Official Nosferatu Newsletter for November, 2003 So I have been totally slacking off of late with the Nosferatu Newsletters, but with the upcoming Black Hand expansion on the horizon that'll be rich with Anti-Nosferatu goodness, I figure I'd get off my ass and get back in the habit, for a while at least. 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. Feel free to check out my other 38 Nosferatu Newsletters archived at: http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html -Peter Bakija