x Rego Motus
4x Theft of Vitae

Equipment [7]
2x .44 Magnum
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Ivory Bow
1x Kevlar Vest
1x Sniper Rifle
1x Sport Bike

Master [17]
1x Arcane Library
2x Burden the Mind
1x Chantry
1x Direct Intervention
1x Giant's Blood
1x Lilith's Blessing
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
5x Villein

Reaction [29]
5x Deflection
2x Eagle's Sight
3x Eyes of Argus
3x Forced Awakening
3x My Enemy's Enemy
4x On the Qui Vive
2x Precognition
2x Spirit's Touch
2x Telepathic Misdirection
3x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Congrats! Two questions:

1) What effect did Burden the Mind have on your games?

2) How did Mark Loughman's deck effect the way you look at the game?

Thanks,

Brandon

This appears to just be a fatty version of "Yeah, I'll Block That" that you used to play all the time (and dominated with). May I ask, which deck was the more difficult to pilot, and why?

1. I think that Burden the Mind is a very underrated card - sure it's not as devastating as Pentex Subversion, but it can be used in conjunction with it and its effect can also stack. The biggest effect it had in the tournament was it allowed me to decide was going to block me, people just chose not to block with the affected minion.

2. Until building and playing this deck, I could barely tolerate the concept of a "toolbox" type deck. I've also preferred to have extremely focused decks which essentially do one thing very well. Also it gave me some insight into how others build decks and to find their weaknesses. Patience and critical timing became a focus for me afterward - I moved away from only playing decks which would pound my opponents (and make a huge target of myself in the process) to a much more conservative approach where survival and 2 or 3 VPs was the goal instead of 5 each time. I could probably go on and on, but that's it in a nutshell.

To answer Kevin - the big difference is that the weenie auspex deck had something like 50+ reaction cards and I could hypothetically block *everything*. This deck must be much more selective in what it blocks and the combats it picks. Losing a 4 cap is nothing to losing Carna or Fanchon. I have less actions to take in this deck and with usually bigger bleeds I produce, bounce is more of a scare. I would have to say this one is probably more "difficult" to play, but also has more ability to surprise your opponents. When people see 4-5 minions with only Auspex in common, there's not a whole lot of deception going on.