2012 Danish National Champioships: Personal Report

To play my Anson tap & bleed deck in Kopenhagen was a rather obvious choice after its good performance at the German Championships (see extrala’s blog [January 2012] for detailed insights into the deck).
Nevertheless it was not “easy going” with it: In the first round I managed to grab the GW 2 minutes to time-out, in the second round it might have been 5 minutes (and I would not have survived long enough if a well-placed “Fear of Mekhet” not had back-ousted almost single-handed a Dmitra & Lutz vote deck) ... The third round was almost a preview of the finals with Hugh being my predator and Adam being my grandprey, but Adam and I managed to cooperate for a long period of the game very well (both having Anson as key-vampire and “Ashur Tablets” as a key-mechanism).

Going into the finals second place, my choice for the seating was simple: I wanted to stay away from the Euro Brujah deck I had built myself and given to Frank (who performed very well with it, although he had not been playing for over a year), because “Immortal Grapple” would negate “Majesty” and “Graverobbing” could target a torporised Anson ... Adam, of course, decided to be my prey, so he himself could take care of me not getting any VP, plus he could back-contest Anson with me having Hugh’s Animalism hordes as predator.
I got a good starting crypt – Delilah (2-cap), Gideon (3-cap), Ranjan (5-cap) and (!!) Anson – and could start into the game as fourth player, thus having 4 transfers, luckily 5 with the help of “Dreams of the Sphinx”. I decided to transfer on Delilah and Gideon, hoping to let Adam “pay” for me possibly not making use of Anson. Plus, “Anthelios” began to shine. Adam responded by bringing out two 1-caps and a 2-cap, plus a first “Ashur Tablet”. I was first irritated, then frustrated: No way for me to put pressure on Adam ...
Nicolaj transferred first on one minion, then on another one for rounds. Frank started with Cameron, then came Theo Bell, both of them very soon skirmishing with Hugh’s Animalism midcaps (which should result in Hugh’s minions going into and leaving torpor times more often than I bled during the whole game).
Without any hope, I decided not to bring Anson into the game as soon as possible – plus I did not to perform any bleed actions against Adam as long as I did not see a chance not to enter combat with his minions (and thus allowing him to cycle into his cards at his pleasure via “Infernal Pursuit”). Adam played his second “Ashur Tablet” and started to bleed with his weenies, which granted him not only a constant decline of Nicolaj’s pool, but also the Edge for a long, long time. Then he brought his fourth minion into the game, who obviously was not Anson – a sign of hope!
Also Nicolaj put an “Ashur Tablet” into play, which surprised me a lot, for I had no idea about his deck. It turned out to be a Cybele stealth bleed with “Tend the Flock” as bloating mechanism. As he succeeded in playing “Unleash Hell’s Fury”, he was quite safe from any attack by Frank minion’s (where Dónal and another Brujah joined the ranks step by step).
So Frank decided to seek his fortune in ousting Hugh, which should never happen, not even in the very last minute of the game ... From time to time, Hugh tested out, whether I had a “Majesty” on my hand or not or whether I blocked a bleed for 1 or not ...
Luckily, I was the first to complete his set of “Ashur Tablets” – and, strange enough, it remained the only completed set of the whole game. I knew that I performed rather “uninspiring” throughout most of the finals, but as soon as I realised that Adam had problems to get into his game, I decided not let happen any combat with his minions if possible (and Nicolaj was wise enough to do the same, therefore he took every single bleed of Adam’s weenies or, later, deflected one of them once per turn via Aksinya Daclau’s special to Frank).
When Adam brought his next minion into the game, it was Volker, not Anson, and each of the other three minions his afterwards transferred out, was not Anson ... bad luck for Adam. And suddenly I realised my only chance for a win in this weird game: Jost Werner bleeding for 5 at +1 stealth while Volker is under “Pentex Subversion”.
I was very glad to find him as sixth vampire, so he began his mission approximately round 9. Adam weenie-bled, Nicolaj was short on pool almost always (until a “Golconda” on one of his minions), Frank survived at Hugh’s will.
15 minutes to time-out, Adam ended his turn on six pool with four minions (Volker, Sarah Brando and two weenies) untapped. Nicolaj was close of ousting Frank, but did not succeed, Frank took his turn recovering. Hugh went “all out” on me (having 8 pool) with “Deep Song” bleeds. Two of them I deflected – after a short moment of reasoning whether it could be for good or not – to Adam, who could finally cycle some cards in the occurring combats. He made the mistake to torporise one of Hugh’s minions, who in revenge “Deep Song” attacked and tapped Sarah Brando.
Then came my turn, and I knew it was the very last chance. I recovered “Pentex Subversion” via “Anthelios” and put it on Volker (and gained 3 pool due to another master phase action), and once again he bled for 5 with “Public Trust” and “Aire of Elation”. After that action, it was 3 against 2 for the very last pool of Adam – OUST! All-of-a-sudden I was on 15 pool and only 5 minutes missing to time-out. I felt really sorry for Adam, but already felt the joy of having won my first “big” tournament ...