An epiphany of talons

I had an epiphany when I woke up on the morning of the Swedish Nationals and added one Raking Talons. It helped me win the final.

This is what happened in the tournament. Some details may be wrong, but in whole quite close to the truth.

Round 1
Me (deck below) - Otso (Aus wall) - Randy (Orlando vote) - Henrik.K (Ventrue) - Adam (imbued)

I was the starting player and having both Rock Cat and Carlton on hand I opted for a Tupdog.
Otso put up a aus-weenie, so I misdirected that and played Rock Cat. Otso played DI on the cat. I played Carlton instead and that Adam DI:ed.
     The rest of the game I hit my head against the aus-wall and the whole table struggled because of Otso's Smiling Jack.
     The table collapsed when Smiling hit 5 or 6 and Henrik was able to pick up the remaning pieces.

Henrik ("Ashur") 1 gw + 4 vp, Otso 1 vp

Round 2
Anders (Shamblers) - Daniel (!Ventrue grinder) - Me - Alexi (IC Flurry bleed) - Jens (Shamblers)

Comfortable game for me. The two shambler decks were neutralizing each other, doing the odd rush against Alexi and Daniel.
     Alexi managed (before I should have ousted him) take out Jens thanks to Enkil Cog. I still could oust him and Anders (only at 2) in one turn.
     Daniel was a little crippled due to having previously being rushed, so I could quite easily oust him after a while.
     I was aware of the ousting capabilities of Daniels deck, so I played it safe the whole game.

Me 1 gw + 4 vp, Alexi 1 vp

Round 3
Jonathan (Create gargoyle w dom) - Isak (Kiasyd tablet bleed) - Marko (Nahir) - Me - Stefan (Mistress F Flurry bleed)

Jonathan started out strong and poor Marko was eating both some bleeds from Isak as well as some deflects.
     At one point I played a little reckless and was immediatly rewarded by some Deflections and bleeds from Marko, which almost ousted me.
     The next turn I was able to get Stefan. Jonathan ousted Isak and Marko, but my position was now quite good and I could win the end game.

Me 1 gw + 3 vp, Jonathan 2 vp

Final
Me - Otso (Aus-wall) - Ivan (Ventrue lawfirm multi-act) - Henrik E (Kindred Spirits-bleed w Santalous and Lutz) - Ville (Turbo-Nergal)

I was second seed and ended up having Otso (1st seed) as my prey again. I was prepared for the eternal pain of having an aus-wall in front of me until I saw my opening hand; Raking Talons. I managed to eat Otso's first vampire, Victoria, so it took him a longer time to set up,
giving Ivan more room to do his thing.
     Henrik stopped the Nergal deck quite easily with the master denial of Santalous.
     Ivan ousted Henrik soon after Henrik got Ville.
     Except for my first turn, I did very little during the game, I just tried to opt my hand and hope for the best. Now and then I probed Otso's defenses and after a while he showed all signs of running out of wakes. Ivan had an contested Anarch Troublemaker that would come in play on his next turn. So I deliberately "overextended" my pool by getting up a new vampire (Hannigan), the other three were tapped. I thought this should be enough for Ivan using the AT on me. And I was right. I had 4 On the Qui Vie on hand and could handle his assault quite well. Now Otso had 2 untapped vampires, so I used AT and ousted him and Ivan in one turn.

Me 1 gw + 3 vp, Ivan 1 vp, Henrik E 1 vp

Tournament Winning Deck:
Vamps (12)
1 Bryan Van Duesen (7, aus DOM pre THA, Tremere Antitribu, 2, Sabbat: +1 bleed)
1 Heinrick Schlempt (2, tha, Tremere Antitribu, 2, Sabbat)
1 Brooke (3, dom tha, Tremere Antitribu, 2, Sabbat)
1 Hannigan (5, AUS dom THA, Tremere Antitribu, 2, Sabbat)
1 Kurt Strauss (5, aus DOM tha, Tremere Antitribu, 2, Sabbat)
1 Reverend Blackwood (6, DOM obf THA, Tremere Antitribu, 2, Sabbat Bishop)
1 Selena (6, AUS DOM THA, Tremere Antitribu, 3, Sabbat)
5 Tupdog

Library (61)
Masters (9)
1 Pentex Subversion
1 Anarch Troublemaker
1 Misdirection
2 Direct Intervention
2 Blood Doll
1 PB: Montreal
1 Coven

Actions (8)
8 Govern the Unaligned

Action Modifiers (18)
4 Bonding
4 Conditioning
10 Mirror Walk

Allies (10)
1 Carlton van Wyk
4 Hexaped
4 Nephandus
1 Rock Cat

Combat (1)
1 Raking Talons

Reactions (13)
5 Deflection
6 On the Qui Vie   
2 Delaying Tactics

Events (2)
2 Unmasking

/Robert D ("BobbyDoc")