[TWD] Week of Nightmares Helsinki 2022 Wednesday

Week of Nightmares Helsinki 2022 Wednesday
Espoo, Finland
2022-07-27
2R + F
14 players
winner: Tero Aalto
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/10201

The last leg of the WoN Helsinki tour took things even further into the depths of Espoo, all the way to the end of the metro line, Matinkylä. The venue was familiar from the Tragic Love Affair tournament series, and also functions as my home. Because our apartment contains 15 chairs exactly, that was the maximum number of participants we could accomodate. After a last-minute cancellation, the final figure settled at 14 players.

Pot after pot of delicious Turkish tea was consumed, and our dog was never short on pets. The tournament meta, on the other hand, contained a lot of violence: I'd say more rush decks than usual, and fewer walls. The final, on the other hand, had a very even split of deck genres:

1. Bram van Stappen: Toreador guns wall 0,5
2. Antti Penttilä: Banu Haqim bleed & rush 0,5
3. Tero Aalto: the unnamed bleed 1,5
4. Tommi Hakomaa: Tupdogs & Nephandi 0
5. Juho Linna: Inner circle bleed & vote 0,5

First round

At first glance at the decks in the tournament, I knew it was going to be a long day, and I would have to be really careful if I wanted to have any chance to get to play the game. The very start of the first round was grim as Tommi sat behind me with his super aggressive rush deck. Two things, however, worked in my favor: 1) Tommi's deck was stacked suboptimally, and 2) my grand-predator was Marko O's fast presence voter. These conditions allowed me to bring out the unnamed and a horde simultaneously, and to live to see the next round. I also had the least problematic prey of the week so far: Niko's Banu Haqim breed & boon. Sure, it had the potential to run away with heaps of pool (and my grandprey in the process, who was the Toreador wall that we'll meet again in every game), but at least the Banus wouldn't be able to kill me, which was a big plus.

The Banus put a lot of pressure the Toreadors and were seemingly closing in on the oust, although they were also losing resources due to getting blocked. Meanwhile, the Tupdogs were struggling with the presence voters, and went all the way down to one pool. Niko hadn't drawn any Con Boons, but it was only a matter of time, so I had to go on the lunge. This was the only time I played an Infernal Servitor the whole day (all the rest were discarded, for reasons we'll learn in a moment). Tommi and Bram made a deal that would give Tommi one point and Bram the rest, which meant all remaining players were basically playing against me because Marko was all but dead.

Tommi contested Secure Haven, but I survived by Entrancing the Nephandus it was on, and with a well-timed Scourge of the Enochians (amazing card, should be played in every deck) burning two Tupdogs in consecutive rounds. The clock was ticking, and as it was becoming obvious that Tommi wouldn't be able to take the one point he had been offered, Bram moved on to take his second oust, at which point I conceded, which was something I shouldn't have done without looking at the time first, as there were only a few minutes left. However, I was completely out of stealth, so it's difficult to say if my pool would have lasted longer than the seconds on the clock. In any case, I always go to a tournament with the goal of getting one point, and this was now accomplished.

Second round

It didn't start any better than the first one. Bram's wall was now my predator, and my prey was Marko S's potence rush with some dominate. In other words, a deck with the potential to destroy all of my minions with ease, and bounces to boot. I had neither a Secure Haven nor an Unleash in my opening hand, and I'd have ideally needed both in order to survive. I should have been patient and brought up the unnamed, a horde and an anarch convert in the same turn, but I got adventurous and went for the convert on turn one already. When Bram rushed the convert down and Marko already had several potence monsters out, I started wondering if I had thrown away my only slight chance to survive.

Matters were made more complex by the fact that my grandprey was Juha's Stanislava Baltimore Purge. For a moment, it seemed that I would be able to make a deal with Juha, who was equally afraid of Marko's potence, for which purpose I rescued my convert to have an amicable target for the imminent Purge. However, on his turn, Marko offered Juha a better deal: a 3–2 table split. I was honest and told Juha he should accept the offer, even though it was bad for me and the rest of the table. As a result, it was the unnamed who got hit by the Purge and eaten, along with one of my grand-predator Esa-Matti's minions (perhaps Neighbor John?).

The table reeling from the sudden shift caused by the unholy alliance of two big threats, the rest of us had no other choice but to team up. The setting was far from ideal, as we were adjacent to each other, but it was all we could do. I suggested that we'd try to get at least one point for each of us in the "resistance team". At that point, it sounded more like wishful thinking than reality, but it gave us something to strive for, and the others agreed to my plan. We started systematically channeling all of our resources into opposing Marko. Initially, this consisted of Bram bouncing Esa-Matti's bleeds there and everybody sacrificing a minion to diablerize one of Marko's minions in torpor. My sacrifice was only a convert, but I also only had one horde remaining as my sole minion after that, so it didn't look great.

However, I still had just enough pool to influence another copy of the unnamed, which I started working on. Slowly but surely, Marko's pool eroded, and his minions were eaten up (although at a great cost). A final barrage of bleeds for one got all of his remaining staff tapped and his pool depleted, leaving Juha our team's sole opponent. Without the rushers around, I could breathe a lot more freely, ousting Juha in a few rounds while Bram was bleeding me with his princes and Esa-Matti bleeding him in turn. Two points for me, but the feeling of accomplishment having overcome such dismal odds was way better than any score. Like I said after, this was a game for the ages.

The final

Four players had collected the game wins in the preliminary rounds, which meant somebody would get in without one. I really didn't expect it would be me, and frankly surprised myself as I was announcing the finalists. I have to admit I was almost disappointed because I had been hoping to get to try yet another experimental deck concept in the shadow final instead, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity, of course. As the last seed, I had no choice where to sit, which meant I got the least desirable spot as the Tupdogs' predator. With the Banu bleeder behind me, I rated my chances at least as low as in the first two rounds.

As soon as the game was on, I proposed Tommi a generous deal: I would only bleed him for one (to maintain pool) until he gets his first VP. Knowing he could trust me as I never break deals, he gladly accepted, as it allowed him to go full speed ahead. In retrospect, it wasn't clearly stated whether "only bleed for one" meant a total of one point per round or one point per bleed (in which case a horde could have joined in), and whether other offensive actions were allowed, but I decided to interpret the deal as strictly as possile, just to be sure. It may sound like I promised a lot, and that's true, but I knew it was my only chance to survive. On the other hand, I knew this would force the rest of the table to deal with the obvious table threat while my hands were tied.

The wisdom of my deal started revealing itself quickly, as Tommi had a dreamlike start. It looked like watching some completely different game with the rate at which he brought out minions. For some time, it looked like he would simply sweep the whole table before the rest of us could even start to play properly. To make things even nicer for Tommi, he had an ideal prey: Juho's inner circles: big juicy investments who rely on combat ends for defence. However, there was one crucial element missing from the tiny gargoyles' combat hand: Raking Talons, which allowed Rafael de Corazón to survive to make an action.

Banishment (that was intended for Antonio d'Erlette) was DI'd, and Juho didn't have another, but Rafael somehow was still there the round after. All this time, I had adhered to the agreement and only bled for one each round, keeping my pool decent and slowly reducing Tommi's. During the ICs' next turn, Juho started asking for votes for a Reins of Power. Bram wasn't too excited about the vote, but I convinced everybody to go for it because we would eventually have to make Tommi use the DI he had just recovered with a set of Ashur Tablets. Sure enough, the Reins bit the DI, but it turned out that, just as I had hoped, Juho also had an Anarchist Uprising.

At this point, everybody was very tired, having played three tournaments in three days, myself included, so without thinking, I offered Juho the same deal I had had with Tommi if he would go ahead with the vote and backoust Tommi. In reality, he would have gone for it in any case, as it was his only way to survive. But a deal is a deal, so I kept it, and did nothing but bleeds for one for the rest of the game. On the other hand, Juho had two inner circles out at this point, so I had hopes that he would oust Bram quickly, after which I could finally start playing. However, that never happened, despite several close calls.

For the time being, I had been relatively safe as Antti had drawn zero Haqim's Law: Retributions and could only bleed for ones. Instead, he played a Judgment: Camarilla Segregation, which hit only me, as everybody else was Camarilla. I counted 1+1 and decided the right thing to do was to sacrifice my only horde immediately before losing any more pool. Another logic behind this decision was to get rid of the horde simply because Antti would eventually rush it and cycle his hand that way (while the unnamed was sitting snug in its haven). This turned out to be a great move, for both of those reasons.

Juho needed Antti's support to pass his votes, so I was getting constant damage from his votes, while he was bloating with Voter Captivations, nullifying the little bleeds that I was allowed to do according to our misguided deal. It seemed that my only hope was that Juho could oust Bram quickly, completing the deal's condition. But my hopes were all but dashed after both other remaining players rushed the inner circles. I had to switch my plan to try to keep the table as stable as possible and win by timeout. Antti finally drew a HL: Retribution, but I had managed to cycle my hand nicely with Heart of Nizchetus (amazing card, wins games), so I had two Unleashes that I could use to stop him. I had to be careful, though, because I needed to keep Antti in good enough condition that he wouldn't accidentally kill himself, as I was the last seed and would lose a tie to anybody else.

In the end, my balancing act was a success, and the time ran out before anybody else was eliminated. I had made two deals, the first one enabling me to have a game, and the other one almost costing me the chance I had got with the first one, but it was oddly satisfying to win after such a restrained display with a deck that, while pretty slow as my version, can also be efficient when needed. There's also a beauty of its own in winning with such a low amount of points.

The list is similar to the one in Shell Break Espoo .

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Week of Nightmares Helsinki 2022 Wednesday
Espoo, Finland
2022-07-27
2R + F
14 players
winner: Tero Aalto
scores: 0 GW 3 + 1,5 VP in the final

Deck Name: (Sem título): I Lost My Senses
Description: A variation of the original "(Sem título)" with optimized card flow.

Crypt (12 cards, min=10 max=40 avg=6.33)
1x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:ANY
5x Horde, The 3 dai obf pre Baali:6
6x unnamed, The 10 CEL DAI OBF PRE PRO Baali:6

Library (66 cards)
Master (8)
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Monastery of Shadows
2x Perfectionist
3x Secure Haven

Action (14)
1x Contagion
4x Entrancement
6x Flurry of Action
3x Unleash Hell's Fury

Ally (5)
5x Infernal Servitor

Equipment (1)
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Retainer (2)
2x Homunculus

Action Modifier (26)
2x Cloak the Gathering
4x Elder Impersonation
3x Enkil Cog
2x Faceless Night
3x I am Legion
7x Instantaneous Transformation
4x Lost in Crowds
1x Psychomachia

Action Modifier/Reaction (4)
4x Sense the Sin

Combat (4)
2x Earth Meld
2x Form of Mist

Event (2)
1x Narrow Minds
1x Scourge of the Enochians

It looks like all tournament wins have been achieved be team Winland so far.
Amazing result!

Hakuron wrote:

It looks like all tournament wins have been achieved be team Winland so far.
Amazing result!

Thank you! However, the achievement is shadowed by the low international turnout so far: only 10% of players have been from outside Finland. Our country is remote and expensive, so it doesn't really come as a surprise, but the situation will fortunately change drastically for the weekend.

Event approved.
Congrats to Tero.

Ankha wrote:

When adding the quantities, I get 67 cards, not 66.

Good observation! There was indeed a copy-paste error originating from the previous version. Now fixed.