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!

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.

Expectation Analysis – Part 6 – Swedish Nationals

I have to face fact – I have been trying too hard lately. I don’t win games anymore, not in tournaments, not even in casual play. I rarely even take victory points nowadays. So what to do at the nationals? Sure, I could play one of my “stable” decks, getting frustrated for hour after hour and getting 0gw2vp and a major headache. No thanks, not this time.
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:

Deck Name : Zombie Asylum
Author : Stefan Karlsson

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

Library [60 cards] 

Action [18]
  1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
  7x Graverobbing
  9x Pressing Flesh 
  1x Sibyl's Tongue 

Action Modifier [9]
  7x Domain of Evernight
  2x Veil the Legions

Ally [8]
  7x Escaped Mental Patient
  1x Gregory Winter

Combat [6]  
  6x Fake Out

Event [1]  
  1x Uncoiling, The

Master [18]
  6x Agent of Power
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Golconda: Inner Peace
  5x Inceptor
  3x Information Highway
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion

I have been fooling around with a similar but much slower concept for a while using Josette and Marge Khan but when I thought of Inceptor this turned from only goofy to goofy and doable. The idea is to bring out one or several Escaped Mental Patient(s), rush and torporise with them and redo it with Pressing Flesh over and over again. Graverob when doable and swarm bleed the table to death.
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.

Resurrection Gothenburg – Tournament Report

It is getting annoyingly obvious that I am making my absolute worst results ever since starting writing on this blog. I played this deck. My reasoning wasn’t completely wrong but the deck is simply not strong enough to be reliable. It is going to be ridden of its red and yellow sleeves and placed in the pile for cards to be sorted.
13 players showed up for the tournament with Archibald showing up first for the second round so all my tables was 4-player ones.

Round 1
Me –> Isak Bjärmark Esbjörnsson (Kiasyd S/B w. Ashur and Liquidation) –> Robert Ekelund (Mistress Fanchon Baltimore Purge) –> Erik Cardell (CEL guns w. aus and pre)
This game my tooling up worked quite well but Robert took a lot of damage before he could start play his game and was ousted before I could make any serious attempts at getting Isak. I hopes for Erik to try and backoust to take the game win but he instead played both against me and Isak. He was one intercept card short of staying in the game when Isak launched and if that launch had failed I would probably have ousted Isak in my next round. With two Raven Spies and a handful of Earth Melds together with a little more than ten pool it looked pretty good for me but I made some mistakes, the most important one was not to think of Stone Travel so I got tapped out once and almost bled out. I managed to pull myself together and take him out but it was close.
Me 2VP
Isak 2VP

Round 2
Erik Cardell –> Robert Ekelund –> Jonas Alvdén (!Ventru grinder w. obf) –> Me
This game was a disaster. I drew no Earth Melds and since Robert had a slow build-up bringing out Carna and then Mistress Fanchon without crypt acceleration or a single action Jonas had an easy task in bleeding me out. I tried desperately to cycle cards, even convincing Erik to let me play Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers followed by a Freak Drive just for cycling but it didn’t help.
Jonas GW 4VP

Round 3
Adam Esbjörnsson (Euralye and friends) –> Me –> Roger Carhult (Large cap ANI w. multiple MPAs) –> Isak Bjärmark Esbjörnsson
Also a disaster. No Earth Melds from the start here either. Adam influenced out Euralye and put Heidelberg in play. Isak also had a good start building up. I contested Heidelberg and Adam argued he needed it to use backwards to survive and I knew he was right about that. Still I sat in a poor position because I knew Adam and Roger could crush Isak together and I needed all defence I could get against Adam. Him stealing my Raven Spies with Spirit Marionette/Heidelberg was simply nothing I could allow. I made a deal with Isak to keep contesting if he would stop after ousting Adam and let me oust Roger for the duel. Isak soon got Adam and I started my long uphill trip towards ousting Roger. I was almost there so many times but when I got close he always had something to gain ground. Except for a lot of wakes and Cat’s Guidances he also played Golconda twice on his own minions. My deck were almost exhausted when there were three minutes left of the game and Isak had to deal break and sweep the table. I don’t blame him, he gave me more than one hour to do my job but I didn’t manage so the victory was his.
Isak GW 4VP

I think I need to think a little less before the tournament and a little more during it. Next tournament will be the Swedish championships and I should probably go for a fun deck and relax for once to reload my batteries. Maybe next Expectation Analysis Experiment will be a little different, time will tell.

The Expectation Analysis Experiment – Part 6 – Resurrection Gothenburg

This time it was quite hard to decide which deck to play but when thinking of the probable competition I will face I decided to run a modified version of the deck I played in Karlstad some months ago. The reason for this is that I expect to see quite a lot of toolbox decks containing light combat but hopefully not any ones I can’t handle with my 21 combat ends cards. There will probably not be many fast bleed or vote decks and that should be the right environment for this me for once:

Deck Name : Earth Died Screaming
Author : Stefan Karlsson (original concept by Randal Rudstam)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 7 average: 5.91667
2x Doyle Fincher          7  ANI PRO aus for obf         !Gangrel:4
2x Janey Pickman          6  ANI PRO for                 !Gangrel:4
2x Celeste Lamontagne     5  ANI PRO for                 !Gangrel:4
1x Beckett                7  ANI FOR PRO cel             Gangrel:3
1x Danielle Diron         7  ANI PRO chi for      1 vote Gangrel:3
1x Horrock                6  ANI PRO vic                 Gangrel:3
1x Dr. Allan Woodstoc     5  PRO ani aus for             Gangrel:3
1x Jacob Fermor           5  PRO ani tha                 Gangrel:4
1x Mowgli                 5  FOR PRO ani cel             !Gangrel:4

Library [77 cards]
Action [11]  
  1x Abbot
  10x Deep Song

Action Modifier [7]
  2x Daring the Dawn
  5x Freak Drive

Ally [1]
  1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)

Combat [23]
  16x Earth Meld
  5x Form of Mist
  2x Pack Alpha 

Equipment [4]
  2x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers
  1x Heart of Nizchetus
  1x Laptop Computer

Event [2]
  1x Scourge of the Enochians
  1x Waiting Game

Master [12]
  1x Anarch Troublemaker
  4x Blood Doll
  2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany  
  3x Misdirection
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  1x Powerbase: Montreal

Reaction [10]
  2x Cats' Guidance
  1x Delaying Tactics
  2x Forced Awakening
  3x On the Qui Vive
  2x Sonar

Retainer [7]
  1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
  1x Owl Companion
  4x Raven Spy
  1x Tasha Morgan

 

 

 

This deck has three real weaknesses;

1. Combat with combat ends-deny (IG, Psyche, TT etc.)
2. Heavy stealth predator
3. Prey with allies

The two first weaknesses I have to live with and if I have read the meta correctly I won’t be encountering to much of them. The third weakness was my main problem when I played this deck in Karlstad and I have added more cards to deal with allies. I have increased the numbers of Misdirection and changed some Earth Melds to Form of Mists to be able to tap those annoying allies and bleed with the Codex. I have also added the underrated event Waiting Game, it can really be a killer to for example a Nephandus deck.
I have also been thinking some about how to really play this deck. I need not to waste my resources. It is tempting many times to play Earth Meld in any combat but I have to take a small beating now and then and only play Earth Meld when I risk being hurt badly or when I get the benefits of the untap effect.
I also need to be thinking before wasting my resources in bleeding heavy. I need to make sure that my Deep Songs end up where they do any real good and not just play them because I have them in my hand.
Sorry for not being that original this time but I will try and compensate that with my upcoming tournament report and it will hopefully be about four games and not just three as all previous tournament reports on this blog.

Strategy – Library size

I have hesitated writing strategy articles in this blog before since I don’t see myself as anything else than a mediocre player. But when it comes to balancing a library I think I have come pretty far in my thinking. I use to hear “I think you have built this deck as good as it is possible” from good and experienced players when they see my weirdest decks. Let’s just ignore the fact that they add “But you probably wont win any tournament with it.” for now and concentrate on the fact that one of my least weak feats in Jyhad is the ability to build a well-balanced deck.

All the time people build 90-card libraries and I am not only talking about inexperienced players, people still win tournaments with 90-card libraries all the time. So far in 2010 43/123 decks in the TWDA have 90-card libraries and quite some are close with more than 80 cards. The way I see it almost no library at all should contain 90 cards. The only exception I can think of right now is decks exploiting Guillame Giovanni’s ability to increase hand size by one for every location controlled.

So, what is the reasoning behind my thesis? A library of 90 cards is never exhausted (unless target of some serious mill tactics but in that way 90 cards doesn’t help either). The fewer cards to shuffle, the lesser risk of drawing big chunks of one type of a card at the wrong time. In other words, a 60-card library gives it’s player a more reliable distribution than a 90-card one. This is simple (maybe not so simple but still) mathematics. Still normally intelligent people and players that are better than me argue that 90 cards is the way to go. I understand the inexperienced player, I was there when I restarted playing Jyhad late 2007, in that he want so many cards and its painful enough to lower the desired deck-size to 90 cards but players constantly active since 1994? I just don’t get it.

At the summer of 2008 I started to build 60-cards libraries and my results improved a little. Problem was that I went from strict 90 to strict 60 and that is actually too few in many cases. Late 2008 I tried 70, 75 and 80 cards but it wasn’t until late 2009 I entered a tournament with a library of a number not dividable by 5. This is not important for this article but it shows how I locked myself thinking “I shall build a 60/70/75/80/90-cards deck”.

What I have been doing the last months is to try and build every deck a 60-cards deck and increase its numbers after play-testing if needed. This way I get the best possible distribution when testing and rebuilding my deck. I also know what amount of cards is right from experience of having just a handful cards left when winning a standard 5-player table. I break this rule now and then claiming to “know” that 60 cards is too few but I promise to be better following my own concept in the future. As a meaningless fact I can tell you that the 7 decks I have in my bag for the moment contains 60, 64, 70, 72, 73, 76 and 76 cards.

What to think of when building small decks? I try to study actual games to see how many cards of a certain type I actually need and not how many I want. Of course you always want to deflect every bleed that hits you but how many times do you want to have your hand size decreased by 1 for the bounce card, pay one blood to bounce and stay untapped or keep a wake at hand to be able to bounce? Maybe not as many times as you think. This is just one example that is possible to apply to many different types of cards. How many times do your combat deck actually need to play Taste of Vitae during a game and do you need a Blur in each round or is it okay to just hit for 2 with your Magnum some times?

Probably this is nothing new for most of you and stubborn players keeping every deck at 90 cards wont be convinced by reading this but hopefully there are some details in my writing worth taking into consideration for some of you.

Good luck fellow deck-shrinkers!

Tommy Bohlin Inte Här Längre – Tournament Report

Another tournament to add to the list of failures. 14 players showed up in Örebro with what probably was the most high quality decks per player I have ever seen in a tournament. Not a single deck I encountered was anything but a potential tournament winner. This is what I played. Very fun to play and very much headache in all of the games.

Round 1
Me –> Anders Löf (Nosferatu with Dominate and Gehenna Madness) –> Tommie Hjerén (Nephandus) –> Adam Esbjörnsson (Gabrielle di Righetti toolbox) –> Henrik “Rune” Eriksson (Kiasyd S/B with Bruise)
I had a quite big crypt and wasn’t able to put more than one Gargoyle in play. At the start I was able to bleed some but Anders beat me up with his animalism combat. Rune was pretty aggressive early and I thought he would be ousted by Adam not bloating more and tapping out but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Adam played safe against Tommie who was building up pretty good. Rune’s constant bleeding and Anders’ defence was more than I could stand for so I was the first kill on a slow table that eventually timed out.
Adam GW 2.5VP
Rune 1VP
Tommy 0.5VP

Round 2
Adam Esbjörnsson –> Erik Löf (Malgorzata Toolbox) –> Isak Bjärmark Esbjörnsson (Malkavian Weenie Auspex with Madness Netwok) –> Me
I knew from the start that this were going to be a difficult table. I couldn’t create any Gargoyles and I could hardly bleed Adam but had to focus on making Isak waste his blocks and reaction cards on blocking me so Erik could put enough pressure on him. Adam played defensive and Erik did his best. I knew I had a hard time surviving and vampire after vampire went to torpor from Isak’s Magnums. I stayed in the game longer than I thought I would but still I was the first to be ousted in a game that was doomed from the beginning. Maybe, just maybe, if I would have lunged all out forward I might have had the chance of a VP and who knows what more but that is just speculation. I don’t feel I made any mistakes in the game but I have to think more about it.
Isak GW 3VP
Adam 1VP

Round 3
Alexander Båskman (Salubri G6 Toolbox) –> Joakim Nauclér (Lawfirm) –> Me –> Erik Löf –> Anders Löf
This is one of my quickest Victory Points ever. I influenced out Bryan Van Duesen in two turns and bled with him for 7 with Govern the Unaligned + Conditioning and influenced out Heinrick Schlempt and two Tupdogs turn three. Erik had a bad crypt draw and only with the help of Information Highway he now managed to bring Malgorzata to play. He had also invested in Monastery of Shadows so he had only 10 pool left. Turn four my first Tupdog bled for one untapping with As the Crow and then rushed Malgorzata to torpor with Raking Talons. Bryan bled for 7 again and the second Tupdog and Heinrick bled for one each for the oust. Joakim was quite agressive and my six new pool plus some more were soon gone. My momentum worked and soon I had both Anders and Alex within oust range. Alex only had two pool and two Salubri on the table. He couldn’t play any Villeins because Anders had put The Rising in play. I played Pentex Subversion on Alex untapped Salubri and bled Anders out. I had two untapped minions and no +bleed on hand so I bled for one twice but he played My Enemy’s Enemy on my second bleed and survived. He had two Villeins on hand now so he had almost 15 pool at the end of his turn. Now it was a quite open game but Joakim was more effective than me and Alex defended good so I was ousted. A nice way to end a weekend of Jyhad although a game win would have been fun.
Joakim GW 3VP
Me 2VP

I made a quite poor performance but I still believe in my deck. 66 cards are 6 too many and I will tighten it down even further. I never played Skin of the Chameleon so it will probably leave the deck. When it comes to stealth I should add one or two Mirror Walks and maybe a Seduction of two. I can reduce the amount of bleed cards and remove a Create Gargoyle and two Dominate skill cards. I will tinker with this deck soon and probably play it on a tournament again soon.

Weather Control – Tournament Report

14 players gathered in Karlstad for what was to be another epic failure for your favourite expectation analysis experimenter. You can see my deck and read about my hopes and thoughts before the tournament here.

Round 1
Fredrik Larsson (Ventrue princes grinder) –> Johan Mononen (Saulot Valeren Combat) –> Me –> Adam Esbjörnsson (Cryptic Mission without Cryptic Mission) –> Ronnie ? (!Malkavian S/B)
Fredrik put some pressure on Johan early on and deflected almost any bleed Ronnie made. This made it possible for me to bleed Adam with what I had almost every round. Me and him contested Heart of Nizchetus from the start and we were both low on pool. I had three vampires out and Adam had four + two allies, I hade several opportunities of ousting him but I always failed in the end missing a card or to at a crucial point. This was very frustrating and for example I had to play Pentex Subversion twice on the same Nephandus Mage. Fredrik ousted Johan and Adam ousted Ronnie and I tried desperately to survive but was ousted after some more rounds.
Fredrik GW 4VP
Adam 1VP

Round 2
Isak Bjärmark Esbjörnsson (Anson with weenie PRE) –> Me –> Fredrik Larsson –> Jonas Peltomäki (!Brujah long range combat)
My first vampire was Pentexed by Isak and he bled me for 10 the round thereafter. He only had Presence weenies in his starting crypt and his deck worked like a Presence weenie deck so I struggled to survive while Fredrik bloated a lot. Me and Jonas tried and stop Isak from ousting me but he was simply too quick. Game over early.
Fredrik GW 2VP
Isak 1VP
Jonas 1VP

Round 3
Alexander Nilsson (Imbued) –> Alexander Gyhlesten (Madness Network / Reversal of Fortunes) –> Jonas Peltomäki –> Me –> Jonas S (Ventrue Grinder)
As one might suspect, early game was all about Alex G’s trick deck. It didn’t work perfectly but he managed to get more turns than the rest of us. Alex N was also tooling up quite good and I did some damage to Jonas S to be hopeful for at least one Victory Point. Alex G was close to oust Jonas P but made a mistake and transferred out a new vampire going low on pool. Alex N saw his  opportunity and ousted Alex G. Jonas S was low on pool and he didn’t know Deep Song’s card text fully so I could rush his only untapped Vampire to tap him and then bleed twice with the Codex for my oust. Alex N now played Millicent Smith and unfortunately the game was stuck running the wrong way because of Alex G’s Reversal of Fortunes. Me and Jonas S, who was in a really bad position, decided to work against Alex N. He definitely had the combat to take care of the imbued and I had no real way of dealing with them other then bleeding, bleeding and bleeding. I had to burn Danielle Diron to get rid of Millicent Smith so Jonas could act with his single vampire. Alex put out a second Millicent Smith and I this time had to burn one of my 5-caps. Jonas couldn’t stop the Imbued and I got stuck in a hopeless duel with only two vampires against his four hunters. Too bad.
Alexander N GW 4VP
Me 1VP

The main problem with the deck this tournament was the inability to handle allies. In the first and third game that was what killed me. If I could have tapped Adam’s allies I would have ousted him and probably at least one more prey. In the third game I would have won if I could have passed the Imbued some way. The second game were just one of those games that you lose and those games do happen.
If anyone has some suggestion of how to handle allies with the deck – feel free to comment. I will let it rest for a while and rebuild it in the future. It is very fun to play so I don’t want to give it up.

The Expectation Analysis Experiment – Part 5 – Tommy Bohlin Inte Här Längre

The second tournament of the weekend takes place in the Dominate-Mecca of Sweden – Örebro. Why not give the locals a treatment of their own trade and play a Dominate-heavy deck?
The following deck is an old favourite of mine that has had many incarnations and now makes use of the brand new Lilith’s Blessing for blood gain and extra discipline-cards:

Deck Name : Bahari Blockheads
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 7 average: 3.25
------------------------------------------------------------
4x Tupdog                 1  POT VIS                 Gargoyle:3
1x Bryan Van Duesen       7  DOM THA aus pre         !Tremere:2
1x Reverend Blackwood     6  DOM THA obf      bishop !Tremere:2
1x Selena                 6  AUS DOM THA             !Tremere:3
1x Kurt Strauss           5  DOM aus tha             !Tremere:2
1x Brooke                 3  dom tha                 !Tremere:2
1x Ember Wright           3  aus dom                 !Tremere:3
1x Saiz                   3  aus dom                 !Tremere:3
1x Heinrick Schlempt      2  tha                     !Tremere:2

Library [66 cards]
---------------------------
Action [16]
  7x Create Gargoyle
  7x Govern the Unaligned
  2x Scouting Mission

Action Modifier [16]
  4x As the Crow
  3x Bonding
  4x Conditioning
  3x Mirror Walk
  2x Skin of the Chameleon

Combat [8]
  6x Raking Talons
  2x Roll 

Master [17]
  1x Anarch Troublemaker
  1x Coven, The
  7x Dominate
  3x Lilith’s Blessing
  1x Misdirection
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  2x Villein
  1x Wash

Reaction [9]
  6x Deflection
  1x Delaying Tactics
  2x On the Qui Vive

This is a bleed deck with some stealth and some combat. The real strength lies in that you can recruit a Gargoyle as an action that costs 2 pool, give it a Dominate skill-card and no blood, wait for your untap phase, tap Lilith’s Blessing, give it a second Dominate skill-card and 3 blood. 66 cards might seem low but this deck actually isn’t card consuming at all. 60 would probably have been enough.
There are several decks that are able to cause me problems, the ANI/PRO-deck I will play in Karlstad the day before this tournament is one example. Block decks in general is my greatest concern. If I get blocked a lot I have to be patient and focus on making the Create Gargoyle actions happen somehow. I also don’t want to appear a big table threat witch is quite hard not to if this deck works smoothly. The rate you bring out vampires with Dominate is really really high if you are not disturbed too much. Some table-talk and deal-making skills will come in handy. The great amount of pool damage this deck can do is it’s strength and should be enough to reach the finals and with a seating not next to any block decks I should be able to have momentum enough to win.
Let’s take a look at the different parts of the deck:

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 7 average: 3.25
------------------------------------------------------------
4x Tupdog                 1  POT VIS                 Gargoyle:3
1x Bryan Van Duesen       7  DOM THA aus pre         !Tremere:2
1x Reverend Blackwood     6  DOM THA obf      bishop !Tremere:2
1x Selena                 6  AUS DOM THA             !Tremere:3
1x Kurt Strauss           5  DOM aus tha             !Tremere:2
1x Brooke                 3  dom tha                 !Tremere:2
1x Ember Wright           3  aus dom                 !Tremere:3
1x Saiz                   3  aus dom                 !Tremere:3
1x Heinrick Schlempt      2  tha                     !Tremere:2

The Tupdogs are great, both for crypt acceleration and rushing softer targets with Raking Talons. With the right openining crypt you can even trick the table that you are playing the Tupdog-deck and hopefully keep them from bringing out any minions at all. The reason for going with group 2-3 instead of 3-4 is because it is actually at least as good and contesting risk is reduced a fair bit. I expect half of the decks at this tournament to include Keith Moody for example.

Action [16]
  7x Create Gargoyle
  7x Govern the Unaligned
  2x Scouting Mission

The main reason for not going all Govern the Unaligned is the potential surprise in a Gargoyle playing As the Crow between a Govern and a Scouting Mission.

Action Modifier [16]
  4x As the Crow
  3x Bonding
  4x Conditioning
  3x Mirror Walk
  2x Skin of the Chameleon

Some minor stealth both for the !Tremere and the Gargoyles is working very well.

Combat [8]
  6x Raking Talons 
  2x Roll 

Mostly a threat but it’s always níce to get rid of some minions and wasting your opponents actions on rescuing and hunting. Roll is a great card here that works both as combat defence and offence.

Master [17]
  1x Anarch Troublemaker
  1x Coven, The
  7x Dominate
  3x Lilith’s Blessing
  1x Misdirection
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  2x Villein
  1x Wash

This deck had plenty more blood gain masters before Lilith’s Blessing. Maybe I should have included one more copy of the Blessing but it is not a catastrophe if I don’t draw it early. 7 Dominate cards should be enough and hopefully not too many. Villein is also an addition that works good with the Blessing.

Reaction [9]
  6x Deflection
  1x Delaying Tactics
  2x On the Qui Vive

Pretty standard and should save me from the meanest actions.

The Expectation Analysis Experiment – Part 4 – Weather Control

It’s time for a great weekend of Jyhad and I will be travelling around Sweden’s biggest lake Vänern to attend Weather Control in Karlstad on Saturday and Tommy Bohlin Inte Här Längre in Örebro on Sunday.
I know nothing of the meta-game in Karlstad other than that many players from Örebro will attend the tournament. A deck that can handle a little of each feels like the right way to go so I decided to play my version of Randal Rudstam’s Deep Song / Earth Meld deck.

Deck Name : Ack Värmeland du Sköna (a deep song)
Author : Stefan Karlsson (original concept by Randal Rudstam)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 7 average: 5.91667
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Doyle Fincher          7  ANI PRO aus for obf         !Gangrel:4
2x Janey Pickman          6  ANI PRO for                 !Gangrel:4
2x Celeste Lamontagne     5  ANI PRO for                 !Gangrel:4
1x Beckett                7  ANI FOR PRO cel             Gangrel:3
1x Danielle Diron         7  ANI PRO chi for      1 vote Gangrel:3
1x Horrock                6  ANI PRO vic                 Gangrel:3
1x Dr. Allan Woodstoc     5  PRO ani aus for             Gangrel:3
1x Jacob Fermor           5  PRO ani tha                 Gangrel:4
1x Mowgli                 5  FOR PRO ani cel             !Gangrel:4

Library [77 cards]
----------------------------
Action [11]  
  1x Abbot
  10x Deep Song

Action Modifier [8]
  2x Daring the Dawn
  6x Freak Drive

Ally [1]
  1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)

Combat [23] 
  19x Earth Meld 
  2x Form of Mist 
  2x Pack Alpha

Equipment [4]
  2x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers  
  1x Heart of Nizchetus 
  1x Laptop Computer 

Event [1]
  1x Scourge of the Enochians

Master [11]
  1x Anarch Troublemaker
  4x Blood Doll 
  2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany

  1x Misdirection
  2x Pentex(TM) Subversion 
  1x Powerbase: Montreal

Reaction [10]
  2x Cats' Guidance
  1x Delaying Tactics
  2x Forced Awakening
  3x On the Qui Vive
  2x Sonar

Retainer [8]
  1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
  1x Owl Companion
  5x Raven Spy
  1x Tasha Morgan

The trick should be well-known by now. Rush untapped vampires with Deep Song to either tap them or to force them to tap by blocking. Play Earth Meld to remain untapped yourself and bleed, preferably with Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers and other bleed enhancers. This deck is also a pretty decent light wall with Raven Spies and the high number of Earth Melds.
With no doubt this deck will die to Potence combat and pure stealth bleed but can handle most other deck types if played right. To win Saturday’s tournament I have be careful with my actions. 19 Earth Meld might seem like a lot but I can’t waste them on unneccecary actions or blocks. It is tempting to go all out with the Deep Song – untap – bleed combo but I have to be patient and wait for the moment while my prey is low on defence and launch at full strength. This is a tough call to make but I have to trust my instincts and skill and if I stay alert I should be able to perform well and win the tournament with this deck.
Let’s have a look at the different parts of the deck:

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 7 average: 5.91667
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Doyle Fincher          7  ANI PRO aus for obf         !Gangrel:4
2x Janey Pickman          6  ANI PRO for                 !Gangrel:4
2x Celeste Lamontagne     5  ANI PRO for                 !Gangrel:4
1x Beckett                7  ANI FOR PRO cel             Gangrel:3
1x Danielle Diron         7  ANI PRO chi for      1 vote Gangrel:3
1x Horrock                6  ANI PRO vic                 Gangrel:3
1x Dr. Allan Woodstoc     5  PRO ani aus for             Gangrel:3
1x Jacob Fermor           5  PRO ani tha                 Gangrel:4
1x Mowgli                 5  FOR PRO ani cel             !Gangrel:4

I don’t see any real use for the pro-weenies that use to be part of this deck. Originally I had two copies each of the six ANI/PRO-vampires but I have realised that not all of my minions needs to be able to play Deep Song at superior so I switched three of the duplicates to cheaper ani/PRO-vampires.

Action [11]
  1x Abbot
  10x Deep Song

Should be the right amount. Abbot is great but I don’t feel like drawing my second copy in a game where I only control one !Gangrel.

Action Modifier [8]
  2x Daring the Dawn
  6x Freak Drive

Daring the Dawn is a must if I encounter No Secrets from the Magaji or for dealing that killing blow in a desperate situation.

Ally [1]
  1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)

Well, he fits the block and annoy-theme.

Combat [23]
  19x Earth Meld
  2x Form of Mist
  2x Pack Alpha

I added some extra Earth Melds as a final change. 19 is a lot but they never seem to jam my hand and in this way I can afford discarding some if needed.

Equipment [4]
  2x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers
  1x Heart of Nizchetus
  1x Laptop Computer

Nothing special. The extra copy of the Codex is a must.

Event [1]
  1x Scourge of the Enochians

Weenies is a problem for this deck so this is also an auto-include.

Master [11]
  1x Anarch Troublemaker
  4x Blood Doll
  2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
  1x Misdirection
  2x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  1x Powerbase: Montreal

Some tap-n-bleed tech and some bloat. Heidelberg makes me bleed for a lot two times per turn without playing Freak Drive.

Reaction [10]
  2x Cats' Guidance
  1x Delaying Tactics
  2x Forced Awakening
  3x On the Qui Vive
  2x Sonar

Just enough wake to be able to be tapped out sometimes.

Retainer [8]
  1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
  1x Owl Companion
  5x Raven Spy
  1x Tasha Morgan

The Owl Companion can be a fantastic asset but one copy has to be enough.

Asguresh deck - playtest

Yesterday I was able to test the latest version of my Asguresh deck and once again I was reminded on how hard it is to play a rush deck.

Peter Kärrberg (Brujah bleed, bruise and vote) –> Me –> Alex Ek (Ventrue Princes with sticks) –> Lars Helmfridsson (Giovanni Powerbleed) –> Mattias Thörnkvist (Black Hand Assamites with Hand Contracts)
I had a terrible start with no Concealed Weapons on hand and Peter playing two early Zillah’s Valley. As an extra bonus he influenced out  Count Germaine so my weapons would be useless against him. I tried to equip with a Magnum but Alex blocked me with Second Tradition so my only option was to cycle cards rushing backwards and using my additional strikes and presses to hit Peter’s Potence-vampires for 1 over and over again. Fortunately he wasn’t able to hit me back as hard as he wanted but he managed to reduce my pool a bit.
Meanwhile, Lars put heavy pressure on Mattias and he had just the right combat defence cards at the right moments to survive Mattias' rushes. Alex bloated and brought out several vampires. He played Parity Shift, taking pool from Lars and giving some to Mattias to make him stay in the game. Lars was starting to be in trouble, being bled by his predator and rushed by his prey. It now seemed like my prey was about to grab the first VP.
At the right moment my cards started to flow. Mattias felt a little safer so he could start rushing Peter’s vampires. I could concentrate on rushing Alex’ five or so Dominate-vampires. This is where Lars grabbed the opportunity and bled Mattias out with just the cards he needed on his hand. With the help of Dragonbound, Tension in the Ranks and Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers I could then oust Alex.
Now the game came to an interesting state. I was low on pool and Lars and Peter was low on minions and blood. Lars again showed  excellent combat defence, this time with Promise of 1528, and I didn’t manage to oust him before Peter got me. It then looked like it was his game but in a miraculous way Lars survived and bled Peter out for the Game Win.
Lars Gw 3Vp
Me 1Vp
Peter 1Vp

The deck worked nice when it started to work. I should not have influenced out my fourth minion and I would probably have had won the table. I had to play 20 or so cards until I reached the first Concealed Weapon and there is really nothing I can do about that but hoping for a better draw next time. There sure were situations where I missed not having Auspex so the idea to get some bounce, wake and intercept in the deck is still there but I still feel it will be very hard to get the combat module effective enough with more elements to the deck. I have to think about it and hopefully I’ll keep you updated as this deck develops.

Asguresh deck – second draft

So I finally got some time to trim this deck and this is the version I’m planning on trying out for a couple of games now. I have seriously considered adding Auspex as some of you friendly comments suggested but I feel its not the way to go. If Asguresh would have had superior Auspex some bleed bounce would have found its way there. As it is now I fear that the deck would lose potential and become more toolboxy adding the block-angle and I don’t think it would actually survive most games. The fifth copy of Asguresh is simply there for the opportunity of putting the first Nagaraja-deck on the Twda. Well, here is the updated list:

Deck Name : Asguresh skjuter skarpt
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 6 average: 5.16667
------------------------------------------------------------

5x Asguresh            6  CEL NEC aus   Nagaraja:5
2x Titi Camara         5  AUS CEL pot   Osebo:5
2x Idrissa             4  CEL aus       Osebo:4
1x Elizabeth Conde     5  CEL FOR pre   Ishtarri:4
1x Michael diCarlo     5  CEL obf qui   Assamite:4
1x Fairuza             4  CEL pre       !Brujah:5

Library [72 cards]
---------------------

Action [11]  
  9x Bum's Rush
  2x Fleetness

Combat [39]
  3x Blur
  6x Concealed Weapon
  4x Flash
  2x Infernal Pursuit
  6x Psyche!
  7x Pursuit
  3x Side Strike
  2x Sideslip 
  6x Taste of Vitae

Equipment [9] 
  7x .44 Magnum 
  2x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers 

Event [1]
  1x Dragonbound

Master [12]
  5x Blood Doll
  2x Fame
  1x Haven Uncovered
  1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
  2x Powerbase: Luanda
  1x Tension in the Ranks

Asguresh deck – Help needed

Deck Name : Asguresh skjuter skarpt 
Author : Stefan Karlsson

 

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 6 average: 5.08333
----------------------------------------- 4x Asguresh 6 CEL NEC aus Nagaraja:5  
2x Titi Camara 5 AUS CEL pot Osebo:5
2x Idrissa 4 CEL aus Osebo:4
1x Elizabeth Conde 5 CEL FOR pre Ishtarri:4
1x Laecanus 5 CEL obt pre Toreador:4
1x Michael diCarlo 5 CEL obf qui Assamite:4
1x Fairuza 4 CEL pre !Brujah:5

Library [78 cards]
----------------------------------------- Action [12]
  10x Bum's Rush
  2x Harass

Combat [40] 
  5x Blur
  7x Concealed Weapon
  2x Infernal Pursuit  
  8x Psyche!  
  8x Pursuit 
  3x Sideslip
  7x Taste of Vitae

Equipment [10] 
  8x .44 Magnum
  2x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers 

Event [2]
  2x Dragonbound

Master [14] 
  6x Blood Doll
  2x Fame
  1x Haven Uncovered
  2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
  2x Powerbase: Luanda
  1x Tension in the Ranks

I have tried this deck a couple of times and usually it does quite well but sometimes it just dies before it gets started. I think the basic concept is good but the deck needs some optimizing and that is where I need your help.

Asguresh is a fantastic vampire for a Celerity gun deck, his special ability can counter virtually any form of combat or combat defence. The deck is built around him so advices like “Go for Anson/Ashur instead” are pointless. The reason for having duplicates of Titi and Idrissa is that I want to be sure to bring at least one Laibon to the ready region to be able to play Powerbase:Luanda.

Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers is very good for actually ousting and not only bringing a shitload of vampires to torpor. The Master package seems about right but when I’m efficient in combat sometimes I jam on Masters. Infernal Pursuit is one of the latest additions to be able to cycle some away. Where I feel I need the most help is the Combat-section. I don’t have much experience playing gun-decks and I have a hard time getting proportions right.

When you help me trim this deck think of it as the deck that will win EC2010. Many thanks in advance!