TWD - Recruiting Party - Gulfport MS, USA (August 23, 2024)

Recruiting Party
Gulfport MS, USA
August 23, 2024
2R+F
20 players
Darby Keeney
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/11470

-- 2GW+8VP + 2 VP in final

Deck Name: Y.A.F.T.P.D.
Created by: Darby Keeney
Description: "Funda-Fist" revision.

Credits: Antti Penttilä, Karl Schaefer and Kelly Schultz for discussion/review of previous versions.

This combat module is largely prototypical, but adjusted for Hunger + maneuver + additional strike per rush/block card. I'll miss some blocks, get combats from bleeding and maybe have fights requiring added flexibility - so it's not real math. But whole thing is stupidly polyvalent.

I don't re-adjust to any fixed ratio during play. Decisions are more about immediate effectiveness and looking forward 1-2 actions/reactions when possible.

The tournament was a little odd. I manage to get 4VP in each of the opening rounds and enter the finals as top seed, only to see 2 other players from my first game (Karl with Iron Fist vote and Devin with Scout Shattering Crescendo). At least I know what's coming, right?

Brad fails to display the Dracon in the seating flip and I choose in front of him. Ooops....maybe I didn't know what was coming.

Seating is: YAFTPD (Darby) --> Ministry Pt Protocol (Chance) --> Iron Fist/bounce (Karl) --> Shattering Cresendo/Zappa (Devin) --> Dracon semiwall (Brad)

Chance's minions are pretty big but he makes progress. Karl also does pretty well but we're both really careful with how friendly we get. The table reaches a point where Karl and Devin are under 10 pool. If Chance drops a Club Illusion someone is probably ousted before others can prevent it.

I have Funmi and Kaysim in play and have had Iron Fist, Hunter's Mark and DI in hand for a while. That's more options than anyone really wants, my brain is melting and I have to pick a path when my turn starts.

I finally discount cross-tabling Devin to give Karl 6 pool despite knowing that's probably all Karl gets. This leaves either removing Karl (either by action or inaction) or removing one of Chance's minions and playing a straight-up game. Given the pool totals downstream and the whole "Dracon is unpredictable" thing, I opt for nuking one of Chance's full minions using the Iron Fist for Kaysim's hand strength.

This eventually leads to me ousting Chance and creating that precarious position involving top seed with a VP. As expected, Karl invokes the "Dogpile Darby Protocol." He tries to wall up while Devin Shatters my minions cross-table and Brad bleeds me. The whole thing is an uneasy alliance which I try to break with observations like "you all know Karl just wants votelock, right?" and "didn't Devin just bleed you?"

Still they persist as I not-so-subtly bleed Karl out, giving me a little more pool buffer as I continue the long process of losing vampires to Scout. Devin and Brad continue to tag-team me. Warmaksan becomes my only hope as I desperately try to oust Devin, who decided that Visions of Zapathura and Party Out of Bounds are cards worthy of seemingly infinite repetition.

I eventually deck Devin. My deck is light on Swallowed by the Night, so Warwaksan enthusiastically demonstrates how [cel] + Resist Earth's Grasp combine in a sub-optimal ousting plan. I fall to Brad's bleeds, leaving those two heads up.

Brad has too much pool for 3 people to remove, but Devin imitates the local cockroaches. We saw them in our AirBnB, they really do get man-sized and are extremely resilient.

Time expires, leaving me with a finals game win from the sidelines. It was a well played finals all around and was incredibly fun despite seeing my minions slowly wither in the midgame.

FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS: Funmi-led [AUS] bounce/wall and pure rush combat versions of this deck are currently on the back shelf.

Crypt (12 cards, min=20 max=34 avg=6.67)

---

2x Farah Sarroub 7 CEL THA aus obf prince Banu Haqim:6
2x Kasim Bayar 9 CEL OBF THA aus pot justicar Banu Haqim:6
2x Kassandra Tassaki 6 CEL THA obf prince Banu Haqim:6
2x Oluwafunmilayo 8 AUS CEL OBF THA prince Banu Haqim:6
2x Warmaksan 5 THA cel obf prince Banu Haqim:6
1x Greg Mazouni 4 cel obf tha Banu Haqim:6
1x Khadija Al-Kindi 6 CEL OBF THA primogen Banu Haqim:6

-- Funmi really rounds out this crypt and usually feels like the star vampire.
-- Wish I could get rid of Warmaksan, but any 5-cap prince is awfully good.

Library (90 cards)
Master (15; 8 trifle)
2x Alamut -- defense before offense
1x Direct Intervention
1x Giant's Blood -- Better me than them
3x Haqim's Law: Retribution -- Enough in this version
2x Priority Contract -- Been the right number so far, 3 caused hand jam
6x Villein -- This could increase to 7 and the deck might be better

Action (5)
5x Hunter's Mark

Political Action (5)
4x Camarilla's Iron Fist -- incredible midgame potential, even if not realized this weekend
1x Disputed Territory

Equipment (2)
1x Bowl of Convergence -- half the crypt has [aus/AUS]
1x Sport Bike

-- Both work better than Market Square when playing 2nd Trad, if you can afford the equip action

Action Modifier (3)
3x Forgotten Labyrinth -- critical for Hunter's Mark with crypt's prevalent [obf] drawback

Action Modifier/Combat (10)
6x Resist Earth's Grasp
4x Swallowed by the Night -- More [CEL] than [OBF] means more Resists

Reaction (9)
9x Second Tradition: Domain -- prototypical BH Prince card count

Combat (39)
3x Blur
16x Hunger of Marduk
2x Lightning Reflexes -- Just can't drop these, they always make a difference
3x Psyche! -- just enough to make Form of Mist/Majesty think twice
7x Pursuit
3x Quickness -- I sometimes wonder about this card's errata and a deck might result
3x Rego Motum
2x Zip Gun -- love this wrinkle

Event (2)
1x NSA Trio -- I can't tell you how often this buys a turn without predation
1x Scourge of the Enochians -- replaced Aranthebes when Iron Fist replaced Ancilla/Anarchist

The seating choices in the finals were all bad for me, being second seed, knowing that Darby would want to sit next to me. Given that his Second Traditions would block anything I do and his combat would crush me, I had to make a decision on seating based on avoidance to Darby by putting myself into a position that is suboptimal for him (and me).

Since I had bounce in my deck, I chose to sit prey to the Platinum Protocol bleed, but that left me predator to seemingly infinite Shattering Crescendo. I was right that Darby wanted no part of Shattering Crescendo or PP. That started me in a suboptimal position, but knowing that Brad had The Dracon, which Darby did not from the card flips, I was hopeful.

The Shattering Crescendo comes quickly and I try to table talk it a little, but knew that would only truly be accomplished once Darby had a VP. It's too little, too late for me at that point.

In the future, I'll follow Karl's previous example and put the tournament notes in a follow-up reply. Much cleaner.

Hi Darby, congrats for your win.
Do you get out of cards in any rounds ?
In Europe, this deck is played with ashur tablet !

Thank you Lionel.

Europe can run Tablets as they wish, but I can say that this runs fine for me without. It does feel somewhat like Otso and Bram are driving that trend, for what it's worth. And people are correct to look at their decks for inspiration.

Note that worldwide, only 10 of the 21 decks of this type that won in the last three years use Tablets, so I don't think this is that unusual. Also interesting is that there have been only 2 BH winners so far in 2024. I knew they were dropping off - I didn't think it was that bad.

Anyway, I don't have to stress about fighting for sets. I like not smacking into a bunch of green cards when I don't want them, or having to Infernal Pursuit to manage that "problem". Otso devoted 19 card slots to making Tablets function. I don't love the tech that much and just skipped it.

I suspect my combat is therefore more robust, at least in the early going when things might get rocky. I also get a couple of options those decks often forego (Forgotten Labyrinth, intercept equipment) and more baseline Hungers.

I did deck myself for the first time I can remember. I intentionally spewed cards pre-block looking for that 5th Swallowed by the Night to get VP #3, which I would generally not do unless in dire straits. Unfortunately, that particular copy no longer exists in the deck.

Cheers.

I think the Zip Guns don't get enough credit. I started playing them in the parisian playgroup some time ago (thanks Tof for the advice!) and it's becoming a staple in all BH decks. It's just worth it for the permanent maneuver alone.

Congrats for the win. I play with Ashur + Pursuit (surprise!), but you have some ideas that I might steal for my deck.