Ashur at Swedish ECQ 2014

Hi folks. Time for Gothcon in Gothenburg again, with the Swedish ECQ. 27 players attended, including people from Finland, Great Britain, Germany and Hungary.

I haven´t been in the best deckbuilding mood the last months, so I picked a deck built by my friend Jens, a deck both he and I have played a lot recently, with some success. His version is a bit thicker, with Anthelios and 1 Golconda, but I´m always worried that some other player can exploit Anthelios better than me, so I choose to leave that out.

Deck: Murmurgeezers Gothcon 2014

Crypt: 12

3 Arika

1 Esau

3 Huitzilopochtli

2 Leandro

1 Nefertiti

1 Etrius

1 Queen Anne

Library: 72

Masters: 22

2 Dreams of the Sphinx

1 Giant's Blood

1 Information Highway

1 Metro Underground

1 Monastery of Shadows

1 Parthenon, The

1 Pentex Subversion

7 Villein

7 Zillah's Valley

Action: 7

1 Entrancement

4 Intimidation

2 Unleash Hell's Fury

Action Modifier + Combo: 35

2 Bonding

1 Approximation of Loyalty

2 Elder Impersonation

2 Enkil Cog

2 Faceless Night

4 Force of Personality

2 Foreshadowing Destruction

4 Lost in Crowds

10 Murmur of the False Will

2 Spying Mission

3 Swallowed by the Night

1 Hide the Mind

Reactions: 8

4 On the Qui Vive

2 Redirection

2 Wake with Evening's Freshness

As in some of my earlier reports, the arrows in the graphics below shows the general amount of pressure a Methuselah put on his or her prey – yellow is “not much”, orange is “some” and red is “a lot”.

Table 1:

Difficulty for me: 3/5. I thought I had a serious chance here, but didn´t count on Randal bleeding that heavy knowing Otso had bounce and me not being able to bounce his bigcaps with my Murmurs.

My performance: 2/5. I shouldn´t have pulled out Leandro as my first vamp, as he can´t even use my Redirections in a decent way :)

The other players: Randal´s deck was almost identical to mine – but he got Huitzilopochtli and Arika in his starting crypt, while I didn´t :( Niina started with Klaus Konrecht with Abbot, and drew just enough bounce to survive. Otso had it easy this game.

Lesson to learn: A game is over very fast with turn 1 Anarch Revolt, turn 2 Leandro and large bleeds being bounced multiple times.

Otso: 3 vp

Tiina: 1 vp

Table 2:

Difficulty for me: 2/5. With Hugh having such an aggressive predator, I actually thought I would win this, as Erik didn´t have a very strong defense against me.

My performance: 2/5. I took a large chance in what turned out to be my last turn, going down to 3 pool to get both Monastery of Shadows and Etrius. Kim pulled up a Bewitching Oration and my 8 votes was not enough to keep me alive.

The other players: Hugh had to go up stream. Kim did some nice Banishments on his Giovanni weenie, preventing him to play Tye Cooper, forcing him to put the chainsaw into his imbued. Tomas didn´t have any defense (not even a single bleed bounce!), so he was an easy prey for Erik´s multiple Infernal Servitors.

Lesson to learn: Don´t get to low on pool :)

Kim: 4 vp

Erik: 1 vp

Table 3:

Difficulty for me: 3/5. A aus-wall at the table is always bad – and this one also rushes!

My performance: 4/5. Sure, a sweep is a sweep, but I was really lucky.

The other players: Noora got a slow start, but is actually quite close to ousting Isak, who is likewise close to ousting Ralf, but is forced to focus some Mind Rapes backwards to stay alive. Ralf has problems with my Unleash Hell´s Fury, but I get a bit scared when he musters three stealth on a rush (Nose of the Hound + Resist Earth´s Grasp + Shaman), but then I have sc:e and he lacks Psyche.

Lesson to learn: Unleash Hell´s Fury is very, very strong. Without it I wouldn´t have had a chance here. Luck is also very strong – this game could have gone either way.

Me: 4 vp

So, I qualified for the EC and got a nice but green t-shirt. And I did not see a single Pentex Subversion the whole day – what´s happened to you guys?!

The final was Otso (Aus-weenie) > Erik T (Nergal slow turbo stealth-bleed) > Marko (Tzimisce Dabbler toolbox) > Caroline (G3-4 Ventrue lawfirm) > Adam (Toreador bleed with Giotto Verducci and Tablets).

Marko won after a very exciting heads up with Otso, ousting Otso with his own Anarch Revolts. Congrats Marko!