TWD - Cardinalis Benedictio - Barcelona, Spain

Dear all,

Here is the tournament report. As Rémi, I am just the guy who post it here, enjoy the reading and now I let the autor introduce himself.

My name is Xavier and I helped Barcelona’s Archbishop Marc Terrats organize this modest tournament before he organises next Spanish National Championship 2025.

Cardinalis Benedictio
Barcelona, Spain
May 31st, 2025
3R+F
23 players
Oriol Pubill
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/12344
(www.bcncrisis.com/tournament/555)

Barcelona, May 31st 2025. The city will have a new Cardinal tonight.
23 challengers gathered to prove their value in a dangerous contest known as... Cardinalis Benedictio.
The tournament was held in Infernal Forge Store and had 23 attendants.
This tournament is the last of a series of 10 tournaments held during the whole season of the Catalan League, and it defined the positions of the classification.
As a member of the Catalan League Comitee, I would like to extend an invitation to every player to come and participate in next year’s tournaments, which are open to every contendant.

Winner decklist by Oriol Pubill (Second Seed)
Crypt (12 cards, min=14 max=28 avg=5.33)
========================================
5x Alabástrom 7 POT VIS aus cel for Gargoyle:6
3x Verbruch 5 POT VIS for Gargoyle:5
2x Porphyry 4 POT vis Gargoyle:6
1x Monica Chang 3 dom tha Tremere:5
1x Rosalina Cortez 3 THA Tremere:6

Library (84 cards)
==================
Master (13; 3 trifle)

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1x Alvusia
6x Ashur Tablets
1x Fame
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
1x Secure Haven
2x Villein
1x Wider View

Action (25)

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2x Ambush
3x Bum's Rush
8x Dive Bomb
3x Harass
3x Preternatural Strength
6x Raw Recruit

Equipment (3)

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2x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Action Modifier (6)

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6x As the Crow

Combat (36)

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5x Brick by Brick
1x Disarm
8x Immortal Grapple
8x Raking Talons
2x Rockheart
6x Roundhouse
4x Stonestrength
2x Taste of Vitae

Event (1)

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1x Waiting Game

Xavier's report:

1st Seed: Rubén
2nd Seed: Oriol
3rd Seed: Albert
4th Seed: Terry
5th Seed: Alfredo (Note by Rémi: Kali's Fang's Guy)

The four other decklists are at the end of the report.

The final table was one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen, so let me try to describe it for you.

As Fifth and Fourth seeds we have Alfredo, with his fearsome Banu Haquim combat deck and Terry with a Stanislava classic vote/bleed which has granted him the first position on this year Catalan Leage. Also Terry has won last year’s Cardinalis Benedictio so if he didn’t win he would loose his Cardinal title.

As Third seed we have Albert with a weenie ANI combat deck. With a few decks in TWDA, Albert is not in his first final and decided to predate the sons of Haquim.

As Second Seed we have Oriol, producer of BCNCrisis youtube channnel dedicated to vtes and winner of Festivo dello Estinto 2024 tournament, with a Gargoyle combat deck. He decided to predate Terry.

Finally we find Rubén, EC 2004 who is back in the tables driving a Palla Grande Vote/Bleed deck wich has won all 3 previous games. He decided to sit in front of Terry in order to avoid combat decks on both sides.

The first movement in the final where in charge of Rubén, creating his first embrace and Albert, rushing backwards and sending one of Rubén’s vampires to torpor. Rubén then offered Albert his best deal: not bleeding or deflecting any bleed to him until Albert has killed Alfredo and won his VP in exchange for peace. Albert with a plan in his head, refused the deal, so Rubén sent him a 3 point bleed from Stanislava and Albert sent the vampire responsable to torpor in retaliation.

But Albert plan didn’t end there. When Oriol sent his first Gargoyle to hit Terry’s vampires he played Dark Influences to cancel Oriol’s Immortal Grapple in order to let Stanislava’s minions play his Combats Ends. This play was really surprising and caused no small discussion in the table, but nothing a warning couldn’t fix.

Terry lowered Oriol’s pool playing a Parity Shift backwards and influenced a second vampire out.

At this point Rubén thought his game was ruined and saing so, he played two KRCs aimed to Albert and Alfredo, affirming that he was already dead in the next rounds, so Terry, who had vote lock, voted in favor. That left Albert at 5 pool, so he let some minions untapped in order to stop possible bleeds from Rubén.

Alfredo was having a great trouble trying to influence a third vampire becouse all his minions in the uncontrolled area where copies of his two alredy in play, but this was his only trouble while he remained confortable at 16 pool.

Oriol, also at 5 pool was now trying to activate his rushes, but sadly he couldn’t find any in his hand so he beeded instead. That lack of violence upset Albert, who’s plan counted on Oriol torporizing Terry’s minions this precise turn.

Terry had here his chance to win his first VP, but he feared Albert’s combat and Banished one of Rubén vampire’s instead of killing him. That left Rubén with only 2 vampires, none of them with superior auspex and at 3 pool. But he stayed in the table for another turn.

Albert, realizing that his plan was crumbling tried to fix it torporizin one of Terry’s vampires, wich was the one with a Fame in it, and this left Terry only at 3 pool. To save Terry, Albert torporized Oriol’s only Tremere, so his slaves wouldn’t be able to bleed. This left the table quite stable for another turn.

At this point, after only 1h 10m pool was very low, with 4 players below 5 pool and only Alfredo counting 14 or so. Albert activated again rushing Alfredo’s first minion and torporizing it on the subseqüent combat. He then tried to diablerize it, which forced Alfredo to block with his second vampire. A few rounds of combat later both Alfredo’s vampires lied in torpor.

Finally Alfredo found a third vampire and started putting influence in it, but seemed too late for him. Oriol influenced a second Tremere and equiped a Gargoyle with the Codex of Edenic Groundskeepers, preparing a lethal bleed. He also stole one of Alfredo’s vampires with a Raw Recruit action, but still no rushes in his hand.

Terry played a Secure Haven in Stanislava and tryed to kill Rubén reaching 4 stealth, but was blocked. Maybe Rubén was not so dead as he affirmed.

Alfredo finally influenced out a third vampire, but this left him at just 1 pool after a round of Deep Song bleeds form Albert. Oriol rushed finally Stanilsava’s famous friend, but he oversteps and burns it instead sending it to torpor, thus not activating the Fame pool loss. Stanislava kept trying to kill and Rubén managed to block again, for Terry’s despair.

Then Rubén activated and with a villein and an Enchant superior managed to reach 7 pool, out of Stanislava bleed capacity.

It was only 20 minutes left on the clock when Albert finally managed to kill Alfredo, winning a VP and leading the final. Oriol kept lowering Terry’s pool bleeding with múltiple minions leaving him with only 6 pool again and completely out of a game he thought he was winning. Rubén, risking everithing, influenced out another vampire leaving himself at 1 pool.

At this point, with only 5 minutes left in the clock, Albert draw a Fame and an evil plan came to his mind. He put the fame in one of Rubén minions and rushed it. If he torporized the minion he would kill Rubén, givin 6 more pool to Terry putting him out of Oriol’s bleeding reach. But Rubén managed to end the combat and survived.

With only 2 and a half minutes left, Albert passed his turn tu Oriol who bleeded with all his minions, Codex, Alvusia and kills Terry, winning his vp and the game.

FINAL RESULT:
1,5 VP Oriol (Winner)
1,5 VP Albert
0,5 VP Rubén
0 VP Terry
0 VP Alfredo

Congratulations to the new Sabbat Cardinal of Barcelona and my eternal gratitude for this amazing finale to all the players.

Xavier Macias Pozo, accidental referee

Other decklists:

First Seed: Rubén
Deck Name: Pallas Exhibition V2
Author: Lonestar

Crypt (12 cards, min=14 max=31 avg=5.67)
========================================
2x Mélusine d'Anjou 8 AUS CEL PRE dem archbishop Toreador antitribu:5
1x Klaus Konrecht 8 AUS CEL PRE for pot cardinal Toreador antitribu:4
1x Arianne, The Conqueror 7 CEL DOM PRE aus Toreador antitribu:5
1x Guggenheim 6 AUS CEL PRE Toreador antitribu:5
1x Redbone McCray 6 AUS PRE cel pro Toreador antitribu:4
1x Tears, The Dark Pierrot 6 AUS DEM PRE cel Toreador antitribu:4
1x Amber 5 AUS PRE cel Toreador antitribu:5
1x Conchita Morales 5 CEL PRE aus Toreador antitribu:5
1x Loonar 4 PRE cel Toreador antitribu:4
1x Jonathan Gursel 3 aus pre Toreador antitribu:4
1x Justine Chen, Innocent 2 pre Toreador antitribu:4

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (14; 3 trifle)

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1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Coven, The
1x Direct Intervention
3x Foundation Exhibit
3x Palla Grande
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Perfectionist
2x Vessel

Action (28)

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8x Art Scam
8x Embrace, The
8x Enchant Kindred
2x Entrancement
2x Mind Numb

Political Action (7)

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4x Consanguineous Boon
3x Kine Resources Contested

Action Modifier (7)

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2x Aire of Elation
5x Change of Target

Reaction (20)

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5x Eyes of Argus
3x My Enemy's Enemy
5x On the Qui Vive
2x Poison Pill
5x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (14)

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2x Charismatic Aura
12x Majesty

Third Seed: Albert
Deck Name: Animalism
Author: Vezintroll

Crypt (12 cards, min=8 max=20 avg=3.5)
======================================
1x Anjalika Underwood 5 ANI aus chi for Ravnos:5
1x Céleste Lamontagne 5 ANI PRO for Gangrel antitribu:4
1x Crow 5 ANI for pro tha Gangrel:5
1x Petra 5 ANI OBF aus Nosferatu:4
2x Beetleman 4 ANI obf Nosferatu:4
1x Droescher One-Eye 3 ani vic Tzimisce:4
1x Neel Ramanathan 3 ani for Ravnos:4
1x Stick 3 ANI Nosferatu antitribu:4
1x Darlene Killian 2 ani spi Ahrimane:5
1x Malcolm 2 ani Gangrel:5
1x Walker Grimes 1 ani Caitiff:5

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (13; 5 trifle)

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3x Animalism
1x Barrens, The
1x Dark Influences
2x Fame
1x Haven Uncovered
1x Vessel
4x Villein

Action (20)

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19x Deep Song
1x Harass

Equipment (1)

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1x Ivory Bow

Retainer (4)

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1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
2x Murder of Crows
1x Tasha Morgan

Combat (52)

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17x Aid from Bats
1x Canine Horde
15x Carrion Crows
4x Drawing Out the Beast
2x Fake Out
3x Target Vitals
6x Taste of Vitae
4x Terror Frenzy


Fourth Seed: Terry
Deck Name: Stanislava
Author: Reki
Description: 3 cards added to the origina deck.
+1 govern
+1 secure haven
+1 pentex

Crypt (12 cards, min=36 max=44 avg=10.08)
=========================================
5x Stanislava 11 ANI CEL DOM FOR PRO inner circle Gangrel:2
2x Xaviar (ADV) 10 ABO ANI FOR PRO aus cel pot justicar Gangrel:3
1x Genevieve 10 ANI FOR PRO aus dom priscus Gangrel antitribu:2
1x Hartmut Stover 10 CEL OBF PRO dom for archbishop Gangrel antitribu:3
2x Ingrid Rossler 9 ANI FOR PRO dom prince Gangrel:2
1x Mark Decker 8 CEL PRO ani for obf pot prince Gangrel:3

Library (83 cards)
==================
Master (24; 8 trifle)

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1x Backways
1x Coven, The
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
2x Information Highway
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Perfectionist
1x Secure Haven
6x Villein
1x Wider View
6x Zillah's Valley

Action (8)

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8x Govern the Unaligned

Political Action (10)

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1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
1x Ancilla Empowerment
4x Banishment
2x Parity Shift
1x Reins of Power

Equipment (1)

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1x Seal of Veddartha

Action Modifier (18)

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3x Conditioning
6x Earth Control
1x Enkil Cog
4x Forced March
4x Instantaneous Transformation

Action Modifier/Combat (1)

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1x Rapid Change

Action Modifier/Reaction (1)

---

1x Murmur of the False Will

Reaction (9)

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5x Deflection
1x On the Qui Vive
1x Redirection
2x Sense the Savage Way

Combat (11)

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5x Earth Meld
6x Form of Mist

Fifth Seed: Alfredo
Deck Name: Banu hunger
Author: Alfredo Giraldós

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=5 max=9 avg=6.833333)
==================
2x Farah Sarroub 7 aus obf CEL THA Assamite:6
2x Oluwafunmilayo 8 AUS CEL OBF THA Assamite:6
3x Kasim Bayar 9 aus pot CEL OBF THA Assamite:6
3x Kassandra Tassaki 6 obf CEL THA Assamite:6
2x Warmaksan 5 cel obf THA Assamite:6

Library: 90 cards

Master (24 cards)
==================
1x Archon Investigation
2x Parthenon, The
9x Ashur Tablets
1x Powerbase: Montreal
2x Priority Contract
5x Villein
2x Haqim's Law: Retribution
1x Papillon
1x Fame

Action (8 cards)
==================
1x Fleetness
2x Biothaumaturgic Experiment
5x Hunter's Mark

Action Modifier/Combat (7 cards)
==================
5x Resist Earth's Grasp
2x Swallowed by the Night

Political Action (3 cards)
==================
1x Anathema
2x Camarilla's Iron Fist

Combat (38 cards)
==================
5x Infernal Pursuit
2x Psyche!
4x Pursuit
5x Rego Motum
1x Sideslip
14x Hunger of Marduk
7x Blur

Equipment (1 card)
==================
1x Kali's Fang

Reaction (9 cards)
==================
9x Second Tradition: Domain

Thanks a lot to Xavier for the report.
I hope you've enjoyed it as much as me.

Regards,
Rémi.

Hey,

Here are a few pictures:

www.facebook.com/share/15kXP8rdLp/

Regards,
Rémi.

3 combat decks in the final