(Death) Stars of the Stage

Description: Daughters Death Star variant. Update of the classic Matthew Morgan Death Star with newer Anarch cards and a switch to Daughters of Cacophony. I played an earlier version of this deck last Week of Nightmares and squeaked into a final with it, but the deck was not nearly resilient enough. Darby Keeney suggested adding more Conductors and the sect change for Embraces allowed me to ditch Seattle Committee and Twilight Camp for better Masters. In Round 1, I was sandwiched in between Alex and Mark. I had a brief window where Alex was a 10 pool and I drew my first Revolutionary Council. With Alex's prey at 1 pool, I had to go for the vote. Mark was showing sporadic intercept and managed to catch me. My game went downhill quickly as they teamed-up to bounce Alonso Petrodon to me. Round 2 was much better, but a slow game with 3 vote decks, so there was lots of talking. My prey had a Legendary, Cardinal-Benedicted Isouda get decapitated, so I was mostly in a good position, but with very little card movement, I was mostly a horde-bleed deck. First Tradition hit the table and locked quite a few Methuselahs. I was able to work successfully because I had an un-Converted Yseult, calling my prey's Black Forest Base vote. The game somewhat devolved from there and I ended with 4vp. Alex Romano (Group 4/5 Nos Royalty) -> Mark Loughman (Emerald Legionnaire) -> Kelly Schultz (The unnamed w/Maleficia) -> Me -> Ben Peal (Black Hand toolbox) I chose to sit as Kelly's prey not remembering what he was playing. The good thing about The unnamed was that it took him several turns to get it in play. I had a good opening crypt draw and got Yseult and Angela Preston early. The Embraces came up quickly. Mark got Erlik and Erebus, a few Legionnaires and some guns, but spent way too much. Alex scored an early VP. I never blocked The unnamed and fortunately it never got the Enkil Cog. I tried to keep my pool total high enough via Con Boon and for the most part was in good shape. I called my first Revolutionary Council vote for 14, all pool damage to my prey. Then, using Firebrand unlocked and call two Con Boons. Unfortunately each ended via Evil Eye, resulting in no pool gain. On my next turn, I started with 4 pool. Losing 1 to Contagion and paying 1 more pool to recycle Revolutionary Council via Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, leaving me at 2 pool. Ben was at 7 and the vote should have been easy to pass with Conductor, 2 Barons, 3 Firebrands, and Bastielle Opera House (22 votes), but I stupidly put The Coven in play on my previous turn, which meant that Kelly's Horde with Malificia gained blood without having to lock. I stymied my own oust, as the Horde Evil-Eyed the vote. I spent the next few actions trying to cycle into some kind of oust, including running Angela through several different Baron titles, bleeding, calling other votes, but my math always came up 1 pool short. So, I looked backwards and Kelly was within range of the the Dominate. A quick deal with Alex was hatched and I called a Lily Prelude at inferior putting all 4 points on my predator. Ben gets up to 10 pool and then Alex lunges. He hits Unleash Hell's Fury first, but manages to finish him off with the other two vampires. I'm sure if another action were available to him, I would have been off the table as well. Instead, I start my turn with 2 pool, paying 1 to recur Revolutionary Council again and call it to oust Ben. I send an Embrace over to burn the vampire in torpor, but instead burn Warsaw Station. I send a bleed of 1 over to grab the Edge. Alex plays another Station (his pool is around 20 at this point). He sends in a bleed with Alonso Petrodon, boosting it to 5 and gets Archoned. He takes a couple of tool up actions, including Heroic Might. After rushing one of my Barons into torpor, he passes the turn back to me. Edge pays to grab the Revolutionary Council again and I easily pass it, leaving Alex at 6 or 7 pool. Alex plays Pentex on my remaining Baron (Angela) and rushes my only other "real" Daughter. She survives via Majesty and he attempts to leave defenders. Alex told me after that he was cycling, looking for a Sudden as he expected me to play Pentex. I start my turn with 4 pool and all of my remaining cards in my hand. I play Pentex and there's no Sudden, so we're contesting. I call my other Revolutionary Council vote, hitting 3 stealth as I bypass his standing vampire. I had the Daring the Dawn in hand at this point, but in case something went wrong I wanted her out-of-torpor. The last vote succeeds and I take the table 3-2.