Josh Duffin's Unofficial Deck Archive

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I don't think this deck was especially creative... just especially
bad. (It still looks reasonable to me on paper, so I'm not sure
exactly what's really wrong with it, besides not having Dominate...)

Here it is as it was played that night - I meant to switch two of the
Obf masters for Ser masters but couldn't find them in time. I think I
was also going to fill it to 90 cards with a Giant's Blood and 2x
Perfectionist, but either couldn't find them or couldn't justify going
to 30 masters (even though 8 of them are supposed to be
Waters-able/discardable). So I'm pretty sure I played it at 87.


"Let A Thousand Lies Bloom"

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 12, Max: 23, Avg: 4.58)
----------------------------------------------
1 Lalitha ser 2 Followers of Set
1 Khalil Anvari pre ser 3 Followers of Set
1 Celine Chevalier obf ser 3 Followers of Set
1 Nepata obf pre ser 4 Followers of Set
1 Sir Marriot D`Urban aus obf ser PRE 5 Followers of Set
2 Dedefra nec obf SER 5 Followers of Set
2 Count Ormonde dom pre ser OBF 5 Followers of Set
1 Ezekiel obf pot PRE SER 6 Followers of Set
1 Samat Ramal-Ra pre ser tha OBF 6 Followers of Set
1 Hesha Ruhadze ani obf pre SER 6 Followers of Set

Library: (87 cards)
-------------------
Master (27 cards)
5 Blood Doll
2 Opium Den
2 Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1 Temple Hunting Ground
3 Archon Investigation
5 Path of Typhon, The
4 Serpentis
4 Obfuscate
1 Retribution

Action (16 cards)
7 Temptation
1 Form of Corruption
7 Waters of Duat
1 Lure of the Serpent

Action Modifier (29 cards)
9 Truth of a Thousand Lies
3 Form of the Serpent
6 Cloak the Gathering
3 Faceless Night
2 Elder Impersonation
3 Lost in Crowds
3 Spying Mission

Reaction (2 cards)
2 Delaying Tactics

Combat (11 cards)
2 Majesty
2 Skin of the Adder
7 Tongue of the Serpent

Combo (2 cards)
2 Swallowed by the Night

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Josh Duffin's winning decklist from Infernal Plague 
- Castro Valley, California.

crypt (12):

2 Huitzilopochtli
3 High Priest Angra Mainyu
4 Giotto Verducci
2 Mary the Black
1 Barbaro Lucchese

library (90):

2 Archon Investigation
5 Blood Doll
1 Coven, The
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Erciyes Fragments, The
1 Giant's Blood
1 Information Highway
2 Jake Washington (Hunter)
7 Path of Evil Revelations
1 Rack, The
2 Sudden Reversal
--
25

2 Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
2 Mr. Winthrop
1 .44 Magnum
1 Flamethrower
2 Ivory Bow
4 Condemnation: Doomed
1 Contagion
1 Entrancement
--
14

3 Cloak the Gathering
2 Elder Impersonation
3 Faceless Night
2 Lost in Crowds
4 Spying Mission
3 Swallowed by the Night
11 Sense the Sin
--
28

6 Forced Awakening
6 Wake with Evening's Freshness
2 Delaying Tactics
--
14

4 Conflagration
5 Majesty
--
9

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"Infernal Anarchists!"

crypt (12) (group 2+3):

2 Carna the Princess Witch, 7, THA DOM AUS, +1 int/burn-ret
1 Samat Ramal-Ra, 6, tha OBF pre ser, archon
1 Valois Sang, 6, tha DOM AUS nec
1 Selena, 6, THA DOM AUS
1 Marlene t.I., 6, tha DOM AUS for dem
1 Eugenio E., 6, THA dom AUS for
1 Vincent D., 5, tha dom aus for pot
1 Hannigan, 5, THA dom AUS
1 Alejandro A., 5, tha dom aus ani, tap-damage
1 Kyoko S., 5, - dom aus for cel, hunt-steal
1 Pieter v.D., 4, tha dom pre

library (90):

2 Seattle Committee
6 Galaric's Legacy
5 Blood Doll
1 Thaumaturgy
1 Vast Wealth
2 Heidelberg Castle
1 Anarch Free Press
1 Anarch Railroad
1 Infernal Pact
--
20

5 Infernal Familiar
2 Magic of the Smith
1 Ankara Citadel
1 Ivory Bow
2 .44 Magnum
1 Sport Bike
1 Owl Companion
1 Raven Spy
1 Army of Rats
1 Form of Corruption
1 Temptation
1 Blessing of Chaos
1 Black Metamorphosis
1 Masochism
1 Lunatic Eruption
3 Gear Up
2 Principia Discordia
2 Reformation
2 Smash & Grab
--
30

5 Conditioning
3 Loose Cannon
3 Cloak the Gathering
--
11

7 Wake with Evening's Freshness
7 Deflection
3 The Mole
2 Delaying Tactics
--
19

4 Diversion
2 Weather Control
2 Disguised Weapon
2 Theft of Vitae
--
10

Things I want room for in this deck but haven't managed: Giant's Blood, 
Direct Intervention, Chantry, Dreams of the Sphinx, Gambit Accepted, 
more Loose Cannons, more combat. 2 Weather Control might not be worth 
having, it's pretty dubious for example that it would ever kill the 
retainer I want to kill (an Infernal Familiar) without sucking otherwise.

I also want to squeeze in a couple Into the Fire so Carna can become 
an anarch - she seems worth it even without that possibility (although 
her ability usually turns out not to be *necessary* to keep an Infernal 
Familiar from burning my vampire, that is probably largely because I'm 
usually ousted before that would happen) but would be way cooler with 
it.  Also I'm not sure Ankara is really worth it in this deck, I was 
forgetting that you can't move it with Heidelberg once it's in play 
because it's a location rather than equipment then.

Anyway, yeah, this deck is definitely not all that great yet (the 
other thing I want to try is squashing in a big blood-gain module, 
the vamps always seem to run out blood really fast paying for 2-blood 
Infernal Familiars and then getting in fights), but it might give you 
some ideas at least.


Josh

familiar with infernalism

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A thirty-ought full of Rock Cats

crypt (12):

3 Ferox the Rock Lord (2)     7 FOR POT VIS
1 Saxum Master of Slaves (2)  6 FOR pot VIS
1 Luma Stone Beauty (2)       5 FOR pot vis
2 Obsidian (2)                5 for pot VIS
2 Erinyi (2)                  3     pot vis
2 Rudolfo Giovanni (2)        3 NEC
1 Sarah Raines (3)            2 for

library (80):

6 Blood Doll
1 Anarch Troublemaker
1 Smiling Jack the Anarch
4 Vast Wealth
1 KRCG News Radio
1 WMRH Talk Radio
3 Direct Intervention
--
17

6 Compel the Spirit
8 Restoration
8 Rock Cat
1 Vagabond Mystic
4 Computer Hacking
2 The Sargon Fragment
--
29

5 Freak Drive
6 Skin of the Chameleon
2 Soar
--
13

6 Disarm
11 Immortal Grapple
4 Flow Within the Mountain
--
21

After playing it twice (or was it three times?) I think I'd change it
again by adding 1 more each of Vagabond Mystic and Smiling Jack, 2 more 
Computer Hackings, and cutting the Anarch Troublemaker (anti-synergy 
with Sargon Fragment!), 2 Freak Drives, and 1 Rock Cat to make room.  
(8 Rock Cats is pretty definitely more than the deck can really afford... :-)

Putting the seventh Blood Doll back in would also be nice... and even
though there are only two slave Gargoyles, that might be too many.  (I
altered the crypt slightly to make it storyline legal, it could have
just 8 or maybe even 7 Gargoyles and be at least as good, maybe better.)  
Another option would be to go Tremere in the non-Gargoyle part of the 
crypt, be able to use Slaves and maybe a little Dominate, and use Soul 
of the Earth to make the Rock Cats cheaper instead of Compel the Spirit 
to try to get them back free.  Well, you know, maybe.

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"The Great Houdini"

(the Beast's powers are kind of like magic and kind of like an illusion,
see...?)

crypt (12):

5 Huitzilopochtli (2) 10 AUS DAI DOM OBF POT PRE  +1 bleed, pool-master
5 Agaitas (2)          6 AUS for NEC              card-replace-prey
1 Maldavis (3)         4 AUS for             pre
1 Sarah Raines (3)     2     for                  mage-maneuver+press

library (60):

1 The Barrens
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Information Highway
5 Fortitude
5 Minion Tap
4 Golconda Inner Peace
2 Blood Doll
1 Giant's Blood
1 Storage Annex
--
22

5 Call the Great Beast
1 Sport Bike
1 Mr. Winthrop
1 IR Goggles
--
8

10 Freak Drive
3 Daring the Dawn
--
13

5 Wake with Evening's Freshness
5 Telepathic Misdirection
--
10

4 Taste of Vitae
3 Skin of Steel
--
7

The way I actually played it in the tournament, I missed swapping two
proxied cards for real ones and thus actually had 1 Forced Awakening in
place of a Wake with Evening's Freshness (not too important) and 1
Tortured Confessions in place of a Taste of Vitae (not so good). :-)

The set-up, as is probably obvious already, is just to get out
Huitzilopochtli as quickly as possible and have him get a Fortitude
master and Call the Great Beast (with Daring the Dawn if necessary, if
it looks like there's intercept next to you, you might want to wait
until you get a Daring to go for the Beast - with the ability to Minion
Tap Huitzi down to 1 before you Call, you shouldn't end up hurting for
pool too much if you have to wait a turn or two, and should be able to
cycle master cards pretty quickly in the meantime). Or, if you get
Agaitas out early enough, you may be able to look for Obfuscate stealth
in your prey's library. :-)

The other reason you don't necessarily want to Call the Great Beast
*too* early in the game is that you want to be pretty sure what
disciplines your prey is playing before you have to decide what
disciplines to give the Great Beast. Fortitude should always be one of
them (unless you have a really good reason to do otherwise), for the
Freak Drives and the Skin of Steel, but the other two should be the
most-likely-to-be-useful ones that your prey is using... your plan, of
course, is to use Agaitas to draw off your prey's library and have your
Great Beast be able to play the cards your prey's deck is based on.

It turns out that there's a pretty delicate balance between drawing off
your prey's library and drawing off your own - I'm sure I didn't always
make the right choice. You need to draw sometimes off your own library
to get the master cards and Freak Drives and such that are part of your
strategy, but you also want to draw from your prey's library to get more
cards for the Beast to play. Even more hand-size-increasing (or
card-cycling) masters might go well in this deck. Since you're only able
to draw from your prey's library when you're replacing a card
immediately on playing it (ie not for a Wake, not for discarding at end
of turn, etc) you have a relatively small number of opportunities to
draw from your prey's library, unless you actually *are* getting cards
you can play from him and keeping the flow going.
It's a really fun deck for me to play; it probably can get some more
tweaking to be a little more useful and consistent. I think the Skins of
Steel should probably be either Unflinching Persistence or
Indomitability (maneuvers to long are the most embarrassing way for a
Beast rush to fail, but even a Dodge can easily do it). One Golconda
could probably be replaced with a second Storage Annex, or Fortitude
master, or Blood Doll. Or a non-master card. A second IR Goggles might
be good. I was tempted to pad the deck out to 70 with more Wakes and a
couple Direct Interventions and a Vox Domini, and did so for a pickup
game on Sunday, but the flow of the deck seemed to be *greatly* impeded
by that - I didn't draw my first Freak Drive for at least 15 or 20
cards.

I never ran any prey out of library in those games; it seemed to be
enough effort just to draw 5-10 cards from them over the course of a
game.  I did get to the point of being able to worry about what to do
once you oust your first prey in, what, two of the four games I played
with it, but only maybe once did I Call a fresh Great Beast at that
point... (that's what the Golcondas are supposed to be for, so I can get
9 pool back, buy another Huitzi, and create a new Great Beast with my
new prey's disciplines.)

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"I can't believe it's not weenie Potence rush!"

crypt (12):

1 Arnold Simpson (3)           2 pot
1 Mitchell the Headhunter (2)  2 pot
1 Paul Dicarlo the Alpha (2)   2 pot
2 Cameron (2)                  3 pot dom
1 Raziya Sameter (2)           3 pot
1 Agatha (2)                   4 POT
1 Chas Giovanni Tello (2)      4 POT DOM
2 Jimmy Dunn (2)               4 POT
1 Wah Chun Yuen (3)            5 POT dom
1 Terry (2)                    5 POT dom

library (90):

3 Potence
2 Dominate
3 Blood Doll
3 Haven Uncovered
2 Fame
1 Gambit Accepted
1 Direct Intervention
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
--
17

1 Rampage
4 Bum's Rush
2 Harass
--
7

6 Conditioning
--
6

4 Wake with Evening's Freshness
5 Deflection
--
9

13 Increased Strength
13 Undead Strength
5 Thrown Sewer Lid
13 Immortal Grapple
3 Disarm
4 Pulled Fangs
--
51

I had scheduled it for 4 Harass (8 rush + 3 Haven) and 2 Wakes, and 2
Direct Intervention/1 Vox Domini/0 Dreams, but made last minute changes
just before the tournament.  I'm still not sure if it was the right
choice - the lower rush count with more Wakes was almost certainly good,
but another DI and a Vox Domini might have saved me in one or two games,
potentially.  Nonetheless, this seems like quite a solid deck.  I'm not
totally sure whether the Dominate angle is always going to repay the
increased cost of vampires and slight loss of combat ability, but in a
very bleedy environment it should (since you don't have to rush upstream
quite as much, have slightly more bleed power of your own, and can
occasionally Deflect a nasty stealthy bleed).

The Gambit Accepted was worth its weight in gold the one time I played
it.  Deserves more testing.  :-)

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Here's the decklist for what I played on Saturday.  (3 game wins in the 
tournament) On thinking about it more, I wonder if it would be better to 
drop the stealth and play "1 stealth vote" with Majesty and maneuvers in 
case I do get blocked some?  It would make the crypt better/easier/smaller, 
probably.

crypt (12):

3 Arika            11 OBF DOM PRE FOR   IC, +2 bleed, anti-location
2 Leandro          11 OBF dom PRE       IC, +2 bleed, anti-transfer
1 Etrius           11 OBF DOM           IC, +2 bleed
3 Marcus Vitel     10 OBF DOM PRE FOR   Prince
2 Lucinde Alastor  10 obf DOM PRE FOR   Justicar
1 Queen Anne       10 obf DOM PRE FOR   Prince, +1 bleed

library (80):

4 Minion Tap
2 Blood Doll
3 Zillah's Valley
2 Information Highway
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Secure Haven
2 Direct Intervention
--
17

6 Parity Shift
7 Kine Resources Contested
4 Protect Thine Own
2 Dramatic Upheaval
1 Political Stranglehold
--
20

5 Bewitching Oration
3 Voter Captivation
4 Forgotten Labyrinth
5 Lost in Crowds
4 Elder Impersonation
3 Faceless Night
--
24

7 Obedience
6 Wake with Evening's Freshness
6 Redirection
--
19


I felt like this version was a little low on defense and on pool-gain.
Any suggestions for better abusing PTO, while not focusing on it so
exclusively as to be hopeless against Camarilla-based decks?


Josh

do you feel you're being treated... unfairly?

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On the Consignment to Duat topic, I seem to remember someone challenging
the newsgroup a while ago to come up with a deck concept where
Consignment was actually better than (more copies of) Temptation (at
least, since I want to play Temptation *with* Consignment, I take it
that Consignment doesn't have to be "by itself" better than Temptation,
but better than a non-Consignment-using Temptation application).

Here's a deck I came up with a while ago that's supposed to "abuse" the
two together.  It's not, like, super-killer, probably, but it is at
least kind of good.  And it definitely shows how annoying it can be to
get locked down by Consignment and Temptation madness.  At least, when
it works.

"Consign Me To The Moon"

crypt (12):

1 Lalitha            ser         2
1 Celine C.          ser obf     3
1 Khalil A.          ser     pre 3
1 Nepata             ser obf pre 4
1 Dedefra            SER obf     5
1 Sir Marriot d'U.   ser obf PRE 5
2 Ezekiel L. M.      SER obf PRE 6 Black Hand
1 Hesha R.           SER obf pre 6
1 Samat Ramal-Ra     ser OBF pre 6 diablerie
1 Danny L.           SER obf PRE 7
1 Qufur a-H.         SER OBF PRE 7

library (80):

2 Obfuscate
2 Opium Den
2 Serpentis
1 Path of Typhon
1 Temple Hunting Ground
2 Heidelberg Castle
4 Blood Doll
2 Archon Investigation
2 Direct Intervention
2 Jake Washington (Hunter)
--
20

8 Temptation
7 Consignment to Duat
3 Form of Corruption
4 Legal Manipulations
--
22

4 Form of the Serpent
3 Mask of 1000 Faces
3 Spying Mission
3 Lost in Crowds
3 Faceless Night
3 Cloak the Gathering
3 Elder Impersonation
3 Forgotten Labyrinth
4 Aire of Elation
--
29

2 Wake with Evening's Freshness
--
2

7 Majesty
--
7


It's a little weak on the offensive side, but if you get the Temptations
going, you do get to bleed for 1 a lot with other people's vampires.

The Wakes and Jakes are basically there to throw something in the way if
somebody comes to rush one of your Consignment-players (since
Consignments burn if the playing vamp gets into combat).


Josh

on the layaway plan

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Here's my decklist, in case anyone's curious.  I
played it the "all-rush" way as opposed to Ben Peal's
"auspicious" version.  How surprising, huh?  hehehe.

crypt (12 vamps):

1 Antoinette Duchamp     cel 1
1 Nik                    cel 1
1 Carter                 cel 2
1 Angel                  cel 2
1 Kanya Akhtar           cel 2
2 Sarah Brando           CEL 3
2 Parmenides             CEL 4 +1 strength
1 Victor Tolliver        CEL 4
2 Jimmy Dunn             CEL 4

library (90 cards):

3 Blood Doll
3 Celerity
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
3 Fame
2 Haven Uncovered
1 The Barrens
--
14

14 Bum's Rush (probably could have had some Ambush)
8 Computer Hacking
--
22

9 .44 Magnum
--
9

9 Concealed Weapon
2 Blur
8 Pursuit
7 Side Strike
13 Psyche!
5 Taste of Vitae
1 Fast Hands
--
45


Josh

i... ALSO... like to live dangerously...

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Incidentally, although the "Will of the Council for Archon" idea
is just a silly throwaway (I think), here's a sketch of a deck
that tries to do that with Tyler.  It'll be funny, if it works.

crypt:

6 Tyler
1 Aaron Duggan, Cameron's Toady
1 Mitchell the Headhunter
1 March Halcyon
1 Antoinette Duchamp
1 Huang, Blood Cultist
1 Franciscus

library (90 cards):

2 Obtenebration
3 Vast Wealth
3 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Fragment of the Book of Nod
1 The Barrens
2 Visit from the Capuchin
3 Storage Annex

7 Will of the Council
7 Archon
3 Rowan Ring
1 Ivory Bow
1 Sengir Dagger

7 Freak Drive
4 Awe
3 Bewitching Oration
3 Shadow Play
3 Shroud of Night
3 Shroud of Absence
3 Stone Travel

15 Amaranth
9 Pursuit
9 Psyche!
7 Skin of Steel


The Freak Drive count is low enough that you probably won't be
able to Rowan, Freak, Will, Freak, Archon, Freak, demolish.
But it's high enough that you should have a decent chance of
doing it in two turns. (like Rowan, Freak, Will; next turn
Archon, Freak, demolish.)

Another way to go would be grafting Obfuscate onto Tyler and
then Disguising out the weapon (could then also use some Obf
stealth for the actions).  I figured she already has Obten,
though, so why not just use that.

You could also skip the Will angle and just do Brujah Justicar,
which has the benefit of giving you +1 vote on passing itself,
or more if you happen to have whipped out a Brujah weenie or
two.  That precludes doing Archon the same turn, but that's
not always going to happen even with the Will angle.  The Will
way is funnier, though.  :-)


Josh

anyone tried something like this yet?

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Incidentally, I'd been meaning to post a decklist for that for a while
and never got around to it, so here it is.  This is the version I played
at Origins this summer (in the Friday tournament I think it was).  I
got like 1.5 VPs in three games, but I might have gotten more if people
didn't have such a strong aversion to seeing a Great Beast on the table.
:-)

"1-800-GRATBST"

crypt:

12 Huitzilopochtli (AUS DOM OBF PRE POT DAI)

library:

6 Minion Tap
4 Vast Wealth
5 Fortitude
4 Storage Annex (this is *great* in this deck)
1 Giant's Blood

2 Soul Gem of Etrius
4 Call the Great Beast
5 Renewed Vigor

7 Freak Drive
2 Repulsion (Repulsive Great Beast... mmm, so sweet...)
3 Forgotten Labyrinth
3 Lost in Crowds
4 Swallowed by the Night

5 Wake with Evening's Freshness
4 Deflection

6 Taste of Vitae

---
65 cards.

Notes:

The "combo" you need to set up is: Huitzi gets Fortitude and Minion
Tapped and equips or Vast Wealths for Soul Gem.  Freak Drives if
possible and Calls the Great Beast.  Free Huitzi and Great Beast
wreak havoc with bleeds and rushes.  The stealth is almost always
enough to get Soul Gem and Great Beast off.  If you play two masters
and discard a card every turn (*every* turn until the Great Beast
is out or you have the perfect combo) the combo almost always shows
up quite early.

Obviously you use Huitzi's "extra master action" ability almost
every turn.

It tends to gain heaps of pool (with the Baali, no kidding) that it
doesn't really have any good use for, so cutting some of the Renewed
Vigors might be warranted if you can think of something else to make
it get VPs better.  In this version, the Beast gets FOR/OBE/OBF unless
you expect to need DOM more for Deflections (beyond Huitzi's ability
to Deflect) - OBF lets him maneuver w/Swallowed.  I'm still searching
for the perfect discipline combination though.  THA/OBF/DAI hasn't
worked out as well as I hoped; Rutor's Hand is nice once you've got
it but the turn you get it, you don't get to do anything else which
is weak.  Plus it costs four blood (not using Concordance for the
"save a blood and get Concordance effect" angle) that could've been
Tapped/Dolled off.

It still has weaknesses, of course, and it almost always runs out
of cards.  But it's fun to play and can score game wins, as long
as the whole table doesn't have the visceral reaction "it's a Great
Beast, he must be killed!".


Josh

great beastly lovin'

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The big Potent Eye 

crypt:

5 Lazverinus, Thrall of Lambach AUS POT FOR
5 Sheldon, Lord of Your Mom AUS POT for
1 Gwendolyn, the Unabilitied aus POT FOR
1 Kyle Strathcona, the Canadian AUS POT for

library:

2 Fortitude
7 Blood Doll
1 Temptation of Greater Power (for funniness)
1 The Rack
2 Haven Uncovered
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Depravity (for Sheldon, of course)

3 Pulse of the Canaille
6 Nose of the Hound
3 Eternal Vigilance

5 Freak Drive (rush/bleed or something)

7 Second Tradition: Domain
7 Telepathic Misdirection
3 Wake with Evening's Freshness

7 Torn Signpost
7 Immortal Grapple
3 Fists of Death
4 Undead Strength
9 Taste of Vitae
3 Rolling with the Punches
4 Hidden Strength
3 Disarm

--------
90 cards

The inspiration, of course, was the desire to use Nose of
the Hound with Potence guys to beat stuff up good, at
stealth, with a maneuver available if unblocked.  :-)

I think it later got the Pulse-count reduced, the Telepathic
Misdirections reduced, the Wakes increased, the Freaks maybe
reduced, the combat maybe increased, the masters maybe adding
some Zillah's/Info Highway. But this was more or less the
idea.

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"Foul Mission"

2 Harika Guljan (3 QUI)
1 Hannigan (5 THA AUS dom)
1 Brooke (3 tha dom)
1 Heinrick Schlempt (2 tha)
1 Aisling Sturbridge (5 THA AUS dom)
1 Sarah Cobbler (4 THA dom)
1 Dr. John Casey (3 tha aus)
1 Jing Wei (3 tha dom)
2 Blythe Candelaria (3 THA aus)
1 Roreca Quaid (2 tha)

library:

5 Thaumaturgy
5 Quietus
5 Blood Doll
4 Society of Leopold
1 Arcane Library

9 Create Gargoyle
12 Cryptic Mission
1 Revelations
1 Razor Bat

4 Conditioning

7 Wake with Evening's Freshness
7 Foul Blood
3 Deflection
5 Patrol

5 Theft of Vitae
7 Pounce
--------
81 cards

The idea is to either Create one or two Gargoyles with Quietus,
or get out Harika, and several Thaumaturgy weenies, and then
Cryptic people until they're low on blood and Foul Blood them
when they hunt.  Spiced up with a little Flight-usage for
intercept and hitting people (extra blood reduction, yay!).

The problem(s) seem to be: too much Foul Blood.  Not enough
combat defense.  Too much Quietus given that the only Quietus
cards used are 7 Foul Bloods - should definitely drop at least
one Quietus master and definitely *not* make more than one
Quietus Gargoyle, any additional Gargoyles should be
Thaumaturgical.  Also, probably needs some more bleed bounce.
(Getting hit for a 7 bleed at 1 stealth really hurt the one
time I've played it so far... though at the time I didn't
even have a dom-having vamp out of torpor to do the
Deflecting...)

Anyway, I really like the idea, I'm just not sure it'll ever
pay off.  It'd probably be better as straight-Tha Crypto-
Gargoylic Mission, with plenty of Society of Leopold and
such.  Maybe I'll try that too.  (I've already made slight
alterations for next time I try it, down 1 Quietus, 2 Create
Gargoyle, 1 Razor Bat, 1 Revelations; up 2 Cryptic Mission,
2 Theft of Vitae, 1 Deflection.  We'll see if that helps at
all...)


Josh

crypto-cryptic

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Southeast Regional Qualifier
Tournament Winning Deck
May 25, 2002
16 players

"Playing With Dolls"

crypt:

4 Blanche Hill             (6 OBE FOR aus)
3 Matthias                 (7 OBE FOR AUS)
1 Ingrid Russo             (4 DOM for)
1 Peter Blaine             (4 dom for aus)
1 Billy                    (5 dom for AUS)
1 Vanessa                  (6 DOM FOR aus)
1 Marlene, the Infernalist (6 DOM for AUS)


library:

5 Fortitude
3 Heidelberg Castle, Germany
3 Fame
3 Blood Doll

9 Spirit Marionette
4 Govern the Unaligned
2 Precognizant Mobility

3 Conditioning
5 Freak Drive
7 Daring the Dawn
4 Repulsion

5 Wake with Evening's Freshness
4 Telepathic Misdirection
1 My Enemy's Enemy

5 Anesthetic Touch
3 Hidden Strength
4 Rolling with the Punches

---
70 cards, 14 masters.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mid-Atlantic US Championship Tournament 
May 11, 2002
Chantilly, Virginia
32 players

Tournament Winning Deck by Josh Duffin


"Never smile at a crocodile"

crypt: 12 vamps, avg 7.33, max 39, min 17.

1 Celine Chevalier (3  obf ser)
1 Nepata           (4  obf pre ser)
2 Count Ormonde    (5  OBF dom pre ser)
1 Qufur am-Heru    (7  OBF PRE SER)
2 Kephamos         (8  obf dom pre SER +1 bleed) //never drew him! sad.
2 Khay'Tall        (9  OBF DOM PRE SER) //never got her out, no +1 bleed.
1 Kemintiri        (10 OBF dom PRE SER) 
2 Nefertiti        (10 OBF DOM PRE SER +1 bleed) //my favorite...

library: 80 cards, 16 masters, 20% master.

2 Opium Den              //super good.
2 Heidelberg Castle      //super good with Temptation.
4 Blood Doll             //supposed to refill for Tap/Doll with Heidelberg,
3 Minion Tap             //though the threat of that existed more than the
2 Information Highway    //reality...
1 Temple Hunting Ground
2 Sudden Reversal

5 Temptation
3 Form of Corruption
2 Far Mastery            //in case of intercept retainers, break glass
1 Tasha Morgan
1 JS Simmons, Esq.       //bleed retainers handy with Heidelberg
2 Priestess of Sekhmet   //if only there were more Camarilla to bleed...

5 Conditioning           //I actually played these at inferior a couple
3 Cloak the Gathering    //times for fear of Archon Investigation...
3 Elder Impersonation    //best stealth card in the game
3 Lost in Crowds
7 Swallowed by the Night //in case of Immortal Grapple, break glass

9 Wake with Evening's Freshness
7 Deflection
5 Delaying Tactics       //didn't draw these fast enough against votes

8 Majesty

---

I've been playing a lot more 80-card decks than 90 lately; none of
my non-rush-combat decks seem to run out of cards very often at all
even at 80.

Form of Corruption is great, especially if it makes your prey
afraid to bleed too much and keeps him from ousting.  It seems to
be often better to hang on to your Form until after your initial
prey is ousted and then steal one of your (former) grandprey's
vamps with it; it's a big boost on your way to (trying to) get
that second oust.

This deck is actually exactly how I designed it on paper before
ever playing it, except that I switched a Hesha Ruhadze for a
second Kephamos after writing it down (but still before playing
it).  Funny because my whole goal in the two weeks before the
tournament was to come up with a decent deck and have time to
tweak it before the event, but the one I ended up wanting to
play didn't need any tweaking (at least from the couple games
I'd tried it in beforehand).


Josh

Mid-Atlantic US VTES Champion 2002
(heh)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Folderol Tournament, Winning Deck
Rockville, Maryland
April 6, 2002

"Mona Lisa Overdrive"

(for the Smiling, and for the book.)

2 Devin Bisley (5 ANI AUS)
2 Corine Marcon (6 ani AUS +1 strength)
1 Caliban (6 ANI AUS)
3 Omaya (7 ANI AUS prevent 1 each combat)
2 Anton (8 ANI AUS +1 intercept)
2 Lambach (10 ANI AUS +1 strength burn 1 for agg hands)

3 Blood Doll
2 Minion Tap
4 Smiling Jack the Anarch
1 KRCG News Radio
1 London Evening Star
1 Powerbase: Montreal
1 Rack, The
2 Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter

1 Army of Rats
1 Palatial Estate
1 Femur of Toomler
1 Ivory Bow
2 Revenant
1 Mr. Winthrop
3 Raven Spy
2 Owl Companion (super-key for knowing what they're up to)
2 War Ghoul (three might be better, but probably no more)

2 Conquer the Beast (cause it's optional)
3 Trap (cause War Ghouls can use 'em)
7 Carrion Crows
5 Aid from Bats
2 Canine Horde
3 Taste of Vitae (taste for 3 = as good as 3 hunts)

3 Wake with Evening's Freshness
4 Forced Awakening
5 Read the Winds
7 Cat's Guidance
5 Eagle's Sight
2 Enhanced Senses
4 Telepathic Misdirection
---
81 cards (never ran out)


Josh

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah, this deck pretty much sucks at doing what it's
supposed to do. The trick (Madness Network + Khobar
Towers + Spirit Marionette) hardly ever happens. But
even so I've won a couple games with it. Maybe it's
just coincidence. :-) Anyway, suggestions, comments,
etc. are invited.

"Hey Gepetto"

4 Blanche Hill
3 Matthias
3 Celine Chevalier
2 Count Ormonde

4 Madness Network
4 Blood Doll
1 Succubus Club
3 Khobar Towers
2 Heidelberg Castle
2 Opium Den
1 Sight Beyond Sight
1 Pulse of the Canaille
5 Clan Impersonation
2 Form of Corruption
4 Temptation
7 Spirit Marionette
5 Cloak the Gathering
3 Repulsion
5 Wake with Evening's Freshness
4 Telepathic Misdirection
5 Anesthetic Touch
3 Skin of Steel
4 Hidden Strength

=65 cards.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sight Beyond Sight: Washington, D.C.
January 2002
Winning Deck by Joshua Duffin

"Unwholesome"

crypt:  avg: 6 max: 24 min: 24 :-)
3 Truman (FOR SAN pot)
3 Ilse (for SAN POT)
3 Karl (FOR san POT)
2 Mark (for SAN pot Bishop +1 int vs bleeds)
1 Jack (for san pot +1 strength -1 pool cost - all I had)


library:

2 Haven Uncovered
2 Potence
5 Blood Doll
1 The Rack
1 The Hungry Coyote
1 KRCG News Radio
1 London Evening Star
1 Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper

1 Ambush
1 Coagulated Entity
3 Bum's Rush
1 Sanguine Instruction
9 Unwholesome Bond

6 Walk of Caine
3 Freak Drive

5 Forced Awakening
2 Wake with Evening's Freshness
2 Gestalt

1 Hidden Strength
2 Rolling with the Punches
2 Unflinching Persistence
9 Torn Signpost
9 Immortal Grapple
3 Disarm
7 Octopod
5 Taste of Vitae

---
86 cards, 14 masters.

Was supposed to have 4 Effective Managements making 90
but I accidentally put them in the wrong deck. I think
it would've been *much* better with them in - they make
the Bonds work a lot better. Still worked just well
enough, I guess.

Josh

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the deck I played in the Banner of Neutrality: Washington
DC tournament on Saturday August 25.  It got ten VPs in three
rounds and then chose seating poorly in the finals and was first
ousted.  C'est la non-vie.

Strong, Like Bull

crypt: 12 vampires, avg 2.67, max 16, min 6.

2x Hasina Kesi (1, pot)
1x Koko (the Kokinator: 2, pot)
1x Lupo (the Butcher: 2, pot)
1x Mitchell, the Headhunter (2, pot)
1x Paul DiCarlo, the Alpha (2, pot)
1x Raziya Sameter (3, pot)
1x Duck (3, pot)
1x Agatha (4, POT)
1x Hector ("Keyser") Sosa ("Soze") (4, POT)
2x Jimmy Dunn (4, POT - can't fall behind in the Jimmy Dunn arms race)

library: 90 cards, 15 masters, 13 actions, 62 combat.

6x Potence
3x Blood Doll
4x Haven Uncovered
2x Fame

7x Bum's Rush
4x Ambush (even with only 15 true rush cards I often discarded rush)
2x Rampage

14x Increased Strength
3x Torn Signpost (meant to replace these w/Increaseds, but forgot)
13x Undead Strength (mighty blow!)
5x Thrown Gate (key vs guns)
1x Fractured Armament (never actually played in tournament)
13x Immortal Grapple
4x Pulled Fangs (don't think I ever got to do the Fame/rescue/go to
                 torpor for hunting trick, though)
1x Disarm (all I had - got one more in a pack for placing third - yay!)
3x Amaranth (do I care if Hasina Kesi gets burned in the bloodhunt? mm, no.)
5x Taste of Vitae (used to be higher, but my vamps can't hold much anyway)


Good for destroying vampires.  It helps if you like to trash-talk
so you don't have to destroy as many vampires preemptively, because
your threats will keep them from trying anything.  You do have the
actions/combat cards to destroy the vampires if you need to, but it's
nice to be able to use those actions to bleed for one instead.

I really wanted to get some Computer Hackings in here like Robert
Goudie has (and even Peter Bakija, now), but I couldn't make room
without dropping a bunch of rush, since I didn't want to reduce the
combat efficiency of the deck.  It worked pretty well without 'em,
but I might try cutting significantly into the rush and making it
more of a bruise-bleed deck, with rush used mostly to keep my predator
under control and see how that works.


Josh

potent prince of washington dc
(much like emerson bridges ;-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the deck I played in the Thursday night short tournament 
at GenCon 2001. (oh, it got 3.5 vps in two rounds - not enough 
to make the finals, but respectable I think. the first game timed out 
with four of us still in it; I'd probably have gotten at least another 
1.5 VPs if we'd had more time (or played faster).)
It seems to me pretty straightforward, but then I've played decks 
that generally won via Smiling Jack before. Of course, this one 
*only* wins by Smiling Jack. :-)


"Snakes Smash The State" (anarchy... aabbt kindred... get it?)

crypt:

11x Aabbt Kindred
1x Nefertiti
------------
12 cards, 4.5 avg, 16 min, 22 max

library:

1x London Evening Star
1x Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Club Zombie
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Powerbase: Chicago
1x Temple Hunting Ground
1x The Rack
1x The Path of Typhon
4x Blood Doll
1x The Parthenon
1x Sudden Reversal
2x Direct Intervention
4x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
4x Serpentis

2x Rumors of Gehenna
2x Form of Corruption
6x Atonement

1x Aaron's Feeding Razor
1x Palatial Estate
1x Mr. Winthrop
3x Sport Bike
2x Meat Hook
3x .44 Magnum
1x Ivory Bow
1x Flamethrower

7x Form of the Serpent (hissssss...)

14x Forced Awakening
2x Set's Call

7x Trap
7x Skin of the Adder (hisssssss...)
2x Undead Persistence
3x Majesty
-----------
25 masters
10 actions
13 equipment (=actions, essentially)
7 action modifiers
16 reactions
19 combat
-----------
90 cards

Basically, you bring out Aabbt Kindred, reassure your prey that he doesn't need 
to block any of your equips/etc because you can never bleed him anyway (yeah, 
there's a Nefertiti in the crypt, but there's usually no reason to get her out; she's 
just too expensive for what you get in this deck), and stock your Aabbts up with 
stuff. You can usually get a couple of Atoned Aabbts without much difficulty, at 
least one of them with a gun. Then you block everything you can of your prey's 
(unless he's playing serious combat, in which case you may be sad - the one point 
a combat of built-in damage prevention goes a long way against non-combat-playing 
decks though) to get his vamps low on blood, play a Smiling Jack, keep people from 
burning it (guns make good deterrents there), and win. Somebody across the table 
may accidentally get ousted by Jack, but you should have a good shot at at least 
getting the majority of VPs, if not all of them, if you're doing a good job of making 
your prey's vamps hurt.

Four Jacks isn't a whole lot of paths to victory, but I was playing it with five for 
a while and that seemed to be too much. One may get burned, but it shouldn't be too 
much trouble to draw another.

Remember not to play the Rack or P: Montreal too early - they're great for early blood 
gain as well as late, yes, but if you can't defend them, you can't steal them back. :-)

The Majesties are primarily for not getting your guns Canine Horded or Shattering Blown. 
The Undead Persistence/Trap is a secondary trick to Skin of the Adder/Trap, both good 
for possibly taking down big vamps with your little ones; Skin is better if it works 
because then you don't go down too. ;-)

The deck is probably vulnerable to heavy-stealth Jack-burners and possibly also heavy 
bleed. It's definitely vulnerable to large-strike combat, although the damage prevention 
does help there. It's fun to play, though, and usually has people asking how on earth I 
plan to win with these non-bleeding snakes. I don't generally mention Jack before he 
comes out.


Josh

sssssnakey! 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hordes!

crypt:

1x Cristofero Giovanni (3 nec)
1x Mario Giovanni (3 nec)
3x Rudolfo Giovannni (3 NEC)
1x Gloria Giovanni (4 nec DOM)
2x Isabel Giovanni (5 NEC DOM)
1x Gillespi Giovanni (7 NEC DOM)
1x Andrea Giovanni (7 NEC DOM)
1x Carlotta Giovanni (7 NEC dom)
1x Regina Giovanni (10 NEC DOM)

library:

2x Blood Doll
1x Necromancy
1x Fragment of the Book of Nod
1x The Barrens
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Club Zombie
1x Inbase Discotek Frankfurt
1x Morgue Hunting Ground
1x The Rack
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Charisma
2x The Path of Bone

1x Summon Soul
1x Graverobbing
2x Whispers from the Dead
1x Compel the Spirit
11x Shambling Hordes
1x Leonardo Mortician
1x Vagabond Mystic (almost useless after cutting the other allies)
1x Ambrosius Ferryman
3x Masquer (Wraith)
1x Giuseppe Gravedigger
1x Palatial Estate
1x Aaron's Feeding Razor
3x Meat Hook (too many)
2x Leather Jacket
1x Talbot's Chainsaw
2x Bonding
7x Spectral Divination
5x Call of the Hungry Dead
4x Wake with Evening's Freshness
3x Deflection
7x Spiritual Intervention


Josh

lord of the clogged hand 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duffin's Gangrel Wall of Untap
Crusade: Philadelphia Tournament Winner

Josh's deck is a fiendishly clever block and untap
monstrosity.  Cats Guidance, Raven Spies, Forced Awakenings,
and Atonement make for constant blocks, and Earth Meld 
keeps your people alive and ready for more.  Smiling Jack the
Anarch takes down entire tables while pool management 
keeps his damage to you to a minimum.  Millicent Smith,
Puritan Vampire Hunter is also a really nice addition to this
blocking machine.


Crypt:
Basilia
Raven
Ingrid Rossler
Chandler Hungerford x 2
Gitane St. Clair
Anastasia Grey
Camille Devereux
Bear Paw x 2
Badger
Mirembe Kaddabe


Masters:
KRCG Radio Station
Ecoterrorists x 2
London Evening Star
Blood Puppy x 3
Blood Doll x 4
Smiling Jack the Anarch x 3
Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter x 3
Zoo Hunting Ground x 2
The Rack x 2
Powerbase: Chicago
Animalism x 2
Protean
The Parthenon x2

Actions and Modifiers:
Atonement x 2
Army of Rats x 3
Restoration
Shepherd's Innocence
Earth Control x 2

Combat and Reactions:
Earth Meld x 15 (!)
Form of Mist x 3
Bone Spur x 2
Superior Mettle x 3
Wolf Claws
Canine Horde x 2
Cats Guidance x 10
Wake with Evening's Freshness
Forced Awakening x 7

Equipment and Retainers:
Flak Jacket x 2
Sport Bike x 2
Palatial Estate
Raven Spy x 3
Mr. Winthrop
Homunculus

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi, everyone.  I followed a discussion of the possibilities (or lack
thereof) of celerity/potence combat under 4cl/nl environments.  Well, I
happen to be quite fond of the brujah and their cel/pot combat
abilities, and I play under 4cl, so I thought I'd post my brujah cel/pot
combat deck and see if anyone thought it was interesting.  (I do, as you
may have guessed, believe it to be possible to play a cel/pot combat
deck under 4cl.  Admittedly it's not of the same caliber as 4cl malks,
but it's fun, and it does work, though it may not win.)

It is a combat deck, but not necessarily a rush combat deck.  It has a
little rush, a little plus bleed, a little intercept, but mostly relies
on weak bleeds.

crypt: (thirteen vamps for flavor reasons)

lupo
dre - leader of the cold dawn x 2
uma hatch
hector sosa
yuri - the talon
black cat
volker, the puppet prince
anvil
bianca
rake
tura vaughn
don cruez - the idealist

avg: 5.0

library: 80 cards

master:

major boon
sudden reversal
haven uncovered
potence x 4
celerity x 3
minion tap x 2
blood doll x 2
powerbase: chicago
warzone hunting ground

actions:

bum's rush x 3
enchant kindred x 2
arson x 2

permanents:

ir goggles
bastard sword x 2
sport bike
mr. winthrop

reactions:

wake with evening's freshness x 4

combat: 

flash x 4
vampiric speed x 3
sideslip x 4
nimble feet x 3
acrobatics x 4
blur x 4
torn signpost x 4
taste of vitae
amaranth
psyche x 2
thrown gate x 4
thrown sewer lid x 3
undead strength x 4
mighty grapple x 3
growing fury x 3
well-aimed car  (infinitely stylish, though hard to use)

That's it.  It probably can't handle a good bleed deck very well; it
shouldn't have all that much trouble with votes if it gets at least one
intercept permanent.  Also it has a fair number of votes itself, lots of
titled vamps (justicar, two primogen, two prince).

Josh

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi everyone.  In hopes of inspiring others to do the same, I'm posting
my current favorite deck.  It's four-card, but hey so what.  It's
basically a bruise-bleed deck, with light intercept.

"Our main weapons are fear and surprise.."

vampires:
roreca quaid
jing wei
dr. john casey x 2
sarah cobbler (she's so cool!)
ignatius
merill molitor
lydia van cuelen
thomas thorne
astrid thomas
justine - elder of dallas
cassandra-magus prime
ulugh beg - the watcher (he's so boss!)

13 vampires, average ~ 5.5

library: 80 cards

masters:
auspex
dominate x 2
thaumaturgy x 3
blood doll x 2
minion tap x 2
academic hunting ground
mob connections
chantry x 2
krcg news radio
sudden reversal

others:

govern the unaligned x 4
bonding x 4
conditioning x 4
threats
palatial estate
mr. winthrop
jackie therman
wake with evening's freshness x 4
deflection x 4
telepathic counter
telepathic misdirection
eagle's sight
the spirit's touch x 4

blood rage x 4
blood fury x 4
theft of vitae x 4
walk of flame x 2
zip gun x 4
dragon breath rounds x 4 (tacky but effective)
fake out x 2
movement of the mind x 4
taste of vitae
thoughts betrayed x 4 (even tackier, but even more effective)

Feel free to comment on it.  I know it's not perfect, but I like it.

Josh

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To give an idea of the kind of combat decks I'm talking about, here's the
one I have right now - it's a Brujah pot/cel rush combat deck, with a few
votes thrown in as my clever angle to try to give me an edge.

crypt:

Lupo 2 pot
Sarah Brando 3 CEL (Sabbat)
Dre - Leader of the Cold Dawn 3 pot cel
Jacob Bragg 3 pot cel (Sabbat)
Hector Sosa 4 POT
Jimmy Dunn 4 POT CEL (Sabbat)
Volker, the Puppet Prince x2 5 pot CEL Prince
Black Cat 5 pot CEL
Bianca 6 pot CEL 2 hand damage
Rake 6 pot cel Prince
Anvilx2 6 POT CEL Primogen

13 vamps (style reasons), avg. 4.46

library: 80 cards:

masters:
Warzone Hunting Ground
Fragment of the Book of Nod
Potence x3
Celerity x3
Haven Uncovered x3
Major Boon
Blood Doll x2

votes:
Archon x2
Anathema x2
Praxis Seizure: Rome
Delaying Tactics x2

actions:
Bum's Rush x8
Ambush
Arson
Rampage

combat:
Sideslip x5
Side Strike x2
Torn Signpost x6
Fists of Death
Increased Strength x2
Undead Strength x7
Pushing the Limit x2
Blur x5
Immortal Grapple x8
Flash x6
Pursuit
Taste of Vitae x2
Pulled Fangs

---
17.5% masters, 60% combat, 15% rush.

I'm not really looking for input on this particular deck - I'm just 
providing it as an example of a semi-typical combat deck for our environment.
This deck does not always win fights, most notable against our resident
potence/fortitude nightmare (aka Hey Hey, s'Marty Lechthansi, v.4), but it
regularly pummels non-combat decks into repentance.

So that's it for my tirade on our local metagame.  Thoughts and comments?

Josh

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...Which reminds me that despite your inveigling I never did post my
UBCon Tourney-winning deck, which was also a combat deck, though not so very
involved as the four-discipline Marty deck.  So here's the listing:

crypt: 13 vampires for style reasons

Lupo 2 pot
KoKo 2 pot
Dre-Leader of the Cold Dawn x2 3 pot cel
Jacob Bragg 3 pot cel
Yuri-The Talon 4 pot cel
Jimmy Dunn 4 POT CEL
Volker, the Puppet Prince x2 5 pot CEL
Rake 6 pot cel
Bianca pot CEL
Anvil x2 POT CEL

The 3 princes are somewhat important for the vote angle that was meant to
give me some sort of edge over "standard" combat deck operations.  As it
turned out, the vote angle never really paid off during the tournament - I
only managed to use Anathema a couple times, and never really got any mileage
out of the Con Boons.  But I still think it was a good idea...

library: 90 cards (the maximum we allowed; the tourney was DCI rules, with
a few cards banned - paralyze cards from the Jyhad set, plus Succubus Club,
Monocle, and I think that was about it.)

masters:
1x Archon Investigation
4x Haven Uncovered
3x Celerity
4x Potence
1x Fragment of the Book of Nod
1x Blood Doll

votes:
3x Anathema
1x Praxis: DC
1x Praxis: Rome
3x Consanguineous Boon

actions:
7x Bum's Rush
3x Ambush
1x Rampage

combat:
9x Torn Signpost
9x Immortal Grapple
7x Taste of Vitae
8x Flash
1x Pursuit
9x Undead Strength
3x Sideslip
2x Acrobatics
3x Blur
2x Side Strike
1x Fists of Death
1x Increased Strength
2x Pulled Fangs

----
90 cards; 57 combat, 11 actions, 8 politics, 14 masters. 10 rush/4 haven
uncovered.

The idea is really pretty obvious: get into combat, beat the crap out of
some poor vampire, taste their vitae to refill your vamp.  The combat
section is a little on the repetitive side, but that's what seems to be
effective.  And it was very effective, especially the Immortal Grapples: it
seemed like most people at the tourney hadn't seen IG used very extensively
before, while, in my group, it has become the staple of most combat decks due
to its ability to beat strike:combat ends and dodge.

The Archon Investigation, cheesy trump card that it is, saved my ass a couple
times when the "Meet my unblockable Return to Innocence" deck came over to
bleed me for 11 or more.  I was lucky enough to have it in hand at the right
time, and so I got its benefit (even though, at least once, that just got
Basilia with her two skill cards turned into some IC member via the old
Soul Gem), which was of course tremendous.  I would almost certainly have
lost the final (championship) game if I had not drawn my AI quite early, and
knowing that my predator was the RTI deck, held it until I needed it.

So that's my much-belated tourney report, for what it's worth.  In case 
you've forgotten after all this time, UBCon was April 11-13, at (naturally)
the University of Buffalo, about three hours west of Ithaca, NY, where Peter
and I (and several others) play a mean game of Jyhad. (Albeit with a fair
number of fixes to the "broken" cards.)

Josh

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josh's Cryptic Mission deck which probably has a name...
 
Cryptic Mission your prey to death with Tremere weenies.
 
Author: Josh Duffin
 
Crypt
Jing Wei
Brooke
Roreca Quaid
Heinrick Schlempt
2x Sarah Cobbler
2x Magdalena Schaefer
2x Blythe Candelaria
Dr. John Casey
Merill Molitor
Average: 3, Worst: 16, Best: 8
 
Library (80)
 
Master(24)
3x Thaumaturgy skill card
2x Parthenon
1x Chantry
1x Academic Hunting Ground
2x Arcane Library
2x Sudden Reversal
3x Unnatural Disaster
7x Society of Leopold
3x Blood Doll
 
Action(23)
23x Cryptic Mission
 
Reaction(13)
3x Wake with Evening's Freshness
1x Forced Awakening
3x Eagle's Sight
2x Spirit's Touch
4x Deflection
 
Combat(16)
13x Theft of Vitae
3x Weather Control
 
Equipment(3)
3x Bomb
 
Retainer(1)
1x Mr. Winthrop
 
Comments: The Unnatural Disasters are meant to take out opposing 
hunting grounds, and most of the rest of it is obvious. Get out 
a pile of vampires, Cryptic your preys' vampires a lot, and your 
predator as necessary. Use Society to burn depleted vampires

Posted to the newsgroup by Xian in the Tremere Clan Newsletter

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prescription for a pre-7/7/98 RTR vote deck

try a deck like this: 20 Praxis Seizure, 40 Kine Resources Contested, 20
Dodge.  Crypt of all the 1-cap Camarilla vamps plus the nonCams if you want,
possibly also some 2-caps.  This is a very simplistic outline of a weenie
vote push deck, but it's absurdly effective considering it has only two
kinds of cards in it.  Weenie decks can inherently be fast and brutal just
due to the minimal size of their vampires, but votes tend to magnify the
problem.  Consider an alternate deck of 10 Misdirection, 10 Effective
Management, 40 Computer Hacking, 20 Dodge - it wouldn't be as fast.

Josh

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rush Deck NT

So I was kinda tired of playing my old effective Brujah pot/cel rush 
deck, so I turned it into this one for the novelty value of using those 
cool Brujah princes and justicars and such.  

So here's the deck.  Tell me if you have any good ideas for making it 
work better, preferably while preserving the Prince/Justicar angle, 
although I'm thinking that maybe I ought to lose the votes (which I may 
be completely unable to win in the first place) and stick with just the 
P/J cards, maybe add some 3rd Trad: Progeny or something.  (The deck was 
partly inspired by "Joanie Loves Chachi", but I didn't want to make it a 
two-vamp deck.  Well, plus I don't have six each of Constanza and Donal.  
Although if I did, that might not be completely a bad idea.  Oh wait, 
yes it would.) 
 
crypt (13 vamps just cause I like using 13):
 
Dre, Leader of the Cold Dawn - 3 pot cel
Jacob Bragg - 3 pot cel
Jimmy Dunn x2 - 4 POT CEL
Volker the Puppet Prince x2 - 5 pot CEL prince
Rake - 6 pot cel prince
Anvil - 6 POT CEL primogen
Bianca - 6 pot CEL 2 hand damage
Donal O'Connor - 8 POT CEL prince
Constanza Vinti - 8 POT CEL prince
Don Cruez the Idealist - 10 POT CEL justicar
Gwendolyn - 11 POT CEL inner circle +2 bleed
---
I think Gwendolyn is probably a bad idea after all.  The theory
is that she can help pass votes, and she's the best for Minion Tapping 
or Golconda'ing, but she can't play any of my P/J cards.
 
library (90):
 
masters:
 
3x Potence
2x Celerity
4x Haven Uncovered
5x Minion Tap
2x Golconda Inner Peace
 
actions:
 
4x Bum's Rush
3x Ambush
4x 5th Tradition Hospitality
3x Leather Jacket
Brujah Justicar
2x Anathema (accidentally lost one of those somewhere, used to have 3) 
4x Archon
 
reactions:
 
3x 2nd Tradition Domain
 
combat:
 
12x Immortal Grapple
11x Torn Signpost
7x Blur
7x Taste of Vitae
2x Fists of Death
2x Pushing the Limit
3x Undead Strength
4x Flash
2x Amaranth
---
 
The idea behind the combat card split was to try and make fewer cards 
per combat still do the work of putting vamps in torpor - eg superior 
Signpost superior Grapple superior Blur for 9 damage, rather than 
superior Signpost superior Grapple superior Undead Strength for 5, 
press with Grapple, maybe Grapple again, hit for 3-5... In this way 
I figured I could get away with reducing the proportion of combat cards 
in the deck and putting other interesting stuff in.  (used to be about 
60 combat/30 non including 13 masters.)  At the same time, the Archons 
are intended to reduce the need for as many Rush actions, again to save 
space.
 
Problem is it's all still in theory, since I didn't even draw an Archon 
let alone get to play one.  I'd like to play this deck (but may well end 
up playing its predecessor) at the tourney LSJ is running in Columbia 
next weekend, but I'd have to be more confident that it would work well.
(Clearly I am obligated to play one combat deck or another, as it is my 
sworn mission in life to defend the tourney viability of combat decks.) 
 
Josh
 
'got killed by ten million pounds of sludge from new york and new jersey' 
 

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So here's my take on the Ally-deck concept, both as I played it on 
Wednesday and Saturday, and also with the changes I made after that... 
 
whoops. forgot to write down the crypt.  I think it was:
 
2x Rudolpho Giovanni (3 NEC)
3x Carlotta Giovanni (7 NEC dom obf)
1x Regina Giovanni (10 NEC DOM)
2x Normal (2 obf)
1x Ohanna (2 dom)
2x Vliam Andor (2)
1x Giuliano Vincenzi (2)
 
which was changed to 2x Giuliano, 0x Regina.
 
masters:
 
Vast Wealth (to get Hawg, RPG Launcher, etc.)
The Barrens (cycling was always good)
3x Blood Doll (pool gain good)
2x Dominate 
2x Obfuscate
2x Sudden Reversal (didn't have any other good master ideas at the time) 
1x KRCG News Radio (light intercept is often handy)
1x Morgue Hunting Ground (pool/blood gain)
1x Powerbase Chicago (pool gain)
3x Memories of Mortality (didn't think this was crucial enough to play lots..) 
 
minions:
 
2x Clan Impersonation (sounded better than it worked)
3x Whispers from the Dead (card recycling - Carlotta's probably enough) 
8x Compel the Spirit (hard to get the right balance)
3x Grave Robbing (good in theory though often blocked)
 
Spectral Divination (probably not worth the 1 blood)
5x Cloak the Gathering (try to get the recruit/compels through)
2x Conditioning (a little extra bleed power)
 
5x Deflection (bounce can be handy; didn't see much heavy bleed though) 
4x Wake with Evening's Freshness (to go with the Deflections)
 
7x Fake Out (allies need maneuvers)
3x Dodge (for allies and vamps)
3x Dead End Alley (presses for the Garou mostly)
6x Spiritual Intervention (combat defense for the Giovanni)
 
3x IR Goggles (more manuevers - possibly excessive)
Hawg (the Garou thing)
RPG Launcher (Garou again)
Talbot's Chainsaw (requisite Ambrosius combo; hasn't come up yet) 
 
2x Guiseppe Gravedigger (not good enough)
5x Renegade Garou (too many, probably)
Gypsies (not bad but not amazing)
Leonardo Mortician (not great but not expensive either)
Scapelli Mechanic (hard to say, haven't actually played him)
3x Muddled Vampire Hunter (good when he shows up)
Ambrosius Ferryman (also hasn't shown up)
Order of Hermes Cabal (and neither have they)
 
---
 
changes made since then:
 
removed: Vast Wealth, 2 Sudden Reversal, 1 Dead End Alley, 
2 Clan Impersonation, 3 Whispers from the Dead, 1 Compel the Spirit, 
1 Spectral Divination, 1 IR Goggles, 1 Hawg, 1 RPG Launcher, 
1 Guiseppe Gravedigger, 1 Powerbase Chicago, 1 Renegade Garou.
 
added: 2 Blood Doll (5), 1 Obfuscate (3), 1 Grave Robbing (4), 
4 Cloak the Gathering (9), 2 Dodge (5), 3 Trap (3), 1 Ivory Bow (1), 
1 Possession (1), 1 Zoo Hunting Ground (1), 1 Asylum Hunting Ground (1).
 
---
 
My experience was that stacking up stuff onto the allies took way 
too much time.  My Garou needed to be killing stuff *now*, not going 
out and buying himself a Hawg and an RPG launcher so he can kick more 
ass later. For the same reason, Clan Impersonations are too slow 
(and not very reliable).  The added Cloaks are partly paranoia from 
having two Compels blocked in a row (by an Assamite no less).  5 Garou 
looks like just being too much - I kept discarding Garous.  So I added 
a little pool gain (like the multiple Hunting Ground idea), reduced the 
equipment, and hopefully it'll play a little better now.
 
(So far, in four games, I think I've gotten one or two VPs total.  It's 
just not been working out very well.  In most cases, I just wound up slain 
before I could get my allies on the road.  I'm not sure what exactly to do 
about that.  Maybe some Effective Managements would help in terms of being 
more able to get the right clans up quickly enough, but I'm not sure what 
I would cut for them.)
 
Josh
 
love that garou though...

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I'm afraid I don't have a listing for my tourney-winning version 
(it was a small tourney anyway ^_^) but here's what I played at Origins, 
nearly making it to the finals: 
 
(I nearly defeated the vicious chicken of, err, someplace, too)
 
crypt:
 
1x Lupo (the Butcher)
1x Koko (the Baker?)
1x Jacob Bragg
2x (Dr.) Dre - (Chronic) Leader of the Cold Dawn
1x Yuri - the Talon  //I'm not sure why... he's not terrible...
2x Jimmy Dunn //the Man in Black - only kicks the most ass in the world 
1x Volker, The Puppet Prince
1x Black Cat
2x Anvil //look out, he's got a pipe! oh wait, maybe it's a signpost! 
1x Bianca
---
13 vampires, 4.08 avg.
 
library: 90 cards:
 
3x Potence
3x Celerity  //small vampires, big skill cards
3x Blood Doll //see the lonely boy out on the weekend trying to make it pay 
4x Haven Uncovered  //I hear these are good in rush decks
2x Archon Investigation  //paranoia strikes deep... (RtI was the old way) ---
15 masters, 16.67% - not as low as some, but workable
 
9x Bum's Rush
5x Ambush      //This plus Havens is 20% rush - probably a little high, 
                //but I wanted to make sure I could always rush
1x Rampage      //just in case
---
15 actions, 16.67% - the other two thirds is combat, of course!
 
10x Torn Signpost  //potence staple
2x Fists of Death  //I used these because of the then-new Immortal
                     //Grapple rule - need to torporize 1st round 
7x Undead Strength  //no potence deck is complete without these
12x Immortal Grapple  //no good getting into a fight if they can Majesty 
2x Burning Wrath    //no good reason; I hoped to burn someone but never did 
5x Blur            //again, for high first-round damage
3x Acrobatics      //I like dodge/something else cards
2x Sideslip
2x Side Strike      //and I like something else/additional strike cards 
2x Pursuit
3x Flash            //and I was counting on not needing too many maneuvers 
8x Taste of Vitae  //so you can take a lickin' and keep on tickin' 
2x Pulled Fangs    //these were still burning vampires then, I think 
---
60 combat cards, 66.66% - that's how you know it's a pure rush deck ^_^ 
 
This deck is real good for slaying weak and feeble Ventrue, 
Toreador, what-have-you - anyone who thinks Strike:Combat Ends 
is a combat defense. 
 
Josh
 
I been across the desert on a deck with no name...

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Oh, sure you can.  It won't be as good as a NL one, but with 
twelve rush (4 bum rush 4 ambush 4 haven uncovered) it's feasible 
enough. Here's a thumbnail sketch of one (actually this may be the 
most effective sort possible, since only the Brujah have both 
Immortal Grapple and Psyche):
 
library:
 
masters:
4 haven uncovered
3 potence
3 celerity
3 blood doll
2 archon investigation
1 fragment of the book of nod
1 the barrens
 
actions:
 
4 bum's rush
4 ambush
 
combat:
 
4 immortal grapple
4 psyche
4 torn signpost
4 undead strength
4 fists of death
4 pushing the limit
4 taste of vitae
4 blur
4 flash
4 pursuit
3 acrobatics
4 pulled fangs
4 disarm
4 sideslip
---
80 cards, 17 masters, 12 rush, 55 combat.
 
Crypt something like this:
 
Koko
Lupo
Dre, Leader of the Cold Dawn x2
Sarah Brando
Jacob Bragg
Hector Sosa
Black Cat
Volker, the Puppet Prince
Anvil x2
Bianca
 
It's just off the top of my head, but I think it'd work pretty 
well against most 4cl decks, especially those without buttloads of S:CE. 
 
Josh


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