not the elder, but the minion's hand
by arden mcbathan

how about trying this variant...

construct a normal deck, with 12 crypt cards of at least 50 capacity,
and a library with a total maximum of 70 cards, with up to 8 master
cards, minion cards(except equipment, retainers and allies) equal to
the total capacity of the crypt plus up to 12 equipment, retainers and
ally cards.

take the masters in your hand(no specific hand size, so all of them)

when you influence out a minion, search your library for x minion
cards(including equipment, retainers and allies; e.r.&a. from now),
where x is the capacity of the minion brought out, this is the
minion's hand. you need to put at least one card of each discipline
the vampire has into his/her hand when possible(barring some caitiff
or pander). when a minion learns a discipline at superior level,
he/she may use a card using that discipline from his/her ash heap
again, once, until your next untap phase.

each minion has his own ash heap & hand. during your untap phase,
shuffle each minion's ash heap into his hand.

when you play an e.r.&a. card, search your library for a card to
replace it, e.r.&a. cards are not put into a minions ash heap, but
yours, as are master cards. other permanents(actions, combat, reaction
and action modifiers) are put in the minions ash heap once they get
burned.

when a minion is burned, he and his hand are removed from the game,
e.&r. on him go to the card owner's ash heap.

this is a very fast variant, since you always have the cards you need,
which allows for fast play with abusive combos.

what do you think?