Monday, November 22, 2010

VtES EC 2010 Decks of Interest

During the VtES EC 2010 there was a strong tendency towards known and strong decks, which had proven to give players sure game wins (and sometimes even) tournament wins. For example regarding bleed decks, there were basically four types of decks:
  • Kindred Spirits Stealth Bleed (including both weenie Dementation version and the version with larger vampires and more Obfuscate)
  • Kiasyd or Lasombra Stealth Bleed (mostly with the G4/5 vampires) with or without Nocturns
  • Giovanni Powerbleed
  • Ventrue feat. Edward Vignes Bleed
In addition some, but not many Weenie Dominate, Baali Obf/Pre S&B or Gerald Windham & Friends Bleed decks showed up.

Or in other words, there were very few "rogue" decks with new and/or at least some surprising tricks. Some of the more interesting decks of the EC (not already shown as finalist's decks) include the following:

  • Legendary Vampire (October 29th, 2010)

    • The Blood Brothers Kiev Bleed deck played by Jakub B. (POL) played, is built around the in-circle disciplines Sanguinus, Fortitude and Protean, but basically is stealth bleed deck with strong bloat component using 16 copies of Unwholesome Bond.

    • A Cybele/Lutz/Unmada deck was played by Otso S. (FIN), which basically runs the same engine as the now classic Cybele/Aksinya/Inner Circle deck, but uses Derangement to gain vote control on the table. The deck is not entirely new and already won the Finnish ECQ tournament earlier this year.

    • This is a Al-Munthahir & Friends Summon History built by The Lasombra and played by Robyn T. (USA). Key to this political deck is Summon History which is used to put several big cap titled Sabbat and Camarilla vampires on play.



  • Last Chance Qualifier (October 29th, 2010)

    • Christophe B. (FRA) fielded a Lasombra G4/5 feat. Appius Black Hand Nocturn deck, which was a nice of change of pace in comparison to the other Lasombra & Kiasyd Stealth Bleed decks. The deck uses a significantly different crypt consisting of Appius Claudius Corvus and his Lasombra Black Hand friends, and uses a few cards requiring the Black Hand to great effect.

    • When looking at the Midcap G2/3 Obf/Dom Ally "Stuff" deck, which was played by Otto K. (FIN), I am still wondering how this deck is gonna work. It has several minions with Dominate and/or Obfuscate, yet chooses to play Computer Hacking. The main vampire is Kyoko Shinsegawa, but the only card requiring a discipline she can play is Deflection. I mean, it looks like a bloat/swarm bleed deck, but it appears to be less effective than it could be. On the other hand it scored 1 GW 5.5 in the LCQ tournament.

    • One of the most interesting deck is the Followers of Set feat. Nakhthorheb Chameleon played by Marko S. (FIN). He uses Nakhthorheb, which becomes first Baron, then plays Chameleon to take control of vampires just moved to the ready region. The trick mainly works in the first half of the game, when Nakhthorheb is influenced quickly using Eternals of Sirius, but can be pulled off later as well with the help of Banishment.

    • Another deck based on Al-Muntahir is the Al-Muntahir Summon History Powerbleed used by Tomas W. (SWE) in the LCQ tournament. This time Summon History helps to gather a truckload of bleed equipment and bleed retainers, to finally be able to bleed for 7 without playing a card. Quite similar to an Una Freakshow deck ..

    • The Followers of Set G4/5 feat. Cybele Illomba Set's Curse deck built and played by Ivan M. (SWE) made it Deck of the Month September 2010. Read more there about this unique deck.

    • Teemu S. (FIN) played Arika/Tyler & Lasombra Friends Baltimore Purge. The deck uses Arika and especially Tyler to be able to first put down a number of opposing vampires using Baltimore Purge, and then diablerize one or more vampires with the help of Tyler's special ability to untap after she diablerize a vampire.

    • Similar to Robyn's deck (see above), the Al-Muntahir/Inner Circle Summon History as played by Martin S. (NOR) summons Inner Circle members to do their master's bidding. This deck is not as focused as voting as Robyn's, but has a stronger ally angle.

    • Frode L. (NOR) uses his Nadima/Mirembe/Nehsi Pro/Set Hatch the Viper Rush deck to setup his vampires superior Protean & Serpentis with a number of Hatch the Viper retainers, and then rushes his opponents to put them down

    • What do you do when you want to play Weenie vote deck and you're in need of some extra votes? Put 17 Orun in it, or at least that's what Benjamin B. (FRA) did with his Weenie Laibon Orun Vote. Similar to the Team Africa deck, the deck uses the different Laibon clans for gaining vote majority at the table without spending too much pool on its vampires.



  • EC 2010 Day 1 (October 30th, 2010)



  • EC 2010 Day 2 (October 31st, 2010)



  • First Chance Qualifier (October 31st, 2010)

    • Emiliano I. (ITA) with 2 GW 7 nearly reached the final in the FCQ. He played a Tzimisce G2/3 Maris Streck War Ghoul nicknamed "Wallghouls". The deck has strong control angle with Maris Streck's special, and it becomes even stronger when (in addition to Unmasking) the War Ghouls are granted the intercept Maris Streck provides.

    • Kristofer Å. (SWE) with his Assamite G4/5 Black Hand Contract deck in the first place looks like a standard (usually not very successful) rush combat deck, but in fact this deck has more to offer. It uses not only the Black Hand angle, specifically Black Hand Contract, but also the Anarch angle for the use of Steely Tenacity, giving the Assamites a copious amount of rushes.

    • The Mata Hari & Friends Vote/Sensory Deprivation deck played by Pierre-Denis B. (FRA) is another Mata Hari deck. The deck is rather toolboxy, but interestingly the deck has strong vote angle with various political locations, but also Sensory Deprivation as backup plan.

    • The Maureen & Friends Infernal Servitor was played by Pieter H. (NED) and built by his fellow countryman Izaak H. The deck uses the classic Dominate/Obfuscate bleed mechanism for ousting. Beyond that it has an added strong Baali angle with Unleash Hell's Fury for defense and Infernal Servitor and Greater Curse for offense

    • Let me present you the most focused deck in all of the EC 2010 tournament decks. This Brujah G1/2 Weenie Arms Dealer Flash Grenade deck was played by Christian N. (DEN). When looking at the deck you'll see that it has only 11 different library cards. For my point of view it might get a bit boring to play after a while, but it sure has focus. The basic trade of the deck is to equip the arms dealers (and/or Weenie Brujah) with Camera Phones and bleed your opponent with a horde a Weenies and Arms Dealers. If blocked play Concealed Weapon on Flash Grenade and thereby keep the opposing vampire tapped for his next turn.

I am not saying all of these decks are truly good and well-executed, but all of them (some more, some less) were a welcome change to a lot of standard decks seen during the EC. You can find (a few) extra EC 2010 decks on Secret Library when entering "EC 2010" as title in the deck search form.

16 comments:

Bogi Brimir said...

My favorite was the Al-Muntathir summon history powerbleed, I was his prey. Totally screwed me over but it was cool. :)

extrala said...

Yeah, I was ousted by Peter on Day 2, too. I never knew what actually hit him, because it was the first time in a long while that I have played against the True Brujah. But like you said, I really liked both the concept and the execution of the deck.

Unknown said...

I played on a table with Frode.

Nice deck with Nadima and Atch the Viper. I thik he managed to employ 6 Atch the viper...scary :D This was a great table too with Sebatian Meurer, Mike Wilson dans Mathieu Rivero.
Nice players and really cool guys.

Myrdin said...

Tomas W. playing the "Al-Muntahir Summon History Powerbleed" is from (SWE) not (FIN) =)

Nice to see that so many of the "rouge" decks are from the nordic countries, makes me wonder about the meta in the upcoming swedish and finnish ECQ's =P.

It's nice to know that there is such a thriving deckbuilding vibe going around.

/Ivan

Abdul alHazred said...

Hi, I don´t want to toot my own horn in any way, but the Al-Muntahir powerbleed deck bled for 16 in the bleed action, not 7. In hindsight it was the wrong tournament to play the deck in and if not for great people like Bogi it wouldn´t be one of the more memorable days on EC for me. There has been a mixup in the decklist on secret library where the heart of the city has been listed as a Heart of Nichetus. Who can I contact to fix that?

cheers

Tomas W (SWE)

extrala said...

@Abdul alHazred: You're right. I didn't do the exact math here:

Permanents:
Heart of the City +2
Pulse of the Canaille +2

Guarded Rubrics +2 (as action; cannot be combined with Cheat the Fates)
Laptop Computer +1

J. S. Simmons, Esq. +1
Robert Carter +2
Tasha Morgan +1

Total (Permanents): +11 bleed

Action/Action Modifier:
Cheat the Fates +2 (action; cannot be combined with Guarded Rubrics)
Aire of Elation +2
Quicksilver Contemplation +2

Total (Transient): +6 Bleed

Total Bleed: +15 (either Cheat the Fates or Guarded Rubrics)

Regarding the correction of decklists. I have entered them into the Secret Library, so I am able to correct them. In your case, I have already done so.

@Bogi Brimir: In addition, I am not sure if Bogi Brimir's initial response was referring to Peter's or Tomas' deck.

Unknown said...

Ottos Kyoko deck should be some sort of blood denial. He has been playing with that in Tampere quite a while now and I think it could use some upgrades. Suddenly you realize that you are without blood hunted by society...

Abdul alHazred said...

Thanks alot Ralf:)

Bogi is referring to me (i think) since he was my prey at the second table in the LCQ and we talked quite alot through the following EC days.

Prince of Lisboa said...

Hi,

"The Blood Brothers Kiev Bleed deck played by Jakub B. (POL)" is not available, or am i missing something?

cheers

extrala said...

@Prince of Lisboa: The deck got somehow deleted from the Secret Library. I will re-enter it later today.

Bogi Brimir said...

Hey, yeah I meant Tomas' deck :). Bled me for 13, bounced, cancelled and then 12.

Warren Peace said...

Yeah, that deck is all about Kyoko, and nothing about midcap dominate, or bloat for that matter. Well, bloat to *some* extent, sure. Off your vampires. :D

extrala said...

@Prince of Lisboa: The Blood Brothers deck is available now again.

Prince of Lisboa said...

Thanks :D

I also had a look on Pèter Botos deck (the one that "hit" you on Day 2 Round 3), it's quite simple.

Good work, cheers.

Izaak said...

Hey Ralf,

Nice effort to point out the more interesting decks. Just wanted to point out that in my deck (the one Pieter played) you're supposed to bleed with the Greater Curse to make your Infernal Servitors bleed at 1 stealth and to gain a pool when they do so, making them essentially free.

Also, you seem to have made a slight error with entering the deck; there should be 9 Infernal Servitors and 1 Veneficti :)

Joscha said...

In my opinion this is a very interesting post. People who couldn't attend this year's championship (like me) should be and will be very grateful for that big chump of information. Cheers for that, Ralf!

I think it is very good to point out people who take the time to build unique and/or otherwise outstanding decks. It is a good thing to honour their efforts in this way.