Tournament report - Road to Budapest 2/5

So here I am, after another failed tournament, thinking about what I did wrong. At this point I think there were many mistakes on my side. First of all - I have chosen to play Scout Youngwood + friends, because I found it most enjoyable at that time. I have made a lot of adjusments though, because I was afraid of blockish decks and combat, so more combat ends, darings, virtuosas and pentex. Well I was right about those decks, but it was even worse than I feared. I had 3 rush combat decks as predators, one time dedicated block deck as prey and one time blockish deck as prey. So, no surprise here. I did not make it to the finals. But lets not skip ahead.

Game one:

Me (Scout+friends) - Luboš (Rachel/Madness network) - Kunče (Cryptic mission bleed) - Face (FoS rush)

So I was afraid of both my predator and prey and brought out two vamps at once. It turned out I was right and one of my guys ended up in torpor - lots of immortal grapples... I was able to bring out three vamps, even four in the end, but by that time my prey had permanent intercept on rachel, 3 support vamps and carlton at the table. I was able to get him on two pool, but I got ousted afterward. Table resulted in 2-2 split between cryptics and Rachel. 0 VP for me

Game two:

Me (Scout+friends) - Petr (something weird) - Kaczkin (Arika vote) - Shimi (CEL+PRE gun+bleed)

I had a pretty decent start, but then again, same was true for Arika. At this point, Arika had very little pressure - bleed for one or two each turn. I was being bled for 6+ each turn and some of my guys got torporized, because I had to villein like hell. In the end I had to play golconda on my guy in torpor instead of rescuing him. Shimi was ousted shortly after this and it resulted in me having two less vampires with votes less than Arika. I was able to oust Petr but I had to play daring the dawn and it was basically endgame for me. So 1 VP for me, 3 for Arika.

Game three:

Me (Scout+friends) - Dave (Ahrimane block) - Tuko (Gehennas) - Fojtik (Animalism rush)

I knew, that this game would be near impossible for me to even survive, not even talking about reasonable chance to get some VPs. I got my first guy out, when there were already two vamps with ANI behind me and I was pentexed by my prey. So I was like what the hell? Luckily I played my own pentex on the third vampire that popped out behind me and then I was able to (just barely) convince my prey to not contest pentex after I faced three rushes. At this point I really did not know what happened. I was trying to build up - moving blood to my uncontrolled region to compensate my minions, which were getting torporized, but my prey again blocked me. At that point it was pretty much over for me. My prey then made a deal which did not make sense, but involved ousting me, so I was getting rushed multiple times each turn and my every action blocked. It ended up pretty much the way I knew when my predator and prey made the deal  - Animalism 3VP GW, Ahrimane 1VP

So wow, one VP. I am actually pretty embarassed, but even more sad. I did not enjoy this tournament at all. One problem was that there were a lot of things for me to organize, but mostly it were the games:

a) four player tables
b) three rushing predators
c) two blocking preys
d) some mistakes at my side

but most of all there was some illogical play by other players. Mostly they were only bad judgment calls and under the stress I could possibly make them too, but in last game it was just purely wrong. I was blocked again and again just trying to survive without doing anything offensive and I was just handed to player, which was already pretty strong and won in the end. Everyone on that table knew that it would end that way... but what the hell.

Ok not to be all negative, here are some positives:
a) 16 players
b) players from other metagames
c) deck well tested
d) preternatural strength from lotn booster
e) tournament experience

And I have few fotos to ilustrate atmosphere - unfortunately they were taken after first three rounds, so only final table here (photos taken by Arikas played):

FINAL:
Kaczkin (Arika vote) - Potomek (Anti ventrue grinder) - Luboš (Rachel/Madness network) - Fojtik (Animalism rush) - Tomas (Vignes tap and bleed)

Heads up:

Final ended by 2-2 split between Potomek and Luboš. Potomek won because he was top before finals. Congrats.

See you next time...