Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Play progress...

Thought I'd add in some play progress for my Cryptic Treaty deck, since its ability seems to be highly questionable in a number of people's eyes.

This is the third game it's one, this one was a 6-player. 4VPs

My prey was an Aching Beauty deck (Change of Targets, Torrents, Public Trust + Awe... Its opening bleed was for 8). It quickly took out a Brujah-Anti deck that is usually fairly competitive mostly because of hand-jam on the part of the Brujah... It slowly took out my Brutal Influence deck (which I have to admit, most people tend not to play so well but was basically shut down on both sides).

My prey bloated well (bringing out Alexandra, Anneke and Delilah Easton. Alex & Anneke had Aching Beauty and he had Art Museum), plus the 12 pool from ousting 2 players certainly helped.

For my own deck, I drew the Treaty of Laibach a little later than wanted (and then drew two more in the next two turns). Once the Laibach was on the table, I went into drive mode. Bled my prey out in around 3 turns. Then it went into a grind-mode. Gregory Winter and Cryptic Missions meant my minions had blood and the remaining two players didn't. Bleed reduce kept my pool nice and stable and the other two decks had issues getting actions off around each other. So I steadily bloated through the Edge.

My prey had Carna (w/ Ivory Bow & Archon) and I'd had a Carna in my uncontrolled since the initial draw. So, I contested Carna (paying for it with the Edge pool) and then proceeded to bleed him out (About 9 bleed in the first turn and the remaining 3 in the next). During the grinding period, I triggered my Ashur Tablets and then reclaimed all of my bleed and corruption counter tech. Turned around and bled out the only other player in 2 turns.

Downsides:
  • No early Treaty of Laibach,
  • Only got 1 Temptation off (when the Aching Beauty deck had Alex Pentexed and only Delilah who was tapped at the time).
Positives:
  • Early Gregory Winter (He was vitally important for grinding more and more blood from minions. Players were looking to block him more than my other minion's actions. When I tried to recruit an Impundulu, cross-table players were suggesting the action should be blocked.) I think an early Impundulu would probably have been similar.
  • Got plenty of Defensive Auspex (neutralised my predator and would have neutralised most predators)
  • Drew enough combat to keep alive (Thefts, Read Intentions kept me alive against all of the different combat)
  • One or two corruption counters can be placed early and people do forget about them until you land the 6-bleed.
Play History:
4 plays
3GWs 10+VPs
Opponents playing a variety of combat, walls, S&B and votes. Including a basically Tier 1 Ventrue Vote, Fairly stable bloating wall (Anathemas, Tre-Princes), AAA, Aching Beauty, Kindred Spirits, The Unnamed Nuke-Bleed...

Quotable Quotes from the last week or so...

"I am just one Brujah Debate short of a deck" - Marty "the Man" "Here you go, the Count wants you to have a pool..." - CK using a soft-toy of Sesame Streets 'The Count' (our traditional Edge at the Blacktown playgroup)

Monday, March 21, 2011

Great VTES Collection Boost

Hey everyone,
The Lasombra has done what I think is a GREAT idea for boosting a section or set of cards. If you're missing say, Camarilla Cards, then you buy the Lasombra's Camarilla Kickstarter which contains a number of starters and a big pile of commons useful for those clans.

http://www.vekn.net/index.php/forum/12-trading-post/2636-the-kickstarter-concept

Head on over, he has a link to the ebay page for them. It's looking like a great way to diversify your collection and honestly I'm tempted to strengthen a few weak areas of my own collection with these.

Grab them quick before the Lasombra runs out.

Juggernaut1981

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Decklist: The Cryptic Treaty

Deck Name : Cryptic Treaty
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
Cryptic Mission + Corruption Counter Tech


Crypt [11 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 8 average: 6.5
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Sundervere, The De 8 AUS PRE SER THA obf Follower :4
2x Carna, The Princes 7 AUS DOM THA primogen Tremere:3
2x Virstania, The Gre 7 AUS THA dom pre vic Tremere:3
2x Eugenio Estevez 6 AUS THA dom for Tremere:3
2x Martin Franckel 3 AUS tha Tremere:3


Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [16]
8x Cryptic Mission
2x Form of Corruption
6x Temptation

Action Modifier [21]
8x Mirror Walk
6x Revelation of Desire
7x Weigh the Heart

Ally [3]
1x Gregory Winter
1x Impundulu
1x Young Bloods

Combat [16]
4x Cobra Fangs
4x Read Intentions
8x Theft of Vitae

Master [18]
6x Ashur Tablets
2x Specialization
6x Treaty of Laibach
4x Tribute to the Master

Reaction [16]
6x Ecstasy
4x Telepathic Counter
6x Telepathic Misdirection

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Deck: We don' need no stinkin' Potence

Deck Name : We don' need no stinkin Potence!
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
Weenie Brujah Debate Bruise-Vote-Bleed

How does it oust?
By the bleeding of a thousand cuts from small Brujah with lots of maneuvers and lots of +strength.

What will it have out?
Preferably Volker, some small-cap Justicar + 4 or 5 other friends (Embraces, other influenced out vamps, etc)

What does a turn look like?
Lots of bleeds for 1/2/3 and maybe making a few babies or bloating with Con Boon or Anathema.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 5 average: 4.08333
------------------------------------------------------------

4x Volker, The Puppet 5 CEL pot prince Brujah:2
1x Brachah 5 CEL PRE for Brujah:2
1x Marlena 5 POT cel pre Brujah:3
1x Steve Booth 5 CEL pot pre pro Brujah:3
1x Allison Maller 4 cel pot pre Brujah:3
1x Mazz 3 cel pre Brujah:3
1x Raziya Samater 3 ani pot Brujah:2
1x Arnold Simpson 2 pot Brujah:3
1x Vasilis, The Trait 2 pre Brujah:2


Library [84 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [18]
10x Computer Hacking
8x Embrace, The

Ally [4]
4x Procurer

Combat [10]
10x Target Vitals

Equipment [6]
6x Laptop Computer

Master [12]
6x Brujah Debate
1x KRCG News Radio
1x London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper
3x Tribute to the Master
1x WMRH Talk Radio

Political Action [20]
4x Anathema
4x Archon
3x Brujah Justicar
4x Consanguineous Boon
1x Praxis Seizure: Athens
1x Praxis Seizure: Atlanta
1x Praxis Seizure: Barcelona
1x Praxis Seizure: Rome
1x Praxis Seizure: Venice

Reaction [14]
8x On the Qui Vive
6x Second Tradition: Domain