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.  

 

 

 

The Nosferatu Justicar

In case you've read the post on the Gangrel Justicar, and were wondering about how the Cock Robin deck was built, here it is:

Deck Name:   Cock Robin Bruise-Bleed
Created By: 
Description: 

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 24, Max: 40, Avg: 7.66)
----------------------------------------------
  4  Cock Robin                         aus for ANI OBF POT  10 Nosferatu                  G3  Justicar
  1  Ferox                                   ani FOR POT VIS          7  Gargoyle                   G2 
  1  Ferox                                   ani FOR POT VIS          7  Gargoyle                   G2 
  2  Nikolaus Vermeulen            ani for obf POT              7  Nosferatu                  G2  Prince
  2  Calebros                              obf pot ANI                     5  Nosferatu                  G2  Prince
  2  Teresita                                for ANI OBF POT          7  Nosferatu Antitribu   G3 

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (16 cards)
  4  Vessel
  2  Villein
  2  Smiling Jack, The Anarch
  2  Fortitude
  1  Powerbase: Montreal
  2  Haven Uncovered
  2  Fame
  1  Rack, The

Action (13 cards)
  6  Deep Song
  3  Ambush
  2  Tier of Souls
  2  Army of Rats

Reaction (15 cards)
  6  Second Tradition: Domain
  3  Instinctive Reaction
  3  Sense the Savage Way
  3  Cats' Guidance

Combat (40 cards)
  8  Carrion Crows
  6  Torn Signpost
  6  Drawing Out the Beast
  6  Immortal Grapple
  4  Armor of Vitality
  4  Superior Mettle
  2 Rolling with the Punches
  4  Taste of Vitae

Retainer (6 cards)
  6  Raven Spy

As you can see, it's probably a little easier to use the smaller princes (Nikolaus and Calebros) than Decker and Rossler. Still, since there are more vamps in the previous deck that have Fortitude (FOR) at superior, that's two extra card slots for something else; in this deck, only Ferox has FOR at superior. Sadly, FOR is not a Nosferatu clan discipline.

Expect, though, a lot of jokes at Robin's expense when he comes out.

The Gangrel Justicar (concept deck)

Originally, I started out trying to tweak my Cock Robin deck to be more of a toolbox, but, along the way, over discussions with other Methuselahs, I decided to switch it to using Xaviar ADV, who's the Gangrel Justicar (given the RPG story, I would have thought that it would be the other way around, but, anyways ...). Doing that meant that I switched Potence (POT) with Protean (PRO), and added some Gangrel tech, such as Ecoterrorists and Ennoia's Theater.

So, basically, the point of the toolbox deck is to do many things relatively well. Thus, there are several possibilities with the deck:

• It can attack others using the Smiling Jack. At the same time, the amount of Animalism (ANI) intercept, along with the Raven Spy permacepts allows minions to defend it;
• It has some bleed capability with the Deep Songs and Tier of Souls;
• Making an opposing minion Fame-ous makes it a torpor target, which then burns 3 pool from the minion's Methusleah;
• Or, as the Cock Robin deck, it can fight, although strike:combat ends is always a possibility without Immortal Grapples.

 The crypts is centered around three main vamps: Xaviar ADV, Mark Decker, and Ingrid Rossler. Any of them can use the Second Tradition, although, unlike the Cock Robin deck, it might be harder to get all three out, if ever they're in the opening crypt. Well, it's a work in progress, considering that I haven't built or tested the deck yet.

Still, the hypothetical draws (via FELDB) seem promising, so we'll see how it works out.

Deck Name:   The Gangrel Justicar

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 23, Max: 40, Avg: 8.08)
----------------------------------------------
  4  Xaviar (ADV)                  aus cel pot ABO ANI FOR PRO10 Gangrel         G3  Justicar
  2  Ingrid Rossler                   dom ANI FOR PRO         9  Gangrel                    G2  Prince
  2  Mark Decker                    ani for obf pot CEL PRO  8  Gangrel                    G3  Prince 
  1  Beckett                              cel ANI FOR PRO           7  Gangrel                    G3 
  1  Antonino                           ani pre pro FOR               6  Gangrel                    G3 
  1  Dr. Allan Woodstock        ani aus for PRO                5   Gangrel                    G3 
  1  Lord Ashton                     for pro ANI                       5  Gangrel                    G3 
 
 

Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (16 cards)
  1  Ecoterrorists
  1  Ennoia's Theater
  2  Fame
  2  Haven Uncovered
  1  Powerbase: Montreal
  2  Smiling Jack, The Anarch
  1  Sudden Reversal
  4  Vessel
  2  Villein

Action (13 cards)
  2  Army of Rats
  6  Deep Song
  1  Rewilding
  2  Thing
  2  Tier of Souls

Reaction (15 cards)
  3  Cats' Guidance
  3  Instinctive Reaction
  6  Second Tradition: Domain
  3  Sense the Savage Way

Combat (40 cards)
  6  Armor of Vitality
  6  Carrion Crows
  6  Claws of the Dead
  6  Drawing Out the Beast
  4  Rolling with the Punches
  6  Scorpion Sting
  4  Superior Mettle
  2  Wolf Claws

Retainer (6 cards)
  6  Raven Spy

Janky Stuff - Hermanas Hambrientas (concept deck)

In my previous post, I tackled the difficulty of using the Blood Brothers bloodline

Still, rising to the challenge, V:TES players have tried to make workable Brothers decks. I remember that, before I came into the game, someone using a Chicago circle deck managed to win a tournament, while my friend Paul has tried out the newer Budapest and Kiev circles.

Juggernaut of VTES had an idea to use the Mexico City Circle minions, which ties into my own deck concept.

In the role-playing game accessory, Mexico City by Night, the Las Hermanas Hambrientas (a.k.a. the Hungry Sisters) were an experiment by Tremere antitribu Elena Mendoza Vasquez to study whether the Blood Brothers were capable of creating new vampires (All other Blood Brothers are sterile, incapable of Embracing new vampires.). While Vasquez apparently succeeded, the result was a vampire that burned blood at a high rate (hence the "burn 2 blood" text on the Hermanas card). After the Tremere antitribu, including Vasquez, were obliterated in 1999, one of Vasquez's experiments escaped her chantry when an unsuspecting Harbinger of Skulls searched her lab. Now loose in the slums of Mexico City, the Hermana has continued to spawn, and now there are 20 Hungry Sisters, all starving for blood.

In V:TES, there are two Hermanas cards, the Mayor (4-cap, for san pot) and the Menor (2-cap san pot). Both burn 2 blood upon being controlled, else they burn. While this may be a rather difficult handicap, there is a way around it, although it's also tricky. The master card, The Hungry Coyote, gives Sabbat vampires +1 hunt, which means that, when either Hermana hunts after being influenced out, they'll be up to full capacity (unless they're blocked). While there are other blood gainer cards, such as The Rack or The Coven, the Coyote is probably the best bet to bring the Hermanas back up to full blood capacity.

For this deck, the main point of it is to bleed using Walk of Caine, aided by Stealth provided by Shell Game. If caught, one uses the Hermanas' Potence to fight.

And then, of course, there's Angelo, who can be part of any circle. By using his superior Sanguinus, one can use Unwholesome Bond in order to facilitate a number of Hermanas coming out at the same time.

The nasty surprise here would be Angelo using Coagulated Entity, with a lot of Hermanas in play. It could mean a ton of hurt for the opposing minion.



I haven't put this deck together, so I have no idea how it's going to do at a table. As Juggernaut observed in his own post, it's also a forward-moving deck, so defense is pretty much nil, unless you use the Haven Uncovered or Ambush on your predator's minions.

Also, this deck concept still has no Fortitude, so combat is going to be a little tricky, unless I go Juggernaut's route, and use Thrown Gates instead of Undead Strength. I may still try that instead of this current build, and I might also go to 90 cards in order to include some Fortitude damage prevention, but, for now, for better or for worse, here is the Hermanas deck (with Angelo).

Deck Name:   Hermanas and Angelo

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 8, Max: 22, Avg: 3.5)
--------------------------------------------
  2  Angelo                             pot vic CEL FOR SAN          7  Blood Brother              G3 
  4  Hermana Hambrienta Mayor           for pot san              4  Blood Brother              G4 
  6  Hermana Hambrienta Menor           pot san                    2  Blood Brother              G4 

Library: (80 cards)
-------------------
Master (15 cards)
  4  Agent of Power
  2  Haven Uncovered
  1  Fame
  3  Tribute to the Master
  2  Effective Management
  3  Hungry Coyote, The

Action (18 cards)
  6  Computer Hacking
  2  Coagulated Entity
  6  Unwholesome Bond
  4  Ambush

Action Modifier (16 cards)
  6  Walk of Caine
  6  Shell Game
  4  Claiming the Body

Combat (27 cards)
  2  Free Fight
  3  Coordinate Attacks
  4  Octopod
  6  Brother's Blood
  8  Undead Strength
  4  Brute Force

Equipment (4 cards)
  4  Laptop Computer

Blood Brother Thoughts

Thanks to the Fragment of Elder Library Database (FELDB), it's relatively easy for me to search through the V:TES collection in search of interesting and intriguing card and deck ideas.

The Blood Brothers have always been a bloodline which I've wanted to try out. In the role-playing game, the Brothers are a thaumaturgical experiment by the Tremere antitribu, which resulted in a circle of beings that not only share a hive mind, but also senses and even body parts, thanks to the Brothers' unique Discipline, Sanguinus.

In V:TES, the powers of Sanguinus has been translated into a number of relatively powerful cards. For example, Walk of Caine allows the Blood Brothers to bleed at a high rate, albeit at a high cost. Unwholesome Bond, at superior, makes it easier to bring out the Brothers from the uncontrolled region. Shell Game provides a meas
ure of stealth, while Gestalt allows the Brothers to intercept.

It is in combat, though, where Sanguinus shines, with cards such as Octopod, Brothers' Blood, Free Fight, Coordinate Attack, and, of course, Coagulated Entity, allowing the Brothers to hold their own in a fight.

In theory, anyway.

The difficulty level in building a Blood Brothers-based deck has always been on the high side. Even within a given circle, with only five minions belonging to the same circle, one always runs the risk of having too many duplicates in the uncontrolled region. Also, mixing members of different Blood Brother Circles, even if they belong to the same group, is futile, because Sanguinus will only work with members of the same circle. This means that, even if the Chicago and Torrance circles both belong to group 2, mixing them means you're planning use only Fortitude and Potence, which would be a waste.

It's even worse with the group 4-6 vampires (Mexico, Kiev, and Budapest), since the latter two circles have different sets of Disciplines: Kiev switches out Potence for Protean, for the most part, while the Budapest Circle replaces Potence with Vicissitude.ew

There are two minions, though, which can be mixed with other circles. Angelo, the Red Lister, can be placed with either the group 2 (Chicago or Torrance) or the group 4 (Mexico City) circles, while New Blood can be placed with any circle, regardless of group. By using both vampires, the crypt for group 2 and 4 Blood Brother decks can be expanded to seven, which improve the variation of crypt building.

Despite the difficulties, players have tried to make workable Blood Brother decks. In the next post, I'll take a look at one way to use the Brothers.

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.

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.

Tech for the Single Discipline Deck

Continuing on the discussion on using midcap, single discipline decks, it's necessary to take a look at the tech one has to add in order for the deck to be able to deal with different threats. When one is focused on using a single discipline in the deck, one can overlook what is needed to survive on the table. Here are a few staples which I like to add to whatever midcap deck I'm using.

Permanent Intercept, or as some players call it, "permacept."

Depending on the environment, one may have to deal with blocking actions which involve stealth. This means that one has to counter it with intercept. This isn't a problem for players using Animalism (ANI) or Auspex (AUS), but, even for those who aren't playing disciplines with intercept, there are a number of options one can resort to in order to gain intercept.

 The master card Guardian Angel offers +1 intercept against bleed actions, and prevents 1 damage when your minion is in combat.

Locations, such as KRCG News Radio and WMRH Talk Radio, allow a measure of intercept. Of course, one has to be ready to contest such unique locations, especially the two above, so a Methuselah may be forced to resort to the less effective Rumor Mill or Channel 10. Club Zombie, while expensive, has the additional ability to allow minions to gain blood if it isn't locked.

Sport Bikes offer an uncontestable alternative, but they're not stackable, giving you only +1 intercept. In a stealth-heavy environment, that will not be enough. Still, it's better than nothing.

Then, there's Mr. Winthrop, a retainer who gives the minion +1 intercept, also another possibility.

Generally speaking, one may need around 2-3 intercept to deal with most actions comfortably, so a mix and match of the disciplineless intercept cards is in order.

Equipment (Combat)

A number of  disciplines which have options to end combat as a strike, but I prefer to be more pro-active in my combat options. As such, when one is not using a combat discipline deck, I tend to prefer guns such as the .44 Magnum or the Sniper Rifle. The former does 2 damage per strike, and the latter has the additional advantage of setting the range to long in the first round of combat. Combine it with a Target: Vitals, and your minion does 4 points of damage in one strike.

Given the combat-heavy metagame of Metro Manila, if I'm not planning on mixing it up in combat, I tend to use equipment that allow me to get away, e.g. fight at long range, hence, the two types of guns, plus IR Goggles for the additional maneuver. Combine them with Concealed Weapon, and you get a free equip action in the middle of combat (you still pay the cost, though). I'm not too keen on using ammo cards, though; they take up space, and, unless you also pack Magazines, they're one use.

Damage prevention without Fortitude is a little trickier, with your best options being Leather Jacket, Flak Jacket or Kevlar Vest. While the Bundi and the Nightstick can also prevent damage, the Bundi only prevents melee weapon damage, and both are melee weapons. The thing is, if your opponent is playing Potence or other strength related strikes (Blood Fury), your best bet would be to get away, not close the range.

Bleed modifiers/Ousting tech
  
If you're not using a bleed-oriented discipline, such as Dominate or Presence,  then Computer Hacking, Laptop Computers, and Tasha Morgan, are your best bets to push the bleed on your opponent. Other options are Pentex Loves You (for Sabbat) or the Stolen Police Cruiser (for anarchs).

For other forms of pressure, there's Anarch Revolt and Antedeluvian Awakening, which both force Methuselahs to burn one pool per turn, although having an anarch minion protects one from the Revolt.

Then, of course, there's Smiling Jack, although, if you take this path, you'd better make sure you have a surefire way of paying for its cost and defending it. To summarize, each turn, you move a pool onto Smiling Jack, and then every other Methuselah has to burn the equivalent number of counters on the Jack from either his/her pool or from his minions. Paying for it means you have enough pool to keep from getting ousted; there are a number of ways for pool gain, but that's for another article.

The main challenge for the Jack is defending it. For one, it can be canceled by Sudden Reversal or Wash straight off the bat. Then, if you manage to get it through, be prepared to deal with the whole table. Playing the Jack is announcing that you're a threat, and other players will often ignore predator-prey relationships until the threat is removed. That means that the Jack is removed (via directed action), or you are ousted. Still, while there is risk involved, playing the Jack can be fruitful against a table unprepared to deal with it.

While playing a single discipline deck can be dangerous due to the weaknesses of each discipline, there are a number of cards which, when added to your deck, help bolster and strengthen your deck.

Stealth Mission: The OBF Deck

So, it was a start, and then, a long absence. So much for posting regularly. At any rate, let's pick up where we left off, and maybe, I can manage some regularity.

In my last post, I was exploring my shift from weenie to midcap play. Below is one of the results of my efforts.

Obfuscate (OBF) is one of the more useful Disciplines, mainly because of the stealth factor. Play enough stealth, and your opponent would not be able to block it, even if his/her deck was built to intercept. Some of the OBF stealth cards, such as Faceless Night and Elder Impersonation, added some extra oomph by respectively keeping blocking minions locked or preventing further blocks.

In combat, using Disguised Weapon to surprise opponents with .44 Magnums or Flamethrowers makes them think carefully about getting into combat. While Celerity has the edge in determining combat range, with OBF, getting away from close combat is facilitated by Behind You! and Swallowed by the Night maneuvers. Thus, the dedicated OBF deck can fight, to a certain extent.

The ousting mechanism for the deck is the Night Moves+Spying Mission combo. While not as potent as Dominate or Presence bleeds, using the Mission to bleed for 3 is fairly effective, if a little slow.

Thus, after some tweaking, below is the deck list for the OBF deck.

On further thought, I could focus it on particular vamps with special abilities, such as Synner-G or Luc, but I tend to work with whatever I have handy. That's also the reason for the Blood Dolls, which I would swap with Vessels if I had any spare ones.

Deck Name:   OBF Midcap Spying Mission
Created By: 

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 15, Max: 20, Avg: 4.58)
----------------------------------------------
  1  Antoine                            aus cel dem OBF    5  Malkavian                 
  1  Florentina Lengauer        aus OBF                  4  Malkavian                  
  1  Frank Litzpar                   ani for pot OBF      5  Nosferatu Antitribu       
  1  Jeffrey Mullins                cel OBF                  4  Gangrel Antitribu         
  1  Layla bint-Nadr               qui CEL OBF         5  Assamite                    
  1  Lubomira Hradok            OBF                        3  Nosferatu Antitribu       
  1  Luc                                  dem vic OBF           5  Malkavian Antitribu       
  1  Petra                                aus ANI OBF          5  Nosferatu                 
  1  Renenet                           ser OBF PRE           5  Follower of Set          
  1  Ruxandra                         ani aus OBF            5  Nosferatu                 
  1  Skulk                               ani OBF                   4  Nosferatu Antitribu      
  1  Synner-G                         pro CEL OBF          5  Gangrel Antitribu          

Library: (80 cards)
-------------------
Master (14 cards)
  1  Archon Investigation
  4  Blood Doll
  1  Direct Intervention
  2  Effective Management
  1  Heidelberg Castle, Germany
  1  KRCG News Radio
  1  Vast Wealth
  1  WMRH Talk Radio
  2  Wash

Action (16 cards)
  8  Computer Hacking
  8  Night Moves

Action Modifier (18 cards)
  4  Cloak the Gathering
  4  Faceless Night
  2  Lost in Crowds
  8  Spying Mission

Reaction (4 cards)
  4  Forced Awakening

Combat (13 cards)
  6  Behind You!
  4  Disguised Weapon
  3  No Trace

Retainer (3 cards)
  1  J. S. Simmons, Esq.
  1  Mr. Winthrop
  1  Tasha Morgan

Equipment (10 cards)
  4  .44 Magnum
  2  Flamethrower
  2  Laptop Computer
  2  Sport Bike

Combo (2 cards)
  2  Swallowed by the Night

Midcap Play

For the longest time, the deck type I've most often played were weenie decks. Weenie, of course, means the crypt contains vampires of capacity 4 or less. I've always appreciated the speed with which the decks operated; getting 2-3 vampires ahead of your prey and predator means that, if I'm lucky, I can do some damage before my opponents are up and runni,ng.

However, there is a downside to playing weenies. Unless they were incredibly unlucky, veteran players would remain unfazed by sheer numbers, and had contingencies to deal with them. Usually, this meant some means of unlocking the vampires, whether by waking cards such as Forced Awakening or On the Qui Vive, or unlocking after combat, provided by such cards as Majesty and Earth Meld.

 Also, since vets tended to play with larger vampires, there was, more often than not, a wider range of options that they had at hand. In my case, I would have to hope that my combat cards were enough to either do damage or get away from the bigger minion. However, such was not always the case, and I often wound up with a field of torpored minions.

With new cards coming into play, and new decks becoming available, I've taken another look at my single Discipline decks, and have decided to use vamps that had the superior version of the Discipline. Generally speaking, this meant that I would be using vampires with capacities from 4-5, which would slow down getting minions out, but not by much. It would still be relatively faster than using the big vamps, which would allow me to set up more quickly, and do some damage before I get blocked.

Having vamps with the superior Discipline meant that I wouldn't have to pack Discipline Masters in my deck, which was the case with the weenie deck. This would streamline my deck designs by a little bit; normally, I packed 2-3 Discipline Master cards in the weenie decks. It also meant that I would have the full range provided by the superior Discipline. For example, this meant that I could bounce bleeds using Telepathic Misdirection, instead of using just +1 intercept.

So far, I've built the following single Discipline midcap decks (deck lists to be posted soon):

• Obfuscate (OBF, group 4-5) - Using a combo of Night Moves and Spying Mission, the deck has done relatively well so far;
• Presence (PRE, group 3-4) - This is a vote and bleed deck. It's still experimental, but getting a number of Princes made the voting more difficult to counter;
• Celerity (CEL, group 2-3) - This is my version of the Celerity gun deck, but it had difficulty getting going in the one game I played it. It still needs a little tweaking.  
• Auspex (AUS, group 2-3) - Bounce the bleed, and defend the Jack. That's pretty much it.

Of course, the fact that the decks rely on one Discipline means that I have to move fairly quickly, because going up against larger vamps is still a challenge. It also means that the decks are limited by what the discipline can do. For example, the OBF deck is primarily a stealth deck, with little intercept to protect myself from my predator.

At any rate, how the deck will do will depend on who is at the table, and what deck each player has brought. This means that the deck will do well at times, and crash and burn on other occasions. In my case, hopefully, the extra speed provided by the smaller vampires will make winning easier.

On a Personal Note

I didn't realize that my last post on this blog before the previous one was five years ago.

Despite the game's going out of print in 2010, I've remained relatively active in the Manila VTES games. I competed in the local legs of the Asian Continental Championships: in 2011, in 2014 (Iloilo), and last year. Whenever I could, I would join the local games, first at Starbucks Tomas Morato, then Coco, just off T. Morato, and, then, finally, at a friend's house.

Late last year, though, I had a bit of a breakthrough, as I found two of my co-teachers who were interested in learning the games. This allowed me to introduce new players into the game, and, at the same time, form a gaming group at work (to play after hours, of course). By doing so, I rediscovered the thrill of teaching new players the game that I love.

At the same time, with new cards coming out, I started taking another look at my collection, and started getting ideas for new decks. I've also begun tweaking existing decks, by reconfiguring what they do; I'll probably be posting the deck lists in this blog.

And this blog. With the game coming back into print last year, I've been thinking of writing in the blog again, and at a more regular pace.

Not that I'm an expert at the game, not by a long shot. With the game's complexity, and having seen other players build decks that I wouldn't have imagined, I still have a long way to go in mastering this game. By writing in this blog again, I hope to make my thoughts more concrete, sort of a workbook for my ideas for decks and the game.

Rising From Torpor

When V:TES went out of print eight years ago, it was a sad day for many of us who had enjoyed the game.

However, happily, players did not take the game's apparent demise sitting down. Despite the game going out of print, players from around the globe kept the game alive, and continued to hold tournaments, such as the Asian Continental Championships (ACC) and the European Championships (EC).
 
During the game's hiatus, the Vampire Elder Kindred Network (VEKN), the game's governing body, with the help of dedicated players, came out with several PDF card sets, wherein players could download the files, print them out, and, after sleeving them with valid VTES cards, players could use them in tournament play.

Then, during the EC tournament in Berlin in 2017, a 100-card anthology set, made up of popular cards, as well as cards from the PDF sets, was distributed to participants. This was a milestone, since it marked the first time new cards were printed ever since the game went down in 2010. What was even more exciting was that there were leftover anthology sets available, and players such as myself snapped them up.

Thanks to the efforts of Hugh Angseeing and others, the game came back in a big way last year with the formation of Black Chantry Productions, which now oversees the publication of the game. To start of the game's resurrection, the company came out with several reprint sets of the most recent expansions, Keepers of Tradition and Heirs to the Blood, followed by a new set for the bloodlines, Lost Kindred.

Then, late last year, it announced that it would be coming out with preconstructed decks, focusing on four clans of the Sabbat:

• Parliament of Shadows, featuring the Lasombra;
• Den of Fiends, featuring the Tzimisce;
• Libertine Ball, featuring the Toreador antitribu (!Tor), and
• Pact with the Nephandi, featuring the Tremere antitribu (!Tre).

The release of the deck lists caused some consternation among veteran players, because of the number of previously rare and expensive cards, such as The Embrace and Nephandus (Mage), in the decks. The fact that there are 9 Embraces in the !Tor deck, and 8 Nephandi in the !Tre deck is sure to bring the individual card prices of these cards way down.

Still, the major difference between the Black Chantry decks and previous "starter" decks is that the new decks are more playable out of the box. Unlike the older starter decks, which needed several (to many) cards to be added for them to be competitive, the new decks appear to have been designed to stand up and hold their own in standard play.

With the release of the new decks this month, and with the promise of deck designs for new players in the making from Black Chantry, it's an exciting time to come back to, or get into, Vampire: the Eternal Struggle.