TWD - Night Terrors in LA, Los Angeles, California USA, January 14, 2024

Night Terrors in LA
Los Angeles (Northridge), California, USA
January 14, 2024
2R + F
11 players
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/11117
Winner: Jeff Poole

-- 4vp in finam

Note: Very little combat at this tournament. Just a couple of Wall decks but no heavy combat rush decks.

Seeding and decks at Final Table:
1. Mark Jasper (Anarch Gargoyle Vote)
2. Marcus Acevedo (Gangrel V5 Barons Wall)
3. Kris Zierhut (Malk Derange/Dementia Stealth Bleed)
4. Marcos Acevedo (V5 Ventrue vote)
5. Jeff Poole (Black Hand Lasombra Stealth Bleed)

Final table seating: Malks -> Ventrue -> Gangrel -> Gargoyles -> Lasombra

Deck Name: "Tribute to Robert Scythe"
Black Hand DOM/OBT
Author: Jeff Poole

Crypt (12 cards, min=23 max=40 avg=8.25)
========================================
6x Appius Claudius Corvus 10 DOM OBT POT cel nec Lasombra:5
3x Saul Meira 8 CHI DOM OBT POT Lasombra:5
3x Ermenegildo, The Rake 5 DOM OBT pot Lasombra:4

Library (90)
==================
Master (17; 13 trifle)
1x Admonitions, The
10x Corporal Reservoir
3x Path of Night, The
3x Villein

Action (18)
7x Descent into Darkness
10x Govern the Unaligned
1x Tattoo Signal

Ally (6)
6x Nocturn

Equipment (2)
2x Zaire River Ferry

Action Modifier (39)
12x Art of Memory, The
2x Blanket of Night
6x Conditioning
2x Enkil Cog
2x Seduction
4x Seraph's Second
3x Shadow Play
3x Shroud of Absence
3x Shroud of Night
2x Tenebrous Form

Reaction (8)
6x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics

Write up from Jeff Poole (long way of saying that Dominate stealth bleed works )

This deck is a tribute to Robert Scythe, a legend of the Los Angeles VtES scene who passed away several years ago. He had a similar deck that was more tool box and combat focused but that included the Corporal Reservoir / Descent into Darkness tech that is included in this deck.

However, this version is more stream-lined and was designed to be played in a small 10-12 person event. While there is a lot of bounce in the meta, the idea with this deck was to hopefully get 1 GW and make it into the finals, or get a few VPs over two games and squeak into the final. The actual tournament ended up with 11-players, so we had 5 "rounds" before the finals, which threw a bit of a monkey wrench in that plan, but luckily I was able to get a GW in the first round.

The deck performed very well and as anticipated. It, of course, is a big stealth bleed deck that is prone to bounce and Archon Investigation. It had a few important elements to discuss.

1. The Art of Memories were critical to allow the deck to have sufficient card flow to either recur bleed cards or stealth depending on what was in my hand and the table state. I.e. if people were not intercepting, Art of Memory allowed me to add bleed cards back to my hand and discard stealth, and vic versa.

2. Corporal Reservoir. This card was an absolute MVP. It allowed the deck to keep up the speed despite playing a lot of cards with blood costs. It also served as the only combat defense in the deck (other than Nocturn's blocking). Being able to use these cards and then unlock them for free with Descent into Darkness allowed my minions to keep acting. The support minions would bleed, spend 3-4 blood, then get unlocked with Seraph's Second, and then descend into darkness to recover 3-4 blood.

3. Enkil Cog + Saul. This combo allowed Appius to bleed heavily on my turn, be untapped by Saul, and then bleed again on my prey's turn, really speeding up the ousting potential.

After the tournament, I would consider dropping the Tattoo Signal as it was not really needed and felt too "slow" to have Appius spending a turn putting it on. Similarly, the Zaire River Ferry was nice for the stealth (did not get many D actions other than a rewilding that burned the Ferry and that the Ferry could not actually prevent because it was not targeting the vampire!), but I don't know that it was really needed. I would consider replacing all 3 of those cards with Deflections so that they are always on-hand when needed (and can be cycled with Art of Memory if they start to clog). The seraph's second are still needed to have the support minions bleed and descend into darkness in the same turn.