TWD 12th Hiekkaharju Nighmares

12th Hiekkaharju Nightmares
Vantaa, Finland
October 8, 2022
3R+F
18 players
Otso Saariluoma
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/10335

Good number of players attended my tournament again, always makes me happy. I saw lots of combat in this tournament, but in the end vote deck prevailed and won. Otso can tell more about his tournament if he so wishes.

Finals seating: Joona (unamed) -> Otso (Luts + friends) -> Teemu (Gangrel barons wall) -> Otto (Ministry bleed + votes) -> Marko (Mambo rush)

1 Otso Saariluoma 2 7,5 3 168
2 Marko Saari 1 4 0 138
2 Otto Kallokoski 1 4 2 144
2 Teemu Sainomaa 2 5,5 0 144
2 Joona Tuominen 1 4,5 0 126
6 Tuomas Nyberg 1 4 112
7 Antti Penttilä 1 3 96
8 Lauri Salmi 0 2,5 108
9 Jani Malmi 0 2,5 102
10 Tommi Hakomaa 0 2 120
11 Jyri Puhakka 0 2 114
12 Petri Wessman 0 2 96
13 Noora Hirvonen 0 1,5 114
14 Jari Vulli 0 1 100
15 Juri Juskevits 0 0,5 78
16 Janne Lönnqvist 0 0 76
17 Akseli Jalava 0 0 60
18 Lasse Pöyry 0 0 48

Winners Decklist:

Deck Name: Unmada’s Friends
Author: Otso

Crypt (12 cards, min=40 max=38 avg=10.08)
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3x Lutz von Hohenzollern 11 AUS DEM OBF PRE pot inner circle Malkavian:4
1x Josef von Bauren 11 ANI DEM OBF POT cel inner circle Nosferatu:4
1x Rafael de Corazon 11 AUS CEL DOM OBF PRE inner circle Toreador:4
4x Unmada 10 AUS DEM OBF VIC cel for justicar Malkavian:5
1x Alonso Petrodon 10 ANI DOM OBF POT for tha justicar Nosferatu:5
1x Dmitra Ilyanova 9 CEL FOR POT PRE obf justicar Brujah:5
1x Benjamin Rose 7 AUS OBF ani pot prince Nosferatu:5

Library (77 cards)
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Master (26; 10 trifle)

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1x Coven, The
1x Dark Influences
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
3x Information Highway
1x Legendary Vampire
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
7x Villein
2x Wider View
6x Zillah's Valley

Action (1)

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1x Judgment: Camarilla Segregation

Political Action (21)

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2x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
2x Ancilla Empowerment
3x Banishment
4x Kine Resources Contested
1x Neonate Breach
6x Parity Shift
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Reins of Power

Action Modifier (15)

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2x Elder Impersonation
2x Faceless Night
4x Forgotten Labyrinth
4x Into Thin Air
2x Lost in Crowds
1x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier/Combat (2)

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2x Swallowed by the Night

Reaction (?

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2x Eyes of Argus
1x My Enemy's Enemy
1x On the Qui Vive
4x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (4)

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4x No Trace

Archon approved.

Thanks for the tournament organizer and congratulations for Otso!

It is amazing how Otso won a tournament full of combat with Lutz!

For me this was a really fun and interesting tournament with a naibiter final table, several tough calls needed to get the win. As for the deck choice I wanted to see if the old go-to voters still got it, as there’s been talk in Helsinki that vote decks are in trouble because of all of the titled low cap vampires running around. It was nice to play a deck that packs enough payload to actually oust people and finish tables. The list itself is nothing out of the ordinary, though I did diversify the crypt a bit from the stock standard list and added Judgment: Camarilla Segregation. (Meant to add another copy but didn’t find it in the morning.) Segregation was quite good in the games I drew it. Some other overperforming cards were Benjamin Rose (cheap prince with good disciplines and an amazing special) and Neonate Breach (smooth 10ish pool damage to the table with one vote). In hindsight I’d probably cut the deck down to 70ish cards to smooth out the draw as I was never even close to decking.

I did draw crypt acceleration in all of the four games, which was really key as per usual. In the first round I was pressured quite a bit by Tuomas’ Banu Haqim & Victoria bleed, but otherwise it was a relatively straightforward 4 player table resulting in a sweep for me. Second round I got off to a flying start but got slowed down when my freshly turned Lutz was rushed and torporized by Marko’s Jean Lisle with Relentless Reaper (and diablerized by an Anarch Convert). After that I made a peace treaty deal for two turns with my prey Jyri playing Brujah anarch rush deck as I didn’t have the stealth cards to oust him. Two rounds later the combat decks had harassed the other non-combat decks a lot and I had been doing pool damage to Joona, my Unnamed grand prey, which did set up the table nicely for a sweep. With maybe one more minute on the clock I would have likely gotten all of the points, but now I had to settle with GW 2,5 VPs.

The third round was a four player table again and early on I made a deal with my cross-table buddy Marko playing Samedi beatdown to try to end up in the heads-up together. I had a really good start, which kind of came crashing down as my prey Lasse got his Ghede Typhonic Beast multirush engine going. Unmada, Lutz and Alonso ended shortly in torpor with Pulled Fangs. However, Marko my buddy twice repaired teeth from my vampires and rescued them as well as played Giant’s Blood on my torporized Unmada to be able to rescue it also. The deal worked out and we ended up in the heads-up, which I quickly lost to the rushes, netting 1 VP from the round for a total of 2 GW 7,5 VPs.

In the finals I wanted to sit cross-table from Marko’s rush combat deck. I chose to sit with Joona’s Unnamed as my predator and Teemu’s Gangrel baron wall as my prey. I thought I might be able to delay my predator with Banishments and denying Enkil Cog with bounces for a while. I also calculated that I would be able to get past Teemu’s intercept before he would have the time to set up shop. The plan did kinda work out, though Joona was mostly slowed down by having only 1 transfer on the first turn as my first bounce was canceled with I am Legion and unnamed got Enkil Cog right away.

In the finals my biggest problem was getting the votes through as on his first turn of acting Otto played Patsy on my Unmada cross table removing his title. As I started my fifth turn I had Unmada, Lutz and Benjamin Rose for a total of 6 votes plus the vote card, Teemu had 2 Barons, Otto had 1 Baron and 1 Propaganda of the Deed and Joona had Arishat. In the end I got Otto’s support to banish one of Teemu’s Barons and oust Teemu as well as hit Otto’s prey with votes to give Otto the oust in his next turn. Otto wasn’t initially too keen on the deal, but the other option discussed was me dealing with Teemu to banish backwards and shooting the damage on both Teemu and Otto giving Teemu the oust from Otto.

So I drew just enough stealth to get past Kuyen with four intercept and we ended up in a threeway with Otto and Joona where I still didn’t have the votes because of Arishat, so I had to resort to bleeding and shooting damage backwards. Joona was trying to go full steam forward, I wanted to backoust Joona and Otto was trying to balance the table so that he might take both of us out. In the end Otto was running low on pool so he had to make his move and took out Joona with some help from me, but conceded in the heads-up shortly afterwards with no hope of either ousting me or staying alive.

Thank you Lauri for organizing the event and all the participants! The tournament was really memorable and the atmosphere was relaxed and loving!

It has been a good long while since I have last managed to attend a tournament (Last November's Nationals perhaps?) and WAY longer since I participated in the Lauri's Hiekkaharju Nightmares.

But the overall atmosphere was indeed very nice and almost family-like.

Thank you to Lasse for the tasty nourishment, to the salty sea captain for the tournament, beer and sauna afterwards (sorry the sauna bench got broken, but it seems that the transfer of power in the VEKN Finish high echelons is Rough Stuff aka. Finnish Politics... )