TWD - Midwest Mayhem - Madison - North American Cup

Midwest Mayhem - Madison - North American Cup
Madison (WI), USA
May 17th, 2025
2R+F
14 players
Karl Schaefer
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/12148

-- 1GW5 + 5 VPs in final

Deck Name: My Version
Created by: Darby Keeney and Karl Schaefer
Description:
When you drink and contemplate what to do about the Sreelekha problem, wherein no
one really wants to decrypt her in the all-go version. The answer is Anarch Convert. After
more discussion it's 3 Anarch Converts. Replace all but one duplicate, leaving Gathii. His
special is the best and his ANI matters for Field Training. Phaibun is the other option and
her dodge special might make her the meta-appropriate choice, but her PRE/OBF is less
useful in Field Training. Leave one duplicate to prevent a 4-Anarch Convert decrypt.

Why is Convert better? Round 2 Convert came out when I had 1 transfer, bled, paid for
itself with the Edge, bled every turn afterwards for 4 more pool total when Break the
Bonds had everyone locked, and finally stayed up to block a rush. That's better than
Sreelekha could ever be.

The finals was a race with my predator, Darby, who was playing a Minstry bleed deck. He
swept the round 1 table I was at where I got crushed by Fatima rush. He was the higher
seed and decided to sit behind me. I managed to stay ahead of him, in part, because he
could only afford two vampires. My grand-predator had just enough Gangrel to keep the
pressure up, but zero Gangrel with ANI, so I didn't have to worry about rushes from Deep
Song. Still taking bleeds of 5+ from both of Darby's vampires on most turns took its toll
and had me close to death on several occasions. I did allow my vampires to be caught
quite a few times in the finals, where I depended on the S:CE from Memory Rift. This
allowed me to lock vampires when I was having trouble getting the stealth ordering
correct because of how the cards drew. I probably used that S:CE 4 or 5 times. I made up
for these failed actions with greater numbers of vampires. Game finished up with 4 cards
left in my hand and 4 pool left on the table.

Shout out to Andy Smith and Kelly Lyons, whose versions of this were worked into and
out of this version over time.

Crypt (12 cards, min=6 max=23 avg=3.92)

---

3x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:ANY -- removes all but 1 duplicate; best improvement in this build
2x Gathii 5 ANI PRE obf Ravnos:7
1x Doc Martina 6 ANI OBF for pre Ravnos:7
1x Jean-François 4 ani obf pre Ravnos:7 -- the vanilla 4-cap you love to see
1x Luciano Carvalho 6 ANI OBF pre Ravnos:7
1x Oleg Kaprizov 3 obf pre Ravnos:7
1x Phaibun 5 OBF PRE ani Ravnos:7
1x Roberto Rivamonte 6 ANI OBF PRE Ravnos:7
1x Zafira 4 PRE obf Ravnos:7

Library (78 cards)
Master (17; 9 trifle)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Club Illusion
3x Dabbler
1x Dreams of the Sphinx -- just enough extra card cycle to get out of jams; not so many you get in trouble for having it
1x Giant's Blood
1x Jake Washington
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion -- still good; won me the final
6x Villein
2x Week of Nightmares

Action (21)
18x Break the Bonds
3x Field Training -- usually ani first, but vamps and hand may say otherwise; must always cycle it

Action Modifier (36)
3x Elder Impersonation -- removed No Secrets; provided death knell in finals
3x Faceless Night
2x Lost in Crowds
12x Memory Rift
4x Power of One
2x True Love's Face
10x Visions of Gehenna

Action Modifier/Combat (4)
2x Hide the Mind -- useful in one round; probable meta add, but reduce to 1x in generic metas
2x Swallowed by the Night

Really Karl?!
Congrats.