Gamex 2012, Los Angeles, Day 2 Tournament Reports

Barrenness is incidental to the deck's strategy. Primarily it is there to keep your "actual" deck size small since you're using the burn option as often as possible until you have The unnamed and 1x Horde in play.

Under perfect circumstances, you get to bleed for 3, twice per round since one of your 2-3 Hordes is boosting The unnamed every bleed. Psalm of the Damned provides minor lunge capability at bounce denial at which couples with block denial at . Direct Intervention also provides bounce denial when bleeding on your predator's turn.

Barrenness + Scourge of the Enochians is extremely strong in the end game. You may experience other Methuselahs fiddling around on their turns trying to time their lunges and ousts with burning the Scourge. This often buys you time to play your game. Also, the free untap gives you additional chances for Perfectionist to kick and and keep The unnamed fat and happy.

In general, you need to spend 16 pool to get this deck up and running between The unnamed and 2x Hordes. That's not transferring low at all. And don't forget that you gain 2 pool each time The unnamed bleeds, which is +4 every turn around the table. Your pool stabilizes very quickly if you can keep persistent pressure on the table. Every bleed should succeed. Each oust, get an additional Horde and eventually the table will succumb to the inevitable.

Scythe plays with his cards trying not to oust Fred.

Scythe tries a little too hard not to look like he's keeping Fred alive.

Somehow Scythe can't oust Fred this turn. Hm.

The deck does require a bit of set up, and the only thing I did that helped Fred was call an Ancient Influence when The Unnamed was empty with a Haven Uncovered on him. I was busy holding off my dominate predator with 3 Ayes and a Shaman on Iniko by blocking and using Majesties, but consistently bleeding for 2 a turn. I also tried to oust him (and almost everybody else) by wasting a Strange Day on a bleed for one and calling a Neonate Breach that got DIed by Aaron. Damn, that would've been sweet!! After that Fred got rolling with the Homonculus/Enkil Cog combo and almost went out of control till I Secret's Must Be Kept the Homonculus.

All true. Hell of a game, fun for everyone not named Fred.

I've always liked the Nocturn/shadow twin deck. You've been close with it (in different versions) before. Have the other allies been useful for the piging of minions?

The only different ally is Ossian. I did have one 'Abysmal' Spectre in there before, which seemed to combo well with Lilith's, but really wasn't good at all. The deck failed to deal with 2 time outs before this weekend, in which it missed to another time out before finally hitting it. This version might be more resilient but I prefer the previous version, without the concentration on Isanwayen. At least the Kiasyd gain another non-stealth bleed focused win. Too rare with this clan. The previous versions would actually fall under Lasombra.

Robert wrote:

The only different ally is Ossian................ This version might be more resilient but I prefer the previous version, without the concentration on Isanwayen.

Ossian + fame = nice.

I've also been looking at using Isanwanyen. Using Zillah's tears you could do a sort of precision placement for multiple master phase actions. I don't know, that might be too convoluted in the end. I'll keep thinking.