TWD Fire In The Blood - San Jose

Okay, so Dennis Lien came in top seed with 2 gw, I don't know how many vp's, with his clever Carmine Giovanni Dual Form/Soul Gem/Golconda bloat and bleed deck with seating order as such:

Dennis Lien
Aaron Clarke - Etrius stealth bleed with Trem/!Trem obf buddies
Sean (from Castro Valley) - !Tor anarchs with Palla Grande
Andy Haas - Cybelletron
Robert Scythe - Marconius protects Lasombra Politics with Faerie Wards

Dennis wisely chose to sit in front of me knowing that he will have a little more time to set up than being prey to the other decks, except Andy's that he'd have to contest the Soul Gem with. However, he still had a very slow start after tearing up the first 2 tables. He and Andy had to do some Soul Gem sharing so they could both get their mojo going but Dennis's never really took off. I was in a horrible position as infernal minions are the most resilient vs Faerie Wards and the Great Beast could come visit me whenever he wanted since I didn't draw the Wards until late game and never played one, by the way. Thankfully Andy got some pressure from the !Torry anarchs to alleviate that situation. Eventually the anarchs succumbed to the power of Etrius and soon after I managed to just barely take out Carmine and friends. With the clock ticking down Andy prepared to make his final lunge by setting up 4 vamps with a total of 11 bleed showing. I had a rather innocuous turn seeing 'death a coming' but finally had a Ward to slow it down. Aaron took my paltry bleed but was not worried about being ousted that turn, though he wouldn't survive another. Aaron's assault on Andy fell one stealth short of taking out his last pool and taking the win, so he bolstered his defenses with an Ancient Influence which also killed Andy's hopes of ousting me on his turn since the 13 cap Marconius gained me 7 more pool. The game then timed out with the top 2 seeds removed leaving me the victor.

Fire In The Blood
San Jose, CA USA
August 13th, 2011
2r+F
20 players

Deck Name: Marcus, Marc and the Funky Bunch
Created by: Robert Scythe
Description: This is my Faerie Guardian deck with a couple of changes. I put in a Lilith's Blessing for one of the Master Disipline cards (not Presence, of course) and replaced a Wake with an Eternal Vigilance nicking an idea from John Bell's more defensive Faerie Wards wall deck. I didn't mean to play this deck again in a tournament but I hadn't taken it apart and it felt right to play at the time. I did forget to put in the 2 Perfect Paragons that absolutely belong in it, luckily they didn't cost me the game.

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=9 max=10 avg=9.5)
3x Ambrosio Luis Monçada, Plenipotentiary 10 aus for DOM OBT POT PRE Lasombra:2
2x Francisco Domingo de Polonia 9 pro DOM OBT POT PRE Lasombra:2
4x Marconius 9 pot DOM MYT OBT Kiasyd:2
3x Marcus Vitel 10 DOM FOR OBF OBT PRE Ventrue:3

Library (74 cards)
Master (18)
1x Animalism
1x Celerity
1x Fortitude
1x Giant's Blood
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Papillon
2x Presence
1x Lilith's Blessing
1x Serpentis
1x Ventrue Headquarters
5x Villein
2x Wider View

Action (5)
1x Clan Impersonation
1x Far Mastery
2x Govern the Unaligned
1x Eterrnal Vigilance

Political Action (12)
1x Ancient Influence
2x Banishment
4x Kine Resources Contested
1x Parity Shift
1x Political Stranglehold
2x Reinforcements
1x Reins of Power

Equipment (2)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Zaire River Ferry

Ally (1)
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Action Modifier (16)
1x Blanket of Night
1x Iron Glare
3x Shadow Play
4x Shroud of Absence
2x Shroud of Night
1x Stone Travel
4x Voter Captivation

Reaction (20)
2x Deflection
10x Faerie Wards
2x Obedience
2x On the Qui Vive
4x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Awesome win. Congratulations.
Any chance in us seeing the Carmine Giovanni deck?

Cheers!
Tiago

Wow, de ja vu. The last time that I won with the this deck Dennis and his Carmine deck were in the finals as well, and after posting there was interest in seeing his deck. I will have to ask him for the new significant crypt and library changes that he has made, it's much more effective now, but here's a link to the old one

groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad/msg/d6897aebd57f2b34?hl=en

I remember Extrala having considered it for deck of the month even. My poor Faeries get overshadowed again!

Robert wrote:

My poor Faeries get overshadowed again!

Well, I liked the deck. AND at some point I could try the same tricks and things. I will never be able to try the tricks in Dennis' deck. I need to get more fairie wards.

I have played against that deck several times. It's usually very annoying to have as your prey because of its crazy bloat. I was happy because I got very little pressure. I didn't draw Deflections early so if Dennis had just stealth Govern bled me with Spiritual Intervention along with Deflecting Robert's bleed while he was waiting for the Soul Gem, he might have been able to oust me, especially since I was weakened from Justine being AI'ed. I think he even discarded a Conditioning at the beginning.

I wish that he had gotten his bloat engine going, actually.

Robert wrote:

My poor Faeries get overshadowed again!

They keep poor company. What would you expect with ?
I kid, sorry.

Have you tried using Ayelea, The Manipulator for the sweet Infernal Pact?
+ with the IP.

Tiago