[Strategy Event] Restricted Vitae by Bram Vink Restricted Vitae: Gehenna. Do not replace until a vampire successfully hunts. Vampires cannot hunt unless forced to hunt. A vampire who must hunt may hunt by stealing a blood from a younger vampire as a (D) action instead of performing the usual hunt action. --- Listed by TheLasombra as a 'gateway event' it has to fulfill the following criteria: Traits of Gateway Events: 1) No other requirements to put them in play. 2) Insufficient reasons to add them to a deck by themselves. 3) May not necessarily build up your own game. 4) May not specifically hose another's game. As a great fan of this event, I disagree with this nomer, and I think it is, instead, an 'enabling event' since it fulfills the following criteria: Traits of Enabling Events: 1) May enable new deck types by increasing options available. 2) May give new abilities to controlled minions. 3) May enable a current strategy to be stronger without specifically requiring a particular clan/strategy/ability from the other players. Naturally, there must be some proof of these points for Restricted Vitae to actually fulfill these criteria. When looking at Restricted Vitae, there are a few obvious options with the card: The first that entered my mind was to use it with tremere cryptic mission, reducing the ability of your opponents to regain lost blood. However, there is also an obvious drawback with the use of this event in this way, namely that since you play lowcap vampires, people might regain their lost blood off you if you don't watch out. Judicious use of magic of the smith/sniper rifle should counter this drawback enough, while being a very effective combo in its own right. To not have to deal with the drawback of people hunting off your vampires, the use of Free States Rant in combination with larger cap independant voters.(setites are a good option, like Rava2faces proposed) Both of these decks fulfill the criterium nr. 3 of the enabling events. However, both these decktypes ignore the 'A vampire who must hunt may hunt by stealing a blood from a younger vampire as a (D) action instead of performing the usual hunt action.' part of the card. Without further ado, enter my baby: I built this deck on deckbot quite a few months ago, not long after gehenna came out, and I'd like to take credit for the idea and everything :). It works too! :) The idea of the deck is to hunt off other people's minions, then moving the blood to your pool, and repeat. There are a few obstacles with this idea to bridge, though: First, you'll be needing big vampires, to be sure you'll have targets to hunt off. Secondly, you need to make your actions count. Thirdly, you need a reliable way to consistently get your vampires empty. And last but not least, since just hunting off someone else won't oust people, a way to oust. Ok. Quite a few prerequisites. Here's what I came up with: Big vampires, with actions that count: I play !malkavian big cap voters. Why !malkavians, you might ask, all they're good for is S&B, no? no. :) The reasons I play !malkavians are these: !Malkavians have a great amount of table votes with hannibal (reg/adv), imogen, korah, kite and the new girl: marie faucigny. Also since you'll be playing big vampires, Cardinal benediction is a possibilty. They're sabbat, so they can use The Hungry Coyote to steal 2 blood per action instead of 1. They have auspex/obfuscate, for stealth, and they can use the newish Crocodiles Tongue, which synergizes well, since you're playing Fatcaps already :) Ok, problems already arise. Fatcaps aren't known to be cheap, or quick to bring out and !malkavians don't have much multi-action goodness except for hannibal ADV. Also to put your combo in play, you'll be needing both a restricted vitae and a hungry coyote in play, still not even considering how you're getting your vampires empty. Well, the way to to get your vampires empty is an easy one. Lots of minion taps. Now you might wonder: But what after the vampire has hunted? Will you minion tap it again for 2? The answer is: Yes, but with Heidelberg and Communal Haven: Cathedral you'll be able to pool your blood from multiple vampires, for additional minion tap efficiency. Still this won't cut it. You will run out of minion taps, and it's increasingly combo-rific. Enter Anthelios, Parthenon, and rumors of gehenna. You will be including spare copies of your key masters anyway, since you really need them out in play, quickly. (Hungry Coyote, Heidelberg, Communal Haven, Zillah's valley, Dreams, Parthenon) Your spare copies will turn into Minion taps in a pinch! To speed up your deck, include Fortschritt Library, Barrens, Dreams, and Zillah's Valley. Now you still have to oust. That's the easy part. While you're busy hunting off other people's dudes, they won't be gaining much pool from them. Also since you're already playing crocodiles and plenty of stealth, you will also be able to bleed a little. Also there's a good amount of votes. Banishment is a premium card in this deck, and usually does relatively straightforward pool damage while disabling a minion for a while, after which he comes back with plenty of new blood to get rid of! KRC and other hostile votes will make you oust people. Ok now you might wonder: What does this deck do for defense? It does nothing. It hunts backwards to tie up mean people, and bloats like mad in the meantime. You're minion tapping all your vampires to empty/nearly empty the turn after they come out anyway, and if you play it right, you're usually pretty solid on pool. If you regularily encounter heavy bleed, you have the disciplines for bounce. Ok, after all this useless prattle, here's my deck: Rare-heavy, Anthelios-cheese, but IMO tournament viable. Deck Name: !Malk S&B Created By: Bram Vink Description: Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 28, Max: 40, Avg: 8,33) ---------------------------------------------- 2 Korah ani AUS DEM OBF 7, Malkavian Antitribu, Priscus 1 Kite AUS DEM obf pre 7, Malkavian Antitribu, Bishop 2 Marie Faucigny dem tha AUS OBF 7, Malkavian Antitribu, Archbishop 1 Virgil AUS cel DEM OBF 8, Malkavian Antitribu, Bishop 1 Rodolfo pro AUS DEM OBF 8, Malkavian antitribu, Bishop 1 Imogen AUS DEM obf pro vic 9, Malkavian Antitribu, Archbishop 2 Hannibal (ADV) cel dom AUS DEM OBF 10, Malkavian Antitribu, Cardinal 2 Hannibal AUS cel DEM dom OBF 10, Malkavian Antitribu, Cardinal Library: (79 cards) ------------------- Master (33 cards) 1 Barrens, The 2 Communal Haven: Cathedral 2 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Fortschritt Library 1 Golconda: Inner Peace 2 Heidelberg Castle, Germany 4 Hungry Coyote, The 9 Minion Tap 4 Parthenon, The 1 Redeem the Lost Soul 1 Society of Leopold 5 Zillah`s Valley Action Modifier (17 cards) 7 Crocodile`s Tongue 5 Faceless Night 5 Lost in Crowds Political Action (15 cards) 1 Anarchist Uprising 1 Ancilla Empowerment 4 Banishment 6 Kine Resources Contested 3 Rumors of Gehenna Equipment (1 cards) 1 Aaron`s Feeding Razor Combo (5 cards) 5 Swallowed by the Night Event (8 cards) 4 Anthelios, the Red Star 4 Restricted Vitae Dies to: Getting rushed/dunked before the minions come out, and minions being burned. After you Mtap a minion, it going to torpor isn't much of a problem. You'll just rescue it and make it hunt off the culprit. Should probably use more Fortschritt, but I don't own any more. There's still quite some room to fiddle around with. I tried to keep it tight so the possibility of not-drawing-what-I-need is minimized. Also it cycles slowly, as you're not constantly using action cards. Possibly decent additions could be: Sibyl's Tongue, Haunting, Fear of Mekhet, more Banishment, Aeron-the-new !Nos archbishop, Cardinal Benediction, Forced Awakenings, Dramatic Upheaval. I wish you the best of luck with the idea, I hope none of you ever plays it :) Also this deck fulfills the 1st criterium of an enabling event, namely: 1) May enable new deck types by increasing options available Thank you for your time. -Bram Vink jja.vink@hccnet.nl aka Darky