Bleeding the Vine

Deck Idea: Victoria and her Edges

2011-09-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

Past experiences with my old Rachel Brandywine deck showed me the power of Victoria/Madness Network/Instability. With Victoria in play, having the Edge at the start of your turn allows a steady pool gain of 3. Throw in an Instability and you'll net 5 (and your prey gains the Edge).

Ensure that happens through Madness Network and obf Malks acting during your predator's turn, (bleeding for 1 at +3 stealth with Night Moves is the simplest choice). During your turn, Night Moves again by another obf weenie to take the Edge away from your prey (effectively bleeding for 2).

This pool gain strategy has two vulnerable linchpins, Madness Network (burnable) and Victoria (not exactly tough with AUS cel obf). Thus weenie auspex becomes the defence of choice. Synergistically, there are plenty of Malkavians that have obf and/or aus.

Actual ousting strategy would then be through Smiling Jack, defended by said weenie auspex vampires.

Thoughts?

Crypt: (12)
3x Victoria 5 AUS cel obf Malkavian:2
1x Aleph 4 AUS dom Malkavian:1
1x Dorian Strack   4 AUS pre Toreador:1
1x Zöe   3 AUS cel obf Malkavian:2
1x Dollface   3 aus obf Malkavian:1
1x Isabel de Leon   3 AUS Toreador:1
1x Lena Rowe   3 aus obf pre Pander:2
1x Watenda   3 obf Malkavian:2
1x Normal   2 obf Malkavian:1
1x Brazil   2 aus Malkavian:1

Library: (90)
Master: (16)
7x Instability
2x Madness Network
2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1x Asylum Hunting Ground
1x Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x The Rack

Action: (16)
12x Night Moves
2x Atonement
2x Clotho's Gift

Combat: (10)
5x Fake Out
3x Concealed Weapon
2x Disguised Weapon

Equipment: (7)
4x Sniper Rifle
2x Bowl of Convergence
1x Ivory Bow

Reaction: (41)
14x Eyes of Argus
7x Eagle's Sight
6x On the Qui Vive
4x Precognition
4x Spirit's Touch
3x Enhanced Senses
3x Wake with Evening's Freshness

1st Standard Tournament win with Brujah Royalty

2011-09-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

Won a Bloodlines "Battle Lines" storyline tourney before, with my Kiaysd/Lilith's Blessing stealth-bleed deck, but starting out with Lilith's Blessing is broken anyways. Incidentally, I got a WoW CCG playmat (don't play that game) as 1st place prize.

My first standard tournament win; pretty pumped about it. Come on, getting my name in the Holy Grail, Lasombra's TWDA? AND getting an autographed Brujah Debate card as an extra prize when I played Brujah!?

Folks came from all over the Bay, with the South Bay playgroup all showing up in force (Ian Lee, Brandon, Andy, Jeff, myself) . 16 players meant 4x4player tables; making for faster, less table-talky games (supposedly). Overall, the tourney was very well run by the Castro Valley people, shout-out to Joel, Brandyn etc etc.

I played my Dmitra-Alastor deck; completely re"vamp"ed since the last incarnation. Tested it out during the summer in Singapore with Gee Hwan. Read Martin's NAC 2010 post. Ditched every superflous distraction from my old deck and made it flow.

Ideas are simple. Influence out Dmitra Ilyanova, call Alastor on herself for an Assault Rifle. Into Thin Air, Perfect Paragon, Resist Earth's Grasp, Forced March for stealth. Perfect Paragon, Iron Glare for vote lock. Forced March for untap and rush on same turn.
Next turn call Anathema/Parity Shift (depending on needing pool or ousting prey), Forced March (for stealth AND untap), then rush. Bring out more Brujah princes and repeat. Oust with New Carthage, Iron Glares and Fame.
Resist Earth's Grasp, Psyche!, Armor of Vitality and Taste of Vitae for combat; 2nd Traditions for wake/intercept. Pentex Subversion, Sudden Reversal, Villein, Giant's Blood, Dreams, Info Highway as std Master card package. Lost in Translation for surprise bounce.

Deck Name: Dmitra Alastor v. 3 - Always Bring a Gun to a Bloodfeud
Decklist:
Crypt: (12)
5x Dmitra Ilyanova(G5)
3x Karen Suadela(G5)
2x Carlak(G5)
2x Tara(G5)

Library: (80)
Master: (13)
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Fame
2x Information Highway
2x Villein
1x Fortitude
1x Giant's Blood
1x New Carthage
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Sudden Reversal

Action Modifier: (18)
8x Forced March
4x Iron Glare
4x Perfect Paragon
2x Into Thin Air

Action Modifier/Combat: (6)
6x Resist Earth's Grasp

Combat: (16)
7x Psyche!
6x Taste of Vitae
3x Armor of Vitality

Equipment: (3)
3x Assault Rifle

Political Action: (13)
7x Alastor
3x Anathema
3x Parity Shift

Reaction: (11)
9x Second Tradition: Domain
2x Lost in Translation

1st Game: Kellen (G3 Tremere wall/theft deck) -> Jeff Yin (G5/6 !Sal combat) -> Peta-guy (Petaniqua Soul Gem) -> me (G5 Dmitra Alastor)

c.f. I am terrible at remembering names, so I make up names for them based on their decks.

Dmitra came out early enough, while Kellen brought out Anastasz di Zagreb (-1 vote to Anastasz booyea), Jeff brought out Qawiyya, Peta-guy brought out well, Petaniqua. Alastor was successful (Forced March overcame Anastasz's block attempts) and Dmitra rushed Petaniqua to torpor. Kellen fended off further attempts by Dmitra to rush Fame-d Anastasz, and brought out Smiling Jack and Carna. ugh.

Jeff brought out 2 more !Sal and proceeded to ghetto bleed Peta-guy. My predator pulls off a Soul-gem trick for a new Peta, bleeds me moderately. I starve off the pool loss by Parity Shift-ing Kellen; I bring out Tara AND Karen Suadela, Alastor Tara also gets an Assault Rifle. Jeff has free-reign, but bleeds for 1 per guy, hm. He also brings out Tension in the Ranks (this is important for later).

Smiling Jack reaches obscene # of counters, slowly strangling the table. Peta-guy is on the ropes, no bounce and little intercept with a nearly bloodless infernal vampire. I offer him a deal by giving him blood via Dmitra's special in return for not bleeding me for 1 turn. He declines, even though I am at 8 pool. That move killed him, which was completely avoidable. The ENTIRE table advised him to take that deal (yep, even Jeff his predator), but he thinks he can bleed me out with a 1 blood vampire, hokay.

His turn comes around, losing all but 1 pool and 1 blood. Soul-gem Peta wants to diablerize his other torpored vamp and burn during the bloodhunt for a new Peta, but Tensions will kill him. Decided to go out in a blaze of self-immolation by bleeding me a little. He died after that.

I made a deal with Jeff to collectively try to burn Jack in exchange for not rushing backwards. I spent 2-3 minutes agonizing over whether to rush Anastasz or burn Jack; in the end it didn't matter; Carna blocked and Burst of Sunlight/Rotschrek Dmitra to torpor.

Rescued Dmitra, while Kellen brought his pool down to dangerous levels to trying to bring out a 3rd minion. Carna got torpored by the !Sal.

Drew Giant's Blood; this is the critical turn. Burned all the blood off Dmitra to pay for Jack, and played it; now we're back in business. Burned Jack, while Jeff managed to bring me down to 1 pool. Rushed Anastasz for 3+1=4 pool (Wind Dancing was overcome by Psyche!), while bleeding with Tara+Iron Glare for 3, just enough to oust Kellen. Jeff's !Sal fell soon afterwards.

This game went down to the wire. Game winning move was Giant's Blood AND getting my predator to spend actions burning Jack. By holding on to Giant's Blood until the last possible turn, Jeff thought that he had the game wrapped up and torpored Carna, allowing me to burn Jack. That also lured Kellen into transferring for a new vampire, allowing me to off him in 1 turn.

me 3VPs GW, Jeff's !Sal 1VP

2nd Game: Ian Lee (DoC Choir/Con. Boon/whatever Ian does) -> me (G5 Dmitra Alastor) -> Joel (G2/3 Ravnos Breed/WoN) -> Las-guy (G2/3 Lasombra Stealth/Bleed)

Despite having 7 Alastors in an 80 card deck, I had to hard-cast Assault Rifle after 5-7 turns of discarding. Ian Consang. Boon to survive the DOM bleeding, while Joel dinkered around with Tumnimos. I kept a 2nd Traditions in my hand, waiting for that inevitable Sensory Deprivation from Joel (heard from the other players he 2x Sense Dep.-ed Andy's vampires).

Ian bloated, while calling Con. Boon for Abominations and Voter Capping for 2 (I had Dmitra and Karen, while Las-guy had Gratiano). Choir/Harmony hijinks and Lily Preludes by Ian forced me to keep my pool high and avoid alpha-strikes. Once he got Conductor and Bastile Opera House, more bloating. In response, I Parity Shift-ed him for pool.

Las-guy brought himself down to <10 pool (against 5 Ravnos with CHI and endless Fata Morganas?), when Joel played Week of Nightmares and ousted him in 1 turn. Ian tried bloating his way out of his new predator but fell quickly. I could not rush fast enough to torp. Joel's minions and fell shortly after.

I should have Pentex-ed Gabrin 2-3 turns earlier before he could bring out too many Tumnimos; and should have made a deal with Ian so that I could bring out more vampires.

me 0VP, Joel Ravnos WoN 4VP GW

I managed to get into the finals table, tying with Cassie (G5/6 Kiaysd) for 4th place. That meant zero say in table seating, followed by Dan (Tup/Malgozata), Joel (Ravnos) and finally Andy (G4/5 Malk bleed/vote). Being in the same South Bay playgroup, Andy knew my deck and decided to be my predator, i suppose by Lutz-ing me with my own votes.

Final Table: Cassie (G5/6 Kiaysd) -> Andy (G4/5 Malk bleed/vote) -> me (G5 Dmitra Alastor) -> Dan (Tup/Mal) -> Joel (Ravnos WoN)

Info Highway in my opening hand, followed by a New Carthage AND a Dreams of the Sphinx ensured I had Dmitra by the 2nd turn with vote lock, followed up by Karen in the 3rd turn. Dan brought out Mal for votes and some Tup dogs. Joel brought out 2 Ravnos mid-caps. Cassie brought out The Arcadian. Unfortunately Andy did not get Lutz or Tryphosa in his opening crypt, and settled for Sean Rycek, followed by Bloody Mary. Malgorzata got Fame-d; ensuring genteel relations between myself and my prey.

My incredible opening start was completely stalled by an abject lack of Alastor (AGAIN); discarding furiously did not help. A hilarious block by Dmitra against Malgorzata's special resulted in a dozen combat cards played for 1 hand damage strikes, resulting in only ~4-5 blood loss on both vampires. Still no Alastor. A Villein + Giant's Blood on Dmitra ensured a healthy pool, allowing me to hardcast Assault Rifle again on Karen. This and Dan not wanting me to die to the Malks ensured the ~~Tomahawk Cruise Missiles~~ Tupdogs went forwards, not back.

Managed to table talk my way into getting Dan torporing Ravnos with his Tup dogs and leaving me alone. Dmitra used her special to fill up a Tupdog so he? she? it? can rush forwards more. Ravnos 2-3 bleeders get bounced by the Kiaysd to the poor Malks. Cassie Riddle Phantastique-d a couple of Ravnos to try and stay alive.

Finally getting Alastor on Karen when Andy fell to the rampaging Kiaysd with a Song of Pan that incidentally killed off Draeven Softfoot AND burned a blood off Arcadian. 2nd Traditions and a surprise Lost in Translation bounce to Dan (in turn bounced to the Ravnos) kept me alive against Cassie.

With my Ravnos grandprey on <5 pool against and Dan not influencing any more Tupdogs, I strike the killing blow. Pentex on Malgorzata ensured he could not oust Joel, while Karen Suadela Anathema-ed the 1 blood Arcadian and rushed him. The Arcadian's attempt to end combat with an Oubliette triggered Anathema, netting me 8 pool.

Dan could not influence out any vampires while Joel ousted Cassie, and having his Ravnos starving for blood. Rushing Fame-d Malgorzata with a 2xbleeds of 2 by the two Brujah ousted Dan, giving me the pool to fend off the Ravnos hordes. Multiple rushes and blocks with 2nd Traditions left Joel with 1 Ravnos and he conceded.

me 3VP GW, Cassie 1VP, Joel 1VP

This was another down-to-the-wire game; Pentex and Giant's Blood were the clutch winners (held them for all game), while Forced Marching ensuring alpha strikes were possible. Table talking also ensured I did not die to my prey's Tup dogs (usually the case against tuppies); Guess i can claim the fame of surviving a Tup dog prey. Joel was stalled long enough by Riddle Phantastiques and Tup dog agg rushes.

Final Thoughts:
Forced March makes all the card combos possible; +1 stealth and an untap? Alastor+Rush; Anathema+Rush; Rush+Bleed? all these made it possible to lunge in 1 turn when my prey least expects it.

I am fortunate to not meet any serious combat or Fortitude decks; held on to at least 1 Armor of Vitality every game but never used them, not even against the Raking Talons Tupdogs, DAI Baali, or THA Tremere. Also, no wall decks apart from the Tremere (don't think they ever blocked a vote).

I love the G5 Brujah Royalty; goes without saying Dmitra is by far the MVP.

Deck: New Brujah looking for New Carthage 2

2010-10-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

I brought this deck to the SF Qualifiers a few months back; fared decently as I eschewed OBF and embraced FOR. Tied for 5th place (and hence chance for final table), but lost the coin flip. Potence/Assault Rifles are my stealth. This deck was an evolution of the earlier Brujah Princes deck that I built when I was starting out.

Suggestions needed to overhaul this deck.

Setup: Alastor/Assault Rifle or Alastor/Sengir Dagger/Preternatural Strength to rush and torpor vampires. Parity Shift, Voter Cap and Dmitra's bloodgain special/Vessel as poolgain. KRC and bleeds via New Carthage/Iron Glare as oust. 2nd Traditions to block.

Cons: Ousting power not too high. Weak to strike: combat ends, Animalism or Fortitude combat. No bounce disciplines (Auspex / Dominate). Weak stealth and meager multi-act capabilities.

Masters: Grooming the Protege as accelerant; avoiding Info Highway (too easily contested) and Zillah's Valley (useable only on Dmitra). Villein and Vessel to take advantage of Dmitra's ability. New Carthage and Temptation of Greater Power pretty self-explanatory. Fortitude skill cards to allow the rest to use Forced March.

Actions: Preternatural Strength and Heroic Might are early game build-up to deter blockers; transient POT combat cards like Torn Signpost and Immortal Grapple were taken out to ensure better card economy. Entrancement to steal the occasional ally like Renegade Garou.

Political Actions: Alastor and Anathema combo for rush and burns. Parity Shift and KRC as standard. Banishments to remove threats.

Action Modifiers: Voter Captivation for blood/poolgain. Iron Glare for vote push and bleed modifier. Perfect Paragon for vote push and stealth. Forced March for multi-act and stealth. Resist Earth's Grasp for maneuver, press or stealth. Notice the theme of versatile cards?

Combat: Sidestrike for dodging aggravated, high strength or torporizing strikes; with a possible additional strike alternative. Sideslips for dodge or avoid 1 point aggravated damage. Taste of Vitae to recover blood.

Equipment: 2 assault rifles to be picked up by Alastor; preferably on vampires without Preternatural Strength/Heroic Might. Sengir dagger for the those who do have +strength, and Heart of Nizchetus for cardflow advantage.

Reaction: 10 2nd Traditions to wake and block.

Crypt: (12)
4x Dmitra Ilyanova(G5)
3x Karen Suadela(G5)
2x Tara(G5)
2x Tomaine(G4)
1x Jann Berger(G4)

Library: (90)
Master: (16)
4x Grooming the Protégé
2x Villein
4x Vessel
2x Fortitude
2x New Carthage
1x Temptation of Greater Power

Action: (7)
3x Heroic Might
3x Preternatural Strength
1x Entrancement

Action Modifier: (18)
7x Voter Captivation
5x Forced March
3x Iron Glare
3x Perfect Paragon

Action Modifier/Combat: (6)
6x Resist Earth's Grasp

Combat: (14)
6x Sideslip
5x Side Strike
3x Taste of Vitae

Equipment: (4)
2x Assault Rifle
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Sengir Dagger

Political Action: (15)
4x Alastor
5x Kine Resources Contested
3x Parity Shift
2x Anathema
1x Banishment

Reaction: (10)
10x Second Tradition: Domain

Deck Idea: Anson/Masters + TGB + Anneke/Obedience

2010-09-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

The South Bay group made a trip up to Stanford for VTES last saturday afternoon. I played my old G1/2 Toreador Aching Beauty/Vote deck; though I got creamed, I thought of a new variation.

This is a mostly Anson/Masters deck; bring him out and start pumping out Master cards. Toreador Grand Ball him to make the small Torries (insert british political joke here) unblockable for KRCs and Praxis Seizures. Anneke can be brought out to block actions with Bowl/2nd Traditions and Obedience (Dominate skill card to make her not tap).

The Masters selection probably needs tweaking (Heidelberg? Visit from the Capuchin?), plus how to maintain vote lock when another vote deck is on the table?

Crypt: (12)
4x Anson(G1)
3x Anneke(G1)
1x Alexandra(G2)
1x Delilah Easton(G1)
1x Demetrius Slater(G1)
1x Dieter Kleist(G1)
1x Mariana Gilbert(G1)

Library: (90)
Master: (55)
12x Ashur Tablets
3x Liquidation

3x Zillah's Valley
3x Information Highway
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
3x Wider View

5x Villein
3x Golconda: Inner Peace
1x Giant's Blood
2x Jake Washington
3x Dominate

3x Direct Intervention
3x Sudden Reversal

6x Toreador Grand Ball
2x The Parthenon

Action Modifier: (2)
4x Bewitching Oration

Equipment: (2)
2x Bowl of Convergence

Political Action: (15)
8x Kine Resources Contested
2x Parity Shift
1x Praxis Seizure: Monaco
1x Praxis Seizure: Paris
1x Praxis Seizure: Boston

Reaction: (16)
8x Obedience
8x Second Tradition: Domain

Beginner deck: Assamites

2010-09-22T19:39:00.000-07:00

Truth be told, I wanted to build this deck to assuage myself that a Lords of the Night (LotN) starter set was a good buy. And that the Assamites could hold their own, outside of anarch Amaravati/Revolutionary Councils (Fire the main Cannon!). Here's the deck list, I have seen it played twice with middling results. Mostly because prepping each vampire takes a fair bit of pool ( 4-5 from capacity of vampire, 2 from Mark Vs, and maybe 1 from Clandestine Contract). Mind you, I mainly have only LotN and LoB to work with for the clan specific cards.

There are a couple of ways I can change this deck, which is currently not going anywhere specific;
1. Bum's Rush and Haven Uncovered to go full rush combat.
2. Screw defence and load up on Losses, Quietus skill cards, and OBF stealth.

Here's the decklist:
Crypt: (12)
2x Bertrand d'Anjou(G4)
2x Evan Rogers(G4)
2x Hafsa, The Watcher(G5)
2x Kamau Jafari(G4)
2x Layla bint-Nadr(G4)
1x Alu(G5)
1x Sajid al Misbah(G5)

Library: (80)
Master: (11)4x Quietus
3x Blood Doll
1x Celerity
1x Fame
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Market Square

Action: (20)
6x Haqim's Law: Leadership
6x Loss
4x Clandestine Contract
4x Web of Knives Recruit

Action Modifier: (6)
3x Faceless Night
3x Lost in Crowds
Action Modifier/Combat: (3)
3x Swallowed by the Night

Combat: (25)
16x Flash
6x Taste of Vitae
3x Taste of Death

Equipment: (5)
4x Mark V
1x Ivory Bow

Reaction: (10)
6x Nest of Eagles
4x Black Sunrise

Beginner Decks: Recap

2010-09-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

I have been re-tuning my beginner decks in response the recent demos that I have held. Gone is the Gangrel deck (god-awful in poolgain, ousting and ho-hum combat). Replacing it are two decks, one an Assamite Mark V/Loss deck, the other a G3/4 multi-act Nos deck (courtesy of G1 who played it back in summer when I was in SG).

The Ventrue Lawfirm deck has been re-tuned to reduce the amount of vote push (really don't need it), more Mary Anne Blaires (4x right now, took out both Gustav Breidensteins), and Kiss of Ra to power through blockers.

The Malk G4/5 deck would welcome some intercept (Spirit's Touches for the maneuver long).

The Toreador deck seem to be performing as expected, I am looking into re-jigging it for lower cap vampires, maybe evening switching groups, G3/4 instead of the current G4/5.

I am starting to feel the insufficiency of Villeins; when that many decks benefit from 5-6 Villeins, and you only have ~18, it is horrid. Should've bought another HttB starter set.

Decklist: Its Sal-sa Time!

2010-08-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

Trip back to Sg was a great learning experience; encountered many experienced players that brought out competitive and interesting decks. One of them was GeeHwan's Sal G4 deck featuring Saulot and Eurayle (Eurayle to untap any a vamp of choice which Saulot Spirit Marionettes). Here's my take on it with G56 featuring Matthew and Serenna the White.

Played this deck twice on Sunday with the South Bay gang; Found that it has major problems against intercept (can only generate max +2 stealth w/ a seduction), trying to bleed, and gaining pool. So when did Salubri have problems bloating? That is because my card cycling was atrocious, both games only a third of the deck made its way to the ashheap. On the plus side, the blood gain from Renewed Vigor and my FOR damage prevention made combat a breeze.

This deck definitely needs work to tackle the previously mentioned problems. Also I am currently looking into using Azrael, Tyler and Veejay for their cheap AUS to block and bounce, but any suggestions on OTHER things they can do? I'd add a Bowl of Convergence.

4x Matthew
4x Serenna the White
2x Azrael
1x Tyler McGill
1x Veejay Vinod

Library (90)
Master (18)
7x Villein
4x Wider View
2x Information Highway
1x Path of Tears
1x Sight Beyond Sight
3x Heidelberg Castle

Action (18)
7x Renewed Vigor
7x Spirit Marionette
2x Lord of Serenity
2x Pulse of the Canaille

Action Modifiers (20)
4x Repulsion
4x Gift of Sleep
4x Penitent Resilience
8x Freak Drive

Combat (10)
6x Rolling with the Punches
4x Skin of Rock

Ally/Equipment (3)
1x J. S. Simmons
1x Tasha Morgan
1x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers

Reaction (21)
4x Glare of Lies
5x Eyes of Argus
3x On the Qui Vive
3x Precognition
6x Telepathic Misdirection

Decklist: Rebellious Daughters

2010-07-14T07:58:00.000-07:00

Here is my new and updated Daughters of Cacophony deck, using anarch tech to power the votes. A fabulous post by SingingVTES helped narrow down the card options, along with discussions with G1 and Stephen. This deck is still very raw, and having NEVER played anarchs before, I could certainly need a lot of fine-tuning.

Hopefully I would be able to scavenge from fellow players all the necessary cards to get a workable deck by Saturday's game.

The basic gist of the deck:
Bring out either Angela, Yseult or Gael who can be made baron; followed by calling votes. Madrigal and Rant! form a fearsome combination, allowing each DoC to gain 2 votes (on top of the 2 from Madrigal). Voter Captivation to replenish blood loss from Virtuosa. Secondary ousting would be with Camera Phone/Codex and Virtuosa. Shattering Crescendo to hunt down annoying stealth bleeders or rushers.

Delivery method would be Missing Voice and Virtuosa. Combat would involve Target Vitals + Catatonic Fear ( trick learnt from Salubri's Anesthetic Touch) with Diversion for damage prevention and Groundfighting for maneuver short and getting out of IG.

Possible changes
Do I need to double up on Fee Stakes? 5 Freak Drives are the smallest number I've ever used. Small Master list seems underpowered. Virtuosa is powerful, but need Voter Cap to recharge (however there's a severe lack of card space). Are there enough ousting cards?

Crypt: (12)
3x Anarch Convert(G*)
2x Angela Preston(G2)
2x Gaël Pilet(G2)
2x Yseult(G3)
1x Céleste, The Voice of a Secret(G2)
1x Delilah Monroe(G2)
1x Muse(G2)

Library: (90)
Master: (14)
3x Conductor
2x Bastille Opera House
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Hospital Food
1x Libertas
1x Poacher's Hunting Ground
1x Powerbase: Los Angeles
1x Seattle Committee
1x Smear Campaign
1x Twilight Camp

Action: (9)
6x Shattering Crescendo
1x Fee Stake: Corte
1x Fee Stake: Los Angeles
1x Fee Stake: Perth

Action Modifier: (25)
6x Rant!
6x The Missing Voice
5x Freak Drive
4x Virtuosa
4x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier/Reaction: (6)
6x Madrigal

Combat: (18)
6x Catatonic Fear
6x Diversion
3x Groundfighting
3x Target Vitals

Equipment: (3)
2x Camera Phone
1x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers

Political Action: (15)
5x Lily Prelude
2x Benefit Performance
2x Firebrand
2x Patsy
2x Reckless Agitation
2x Revolutionary Council

New Deck: Music for Royalty (Improvements needed!)

2010-04-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

This is pretty much built from scratch, figured I should elicit some comments before trying it out at my next game. General idea is to get out Daughters to provide blood gain and pool damage, and some Ventrue for votes and bleed bounce. Overcome blocking with Siren's Lure, Freak Drive, Scout and Anarch Troublemaker. Plenty of blood gain to fuel Freak Drives and other stuff.

Possible weaknesses include mixed crypt, dedicated combat deck, and not getting vote lock. Suggestions on deck improvement sorely needed.

Sources of inspiration: Saw Ian Lee's G2/3 Samedi deck with a million Freak Drives, bleed enhancers (moved around with Heidelberg Castle) and Off-Kilter. Wanted to do something similar but with a different clan. Plenty of TWDA decks with breed/boon Daughters but that's not my thing. Ben Peal's TWDA Daughters deck with Siren's Lure as "stealth".

Crypt
2x Scout Youngwood 8 MEL OBF PRE for qui Daughters:6
2x Hillanvale 5 FOR MEL obf Daughters:6
2x Harlan Graves 4 FOR mel pre Daughters:6
1x Janet Langer 3 MEL pre Daughters:5

2x Graham Gottesman 7 DOM FOR obf pre tha Ven:5
1x Victor Donaldson 6 DOM for pre Ven:5
2x Emily Carson 5 DOM for pre Ven:5

Library
Master (17)
3x Blood Doll
6x Life in the City
1x Jake Washington
2x Conductor
1x Bastile Opera House
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Heidelberg Castle
2x Agent of Power

Actions (17)
4x Governing the Unaligned
4x Benefit Performance
3x Fanfare for Elysium
3x Lily Prelude
3x KRC

Action Modifiers (29)
5x Madrigal
2x Virtuosa
8x Siren's Lure
14x Freak Drive

Reaction (12)
8x Deflection
4x On the Qui Vive

Equipment/Ally/Retainer (5)
2x Camera Phone
1x J. S. Simmons
1x Tasha Morgan
1x Codex of the Edenic Groundskeepers

Combat (10)
8x Soak
2x Skin of Rock

ECQ 2010 in Copenhagen Apr 24th

2010-03-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

What: Sect Wars Draft + ECQ 2010
When: April 24th (Sect Wars) + April 25th (ECQ 2010)
Where: IT-University, Rued Langgaards Vej 7, 2300 København S

April 24th, Sect Wars Draft.
* See rules at the bottom of the post
Registration starts at 10.30
The 1 hour deck building period starts at 11.30
This will be a 2 rounds + final (2 hour limit) tournament, and the
first round starts at 12.30

PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU PLAN ON ATTENDING THIS EVENT, AS THE NUMBER
OF PLAYERS AFFECT WHAT SHOULD BE PLAYED.

Entry fee: 210 Danish Kroner (around 28 euros)
This gives each player a starter deck from the selected Sect and
access to cards from the18 boosters the team has available.
Prizes will be a display of boosters (not determined yet which one) to
be shared amongst the team.

April 25th, Danish ECQ 2010
Registration starts at 10.30
First round starts at 11.30
This will be a 3 rounds + final (2 hour limit).

Entry fee: 40 Danish kroner (5 euros)

Accomodation:
If you are interested in crash space at local players, please contact
one of the organizers below. First come, first serve. But we can
probably fit 10-15 people.

If you are looking for cheap hotels, here are some of the good
overviews:
http://www.gtahotels.com/cities/copenhagen.htm
http://www.hotelclub.net/hotel.reservations/Copenhagen.htm

Non-hotel options:
http://www.visitdenmark.com/international/en-gb/menu/turist/inspirati...

Card Analysis: Grooming the Protege

2010-03-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

Master. Move up to 3 blood from a ready vampire you control to a younger vampire of the same clan in your uncontrolled region.

An excellent card that I've observed speeding up my gameplay and providing options even mid/late game. Primarily thought of as a Master card accelerator similar to Zillah's Valley, Information Highway, Eternals of Sirius, Tend the Flock; the fact that it moves blood from a ready minion to an uncontrolled minion allows it to mimic the ability of Minion Tap.

First up, Grooming's advantages are that it a) effectively reduces the cost of the 2nd minion by up to 3, making your spent pool go a longer way. This also allows cap 7 and lower minions to be influenced in 1 turn. For decks that do not or cannot use Governing the Unaligned/Enchant Kindred this can be a godsend against a weenie or bleed deck. b) by moving blood from a ready minion to your uncontrolled region, this makes Grooming a Minion Tap-lite for 2+1 (bring 2 with 4 transfers, then 1). Sure this takes up transfers, but transfers matter most in the early game, and at that point you'd want to influence out vampires instead. Rarely do I find myself Minion Tapping for more than 4 anyways so 3 is plenty in many cases; plus it is not affected by Villein (which everyone packs due to HttB starters).

Its limitations are 1) older vampire -> younger vampire, and 2) they must be of the same clan. These limitations aren't really that limiting, as often decks themed around specific overall purposes often share a similar disc. spread, and clan-similar vampires usually share that. Mind you, that's alot of qualifications there, so Grooming is not for every deck. Also, you must first have a minion out, and so it speeds up only the 2nd minion onwards.

Tactically you also must decide if losing 3 blood from your (likely to be first) minion poses a hazard, or at least ensure that the 2nd minion influenced out will block any rushers. And obviously it can't be used if there's no uncontrolled minion.

Zillah's Valley and Information Highway suffers from the fact that they do not have the blood/pool management like Grooming. They are, to all intents and purposes, allow you to spend your pool at a near 1:1 ratio (Zillah's Valley has an additional cost of 1 pool). Eternals of Sirius is Followers of Set-specific. And other than Eternals being a decent Ascendance (needing at least 4pool to buy in), they are nigh on useless mid/late game. Benefits wise Eternals is for one turn 9caps, Zillah's Valley is for 8caps while Info Highway allows first turn 6caps or 2nd turn 9-11caps. Importantly, they can help influence the 1st minion.

Tend The Flock is clearly a superior version of Grooming, but has a limitation of only infernals. Infernals have their own pool management problems to address, thus the power boost.

All in all, Grooming the Protege is a versatile card that I find is a welcome draw whether early or late game. I'm willing to sacrifice some advantages of other accelerators and Minion Tap if I can get 90% of either on a single card.

Current Decks

2010-03-13T02:19:00.000-08:00

I have 3 full decks at the moment that i use in regular play.

My G4/5 Brujah deck has seen the most play, and most tweaking. No major overhaul really, bruise/vote at its base. Still suffers from stealth/power bleeding and extremely violent combat. It can pump out votes like nothing else; New Carthage assures me vote lock (gotten 12 permanent votes before) . Not to mention Scalpel Tongue, Bewitching Oration, Perfect Paragon etc.

The Rachel Brandywine deck is a pretty well-known deck concept that can oust in a single round. Very few moving parts and decent combat survival. Very little pool gain though, Rachel's a 10Cap and she needs partners.

The G1/2 Toreador Aching Beauty deck is the most recent, and needs the most adjustments. Powerful once it gets its engine running, but slow setup. Not the most efficient in terms of actions per vampire, but the actions hurt. Aims to outlast the opposition.

Got a couple of deck ideas floating around at the moment. Thought of a Gargoyles deck, but the split crypt/library really threatens to kill it. I'm still not really convinced it could work effectively. Gargoyle combat is ridiculously card intensive while the Trem sit around waiting to bleed.

A Daughters deck might work too, what with the new political actions and Virtuosa. I'm split on whether to have a split crypt with !Ven or Ven to help bounce bleeds. !Ven can block while Ven has better perma-votes. Choir/Harmony seems very dicey while Shattering Crescendo looks workable. Will need powerful blood gain to make this work. They need a Path of Music to juice it up.

Or I could just make that Obf Tor deck I was throwing about a couple of months ago.

HttB for non-Bloodlines decks

2010-03-13T01:55:00.002-08:00

There are limited cards in HttB that would help non-Bloodlines decks.

Scobax allows a pre bleed reduction, identical to aus Telepathic Counter. Useful in a draft tourney due to limited options, i'm pretty iffy about it in constructed. 1 card for avoiding 1 pool loss?

Momentary Delay looks very useful for large cap decks trying to overcome weenie AUS or ANI, a very common match-up.

Cavalier is definitely very powerful (1 blood for 1 untap) as long as extensive blood gain is available. Additional actions are out and out one of the means to ousting and avoiding the oust. Cavalier competes with Perfectionist for top utilitarian Archetype.

Dabbler is harder to use with its 3 disc. req. Decks with stealth could find a use for it, though I think the easiest are combat decks. Carrion Crows, Stoneskin and Claws of the Dead.

Amulet of Temporal Perception plugs a problem in Trujah decks, which is what do the little helpers around the Trujah of choice do? Having more than one Trujah is a non-option due to their high cost and Scarce. Obvious (ab)uses of the Amulet would be an Ankara Citadel-ed random mook using True History, Rewind Time, Hourglass of the Mind.

Joumlon's Axe and Dagger are decent weapons. Joumlon's Axe is critical against IG and costs nothing, with the drawback of being Unique. Dagger allows you to pull another one out for free, and can do ranged pokes.

Foldable Machine Gun is ugh. Just awful. Could've done something else. Anything else.

Hunger Moon has ridiculous artwork. With a usable ability, though other than trick decks (read: spying mission or Imbued/Gehenna ones) i don't see this working that well.

The Rising has (slightly) less stupid art. Harder to pull off, but very powerful game breaker.

Heirs to the Blood Draft Tourney

2010-03-13T01:55:00.000-08:00

As Brandon has mentioned in his post, the South Bay group hosted an HttB draft tournament at Game Kastle last Saturday. 4 boosters per person, option of all HttB or switch some with KoT or 3rd. I opted for 3 HttB and 1 KoT; HttB lacks quite a few things a regular deck needs, like intercept, bleed enhancers.
Min 4 card crypt, Min 20 card library; from total of 12 vampires and 32 (+1 WwEF given to each person) library cards.

Pre-game I decided either Shalmath or the unnamed would be my top choice. None of my packs had them, despairing I started to pick Kiasyd before someone passed me a the unnamed. Thinking evil thoughts I started playing my first game when I realized a problem with the unnamed. It takes blood to power stealth cards like Masca, Under the Skin, Greater Curse and the one Public Trust (from KoT) I got. And the unnamed hunts poorly, thankfully I had a Visionquest (draft allows hunt and untap).

Got shut down in my first game with a prey having Serenna the White (1/turn can burn a blood to reduce a bleed by two. Not an action) and Nahum (gives 1 blood to a vampire during untap phase). Second game Andy could not deal with the unnamed's aggravated damage and let me bleed him out and gain pool. Ousted him fairly quickly, then the game stalemated 3 ways with Ian Thompson's Gargoyles bleeding Ian Lee's !Sal bleeding my unnamed. Ian Lee didn't want to oust me as he thought Ian T would dominate in a 2 way game. I slowly whittled Ian T's pool down and managed the second oust. Conceded the game to Ian Lee as by then he had nearly 20 pool from Off-Kilter, Tend the Flock and god knows what.

Coin-flipped my way into the Finals table, which was pretty bland for me.

Lessons:
Ian's design philosophy, as far as I can tell, revolves around surviving. Pool gain, blood management (Azrael's hunt special) and combat ends allow his vamps (and him) to survive to the other cards that ousts. Of all the games i've played with him as my prey, I think i've only ousted him once (he was playing a pre-HttB !Sal deck w/o intercept).

There's this concept in Warhammer 40k, called front-loading/back-loading. Front-loading involves spending points on stuff that kills things dead, like twin-linked plasma rifles or missile pods, while back-loading is all about shield drones and disruption pods. War40k skews towards front-loading due to the nature of the game (limited turns, really really frigging close range between the two armies, and alpha strike-ish nature of weaponry). Translated to VTES, that would mean that Malk OBF/DEM or Kiasyd OBT/MYT/DOM bleeding is front-loading. VTES however, its less unbalanced than War40k. Since lunging requires setup and the right moment, its best to hang around, stay alive til that time.

Brujah Ascendent?

2010-01-12T01:40:00.000-08:00

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.

Eden's Legacy - Guruhi and Brujah Victors

2010-01-12T00:45:00.000-08:00

The recent Eden's Legacy Storyline has just concluded, and the results are in. Tied for top place are Guruhi and Brujah with 6 wins each, followed by the Malkavians with 4 wins, and then Ishtarri, !Salubri, !Toreador, Ventrue at 3 wins each.

Guruhi
All four Motivations were accessed, with the dominance of Secrecy accounting for half. Eze, the Demon Prince was the overall Key Minion at 3 mentions, with Lucian, the Perfect, Nana Buruku and Ugadja having single mentions.

Brujah
All 6 wins utilized Gehenna; clearly the end times and the thirst for violent combat was slaked during the Storyline. Dmitra Ilyanova was the overall Key Minion at 3 mentions, with Menele (storyline minion), Theo Bell and Pug Jackson having single mentions as well.

Malkavians
Jyhad was pronounced on 3 of the wins with a single Knowledge utilization; the moonies bleed well and they know it. Normal, Dancin' Dana and Donovan Brouwer had single mentions with the fourth unannounced.

One of my favorite clans being the Brujah, I can't help but feel really pleased about the overall score. Mind you, i played a Malk AUS wall deck during the Santa Clara Storyline Tourney, thinking that you've gotta stop every bleed to delay 3 of the Motivations.

Beginner Decks: Gangrel

2010-01-07T23:05:00.000-08:00

I never really like the theme of the Gangrels. Feral, animal loving vampires that prefer the country-side than the cities? This felt out of place with Camarilla political scheming and the modern nights. Anyways, I decided to build one just to see how it would function; plus it would be a natural fit for some people; Grace did indicate her interest.

This deck is built around the rushing capabilities of the vampires and their Garou allies; Fame the appropriate vampire and knock it into torpor. Rescue it, rinse and repeat. Claws of the Dead/Wolf Claws for aggra-poke and FOR to avoid damage. Quick Meld and Canine Horde to overcome guns. Some ANI/PRO intercept if rushing is not available.

I was deciding between KoT vampires with in-built rush (Talbot, Shiloh Marie) or G1 vampires with better disc. spread. I chose the KoT ones partly because they are better looking artwork-wise. Yes seriously.

Crypt
2 Talbot 7 ANI NEC PRO for. burn master card from hand to rush minion at +1 stealth.
2 Shiloh Marie 7 ANI FOR PRO. rush younger vampire at +0 stealth. During untap phase another vampire you control take 1 unpreventable damage
2 Lise 6 ANI FOR pot pro
2 Rathmere 5 FOR ani pro. +1 strength against Sabbat vampires
2 Gunnar 4 PRO for
2 Lillian 3 ani pro

Library
Master
4 Fame
2 Tension in the Ranks
1 Ecoterrorist
1 Backways
1 Zoo Hunting Ground
5 Blood Dolls
3 Life in the City

Action
6 Deep Song
3 Raven Spy
1 Army of Rats
1 Renegade Garou
2 Ossian

Action Mod

Reaction
3 Sonar
3 Cats' Guidance
3 Instinctive Reaction
3 Guard Dogs

Equipment

Combat
5 Claws of the Dead
5 Wolf Claws
3 Carrion Crows
3 Quick Meld
4 Skin of Rock
4 Rolling with the Punches
2 Taste of Vitae
2 Canine Horde

Beginner Decks: Malkavians

2010-01-07T22:24:00.000-08:00

This deck was built with a little un-optimization in mind. See, malks are pretty good at OBF/DEM right out the box; so good that new players can't stand the pressure early on. Unless they happen to be some AUS wall. So I included some Dive into Madness (for long term bleeding) and Games of Malkav to really bring out the madness of the moonies. And some Spirit Touches to actually do something backwards. No Telepathic Misdirections (their prey don't need yet another bleeder on their tail), instead some Telepathic Counters were put in.

Also, i don't have Morel, the archetypal 6cap 3 in-clan disc superior vampire. It only comes in the Malk pre-con.

Crypt
2 Santaleous 9 AUS CEL DEM OBF +1 bleed per hunting ground in play. Burn 3 blood to cancel a master card
2 Bloody Mary 8 AUS DEM OBF pre primogen +1 bleed
2 Lord Fianna 8 AUS DEM OBF cel pro Red List. Allies cannot block Lord Fianna. +1 stealth
2 Gem Ghastly 6 DEM OBF aus primogen. May play cards requiring Ventrue
2 Arthur Denholm 5 AUS DEM obf
2 Bela 3 DEM ani obf pro -1 stealth. cannot attempt political actions

Library
Master
1 Muddled Vampire Hunter
1 Asylum Hunting Ground
6 Blood Dolls
3 Game of Malkav
1 Elysium: The Arboretum
3 Life in the City

Action
4 Dive into Madness
8 Kindred Spirits
1 Blithe Acceptance
2 Night Moves

Action Mod
2 Faceless Night
2 Lost in Crowds
2 Elder Impersonation
4 Spying Mission
2 Veil the Legions
2 Cloak the Gathering
3 Eyes of Chaos
2 Confusion

Reaction
4 Spirit's Touch
4 Wake with Evening's Freshness
4 Telepathic Counter
4 Wrong and Crosswise

Equipment
1 Aaron's Feeding Razor

Combat
1 Coma
6 No Trace

Beginner Decks: Ventrue

2010-01-07T22:12:00.000-08:00

KoT Ventrue were used in this crypt; mostly because I felt that G1 titled Ventrue felt a little more expensive with Democritus' special not being as useful as Mary Anne Blaire's, Natasha Volfchek and Helena Casimir being really expensive 9 cap primogen (like seriously?).

While playtesting I noticed that inferior presence was predominant among the lower cap titled KoT Ventrue; this severely affected the (ab)use of Majesty to multi-action.

Crypt (12)
3 Mary Anne Blaire 10 AUS DOM FOR PRE ani pot Justicar Perma-PRE Enchant Kindred, ICs -2 bleed
1 Johannes Castelein 9 DEM DOM FOR PRE Prince Political Action card played or referendum called by Johannes is canceled, Methuselah burns 2 pool
2 Lodin 8 DOM FOR PRE aus pro Prince can prevent 1 damage from the opposing minion's strike once each combat.
2 Graham Gottesman 7 DOM FOR obf pre tha Prince
2 Victor Donaldson 6 DOM for pre Prince Cancelled Golconda may be shuffled back into library
2 Emily Carson 5 DOM for pre primogen may burn Edge during discard phase to untap Emily

Library: (72)
Master: (14)
6x Minion Tap
4x Information Highway
2x Presence
1x Giant's Blood
1x Papillon

Action: (6)
6x Govern the Unaligned

Action Modifier: (25)
7x Voter Captivation
6x Freak Drive
4x Perfect Paragon
4x Seduction
2x Bonding
2x The Kiss of Ra

Combat: (8)
8x Majesty

Political Action: (11)
5x Kine Resources Contested
2x Consanguineous Boon
1x Ancient Influence
1x Banishment
1x Parity Shift
1x Political Stranglehold

Reaction: (8)
5x Deflection
3x Wake with Evening's Freshness

edited 13 Oct 2010: Overhaul of deck after playtesting. Kiss of Ra, Seduction and Perfect Paragon for stealth, and Majesty for combat. Changed crypt to ensure Mary Anne can Govern/Enchant down.

Beginner Decks: Toreador

2010-01-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

Each clan deck were created to showcase their classic plays and whatever quintessential strengths that clan possessed. No real unusual cards or overly complicated tricks that needed certain particular cards to succeed. They were designed to play relatively smoothly as the cards come up.

The Toreador deck is designed as somewhat toolboxy, with AUS to block and CEL guns to back that up. PRE bleeding is kinda iffy especially with the severe lack of obf or perma-stealths. Aching Beauty was the sorta fix.

Decided to use G1 Toreador as their disc. spread were tighter.

Crypt
1x Anneke 10 AUS CEL PRE dom Justicar Perma-Eagle's Sight, +1 bleed
2x Anson 8 CEL PRE aus dom Prince +1 Master Phase Action
2x Tatiana Romanov 7 AUS cel pre Prince +1 bleed
2x Adrianne 6 aus cel pot pre +1 bleed
2x Felicia Mostrom 5 AUS CEL pre
1x Dorian Strack 4 AUS cel
1x Demetrius Slater 4 aus cel pre
1x Colin Flynn 3 aus cel

Library
Master Cards
1 Guardian Angel
5 Aching Beauty
1 Society Hunting Groun
1 Art Museum
1 Powerbase: Montreal
1 The Rack
4 Blood Doll

Action Cards
4 Public Trust
1 Entrancement
2 Media Influence
3 Enchant Kindred

Action Modifiers
3 Aire of Elation
2 Force of Personality
2 Scalpel Tongue

Reaction Cards
3 Enhanced Senses
3 Precognition
3 Spirit's Touch
4 Eyes of Argus
4 Forced Awakening
4 Telepathic Misdirection

Equipment
1 Bowl of Convergence
4 .44 Magnum
3 Saturday Night's Special

Combat Cards
3 Concealed Weapon
2 Blur
2 Pursuit
2 Sideslip

Beginner Decks

2010-01-07T21:31:00.000-08:00

I created a bunch of beginner decks so that I could lend them to whoever i could teach vtes to. With myself as probably the sole vtes player here in Stanford, I really need at least 2-3 other players to get things started. The idea is that with a small group of players we can hold demonstration games at visible locations like the aforementioned study area near the Axe & Palm.

Thing is, VTES isn't an easy game to teach, unlike say Settlers of Catan (awesome game btw) where the mechanics and the objectives are more concrete and achievable. And the fact that VTES has multiple sub-systems in it (stealth-intercept, combat, politics, blood management) makes it less appealing to non-hardcore gamers. Plus the backstory is rather intense for non VtM players.

The biggest thing though, is that each deck plays differently. So you can't just sit down with 3 other people and teach them all together. You've gotta explain that the Toreador gun deck AUS-es its way and CEL guns while the Gangrel rushes and Fames vampires to death, that the Malks stealthily conduct massive bleeds and the Ventrue has to multi-action bleed and vote to exhaust his prey.

Managed to teach Huiwei over the course of an afternoon (she played the Toreador). Probably would talk to Ngiam about it, he seemed a somewhat interested when I had that abortive attempt late that Sat night.

Will post my decklists up in a bit.

G2/3 Obf PRE Toreador

2010-01-07T21:16:00.000-08:00

Saw a post on extrala about a deck played in a tourney that had "stealth" toreadors. Suzanne Kazim, Antoinette, Klaus van der Veken and Francois Villon as crypt. obf as delivery, PRE as bleed, AUS for blocks and bounces. CEL gun for combat. Seems efficient and way better that being reduced to Aching Beauty as "stealth".

Will try to build it sometime. Though somehow it'll feel like Settite bleed w/ AUS and more expensive vampires. At least the CEL would deter rushing.

Anarchs?

2009-12-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking of building an Anarch deck. The 3-way cards like Loose Cannon and Diversion look like serious flexibility and Political Actions like Revolutionary Council, Reckless Agitation and Free States Rant look very tempting. And its fun to run people over with weenie/mid-cap vampires. Is it possible to build a Death Star deck (abusing Revo Council) w/o going the Assamite route (Amaravati, Alamut)?

I have no Anarch or Twilight Rebellion expansion cards so i'm hesitant to put down money on just a thought experiment.

Malk AUS wall deck

2009-12-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

Played a G3/4 Malk AUS wall deck and got to the finals of the 13player Eden storyline at Santa Clara. Just needed to get bragging rights for not using DEM at all.

bloodsuckers in stanford

2009-12-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

I was introduced to V:TES by the Paradigm Infinitum community back in Singapore. Back then i was burning out from warhammer 40k (god awful rules and even worse rules for the Tau) and needed a relief. Especially after June's S'porecon where Black Hand starters were given out free, there's been a resurgence in V:TES' popularity in Sg.Gee Hwan really helped me out by lending me a deck (obf Mistress Fanchion deck) and literally sitting beside me while i played.

The V:TES community there played twice a week, with a very comfortable and amazing store (the aformentioned PI) which let us use a couple of tables until midnight (!) every day. From what I heard there are two regular nights each week, Tues and Fri, where usually two full tables get used. The active community is in excess of twenty.

Having a sizeable group and frequent gaming is very critical to the life of V:TES. Frequent gaming means that decks get refreshed and new ideas explored, while size allows for a wider experience and more leads to draw new blood in. The very very open policy that PI has with regards to playing makes it incredibly easy to walk in and game without extensive pre-prep to get sufficient players. Plus it gets eyeballs (to borrow a web 2.0 term) because the tables are right in the middle of the gaming store. The players gain a secure Elysium, and the store wins because the players gives free demos and help generate new income from new players.

Why this whole story about my nostalgic past? That's because I find that situation is one that would reignite V:TES. Thankfully Ian and Brandon are trying to make the Santa Clara playgroup work by playing at Game Kastle (held the Eden storyline there couple weeks ago). On the other hand, there isn't a community here at Stanford (think there's a total of 2 players here) which is a shame considering the possible youngblood potential from the students.

I'm considering getting some 3rd Ed starter kits and some KoT and 3rd Ed starters to hold some form of demo here. Unfortunately that's expensive; want to know how PI got them Black Hand starters to give out. I will have to set up a flowchart detailing the various turn phases, combat sequences, card types (seriously confusing when i first started) etc. Need to find a regular location (bright lights, safe, lotsa tables, nearby food) on campus and some people to help with the teaching. But most importantly, i need a way to identify and pull in the interested. And eyeball-ability.

I'm thinking possibly the lounge in the Old Student Union. Plenty of chairs, tables and people walking. Plus food from the Axe and Palm.

New Brujah looking for New Carthage

2009-12-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

This is a deck that's pretty dear to my cold undead heart. Gee Hwan helped me with its setup way back in July and i've tweaked it along the way, picking up hints and tips from VTES forums and theLasombra's TWD. My latest incarnation involves Alastor-ing Carlak (cheap Assault Rifles!) and rushing any obnoxious vamps, while Parity Shifting my prey to death. Pool gain is with Voter Cap, Minion Tap and Dmitra's blood gain special w/ Vessels.

The premise is the use of the new KoT Brujah titled Vampires to vote my prey(s) off the table, aided by New Carthage. There are excellent Bru titled vampire of 6-9 caps with funky abilities:

Tara 6 cel POT PRE Prince of San Diego
Karen Suadela 7 CEL POT pre Prince of Houston (w/ +1 stealth on undirected actions)
Carlak 8 CEL pot PRE Prince of Prague (free press and gains blood when Meths vote against referendums)
Dmitra Ilyanova 9 CEL POT PRE FOR obf Bru Justicar (+1 stealth political action to put 4 blood on 1 or more ready vamps)

With mid-cap princes and an excellent Justicar, I can pull them out earlier, get vote lock easier and 2nd Trad block early stealth bleeders before they get too painful. With New Carthage in play, usually vote lock is a done deal, along with Scalpel Tongue for the truly onerous vampires trying to Awe/Bewitching Oration their way through. New Carthage is unburnable (unlike Ventrue Directorate Assembly).

In the first draft I eschewed combat, using Majesties to get out of it, but it didn't go so well. Figured the Cel and Pot should be used and in went Torn Signposts, Immortal Grapple and Acrobatics. I remembered an early game where my pred rushed me the first time and i got out of it with Majesty. Thinking that i'm not offensive in combat, he rushed me again. This time i used TSP, IG and Acrobatics to torpor him.

Later my actions kept being blocked (especially the key Parity Shifts) and I added Forced March (for Dmitra) and Resist Earth's Grasp, which had option of a maneuver and press in combat, useful against ANI and CEL combat to force an IG.

Karen is great for getting essential PAs though (+2 stealth at base, +1 more from Resist Earth's Grasp or Creepshow Casino), while Dmitra votes to give blood and Voter Caps for pool gain. Alastor-ed Carlak rushes and 2nd Traditions to fend off my pred.

So far it works fine, but with so many moving parts it hard to get it moving consistently. POT combat is card intensive and risky, with TSP, IG and Taste of Vitae plus Acrobatics to avoid aggra poke and Resist Earth's Grasp for maneuver. Coupled with the fact that there's no Fort to prevent damage... Sideslip to prevent 1pt for 1 round (non-stackable with itself) just doesn't do it for me.

Unlike ANI where Carrion Crows and many Aid from Bats ruins TSP + presses, or Cel guns where the Concealed Weapon, .44, Blur combo is deadly to those without a maneuver plus IG. There are too many counters which are starting to appear in my playgroup: Brandon built a Ravnos ANI FOR deck that handled the deck pretty well.

Until i have new ideas for this deck i'm probably going to hold off on this deck for now. Having said that, i'm itching to build a EuroBrujah deck just to have a feel for the old school.

F1r5t P05T!

2009-12-02T11:54:00.000-08:00

So i decided to set up a blog catering to my passion for VTES. I started VTES earlier this year (~june 09) in Singapore, and having relocated to Stanford, I've been playing with the Santa Clara domain once every two weeks. Its a little too infrequent compared to what i'm used to back in Sg, but it fits with my crazy schedule here in school.

~ger