The Music Man

Interpreted by the Lasombra

There is no theory of deck building for Vampire: the Eternal Struggle that can apply in all situations, across all playgroups, across all deck types, or across all inventories. Recognizing which hypotheses are applicable to the deck you are building is the beginning of wisdom.

There is no document or article which will help you more than the experience you gain from playing the game. Take everything with a grain of salt, as any article may be completely inappropriate to your playgroup while being the soul of truth for its author.

Build the largest deck that your card inventory will support. If you only have 3 copies of Temptation, you are much better off playing a 60-65 card deck to insure that you see the copies early and often. If you have the cards to make your deck at the tournament maximum of 90, you should do so. Don't dilute your deck idea to stretch it to the maximum. Find out what the deck really requires, and stop when you have those cards in the deck.

In most games, there will only be between 10 and 14 turns during which you are able to play a master card. Plan to have no more than 14 master cards, and certainly no more than 20 master phase actions unless you add The Parthenon, Anson, and/or Rumors of Gehenna.

A deck which does one thing, and does it well, will perform better across games, across groups, and across time. This is not to say you shouldn't have some intercept in a Vote Deck, but it does mean that any backup strategies and cards should be of sufficiently small quantities to keep from jamming your hand when you need to act.

Using intercept as an example, it is better to have a few permanents, like the Media Locations, than it is to have temporary effects, like Enhanced Senses or other transient intercept cards. Including the 3 least expensive Media Locations will have more benefit to you and will be less disruptive to the focus of your deck than throwing in 6 Enhanced Senses when your main strategy is to oust your prey by passing votes.

It is better to have 2 copies of 6 different vampires that can play all of the cards in your deck than it is to avoid duplication. All vampires that require a discipline master card to play the library cards in your deck should be avoided.

If your deck contains 2 different disciplines, it is better to include a vampire with inferior of both disciplines than it is to spend an equal amount of pool on a vampire with superior in one discipline that lacks the second discipline entirely.

We've got trouble, right here in River City,
that starts with T which rhymes with P
and that stands for Pool.

There is no vampire in the game that is worth the pool you must spend to bring them into play. You must have a means of regaining that pool. Blood Doll, Minion Tap, and Tribute to the Master cannot be overestimated in their usefulness.

Actions that gain you pool are the second most valuable actions you can take. The only action more valuable is the one that ousts your prey.

The actions of your prey that are the most important to block are the ones that gain them pool, or transfers. If there is any way you can prevent it, no Govern the Unaligned, Art Scam, or Consanguineous Boon should be allowed successful completion when that action is taken by your prey.

Cheap, Cheap, Cheap,
Peck a lot, Talk a little more.

You have already spent pool to put blood on your minions. It is better to reuse that investment to pay the cost to purchase permanent effects than it is to use your pool to purchase permanent effects. A Revenant is preferable to a Sport Bike in all deck situations where that switch to blood cost from pool cost is possible.