Tutoring New Players: Predator is Right

This is, in my own view, the Second VTES Lesson to learn. Predator is to the Right. This must be learned AFTER Prey is Left. All in all, if VTES players learn one lesson... Prey Is Left should be it. Predator is Right comes with clear daylight gap in between.

Predator is Right
Predator is Right encompasses two main ideas: Remember to Defend and Remember Who You Must Kill. Remember always that a Predator who can Defend is better than a new Predator.

Remember to Defend
This is kind of simple: The player planning to kill you is sitting on your Right. This is the person who will want to spend their resources hurting you. This is also the person you want to manage with the least resources neccessary. But you must remember to defend. There are basically two main defences: Intercept & Bloating. There is a secondary defence: Combat.

Intercept is the basic defence. You leave minions untapped, or have 'Wakes' (Wake with Evening's Freshness 'WWEF', Forced Awakening or any of those similar cards), and you have intercept to block actions that will hurt your chances. This is the key thing: You do not need to oust your Predator, in fact you almost never want to oust your predator. You want a predator who is an effective defender and an ineffective attacker; so you can't kill them.

But remember Lesson #1... Your Prey Is Left, so playing a deck with 40+ Auspex Intercept Cards is unlikely to get you to oust your prey.

Learning just what you need to intercept takes time, experience and blocking many actions you never needed to worry about. The usual things to block (and as a prey you should consider regularly but not frequently blocking these) are Bleed Actions and Vote Actions. Blocking Bleed Actions should be an obvious statement, so I'll leave it alone. Blocking Vote actions is nearly always worth it and the only person with a greater desire to block vote actions is your Grand Predator (because your Predator is their Prey). Most decks playing substantial numbers of votes oust and survive by vote actions; that is their primary ousting method and can often serve as their defence method. Even 'benign' votes must be in there for a reason and you should consider if it is worth your resources to stop these 'benign' votes; there is always a motive for your Grand Predator to block a vote action.

Sometimes it is in your advantage to not block bleeds, particularly if your predator has a high-stealth deck. It facilitates hand-jam on your predator and limits their ability to be an effective attacker but is less likely to affect their ability as a defender.

Bloating to defend is basically the VTES version of a Cold-War Arms Race. You may bleed me for 4 this turn, but I will gain 8 pool so that in the end I'm better off than I was and certainly better off than you were. It can be very effective, but its also a complex game of Chicken you are playing with your predator. Decks that bloat the most effectively tend to be Vote Decks because they have easy ways to recoup blood & pool (Voter Cap), have actions that can generate significant pool (a number of votes provide large amounts of pool) and it connects directly to their ousting method. Other bloating decks tend to use swarms or a variety of cards which put blood into the uncontrolled region. Most of the time, these decks are fairly susceptible to Intercept.

Combat Defence is basically a Big Stick Threat. You promise a certain level of flat minion destruction, likely on your predator's main attacker, if the current level of pool-damage continues. This usually leads to one of two results.

Aggression Response: Your predator thinks that your threats are hollow or that you will not be able to carry out sufficient destruction to stop them from ousting you. So instead of waiting and being a little bit more patient and a bit more defensive, they decide that their best defence is to mercilessly and summarily execute you from the game. This is the main approach for Stealth Bleed and Powerbleed decks. It is also the response from Bruise & Bleed decks because they will feel confident about surviving combat.

Defensive Response: Your predator bunkers down and hedgehogs/turtles/walls up/etc. The threats are real, to them, and likely to be effective, on them, and so it is better to protect them self and wait for you to expend your resources on your prey before attempting to kill you. There are many players who enter this frame of mind and never leave it. This is a huge mistake. Remember Lesson #1 of VTES: Prey is Left. Surviving is secondary to getting the most VPs - you can be dead and still win. You want them to make this decision for at least a little while.

Strange Defences
The common "Strange Defence" is nicknamed the Salmon Method in Sydney. This is where a player decides that ousting each of their predators in succession is the way to win. It is a very very very difficult method to win with. You are attempting to ensure that every player other than yourself gets 1VP at most. If you perform this correctly on a 5-player table, you oust two players backwards and then when there are 2 other players obliterate every minion on the table so you can claim the remaining 3VPs. This ties into the Combat Theory of 3 Methuselahs.

Kindred Spirits Defence. This is where you stealth bleed out your predators, in the same way as the Salmon Method, but instead you aim for pool not minions.

Minion Theft. This is a Serpentis based defence and to a certain extent Obeah. Using Temptation or Spirit Marionette, you use your Predators Minions to kill your prey, leaving you in the middle with comparative Safety. This can also be done now with Taunt the Caged Beast, particularly if your prey or predator has a vampire such as Hektor, Basilia or any other permanent agg-hand strike minion. +Strength minions can also be used since their basic strike is still potent.

Remember Who you Must Kill
The Methuselah Level
Every resource spent on your predator is one you cannot use to fulfill Lesson #1: Prey is Left. It is your predator's unstated goal to have you expend resources you can't afford to spend on them while they survive it and oust you. Every non-defensive card you must play on your predator is a card that could have been used to oust your prey.

The Minion Level
A minion with +1bleed needs to be killed more than a minion with +1 intercept. It's that simple most of the time. If you need to punish an aggressive predator, do so and do it on the minion that will cause you the most pool damage in the short-to-medium term (since basically every minion will cause pool damage worth worrying about in the long-term). So if you're looking to take out minions, choose those that will hurt you the most and savage them brutally. Leave your predators defensive minions alone, you want your predator to live and survive against their predator.


Summary
Predator is to your Right. A Predator that can defend themselves is better than a New Predator. Every powerful card you play on your predator is unable to be played on your prey. Kill the right Minion or the right Methuselah... don't just kill everything. Wasting predator resources is better than wasting yours. Remember to Defend...
BUT PREY IS LEFT....