So I arrived at the NAC (Week of Nightmares) on a Wednesday morning. There were two tournaments scheduled for that day. For a while now I have been saying that everyone has been so "Master-card happy" (or dominate-happy I guess) that I wanted to make a Bruise Bleed deck that just rushed and made people cry when they are holding a hand of master cards.
So I decided that Wednesday would be my "combat" day. I will talk about my other deck ("Domingo's Signposts") in a future post. I actually like Domingo's Signposts better but this deck did surprising well so I wanted to post it as well. I was the first one out in the finals, due to my grand prey eagle-sighting my oust twice in the same turn (I died that next turn). My prey ended up winning the tournament. Rats! (but it was a good game :) )
Results: Finals on Wednesday's Week of Nightmares 2nd tournament. 2013
-----------
Deck Name: Theo Beast Battle Royale
Created By: Adam Hulse
Description: A Theo + Beast Bruise bleed deck. Pick your fights to get your bleeds through.
At first I thought I would have to play wider view or effective management. But I realized that unless I drew 3 Theo or 3 Beast, I pretty much had the 3 vampires that I was going to play with for the game.
I decided to add a small deflection angle last minute. Only tried it once so not sold on it yet.
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 11, Max: 28, Avg: 5.08)
----------------------------------------------
1 KoKo pot 2 Nosferatu
1 Lupo pot 2 Brujah
1 Cameron dom pot 3 Lasombra
1 Agatha obf POT 4 Nosferatu Antitribu
1 Hector Sosa pre POT 4 Brujah
1 Hugo POT pre vic 4 Brujah Antitribu
3 Theo Bell cel dom POT pre 7 Brujah
3 Beast ani cel OBF POT 7 Nosferatu Antitribu
Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (14 cards)
2 Fame
1 Tension in the Ranks
3 Haven Uncovered
3 Blood Doll
1 Retribution
1 Powerbase: Montreal
1 Anarch Troublemaker
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Archon Investigation
Action (20 cards)
11 Computer Hacking
7 Bum`s Rush
2 Preternatural Strength
Reaction (10 cards)
3 On the Qui Vive
3 Deflection
3 Touch of Pain
1 Delaying Tactics
Combat (43 cards)
12 Torn Signpost
12 Immortal Grapple
4 Earthshock
3 Slam
3 Undead Strength
6 Taste of Vitae
2 Disarm
1 Pulled Fangs
Retainer (2 cards)
1 J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1 Tasha Morgan
Event (1 cards)
1 Dragonbound
------------
Lesson's Learned:
What to change for this deck?
- Remarkably enough, not a huge fan of Dragonbound. Not because of the card itself, but the pool damage done does not seem to pay for the cost and if they have any combat, your weenie guys tend to hit torpor as well. And if it is your "lunge" card, meaning that you are holding it until you torpor many guys, chances are that that card could have just been another Fame or Tension and you can play before you start all the fights.
- More then one Anarch Troublemaker. Maybe even 3-4. You will always have a use for it. Tap down blockers and bleed and rush. Destroy pesky guns. Possible master cards to cut: Retribution (although I like the card a lot), Power Base Montreal. Can slightly increase master package, but then i would make sure The Barrens is in there.
- In the age of Villein, disarm is not worth it. Your regular punch will torpor them. Pulled Fangs is good though as it makes prey's cross table allies less likely to help them.
- Don't discount the power of... Storage Annex. There are many cards that one wants to save for a rainy day. This card helps this immensely. Find Master card slots is tricky though and it depends on personal preference.
- As stated in the description, not sold on the dominate angle. It will probably be a different deck with slightly bigger vampires with Potence Dominate. If I take out the dominate, Cameron becomes Jimmy Dunn.
- Touch of Pain is a great card. There is a different deck Potence + Followers of Set that I should make. Where you rush vampires, fight, do not torpor and then Temptation them. Touch of Pain with Crocodile Temple is pretty strong too.
- Consider Yawp Court as well. Best defense against vote decks really. But Master card slots are at a premium. Basically depends on personal preference.
What to do for a POT Bleed deck?
- Let your prey play his game. You need to let your prey go for his prey, let him take "beads" (i.e. pool or blood) off of your next prey. Sometimes its even okay to let him get a VP. Possible exception: If your prey is a bloat deck (Minion Tap - voter cap for example), that deck's goal is to put more beads on the table. You have to take it out quickly. Note: However, from my experience this may be to your own demise if your grand-predator is ineffectual against your predator. This dilemma bares further discussion. (future post)
- Your predator is going to lunge you. This is fact. Under the assumption that your combat trumps their meager combat, your predator's plan is to get about 3 minions (or 3 actions if you consider multi-act) and try to oust you in one turn. And if it doesn't oust you, gets you to low enough pool that even if you dunk one of their minions, it won't be enough to save you. Advice: Its amazing how many computer hack bleeds (or bleeds of one if you know they have bounce) you can get through on the promise that you won't rush that turn. Get your bleed in (getting not-combat cards out of hand), and then rush backwards. Remember, their goal is to kill you in one turn, so if you dunk 1-2 guys, they will rescue, do some hunts and get ready again. They may threaten to transfer out or ask their predator to go full-forward to "pay us back" for ruining their game. Ignore such statements. They are trying to oust you. If your defense is to make sure that they only have one minion, so be it.
-The number of minions your predator should have is dependent on your current pool. Its an easy way to determine whether you have to go backwards or not. People have different determinations, but I tend to do about 6 pool per dominate minion, or about 4-5 pool per voting minion.
Conclusion:
Well, I'm glad I got around to posting this deck. I know that this type of deck is a "starter" for new players who just want to beat up things. Hopefully people use this deck as a template to see that you should add some bleed power to the deck to make it work.
From reviewing my post, I'm pretty sure I want to write a "Choosing your Master Package for POT Decks" article. But since I have a lot of NAC stuff to write, that will be have to be on the back burner. But I will get to it soon enough!
Thanks for reading guys!
Adam
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Adam's NAC Deck 1 - Rule of Four
Deck Name: Rule of Four
Created By: Adam Hulse
Description: An AUS CEL PRE "four-card limit" deck (Obviously the name of the deck ruins the surprise)
The previous iteration ran concealed weapon and .44 magnums, but I figured the NAC would be much more cut-throat so I wanted to save on pool and card slots.
Results: Made into finals at DC Qualifier and Day 1 NAC, won a pick-up game.
Crypt: (12 cards)
----------------------------------------------
1 Art Museum
2 Perfectionist
Action (18 cards)
4 Enchant Kindred
4 Legal Manipulations
4 Public Trust
Action Modifier (4 cards)
4 Aire of Elation
Reaction (24 cards)
4 Eyes of Argus
4 Forced Awakening
4 Telepathic Misdirection
4 My Enemy`s Enemy
4 Quicken Sight
4 On the Qui Vive
Combat (23 cards)
Combo (4 cards)
4 Resist Earth`s Grasp
-----------
* The focus of this version was Ira Rivers because I wanted to take advantage of his auspex special and the +1 in against political actions (with Marguerite Foccart!).
**This was a knee-jerk reaction to all my guys getting torpored due to Nephandi+Unmasking. Probably should be a Pentex or another Anarch Troublemaker. Or maybe Elysium: Sforzesco Castle if you want to make the metagame cry (that's a different article).
***An argument could be said to add the Big Three (Heart, Bowl, Ivory Bow), but I didn't want to take the actions.
I found this deck to be fun to play, very amusing and quite strong. Anarch Troublemaker with surprise power presence bleed is quite strong. Imagine that. I received many comments (i.e. complaints from my opponents), that "it's a wall deck!", "it's a combat deck!", "its got a heavy payload!". Cracked me up.
In truth, it's really what ever you want to make it (which is what makes it so much fun to play). To play this deck, you just have to play cards. Imagine that. Play your reactions to draw your bleed. Play your bleed to draw your reactions. Play combat for both.
Possible changes:
There are a lot of ways to change this deck a little (besides what I mentioned above) and still keep to theme. I'll mention a couple of ideas that crossed my mind.
- Switching Mind Numb for Nose of the Hound pairs with Ira's Special
- Resplendent protector seems interesting. No one would block it and its useful all the time.
- Lot of different celerity combat to try (but keep to the 4x theme, its worth it in my opinion to test).*
- Instead of Delaying Tactics, between Kateline Nadasdy, Michael Luther and the few votes the deck has, I found myself actually wishing for some scalpel tongue. Making the second vampire TAP is very strong for this deck (will probably make the cut in the next iteration).
*So at first glance, Pulled Fangs looks good, but I wouldn't recommend it. You can never play it without some other card, and you actually want them to hunt. Them tapping is always a good thing for presence bleed. :-)
So that's the deck! Hope that this gives people some ideas for their own decks. Enjoy!
Adam
Created By: Adam Hulse
Description: An AUS CEL PRE "four-card limit" deck (Obviously the name of the deck ruins the surprise)
The previous iteration ran concealed weapon and .44 magnums, but I figured the NAC would be much more cut-throat so I wanted to save on pool and card slots.
Results: Made into finals at DC Qualifier and Day 1 NAC, won a pick-up game.
----------------------------------------------
1 Emerson Wilkershire III pre 2 Toreador
1 Michael Luther aus pre 4 Toreador
1 Thomas De Lutrius aus cel pre 4 Toreador
1 Barth
1 Antoinette
1 Antoinette
1 Redbone McCray cel pro AUS PRE 6 Toreador Antitribu
1 Marguerite Foccart aus pot CEL PRE 6 Brujah
2 Ira Rivers* ani AUS CEL pre 7 Toreador 1 Marguerite Foccart aus pot CEL PRE 6 Brujah
2 Kateline Nadasdy AUS CEL PRE 7 Toreador
1 Powerbase Montreal
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Eugene AUS CEL FOR PRE 8 Toreador
Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (16 cards)
3 Anarch TroublemakerLibrary: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (16 cards)
1 Powerbase Montreal
1 Art Museum
2 Perfectionist
2 Vessel
2 Villein
2 Blood Doll
2 Sudden Reversal
2 Sudden Reversal
1 Sunset Strip, Hollywood**
Action (18 cards)
4 Enchant Kindred
4 Legal Manipulations
4 Public Trust
4 Entrancement
2 Mind Numb
Equipment (1 cards)
1 .44 Magnum***
1 .44 Magnum***
Action Modifier (4 cards)
4 Aire of Elation
Reaction (24 cards)
4 Eyes of Argus
4 Forced Awakening
4 Telepathic Misdirection
4 My Enemy`s Enemy
4 Quicken Sight
4 On the Qui Vive
4 Pursuit
4 Side Strike
4 Charsimatic Aura4 Side Strike
4 Target Vitals
3 Weighted Walking Stick
Combo (4 cards)
4 Resist Earth`s Grasp
-----------
* The focus of this version was Ira Rivers because I wanted to take advantage of his auspex special and the +1 in against political actions (with Marguerite Foccart!).
**This was a knee-jerk reaction to all my guys getting torpored due to Nephandi+Unmasking. Probably should be a Pentex or another Anarch Troublemaker. Or maybe Elysium: Sforzesco Castle if you want to make the metagame cry (that's a different article).
***An argument could be said to add the Big Three (Heart, Bowl, Ivory Bow), but I didn't want to take the actions.
I found this deck to be fun to play, very amusing and quite strong. Anarch Troublemaker with surprise power presence bleed is quite strong. Imagine that. I received many comments (i.e. complaints from my opponents), that "it's a wall deck!", "it's a combat deck!", "its got a heavy payload!". Cracked me up.
In truth, it's really what ever you want to make it (which is what makes it so much fun to play). To play this deck, you just have to play cards. Imagine that. Play your reactions to draw your bleed. Play your bleed to draw your reactions. Play combat for both.
Possible changes:
There are a lot of ways to change this deck a little (besides what I mentioned above) and still keep to theme. I'll mention a couple of ideas that crossed my mind.
- Switching Mind Numb for Nose of the Hound pairs with Ira's Special
- Resplendent protector seems interesting. No one would block it and its useful all the time.
- Lot of different celerity combat to try (but keep to the 4x theme, its worth it in my opinion to test).*
- Instead of Delaying Tactics, between Kateline Nadasdy, Michael Luther and the few votes the deck has, I found myself actually wishing for some scalpel tongue. Making the second vampire TAP is very strong for this deck (will probably make the cut in the next iteration).
*So at first glance, Pulled Fangs looks good, but I wouldn't recommend it. You can never play it without some other card, and you actually want them to hunt. Them tapping is always a good thing for presence bleed. :-)
So that's the deck! Hope that this gives people some ideas for their own decks. Enjoy!
Adam
My (mini) Week of Nightmares (NAC 2013)
Hello everyone!
So I'm back from the NAC and it was a very fun time. Of the seven tournaments I played in, I managed to get into four of the finals. Not too bad, but no wins this year. Ah well.
However it was so much gaming that I decided I needed to take a week break from my city local gaming. But that doesn't count me out of the VTES world! I'm going to use this week (in my spare time) to write about some of my experiences and decks (mine and discussions about others) from the tournaments and pick up games.
Some of the topics I plan to cover in future posts:
The NAC Metagame - what to do?
Decks I played - Lesson's learned
Thoughts on "weaknesses in VTES" discussions I've had during that week. Very interesting.
Interesting decks (those I saw and ideas that game up)
And before I forget, it was great to see all the people at the NAC. Good times, good friends and good games. Thanks to everyone who hosted, and to those who managed to come play!
Stay tuned!
Adam
So I'm back from the NAC and it was a very fun time. Of the seven tournaments I played in, I managed to get into four of the finals. Not too bad, but no wins this year. Ah well.
However it was so much gaming that I decided I needed to take a week break from my city local gaming. But that doesn't count me out of the VTES world! I'm going to use this week (in my spare time) to write about some of my experiences and decks (mine and discussions about others) from the tournaments and pick up games.
Some of the topics I plan to cover in future posts:
The NAC Metagame - what to do?
Decks I played - Lesson's learned
Thoughts on "weaknesses in VTES" discussions I've had during that week. Very interesting.
Interesting decks (those I saw and ideas that game up)
And before I forget, it was great to see all the people at the NAC. Good times, good friends and good games. Thanks to everyone who hosted, and to those who managed to come play!
Stay tuned!
Adam
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)