Dominated

Back when I started playing, more than a decade and a half ago, I made it clear as to what I would play, and what I would not play. Of course, as I said in the post, "never" is such a long time, and I've shifted some of my self-imposed restrictions. For example, thanks to the Lords of the Night expansion, I've experimented with Assamite and Setite decks, albeit with little success so far. I've also long incorporated Immortal Grapple into a number of my combat decks, such as the Cock Robin deck, which I used in the Asian Championship in 2011. However, there is one concept, one that has been around since the game started, that I've long kept myself from using, and that is Dominate.

Dominate (DOM) is the bleed Discipline, as a combination of its library cards can bleed one's prey for a hell of a lot. Combine it with Obfuscate (OBF), and you've got a stealth bleeder that will absolutely tear through your prey's defenses (unless, of course, your prey decides to bounce it). DOM, on its own, is also effective at shutting down your prey's minions via cards like Seduction, and The Sleeping Mind.

As a defensive Discipline, DOM also shines. Cards such as Obedience takes care of minions coming after your own, while Deflection and Redirection bounce your predator's bleeds to your prey.

Other DOM cards of note are Graverobbing, which allows you to take control of your opponents' torpored minions; one of my friends built a gravedigger deck for this purpose, and would often wind up with half a dozen minions that weren't originally his.

Mind Rape allows you to take control of your opponents' vampires for a turn, and, depending on the target vampire, can be used to perform a good number of actions; it's a bonus if the controlled vampire has similar disciplines to your own.

Of course, there is the all-purpose DOM card, Govern the Unaligned, which can either be used to bleed for 3, or, early in the game, make it easier for your uncontrolled minions to rise from the crypt. I forget from which strategy guide I read it, but it recommends that you should block the early Governing down to the uncontrolled region.

All in all, DOM is a versatile Discipline, capable of dealing with a number of table concerns. This is why, back in 2004, I eschewed using it, since it was too easy to use. I felt back then it was a cheesy option, when I was still grappling with the niceties of the game's strategy and tactics.

My switching to using DOM in my decks has more to do with rising to the challenge of using the Discipline creatively, without falling into the easy grip of just stealthing the bleed through.

So far, I've built two decks which use DOM, and have conceptualized two others, meaning I've organized the deck list, but haven't put them together. They are as follows:

1. A Tremere/!Tremere deck - while built, I haven't played much with this; it's still pretty experimental. It's basically a toolbox, which I feel is a more responsible way of using DOM, but it's still pretty wonky, so I should play with it some more so that I can get a feel of how to use it properly.

2. Gotsdam, the Tired Warrior - So far, this is the deck I've been constantly tinkering ever since I incorporated DOM into my strategies. Gotsdam is versatile, and can stand up to the combat metagame in Manila. I've had a lot of fun using this deck.

3.  DOM Midcap - So far, this is a work in progress. Being mostly 5-cap vampires, Govern can only reliably used as a bleed card, which means this is basically a forward-moving deck, with little defense and combat options.

4. Giovanni powerbleeder - Technically, this deck doesn't rely on stealth to get its bleeds through, but rather, it relies on Call of the Hungry Dead to make blocks fail. This is also still a concept, because I haven't had the time to put it together. Also, I suspect I lack enough cards to make a separate deck, and I may have to take apart another deck, probably the Tremere, in order to build this.

I actually am intrigued by the possibility of building a version of the dreaded Malkavian '94 deck, a stealth bleeder archetype which has withstood the test of time, and remains terribly effective to this day.

While I probably won't completely embrace DOM and go all out on the bleeds, I will have to concede that it provides a lot of entertainment, due to its versatility. It will always be a useful tool in one's repertoire of tricks in Vampire.