The Osebo in the 2025 Nationals

Earlier this month, I wrote about the inclusion of the Laibon in the game, and of how niche it is to play a Laibon deck in official games. Still, that hasn't deterred me from trying, and in last year's Philippine Nationals, I tried out an Osebo deck that unfortunately, didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to.

The Osebo are the African equivalent of the Brujah, but instead of Presence as one of their clan Disciplines, they have Auspex. This means that in theory, the Osebo should be good in blocking, and with Celerity and Potence, they should be able to fight effectively. Since I enjoy playing with wall decks, I thought I'd try out an Osebo wall deck, and focus on using guns as the combat machine. 

Admittedly, using an experimental deck in a tournament such as the Nationals is always a risky venture, but there are times when I don't want to play safe and I would to see what happens when I try a rather janky deck in a tournament. 

The main vampire in the deck is the 6-cap Homa, who has all of the clan Disciplines at superior. I had Massassi in the crypt, but I was torn on whether to include her, since in today's meta, any vampire with a capacity greater than 8 can be hard to bring out. Still she had all clan Disciplines at superior, and her built-in rush action is always a plus in a combat deck. Abiku and Titi Camara had superior Auspex which I rely on more than Celerity, so I chose them to support the first two minions. 

The main mechanism of the deck was the 419 Operation, which is stackable and places pressure on the prey, as it moves one pool from the prey to the card, which can then be transferred to my pool. Since the Operation can only be burned by burning the Edge, the prey will be compelled to move forward in order to gain the Edge. 

Blocking would primarily be against bleeds, and for fighting, I used Concealed Weapons and guns. Just to see if it would work, I also put in Saturday Night Specials with Dragon's Breath Rounds for the extra danger of aggravated damage; I also put in some Rötschreck for insta-torpor. 

With janky decks, I just have to hope that I tuned the deck correctly, and the right cards would come out for me to work the table properly. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

The 419 Operation is a +1 stealth action, but that's all the stealth that the action has. The Osebo have little means of generating stealth, and so the Operation was consistently blocked, and wasn't really a factor in the games I played in the Nationals. 

Combat was a little more effective, since the guns came out consistently, and I was able to do some damage, just not enough to be a factor.

Hindsight being what it is, I probably should have not relied too much on the 419 Operation, and perhaps used other means to put pressure on my prey. The same goes for the Saturday Nights and Rounds, since there will always be situations where I won't have the necessary cards in hand. I probably would have been better off using all .44 Magnums with Pursuit and Target Vitals to cause damage. 

The experience at the Nationals hasn't put me off using the Osebo; instead, it's motivated me to see what I can do to make the deck better. Perhaps I'll be able to put together a more dangerous Osebo deck in the future. 

The deck list:

Deck Name: Osebo with Guns (Philippine Nat'l)
Author: Eric Tomas

Crypt (12 cards, min=19 max=30 avg=6.08)
========================================
2x Massassi        9 AUS CEL POT QUI obf      Osebo:4
4x Homa            6 AUS CEL POT                     Osebo:4
2x Abiku            6 AUS POT cel obt                 Osebo:4
3x Titi Camara   5 AUS CEL pot                      Osebo:5
1x Ismitta           4 aus cel pot                            Osebo:4

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (16; 4 trifle)
----------------------
1x Archon Investigation
1x Base Hunting Ground
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Mbare Market, Harare
1x Millicent Smith, Puritan Vampire Hunter
2x Rötschreck
2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
4x Vessel
1x WMRH Talk Radio

Action (10)
------------
8x 419 Operation
2x Legend of the Leopard

Ally (2)
---------
2x Procurer

Equipment (7)
--------------
3x .44 Magnum
1x Bowl of Convergence
3x Saturday-Night Special

Retainer (1)
-------------
1x Shaman

Reaction (26)
--------------
2x Eagle's Sight
7x Eyes of Argus
1x Forced Awakening
2x My Enemy's Enemy
6x On the Qui Vive
8x Telepathic Misdirection

Combat (28)
------------
6x Concealed Weapon
3x Dragon's Breath Rounds
5x Psyche!
8x Pursuit
6x Taste of Vitae
 

 

Playing with the Laibon

In 2005, White Wolf released the Legacies of Blood (LoB) set, with the accompanying Ebony Kingdom (EK) expansion in 2009, to introduce the Laibon, the clans, or legacies, of vampires that populate Africa. The set was composed of 4 clans: the Guruhi, the Ishtarri, the Akunanse, and the Osebo, and each had their respective starter deck. In addition, bloodlines, first introduced in 2001, also had cards in the LoB set to help augment them; to some extent, this made it more difficult to be focused on building a Laibon deck. Still, the set had promise and had some interesting mechanics, although I can't recall if they were used a lot. 

One of the key features of LoB aside from the new clans was the introduction of Orun and Aye trifle master cards. Aye and Orun are the modes of morality followed by the Laibon: Aye represents "Earth" and is how the Laibon deal with humanity, while Orun represents "Heaven" and reflect how the Laibon deal with the supernatural. 

In the game, Aye allows Laibon minions to cancel frenzy cards and to wake as a reaction, if the minion has three Aye on it. Orun, on the other hand, treats the vampire as having a higher capacity and gives the vampire an extra vote for every three Orun it has. Realistically, this made using these cards difficult, since a player would have to pack at least three of either to make having it worthwhile. Card space being a premium, I can't recall an instance in my experience wherein a player tried using this in a game.

Another feature of the Laibon is the introduction of the Abombwe Discipline, which reflects the vampire's affinity to its Beast; it is one of the clan disciplines of the Akunanse. In the game, the discipline acts similar to Protean, although the number of Abombwe cards are quite limited, with only 13 available cards. 

Like other factions, the Laibon have titled vampires: the magaji, who are numerous, and the Kholo, who is unique and clan-specific. Both titles have 2 votes in referendums.

Because of their limited numbers, few Laibon decks have been successful in tournaments, with few decks winning beyond the set's initial release. With the release of 5th edition, it's unlikely that new Laibon cards or sets will be published, since V5 seeks to streamline the game, as demonstrated by the revisions to such clans as the Ravnos and the Tzimisce, among others. 

Still, the allure and the challenge of making the Laibon work has gotten to me, particularly with the Osebo, which is the only Laibon clan I've actually worked with and built a deck of. With its discipline set of Celerity, Potence, and Auspex, I was envisioning building a block and fight type of deck; I used such a deck in last year's Philippine Nationals, with little effect. I'll write about that in my next post. 

The Laibon would be difficult to find nowadays, with the sets being more than 15 years old. Still, they make for an interesting challenge for the intrepid deck-builder.