Peter D. Bakija's Unofficial Deck Archive

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"Voteo-liscious!"
by Peter D Bakija 

2x Camille Devereux, The Raven(G1)
2x Chandler Hungerford(G2)
1x Anastasia Grey(G1)
1x Daliyah(G2)
1x Giuliano Vincenzi(G1)
1x Mirembe Kabbada(G2)
1x Ramona(G2)
1x Ricki Van Demsi(G1)
1x Roman Alexander(G1)
1x Vliam Andor(G1)

Library: (90)

Master: (14)
2x Blood Doll
2x Protean
2x Vessel
1x Archon Investigation
1x Backways
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Ecoterrorists
1x Giant's Blood
1x Powerbase: Rome
1x Vox Domini
1x Zoo Hunting Ground

Action: (4)
4x Third Tradition: Progeny

Action Modifier: (16)
6x Earth Control
5x Closed Session
5x Cryptic Rider

Action Modifier/Combat: (6)
6x Rapid Change

Ally: (2)
2x Renegade Garou

Combat: (16)
8x Earth Meld
8x Form of Mist

Political Action: (32)
10x Kine Resources Contested
6x Consanguineous Boon
6x Gangrel Justicar
4x Parity Shift
1x Praxis Seizure: Barcelona
1x Praxis Seizure: Brussels
1x Praxis Seizure: Dublin
1x Praxis Seizure: Glasgow
1x Praxis Seizure: Rome
1x Praxis Seizure: Venice

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Tzimisce Bruise Bleed 

I don't, as I don't like the (Pulse of the Canaille) action 
and painting a big target on someone's head. But then, I did 
sideline in a bit of dominate into the deck that follows:

1x Sacha Vykos Advanced (8) VIC, AUS, dom
1x Sacha Vykos (8) VIC, AUS, dom
1x Caliban (6) VIC, AUS
1x Corine Marcon (6) VIC, AUS
1x The Rose (5) VIC, aus
1x Liz Wastcott (5) AUS, vic
1x Devin Bisley (5) AUS, vic
2x Ana Rita Montana (5) VIC, aus, dom
1x Lolita Houston (4) VIC, aus
1x Horatio (2) vic
1x Christine Boscacci (2) vic, dom

5x Blood Doll
2x Library Hunting Ground
1x Rotschreck
1x Perfectionist
1x Fame
1x Direct Intervention

12x Fiendish Tongue
12x Changeling
8x Chiropteran Marauder
6x Breath of the Dragon
6x Meld with the Land
4x Conditioning
6x Telepathic Misdirection
2x My Enemy's Enemy
6x Aura Reading
4x Nose of the Hound
2x Corpse Balloon
2x Revenant
1x Living Manse
8xWake

This version of the deck seems a bit more haphazard than my decks 
usually do--I'm not sure why I have 2 hunting grounds, or the DI 
(like, yeah, DI is never bad, but I usually have them in decks for 
a particular reasons, and I can't think of what that is in this 
deck). And the 8 Wakes should probably be mixed up with some On 
the Quis. I probably stole some cards out and swapped in som 
others at some point, as I haven't played this for a while. 
But this is the jist. It works pretty well--can bleed pretty 
consistently, has ok combat when not faced by total combat 
monsters (and maneuver/S:CE in case of combat monsters).  
Light rush for culling the weak. Light permacept. Bounce. 
I like the Aura Readings particularly--I'll regularly Nose 
someone weak my prey has, just to look at their hand and see 
if it is full of intercept or bounce.

Peter D Bakija
pdb6@lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html

"It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?"
-Gaff

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Giovanni Rush

So here is a deck that is probably a horrible idea. Everyone is all 
moaning about the new Giovanni, and how they got nothing new or cool and 
they are wildly uninventive (although apparently, Khazar's Diary is 
apparently a viable deck basis...), but I was all like "Hey! Gianmaria 
Giovanni! Hot and a 5 cap with POT/dom! There *must* be a deck here!"

So I threw this nightmare together using cool new tech. It'll likely be 
incredibly brutal to those unprepared for it, occasionally completely 
useless, but overall, might not actually be the worst idea ever:

1x Accorri Giovanni (6) POT, DOM
1x Benedict Giovanni (6) POT, dom
2x Gianmaria Giovanni (5) POT, dom
2x Lorrie Dunsirn (4) POT
1x Patrick (4) POT
1x Primo Giovanni (4) pot, dom
2x Almodo Giovanni (3) pot, dom
1x Nunzio Giovanni (3) pot
1x Eric Milliner (2) pot

3x Fame
2x Haven Uncovered
2x Vessel
2x Dis Pater
1x Metro Underground
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Secure Haven

6x Bum's Rush
2x Harass
2x Ambush
2x On The Qui Vive
1x Break the Code
8x Deflection
6x Conditioning
12x Torn Signpost
12x Immortal Grapple
10x Slam
4x Mighty Grapple
2x Disarm
1x Rampage
6x Taste of Vitae
4x Fake Out

So we got a good selection of Potence and Dominate (7xPOT, 7xdom). The 
crypt isn't incredibly weenie-esque, with an average of slightly more 
than 4, so I'll be able to get out 3 vampires, maybe 4 if I'm lucky. 
Fickle Benedict might be a problem, so the plan is to always get him out 
last; Lorrie might be a terrible idea, but assuming you can get folks to 
block her a lot ("Hey! I rush Arika! What? You block with a chump? 
Unheard of!"), which often seems to happen with this sort of deck (and 
if they don't block her Bum's Rush, she gets an extra maneuver, which 
isn't good for anyone but her...), she doesn't cost much extra.

The Dis Pater makes the deck pretty bleedy, as you go through cards like 
crazy, and every Giovanni can use it each bleed action--between the 
Fames, the Dis Pater, and the Conditionings, this deck actually has 
significant bleed potential, especially if you can bounce some big 
bleeds to your prey.

There might not be enough Rush (10 actions, 2 Haven Uncovered, Break the 
Code), but with all the Deflections, you probably don't have to back 
rush all that much.

Now the the Imbued have been hamstrung, they are much less of an issue 
(i.e. due to no Memories or Edge Explosion), but I figure a Break the 
Code is probably a reasonable inclusion anyway, if for no other reason 
that I see Beatrice Tremblay every single game locally and figure that 
other folks would have figured this out by now too.

I'm unconvinced by the Fake Outs, but figure a few backup maneuvers are 
probably good anyway.

I'd love to figure out a way to use some Necromancy cards in here, what 
with 8 vampires having nec, but can't figure out any that would be even 
remotely useful (as Dead Hand, which would be awesome, only is good at 
NEC). If only Nec had a maneuver. Stupid Cold Aura...

Ideas?

Peter D Bakija
pdb6@lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html

"Find hungry samurai."
-The Old Man

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AUSPOT 

So I threw together this deck as a sketch based on this discussion.
Probably not so good. But maybe?

1x Jeremy McNeil Adv (8) AUS, POT, cel
1x Jeremy McNeil (7) AUS, POT, cel
2x Khallu (7) AUS, CEL, POT
2x Homa (6) AUS, CEL, POT
2x Kisha Bhimji (5) AUS, cel, pot
1x Uzoma (5) POT, aus, cel
1x Ismita (4) aus, cel, pot
1x Mariano Pomposo (4) aus, cel, pot
1x Genghis (3) aus, cel, pot

4x Blood Doll
3x Wash
2x Fame
1x Dreams
1x Vist from the Capuchin

8x Nose of the Hound
8x Telepathic Misdirection
8x Ancestor's Insight
4x Telepathic Tracking
8x Flash
6x Pursuit
4x Blur
8x Sewer Lid
4x Stunt Bike
4x Thrown Gate
8x Wake
4x Taste
4x Desert Eagle
1x Osebo Kholo

Maybe it'll work? Maybe it'll choke on useless?

For what it is worth, I played this deck twice last night:

-Game 1: My prey was a weenie obf/computer hacking deck in a 4 player
game. I was endlessly foiled by, get this, Back Flips and disguised
Flash Grenades. And then Watenda for the extra humiliation. It was
ridiculous. Yet totally hysterical. Weenie Obf sweeps the table,
killing me last.

-Game 2: My prey was some kind of Assamite deck in a 5 player game. I
ended up doing well, as the other guy at the table doing well was a
CHI/DEM deck that conviniently locked down one of my prey's vampires,
and eventually one of my predator's vampires, with Sensory
Deprivation. I end up getting a 3VP table win.

So not horrible in its first go.

Crypt isn't bad. I wanna replace regular Jemery McNeil with a second
Advanced. Yeah, I can't get the merge action going, but the built in
Rush is significant.

Taking out the Wash. Replacing them with an Ancestor Spirit (perma +1
bleed) and a Haven Uncovered (maybe a Frontal Assault?). And 1 more
minion card.

Removing Osebo Kholo, 2 Ancestor's Insight and putting in 4x Quicken
Sight.

All in all, I wasn't totally horrified by the performance. And I like
getting some mileage out of the Osebo.

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So emboldened by this deck post, I put together a fairly similar
version (which in and of itself isn't that far off from the many
weenie animalism decks I have used in the past) and took it on a tear
tonight, winning 3 of 4 four player games (two of them 3VP/GW and one
a 4VP/GW sweep). It lost a game where its initial predator was a super
aggressive Obf/Pre Reckless Agitation deck, getting whacked right
quick. The other 3 games were pretty fighty, where it did surprisingly
well, although I didn't run into any other significant ranged combat.

My version is using G3/4 vampires (to enable Beatrice Tremblay more
than anything else, but Stick is nice too), doesn't have enough of a
single clan to justify a hunting ground, is a bit more toolboxy, and
has 4 ANI vamps in the crypt. Pretty fighty, reasonably blocky, tends
to get out a lot of minions and bleed for 1 a lot, and just having
Beatrice standing around means that the first 2 or 3 weenies get to
bleed for 1 without being blocked most of the time.

"Ani Weenimalism, MK IV"

Crypt: (12)
1x Bobby Lemon(G3) 4 ANI
1x Bothwell(G3) 3 ani
1x Clarissa Steinburgen(G3) 3 ani
1x C=E9l=E8ste Lamontagne(G4) 5 ANI
1x Darva Felispa(G3) 3 ani
1x Droescher One-Eye(G4) 3 ani
1x Lisa Noble(G3) 1 ani
1x Mouse(G3) 2 ani
1x Stick(G4) 3 ANI
1x Yuri Kerezenski(G4) 5 ANI
1x Zip(G3) 2 ani
1x B=E9atrice "Oracle171" Tremblay(G4)

Library: (90)

Master: (15)
4x Animalism
2x Haven Uncovered
1x Archon Investigation
1x Blood Doll
1x Channel 10
1x Dummy Corporation
1x Fame
1x KRCG News Radio
1x The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
1x Vessel
1x Wall Street Night, Financial Newspaper

Action: (12)
4x Harass
2x Army of Rats
2x Taunt the Caged Beast
2x Tier of Souls
1x Abbot
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal

Ally: (2)
2x Underbridge Stray

Combat: (48)
10x Carrion Crows
8x Aid from Bats
8x Scorpion Sting
8x Song of Serenity
4x Flesh Bond
2x Canine Horde
2x Drawing Out the Beast
2x Target Vitals
2x Taste of Vitae
2x Terror Frenzy

Conviction: (1)
1x Strike with Conviction

Reaction: (8)
4x Forced Awakening
4x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Retainer: (4)
3x Raven Spy
1x Mr. Winthrop

The Underbridge Strays are pretty solid--a couple of presses, or an
emergency untap, or a block (the dogs regularly listen to the
radio...) of some sort of unfortunate Rush or otherwise unblockable
action. This is the first deck I've used Target Vitals in, and while
it is pretty good (allowing, like, Lisa Noble to shoot for 3 with some
bats or something) in theory, in practice, most of the time it has
either been foiled by S:CE/dodge or foiled by damage prevention or
foiled by discarding 2 combat cards. It managed to connect maybe once
all night, which torped someone, but they were likely getting killed
by some means anyway. Having the nice multi option Flesh Bond is also
really handy--get your old lady's car out of a bad area or shoot
someone for 2. Good card. Aranthebes is in there for both the
reasonable defense it provides and to contest someone else's. I might
want a couple more Rush actions in case of a super aggressive predator
and/or avoiding having an all red hand shut me down, but otherwise, it
all worked pretty well.

-Peter D Bakija 


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What The Hell's a Trochomancy?"

Crypt:
3x Balbawo Alafin (7) AUS, NEC, Laibon, extra cycling.
3x Zygodat (6) AUS, NEC, burn 2 cards when she bleeds.
2x Sennadurek (6) AUS, NEC, untaps all the time.
2x Solomon Batanea (5) AUS, nec, Laibon
2x Prejudice (4) aus, nec

A lot of good, solid, AUS, NEC vampires with good special abilities. 
Zygodat and Balbawo help get more cards in your prey's ashheap. 
Predjudice might actually get to use his special in a deck like this.

Library:
8x Slaughterhouse
4x Vessel
1x Therbold Reality
1x Insurance Scam
1x Giant's Blood

12x Trochomancy
12x Call the Hungry Dead
8x Spectral Divination
8x Spiritual Intervention
4x Breath of Thanatos
10x Telepathic Misdirection
4x Enhanced Senses
4x Ancestor's Insight
3x Revelations
1x Emergency Rations
1x Erebus Mask
8x Wake

As noted, I don't want a ton of Slaughterhouses, just a couple, really, 
so 8 is usually ok, but once and a while, I don't draw any early, and 
if my prey isn't working so well, I end up not bleeding enough. But 
usually not a problem. There is a lot of block avoidance/stealth, which 
sometimes clogs up my hand, but Balbawo helps with that. The Breath of 
Thanatos could probably be more Spiritual Intervention (or some Fortitude 
in case I get grappled), but the surprise ag is actually kinda handy once 
and a while. Ancestor's Insight also could probably be something more 
useful, but I like the flexibility, extra bleed, and I just think the 
card is kinda cool. Much like Prejudice, the Emergency Rations might 
actually work in this deck. Revelations is good as it lets you see if 
your prey has bounce *and* gets an extra card in their ash heap to 
prime the pump. Pretty effective S+B with good defense. If it ousts 
it's first prey, it is usually in great shape, as by then it's second 
prey already has tons of cards in the ash heap and you can often deck 
them with just 2 or 3 Slaughterhouses.


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So I threw this deck together the other day, figuring it would kinda 
suck, but then I played it, got a 3VP GW, and came very close to the 5VP 
sweep. So I figured I'd throw it up here and see if folks had any ideas 
for tweaks:

"Reg's Reanimated Corpse Brides"

Crypt:
5x Reg Driscoll (8) OBF, THN, aus, for, +1 bleed, gives equipment away.
1x Quira, The Bitch Queen (6) AUS, OBF, +1 bleed
1x General Perfidios Dios (5) AUS, obf
1x The Colonel (5) AUS, obf
1x Victoria (5) AUS, obf
1x Miriam Benyona (5) AUS, for
1x Lithrac (5) OBF, for, thn
1x Maldavis (4) AUS, for

Library:
4x Blood Doll
2x Perfectionist
2x Houngan
1x The Rack
1x Giant's Blood
1x The Coven
1x Memories of Mortality
10x Cloak the Gathering
6x Lost in Crowds
4x Veil the Legions
4x Confusion of the Eye
4x Hag's Wrinkles
8x Hidden Strength
6x Freak Drive
6x Dust to Dust
2x Ashes to Ashes
8x Reanimated Corpse
8x Telepathic Misdirection
6x Wake
4x Camera Phone
1x Seal of Veddartha
1x Unlicensed Taxicab

So Reg gives everyone a Camera Phone, gets some Reanimated Corpses, 
Cloaks folks when they bleed for 2, takes a bunch of actions all the 
time, and hopefully doesn't run out of blood too quickly all while 
trying to avoid getting killed. Pretty good at bleeding. Some 
reasonable, if not overwhelming combat defense. Good bleed defense that 
doubles as light intercept (and an example of why Lost in Translation is 
unlikely to destroy the world--it is still generally easier to graft AUS 
or dom into any deck that is likely to use LiT for bounce). If Reg gets 
the Seal, he bleeds for 3 all the time. If Quira gets the Seal, she does 
the same thing, and gets Fortitude eventually too!

While building this deck, I began to wonder--why, for the love of 
G'Quan, aren't Reanimated Corpses "ghouls"? I mean, yeah, ok, I suppose 
in WOD, a ghoul is something different than a zombie (who are, btw, 
referred to pretty much only as ghouls in Night of the Living Dead...). 
But the Samedi have all those (2?) cards that help ghouls. And then they 
get an ally. That isn't a ghoul.

Peter D Bakija
pdb6@lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html

"Find hungry samurai."
-The Old Man


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I just put together an incredibly similar deck. Well, in the sense that 
it uses Banjoko to fuel Watchtower. But then instead of bleeding with 
Dominate (which is probably a good idea), it uses celerity to throw wolves 
at folks (which is probably a bad idea, especially as Banjoko doesn't start 
with celerity...).

"Banjoko and the Wolves of August"

Crypt:
3x Yazid (8) CEL, dom BH Seraph
1x Reza (6) CEL, BH
1x Dominique (6) CEL, BH
2x Skryta (5) CEL, BH
3x Banjoko (5) DOM, BH Seraph
1x Mosfair (4) cel, dom, BH
1x Mariano (4) cel, BH

6x Black Hand Contract
4x Celerity
4x Blood Doll
4x Watchtower: The Wolves Feed
2x Corporal Reservoir
2x Shakar
1x Fame
1x Weirding Stone

8x Reunion Kamut
4x Rumble
2x Black Hand Ritual
1x Tatoo Signal
6x Redirection
4x Truth in Ink
4x Wake
2x On the Qui Vive
16x Pursuit
8x Psyche!
4x Side Strike
2x Sideslip
3x Anthelios the Red Star
1x Dragonbound
1x Seraph's Second

Much less likely to actually oust someone that your version. But a lot
fightier, which is, ya know, almost a reward in and of itself :-)

The Redirections should probably be Deflections, but the seem to all
be in other decks. I'm also considering turning one of the Celerity
masters into a Drums of Zippy Totek so that Banjoko can buy into CEL
in one fell swoop. A lot of Masters, but of the 24, 8 are Trifles, so
they can move pretty quickly. I'm not convinced that the Weirding
Stone is that good at 3 pool, but at least it balances out the
Dragonbound.


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So I totally bit the basis of this deck of Adam Hulse, who won a 
tournament with a kind of similar deck, but I added the clever Imbued 
angle to make it extra ousty, and am just posting it here 'cause I am so 
very entertained by this deck. I played it twice tonight and won both 
games, although I certainly had advantageous seating both times.

"Guedado Ghoul"

Crypt:
4x Ana Rita Montana (5) VIC, dom, obf
4x Guedado (4) vic, obf
1x Droescher One-Eye (3) vic
1x Jennifer "Flame61" Vidisania (4)
2x Beatrice "Oracle171" Tremblay (3)

Library: (60)
Masters: (9)
2x Blood Doll 
1x Fame 
1x Forschritt Library
2x Memories of Mortality 
1x Left for Dead 
1x Mob Connections 
1x Powerbase: Tshwane 

Action: (2)
2x Root of Vitality
 
Action Modifier: (14)
6x Changeling 
4x Veil the Legions 
2x Faceless Night 
2x Forgotten Labyrinth
 
Action Modifier/Combat: (4)
2x Plasmic Form 
2x Swallowed by the Night
 
Ally: (9)
3x Corpse Ballon
1x Mr. Winthrop
1x J.S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Vagbond Mystic
3x War Ghoul 

Combat: (8)
4x Meld with the Land 
2x Boxed In
1x Breath of the Dragon
1x Chiropteran Marauder
 
Conviction: (3)
1x React with Conviction 
1x Second Sight 
1x Strike with Conviction
 
Event: (1)
1x The Unmasking
 
Reaction: (10)
6x Deflection 
4x On the Qui Vive 

So clearly, get out an ally or retainer, get out a War Ghoul with extra 
stealth, have the +1 bleed Imbued bleed either for 3 through a hole or 
for 2 at stealth (Well, Beatrice at least) while the War Ghoul makes 
that hole. If one of the Imbued end up uncapacitated, I'm thinking that 
you can burn them to make a War Ghoul, as War Ghoul does not specify 
"ready" ally or retainer (although my recent history on being up to date 
with all necessary rulings is spotty, at best).

I'm a little sketchy on the Root of Vitality, but at least it fits in 
the deck--they should probably be extra Vagabond Mysitcs. The Boxed Ins 
could be Traps or Fake Outs or something, but I figure the generic press 
is better for general deck use--the Ghouls can press to continue killing 
someone in an optimal situation, and everyone else can use them to press 
to end in a sub-optimal situation.

Probably gets killed by sitting next to a very fighty deck, but against 
low combat, it seems to do pretty well.

If I draw both Imbued, I'll get out Beatrice and use her till she is 
either burned or I am in oust range, and then get out Jen. Yeah, 
Beatrice will stab her in the face till she is uncapacitated, but then, 
well, Jen turns into a War Ghoul anyway...

The deck could be bigger if, ya know, I had more War Ghouls.


Peter D Bakija
pdb6@lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html


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It is currently actually my most effective deck in practice--I put it 
together out of the wreck of a weenie fortitude/trap/undead persistence deck 
I had sucking up tables for a few weeks, and has since then won regularly in 
3 player games, did ok locally in a few bigger games, and then was fantastic 
going 2/8 in my 2 preliminaries. It doesn't look like it should be particularly 
good on paper, but is very resilient and has strong defense.

"The Worm is the Spice!"

1x Babalawo Alafin (7) AUS, FOR
1x Mariel Saint John (6) AUS, FOR
2x Solomon Batanea (5) AUS, FOR
1x Neighbor John (5) AUS, for
1x Maldavis (4) AUS, for
1x Nkechi (4) aus, for
1x Mr. Noir (3) for
1x Rosemarie (3) FOR
1x Aimee Laroux (2) for
1x Sarah Raines (2) for
1x Mary Johnson (2) for

7x Blood Doll
4x Effective Management
2x Fortitude
1x Fame
1x The Slaughterhouse
1x Anscestor Spirit

8x Telepathic Misdirection
6x Enhanced Senses
6x Melange
4x Eagle's Sight
2x My Enemy's Enemy
8x Indomitablity
6x Hidden Strength
6x Soak
6x Rolling with the Punches
4x Skin of Steel
1x Rapid Healing
7x Weighted Walking Stick
5x On the Qui Vive
5x Wake

I think the biggest flaw in the deck, currently is as noted, a lack of 
Kiss of Ra. I kinda wanna put a couple in, so I can discard one early 
to make folks afraid of it and then have another one to back up the bluff.  
I'll probably turn the Rapid Healing into a Kiss of Ra (although I did use 
the Rapid Healing in like every game I drew it). And then something else 
which I haven't decided on yet.


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Sop I picked up a booster pack today, opened it up, got a Daring the 
Dawn, and said "Huh. I should do something with all these Daring the 
Dawns I have now..." so I put together a version of a deck that folks 
have discussed in theory, but I have never actually seen in play. 
Likely, because it is so stupid. And likely to fail just as much as not.  
But heck, here it is:

"Irresponsible"

2x Catherine Du Bois (5) DOM, for
1x Ranajan Rishi (5) DOM, for
6x Ingrid Russo (4) DOM, for
1x Peter Blaine (4) dom, for
2x Lana Butcher (3) dom, for

10x Fortitude
3x Info Highway
1x Momentum's Edge
1x Pentex Loves You!

14x Govern the Unaligned
10x Conditioning
4x Bonding
4x Command of the Beast
6x Seduction
2x Command
6x Deflection
2x Slaughtering the Herd
14x Force of Will
10x Daring the Dawn
2x Forced Awakening
1x Soul Gem of Etrius

Clearly, you get out someone, give them a Fortitude skill card, Govern 
down, Force of Will/Daring the Dawn/Conditioning to bleed unblockably 
for 5 or so, get burned, and bring out the next vampire to do it again.  
Lots of flaws (you get rushed, you get killed; easy to block the Govern, 
although the Seductions might help). The Imbued will kill you (although 
I threw in a couple Slaughtering the Herd and Command as a bit of anti-ally 
tech). Should make a huge mess of your first prey (unless, ya know, they 
have a lot of bounce. Thus, the name...). Maybe kill someone else too. Who knows?

Rather than just going 12x Ingrid Russo, I figured I'd diversify some, 
as I might want a couple guys on the table at once.


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I have a lot of PRE, some FOR, and mostly cel. With, say, Ganhuru as
the main rusher (he has FOR and a free point of damage prevention),
the combat is really quite card efficient--someone Enrages him, he
rushes, (Flash to close as needed), strikes with hands for 2, prevents
by himself (with extra fortitude if necessary), if they don't S:CE,
blur for 2 more, Taste as needed, press as needed. Once he gets a CEL
skill card, the killing is even better.

Again, I'm unconvinced that it'll tear up tables or anything, but it
seems like it should work pretty well, what with the Uncontrolled
Impulses and sometimes Forced March for stealth on the Enrages, the
fortitude to stay alive, and the Celerity to make it all work. I think
the basic deck currently looks like this:

2x Ganhuru (7) FOR, PRE, cel
2x Ubende (7) CEL, PRE, for
2x Honorine Ateba (6) FOR, PRE, cel
1x Shasa Abu Badir (5) PRE, cel, for
1x Victor Pelletier (5) PRE, cel, for
2x Kenyatta (4) cel, for, pre
1x Fairuza (4) CEL, pre
1x Panya the Wicked (3) cel, pre

I'm not totally sold on the crypt yet--Victor could be any number of
other folks, but I'm just flaunting him now; Fairuza is certainly
dubious, but I think she is kinda funny and possibly effective. There
are a lot of other 6-7 caps from other clans I could use with the
right disciplines, but I like the potential for a Ganhuru/Ubende
combo. I've considered the 6 point Fishtari guy with FOR and +1 bleed,
but the only 1 superior discipline keeps me putting him down.

3x Blood Doll
3x Celerity
2x Fame
1x Depravity
1x Dreams
12x Enrage
10x Enchant Kindred
12x Flash
12x Blur
6x Forced March
4x Freak Drive
6x Soak
4x Rolling with the Punches
4x Hidden Strength
6x Taste
4x Uncontrolled Impulse

Probably not totally optimal (I kinda wanna get 6 Uncontrolled Impulse
in there; no Psyches; probably not enough Flash), but at least on
paper, it seems like it should do ok--pretty efficient combat, 10
untap cards, crypt acceleration/pool gain that doubles as good bleed
(I probably should have a second Shasa in there too).


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Nails is just so solid a vampire with so many destructive possibilities 
available to him, I figured Iıd present a deck that might make good use 
of him.

'The Burninator, MK II!'

Crypt:
2x Icarus, The Manchurian (7) POT, OBF, pro
2x Shahid (7) POT, OBF, pro
2x Nails (5) POT, obf, pro
2x Tabith Fisk (4) pot, pro
2x Alessandro Garcia (4) pot, pro
2x Bill Butler (3) pot, pro

3x Haven Uncovered
3x Blood Doll
3x Fame
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Perfectionist

8x Bumıs Rush
2x Rumble
12x Immortal Grapple
12x Torn Signpost
6x Undead Strength
8x Flesh of Marble
8x Claws of the Dead
6x Quick Meld
6x Swallowed by the Night
4x Spying Mission
6x Taste of Vitae

A clearly kind of silly Rush deck that is going to get in a fight and 
hit you for a lot of aggrivated damage. Totally foiled by heavy 
Fortitude, but should do ok in most other combat situations--it can 
prevent most non aggrivated damage with Flesh of Marble, foils most 
other combat with Immortal Grapple, has a good number of manuvers, can 
stealth Rush, and even can get a bit of bleed bonus with Spying 
Missions. Very blood intensive, but some Tastes and a Perfectionist help 
out. Icarus gets to look at your preyıs hand if you bleed with him, 
which is certainly helpful in a combat deck, and Shahid can cycle your 
hand pretty significantly in a pinch. I considered trying to fit Black 
Annis in, but even with her perma-rush and +1 strength, a 9 is kinda 
rough for a non multi acting Rush deck, although if I focused on her and 
the other 3 Nosferatu, I could fit in Drawing out the Beast for *really* 
trumpy combat. All in all, probably not super effective, but likely 
pretty entertaining.


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I was monkeying around with some sort of Pander based vote deck, and 
realized that unless I had a pile of Legacy of Pander, there wasn't 
much mileage in that (which may or may not actually be the case, but 
neither here nor there). So instead, I came up with this monstrosity. 
Which might be horrible. But might also be super awesome. Can't tell yet.

Spring Break: Miami!

Crypt:
2x Fabrizia Conreraz (4) pot, Archbishop
10x Hermana Hambrienta Menor (2) pot, san

Library:
12x Life in the City
6x Blood Doll
3x Info Highway
3x Hungry Coyote
2x Tribute to the Master
1x Powerbase: Rome
1x Communal Haven: Cathedral
1x The Barrens
1x Creepshow Casino
1x The Coven
1x Guru

12x Crusade: Not Miami (all different)
8x Kine Resources Contested
4x Conservative Agitation
6x Consanguineous Boon
10x Shell Game
4x Walk of Caine
4x Private Audience
4x Zillah's Tears
6x Thrown Gate

A variation on a weenie Praxis deck--get the first vampire or two on 
the table, become an Archbishop before anyone can oppose you and go 
from there--if you luck out and go 4th or draw a first turn Info Highway, 
you can possibly bleed, gain the Edge, and then call a Crusade with 
backup from the Edge. A lot of master cards, but 13 of them are trifles, 
so they should flow pretty well (especially as you can now play 2 trifles 
on the same turn). Using all Hermanas (except for sorority president 
Fabrizia) allows for Con Boon pool gain and Shell Game for stealth 
(and a handful of Walk of Caine for killing blows). The Thrown Gates 
are light combat defense simply 'cause everyone in the crypt has pot. 
The Zillah's Tears are dubious, but I figure being able to act twice 
in a turn once and a while might be handy (as might being able to untap 
to block some zero stealth action once and a while). I could probably 
use more Shell Games, as they cycle really easily. The Private Audience, 
I figure, will help out with vote opposition once and a while, except 
that you can't use PA to get a Crusade through (as you need to be an 
Archbishop to use the Private Audience).

This deck might be really, really bad. But then, it might actually work 
once and a while. We shall see. Any ideas?


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Raphael is a pretty crazy vampire. A 5 cap with OBF, PRE and +1 bleed is 
nothing to sneeze at, in terms of bleed offense. His disadvantage, while 
not totally debilitating, can be kind of a problem if you arenıt 
planning for it. His Aus, Pre, Obf discipline spread matches up nicely 
with a handful of pretty solid mid-cap vampires to form the core of a 
good, weird, stealth and bleed strategy. To this end, I built this deck:

³Iım Too Sexy For My Lips²

Crypt:
2x Stavros (7) AUS, OBF, PRE
2x Isouda de Blaise (7) OBF, PRE, aus
2x Antoinette, She Who Watches (6) AUS, PRE, obf
4x Raphael Catarari (5) OBF, PRE, aus, tha
1x Tock (4) obf, pre
1x Maldavis (4) AUS, pre

Library:
6x Blood Doll
3x Perfectionist
1x Shanty Town Hunting Ground
1x Auspex
1x Archon Investigation

16x Social Charm
16x True Loveıs Face
8x Majesty
8x Lost in Crowds
8x Swallowed by the Night
4x Spying Mission
6x Telepathic Misdirection
1x Precognizant Mobility
1x Rutorıs Hand
6x Disengage
4x Change of Target


A very focused Stealth and Bleed deck with reasonable pool generation 
abilities, light combat defense, and some bleed bounce. The core of the 
deck is clearly the True Loveıs Face tricksiness, where you go to bleed 
with a Social Charm. If they try to block, you deny their block with the 
True Loveıs Face, unless they pay a pool. After they pay a pool, you 
increase your stealth and bleed them anyway. If they donıt bother trying 
to block, you just play the True Loveıs Face for +1 bleed anyway. If 
they manage to block you, you might squeak out on a Change of Target 
(costing them a pool anyway, like with Aching Beauty technology), or get 
out on a Majesty. You can reliably bleed for 3 at stealth and generate a 
pool on each successful bleed. The Disengage and Majesty (with a bit of 
maneuver support) can help against dedicated Rush combat. A few Spying 
Missions can cancel some bounced bleeds. A few Telepathic Misdirections 
can save you from some heavy bleeds when necessary.


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So I'm putting together an imbued deck to, ya know, use all those
Nights of Reckoning cards I have floating around. My two main aims for
this deck are:

A) Avoid pissing off the whole table just by sitting down with it.

B) Have a few small vampires in there just for doing things like
hypothetically killing Smiling Jack, being Blood Dolls, and
diablerizing when convinient.

Here is my initial attempt:

Crypt:
1x Earl Deams (6) Jud, Vis, +1 stealth.
3x Jennie Orne (5) Inn, Jud, Vis, Get out of Hosptial cheap.
2x Jack Harmon (4) Def, Jud, Optional Manuver.
1x Paul Moreton (4) Def, Vis
1x Francois Loehr (3) Def, Jud, Costs extra blood to get him.
1x Inez Villagrande (3) Inn, Get her a power when she enters play.
1x David Morgan (3) +1 intercept vs vampires under 3 cap.
1x Nedal the Careless (1)
1x Sandra White (1) Make someone burn a pool when she diablerizes their
vampire.

Library:
6x Angel of Berlin
4x Memories of Mortality
2x Church of Vindicated Faith
2x Blood Doll
1x Fortschritt Library
1x Rose Foundation
1x Specialization
1x Unity
1x Vigil: The Thin Line
1x Vox Domini

10x Strike with Conviction
6x Second Sight
6x React with Conviction
6x Vigilance
6x Discern
3x Rejuvinate
1x Forsee
1x Hide
1x Inspire
8x Determine
4x On the Qui Vive
2x Poison Pill
1x Delaying Tactics
6x Leather Jacket
3x Improvised Flamethrower
1x Crusader Sword
2x The Unmasking
2x Edge Explosion
1x Anthelios

So my "clever" plans include using Determine to defend my pool,
building permanent defense with Unmasking, Discern, and Second Sight
(which I'd use 8 of, but apparently I only won 6...), bleed with Strike
with Conviction, and use my weenie vampires (2 Caitiff with no
noticable disadvnatge and a guy with conditional +1 intercept) to
generate some blood as Blood Dolls to back up the Church of Vindicated
Faith. Having no votes at all, I figure I should have some vote defense
(Poison Pill, DT, Vox Domini) along with the intercept. Some Leather
Jackets and Improvised Flame Throwers add a bit of combat defense. It
only has non debilitating Events (well, Unmasking and Edge Explosion,
with an Anthelios just in case I need one to get Edge Explosion in
play).

Likely not the best Imbued deck ever, but possible one that is viable.
Any ideas?

-Peter


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a current Weenie POT deck I am playing that does ok 
(regularly gets 1 VP. Sometimes wins games) looks like this:

"The Clown Represents Street Warfare"

1x Nigel (5) POT
1x Olivia (5) POT
1x Terry (5) POT
1x Jimmy Dunn (4) POT
1x Hugo (4) POT
1x Agatha (4) POT
1x Hector (4) POT
1x Duck (3) pot
1x Lupo (2) pot
1x KoKo (2) pot
1x Paul (2) pot
1x Hesina (1) pot

4x Haven Uncovered
3x Fame
2x Anarch Revolt
1x Archon Investigation
1x Tribute

9x Computer Hacking
8x Bum's Rush
4x Harass
16x Thrown Gate
14x Increased Strength
6x Thrown Sewer Lid
6x Mighty Grapple
2x Earth Shock
6x Back Step
2x High Ground
4x Taste of Vitae
1x Hourglass of the Mind
1x Smash and Grab

(I think that is the right count of stuff--I might be off due 
to bad math in my head right now)

Get out 4-5 small minions. Bleed for 2 a lot. Kill folks a lot. 
Play Fame to dunk and make your prey lose a bunch of pool quickly. 
Have someone Go Anarch the hard way and play an Anarch Revolt to 
speed up your prey's death. If your prey has someone Go Anarch, 
kill them, as they lose pool to the Anarch Revolt and they are 
easier to kill as they just spent 2 blood going Anarch. Back Rush 
as needed to stay alive till you get 6 pool from ousting. 
Then table manage as needed to be the last guy at the table, 
winning with 3VP. Which even works occasionally.

It has no way to deal with S:CE, which can be a problem in theory, 
but in practice, combat defense has moved away from S:CE due to folks 
realizing that Immortal Grapple is a good card.

Not a complete answer by any means, but possibly a bit more information 
that might help.

-Peter


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So with the introduction of Khalu in LoB, this deck is finally viable.
And by viable, I mean "viable". I don't know if that is actually a good
thing, and I'm unconvinced that it is actually worth playing, but it is
certainly satisfying in a sick, sick kinda way. And has a cool name:

The Burninator!

Crypt:
2x Khalu (7) POT, CEL, pro
2x Soldat (7) POT, PRO, cel, Black Hand
2x Henry Taylor (6) POT, cel, pro
2x Steve Booth (5) CEL, pot, pro
2x Skryta Zyleta (5) CEL, pot, pro, Black Hand
2x Tabitha Fisk (4) pot, pro

Library:
3x Haven Uncovered
3x Blood Doll
2x Potence
2x Tension in the Ranks
2x Fame
2x Shakar

6x Bum's Rush
6x Harass
8x Taste of Vitae
12x Torn Signpost
10x Immortal Grapple
6x Undead Strength
10x Pursuit
8x Bone Spur
6x Flesh of Marble
1x Black Hand Ritual
1x Ministry
1x Art of Memory
1x Chronicle of the Lost Tribe

 A straight forward killing and burning Rush deck, using Immortal
Grapple to land heavy Potence strikes that burn folks with aggrivated
hand damage. As everyone (well, except Tabitha) has Celerity, a bunch
of Pursuits gives solid manuver ability and half the crypt can
additionally strike for extra killing power. 4 of the 12 crypt cards
are Black Hand, which allows you to reasonably expect to be able to use
a handfull of good Black Hand cards. Tension in the Ranks is arguably
better than Fame in this deck (kinda) as it pays off for the burning,
where Fame doesn't.

Not likely to be incredibly useful in the long run, due to moderately
large vampires for a rush deck with no multi action capabilities, but
has pretty good trumpy combat power and will sometimes get to
successfully burn folks with big aggrivated hand strikes.

Ideas?

-Peter


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So 'cause it can only end in failure, I've been messing around and
trying to build a "viable" Jack Dawson multirush gun deck. I have put
one together, haven't actually played it yet, and am looking for ideas
as to how I might actually make it work. The current model:

"Jack and the Cold Gun"

5x Jack Dawson Advanced (8) FOR, OBF, cel, thn
1x Jack Dawson (8) FOR, OBF, cel, thn, qui
1x Jimmy Dunn (4) CEL, for
1x Sarah Brando (3) CEL
1x Max Lowell (3) cel, obf
1x Basil (1) obf
2x Sandra White (1)

5x Celerity
2x Blood Doll
2x Dirty Contract
1x Houngan
1x Regenerative Blood
1x Visit from the Capuchin
1x Giant's Blood
1x Perfectionist

5x .44 Magnum
1x Submachine Gun
1x Ivory Bow
1x Seal of Veddartha
1x Laptop Computer
1x Mylan Horseed
4x Bum's Rush
4x Harass
2x Big Game
2x Ambush
8x Psyche!
6x Flash
2x Sideslip
4x Flurry of Action
8x Forced March
4x Rolling with the Punches
2x Soak
2x Resilience
2x Undead Persistence
8x Swallowed by the Night
4x Hag's Wrinkles
4x Taste of Vitae

I went with 5 Jack Advanced and 1 non Advanced, 'cause apparently I
only have 5 Advanced. So I'll get another one eventually, but maybe the
1 regular is ok anyway in case I luck into him in my opening draw with
a gun in my hand. 2 Sandra White as she is really funny, and if I'm
gonna use her, I might as well have 2. Turned the Contacts into Giant's
Blood and Perfectionist (still using the Visit due to lack of available
Dreams). Restorations into Tastes. Silly Qui cards into 2 more
Swallowed (extra stealth for equipping) and 2 Ambush (up to 12 Rush, 2
Contract. Maybe still a bit low. Might turn a couple of the Flurry into
more Rush). 8 Pursuit into 6 Flash and 2 Sideslip (light dodge or more
prevent).

Still keeping the CEL angle, due to still thinking the Psyche! and
superior Forced are good. And with the CEL, I'm still clinging to the
Flurry of Action which might pay off. Oh, for another dozen Freak
Drives in my collection...

I'll see how it flies at some point.

-Peter


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So my first versionn of what is likely to be a never ending whirlwind of
Mexico City Blood Brother madness! The deck has lots of obvious flaws, but
is actually pretty funny and not that ineffective:

La Bleedzooka!

Crypt:
4x Hermana Mayor (4) pot, san
8x Hermana Menor (2) pot, san

Library:
6x Effective Management
5x Life in the City
2x Inbase Discotek
1x The Coven
1x Giant's Blood
1x The Rack
1x Gird Minions
1x Threestar Cab Company

12x Walk of Caine
10x Unwholesome Bond
10x Shell Game
8x Redistribution
14x Fake Out
14x Thrown Sewer Lid
4x Taste of Vitae

You get out a Mayor and as many Menors as possible, and start bleeding for 7
per action at +2 or 3 stealth with a 2 point minion. The blood management
works pretty well at keeping your minions at appropriate blood levels
(Unwholesome a Mayor, Redistribute so everyone has 2 blood, send someone to
bleed for 6 or 7 at + a couple stealth. If it works, do it again).

Yeah, bleed bounce, and Archon Investigation, and intercept and rush combat
and well, pretty much any kind of reasonable defense is going to hose the
deck. And it has no significant pool gain. Or any defense at all. But
getting a couple humongous bleeds through usually ousts someone nicely.

It clearly needs a Hungry Coyote or 2. But sadly, I don't have any. And
maybe a few more Life in the City. But in practice, it doesn't really have
blood management issues. Just all the other issues.


Peter D Bakija
pdb6@lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6

"So in conclusion, our business plan is to sell hot,
easily spilled liquids to naked people."
-Brittni Meil


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"Don't Call Us a 'Girl' Band!"

Crypt:
2x Gail Piet (6) MEL, FOR, pre
3x Angela Preston (5) MEL, PRE, for
1x Brachah (5) CEL, PRE. for
2x Delilah Monroe (4) MEL, pre, for
2x Muse (3) mel, for
2x Celeste (3) pre, mel

Library:
8x Minion Tap
2x Blood Doll
1x Presence
1x Spontaneous Power
2x Paris Opera House

26x Choir
10x Concert Tour
10x Enchant Kindred
10x Majesty
10x The Missing Voice
6x Change of Target
4x Freak Drive

Works pretty well, and has even won a few games. You can enchant out
minions quickly, untap a lot, and farm a lot of pool off your minions.
You need to accept that most of the time, you aren't going to get a
full, what, 8 point Choir off, but you can regularly get a 4-6 point
Choir off, which isn't insignificant, and then you can back it up with
a reasonable amount of bleed at +1 stealth. It'll be killed by really
focused IG combat, but usually does ok otherwise. The recently much
maligned Concert Tour is actually pretty solid, getting a lot of blood
back into circulation quickly.

Brachah is a really good back up Daughter, as she has PRE (allowing her 
to Enchant at superior early), CEL (allowing her to use the outferior of 
Missing Voice) and for (for the occasional Freak). Give her mel with 
Spontaneous Power and you can pull off the mythical 10 point Choir.


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So Marty Lechtansi was one of the original wrecking machines of a superstar
vampire. Yeah, ok, he is currently kind of underpowered in relation to other
9 point vampires, but he comes with POT, OBF, and DOM backed up by ani and
for, giving him a good spread of combat abilities, potential for multi
action with Freak Drive, and you simply can't go wrong with superior
Dominate. And still, he is wearing a Mickey Mouse watch and coming to eat
you. Mix him up with another generally under appreciated vampire, Judah, and
you form the core of a deck with strong combat and bleed offense, and good
bleed defense that comes from the combination of Rat's Warning and
Deflection. Mix in pretty boy Shane Grimald, and the deck kind of builds
itself. Thus, I present to you:

"The Deck That Only Works If I Get Out Marty Lechtansi!", Mk. IX

Crypt:
5x Marty Lechtansi (9) POT, OBF, DOM, ani, for
2x Judah (6) POT, dom, ani
1x Lisette Vizquel (6) POT, DOM
2x Shane Grimald (4) pot, dom, ani
1x Laurent Valois (4) obf, dom, ani
1x Sammy (4) pot, obf, ani

Library:
4x Blood Doll
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Minion Tap
1x Storm Sewers
1x Slum Hunting Ground
1x The Labyrinth
1x Fame
1x Dominate
1x Fortitude

8x Govern the Unaligned
8x Deflection
4x Threats
8x Torn Signpost
6x Undead Strength
4x Earth Shock
2x Disarm
6x Spying Mission
4x Cloak the Gathering
8x Rat's Warning
8x Superior Mettle
4x Harass
4x Taste of Vitae
1x Ancient Influence
1x Reins of Power


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"Celtic Woman!"

3x Victorine Lafourcade (8) DOM, FOR, PRE, Prince
1x Mustaffa, The Heir (6) FOR, PRE, dom, Prince
5x Lorrie Dunsirn (4) POT, for, nec
2x Katherine Stoddard (4) dom, for
1x Lia Milliner (3) dom, nec

3x Fortitude
2x Blood Doll
2x Haven Uncovered
2x Special Report
2x Fame
1x Creepshow Casino
1x Bravo
1x Ventrue Headquarters

8x Immortal Grapple
8x Rolling with the Punches
6x Unflinching Persistance
8x Freak Drive
8x Deflection
2x Conditioning
4x Bewitching Oration
1x Whispers of the Dead
4x Taste of Vitae
4x Bum's Rush
4x Ambush
2x Big Game
2x Blood Hunt
4x Second Tradition
4x Wake
7x Parity Shift

I figure this one is better than the previous Auspex backed version--my
other vampires have fortitude for better skill integration, dominate
for Deflection and a couple Conditionings; Victorine has a fantastic
special ability; and a much better capacity for passing votes due to
PRE and Ventrue HQ. The flaws, still, are getting the Parity Shifts
blocked, but at least with Creepshow Casino, there is occasionally +1
extra stealth, and the princes don't get killed so much when they are
blocked.

I'm figuring that Bravo is arguably better than Perfectionist in this
deck by way of the following logic--Lorrie's Rush actions cost you a
pool if they are successful. People will not block her rushes,
generally speaking, as they want you to pay the pool. So if she is
going to be rushing, and successfully 'cause no one wants to block her,
Bravo seems like a fantastic plan--if she rushes and you block her, she
doesn't gain a blood but doesn't cost you a pool; if she rushes and you
don't block her, it costs me a pool but Lorrie gains a blood. Put a
Blood Doll on her, and her built in cost is completely nullified.
Perfectionist might be as good (as Perfectionist is pretty much always
good), but can be foiled by a random Wake cycle or something. So I'm
sticking with the concept that *here*, Bravo is a good card.

The crypt is slightly compromosed by my vain wanting of the deck to
count as a Abomination deck by the standards of the TWDA (at least 5 of
the main clan, no more of any other clan), so, ya know, when I win a
tournament with it, it will be a moral victory! Anyway, as a result,
I'm limiting myself to only 4 Ventrue, when the 2 Katherine Stoddard
and Lia Milliner should probably be, like, Earl and Lana the Butcher or
something (although Lia also can play the one Whispers in the deck if
Lorrie has something more important to do).


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While thinking of subjects for a new newsletter, I was looking at the many new 
bad decks I had built last week. Focusing specifically on a really atrocious
Brujah based Ghouled Ally deck, I thought to myself "Self, this deck would
probably work much better if the allies had a default bleed of 1. Hmm. What
mortal allies have a default bleed of 1...", which led to this particularly
atrocious Nosferatu based Ghouled ally deck, which, while highly
questionable, might be so crazy, it just might work!

"I Ain't Gonna Be No Repo Man!"

Crypt:
2x Teresita, The Godmother (7) ANI, OBF, POT
2x Chritianus Lionel, The Mad Chronicler (6) ANI, OBF, pot
2x Ox, Viceroy of the Hollows (6) ANI, OBF, POT
2x Cicatriz (5) ani, obf, pot
1x Agatha (4) POT, obf
1x Josef (4) ani, obf
1x Shannon Price, the Whisperer (3) ani, obf
1x Tommy (3) ani, pot

Avg of 5.16

Library:
2x Channel 10
2x Nosferatu Kingdom
1x KRCG News Radio
1x The Rack
1x Shanty Town Hunting Ground
1x Sunset Strip, Hollywood
1x The Coven
1x Festivo dello Estinto
1x Using the Advantage
1x Archon Investigation
1x Left for Dead
1x Charisma
1x Memories of Mortality

15x Thrown Gate
10x Lost in Crowds
4x Psychic Veil
8x Animal Magnetism
10x Courier
2x Vagabond Mystic
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter!)
1x Caiaphas Smith
1x Repo Man
3x Unlicensed Taxicab
10x Ghouled
8x Autarkis Persecution
2x The Unmasking

Clearly a silly and flawed deck from the get go, but even then, it has some
entertaining angles. What got me to this point was, as mentioned above,
trying to make a Ghouled Ally deck that had some forward momentum. As most
mortal allies have no default bleed, I had to pack my deck with Computer
Hackings, which was a losing proposition, as there were never enough
Hackings to bleed as much as I needed, especially when most of the Hacking
bleeds were destined to be blocked. Thus, I fell back to the !Nosferatu, and
their goofy ally, Courier, who comes with a default bleed of 1. On the up
side, this means that a Ghouled Ally deck has some forward momentum. On the
down side Couriers, especially Ghouled Couriers, are expensive, at 3 blood
per successful recruitment. So I messed around, trying to cover all angles,
and came up with this monstrosity.

In the Crypt, there are two each of the three medium sized no brainers for
the deck, Teresita, Christisanus, and Ox, all of whom can use Animal
Magnetism at superior. Then, however, the crypt selection becomes a bit
trickier. With no other !Nos with ANI/OBF in a smaller size, I had to start
weighing the advantages of the various !Nos with mostly inferior
disciplines. Two Cicatriz seems like a good idea, as he gets a vote (kind of
making up for the inferior disciplines) and has a useful special ability.
Then I find myself in the weird situation of saying "Man. How come the !Nos
don't have a Sammy?". Which is weird, as I rarely ever use Sammy. But if he
were !Nos, I'd be using him now. Anyway, in goes Agatha, who is cute and can
Gate people well when blocked; Josef, who can sneak around and use inferior
Animal Magnetism; Shannon, who apparently is in every deck I build; and
Tommy who, really, is just a 3 cap body for making a Courier.

The Master selection contains intercept locations (so allies can block), an
ally support infrastructure (Charisma, Left for Dead, Sunset Strip,
Memories), and ways to get blood back on my vampires (Rack, Hunting Ground,
Coven, Festivo, which synergizes nicely with the hunting option of Sunset
Strip). In a deck with all !Nosferatu, two Nosferatu Kingdom are kind of a
necessity (as they are so good, you want one early), Using the Advantage is
a surprisingly useful card in a long game, and I'm currently in a phase of
including Archon Investigation in every deck I build, just so people will
worry about it locally.

In the minion card selection, there are allies, cards that make the allies
work, and general deck support. The core of the deck are the Ghouleds and
the Allies, so there are a lot of both--10 Couriers seems like a reasonable
number; 2 free Mystics as healers seem like a reasonable number; Carlton as
primary blocker; Caiaphas, surprisingly, seems like a reasonable plan in
this deck--he'll usually be able to intercept something as soon as you bring
him out, and between your prey and your predator, he should be ok, and he
can always go out and recruit his pal Carlton; and Repo Man (the impetus
behind the questionable deck title), while he can't be Ghouled, exists to
pull the Taxicabs out of the deck. With a lot of Ghouled allies who can play
a pot strike card, and pretty much everyone in the crypt having Potence at
some level, 15 Thrown Gates isn't at all unreasonable, as a lot of time, a
Courier will go to bleed for 1, get blocked, and then maneuver and fling a
gate. 10 Lost in Crowds for general stealth. 4 Psychic Veils for en masse
bleeding--play the Veil and send ten or so minions to go bleed for 1 each at
+1 stealth. The Unmasking let the allies block--granted, the Couriers start
with -1 intercept, but with the Unmasking, they can block the zero stealth
actions, and Channel 10 lets them block a lot of stuff, while Carlton or
Caiaphas can start blocking like crazy with The Unmasking in play. Then
there is the most dubious aspect of the deck--the Autarkis Persecutions. As
most of the master slots are taken up with blood management (as opposed to
pool management), and most of my minions will be not real useful for
harvesting pool off of anyway, this deck is kind of stuck for pool gain
options. Clearly, the best option available to it is Autarkis
Persecution--gain 1 pool for every minion you have in play. The obvious
flaw, is, well, it gives *everyone* pool, including your prey, who you are
pretty slow to oust anyway. This being said, I don't think the card is that
crazy, as this deck will likely be generating twice the pool on each vote
than everyone else will, people cross table will often help you pass the
vote, it will help keep your grand prey alive, and with a couple turns of
Psychic Veil masse bleeds can oust when unexpected, especially if your prey
over extends himself with all the extra pool you give him.

How does the deck work? Well, get out some !Nosferatu, start building an
army of Ghouled Couriers, and hope you don't get ousted too quickly. Call
Autarkis Persecutions when you are low on pool. Occasionally bleed forward,
possibly using the secondary "discard cards off the top of your prey's deck"
function if you don't think you can get Couriers through to bleed that
turn--given that this deck might make any game a long one, it isn't at all
unreasonable to run someone out of a deck (hey--I clearly need a
Brinksmanship in here!). When it looks convenient, send Couriers forward to
bleed for 1, and if they are blocked, have them fling a gate. When it looks
like a good time, play a Veil and bleed a lot at +1 stealth. This might just
work!

What are the flaws of the deck? Well, clearly, there are many. It might get
ousted early by a speedy bleed predator before it can get set up. A
persistent rush deck will probably eat it for lunch. Your minions run out of
blood really quickly. On the up side, it can generate a lot of pool, set up
a reasonably consistent blocking defense, has a reasonable amount of
stealth, can sometimes accidentally torporize folks, and might actually be
able to oust folks.


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So after chatting it up at Origins with various people, I finally got off my
ass and put together the Moby Dick of all decks. Yes. That's right. I wanted
to get in on the ground floor.

Lorrie Dunsirn multi-Rush.

This deck is awsome. Awsome, I say. Ok, maybe it won't, like, necessarily
win any national championships or anything real soon, but man, the pure
fantasticalness of it all makes it toally worthwhile, if I say so myself,
and, man, do I.

I played this tonight in 2x four player games, and scored a total of 1GW/4VP
for the two games. Not bad, really.

"This Deck's So Cool, It'll Make You Cry!"

Crypt:
3x Anistaszdi Zagreb (8) AUS, Justicar
1x Ira Rivers (7) AUS, Prince
2x Maldavis (4) AUS, for
5x Lorrie Dunsirn (4) POT, for, superior killitude
1x Martin Franckel (3) AUS

Library:
3x Fortitude
2x Blood Doll
2x Haven Uncovered
2x Fame
2x Special Report
1x Archon Investigation
1x Stranger Among Us

4x Bum's Rush
4x Harass
2x Big Game
2x Blood Hunt
2x Second Tradition
3x Wake
8x Telepathic Misdirection
4x Precognizant Mobility
4x Telepathic Vote Counting
2x Anima Gathering
8x Rolling with the Punches
6x Unflinching Persistance
6x Freak Drive
8x Immortal Grapple
6x Taste of Vitae
7x Parity Shift
1x Praxis Seizure: Barcelona

So clearly, the plan is to get out Lorrie, Anistaszdi, and hopefully a small
AUS dude for not a huge amount of pool. Lorrie rushes and kills folks quite
nicely. The AUS guys bounce bleeds and help untap Lorrie for more killing
action. When your pool gets low, as it will quickly, call a Parity Shift
rigged with Telepathic Vote Counting which hopefully passes. Mark folks with
Blood Hunt for perma-rush. Give Lorrie +2 intercept and +1 bleed with Anima
Gathering. Untap her and block when no one expects it with Special Report.
Oh, the killing!

I'm unconvinced that the Ira Rivers is the best option, but he is a 7 point
backup Prince with AUS and useful special abilities. Maybe Maris Streck is
better, but I keep thinking 9 is just too big. And I kinda want to figure
out a way to make Lorrie's nec useful, but at best I can get +1 stealth out
of it, which isn't that useful.

I mean, like, yeah, if there is a lot of table vote presence, this deck will
have a hard time (unless, ya know, you can kill their voters...) And very
serious counter combat is problematic (Enkidu with Flesh of Marble; Flung
Junk). But other than that, the deck can move, baby.


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"Bats with Birds in Their Mouths"*

Crypt:
1x Christianus Lionel, Mad Chronicler (6) ANI
1x Nigel, The Shunned (5) ANI
1x Devin Bisley (5) ANI
1x Calebros, The Martyr (5) ANI
1x Bobby Lemon (4) ANI
1x Tommy (3) ani
1x Shannon Price, The Whisperer (3) ani
1x Dani (2) ani
1x Mouse (2) ani
1x Gillian Krader (2) ani
1x Zip (2) ani
1x Lisa Noble (1) ani
Avg of 3.33

Library:
4x Animalism
3x Blood Doll
2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Information Network
1x Fame
1x Metro Underground

3x Bum's Rush
3x Games of Instinct
9x Forced Awakening
3x IR Goggles
21x Aid from Bats
14x Carrion Crows
9x Raven Spy
8x Drawing Out the Beast
2x Cat's Guidance
2x Owl Companion
2x Army of Rats
1x Murder of Crows
1x Canine Horde

*(And when they echo-locate, they shoot birds at you.)

Right. A kind of absurd deck on first look, what with the 21 Aid from Bats
and all, but really, the Aid from Bats is the main fuel rod that makes the
deck engine go.

The crypt starts out with a horde of little weenie vampires with ani, and
then a core of bigger vamps with inherent ANI. The crypt is tweaked up a bit
bigger than it needs to be to facilitate having enough !Nosferatu to justify
using the cheap and handy Information Network (which is cheaper and much
less likely to be contested than KRCG). Christianus is big for the crypt at
6, but there isn't really a better ANI 5 to replace him with (Lord Ashton?),
and the extra pool cost is paying for, essentially, an Elder Library anyway,
so he strikes me as a reasonable choice. Calebros is also an always
controversial choice, but as I look at it, this deck is completely without
votes and vote power otherwise. If he keeps his title due to no one eligible
to take it, being able to defend it, or people just forgetting, that is
fantastic. If he does lose it, no big deal, as someone likely already had
more votes than me anyway. The rest of the crypt is pretty straight
forward--smallish vampires with ANI (hello, Bobby Lemon!) and super small
vampires with ani. Yeah, if I wanted to minimize my ability to use Info
Network, I could replace, like, Tommy with Spleen Three Frooks or someone to
save a pool, but overall, it seems like a good one.

The Master selection is pretty standard. Not a lot of cards to avoid jamming
up in a high cycling deck. Animalism masters to get reliable ANI on the
weenies. Blood Dolls for pool gain. Two Heidelburgs so as to make it likely
to have one--being able to stack 3 or 4 Raven Spies on one minion (along
with some IR Goggles and a Owl) makes blocking incredibly easy. The Info
Network for extra intercept, Fame for a bit of ousting power, and Metro
Underground for some added defense capabilities.

In the main minion cards, the core is the crazy Animalism based combat
engine--Aid from Bats/Carrion Crows/Drawing out the Beast. Aid from Bats is
a very strong card, what with the maneuver and press at superior. Stack on a
Carrion Crows and a DoTB, you are in a situation where your opponent can't
press to end, can't use weapons, and takes 4 damage a round at long range
that is almost completely unaffected by Dodge or Skin of Steel type damage
prevention. With the huge number of Aids, you can regularly press and play
another one, just to stack on huge amounts of damage while humiliatingly
killing your opponent with, ya know, Aid from Bats. True, S:CE will foil
this combat madness, but as the deck is defensively strong otherwise (what
with the intercept and Forced Awakenings and all), killing folks isn't that
vital (i.e. someone playing a S:CE at the wrong time when you can't counter
it is unlikely to get you ousted like it is in a standard kind of Rush
deck), and Owl Companions can help scout out for Majesties and whatever
anyway, allowing you to save cards if necessary. The Rush actions are there
for opportunistic combat and preying on the weak and again, unlike in most
standard Rush type decks, the high opportunity cost of Games of Instinct
isn't really an issue--it will be rare that an inability to play it at any
given moment will cause problems, and if it pays off, it can gain you a lot
of blood. The support cards consist mostly of useful permanents (Ravens,
Owls, Rats, IR Goggles) that can get swapped around through the Heidelberg
to best effect.

The obvious question is (especially in light of the similar deck posted by
The Lasombra last month) "Why no Pack Alpha"? As mentioned in last month's
Newsletter, I think Pack Alpha is a very solid card in some decks, but in a
deck like this with significant combat that doesn't really mind getting
blocked so much, they are probably unnecessary. Assuming I don't get blocked
trying to recruit a Raven Spy, a Forced Awakening is just as good, if not
better, than a Pack Alpha. Assuming I do get blocked trying to recruit, I'm
likely in the same place I would be if I had the Raven Spy--in a fight with
someone. Sure, in some situations, a Pack Alpha might be very handy (like
where my prey is a super intercept/S:CE deck, and my predator is a high
stealth S+B deck), but overall, I think the deck does fine without them, and
adding them would require removal of something (Bats?).

The deck does pretty well overall--as discussed earlier, it can defend
itself pretty well, and with 4 or 5 minions in play and maybe an Army of
Rats, it can bleed folks out with reasonable speed (especially as it can
usually block pool gaining actions by its prey), while due to its defenses,
it is usually in no huge hurry. It'll have trouble against someone who
flings a lot of Sewer Lids or has a lot of maneuver based close combat, or
whatever, but I'll probably take them down with me a lot of time, so it is
kind of a wash. Most other deck strategies aren't likely to 'cause unusual
problems (although, like, a well placed cross table Shepherds Innocence
could be problematic), giving this deck a good fighting chance in most
seats. 


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"I Want To Destroy"

1x Raful al-Zarqua (6) AUS
1x Victoria (5) AUS
1x Miriam Benyona (5) AUS
1x Maldavis (4) AUS
1x Idalia (4) AUS
1x Richard Tauber (4) AUS
1x Remilard (4) AUS
1x Martin Franckel (3) AUS
1x Isabel (3) AUS
1x Zoe (3) AUS
1x Feo Ramos (1) aus
1x Franciscus (1) aus

9x Anarch Revolt
6x Galaric's Legacy
4x Blood Doll
2x Seattle Committee
2x Smiling Jack
1x Millicent Smith
1x Society of Leopold
1x Momentum's Edge
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Powerbase: Los Angeles

10x Read Intentions
10x Eagle's Sight
8x Enhanced Senses
6x Telepathic Misdirection
6x Precognition
6x Spirit's Touch
10x Forced Awakening
2x Go Anarch
2x Magnum
1x Ivory Bow
1x Blow Torch

Raful should clearly be Jost Werner, but I simply can't abide his portrait.  
Feo would probably be better off as some 2 with aus, but he is funny, and 
I like the symetry of him and Franciscus. There are a lot of masters and 
no extra master phases, but 6 of the 28 are Trifles that can be turned into, 
essentially, more Forceds later in the game with the PB:LA. The weapon angle 
is certainly sketchy, due to it being difficult to equip them, but if I can 
get one in play, it makes it much easier to whack someone's token Anarch 
(in theory, your 1st prey never gets an Anarch as you block all the actions, 
and when you oust him, you try and mangle any token Anarchs your next prey 
has by blocking and shooting).

With the Millicent, Society, weapons, and Eagle's Sights, killing that
necessary Anarch is not that impossible. Momentum's Edge and Smiling Jack 
make being the last guy standing after killing your first prey that much 
more likely.


Peter D Bakija
pdb6@lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6

"So in conclusion, our business plan is to sell hot,
easily spilled liquids to naked people."
-Brittni Meil


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After messing around with various crazy deck designs trying to capitalize 
upon Tock, I finally hit pay dirt, and built a deck that really makes Tock 
good. In fact, it makes a lot of under utilized Nosferatu good. 
Here is that deck:

"Tock! You're Home!"
Crypt:
2x Harrod (11) POT, OBF, pre, IC, +2 bleed
2x Ellison Humboldt (9) POT, OBF, PRE, Primogen
2x Amadeo (8) POT, OBF, pre, Primogen
1x Synesios (8) POT, obf, PRE, 2 votes
1x Murat (7) POT, OBF, Prince
2x Sundown (6) POT, obf, pre
2x Tock (4) pot, obf, pre

Avg: 7.6

Library:
8x Minion Tap
3x Information Highway
3x Presence
1x The Labyrinth
1x Major Boon

8x Kine Resources Contested
2x Conservative Agitation
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Reins of Power
1x Banishment
1x Disputed Territory
1x Peace Treaty
1x Reinforcements
1x Command the Harpies
1x Honor the Elders
1x Praxis Seizure: Brussels
1x Crusade: London
8x Lost in Crowds
6x Elder Impersonation
4x Forgotten Labyrinth
8x Iron Glare
8x Voter Captivation
4x Bewitching Oration
1x Awe
2x Legal Manipulations
7x Majesty
4x Thrown Gate

What we have here is a pretty focused Stealth Vote deck that benefits from
being Nosferatu by virtue of being able to get some serious mileage out of
the incredibly useful Iron Glare. By using Nosferatu with added Presence,
you can sneak votes past intercept, push them through with Presence vote
modifiers, gain blood and pool with Voter Captivation, and switch to pretty
significant Stealth and Bleed without much effort if necessary.


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Neutral Ground
New York City, New York
August 14, 2004
14 players
2 rounds + Final

Peter Bakija -- Weenie Obfuscate Cooler Bloat

Peter's Winning Deck:
"My Deck is Cooler Than Yours!"

Crypt:
1x Cicatriz (5) obf
1x Lithrac (5) OBF
1x Agrippina (4) OBF
1x Sammy (4) obf
1x Duck (3) obf
1x Dollface (3) obf
1x Watenda (3) obf
1x Dan Murdock (3) obf
1x Shannon Price (3) obf
1x Dimple (2) obf
1x Normal (2) obf
1x Basil (1) obf

Library:
13x Blood Doll
6x Life in the City
4x Effective Management
2x Perfectionist
1x The Coven
1x The Rack
1x Specialization
1x Storage Annex
1x Archon Investigation

8x Cooler
1x Blood Tears of Kephran
1x Aaron's Feeding Razor
2x Muddled Vampire Hunter
4x Kindred Intelligence
4x Rumors of Gehenna
2x Delaying Tactics
10x Computer Hacking
6x Lost in Crowds
6x Spying Mission
6x Swallowed by the Night
6x Faceless Night
4x Cloak the Gathering

A Blood Doll/Cooler bloat deck I have been working on for a while (and
failed to get anywhere significant at the NE Reigonals this past
February with) that Jon Darbro convinced me to play at this
tournament. The Perfectionists turned out to be incredibly useful (who
woulda thought...), but the last minute inclusion of Specialization
didn't really help much--it would have been better off as, well,
pretty much anything (maybe a Zoning Board to get rid of locations?)


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So I saw some discussion of some Samedi Shambling Hordes deck last week or
so, but didn't see the actual deck in question yet still was intrigued.
Always wanting to have a viable Samedi deck, I figured "the last 7 have
sucked, why not try this kind?", so I put together a Baron powered Shambling
Hordes deck. So far, it has won, like, 2 out of 3 games it has been played
in, which fills me with Samedi-esque joy. Granted, I probably won due to
table position in those two games more than anything else (in one game, my
predator was a Gangrel deck that bled for not much per action and in the end
game, my flesh eating zombies were unimpressed by Jon's ability to control
time; in the other, my predator was a Salubri based intercept wall that was
having trouble staying up under a DEM bleed deck), but still, the deck seems
to have some legs. I wouldn't, like, play it in serious competition or
anything (due to it being fragile and totally hosed by PTO), but I've been
enjoying it so far.

"Shoot It In the Head, Man! Shoot It In the Head!"

Crypt:
5x The Baron (9) THN, OBF, NEC, FOR, dom
1x Le Din Tho (5) NEC, dom
1x Lia Milliner (3) nec, dom
1x Rudolpho Giovanni (3) NEC
1x Ohanna (2) dom
1x Christine Boscacci (2) dom
1x Marcianna Giovanni, Investigator (2) dom
1x Basil (1) obf

Library:
3x Fame
3x Memories of Mortality
2x Special Report
1x Blood Doll
1x Creepshow Casino
1x Coroner's Contact
1x Charisma

15x Shambling Hordes
4x Summon Soul
8x Deflection
5x Conditioning
8x Rolling With the Punches
4x Restoration
2x Freak Drive
4x Compress
2x Ashes to Ashes
8x Lost in Crowds
8x Trap
4x Fake Out
2x Pulled Fangs
4x Wake with Evening's Fresheness

The crypt is pretty straight forward--enough Barons so I can reliably get
one in my opening crypt draw; Le Din Tho for his NEC/dom spread and useful
discard ability (look and see if your target has any, like, Majesties or
Deflections). The useful weenies--the very sexy Lia Milliner; the
increadibly Gustav Klimptian Ohanna; the surprisingly useful Marcianna; the
"once every 4 turns or so" Hordes machine of Rudolpho; Mr. "I get The Baron
out of Torpor or Deablerize folks" Basil; and the also very sexy (as well as
having fantastic musical taste) Christine Boscacci (who really should be,
like, Mustafa or Lana Butcher or someone, but I'm so very fond of her...)
Mostly the Baron does all the work, and the weenies stay around to Deflect
bleeds and eventually bleed through the holes that the zombies make.

For masters, I have multiples of the necessary Fames and Memories, some
badly needed intercept from the Special Reports, the requisite Charisma, the
very useful in such a deck Creepshow Casino, and the "just in case"
Coroner's Contact (which if I get it early, insures that I get the Baron and
gives me a free transfer, and if I get it late, it is a free cycling master
that gets an extra baron out of my crypt so I am more likely to draw a not
Baron if I go fishing for more vampires). The biggest flaw here is my utter
lack of pool management, but for the one Blood Doll, that usually goes to
putting blood *on* my vampire rather than theother way around.

The bulk of the library is a lot of cards that The Baron can play with his 5
disciplines--the 15 Hordes for early and often discarding and play; blood
management in Restoration and Summon Soul, reasonable Horde combat backup
from Traps, Fake Out, and PF, good bleed defense, enough damage prevention
and Compress to make messing with the Baron less attractive, and some
stealth. And Conditionings, making the always popular dom weenies a force to
be reckoned with as well as making the Baron capable of being Archon
Investigated.

It could probably use more Freak Drives, but they are all in another,
actually good deck, and the Summon Souls can recycle them a few times (along
with the Conditionings if necessary) anyway. It'll probably die a swift,
unplesant death if next to a moderately fast vote deck (what with the very
limited intercept and minimal vote presence), but if it can set up some and
start eating brains, it should do ok. The Fake Outs are certainly fringe,
but they occasionally keep my zombie hordes from being humilliated by casual
guns and will sometimes save a weeine from an unfortunate torporization.

Any ideas?


Peter D Bakija
pdb6@lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6

"Punk rock's been pretty good to me for twenty years. It's my year to give
back: I'm dedicating the next year of my life to fucking the Bush
administration."
-Fat Mike, http://www.punkvoter.com


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The following deck is based on (or shamelessly lifted from) a deck I saw Ben
Peal playing at Totalcon in Boston this past February (and apparently, Ben
Swainbank was playing a very similar deck in the same tournament), although
as I didn't see it that closely, I'm not sure how similar it really is. 
By focusing on Black Hand advantages (Reunion Kamut, Bloodwork, Ministry) 
and the obvious discipline overlaps, I have put together a deck that revolves 
around the gender ambiguous Ingram Frizer and his/her discipline combination.

"Really! I killed Marlowe!"

Crypt:
1x Tarbaby Jack (8) POT, OBF, Black Hand
2x Teresita, The Godmother (7) POT, OBF, Black Hand Seraph
1x Kazimir Savostin (7) AUS, pot, Black Hand Seraph
3x Ingram Frizer (6) OBF, AUS, pot, Black Hand
1x Quira, The Bitch Queen (6) AUS, OBF
1x The Colonel (5) AUS, obf, Black Hand
1x Roger Farnsworth (4) OBF, aus, Black Hand
2x Piotr Andreikov (2) aus, Black Hand

Library:
4x Blood Doll
3x Corporal Reservoir
1x Watchtower: The Four Ride Forth
1x Watchtower: Chosen are Called
1x Visit of the Capuchin
1x Information Network
1x Remover

10x Reunion Kamut
10x Bloodwork
2x Art of Memory
6x Ministry
8x Wake with Evening's Freshness
6x Telepathic Misdirection
6x Spirit's Touch
2x Aura Reading
10x Swallowed by the Night
6x Cloak the Gathering
6x Thrown Sewer Lid
6x Marijava Thuggee

A fairly straight forward deck with good defense including both bleed bounce 
and strong intercept possibilities, reasonable offense with Bloodwork and 
horde bleed possibilities from the Thuggees, some combat capabilities in the 
heavy maneuvers and Sewer Lids, and the always very useful free pool/transfers 
of the Reunion Kamuts.

The crypt, again, seeks to focus on Obfuscate and Auspex with a splash of
Potence, meaning the Ingram Frizer is the best possible vampire for the crypt. 
By mixing in various Black Hand members who have AUS (for bleed bounce) and 
Obfuscate (for extra sneaking about), you end up with a reasonably slid crypt. 
Quira, while not Black Hand, has a good discipline spread for the deck (with 
her AUS/OBF), gets +1 bleed, I always thought she was cute, and I just got a 
copy from the Tatus, and having 1 non Black Hand vampire in the crypt is rarely 
going to be an issue from the Reunion Kamut front.

The Master selection is fairly light, but contains standard Blood Dolls, which 
are always good, the surprisingly useful Corporal Reservoir, and useful support 
cards, like The Four Ride Forth which is fantastic in a deck that wants to keep 
a strong defense up without compromising forward momentum.

The bulk of the deck consists of the strong Black Hand cards--Reunion Kamut, 
allowing you to get out vampires quickly and cheaply early and rack up extra 
pool late; Bloodwork which is often simply "bleed for 2 at +1 stealth"; 
Ministry which gives a very strong intercept potential, especially as Sabbat 
vampires are as popular as they are currently; a couple Art of Memory as they 
double as, generally speaking, either 2 more Reunion Kamut or 2 more Bloodwork. 
The Auspex angle provides more intercept, the always strong bleed bounce, and 
maneuver possibilities. The obfuscate provides, ya know, stealth, but also more 
maneuvers (allowing your vampires to avoid a lot of close range unpleasantness 
as well as fling the occasional Sewer Lid) and Cloak lets you provide extra 
stealth to your non obfuscate enabled Black Hand pals. The Thuggees are a 
remarkably potent addition to a Black Hand deck, and possibly one of the strongest 
allies in the game--at only 2 pool, you get a minion that is hardy (3 life) 
and incredibly useful--they bleed for 1, can use obfuscate for stealth, and 
their inherent poking ability becomes very influential late in the game. 
Their inherent disadvantage (tap them all if you have more Thuggees than Black 
Hand vampires--mind you, this is Black Hand vampires you control, not *ready* 
Black Hand vampires) isn't really an issue when all but one vampire in your crypt 
is Black Hand--you can reliably get 3 Thuggees in play, and even more if you 
are feeling saucy.

Overall, this deck is remarkably well rounded, and plays pretty well (it is 
currently batting 2-0 in 4 player games). It'll have trouble with persistent 
ranged combat, but should stand up well against most other deck types.


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So in an attempt to make poor, weird, long armed Tock useful, I figured that
I might as well come up with an Anti-Nosferatu based deck with Presence. And
as the best possible Anti-Nosferatu with Presence to build a deck around is
probably Cailean (especially as I have 6 of him now), I decided to make a
Cailean deck, which would possibly justify using Tock, which was my whole
plan in the first place. A few years ago, I played in a tournament against
John Whelan using some sort of Cailean deck, elements of which I shamelessly
lifted for this particular deck, and wanted good intercept, good combat, and
potent forward momentum. Cailean is really good at intercepting stuff (ANI
and Archbishop status, facilitating the highly necessary Eternal Vigilance),
and his OBF/PRE combination give him good Stealth/Bleed options. Caileanıs
combat action clearly revolves around his ability to set range, so
outfitting him with a gun, some Traps, and some Animalism support can really
shut down some Rush decks, and he will do a number on decks with limited
combat defense. Anyway, on to the deck:

³Cailean? This deck is all about Tock!²

Crypt:
6x Cailean (10) PRE, POT, OBF, ANI, dom. Archbishop. Sets range each round.
1x Christianus Lionel (6) OBF, ANI, pot. +1 hand size.
1x Josef (4) ani, obf
2x Tock (4) pre, obf, pot
1x Shannon Price (3) ani, obf
1x Dani (2) ani

Library:
1x Shanty Town Hunting Ground
1x Nosferatu Kingdom
1x Blood Doll
1x Barrens
2x The Rack
2x Information Highway

9x Lost in Crowds
5x Disguised Weapon
7x Raven Spy
1x Owl Companion
6x Catıs Guidance
6x Ratıs Warning
6x Drawing Out the Beast
6x Carrion Crows
6x Iron Glare
4x Social Charm
4x Legal Manipulations
2x Majesty
4x Deflection
5x Eternal Vigilance
5x Combat Shotgun
6x Trap

Right. Starting with the crypt, contrary to the deck title, 6 Cailean seems
reasonable. You are unlikely to draw 4 in your opening crypt while unlikely
to end up without any in your opening crypt too (any statistical folks wanna
hook me up with actual percentages?). Christianus seems like a reasonable
addition, as he has two important superiors and a good special. Tock is good
for back up S+B capabilities, but sadly his lack of Animalism often is
problematic. Josef is mostly disposable, but he has ani/obf, which is
reasonable for the deck. Shannon Price, who tends to show up in more of my
decks than any other vampire these days, is a good addition, and Dani is
good as a chump blocker. Overall, you want to get out Cailean and then one
or two other errand runners, depending on how you are doing pool wise after
you get Cailean out.

The deck has a pretty thin Master selection, due to needing a lot of other
cards, but of them all, the Racks are the most important--Cailean needs a
Rack. A lot. The Info Highways are good for early speed, and far more
cycleable late in the game than Zillahıs Valley. One Blood Doll exists for
Cailean, and then a bit of pool gain and cycling. Could probably use a few
more Masters overall, but space is thin in this deck.

In the main deck selection, 9 Lost in Crowds is enough stealth to get
through important actions, generally speaking, and then help some mid game
S+B action, but in general, you are going to be relying on the idea that
folks donıt *want* to block you more than anything else. 7 Raven Spy and 6
Catıs Guidance lend significant intercept. The Ratıs Warning could probably
be better served by being Wakes or something, but the Ratıs presses are
actually handy in this deck. The bulk of the rest of the deck is offense,
including Traps, repeating environmental damage (and protection from
weapons/presses to end) from Carrion Crows and DotBs, and Disguised Combat
Shotguns (probably the best weapon for Cailean, as he doesnıt need a
maneuver and isnıt striking more than once a round in any case) and some
good bleed support (the POT/PRE Iron Glare is a very good deal for those who
can use it). The 5 Eternal Vigilances are the key to the deck, as once
Cailean has one of these, he can untap and block anything he wants,
generally speaking, and when he blocks folks, he often mangles them horribly
(barring S:CE or Assamite combat). Throw in a couple Majesties to get your
old ladies car out of a bad area and some Deflections, as who canıt use
Deflections, and you have a pretty well rounded deck.

The strengths of the deck are a combination of reasonably strong forward
momentum, good defenses, and significant combat, plus the humiliation factor
that comes from being a total trump to many close range combat strategies.
The deck has many weaknesses, most of which are common to decks that rely on
a single vampire--that vampire getting locked down somehow, or worst of all,
Protect Thine Own, which this deck can do nothing against if it comes from
across table (Probably the main reason to not play this deck in a
competitive situation. Sad, really). It also will have trouble coming back
from early pool devastation, as it takes some time to set up. It also
suffers from having a lot of dead cards once the deck gets going--after the
first Disguised Shotgun is out, and after Cailean is already Eternally
Vigilant, there are upwards of a dozen mostly dead cards in the deck. The
Barrens helps out, but this deck spends a reasonable amount of time drawing
into redundant cards.

This being said, the deck is pretty entertaining if it lives past the first
4 or 5 turns (and then doesn't get PTOed...), it certainly has winning
potential. 


Peter D Bakija
pdb6@lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6

"Punk rock's been pretty good to me for twenty years. It's my year to give
back: I'm dedicating the next year of my life to fucking the Bush
administration."
-Fat Mike


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So I was sitting around today, not working (Veteran's day and all),
and I wanted to put a new deck together. I looked through all my
unused cards, and found large piles of Sanguinarius cards, as well as
8 Daring the Dawns that were going unused. I figured that there *had*
to be a way to use these effectively, and rather than doing that, I
put this deck together, that may be one of the stupidest decks I have
ever built.

"That's My Kinda Town!"

3x Jerry (5) SAN, for, pot
3x Larrry (5) SAN, for, pot, dem
3x Terry (5) POT, san, for, aus
2x Barry (5) san, pot, for, ani
2x Tom (3) san, pot, for

I'm going with 13 vamps rather than 12 as I wanted 3 each of the
important vampires and at least 2 of the other two (so they can get
burned occasionally and I can still maintain all 5).

7x Effective Management
6x Minion Tap
4x Information Highway
1x Powerbase: Chcago

I'd probably be better off with Blood Dolls instead of Minion Taps,
but I have run out (something about keeping, like, 15 decks around at
once). The powerbase isn't really a good idea, but what kind of deck
would this be if it wasn't in there (clearly, the answer is: "a good
one" Badum-bum-kat-CHING!)

18x Unwholsome Bond
14x Walk of Caine
8x Daring the Dawn
4x Rapid Healing
6x Pushing the Limit
6x Deflection
4x Mind Tricks
4x Enhanced Senses
2x Raven Spy
6x Wake

Ok. A really sketchy deck based on using Unwholsome to get out
vampires and gain pool as well as regain blood while making large
unblockable bleeds. As I'll probably have all 5 of the given vampires
out in any given game (lots of Effectives and Unwholsomes again), I
can splash a few good cards on fringe disciplines in the
deck--Deflections for some bounce, some light intercept, a bit of
stealth. Pushing the Limit is in as light "fight back" defense.

I went with the Chicago circle, rather than the Torrance circle as
they are smaller (and thus quicker and more disposable), and they have
funny, if actually useful, special abilities (Jerry lets you freely
rearrange blood; Larry gets built in intercept).

Any ideas or rampant mocking?

-Peter


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So anyways, inspired by a recent discussion thread involving the
necessity of Blood Dolls in decks, I wondered how much good Blood
Dolls actually do. Thus, in an attempt to really use some serious
Blood Doll action as well as integrate some lesser appreciated Anarchs
cards into a deck, I pulled together an arguably Nosferatu based
horde/bloat deck.

'Blood? Again?'

Crypt:
1x Basil (1) obf
1x Normal (2) obf
1x Dimple (2) obf
1x Max Lowell (3) obf
1x Watenda (3) obf
1x Dollface (3) obf
1x Shannon Price, The Whisperer (3) obf
1x Duck (3) obf
1x Sammy (4) obf
1x Agrippina (4) OBF
1x Cicatriz (5) obf
1x Lithrac (5) OBF

Library:
14x Blood Doll
6x Life in the City
4x Effective Management
1x The Rack
1x The Labyrinth
1x Humanitas

7x Cooler
2x Blood Tears of Kephran
1x Aaron's Feeding Razor
1x Palatial Estate
1x Catacombs
4x Kindred Intelligence
2x Arson
3x Rumors of Gehenna
1x Ritual of the Bitter Rose
1x Muddled Vampire Hunter
18x Night Moves
6x Lost in Crowds
6x Cloak the Gathering
4x Spying Mission
4x Faceless Night
2x Clotho's Gift

A weenie horde deck with the potential for a ridiculous amount of pool
gain and consistent, if small, bleed potential, if this deck survives
the early game and gets set up, it has the capability of rolling
forward though most opposition.

The crypt is a pretty straight forward weenie Obfuscate crypt,
focusing on Nosferatu (to facilitate the Kindred Intelligence angle).
On the high end, there is Lithrac to combo with the total prayer
Ritual of the Bitter Rose--if someone, somewhere is in torpor with
some blood on them, get the Edge, send Lithrac to diablerize and play
Ritual to refill all your vampires. Between the Edge, Lithrac's
special, Cicatriz's vote, and an extra Rumors vote card, he might just
survive the Blood Hunt (and if there is a great deal of vote presence
on the table, just send Basil...) Cicatriz is handy for a touch of
vote presence and a strong special ability in a heavy Obfuscate deck
(if no one ever tries to block you, Cicatriz's extra discard can be a
lifesaver). Sammy is the one real oddball, as he should be Regillio,
Seeker of Akhnaten, but I simply cannot abide by Regillio's portrait.
Sad, but at least Sammy is finally seeing some actual play in one of
my constructed Nosferatu decks!

The Master selection consists of an absurd number of Blood Dolls
(which, as the key to absolute victory, much like infernalism, should
drive me to winner?s ville :-). I figure with 14, I should draw them
early and often, facilitating survival in the early leg of the game,
as the only defense this deck has is pool gain, and without playing
Blood Dolls like every turn from the start of the game, the deck isn?t
really going to make it. By mid game, with 6 or 7 Blood Dolls and
enough blood influx, the deck should be able to survive quite a bit of
non Rush combat abuse. Life in the City keeps minions topped off, and
the Humanitas (combined with the Catacombs) stands in for the only
combat defense in the deck--yeah, you can torporize me with impunity,
but I'll just pop back out for free (at least in theory).

With lots of minions and lots of actions available, equipment is going
to work out just fine. The Coolers result in a constant influx of
blood to the vampires with little of the risk that is associated with
hunting grounds--they are very unlikely to be burned or stolen and you
can pack multiples of them without contesting. Aaron's Razor is great
for the long run, and the Blood Tears are an easy investment in the
future. Rumors of Gehenna help the deck flow (and survive early in the
game by speeding up the Blood Doll application), and if you give
everyone at the table the benefit, it just might actually pass. 18
Night Moves is in no way out of the question, in terms of efficiency
and forward momentum--with 7 or 8 minions in play by the mid game,
they will flow much better than regular stealth (as most folks will
stop trying to block at some point), and combined with 1 stealth
modifier will tend to make most bleeds unblockable. Sure, you can't
ever bleed for more than 1, but who was going to do that anyway?

The strengths of the deck are clearly the potential for rampant pool
gain and the advantages that come from having lots of weenie minions.
Most bleed defenses will be hard pressed to keep up with the deck, as
bouncing 1 point bleeds is generally futile and and it'll be difficult
to intercept reliably +4 stealth bleeds.

What'll kill this deck? Clearly, Rush combat. These little vampires
will just get thrown into torpor with reckless abandon if attacked.
The Humanitas and Catacombs are a token effort, but the best defense
against Rush combat for this deck is to simply hope they don't have
blasters. Early speed bleeding is also likely to be a problem, as the
pool won't start rolling in until the mid game, so it is not
impossible to get run over before getting set up.

http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html

-Peter Bakija


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"We Still Have +1 Strength"

2x Parmenedies (4) CEL, +1 str
1x Sargon (5) cel, pre, +1 str
2x Bianca (6) CEL, pre, +1 str
2x Parnasus (7) CEL, +1 str
2x Richter (7) CEL, pre, +1 str
2x Miller Delmartigan (8) CEL, PRE, +1 str
1x Aziz (10) CEL, PRE, +1 str

6x Minion Tap
1x Depravity
1x KRCG
1x Rumor Mill
1x Market Square
1x Guardian Angel
1x Presence
1x Giant's Blood
1x Metro Underground

8x Bum's Rush
4x Taste of Vitae
8x Wake
7x Elder Intervention
1x Sport Bike
1x Mr. Winthrop
1x Sengir Dagger
8x Legal Manipulation
2x Aire of Elation
9x Pursuit
8x Blur
8x Sideslip
7x Flash
2x Acrobatics
1x Rapid Thought
1x Quickness

Kind of all over the place for a deck by me, but it just might work.
Pretty good rush and combat, Wakes, some reasonable permanent
intercept, some good transient intercept against bleeds. I think more
than anything, it needs more Tastes, but all my other ones are in
other decks. It completely lacks any Psyches, but I figure with the
intercept angle and the good bleed, they are less necessary (that, and
they are in other decks with the rest of my Tastes). Reasonable pool
gain from the Minion Taps and Legal Manipulations. But then, I'm still
using Sargon, 'cause I am still convinced that Infernalism is the key
to ultimate victory...

-Peter


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³Iım Compressing Your Head!²
by Peter Bakija

Crypt:
2x Wolfgang (4) for, obf, pot
2x Lithrac (5) OBF, for, thn
2x George Fredric (6) FOR, THN, obf
2x Jorge De La Muerte! (7) OBF, THN, for
2x Reg Driscoll (8) OBF, THN, for
2x The Baron (9) FOR, OBF, THN

Library:
7x Minion Tap
3x Coronerıs Contact
2x Fortitude
2x Dirty Contract
1x Regenerative Blood
1x Vast Wealth

10x Freak Drive
8x Restoration
8x Rapid Healing
8x Force of Will
8x Indomitibility
8x Compression
2x Ashes to Ashes
8x Lost in Crowds
4x Swallowed by the Night
2x Hidden Lurker
2x Bumıs Rush
2x Harass
4x Laptop Computer

A pretty straight forward Fortitude based bleed deck, with a few handy
angles. Get out a minion (preferably one with FOR), Minion Tap some 
pool back, have them Restore, Force of Will at stealth, Freak, 
Rapidly Heal out of torpor. Repeat as necessary. The Compressions 
give the Samedi some reasonable combat threat--with some light rush 
capabilities (including Hidden Lurker, just to really punish some 
Majesty monkey for blocking), Compression can reliably burn vampires 
late in the game, especially with Indomitability to provide light 
prevention and presses (to facilitate removing some of your 
opponentıs blood before the Compression for a burn).
Indomitability keeps a little extra blood on your vampires, and two 
Ashes to Ashes give you an unprecedented ability to get your old 
ladies car out of a bad area--get unfortunately Immortally Grappled 
by some Brujah bruiser? Play Ashes to Ashes/Fun to Funky, get out of 
combat free, take no damage, untap, and gain 2 blood! Sure, no you 
are in torpor, but with the plentiful Rapid Healings and reliable 
stealth, you are out of torpor quickly, and 3 blood richer than when 
you started this whole action. Not shabby! Wolfgang is a handily 
action runner who, while he canıt burn anyone with Compression, can 
certainly punch for 3 in a pinch, which is often all you need.

The Master selection allows you some reasonable pool gain, light 
rush, and the 3 Coronerıs Contact allow you to pretty much always 
have the right Samedi for the job, and you get a free transfer, to 
boot! The Vast Wealth makes finding those Laptops much easier, and if 
you can play it on Reg Driscol, he can set everyone up with a nice, 
new computer.

The Crypt seems reasonably solid--an average of 6.5, but the Minion 
Taps certainly help out there. 4 of the vampires in the Crypt have +1 
bleed, and another 2 have conditional +1 bleed, so between that, the 
Laptops, and the Forceds, the this deck can put up quite a bleed 
assault.

What are the weaknesses of this deck? Well, clearly bounce is going 
to be bad (unless you Compress the bouncer), as is a really fast 
bleed predator (well, unless their vampires are easily killed). 
Immortal Grapple combat could be problematic (as Compression is not a 
hand strike...), but Ashes to Ashes certainly can help out in such a 
situation. And votes. This deck has, like, zero intercept and only 
two votes in the whole deck (4 if Lithrac diablerizes someone!), so 
it is likely to get shifted all over the table. Basically, this deck 
is fraught with issues, but in the right circumstances, it might do 
just fine.


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Tortured Confessions: Ithaca
Ithaca, New York
April 25th, 2003
10 players

The winning deck by Peter Bakija:
"But Where are Kim and Kelly Deal?"

Crypt:
2x Selma the Repugnant (8) OBF, Prince
2x Murat (7) OBF, Prince
2x Nikolaus Vermullen (7) obf, Prince
2x Calebros. The Martyr (5) obf, Prince
2x Laurent de Valois (4) obf, dom
1x Agrippina (4) OBF
1x Dimple (2) obf

Library:
8x Obfuscate
1x Dominate
3x Blood Doll
1x Slum Hunting Ground
1x Secret Library of Alexandria
1x Powerbase Montreal
1x Powerbase Rome

10x Third Tradition: Progeny
2x Second Tradition: Domain
12x Consanguineous Boon
3x Ancillae Empowerment
2x Parity Shift
1x Kindred Restructure
4x Praxis Seizure (various)
2x Nosferatu Justicar
8x Spying Mission
6x Lost in Crowds
6x Swallowed By the Night
6x Night Moves
6x Behind You!
6x Deflection


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So after the abject failure of my +1 strength/CEL deck y'all helped me out
with a couple weeks ago (too slow, vampires too big, too vulnerable to other
types of combat), I stripped it for parts, and, deciding to take advantage
of the cool new Concealed Weapon, I reassembled the wreckage as a new
CEL/gun deck.

Granted, it is built around the exact same Rush engine I always use (one
could even claim it was "modular"...), but it has cool new stuff!

Pistolero!

Crypt:
1x Angel (2) cel
1x Kanya Akhtar (2) cel
2x Sarah Brando (3) CEL
2x Victor Toliver (4) CEL
2x Jimmy Dunn (4) CEL
1x Parmenides (4) CEL
1x Dodd (5) CEL
1x Black Cat (5) CEL
1x Volker (5) CEL

Avg of 3.75

4x Haven Uncovered
4x Blood Doll
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Fame
1x Slave Auction

12x Bum's Rush
8x Concealed Weapon
8x .44 Magnum
8x Taste of Vitae
8x Computer Hacking
10x Psyche!
10x Blur
8x Pursuit
6x Side Slip

Pretty straight forward--The crypt seems reasonable--I could use some of (or
both of) the 1 point caitif with cel instead of the 2's, but I figure 2
blood gives more room for error when Blur costs a blood (that, and I could
use Carter instead of Kanya, but I found his blue border *way* too garish
for the crypt...) I was thinking about Black Cat instead of, say, Rigby, but
I don't think her special works with Concealed (although still is handy if I
wanna waste an action to equip), and I'm not real fond of Black Cats's
picture.

I kinda like the Slave Auction, as if I get it early, it is like 4 free
pool, especially considering how few master cards there are, although it
might simply be better off as a Blood Doll or a Fame.

The minion cards seem pretty obvious, although I'd consider swapping out 2
Blur for 2 more Pursuit, for extra manuvers in a pinch, although there are
plenty of manuvers already, considering the guns and the Bum's Rushes.

Any ideas?


Peter D Bakija
PDB6@bigplanet.com
http://www.myplanet.net/pdb6

"she tore down Paris on the tail of Thom Paine
but the left wing's broken and the right's insane"
-Bowie


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So 'cause it was so fun last time, I decided to post another deck, looking
for advice from the various luminaries about.

This deck is, well, something. I like it, but when ever I play it, on the
down side, everyone hates me, but on the upside, the game is much faster :-)
That, and I'm fairly certain, every time I have played this deck, I have
ousted Sackett across the table, so he keeps kicking me. This being said, it
has won more often than not, but does extra well in 3 player games.

We Got Auspexitude!

2x Franciscus (1) aus
1x Brazil (2) aus
1x Dieter (2) aus
1x Zoe (3) AUS
2x Isabel de leon (3) AUS
1x Idalia (4) AUS
1x Richard Tauber (4) AUS
1x Remilliard (4) AUS
1x Aleph (4) AUS
1x Miriam Benyona (5) AUS

9x Anarch Revolt
1x Antediluvian Awakening
1x Smiling Jack
1x Millicent Smith
1x Auspex
1x Metro Underground
1x Parthenon
2x Life Boon
1x Blood Doll
1x Tribute to the Master
1x Short Term Investement

14x Eagle's Sight
8x Precognition
8x Enhanced Senses
8x Telepathic Misdirection
2x My Enemy's Enemy
8x Read Intentions
2x Anesthetic Touch
9x Telepathic Counter
9x Forced Awakening
2x .44 Magnum

Right. Where I am in need of most advice is the pool gain Master selection.
I originally had 5 blood dolls, but then realized that I didn't want to
deplete all my small vampires and have them hunting all the time or not have
the blood necessary to Misdirect, and/or get intercepted and killed. So I
took out the 5 Blood Dolls (after, ya know, depleting my little vamps,
having them hunt, and them getting intercepted and killed...) and replaced
them with other stuff. I left in 1 of them, figuring that one blood doll is
always a good thing, and I might want to send blood back; I put in a
Tribute, as a massive gain of 4 or 5 pool in one shot is always useful in
the land of Anarch Revolts. I put in an STI, 'cause I couldn't think of any
other way to reasonably gain some pool (barring Ascendance) that didn't take
it off my minions or wasn't very protacted (like a Powerbase that just takes
to long to pay back). Any ideas there?

I like the crypt, but full well know that I could be using Dorian
Strackackackackack, but I simply don't like his picture (the violin and
pirate shirt just don't work for me, as much as I love pirates), so he's
out. I really like Miriam, as she wins the "I'm the best 5 point for just
AUS vampire in the game!" award. The Anasthetic Touches aren't, generally
speaking, any better than the Read Intentions, but they let the aus vamps
dodge sometimes, and in a pinch Miriam can, like, get her old lady's car out
of a multiple strike situation (Ooh! Ooh! Saved from Garou! Score!).

Any other good ideas?


Peter D Bakija
PDB6@bigplanet.com
http://www.myplanet.net/pdb6

"she tore down Paris on the tail of Thom Paine
but the left wing's broken and the right's insane"
-Bowie


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We Got +1 Strength!

So inspired by a conversation Ihad with Derek at the NE Quallifiers, I built 
a +1 strength/CEL rush deck to try out. I played it last night and didn't do 
too hot, but just by pure luck, the table consisted of, in order:

-Malk S+B deck
-Guns/Cel Rush deck
-Nosferatu Pot/Ani Rush deck
-Gangrel poke in the eye Rush deck
-My +1 strength/CEL Rush deck

Which was odd, as we had played three games, and in the other two, there weren't 
really an significant combat decks at all. This one just sort of ended up 
randomly to be all combat (suffice to say, the Malk deck didn't fare so well :-) 
I made a mess of the Malk deck, and managed to oust him (mostly by virtue of us 
being both screwed and him transfering out his last 2 pool to spite the table), 
but had a lot of trouble against my Gangrel predator, and was in a rough spot, 
as my grand prey was another Rush deck filled with spite (isn't the amount of 
spite in VTES fantastic :-), so if I got out Parmenides early, he just would 
have been killed.

After the game, I tweaked it up, and here is what it currently looks like:

2x Paremenidies (4) CEL, +1 strength
1x Sargon (5) cel, pre, +1 strength
2x Bianca (6) CEL, pre, +1 strength
2x Blaise (7) CEL, +1 strength
2x Richter (7) CEL, pre, +1 strength
1x Parnassus (7) CEL, +1 strength
2x Miller Delmartigan (8) CEL, PRE, +1 strength, free Blur

6x Minion Tap
1x Blood Doll
3x Haven Uncovered
1x Depravity
1x Fame
1x Special Report
1x Fragnod

12x Bum's Rush
12x Psyche!
12x Blur
12x Pursuit
10x Side Strike
8x Legal Manipulation
10x Taste of Vitae

Very straight forward--Rush n kill with multiple strikes, using Psyche when necessary. 
Lots of additional strikes, lots of dodge to avoid things like Gangrel, enough manuvers, 
lots of Taste to fill up after Minion Tapping, some reasonable bleed out capabilities. 
I put in a Special Report as it is funny, and in most cases, will be just as effective 
as a 4th Haven. I was trying out using some Harass last night, but was instantly 
screwed on my first viable action 'cause all I had in my hand was a Harass and my 
prey had an untapped 6 point vampire who I couldn't attack (so I tried to bleed him, 
got bounced to the Nosferatu, blocked, and we beat eachother mercilessly which didn't 
help either of us, but it was certainly spite-tacular). I have Sargon in there as is, 
he is pretty cool and has presence--that, and the key to ultimate victory is *always* 
being infernal...

I'm currently debating between the Side Strikes (dodge/additional strike) and 
Side Slip (dodge/damage prevention). The Side Slip is kind of easier to cycle 
and is really good against Gangrel (and still handy for prevention), but then 
I'd be down 10 extra strikes (leaving me at, well, 24...). 
What do you think, sirs?


Peter D Bakija
PDB6@bigplanet.com
http://www.myplanet.net/pdb6

"she tore down Paris on the tail of Thom Paine
but the left wing's broken and the right's insane"
-Bowie


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On to the deck of the month, which is kind of a silly deck, but might
actually be moderately useful. Or not, but if nothing else, it is funny.
Based on the interaction between the new wording on Patagia: Flaps Allowing
Limited Flight (which now provide limited flight!) and the powerful new High
Ground (well, powerful if you have flight), I have devised a
Nosferatu/Gargoyle flight based combat deck. Granted, I canıt actually build
it, due to my lack of High Grounds (hey--if anyone wants to trade me some,
drop me a line...), but in theory, it seems viable.

Crypt:
2x Wolfgang (4): pot, for, obf
2x Obsidian (5): pot, for
2x Alonzo Gulien (6): OBF, pot, for
2x Gerrard Rafin (6): POT, OBF, for
2x Ferrox, Rock Lord (7): POT, FOR
2x Nikolaus Vermullen (7): POT, obf, for

Library:
4x Haven Uncovered
3x Blood Doll
2x Minion Tap
2x Fame
1x Tension in the Ranks
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Slum Hunting Ground

6x Patagia: Flaps Allowing Limited Flight
10x High Ground
6x Freak Drive
6x Skin of Rock
4x Indomitability
16x Thrown Sewer Lid
6x Increased Strength
4x Bumıs Rush
4x Harass
2x Ambush
6x Taste of Vitae
6x Cloak the Gathering

Is this deck good? Probably not, but it is kind of funny. It acts as kind of
a combat trump deck, good for punishing your pal who always plays a close
range combat deck. Have your Nosferatu grow wings, rush, set range to long,
and fling sewer lids till something dies. Youıll tend to avoid damage from
most folks, and for those who can shoot you at range, there is some light
damage prevention. The Freak Drives make up for the need to waste actions to
grow wings, and allow for multiple rush actions with a single minion on a
single turn (Gerrard Bumıs Rushes, Freak, Harass, Freak, vist someoneıs
Haven, etc). Light stealth can help get the Patagia actions through against
someone who really wants to block, and can pave the way for laser guided
Rush actions.

What are the weakness of this deck? Well, the main weakness is that it is
kind of dumb. That being said, itıll have trouble against a predator that
does anything quickly, as it brings out minions slowly and then doesnıt have
that many anyway. Against the dreaded Strike: Combat Ends, itıs got nothing.
At all. So hope you donıt run into any of that :-)

On the up side, itıll really trump close range combat, and can kill pretty
well. Even with inferior potence, you can do respectable damage, so the
master card selection is wider than in most combat decks, due to not really
needing any skill cards. As it will pretty much always be fighting at long
range (otherwise, well, it isnıt going to work), your minions arenıt going
to take much damage, so you can afford to suck most of their blood back into
your pool.


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The Presence of Vicissitude by Peter D Bakija

1x Violet Tremain (6) vic, pre
3x The Rose (5) VIC, PRE, aus
3x Creamy Jade (5) vic, PRE, aus
2x Enid Blount (5) vic, pre, aus
2x Hugo (4) vic, pre
1x Lolita Huston (4) VIC, aus

5x Vicissitude
5x Blood Doll
1x Library Hunting Ground
1x Anarch Troublemaker

8x Social Charm
6x Enchant Kindred
6x Aire of Elation
12x Changeling
8x Plasmic Form
8x Chiropterian Marauder
6x Meld with the Land
6x Inner Essence
2x Horrid Form
4x Spirit's Touch
4x Enhanced Senses
2x Marijava Ghoul
6x Wake

It'll probably get totally killed by a standard S+B deck, but other than that, 
it isn't that bad--good bleed, reasonable stealth, light intercept, good combat 
defense/light offense. Changeling is a fantastic card, and I actually used the 
dodge from Plasmic Form more than once (as I was sitting next to multiple combat 
decks...) The Marijava Ghouls are probably unecessary (as I have 20 cards that 
can provide stealth already, and I'm likely to torporize interceptors), and I 
might replace them with 2 more Meld with the Land.

I'm considering removing Violet from the crypt, and replacing her with maybe a 
second Lolita. Any other ideas?


Peter D Bakija
http://www.myplanet.net/pdb6


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This month, I have put together what is probably a pretty effective Nosferatu
deck. Ok, sure, it is only a Nosferatu deck by virtue of having 4 total
Nosferatu in the crypt, but they are the key to the deck, and without them, the
deck doesn't really do anything good.

"Prom Queen"

2x Grendel the Worm-Eaten (5) OBF
2x Agrippina (4) OBF
1x Lena Rowe (3) obf, pre
1x Celeste, the Voice of a Secret (3) pre
1x Delilah Easton (2) pre
1x Fredrick, the Weak (2) pre
1x Vasilis, the Traitor of Tom Cruise (2) pre
1z Angela Decker (1) pre
1x Igo, the Hungry (1) pre
1x Antoinette DuChamp (1) pre

Avg. of 2.75

8x Presence
4x Effective Management
4x Blood Doll
2x Secure Haven
1x Fragment of the Book of Nod
1x Powerbase: Montreal

18x Cloak the Gathering
4x Disguised Weapon
12x Enchant Kindred
10x Social Charm
6x Kindred Intelligence
2x Patagia-Flaps Allowing Limited Flight!
2x Nosferatu Justicar
2x Rumors of Gehenna
6x Fake Out
4x Arson
2x Flame Thrower
2x Assault Rifle

Prom Queen (clearly referring to Agrippina, the belle of the ball) is
essentially a Presence weenie bleed deck with stealth back up. It gets all the
benefits of speed and relentlessness that come from a little vampire bleed
deck, but backs it up with the incredibly flexible stealth provided by Cloak
the Gathering. Agrippina or Grendel can hand out +1 stealth on every action
taken by another vampire, tapped or no. If you have out Agrippina and Grendel,
they can combine Cloaks (effectively circumventing the "only one of each type
of action modifier per action per minion" rule) for +2 stealth if necessary.
Heck, if it is Lena Rowe acting and someone tries to block in earnest, you can
play up to three Cloaks on a single action! Sure, if no one ever tries to
block, you are stuck with a whole lot of unusable stealth, but if no one is
trying to block, you are probably ousting your prey anyway (well, that or
dead...)


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NorthEast Qualifier Tournament at Totalcon 
Feb 23rd, 2002 
Andover, MA. 
Winning Deck by Peter Bakija

The Nosferatu Hate You! (version 6.0)

Crypt:
2x Hesina Kesi (1) pot
1x Paul DiCarlo, The Alpha (2) pot
1x KoKo (2) pot
2x Duck (3) pot, obf
2x Agatha (4) POT, obf
2x Olivia (5) POT, OBF, Bishop
1x Nigel the Shunned (5) POT, obf
1x Beast, Leatherface of Detroit (7) POT, OBF

Average of 3.5

Library:
4x Haven Uncovered
3x Potence
3x Blood Doll
2x Fame
2x Dreams of the Sphinx

12x Immortal Grapple
10x Undead Strength
10x Torn Signpost
4x Fists of Death
4x Disarm
2x Decapitate
8x Behind You
8x Taste of Vitae
11x Bum's Rush
6x Computer Hacking
1x Delaying Tactics

The Delaying Tactics was my total prayer card, put in to hopefully avoid
getting Dramatic Upheavaled and having my VP stolen, but I never actually
played it this tournament. The Computer Hackings were a fairly recent
addition, and they were nothing but good--they sped up my ability to bleed,
often doubled as a Rush action, and could always be cycled. I'm thinking
about taking out the last two Decapitates for 2 more Hackings. And the Paul
DeCarlo? Yeah, sure he is just another 2 cap with pot, but between the hot
chick, cool suit, and looking like John Cale, he added nothing but class to
my deck.


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The deck I decided to put together revolves around the titled Nosferatu
vampires, most of which have Fortitude (making including the Samedi an easy
proposition). As I was planning on using titled vampires, a political and
Traditions based deck was the obvious plan, but to back up the votes as well as
make the inclusion of the Samedi moderately logical, I backed up the basic
strategy with a combat function.

Crypt:
2x Sheldon, Lord of the Clog (9) POT, OBF, for, Justicar
2x The Baron (9) THN, OBF, FOR, 2 votes
2x Suhailah (9) pot, OBF, FOR, Prince
2x Selma, the Repugnant (8) POT, OBF, for, Prince
2x Nikolaus Vermeulen (7) POT, obf, for, Prince
2x Lithrac (5) thn, OBF, for

Library:
8x Minion Tap
3x Zillah's Valley
1x Info Highway
1x Secret Horde
1x Dirty Contract
1x Coroner's Contract

6x 5th Tradition
8x Second Tradition
1x Ancient Influence
1x Political Stranglehold
6x Parity Shift
6x Kine Resources Contested
8x Superior Mettle
8x Compress
1x Ashes to Ashes
6x Immortal Grapple
6x Torn Signpost
5x Swallowed by the Night
5x Forgotten Labyrinth
1x Hidden Lurker
3x Bum's Rush
2x Taste of Vitae
1x Ritual of the Bitter Rose
1x Hand of Conrad

Looking at the crypt, Sheldon, Selma and Nikolaus are all very obvious
inclusions, as they have the appropriate disciplines and titles, and Nikolaus's
has a very solid special ability. Suhailah is a perfect counterpart to the
titled Nosferatu, as she has a good spread of matching disciplines, a title, +1
bleed, and a good special ability that isn't that unlikely to be useful. As for
the Samedi, the Baron is an excellent choice as he has all neccessary
disciplines at superior, 2 votes, and +1 bleed (although his other special
ability will rarely every be important). Lithrac is an excellent choice for
this deck, as he is cheap, has a reasonable discipline spread, and gives extra
support to Blood Hunt votes (which is smomething this deck will often have
opportunity to take advantage of). His +1 stealth for Bum's Rushing is even
useful. It is a large and expensive crypt over all, but 8 of the 12 vampires
are big enough to benefit from the Zillah's Valleys, and they are mostly going
to be Minion Tapped anyway.

Overall, this deck is moderately effective, occasionally winning games, but
sometimes getting shut down by a quicker more traditional vote deck. The Samedi
fit in nicely, help out with combat and general support, and don't really take
much away from the deck--sure, they could be replaced with other titled
Nosferatu, but I don't think it would make that much difference, as The Baron
is just as effective as any other vampire that could replace him, and Lithrac
is both cheap and effective in this deck. Problems include fast stealth and
bleed deck with heavy stealth and heavy vote opposition from around the table,
although all the political action cards in the deck have bribery options--KRC
and Parity Shift can help another player in exchange for vote support, and
Ancient Influence and Political Stranglehold often have many supporters around
the table. The deck has enough stealth to get past light intercept and enough
combat to dissuade rush based attackers and intercept attempts. All in all,
certainly an effective casual deck, but probably not up to incredibly
competetive standards.


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Weenie Animalism

1x Joaquina Amaya (6) ANI
1x Bear Paw (5) ANI
1x Devin Bisley (5) ANI
2x Nigel the Shunned (5) ANI
2x Shannon Price, the Whisperer (3) ani
1x Tommy (3) ani
1x Wendy Wade (3) ani
1x Vliam Andor (2) ani
1x Dani (2) ani
1x Navar McCracken (1) ani

6x Blood Doll
4x Animalism
2x Shanty Town Hunting Ground
1x KRCG
1x Rumor Mill
1x Metro Underground
1x Nosferatu Kingdom
2x Smiling Jack

16x Aid from Bats
2x Canine Hordes
7x Carrion Crows
12x Cat's Guidance
4x Rat's Warning
4x Guard Dogs
4x Army of Rats
6x Raven Spy
4x Murder of Crows
2x Owl Companion
3x Shepherd's Innocence
1x Mr. Winthrop
7x Forced Awakening

Yeah, I suppose this is much more of an Intercept deck than anything else, 
but as it doesn't really care about killing folks, the killing angle, while 
strong, isn't so vital. It can pack some pretty strong intercept (with the 
Shepherd's Innocence, if I have a S+B predator, I can get 3 or 4 Ravens on 
one guy, and just keep untapping him to block). With ANI, Aid from Bats is 
incredibly efficient, as you get a manuver (avoiding the need for Song of 
Serenity in most cases), a press (avoiding the need for a Trap) and the point 
of damage (which is greatly enhanced by the Carrion Crows and the Murders of 
Crows). Against a serious combat deck, it is screwed (much like yours), but 
against a S:CE deck, it doesn't really care--if I can kill your guys, good, 
but if not, I can just keep blocking. Plus, with the Owl Spies, you can see 
if they have S:CE before you waste any cards...


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"Night Out at the Gothateria"

 1x Fredrick the Weak (2) pre
 1x Delilah Easton (2) pre
 1x Remilliard, Devout Crusader (4) pre, AUS
 1x Mariana Gilbert (4) PRE
 1x Felicia Mostrom (5) pre, AUS
 1x Ramiel Dupre (5) PRE, aus
 1x Victoria Ash (6) PRE, aus, Primogen, can tap younger vampires
 1x Ian Wallingford (6) PRE, aus, Bishop
 1x Jost Werner (6) PRE, AUS, +1 stealth
 1x Sheila Mezarin (6) PRE, AUS, +1 bleed
 1x Greta Kircher (7) PRE, AUS, can reduce bleeds
 1x Jessica (7) PRE, AUS, Bishop

Average vampire size of 5.

 6x Misdirection
 1x Anarch Troublemaker
 6x Blood Doll
 2x Auspex
 1x Presence
 1x Fetish Club Hunting Ground
 1x Society Hunting Ground
 1x Art Museum
 1x Palla Grande

12x Majesty
 9x Social Charm
 6x Enchant Kindred
 3x Propaganda
 1x Entrancement
 6x Aire of Elation
 6x Mind Numb
 8x Telepathic Misdirection
 2x My Enemy's Enemy
 4x Change of Target
10x Wake
 3x Marijava Ghoul


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The Nosferatu are well known for their abundant stealth but
lack of anything good to do with it. By taking full advantage of the numerous
(albiet huge) Nosferatu with Fortitude, we can attempt to build a viable
Nosferatu S+B deck with Force of Will for bleeds, various Obfuscate cards for
stealth,