Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Thoughts about Tournaments and Decks

So the Polish NAC was first tournament outside of CZ for me. Here are some thoughts about this event and my deck. Some of those may apply for tournamets in general.

1) I was afraid, that my understanding of polish would not be sufficient. I was pretty shocked, that actually my czech language was problem and we had to comunicate mostly in english. Language barrier is actually pretty strong handicap. It is pretty complicated to argue in english with a dude that is trying to make simultaneous deals in polish. I understood them pretty well, so this was not problem, but you can be much more convincing and wordy in your native language. Understandable, but it actually played a greater role, than I expected.

2) Attendance of the tournament was around 40 players and 7 of them were from Czech republic - our playgroup. It is actually pretty sad to beat down or get beaten down by your friend. We were actually clashing more, because we knew, how strong our decks were and we were afraind of each other. But other players were expecting, that we are playing in some kind of agreement and often did not believe our intentions. This is actually pretty dumb factor, since there is nothing much I can do about this style of thinking. I was talking about this with some of my friends and they have similar feelings about this. I guess that I would be also more suspicious of visitor. On the other hand - my friends have pretty powerfull decks, which I am afraid of.

3) Table talk. Well I dont know if this is common in all bigger tournaments, but sometimes it was too much. I was asked during one game probably ten or twelve times, if I can direct something, sudden something. Not to mention rush something and not rush something - stopped counting that very soon. I know, that there can be a loooot of combination around the table. But this was sucking a lot of fun for me. Directing every other virtually useless card is just retarded and asking for it... well I was tired of it. A lot of times there was too much thinking, asking, talking and it was going straight to time outs. I am little disapointed of this.

4) Cross-table dependency. I would not call it whining, but again - normally it happens, that you will help your cross table buddy in some way. But the amount was insane. And it often happened in times, which were illogical and mostly totally needless. I know, table balance is table balance, but come on!

5) Table-flow. In most games to this day, there was often pretty clear table flow (predator and prey relations). Now sure, there can always be some weird deck or block, which can screw this, but again I haven't seen as much screwed up relationships. It pretty much originates from previous complaint. I actually wasn't in a game, where there was not any cross-table poking, backrushing and other weirdness. Some of that I would understand. And again - there was too much of it.

6) The decks. Well ok. I have not built an ultimate winning deck. But you can see from it, that it can actually do something. Normally I am fan of toolboxes, but it seemed, that most of decks I have seen were just too much mixed with "what if" stuff. I have played against two decks, that were pretty straightforward, but the rest just seemed to much mixed. I understand the need to pud DI and Sudden to every tournament deck, even in multiple pieces. Pentex is another card, which can solve a lot of problems. But I have seen parity shifts in deck, which had two votes. Second traditions which led blocking vampires to be torporized instead of relatively harmless actions and I could continue. I can understand need to be prepared, but it looked inefective, confusing and prolonged game a lot.

I actually started to write this post right after the tournament. I had cooled down from then. Most from the original text was kept, because I still feel the same about what I have experienced. I am still pretty sad about our performance. I have been able to determine my mistakes and have learnt much from them. I am still little sad about magnitude of crosstable actions in general and decks, which I have encountered. I am looking forward to attend in next big tournament. Hope that occasion will rise soon.

See you next time.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Polish NAC 2011 - Gliwice

So me and my friend were attending Polish NAC in Gliwice, Poland. First time for me, to attend event outside Czech republic, so I was looking forward to this event. I was actually thinking about switching decks, just before the tournament, to more balanced and playtested one, but I promised, that there will be some combat from our city and did not want to break my word. So the choice for this tournament was my Count Germaine deck. I am actually terrible with names. I will try to find out from a photos later, for now I'll talk only about decks.

1) Saulot combat toolbox - Me (germaine) - Malkavian Madness network - Lasombra bleed - Cybelle

Cybelle was torporized in first combat with one of saulot minions and despite trying to survive, was quickly ousted by lasombra. They were bleeding saulot at first, but then some rush happened from him and they were stuck with only defending against malkavian, bud ousted afterward. I had actually brought out merged Count Germaine and Themistocles, both with some perma + strength stuff. But this had taken me a waaaaaaay longer time, that it should have and I was beaten from Saulot and other stuff. One pentex on the Germaine from my prey later, one misdirected bleed with stealth later, Saulot was able to oust me, but was ousted himself in the heads up.

0 VP for me

2) AAA politics - Eurobrujah w/ beast - Me (Germaine) - Sebastian Goulet & friends - Tremere swarm/wall?

I had a pretty good start this game. Brought out Germaine, merged him, gave him Heroic might. Brought out Themistocles and gave him Heroic too. So I have torporized some vampires and killed some shadow court satyr dudes of Sebastian. He stopped his very little forward pressure after this and made deal with his prey not to go forward and rescuing himself from torpor, bringing out another copy of shadow court satyr and some weenie shields for sebastian. I wasnt planning to rush backwards, but I was defending against bleed, and ended up sending Beast into torpor. Eurobrujah were trying to build upp a little and were at 16 pool. I was stuck around 7, but had a very heavy card jam, my prey turned against me in a wallish state. Then cross-table temptation of greater power from AAA deck happened. I was trying to explain, that it will mean, that my Count Germaine (which has built in rush usable on toreador) will go to his prey, so instead of strong buddy, he will give a weapon to his opponent. He did not believe me, but that is just what happened. So after his prey got Germaine, he made a deal to give him a full option to oust me without any pressure and interference. So I got my prey and predator fully concentrated on me, and was robbed of my star vampire. Well I have lost, but was able to defend against Eurobrujah leading to his oust. After my demise, the table time outed, leaving the game win for AAA.

0 VP for me

3) DoC shattering crescendo - Tupdog Rush w/ Nephandus - Ahrimane wall - Me

Last table was composed of four players, but even swiping a whole five player table would not be enough for me to get to finals, so I was going to have fun, but still try to win. Not much to say about this game. I had terrible draw and just awful replace. Got only one VP after much "help" of tupdog rush and I was beaten down the next turn.

1 VP

So this was actually pretty awful tournament for me. None of my fellow players made it to the finals, but two of them had a pretty good shot. I will add some thoughts about tournament and my deck and its performance - these will be listed in the next post.Here is the deck I played at the tournament:

Deck Name: Count Germaine combat madness
Author: Silmegil
Description:


Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=1 max=9 avg=6.33)
===============================================
 1x  Abu Nuwasi           3  cel for              Ishtarri:4
 1x  Anarch Convert       1  -none-               Caitiff:ANY
 1x  Caroline Bishops     3  cel for pot          Pander:4
 3x  Count Germaine       8  obf CEL FOR POT PRE  Brujah:4
 3x  Count Germaine ADV   8  obf CEL FOR POT PRE  Brujah:4
 1x  Dmitra Ilyanova      9  obf CEL FOR POT PRE  Brujah:5
 1x  Kenyatta             4  cel for pre          Ishtarri:4
 1x  Themistocles         8  pre AUS CEL FOR POT  Brujah:5

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (11)
 1x Blood Turnip
 1x Carver's Meat Packing and Storage
 2x Dreams of the Sphinx
 1x Fame
 1x Giant's Blood
 1x Golconda: Inner Peace
 2x Infamous Insurgent
 2x Monster

Event (1)
 1x Scourge of the Enochians

Action (21)
 2x Ambush
 3x Big Game
 3x Bum's Rush
 1x Covenant of Blood
 3x Fleetness
 3x Harass
 1x Heart of the City
 2x Heroic Might
 3x Preternatural Strength

Action Modifier (8)
 8x Forced March

Combat (44)
 4x Diversion
10x Immortal Grapple
 4x Psyche!
10x Pursuit
10x Rolling with the Punches
 6x Taste of Vitae

Combo (5)
 5x Resist Earth's Grasp

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

League 4th round

Very sad round for me. We played one seven player (aaaargh) table. I was again taking pictures. I was trying not to start taking them after anyone was dead again, but after something already happened in the game. Well, I was succesfull at that. I had taken pictures after a while and no one was dead yet.... But somehow i missed one players, so there will be only six photos. Seriously, is there some bad karma with me and taking photos?

So the table was like this:

Fojtik: !Tor anarch bleed

This deck did not have a great start, but eventualy was able to oust hus prey, then was stopped by akunanse.

Tuko: !Tre bleed & Theft


Yep, this is the one, who I missed. I am greatly sorry for this. After a solid start, he was stopped by akunanse wall + archon investigation. Anarchs finished his doom.

Me: Akunanse wall





Not a great start for me. I was predatoring on Imbued, thefted out by !Tre, after resisting them, blocking Anarchs and finaly finished by Malks. Very sad story indeed.

Potomek: Imbued




Imbued were able to oust his prey, but were stopped eventually and ousted by malkavians.

Kunce: Swarm obf + procurers




Did not have a great start either, was ousted due a lack of pressure on imbued and bad knowledge of their cards.

Bik_76: (in) Famous Ignore deck




Was able to wait till the end and oust only remaining player - malkavian. Classic end for this deck.

Dilvish: Malkavian s&b




Ousted three players with heavy bleeding, then fallen to the Ignore deck.

Dilvish: 1 GW 3 VP
Bik_76: 2 VP
Potomek: 1 VP
Fojtik: 1 VP

Sadly I was not present in the fifth round, so there will not be report from that one. Sixth will be probably missed either, so do not expect report from it. I am actually trying to learn for two exams now, but after that, I will bring report from small competitive event we had this weekend.

See you next time.

Monday, May 2, 2011

League 3rd round

I have been a little busy with finishing my bachelor thesis, so I will try to update last few rounds as soon as possible. But since my memory isn't what it has been, they will be a little brief. But I haven't forgotten to take photos this time.

 This time, we had two tables.

Five player table:

Bik_76: Fos Bleed/politics
 Bik was able to oust only one prey, then he was beaten down by combat on both sides.

Fojtik: !Tor anarch bleed
 Theese anarch dudes are actually pretty scary, so they were beaten down by !Salubri and were easy prey for FoS. Oust was actually so quick, that this foto is after ousting.

Tuko: Saulot & friends

This deck is actually pretty ofensive, but can build up a very solid defense too. After resisting four different predators, Tuko was able to remain on the table alone.
Me: Germaine combat madness
 Siting between two combats, I was still confident because both of them used weapons and Germaine simply owns them. But I was beaten from the start, had terrible draw and was forced to diablerize my own vampire, burn Germaine in Blood Hunt and bring out new, full one.

 Shimi: Cel/Pre bleed & guns & roses

Considering this decks nemesis was predatoring him, Shimi has managed to oust his prey and almost outlive Germaine on the table in the final conflict. One pool difference was enough.

Tuko: 1 GW 2 VP
Me: 1 VP
Bik_76: 1 VP
Shimi: 1 VP


Second four player table:

Kaczkin: Fos bleed
Potomek: IC politics/bleed

Daveopava: !Gangrel weirdeness
Dilvish: Cesewayo wall






Not much to say about this one. I was sitting at the other table and my game again! lasted longer. Kaczkin was able to oust one player, before Potomek cleaned rest of the table.

Potomek: 1 GW 3 VP
Kaczkin: 1 VP

I will try to update other reports as soon as possible and also with better pictures. I should also ask extrala how he divides his photos in two columns. This report will be loooooong:)

See you next time.