Ashur´s Swedish Nationals 2015 experience

Swedish Nationals 2015 

Stockholm, Sweden

November 7, 2015
3 rounds + final

14 players


Pre-game considerations: As usual, tournaments don´t seem to happen when I´m ready for them. I seldom have a deck ready which I have played a lot immediately prior to the date, but that is probably just because I generally don´t like to play the same deck a lot – I always have 5-10 playable decks, and I like to tear down one and build one new each week or so. So: Not ready.

On the other hand I felt motivated before the tournament, because Swedish company Paradox just bought White Wolf, and they seem generally positive to see VTES back in print in some way.

These mixed emotions led me to think that I had to choose a simple deck, and those of you who read my earlier reports say: “He always does.” That might be true, because of the “never ready”-thing above, but I tend to play a lot of toolboxes and vote decks when I play casual, but when it´s tournament time I often feel I need something really simple.

The group 4-5 Kiasyd or Kiasyd/Lasombra haven´t been overly popular in Sweden the last year, so I thought that might work – a couple of years ago it would have been impossible, because of the crypts popularity. But I really didn´t have time to build something from scratch and playtest it, so I stole Alexanders “Don´t stop me now”, a TWD from a glöggturnering in Gothenburg 2012, a really small, tight deck with lots of anger in it. I really like it as is, but I also enjoy more superior discipline-use, so I built a much older crypt. A bit slower deck, but more efficient in using the cards at superior.

I also switched the Song of Pan for a 15:th Govern the Unaligned – I understand the greatness of Song of Pan, but I think it´s better if you run a bit more Kiasyds.

Also, I could not find/do not own a fourth Shroud of Absence, so I played with a Shroud of Night instead – risky, but it worked :)

I played the deck twice the week before the tournament and noticed it still worked. As a last minute crazyness I switched 2 Information Highway for 2 extra Pentex Subversion. The Highways is of course nice with my larger crypt, but on the other hand: Pentex is stupid good, almost always. It saves you from Enkidu and cracks Carna + Bowl, what more can you ask from a card?

The No 1 pyssling.

Deck Name: Avalon Incorporated
Author: Henrik K (Ashur)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 5.75
2x Isanwayen              6  DOM MYT OBT                 Kiasyd:4
2x Dame Hollerton         5  DOM OBT myt                 Kiasyd:4
1x Arcadian, The          8  DOM MYT OBT chi for         Kiasyd:5
1x Badr, Shadow of Gr     7  DOM OBT POT                 Lasombra:5
1x Lord Vauxhall          7  DOM OBT POT THA             Lasombra:4
1x Onaedo                 6  DOM OBT aus pot             Lasombra:4
1x Virginie, Prodigy      6  DOM POT obt          bishop Lasombra:4
1x Andrew Emory           5  OBT aus dom pot      bishop Lasombra:4
1x Ermenegildo, The R     5  DOM OBT pot                 Lasombra:4
1x Lucy Markowitz         3  dom obt                     Lasombra:4

Library [65 cards]
Action [15]
15x Govern the Unaligned

Action Modifier [28]
4x Bonding
2x Command of the Beast
5x Conditioning
2x Foreshadowing Destruction
2x Leverage
4x Seduction
3x Shadow Play
3x Shroud of Absence
1x Shroud of Night
2x Stone Travel

Ally [3]
3x Nocturn

Combat [2]
2x Shadow Body

Master [11]
1x Coven, The
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Great Symposium
2x Life in the City
3x Pentex(TM) Subversion

Reaction [6]
2x Deflection
2x On the Qui Vive
2x Redirection

I´ll illustrate the games with pictures. The colours are red = aggressive, orange = semi-aggressive, yellow = not aggressive at all. Note that this illustrates the decks general “emotion” – it sometimes fizzles :)


Round 1

Difficulty for me: 3/5. I rather quickly noticed that I had a true chance at this table – a very aggressive table, with no real “bearded walls”, just a few speedbumps.
My performance: 3/5. I don´t feel I did any serious mistakes, it just didn´t end with a game win.
The other players: Daniels deck was obviously too weak for this table, I ousted him with a bounced 7-bleed from Kalle. Andreas didn´t get a crypt acceleration card on his first hand, so he couldn´t catch up with the tempo. Randy managed to survive one or two extra turns because he draw into a grotesque amount of Art Scams, but his weird Dragon Breath Rounds-module should have been either extra bounces or extra bleed, I think.

Lesson to learn: This game can be very fast, so be fast. Bounces are good.

Me: 2 vp
Kalle: 3 vp


Table 2

Difficulty for me: 2/5. Both Kristofers and Randals decks are quite slow, so unless they can convince Ober to rush me early, I think this table should be easy for me. It turned out I was right.
My performance: 5/5. Wow – it wasn´t really me, it was the deck. Almost every single card turned up at the best possible time. I couldn´t have a better draw, it was like I´d stacked the deck. For example, I have only 3 Nocturns in the deck, and I had one in play every turn when Ober needed to be blocked (non-stealth rushes, removing my Pentex from Lorrie).

The other players: They might have been able to stop me if they cooperated even more, in some strange deal. Ober put both of Randys minions into torpor (one with Fame) early – maybe those rushes should have been on me after some dealing. But on the other hand Randys deck might be hard to stop for Ober later.
Lesson to learn: Nocturn is very nice against important no-stealth actions.

Me: 4 vp

Table 3

Difficulty for me: 4/5. Eriks !Gangrels are kind of specialized on surviving stealth-bleed (kits Abbott + Marked Territory on ALL vamps, fast, plus various Sportbikes and Under Siege) and after that was Kari with both Abbotts and Under Siege AND Oppugnant Night.
My performance: 3/5. I managed to oust Erik after all, but after that it was over.
The other players: Obers combat was trumphed by Karis (he hit hard and played some fortitude, but not enough against Karis Preternatural Strenght + Octopod + fortitude + Taste of Vitae + Slake the Thirst), so there was lots of dealing. Kari gave Ober opportunity to damage Kim some, which helped me. Once again I found myself in the strange “If I just shut up maybe they will fail to make the right deals to stop me”-situation, and Kim gave me some turns to try to damage Kari, but I ran out of stealth.
Lesson to learn: None really. Shit happens. It´s brave to play combat decks at Nationals, trying to balance tables, so kudos to Kari and Ober.

Me: 1 vp
Kim: 3 vp
Kari: 1 vp


Final round

Standings after three rounds of play was:
Peter 2 gamewins, 7 victory points
Henrik 1 gamewin, 7 victory points
Erik 1 gamewin, 6 victory points
Kalle 1 gamewin, 3 victory points
Kim 1 gamewin, 3 victory points

Actually there was a coinflip situation between Kim and another great player, Jens (Ropecon champion this year), but he chose to drop before the flip and let Kim play. I was SO VERY happy with this, because he played a Toreador Ira Rivers gun-wall deck, similar to the one Brian Moritz won this years NAC Day 2 with. I would have serious troubles with ousting that deck.

Also, I was very happy that last years Swedish champion Michael H didn´t reach the final, because he played a very similar Kiasyd/Lasombra crypt. Contesting is never fun.

Final table (mucho aggressive!):
Kalle (Tremere sb) > Erik (!Gangrel toolbox) > Peter (Bigcap setite sb) > Kim (Daughters vote w Arishat) > Henrik (Kiasyd/Lasombra sb)

Difficulty for me: 3/5. I bled into the only deck that had bounce, and people wondered why I chose that seat. Well, I´ll try to explain: I did not want to bleed into Erik again, because I think I had luck when I ousted him in turn 3. He pretty quickly gets 3 intercept on his vamps (Abbot + Marked Territory), and while I have lots of Pentexes, I don´t pack enough stealth. And I didn´t want to have Kalle in my back because he is very aggressive and I don´t pack crazy amounts of bounce. Also, I didn´t want to bleed into Kim, because she play Unleash Hell´s Fury. So I choose to bleed into Kalle, because he can be unlucky with his bounces and doesn´t block a lot, tohave Kim as predator – she can be aggressive, but also spend a lot of actions on pool gain and such stuff, and she can´t block my Govern down.
My performance: 3/5. I did not draw any of my 15 Governs in my first 10-15 cards, so my tempos was slow. And after that I didn´t do a lot of supersmart things, I just bled, Governed and kept my mouth shut.
The other players: Kalle played very recklessly and had some bad luck. Kim´s votes caused a lot of discussion and, I think, some strange deals and strange decisions from both Erik and Peter. I won some on some of those deals, to my surprise.
Lesson to learn: Shut up and play your game – words of wisdom with this kind of deck, as always!

Result: Me 5 vp

In conclusion: It´s sad that we can only muster 14 players for a Nationals deals days, but on the other hand those players are very dedicated and nice. Hopefully Paradox will agree to revive the game in some way until next time, so we can attract some new talent. As for my performance: I chose the simplest of decks and just did my thing. It worked out and I´m happy!