Balls of Stihl

Description: A dancing Imbued deck featuring Talbot's Chainsaw. Mental mistakes cost games. In round one, I was blocked transferring equipment to Jennie, but my mental game state had that action succeed, so when I blocked with a one life Jennie two turns later the mistake leads to a burned Jennie. It's really hard to run this deck without her. 0vp in round one. Round two wasn't shaping up to be any better. My prey was playing Lasombra and influenced Carolina Valez and Lord Leopold Valdemar in that order. Not being able to damage one of them and having to handle theft with the other was going to be problematic. My predator was playing Carna, but had to worry about Rachel Brandywine, leaving me some wiggle room. This allowed me to get some early powers into play. Late game I used Angel of Berlin to put Talbot's Chainsaw on Jennie. She rushed the famous Lord Leopold, dunking him. After unlocking with Vigilance, I was able to bleed with Strike/Second Sight to oust. Next turn with time running low, I land the ousting bleed on my new prey, but Carna decides to Eagle's Sight my ousting bleed. Instead of a game win, I end up with 1.5vp. That's enough to sneak into the finals as 5th seed. Ian Lee with Lasombra -> Darby Keeney with Legacy of Pander -> Alex Romano with Rachel Brandywine Madness Network -> me -> Mark Loughman with Carna Darby gets the Information Highway in his opening hand and dumps 3 Pander on the table. Alex influences Zoe to help defend against the impending Pander horde. I drop counters on Travis and Mark begins influencing as well. Ian gets an early Zillah's Valley and brings a titled vampire into play before Darby has a chance to call any votes. Darby turns into a weenie bleed deck, calling occasional votes that Ian permits. Alex is behind on getting Rachel in play and needs to spend lots of time looking backwards. My ability to cut Mark's crypt (for the second time today) to hide Carna means that my early actions aren't blocked. I quickly get to three Imbued with Travis, Jennie, and Jack(?). I'm actually in a really good spot because of the pressure on Alex, who is floating around 3-4 pool. After an Unmasking, I get out two more Imbued about the time Darby transfers out. Alex still has to contend with Ian, but the pressure is less. I start having to deal with Alex's bleeds. After only the occasional forward action, Pentex floats into my hand. The time is now. I Pentex Carna and Strike/Second Sight my way through 9 pool. I am completely locked and Alex undoes most of the pool gain I received for my oust. Ian was low on pool because Dominate is pretty good, so as my new prey, I Strike/Second Sight my way through his 3 pool, grabbing another VP. Alex burns through my VP pool because I am again locked completely. On my next turn, I have 5 Imbued ready for Alex and am sitting on 14 pool. I have two Champions with 3 and 5 convictions respectively, Second Sight on every Imbued, and intercept powers and equipment on top of the Unmasking. I just need to make the last 15 minutes. With the Madness Network in play, I need to defend against 6 actions between my unlocks. I survive a turn, play Unity, use it to put two Angel of Berlin on top of my library. That will give me enough unlock to survive until time. After one more big effort by Alex, he concedes with a few minutes left on the clock. Imbued get a lot of table hate and I did take some cross-table vote damage, but not too much in this game. The deck is very solid if you can get the setup right. Early blocks of powers, Travis's ability, and Inspire actions put you behind the curve. I was lucky to get most of my setup because of table dynamics. The deck is fun to play, but requires many, small, correct steps, like a Rube-Goldberg machine, before you're in a position to be truly successful.