Official VEKN Nosferatu Newsletter for July, 2003 So after my smashing success at Origins with a Camarilla/Bloodlines draft deck made of mostly Samedi (and by smashing success, I mean, well, I won a game...), I was inspired to put together a viable constructed deck out of the Nosferatuıs pals, the Samedi. The deck in question fits into the Nosferatu Newsletter by virtue of two things: A) It has Wolfgang. 2 Wolfgangs. Back when I originally reviewed all the CE Nosferatu, I gave Wolfgang something like 3 stars, or 5 as the perfect vampire for some goofy trick deck. As this is that deck, well, Wolfgang rocks the world. B) If I didnıt use this deck for the newsletter, well, Iıd have to think of something else. Anyway, as the Samedi are all gross and zombie like anyway, who is going to notice the difference? So I put together a mostly Samedi bleed deck, based on having lots and lots of Freak Drives (Freak Drives are really easy to get these days--buy a CE Ventrue starter for 10 bucks, get 2 Freaks, and sell off the Protect Thine Own for 5 bucks. It is almost like profit!), and having, in effect, a pretty good crypt due to Wolfgang, who is, for all intents and purposes, a 4 point Samedi. ³Iım Compressing Your Head!² 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.