[TWD] 8th Tragic Love Affair

8th Tragic Love Affair
Helsinki, Finland
2026-04-26
2R + F
20 players
winner: Marko Oja
0 GW 3 + 1,5 VP in the final
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/13183

A new game café recently opened in the very center of Helsinki, and of course we had to try it out for a tournament, for the side event of the Finnish Nationals. The experience was highly positive, so I'm sure we'll do more events there in the future. The venue had multiple simultaneous events on the day, limiting the tournament's maximum capacity to 20, which we reached exactly.

The final table:

1. Nerijus Mikalajunas (Xendil Hatch the Viper Caine rush) 0
2. Tommi Hakomaa (Gangrel Barons Thing) 0,5
3. Karri Malm (Stanislava + Beckett gehennas) 0,5
4. Tero Aalto (Juliet Parr bleed/vote) 0,5
5. Marko Oja (Ravnos anarch bleed + block) 1,5

After a tough and very close fight, Marko emerged victorious in very competitive company including the current European champion and other highly decorated players, scoring his first tournament win after playing the game since 1994. Congratulations!

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Deck Name: Break the bonds
Author: Marko Oja

Crypt (12 cards, min=13 max=26 avg=4.92)

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2x Gathii 5 ANI PRE obf Ravnos:7
2x Hafthor Thorsteinsson 7 ANI OBF PRE pot Ravnos:7
2x Jean-François 4 ani obf pre Ravnos:7
2x Phaibun 5 OBF PRE ani Ravnos:7
2x Roberto Rivamonte 6 ANI OBF PRE Ravnos:7
1x Oleg Kaprizov 3 obf pre Ravnos:7
1x Roy 2 obf Ravnos:7

Library (77 cards)
Master (17; 7 trifle)
1x Anarch Free Press, The
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Black Market Cache
3x Dabbler
1x Fortune Teller Shop
4x Hackerspace
1x Kumpania
4x Villein
1x Week of Nightmares

Action (13)
13x Break the Bonds

Equipment (8)
8x .44 Magnum

Retainer (1)
1x Feral Hound

Action Modifier (11)
2x Cloak the Gathering
2x Lost in Crowds
2x Memory Rift
1x Monkey Wrench
2x Power of One
1x Spying Mission
1x Visions of Gehenna

Action Modifier/Combat (2)
2x Swallowed by the Night

Reaction (15)
1x Delaying Tactics
5x Dogged Pursuit
2x Night Terrors
3x On the Qui Vive
2x Party Out Of Bounds
2x Protection Racket

Combat (10)
5x Contraband
4x Taste of Vitae
1x Terror Frenzy

Well, there was a short gap of maybe 20 years between games at one point…

Anyway, the deck started out as a simple-and-boring stealth bleed with a couple of barons thrown in for bounce, which I played in Vilnius two years ago. I decided that just sitting around waiting for my next turn is no fun, so when the new New Blood decks came out, I dug the old one out of the box, got rid of stealth cards, and threw in intercept, Hackerspaces, Contrabands and Magnums. Much more enjoyable.

The finals went better than anyone could have expected, probably because the more experienced players did not consider my decks to be a threat (in our previous tournament I played mono-Boleslaw, so can’t fault them here). A good draw and a couple of surprisingly well timed blocks as well as the bloat from BtB kept me in the game. And luckily my pointless late game bleeds did not help Tommi oust Karri, so here we are.

MVP cards for the tournament? Probably Club Illusion and Nightmares upon Nightmares, kindly played by someone else.