After playing Randymans dirty Titus-deck to qualify from day 1, I was were uncertain what to pick for day 2. The overall rumour about day 2 is that it´s a very defensive, grindy environment, with many passive decks trying to stay alive and many tables timing. So my original plan was a Malefecia steath-bleed “wall cracker”, also designed by Randy, but as I hadn´t had time to test it at all, so I didn´t dare.
But I chose another deck I hadn´t tried. I borrowed a !Tremere Blood Fury “stickmen slayer” combat toolbox from my friend Robert – thanks Robert! It stars Uta Kovacs and builds around her rushing with lot´s of Blood Fury, Apportation and Taste of Vitae (yes, Taste, not Theft). It also has decent defense Abbots, Rego Motus and lot´s of bleed bounce. I don´t want to spoil the decklist until it has won some tournament :)
The deck is more in line with various Carna- and Oliver Thrace-decks I´ve played with some success the latest year, so I felt more comfortable with this choice compared to some Baali glass cannon.
Table 1
Difficulty for me: 2/5. This didn´t seem at all impossible. Lot´s of soft targets, and I play lots of bounce to save me from The Unnamed, who wasn´t bleeding very hard, just damn consistently! I few wellplaced rushes and lot´s of those bounces, this could be a game win. But …
My performance: 1/5. I play 5 copies of Uta, as I need her rush to get good card flow … but … I didn´t draw her on my first 4 vampires. That is about 7-8 % risk or something like that, fine, shit happens. But I didn´t find her on my fifth draw either. Or on my sixth!! I got out a vamp or two with Abbot and Heart of Nizchetus, but without Uta I couldn´t survive in the long run, and absolutely not do anything creative forward.
The other players: Michael and Caroline are both swedes, I´ve played with them a thousand times. Michael had no chance against Pablos breeding Ventrue Directorate Assembly-onslaught, and Pablo got very high on pool. But after that oust the game slowed down for a while, as the Assembly was burned every time it came out. With about 20-30 minutes left or so Romain but in a new gear with 3 fast Shatter the Gate by Enkil Cog-delivery, and the table began to crumble. But Pablo was still at about 25 pool, so I thought he would win. As I myself died to the Gates, Caroline played some good Parity Shifts and some Ancilla Empowerments/Anarchist Uprisings with Voter Captivations. There was some controversies about stalling in the end, but judge Johannes Walch made some good calls adding time to punish the staller, so Caroline could oust and the table timed out.
Lesson to learn: If you really need you´re star vampire, play 6 copies. AND keep you´re fingers crossed!
Caroline: 1,5 vp
Pablo: 1 vp
Romain: 1,5 vp
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| Table 1 from my point of view, before any ousting. |
Table 2
Difficulty for me: 3/5. I get my favourite prey, Ventrue stickmen, but I don´t like my predator, evil evil Lambach & co. But I play rather many Rego Motus, so I might be able to handle their agg-strikes to some extent.
My performance: 2/5. I totally smash Erols minions – he had three vamps with 0 blood at one time – but get pretty violated by Arnaud, with Pentex and Eagles Sights and so on. Failure again.
The other players: Erol always plays very smart, beating my anti-stickmen at one time with Lodin+stick+press+press (and thereby stoping me when Arnaud could block my hunts), and although he was hurt he could Govern down and get 4-5 minions.
Erik, a Stockholm regular like me, plays a very cool and low profile deck, a !Gangrel toolbox which is all about equipping and untapping and having both 3 intercept and 3 stealth – I have no idea how it works. He keeps Arnaud under solid pressure, but the frenchman play a wall, so he has no problem blocking both predator and prey.
Noora gets rather close to ousting Erik a couple of times, but time is not on her side.
I get ousted by Arnaud when my combat fizzles.
With just a few minutes left of the game, Erol launches and ousts Noora … almost. Arnaud, now at 1,5 vps, playes Life Boon and snatches 0,5 vp – a game win!
Lesson to learn: The deck works against stickmen.
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| The cards of Noora, Erik and Arnaud. Erol was also still in the game, but I a very bad photographer :) |
Table 3
Difficulty for me: 3/5. Hard to say, but my combat will beat both ani-weenie and Miller with a bit of luck. Randys combat is of course very dangerous, but with my manouevers for defense and by timing some good hitback, I should at lease have a chance. And I had.
My performance: 4/5. I did ok, collecting the scraps – my usual tactics in this game.
The other players: Otso was out pretty early, backousted, I only think he took one or two actions.
The ani-weenie player had some incredibly bad table talk, possibly the most aggressive I´ve ever encountered. He was threatening both his crosstable allies without any reason – my response is as always “I don´t respond well to threats”. He then tried some random, childish kingmaking when he know he was on his way out. He also accused me of “not understanding the game”, something I took as “You are stupid”. Then I ousted him.
Mr Miller dude I think played a bit to passive, if he would have hurt me a bit more early he would have ousted me before I could oust Otso and Mr Superaggressive dude, and thereby possibly taking those two easy vp´s himself.
My dear friend Randy is as always very nice to play with, helping his allies and all that … and he is always dangerous. He always plays the most powerful decks at tournaments like this, and he knows his deck very well. I was very careful and a bit lucky in the heads up.
Lesson to learn: Adapt to the game, but never get stressed. Know your deck and it´s strenghts and weaknesses.
Randyman: 1,5 vp
Me: 1 gw 2,5 vp
Conclusion: I think I picked the exact right deck, and with just a little bit more skill and luck, it could have been total success. Now my single game win just made me number 11 of 40, but it´s my best result ever at an EC, so I was real happy afterwards. The positive energy it gave now make me go on arranging our league and tournaments, playtesting and caring about V:tes. Good times!
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| Erol, Arnaud, Martin, Ruben and Nicola in the EC 2014 final. |
The EC was won by Arnaud Baigts, the french player who took the gw in my game 2 by playing Life Boon. Looking at his card list I don´t really understand how he could do so good, the deck is not exactly fancy. It must be pure skill, and that I respect. Congrats Arnaud!
I hope to see you all in Warsaw next year. Rumour has it we might have this game in print again by then - I sincerely hope so!
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