Hey Now, You're an All-Star

One of the more heated discussions on the V:TES forums involved the card Pentex Subversion, which basically paralyzes the vampire on which it's placed. I found the discussion odd, although one of my co-players observed that, if one is playing a star vampire deck, the Pentex would stop it dead in its tracks. Otherwise, it's just another card one has to deal with on the table; while annoying, I've never found it to seriously hinder my play.

What constitutes a star vampire deck? As suggested by the name, such a deck focuses on one or two vampires in order to be effective. Generally, this means a big vampire, of  capacity 8 and up, since it should be versatile enough to cause damage on the the table. Also, large cap vampires often have special abilities which make them desirable to play.

In terms of deck construction, this means placing multiple copies (4-6) of said vampire in the crypt, in order to ensure it coming out in the opening uncontrolled region. The star vampire then acts based on whatever theme or strategy the Methuselah playing it had in mind, with the rest of the crypt acting as support.

In the Manila scene, some examples of star vampire decks include the Wynn deck, which is combat-based due to Wynn's built-in ability to enter into combat. Others involve using members of the group 2 Inner Circle vampires, particularly Arika or Stanislava; Arika is particularly effective due to the difficulty in taking her down; with FOR, DOM, and PRE, she can either soak combat damage, stop combat before it even happens, or strike:combat ends. I considered it a badge of honor in being able to torpor her, although I only managed it once.

Other examples of an effective star deck include using the Guruhi Lucian the Perfect, whose discipline spread, and built-in +3 bleed ability, allows him to bleed for a crapload of pool, using either OBF or DOM in order to get it through; the record, if I recall, was a bleed for 21 (I forget the combination that led to this insane amount of bleed).  

In my case, I've built few star vampire decks, since I prefer swarms or versatile decks, with crypts able to act regardless of who's out. My main star vampire deck is that of Cock Robin, whose ability to unlock after taking an action using ANI helped me get to the Finals table of the 2011 Asian Continental Championship Using a combination of Animalism intercept and Second Traditions, the Cock Robin wall deck ran smoothly, especially if its ousting mechanism, the Smiling Jack, came out. Later on, I reconfigured the deck to become more proactive, and focused it on combat, but, for some reason, I've had less success in using it.

Recently, I've begun experimenting with Dominate (more on that in a future post), and built a grinder deck around Gotsdam the Tired Warrior. Gotsdam is a foil to many combat decks, since he has three built-in trumps against combat: he can end combat as a strike that costs 1 blood, he's immune to frenzy, and he treats aggravated damage as normal. In other words, he's rather difficult to kill.

Another star deck I've put together, but have not yet tested, revolves around the Brujah Count Germaine, who is immune to weapons, and, if advanced, has +2 bleed against Methuselahs who control titled Sabbat or Camarilla vampires. It's a riff off the Celerity Gun deck, with FOR and PRE complementing the gun combat.

When one builds a star vampire deck, one has to consider what other vampires to include in the crypt. Generally speaking, one puts vampires who can complement the main vamp; for example, there's an Enkidu deck that includes Dominate weenies, wherein the weenies Graverob the minions that Enkidu torpors. In my case, I tend to include vampires of smaller capacity, who have the same discipline spread as the main one. In the Cock Robin deck, for example, I included Nikolaus Vermulen and Calebros the Martyr, who are both Princes, in order to maximize my use of Second Traditions. At the same time, I try to avoid being too overly reliant on my star, hence my choice of crypt build.

I find that using a star vampire deck from time to time allows me more versatility than my other decks, since the star vampire is able to perform a lot more tricks than a midcap vampire. However, I also keep in mind not to rely so much on the star vampire, lest I be rendered helpless by players who target the star of the deck.

Forces Stirring

So, I hit the proverbial wall once more, and went a whole month without any writing done.

However, in the Manila scene, there are forces stirring.

The return of the game with the release of the four Sabbat preconstructed decks, as well as other products such as reprints of the Berlin anthology, the Keepers of Tradition set, and the bloodline sets (Heirs to the Blood and Lost Kindred), have attracted a few new players, as well as brought out an old player out of torpor. I've not met the old player yet, but he does have a handy venue located in the Cubao area, and has managed to stock the decks for sale. Hopefully, this will help spur on the growth of the game once more.

In my case, I've been introducing the game to my co-teachers, and about two of them have joined me in informal games at the workplace. With a little persuasion and a little bit of luck, we could catch the interest of one or two more, and have a complete table which will be closer to how the game is actually played.

On the tournament front, the Manila players held their first tournament since hosting the Asian Continental Championship last year. Dubbed the Blood Feud, the tournament was small (only 7-8 players all in all) but it did bring in two new players into the VTES scene. In my case, I tried out my Gotsdam the Tired Warrior deck, and it managed to net me a VP in the two rounds I played.


Slowly but surely, the game makes its comeback, as more players become interested.