Friday, November 25, 2011

Final thoughts about EC

I have already finished all reports from all my EC games. This post should cover all the remaining things. I would like to start with the positive things:

1) Organizers - I would like to once again thank them for great job they've done. Almost everything went smoothly with exception of little delays, but that is understandable. Otherwise it was perfect job and I felt very good all the time.

2) People - I have met so many great people and enjoyed this event so much thanks to them. Most of my oponents were just great and I am glad, that I met them.

3) Atmosphere - I have never participated in a tournament this large and I could not imagine it. It was awesome and I hope that I will have a chance to experience that once again.

4) Skilled players - I have seen greatly played games. My playgroup is good, but I have still seen few very cool moves and learned a little bit myself.

5) Decks - I havent actually seen as much cool decks (with a few exceptions). But I have seen many great performances with archetype decks, which separate good player from the pack.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now, for negative aspects.

1) Decks - Ok I get it, archetypes are archetypes for good reason -they are working, well tested and capable of wining. I am just getting tired of first vampire popping out and I already know what I am against and can almost tell his decklist. I have been surprised during this tournamet, but I was hoping for much more diversity. I know that after cease production, it will only get worse, but I was looking at this event with some hope.

2) Card trading - I was not in the mood for trading during the first day, so I jumped in during second day, but I was surprised with some of the things I have seen. Some people did not want to trade, some people did not want to sell and after I found someone, he asked for ridiculous price. I can understand most of it, if you do not want any of my cards, I can live with that. If you are only selling, ok. I can not get over the prices. Some of them were equal to ebay or even exceeding them - I remember hearing about Shattering Crescendo for 4 EUR. Comparing some of the prices to ebay, this event looked as a great bussiness for some people - same or greater price, but without the need to pay fees for ebay/paypal and no worries with shipping. To be fair, I have found a lots of people to trade with and made some great and I believe that fair deals.


3) Delays and time - I was little dissapointed by the fact, that everything was delayed. Starting with registration at friday, ending with last round of FCQ. Although organizers tried to do their best, some players just weren't helping. People always coming late, especialy in the morning, always problems with registrating etc. I am not blaming organizers, they were briliant and I know that things can go wrong for everyone, but it was little too much. 


4) Playing slowly - I understand, that everyone has his own pace, but I have seen such a ridiculous things. I almost died after start of one game, when players first turn was taking much longer than one minute - he did two transfers, no master, no discard. I understand, that sometimes this choice can be difficult, but still. I do not remember something like this anywhere else. And this one was not alone.


5) Time outs - I was pretty surprised about the number of time outs at this tournament. I have ended up in four games which have time outed from the nine. And at least one more of my games time outed after I was killed. Each time this happens, I feel very dissapointed - it is like there is no win at all. I do not mean Game Win in this instance, but just winning in general. After the time out, even when I get the GW, it stil does not feel like a complete victory. And my opinion in this case is still that Finals should be played without time limit.


I will cut this post at this place. I've got too much distracted during writing this and it lacks consistency since I have been writing this for a few days now. I will continue with hopefully short message about what I do not like at V:tes right now and afterwards will return to posting more game related things.


See you next time...

Sunday, November 20, 2011

EC day 3 - First chance qualifier

So there it was. Third day, third tournament. Since I was pretty frustrated by my acomplishments by then, I decided to play my Guruhi vote deck, which I am enjoying lately.

1st table: Me - Lutz vote - Unmada+Scout Yongwood - Auspex turbo block - Hazimel powerbleed

This table was really full of pressure. I was trying to do my best do mamage Lutz with votes, which ultimately damaged my cross table buddy because of Lutz ability. Lutz wasn't doing too much to his prey, but it was enough thanks to my political actions. He was then able to talk through parity shift taking 5 pool from Lutz. In the end, Scout Yongwood did backwards crescendo, sending Lutz and Marcus Vitel to torpor.Marcus was targeted by Golconda and that was basicaly it for his controler. He was conserving his pool and trying to survive until the end. Auspex block deck brought out three minions, Smiling jack and was doing his blocking. Hazimel put pulse of canaile on himself and was bleeding me for 6 almost each turn. I have tried to destroy smiling jack with three minions and called Ancient influence afterwards. All my actions were blocked by auspex block deck, including Ancient influence with eagles sight. He was ousted right after this because of lack of wake cards. After this it was basicaly one after another and Unmada + Scout cleared entire table. Congrats, I really loved that deck.

2nd round: Me - Salubri Marionette - Dmitra and friends - Saulot with tremere support - Cybele + Friends vote

This game was pretty catastrophic from the start. Dmitra was playing KRC from the start 3 points to saulot and one point to me. At one point I was trying to make a deal with Dmitra player, but he was offered better one from Cybele. Help with Saulot if he will help him finish me. I was hoping that Dmitra will eventualy break the deal, but in the end, I was ousted 10 seconds before time-out. I could have stalled, but it just is not my style.

3rd table - Me - Tzimisce block - Fortitude swarm - Tumnimos breed & bleed

We had only four player table, because someone was leaving early. As I was told, six other tables had the same problem.This was a great game for me, although it did not look like that from the start. I was just laying low, doing nothing except hunts and moving couters to my uncontroled region. After my prey had made a mistake and tapped his minions, used rotshreck and some wakes, I went for kill and in two turns, I was able to oust him. Fortitude swarm ousted his prey too and I was able to oust him pretty fast after this. I 've got a lot of full minions thanks to votercap, lots of pool thanks to oust and he did not have much chance here. Still it was a great game.

1 GW and 3 VP total for me. I was hoping to qualify with this, but after I saw the list, with highlighted names of 30 players, well lets say I was 6 TP short. So first one under the line.

I have not achieved any of my goals, so huge dissapointment here. On the other hand I am glad that I went. It was pretty epic event and I want to once more thank all organizers for a great event.

Next post will be again about EC, but I promise it will be the last one. I will try to write more about games, decks, strategies and players.

Deck Name: Guruhi vote
Author: Silmegil
Description:


Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=4 max=11 avg=7.5)
===============================================
 1x  Aren, Priest of Eshu    7  ani obf POT PRE          Guruhi:4
 1x  Batsheva ADV            6  obt pot ANI PRE          Guruhi:4
 2x  Eze, The Demon Prince  11  aus ANI NEC POT PRE THA  Guruhi:3
 1x  Fode Kourouma           5  ani aus pre POT          Guruhi:4
 1x  Iniko, The Black Lion   9  cel ANI OBT POT PRE      Guruhi:4
 1x  Lumumba                 4  ani PRE                  Guruhi:4
 1x  Maskini                 7  abo ANI POT PRE SER      Guruhi:4
 1x  Nana Buruku             8  ANI POT PRE              Guruhi:4
 1x  Sobayifa                8  aus pot pro spi ANI PRE  Guruhi:3
 1x  Ugadja                 10  dom for ABO ANI POT PRE  Guruhi:4
 1x  Urenna Bunu             4  ani pot pre              Guruhi:4

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (14)
 1x Archon Investigation
 1x Golconda: Inner Peace
 1x Grooming the Protégé
 1x Lilith's Blessing
 3x Misdirection
 7x Villein

Action (10)
 5x Enchant Kindred
 5x Founders of the Ebony Kingdom

Political Action (21)
 2x Anarchist Uprising
 1x Ancient Influence
 4x Conservative Agitation
 1x Domain Challenge
 9x Kine Resources Contested
 1x My Kin Against the World
 1x Neonate Breach
 1x Reins of Power
 1x Snipe Hunt

Action Modifier (34)
 4x Aura of Invincibility
 6x Bewitching Oration
 6x Change of Target
 2x Edge of the World
 6x Iron Glare
 2x Make an Example
 8x Voter Captivation

Combat (10)
10x Majesty

Combo (1)
 1x Guruhi Kholo

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Nov 20, 2011 11:43:55)

See you next time...

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Second day of EC

So after my huge failure at LCQ, I have decided to play deck with which I have played most recently and scored some pretty good games - Guruhi vote. I had prepared it night before the actual European championship Day I and in the morning, I have decided to go with a deck which is capable of bouncing bleed - so I chose my Tremere Politics v 0.2 for this event. I was pretty confident, because I have playtested this deck probably most of all my creations and I knew all its capabilities. Well, I can kiss my confidence goodbye now:)

1st game (Me - Nakhthorheb bleed - !Salubri toolbox maybe - Giovanni powerbleed - Nergal vote)

I had great start, Nergal was practicaly dead when he came out and I influenced out Malgorzata and started to get out more minions. I had dealt some damage with KRC, but Nakhthorheb has equiped Sport bike and started to play defensively. Nergal was ousted very quickly, but he dealt some damage to giovanni and with pressure from salubri, they were ot bleeding me, so my bounce was useless and my prey stabilised. Giovanni were ousted some time after that. Rest of the game was just my prey and predator blocking my actions. I have killed two Carltons, burned one !Salubri and sent Byzar to torpor twice. But in spite all of this, we timed out. Four minions out I was not able to push enough actions through. Very sad from me. After the game I found out, that there was only one Sport bike in my preys deck and he equipped it in like third turn. What to say. Bad luck maybe. 0,5 VP for me.

2nd game (Me - Girls will find something - Khazar Diary giovanni - True brujah bleed - Dragon Breath Round Swarm)

So not the best table for me either. I knew, that my predator has waited for my second minion to go out to reduce my pool. But I did it anyway, hoping my grandpredator will do something to him with his hands untied. So my Anastaz di Zagreb was hit by Pentex and Ladislas Toth, The Torch went to torpor and was graverobbed. What to say about next part of the game? I do not know. For three long turns I have begged for someone to remove Pentex. My cross table buddies had 9 vampires in total, but both of them told me, that they had no action to spare even when I have promised them political actions in return. So Orlando Oriundus came out. He was rushed six times. Five minions equipped with Saturday night specials and all of them were left without blood. Sixth had taken Orlando down to torpor. Only one was left, but thanks to Pentex still on Anastaz, I was not able to block. So my predator took vote lock by this action and I was left with only one minion with pentex. What to say more? Game eventualy ended with Girls... taking entire table except one point taken from them by Trujah. I may have been able to slow them down or do something, but... I am not ashamed by this game at all. The removal of the Pentex was the key to changing this table outcome. 0 VP for me.

3rd table (Me - IC Ashur/Liquidation/Villein/Lilith blessing something - 3rd player - Anti ventrue  grinder - 5th player)

Ending of this game was so frustrating for me, that I have totaly forgotten about two of the players decks on this table. They were ousted pretty soon as I remember it. At this point I was succesfully defending against grinder and trying to bring down that IC deck. Well my last political action was blocked by grinder deck and I was unable to oust it in a given turn. On the other hand, grinder have discarded his only wake and was killed. I would have been able to finish the IC deck, but time out stopped me once again. So again 0,5 VP for me.


Total of 1 VP is not very impressive, but I am not dissapointed. Players had to team up against me, in two of the games and second game was just awful work of my table buddies. I am not saying, that I've made no mistakes, but I stand behind this deck. It works, is enjoyable and had a chance. Still I have learned a few new thing from theese games. Still I was little sad not to go to Day II, but I have been looking forward to FCQ and playing Guruhi vote, since I have wanted to play them at this tournament. So that will be next report.

For those who have forgotten:

Deck Name: Fee Stake Ostrava: Tremere politics 0.2
Author: Vystavil Silmegil (Regis)
Description:
Fee Stake: Ostrava
Ostrava, Czech Republic
January 15, 2011
13 players
3R + F

http://czechvtes.blogspot.com/2011/01/fee-stake-ostrava.html



Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=6 max=9 avg=7.92)
===============================================
 1x  Alfred Benezri              6  aus dom PRE THA      Pander:3
 2x  Anastasz di Zagreb          8  ani cel dom AUS THA  Tremere:3
 1x  Carna, The Princess Witch   7  AUS DOM THA          Tremere:3
 2x  Ladislas Toth, The Torch    7  for AUS DOM THA      !Tremere:3
 2x  Malgorzata                  9  pre AUS DOM THA VIC  !Tremere:4
 2x  Orlando Oriundus            9  obf AUS DOM THA      !Tremere:4
 2x  Polly Kay Fisher            8  for pot AUS DOM THA  !Ventrue:4

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (14)
 6x Blood Doll
 2x Dreams of the Sphinx
 1x Erciyes Fragments, The
 1x Giant's Blood
 1x Legendary Vampire
 1x Powerbase: Madrid
 1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
 1x Wash

Event (1)
 1x Scourge of the Enochians

Political Action (17)
 1x Ancient Influence
 1x Ancilla Empowerment
10x Kine Resources Contested
 3x Neonate Breach
 1x Political Stranglehold
 1x Reins of Power

Action Modifier (4)
 4x Mirror Walk

Reaction (26)
 1x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
 2x Enhanced Senses
 3x Forced Awakening
 4x On the Qui Vive
 3x Precognition
 5x Spirit's Touch
 8x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (28)
11x Apportation
 1x Burst of Sunlight
10x Theft of Vitae
 4x Walk of Flame
 2x Weather Control

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Nov 17, 2011 00:17:52)

See you next time...

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Back from the EC

Returning from EC, I am full of impressions. I will try to break it all dow to smaller pieces, starting with last chance qualifier. Iwas already qualified so I chose one of my weaker decks - Striga wall deck. I actually loved Scobax card from the start and this deck was my dream for a long time. After I started to test it in our playgroup, its obnoxiousness to other players became pretty clear. But I continued to test it just to be ready for a major tournament. Since this deck needs some time to build up, I benefit from aggresive decks on the table. Others see them as a threat and leave me be.

So what to say. I will not go game by game here, since this was fail after fail. First thing was, that I actually could not draw enough of striga cards in any of the three games and was forced to cycle a lot of Scobax cards for almost no effect. Secondly I have made a wrong call about decks. I have met sooooooooooo many bloating decks, covens, racks, montreals, giant bloods etc. And thirdly - well players were going slow and more static than I have expected. With this kind of deck on the table, It was pretty smart but still. I have pissed one player so much, that it wasn't looking pleasant.

Well that is it for this deck. I really did not enjoy playing with this deck and so did hardly anyone on theese tables. I have scored 2 x 0,5 VP for timeout so that aslo says something. Despite all that I am glad that I had tested it and I know its potential and weaknesses. I am prety sorry for all people I pissed though. So that is for the LCQ and I will continue with the main tournament as soon as I have time.

Deck Name: Scobax Wall
Author: Silmegil
Description:


Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=3 max=3 avg=3)
============================================
12x  Horde, The   3  dai obf pre  Baali:6

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (26)
 1x Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter
 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
 1x Powerbase: Chicago
 1x Powerbase: Montreal
 3x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
 1x Society of Leopold
18x Striga

Event (4)
 1x Hunger Moon
 1x Restricted Vitae
 1x Rising, The
 1x Slow Withering, The

Reaction (60)
60x Scobax

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Nov 15, 2011 17:44:33)

So wait for it...