Ropecon 2010 Finnish ECQ, July 23

As traditional, I ran a big VTES tournament at Ropecon this year. This year it was also the Finnish Qualifier for the European Championships in Paris (to be played in October).

Attendance was fantastic, we got a grand total of 93 players; I think that's the second-largest Ropecon VTES tournament ever. As usual most of the players were local – well, Finnish at least – but we had a nice mini-delegation of foreign players also attending: five Swedes, one Dane, and one guy from the States (via Hungary). Despite a brave attempt, this year's win didn't go to the Swedes, though it was close to going to that insidious “Ben” guy. Justice and the Finnish Way prevailed in the end, though. :)

We also had five totally new tournament players, which is always nice. Welcome, guys.

Besides attendance, I was very happy with how things went in general, too. We got started more or less on time, everyone who had pre-registered actually turned up, and many people helped out. Special thanks to Janne Lönnqvist, who helped with organizing prize support and also helped in setting up the tables before I got there.

Gamewise, it's hard to say much specific about this year; there were just so many games that forming a coherent picture was hard. I saw decks from all over the spectrum, from old-school G1/2 Malk bleed machines and Ventrue lawfirms to new-tech Laibon and Bloodlines decks. Quite a few decks went for a master-heavy style, often utilizing Cybele (and Otso's winning deck is also in this category). Villein was all over, and it was fun to see people start to use Sudden Reversal (instead of Wash) mainly to combat the endless cycles of Villein + something else. Ashur Tablets was quite popular, and as always, Dominate was a popular discipline… but that comes as no surprise.

This year's finalist decks were all bleedy/voty affairs, with lots of high-cap vampires (and Villeins :) in use. The final round was very interesting to watch; while some final rounds can stagnate into long bloat-filled affairs, here things kept happening all the time and for a while it was quite impossible to see who would win out. In the end, Otso's master card horror of a deck (which employs some very fun tech) won out – as Ben said after the tournament, his deck simply didn't have anything to reliably take it down (besides bleed like hell). It was fun to see Ben using a Kiasyd deck; he was staying over at our place and just the previous night we had sat on our patio and talked some VTES, and he noted that he wasn't sure if Kiasyds are quite tier1 due to lack of cross-table actions. We also talked about how silly-good Gremlins is. Well, tier1 or not, his Kiasyd affair (with lots of Gremlins) ended up being the next-to-last man standing in the final round.

Grats to all the finalists, and also to the other high-scorers. You did good.

I'd like to (again) thank all the players for keeping this a relaxed and sportsmanlike tournament, despite the size, and for having patience when things don't quite start up on time or there's some sort of mess somewhere. There is no way I could run a tournament of this size with argumentative or difficult players. So… thanks, guys. I'd also like to thank White Wolf and the Fantasiapelit game store for generous prize support; we had a full Anarchs factory set, a Sabbat War rare set, many boxes of boosters, and other stuff to give to the finalists… and of course, all the EC qualified players got a spiffy t-shirt. Everyone who attended also got a big pile of promos.

Was fun, see you next year (and/or in Paris).

-Petri “Orava” Wessman

The bolded players received EC qualification for 2010.

Deck Name: AD&D (Advanced Derange & Dementia)

Author: Otso Saariluoma

Description: The same deck I played before, this time with slight alterations, as I found Unmada too important to miss in the opening crypt. Temptation of Greater Power was actually an excellent addition. If you want to use the combo in every single game (which I didn't), I'd suggest playing more copies of the key cards: Derange, Dementia and Enkil Cog.

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=10 max=11 avg=10.25)
==================================================
 4x  Cybele                 10  ANI DAI OBF PRE SER THA  Baali:4
 3x  Lutz von Hohenzollern  11  pot AUS DEM OBF PRE      Malkavian:4
 5x  Unmada                 10  cel for AUS DEM OBF VIC  Malkavian:5

Library (76 cards)
==================
Master (40)
 1x Archon Investigation
 6x Ashur Tablets
 1x Direct Intervention
 3x Dreams of the Sphinx
 1x Giant's Blood
 2x Golconda: Inner Peace
 2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
 2x Information Highway
 3x Malkavian Dementia
 1x Metro Underground
 1x Monastery of Shadows
 3x Parthenon, The
 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
 1x Temptation of Greater Power
 6x Villein
 1x Wash
 2x Wider View
 3x Zillah's Valley

Event (3)
 2x Anthelios, The Red Star
 1x Scourge of the Enochians

Action (6)
 5x Derange
 1x Entrancement

Political Action (5)
 1x Banishment
 2x Parity Shift
 1x Political Stranglehold
 1x Reins of Power

Action Modifier (12)
 1x Cloak the Gathering
 1x Elder Impersonation
 2x Enkil Cog
 2x Faceless Night
 2x Forgotten Labyrinth
 1x Into Thin Air
 2x Lost in Crowds
 1x Spying Mission

Reaction (5)
 2x Eyes of Argus
 3x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (3)
 3x No Trace

Combo (2)
 2x Swallowed by the Night

Deck Name : Stolishnaja

Author : Are Vaskela

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 11 average: 9.33333
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Ingrid Rossler         9  ANI FOR PRO dom      prince       Gangrel:2
3x Stanislava             11 ANI CEL DOM FOR PRO  inner circle Gangrel:2
2x Lazverinus, Thrall     10 AUS DOM FOR POT pro  archbishop   !Ventrue:2
1x Genevieve              10 ANI FOR PRO aus dom  priscus      !Gangrel:2
1x Hartmut Stover         10 CEL OBF PRO dom for  archbishop   !Gangrel:3
1x Chandler Hungerfor     3  PRO                               Gangrel:2


Library [88 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [6]
  6x Govern the Unaligned

Action Modifier [12]
  2x Conditioning
  5x Earth Control
  5x Freak Drive

Action Modifier/Reaction [5]
  5x Murmur of the False Will

Combat [13]
  1x Bone Spur
  1x Canine Horde
  3x Earth Meld
  8x Form of Mist

Equipment [1]
  1x Heart of Nizchetus

Master [24]
  2x Direct Intervention
  1x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Giant's Blood
  3x Golconda: Inner Peace
  3x Information Network
  1x Monastery of Shadows
  1x Papillon
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  9x Villein
  2x Wash

Political Action [14]
  2x Anarchist Uprising
  1x Ancient Influence
  1x Ancilla Empowerment
  1x Banishment
  6x Kine Resources Contested
  1x Neonate Breach
  1x Parity Shift
  1x Reins of Power

Reaction [13]
  5x Deflection
  5x On the Qui Vive
  2x Second Tradition: Domain
  1x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Deck Name : Ben Peal's Ropecon 2010 deck

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 8 average: 6.83333
------------------------------------------------------------

2x Arcadian, The          8  DOM MYT OBT chi for          Kiasyd:5
2x Pherydima              8  DOM MYT NEC obt pot  bishop  Kiasyd:4
2x Omme Enberbenight      7  MYT OBT cel dom      priscus Kiasyd:4
2x Roderick Phillips      7  DOM MYT cel obt tha          Kiasyd:4
2x Isanwayen              6  DOM MYT OBT                  Kiasyd:4
2x Dame Hollerton         5  DOM OBT myt                  Kiasyd:4


Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [17]
  5x Govern the Unaligned
  9x Gremlins
  3x Song of Pan

Action Modifier [22]
  9x Bonding
  1x Foreshadowing Destruction
  4x Shadow Play
  4x Shroud of Absence
  4x Stone Travel

Action Modifier/Combat [4]
  4x Fae Contortion

Ally [10]
  10x Nocturn

Master [15]
  1x Barrens, The
  4x Blood Doll
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Great Symposium
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  5x Sudden Reversal
  1x Wider View

Reaction [18]
  8x Deflection
  2x Delaying Tactics
  2x On the Qui Vive
  6x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Reaction/Action Modifier [4]
  4x Aura Absorption

Deck Name : Unnamed

Author : Pasi Karjalainen

Description : Originally developed by my brother Toni Karjalainen. I simply thinned the deck down to 77 cards to make it more effective.

The deck generates massive amounts of pool and bleeds. Specialties of Xeper and Annazir can single handily stop certain strategies e.g. allies. To improve the deck I would now add a second Narrow Minds.

Crypt (12 vampires) Capacity min: 3 max: 10 average: 7
------------------------------------------------------------

4x unnamed, The           10 CEL DAI OBF PRE PRO              Baali:6
4x Horde, The             3  dai obf pre                      Baali:6
1x Nergal                 10 AUS DAI FOR OBF PRE THA          Baali:5
1x Annazir                9  DAI OBF POT PRE          2 votes Baali:5
1x Xeper, Sultan of L     7  OBF PRE ani dai pro              Baali:6
1x Arishat                6  DAI OBF PRE              1 vote  Baali:6


Library (77 cards)
------------------------------------------------------------

Action (15)
  1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
  2x Entrancement
  7x Legal Manipulations
  4x Social Charm
  1x Unleash Hell's Fury

Action Modifier (23)
  3x Cloak the Gathering
  4x Elder Impersonation
  1x Enkil Cog
  3x Faceless Night
  2x I am Legion
  4x Lost in Crowds
  2x Psychomachia
  4x Spying Mission

Ally (1)
  1x Veneficti (Mage)

Combat (7)
  7x Majesty

Event (2)
  1x Narrow Minds
  1x Scourge of the Enochians

Master (17)
  1x Dreams of the Sphinx
  2x Golconda: Inner Peace
  1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
  1x Ruins of Charizel
  1x Sudden Reversal
  6x Tend the Flock
  5x Villein

Reaction (5)
  2x Delaying Tactics
  3x On the Qui Vive

Reaction/Action Modifier (7)
  7x Sense the Sin

Deck Name: Rape the honor

Created By: Tuomas Vuokko

Description: Deck that powers the mind rapes with honor the elders, has excellent bleedpower once it gets going.

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 36, Max: 44, Avg: 10,2)
----------------------------------------------
 1  Lucinde Alastor                    DOM FOR obf pot PRE tha10 Ventrue
 3  Lutz Von Hohenzollern              pot AUS DEM OBF PRE11 Malkavian
 1  Marcus Vitel                       DOM FOR OBF OBT PRE10 Ventrue
 1  Mistress Fanchion                  AUS CEL DOM OBF THA VIC11 Tremere
 2  Orlando Oriundus                   obf AUS DOM THA9  Tremere Antitribu
 1  Paul Cordwood                      obf pre AUS DOM THA8  Tremere Antitribu
 3  Rafael de Corazon                  AUS CEL DOM OBF PRE11 Toreador

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (19 cards)
 3  Dreams of the Sphinx
 2  Heidelberg Castle, Germany
 3  Information Highway
 2  Monastery of Shadows
 7  Villein
 2  Golconda: Inner Peace

Action (15 cards)
 2  Entrancement
 5  Govern the Unaligned
 8  Mind Rape

Action Modifier (23 cards)
 4  Faceless Night
 2  Forgotten Labyrinth
 4  Lost in Crowds
 4  Veil the Legions
 4  Voter Captivation
 2  Conditioning
 3  Elder Impersonation

Political Action (15 cards)
 1  Ancient Influence
 3  Banishment
 9  Honor the Elders
 1  Political Stranglehold
 1  Reins of Power

Reaction (11 cards)
 5  Deflection
 2  Telepathic Misdirection
 4  On the Qui Vive

Combat (7 cards)
 7  Majesty 

This is based on my personal notes, scribbled down during the game. Some detail and (of course) all of the table talk is missing, and there may be mistakes here and there. Play started at 1:32 am.

The players were (in seating order):

• Tuomas Vuokko
• Pasi Karjalainen
• Ben Peal
• Are Vaskela
• Otso Saariluoma

Tuomas: Dreams of the Sphinx

Pasi: (just transfer)

Ben: Wider View

Are: (just transfer)

Otso: Wider View, Ashur Tablets

Tuomas: (just use Dreams, transfer)

Pasi: (just transfer)

Ben: bring out Isanwayen

Are: (just transfer)

Otso: Heidelberg Castle

Tuomas:

• Monastery of Shadows
• bring out Rafael de Corazon

Pauli:

• bring out Unnamed

Ben:

• Isanwayen recruits Nocturn
• Isanwayen bleeds w/Bonding
• Nocturn bleeds
• bring out Dame Hollerton

Are:

• bring out Ingrid Rossler

Otso:

• bring out Unmada

Tuomas:

• Villein Rafael for 7
• Rafael calls Honor the Elders, passes

Pasi:

• Villein Unnamed, Suddened by Ben

Ben:

• Isanwayen bleeds w/Gremlins + Bonding, bounced to Otso

Are:

• Villein Ingrid, Suddened by Ben
• Ingrid calls Ancient Influence, passes, Delaying Tactics from Ben

Otso:

• Villein Unmada for 8
• Ashur Tablets

Tuomas:

• Rafael calls Honor the Elders, passes
• bring out Mistress Fanchon

Pasi:

• Villein Unnamed for 6
• Unnamed bleeds w/Social Charm, blocked by Dame Hollerton who goes

to torpor in combat

• bring out Nergal

Ben:

• Isanwayen recruits Nocturn
• Isanwayen rescues Dame Hollerton
• Dame Hollerton bleeds with Bonding
• bring out The Arcadian

Are:

• Golconda on Arcadian, Ben pays 2
• Ingrid calls Parity Shift, DI from Otso
• Ingrid bleeds with Govern, bounced to Tuomas, bounced to Pasi,

Nergal blocks and plays Majesty

Otso:

• bring out Cybele

Tuomas:

• Villein Mistress Fanchon for 6
• Rafael Mind Rapes Nergal (with stealth)
• Mistress Fanchon bleeds for 3

Pasi:

• (nothing)

Ben:

• Dreams of the Sphinx
• Arcadian plays Song of Pan, Unnamed tries to block but fails
• Isanwayen bleeds w/Gremlins
• Arcadian bleeds w/Govern + Bonding
• Dame Hollerton bleeds w/Govern

Are:

• Golconda on Arcadian, Ben accepts (gain 8 pool)
• Ingrid calls Reins of Power, passes, Freak Drive

Otso:

• Parthenon
• Villein Cybele for 10
• Giant's Blood on Cybele
• Metro Underground
• Cybele bleeds for 3, bounced to Pasi, Unnamed tries to block,

Tuomas uses his Monastery to add stealth, block fails

Tuomas:

• Mistress Fanchon bleeds for 3, Unnamed tries to block, (Mind

Raped) Nergal Veils the Legion paying 8 blood, block fails

• Nergal bleeds (with Veiled +1 stealth), Pasi is ousted
• Rafael bleeds for 3 (with Veiled +1 stealth), bounced to Are, no block

Ben:

• Pentex on Mistress Fanchon
• Isanwayen recruits Nocturn
• Isanwayen bleeds w/Gremlins + Foreshadowing Destruction, FD is

DI'ed by Are but bleed is not blocked

• Dame Hollerton bleeds w/Gremlins, stealth, Are ousted

Otso:

• Villein on Cybele, Suddened by Ben
• Ashur Tablets (activated)
• Villein Cybele for 7
• Cybele bleeds for 3
• bring out Lutz
• Anthelios

Tuomas:

• Information Highway
• Rafel removes Pentex (with stealth from Monastery)
• Mistress Fanchon Governs down
• bring out Orlando
• (Otso moves 2 blood from Lutz to Cybele via Heidelberg)

Ben:

• Dame Hollerton bleeds w/Govern + Bonding, bounced to Tuomas,

bounced back to Otso, bounced back to Tuomas, no block

• bring out Arcadian

Otso:

• Ashur Tablets
• Temptation of Greater Power on Orlando, Suddened by Ben
• Pentex on Orlando
• Cybele bleeds for 3
• Lutz bleeds for 3, gains Enkil Cog
• Unmada bleeds for 1
• Scourge of the Enochians

Tuomas:

• Villein Orlando (for 6?)
• Mistress Fanchon uses her special to fetch Banishment
• Rafael calls Banishment on Cybele, passes, Voter Cap

Ben:

• Dame Hollerton hunts
• Isanwayen bleeds for 1

Otso:

• Golconda on Rafael, Tuomas pays 2
• Lutz bleeds for 4
• Unmada bleeds for 1

Tuomas:

• Mistress Fanchon calls Honor the Elders, passes
• Rafael bleeds w/Mind Rape, adds stealth, bounced to Otso who plays

Archon Investigation, Rafael burns

• Lutz bleeds (using Enkil Cog), Tuomas is ousted

Ben:

• Barrens
• Arcadian recruits Nocturn
• Arcadian bleeds w/Govern
• Nocturn bleeds
• Dame Honor bleeds
• Isanwayen bleeds

Otso:

• Villein Lutz for 9
• Unmada calls Banishment on Isanwayen, Ben plays Delaying Tactics
• Unmada Deranges Isanwayen
• Lutz bleeds for 4 (with stealth)

Ben:

• Blood Doll on Isanwayen
• Arcadian recruits Nocturn
• Dame Hollerton bleeds w/Gremlins + Bonding
• Isanwayen bleeds w/Gremlins + Bonding
• Arcadian bleeds w/Govern
• Lutz bleeds with Enkil Cog, succeeds after some intercept and

stealth

Otso:

• Dreams of the Sphinx
• Unmada Banishes Arcadian
• Lutz bleeds, Ben is ousted

Final round ends at 2:47 am.