Gargoyle is the first clan that I had a deck built when I was a fledging Methuselah playing with Stealth Bleed decks that seems to do only one thing. Whenever there's a combat deck that look my way, my only defense was to hope that Coma can land on target. After being pounded into a myriad of different types of mess, I decided to build a combat deck myself. I bought a box of Bloodlines then, and after going through the cards a bit, I decided that no one can fight better than the Gargoyles. I wasn't too far from the truth. The Gargoyles practically have 4 in-clan disciplines at their disposal. POTENCE, FORTITUDE, the unique VISERATIKA, and Flight. (There are too few Vampires that has Flight (or the means to get Flight) that Flight cards are only commonly seen in Gargoyle decks to the extent that it is pretty much an in-clan discipline for the Gargoyles.) All these disciplines are very combat-able. You couple that with their Clan specific cards that practically screams combat, and you have yourself a very focused combat clan.
We don't really have to explain the might of POTENCE and FORTITUDE in combat. POTENCE provides a large number of heavy damage strikes, some manouever strikes, the means to increase strength, and the singularly most feared card that beats most combat defense strikes - the Immortal Grapple. Fortitude is able to prevent pretty much 90% of whatever damage that the opponent can dish out. Put these 2 disciplines together and you already have a combat powerhouse. Now add in the Mighty VISERATIKA. The damage-dealing capacity of VISERATIKA is good, but nothing much to write home about; its damage prevention, however, is a good addition to the FORTITUDE cards. Stonestrength and Rockheart can deal with damage that cannot be prevented by FORTITUDE, such as Dead Hand, but are also good enough to supply a good damage prevention alternative that is still useful for those Gargoyles without superior FORTITUDE. Bond with the Mountain and Flow within the Mountain also give Gargoyles other options in combat.
What the Gargoyles lacked in manuoever cards is supplied by Flight and VISERATIKA. Roll and High Ground are both options to be used for direct manuoever, while Swoop not only add to the arsenal of movement, but also increase hand damage. Crawling Chamber is a good replacement for Flash. Flight also added the free and good strike Pounce that not only adds a +2 damage but also trumps additional strikes upon a hit, giving the Gargoyle a certain level of security in combat when used in conjunction with Immortal Grapple. Don't be tempted to focus on long range combat. Granted, the Gargoyles have good long range strike and set-range cards - but they're either costly or are difficult to execute. Most importantly, they lack the ability to handle Dodges and Combat Ends in this way.
But this is not the end of the Gargoyle's ability in combat. Clan-specific cards make the Gargoyles doubly fearsome. They are one of the very few clans that has easy access to permanent Damage Prevention, which couples as a means to ignore Aggravated Damage. The mighty Armor of Terra makes the Gargoyle equipped with it a very difficult target to destroy. Raking Talons, useable by the smallest Gargoyle, gives them a cheap aggravated hand strike. Once you throw in their damage dealing retainers - Razor Bats and Stone Dogs, and you have Gargoyles that are able to deal good aggravated hand damage with multiple (and reuseable) manouevers, able to defeat Dodges, Combat Ends and other pesky combat strikes, and can prevent pretty much everything you can throw at them, now add in a consistent means to enter combat with retainers that cause environmental damage? No wonder they are a fearsome lot.
The Gargoyles have some variety to the things that they can do - they can generate stealth that Brujahs and Toreadors can only dream off - Skin of the Chameleon gives a +2 Stealth at superior with an optional Manuoever AND press; the Flight card Soar gives a +1 Stealth on undirected actions (very important for those Armor of Terras and Razor Bats). When all is lost the Gargoyle still have the option of using Flow Within the Mountain to continue the action if it still has a chance of carrying on - as you can see, for undirected action, a Gargoyle with superior VISERATIKA can add a +3 stealth to it - very handy for those important recruit actions. The Gargoyles are good with Intercept too. Razor Bats are superior Murders of Crows with Intercepts and are not that easy to kill, Patrol adds another free +1 Intercept useable by every Gargoyle, and the deadly Scry the Hearthstone gives Intercepts and Manuoevers, or you can use it to cancel common stealth cards from OBFUSCATE or CHIMERSTRY. What's there not to like about this range of abilities? The cost. Razor Bats and Stone Dogs are expensive retainers, and not too many will see the table if you're not too good with pool control. Gargoyle combat are card-intensive, in order to truly deal damage with your Gargoyles you will easily burn through 4-5 cards in combat - in this order - Raking Talons, Torned Signpost, one Manouever card, Immortal Grapple and Pounce. Granted, opponents without damage prevention ability rarely survives a controlled Gargoyle attack, but you're not going to have so many good hand to execute these combats too often. The Gargoyles of group 3-4 also suffers from a lack of Crypt, there just isn't enough Gargoyle to build a deck with these 2 groups effectively, and they will need to integrate Tremeres or Tremere Antitribus to work. That said, though Group 2 Gargoyles do have the numbers to fill out a minimum Crypt of 12, there are only 3 non-salve Gargoyle that can do damage to your opponent directly.
The slave-status is a double-edged sword. It allows the Gargoyle to jump in front of their masters and fight on their behalf, which is a fearsome threat most of the time, at the cost of the slaves being unable to take any directed action if no masters are around. There are only 2 Tremere Antitribu slaves so their involvement is non-existence in non-TupDog decks. The addition of Tremeres will allow their slaves to take directed actions, but that will thin the crypt and require the maintainance of multiple disciplines in a Clan that already has problem finding space for all those combat cards. (VISERATIKA does has some THAUMATURGY functions, but they're pretty lame most of the time) Do remember that without directed actions, the Gargoyles are nothing but Guardians and can do nothing serious to your prey if he doesn't let you. So there are pretty much only 3 kinds of Gargoyle decks that one see - the Tupdogs, pure Gargoyle decks, and Gargoyles with Tremeres. Each has their own merits and demerits. The Tupdog is probably the most famous Gargoyle (and the most expensive to buy in ebay). It is a non-unique 1 cap ballistic missile. I've not had the privilege of either playing or playing against a Tupdog deck (I doubt the total number of Tupdogs present in Singapore is enough to support one), so I can't really comment on it's effectiveness, though it looked fearsome on paper. Pure Gargoyle decks rely on the independent Gargoyles - Ferox, Erinyi and Obsidian. They sometimes use Hatchling to produce some offsprings to add in some punch, and you will usually still see a couple of Slaves (Ublo-Satha for sure) that will stay back to guard your pool. Independent Gargoyles lack in some Tremere cards that can add to the effectiveness of the deck, most notably Defenders of the Haven and Soul of the Earth - both being extremely valuable to the Gargoyles. What they have in return are consistent pure crypt, and a more focused library full of Gargoyle discipline spread cards with no necessity to think about the Tremeres.
Tremere supported Gargoyles have good support cards mentioned above, and the Tremeres included in the deck usually has DOMINATE to help in bleeding the prey, which is what the Gargoyles really lack. Decks like these also have more options on Crypt and generally has more warm bodies to pester the prey rather than require a slow build up phase. They will of course, suffer from a lack of focus on card selection and has to dedicate some space for the Tremeres to be effective, unless they're just weenies serving as command center and Blood Dolls. The question in these decks is always "How many Tremeres to include?" Another problem with the Gargoyles is their inability to generate big bleeds. You add up all their disciplines and they still can't generate anything reasonable to enhance bleeds. Only Saxum has a level of PRESENCE to use, but that is hardly the solution. Force of Will can be used to bleed for more, but it requires either sacrifice, or some set up before it is reasonable to use, so it'll take a while for you to bleed your prey to death. Alternatively, you can rely on torpor damage to kill your prey, but that will also take a while.
The Gargoyles have some variety to the things that they can do - they can generate stealth that Brujahs and Toreadors can only dream off - Skin of the Chameleon gives a +2 Stealth at superior with an optional Manuoever AND press; the Flight card Soar gives a +1 Stealth on undirected actions (very important for those Armor of Terras and Razor Bats). When all is lost the Gargoyle still have the option of using Flow Within the Mountain to continue the action if it still has a chance of carrying on - as you can see, for undirected action, a Gargoyle with superior VISERATIKA can add a +3 stealth to it - very handy for those important recruit actions. The Gargoyles are good with Intercept too. Razor Bats are superior Murders of Crows with Intercepts and are not that easy to kill, Patrol adds another free +1 Intercept useable by every Gargoyle, and the deadly Scry the Hearthstone gives Intercepts and Manuoevers, or you can use it to cancel common stealth cards from OBFUSCATE or CHIMERSTRY. What's there not to like about this range of abilities? The cost. Razor Bats and Stone Dogs are expensive retainers, and not too many will see the table if you're not too good with pool control. Gargoyle combat are card-intensive, in order to truly deal damage with your Gargoyles you will easily burn through 4-5 cards in combat - in this order - Raking Talons, Torned Signpost, one Manouever card, Immortal Grapple and Pounce. Granted, opponents without damage prevention ability rarely survives a controlled Gargoyle attack, but you're not going to have so many good hand to execute these combats too often. The Gargoyles of group 3-4 also suffers from a lack of Crypt, there just isn't enough Gargoyle to build a deck with these 2 groups effectively, and they will need to integrate Tremeres or Tremere Antitribus to work. That said, though Group 2 Gargoyles do have the numbers to fill out a minimum Crypt of 12, there are only 3 non-salve Gargoyle that can do damage to your opponent directly.
The slave-status is a double-edged sword. It allows the Gargoyle to jump in front of their masters and fight on their behalf, which is a fearsome threat most of the time, at the cost of the slaves being unable to take any directed action if no masters are around. There are only 2 Tremere Antitribu slaves so their involvement is non-existence in non-TupDog decks. The addition of Tremeres will allow their slaves to take directed actions, but that will thin the crypt and require the maintainance of multiple disciplines in a Clan that already has problem finding space for all those combat cards. (VISERATIKA does has some THAUMATURGY functions, but they're pretty lame most of the time) Do remember that without directed actions, the Gargoyles are nothing but Guardians and can do nothing serious to your prey if he doesn't let you. So there are pretty much only 3 kinds of Gargoyle decks that one see - the Tupdogs, pure Gargoyle decks, and Gargoyles with Tremeres. Each has their own merits and demerits. The Tupdog is probably the most famous Gargoyle (and the most expensive to buy in ebay). It is a non-unique 1 cap ballistic missile. I've not had the privilege of either playing or playing against a Tupdog deck (I doubt the total number of Tupdogs present in Singapore is enough to support one), so I can't really comment on it's effectiveness, though it looked fearsome on paper. Pure Gargoyle decks rely on the independent Gargoyles - Ferox, Erinyi and Obsidian. They sometimes use Hatchling to produce some offsprings to add in some punch, and you will usually still see a couple of Slaves (Ublo-Satha for sure) that will stay back to guard your pool. Independent Gargoyles lack in some Tremere cards that can add to the effectiveness of the deck, most notably Defenders of the Haven and Soul of the Earth - both being extremely valuable to the Gargoyles. What they have in return are consistent pure crypt, and a more focused library full of Gargoyle discipline spread cards with no necessity to think about the Tremeres.
Tremere supported Gargoyles have good support cards mentioned above, and the Tremeres included in the deck usually has DOMINATE to help in bleeding the prey, which is what the Gargoyles really lack. Decks like these also have more options on Crypt and generally has more warm bodies to pester the prey rather than require a slow build up phase. They will of course, suffer from a lack of focus on card selection and has to dedicate some space for the Tremeres to be effective, unless they're just weenies serving as command center and Blood Dolls. The question in these decks is always "How many Tremeres to include?" Another problem with the Gargoyles is their inability to generate big bleeds. You add up all their disciplines and they still can't generate anything reasonable to enhance bleeds. Only Saxum has a level of PRESENCE to use, but that is hardly the solution. Force of Will can be used to bleed for more, but it requires either sacrifice, or some set up before it is reasonable to use, so it'll take a while for you to bleed your prey to death. Alternatively, you can rely on torpor damage to kill your prey, but that will also take a while.
Combat-wise, the Gargoyles will also feel quite a problem when going up against a FORTITUDE deck that can prevent all the heavy hits that the Gargoyles throw out. Against a deck like that the Gargoyles have no clear solution but to hope for the best. They are also slow to set up, it takes a while to put in enough Razor Bats and Armor of Terra for your vampires to be truly dangerous, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem, since even a single Razor Bat plus any Intercept-locations such as KRCG will give you a good change to block and kill most attackers - remember, Rotchreck is your friend since Raking Talons is available to every Gargoyle.
In summary, the Gargoyles are a fearsome lot in combat, good defenders (and probably should focus on it for a while), but lack the ability to quickly oust a prey, and they are normally pool/blood intensive and require a long setup time. But a fully setup Gargoyle deck with a couple of Razor Bats, Armor of Terra and Guardian Angels is a rock-solid stone wall - hit it and lose a minion, every time.
(o.o)y
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