Tournament losing deck archive - Ravnos Toolbox

Since I'm a collector by nature I off course have saved all my old deck lists and I got the idea to share with you my very first tournament deck.
To give you the correct perspective I figure I give you my background to this game. Me and some friends played Jyhad and then V:Tes when it was released and I kept buying some boosters now and then up to Original Sabbat. We never really played any real or competitive games and the vast majority of games I played was duels with my friend Lars. I also vaguely remember some insane games with like 9 players at the local gaming club in Karlstad. What I want to tell is that I never got any real experience in what the game is really about back then.
So late 2007 Lars moved to Göteborg where I live and we talked about this old game and our duels. My table-top gaming friend Mattias overheard and told us that Jyhad where still played and even still supported to our great surprise. We quickly bought some cards and started to play slowly understanding that this was a game for 4-5 players. I played Gangrel and Ravnos back in the days so my first buy was the Ravnos starter deck from Lords of the Night. In January 2008 it was time for my first tournament experience and the following deck is what I played:

Deck Name : Ravnos - Magnum Reality
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 6.16667
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3x Vasiliy Vasilevich 8 ANI CHI for pro Ravno:5
2x Kiradin 8 CHI DEM FOR ani pot Ravno:4
2x Chavi Oraczko 7 ANI CHI FOR nec Ravno:5
2x Callirus 5 CHI FOR ani Ravno:4
1x Brian Thompson 4 ani chi for Ravno:4
1x Marion French 3 ani chi Ravno:4
1x Neel Ramanathan 3 ani for Ravno:4


Library [90 cards]
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Action [10]
4x Mass Reality
3x Restoration
3x Sensory Deprivation

Action Modifier [9]
6x Fata Morgana
3x Freak Drive

Action Modifier/Combat [7]
3x Mirror Image
4x Occlusion

Combat [20]
5x Carrion Crows
6x Indomitability
4x Rolling with the Punches
2x Soak
3x Taste of Vitae

Equipment [9]
5x .44 Magnum
3x Camera Phone
1x Treasured Samadji

Master [17]
2x Blood Doll
1x Fortitude
1x Fortune Teller Shop
1x Giant's Blood
1x Kumpania
2x Minion Tap
1x Park Hunting Ground
2x Path of Paradox, The
4x Svadharma
2x Vessel

Reaction [15]
3x Cats' Guidance
5x Ignis Fatuus
2x Instinctive Reaction
2x On the Qui Vive
3x Rat's Warning

Retainer [3]
2x Raven Spy
1x Tasha Morgan

There is so many faults with this deck I really don't know where to start. First of all it is a Ravnos Toolbox, an archetype known of bleeding some, blocking some, cursing some, fighting some and not taking any victory points. Do I need to tell that I didn't get a single victory point during the tournament? Second of all my card collection was very limited so I couldn't build exactly the deck I would have built if I had unlimited card access. It is also a hopeless 90-card deck with some really weird choices. The whole Magnum / Mass Reality thing is really bad idea and I smile while looking at the deck list.
I remember parts of my first game clearly. My prey was Max Widén and my predator was Erik Torstensson. Max was doing great and ousted his two first preys pretty quickly. I remember trying to deal with Erik to leave me alone to oust Max when he got low on pool but Erik refused. Then Max suddenly saw no chance of a game win because Erik had tooled up well and he wanted to self-oust to leave the table with no game win. The judge didn't let him and I understood nothing of this whole mess and was ousted quickly thereafter.
However this first tournament made me want to play more and since then I have been playing in 23 more constructed tournaments, only scoring one win, and I still enjoy it very much. I am in the mood to make an improved version of this tacky deck and try and play it today but I don't know if it's worth the effort. Please share your ideas as comments if you have any because it would be great fun to actually make something out of this. And remember, I have 23 more tournament losing decks to give you so shout if you want more. This is not the worst one, trust me.

Catching up again

Westvleteren Blond
Belgium
ABV: 5.8%
Rating: 4
A great mix of fruity notes and hoppy bitterness. Perfectly carbonated and the freshness from the hops makes this beer more interesting than most other beer of this style. If only all blondes were like this..











Mohawk Rye IPA
Sweden
ABV: 7.5%
Rating: 3
Very bitter smell. Smooth and bitter on the same time. The rye gives this beer a little odd taste and makes the hop taste a little less sharp. Perfectly drinkable.












Jämtlands Påsköl
Sweden
ABV: 6%
Rating: 2
Very pale bitterness and way too carbonated. Boring.














BrewDog 77 Lager
Scotland
ABV: 4.9%
Rating: 3
A standard lager but with a more distinct hop taste. Nice.














Grebbestad Lager
Sweden
ABV: 5%
Rating: 1
Like drinking a half-decent lager after the bottle have been open for some hours. Completely meaningless.

Catching up

Time to sum up the weekend and the monday Jyhad-beers:

Struise Kloeke Blonde
Belgium
ABV: 6%
Rating: 2
Smells like foam-banana. A quite distinct stable-taste (maybe this is a bad infected bottle?). I can sense notes of lime as the stable-taste gets weaker but it is not enough. This beer is also too carbonated for me and it is not very drinkable.










Abbaye des Rocs Triple Impériale
Belgium
ABV: 10%
Rating: 4
Very nice, sweet and strong. Great yeast-taste and that is hard to acquire. Notes of raisin and liquorice. A nice burned after-taste. Not as good as AdR's Brune but very close.












Alvinne Gaspar
Belgium
ABV: 8%
Rating: 3
Hoppy and acidic. A nice sweetness matures but nothing special at all.













Alvinne Balthazar
Belgium
ABV: 9%
Rating: 3
Smells like cinnamon but actually the spices used are ginger, coriander and cardamom. It is very spicey and I can at least pick ginger and cardamom out. A very odd brew but nothing I long for drinking again.











Alvinne Melchior
Belgium
ABV: 11%
Rating: 4
Tastes like sour apple but is still very sweet. Heavy alcohol taste in a good way. Odd, nice and drinkable despite its strength.












Sigtuna Röd Påsk
Sweden
ABV: 6.2%
Rating: 4
Very hoppy and bitter. Grows sweeter and smoother as I drink. Tastes a lot from Amarillo hop and this is a good brew.













Oppigårds Easter Ale
Sweden
ABV: 5.3%
Rating: 3
Smells nice and hoppy but tastes bitter and almost damp. The taste gets smoother after a while and it becomes a perfectly drinkable beer but still pretty dull.

Easter beer (yes I know its silly)

Nynäshamns Pumpvikens Påsköl
Sweden
ABV: 5.8%
Rating: 4
A very drinkable ale with a hoppy dry bitter after-taste. Burned notes mixes well with the food I had to it and it is a great thirst quencher.












Mikkeller Hoppy Easter
Denmark
ABV: 6.6%
Rating: 3
Citrus and hops. A little to thin after-taste drags the rating down together with the fact that you can sense some notes of soap. At least if your drinking buddy tells you it tastes like soap. Dull but okay to drink.

Saturday Night Specials

Westvleteren 8
Belgium
ABV: 8%
Rating: 3
Smells and tastes a little like apple cider. A little too heavy alcohol taste that grows milder. Also a little spicy. This is an okay beer but not close to the 12. It was more than half a year ago that I had one of these and I remember it as much better than it is now.










Schneider Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock
Germany
ABV: 12%
Rating: 4
Not being a fan of frozen beer this is a positive surprise. Scents of smoke and banana and tastes even more of banana. Even some oregano is there and it is very drinkable. Sweet and fresh at the same time.











Dupont Avec les Bons Voeux
Belgium
ABV: 9.5%
Rating: 3
A smell of stable and bacon. Taste of citrus and heavy alcohol. Pretty fresh and a typical French strong beer. Nothing special at all.












Stone Vertical Epic 09
USA
ABV: 8.5%
Rating: 3
Coffe and jam. A little too sweet for my liking but still drinkable.













Nøgne Ø Porter
Norway
ABV: 7%
Rating: 3
A little too mild to be a porter for me. Nice notes of juniper berries, coffee and licorice but I want more than just subtle notes in a porter. Still drinkable and ok.

Beer and Jyhad night again

Brewdog Bashah
Scotland
ABV: 8.6%
Rating: 4
Black as sin hoppy as hell is what the name is supposed to mean and it is a fair description. It has a very odd taste that is sort of a mix between Porter or Imperial Stout and an IPA. A pleasant aftertaste of tar that gets more hoppy as it grows warmer. Surprisingly easy to drink and very original.










Sierra Nevada Harvest 2009
USA
ABV: 6.7%
Rating: 4
The first taste is cider. Pear cider actually. It has some lager bitterness in its after-taste but it soon goes over to a more hoppy bitterness. Sweet and pleasantly fruity.












Nynäshamns Bötet Barley Wine
Sweden
ABV: 9.1%
Rating: 3
Very heavy alcohol. Distinct plum taste and very yeasty. When it hits the right parts of the tounge it shows nice port wine notes but when it hits the wrong parts it tastes almost like it is poured before the yeast is ready. Interesting but hard to drink.

What to really do with the unnamed

Finally I know what deck to build with the unnamed. All good ideas start with Clan Impersonation and this time the unnamed will impersonate a Malkavian. We then put Madness Network in play. As support vampires we use Ariel and Azrael with a decent Auspex package including plenty of Eagle's Sight to be able to block actions in all players turns. When they block they make sure to stay on close range and play Blissful Agony at superior to get the blocked minion to enter combat the unnamed. The unnamed of course have an Abombwe skill card by now and plays heavy combat using Protean, Celerety and his built in 2R agg strike to burn the opposing minion. He then plays Taking the Skin: Minion. Now he can bleed twice and the first bleed is with Flurry of Action and the second is free of choice. This will grant you 4 pool and some damage to your prey in every player's round and a guaranteed table sweep since this is such a small chain of cards needed to pull the combo off. Good luck and let me know if I have missed something!

New experiences back home

I have had some beer this week but I havn't had time to write about them since I've been busy covering BBT - 2010. Now this blog has reached almost realtime again and who knows, maybe some post will even be about Jyhad in a near future. Here is what I have had this week:

Young's Double Chocolate Stout
England
ABV: 5.2%
Rating: 3
Not that surprising it tastes like chocolate. I also sense some vanilla and coffee notes but other than that nothing special.













Alvinne Struise Pipeworks Pipedream
Belgium
ABV: 7.5%
Rating: 4
It actually smells like lager but when you taste it it shows a real hop bitterness. The bitterness soon grows milder and the different flavours of hop takes over in a smooth and pleasant way. I really like this and slowly realises that I'm becoming a hophead.










Dugges Brandmästare Andréns Törstsläckare
Sweden
ABV: 2.8%
Rating: 3
Very easy to drink. Malty, a little hoppy with a bitter lager after taste. Great for being a low alcohol beer but compared to stronger beers of its kind it is not much of a competitor. Probably the best folköl in the world makes it worth its rating.

BBT 2010 - What I brought home

I had to be very selective when I bought beer to bring home since I was only allowed to check in 20kg of luggage. I managed to bring 19 bottles home and none broke during the trip and the bag weighed only about 22kg which no one took notice of. This is what I got:
Alvinne: Hop Trilogy Columbus, 2 x Melchoir Mackmyra Oak Aged, Hop Trilogy Simcoe

De Struise: Pannepot Grand Reserva Vintage 2006, Pipedream, Klokke Blonde

Abbaye des Rocs: Bruin, Tripel Imperiale, Nounnette, Bruin (again)

Fantôme: Fantôme

In de Vrede: Westvleteren Blond x 2, Westvleteren 8, Westvleteren 12

La Trappe: Quadrupel, Bockbier, Quadrupel (again)

When I write this I have already emptied the Pipedream and an Abbaye de Rocs Bruin and given a La Trappe Quadrupel to my father. I plan on maybe having the Westvleteren 8 later tonight so if I don't get to Systembolaget fast all physical evidence of this trip will soon be gone. Over and out and hope to be able to write about new beer trips in a not too far future.

BBT 2010 - La Trappe

We had to visit La Trappe since they are the first Trappist Abbey to open up their brewery for a tour. Actually we didn't see any of the brewing process and it felt like a more sane version of a'Chouffe. We didn't even see a single monk. However, the Abbey is a nice place and it was an interesting tour.

La Trappe Bockbier
Netherlands
ABV: 7%
Rating: 3
Burned malt. Tastes a little like a heavy Eastern European dark lager but not as carbonated. A bitter after-taste. I would have liked it if it would have had something that stood out but it is a good beer that don't leave any real impression.

BBT 2010 - In de Vrede

You don't get closer to the most exclusive brewery in the world, Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus. I have been here once before and that was the first time I tasted their lovely and by some named as overrated beer. In de Vrede is nothing special in itself but they serve the beer we are there for and nothing else really matters. Unfortunately I was the driver this day and had to limit my consumption. A Swedish guys overheard us speaking Swedish and it turned out he was there waiting for his 48 bottles of Westvleteren 12 that he had ordered and he had drove there for that sole purpose. We told him about the nearby De Struise Brouwers and he got the address for a drive over there. He told us that he was a home-brewer and he promised me some bottles of his next batch since he only lives 50 kilometres or so from me. We'll see if he remembers it and contacts me or if it just was talk.
Westvleteren 12
Belgium
ABV: 10.2%
Rating: 5
This beer is rated number one in the world by many and I find it nothing but fair. It is a classical Belgian strong ale with mild licorice and chocolate notes and it is perfectly smooth to drink. Too bad it isn't that often I get my hands of one though.

BBT 2010 - Kulminator, second visit

Friday night it was time for some more aged beer at Kulminator. First I tried an oak aged La Trappe that the monks had brewed for some sort of anniversary and Dirk had bought what they had left after the celebrations. Not aged but worth buying since it is probably not available anywhere else.

La Trappe Quadrupel Quercus
Netherlands
ABV: 10%
Rating: 4
Less fruity than the standard Quadrupel and more rough. A pleasant note of sweet licorice shines trough and I notice that this is also a little sweeter than the standard Quadrupel. As it grows warmer the alcohol starts to taste in a nail-polishing way but that's actually not bad but interesting. Good but not as great as it could have been ageing one of the best beer in the world on an oak barrel.








Gouden Carolus 1987
Belgium
ABV: 8.5% (?)
Rating: 3
I had to try something really old and this is a beer that has been aged for 23 years so it should fit the criteria. When taking a sip from it it is like you let a mouthful enter your mouth but only swallows half of it. It's like it is vanishes into thin air when it contacts oxygen. Intersting. It's also very dry. Unfortunately it's not very drinkable and this is the turning-point in my life where I decide aged beer is nothing for me.







Gouden Carolus Christmas
Belgium
ABV: 10.5%
Rating: 4
The heaviest licorice-taste I ever tasted in a beer. It's a little like drinking licorice allsorts (the candy) and you just have to like it.

BBT 2010 - d'Achouffe

This was the big disappointment of the trip. Disappointment is the wrong word but after visiting 4 small breweries this gigantic complex felt like an abomination to mother earth. What just some days ago should have been interesting was now just like visiting a factory. Sure, the guide was good and kind to us speaking English a little even if the tour we went with were in Dutch and everything was professional. But seriously, how interesting is that?

The worst part of it was the tasting afterwards. We were led to some kind of smokey local bar playing this terrible song. We drank up and left for the long trip back to Antwerp.Mc Chouffe
Belgium
ABV: 8%
Rating: 2
A very mild and quite tasteless beer. Dull.














Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Triple
Belgium
ABV: 9%
Rating: 4
Tastes surprisingly much like a good IPA. Alcohol well hidden and not much of the Belgian style showing.













La Chouffe
Belgium
ABV: 8%
Rating: 3
A pleasant fruity standard Belgian ale. Nothing special.

BBT 2010 - La Brasserie Fantôme

Expectations were high when we reached La Brasserie Fantôme and we entered a very cosy building. The Fantôme himself, Dany, showed us around in his brewery. You could see that he is a hard-working man and a real enthusiast. Unfortunately for us he seemed to be in quite a hurry and the tour was very quick. I don't blame him though, he seemed to have a lot of work going on.

His wife then took care of us for some tasting of their beer and it was a relaxing and interesting experience. Fantôme experiments a lot with spices and according to me that's only positive. Too bad I didn't like all of his experiments but my guess is when Dany gets it right it will be fabulous. The whole place is very likeable and I hope to return there some day for more bizarre experiences.

Fantôme
Belgium
ABV: 8%
Rating: 4
A nice smell of Abricots meets the nose as it is poured. It tastes of a fruity yeast and you can sense some classical ale far away but the taste of this brew is unique. As it grows warmer it tastes a little like artificial strawberry. In a good way. What holds it back a bit is that it has very little after-taste.









Fantôme Chocolat
Belgium
ABV: 8%
Rating: 3
A chocolate beer that doesn't taste like chocolate. Instead it tastes like banana. It has a bitter after-taste and gets rounder as it grows warmer. More fun than good actually.












Fantôme Fleur de Bomal
Belgium
ABV: 8%
Rating: 3
This is bizarre for real. It scents and tastes like pencil sharpening. Very spicy, mostly oregano but even some other spices. I just now found out that oregano is actually used in this brew so I give myself an extra golden star for my developing tasting skills. It is a smooth beer but also a little sour. Also more fun than good.









Fantôme Hiver
Belgium
ABV: 8%
Rating: 2
The saison-brew for the winter. It smells like strawberries but unfortunately it tastes like canned mushrooms. It's acidic with a sour after-taste with hints of sweet licorice. Since I was scared of mushrooms when I was a kid and still have problems with the taste this beer is nothing for me. I guess it deserves a better rating but I can't honestly give it that.