Dutch ECQ 2012 Report

So here's my tournament report of the Dutch ECQ 2012, which took place in Utrecht, Netherlands on September 15th, 2012. Before the tournament it turned out that only very few Dutch players were going to attend the tournament (although the VtES scene in the Netherlands is far from being dead). So the organizer announced that we were going to play the multi-deck format if the number of players were going to be less than 12. Which was good in that sense, that I didn't have to decide which deck to play in the tournament in advance. Plus it saved us some boredom (from playing the same deck in a 10 player tournament for three or four rounds). And we did saw quite a variety of decks as you can see ..


So I have put together a listing of all games that have been played with comments on those games that I actually played.

• Round 1
  
  • Table 1
    Bart -- 0 VP -- Gangrel Toolbox
    Emiliano -- 1.5 VP -- Malkavian Royalty Vote/Block
    Jeroen -- 0 VP -- Toreador antitribu Guns
    Didi -- 2.5 VP -- Followers of Set Temptation & Allies
    Markus -- 0 VP -- Malkavian Toolboxish Vote
  • Table 2
    Sahan -- 1.5 VP -- Weenie Embrace Computer Hacking
    Bram -- 0 VP -- Midcap/Weenie Pre Bleed
    Ralf -- 0.5 VP -- Ravnos Eldest are Kholo
    Martin -- 1.5 VP -- Tremere Cryptic Mission
    Luc -- 0 VP -- Giovanni Pot Combat feat. Ignazio
The first game was actually quite hillarious. Four out of five decks played some kind of breed deck with lots of minions. Martin's start was very solid, he could bring up vampire after vampire with some blood stealing minions quickly following. That and the amount of Cryptic Missions he plays helped him greatly at keeping me at bay with constantly stealing blood from my vampires. At the other end of the table Sahan started even more impressively, he started with a lot of 2 capacity minions which either steadily bleed with Computer Hackings or playing Embraces. In no time he had 8+ minions in play and seemed to be the dominating player at the table. Bram was very defensive in the beginning and I wasn't really sure if he was playing midcap Presence vote or bleed deck. Luc as the only player with "regular" number of minions didn't know where to rush first and Martin convinced him to rush forwards a couple of times. I had also a decent start and put a number of vampires (Embraces and Tumninos) in play myself, and due to the low number of titled vampires in play, I could easily pass the Con Boons. Also having Shimulo Tarot (even though inferior to Martin's early Heart of Nizchetus), helped quite a bit. At some point, Bram was showing his real face when bleeding me for about 10, and surely would have been ousted me if he got another turn, but luckily for me he was ousted the next turn. I think in that turn I also put the Week of Nightmares in play, which I had hidden in the Shimulo Tarot. After Bram was ousted, I tried to play an Aranthebes which I also parked in the Shimulo Tarot. Did I mentioned the Tarot is a great card? Around the same time, Martin just overwhelmed Luc and ousted him rather easily. This left us in three player mass minion slug-out. But about 15 to 20 minutes before the timeout, the game got into a stalemate. Sahan was playing two Tribute to the Master in two consecutive turns, which prevented him from getting ousted by Martin. I managed to play the second Aranthebes I had in my deck, which made me perfectly save from the horde of Sahan's 1- and 2-cap vampires. I was doing great except for that little fact that at least half of vampires were empty and under the Week of Nightmares effect they cannot hunt normally anymore (they can only steal blood from other Ravnos). This left most of vampires being stuck .. and the game timed out. Next time I will include some Gird Minions instead of Tribute to the Masters! In the end we counted the number of minions in play and we came up with 48 minions, not bad considering there were only 3 players left at the table.

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• Round 2
  
  • Table 1
    Emiliano -- 0 VP -- Assamite Bleed/Vote
    Sahan -- 0 VP -- Assamite War Ghoul
    Bart --1 VP -- Gangrel Toolbox
    Luc -- 0 VP -- Lasombra Bleed
    Martin -- 4 VP -- Gangrel Dominate
  • Table 2
    Markus -- 0 VP -- Malkavian Toolboxish Vote
    Bram -- 1 VP -- Midcap/Weenie Pre Bleed
    Didi -- 0 VP -- Saulot & Friends Spirit Marionette
    Jeroen -- 4 VP -- Euralya & Friends Spirit Marionette
    Ralf -- 0 VP -- Cybele & Friends Bleed ("Girls")
A very quick game for me with Jeroen playing a Heidelburg Castle first turn, then taking over my recently influenced Cybele with a Spirit Marionette and liberating her blood by using the Heidelburg Castle. To add insult to injury he bleed me with Cybele for +3 (using the last blood). When I had my second vampire (Annazir) out I was down to less than 5 pool, it was too late, and I was out of the game next turn.

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• Round 3
  
  • Table 1
    Sahan -- 0 VP -- Weenie Obf Camera Phone
    Jeroen -- 3 VP - Gangrel Royalty
    Bart -- 1 VP -- Kiasyd Nocturn Bleed
    Didi -- 0 VP -- Giovanni Anarch Crywolf
    Ralf -- 1 VP -- Tupdog Anarch Revolt
  • Table 2
    Bram -- 2 VP -- Elimlech & Black Friends Toolbox
    Luc -- 3 VP -- Lasombra /w Pre Vote
    Emiliano -- 0 VP -- Anarch Undue Influence Bleed
    Markus -- 0 VP -- Malkavian Toolboxish Vote
    Martin -- 0 VP -- Cryptic Mission?
A way better game for me. I got two (out of three) Rock Cats early in the game, which Sahan quickly noted would be the doom for him. Then and there a made my biggest mistake of the tournament. With two Grapples and a Raking Talons in my hand, I should have rushed Stanislava cross-table and steal her with a Graverobbing. But in my eternal wisdom, I decided to rush one of Sahan's weenies, and the Graverobbing was blocked afterwards (of course). But in general I had to be careful going too much forward, because the Cry WolvesCry Wolves at my back are potentially very, very dangerous, so I bled a little and let Sahan reduce Jeroen's pool a little bit more. The game got more tense when a heavy bleed (for around 5) by Stanislava (iirc) got bounced (with stealth) around and ended in idi's direction. I stated that I had a DI in mind (plus one Deflection in hand), wouldn't hesitate to use it, when bleed would be bounced to me. Actually I didn't want to play DI, since I had other plans for the upcoming master phase of mine. So did had to take the bleed, which put him down to 2 or 3 pool, but he survived his round against the Kiasyd, and was even considering in earnest to make the lunge against me, but again the knowledge that I had a DI keep him from going all out. In my turn, I was then able to play Fame in master phase then, and could oust Sahan with a repeated Fame dunk. In Bart's turn he was able to oust Didi, which I could have prevented, but Didi was actually the more nasty predator than Bart would be and I wouldn't like to give Didi another shot at ousting me. Jeroen then ousted Bart's Kiasyd rather quickly. The following short heads-up game was very tense, but I lost it basically because I couldn't remove Jeroen's last vampire (unfortunately it was Stanislava. So being low on pool myself, Stanislava's bleed/vote was too much for me ..

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So I ended up with 1.5 VPs. But I can't complain, since I had my chances to score more points (and a game win possibly) in the first and even more so in the third game. Better luck next time.

• Finals
  Bram -- 0.5. VP -- Elimlech & Black Friends Toolbox
  Martin -- 1.5. VP -- Tremere Bruise Bleed & Block
  Didi -- 0. VP -- Assamite Toolbox
  Jeroen -- 1.5. VP -- Gangrel Wallish Toolbox feat. Torvus
  Luc -- 0 VP -- Giovanni Pot Rush Combat feat. Ignazio

I can't tell you much about the final round, because I was playing a casual round with the other guys simultaneously. Ironically that was the only game, I managed to get a game win that day .. Jeroen won the tournament in the end, and although he tied with Martin in the final round, he has the only player to have scored two game wins in the preliminary rounds. So congrats to Oortje for winning the tournament and getting qualified for the EC 2012!