Dream a Little Dream (Cup Edition)

Description: !Malk Dream World bread deck. Some minor tweaks since my original win with this. Stavros is really the star and every time I saw Alicia Burrows, I just wished it was Stavros. It may be better to shrink the crypt up more by replacing both Alicias with another Stavros and Fabrizia. Switching to 4/5 would add some OBF help with !Nosferatu weenies, but loses General Perfidio Dios. The extra vote and extra place to toss Powerbase: Madrid votes is useful but may be making the deck too large overall. I chose this deck for the day because it tends to have surprising survivability. I got 2GW on NAC Day One this year with it and I have great familiarity with it. Since the event was going to include many folks I had never played with, I wanted that familiarity and reliability. I squeaked into the finals with 1GW5, earning my game win in round one, but faced Darby Keeney's Temptation deck in rounds 2 and 3 plus the final (my deck stalled in both directions). His deck is a solid counter to mine: Temptation, allies that can steal blood (and life), and permacept in Bupe and Saatet-Ta. For me the day revolves around battling that same Temptation deck over and over and over, but there was more to the final that just our two decks. 1st seed Dave Litwin Dmitra Breed/Boon 0.5vp -> 3rd seed Bill Troxel Mordecai Ben-Nun Anarch Legionnaires 0.5vp -> 5th seed Kevin Mitcham Arika with G2/3 Ventrue 0.5vp -> 4th seed Me 1.5vp -> 2nd seed Darby Keeney Temptation 0vp I had no seating choice and am not sure where I would have sat had I been given a choice. I am pretty sure that Darby chose to sit in front of me because in our two previous encounters that day I did not manage to oust him. The latter encounter ended with us being heads up and he was about 2 minutes from ousting me. I think it was his best seating choice given our previous interactions. I went fourth and had Fabrizia, so I was able to get the baby-making going early. I had some extra time without interference, since Kevin's first vampire was Arika. Darby brought Bupe up early so I was spending more stealth than I wanted to do normal things like hunting. Bill was dumping large portions of his library with Liquidation and Kevin was rightly concerned. He tried to Entrance the first Legionnaire, but 2 Detect Authorities and 3 intercept later, he was caught losing a lot of blood in the process. This left the window open for Darby to Tempt Arika. With Dave putting Dmitra in play, Darby needed to use Arika to help him oust, since stealing his prey's vampires was not as effective. That being said, Dmitra was trying to help Arika get blood back. The game shifted to everyone hanging on. Bill kept getting more Legionnaires and had The Unamsking and FBI in play. Kevin got up two more large Ventrue. I was up to around 8 minions with Fabrizia Tempted and 2 Creation Rites in torpor. Darby was making the most headway using Arika effectively and getting Dave's pool to single digits. Then the game state changed. Neither Dave nor Kevin liked The Unmasking and I had drawn The Uncoiling. I made a deal with the table to have them pass a Con Boon !Malk (for 7) and I would put The Uncoiling in play. Darby was making solid progress and put the Fear of Mekhet on Arika to reduce her high blood total to make it easier to grab her with the Temptation. Occasionally Dave was making a baby and Bill was still churning out Legionnaires. Bill made a first push against Kevin. Kevin was feeling the pressure and also irked by Darby partially controlling Arika. Kevin calls Anarchist Uprising to really put the hurt on Bill (and me), but Dave was up to six minions and Darby had enough that it was voted down because I would have been in position to get a quick 2vp. After that, I decided to make a move. I played Dream World and get Darby down to 3 pool. I wasn't able to finish him. Darby is in a no-win position and has Dave, Kevin, and me working on him. After some forward action, he transfers out. This both hurts and helps me later in the game. Dave makes little progress against Bill. With a VP on the table, Bill makes a big push against Kevin. Kevin is really low on his turn and makes some progress on me as he gains pool. With Darby gone, the Fear of Mekhet kept on of Kevin's vampires in the game, which I had not counted on. I took a decent amount of damage. I decide that survival is more important than going forward against Dave, since I didn't have a Dream World to play. Instead I farm my Blood Dolls and call a Con Boon. The Boon passes as Dave figures, I may need to survive Bill and he can't take Bill heads-up (even if he has the tie-breaker). Bill makes another push and after some valiant defense, Kevin survives by playing Majesty with the formerly Feared Lucinde. So, while Lucinde put a hurt on me the previous turn, her presence keeps Kevin in the game, which in the end allows me to win. With almost no time left, Arika bleeds for 7, which I take, leaving me at 4 pool when time is called.