Bloody Disciplines - NECromancy

Over here Necromancy used to be (and still is) dominated by the presence of Zombieboy, aka Keith, and his myriad selection of Giovanni packages delivering different experience of necromantic death to any who opposes his immediate objectives. And he's really good at it. Perhaps due to the reverence to his dominance (he's got the Iron Throne in Vtes on Necromancy), I have built very few Necromancy decks, the exception being my Baron Soul Gem (Nec being the key discipline afterall), a fun Hordes deck, and perhaps a couple of  trial decks here and there, but I've never actually built one based on this discipline seriously (afterall, Keith does it so well he Awed me every time he throws out a Giovanni deck)

Nevertheless, NEC is a powerful and rather unique discipline in Vtes, being very capable of achieving victory for the Methuselah utilising it in many different ways. And it is probably one of the most interesting discipline to look at due to their many strange and powerful effects, especially when they're dealing with the dead, undead, and the un-undead.

Action

NEC truly shines in this field, not exactly in the way of having very efficient action but with a range of sometimes rather strange (and definitely one of a kind) actions that in the hands of innovative Methuselahs, can become the backbone of very effective (or hilarious but not really working) theme decks. I mean, think of the mighty Soul Gem deck, the Wake Up Sweet Prince deck, Divine Blockers, Ex Nihilio Bleed, Jar the Soul...

In fact, the actions are varied enough to warrant Methuselahs to take a look at the offers that NEC is giving out, as unlike some of the other disciplines, NEC, albeit sorta specialized in ash heap management, isn't the kind where you go "ya, good bleeding discipline", or "this one can fight!"; but will probably give you something like "mmm..."

Moreover, due to the many different clans utilising the NEC discipline (and they can be quite different), some of these actions work rather interestingly with some of them, for example, Lifeless Tongues is an action that is quite difficult to utilise with the Giovanni, but seems pretty at ease in say, a Harbinger deck that is able to defend the card.

Unfortunately that also means that NEC action is not a "plug and play" discipline.

Action Modifiers

Needless to say, Call of the Hungry Dead and Spectral Divination are the 2 most commonly seen modifier cards, and that they are pretty good - Call simply negates a block (similar to Elder Impersonation), and Spectral Divination is another of those multi-function cards (a little costly for 1 stealth or 1 intercept, but well, the Giovanni has the Path of Bones)

Trochomancy is also commonly seen in NEC decks, being a free bleed card, and simply will belong in a Harbinger deck that has space for it~ Honorary mention goes to Shroudsight that appears in many Diary decks.

Ally

The Shambling Hordes had been used in so many ways that I've lost count - dancing ones, bombing ones, those with grenades and those who bleeds...but in every incarnation they're just as deadly. One of the more commonly seen allies for a while. And no, I've never seen the Puppeteer Wraith in play before.

Combat

Not a lot of options, but actually pretty potent. Dead Hand is a good combat hand that bypasses FOR, in the hands of Giovanni with good POT focus and STR, this card can cause a lot of headaches to traditional FOR decks. Give superior NEC to Lorrie and see her decimate opponent's normally very resilient vampires. Breath of Thanatos is seldom, if ever, used as a modifier except in Wraith decks, but is an excellent combat threat. Spiritual Intervention is the best combat end card that NEC has, and commonly seen in most NEC decks that is not focused on combat.

Equipment

Baleful Doll? Never seen before.

Reaction

Honestly, haven't seen a block deck with NEC reactions, and since all the NEC reaction cards basically deals with Intercepts, there isn't much to see. Moreover, the functions of the NEC reaction cards are really quite disappointing.

Retainer

The Masquer is actually a pretty good retainer, but due to its cost, and that NEC is not really that high on blocking deck's priority, it is not really seen in use.

All in all NEC shines mostly in their action library, with a range of action cards that people will remember after seeing them in play (effective or not), and has a lot of those wow factors. There are quite a few clans that has NEC as an in-clan or appears in their crypt choice common enough to be used - Giovanni, of course, the Harbingers, Samedi, Nagaraja and even the Settites and some Tremeres. Interestingly, each of the prominent NEC clans can use the discipline in seemingly slightly different, but surprisingly varied manners, seeing that some NEC cards fit in better with individual clans (or even vampires). 

And I'm always excited to see what Zombieboy will do with NEC in his next deck~

(O.O)brains

Lyrics of the Night : Multiple Copies

One of the most challenging thing about building a deck is the number of copies of certain cards that you want to include in the deck. Granted, there are quite a good number of cards that is generally easy to decide - for example, few includes more than 1 copy of Giant's Blood, or Ancient Influence in a deck simply because they can only be used once in a game, and are rarely game changing, or completely essential to the operation of a deck (at least I've not seen that happening).

There are also quite a good number of not-so-crucial cards that are good to have, and because they are unique, don't normally see more than 1 copy in any one deck - good examples would be all the Hunting Grounds, the occasional Aranthebes or unique allies such as Carlton or Mylan. 

There are exception to the rule of Uniqueness though - not all unique cards are worth only a single copy in the deck. Of course, being unique simply means that any extra copy that you have in your hand when the same card is already on table are dead weight, which is a bad thing; the trade off is that you get to draw the card more frequently, preferably right in the beginning. This is a very common tactic - inserting multiple copies to increase draw chance, and very often seen with speed cards such as Information Highway or Dreams of the Sphinx. In the latter case, since Dreams actually do expire after you use it a couple of times, having extra copies is not necessarily a bad thing. There is also the existence of thematic decks that utilized interesting combos to cycle or exploit unique cards - Soul Gem is the prime example of those kinds of decks~

The issue of how many copies a card deserves to take up in a deck very much depends on what you want to do with it, how often, and how important its place is in the greater scheme of things. For example, a Thrown Gates deck have pretty much the whole deck dedicated to Thrown Gates because that's what it does and Thrown Gates is the most effective card that it wants to draw. Therefore a good number of card slots will be allocated to it.

A deck only has a maximum of 90 cards, and every card is an asset. (or at least should be) The allocation of these slots is therefore an important aspect of the Vtes greater game. 

I commonly allocate 4-6 for cards that I want to use, and up to 12 for cards that I know is very important to me. This ratio is only a guide, and due to the incredible number of cards that I want to include in every deck, there is never enough space. For me, I use these numbers as a reference:-

1 - unique cards, good to have, if never draw, fine, used also for surprise cards or meta cards. Example - Hunting Grounds, Giant's Blood, Mylan Horseed, Carlton Van Wyk, Crimson Sentinel, Entrancement.

4 - semi-important cards that I want to draw as a backup for situations - generally allocated to maneuvers or light combat defense cards. Example - Charismatic Aura, Engling Fury, Nocturn in a non-Nocturn bleed deck.

6 - cards I intend to use frequently but is generally more defensive and not completely crucial to the game, or doesn't expire easily, or is rather costly or risky to play. Example - .44 Magnum in a gun deck, Deflection, Awe, Preternatural Strength, Majesty.

8 - important card that is the backbone of the deck, or have multiple applications. Example - Freak Drive, Ambush in a combat deck, Immortal Grapple, Domain of Evernight, Swallowed by the Night.

10 or more - a must have card, expected to use frequently and aggressively, or requires a good number to be effective, or simply runs out very quickly. Example - Aid from Bats, Kindred Spirits, Gremlins.

Deck recycling tech in Vtes is rather limited, so the exact multiples that you may need to sweep a table is the magic number that you need to prepare for. Having mental excercises on how each attack will consume cards is a good habit if you like to build Vtes decks a lot. I believe that there is no "most correct" number of each type of deck genre, simply because the immediate environment in every community is going to be different, and every person's playstyle will deviate a little. This number will eventually become clear after one toys with the deck for a while, and adapt to the people around him. Of course, this deck will have to evolve whenever a new expansion comes by, or sometimes even react to a particularly interesting or influential new entrant into the game~

And then there is the limitation post by the availability of cards - I would very much like to have 6 Siren's Lure in my Daughter's deck, but I simply do not own that many...

That is the unlife's reality man, sad, but true~

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Antediluvian Awakening

Let's be nostalgic and talk about a very old card indeed - the Antediluvian Awakening.

At first glance this seems to be a pointless card - since it damages everybody at a slow pace without giving the user any special treatment - all take 1 pool damage at untap phase (or burn a vampire of at least 4 cap to burn the card) - no questions asked. What's the point? I have yet to see a prey killed by Antediluvian because he is down to 1 pool and has no vampires to burn, but I have seen lots of times that an Awakening with longevity caused a hell lot of damage to everybody and ended up forcing one of the players to finally lose a vampire or die - this may not always be under the control of the original user of the Antediluvian Awakening, and more often than not, some random ally suffers the damage instead of the prey - really quite difficult to control.

Gone are the days before the appearance of Vessel, the Awakening is even more fearsome than, and can perhaps be used as a last minute killer, but now, most of the time you'll see the opponent losing 1 pool that is taken from somewhere.

But first thing first, this card does treat the user kindly. 

The prey will be the first to suffer from this card - 1 pool or 1 vampire. Sometimes this can be rather troublesome for the prey, and if timed well and with good judgement (or lucky), this card can cause incredible damage to the prey that he/she might not recover fast enough to survive the next round. 

Next, the appearance of the card is strictly at the choice of the user, nobody is forcing you to go wake the fella if you are the one with the lowest pool. Therefore in decks that does have the ability to survive the Antediluvian, this is a hell of a damage card that will hit the whole table.

Last, but not least, this card is used by many themed decks to burn his own vampires - usually as a trigger for some funky effects, such as the Soul Gem. When one needs to get rid of your own vampire in a hurry, this card is probably one of the very few that can help you do it without physically asking another of your minion to go diablerize the vampire in question (and will require that vampire to be in torpor first)

Meanwhile, with decks that are focused on quickly killing everyone, Antediluvian is a great way of reducing overall pool / minion counts on the table, regardless of who owns them. For fast bleed decks, some of them actually don't care who dies first, as long as somebody dies - and since the highest damage output is usually delivered by the bleeder, the prey is usually the one who cannot play the endurance game and has to let go of a vampire, opening himself up for more bleeding pain.

Combat decks can consider that too - since the damage will come from pool or blood, the combat deck will usually see an easier time against the prey - plus, combat decks really shines when there are less players on the table (less minions help too, which is the essence of combat decks anyway). Not to mention combat decks that actually do burn/diablerize vampires - that could even make sure that the prey doesn't have vampires to burn for Antediluvian.

Using Antediluvian Awakening will require the user to have some form of pool recovery that should be superior to all others - it can be as simple as "I kill first, always", or "Too many Vessels for you to count", or as complex as all those Golconda plus Villein combos. Regardless, if you're the one with the highest pool gain tech and everybody else is slipping, just watch the jaws of your prey drops when you From a Sinking Ship his last vampire when he's down to 1 pool. See how he die to the Antediluvian Awakening on the ship- darn funny.

(o.o)

Lyrics of the Night : Opening Game

When I was in Manila, I got into a discussion with Bann about the standard stance to take at the opening of a Vtes 5-players game. I was trying to share with him the concept of not going after the prey too much so that the dynamics of the table will move towards a more favourable path for one's eventual victory. Bann looked at me puzzled and told me : "Of course, and you've only figured it out now?" (not the exact wordings of course, but the geez is there~ :P).

Nevertheless, better late than never, and that last minute understanding of the play strategy went a long way in helping me in the Asian Championship. So I think that it deserved to be noted here, in case I go torpor again and needs to be reminded how to play Vtes properly when someone rescue me in the future.

Anyway.

I used to spend a good majority of my effort going forward at the beginning of the game, hoping to quickly reduce my prey to a pulp of digestible pool. For some decks this may be the only choice (talking about you bleeders), but even so, the pace might be able to be more controlled rather than a mad show of "die, prey, die!" activities. (Only the mad Sabbats do that)

I was thinking, if I take some time off my prey in the early game, say after I have my first one or two vampires, and concentrate in improving my survivability by, say, gaining pool, speed up influence, setup etc; my prey will have time to do his/her own thing and my predator will have to deal with a more defensive prey. What this usually translate to is that the prey will focus more on offence, especially if you give him/her a little deal of "not bleeding you more than 1/2" or "not entering combat with you next turn" - which are all good incentives for the prey to go forward. Meanwhile, the predator will have to look at your untapped vampires, or simply content with reducing the speed of your pool gain/asset accumulation.

The security given to the prey will usually prompt him/her to bring out more vampires - this is probably one of the best ways to reduce his pool - made he himself do it - 4 pool a turn is way faster than most people can bleed. Granted, he'll have a new minion that you have to deal with - but well, very often, this one extra minion will not be a whole lot of issues when it comes to ousting him.

This forward movement of the prey will create a ripple in the game dynamics. By your prey going forward, your ally (grand prey) will generally suffer a little more - forcing him to commit more resources to defence and reduce his offensive moves - which will in turn reduce the pressure received by your grand predator who should then capitalize on the lucky break and go after your predator, reducing his ability to pressure you. So if you keep this balance properly, you should damage your prey just enough, but give him enough incentives to go forward and weaken your grand prey so that the grand predator will threaten your predator enough to leave you relatively safe. A couple of such turns will see you in a favourable position on the table.

This is of course a delicate issue and tend to change table to table and definitely from deck to deck and player to player. (Danz will upset the entire mechanics here, kill him first, no questions asked). One must be careful not to leave the prey too free to actually oust his prey without you able to oust him right away or at least quick enough. The moment the table goes down to 4 players this 5-player dynamics will change drastically and you must be able to adapt to it.

Again, if all goes according to plan, you should have enough on table threat to quickly decimate your prey's ability to oust your ally when you see that your ally can no longer survive without your help. Time the attack against the prey properly, as a bad timing will usually end up with you facing a happy prey with 1 VP. If that is done well, you will be left with a new weakened prey, giving you a very good chance of getting 2VPs plus 12 pool without much challenge. With those new shinys in hand you should be able to go after the grand predator now, and since your predator is usually in a more pressured position and therefore relatively weak, his ability to impede your attacks against your new prey will be severely limited.

That said, at this point it is often very good for your opponents to gang up on you, since VPs-wise they have very little motivation to not forge an alliance with each other. You can of course break this apart by offering your predator to kill you after you oust your prey, giving him 2 VPs while you take home 3 and the GW - it usually works, since that is most probably the best option for your predator at that point. If this deal can pull through, there is little chance for your prey to survive for long.

Not all deck types can practise this dynamics, and this is definitely not a static "always do this" strategy. I'm glad to say that Vtes doesn't have something so simple, and therefore variations or changes to this broad concept should be practised based on the types and genre of decks on the table, for eg, if you need the vote superiority and there is only another single vote deck on table, it might be prudent to help whoever it is to get rid of him first.

And of course, if everyone hates you then... you know~ 

(o.o)v

Singing a New Tune : The Big Blue Ones

Deck Name : The Big Blue Ones

Crypt [12 vampires]
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Arcadian, The      
2x Pherydima            
2x Isanwayen          
2x Dame Hollerton      
1x Omme Enberbenight    
1x Roderick Phillips    
1x Leila Monroe        
1x Lucy Markowitz      

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [20]
  6x Govern the Unaligned
  9x Gremlins
  1x Scarlet Lore
  4x Song of Pan

Action Modifier [13]
  3x Conditioning
  1x Command of the Beast
  1x Empowering the Puppet King
  4x Shadow Play
  5x Stone Travel

Action Modifier/Combat [6]
  6x Fae Contortion

Ally [7]
  1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
  6x Nocturn

Combat [9]
  1x Darkling Trickery
  1x Entombment
  5x Oubliette
  2x Shadow Body

Equipment [1]
  1x Tinglestripe

Master [16]
  1x Capitalist
  1x Chanjelin Ward
  2x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Great Symposium
  1x Momentum's Edge
  1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
  3x Perfectionist
  1x Secure Haven
  1x Sudden Reversal
  2x Wash
  2x Wider View

Reaction [14]
  1x Covincraft
  6x Deflection
  1x Delaying Tactics
  1x Faerie Wards
  5x On the Qui Vive

Reaction/Action Modifier [3]
  3x Aura Absorption

This is my only Kiasyd deck, due mostly to my unwillingness to play decks that are not toolboxy in nature, I don't have a lot of interest in playing this deck - hence it was never truly proven in battle. The few times that I've played this deck it did pretty well though, never really won me any table sweeps, but consistently kills off a couple of preys all the time while making everybody rather spooked.

Primary Path of Ousting

Bleed. Need I say more? Gremlins with Song of Pan, and preferably bring out as many Bluies as you can afford, support with Nocturns. A typical round should see you bleed for 6 at least, and once you get up to 3 minions you will be happily bleeding for nearly 10 pool every turn - killing off your prey(s) rather quickly.

Secondary Path of Ousting

It doesn't exist in this deck.

Crypt

The crypt is purposely constructed to prevent overcrowding of vampires - you should be getting no less than 2 vampires in your opening crypt - most of the time you should get 3. Who these vampires are greatly determine how your deck will go - too many fat ones and you'll be a little slower. Granted, the capacity of the vampires in this deck is on the high side - but that has played pretty well for me sometime since I tend to like to bring out 2 Bluies at one time if I can afford it - creating maximum damage the moment it starts going. This will also kinda prevent the whole table to get spooked too quickly and let the prey get into a false sense of security. You see, the moment a Kiasyd hit the table the prey is going to go extra-careful. I find that losing even 3-4 pool to my predator in the early turns is affordable given the speed of killing off the opponent. Of course, if you see opportunities in bouncing high bleeds then by all means get a DOM vampire out asap.

None of the vampires are in a sense truly indisposable in this deck, anyone will do just pretty well except the 2 DOM weenies. All Kiasyds are blue enough to cause good damage to opponent. The 2 fatter yet less efficient Kiasyds only have 1 copy in the deck so they should not be too common.

Combat

With Fae Contortion you are not too afraid of Immortal Grapples, and therefore Oubliette and Shadow Body should give enough protection against most combat decks. An Entombment is there to surprise (not really, everyone seems to be ready for this) the opponent and deter the enemy from coming. Good to have since Scarlet Lore will allow you to get this card when needed.

Defense

Deflection. Period. There is a Delaying Tactics, a Covincraft, and quite a couple of cards to challenge D actions - such as Secure Haven, Faerie Wards and Chanjelin. This deck is actually pretty resilient against most attacks - its the matter of getting the right hand.

Surprise Elements

Don't need to. When you're blue everything is good. No need for surprises - they don't have time for that before they die.

Known Weaknesses

Persistent combat can eventually remove your vampires. Cards that incapacitate your vampires will always be problematic, especially in a grand scale - take Cryptic Mission or Edged Illusions for example. Heavy weenies of any sorts will also give you the creeps - be it weenie beat, weenie vote or weenie bleed, all is no good for this deck.

Also, this is not the fastest deck in the world, and not the most imaginative. Any other Kiasyd player on table is probably going to contest a good number of your vampires.

Playing this deck

Bring out Kiasyds, preferably 2 at one time unless you have lots of Governed the Unaligned in hand or your predator is too aggressive. Governed at superior to bring out smaller people - as many as you can - always remembering to use Nocturn at superior first if you can.

Bleed with Gremlins when possible, supported by Song of Pan, enhance as needed. Stealth through opposition. Rinse and repeat. Remember not to bring out a Kiasyd when you're playing Song of Pan.

Quite a straight forward bleed deck with good mix of defensive options. One of my better suited bleed decks, but still not a lot of fun to play. But when you need a fast game this is a good deck to bring to table, it tends to speed up the game quite a bit.

(o.o)

One Clan to Rule them all : Kiasyd

After looking at MYT don't you just think that the Kiasyd's unique Bloodline discipline made them one of the most efficient stealth bleeders? In fact, I feel that they are so good that the only thing stopping them from taking over the bleeding scene is their relatively thin crypt choice - which is a problem shared by pretty much all of the Bloodlines. That said, the Kiasyd actually do have a reasonably good selection of top vampires to power their bleed strategies.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The Kiasyds' disciplines are MYT, DOM and OBT, giving them an excellent blend of abilities to bleed, and to defend themselves when a combat deck targets them. They're probably amongst the top clans that can both stealth bleed and defend against most attacks efficiently - in the league of the Ravnos, Tremeres and the Lasombras. In this aspect I think that Kiasyds are superior to the other clans.

The Bleed engine for the Kiasyd is powered by both DOM and MYT, giving them options instead of simply relying on Governed the Unaligned. The mighty Song of Pan, at the cost of 1 pool and is actually a free action if successful, gives +1 Bleed to every Kiasyd. The down side of the card is actually not a big deal, since bleeding Kiasyds rarely have much issue failing a bleed - but do remember try not to influence out a Kiasyd during that turn (and definitely not Mylan - the little goblin will just die), it's pure unwarranted damage to those fellas. A single Song of Pan allows every Kiasyd to bleed for 3 at +1 Stealth with a single Gremlins card, probably the most efficient combo for bleeding in the whole game. (Undue Influence comes close, but instead of killing it simply help influencing or bloating, which IMHO, is inferior to Gremlins - killing should always be priority)

The Stealth delivery is extremely efficient with Gremlins plus MYT and OBT stealth, a little costly if most are OBT, but the combination of Gremlins and Stone Travel is already difficult to bypass, and there's no reason a Kiasyd deck should be lacking in Fae Contortion to add in that extra stealth for the older vampires. All in all, with MYT alone, a Kiasyd with basic MYT can get 2 stealth at bleeding, and at superior 4 stealth, all without spending a single blood. Add in OBT and only the most dedicated blockers have a chance at all.

But enough about the Kiasyds bleeding, everybody knows that their unlife is seriously threatened when a heavy stealth bleeder is working for the predator. What makes the Kiasyd doubly fearsome is their ability to withstand most countermeasures. 

First of all - combat decks tend to go straight for the stealth bleeders on table and pound them into oblivion. Ravnos fight with combat ends and sometimes even Apparition, which is very effective against combat decks, Lasombras have combat ends as well, combined with POT beat back and the fearsome Entombment. Tremeres have the incredible THA, but they lack in the stealth department. All of them, however, faced problems against the very common Immortal Grapple (Blood Fury is an exception). The Kiasyds have the Entombment option of the Lasombra, and can hit back quite well with Earth Swords if they want, making them dangerous both close and far. They also have access to OBT's combat ends and the Arm of the Abyss. The true power of the Kiasyds lie in Fae Contortion, which cancels Immortal Grapple, exposing the attacking vampire to Arms+Entombment, or simply combat ends. Also, Darkling Trickery disables most rapid gun decks and also provides maneuvers and/or presses for free. This range of combat options make a Kiasyd quite unpredictable in combat, and pretty safe against most beat decks.

The Chanjelin Ward protects the Kiasyds further - from Sensory Deprivation to Horseshoes or even simple Enter combat actions, the Ward cancels them all at the cost of a single blood, not to mention it costs the opponent's attacker another blood (a reasonably annoying problem for certain decks, like a Tremere Cryptic Deck, or even the Sensory Deprivation, which is already costly). Add in random damage prevention ability from their allies (which they don't actually need, but well, it's there in case the environment needs it) Though many Kiasyds are not too old, Faerie Wards do work for the older vampires in achieving the same results. Even the Goblinism can quickly pop a Secure Haven on your important vampire if that is necessary.

The other deadly ability of the Kiasyds is their ability to disable blockers. Riddle Phantastique, Redcap Wilder, The Grandest Trick can all achieve this function, with varying options and costs. Combine this with their already high stealth capability and you have a very difficult predator to handle.

The Kiasyds are not without defense against speed bleeders as well - DOM provides Deflection as usual, which is normally enough to handle most bleeding predators. Against high vote decks, Kiasyds have the random Covincraft to add 4 votes against whatever problem the vote is throwing at you, and the card kinda stand in for a -1 Bleed when no voters are on table. That said, offensive speed voters are possibly still the biggest threat that the Kiasyds will face since their defenses against votes are limited, and though they do have light Intercepts from MYT and OBT, most Kiasyd decks usually don't pack a lot of those.

The Kiasyd may not have the deep crypt of weenies that DOM vampires of other clans have access to, but the Great Symposium tried to make up for it. Granted, it can only be done once in a game, but when it does happen, the speed boost is simply incredible - it is 3 free transfer plus a Recruitment for no cost. (and the transfers can be freely distributed in anyway you like)

I'd also like to mention Scarlet Lore - which is a deadly though expensive card. Search tech in Vtes is severely limited, and the Scarlet Lore allows the Kiasyd to bring forward an important card for killing or defense anytime he wants against any situation - facing a potential combat monster next turn? Entombment. Need the extra boost to kill the prey? Conditioning. Need to face off a Parity Shift next turn? Delaying Tactics is yours during the discard phase. This kind of option is actually very useful, though it probably wouldn't happen too often.

The Kiasyd crypt had been greatly enhanced in the previous expansion HttB. The Group 4s (sigh for the Group 6s - not really useable in a pure Kiasyd environment, though you probably wouldn't be facing much contest if you use them) are pretty excellent now, even compared to the previously very cool Group 2s.

Quincy and Arcadian, the 2 linking vampires are all pretty good - one is a good weenie, and the other one is a powerful Elder. Depending on your likings, both of them are excellent addition to your Kiasyds. The Group 2s give you a straight 4 cap to 9 cap but lacks a coherent discipline spread for a bleed deck - too many of them without superior DOM (not that it matters very much now due to Gremlins, but Governed and Conditioning, especially Deflection are still important enough to warrant superior DOM). In this sense the group 4s are now superior in a bleed deck - not only do they have more superior DOM, many of their abilities are more synergistic in a bleed deck as compared to say, Bartholomew. Arcadian, especially, if you use Group 5s, is a deadly bleeder. Isanwayen, the little blue guy, is probably the best 6-cap in the whole wide world. Extra master phase is a good option, given that the Kiasyds can use it for Lilith's Blessing, Life in a City, Random Blind Spot, or even just Misdirection if you actually do remember that card.

The best defense against a Kiasyd bleed deck is still bounces. Since they do not have Spying Mission, this can work to their detriment if the prey bounces heavily. But hey, that's not very common.

To a certain degree, the Kiasyds do not enjoy the range of on-board assets that their companions the Lasombras have - and that the Lasombras have means to reduce blood cost on stealth cards that the Kiasyds also make use of. That is somewhat compensated with free stealth cards from MYT, and of course, Gremlins. This actually makes the Kiasyd quite a card-intensive clan, with too many options to choose from, which often confuses the deck-builder. I've seen quite a few not-so-efficient Kiasyds, and they do get card-jammed when the prey knows what to do. Of course, a dedicated Kiasyd DOM bleeder loses out on a lot of the Kiasyd's innate advantages in defensive options, but hey, killing fast enough is always a priority, right?

(o.o)v

Bloody Disciplines - MYTherceria

Mytherceria, among the Bloodline disciplines, is probably the most toolboxy of them all, rather similar to Obtenebration and Chimestry in terms of the multiple abilities and bonuses that it can confer, and some of them extremely efficient. Combining this discipline with the Kiasyd is simply fearsome, making them perhaps one of the most feared bleeders of all times. Granted, almost every deck I see that utilises MYT are bleed decks, occasionally seeing a combat fun deck, but primarily MYT is most feared for the stealth and bleed that it provides for the deadly blue vampires.

Action

The most commonly seen action card for MYT is Gremlins, and perhaps one of the most efficient bleed action cards there is. A +1 Stealth with a +1 Bleed simply creates a very efficient package, and it costs absolutely nothing - combine this card with the Song of Pan, and you're looking at a bleed for 3 at 1 stealth for every use of this card, with no blood cost. Add to this deadly package the DOM potential of the Kiasyd and you see why this is probably the best card MYT has ever given to the blue fellas. Burn non-melee equipment can be quite useful at times too, and taking into account the stealth potential of the Kiasyds, they can probably destroy any equipment that they don't like most of the time - those troublesome .44s, Ankara on the Summon History guys, Intercept Bikes.. you name it, and Gremlins destroy it.

Aside from this only Pandora's Whispers see some use, but is normally used in more "fun-oriented" Kiasyd decks. Afterall, any non-bleed related action that a Kiasyd should take is Governed the Unaligned at superior. A well-ratioed deck shouldn't have issues with cards most of the time and Pandora's is quite a waste of action.

Action Modifier

The modifiers for MYT are gems. Stone Travel is an excellent free stealth card that also serves as combat protection, giving the acting vampire a choice to have no combat even if blocked. Fae Contortion's main value is the ability to cancel Immortal Grapple, giving the Kiasyds the option to simply run away with combat ends, or even Entomb the opponent - not to mention that it seconds as a Maneuver card, AND a stealth card, and er, it's free too. 

Combat

MYT's combat cards are all pretty interesting cards. Earth Swords being the most unimaginative card, but yet is probably one of the most efficient card in combat, able to deal 3R damage at superior at no cost. Basilisk's Touch is deadly to ally and younger vampires but is quite expensive to pull through and limited in use since not many Kiasyds are old enough to be truly effective.

Equipment

Tinglestrip is actually a pretty effective weapon - giving a maneuver and a 1R strike, and FOC. Since additional strikes are usually not the Kiasyd's forte, the limitation is not really a big problem for them, and at superior, that problem doesn't even exist.

Reaction

Aura Absorption is one of the few rare cards in Vtes that provides both stealth and intercept, moreover, it is a free card, it doesn't get any more toolbox than this. Faerie Wards, though expensive, is a great deterrent against combat decks (or even Sense Deps).

Retainer

Given the high stealth capability of the Kiasyds, this retainer can be a great deterrent for weenie blockers. Nevertheless I think this card is not really a very important addition to the Kiasyd's stealth bleeders.

All in all MYT has great cards at good cost, making the Kiasyd one of the most efficient vampire clans ever, why anyone wanna play a Lasombra stealth bleed deck is beyond me.

(o.o)

At Your Disposal : Ambulance

I remember you Ambulance, was quite a card during LotN, and I was usually quite happy when you appear in the booster pack, I remembered that the Ambulance cost something around $8 or so. However, after a while, it seems that Ambulance is almost nowhere to be seen, and very few decks in my community actually utilise its powers.

Well, afterall, what would Ambulance know about vampires anyway.

Granted, this card is powerful in its own way, especially in a deck that is well constructed to take advantage of it. The Aching Beauty deck quickly comes to mind - again, blocking is already a bad thing against an Aching Beauty, and if the opponent slap an Ambulance on Anson you really won't bother much. The problem of course then, is that the Ambulance is too effective in deterring the enemy from blocking, which forfeits the whole purpose of Aching Beauty. That said, free bleeds are always good.

Ambulance can also feature in stealth heavy decks - you see, heavy stealth decks with star vampires (Daughters or Trujah) should always consider an Ambulance. For starters, it is not easy to block a high-stealth vampire, and that the opponent knows that blocking once isn't enough will really make him think twice about even attempt to block, especially if you have other minions waiting to act. In this sense, the Ambulance is a great distraction for the enemy - forcing him to decide whether to commit to block somebody whom he knows will require a second attempt, or save his reacting opportunity to try against another more realistic attack - this will then provide you the leverage to do what you need to do by always using the Ambulance vampire first, often without the need to commit too much of your stealth resources, or even bluff your way through.

Secondly, if you use cards like Majesty in combat, Ambulance is as good as a multi-action card if the opponent blocks you, giving the vampire in question the option to do something more, or just be ready for defence - and in this case, still having the original action gone through to a second phase. This is again, a great deterrent to the opponent if he sees you pulled it off a couple of time.

IMHO I believed that the Ambulance is used more as a distraction than an actual bypass card, providing an option of strategy that its simple text hid. The opponent also often give away hints at blocking minions with Ambulance - he probably has the means to block your Ambulance twice if he commits a blocker despite knowing you can still try a second time with an Ambulance - in such cases, well, depends on whether you think he is bluffing, and whether or not you hold enough stealth resource to push through during your second try.

Cards like Blind Spot and Seduction works superbly with Ambulance, reducing the option on blockers that the opponent have to thwart your actions. It is a great deterrent, and truly useful in discouraging your opponent in blocking you.

Of course, if you face a Magaji No Secrets then the Ambulance is absolutely pointless.

Oh ya, it burns Imbued too.

(o.o)

Lyrics of the Night : Efficiency

I quite firmly believed in action efficiency, and strongly believed that if one is doing everything more efficiently than one's prey, then in the medium run, assuming no disasters happen, one should be way ahead of the prey's growth curve and therefore able to overpower him by sheer efficiency.

In Vtes, this efficiency is measured in the various assets - pool, blood, minions and on-table resources. The idea is to have more than everyone on the table, and one should be able to eventually win.

That said, Vtes is a complex game, and therefore not as simple as just the "I have 2 more minions than you, I win" scenario. So many factors inter-relate with each other to make simple efficiency analysis impossible - for example, even if you have 3 more minions than your prey, and has more blood in total, a battle-hardened elder can very quickly decimate that; also, having 2 more locations than your prey cannot equate to having a Constant Revolution in play. Add to this equation all those things that bite back - such as Smiling Jack, and you have a mess of mathematical possibility that is way beyond my ability to comprehend, not to mention capitalize.

In reality, I have a rather simple outlook of efficiency when building decks - card comparison. My one most important criteria for card comparison is speed, which is my idea of efficiency.

Let's take a look at the classic example of Governed the Unaligned vs. Scouting Mission. In essence Scouting Mission is just a younger brother to Governed, and they do the same thing, only at a different degree and a different cost. I used to think that having free cards (doesn't cost blood) is a good thing, but now I tend to use faster cards regardless unless the cost is overwhelming or the deck is ruled by certain theme or constraints.

Consider this is the second turn of the game, and you have Ingrid Russo in play while your prey has Gloria Giovanni. If you're playing Governed and your prey is playing Scouting Mission, assuming the crypt is similar, your Governed would have allowed you to bring out a 3-cap and a 4-cap, with the likely hood of getting ahead in terms of vampire resources. At the end of that turn, it seems that both you and prey could have 3 minions of 10 blood count on table each, but don't forget you are 1 capacity ahead of him - you can have up to 2x4-caps and 1x3 cap while your prey, all things equal, can only have up to 2x4-caps and 1x2 caps. Now we all know that there are no 2-caps with superior DOM, but there is Keith Moody. In a simple 2-player fight with pure DOM tech going forward, you are actually quite significantly ahead, and will get further and further ahead if you keep playing Governed, and he keeps playing Scouting.

Of course, this is never static, since you will run out of blood way faster than your prey, and he probably can afford to ghetto fight you to death that way. However, add in the extra 1 bleed from Governed, and you'll suddenly find that you are more efficient in killing him. Assuming the 2 decks are just weenies with no other tech, you'll be faster in bringing out vampires, and bleed harder. I assure you that in no time you will win the race.

It is this reason that multi-act tech is so powerful. A single minion can usually only do 1 action per turn, and then hopefully draw a wake to defend (1 card for 1 defensive attempt) - therefore, if your deck's discipline has access to multi-actions, always attempt to add some. That said, try not to "cycle" Freak Drives in order to get the right cards unless you really have to, untapping for the sake of untapping is a true waste of efficiency.

Master Phase is another important aspect of getting ahead of your opponent. Most Master cards are quite powerful - from the simple Hunting Ground to the exotic Ancestor Spirit, they all add powerful on-board boost to assets - from extra blood to extra bleeds to all sorts of random capabilities. It is definitely a crime not to have the option to play Master cards every turn. This requires very careful construction of the deck to facilitate maximum utilisation of the Master Phase.

The contest between permanent and one-use cards for deck space is always a delicate matter. We all wish for effective cards that can be used again and again - like a good'old .44, or even just a Procurer, and the ever useful Mylan. But calling these fellas take an action, and requires a card space plus a vampire committed to it (not to mention pool or blood cost). They are also extremely obvious to good players how you intend to use them. Cards like these tend to stay in your hand when you lack either the delivery method to get them onto the table (like sitting beside a Tzimisce Wall with 7 Raptors), or the time to do it (need to block that one vampire that bleeds you every turn for 5 with no stealth) - in such cases, these cards turn from efficient on-board assets to dead weight. The decision to take an action to summon/employ/equip these cards can sometimes be pretty game changing.

Another thing, I don't believe in hunting unless there are excellent hunt/blood recover tech in the deck - like the Ahrimanes. I tend to treat my vampires like engines that can achieved only that much. In most decks I expect my vampires to deal a certain amount of damage with a certain of blood invested, say for example, I intend to have Gloria to play superior Governed once, bleed with Governed once and boost it with Conditioning, and Deflect once. After that she'd done her job. In order to maximize her success I have a Creepshow Casino in the deck to facilitate superior Governs, and a couple of Call the Hungry Dead to substitute for the Conditioning or Deflection when needed. After that if she can come back from the lack of blood good, if not it's ok.

For older vampires this cannot be done, they have to have the ability to recover blood to keep themselves active all the time - for that not every deck has the luxury of the Ahrimanes or some of the more efficient hunters, such as Blood Brothers. In order to minimize down time, a deck that requires star vampires to work relentlessly should have non-hunt blood recovery tech to enhance economics - losing one action to a hunt is terrible. There are a lot of such cards in the game, some more effective than others- like Voter Cap or Taste of Vitae, some a lot more passive, like Hunting Ground, and some conditional or severely limited, like Giant's Blood. For this purpose I must always point to 2 of my favourite - Jake Washington and Lilith's Blessing.

There are too many variables to consider in even the simplest of decks (maybe not so much for the mighty Thrown Gates), but I think a good approach is to create a dream scenario in your mind, and then construct your decks based on that - how many times you can expect Endiku to untap in a single round, and how many times you want to do that consecutively - add in another one third of the necessary cards to maximize draw potential (and include draw support like Dreams) and your primary dream scenario is a green to go~

Of course, if your projected kill tech is flawed in the first place, the most efficient ratio wouldn't do you any good~

(o.o)

Singing a New Tune : An Eze Evening

Deck Name : An Eze Evening

Crypt [12 vampires]
------------------------------------------------------------
5x Eze, The Demon Prince
1x Ugadja              
1x Iniko, The Black Lion  
1x Nana Buruku          
1x Sobayifa            
1x Aren, Priest of Eshu  
1x Batsheva        
1x Lumumba              

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [10]
  5x Enchant Kindred
  1x Entrancement
  3x Founders of the Ebony Kingdom
  1x Horseshoes

Action Modifier [23]
  1x Aire of Elation
  2x Awe
  2x Bewitching Oration
  3x Dusk Work
  6x High Aye
  1x Make an Example
  1x Strange Day
  7x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier/Reaction [1]
  1x Guruhi Kholo

Ally [1]
  1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Combat [9]
  1x Burning Wrath
  6x Majesty
  2x Neebi

Equipment [1]
  1x Kduva's Mask

Master [28]
  1x Ancestor Spirit
  15x Aye
  1x Creepshow Casino
  1x Dreams of the Sphinx
  1x Information Highway
  4x Villein
  2x Wider View
  3x Zillah's Valley

Political Action [13]
  1x Ancient Influence
  1x Banishment
  1x Eldest Command Undeath, The
  8x Kine Resources Contested
  1x Political Stranglehold
  1x Reins of Power
  1x Secret Must Be Kept, The

Reaction [4]
  1x Lost in Translation
  2x Terra Incognita

Eze is one of my favourite vampire, and definitely the oldest Laibon in the game, sharing the position with Lucian. I was also quite keen on using Aye tech, so putting them together, and hunting all around for deck ideas, I adapted deck lists to create this deck. (It's too long ago to remember from where...)

Primary Path of Ousting

Vote, of course. Eze is practically a Justicar, and given his multi-action ability, he will Founders or Enchant at superior to get more of his friends out in a hurry to secure vote lock. Kduva's and Ancestor Spirit (hopefully the Kholo too) will all add to the vote support. In case there is another vote deck fighting for supremacy, Awe and Bewitching are there to win the challenge.

KRCs are the primary kill card, occasionally supported by Reins of Power.

Secondary Path of Ousting

Bleed. Laibons have a surprisingly efficient path of getting all those extra bleeds on table - Kduva's, Ancestor Spirit and so on - and with those, this deck can bleed pretty well supported by Enchant Kindred. Light Stealth is provided by High Ayes, and there are some vote cards to deal with extremely annoying blockers. However, this can usually only be achieved when Eze is successful in securing much help from lots of his friends to overwhelm the defenses of his prey.

Crypt

Eze is the star, everyone else waits. Bring out the titled vampires if possible (unless you're holding the Kholo in hand), and quickly gain as many votes as possible - the Laibons do not have the depth of the other more established sects where votes are concerned. Even at full recruitment status, this deck can only secure 8-10 votes, which is pretty ok but not too fantastic.

Combat

Majesty is the primary defense, with Burning Wrath to add some spice to would-be attackers. Immortal Grapples is the death of this deck, and there is very little defense against that. Not a very creative combat defense for this deck. When the Ayes are up, Neebi plus Majesty should be able to handle most situation.

Defense / Pool Recovery

Bloating is this deck's primary method of defense. Voter Caps, Founders and Enchant Kindred tend to allow this deck to quickly gain as much pool as possible and bring out as many vampires to deal with attacks. There are several bloat votes to support this tech as well.

Surprise Elements

The combat aspect sometimes catch my prey/predator unawares - Burning Wrath can be used to torpor or even burn an enemy blocker/attacker to reduce the heat a little bit. Make an Example and Horseshoes are for this purpose as well, timed to remove blockers to free up the vampires' further actions. Can be quite a surprise when it hits the table, especially Make an Example.

Known Weaknesses

Slow, really slow. Even with Zillah's this deck will only get moving by turn 3 or so, which by then might never pick up. The deck is also slow in gaining pool and returning back to shape without compromising on the survivability of the vampires (specifically Eze). Heavy combat environment will destroy this deck, Majesty is simply not enough to handle stuff.

Playing this deck

Get Eze out, Founders/Enchant like there's no tomorrow, get enough Ayes on him and start voting to increase pool and bring out more minions. Pretty simple after that, vote and bleed and bloat to tackle pool lost. Like I say, not a very creative deck.

(o.o)