After Erik Torstensson's latest win with his "Girls will find inner peace" deck at the European Continental Championship, there has been discussion of how to counter it. Lonkka apparently played a Guillaume Giovanni deck featuring Slaughterhouses and lots of Trochomancy. He said that there were a couple opportunities to mess with Erik and that Trochomancy seemed like a strong play against the deck in that situation. Unfortunately, he was not Erik's predator, so he did not really get to unleash his deck's hosing potential.
Lonkka, a couple others and myself have been brainstorming ideas about how to deal with Erik's deck on the newsgroup. Basically, strategies broke down into a few categories.
-Screw with his minions(i.e. rush, pentex, Fear of Mekhet, Justicar Retribution, blood control, lockdown)
-Bleed(have to be careful to avoid his 1+ bounce per turn and also do enough damage to out-pace his bloat)
-Screw with his master cards(Sudden, Wash, Bleeding the vine, steal locations, contest cards, kill Anthelios)
-Destroy his recursion(mainly Trochomancy to get rid of cards you don't want to see again, best if you can kill Anthelios, too)
-Limit the amount of bloat(this may be a combination of canceling masters, destroying Anthelios, knocking blood off of guys who would otherwise be villeined(look out for Golconda!), or even playing cards like Fourth Cycle or The Rising)
Ian Lee, aka ICL, is a local player who also has a blog. In his latest post, he tackles the issue of how to deal with Erik's deck. His ideas?
-Weenie, aka "Winnie," decks would put a lot of pressure on it
-Master canceling cards are weak because they either don't work well enough or don't show up when they are critical
-Messing with the infrastructure may have some effect(i.e. steal Parthenon, burn Anthelios, which can't be played again)
-Kaymakli Nightmares could have some effect, or none at all
-Most importantly, getting really techy may just make your deck worse overall
After thinking about it some and discussing it on the newsgroup, here's a deck that might help deal with the "Girls will find inner peace" problem, maybe I'll put a dent into the !Ventrue grinder while I'm at it
The goal is to have a deck that is versatile enough to handle your average competition, but punishing enough on Cybelle and Company(and the !Ventrue) to make certain people consider retiring those decks. Things that didn't quite make the cut:
Abbott
More Rego Motus
The Name Forgotten
Mylan(prone to stealing vs Cybelle)
Gregory Winther(also prone to stealing)
More first round strikes
My hope is that the permanents can help carry the deck in an non-Carna totally locks down her predator way, enabling the unpreventable(by fortitude) cards, blood to water and the finisher do their trick. Dark Influences is to stop DIs from ruining your day, but it, Fear of Mekhet, and Spirit Summoning Chamber may be a little expensive. Hopefully the pool gain the deck provides will be enough to counteract that.
Ladykiller
4x Uta Kovacs 8 AUS DOM THA ser rush, pays 1 less for Thaum cards
2x Ladislas Toth 7 AUS DOM THA for archbishop
1x Selena 6 AUS DOM THA black hand, damage against her by a werewolf is agg
1x Yasmin the Black 6 AUS THA dom pre black hand
1x Frondator 5 AUS dom tha bishop, costs 1 less for her to rescue other vamps
1x Mosfair 4 cel dom tha black hand
1x Janine 4 aus dom tha
1x Saiz 3 aus dom
No deck is complete without a proper chain for governing.
Library: 90 cards
Master: 16
Fear of Mekhet
2x Info Highway
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Fame
Perfectionist
3x Blood Doll
3x Wider View(Fuel that Govern chain, find a Black Hand vampire and gain some pool)
Spirit Summoning Chamber
Dark Influences
Actions: 16
7x Govern the Unaligned
4x Magic of the Smith
2x Rutor's Hand
2x Black Hand Ritual(Anthelios, Unmasking, etc)
Dominate Kine(Hey there Parthenon, I'm looking at you!)
Action Modifiers: 9
5x Mirror Walk
4x Conditioning
Equipment: 4
1x Ivory Bow
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Helicopter
1x Ruins of Ceoris
Reactions: 20
4x Eyes of Argus
4x On the Qui Vive
2x Wake with the Evening's Freshness
6x Deflection
4x Telepathic Misdirection
Combat 25
5x Telepathic Tracking
5x Apportation
3x Soul Burn
2x Blood Rage
4x Walk of Flame
3x Blood to Water
3x Rego Motus
Kindred Lore: Order of Saint Blaise
3 days ago
Looking at this deck, I think it wouldn't work a lot of the time. Without actually burning the girls, they will just be Golconda'd. There are only so many times that the deck can bring out a vampire(there are 4 cybelles and 4 of the !Gangrel), so strategic countering is important. It may be better to drop first round combat entirely in favor of a couple .44s and not tool up as much.
ReplyDeleteIt's just such a shame you can't do things like put Secure Haven on Cybele after you torpor her...
ReplyDeleteIf you get the chance, it is better to diablarize because she can be golconda'd.
ReplyDeleteGraverobbing is actually awesome as was brought up on the newsgroup - something I didn't think of at all.
ReplyDeleteAs for the deck, I mostly just don't trust the combat. Biothaumaturgic Experiment is at least some permanent combat. Mob Connections helps with presses as people rarely bother getting rid of it, much to my regret.