Report - French Nationals - 30-09-2012 Rennes

Finalists of the French Nationals are: 1 Vincent Ripoll 2 Pierre Tran Van 2 Alain Greiner 2 Benoît Moyen 2 Julien Ohler Decklist and event information to follow

Event Name: French Nationals 2012 Held in: Rennes Date of the event: 30 sept 2012 Number of players: 29 Format: 3R+F Final standings: 1 Vincent Ripoll 2 4.5 1.5 138 => Enkidu CEL PRO 2 Pierre Tran Van 2 6.5 0 156 => Carna 2 Alain Greiner 1 5.5 1 150 => AAA 2 Benoît Moyen 2 7.5 1 144 => Palla Grande 2 Julien Ohler 1 4.5 0.5 138 => Antonio Neph 6 Pascal Bertrand 1 4.5 126 => Louhi Creation Rites 7 Romain Ben Amar 1 4 138 => Eurobrujah Theo & Beast 8 Antonio Cobo Cuenca 1 4 126 => Theo & Beast 8 Mathias Skubich 1 4 126 => !Ventrue grinder 10 Patrice Lascombe 1 4 114 => Porphyrion 11 Boris Mailhé 1 4 108 => ? 12 Jorge Delgado 1 3 96 => Unexpected Coalition 13 Yoann Guyader 0 3.5 132 => Toreador Guns intercept 14 Vincent Moreau 0 3 114 => Cele Gun group6 15 Thomas Gibson 0 2 120 => Enkidu CEL PRO 16 Jonathan Caillère 0 2 108 => Toolbox Trem/!Trem 17 Timothée Daudée 0 1.5 102 => Eze Guruhi are the Land 17 Reyda Seddiki 0 1.5 102 => Lasombra BH 19 Cédric Goffaux 0 1 90 => Lazve & Friends 19 Jérémy Lhumeau 0 1 90 => ? 19 Nicolas Bigot 0 1 90 => Gustav Brunnelle 22 Olivier Roure 0 1 84 => ? 23 Romain Ledur 0 1 78 => Vignes 23 Denis Mercante 0 1 78 => Nocturn 25 Damien Gouy 0 1 72 => wennie DEM 26 Stephen Girard 0 0.5 90 => ? 27 Xavier Dubos 0 0.5 84 => Uta+Valerius 28 Kamel Senni 0 0.5 78 => AAA 29 Franck Bernard 0 0 60 => Brujah Debate Winner's decklist: Deck Name : Enkidu PRO CEL Author : Vincent Ripoll Description : I got some inspiration from Aleksi Nuora's TWD to build this one. Protean and Celerity are great costless polyvalent combat disciplines (there are only 3 Claws that cost blood amongst the 60 combat cards). I playtested and tweaked it lots of time during our weekly session (thanks to my patient victims) and I'm quite happy about it. Aleksi's version used some "bad" cards from my point of view and is quite vulnerable to many threats. I'm a safe player. So I included many countermeasures to make sure Enkidu's don't get crushed by some Warghouls, pentex of Tempted by Greater Powers... The deck handles almost everything in combat, so if you end up in torpor, it's likely a misplay. As always, the deck is quite vulnerable during the first few turns until Enkidu gets out. Blood Dolls shouldn't be neglected in pool recovery, you don't have any other (apart from the Enkil's Cog trick to bleed during your predator's turn). You can have a reliable multi-rush as soon as you get Enkil Cog. There's always a way to untap (Earth Meld, Sense the Savage Way or the permanent Monster/Homunculus) so it's MUCH more easier when you have the Enkil. Otherwise, try to draw your rush cards or block with Sense the Savage Way. The oust power comes mainly from Andre's special and Enkil Cog. No Fame, no Dragonbound because they tend to slow the cardflow and aren't really necessary. Crypt [13 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 11 average: 6.30769 6x Enkidu, The Noah 11 ANI CEL OBF POT PRO for !Gangrel:4 2x Andre LeRoux 3 aus Toreador:5 1x T.J. 3 cel for Gangrel:4 1x Clifton Derrik 2 cel Brujah:4 1x Leo Washington 2 cel pro !Gangrel:4 1x Sean Andrews 2 cel Toreador:4 1x Iris Bennett 1 pro Caitiff:5 Enkidu in 5 copies sometimes didn't show up. I added one copy (with a 13-crypt card to draw more side-kicks) Library [90 cards] Action [8] 1x Aranthebes, The Immortal -> as always, to contest or to give me some protection against weenie decks (or even intercept... it's a great card) 1x Bum's Rush 1x Deep Song 1x Heroic Might -> makes some combat easier, but is not vital 2x Rumble 1x Sense Death 1x Taunt the Caged Beast Action Modifier [2] 2x Enkil Cog -> allows permanent multirush and can give the edge during's your predator's turn. The +1 bleed is great also. Really a key card. Combat [59] 3x Canine Horde -> why play Drawing when you can get rid of that Ivory Bow/.44 Magnum or Heart of Nizchetus? 3x Claws of the Dead -> should always be used to burn vampires. Can get rid of Ponticulus/Tye/Ambrosius 9x Earth Meld -> defensive, untap, works well with Psyche! and is free. Can't ask more 2x Flesh of Marble -> cycles easily, handles War Ghoul/Carrion/.44 blur etc. 16x Psyche! -> key card, even 16 are sometimes not enough 11x Pursuit 2x Skin of Steel 4x Stutter-Step -> saves slots, can be used by the sidekicks to dodge 9x Taste of Vitae Equipment [1] 1x Gran Madre di Dio, Italy -> against Tupdogs, Nocturns... Master [12] 4x Blood Doll -> slow pool gain and blood management to feed Enkidu. 1x Guardian Angel -> the permanent "prevent 1" is a real life saver. 1x Monster -> permanent untap 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion -> for contest or to lock an annoying minion (Ponticulus or the guy with the gun). Can also slow down your predator when you don't have Enkidu yet) 2x Sudden Reversal -> To be kept against Pentex, Temptation of Greater Power etc. 3x Wider View Master come quite quickly because you cycle lots of cards. You can even jam with master even there are only 11 of them, but it's quite rare. Reaction [6] 6x Sense the Savage Way -> to block of course, but protects also against Rötschreck/Mind Numb/Sensory Deprivation Retainer [2] 1x Homunculus -> not vital, but useful once you have Enkil Cog 1x Raven Spy -> helpful, but not vital.

This deck impresses me. its not the first I've seen, but the fact that an 11 cap wrecking ball with 40 combat cards and 17 defensive cards of those, can multi act and crush ready regions when there were other combat decks present impresses me. I'm very curious about Vincent moreau's g6 cel guns as well. there's good vamps with cel in g 5 and 6, but I've always used g 4 to support 5 instead of 6, basically to use more midcaps. I'm intrigued.

I found interesting to see three different way to use Enkil Cog to multi act in recent TWDA : Shalmath, The Unnamed, and Enkidu now. Enkil Cog multiact, the new flavor of the month ? (not that it remove anything from the winner skill)

Vincent Moreau's deck wasn't that good - he's a fairly new player and is missing some cards (had he asked for them, I would have took them with me for him, but he didn't ) But, definitely, Asguresh's ability is extremely strong, escpecially if you combine it with CEL - makes you very solid against strike: agg, earth meld, Carrion Crows, ...

Asguresh is one of the main vamps in my scandalous deck, he is amazing at not letting his gun get blown up or his beast getting drawn out. I just optimistically thought maybe someone had made alcoan useful since He's the only g6 celerity eyeball person who fits a gun deck.

I have a question...how does Enkidu survive opposing combats, mainly aggropoke (considering that he's usually an acting minion)? Is a single Guardian Angel enough, or is it not an issue in that particular meta?

I thought that too, since there's only a couple fortitude cards, and enky is a big rush target in Ohio playgroup since he only has little fortitude. but there are stutter steps and earth melds enough in this deck to probably survive anything agg poke other than grapple agg poke. now, in the report cel guns, animalism and grapple potence are all listed, but what this deck is weak against is high damage output with fortitude and grapple. Cock robin could torp enky with a rush, some pres a grapple or 3 and maybe 2 fortitude cards. beefcake or hardestadt could use just grapple, fortitude, disarm, then possibly freak drive and graverob. they key is those kinds of decks are not as commons other combat, and the only agg that can routinely get thru to torp enky is rotshreck reliant decks. in metas where combat is common, there's always a chance someone is playing this decks trump, but its certainly not even a garuntee then. I'm just surprised there's no sideslip or adaptability. well, the latter of those kinda sucks, but this deck has a really diverse defensive combat package for being a very offensive combat deck. Stutter step is just funny for 3 possibly agg.

> ReverendRevolver wrote: > I'm just surprised there's no sideslip or adaptability. well, the latter of those kinda sucks, but this deck has a really diverse defensive combat package for being a very offensive combat deck. Stutter step is just funny for 3 possibly agg. > I don't see too much reason to put Sideslip when you can just put more Flesh of Marble to be honest More seriously, Sideslip would mainly serve against aggravated, but the deck seem well armed against thoses, except in case of Grapple, and grapple + aggro is pretty uncommon. When Flesh of marble just make laughable any attempt at grappling with potence, while being powerful against everything else.

Also, 9 tastes when your generally punching double or triple what regular potence does tends to keep beads piled high.

> Ohlmann wrote: > [ but the deck seem well armed against thoses > But how, considering that Enkidu is the one who's acting? I mean, yeah, he can S:CE just in case, but that seems not very efficient to me. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it seems to me that way too many clans have access to aggro damage (any Gangrel, Tzimisce, even any Tremere via Flames of the Nethervoid, if we're discussing first round agg damage, Baali (and particulary the unnamed decks), Assamite, Gargoyle...) for this not to be an issue. Enkidu really can't afford ending up in torpor...

> Kiddo wrote: > But how, considering that Enkidu is the one who's acting? I mean, yeah, he can S:CE just in case, but that seems not very efficient to me. > Guardian angel, weapon destruction, 2 skins of steel, 4 stutter step. That's a lot of thing that can foil you. > > Kiddo wrote: > Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it seems to me that way too many clans have access to aggro damage (any Gangrel, Tzimisce, even any Tremere via Flames of the Nethervoid, if we're discussing first round agg damage, Baali (and particulary the unnamed decks), Assamite, Gargoyle...) for this not to be an issue. Enkidu really can't afford ending up in torpor... > Problem is, aggravated damage tend to not be too efficient in combat. It doesn't prevent hitback, so by itself it's most often 2 blood vs 2 blood in blood management term : 1 for doing aggravated, 1 because of hitback. Compare to .44 (once setup, 0 blood vs 2), Carrion crow (1 blood vs 2 blood), Torn Signpost (1 blood vs 3 blood), etc ... The true value of aggravated is that the vampire is in torpor, ripe for destruction (but cross table rescues, or even sidekick rescue, can ruin your day), and the lost action. But it's just not enough to be that good most of the time. That's why people play animalism combat and not aggropoke. Burning blood is way more reliable and less easy to deal with than torpor.

> Pascal wrote: > 11 Boris Mailhé 1 4 108 => ? > I was playing a GR 1-2 Malkav royalty: The other Lucian . It turned out to be a bad choice: there was far too much politics around for my meager Justicar. I didn't draw a single prince in the three games either, which didn't help.

> Pascal wrote: > Event Name: French Nationals 2012 > Winner's decklist: > > Deck Name : Enkidu PRO CEL > Author : Vincent Ripoll > Combat [60] -> 59 > > Master [11] -> 12 > The content is correct but the figures weren't updated. Compared with the previous version , I replaced an Infernal Pursuit by a Wider View. (That's all!) Still, I managed not to draw Enkidu in the initial crypt during the first round (well, he was sixth, so the time I get him out, I was pretty dead). Prince of Paris, France Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director