Castle Stahleck LCG event - Tournament report

[fatolaf]

 Francesco Zappon took the title using a Cthulhu/Yog-Sothoth deck

Hi!

After the awesome weekend spent in Stahleck, I think it is worth this year, after the good result, to write a report to properly celebrate the great event, the nice people I met there and this beautiful card game that maybe is not popular enough to attract a huge number of people but, in my opinion, is one of the best card-game out there regarding mechanics, the settings, the card-arts.

Disclaimer: everything I say here is, obviously, MY opinion; I'm not in possess of the ultimate truth (except that we all know is 42)! :)

Introduction: the deck and "how to remove the problems".

I started building this deck few months ago; in building the deck I was keeping in mind the current situation: Agency/Hastur is the best combination
possible at the moment, providing everything a rush strategy needs (cheap and good characters & cheap removals to clean the board + some discard). The
best way I could think to stop this deck is based on a simple concept: I destroy/remove every single character you put into play in the first 2 turns, trying in the same time to prevent you to succeed at a story (so you cannot activate endless interrogation). To do this, I need a huge amount of removals and cheap characters, in particular with Terror and Combat icons. My choice to achieve this goal has been Yog/Cthulhu. They both of removals (Calling Down the ancient, Single Glimpse, DoA, Sacrificial Offerings), they have cheap terror characters (the new Cthulhu serpents, Servant of Nodens). I discarded Agency (even if probably is the faction with the best removals) because DoA allows me to destroy (read: 70 steps) and not just wound. Besides that, the 1-cost removal (sacrificial and DoA for 1-cost characters --> Dogs and Birds + 70 steps) can be used in the very first turn of the game even if the opponent wins the dice.

With this in mind, the other cards were almost mandatory in the deck. The decklist I came up with, after some testing, is the following:

Cthulhu: (23)
3 Deep One Assault (DoA)
3 Sacrificial Offerings (Sac)
3 Brood of Yig (BoY)
1 Degenerate Serpent Cultist (DSC)
3 Dreamlands Fanatic (DF)
3 Ravager from the Deep (Ravager)
2 Deep-One rising (DOR)
2 Carl Stanford (Carl)
3 Keeper of the Golden Path (KotGP)

Yog-Sothoth: (21)
3 Calling down the Ancients (CDtA)
3 A single glimpse (AsG)
3 Gathering at the stones (Gathering)
3 Unspeakable resurrection (UR)
3 Doppleganger
3 Servant of Nodens (SoN)
2 The SleepWalker

Neutral: (6)
3 Descendant of Eibon (Eibon)
3 Diseased sewer Rats (Rats)

How to play this bunch of cards

Starting hand: you CANNOT keep a hand with less than 2 removals. It is not really difficult to have 2 removals, since we are playing 15 cards (Doa, Sac, CdtA, SG, Rats) that are actual removals.

Resource: there are of course some cards that if you have in hand at the beginning you can resource without problems. All the 4-cost cards (Ravager, Deep One rising), UR, probably gathering. DON'T waste a neutral card as a resource in the starting resource-phase. You MUST have 3 domains with 3 coloured cards attached.

After this, in the following 3 turns the best situation possible is 3-2-1 (you can arrive to this situation in two ways: 2-1-1 --> 3-1-1 --> 3-2-1 or 2-1-1 --> 2-2-1 --> 3-2-1). Maybe it sounds stupid to say, but it is really important to decide which of the two ways you take: it depends of course on the cards you have in hand. In some situations, use the Eibon as a resource to play a 3-cost card in turn-2 can be useful but I've done this ONLY to play another Eibon.

You should place the fourth resource in the domain only in the moment you are sure you want to play a 4-cost card.

If you arrive at the late-game, you may want to put a third resource in the 2-resource domain, to be able to play 2 Eibon (or Eibon + Doppleganger copying Eibon) in the same turn.

Play-style: this is not a fast deck. Usually, since you are lacking Investigation icons, you need to go to story 3 times in order to win it. Keep your characters in defense at the beginning and go to stories only if you can ready the characters thanks to the Arcane struggle. Don't win the story if this means that you run out of success tokens: you should use success tokens to put into play or into hand Eibon, so you can defend the stories more effectively. In the moment you can play (with the domain) an Eibon, you should have a good board position that allow you to win without too many problems.

The Eibon is basically your main win condition, in association with the Doppleganger: the last one can give you more Eibon than the opponent so a better board. Doppleganger on eibon was the main play of the day with this card. I think I copied a different character only once or twice (a deep One Rising and a character with an investigation icon).

Remember to use the Dreamlands Fanatic response! I've never paid (and I've never resourced) this character: I play so many removals that it enters into play always for free, and a free character is always good!

Cards excluded/Explanation of some cards:

There are probably some cards that seem powerful and could be useful in the deck. I try to make a list and explain why I didn't put them in the deck.

- Twilight gate: seems the perfect card. You can resource a ravager and use it with a bit of surprise. It is true, and it can be powerful, but the real problem, for me, is that it requires to arrive in the mid-game to be used. And, first of all, I need to arrive to the midgame :) Probably, I could replace the UR with Twilight Gate (almost never used during the weekend).

- Keeper of the Golden path: is a good and cheap character. It could be probably replaced with the full-set of Degenerate Serpent Cultist + 1 Deep One Rising. I need to test this option. I was using 2 Deep One Rising + 1 DSC because I wanted to decrease a bit the number of 4-cost characters.

- Speak to the dead: I tried it, but here it is too slow and never effective. Gathering at the stones is better because at turn 2 you can do Gathering + A single glimpse

- SoN: as soon as Yog will get another 2-cost character, with 2 icons and 2 skill that is doing something, I'll probably replace it. But for now, the ability to provide a terror and a skull is important.

How to solve some problems of the deck:

If your opponent is playing ancient ones/shub you will probably lose the game. You are not fast enough to win before they arrive (especially if they are put into play using Things on the ground...) and you don't have answer to them. It is maybe possible, anyway, to find a way to deal with them like Called by Azathoth (blank Y-golonac and wound him) but probably it is not enough. To deal with high-skill characters probably it would be possible to play Pulled Under: it is a bit slow, but we have enough characters to play it (BoY, KotGP). Need to be tested.

After this (I hope useful) introduction, we can go the real report!


Friday:

Marius and me (after some troubles) leave Amsterdam around 15.00, to go to Stahleck: the hope is that we can still arrive in time for the Friday evening tournament. Unfortunately, a lot of works are going on in the german highways and we arrive at the castle a bit too late. No tournament for us! Anyway, this bad luck, gives me the opportunity to buy the last AP I'm missing: this is very important, because I find out that a new amazing Yog card is out: Doppleganger! I immediately see the opportunity to make a good change in my decklist (I'll be playing for all the tournaments the same deck: Yog-Cthulhu). After the change, I meet Michele (a nice Italian guy coming from Parma) and we play a couple of games: he is using a Mi-Go deck, and I immediately see that this kind of deck can cause me problems: high-cost characters (DoA not effective), high-skill (Calling down the ancients and rats useless), a lot of toughness (Sacrificial Offerings useless). I see the problems, but there is really nothing I can do (I should change the deck to beat this type of combination :D). The only way to win is: kill the Priestess of Bubastis (less acceleration), kill the small Mi-Go, and try to rush (Hopefully with an Eibon). It requires a bit too much luck, but you can do it! :)


After a couple of games I visit the artist table: here I meet Tiziano, very nice and polite guy that is selling some prints. I look at the 4 prints available (Drunken allucination, Behind bars, Dangerous Inmate and the new italian-politician-like-image) and decide to buy 3 of them. And he will be so polite to sign a whole bunch of cards I have with me (I have now 9 behind bars signed...tournament prizes!).

Saturday:

In the morning, after the breakfast, the CoC-nation cup starts. There are four teams: Italy (I'm, obviously, in this one), Germany, Netherland and Belgium. Since we hadn't the time to prepare properly the deck following the rules made by Thorondor we decide to keep it simple: each team has 3 deck, each faction cannot be present more than once. For each game, you need to change the deck you are playing. Each round consists of 2 games. In this way, you play all the team-decks.

The pairings are the following:

Game 1:
- Player 1 vs Player 1 (captains of the team)
- Player 2 vs Player 2
- Player 3 vs Player 3

Game 2:
-Player 1 vs Player 3
-Player 2 vs Player 1
-Player 3 vs Player 2

After the round, you determine the new internal ranking in the team, (5 points if you win the game, 3 points if you win more stories than the opponent but not 3, 1 point for a draw, 0 for a loss).

The Italian team was playing: Ivan (Agency/Hastur), Michele (Mi-Go deck, mono-shub) and me (Yog/cthulhu).

I don't remember all the opponent (too many and too different decks) but I won all the games where I was playing my deck, and if I remember correctly when Ivan and Michele were playing my deck they lost only once. So, the deck seemed to be quite good even in an unknown field, with many kinds of deck and even piloted from a different player.

We won this tournament, at the end, and it was a good start!

In the evening the tournament is a bit delayed because we are waiting for a couple of players (Thorondor and Pablo) that were playing in the AgoT LCG-tournament. Around 21.00, finally, the tournament start: unfortunately, it has been decided not to play the top-4; so, only swiss-tournament and the ranking at the end of the 4 turns will determine the winner. I think that Thorondor took this decision because he didn't want to split the tournament in 2 days: last year we did like this and I was playing the final against Graham with basically nobody around, just some Cthulhu players; so the "prize-ceremony" wasn't really a celebration of Graham's victory.

On the other side, this means that in order to win the tournament you really need to win every single match!

Please, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think I rememebr every match correctly!

Round 1: Fred from Belgium.

Most of the players changed the deck from the nation-cup, so I don't know what he is playing. I win the dice roll and decide to start. I keep an hand with two removals and 2 dreamlands fanatic: whatever he is playing, this means that I have the possibility to stop a starting rush quite effectively. From the resources I see Syndacate and hastur (if I remember correctly). This means rush deck and skill reduction: ok, the hand is good. I resource and pass the turn without playing any character, even if I have in hand a Brood of Yig because one of my removals is Sacrificial Offering and I want the possibility to play it without losing any character. (Moreover: a turn-1 character cannot commit, so if you have removals it's better to leave the domain open to use it in the opponent turn and then, with the clean board, put the character, commit it and gain 2 tokens).

He plays a couple of characters (no birds luckily) and I use my removals as planned. Dreamlands fanatic into play. In my turn, I play a third character and go for the 3 stories. He plays other characters and kill one of mine with tear gas and a skill reducer character, another with rats. The problem is that I keep drawing removals and I can defend the stories in a good way with a couple of characters: then, Eibon arrives with a Doppleganger and this closes the match.

Round 2: Gijs from Holland.

I don't remember a lot of this match: he is a new player of the game, lacking some cards, so the deck is not at the maximum power level possible. I win quite fast, thanks to a couple fo Eibon.

Round 3: Pablo, from Spain.

He plays a mono-hastur deck. He tells me he is a beginner but actually he is a pretty good player: I have some difficulties with a couple of characters with high skill and cost that he puts into play, and I don't find any Eibon to try to close the game. What saves me is that he is not playing Agency (no removals) so my characters usually stay in play (he bounce back to my hand and steal a couple of characters, but nothing more). I have the time to arrive to a domain with 4 recource, play Sacrificial offering + Deep One Rising to clear the board and then sweep for the win.

Round 4: Ivan, from Italy.

This is, more or less, the final: we won the 3 previous games and the winner will be the tournament's winner. I know that he plays Hastur/agency and I will need extra-luck to win the match if he starts too fast; moreover, he wins the dice-roll. Ok, let's try it! He shows me immediately why hat deck is really powerful: on turn 1, 3 magah birds + 1 dog + 1 Government Exorcist appear on the table.

But I was extremely luck: I drew a hand with 3 removals + 1 Dreamlands fanatic. I resource with no doubts the other 3 cards (2 characters and 1 Gathering at the stones).

So, I respond, in his turn, with DoA on the dog + Sac Offering on the Exorcist, triggering 1 dreamland fanatic on the Sac Offering. On turn 2, I use a second DoA + Single Glimpse. I go to the story (he doesn't commit) and put 2 tokens.

On his second turn another swarm of characters arrive: another dog + something else. He commits and put some tokens.

The situation here was still on equilibrium: I'm lucky, and I keep drawing at least 1 removal per turn, using it. In the meantime, I can even resource. I have zero cards in hand, with a couple of characters on the table and few tokens (at least 6) on the stories.

Now is where the real luck pushes me towards the victory: I draw an eibon and play it. He shot him, but in his turn I spend 4 tokens to put it into play and try to resist to his attack. On the next turn I play again Eibon and I can go with him to a story, gaining 3 tokens. He plays an Eibon too and the situation is back to perfect parity. (more or less we keep destroying one character per turn each other). I manage to win because I draw, in 2 turns, another Eibon and a Doppleganger on Eibon. With this amount of huge characters on my side I manage to commit to stories and win!

YEAH!!!

The last match was, with no doubts, the most challenging one: the deck I was facing was clearly on a superior strength level and the player was really good. I have been lucky in my opening hand but he was too (5 characters on turn 1!); the deck did what it was designed for: remove (almost) everything that touches the table.

The Hastur/Agency is for sure a good deck, but it is even true that he doesn't have so many ways to deal with terror (ok, willpower characters, ok Government exorcist prevent commitment...but you have to draw them and they have to survive...you are alwasy playing with an opponent on the other side of the table!).

It is even true that the version Ivan was playing was (maybe) not the most "dangerous": he didn't play Endless interrogation. But, even if he was playing, it would have been useless, since I emptied my hand in the first turn, and then I was always playing all the cards I was drawing. 70 steps wouldn't have been a problem too (DoA).

The only big problem I see with that deck is Maga Birds. This give you an advantage on turn1 that is really huge.

Anyway, this ends the day, with me as the new CoC-LCG european champion (sorry, I'm still happy for this achievement :D)!

BTW, when I go in the room where they are playing the final of the AgoT tournament I'm able to see that another italian is winning! (Italy rules quite a lot this year in Stahleck!).

Sunday:

In the morning the prize-distribution takes place: at the end, Thorondor will give a lot of prizes for everyone...great prize support as always for Stahleck! I will go home with:
- Original drawing made in team by the 3 artists that were at the event!
- Agency stone-domain markers (I was hoping for the white-hastur but there were no more, sigh!).
- CoC playmate
- Cthulhu mug, to drink your part of madness every day!
- Yithian deck as winner of the Nation-cup

And, for everyone, some promos from the old-ccg-days and prints of cards!

After this, since we have still time to stay in the Castle, we organize a draft (2 Eldricht Edition, 2 masks, 1 forgotten cities, if I'm not wrong) where I manage to lose all the games, just to confirm that as draft-player I suck :D

Finally, in the afternoon, we say goodbye to everyone and leave the Castle to Amsterdam; with the promise to meet in 3 weeks in Liege for another Cthulhu events :)

Finally the prop and slop section (meaning: good and bad things).

Prop:

- To Thorondor for the huge efforts he puts in organize every year this event! keep going like this, please!
- To all the players I've met during the weekend, because without you, guys, the event couldn't be so great! (yes, even the funny guy :D)
- To the luck that was with me in the last game in particular!

Slop:

- To the endless traffic jam we were stuck in, in the way back to Amsterdam!!!



And if you have read everything....THANKS :D