Brujah Ascendent?

Interesting conflux of events -
1) The recent Eden Legacy Storyline results (Brujah tied at 6 wins with Guruhi with Dmitra Ilyanova as favorite Key Minion)
2) VTES_OS's concluded poll showing Dmitra being the best Brujah (more so that even the Eurobrujahs or Theo Bell)
3) extrala's ongoing poll of the best Deck of the Month 2009 showing a G4/5 Brujah Deck (featuring Ms Ilyanova again) leading the vote.

Dmitra Ilyanova is an awesome Justicar no matter how you slice it; 9cap, CEL FOR POT PRE obf with a blood gain special makes her very cost effective. She can either hang out with Count Germaine (identical disc. spread) and bludgeon people up, or go bruise vote with the other Bru princes (Tara, Karen Suadela and Carlak).

G1/2 or G2/3 Brujah tended to focus on the DOM Princes and Theo Bell to achieve its aims; no matter how i look it, Eurobrujah is the more efficient means of victory. Good deck archetype, but predictable.

With KoT are the Philosophers able to finally move on? New Carthage is one of the best Masters I've seen for a long time.

Having said that, there aren't that many alternate routes that the Brujah can employ; there are NO weenies with superior Potence; earliest is Tara at 6Cap. The weenies are a cruel mess of cel, pre and other crap disc like OBF, ani, aus. Every single time I see Herbert Westin he's in a Settite deck; for god's sake just make him an FoS. So weenie POT is out.

Midcaps wise, other than the oft-mentioned Princes (and Count Germaine), there aren't many that particularly stand out. Jack Drake sorta fits in Anarch decks but he's a little too expensive at 8cap. Don Cerro tries to be Ian Forestal with 5 inferior disc; perhaps he can swing with the Anarchs too? Though he lacks ani, tha and obf that would make him truly sing. Tomaine is decent but I'd choose Tara anytime for the Traditions. Themistocles is kind of iffy; FOR is great, AUS is great, but his special at +0 stealth is probably never successfully used. Though it could be used to force combat.

Largecaps-wise Gracetius and Adana de Sforza are excellent for their out-clan disc combo-ing their specials; Gracetius is a No Secrets from the Magaji-lite if he spams Raven Spies and Adana can abuse PRO for aggra-poke and Flesh of Marble and OBF for stealth. Unfortunately the rest of the clan lacks these skills.

One of my greatest gripes about Brujah is that they are terrible at stealth, intercept and bounce; they lack both the delivery method and the means to foil others'. Potence combat, scary as it is, isn't stealth. At least Resist Earth's Grasp is available for that +1 stealth at CEL. Don't mention the crazy expensive Alacrity. obf exists on Karen Suadela, Count Germaine and Dmitra Ilyanova so perhaps that could work. I often resort to Princes and 2nd Tradition or rushing (or both) to stop bleeders.

On the final analysis, it appears that bruise vote is the best and perhaps only way to win with them. They are really good at it when Dmitra is leading the way. Unfortunately this pigeonholes them, just like what happened to G2 Brujah. This predictability, and the spotty stealth, intercept and bounce, hurts them in serious tournaments.

How do other Brujah players overcome these limitations?


Also, I'd like to see a good G4/5 Brujah deck that eschews the Princes and Dmitra.