2011-08-14
New Blog - Lord of the Clog
Stefan Karlsson
2010-12-29
Tournament report - Avsnitt 4: Tjindar's List
The Expectation Analysis Experiment is from now on resting and I doubt I will pick it up again. Last tournament I played I wrote an article but changed deck on the tournament day so the article was pointless, just spoiling a deck list. I have learned quite some from writing those pre-tournament articles but I feel I got it in me now when designing and choosing decks for tournaments so from now on you’ll just get simple tournament reports.
I drove solely the 280 kilometres early in the morning from Göteborg to Örebro without any real problems but it took some time due to the snow, ice and slow traffic. I was a little tired arriving at the venue but as soon that it was time for the first round I woke up. This is the deck I played:
Deck Name : Funny Form of Curruption Deck
Author : Stefan Karlsson (some credits should go to Erik Gustavsson and Alex Ek for playing their versions of the Undele-deck and sharing ideas)
3x Lutz von Hohenzoll 11 AUS DEM OBF PRE pot inner circle Malkavian:4
3x Dmitra Ilyanova 9 CEL FOR POT PRE obf justicar Brujah:5
3x Undele 9 CEL FOR obf pre ser magaji Ishtarri:5
3x Karen Suadela 7 CEL POT obf pre prince Brujah:5
Action [3]
2x Entrancement
1x Form of Corruption
Action Modifier [21]
2x Awe
1x Daring the Dawn
5x Forced March
3x Forgotten Labyrinth
3x Into Thin Air
2x Perfect Paragon
5x Voter Captivation
Action Modifier/Reaction [3]
3x Scalpel Tongue
Combat [5]
5x Majesty
Equipment [1]
1x Heart of Nizchetus
Master [21]
1x Coven, The
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Information Highway
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x New Carthage
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
6x Villein
2x Wider View
5x Zillah's Valley
Political Action [18]
1x Ancient Influence
1x Ancilla Empowerment
2x Banishment
2x Conservative Agitation
1x Domain Challenge
3x Kine Resources Contested
1x Lextalionis
1x Neonate Breach
5x Parity Shift
1x Reins of Power
This is a standard Parity Shift deck with some quirks. Undele is the key minion but he is no standard star vampire as I don’t need him in the beginning. The crypt with 3x4 vampires and some Wider View works really well in this kind of deck. First I want one of the Brujahs to call early Parity Shifts and then I want the other vampires in the order and speed the game allows. Undele’s special is a killer and that is what makes it worthwhile and possible to include cards like Form of Corruption and Lextalionis in the deck. I think you get the idea so I move on to the actual report. There were 16 players at the tournament but one late arrival and one early departure made us play with 15 players all three rounds.
Round 1
Me –> Henrik Ericsson (KS bleed featuring Santaleous) –> Tomas Wallmur (Seterpenre + Anu Diptinatpa) –> Henrik Rune Eriksson (Ahrimanes toolbox) –> Anders Löf (!Ventrue grinder)
I got a dream start being able to influence quickly and call two early Parity Shifts on my prey. The strength of Santaleous special ability were soon discovered as he cancelled an Eternals of Sirius played by Tomas and to everyone’s surprise Tomas still had to burn the pool for the card. No more Zillah’s Valley for me at that point. Good thing I had Heart of Nizchetus in play so I could hide all my master cards in the bottom of the deck. Tomas got a slow start and Anders drew very few bleed cards but kept himself alive from quite heavy bleeding from the Ahrimanes. I ousted Henrik and and Tomas but then I literary went in to a wall. Anders started to bleed heavier so I needed to oust Tomas quicker than I wanted to not risk getting ousted myself. Anu also increased many of Anders’ vampires bleeds so that was yet another reason. When I hit the tooled-up Ahrimanes there were nothing left do. My library was exhausted due to too many discards and excessive use of Undele’s special and every round he had just enough intercept or wakes to stop my attempt at voting back some heavy stealth on hand. Anders was ousted and I kept a stubborn struggle for a while but the game win was Henrik’s (confusing with two players with the same name isn’t it?)
Rune GW 3VP
Me 2VP
Round 2
Isak Bjärmark Esbjörnsson (Lutz & Co Petra Resonance) –> Jonatan Sjöberg (!Nos rush) –> Henrik Rune Eriksson –> Me –> Tomas Wallmur
Isak and I became voting buddies but I had a little struggle influencing the right minions. My starting crypt consisted of one Dmitra and three Lutz and Isak’s first vampire was Lutz and there were no reason to even consider a contest. Isak got a brilliant start playing Pentex on Jonatan’s first vampire only to banish him as quick as the Pentex was removed. When he was influenced back he was banished again and Jonatan didn’t take a single action the whole game. With his back free Rune could bleed me far heavier than I could bloat and even if I did as much damage to Tomas as Rune did to me I was in danger. Isak did what he could to keep me in the game, including not freaking out when I played Parity Shift on him. There were some massive dealing including Isak playing Parity Shift on Jonatan, giving the pool to Tomas in exchange for not being bled. Tomas’ Anu offered her services to Rune’s vampires so soon after Jonatan was ousted Rune got me. Isak could then oust Rune and it looked like he would have a comfortable duel with Tomas but then we were shown what Tomas’ deck really was capable of. He increased Lutz bleed for 3 with Anu to play an Archon Investigation followed by a Daemonic Possession. Next round he did the exact same thing to Tryposa’s Kindred Spirits bleeding if I remember correctly. Very fun to see and I like it when somebody beats me at whacky deck building.
Isak 2VP
Tomas 2VP
Rune 1VP
Round 3
Me –> Adam Esbjörnsson (Girls will find thinspiration) –> Anders Löf –> Isak Bjärmark Esbjörnsson –> Ivan Marin-Rivas (Anson Ashur Tablets table control)
Again I had a good start and Adam did not. He didn’t draw any crypt acceleration and I could play two early Parity Shifts on him. Anders could build up without any real pressure and Ivan mostly blocked Isak’s actions and let me perform mine since he probably wanted to get rid of Adam’s deck. Andres slowly ousted Isak followed by Ivan and I put ridiculous amounts on pressure on Adam but as you all know his deck (a 65-card version) is a pain to oust, especially played by such a brilliant player. I got to play Lextalionis after Anders ousted Ivan and that felt really good – it is such a powerful card during the right circumstances. I had vote lock and no one were blocking my actions so I could either opt for defence of offence the following turns with Undele. Some rounds I picked Banishments up and some I picked Kine Resources Contested. Problem was that I had to play defensive a little too often to be able to oust. As soon as I did pool damage to Adam he could regain it with Liquidation, Ashur Tablets and its likes and I myself went into ousting range. The game timed out leaving Anders with the win but with ten more minutes anyone could have won.
Anders GW 2.5VP
Me 0.5VP
Adam 0.5VP
It was a nice tournament and I had three good games. I feel the deck lacks a little in offence, I should probably just add two more Kine Resources Contested or something like that. Maybe also exchange some of the more conditional votes even if I like the idea of being able to pick up whatever I need. Protected Resources should probably also be added since I think I performed one or two single bleed actions the whole tournament. The deck is master heavy as it is but Undele’s special makes that problem not being as big as it could have been. I will definitely keep working on this deck since it is both very good and fun to play. Suggestions are welcome.
I also want to thank all players and party animals for a nice day and night in Örebro. See you soon guys!
2010-12-19
Beer 101208-101218
Sigtuna Midvinternattens Mörker
Sweden
ABV: 6.2%
Rating: 2
Nynäshamns Mysingen Midvinterbrygd
Sweden
ABV: 6%
Rating: 2
Canada
ABV: 9.8%
Rating: 3
Kortedala Enskilda Hinkbryggeri Arne Weisen
Sweden
ABV: 5.6%
Rating: 3
Kortedala Enskilda Hinkbryggeri Kalifens Dadelporter
Sweden
ABV: 6.7%
Rating: 4
Sweden
ABV: 6.5%
Rating: 3
Germany
ABV: 6.7%
Rating: 2
Mikkeller Santa’s little Helper
Denmark
ABV: 10.9%
Rating: 2
2010-12-04
Beer 101105-101204
2010-12-03
The future of this blog
I haven’t made a single blog entry for more than a month and I feel its time to explain myself. There are different reasons and I better split them up in the two main categories:
Beer
It don’t take any great amount of time to write the small reviews I do but it takes time when I don’t want it to take time – when I’m enjoying my beer. It has gotten harder and harder to write about beer and it almost feels like a burden to have a notebook, or a notepad application on the phone at hand when I play cards or just have a lazy Friday in front of the TV. Last month I have even been avoiding buying beer I haven't drank before just to not having to review them. This is not fun and it really should be.
The solution is easy – from now on you will only get a picture, the data and the rating of the beer I drink. Instead I will link to Ratebeer for you to read real reviews by real beer geeks. Maybe I’ll add a comment or two when I feel like it but don’t count on it. I will instead try and write an article or two when I get the time to do so.
Jyhad
A little the same here. I have been playing less the last couple of months. I really don’t want it to be that way but I fear that it in some ways have to do with the fact that the game is not produced any more. It has been harder to get a casual game lately and for the first times in the last couple of years I have not been able to gather 4-5 players. The tournament scene in Gothenburg is also as good as dead. Where we have been stable with 10-20 players each month it’s now hard to gather more than five. For the scheduled tournament next weekend three players have signed up. I know that I really shouldn’t be writing this for the greater good of the game but this is simple and sad facts that makes writing about the game I love so much harder.
Last tournament I had an Expectation Analysis written but since only nine players showed up I decided it was not worth outing my deck so I played another one instead (and managed to end up at last place). I am still as active as I can be – had three lovely games yesterday but I will only write when I have something to say. I have noticed that my analyses of my decks are popular and that is what I will be focusing on. Maybe also some more opinion articles since I think that the community needs to be led the right way now when everything is risking falling apart. I won’t go into any details until I have sharpened my arguments here but let’s just hint that I think that there need to be something instead of the newsgroup
Well – I will keep blogging on both subjects but it will be a little different from now on. Happy drinking and bleeding everyone!
2010-10-29
Beer 101015 -101024
Slottskällan Imperial Stout
Sweden
ABV: 9%
Rating: 3
Nice sweet alcohol taste. Notes of fruit and some acidity. The Imperial Stout base is there but unfortunately the alcohol takes over.
Kortedala Enskilda Hinkbryggeri Kaiser Altbier Light (16/10)
Sweden
ABV: 2.5%
Rating: 3
A little like a weak lager but contrary to it’s big brother, Kaiser Altbier, this one actually gets fresher and hoppier towards the end and that is what saves it’s rating.
Sierra Nevada Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale (17/10)
ABV: 5.5%
Rating: 3
An oily taste of toffee. Very nice body. Gets a little dull but still very drinkable with a pleasant mouthfeel.
Belgium
ABV: 10.5%
Rating: 4
Blackberry jam. Pleasant alcohol taste. A great dark strong Belgian with interesting liquorice notes.
Avery Anniversary Seventeen (20/10)
USA
ABV: 8.69%
Rating: 4
Grainy with notes of toffee. Roasted and burned, almost porter-like taste. Very good beer.
Dugges Kals Stout
Sweden
ABV: 5%
Rating: 3
Surprisingly rich in taste for its low ABV but a little too watery to resemble the kind of heavy stout I like to get a higher rating.
Sweden
ABV: 7.5%
Rating: 4
Spicey, sweet and a nice hop taste. More than great.
Sweden
ABV: 5.8%
Rating: 3
Genuine bitter but far from as tasteful as Johannas Bästa. Good malty taste but the hops are a little weak.
2010-10-12
Beer 101003-101011
Dyuck Jenlain Blonde
France
ABV: 5.9%
Rating: 2
I expected kind of a French blonde but this is just dull and quite watery lager. A little extra sourness, that’s all.
Kortedala Enskilda Hinkbryggeri Kaiser Altbier
Sweden
ABV: 4.4%
Rating: 3
Nice hop scent. Very fresh and sour. A little damp after a while and much of the initial freshness is in the nice carbonation.
ABV: 5.3%
Rating: 4
Fresh well-hopped and very good. Nothing special but a very genuine taste.
Dugges Johannas Bästa
Sweden
ABV: 4.6%
Rating: 4
A bitter rich in taste with nice porter notes. Perfect to food and a great brew.
Kortedala Hembryggarförening 8 Hops IPA
Sweden
ABV: 5.0%
Rating: 2
Poor carbonation and yeasty taste. A little oily and with less hop taste than the name suggest. Far from the best from the Kortedala crew.
2010-10-01
Beer 100925-101001
Fastlagsgatans Nanobryggeri Kortedala Sommarwit
Sweden
ABV: 5%
Rating: 2
Nice colour and head. Fresh mouthfeel but unfortunately the taste is somewhat artificial. Both the wheat and hops character is hidden by this and I suspect I maybe got a bad bottle.
Traquair 2010
Scotland
ABV: 10%
Rating: 3
A decent barley wine with almond taste. Smoked and burned notes but nothing special.
S:t Eriks Pompona Porter
Sweden
ABV: 5.4%
Rating: 3
Oily. Mild with some weak burned notes. Scent and a little taste of vanilla. A nice porter but nothing special.
Kortedala Hembryggarförening Rabarberpappa Rhubarb Lambic
Sweden
ABV: 4.8%
Rating: 4
Very typical and nice lambic taste. Nice acidity and bitterness and you can sense the rhubarb in the background. Makes me long for more Lambic and that is worth a rating of 4 alone.
Kortedala Hembryggarförening OrvAle
Sweden
ABV: 4.8%
Rating: 2
Smells a little like Christmas. Spicy taste but a little lame and unpleasantly acidic.
2010-09-24
Westgota Nidbryggeri – Dynamitardens Kardemummaporter
Our own brewery’s second beer was a little of an experiment and although it didn’t turn out as good as Bonnatwist Bitter it is still an interesting brew.
Westgota Nidbryggeri Dynamitardens Kardemummaporter
Sweden
ABV: 9.7%
Rating: 3
Scents like vanilla bread with cardamom. The cardamom is even strong in taste but is accompanied by liquorice and some sweetness. Oily, almost fat towards the end but the cardamom taste gets milder and more pleasant. Too few nuances to be a great imperial porter but a very drinkable attempt.
Beer 100909-100924
Mikkeller It’s Alive
Denmark
ABV: 8%
Rating: 3
Apple and yeast-notes. Unfortunately a little weak in taste but very good balance.
Cropton Imperial Stout
England
ABV: 7.2%
Rating: 3
Not bad at all for being English. Nice burned notes but a little watery.
La Trappe Tripel (20100917)
Belgium
ABV: 8%
Rating: 4
Fresh citrus and fruit aroma. Pleasant thick “Belgian” mouthfeel. Spicey and warm taste. Good with food although a little too much alcohol shines trough. Subtle notes of jam. A great beer.
Sigtuna Brygghus Mohawk Stitch
Sweden
ABV: 5.3%
Rating: 3
Coffee and a little acidic. A little watery but with good bitterness. Burned and smoky notes after a while. Perfectly fine.
De Ranke XX Bitter
Belgium
ABV: 6.2%
Rating: 3
A typical Belgian scent and aroma but taste shows much more hops than the style use to. Some citrus and flower notes. Pleasant but not complex enough to get a rating of 4.
2010-09-13
Swedish Nationals – Tournament Report
So, I played my wacky deck and had three fun games. I’m not sure if my initial prey or predator had a fun game in any of them but no one yelled at me or hit me so I pretend everyone was happy.
Round 1
Kasper Kristensen (Ventrue Breed/Boon) –> Tomas Wallmur (Helena Advanced) –> Henrik Klippström (Euro Brujah) –> Me –> Ville Kaijasaari (Guruhi Master heavy)
Henrik was the first person to give me the idea of using Pressing Flesh together with Escaped Mental Patients back at our ECQ this year and it was extra fun to give him a taste of it. I didn’t draw any Inceptor early (I played almost 40 cards before seeing the first one) but the Agent of Powers and Abebe was enough to give the deck a good start. Soon I had graverobbed both Donal O’Connor and Nana Buruku and while my prey got low on pool the table, as expected, started to conspire against me. Kasper decided to lunge into me with three Kine Resources Contested when I was at twelve pool so I made a desperate deal with him granting him two Victory Points before I would do any damage to him so he changed his mind. This was a huge mistake and I could have dealt with the situation in two other different ways:
1. Giving him a similar deal but clearly make sure that I would still rush his minions, vote against his referendums and bleed heavily into him during the process.
2. Instead threatening him to spend my last game round (Maybe I would have survived one more turn and I could always bluff having a wake or similar) attacking him instead of ousting my prey if he voted damage my way.
Instead I went too easy on him. I ousted my prey and Tomas ousted Henrik. Tomas and argued that I should deal break but I wasn’t in the mood to do so. I play a fun deck and I have never broke a deal before so this wasn’t going to be the first time. Probably silly of me because breaking that deal would have gave me the game win for sure. Kasper was to strong in the duel since he had saved up lots of Majestys on hand, me having exhausted my library and him having minion superiority. I also made some silly mistakes but nothing that changed fact.
Kasper GW 3VP
Tomas 1VP
Me 1VP
Round 2
Magnus Löf (Lutz & Friends) –> Michael Holmström (!Ventrue sticks) –> Johan Mononen (!Salubri rush & blood deny) –> Alex Ek (Kiasyd s/b) –> Me
This round started a little like the first. I had a quick start graverobbing Lutz and diablerizing Pherydima. Problem was Alex influenced out small caps and created Nocturns so he did some serious pool damage to me so I had to play Golconda on Lutz. It looked pretty bad anyhow but Johan did his best attacking Alex, not leaving much in defence. I ousted Magnus and Johan was gone soon thereafter (or was it the other way around?). Alex drew very bad and couldn’t oust me and my last four or so pool even if I was almost tapped out. Michael killed him too and again I was in a duel where I was the weaker part.
Michael GW 4VP
Me 1 VP
Round 3
Me –> Helena Löf (Presence Weenie) –> Isak Bjärmark Esbjörnsson (Kiasyd s/b) –> Jonas Nyrén (Shambling Hordes)
I had to focus all my energy towards Helena at the start or she would have got Isak really quick. I also had to be careful with my ash heap since Jonas had Giovanni del Georgio in play and could have used his special to remove Escaped Mental Patients, making me unable to play Pressing Flesh. This wasn’t any real problem sine four of my Pressing Flesh was amongst the five last cards in the library. I had to recruit the patients the hard way and that slowed me down. I had plenty of Fake Out on hand and didn’t see any maneuvers played by Jonas so before ousting Helena I rushed and graverobbed The Arcadian but were forced to play Golconda on him to survive. I think I rushed Isak one round too late because once again I was in a duel and this time I didn’t draw any Pressing Flesh.
Isak GW 3VP
Me 1VP
The deck did quite well but it was too new to me to really shine. I will continue working on it to make it even more focused and able to really kill the whole table. It’s interesting to see that my Grandprey won all my three games, and that they all were pretty similar. My initial prey or predator (maybe with the exception of Alex in round 2) were quickly neutralized. I think I need to start spreading my attacks earlier on but the deck takes some more testing before really knowing how to play it at its best. It is a really effective concept and even if it looks like there are many moving parts it's not that hard to get the ball rolling.
First of all I think I have to increase the library to around 70 cards. I am going to remove Information Highway since I just discarded them if I didn’t draw one early. Pentex is also not needed. The times that I needed to play it were when it already looked way too bad for me. I definitely need a second Golconda and some more Sibyl’s Tongue. The rest of the library Increase will probably just be more of the already featured cards. You haven't seen the last of this, that’s for sure.
2010-09-11
Expectation Analysis – Part 6 – Swedish Nationals
Time fur a fun deck, time to create chaos and have a good time. Don’t get me wrong, I am not playing a deck with that as the only purpose, of course I have been thinking about ousting and how to win a table. Players will get frustrated and maybe even pissed off encountering this but that has to be their problem. I am going to have fun, play my game, surprise some people and maybe even reach some success.
Here is the deck:
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 4 average: 2.33333
2x Abebe 4 nec obf thn Samedi:4
1x Roger Farnsworth 4 OBF aus !Malkavian:3
1x Jackie 3 DEM !Malkavian:4
1x Marta 3 aus dem !Malkavian:4
1x Midget 3 DEM obf pre !Malkavian:3
1x Bloodfeud 2 obf !Malkavian:4
1x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:0
1x Basir 1 qui Assamite:4
1x Cesar Holfield 1 obf Caitiff:4
1x Lisa Noble 1 ani Caitiff:3
1x Sandra White 1 Caitiff:3
Action [18]
Library [60 cards]
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
7x Graverobbing
9x Pressing Flesh
1x Sibyl's Tongue
Action Modifier [9]
7x Domain of Evernight
2x Veil the LegionsAlly [8]
7x Escaped Mental Patient
1x Gregory WinterEvent [1]
1x Uncoiling, TheMaster [18]
6x Agent of Power
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
5x Inceptor
3x Information Highway
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
The setup is ideally very quick. Influence a !Malkavian out in round 1, recruit an Escaped Mental Patient in round 2 and start the action in round 3. The idea is to have a 1-cap with Inceptor by then and the three cards on Inceptor is Pressing Flesh, Domain of Evernight and Graverobbing. From then it should just be torporising everything and bleed with all spare actions.
Lets look at the different parts of the deck:
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 4 average: 2.33333
2x Abebe 4 nec obf thn Samedi:4
1x Roger Farnsworth 4 OBF aus !Malkavian:3
1x Jackie 3 DEM !Malkavian:4
1x Marta 3 aus dem !Malkavian:4
1x Midget 3 DEM obf pre !Malkavian:3
1x Bloodfeud 2 obf !Malkavian:4
1x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:0
1x Basir 1 qui Assamite:4
1x Cesar Holfield 1 obf Caitiff:4
1x Lisa Noble 1 ani Caitiff:3
1x Sandra White 1 Caitiff:3
5 !Malkavian and 5 1-caps. Two copies of Abebe to get another vampire that can play Pressing Flesh
Action [18]
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
7x Graverobbing
9x Pressing Flesh
1x Sibyl's Tongue
Aranthebes is for contesting. I think you get the idea behind Graverobbing and Pressing Flesh. Sibyl’s Tongue is that last card I included since it would have been a 59 card deck without it. There should be spare actions for !Malkavians after some rounds so its just there to fetch a card I need. I don’t think I’ll have blood enough to include more copies of it.
Action Modifier [9]
7x Domain of Evernight
2x Veil the Legions
Domain of Evernight is the free untap for the Inceptor making him able to play both Pressing Flesh and Graverobbing in the same turn. It also doubles as stealth at outferior Obfuscate. Veil the Legions can be a game winner under the right circumstances and can give the Patients that crucial Stealth Rush.
Ally [8]
7x Escaped Mental Patient
1x Gregory Winter
Not everyone can be Graverobbed so Gregory Winter is there for some good old fashioned burning.
Combat [6]
6x Fake Out
Combat offence against manoeuvring decks and combat defence for my vampires.
Event [1]
1x Uncoiling, The
Scourge of the Enochians is the obvious target but cards like Anthelios also needs to go away.
Master [18]
6x Agent of Power
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
5x Inceptor
3x Information Highway
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
Agent of Power is very good here. An extra Graverobbing, Pressing Flesh or Stealth? Just pick your discipline. I think the rest speaks for itself.
Of course this deck has weaknesses. Heavy prevent, combat ends or other combat avoidance will slow it down and probably kill it quick. Dedicated long range combat will also be hard to deal with as probably some other archetypes as well. As this is our national championships I hopefully will see lots of mid to high cap deck vote and bleed decks with little or none combat defence and if I do I should be able to do well if I stay alert and don’t make any mistakes.
I just got to know that V:tes is dead and this deck can be seen as a tribute. I will press Jyhad flesh for quite some time more, count on that.
