Stahleck Tourney 2010: 5th place

It was my first time in a competitive card game event and it was a truly great experience. I met some great guys and learned more than a thing or two.
When I see a card played in 4 different ways, that I never considered before, I really wonder what I had been playing before.

Many brought decks with new and interesting ideas (Max to quote one) and nobody played ‘Endless Interrogation’, which to me is a good sign.

For the tournament I brought a version of “Things in the Ground” based on 3 factions: Shub, Yog and Miskatonic.

The premise is that this deck wasn’t meant to be competitive, as it was lacking some fundamental aspects i.e. removal, but I wanted to experiment how well it could perform against top decks.

So here is the deck list:

3x ASL F3 •Dr. Carson, Fringe Psychologist
3x CS F39 Dr. Carson's Treatment
2x CS F28 Strange Librarian
3 x Museum Curator
2x CS F126 Ancient Guardian
3x ATH F13 Twilight Cannibal
2x CS F124 Slavering Gug
2x CS F122 •Y'Golonac, The Obscenity
2x CS F121 •Shub-Niggurath, The All Mother
2x SOA F22 Albino Goat-spawn
3x SOA F31 Things in the Ground
3x CS F106 Cannibal Ghast
2x CS F101 •Yog-Sothoth, In Whom the Spheres Meet
3x CS F109 Guardian Elder Thing
3x CS F104 Living Mummy
2x AAH F15 •Cthuga, Fiery Conflagration
3x CS F115 Journey to the Other Side
2x YWD F20 Speak to the Dead
2x AJK F117 •Nyarlathotep, The Black Pharaoh
3x CS F146 Arkham Asylum
1 x SCA Chtulhu

Total 51

It did work quite well and I was able to lay down the ‘Things in the Ground’ pretty soon in all 4 games.
Here is a quick report on the game that I drew and the game that I lost.

The one I drew was against Arnaud (aka Arcanis). It was a very good start for me. After a first defensive round with a Cannibal and an Albino Goat-spawn, I could lay down Shub and Y’golonac in the second round. Got the first story and then he destroyed my TitG. I got it back and he destroyed it again. The game came to a stall but he was slowly catching up, by showing me how a skilled player can play Y’golonac.
He then snatched a story with a surprise attack with Cats of Ulthar, bringing the game to a draw. Thing were getting interesting from both sides, and I was ready to lay down my third TitG, when time was called and a deuce was set. Great game with a great player.

The one I lost was against a mono Cthulhu played by young german fella’ named Christian.
Again, a good start for me (thanks to the lucky Cthulhu added at the last minute) as I could play ‘Things in the Ground’ on the second round via Museum curator. First flick wasn’t that good as I gave him the Hydra but then I could lay down all my big guns and I got the first story.
I kept control of the table for the next few rounds and cleared the table with the mummy. When everything was set for an easy win, the dreaded card appeared (his only Dimentional Rift). Here the weakness of my deck emerged quite clearly and he reset the game.
He got a better restart and laid a few tokens down. I slowly picked up and got my big guns back in place, while my deck started looking thinner and thinner. I blindly kept milking the cow until the inevitable happened as I flicked his Cthulhu on the table. A few minutes of game remained to play and 7 cards where remaining in my deck, so I was down to holding the single story advantage in a grand standing.
Despite me having Yog, Shub, my own lucky Cthulhu and Y’golonac on the table he set up his deadly combination forcing me to triple sacrifice for 2 consecutive rounds. He then snatched his fifth token activating the story… what story ? draw until you have 8 cards… End of the game and a big hand shake.

So, a few considerations about my deck.

Biggest mistake was not including Hungry Dark Young instead of Ancient Guardian. Hungry Dark Young can set up some great loops especially if you have Shub in play from start.

Secondly, when you play any version of this deck you must consider that at some point you will be burning the candle from both ends, therefore a deck of 55-60 cards must be considered in order to give you some room for your milling. Otherwise you should consider when slowing down. A variant to this deck could be exploiting this factor using “Forgotten Shoggot” but I like better my mummy version, especially against rush decks.

Thirdly, the new version of Yog (that I couldn’t use because not yet legal in tournaments) adds a whole new dimension to this deck making it very competitive. Now a flicked spell is no longer wasted, provided that you have Yog on the table, and this can greatly help correcting in time some undesirable side effects. So this is my revised version of “Things in the Ground”:

3x ASL F3 •Dr. Carson, Fringe Psychologist
3x CS F39 Dr. Carson's Treatment
3x CS F28 Strange Librarian
3x CS F122 •Y'Golonac, The Obscenity
3x CS F121 •Shub-Niggurath, The All Mother
2x SOA F22 Albino Goat-spawn
3x SOA F31 Things in the Ground
3x CS F106 Cannibal Ghast
3x •Yog-Sothoth, Lord of Time and Space
3x CS F104 Living Mummy
2x AAH F15 •Cthuga, Fiery Conflagration
3x CS F115 Journey to the Other Side
3x YWD F20 Speak to the Dead
2x AJK F117 •Nyarlathotep, The Black Pharaoh
3x CS F146 Arkham Asylum
3x CS F131 Hungry Dark Young
3x SOA F32 Calling Down the Ancients
2x CS F119 Unspeakable Resurrection
2x ADN F53 Ghoulish Predator
3 x Museum Curator
2 x Spiritual Guidance
2 x CS F157 Burrowing beneath
1x YWB F64 •Cthulhu, Lord of R'lyeh

Total 60 +1

And the moral is;
Whatever you do with TinG, do not flick Cthulhu on the wrong side.

Thank you very much for your report, this is nice to see that someone took the TitG's deck to Stahleck. Hope we'll have to possibility to play against each one other soon...