[TWD] Shell Break 2024 (2024-04-01)

Shell Break 2024
Espoo, Finland
2024-04-01
2R + F
18 players
winner: Tero Aalto
0 GW 3,5 + 2,5 in the final
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/11331

The annual Easter event has somehow become a milestone of personal redemptions. First this was two years ago where I made it to the HoF, then last year my oldest proper tournament deck's first win. Now, it was my last remaining "cliché" deck's turn.

My personal expectations for the day were very low: mainly just to successfully organize and somehow stay awake. Namely, I had spent the previous week in Eurovision parties in Spain and only returned home in the early hours of morning. I could have played a lot better in a better state of awareness, but luckily having played this deck in tournaments since forever, it also largely played itself.

Throughout the tournament, the MVP of the deck was Secure Haven, and the final especially would have been completely unwinnable without it. The crypt is a bit unconventional but I'm very satisfied with it.

- - -

Deck Name: Lavatanssit
Author: Tero Aalto

Crypt (12 cards, min=25 max=44 avg=9.17)

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5x Stanislava 11 ANI CEL DOM FOR PRO inner circle Gangrel:2
4x Hartmut Stover 10 CEL OBF PRO dom for archbishop Gangrel antitribu:3
1x Caitlin 6 ANI PRO aus dom bishop Gangrel antitribu:2
1x New Blood 2 san Blood Brother:ANY
1x Soldat 7 POT PRO cel dom obf Gangrel antitribu:3

Library (77 cards)
Master (14; 7 trifle)
1x Backways
1x Coven, The
1x Giant's Blood
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Perfectionist
2x Secure Haven
6x Villein
1x Zoo Hunting Ground

Action (7)
7x Govern the Unaligned

Equipment (2)
2x Heart of Nizchetus

Political Action (10)
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
2x Ancilla Empowerment
4x Banishment
1x Kine Resources Contested
1x Reins of Power

Action Modifier (23)
3x Conditioning
4x Earth Control
6x Forced March
7x Instantaneous Transformation
3x Seduction

Reaction (11)
7x Deflection
1x Guard Dogs
3x On the Qui Vive

Combat (9)
3x Earth Meld
6x Form of Mist

Event (1)
1x Scourge of the Enochians

After a decent sleep and some recovered cognitive functions, I can do further analysis of the tournament. The Finnish tournament meta is typically quite varied, compared to many countries, especially in smaller tournaments. For example, I saw only two anarch Gangrel decks (which I think is presently the #1 deck to beat), and even the only Ministry I witnessed played Serpentis. Similarly, there were three Salubri decks, two of them with Obeah.

It wouldn't be Finland without a lot of combat, and this tournament was no exception. My first table, however, was more peaceful than average. The biggest threat there was the Saulot deck with Spirit Marionettes and !Tremere rush (including some Nephandi), my predator. However, Saulot was having quite a bit of trouble from bleedy Ahrimanes, so I ended up helping him quite a bit with a Banishment and an Ancient Influence, the latter of which in particular tipped the table. My prey was a very interesting Ian Forestal Temporis deck that got the first oust from its Malkavian bleeder prey that couldn't get past the Ahrimanes, while I was busy doing other things. Eventually, I got an oust myself, and the rest of the table I focused on staying alive, while Saulot was bleeding me threes and fours. Apparently, there had been a bleed of eight coming up just as the time ran out. 1,5 points.

The second round was a four-player table, which is usually bad news for the slow big-cap decks I almost always play. The other piece of bad news was that my predator was Ghede rush. In the rock-paper-scissors cycle of combat defense, an Obedience deck wouldn't have minded this (and the very same setting had actually occurred to Małgorzata the year before in this same tournament) but Stanislava's S:CEs don't do much against Grapple. Luckily for me, my crosstable was a new Ravnos bleeder that played an early Week. Ghede tried to rush Stanislava but Hartmut got in the way and survived. The turn after, I banished Ghede, which unfortunately meant giving two points to my weenie Ministry Temptation prey, but the alternative would have been the two of them ganging up on me, so it had to be done, and I had a good feeling I could get two points if I just played systematically, which worked out. 2 points, for a total of 3,5, which was enough to be the fourth seed in the final as only three of the eight games had produced a GW. The last place in the final was given out for the discount price of 2 VPs, to the aforementioned Temptation deck.

Being a low seed saved me from the trouble of thinking about seating. Having Celerity rush decks as higher seeds would save me from the trouble of having minions, too, I thought. The rushers decided to sit next to each other for some reason, which allowed the top seed, another Ravnos bleeder, to pick the only position not next to a rush deck, which also happened to be as my prey. A deck with no votes or bounces as my prey was the only redeeming feature in this seating.

The final table looked like this:

1. CEL princes w/ guns (Otso)
2. CEL multiclan rush (Bram)
3. Stanislava (Tero)
4. Ravnos bleed (Petri)
5. Ministry Temptation (Teemu)

Among the other (quite limited) thoughts I had when sitting down for the final was that there were also 70 TWDs between those five players. However, while I was wondering whether bringing out a minion just to have it go down immediately would make more sense than spending 21 pool to try and bring two at the same time, the game took a different turn, as Otso played Fame on Bram's first minion, rushed it, and won the combat, removing the most imminent thread from my back. So, I continued playing normally, which meant rather slow action, as I had very little anything else than combat defense and stealth, and Petri had bleed reduce. I was fine with this, however, as long as I got even one successful bleed for being able to burn the edge with Hartmut's special.

Meanwhile, Petri had accumulated an impressive board with the help of Break the Bondses, even if there was a Temptation on all of his vampires. I seemed to be less concerned about this than the others but I had no problem with the focus being on somebody else than myself, even though the amount of ready minions Petri didn't have much impact on my game, as long as there was at least one of them with the ability to play reduce, as I would always have enough stealth to get through. Teemu activated one Temptation to bleed Otso so that he could block and torporize it, and Otso rushed another on his turn, which I thought was quite a lot to do crosstable at that stage, but I guess I should trust Otso to know what he's doing. Through this, I kept myself relatively safe by buying peace from Bram who was in low pool, first by agreeing not to deal him any damage (which was easily done considering I play only one KRC), then by banishing Otso's Anson (at three blood), the latter of which also served my own plan as I had seen him as the table threat since the beginning of the game.

With Petri thus largely neutralized, the attention started to shift towards me instead. Luckily, I had just drawn a Secure Haven at this point, so it didn't look hopeless, even when Otso played a Haven Uncovered on Stanislava. Bram was not interested in rushing me yet, so when I got my next turn, I simply played my own Haven on her, and this was the turning point of the game, even though my mental battery was so low that I almost considered just giving up and going home. I proceeded to oust Petri with bleeds and an Ancilla Empowerment, with an Anarchist Uprising as backup, as I was sure there would a DT from either him or Teemu. When there wasn't, I thought Teemu had simply saved his to save himself, and as I had no other reasonable actions left, I voted the other one as well, to a semi-accidental double oust.

At that point, Bram and Otso joined forces to get rid of me, which made sense as either of them still had the chance to win as higher seeds. Hartmut, not protected by the Secure Haven, was quickly toast, despite me having stored a bunch of S:CEs. There were less than 30 minutes left on the clock and I had a lot of pool, so it started to look like I had a chance. Bram had a consistent bleed of four on the table, steadily consuming my pool, while I was bleeding Otso for threes (which was trivial to do with both Backways and Monastery on the table, plus Heart of N. producing a steady supply of +1 stealth cards), occasionally banishing something to slow my opponents down, and bouncing whenever I got the chance. I got Otso down to three pool, at which point he gave up on Bram and ousted him. However, there were only a few minutes left, so I (un)lived.

No Archon yet?

Lönkka wrote:

No Archon yet?

You'll have to ask our NC about that. I've done my part on Monday.

Congratulations for the winning! Are available the deck lists of the other finalists?

Contcha wrote:

Congratulations for the winning! Are available the deck lists of the other finalists?

I was playing this: