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Unlife in the City: City Gangrel-antitribu Happy Families deck.
An updated version of the Happy Families deck for the City Gangrel
antitribu. Not all members of the family are in it - Blaise and
Sebastian Goulet simply DEMAND to have decks built around them, or in
the case of Blaise, their disciplines.
CRYPT:
Jesus Alcala 2 cel hat
Sadie 2 pro
Max Lowell 3 cel obf
Scarlet Carson O'Toole 4 pro CEL
Wren 4 cel obf pro
Maria Stone 5 cel obf pro FOR
Skryta Zyleta 5 obf pot pro CEL hat Black Hand
Darrell Boyce, Consul 6 CEL OBF PRO tattoos
Harry Reese 6 cel obf FOR PRO
Zachary 7 for pre CEL OBF PRO
Ellen Fence, the Tracker 8 aus CEL OBF PRO Bishop special
Samantha 10 ani tha CEL OBF PRO Bishop 2 specials
LIBRARY [90 cards]
MASTERS [20, 4 are trifles - still probably too many]
Blood Doll x 3
Campground HG
Celerity
City Gangrel Connections
Creep Show [trifle] x 2
Fame
Haven Uncovered
Life in the City [trifle] x 2
Minion Tap
Obfuscate
Pentex ™ Loves You!
Protean
The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
Sociopath
Storage Annex [should be Path of the Feral Heart]
Tribute to the Master
MINION [70]
DISCIPLINELESS [21]
Ambush
Arson
Atonement
Blow Torch
Bum's Rush
Computer Hacking [should be Fiendish Tongue] x 2
Gas-Powered Chainsaw
Laptop Computer
Leather jacket x 2
Meat Cleaver
Pier 13, Port of Baltimore
Saturday Night Special
Sengir Dagger
Sport Bike
WWEF x 2
Zillah's Tears x 3
CELERITY [17]
Blur x 3
Flash x 4
Lightning Reflexes
Pursuit x 2
Preternatural Evasion x 2
Psyche! x 3
Side Strike x 2
OBFUSCATE [16]
Cloak the Gathering x 4
Disguised Weapon x 4
Faceless Night
Forgotten Labyrinth x 2
Hidden Lurker x 2
Lost in Crowds
Spying Mission
Swallowed by the Night
PROTEAN [16]
Bone Spur x 2
Claws of the Dead x 2
Earth Control x 2
Earth Meld
Form of Mist x 2
Homunculus
Rapid Change
Shadow of the Beast
Wolf Claws x 4
Top
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DECK: Black hand Anarchs 2
This deck uses exclusively Black Hand vampires, and the aim is to make
them all into Anarchs; this is possible because Seraph is not a title
[in VTES if you have a vote you are titled, if you don't you aren't -
card text, as always, overriding this principle, for example with
Legacy of Pander and the occasional burn-blood-for-votes specials]. In
addition the deck uses the Happy Families formula to choose library
cards, here majoring on a whopping 5 disciplines. It is quite toolboxy
but flows smoothly in play, and it wins a LOT; in fact, i have yet to
lose with it [4 outings, 2 wins, two draws]. In essence [to use a Ben
Peal concept] it is a dominate bleed payload deck with two delivery
sytems - stealth and bash, the bash serving also as defence, being
aided to that end by significant intercept.
BLACK HAND ANARCHS 2
Jalan-Aajav
Tarbaby Jack
Katherine Stoddard
Piotr Andreikov
Blackhorse Tanner
Kazimir Savostin
Soldat
Wah Chun-Yuen
Yazid Tamari
Banjoko
Henri Lavenant
Ezekiel, Lord of Montreal
21 MASTERS [7 are trifles]
The Anarch Free Press
Anarch Railroad
Animalism
Blood Doll x 3
Celerity
Corporal Reservoir [trifle]
Dominate
Dominion
Galaric's Legacy x 6 [trifle]
Obfuscate
Potence
Remover
Seattle Committee
Watchtower: Chosen are Called
69 MINION
7 ANARCH
Diversion x 3
Improvised Tactics x 2
The Mole x 2
12 DISCIPLINELESS/BLACK HAND
Circumspect Revelation
Forced Awakening x 4
Leather Jacket
.44 Magnum
Ministry x 2
Watch Commander x 2
Watchtower: Greatest Fall
7 ANIMALISM
Army of Rats
Cat's Guidance x 2
Guard Dogs x 2
Rat's Warning x 2
7 CELERITY
Flash x 3
Nimble Feet x 4
15 DOMINATE
Conditioning x 5
Deflection x 5
Govern the Unaligned x 4
Seduction
7 OBFUSCATE
Elder Impersonation
Faceless Night
Lost in Crowds
Swallowed by the Night x 4
14 POTENCE
Immortal Grapple x 3
Rampage
Shattering Blow
Thrown Gate x 3
Torn Signpost x 3
Undead Strength x 3
Top
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i had built two Christmas decks for the purposes of this
game, the one i transcribe below for me, and a virtual clone
of Ben Peal's "The O-Line" Gargoyle deck for Sarah. The
latter deck is very fine IMO, and it really is true as Ben
says that a non-Ben player can field it and still do well.
In the event, however, Sarah opted to stick with her
relatively-bleedy Tzimisces, Michael played his Kiasyds,
Shevaun went with a big Nosferatu bloat-vote deck, and i
played the Other Christmas deck i built. And after a
protracted struggle i won, though not by a sweep: Sarah got
Shevaun, and i got the other three VP. Here's my deck, a
marginally-accelerated Euro-Brujah affair which includes
some of the less-fashionable Brujah in addition to the Usual
Suspects.
DECK NAME: "Breast or Thigh, Sir?"
CREATED BY: Legbiter
CONCEPT: Brujah-with-dominate ["EuroBrujah"] Happy Families
deck [ie built by mathematically-regulating the proportions
of cards of different disciplines according to the crypt one
has chosen, it's all explained under Happy Families at
legbiter.tripod.com], constructed on the base of the CE
Brujah starter which my mother gave me for Christmas,
augmented with cards that were lying around waiting to be
filed. Heavy dominate-bleed, deflect, ranged combat with
multi-strikes. Probably needs to lose the blurs for more
Pursuit, needs to lose a few masters for Tastes of Vitae or
something, but actually is quite functional as it stands.
CRYPT [12 cards]
Anvil x 2
Constanza Vinti x 2
Don Cruez, the Idealist x 2
Donal O'Connor x 2
Theo Bell x 2
Tura Vaughn x 2
LIBRARY [90 cards]
MASTERS [18 cards]
Blood Doll
Celerity
Dominate
Fame
Golconda
Haven Uncovered
KRCG News radio
Legendary Vampire
Minion Tap x 6
Warzone HG
Zillah's Valley x 3
MINION [72 cards]
ACTIONS [10 cards]
Blood Hunt
Bum's Rush x 3
Govern the Unaligned x 5
Rampage
POLITICS [3 cards]
Anathema
Kindred Restructure x 2
ACTION MODIFIERS [4 cards]
Command of the Beast
Conditioning
Foreshadowing Destruction x 2
COMBAT [41 cards]
Blur x 4
Flash x 9
Lightning Reflexes
Pursuit x 4
Taste of Vitae x 2
Thoughts Betrayed x 4
Thrown Gate x 8
Thrown Sewer Lid x 9
EQUIPMENT [3 cards]
.44 Magnum
Flak Jacket
Leather Jacket
REACTIONS [11 cards]
Deflection x 2
Redirection x 3
Second Tradition x 2
WWEF x 4
Top
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Eye of Hazimel Storyline Tournament
Tournament Winning Deck
November 10, 2002
Portsmouth, UK
13 players
Here is My Deck. In my hands this deck has never lost a game. In fact
the only time it has ever lost a game is when Barney Baker
borrowed it for the London Minicon, and the only reason it lost then
was because Barney needed to sweep/got greedy [take your pick]. Both
Barney and Rob have helped me to tweak it so thank-you, Gentlemen!
Deck name: "i'm sorry, did i break your concentration?"
Created by: Legbiter
Description: Brit uber-sleaze takeover/bloat deck, based on new
wording of Derange, multiple master phases, Heidelberg and Malkavian
Dementia. A similar deck has been posted to the NG, but this is not a
clone or derivative of that, just another case of Great minds thinking
Alike.
CRYPT [12 cards]
3 x Leandro
2 x Gilbert Duane
3 x Lucian
Mariel, Lady Thunder
Anatole, Prophet of Gehenna
2 x Greger Anderssen
LIBRARY [90 cards]
MASTERS [29]
8 x Malkavian Dementia
2 x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
2 x The Parthenon
9 x Minion Tap
Legendary Vampire
4 x Zillah's Valley
Dominate
Secure Haven
Temptation of Greater Power
ACTIONS [12]
9 x Derange
3 x Govern the Unaligned
VOTES [4]
Rumours of Gehenna
Dramatic Upheaval
Protect Thine Own
Kindred Restructure
ALLIES [1]
Muddled Vampire Hunter
ACTION MODIFIERS [17]
2 x Swallowed by the Night
4 x Conditioning
3 x Faceless Night
Forgotten Labyrinth
3 x Lost in Crowds
2 x Spying Mission
2 x Elder Impersonation
REACTIONS [27]
8 x Forced Awakening
8 x Obedience
Enhanced Senses
3 x Telepathic Misdirection
2 x My Enemy's Enemy
2 x Deflection
2 x Redirection
Eagles' Sight
Top
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DECK: The Appliance of Science
[Gangrel anti-tribu Modular Family deck]
And here all of that is, written out all neat and tidy.
CRYPT [12 vampires]
3 x Sebastian Goulet 9 cel DOM OBF pre pro 2 specials
3 x Genevieve 10 dom PRO ANI aus FOR Priscus special
3 x Caitlin 6 dom PRO ANI aus
3 x Shane Grimald 4 dom ani pot
LIBRARY [90 cards]
18 MASTER CARDS
2 x Dominate
Twisted Forest
Pentex Loves You!
Blood Doll x 4
Campground HG
2 x Zillah's Valley
ToR3
Protean
Animalism
Auspex
Path of the Feral Heart
Minion Tap
Gangrel Conspiracy x 2
72 MINION CARDS
CENTRAL MODULE
4 x WWEF
2 x Change of Target
10 x Govern the Unaligned
4 x Scouting Mission
8 x Bonding
2 x Seduction
4 x Deflection
2 x Redirection
9 PROTEAN
2 x Rapid Change
2 x Wolf Claws
2 x Earth Control
3 x Flesh of Marble
9 ANIMALISM
3 x Carrion Crows
3 x Aid from Bats
3 x Rat's Warning
6 AUSPEX
2 x Aura Reading
2 x Enhanced Senses
2 x Spirit's Touch
12 "UNIVERSAL"
3 x WWEF
2 x Deflection
Shadow Court Satyr
Palatial Estate
3 x Delaying Tactics
2 x Steal the Mind
Top
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Happy Camarilla-Edition Families Ventrue Deck.
i bought three boxes of boosters and two of starters, and when i had
finished sorting them i was 9 cards short of the full set. i kept one of
the boxes of starters intact for casual play, and with all the cards i
had left [except for most of the extra rares i had - i'm keeping an
extra one each of those in the folder until i have traded up to the full
set] i built Happy Family decks for the 6 surviving Camarilla clans.
These decks are therefore ALL group 3 vampires, since the group twos are
all in the starters and they all went into the collection. Last night we
played a 4-way game in the pub and we each chose one of these CE Happy
Family decks. i had the Tremere, Matt had the Nosferatu, John had the
Ventrue and Mark had the Malkavians. John won with 3 VP and Mark got the
other 1. Here is the Ventrue deck which i built and with which John won.
CRYPT [13 vampires]
Lana Butcher
Gracis Nostinus
Elena Gutierrez
Catherine du Bois
Lucinde Alastor
Ilyana Ravidovich
Marcus Vitel
Diana Vick
Katarine Kornfeld
Edward Vignes
Horatio Ballard
Alan Sovereign
Hrothulf
LIBRARY [75 cards]
MASTERS [15]
Auspex
Blood Doll
Dominate
Effective management
Elysium: The Arboretum
Fortitude
KRCG News Radio
Minion Tap x 2
Misdirection
Powerbase: Washington, DC
Presence
Short-term Investment
Uptown Hunting Ground
Ventrue Headquarters
DISCIPLINELESS [15]
Conservative Agitation
Elder Kindred Network
Fifth tradition: Hospitality x 2
Fourth Tradition: The Accounting
Kine Resources Contested x 2
Kindred Restructure
Parity Shift
Second Tradition: Domain x 3
Third Tradition: Progeny
Wake with Evening's Freshness x 2
AUSPEX [5]
Aura Reading
Enhanced Senses
Spirit's touch
Telepathic Counter
Telepathic Vote Counting
DOMINATE [15]
Bonding x 4
Deflection x 4
Govern the Unaligned x 4
Obedience
Seduction x 2
FORTITUDE [12]
Dawn Operation x 2
Freak Drive x 3
Restoration
Rolling with the Punches
Skin of Rock
Skin of Steel x 3
Unflinching Persistence
PRESENCE [13]
Bewitching Oration x 2
Charming Lobby
Dread Gaze
Majesty x 5
Treachery
Voter Captivation x 3
These decks played really well, even the Tremere - i made a gross error
in not realising that Thingy Valois the Watcher only has inferior
thaumaturgy, which basically destroyed my otherwise-sound position. We
found that there were SUBTLE differences in the way these new Camarilla
clan-based decks work compared with the old ones, but these added spice
to the game rather than constituting a radical change. We all felt the
change to Majesty and Second Tradition restored balance without nuking
the clans who make heavy use of them. So overall very well done, Scott,
great set and a tonic to the game.
Top
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DECK: Goodnight, Sweet Prince (August 2002 edition)
Marianne looked like a Romany and she was a bit of a job-gypsy, so she
was almost as keen on the Ravnos as the Kiasyd [fairies were her great
love]. Before her death i had promised to try to build her a Ravnos /
Kiasyd deck but i never did, and to be honest, cannot see how to. The
closest thing i can offer to a deck in her memory is therefore this new
version of an old idea - to use Goodnight, Sweet Prince on your OWN
crypt, and then to possess out or redeem the lost souls of the vampires
you discard in this way. i haven't actually played this version of the
deck yet, so this is tech-in-progress; i think it is better than the old
versions which Xian and i developed long ago,
i think it could be improved, but i'm not sure if it will ever be the
basis of a competitive deck - which doesn't mean i'm not going to
persevere with it.
CRYPT [12 vampire cards]:
Cardano
Ezmerelda x 2
Ivan Krenyenko x 5
Konsantin
Queen Anne
Spider-Killer
Wilhelm Waldburg
LIBRARY [90 cards]:
MASTER CARDS [17]
Dreams of the Sphinx
Fortune Teller Shop
Giant's Blood
Goodnight, Sweet Prince x 6
The Path of Paradox
Redeem the Lost Soul x 6
Week of Nightmares
MINION CARDS [73]
DISCIPLINELESS [7]
The Sargon fragment x 3
Wake with Evening's Freshness x 4
CHIMERSTRY [13]
Fata Morgana x 4
Mirror Image x 4
Red Herring x 4
Sensory Deprivation
DOMINATE [13]
Conditioning x 5
Deflection x 7
Graverobbing
FORTITUDE [30]
Daring the Dawn x 3
Dawn Operation x 2
Day Operation x 2
Force of Will x 7
Freak Drive x 8
Hidden Strength x 3
The Kiss of Ra
Skin of Steel x 4
NECROMANCY [10]
Call of the Hungry Dead x 4
Possession x 6
Lots of cards are questionable in this and i'ld be more-than-usually
grateful for feedback, given that i've never actually WON a game with a
GNSP deck [only played it twice, to be honest, and NEVER played the
above version, though something closely-similar did a BIT of its stuff
last Wednesday in the Northcote Hotel, before being stomped by John
Keech's Stanislawa deck].
Top
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DECK: Brit-Turbo, or, Tribute to the Rehlow
CREATED BY: Legbiter, but firmly based on the original idea of Matt
Rehlow. This version got second place in the May Ramstein tournament,
Germany. A closely-similar version recently won a tournament in Sweden;
sadly i have forgottten the player's name [Erik, maybe?] and i'm not
sure whether he cloned it directly from Matt or from me.
CONCEPT: The Baron, on one blood, acquires the soul gem, then bleeds
with inferior Force of Will [and burns]. The next vampire in the crypt
is [a] younger, and [b] has superior necromancy, so it comes into play
on full blood, and possesses the Baron back into play. This fresh baron
is not bound by NRA, so it can do exactly the same thing again. Easily
capable of running through 15 pool in a single turn; mutates from a
trick deck into a swarm in the process [don't neglect to use the
specials on the other vampires you bring out, they can be crucial to
victory]. Hard but fun to play, its banes are contesting, static
intercept intelligently deployed, and rush-combat. i would rate this
right up there with ToGP as a novel and heart-breakingly competitive
deck, and i would also point out that it is REALLY cheap to build, VERY
few rares [only the Soul Gems are essential, and really you only need one].
POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS: This deck really needs to go up to 90 cards,
keeping the overall proportions, which also means its crypt has to be
increased. How this might be done is indicated below.
CRYPT [12 vampires] [raise to 14; add Isabel Giovanni and Rudolpho Giovanni]
Andrea Giovanni
Gillespi Giovanni
Rafaele Giovanni
Kanimana Belghazi
Agaitas, the Scholar of Antiquities
Le Dinh Tho
Egothha
Carlotta Giovanni
Anisa Marianna Lopez
The Baron
Pochtli
Gisela Harden, the Winnower
LIBRARY [71 cards] [raise to 90]
MASTERS [26] [raise to 32]
The Barrens
Coroner's Contact x 6 [raise to 8]
Dreams of the Sphinx x 2
Elder Library
Fragment of the Book of Nod
Minion Tap x 7 [raise to 9]
The Parthenon
Storage Annex
Vast Wealth x 5 [raise to 7]
Visit from the Capuchin
ACTIONS/EQUIPMENT [24] [raise to 30]
Force of Will x 10 [raise to 13]
Possession x 10 [raise to 13]
Psychic Veil x 2
Soul Gem of Etrius x 2
ACTION MODIFIERS [21] [raise to 28]
Call of the Hungry Dead x 6 [8]
Cloak the Gathering x 2 [3]
Daring the Dawn x 3 [4]
Faceless Night x 2 [3]
Lost in Crowds x 2 [3]
Seduction x 3 [probably should replace these by more Daring the Dawn or
Faceless Night, or other stealth cards]
Spectral Divination x 3 [4]
Top
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Children of the Night
This month i have two decks that use Gangrel antitribu vampires. The
first one is my own work i'm sorry to say, so before i hit you with its
full brutality i'd better come up with a few lame excuses. It's actually
the second of two new decks that i played last night in our regular
wednesday pub game. The first deck was a True Brujah Happy Families deck
[6 true Brujah, 2 of each, 6 assorted pot/pre Brujah/!Brujah], and while
i was building it i became aware of the "outferior" text on Clotho's
gift. Once i had picked up my jaw i immediately set about building a
weenie obfuscate Night Moves deck with this card for added nastiness.
Here's the deck.
CRYPT: 25 vampires of capacity 4 or less, all have obf or OBF.
Watenda
Laurent de valois
Roland Bishop
Yorick
Agrippina
Regilio
Hadrian Garrick
Tansu Bekir
*Wren*
Agatha
Basil
Shannon Price
Daliyah
Zoe
Normal
Lena Rowe
*Max Lowell*
Claven
Celine Chevalier
Sammy
Duck
Josef
Nepata
Dollface
Dimple
LIBRARY [90 cards]
MASTERS [19]
Archon Investigation x 2
Effective management x 9
The Parthenon
Pentex Subversion x 2
Sudden Reversal x 3
Tribute to the Master x 2
ACTIONS [52]
Clotho's Gift x 10
Night Moves x 42
ACTION MODIFIERS [14]
Cloak the gathering x 3
Faceless Night x 3
Lost in Crowds x 3
Spying Mission x 2
Swallowed by the Night x 3
REACTIONS [5]
Delaying tactics x 5
Need i add that it swept in about 25 minutes, and that with an Info
Highway or two this could have been quicker?
Top
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DECK: The Ditchwitch Deck
North American readers will mostly know what a Ditchwitch is, but i'ld
be surprised if many people from the other continents did. Ben Peal,
whose dearest wish it is to own one, kindly explained about them to me
when David Tatu was driving us up through Georgia and the Carolinas
last autumn, erm, sorry, Fall.
A Ditchwitch is a caterpillar tractor which is used to excavate
ditches in the heavy clay soils of the American South. The usual
mechanical scoop/bucket/spade-type things don't work here, so instead
the Ditchwitch has a HUGE [8-foot long] chainsaw on the front, with
which to delve into the Dixie dirt. i must admit i thought that Ben
was having a little innocent fun at the Limey's expense when he told
me this, but it's actually true - i have seen them with my own eyes,
and very surreal and menacing they look - True American Gothic. They
even have a website -
http://www.ditchwitch.com/Category/CategoryView/1003 has some pictures
of the chainsaws.
i've named the following perfectly-functional [despite having 5
disciplines] country gangrel-antitribu deck after this amazing
machine, because it contains chain saws, and cards that say "earth"
and "rock" on them. i dedicate it to my Southern US friends in
appreciation of all their kindness, to Jared Strait for winning a
storyline tourney with a !Gangrel deck, and to Ben in honour of his
TWO victories in the storyline tournament. O, and it's 4CL-legal [but
was designed for NCL, and works just fine there]. Am i Mr Emollient or
WHAT?????
CRYPT [12 vampire cards]
Caitlin x 2
Genevieve x 2
Haakon Mortensen
Leon
Monique x 2
Omaya x 2
Sadie
Shane Grimald
LIBRARY [90 cards]
MASTERS [17]
Animalism
Auspex
Blood Doll x 3
Campground HG
Dominate
Fortitude
Minion Tap
The Path of the Feral Heart
Pentex loves You!
Protean
The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
Storage Annex
Sudden reversal
Tribute to the Master
Twisted Forest
MINION CARDS [73]
DISCIPLINELESS [17]
Arson
Computer Hacking
Flak jacket
Forced Awakening x 2
Gas-Powered Chainsaw x 2
JS Simmons, Esq.
Laptop Computer x 2
Leather Jacket x 3
Pier 13, Port of Baltimore
Sawed-Off Shotgun
Sport Bike
White Phosphorous Grenade
ANIMALISM [15]
Carrion Crows x 2
Cats' Guidance x 3
Guard Dogs x 4
Rat's Warning x 2
Shadow of the Beast
Song of Serenity x 2
Wolf Companion
AUSPEX [11]
Aura Reading x 2
My Enemy's Enemy
Precognition x 2
Pulse of the Canaille
Revelations
Spirit's Touch x 2
Telepathic counter x 2
DOMINATE [7]
Conditioning x 2
Deflection x 2
Govern the Unaligned x 2
Graverobbing
FORTITUDE [10]
Hidden Strength
Rolling with the Punches x 3
Skin of Rock x 4
Superior Mettle x 2
PROTEAN [13]
Claws of the Dead x 3
Dissolution
Earth Control x 2
Form of Mist
Homunculus
Quick Meld
Rapid Change x 3
Wolf Claws
Top
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Here it is, for Daughters of Cack fans, and maybe for some others as
well. Variants of this deck have done in Barney [on Sunday, this being
the only deck that actually did the eventual tournament winner in -
and congratulations Barney on your win!] and Rob [when we went round
to his house for tea]: and since these two gentlemen are widely and
IMO rightly regarded as the best players in the UK, there's arguably
something to work with here.
DECK NAME: And i'd have gotten away with it, too - if it weren't for
Those Meddling Kids
CREATED BY: Legbiter
CONCEPT: Happy Families-constructed 90-card variant of Karaoke Killers [qv].
Bleed and/or vote until your prey falls over.
CRYPT [12 vampire cards]
Heather Florent - The Opportunist
Lolita
Angela Preston x 3
Gael Pilet x 2
Delilah Monroe x 2
Roland Loussarian
Celeste, voice of a Secret
Muse
MASTERS [18]
Anarch Troublemaker x 2
Blood Doll x 2
Dreams of the Sphinx
Effective management x 2
Elder Library
Elysium, the Arboretum
Fortitude
Information Highway
Paris Opera house
Presence
The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
Secure haven
Sudden reversal
Tribute to the Master x 2
DISCIPLINELESS [22]
Bribes x 2
Change of Target x 2
Concert Tour x 2
Consanguineous Boon
Conservative Agitation x 3
Disputed Territory
Kine Resources Contested x 5
Meddling of Semsith x 2
Praxis Seizure, Amsterdam
Praxis Seizure, Barcelona
Praxis Seizure, Berlin
Praxis Seizure, Brussels
FORTITUDE [17]
Daring the Dawn x 4
Day Operation x 2
Force of Will x 3
Freak Drive x 2
The Kiss of Ra
Rapid Healing x 2
Skin of Rock x 2
Skin of Steel
MELPIMONEE [15]
Echo of harmonies x 3
Madrigal x 4
The Missing Voice x 6
Tourette's voice x 2
PRESENCE [18]
Aire of Elation x 3
Awe
Bewitching Oration x 4
Catatonic Fear
Charming Lobby x 2
Majesty x 2
Staredown x 2
Voter Captivation x 3
Top
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This is a version of a soul-gem combo deck which was invented by Rehlow
and played with some success by him at the recent tournament in Butler.
i built this deck the moment i read it and have been tinkering about
with it ever since so's to make it a storyline-legal Giovanni deck. In
so doing i discovered structural features of the deck which make it
uncompetitive in the UK environment, and so i have adjusted it quite
significantly, finally managing to win a game with it on Sunday night
[3rd February]. In this form i think you could win a few games with it
but you need to be clear that it's a trick-deck and although it works
beautifully when it does work, it can grind to an embarassing halt every
so often. Definitely one to keep around for laughs, though, and i shall
probably play it in a storyline tournament some time this month.
DECK NAME: One-third of the Beast [222 = 666/3; played in a friendly on
02/02/02, and 20 masters/20 actions/20 action modifiers]
CONCEPT: Rehlow's The Combo made legal for Storyline tourneys, and
tweaked so as to at least approach competitiveness in the UK metagame.
Basically, the Baron brings out your entire crypt in one turn.
CREATED BY: The basic idea is ENTIRELY Rehlow's, and good work by him.
All i [Legbiter] have done is tweak it.
CRYPT [16 vampire cards, 75% giovanni]
Le Dinh Tho
6 x Pochtli
Andrea Giovanni
Egothha
Rafaele Giovanni
Gillespi Giovanni
Kanimana Belghazi
Carlotta Giovanni
The Baron
Rudolpho Giovanni
Isabel Giovanni
LIBRARY [60 cards]
MASTERS [20]
6 x Minion Tap
2 x Dreams of the Sphinx
4 x Vast Wealth
6 x Coroner's contact
Elder Library
The Barrens
ACTIONS/EQUIPMENT [20]
9 x Possession
2 x Soul Gem of Etrius
9 x Force of Will
ACTION MODIFIERS [20]
2 x Faceless Night
5 x Seduction
3 x Spectral Divination
6 x Call of the Hungry Dead
2 x Cloak the gathering
2 x Lost in Crowds
PLAYING NOTES: Aim is to get The Baron out as quickly as possible, you
have to remain ABSOLUTELY focussed on that. Once he is out, minion tap
him down to one, and equip with the soul gem. Force of Will at inferior
- The Baron burns, triggering the Soul Gem. The new vampire possesses
the baron out of the ash-heap using superior necromancy. The Baron taps
to take the soul gem, and bleeds with Force of will as before. If you
have Pochtli out and the new vampire is another Pochtli he burns and you
get the NEXT vampire. If you have Kanimana or Le Dinh Tho out and you
get the other Nagaraja you don't have to pay another three - the Scarce
rule only refers to situations where you move the vampire from your
uncontrolled to your active region, not to cases where you move the
vampire from the top of your crypt to your active region.
Top
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So i rushed out and bought my Scryes, read mike's article [Lobotomy???
pull the other one, Mike! No, seriously, good work in promoting the
great game] and built a deck with Hesha in it. Alright, that's a lie
really. i stuffed Hesha into my existing Setite Happy Families deck,
played a game with it last Wednesday, tweaked out the totally useless
politics and came up with this which i played last night in a 3-player.
In neither of these games did i get to activate Hesha, and nor have i
managed to bring him out in home play yet.
CRYPT [13 vampires]
Hadrian Garrick
Amisa
Kemintiri
Nepata
Lena Rowe
Hesha Ruhadze
Dedefra
Khalil Anvari
Greta Kircher
Lalitha
Kephamos
Aisha
Saqqaf
LIBRARY [75 cards].
MASTERS [15]
Auspex
Blood Doll x 2
Guardian Angel
Information Highway
Minion Tap
Obfuscate
Opium Den
The Path of Typhon
Presence
The Realm of the Black Sun
Serpentis
Storage Annex
Temple HG
Tribute to the Master
DISCIPLINELESS [15]
44 Magnum
Covenant of Blood
Deer Rifle x 2
Forced Awakening x 2
Leather Jacket x 3
Mummy's Tongue
WWEF x 3
Zip Gun x 2
OBFUSCATE [12]
Cloak the Gathering x 3
Elder impersonation
Faceless Night x 2
Lost in Crowds x 3
Swallowed by the Night x 3
PRESENCE [14]
Aire of Elation x 2
Entrancement
Legal Manipulations x 4
Majesty x 5
Media Influence x 2
SERPENTIS [13]
Form of Corruption
Form of the Serpent x 4
Heart of Darkness x 3
Lure of the Serpent
Mark of Damnation x 2
Temptation x 2
AUSPEX [6]
Aura Reading x 2
Enhanced Senses
Primal Instincts
The Spirit's Touch
Telepathic Counter
Quite a functional little deck this, and played quite differently on its
two competitive outings. In the first game it turned into a stealth-bleed
and biff deck since my prey [Mark] activated Ventrues and i had Kemintiri
in my crypt. Did some ridiculous deals and had some done against me in
consequence, final 2-2 table split with me "winning" on being last man
standing. In the second i got out Greta Kircher who i've always thought
is a bit good and also did some productive temptation against my weenie
prey's main blocker, a guy called Joe playing VTES basically for the first
time. He did really well, incidentally - won the first game before i arrived
taking out John Keech, John Eagles and Rob Treasure along the way, also won
the second game by taking out John Keech and then me by concession since i'd
arranged a lift for 11pm precisely. However, had i been able to stay i would
have won since he was bleeding me for 1 each [less if i Greta'd it] with an
ever-decreasing number of vampires thanks to temptation and Form of Corruption.
Probably the above deck needs to lose all aspirations to blocking and just
go with TCs and aura readings for the auspex sauce. Lure of the Serpent and
Temptation are terrific and maybe there should be another lure for one of the
Hearts of Darkness but HoD and MoD are really not bad in this deck.
Top
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DECK NAME: "Darling, you were WONDERFUL!"
[first of two teaching decks: !Toreador bash/bleed].
CRYPT [12 cards]
Lolita
Donatien x2
Jost Werner x2
Sheila Mazarin
Mercy, Knight Inquisitor
Miller Delmardigan x2
Carter
Victor Revell, loyalist
Greta Kircher
Matteus, Flesh Sculptor
LIBRARY [78 cards]
AUSPEX [17]
Enhanced Senses x5
Precognition x5
Pulse of the Canaille x2
Revelations
Spirit's Touch x2
Telepathic Counter
Telepathic Tracking
CELERITY [23]
Alacrity x2
Blur x3
Fast hands
Flash x4
Lightning Reflexes x3
Preternatural Evasion x2
Pursuit
Rapid Thought
Sideslip x3
Side Strike x2
Vampiric Speed
PRESENCE [16]
Aire of Elation x3
Catatonic Fear
Legal manipulations x4
Majesty
Media Influence x3
Social Charm x2
Staredown x2
DISCIPLINELESS [5]
Blood of the Sabbat
Cardinal Sin: Insubordination
Crimson Sentinel
Leather jacket
Rave
MASTER [17]
The Art of Pain x3
Auspex
Blood Doll
Celerity
Effective management
Fetish Club HG x2
KRCG News Radio
Minion Tap
Misdirection
Presence
Purchase Pact
The Rack
Short-term investment
Sudden Reversal
Top
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DECK NAME: "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if the big bleeds don't get you, the big biffs must."
[second of two teaching decks: Lasombra bash/bleed].
CRYPT [12 cards]
Antonio Delgado
Aaron Duggan
Angelica
Gratiano
Royce
Talley
Aurora Van Brande
Cameron
Lucita
Alvaro
Ignacio
Guido Luciano
MASTERS [20]
The Barrens
Blood Doll x 3
Depravity
Dominate
Effective Management
Elysian Fields
Haven Uncovered
Information Highway
Minion Tap
Mob Connections
Obtenebration
The Path of Night
Political HG
Political Seizure
Potence
The Rumor Mill
Sudden Reversal
Tomb of Rameses III
DISCIPLINELESS [15]
Ambush x 3
Arson
Blood bond
Bum's Rush x 2
Computer hacking x 2
Conditioning
Gas-powered Chainsaw x 2
Hand of Conrad
Leather jacket
Vaulderie
DOMINATE [10]
Bonding
Command of the Beast
Obedience
Scouting Mission x 4
Slaughtering the Herd x 3
OBTENEBRATION [10]
Arms of the Abyss x 3
Darkness Within
Entombment
Eyes of the night
Shadow Body x 2
Shadow Play
Shadow Strike
POTENCE [22]
Decapitate x 3
Fractures Armament
Increased Strength x 2
Pushing the Limit x 7
Rampage
Sacrament of carnage x 2
Thrown gate x 4
Thrown Sewer Lid x 2
Top
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This is an old deck, but a surprisingly good one.
CRYPT [13 vamps]
Tereza Rostas 8
Natalia 7
Andrei Puxon 5
Sarisha Veliku 6
Darius Styx 9
Joaquina Amaya 6
Sasha Miklos 2
Petru Sipos 7
Tsigane 3
Lazar Dobrescu 3
Salbatore Bokkengro 4
Vaclav Petalengro 6
Konstantin, Baro of the Caravan 9
LIBRARY [71 cards]
NON-DISCIPLINE [16 cards]
Laptop Computer [replace with a Treasured Samadji post-FN]
WWEF x 3
Rom Gypsy
Fortune Teller
The Crimson Sentinel
Flame Thrower
Leather jacket
Owl Companion
.44 magnum x 2
Ghoul Retainer
SMG
Pack Tactics
Deer Rifle
CHIMERSTRY [14 cards + Master skill card]
Chimerstry Skill card
Sensory Deprivation x 2
Horrid Reality x 3
Ignis Fatuus x 2
Illusions of the Kindred
Mass Reality x 2
Veiled Sight x 2
Fata Morgana x 2
FORTITUDE [13 cards + master skill card]
Fortitude skill card
Rolling with the Punches x 4
Indominability x 2
Unflinching Persistence x 4
Restoration
Kiss of Ra
Superior Mettle
ANIMALISM [10 cards + master skill card]
Animalism Skill Card
Army of Rats
Murder of Crows
Guard Dogs x 2
Raven Spy
Tier of Souls
Cat's Guidance x 3
Shepherd's innocence
DOMINATE [4 cards + master skill card]
Dominate Skill card
Govern the Unaligned
Deflection x 3
OTHER MASTERS [10, 14 counting skill cards]
Park HG
Ravnos Carnival
Fortune Teller Shop
Minion Tap
Vast Wealth x 2
Ravnos Cache
Blood Doll x 2
Heidelberg Castle, Germany
Top
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DECK NAME: Rafastio Ghouls A-go-go [allies swarm/combat deck]
CREATED BY: Legbiter
DECKLIST:
Here's the deck as i played it and apart from the comments above i've
noted some other points where i think improvements could be made, and
i've suggested what they might be.
CRYPT [12 vampires]:
Dr John Casey 3 tha
Blythe Candelaria 3 THA
Sarah Cobbler 4 THA
Heinrick Schlempt 2 tha
Brooke 3 tha
Magdalena Schaeffer 2 THA
Roreca Quaid 2 tha
Sadie 2 [cute gangrel-anti, likes BAAAD faeries]
Thelonius 4 tha
Jing Wei 3 tha
Richard Tauber 4 tha
Marcianna Giovanni, Investigator [cute cat and special]
LIBRARY [90 cards, and you'll need 'em].
MASTERS [18]
Charisma x 2
Creepshow Casino x 2 [replace one by a haven uncovered]
Jake Washington (Hunter) x 2 [replace one by a haven uncovered]
Memories of Mortality x 4
Rotschreck x 2
Tribute to the Master x 6 [maybe reduce to 4, add 1 Elder Library and
1 Barrens or DoTS]
ACTIONS [10]
Bum's Rush x 7 [reduce to 5; add one trap and 1 computer hacking]
Rave x 3 [replace by 2 computer hacking and 1 Clapped-Out Old Hippy,
really he's called Mystic Vagabond i think]
ALLIES [19]
Nephandus (Mage) x 2
Rafastio Ghoul x 11
Shadow Court Satyr (Changeling)
Succubus x 2 [bit pricey, discard if you can't get Charisma onto a
!Tremere]
Talaq the Immortal x 3 [only need 1 really, if i had 2 more Rafastio
Ghouls i'ld put them in]
COMBAT [43]
Burst of Sunlight x 5
Fake Out x 9
Theft of Vitae x 24
Trap x 5
Top
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DECK: St Bartholemew's Day Massacre
Kiasyd/Lasombra sneak-bleed toolbox deck, created by Legbiter, 6CL legal though
designed for standard NCl environment, not legal for tournament play JUST yet
so keep your panties on until January 3rd!
CRYPT:
7 Kiasyd cards [5 vampires]:
Bartholemew x 2
Beatrice L'Anjou
Julia Prime x 2
Kassiym Malikhair
Marconius
5 Lasombra cards [5 vampires]:
Aurora Van Brande
Gratiano
Ignacio, The Black Priest
Lucita
Ramiro
LIBRARY [83 cards]:
17 MASTERS [bit too many - probably should drop Festivo and Misdirection]:
Auspex
The Barrens
Blood Doll x 2
Chanjelin Ward x 2
Direct intervention
Dominate
Dreams of the Sphinx
Elder Library
Festivo Dello Estinto
Heidelberg Castle, Germany
Misdirection
Obtenebration
Political Hunting Ground
The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
Tribute to the Master
18 DISCIPLINELESS:
Deer Rifle
Delaying Tactics x 2
Flak Jacket
The Grandest Trick x 2
Leather jacket
Palatial Estate
Riddle Phantastique x 3 [i've yet to pull one of these off so arguably they
should be dropped]
Saturday night Special
Wake with Evening's Freshness x 6
6 AUSPEX:
Aura Reading
Pulse of the Canaille [once your vamp has one of these, THAT'S what The
Grandest Trick is good for! i should add that this card is also under scrutiny,
since i've yet to play it. If it goes another aura reading will replace it]
Telepathic Counter x 4
16 DOMINATE:
Bonding
Command of the Beast x 3
Conditioning x 2
Deflection x 4
Govern the Unaligned x 2
Scouting Mission
Threats x 3
13 MYTHERCERIA:
Absorb the Mind [also dom] x 4
Aura Absorption [also aus] x 2
Basilisk's Touch [also pot] x 2
Stone Travel [also obt] x 5
13 OBTENEBRATION:
Arms of the Abyss x 3
Entombment
Oubliette
Shadow body
Shadow Play x 4
Shadow Strike x 2
Shroud of Night
Top
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Deck Name: Windy City Wide-Boys
Created by: Legbiter
Concept: Chicago Blood-Brothers Theme deck, surprisingly effective rush/prevent
deck with Fame and Walk of Caine for the Killer Blow.
CRYPT [12 vampire cards]
Barry x 3
Jerry x 3
Larry x 3
Tom x 3
LIBRARY [65 cards]
MASTERS [11]:
Blood Doll x 3
Fame
Fortitude
Haven Uncovered x 2
Information Highway
Potence
Powerbase: Chicago [just in here for the theme, but works pretty well]
The Rack [try to get this onto Jerry, ie the guy who can pass his blood around]
MINION CARDS [54]
DISCIPLINELESS[17]
Bum's rush x 7
Forced Awakening x 3
Pulled fangs
Taste of Vitae x 2
Wake with Evening's freshness x 4
FORTITUDE [10]
Freak Drive x 2
Indominability x 2
Resilience
Rolling with the Punches
Skin of Rock
Superior Mettle
Unflinching Persistence x 2
POTENCE [14]
Immortal Grapple x 3
Increased Strength x 2
Mighty Grapple x 2
Skin of Steel x 2
Thrown Sewer Lid x 2
Torn Signpost
Undead Strength x 2
SANGUINIS [13]
Brother's blood
Coagulated entity
Coordinate Attacks x 2
Octopod x 5
Superior Mettle
Unwholesome Bond
Walk of Caine x 2
i played this deck in our second game at Rob's house last week and got squashed
[Rob and Michael tied 2 each, with Rob last man standing], but i tried it again
last night in our pub game and got 3/4 VP. Most unfortunately, indeed quite
literally tragically, Rob had to leave before play started, having learned of
the sudden death of a close friend. So it was a sober four-player in which i
went second. My predator was John Keech playing Tremere intercept-combat [i
know, i know. i did try to tell him], and i preyed on John Eagles playing
Lasombra toolbox, who was preying on Mark Baxter playing Toreador/!Toreador
bleed-and-vote. John Keech could have given me problems with his go-to-range
and toast stuff, but luckily for me he was quickly out to Mark's big bleeds and
even more luckily Mark had to use up quite a lot of his combat-avoidance cards
in the process. Meanwhile i was remorselessly kicking John Eagles in,
eventually managing the Fame-rush combo plus a Walk of Caine. Judicious use of
Larry's special backed up by rushes got Mark down to his Alexandra's, so he
rescued one vampire in torpor, and i pounced with another Walk of Caine. All
over in an hour, BRUTALLY efficient. This deck BTW is inspired by Rob's
Torrance circle BB deck with which he SQUASHED John Keech and i before
Christmas.
Top
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Deck name: Karaoke Killers
Created by: Legbiter
Concept: Presence/fortitude vote/bleed/bloat/swarm deck with solid
Daughters/Melpimone core.
CRYPT [12 vampires]
Angela Decker
Angela Preston x 2
Antoinette DuChamp
Celeste, The Voice of a Secret
Courtland Leighton
Delilah Monroe
Gael Pilet
Gideon Fontaine
Igo the Hungry
Muse
Timothy Crowley
LIBRARY [75 cards]
MASTERS [15]
The Barrens
Blood Doll x 2
Effective Management x 2
Elder Library
Elysium: The Arboretum
Fortitude
Paris Opera House
Presence
The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
Secure Haven
Sudden Reversal
Tribute to the Master x 2
MINION CARDS [60]
DISCIPLINELESS [21]
Ancient influence
Bribes x 2
Concert Tour x 2
Consanguineous Boon
Consaguineous Condemnation x 2
Conservative Agitation x 3
Disputed Territory
Domain Challenge x 2
Kine Resources Contested x 2
Political Flux
Praxis Seizure: Amsterdam
Praxis Seizure: Barcelona
Praxis Seizure: Berlin
Praxis Seixure: Brussels
FORTITUDE [12]
Daring the Dawn x 2
Day Operation
Force of Will x 3
The Kiss of Ra
Rapid Healing x 2
Skin of Rock x 2
Skin of Steel
MELPIMONE [10]
Echo of Harmonies x 2
Madrigal x 4
The Missing Voice x 2
Tourette's Voice x 2
PRESENCE [17]
Aire of Elation x 3
Bewitching Oration x 4
Catatonic Fear
Charming Lobby x 2
Majesty x 2
Staredown x 2
Voter Captivation x 3
i've played this deck twice and won both times. The second time my first prey
was Rob Treasure playing a Miller deck so it was a dam' fine game. Having
transcribed it here for the first time i notice it is 4CL-legal but of course
it wasn't designed with that in mind and it competes just fine in NCL. Star
cards are Tourette's Voice, Day Op/Daring the Dawn and Force of Will. i
wouldn't claim that this is a totally-new deck concept but i would say that
this is a goodish vote/bleed deck based on weenie-to-mid vampires, and that
Bloodlines cards make a significant contribution to its effectiveness.
Top
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The idea for this deck came from something Sorrow [Chris Boget] played
against me when he visited us in June. i used my version successfully in two
Wednesday night games during July, managing on both occasions to take
over ALL my Tzimisce prey's vampires and then swarm-bleeding out my
next preys [3/4 and 4/5 possible vp]. Both times i was decked by the end,
so 90 is not too big for this deck. On 2 other outings it [1] died horribly
[prey's initial influence was Cailean, i was being dominate stealth-bled and
didn't draw ANY Tributes] and [2] got 2/3 possible VPs in a game at home.
Deck Name: Embrace the Serpent
Created by: Legbiter, but inspired by Sorrow
Comments: If you block, i corrupt you. If you don't block i swarm-bleed
and swarm-corrupt you. If you rush me i get killed. If you vote against me
i DT your vote. If you bleed me i probably get killed but ecstasy and tribute
keep me in the game longer than you might think. Focussed-degenerate and
therefore a Setite clan theme-deck, if you like.
CRYPT [12 cards]
Lalitha 2
Celine Chevalier 3
Khalil Anvari 3
7 x Aabbt Kindred 4
2 x Nefertiti 10
LIBRARY [90 cards]
ACTIONS [24]
13 x Corruption
8 x The Embrace
Form of corruption
2 x Summon the Serpent
ACTION MODIFIERS [32]
16 x Change of target
16 x Venenation
MASTERS [20]
Opium Den
The Path of Typhon
8 x Serpentis
Temple Hunting Ground
9 x Tribute to the Master
REACTIONS [14]
4 x Delaying tactics
5 x Ecstasy
5 x Wake with Evening's Freshness
Top
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DECK NAME: TEMPTATION OF GREATER SLEAZE
CRYPT [12 vampires]
Zebulon [replace with Mariel]
Leandro x 2
Lucian x 4
Greger Anderssen x 2
Gilbert Duane x 2
Mariel, Lady Thunder
LIBRARY
MASTERS [21]
Direct Intervention
Dreams of the Sphinx
Giant's blood
Golconda - Inner Peace
Information Highway
Legendary Vampire
Minion Tap x 4
The Parthenon
Pentex Subversion
Temptation of Greater Power x 4
Tomb of Rameses III x 3
Secure Haven
Sudden Reversal
ACTIONS [9]
The Fifth Tradition: Hospitality x 3
Govern the Unaligned x 2
Kine Dominance x 2
Pulse of the Canaille
Revelations [remove]
VOTES [18]
Anarchist Uprising x 2
Ancient Influence
Banishment x 2
Dramatic Upheaval
KRC x 5
Parity Shift x 4
Political flux [maybe remove]
Political Stranglehold
Rabble Razing [remove]
REACTIONS [20]
Deflection x 4
Forced Awakening
Obedience x 4
The Second Tradition: Domain x 2
Telepathic Counter x 3 [not sure. Maybe remove].
WWEF x 6
ACTION MODIFIERS [22]
Cloak the Gathering x 4
Conditioning x 3
Elder impersonation
Faceless Night x 4
Forgotten Labyrinth
Lost in Crowds x 4
Spying Mission
Swallowed by the Night x 4
Top
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RAVING WEREWOLVES
The basic idea of this deck is simple. Bring out Werewolves. Rush
people. Kill them. Then bleed your prey to death. Stay alive meanwhile by
Raving the werewolves' lives onto your blood dolls. The werewolves get
their lives back next turn anyway. This is a concept deck BTW - not
playtested or happy family-fied so quite likely to be a pile of crap. I'm
fairly confident the concept is sound, anyway.
CRYPT
Genevieve
Faruq
Ingrid Rossler
2 x Caitlin
Darrell Boyce
Monique
Wren
Sadie
Huang
2 small Gangrels with pro
LIBRARY
MASTERS [18]
Fame
4 x Blood Doll
2 x Dominate
Path of the Feral Heart
Gangrel Conspiracy
Minion Tap
Giant's Blood
Campground HG
KRCG News Radio
5 x Haven Uncovered
PROTEAN CARDS [24]
8 x Horrific Countenance
4 x Earth Meld
4 x Earth Control
4 x Rapid Change
4 x Form of Mist
DOMINATE CARDS [14]
4 x Govern the Unaligned
4 x Conditioning
2 x Grave Robbing
4 x Deflection
DISCIPLINELESS [34]
6 x WWEF
8 x Renegade garou
8 x Rave
4 x Bum's Rush
4 x Dodge
Vagabond Mystic
3 x Lucky Blow
Top
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Abusive/Regressive/Degenerate deck challenge response
This is all Reyda's fault for asking who is the worst vampire.
i voted for Smudge, and then immediately started thinking about
how to make him terrific. Here is my idea:
CRYPT:
Equal parts of all the 1-cap vamps, probably including Smudge
[or not. See below]. Need a total of as many vamps as you have
fortitude cards, probably 20 [see below]. Since there are more
than 10 1-cap vamps [11, IIRC] there will be all sorts of interesting
variants of this deck, because different people will put multiples
of the 1-caps they like best in. Or least, since they are all going
to burn. Another version of this deck uses all the little guys and
gals who already have basic fortitude. For this deck you need to
remember to use the FoW at superior and the DtD at Inferior, and
you need some Tributes to get your vamps down to 1 blood so that
they will burn. Or maybe not. You could recycle the odd vamp,
i spose.
LIBRARY:
8 Parthenons
2 Information Highways
Equal parts
[1] Fortitude master discipline cards [20 for a 90-card deck]
[2] Force of Will [20 for a 90-card deck]
[3] Daring the Dawn [20 for a 90-card deck]
[4] 50/50 mix of JS Simmons and Tasha Morgan [20 for a 90-card deck].
And as for the brilliant strategy of this deck, it is to bring out
vamps, play a Parthenon, tap to put a for master on a vamp, tap the
vamp to get JS or tasha, Force of Will and Daring the Dawn to bleed
unblockably [by vamps] for 3 and then burn, influence out a new vamp,
and next turn do the same thing, only twice. And don't play the
Parthenon. You will have thought of that yourselves, and will be
busily discarding your extra copies. Play the info highway as and
when you get it.
Fun, no? You're right. It's not fun. i'm not even sure it is new ...
i have a vague feeling somebody else posted this pile of crap a while
back. But if not, do i win the regressive/abusive deck compo o do i
do i??????
And STOP smirking there at the back! The last-but-one UK Netrunner
constructed-deck championship was won by a corp deck that was nearly
as degenerate as this one. More so, in a way, because at least we
are using about 17 different kinds of cards if we count the vamps
[the NR deck i am talking about had 6, IIRC]. Of course if you just
used March and Uriah you could get it down to 8 different kinds of
cards. But this would be vulnerable to rush decks in a way which the
above little gem isn't.
This deck is vulnerable to anybody getting out Atonement, i suppose.
If that happened you could use Misdirection [new version] to tap your
own minion so that s/he could use the FoW/DtD combo, but this would
only be a bleed for 2 instead of 3, and only once/turn. Maybe best
to misdirect Atonement guy/gal and just hope they don't have animalism
or princely untaps.
Don't block anything except obviously non-stealthy big pre/dom bleeds.
Top
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MOTHER KNOWS BEST,
or,
DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO ANIMA MEA
[Mainly Tzimisce HF deck]
i made this deck at the weekend using a starter which my mum gave me as
the basis. So far i have played two games with it and won both, for a
total of 6/7 possible VPs. It is an intercept combat deck at heart but it
DOES have the extra pokiness required to bleed out its prey. Probably it
should have a few Changelings but i've yet to decide what to take out to
make room for them. Lambach should probably be another Sascha Vykos and
if i go that way i might slip in a spot of Thaumaturgy.
MOTHER KNOWS BEST, or, DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO ANIMA MEA
[The motto of Dundee University, where i used to work. We mistranslated
it as "Isn't it wonderful to be dominated by a Beast Like Me."]
CRYPT [12 cards]
Caliban
Christine Boscacci
Corine Marcon
Devin Bisley
Dominique
Dragos
Lambach
Lolita Houston
Meshenka
Sascha Vykos
Terrence
Violet Tremain
Wendy Wade
LIBRARY [90 cards]
MASTERS [18 cards]
Animalism
Auspex
Blood Doll x 2
Dominate
Festivo Dello Estinto
Information Highway
Library HG
Minion Tap
Mob Connections
The Path of Metamorphosis
Pentex(tm) Loves You!
Powerbase, Mexico City
The Rack
The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
Storage Annex
Sudden Reversal
Viscissitude
DISCIPLINELESS [18 cards]
Ambush x 2
Eternal Vigilance
Femur of toomler
Forced Awakening x 8
JS Simmons, Esq.
Revenant
Tasha morgan
Templar
Wake with Evening's freshness
War party
ANIMALISM [14 cards]
Army of rats
Carrion crows x 4
Cats' guidance x 2
Drawing out the Beast
Guard Dogs x 2
Rat's Warning x 2
Song of Serenity x 2
AUSPEX [16 cards]
Enhanced Senses x 3
My Enemy's enemy
Precognition x 3
Pulse of the Canaille
Revelations
Spirit's touch x 3
Telepathic counter x 3
Telepathic Tracking
DOMINATE [7 cards]
Conditioning x 2
Deflection x 2
Govern the unaligned x 3
VICISSITUDE [16 cards]
Blood of Acid
Body Arsenal
Breath of the Dragon
Chiropteran Marauder x 6
Horrid form x 2
Inner essence x 2
Kraken's Kiss x 2
Skin Trap
Last night i swept a 4-player at Louisa's house at which everyone was
playing a tweaked version of one of the precon decks. Michael Louisa's
boyfriend was playing a lasombra deck heavily tweaked in the direction of
weenie dominate-bleed. He was my prey initially and he did a good job of
hurting Michael McClellan aka Anklebiter who was playing !Brujah, but
then he got thoroughly kicked in by the combat sandwich. Michael McC held
out against me for quite some time despite my having a revelations in
play - he held me up for a while by playing Fame on one of my vamps,
quite an interesting tactical play i thought. Finally Louisa had a
!Ventrue deck with not enough damage prevention so that when the
Revelations exposed her hand i could just pick off her vamps and eat them
- 5 burned by the end of the game. At one point i actually had the
multiple Chiropteran marauders and Kraken's Kisses for the classic combo
but by then people were too afraid to get into combat with me. Boo! The
deck flows really well and easily cycled about 70% of its cards in the 4-
player. Storage Annex worked a treat - used it to cool master/intercept/
combat-card hand jam, mainly.
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DECK: Path of the Feral Heart
One of the preview cards from Sabbat War is Path of the Feral Heart, a
burnable master card that gives the !Gangrel an edge in playing Protean
cards. In its honour i've constructed the following deck, which aims to
get maximum mileage out of the card by using as many expensive Protean
cards as possible. Probably the deck is too unfocussed, but i certainly
think there are interesting future opportunities for the !Gangrel
implicit in this card.
CRYPT [12 cards]
3 x Genevieve
3 x Caitlin
3 x Sadie
3 x Monique
LIBRARY [90 cards]
MASTERS [18]
3 x path of the Feral Heart
The Hungry Coyote
Auspex
Dominate
Campground HG
2 x Blood Doll
Minion Tap
Depravity
The Rumour Mill
Pentex Loves You!
City Gangrel Connections
Legendary vampire
Tomb of Rameses III
Giant's Blood
Dreams of the Sphinx
Disciplineless [16]
Cardinal Benediction
3 x Kine Resources Contested
Ancilla Empowerment
2 x Consanguineous Boon
5 x Wake with Evening's Freshness
.44 magnum
Leather Jacket
2 x Cryptic Rider
Protean [16]
Horrific Countenance
Shadow of the Beast
2 x Shadow of the Wolf
2 x Rapid Change
2 x Uncontrollable rage
2 x Body Flare
2 x Wolf Claws
2 x Dissolution
2 x Earth Control
Auspex [12]
Pulse of the Canaille
2 x My Enemy's Enemy
2 x Enhanced Senses
2 x Spirit's Touch
Telepathic Misdirection
2 x Aura Reading
2 x Eagles' Sight
Animalism [12]
Army of Rats
4 x Rat's Warning
4 x Cat's guidance
3 x Carrion crows
Dominate [8]
2 x Grave Robbing
3 x Conditioning
3 x Deflection
Fortitude [8]
Restoration
Masochism
3 x Skin of Steel
3 x Skin of Rock
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Cheapass weenie allies/vote deck
i made this deck with the contents of just over two boxes of Jyhad
boosters, plus cards i have won in tourneys. i've already built two
remarkably competitive decks from this pool - Nosferatu "Kagemusha"
Happy Families deck, and Anam and Ian's wedding deck. This one used
the leftovers, and positively STORMED to victory just now against
Sarah's HF Ravnos and Michael's Anklebiter Goes Tactical deck. At
the end i actually had over 30 pool, 6 vampires [1 in torpor],
2 outcast mages, loyal street gang, Arms dealer, Thadius Zho and
a renegade garou armed with the assault rifle!
CRYPT [15 vampires]
2 x Igo the Hungry
Dre, Leader of the Cold dawn
Roreca Quaid
Uma Hatch
Dr John Casey
Rake
Giuliano Vincenzi
Lydia van Cuelen
Lupo
Angel
Vliam Andor
Anastasia Grey
Jing Wei
Ricki van Demsy
LIBRARY [90 cards]
MASTERS [18]
Ascendance x 8
The Barrens
Effective Management x 3
Information Highway
Misdirection x 3
Presence x 2
DISCIPLINELESS [63]
Arms Dealer x 2
Assault Rifle
Autarkis Persecution x 7
Bribes x 5
Brujah Justicar
Change of Target x 2
Computer Hacking x 10
Cryptic Rider
Dramatic Upheaval
The Embrace x 2
Praxis Seizure: Chicago
Praxis Seizure: Cleveland
Praxis Seizure: Dallas
Praxis Seizure: Seattle
Kine Resources Contested
Lucky Blow x 4
Conservative Agitation x 4
Outcast Mage x 2
Renegade Garou x 3
Thadius Zho [Mage]
Tremere Justicar x 2
The Knights
Loyal Street gang x 2
Fake Out x 4
Zip Gun x 3
PRESENCE [9]
Bewitching Oration x 4
Charming Lobby
Disarming Presence x 2
Dread Gaze
Legal Manipulations
i actually didn't play ANY presence cards in this game, so they
are probably questionable - i shall keep them at least until i've
tested the deck in bigger/more competitive games. Lucky Blows might
be better as extra fake Outs, dodges or Flak/leather jackets.
Autarkis Persecution and recruiting allies worked a treat, misdirection
and computer hacking and change of target all working smoothly together
in their usual way. Could probably lose an effective management or two
and thereby find space for SR and KRCG NEws Radio. Ascendance is GREAT
in this deck. Not hard to devise a strategy to beat this deck, of course,
but it does demonstrate that you can build a decent deck out of cheap
and/or sucky cards.
Top
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Here is one of my favourite Happy Families decks,
a !Brujah bash/bleed deck with just enough voting
power to gain a bit of pool and do a bit of agitation.
CRYPT [12 vampires]
Richter
Jimmy Dunn
Jacko
Jacob Bragg
Salinger
Sarah Brando
Bronwen
Sela
Hugo
Frederick the Weak
Dodd
Rigby
LIBRARY [73 cards]
MASTERS [16/73]
Haven Uncovered
Fame
KRCG News Radio
Celerity
The Hungry Coyote
The Rack
Amusement Park HG
Potence
Blood Doll x 2
Tribute to the Master
Pentex loves You!
Gang Territory
Obtenebration
Minion Tap
Presence
DISCIPLINELESS [15/73]
Leather jacket
The Bruisers
Bum's Rush x 2
Ambush x 2
Disputed Territory x 2
Consanguineous Boon x 2
WWEF x 2
Survivalist
Blood Brother Ambush
Sword of judgement
POTENCE [13/73]
Thrown Gate x 3
Undead Strength x 2
Sacrament of Carnage x 2
Burning Wrath
Pushing the Limit x 2
Thrown Sewer Lid
Rampage
Disarm
PRESENCE [12/73]
Media Influence x 3
Legal manipulations x 3
Social Charm x 2
Bewitching Oration x 2
Enchant Kindred x 2
CELERITY [13/73]
Flash x 2
Nimble Feet x 2
Side Strike x 5
Alacrity x 2
Pursuit x 2
OBTENEBRATION [4/73]
Eyes of the Night x 2
Shadow Play x 2
Probably could do with a mechanism for clearing hand-jam
but works OK in casual play. Blood Brother Ambush/Burning
Wrath is GREAT if you can pull it off.
Top
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Anam and Ian's Wedding Deck - Happy Families
Anam and Ian got married on Saturday, and it was a very moving little
ceremony followed by TWO slap-up meals and a disco in the evening.
Now i am feeling very fat and a bit woozy from all the Guinness and
champagne and dancing. In their honour i made the following Anam and
Ian's Wedding deck [Happy Families, lots of Presence - Geddit????],
and it swept a 4-player during the party - Michael McClellan aka
Anklebiter was my first prey, playing one of Dave Hammond's decks -
massive Gangrel rush-combat - Dave Hammond himself was my second prey,
playing a really neat little Giovanni/!Malkavian allies deck, and John
Eagles was my last prey, playing his Lasombra scary guys. Actually i
got John and David out in the same turn, i think, having two turns
previously been on 1 pool at the beginning of my turn. Charming Lobby,
Bewitching Oration Parity Shift followed by KRC and then with vote
dominance and pool i could misdirect, vote and bleed to my evil heart's
content. Exciting!
CRYPT [12 cards]
Timothy Crowley x 2
Jazz Wentworth x 2
Heather Florent
Emerson Bridges
Courtland Leighton x 2
Sir Walter Nash x 2
Melissa Barton
Lucia Pacciola
MASTERS [18]
Animalism
Elder Library
Elysium: The Arboretum
Golconda - Inner Peace
Hostile Takeover
Information Highway
Minion Tap
Misdirection x 8
Sudden Reversal
Uptown Hunting Ground
Ventrue Headquarters
DISCIPLINELESS [18]
Conservative Agitation
Consanguineous Boon x 2
Disputed Territory
Domain Challenge x 4
Kindred Restructure
Kine Resources Contested x 6
Parity Shift x 2
Political Ally
ANIMALISM [3]
Rat's Warning x 3
DOMINATE [17]
Bonding x 2
Deflection x 4
Foreshadowing Destruction
Govern the Unaligned x 7
Conditioning x 3
FORTITUDE [17]
Dawn Operation
Day Operation
Hidden Strength
Indominability x 3
Restoration x 2
Skin of Night
Skin of Rock x 3
Skin of Steel x 3
Unflinching Persistence x 2
PRESENCE [17]
Bewitching Oration x 4
Charming Lobby x 3
Majesty x 7
Voter Captivation x 3
This is obviously a theme deck, a party deck, not to be taken too
seriously, and i built it from my "free" cards, ie the stash of
stuff that people have either given me or that i've won in tournaments.
That way i don't get too upset if someone spills beer on them. The deck
worked fine but i think it would do better if trimmed down to 75 cards;
take out 3 Misdirection, 1 Rat's Warning, 1 Charming Lobby, 1 Bewitching
Oration, Hidden Strength, Skin of Steel, Restoration, Foreshadowing
Destruction, 2 GTU, 1 Cons Boon, 1 KRC, 1 Domain Challenge. That's the
form in which i will use it on Steve and Lunar when they come round this
afternoon.
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Goodnight Sweet Prince deck
Here's my most up-to-date version. It has three weaknesses:
[1] being new and frightening, everyone gangs up on it
[2] Pentex subversion [boo!] and
[3] So many card slots are used up on the combo that there's
rather little space for actual stuff to DO with those dam'
cheap big vamps. Mind you, this version is pre-Happy Families.
Still needs a bit of work, in short. Xian is right to say:
[a] that it was our idea, and
[b] that someone in the states made a better version,
but like him i can't remember who did it. Maybe Robert Grau.
CRYPT [12 vamps]
Regina giovanni
Enzo giovanni
Rafaele Giovanni
Carlotta Giovanni
Rudolpho Giovanni
Alexandra
Francois Villon
Gwendolyn
Harrod
Arika
Queen Anne
Leandro
LIBRARY
5 Blur
13 Clan Impersonation
3 Cloak the Gathering
2 The Death of my Conscience
4 Deflection
2 Disputed Territory
Dreams of the Sphinx
Fortune Teller Shop
Golconda - Inner Peace
6 Goodnight, Sweet Prince
Guiseppe, Gravedigger
2 Information Highway
10 Kine Resources Contested
Leonardo, Mortician
8 Majesty
Park Hunting Ground
7 Possession
2 Protect Thine Own
Ravnos Acceptance
6 Redeem the Lost Soul
Rom Gypsy
3 Spectral Divination
3 Thrown Gate
2 Thrown Sewer Lid
4 Wake with Evening's Freshness
Top
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DECK IDEA: Anklebiter Goes Tactical [Pot/Dom bleed n bash].
i actually have TWO decks to talk about this month but one of
them, kindly donated by Derek Ray, is in my email at work where
i can't access it thanks to a broken cable. So that will have to
wait till next month. Here is the one i currently have to hand.
Michael aka Anklebiter has had a fairly dismal summer Jyhad-wise;
4 tourneys, no VP. It is clearly time for him to do something a
bit different and so here is the latest deck i have built for him.
Its excuse for being in this neswletter is that it contains Shane
Grimald, who always seems to me the most enigmatic of the !Gangrel.
Odd, too that his disciplines are exactly the same as those of
Judah - most enigmatic [IMO] of my Other Favourite Clan the Nosferatu.
CRYPT [12 vampires]
Cameron 3 pot dom
Ignacio, the Black Priest 4 pot dom obt
Shane Grimald 4 pot dom ani
Francesca Giovanni 4 pot dom nec
Vittorio Giovanni 5 pot dom for nec
Sabine Lafitte 5 pot dom aus tha
Aurora Van Brande, Paladin 6 pot dom for obt
Lisette Vizquel 6 POT DOM pro
Anvil 6 POT dom tha pre CEL
Gratiano 8 pot DOM OBT obf
Lucita 8 pot DOM FOR OBT cel
Emerson Bridges 8 pot DOM FOR PRE
LIBRARY [82 cards]
Masters [16]
2 Minion Tap
The Rumour Mill
Sudden Reversal
Direct Intervention
Fortitude
The Barrens
Potence
Dominate
Elder Library
3 Blood Doll
Dreams of the Sphinx
Legendary Vampire
Obtenebration
Potence [18]
6 Torn Signpost
6 Immortal Grapple
4 Undead Strength
Mighty Grapple
Thrown Sewer Lid
Obtenebration [6]
2 Eyes of the Night
2 Shadow Play
Shadow Step
Entombment
Fortitude [6]
3 Hidden Strength
Superior Mettle
Skin of Steel
Daring the Dawn
Dominate [18]
Foreshadowing Destruction
Far Mastery
The Sleeping Mind
Seduction
4 Deflection
4 Conditioning
4 Govern the Unaligned
Dominate Kine
Bonding
Disciplineless [18]
2 Delaying Tactics
5 WWEF
3 Bum's Rush
5 Taste of Vitae
Atonement
Leather Jacket
Pulled Fangs
This deck swept its first 3-player encounter, i wouldn't say with
ease, but against two fairly competitive decks run by me [Nosferatu
Kagemusha] and Lady Legbiter [Oxford University Press]. i then played
it at our weekly pub game where it tied for first-place with Mark's
obfuscate/presence vote/bleed deck in a timed-out 7-player game.
Far Mastery should probably be Grave Robbing, but otherwise the deck
looks ok.
Top
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Lucita deck that doesn't need Lucita
Here is my first attempt which actually swept a 4-player last night
without even activating Lucita - Jimmy, Nakova, Richter and Natasha
was my uncontrolled. Truthfully i was a bit lucky - pool gain from
supporting other people's bribed votes kept me in the game. Card
cycling was fine, i actually was decked at the end. Obvious weaknesses
are lack of pool gain and poor intercept. Probably the Burning Wraths
should be something else [Undead Strength or Pushing the Limit]; Far
Mastery, Depravity and Legendary vampire are also likely to be on a free
transfer back to the folder.
CRYPT [12 vampires]
2 Jimmy Dunn
2 Nakova, Advocate of Golconda
2 Richter, Templar of Du Mont
4 Lucita
Natasha Volfchek
Helena Casimir
LIBRARY [90 cards]
MASTER [18]
4 Blood Doll
Depravity
Dreams of the Sphinx
Fame
4 Haven Uncovered
KRCG News Radio
Legendary vampire
2 Minion Tap
Political Hunting Ground
The Rack
The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
DISCIPLINELESS [15]
3 Bum's Rush
2 Forced Awakening
4 Taste of Vitae
6 Wake with Evening's Freshness
POTENCE [16]
2 Burning Wrath
The Death of my Conscience
8 Immortal Grapple
2 Torn Signpost
3 Undead Strength
FORTITUDE [15]
2 Dawn Operation
4 Freak Drive
5 Hidden Strength
Skin of Night
3 Superior Mettle
CELERITY [13]
5 Blur
6 Flash
2 Pursuit
DOMINATE [8]
4 Deflection
Far Mastery
2 Graverobbing
Kine Dominance
PRESENCE [5]
2 Aire of Elation
3 Legal Manipulations
Top
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THE BLACK HAND: ASSAMITE/GANGREL DECK IDEA
i've been liquidating a bunch of old decks that we don't play with
any more and have started to build or rebuild a few new decks.
Here's one that has a gangrel angle though not, i have to admit,
an antitribu one. The idea of this deck is to get the opportunity
to deal out ranged unpreventable damage that can't be SCE'd and
can only be dodged if the opposing minion has additional strikes.
Basically you do this by getting the Dog Pack onto an Assamite,
either via Panagos/Heidelberg or else via Clan Impersonation.
Pool gain and speed are problems for this deck and hence the
Succubus club [so that you can blackmail other methuselahs or
hire yourself out to them - an old idea i got from William Lee]
and multi-blood dolls.
CRYPT [12 vamps]
2 Panagos Levidis
4 Husamettin
4 Abd Al-Rashid
2 Al-Ashrad
LIBRARY [88 cards]
18 Masters:
7 Haven Uncovered
5 Blood Doll
The Rack
Underworld HG
Heidelberg Castle, Germany
Fame
Succubus Club
Dreams of the Sphinx
18 Non-Discipline:
3 Dog Pack
5 Forced Awakening
4 Taste of Vitae
Atonement
Mr Winthrop
3 Clan Impersonation
Palatial Estate
17 Obfuscate:
3 Faceless Night
3 Swallowed by the Night
4 SAcrificial Lamb
3 Cloak the Gathering
2 Lost in Crowds
2 Spying Mission
15 Celerity
8 Pursuit
2 Blur
5 Sidestrike
15 Quietus
6 Taste of Death
9 Blood Sweat
6 Presence
6 Legal Manipulations
Top
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Here is my deck. Rob and I reckon that Temptation of Greater
Power is quite simply the single most powerful card in the
game right now. Try this deck out to see why we think that.
CRYPT: [12 vamps]
4 Sheldon, Lord of the Clog
2 Nikolaus Vermuelen
Chester Dubois
2 Selma the Repugnant
Agrippina
Jimmy Dunn
Sammy
LIBRARY: [90 cards]
19 Masters:
7 Minion Tap
7 Temptation of Greater Power
Direct Intervention
Golconda
Dreams of the Sphinx
Legendary Vampire
Sudden Reversal
17 Disciplineless cards:
Kindred Restructure
5 Parity Shift
6 Fifth Tradition: Hospitality
5 Second Tradition: domain
15 obfuscate cards:
3 Swallowed by the Night
3 Cloak the Gathering
3 Lost in Crowds
3 Spying Mission
3 Forgotten Labyrinth
14 Potence cards:
2 Disarm
2 Immortal Grapple
4 Undead Strength
Death of my Conscience
5 Thrown Gate
10 Animalism cards
2 Raven Spy
4 Cats' Guidance
4 Guard Dogs
11 Fortitude cards
2 Freak Drive
4 Skin of Steel
5 Hidden Strength
4 Auspex cards
Pulse of the Canaille
3 Telepathic Misdirection
Top
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SCOUT-AND-RUSH DECK IDEA
This is an idea which sprang out of our home play group where
on successive nights Michael played with our !Nossie Happy Families
deck and lost, and I played with it and won. The difference was that
I made good use of Dirty Little Secrets to find out what was in my
prey's deck so that I could time my rushes and judge when to go for
killer combat, whereas he didn't. I then got thinking about
implementing this for the !Nossies as a dedicated deck, got
sidetracked into doing it for !Gangrels and finally came up
with this. Deck first, comments later.
CRYPT
Artemis
Zoe
Ian Forrestal
Al-Ashrad
Anton
Dollface
Regilio
Dan murdock
Victoria
Dancin' Dana
Lucian
Hannibal
LIBRARY
17 masters
3 Minion Tap
2 Blood Doll
Dreams of the Sphinx
Festivo dell' Estinto
Hungry Coyote
Succubus Club
The Rumour Mill
3 Haven Uncovered
2 Guardian Angel
Giant's Blood
73 minion
18 Disciplineless
5 Bum's rush
6 Forced Awakening
Ivory bow
4 White Phosphorous Grenade
2 Flamethrower
18 Auspex
5 Pulse of the canaille
2 Revelations
3 Telepathic misdirection
5 Fast reaction
3 Enhanced Senses
18 Obfuscate
9 Disguised Weapon
3 Swallowed by the Night
6 Hidden Lurker
14 Celerity
7 Flash
7 Blur
5 Dominate
5 Govern the unaligned
What this deck is meant to do is to scout and rush - using
INFERIOR pulse and revelations to check out the ground before
ambush. Use the Succubus club to blackmail people or to propose
deals - i take out that guy/gal's vamp, you give me x pool.
i think it would work, though would be VERY difficult to play.
Top
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Lasombra - Happy Families Deck from Legbiter.
(posted in V:EKN Lasombra Newsletter July 2000)
Here is the Lasombra HF deck as promised. I see what Tim means about
the difficulty of constructing one - the Lasombra are AWFULLY good at
all aspects of the game except for damage prevention, and I have a
nasty feeling this deck may not play very well because it is trying to
do too many things.
Thank you Legbiter for your deck. I was glad to identify the missing
HF deck within your collection. - Michael Eichler
CRYPT [12 vamps]
Angelica
Alvaro
Antonio
Gratiano
Lisette
Aurora
Guido
Ramiro
Ignacio
Cameron
Aaron
Mitchell
LIBRARY [70 cards]
15 DISCIPLINELESS
Camarilla Vitae Slave
2 Conservative Agitation
Dramatic Upheaval
4 Forced Awakening
Leather jacket
Political Flux
Political Struggle
Praxis Solomon
Banishment
Flak jacket
.44 magnum
14 MASTERS
Blood Doll
Dominate
Elysian Fields
Giant's blood
Golconda - Inner Peace
Obtenebration
Political HG
Political Seizure
Sudden reversal
Pentex Loves You!
Potence
Power Structure
2 Minion Tap
13 DOMINATE
3 Conditioning
3 Govern the Unaligned
2 Deflection
2 Graverobbing
2 Slaughtering the Herd
Thanks for the Donation
11 POTENCE
2 Burning Wrath
2 Mighty Grapple
5 Undead Strength
Rampage
Disarm
13 OBTENEBRATION
Shroud of Night
2 Eyes of the Night
2 Entombment
3 Shadow Play
Shade
4 Arms of the Abyss
4 OBFUSCATE
Cloak the gathering
Faceless Night
Lost in Crowds
Spying Mission
Top
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A standard all-jyhad Gangrel deck, fast and vicious. It has a fair number
of werewolves in it so i thought it might appeal to you.
Deck Name: The Wolves are Coming
Pro/For/Ani deck with a touch of potence based on wee
Gangrels and their friends.
Once this has started swarming the rest of the table
are in trouble. So are you, if someone has vote dominance
and an anarch uprising or ancilla empowerment.
CRYPT:
2 Bear Paw
2 Roman Alexander
2 Badger
2 Zach North
2 Ricki van Damp pants
2 Giuliano Vincenzi
LIBRARY:
16 PROTEAN:
4 Wolf Claws
4 Earth Control
2 Movement of the Slow Body
4 Form of Mist
Homunculus
Earth Meld
6 POTENCE:
3 Thrown Sewer Lid
3 Undead Strength
18 FORTITUDE:
Day Op
2 Unflinching Persistence
4 Skin of Rock
2 Restoration
5 Skin of Steel
2 Dawn Op
Undead Persistence
Freak Drive
Skin of Night
19 DISCIPLINELESS CARDS:
2 Taste of Vitae
3 Renegade garou
4 WWEF
Ritual Challenge
2 Trap
Tasha Morgan
2 Computer hacking
2 Embrace
JS Simmons
Gypsies
13 ANIMALISM
6 Rat’s Warning
Murder of Crows
3 Cat’s guidance
Raven Spy
Owl Companion
Army of rats
17 MASTERS
2 Minion Tap
Animalism
Protean
3 Blood Doll
KRCG News radio
2 Fame
Backways
2 Effective Management
Fortitude
Zoo HG
Haven Uncovered
Top
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This is posted in response to the request for decent nossie decks. The
deck below is an all-jyhad deck constructed according to the Happy
Families formula, and it really is rather good - in fact, it has never
once out of 5 or 6 outings failed to get me at least 1 VP, and it has
won 3 or 4 games.
CRYPT:
2 Sheldon 9 POT ANI OBF AUS for Justicar
2 Selma 8 POT ani OBF for Prince
2 Chester 7 POT ANI obf for Primogen
2 Sammy 4 pot ani obf
Agrippina 4 pot OBF
Duck 3 pot obf
Koko 2 pot
Dimple 2 obf
18 Masters: 5 Minion Tap [average blood capacity of this crypt is 5
and 7 twelfths, bit big, and bloat is going to be your best defence
against a quick bleed deck]
Fame
3 Blood doll
KRCG News Radio
Giant's
Blood
Haven Uncovered
Slum HG
Golconda
Temptation of Greater Power
[use as a master-phase bleed against your prey, and if you are lucky it
will set you up for a Parity shift, too!].
The Rack
2 Spawning Pool [An
underrated card, in my view, especially if you have ANI and rat's
warning. Actually the surprise value of Temptation/GP and spawning
pool is a lot of the reason for their inclusion - tends to put people off
their game if a really unusual card turns up].
18 No Discipline cards:
2 Parity Shift
Archon
4 WWEF
Kindred
Restructure
2 Nosferatu Justicar
Fifth Tradition
2 Bum's Rush
2 Taste
of Vitae
Second Tradition
Bloodhunt
Saturday Night Special
15 Potence
7 Mighty Grapple
3 Thrown Gate
2 Rampage
3 Undead Strength
15 Obfuscate
5 Cloak the Gathering
2 Mask 1K Faces
3 Faceless Night
2 Spying mission
3 Lost in Crowds
12 Animalism
5 Rat's Warning
Army of Rats
2 Raven Spy
4 Cat's Guidance
9 Fortitude
3 Skin of Rock
5 Skin of Steel
Freak Drive
3 Auspex
2 Telepathic Misdirection
Pulse of the Canaille
That's 8 actions, 6 votes, 2 Retainers, 1 Equip [17 card-based reasons
to tap a vampire, if you like]: 16 Action modifiers: 16 Reactions: 23
combat cards.
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Here is a worked example of building a deck using the Happy Families method,
in response to requests from a number of people.
For those who don't know what i'm talking about, Happy Families is a
deck-constructing formula that aims to build a flexible playable deck
around a given selection of vampires. Usually these will all be vampires
of one clan. Basically you choose the vamps you want to play with, and the
library size you want to use, and then you determine the cards in the
library as follows:
20% or so should be master cards
The remaining 80% or so should be minion cards, divided up with respect
to discipline in the following way:
Count the number of vampires in your crypt:
call this number p.
Count the number of vampires with the most common discipline in your deck:
call this number q.
Count the number of vampires with the second most common discipline in your deck:
call this number r.
Count the number of vampires with the third most common discipline in your deck:
call this number s.
Count the number of vampires with the fourth most common discipline in your deck:
call this number t.
Now if 80% of your chosen library size is a, then you want
[(p/[p+q+r+s+t]) x a] cards that require no discipline to play
[(q/[p+q+r+s+t]) x a] cards that require the most common discipline to play
[(r/[p+q+r+s+t]) x a] cards that require the second most common discipline to play
[(s/[p+q+r+s+t]) x a] cards that require the third most common discipline to play
[(t/[p+q+r+s+t]) x a] cards that require the fourth most common discipline to play
You can obviously have more or fewer disciplines than 4, in which case you
adjust the formula accordingly, and i do so, below.
i wanted to build a "kagemusha" Nosferatu bash/vote deck from Jyhad cards only,
to "shadow" my favourite tournament deck. This deck therefore was made from the
contents of just under two boxes of Jyhad boosters given to me by David Tatu
[we used the rest to build a Brujah bash/bleed deck for Michael].
CRYPT:
2 Sheldon 9 POT ANI OBF AUS for Justicar
2 Selma 8 POT ani OBF for Prince
2 Chester 7 POT ANI obf for Primogen
2 Sammy 4 pot ani obf
Agrippina 4 pot OBF
Duck 3 pot obf
Koko 2 pot
Dimple 2 obf
There are 12 vampires in this crypt and all 12 can use disciplineless
or Nossie-only cards. 11 can use pot cards, and a different 11 can use
obf cards. 8 can use ani cards. 6 can use for cards. 2 can use aus cards.
12+11+11+8+6+2 = 50.
Now for the library. 20% or so of your library should be master cards
- fewer if you turn over a lot of minion cards in any one turn, more if
you have Anson, the Parthenon, Death of my Conscience or some other way
of unjamming your hand.
For a 90-card library, 20% = 18 masters.
That leaves 72 minion cards.
Happy families tells us that (12/50) x 72 should be cards that
require no discipline to play, ie 18 cards.
(11/50) x 72 should be pot cards, and the same number should be obf cards,
ie 15 pot cards and 15 obf cards.
(8/50) x 72 should be ani cards, ie 12.
(6/50) x 72 should be for cards, ie 9.
(2/50) x 72 should be aus cards, ie 3.
That's how i decided on the proportions, and here is the deck i actually built:
18 Masters:
5 Minion Tap [average blood capacity of this crypt is 5 and 7 twelfths,
bit big, and bloat is going to be your best defence against a quick bleed deck]
Fame
3 Blood doll
KRCG News Radio
Giant's Blood
Haven Uncovered
Slum HG
Golconda
Temptation of Greater Power [use as a master-phase bleed against your prey,
and if you are lucky it will set you up for a Parity shift, too!].
The Rack
2 Spawning Pool [An underrated card, in my view, especially if you have
ANI and rat's warning.]
[Actually the surprise value of Temptation/GP and spawning pool is a
lot of the reason for their inclusion - tends to put people off their
game if a really unusual card turns up].
18 No Discipline cards:
2 Parity Shift
Archon
4 WWEF
Kindred Restructure
2 Nosferatu Justicar
Fifth Tradition
2 Bum's Rush
2 Taste of Vitae
Second Tradition
Bloodhunt
Saturday Night Special [was Patagia, but the advantage is SOOO marginal.
As far as i can see the only good excuse for using Patagia is if you want
to use the RPG launcher or Flamethrower, and even then the IR goggles are
probably better].
i'm playing fast and loose with the formula here, obviously, because a
lot of these cards require that you have a Prince or Justicar. So i'm
trusting the deck to deliver that, to some extent.
15 Potence
7 Mighty Grapple
3 Thrown Gate
2 Rampage
3 Undead Strength
15 Obfuscate
5 Cloak the Gathering
2 Mask 1K Faces
3 Faceless Night
2 Spying mission
3 Lost in Crowds
12 Animalism
5 Rat's Warning
Army of Rats
2 Raven Spy
4 Cat's Guidance
9 Fortitude
3 Skin of Rock
5 Skin of Steel
Freak Drive
3 Auspex
2 Telepathic Misdirection
Pulse of the Canaille
That's 8 actions, 6 votes, 2 Retainers, 1 Equip
[17 card-based reasons to tap a vampire, if you like]:
16 Action modifiers:
16 Reactions:
23 combat cards.
Experience shows this is roughly the right proportion of different
card types for a nice flowy kind of deck that is always up to stuff.
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City Gangrel Antitribu Happy Families deck [12 vampires, 70 library cards]
It’s now three years since I started writing these newsletters and at
long last I am getting round to writing about the Gangrel antis as a
clan. Actually there are two quite separate Gangrel anti factions – the
City Gangrel [cel/obf/pro, hate werewolves and in fact just about
everybody] and the Country Gangrel [ani/for/pro, live like nocturnal
plains indians, hate werewolves [therefore like the Black Spiral Dancers]
and quite like the camarilla gangrel too].
With that information it’s pretty easy to see how the available Gangrel
antis divvy up, and to illustrate this I’ve devised the following two
Happy sub-Families decks, each with a nice little combo ….. DotB/Dawn Op/
Form of Mist or earth Meld for the Country deck, and Earth Meld/Psyche
for the City deck.
Huang
2 Sadie
2 Pieter
Blaise
3 Zachary
3 Samantha
[Average 6.25, opening uncontrolled 11-37]
13 Masters:
Festivo Dell’ Estinto
Hungry Coyote
Fame
Haven Uncovered
2 Blood Doll
2 Minion Tap
Campground HG
Mob Connections
City Gangrel Connections
Celerity
Protean
14 Disciplineless Cards:
2 Computer Hacking [Sabbat version - read flavour text to see why]
2 WWEF
Taste of Vitae
2 .44 Magnum
Changeling Skin Face Mask
Shadow Court Satyr
Bum’s Rush
2 Ambush
Leather jacket
Trap
13 Protean
7 Earth Meld
4 Rapid Change
2 Homunculus
10 Obfuscate
2 Disguised weapon
4 Hidden Lurker
4 Swallowed by the Night
8 Celerity
4 Psyche
2 Blur
2 Flash
6 Fortitude
2 Skin of Steel
2 Skin of Rock
2 Freak Drive
6 Thamaturgy
3 Walk of Flame
3 Burst of Sunlight
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It’s now three years since I started writing these newsletters and at
long last I am getting round to writing about the Gangrel antis as a
clan. Actually there are two quite separate Gangrel anti factions – the
City Gangrel [cel/obf/pro, hate werewolves and in fact just about
everybody] and the Country Gangrel [ani/for/pro, live like nocturnal
plains indians, hate werewolves [therefore like the Black Spiral Dancers]
and quite like the camarilla gangrel too].
With that information it’s pretty easy to see how the available Gangrel
antis divvy up, and to illustrate this I’ve devised the following two
Happy sub-Families decks, each with a nice little combo ….. DotB/Dawn Op/
Form of Mist or earth Meld for the Country deck, and Earth Meld/Psyche
for the City deck.
Country gangrel-antitribu Happy Families Deck. [12 vampires, 70 library cards]
2 Shane Grimald
2 Leon
2 Monique
2 Caitlin
2 Luther
2 Genevieve
[average 5.33, opening uncontrolled 12-34 blood capacity]
14 masters:
Giant’s Blood
Twisted forest
Gangrel Conspiracy
2 Blood Doll
2 Minion Tap
Campground HG
Auspex
KRCG News Radio
Fortitude
Fame
Animalism
Protean
13 Disciplineless cards:
Black Spiral Buddy
2 Leather jacket
Sports Bike
Bastard Sword
JS Simmons
Tasha Morgan
Bum’s Ruch
Ambush
13 Animalism
4 Drawing out the Beast
Tier of Souls
4 Guard Dogs
Army of rats
Shepherd’s innocence
2 Aid from Bats
9 Fortitude
3 Skin of Steel
4 Dawn Op
2 Skin of Rock
9 Protean
4 Earth meld
5 Form of Mist
6 Auspex
Pulse of the Canaille
3 Aura Reading
2 Telepathic Misdirection
6 Dominate
2 Govern the Unaligned
2 Grave Rob
2 Deflection
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I actually got into this game originally as a collector, and so
by the time I discovered what a good game it is I already had a
MOUNTAIN of cards which is one of the reasons I like to explore
the wilder shores of rare-rare combos. Over the past couple of
months however I have been playing the game rather differently,
trying to evaluate the extent to which it’s possible to play
Jyhad effectively on a limited budget. To be truthful I have
been trying to play on a budget of 0 GBP, building decks exclusively
from two boxes of Jyhad boosters that David tatu gave me when
he was here last. I’ve been building Happy families-type decks
from these cards alone and I’d rate this period of my
Jyhad-gaming life as my most successful [though perhaps not most
creative] ever. In fact, I reckon I am probably becoming TOO
successful, since people in my gaming group are beginning to
see me as the Main Threat.
As examples of the kind of thing I’ve been able to build here
are two decks, constructed from a pool of cards that would cost
you the same as 10 or so Pokemon boosters.
Deck Name: The Wolves are Coming
Pro/For/Ani deck with a touch of potence based on wee
Gangrels and their friends.
Once this has started swarming the rest of the table
are in trouble. So are you, if someone has vote dominance
and an anarch uprising or ancilla empowerment.
CRYPT:
2 Bear Paw
2 Roman Alexander
2 Badger
2 Zach North
2 Ricki van Damp pants
2 Giuliano Vincenzi
LIBRARY:
16 PROTEAN:
4 Wolf Claws
4 Earth Control
2 Movement of the Slow Body
4 Form of Mist
Homunculus
Earth Meld
6 POTENCE:
3 Thrown Sewer Lid
3 Undead Strength
18 FORTITUDE:
Day Op
2 Unflinching Persistence
4 Skin of Rock
2 Restoration
5 Skin of Steel
2 Dawn Op
Undead Persistence
Freak Drive
Skin of Night
19 DISCIPLINELESS CARDS:
2 Taste of Vitae
3 Renegade garou
4 WWEF
Ritual Challenge
2 Trap
Tasha Morgan
2 Computer hacking
2 Embrace
JS Simmons
Gypsies
13 ANIMALISM
6 Rat’s Warning
Murder of Crows
3 Cat’s guidance
Raven Spy
Owl Companion
Army of rats
17 MASTERS
2 Minion Tap
Animalism
Protean
3 Blood Doll
KRCG News radio
2 Fame
Backways
2 Effective Management
Fortitude
Zoo HG
Haven Uncovered
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I actually got into this game originally as a collector, and so
by the time I discovered what a good game it is I already had a
MOUNTAIN of cards which is one of the reasons I like to explore
the wilder shores of rare-rare combos. Over the past couple of
months however I have been playing the game rather differently,
trying to evaluate the extent to which it’s possible to play
Jyhad effectively on a limited budget. To be truthful I have
been trying to play on a budget of 0 GBP, building decks exclusively
from two boxes of Jyhad boosters that David tatu gave me when
he was here last. I’ve been building Happy families-type decks
from these cards alone and I’d rate this period of my
Jyhad-gaming life as my most successful [though perhaps not most
creative] ever. In fact, I reckon I am probably becoming TOO
successful, since people in my gaming group are beginning to
see me as the Main Threat.
As examples of the kind of thing I’ve been able to build here
are two decks, constructed from a pool of cards that would cost
you the same as 10 or so Pokemon boosters.
Deck Name: Frying Tonight
Tha/Cel/Aus deck with a smidgen of dominate
Bit short on damage prevention but otherwise very nasty
CRYPT
2 Thomas Thorne
2 Cardano
Lucian
2 Cassandra
2 Anvil
2 Ulugh Beg
Lazarus
LIBRARY
16 ACTIONS
Bloodhunt
Pulse of the Canaille
7 GtU
4 Bum’s Rush
2 Grave Robbing
Fifth Tradition
33 COMBAT
5 Theft of Vitae
3 Walk of Flame
2 Trap
4 Blur
2 Blood Fury
2 Acrobatics
2 Taste of Vitae
3 Cauldron of Blood
2 Aura Reading
4 Flash
4 Nimble Feet
3 ACTION MODS
Conditioning
2 Bonding
15 MASTERS
3 Minion Tap
Metro UG
Golconda
2 Blood Doll
4 Haven Uncovered
Mob Connections
2 Fame
Academic HG
18 REACTIONS
4 WWEF
2 Telepathic Counter
3 Deflection
5 Telepathic Misdirection
2 Spirit’s Touch
Enhanced Senses
Second Tradition
2 EQUIPMENT
Hawg
.44 magnum
3 VOTES
Parity Shift
Archon
Kindred Restructure
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This is kind of a back-to-basics deck, a phrase unfortunately reminiscent
of a campaign by the last conservative government which, after a number of
high-profile revelations of cabinet sleaze, was irreverently redubbed the
back-to-my-place campaign. But i digress. It's the wine. i am just back from
playing at the lovely [but cruel] Louisa Cowie's house, where i got 4/7 VPs,
the others going to Anam [1] and Ian [2]. As some of you may know, i am
currently on a voting/fighting kick, having decided that these are the two
areas of the game i like best. And it's not that i'm bored with my Nossies,
it's just that i wanted a change and a challenge, so, inspired by the success
of the Tatu/Legbiter experiment described in a previous post, i made the
following deck from two boxes of Jyhad boosters [less what we used to build
Michael's mainly-Brujah bash-bleeders]:
Legbiter's American Beauty Deck
Vote/Bash deck, mainly Tories.
All-Jyhad Theme deck, built from slightly less than two boxes of jyhad boosters.
CRYPT: 12 vamps
Delilah Easton 2 pre
Colin Flynn 3 cel aus
Dorain Strack 4 cel AUS
Felicia Mostrom 5 pre CEL AUS
Ramiel Dupre 5 aus cel dom PRE
Adrianne 6 pot pre cel aus +1 bleed
Rake 6 pot aus cel PRE Prince of Atlanta
Elliott Sinclair 7 cel aus PRE Primogen +1 Hand damage
Tatiana Romanova 7 pre cel AUS Prince +1 Bleed
Anson 8 dom aus PRE CEL Prince of Seattle Free Parthenon
Anneke 10 dom PRE CEL AUS Toreador Justicar +1 bleed Free Eagles' Sight
Masika 10 PRE CEL AUS Primogen +1 Bleed Untap between turns
LIBRARY: 90 cards
ACTIONS [5]
Bloodhunt
The Fifth Tradition: Hospitality
Pulse of the Canaille
The Third Tradition: Progeny x 2
ACTION MODIFIERS [8]
Bewitching Oration x 2
Bribes x 2
Scorn of Adonis
Telepathic Vote Counting
Voter captivation x 2
COMBAT [18]
Aura Reading x 2
Blur x 4
Fast hands
Flash x 4
Majesty x 3
Sideslip x 2
Vampiric Speed x 2
EQUIPMENT [7]
.44 magnum
Aaron's Feeding Razor
Flak Jacket
Flame Thrower x 2
[wooden] Stake x 2
MASTERS [19]
Aching Beauty x 2
Art Museum
Blood Doll x 2
Elysium: The Arboretum
Fame
Giant's Blood
Golconda
Major Boon
Minion Tap x 2
Powerbase - Chicago
Powerbase - Washington, DC
Presence x 2
The Rack
Society HG
Society of Leopold
REACTIONS [18]
Eagle's Sight x 2
Enhanced Senses x 3
The Second Tradition - Domain
The Spirit's Touch x 3
Telepathic Misdirection x 5
Wake with Evening's Freshness x 4
RETAINER [1]
Resplendent Protector
VOTES [14]
Archon x 2
Consanguineous Boon x 2
Disputed Territory
Kindred Restructure
Kine Resources Contested x 6
Parity Shift
Political Flux
No stealth to speak of, of course, and so i was a bit lucky not to be
sitting next to John Eagles's Tzimisce guys. But this was a serious
game and a big table, no card-limits or anything like that, and my
victims were Ian Stubbington [tied with Rob Treasure in the last
Wednesday night final], Michael aka Anklebiter [7 VPs in the last
tournament] and Louisa Cowie [who whopped my Nossie ass in the last
game at her house, and got 3 VPs in the last tournament]. All of which
is to say that a not TERRIBLY original [except in theme] deck built
from a limited card-pool can still be competitive and good fun to
play in the rough, tough world of fin-de-siecle Jyhad. Total cost
of this deck to me was absolutely nothing, since all the cards
were gifts from David T.
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An Experiment Using a Live Child, by Tatu and Legbiter
David Tatu is now on his way back to the Land of the Free, and i hope he
enjoyed his stay with us as much as we enjoyed having him. He actually
managed to play in TWO tournaments while he was here, for which full reports
in due course. Sadly David didn't make it to the final of the one on Saturday,
but i did and so did Michael [aka Anklebiter], with 7 VP [both 0 in the final].
Here is the deck Michael used, designed with the following constraints:
[a] Michael likes combat
[b] Michael does not wish to be remembered as a sleazy stealth-bleed merchant
[c] Michael wants to win, at least the occasional game
[d] David had given me a box of Jyhad, and we decided to construct the deck
entirely from the cards in the box. Actually we cheated on one card: there
was no Warzone HG in the box, and we felt the deck needed one. But we did not,
for example, substitute the one Enchant Kindred for a third Computer Hacking,
though we would have liked to.
CRYPT [12 VAMPIRES]
Hasina Kesi
Nik
Uma Hatch
Yuri - The Talon
Hector Sosa
Black Cat
Bianca
Rake
Adrianne
Anvil
Tura Vaughn
Emerson Bridges
LIBRARY [88 CARDS]
16 MASTERS
The Barrens
Warzone HG
Potence
Blood Doll x 3
Misdirection x 2
Elder Library
Life Boon
Dominate
Minion Tap
Presence
Vast Wealth x 2
Celerity
16 ACTIONS
Bum's Rush x 3
Computer Hacking x 4
Social Charm x 3
Legal Manipulations x 4
The Fifth Tradition
Enchant Kindred
1 VOTE
Brujah Justicar
5 EQUIPMENT
Deer Rifle
Flak Jacket
.44 Magnum x 2
Laptop Computer
2 ALLIES
Arms Dealer x 2
36 COMBAT
Sideslip x 4
Torn Signpost x 2
Blur x 3
Thrown Sewer Lid x 3
Thrown Gate x 3
Infernal Pursuit x 4
Flash x 3
Undead Strength x 3
Acrobatics x 3
Nimble Feet x 3
Pulled Fangs
Majesty x 4
8 REACTIONS
Delaying Tactics x 2
Deflection x 3
WWEF x 3
4 ACTION MODIFIERS
Conditioning x 3
Seduction
This is a really fun deck in action and, as its results show, it is
highly competitive. Among its victims were some excellent players
including David himself, and Matthew Green, for example. It's possible
that an older player might have made even more of this deck - Michael
certainly fluffed the playing of a life-boon to keep his grand-prey
in the game, in the third heat, which would have given him a clean sweep
in that 5-player game. But some latitude is certainly due a little boy of
11 when it comes to technical perfection in the best and most complex of
CCGs, i feel. O, and did i mention that this deck has no more than 4 copies
of any one card [but was played under the standard no-limits rules], and
that the box cost David Tatu 12USD?
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GANGREL ANTITRIBU HAPPY FAMILIES DECK
Happy Families is a deck-constructing formula that aims to build a
flexible playable deck around a given selection of vampires. Usually
these will all be vampires of one clan. Basically you choose the vamps
you want to play with, and the library size you want to use, and then
you determine the cards in the library as follows:
20% or so should be master cards
The remaining 80% or so should be minion cards, divided up with respect
to discipline in the following way:
Count the number of vampires in your crypt: Call this number p.
Count the number of vampires with the most common discipline in your
deck: call this number q.
Count the number of vampires with the second most common discipline in
your deck: call this number r.
Count the number of vampires with the third most common discipline in
your deck: call this number s.
Count the number of vampires with the fourth most common discipline in
your deck: call this number t.
Now if 80% of your chosen library size is a, then you want
[(p/[p+q+r+s+t]) x a] cards that require no discipline to play
[(q/[p+q+r+s+t]) x a] cards that require the most common discipline to play
[(r/[p+q+r+s+t]) x a] cards that require the second most common discipline to play
[(s/[p+q+r+s+t]) x a] cards that require the third most common discipline to play
[(t/[p+q+r+s+t]) x a] cards that require the fourth most common discipline to play
Of course this is not a totally formulaic method: you can have more or
fewer disciplines, and you probably are going to favour particular cards
within a discipline at the expense of others, depending on how you
visualise the clan, how you like to play, and what cards you actually
have. Additionally, a lot of the art of Happy Families comes from
choosing what master and non-discipline cards to pick. Basically you
have a choice of making these cards strengthen whatever your vamps
already do well, or else trying to compensate for whatever they do
badly. Personally I tend to go for the latter, but I'm far from sure
that's strategically right - it's the old question of focus versus
flexibility. Nevertheless this method REALLY WORKS, creating fun decks
that are ideal for teaching, that actually work OK at playgroup level
and even, sometimes, do surprising and thought-provoking things [Blood
Brother Ambush playing Burning Wrath is one that springs to mind].
Currently we at Legbiter Mansions are playing with 12 Happy Families
decks and others have been made for Andrew Sparkes' playgroup at Safeway
head Office. Here is the Gangrel antitribu HF deck which, having six
disciplines instead of the usual 4, generally bombs, but tonight stormed
to a sweep in a five-player at Louisa's house.
CRYPT [12 Vamps]
Caitlin
Luther
Samantha
Zachary
Shane Grimald
Genevieve
Sadie
Pieter
Monique
Blaise
Leon
Huang
LIBRARY [70 cards - usually we play threesomes at home]
MASTERS
Auspex
Twisted Forest
Blood Doll x 2
Pentex Loves You!
Fortitude
City gangrel Connections
Obfuscate
Dominate
Animalism
Haven Uncovered
Protean
Gangrel Conspiracy
Minion Tap
NON-DISCIPLINE CARDS
Ambush
Atonement
Saturday Night Special
Black Spiral Buddy
Computer hacking x 2
Wake With Evening's Freshness x 2
Bum's Rush
Arson
Gas Powered chainsaw
Laptop Computer
Shadow Court Satyr
Sengir Dagger
Leather jacket
DOMINATE
Conditioning
Redirection
Govern the Unaligned
Grave Robbing
PROTEAN
Homunculus
Claws of the Dead x 2
Shadow of the Beast
Bone Spur x 2
Wolf Claws x 2
Earth Control x 2
Rapid Change
ANIMALISM
Carrion Crows x 2
Murder of Crows
Cat's Guidance x 2
Army of Rats
Rat's Warning x 2
Guard Dogs x 2
Raven Spy
FORTITUDE
Skin of Rock x 3
Superior Mettle
Restoration x 2
Hidden Strength
AUSPEX
Spirit's Touch
Precognition
My Enemy's Enemy
Aura Reading
OBFUSCATE
Cloak the Gathering
Faceless Night
Swallowed by the Night
Lost in Crowds
Spying Mission
Now i know this looks like a pile of shit and often it plays that way
too: it's also most definitely the weakest of the HF decks. But
sometimes, like tonight, it REALLY kicks against quite competitive
opposition. A key play is often Caitlin doing a bit of graverobbing. The
difficulty of course is the enormous diversity of !Gangrel disciplines
[there are actually two mini-bloodlines, the city and country gangrel],
and yet this is also the source of the deck's flexibility and fun-play
factor. i am always happy when i beat John Eagles but to do so with this
deck, tonight, was absolutely tip-top fun, MUCH better than having
afternoon sex with a gorgeous 21-year old blonde. Actually no, that was
a slight exaggeration, but it WAS a good game. Happy Families decks can
be evolved, too, and for that idea see one of the earliest !Gangrel
newsletters of all, maybe July 98.
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The Many Masks of Dragos, for example,
which in its simplest form would be;
12 x Dragos
7 x Chimerstry
3 x Blood Doll
7 x Fortitude
10 x Bum's Rush
10 x Ambush
1 x Covenant of Blood
10 x Freak Drive
10 x Illusions of the Kindred
10 x Horrid Reality
1 x Mass Reality
10 x Amaranth
10 x Flamethrower
Pulse of the Canaille
Maybe in a deck like this you'd want to find space for a few
Sensory Deprivations and Rituals of the Bitter Rose, too.
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One of the biggest surprises of the Happy Family format is that the
Ravnos deck is quite good! It has won 6 out of a possible 10 VPs in
three games in the hands of either me or garry. There's maybe the
basis here for something quite competitive, and of course apart from
Lazar you're not likely to be contesting anything with anyone!
CRYPT [13 vamps]
Tereza Rostas 8
Natalia 7
Andrei Puxon 5
Sarisha Veliku 6
Darius Styx 9
Joaquina Amaya 6
Sasha Miklos 2
Petru Sipos 7
Tsigane 3
Lazar Dobrescu 3
Salbatore Bokkengro 4
Vaclav Petalengro 6
Konstantin, Baro of the Caravan 9
LIBRARY [71 cards]
NON-DISCIPLINE [16 cards]
Laptop Computer
WWEF x 3
Rom Gypsy
Fortune Teller
The Crimson Sentinel
Flame Thrower
Leather jacket
Owl Companion
.44 magnum x 2
Ghoul Retainer
SMG
Pack Tactics
Deer Rifle
CHIMERSTRY [14 cards + Master skill card]
Chimerstry Skill card
Sensory Deprivation x 2
Horrid Reality x 3
Ignis Fatuus x 2
Illusions of the Kindred
Mass Reality x 2
Veiled Sight x 2
Fata Morgana x 2
FORTITUDE [13 cards + master skill card]
Fortitude skill card
Rolling with the Punches x 4
Indominability x 2
Unflinching Persistence x 4
Restoration
Kiss of Ra
Superior Mettle
ANIMALISM [10 cards + master skill card]
Animalism Skill Card
Army of Rats
Murder of Crows
Guard Dogs x 2
Raven Spy
Tier of Souls
Cat's Guidance x 3
Shepherd's innocence
DOMINATE [4 cards + master skill card]
Dominate Skill card
Govern the Unaligned
Deflection x 3
OTHER MASTERS [10, 14 counting skill cards]
Park HG
Ravnos Carnival
Fortune Teller Shop
Minion Tap
Vast Wealth x 2
Ravnos Cache
Blood Doll x 2
Heidelberg Castle, Germany
Last night i used this deck to beat Michael's Tzimisces in a duel,
and it was a thought-provoking game, because it became clear to me
for the first time that there are real possibilities in a Ravnos /
Tzimisce or Tzimisce- with-chi concept.
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"Happy Families" Toreador Antitribu Deck
Here's the deck. Actually it is one of roughly 15 designed [as anam says]
on the "Happy Families" principle [qv, on this newsgroup; note that the
initial post contains an incorrect version of the formula, corrected in the
thread], and probably it's in the top 20% of those [the !Bru and !Ven decks
are almost certainly even better, and the Giovanni deck is also very strong].
This !Tor deck has a bit of everything! i ousted my first prey [Anam, playing
Brujah/Lasombra pot/dom/obt combat/bleed .... She Begged for her Life] largely
by votes [bit of bleed], my second prey [Nathan Hanley, playing Tremere/!Tre
combat/bleed] by bleeds [Palla Grande came up just at the right moment] and my
third prey [John Lee Barber, playing cel-pot-pre combat/bleed, and making
good use of Distraction] by combat.
DECK NAME: The family that bleeds, votes and slays together, stays together.
FORMAT: NCL Constructed [but ok for 4/6 CL],
4-5 player tables [but ok for 3-player].
CRYPT [12 vampires]
One of each of the !Toreadors
Angela Decker
[low draw 10, high draw 34, average 5.6]
[initial crypt for this game was 1, 6 [Ian Wallingford], 7, 8 [average 5.5]
and i played third out of 4. i didn't draw jost - 5th vamp out was the 6-cap
girlie with +1 bleed and for, Sheila mazarin, that's it.]
LIBRARY [70 cards]
Celerity cards [13]
Celerity
Blur x 3
Side Strike
Fast Hands
Acrobatics x 2
Sideslip x 2
Flash x 2
Speed of Thought
Presence Cards [15]
Presence
Majesty x 4
Social Charm x 2
Mind Numb
Legal Manipulations x 3
Voter Captivation
Bewitching Oration x 2
Entrancement
Auspex Cards [13]
Auspex
Aura Reading
Telepathic Misdirection
Pulse of the Canaille
Spirit’s Touch x 2
Scrying of Secrets
Telepathic Counter x 3
Enhanced Senses x 2
Melange
Fortitude cards [4]
Fortitude
Daring the Dawn
Resilience
Skin of Steel
Other Masters [10]
Blood Doll x 2
Minion Tap
Misdirection x 2
Short-term investment
Palla Grande
The Art of Love
Fetish Club HG
The Art of Pain
Non-Discipline cards [15]
.44 magnum
Forced Awakening x 2
Disputed Territory
KRC x 2
WWEF
Goth Band
Dramatic Upheaval
Art Scam
Marijava Ghoul
Leather Jacket
Bang Nakh – Tiger’s Claws
Political Flux
Consanguineous Boon
ANALYSIS BY CARD TYPE
Unblockability 2/70 3%
Tap 3/70 4%
Vote 9/70 13%
Bleed 8/70 11%
Combat 23/70 33%
Allies/Retainers 4/70 [counting Entrancement and Art of Love] 6%
Wake 3/70 4%
Intercept 5/70 7%
Bleed-bounce or counter 3/70 4%
Pool/Blood gain 14/70 20%
Information gain 2/70 3%
Draw cards 1/70 1%
Stealth <1/70 <1% [marijava ghoul]
[Figures don't add up to 70/100% because of multivalency of some cards]
Comments: A Sweet deck to play on its first competitive outing,
gaining 4/4 VPs. It is based on an all-Sabbat deck that Lady Legbiter
and Michael HATED in corsica, except when they got to play with it.
My favourite moment was when Rigby, armed with an SMG and glazer rounds
in hand, blocked Lachlan, tooled up with the Art of Pain and bang Nakh.
John went long with the gun, i manoeuvered back to short with Flash, and
Acrobatics superior to dodge the gun and deal him 5 damage.
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LEGBITER’S TERRIBLE WARNING AGAINST MAKING RASH PROMISES
TO BUILD VIABLE CONCEPT DECKS
Last month I gaily promised to design a gangrel-anti combat
deck based on the principles outlined in the last newsletter,
and for the last two weeks I have been cursing myself for my
arrogance. I hadn’t, you see, previously done any kind of
analysis of the !gangrel disciplines, and it was only when
I did so that I realised how terribly fragmented these are.
Of all the clans only the Pander are worse in this respect,
and they of course have the countervailing advantages of
being cheap, and having Legacy of Pander [one of the best
cards in the game]. Eventually I came up with the following
creation, which uses the Todd Banister Infernal Familiar
trick to create a pot/pro/for kind of a deck and aims to
do lots of rushes and a bit of grave-robbing. However, I
am under no illusion that this is a GOOD deck, and nor
should you be. It is sleepy [no wake- ups], slow [big
vampires] and feeble [no votes or decent bleeds]. I present
it nevertheless as a Terrible Warning to newsletter editors
not to write articles on the hoof. Next time I will have the
deck built before I make rash promises about it. Well, maybe
the time after next. November’s NL project is going to be
how to design a decent !Gangrel deck without initially
limiting it to being mainly combat, and this will almost
certainly mean basing it around the Gangrel anti-girlies
who have decent specials and/or are Caitlin.
CRYPT
3 x Leon 3 for ani
2 x Samantha 10 ani tha PRO OBF CEL Bishop
2 x Shane Grimald 4 pot dom ani
2 x Zachary 7 for pre PRO OBF CEL
3 x Pieter 6 tha for PRO OBF
LIBRARY
2 x Hand of Conrad
10 x Bum’s Rush
5 x Ambush
5 x Torn Signpost
10 x Immortal Grapple
4 x Flesh of Marble
4 x Infernal Familiar
4 x Amaranth
2 x Ritual of the Bitter Rose
6 x Freak Drive
4 x Disarm
6 x Skin of Steel
2 x Skin of Night
4 x Wolf Claws
4 x Grave Robbing
Heidelberg Castle
Pentex Loves You!
Hungry Coyote
2 x Rotshreck
3 x Minion Tap
2 x Blood Doll
Festivo Dell’ Estinto
Giant’s Blood
Depravity
Dominate
Potence
Twisted Forest
2 x Gangrel Conspiracy
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DECK: EARTH-MELD/PSYCHE MULTIPLE RUSH DECK.
This is Philippe Richer's idea, and a VERY clever one in my opinion.
He solves the slowness of combat decks in a novel way - rush into combat,
strike combat ends, untap, then Psyche. Do it again. FUN!
CRYPT 12 vampires:
3 x Stanislawa
3 x Zachary
3 x Samantha
Huang
Sadie
Igo the Hungry
LIBRARY 90 cards:
MASTERS [18]:
ToR3 x 2
Haven Uncovered x 2
The Rack
The Rumour Mill
Minion Tap x 2
Rotshreck x 2
Blood Doll x 2
Direct Intervention
Dreams of the Sphinx
Dominate
Information Highway
Sudden Reversal
Legendary Vampire
COMBAT [36]:
Psyche! x 10
Earth Meld x 12
Wolf Claws x 8
Amaranth x 2
Flash x 5
Blur x 6
Sideslip x 3
ACTIONS [15]:
8 x Bum's Rush
4 x Ambush
2 x Govern the Unaligned
Covenant of Blood
ACTION MODIFIERS [5]:
Hidden lurker x 5
EQUIPMENT [4]:
.44 Magnum
Palatial Estate
Sports Bike
Leather Jacket
RETAINERS [2]:
Homunculus x 2
REACTIONS [10]:
Deflection x 2
Forced Awakening x 8
This version is not playtested, and is presented as a concept more
than something you can go out and whop the local version
of Rob Treasure with.
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The Hated Coupe, beneath whose Iron Heel the Kindred of Central England
Nightly Groan, will probably do one of his excellent tournament reports
for this, since he was the Judge this year. Personally i had a blast,
and got to the final with his little corker, eventually placing third
with an overall total of 6VPs[and the same deck, near enough, got me
second place in the August Portsmouth Tournament]. i actually beat the
eventual winner of the GenCon tournament with it, too, in the first round,
AND the winner of the August Portsmouth tournament was one of my victims
in that game. i'm posting it cos quite a lot of people were interested
in the deck, and the eventual winner saw it as the main threat ...
as for a title .... hmm, let me see, how about Legbiter's Childer's Crusade?
CRYPT: 12 vamps.
Hector Sosa 4
Lupo 2
Hugo 4
Cristofero Giovanni 3
Raziya Samater 3
Dre Leader of the Cold Dawn 3
Koko 2
Mitchell the Headhunter 2
Hasina Kesi 1
Jimmy Dunn 4
Uriah Winter 1
Agatha 4
LIBRARY: 90 cards
18 Masters
Elder Library
2 x Tribute to the Master
Barrens
4 x Potence
Humanitas
2 x Fame
Life Boob
Info Highway
5 x Effective Management
16 Actions
6 x Bum's Rush
5 x Computer Hacking
3 x Ambush
Atonement
Rampage
2 Reactions
2 x WWEF
54 Combat
5 x Fake Out
11 x Torn Signpost
15 x Immortal Grapple
7 x Taste of Vitae
9 x Undead Strength
2 x Increased Strength
5 x Mighty Grapple
Playing Tips: Beat the Unliving Shit out of one of your prey's vamps,
then bleed for lots [weenie swarm plus a bit of Hacking]. Rush any
predatory vamps that look like threatening you. In an emergency, kill
ALL your predator's vamps, then life boon him/her to get a VP [i had to
do this in the final]. Fake out for defence against Muddles and maybe
War Ghoul, otherwise to close the range with Toreador and related
scumbuckets.
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Weenie ANI/FOR rush deck
The basic idea would be to start the deck off as classic weenie for/trap,
but you would aim to make as many minions as possible ANI and FOR, and you
would be going for DoTB, Dawn op, Freak Drives and each of your
teeny-weenies taking out three vamps every turn [Bum's Rush, Ambush and
Haven Uncovered]. Now THAT should be fast enough to make combat competitive!
i've never seen this kind of deck in action, however, nor do i recall it
being talked about, at least not in exactly these terms. Does that mean it's
been tried and it sucks, or is there some other reason why this can't work?
Crypt would be 12-ish cheap vamps with at least ani or for, ranging from
March and Uriah up to 5-6 cap Gangrels and Ravnos. Library would
be something like the following:
19 MASTERS
4 x ani
4 x for
3 x Effective Management
4 x Haven Uncovered
2 x Info Highway
2 x Tribute
16 ACTIONS
6 x Bum's Rush
6 x Ambush
4 x Tier of Souls [?]
38 COMBAT
8 x Trap
12 x DoTB
3 x Terror Frenzy [?]
2 x Aid from Bats
7 x Unflinching Persistence
6 x Skin of Steel
2 RETAINERS
2 x Dog Pack
15 MODIFIERS
8 x dawn Op
7 x Freak Drive
Maybe you don't really need the retainers, and maybe there should be
some blood gain in there too - Tastes, perhaps. Carrion Crows would
obviously be nice in this. But really i am interested in people's prior
experience of this kind of thing, if any. If the deck idea is novel, of
course we will only find out whether it is any good or not by playing it!
Hmmm, actually it's NOT that novel, is it? it's kind of a variation of
the weather control/Skin of Night deck. Anyway, i'd still like to know if
anyone has played around with this concept before!
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Here [in response to a number of requests] is the latest version of the
Malkavian Out of Turn Rush-combat deck which i am developing.
CRYPT [12 vampires]:
Marcellus, Prince of Monaco x 2
Zebulon x 2
Greger Anderssen x 3
Victoria
Brazil
Normal
Watenda
Dollface
LIBRARY [90 cards]:
18 MASTERS:
The Rack
Protean x 4
Rotschreck x 7
Madness Network x 4
Fame x 2
16 REACTIONS:
The Second Tradition - Domain x 10
Eagle's Sight x 2
Precognition x 4
26 COMBAT:
Form of the Ghost x 6
Claws of the Dead x 13
Body of Sun x 2
Flesh of Marble x 3
Ritual of the Bitter Rose x 2
2 EQUIPMENT:Ivory Bow
White Phosphorous Grenade
6 ACTION MODIFIERS/COMBAT:
Rapid Change x 2
Swallowed by the Night x 4
20 ACTIONS:
Ambush x 2
Bum's Rush x 10
The Third Tradition - Progeny x 4
The Fourth Tradition - The Accounting x 2
The Fifth Tradition - Hospitality x 2
2 RETAINERS:
Homunculus x 2
NOTES: The deck's aim is to torporise and then diablerise
opponents'vampires. It does this by attempting to deal
aggravated damage when it is notyour turn, either by intercept
or Madness Network rushes, and then playingRotshreck if required.
Properly played, it wins essentially all 3 and 4player games
in which it participates, and it has enough resilience and
speed to win a good proportion of 5-player games too. Once
Greger has a homunculus,superior PRO and the Rack your opponents
may as well give up, unless theyhave a specialised anti-Malky OOT
rush deck .... Elysium the Arboretum,Allies, Kiss of Ra, Obedience
and Legacy of Power are really the only cardsthat scare this deck
at all.However, like all rush-combat decks this one takes a bit
of finesse to pulloff. Concentrate on your prey, and let your
predator hurt you a little bitrather than give your grand predator
an easy VP. In big games, offer to oustyourself to give your
predator 2 VP's at the end of the game in exchange forbeing left
alone. Don't for Caine's sake get drunk with success and start
attacking your grand prey/grand predator until you absolutely
MUST, ie whenthey are about to oust your predator. Remember you
only can play oneRotschreck per time round the table, so don't
use till you have to. You mustplay Rotschreck as you announce your
intention to deal aggravated damage, soit is wise to smack it down
if you are dealing with somebody who has PRE orFOR, and wisest of
all to save the PRE/ FOR guys for last in the round.The deck only
works post-7/7 BTW, because of the change to the Rotschreck and
second tradition rules. The Fame change helps too, but the Fame
cards are not essential except in bigger games. If fame had its old
text then it would probably be replaced by 2 GtU's. GtU's instead
of FoM's might well make the deck work better, but i haven't got
round to testing this variant yet. There is a weapons variant which
is also good but screwable by some of the animalism combat cards.
The Madness Networks are the thing that make this deck work so well,
because they allow you to be pro-active - essential for combat success,
in my view. Replacing Marcellus by two more Gregers is risky, because
you then become TERRIBLY vulnerable to contestment, as i discovered in
the last Portsmouth constructed deck tournament.
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Legbiter’s Lackeys of Legerdemain
This month, the deck comes from our very own Legbiter. I’ll leave
him to discuss the details of how his deck works. We had spoken
to each other about the value of allies, and he said that he had
made this deck recently. As it relies on the quite effective Tremere
Antitribu allies, I felt it would fit the theme this month.
Crypt:
Heinrich Schlempt
Brooke
Kurt Strauss
Richard Tauber
Thelonius
Ian Forrestal
Francesca Giovanni
Rudolpho Giovanni x 2
Gloria Giovanni
Carlotta Giovanni
Rafaele Giovanni
Library:
Necromancy
Thaumaturgy
Dominate
Fame
KRCG News Radio
University HG
Morgue HG
Blood Doll x 4
Barrens
Fragment of the Book of Nod
Infernal Pact
The Rack
Elder Library
Mob Connections
Dreams of the Sphinx
Heidelberg Castle x 2
Talbot's Chainsaw x 5
Ambrosius the Ferryman, Wraith x 5
Nephandus x 2
Succubus x 3
Shotgun x 2
Ghoul Retainer x 2
Leonardo, Mortician
Compel the Spirit x 6
Rutor's Hand x 2
Thoughts Betrayed x 6
Taste of Vitae x 4
Blood Tears of Kephran x 2
Govern the Unaligned x 4
Mr. Winthrop
Sports Bike
Jackie Therman
Spectral Divination x 8
Torment the Soul x 3
Wake with evening's Freshness x 4
Atonement
Deflection x 3
Laptop Computer
IR goggles
Arson x 2
The idea is to treat your opponents' vampires as a resource ... steal
their blood with the succubus, put them into torpor with the chainsaw, and
then eat them with the Nephandus. Pool gain, combat and a bit of deflection
is your defense against bleed; intercept and rush-combat is your only real
resource against votes. The key to the deckis the Ambrosius/Talbot's
chainsaw combo. Ambrosius takes the chainsaw damage each untap, and it
doesn't affect him. If an ally gets killed you Compel the Spirit to get
it back again. Heidelberg allows you to mount two combats with the chainsaw
per turn, and ifyou're lucky you will have two ghouls each armed with a
shiny shotgun for both fights.
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MONIQUE DECK This is an attempt to make a deck based around Monique, the
Gangrel anti girly who sits at home stuffing her face with vampire chocolate
while her lovely sister Caitlin gets all the dates. But tonight Uncle
Legbiter, fetchingly attired in a tutu and wand, presents a deck based on her
one good point - she is the only 5-cap vampire with the blocking disciplines
of aus and ani at inferior. This means that, through atonement and pumping,
she can become the blocking demon of doom. Thanks to Jasper and Fred, who
provided useful criticism of a draft Monique deck which i posted on the NG.
4 x Monique 5
Aaron Duggan, Cameron's Toady 2
Cameron 3
Ignacio the Black Priest 4
Ramiro 4
Vliam Andor 3
Leon 3
Gillian Krader 2
Wendy Wade 3
18 masters:
Power Structure
Guardian Angel
Heidelberg Castle x 3
Obtenebration x 2
Ascendance x 4
Pentex Loves You!
The Hungry Coyote
The Barrens
Fragment of the Book of Nod
Dreams of the Sphinx
Milicent Smith
Pentex Subversion [this is here so that you can contest it,
if need be.Nothing more annoying than to get
your vamp o'doom Pentex'd].
[i thought about an obtenebration card so that she could get
Eyes of the Night, but decided against].
72 Library
Atonement x 5
Camarilla Vitae Slave x 4
Eagles' Sight x 4 [Jasper suggests more, and he may be right.
However, this is the number i use in my Malky
OOT combat deck, and there it is about right].
Melange x 4
Spirit's Touch x 4
Precognition x 4
Cat's Guidance x 6
Raptor x 6
Raven Spy x 2
Carrion Crows x 6
Aid From Bats x 10
Drawing out the Beast x 4
Skin of Rock x 2
Skin of Steel x 2
Shadow Play x 3
Forced Awakening x 4
Well, i dunno whether this would work or not .. it looks ok on paper.
I'vespecified cards i actually have rather than ones i would wish for
[eg terrorfrenzy] so i really don't have an excuse not to build this
deck and try itout. Sigh. Except, well, i just don't FANCY her, know
what i mean? (ring,ring .... ring, ring ... click) Pyknite ol' chap,
is that you? Well have Igot a ho-, erm, a tasty date for you!!!!!!
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Legbiter's Emmenthal deck of boring cheese.
Crypt:
abundant dom/DOM weenies
Library:
15 Brainwash
5 Misdirection
Parthenon or Anarch Troublemaker or Barrens
Pentex Subversion
30 Scouting Mission
30 Threats
3 Delaying Tactics
4 Deflection
I think this would probably work, though i would never play it so i shall
never know. What would it prove if i did play it and it did work? Nothing
about CL/ NCL, in my view - merely that i was a humourless prick with the
charisma of an earthworm.
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The basic idea is to use Madness Network actions to rush OOT and strike for
agg damage, so that you can whack a rotschreck on to Kibosh SCE and damage
prevention decks. Some judgement is required in playing the Rotshrecks since
you have to play them simultaneously with the strikes, and you only get one
Rotshreck per time round the table. Then you use weenies to diablerise [or
you block and diablerise].It works BRILLIANTLY. At the last Portsmouth tournament
there were two decks like this, and mine got 5 and Rob Treasure's got 12 in
the heats. Then wecontested each other to death in the final. It's doubtful
whether Rob willever speak to me again as a result, but i honestly had no
choice - my then version of the deck ABSOLUTELY relied on Greger Anderssen.
Apart from reducing its reliance on the toothsome Prince of Stockholm, i also
adoapted the deck in view of the fact that William Lee's !Nos "Cailean says
the range is LONG" deck beat me up quite badly in two of the heats there [A
Lasombra Shadow step deck would do the same thing, of course]; so i decided
to put in a bit of LR agg dam. Here roughly is the deck as it currently
stands:
CRYPT:
3 x Greger Anderssen
2 x Whatsisponsyface, Prince of Monaco
2 x Zebulon
Victoria
Watenda
Dollface
Normal
Brazil
4 x Madness Network
7 x Rotshreck
2 x Tribute to the Master
4 x Protean
2 x Fame
The Rack
12 x Bum's Rush
4 x Progeny
4 x Swallowed by the Night
2 x Rapid Change
9 x Second Tradition: Domain
4 x Precognition
2 x Eagles' Sight
2 x Homunculus
Ivory Bow
White Phosphorous grenade
13 x Claws of the Dead
3 x Flesh of marble
6 x Form of the Ghost
2 x Body of Sun
As you see, a VERY focussed combat deck whose [almost incidental] Plan B is
swarm bleed. Rob's deck is similar but not quite so focussed on combat. We
more- or-less evolved the concept independently, i believe, though of course
one talks about decks during tournaments and passes ideas around.
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AARGH!!! Fame! I need Fame! Fame instead of DI, probably.
5 x Greger Anderssen
2 x Zebulon
Victoria
Watenda
Dollface
Normal
Brazil
4 x Madness Network
6 x Rotshreck
3 x Tribute to the Master
5 x Protean
Fame
The Rack
12 x Bum's Rush
5 x Progeny
2 x Graverobbing
4 x Swallowed by the Night
2 x Rapid Change
8 x Second Tradition: Domain
4 x Precognition
2 x Eagles' Sight
2 x Homunculus
Ivory Bow
Inverary Castle Scotland
Palatial Estate
Malkavian Justicar
13 x Claws of the Dead
3 x Flesh of marble
6 x Form of the Ghost
GtU is worth a thought but i'm leaving it out because there is a LOT of
Deflection in our environment at the moment, and none of my minions has DOM.
When it works this deck should turn into a weenie swarm and then you don't
need the bleed modifiers.Actually, re-reading jasper's post i realise i need
to explain this deck abit better. The ideal is to use a Madness Network
action to rush a minion outof turn. Manouever to close if necessary
[Form of the Ghost rather than Clawsbecause you can't rely on having
superior protean, and also Claws costsmore], strike Claws of the Dead
and then Rotshreck if necessary [if youencounter S:CE, are fighting
someone else combatty [not a problem if you flesh of marble having
intercepted with Precognition] or anticipate damage prevention].
Then use another Madness Network action to diablerise or graverob or
even, if they are famous, rescue the downed minion. With Homunculus,
this has a chance of overcoming the inherent slowness of combat decks.
Of course the deck can do other things - swarm bleed is plan B, and Princely
intercept is another opportunity to torporise people. Judgement is necessary
in the use of Rotshreck because you can only play one each time round the table.
This version of the deck is going to need playtesting but my sense is that
it could well achieve voting superiority by killing everyone else who votes
and/or doing deals. In that case there might be a place for 1st Tradition:
The Masquerade [because uniquely, you won't NEED your turn to hurt people]
and in any event there is probably a case for 4th Tradition: The Accounting
so's to get out more little vamps and/or gain pool. It's just a question of
slots. Elysium, Obedience and Legacy of Power are the dangers for this deck.
You can minimise these risks by voting out Elysium and being careful to jump on
younger vampires and Princes first - or find a slot for DI. You want to be
careful blocking vamps with FOR in case they are packing Kiss of Ra. Change
of Target, Ghoul escort, Concoction of Vitality, Walk Through Arcadia and
DayOp can be tiresome but all these have their own downside and they're not
exactly strategies of choice for most decks these nights! There is another
version of this deck with obf/cel and weapons. That works [though as James
Coupe points out, it's a difficult deck to play], but i think this one will
be even better.
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GANGREL ANTITRIBU ALLIES DECK
I've been meaning for a long time to create a Gangrel antitribu deck,
and this at last is it. It is based on bringing out small minions and
then doing lots of different things ... in the hope that one of them
is going to work well enough to win you the game. The key ideas are:
Embrace gives you little vamps with presence. You use these to call
votes to pay for your allies and damage your enemies. Black Spiral Buddies
use Bum's Rushes and Intercept from the permanents to put enemy vamps
in torpor and to keep them there. Fame can make this hurt.
Crypt [12 vampires]
3 x Sadie 2 pro
3 x Leon 3 ani for
3 x Shane Grimald 4 ani pot dom
3 x Caitlin 5 aus dom ANI PRO Bishop
Masters [18]
2 x KRCG News Radio
2 x London Evening Star
4 x Rotshreck
6 x Presence
2 x Memories of Mortality
2 x Fame
Equipment [7]
3 x Sports Bike
2 x Leather Jacket
2 x Laptop Computer
Allies [7]
5 x Black Spiral Buddy
2 x Shadow Court Satyr
Actions [13]
4 x The Embrace
7 x Bum's Rush
2 x Legal Manipulations
Votes [13]
4 x Consanguineous Boon
Praxis Solomon
Autarkis Persecution
Crusade Miami
Crusade Mexico City
5 x KRC
Action Modifers [19]
3 x Awe
4 x Bewitching Oration
4 x Earth Control
4 x Rapid Change
4 x Bribes
Combat [13]
6 x Presence
5 x Aid from Bats
2 x Bone Spur
This isn't playtested BTW, so it may be complete crap.
Alright, that's it until march when i'll try to be on time.
Seeya!
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Anyway i've been thinking about the Malky combat deck and talking about it
with Rob Treasure and i think there is a better and simpler version, based on
protean aggravated damage.
Crypt:
4 Greger Anderssen
Normal
Brazil
Watenda
Dollface
Ohanna
Aleph
Roland Bishop
Didi Meyers
Masters [18]:
5 Madness Network
6 Rotshreck
2 Direct Intervention
5 Protean
Actions [18]:
11 x Bum's Rush
4 x 3rd tradition: Progeny
3 x GtU [either that or Sacrificial Lamb or Graverobbing]
Combat [40]:
12 x Flesh of Marble
12 x Claws of the Dead
6 x Form of the Ghost
5 x Amaranth
5 x Ritual of the Bitter Rose
Votes [10]:
Anathema x 3
Malkavian Justicar x 2
Consanguineous Boon x 3
Archon x 2
Reactions [4]:
2nd Tradition: Domain x 4
Maybe there ought to be a space for Ivory Bow in here, just one of them.
Possibly replacing one of the Archons. And if i build this deck in real space
i will have to replace most of the Flesh of Marbles with Leather jackets and
blood Tears cos i only have 4.I'm not sure about the Amaranth/Ritual combo
though, and that's the reason for this post. Can i use Amaranth to diablerise
a vampire that is going to torpor due to Rotschreck? We [James Coupe,
William Lee and I] talked about this on the IoW and were really unsure,
though our feeling was probably not -once strike combat ends has occurred,
you can't do anything else [so if we're right Catatonic fear at superior on
a vamp with no blood could not be followed by Amaranth, for example].
If not [ruling, LSJ?], the Amaranth cards would go out and be replaced by
+stealth action modifiers to cover the diablerie - also useful for voting
and equipping so you could use Forgotten Labyrinth.
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The Christmas Carol version of the Raptor deck owes much to discussion
with Michael Beer and, i think, might do better ....
it is basically a weenie bleed deck but with a DEADLY
intercept/combat/hand-destruction sting in its furry-and-feathery little tail.
Remember, by the way, that DotB is stackable, and that retainers "forget"
who recruited them when they get transferred to new owners.
CRYPT [13]
[aka Santa's helpful little elfs].
Navar McLaren 1 ani
Gillian Krader 2 ani dem
Dani 2 ani
Vliam Andor 2 ani
Anastasia Grey 3 ani pro
Raziya Samater 3 ani pot
Panagos Levidis 3 ani obf
Leon 3 ani for
Wendy Wade 3 ani aus
Tommy 3 ani pot
Shane Grimald 4 ani pot dom
Josef 4 ani obt obf
Laurent de Valois 4 ani dom obf
LIBRARY [90]
MASTERS [18]
Heidelberg castle x 2
Animalism x 8
Tribute to the Master
Ascendance x 3
The Hungry Coyote
Inbase Diskotek
Effective Management x 2
MINION [72]
ACTIONS [13]
Shepherd's Innocence x 2
Computer Hacking x 7
Family Reunion [aka Army of Rats]
Bum's Rush x 3
COMBAT [30]
Terror Frenzy x 2
Drawing out the Beast x 8
Aid from Bats x 10
Christmas Carol of Serenity x 5
Lurky Turkeys [aka Carrion Crows] x 5
EQUIPMENT [1]
Dartmoor, England [Nothing to do with Christmas, but this is
one of the topspots in England for outdoor sex.
Another is the New Forest. You need to check for ticks
afterwards, though. They carry Lyme disease.]
REACTIONS [17]
Forced Awakening x 4 [Ooooo .... my poor head ....]
Guard Dogs x 8 [Remember: A Dog is for Death, not just for Christmas]
Cat's Guidance x 5
RETAINERS [11]
Fierce Turkey of Doom x 11 [aka Raptor]
This hasn't been playtested at all so is quite likely to be a disaster, but
perhaps not an unmitigated one ..... the core strategy of weenie minions
doing computer hacks is strong in the early game, and the ideal is that when
the weenie-hating decks finally hit the ground they get a nasty surprise from
the accumulating raptors and ranged combat. I toyed with the idea of
including a deer rifle or two and a few 5-cap vamps with ANI. Playtesting may
well reveal this to be the right approach. I also thought about Tier of Souls
but in the end decided to keep my copies for a nossie or gangrel deck because
of the stealth.
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LEGBITER'S SECOND CRUSADE
Crypt [12 cards]
Gaspare Giovanni x3
Beast, Leatherface of Detroit x3
Richter, The Templar of Du Mont x3
Sela x3
Library
[75 cards; can easily be made 90 if that excites you. Personally i
don't buy the argument that bigger decks are better. When was the last time
you played out your 90-card library in a Jyhad game?]
Masters [20]
Amusement Park Hunting Ground
Morgue Hunting Ground
Shanty Town Hunting Ground
Gang Territory
Celerity x 3
Blood Doll x 3
Fame x 2
Information Highway x 2
Minion Tap
Major Boon x 2
KRCG News Radio
The Rumour Mill
[No Humanitas. It just isn't worth the slot. If it becomes imperative to hit
your prey for MORE than 3 in a turn, just pay the two to rescue your prey's
torpid vamp, and then hit him/her again. Blood gain from the HGs and Taste
of Vitae will fill your vamps up alright.]
1 Equipment
Sport's Bike [or Mr Winthrop the retainer]
33 Combat
Flash x 3
Lightning Reflexes
Taste of Vitae x 2
Immortal Grapple x 13
Torn Signpost x 2
Sideslip x 3
Blur x 3
Rapid Thought
Disarm x 5
6 Votes
Cardinal Benediction x 3
KRC x 3
11 Actions
Bum's Rush x 9
Ambush x 2
4 Reactions
Wake with Evenings Freshness x 4
Deck by: Legbiter, Prince of Wessex, Fanner of the Rules-Fight Flame,
Complacently Slow-Minded Minion of Chaos and Entropy, Hated Apostate
from the Pure Faith of Rush Combat, Slayer of Fish and Snogger of Beautiful
Foreign Girls Without Regard to Race, Creed or Colour*.
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Legbiter's winning deck.
Basically this is a clone of the "Princes of Carthage" deck that got
R David Zopf to the DragonCon finals. David's modest claim that this was
"just thrown together" is somewhat undermined by the fact that the deck
can still do well in the hands of a different player on the other side
of the pond! However, I admit I have tweaked the deck a little [more KRCs,
kept the Kine Dominances, didn't increase the Carthages, changeda few of
the masters]. In play it flows beautifully. The only change i might make
to it now is maybe to put in a few alacritys - perhaps replacing the
Sengir dagger, one of the closed sessions and one of the Bewitching Orations.
This is because the only time the deck struggled was when Garry, with a
decent amount of intercept, good combat and a few votes of his own, was my
predator. Interestingly, this deck didn't do THAT well when we playtested
it in my group last monday - i got 2VPs but also got kippered by Drummer John's
fast presence-bleed deck. Admittedly that was in part because i made a
FOOLISH error, but still .... guess the playgroup ain't the same thing as
the tournament, eh?
Crypt [12 vampires]
Brachah 5
Ranjan Rishi 5
Mariana Gilbert 4
Constanza Vinti 8
Sir Walter Nash 7
Donal O'Connor 8
Tatiana Romanova 7
Rake 6
Anson 8
Volker the Puppet Prince 5
Vasilis 2
Gideon Fontaine 3
Average 5.67; High crypt 29, Low Crypt 14.
LIBRARY [90 cards]
MASTERS [20; 22.2%]
Effective management x 3
Depravity
Warzone HG
Carthage Remembered x 2
Elysium - the Arboretum
Sudden Reversal
Blood Doll x 2
Pentex Subversion
The Rack
Minion Tap x 5
Misdirection
Fragment of the Book of Nod
ACTIONS [24; 26.7%]
Kine Dominance x 2
Scouting Mission x 5
Govern the Unaligned x 5
The Fifth Tradition - Hospitality x 5
The Fourth Tradition: The Accounting x 3
Social Charm x 2
Legal manipulations x 2
VOTES [15; 16.7%]
Brujah Justicar
Consanguineous Boon x 2
Kine Resources Contested x 5
Praxis Seizure: Geneva
Praxis Seizure: Glasgow
Praxis Seizure: Boston
Conservative Agitation x 2
Parity Shift x 2
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Legbiter's Christmas Cracker
[A non-Tzimisce Viscissitude deck]
This deck isprobably my most successful ever, and its construction was a complete
accident. I was rebuilding the decks i normally use for casual play with Lady
Legbiter to make them a bit more menacing, and when I had finished i found i
had a whole load of vis cards left over, and an equally large number of
vampires who all had vis/VIS but hadn't fitted into decks. I've had a fair
bit of experience playing with a Tzimisce deck so i knew how good vis can be,
not so much the combat but the dual-purpose cards like changeling and Plasmic
Form. So I just threw together what i had and out came the following deck,
more or less - the version i print here evolved a bit through playtesting.
CRYPT [12]
2 x Blaise 7 Gangrel antitribu Sabbat +1 Hand damage obf vis ANI CEL
3 x Christine Boscacci 2 Pander Sabbat Christine gets -1 intercept
against any minion attempting to bleed vis dom
Dominique 7 Ventrue antitribu Sabbat As a D action, Dominique may put a
vandal counter on a location. If a location has a number of
vandal counterson it equal to its cost [or 1 vandal counter
if it has no cost], burn it. ani vis dom FOR AUS
2 x Hugo 4 Brujah antitribu Sabbat -1 intercept v Lasombra and Tzimisces
pre vis POT
Matteus, Flesh Sculptor 10 Toreador antitribu Sabbat Priscus; may burn anadditional
blood to play an action that requires a Cardinal or Archbishop.
May burn 1 blood to get +1 intercept against a cardinal or archbishop
attempting a political action. VIS PRE CEL AUS
Olivia 5 Nosferatu antitribu SabbatBishopvis OBF POT
2 x Rex, The Necronomist 3 Pander Sabbat Combat cards cost Rex an additional
blood to play. vis pro pot
LIBRARY [90]
MASTERS [19]
Animalism
Ascendance x 3
The Barrens
Blood Doll x 2
Celerity
Dominate
Elder Library
Misdirection
Obfuscate
Pentex Loves You!
Potence
Presence
The Rack
Short-term Investment
Sudden Reversal
Vicissitude
MINION [71]
ACTIONS [9]
Govern the Unaligned x 4
Legal manipulations x 2
Media Influence
Social Charm x 2
ACTION MODIFIERS [13]
Bonding x 2
Changeling x 3
Cloak the Gathering x 2
Conditioning x 3
Faceless Night
Lost in Crowds x 2
ACTION MODIFIER OR COMBAT [3]
Plasmic Form x 3
COMBAT [28]
Blood of Acid
Blur x 3
Body Arsenal x 2
Fire in the Blood
Flash
Fleshcraft x 4
Horrid Form
Mighty Grapple x 3
Preternatural Evasion
Pushing the Limit
Reform Body x 2
Sacrament of Carnage
Thrown Gate x 2
Undead Strength x 5
EQUIPMENT [3]
Aaron's Feeding razor
Hand of Conrad
Leather Jacket
REACTIONS [12]
Cat's Guidance x 3
Deflection x 4
Forced Awakening
Guard Dogs
Rat's Warning
Wake with Evening's Freshness x 2
RETAINERS [3]
JS Simmons, Esq.
Mr Winthrop
Tasha Morgan
Despite its unpromising genesis this deck really works, largely because it
has a lot of good cards from a range of different disciplines that come
together in unfamiliar combos. In that respect it is similar to the 5-colour
Black or Green decks that have been winning the major Magic tournaments
recently. Its basic stock-in-trade is presence- and dominate-based bleed
[with dom and vis bleed- modifiers] and bleed-bounce. It is short oni
ntercept and voting, but not completely without resources in those
departments ... and it is surprisingly good at combat. However, the main
thing about this deck is that it is always up to something, and there is a
really pleasurable feel of flexibility about it. People playing against it
have a hard time guessing the design principle [because it doesn't really
have one], so it has a genuine surprise factor. Furthermore, it looks to me
as though the off-clan vampires with vis may all be rather powerful .... it
hink the designers may have felt that vis was a kind of sucky discipline
[which in my experience it is, as regards combat, unless you have Meshenka
and Dragos] and so they stuck it almost as an afterthought onto vampire cards
that they felt were marginally underpowered.
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Legbiter's Halloweenies
.... a Setite/GioVanni deck which DOESN'T suck.
This is a deck I've been playing with over a period of some months, and it is
now at a stage where it can do quite well in social play against good
players. In a previous incarnation it was good enough that when David Tatu
[runner-up in Atlanta last year, and all-round Good Chap] was my prey, he
felt it necessary to help his grand-predator [Lunar Moon] to oust me ... but
I've tweaked it some more since then [mainly to improve its pool gain], and
now it wins, regularly. The combination of insane chainsaw-wielding violence,
HORDES of weenie minions, Deathless Allies and corruption is a difficult one
for people to deal with but it kinda appeals to me, for some odd reason
..remarkable, doncha think, for such a sweet mild-mannered chap as m'self?
Here is the deck:
CRYPT [12 vampires]
4 GIOVANNI [i LOVE these guys. If ONLY the Giovanni girlies could've
fitted into this deck].
Cristofero Giovanni 3 pot nec
Mario Giovanni 3 pot nec
2 x Rudolpho Giovanni 3 NEC
8 SETITES [and these. Sigh. My two favourite clans, and my favourite combo].
Dedefra 5 obf nec SER +1 hand damage against Camarilla Vampires [Lady Legbiterin a bad mood]
2 x Hadrian Garrick 4 pre obf +1 hand damage
Khalil Anvari 3 pre ser
2 x Lalitha 2 ser
2 x Nepata 4 obf pre ser [a former Bride of Legbiter in a time-for-a-li'l-recreation
mood ... sigh .. scene fades to reverie of white lacy lingerie
and unbridled passion .....]
[Average 2.83, High draw 17, low draw 10].
LIBRARY [90 cards]
20 MASTER CARDS [22%]
No particular comment, except forGiant's Blood ....
an unusual card for a weeny deck, you might think, and so
in a way it is. But, of course, the idea is to play it BEFORE the
heavy-hitter does, thus really pissing him/her off. No real skin off your
nose, if s/he plays it first. Also, it's probable that one of these cards
[SC, GB or one of the THGs] would have to be a Barrens, if you wanted to play
this deck in a tourney.
4 x Blood Doll
Giant's Blood
Heidelburg Castle,Germany [o alright, ONE other comment ...use this to move
the chainsaw around, and to rescue minions from the
Talbot's Chainsaw trap [no blood, and can't hunt].
DO NOT cheat by trying to move the chainsaw to/from
Ambrosius using this card. He is NOT a vampire.]
KRCG News Radio
Morgue Hunting Ground
5 x Obfuscate
Opium Den
Succubus Club [Sigh, OK, ONE more. Michael Beer told me to put this in.
i am not sure why. But Michael is DEFINITELY a better
player than me, so he is probably right.]
2 x Temple Hunting Ground
3 xTribute to the Master
MINION CARDS
32 ACTIONS [36%]
No Comment, except to point out that Corruption will ONLY work in an
No-Card-Limits environment. As a play-for-fun kinda guy i usually find myself
in SPIRITUAL agreement withthe Card-Limits people. But this deck demonstrates
why, nevertheless, i personally am adamantly of the No-Card-Limits camp.
18 x Corruption
10 x The Embrace
Form of Corruption
Lure of the Serpent [War ghoul, Succubus, Muddles and somebody else
acquiring/ playing Ambrosius are BAAAD for this deck].
3 xTemptation [Two of these i swapped off Pierre Rebstock for the new
[Urza'sSaga] versions of Timetwister and City of Brass.
Silly ol' Pierre, huh? He even threw in a
Vampiric Embrace .... hehehehe].
18 ACTION MODIFIERS [20%]
A heavy intercept deck can piss off most people, but not this deck. Also, the
unexpected stealth-bleed for two of Kherebutu is GREAT fun.
4 x Cloak the Gathering
3 x Forgotten Labyrinth
3 x Lost in Crowds
5 x Spectral Divination [with the KRCG and Rudolpho, this is enough for
+2 Intercept, but you won't get many of these.
Keep them for the important blocks!]
3 x Spying Mission
7 ALLIES [8%]
Allies and Equipment benefit IMMENSELY from the mantra:
"Allies and Equipment Suck". Keep it up, News-Group Comrades!
It's true that simple-minded ally/equipment strategies suggested in
the VTES literature ARE easy to spot and easy to counter, and it's also true
that a deck BASED SOLELY on either is likely to fail. It DOESN'T follow that
allies and equipment in GENERAL suck.
5 x Ambrosius the Ferryman, Wraith
2 x Kherebutu (Bane Mummy)
6 COMBAT CARDS [7%]
ALWAYS have SOME combat is article I of the Legbiter Code.
When i am feeling romantic this extends to, Combat is Good In and Of Itself.
But, alas, that is not really true .....
[debate to be continued on the NewsGroup, ad infinitum].
4 x Fake Out
2 x Lucky Blow
6 EQUIPMENT [7%]
6x Talbot's Chainsaw [This is the ONLY thing in the current Newsletter that
has anything to do with the Gangrel antitribu - for why,
see the last issue. Hey, I''m feeling guilty, alright?
So I'm TRYING to construct a Gangrel-anticombatty sorta
deck for the next Portsmouth tournament. Happy now????].
Clearly this is a rare-heavy deck so it's unlikely to achieve wide
circulation. But i think it does make the point that apparently-sucky clans
and cards CAN be made to work in unexpectedly-powerful ways in a
No-Card-Limits environment. A deck that brings out little itty-bitty Setites
and Giovanni and plays a few Corruptions lulls people into a false sense of
security .... then WHAM! Embrace! Embrace! 4-5 Corruptions a turn! WHAM!
Ambrosius plus Talbot's Chainsaw! All of a sudden things are looking BAAAAD
Top
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THE BETRAYER DECK.
Well I don¹t know. Another month, a basketful of clues, and STILL nobody
came up with a solution to Legbiter¹s challenge to build the Betrayer
deck. Anyone would think you were all dead or something. Oops. This one is
actually rather easy! And it is possibly the ONLY deck type whose Crypt is
larger than its library ...... the key point is that Betrayer stacks and
each one has to be burnt separately, so with enough of them, and
recruitment, you can take your prey for really large amounts of pool
every turn without going to the trouble of bleeding or voting against
them.
Crypt:
ALL the vampires [one copy of each - about 250 vamps].
Plus about 150 copies of Anson, and 150 copies of Rudolpho Giovanni.
Library:
Masters: About 40 -
4 minion taps
3 Parthenon
12 Recruitments
21 Betrayers
Actions:
5 Fifth Traditions
5 Whispers from the Dead
Political Actions:
7 Rumours of Gehenna
3 Parity Shifts
Action Modifiers:
8 Bribes
2 Bewitching Oration
3 Voter Captivation
7 Spectral Divination
Combat:
10 Majesty.
Ideally, here is how this deck would work:
Round 1 - Master is either Recruitment [one of your prey¹s vamps] or
Parthenon. Bring out Rudolpho.
Round 2 - 1-2 Betrayers on your prey¹s vamp. Rudolpho calls a bribed
rumours of Gehenna. 4 on Anson.
Round 3 - 1-3 Betrayers on your prey¹s vamp. Rudolpho recovers one from
your ash-heap. Bring out Anson.
Round 4 - If pool is getting low, minion tap Anson and do a 5th Tradition.
Otherwise, 1-4 Betrayers on your prey¹s vamp. Your prey is now
losing 3-9 pool per turn. Course, they can pay 3-9 not to lose them next
turn ..... Maybe start thinking about the next vamp you need to recruit.....
hehehe ......
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A while back i posted the germ of an idea for using Betrayer in a deck. For
playtesting, I built three versions of this deck and used them in jol79, 84
and local 8. I am now out in all these games and got a total of 2VPs, but
actually the deck did a lot better than that implies - it became "the deck to
kill" in 84 and 8, and would have got another VP in 79 if Mike, Bleu and all
the others hadn't ganged up on me.
Here is the version of the deck i used in 84, where it flowed BEAUTIFULLY and
would have cleaned up, i think, but for some seriously WEIRD politics [Madness
Network and Reversal of Fortune ... nice combo, but boring to be on the
receiving end of].
CRYPT [500 vampires - 1 of each plus enough weeny 1-caps so that
they amountto 1/3 of the total]
Javier Montoya 9 Lazarus 9 Cassandra, Magus Prime 10 Cardano 9
Gwendolyn 11 Kalinda 6 Parnassus 7 Klaus van der Veken 9 Al-Ashrad,
Amr of Alamut 9 Aaron Duggan, Cameron’s Toady 2 Cameron 3
Ignacio, The Black Priest 4 Ramiro 4 Guido Lucciano 5
Aurora VanBrande, Paladin 6 Lisette Vizquel 6 Gratiano 8
Alvaro, The Scion of Angelica 9 Antonio Delgado 9 Angelica, The Canonicus 10
Horatio 2 Wendy Wade 3 Lolita Houston 4 Devin Bisley 5 Corine Marcon 6
Violet Tremain 6 Dragos 7 Meshenka 8 Stravinksy 9 Lambach 10 Anton 8
Didi Meyers 5 Thelonius 4 Jing Wei 3 Vanessa 6 Ingrid Russo 4
Gloria Giovanni 4 Christine Boscacci 2 Ohanna 2 Mustafa Rahman 2 Samson 2
Kurt Strauss 5 Grendel - The Worm Eaten 5 Mitchell, TheHeadhunter 2
Jimmy Dunn 4 Lena Rowe 3 Rex, The Necronomist 3 GillianKrader 2
Anvil 6 Jacko 8 Sela 6 Richter, The Templar of Du Mont 7
Fredrick the Weak 2 Volker, The Puppet Prince 5 Hugo 4 Rake 6 HectorSosa 4
Don Cruez - The Idealist 10 Lupo 2 Josef 4 Quira, The BitchQueen 6
Anson 8 Dan Murdock 3 Magdelena Schaefer 2 Black Cat 5 Nepata 4
Saqqaf, Keeper of the Grand Temple of Set 9 Boy Toy 2 Amisa 8 Lalitha 2
Artemis 6 Vasantasena 9 Yorik 3 Korah 7
Kephamos, HighPriest of Marrakech 8 Dedefra 5 Mario Giovanni 3
Cristofero Giovanni 3 Carlotta Giovanni 7
Regina Giovanni, The Right Hand of Augustus 10 IanForestal 8 Melek 7
Delilah Easton 2 Masika 10 Harika Guljan 3 Abdal-Rashid 5 Lolita 3
Jost Werner 6 Marianna Gilbert 4 Ian Wallingford 6 Sadie 2 Caitlin 5
Pieter 6 Blaise 7 Genevieve 10 GiulianoVincenzi 2 Leon 3 Sasha Miklos 2
Luther 6 Vliam Andor 2 Monique 5 Natalia 7 Sarisha Veliku 6
Gitane St. Claire 7 Katarina 9 JoaquinaAmaya 6 Lazar Dobrescu 3 Tsigane 3
Salbatore Bokkengro 4 Andre Puxon 5 Petru Sipos 7 Tereza Rostas 8
Darius Styx 9 Kostantin, Baro of theCaravan 9 Kanya Akhtar 2 Tansu Bekir 4
Husamettin 8 Thetmes, Calif ofAlamut 10 Angel 2
Vasilis, The Traitor of Don Cruez 2 Dre, Leader ofthe Cold Dawn 3
Raziya Samater 3 Uma Hatch 3 Yuri - The Talon 4 Brachah 5 Bianca 6
Akram 8 Constanza Vinti 8 Donal O’Conner 8 Miranda Sanova 8 Tura Vaughn 8
Crusher 9 Appolonius 10 Jacob Bragg 3 Sarah Brando 3 Dodd 5
Rigby, Crusade Vanguard 5 Salinger 9 Bronwen 10 Khalil Anvari 3
Hadrian Garrick 4 Aisha 6 Kemintiri 10 AnastasiaGrey 3 Chandler Hungerford 3
Panagos Levidis 3 Ricki Van Demsy 3 Roman Alexander 4 Bear Paw 5
Camille Devereux 5 Raven 5 MirembeKabbada 5 Badger 6 Zack North 6
Gunther - Beast Lord 7 Iliana 7 Faruq 8 Quinton McDonnell 8
Angus - The Unruled 10 Basilia 10 Wynn 10 Stanislava 11 Shane Grimald 4
Zachary 7 Samantha 10 Brazil 2 Normal 2 Dollface 3 Watenda 3
Zoe 3 Aleph 4 Roland Bishop 4 Victoria 5 Zebulon 5 Dancin’ Dana 6
Damaskenos, Herald of Leandro 6 Ozmo 6 Gilbert Duane 7 Gregor Anderssen 7
Mariel - Lady Thunder 7 Cornelius Ottavio 8 Dr. Jest 8 Sylvester Simms 8
Roxanne, Rectrix ofthe 13th Floor 9 Lucian 10 Leandro 11 Claven 4
Muriel Foucade 5 Virgil 8 Imogen 9 Hannibal 10 Dimple 2 Koko 2
Duck 3 Regillio,The Seeker of Akhenaten 3 Agrippina 4 Daliyah 4
Laurent de Valois 4 Sammy 4 Tiberius, The Scandelmonger 5 Judah 6
Tusk - Talebearer 6 Chester DuBois 7 Nikolaus Vermeulen 7 Sebastian Marley 7
Amadeo 8 Ebanezer Roush 8 Murat 7 Selma - The Repugnant 8
Marty Lechtansi 9 Sheldon - Lord of the Clog 9 Lucretia - Cess Queen 10
Harrod 11 Dani 2 Tommy 3 Agatha 4 Nigel the shunned 5 Olivia 5
Beast, The Leatherfaceof Detroit 7 Kendrick 7 Calebos 8 Cailean 10
Yong-Sun, Harmonist 10 Dieter Kleist 2 Colin Flynn 3 Isabel de Leon 3
Demetrius Slater 4 Dorian Strack 4 Felicia Mostrom 5 Ramiel Dupre 5
Adrianne 6 Kallista- Master Sculpter 6 Radeyah 6 Sigrid Bekker 6
Elliot Sinclair 7 Tatiana Romanov 7 Makarios, The Seducer 8 Marcellus 8
Andreas - Bard ofCrete 9 Anneke 10 Francois Villon 10 Alexandra 11
Carter 2 Remilliard, Devout Crusader 4 Victor Revell, Loyalist 5
Sheila Mezarin 6 Jessica 7 Lachlan, Noddist 8 Donatien 9
Matteus, Flesh Sculptor 10 Roreca Quaid 2 Blythe Candeleria 3
Dr. John Casey 3 Ignatius 4 SarahCobbler 4 Merrill Molitor 5
Sabine Lafitte 5 Elisabetta Romano 6 Lydia Van Cuelen 6 Thomas Thorne 6
Astrid Thomas 7 Muaziz, Archon ofUlugh Beg 7 Justine, Elder of Dallas 8
Rebekka, Chantry Elder of Munich 8 Spiridonas 9 Etrius 11 Heinrick Schlempt 2
Brooke 3 RichardTauber, Ayelea’s Puppet 4 Reverend Blackwood 6
Bryan Van Duesen 7 KijDansky 8 Ethan Locke 9
Ayelea, The Manipulator 10 Rufina Soledad 2 Gideon Fontaine 3
Itzahk Levine 3 Roland Loussarian 3 CourtlandLeighton 4 Violette Prentiss 4
Jazz Wentworth 5 Melissa Barton 5 Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla Scholar 5
Heather Florent, The Opportunist 6 Luccia Paciola 6
Nakova, Advocate of Golconda 6 Sir Walter Nash 7 Timothy Crowley 7
Emerson Bridges 8 Bindusara, Historian of the Kindred 9 Helena Casimir 9
Natasha Volfchek 9 Suhailah 9 Wilhelm Waldburg 9 Democritus 10
Queen Anne 10 Arika 11 Billy 5 Gerard 5 Dylan 6 Marlene, The Infernalist 6
Dominique 7 Quentin 9 Lazverinus, Thrall ofLambach 10
Rudolpho Giovanni 3 Vittorio Giovanni 5 Patrizia Giovanni 5
Gaspare Giovanni 6 Rafaele Giovanni 6 Stefano Giovanni 6
EnzoGiovanni, Pentex Board of Directors 8 Francesca Giovanni 4
VaclavPetalengro 6 Juan Cali 3 Ulugh Beg, The Watcher 10
plus 22 each of:
Nik 1
Antoinette DuChamp 1
Royce 1
Angela Decker 1
Basil 1
March Halcyon 1
Huang, Blood Cultist 1
Navar McClaren 1
Smudge - The Ignored 1
Franciscus 1
Hasina Kesi 1
Igo - The Hungry 1
Julius 1
Uriah Winter 1
LIBRARY [99 Cards]
25 Betrayer
14 The Parthenon
16 Recruitment
9 Rumours of Gehenna
4 Protected Resources
8 Bribes
4 The Barrens
5 Kine Resources Contested
2 Kindred Segregation
2 Dramatic Upheaval
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Slave Auction
2 Disputed Territory
2 Domain Challenge
2 Fragment of the Book of Nod
Obviously the idea is to Recruit out one of your prey's vamps and pile on the
Betrayers. Pool gain is through bribed votes, especially Rumours of Gehenna
so that you get the other master phase action. Defence against bleed and vote
is not spending much on influence. As the game proceeds your deck turns into
a bit of a weenie swarm, because you tend to have recruited the little guys
your successive preys brought out.
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