Yep, my congratulations to Damien, too!

COCLCG said:

I don't know if he also played it on Sunday - I had to leave early and didn't see what he played.

The funny thing is both me and Wolfgang (who picked me up on the to Liege) had independently considered playing the Dark Byakhee. We both had the problem that we didn't have the time to create a new deck and like Francesco our two latest APs arrived only a week before the tournament.

I had played four test games using Dark Byakhee against my old deck and DB won only once. Two games were very close, though, taking over an hour and ending with 2:3 stories. On the day before the tournament we played another two test games, one against Wolfgang's old deck and one against Christian's preliminary deck (based on Ulrich's deck from GenCon 2011(?)). DB didn't win against either so we decided to go with our old decks.

In the tournament I actually played against Jonathan in the second round (after being crushed by mzi in round one) and immediately recognized the deck. My familiarity with the deck caused me to become overconfident, though, so after leading with two stories to zero I made a small mistake, allowing him to score his first story, followed by a surprising win of the 'Village of Ash' helped by taking over my 'Julia Brown'. In the end we both had two stories and ran out of time. He was declared winner because he had one success token more than me.

Deserves me right, I guess. Well, at least I won the two last games but that was a small consolation.

Anyway, just like last year it was a great tournament with many interesting decks and to my big surprise a fair share of combo decks, as well. I was definitely glad I had decided to keep Snow Graves in my deck… I have few opportunities to play CoC between tournaments, so I played as many games as I could in the time I had.

I'll refrain from saying more about the other decks, though, before Worlds (i.e. November 11th), since several players asked for it.

oh well. at least its seen some good use as a tester ( which is what i use it for against my other decks ). it was made back in the ancient relics cycle ( with a one card change to update using ya-te-veo ). perhaps it just doesn't match the newer decks available anymore. but i still like it and it has served me well to date. thanks for the consideration !!

and yes. congrats to damien of course !!

Great tourney!

Thanks go to Fred for his hospitality and a well run event!

I have posted my deck in the appropriate section.

The tournament was great.

I will only comment other decks after Worlds is over.

Hello.

Decklists are being compiled at the moment by Loïc in DeckBuilder. As soon as he has finished the work (it may tale a few more days, hey, after all, 24 decklists!) I'll post all of them except the ones that players have explicitely asked not to do so before the Worlds. Mmmh, only 10 days left to wait… ;-)

Please no flame war on the "no scouting or deck secrecy" topic here! We promise to post all decks after the Worlds. So the info will be shared among the whole community.

But after all, the Allies did not send their D-Day plan to the Axis before it started.

I'll post a more formal report later on, but I've a lot of home improvement works to do during this All-Saints "long" WE, so I don't know yet when I'll find the time to write it.

Thanks for the update, that's great news!

At least in my opinion, it's perfectly valid to keep the decks secret until after the final round of competition (which is what Worlds is for some players) so as not to tip off your opponents.

if at all possible ( please ), i'd be interested to see the match ups as well, to figure who got an easy ride to the final 8 and who had to fight tooth and nail against counter decks to their own. from what i read i got the impression that a player only faces 4 of the 23 decks in the preliminaries, which is the inherent problem with larger tournaments i suppose.

COCLCG said:

cenacle-hd.bb-fr.com/t2440p30-championnat-europeen-coc-lcg-27-10-2012-irv-liege

I use Google-Translate to read the site which usually works well enough to get the gist of what's going on

COCLCG said:

What's the difference with smaller tournament if you still play 4 preliminary rounds?You still only face 4 of the x decks presents… and in the smaller tournament you have less chances to face very special combo decks, because you have less people. I mean 23 opponents mean more different meta-games than if there are 8 opponents. So IMHO it's more difficult with more opponent because you have more chances to fight against the decks which counters yours!

But anyway, I see what I can do for you, I have the matches history (not the number of stories won, just the winner and the loser for each match), it's in text format, I can try to post it here (let me just format it correctly).

NB: 3 means Win , 0 means Lose (this is not the number of stories won by each players!)

--- ROUND 1
Max 3
Bryan 0
-
Jonathan 0
Vincent 3
-
Roberto 0
Damien 3
-
Fred 0
Christian K. 3
-
Wolfgang 3
Francesco 0
-
Paul 3
Raymond 0
-
Supa 3
Florentin 0
-
Michael 0
Mzi 3
-
Arnaud 3
Graham 0
-
Minas 3
Christian G. 0
-
Gilles 3
Stéphane 0
-
Olivier 3
Kris 0
-

--- ROUND 2
Damien 3
Arnaud 0
-
Vincent 0
Wolfgang 3
-
Minas 3
Gilles 0
-
Christian K. 0
Max 3
-
Mzi 3
Olivier 0
-
Supa 0
Paul 3
-
Roberto 3
Kris 0
-
Christian G. 0
Fred 3
-
Jonathan 3
Michael 0
-
Graham 3
Stéphane 0
-
Florentin 0
Raymond 3
-
Bryan 0
Francesco 3
-

--- ROUND 3
Damien 3
Max 0
-
Minas 3
Wolfgang 0
-
Mzi 3
Paul 0
-
Roberto 3
Fred 0
-
Vincent 3
Olivier 0
-
Jonathan 0
Arnaud 3
-
Graham 3
Gilles 0
-
Christian K. 3
Raymond 0
-
Supa 0
Francesco 3
-
Christian G. 0
Stéphane 3
-
Florentin 0
Michael 3
-
Bryan 0
Kris 3
-

--- ROUND 4
Damien 3
Minas 0
-
Mzi 3
Roberto 0
-
Vincent 3
Arnaud 0
-
Graham 0
Wolfgang 3
-
Christian K. 0
Paul 3
-
Max 3
Francesco 0
-
Jonathan 0
Olivier 3
-
Supa 0
Michael 3
-
Stéphane 3
Fred 0
-
Gilles 3
Kris 0
-
Raymond 0
Christian G. 3
-
Florentin 0
Bryan 3
-

---1/4 F
Damien 3
Roberto 0
-
Max 3
Wolfgang 0
-
Minas 3
Vincent 0
-
Paul 0
Mzi 3
-

--- 1/2 F
Damien 3
Max 0
-
Minas 3
Mzi 0
-

--- FINALE
Damien 3
Minas 0

FredhoT said:

hee hee hee. thats pretty funny coming from a tournament that included 5 or 6 logan / necronomicon combo decks ( from what i hear ). i am being humerous just to note. i wouldnt worry too much about the deck posting issue either. if i, way down here with my very limited connections within the community, already know what decks came 1st and 2nd, then it's a fair chance others attending worlds might. i myself am SWORN TO SECRECY, but i can't vouch for anyone else. you've got a mole !! hahaha ( again with the humerous there ).

Any recommendations of where in Brussels I could play call of cthulhu? Any games stores do games nights there?

Magnas said:

To my best knowledge, only Marcus, from l'Antre-Jeux, is a little bit involved in LCG activities

http://www.antre-jeux.be/

Otherwise, if you want to play, contact us in Liège, we play more often on thursday evening, but there are a few players playing on friday evening. We gather at the gameclub Objectif Jeux.

B_P, the 2012 European Champion has posted his winning deck over at the Cenacle:

cenacle-hd.bb-fr.com/t2457-vainqueur-championnat-d-europe-2012

I assume, he's going to post an English version himself here as soon as he finds the time.

Here's my english version of my deck.

As I tried to explain in the french version, i was working months ago on a hastur ST agency bounce discard deck… based on the new nerfed/errated apeirophobia. I had no idea what I was playing 3 days before the tournament, so chose to play a polyvalent Chtulhu hastur deck with some obvious power cards in it.

This deck is not a combo deck or a one way tactic deck. It's just a counter meta deck, with some agressivity, some control, can rush but not a lot, some recursive effects. The meta this year in Europe was quite bothersome. I expected a combo deck, a stall deck glimpse, some rush destruction's deck, some hastur stygian eyes/infernal obsession, Marcus Jamburg for sure and maybe a leftover of the chtulhu yog destruction sacrifice decks of last year. Lots of differents types of deck. Last year, it was quite simple, yog Cthulhu sacrifice destruction was the choice of for pretty everyone. Some cthulhu Shubs for the few remaining people.

cthulhu:

3 x Deep One Assault
3 x Sacrificial Offering
3 x Naaginn
3 x Somnambulant Dreamer
3 x Dreamland Fanatic
2 x Deep One Rising
1 x The Terror of the Tides

hastur:

2 x Power Drain
3 x 70 Steps
3 x Cavern of flame
3 x Stygian Eye
2 x Infernal obsession
3 x Performance artist
1 x Long Dead Prince
2 x Victoria Glasser
2 x Crazed Arsonist

neutral:

3 x Ice Shaft
3 x Marcus Jamburg
2 x Descandant of Eibon

shubb:

3 x Snow Graves

50 cards.

My first though was the problem with the jumping characters like master of the myths, dreamland fanatics, stalking hound, dogs, cats, etc. Do I play them? Do I counter them with a flux stabilizer (and play miska….) or do I counter them with 70 steps?

70 steps was my choice.

Cats are not played a lot anymore and I can deal with dogs with somanbulant dreamer or the cavern of flame.

Then, some recursitvity with ice shaft jamburg, some lock with… snow graves and jamburg. Some investigation with descandant and Jamburg. too much desctruction? Nagginn and descandant can come back from the discard pile. Some power drains and performance artirsts for bothersome glimpse, shocking transformation, or logan (for example) .

The main idea was to use as less as possible the cards in my hand and just use the P D and P A in critical moments. I decided to not put too much counters and anti support cards in the deck. It's meaningless to fight against an opponent jamburg with anti support event cards. Crazy Arsonists was the only way to counter (enough) in an economic way an other jamburg. I just tried to grab enough time to win stories.

My greatest fear was y golonak. My only way to deal with it was the cavern of flame. If i don't have it in play, i'm dead. I was lucky, didn't have any Y go in the main tournament.

Cthulhu The Card Game, European Championship 2012
26-28 November 2012, Liège, Belgium

Credits:
First of all, I would like to thank our generous sponsors: Fantasy Flight Games, Objectif Jeux, l'Autre Monde and EagleCard. They allowed us to offer great prizes, a free entrance for all participants and a large area to accomodate 24 players the saturday.

Then, I want to highlight the great job done by the three judges and the Tourney Magistrate Master, Loïc; without them, the tournament would not have been possible.

Of course I also give thumbs up to all the Organisation team (the Cthulhu LCG players from Objectif Jeux, our gameclub in Liège). Their help was greatly appreciated: gameroom set up, IT logistics, sponsors contact, variant design, event announcement design,…

Special thanks to Sandy who covered the event and interviewed players.

And last but not least, big thanks to the players who have sometimes come from the other side of the earth to attend with lots of fairplay and pleasure. Thanks to them, the Euro Champ is the biggest Cthulhu LCG event of 2012 by the number of participants.

Report:

The week before the Champ, I had the pleasure to discuss with Anton Torres (FFG) and, even though he had just spent an exhausting week at Essen Spiel'12 gamefair, he was kind to arrange a huge shipment of prizes, graciously offered by FFG.
At the same time, I had finished arrangements with Wolfgang Penetsdorfer (EagleCard) who also offered extra prizes and nices posters to add some atmosphere to the Gameroom.

Friday evening, a few Cultists showed up, mainly PlasticXO (F), Jon (Achil), Raymond and Bryan (B), Florentin (myotaro) and Paul (Dark Initiate). Some others remained in their den in order to polish their deadly weapons for the day after…
We played a few games, enjoyed some belgian beers and commented the new cards from the last AP's and the new deluxe expansion.

Saturday morning, 10:00am, a crowd of 24 cultists is spotted in the game room. A few of them are writing their last will on a paper, which is then transmitted, as a pact of blood, to the Great Priest of the Ceremony to come. Some others are starring in the void, as Called by Azathoth, already accepting their funest end.

At (almost) 11:00am, the TO gives the details to the tournament organisation. A few minutes later, the first round is then launched. During each round (4) of the preliminary phase, 12 tables are set up. Here below we can see 9 of the 12.

It is not long before the first player become insane, running and shouting through the gameroom, he simply won his first match against last year Euro Champ, Graham…! He is still wondering how he did it…

Next 3 rounds are played in a timely fashion, and soon the Top 8 emerge:
B_P, durango, mzi, Mr Patate, Thorondor, Dark Initiate, Darkman, Carioz.

Strong players with strong decks, this selection sounds logical. A few surprises, however: neither Graham nor konx (the two previous Euro Champs) are part of it.

Time for the Quarter, Semi and then the Finale.

The top 8 ranking arrange things so as we have a belgian player in each of the 4 quarter-finales. And they all win. So the semi-finale are facing 100% belgian players. A situation never seen before.

Durango and B_P are victorious and move towards the Finale.

Even though Durango plays a rush-agro cthulhu-agency deck, B_P is able to contain it and will finally demonstrate he is the strongest player of this tournament.

His cthulhu-hastur toolbox deck is posted on the french forum Le Cenacle: http://cenacle-hd.bb-fr.com/t2457-vainqueur-championnat-d-europe-2012 . He also explains how he managed to win against the combo decks Altar+Logan+NecroShub or Glimpse of the Void there: http://cenacle-hd.bb-fr.com/t2440p30-championnat-europeen-coc-lcg-27-10-2012-irv-liege#29894

The semi-finalists and finalists played 7 matches in a row, from 11:00am till 7:30pm. Congratulations to them.

Final ranking of the European Championship 2012:

1. Damien (B_P) - B
2. Minas (Durango) - B
3. mzi (mzi) - B
4. Max (Mr Patate) - B
5. Wolfgang (Thorondor) - A
6. Paul (Dark Initiate) - CAN
7. Vincent (Darkman) - NL
8. Roberto (Carioz) - I
9. Arnaud (Arcanis) - B
10. PlasticXO (PlasticXO) - F
11. Gilles (jekothalep) - L
12. Graham - JP
13. Francesco (konx) - I
14. Christian K. - D
15. Michael (jhaelen) - D
16. Stéphane (Evil) - B
17. Jonathan (Achil) - B
18. Christian G. - D
19. Fred (FredhoT) - B
20. Supa (Supa) - B
21. Bryan - B
22. Kris (bearpaw) - B
23. Raymond (WosRaymond) - B
24. Florentin (Myotaro) - L

I'm in the process of encoding all the decklists and will post a summary of them ASAP.

Sunday, we gathered 10 survivors to play a more "relaxed" tournament, with a homebrewed variant from Achil (ticking clock & hidden stories), which was fun to play, adding some different themes and mechanisms by means of a new story deck (played hidden and the event must be triggered when the story is won) and Dawn-Day-Twilight-Night "clock deck", giving some temporary advantages to some factions. Every participant enjoyed it, and made constructive comments to the designer.

1. Jon (Achil)
2. Damien (B_P)
3. Supa
4. Minas (durango)
5. Raymond
6. Fred (FredhoT)
7. Wolfgang (thorondor) replaced by Loïc
8. Bryan
9. Christian K. ( played 2 rounds out of 4)
10. Michael (played 2 rounds out of 4)

All in all, I'm really happy how the tournaments went, especially when hearing the good feedbacks from the participants. I'm particularly pleased to have hosted 24 players from 9 different countries (Canada, Japan, Luxemburg, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium). Everyone played with sportsmanship and fairplay, which is the most important to me.

See you there, next year.

More pictures of the saturday: http://cenacle-hd.bb-fr.com/t2440p30-championnat-europeen-coc-lcg-27-10-2012-irv-liege#30037

I've started encoding all the decklists from the last Euro Champs 2012. Apart from Seekers of knowledge which was not official, the cards pool is pretty the same as today.

I still have to finish the job (6 decks remaining) and I foresee to do some stats afterwards.

You can find the 18 first decks (not in ranking order) there: http://cenacle-hd.bb-fr.com/t2517-decks-eurochamp-2012-liege-27-10-2012#30925

enjoy

FredhoT

I've finished encoding all the decklists and have sorted them by ranking:

http://cenacle-hd.bb-fr.com/t2517-decks-eurochamp-2012-liege-27-10-2012#30925

I've also added a link to a file with almost all the decks in DeckBuilder format (.zdb)

And here , I've posted a link to an excel file with all the decklists, ready to be analysed (filtering, stats, …).

Wow, thanks for taking the time to do this - this is outstanding!

Fred, i read you were suprised that I didn't use a skill increaser for using the Logan loop.

I didnt use it because I just didnt discover it. Also I would never thought it could work with only one Logan. I still find it very strange that you can get the sacrificed character back from the same effect you sacrificed it for. I suck at understanding timing issues.

My deck idea was just about getting as many characters to discard pile as fast as possible and get them all back at once using Logan. Also I dislike infinite combo's so if I were that smart to find this loop I probably should not played with it.

@Darkman: well, yes, indeed, I was not aware of that loop before the tournament neither. It's just that when I encoded all the decks, there were 4 decks with theNecro-Logan infinite loop (mzi, carioz, Graham, Dark Initiateà and only one (you) with almost everything needed, exceted the skill boost. So I wondered if it was not a decklist typo error, or something. Nothing important, really…

Note that carioz, Graham and Dark Initiate decks had the same use of the loop: use the khopesh inifinitely to clear opponent's board.

mzi deck was using the loop to disard opponent's deck (infinitely recycling the Predatory Byakhee).

@jhaelen: thanks. I think it would have been more interesting if I had been able to post them sooner, but the card pool is almost the same today, and in Seekers of Knowledge, I don't think the miska boosts would have been played so much. I only think we would have seen more Nug and Umr at-Tawil.

FredhoT said:

I've seen a SoK-dominated Miskatonic deck in action (being played expertly by Dark Initiate at Stahleck) and I'm not convinced it's as good as some of the decks we've seen at Liege or the World Championship, so I think it's more likely that individual cards from Seekers will be used to optimize existing deck ideas.

although i have seen (and built) a LOT of decks that have only become viable because of only 1 or 2 cards from Seekers as well.

COCLCG said:

Of course, but jhaelen and myself thought more of the decks in the current competitive metagame. And our wish is that the new deluxe expansions will open now deckbuilding possibilities for miska and syndicate.

COCLCG said:

COCLCG said:

Of course, but jhaelen and myself thought more of the decks in the current competitive metagame. And our wish is that the new deluxe expansions will open now deckbuilding possibilities for miska and syndicate.