Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011: April 27th

Here I wanted to show you the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011 from the meeting on April 27th, 2011, but unfortunately the camera batteries were empty, so I just can give just the deck descriptions.

In contrast to many, many of the previous league games all of a sudden we had four (out of five) combat(ish) decks at the table. The individual decks played were the following:

• Thomas played Brujah G4/5 Vote/Combat deck. Most of the game he had to cope with only two Brujah (Dmitra Ilyanova & Karen Sudela) in play and the fact he gave up the title of the Brujah Justicar to Jaroslav Pascek (controlled by Martin) didn't help either. He ended the contest voluntarily since he knew Martin (his grandprey) heavily relied on Second Tradition: Domain, and was wary that Martin was ousted to quickly when Pascek lost his title. Without the Justicar title for Dmitra title he had some problems passing votes during the game, but that was easily compensated by an early Tension in Ranks and a Fame on Gloria Giovanni.
• The now-classic Giovanni Speed Shambling was utilized by Zille this time. He had a good start with some two early Shambling Hordes and put Martin under great pressure by torporizing (Elihu) or (almost) emptying (Jaroslav Pascek) Martin's vampires. But when he missed the oust, his lack of defense and a Tension in the Ranks in play took its toll, and he was ousted himself by Thomas.
• Martin had a new deck at his disposal, a Pot/Pre/Dom deck which relied heavily on Second Tradition: Domain and striking with melee weapons in combat. For this he tried to use both Jaroslav Pascek and Elihu initially. He lost Elihu almost immediately when he lacked a proper melee weapons (with numerous Concealed Weapon in his hand of course) ran into a Trap by a Shambling Horde. This stopped almost all of this forward momentum, but when Virginie, Prodigy showed up later, he was able to bounce a bleed to Kinner. This together with a Fame in play allowed Martin then to oust Kinner relatively easy. The rest of the game Martin tried to stay alive, since with only two minions (low on blood) and about 6-8 pool he was always in the range to be ousted in one or two turns.
• The only non-combat deck at the table was the well-known Toreador antitribu Anarch Stealth Bleed deck so often before played by Kinner. He had a good start having no initial pressure from his predator and put a significant dent in Ralf's pool by bleeding several times for 2 to 3 (using Undue Influence and Power of One). But then he was stopped cold when Ralf had built up his wall with a No Secret on the Magaij. With only limited access to stealth (3 at most) he was also denied pool gain, and a well timed Deflection from Martin as well as a famed vampire in torpor sealed his oust by Martin.
• Ralf played an Animalism No Secrets Wall deck based on mixture of weenies with Animalism and midcap Magaji (also with Animalism). At first his blocks (if any) and attacks with Powerbase Luanda on the Toreador antitribu behind him were foiled by a number of Strike: Combat Ends, but when Ralf put a Channel 10, a Raven Spy and a No Secrets from the Magaji (on Umdava) in play, he was (rather) safe from Kinner's Undue Influence bleeds. In the end Ralf needed too much time building up, and the game timed out when he finally managed to put some pressure on his prey (torporizing Karen Sudela and putting a Army of Rats in play).

The endgame saw three combat decks, and Thomas was very close to making the game win by ousting Martin. Dimitra was in combat with a famous Jaroslav Pascek, and just need to play a Pursuit to torporize Jaroslav, when game timed out. He was 10 seconds shy of the oust and the game win.

Result: Thomas 1.5 VP, Martin 1.5 VP, Ralf 0.5 VP. This was also the first timeout in a long time in league game in Gelsenkirchen.