The Malkavian Antitribu starter deck here is perhaps the most feasible starter to bring to any competitive play; afterall, stealth bleed is one of the easier startegy for beginners to adopt - bring out Vampires, bleed, stealth, enhance bleed, rinse and repeat. One can't really fault some Vtes players on looking down on a stealth bleeder, especially if the deck is completely one-dimensional and lack any other alternatives. This is a rather boring way to play Vtes, but I must still say that it is a very good way to teach someone the basics of the game. As stealth bleed decks go this one is not exactly a good one, but it is afterall only a pre-con, so we shouldn't fault it too much.
How to Kill
This is a straight forward stealth bleeder. Bring out your Vampires, the small ones with superior DEMENTATION should be the first to be brought out whenever possible. After that you should still focus on getting the cheaper Vampires with DEMENTATION or OBFUSCATE out before going on to the fat ones. The reason being this deck lack good combat defense, and a fat !Malkavian is more vulnerable than a young one, so the less investment on your Vampires, the better, since they do pretty much the same thing anyway, and losing a smaller Vampire is less of a problem. The fat ones are there if you need a lot of stealth, since in this starter only the fat Vampires have superior OBFUSCATE.
Once you have Vampires on table, go ahead and bleed your prey with Kindred Spirits if you have the card in hand, remember that Kindred Spirits allow you to bleed anyone instead of just your prey, so you can use it to "negotiate" some terms if you need to - always remember that your bleeds can be something like a 100% loss of 3-5 pool, not anything anyone would scoff at. Kindred Spirits will also gain you one pool upon a successful bleed, so if you do not have enough stealth cards ready to be comfortable, don't bleed with it unless you have multiple Kindred Spirits in hand.
Let's face it, this deck has no plan B.
Combat
You wouldn't be going around picking a fight normally, so this happens only if you screw up with your bleeds or actions, or someone rushed you with their minions. Your main defense will be Dodges provided by Read Intention or Behind You! Both aren't really great combat defense in the first place, and it will not save your Vampires from repeated attacks. You will have to be blocked less often, or bleed your attacker to death before your Vampires expire. This deck did include an alternative, albeit a not-so-effecient one - weapons. There are a couple of Sawed-off Shotguns and a single Deer Rifle for your Vampires to equip. The Deer Rifle is invaluable since it provides a free manouever. The Shotgun is a good counter-attack weapon, and it might bring down the attacker's minion, afterall, it hits for 3. Speaking of manouever, your Vampires can also try to run to long with Swallowed by the Night if they have superior OBFUSCATE. Again, none of these are good combat defense. You have a single Escaped Mental Patient, whom you should use to deter attacks (ie. block, since most rush actions have no stealth), or to send to torpor any troublesome Vampires that has enough on-board Intercepts to make your stealth difficult. Don't hesitate if you can diablerized your prey's high Intercept defender if you get the chance, even if you have to lose a Vampire to the blood hunt - trust me, any Vampire your prey has that has more than 1 on-board Intercept with him is going to be a problem for this deck.
Stealth and Bleed
This deck is all about stealth and bleed, so let's look at the resources available. Whenever possible, you should bleed with Kindred Spirits, not only does it give you a +1 Bleed, it'll net you one pool if you score the bleed - it doesn't matter if it is bounced, you'll still get that 1 pool after the bleed. To succeed in that, you must be able to stealth through the enemy. The basic stealth concept is that you cannot use more than 1 of the same card by the same Vampire in the same action - therefore, if you're unlucky enough to have an intercept deck as your prey, it'll be a contest of who has more cards of different variety at the right time. Lost in Crowds is the strongest stealth enhancer you have, at superior OBFUSCATE, it gives you +2 stealth, usually enough to handle most light intercepters. Most of your other stealth cards are also pretty straight forward, just add stealth until you have more than he has intercept, it's that simple. Cloak the Gathering is an interesting one, as it is useable by any other Vampires with superior OBFUSCATE, even if they're tapped (so I was told, I never really got the reasons for that, but that's how it's played here) to add stealth, and it can be used by 2 different Vampires you control if you need to. For example, if Bloodfeud is bleeding, White Lilly can Cloak the Gathering to give Bloodfeud 1 stealth, and then, Harold Zettler can Cloak the Gathering again to push Bloodfeud's stealth to 2.
If you have a Vampire stealthed to a certain number and is still blocked, and you see that the blocking Methuselah has little possiblity to block with another minion that can match your current stealth, use Elder Impersonation to prevent the current blocker from blocking you, which is the strongest function of this card. Never use it just for the +1 Stealth unless you have a very good reason to do so.
On a side-note, try not to use Swallowed by the Night for the stealth unless you have enough combat cards on hand, or is not too worried by enemy attacks (or you have no other stealth cards). It is a good card that may save your Vampire from certain death in combat.
The stealth bleed enhancer, in your case, Confusion, should not be the first stealth card that you play. It should generally be used as the last card if stealth is needed, especially if you have an Eye of Chaos in hand. That said, don't forget that many of your bigger Vampires either has in-built +1 Bleed or +1 Stealth - very handy to have and will go a long way to speed your way to your VPs.
The mix of stealth and bleed cards is a tricky technique that any stealth bleeder must learn in order to be effective. If you're stucked with a whole hand of stealth cards, but no bleed enhancers, you'll only be bleeding for 1; vice versa, if you have a whole hand of bleed enhancer and no stealth, your bleeds are ridiculously powerful, but you can't get through. A stealth bleeder wants to have a good mix of these cards - some stealth, and some bleed enhancer. Good players will sometimes ignore your bleeds, not blocking you for the hope to jam up your hand. The deck composition of this one is not really a big problem of getting stucked with either, it's all the other redundant cards that you need to worry about - Cursades for example. You will have to try to discard these as soon as possible, and choose to hold back some bleed enhancer to trick your prey to think that you're jammed with stealths and not block you, and then you unleashed hell.
Always equip Enchanted Marionette if you can. It helps a lot.
Always remember, bounce is your worse enemy. Not that you can do much about this with this deck.
Defense
Your do have some defense in this deck. Telepathic Misdirection is one of the classic bounce card. It will redirect your predator's bleed to someone of your choice, generally your prey. In this way, not only do you prevent damage to your pool, but you'll force your prey to either take the damage for you, or commit his assets to defend against it while leaving you to attack him later. You do need an untapped Vampire for that though, and your Vampire will be tapped after you misdirect. Telepathic Counter has no such issue, and it'll reduce the enemy's bleed by 2 and still allow your Vampire to do something else since it doesn't tap the reacting Vampire.
If you really need to, you have Precognition to block the enemy's action. It could be a hunt action, or a recruit action that you think will give you long term problems (or who knows, maybe your Vampire already have a Shotgun and can out-fight him). A successful block with Precognition will allow your Vampire to prevent 1 damage in the resulting combat. You can also use Voice of Madness to avoid combat if you blocked a younger Vampire.
Where you go from here
If you like stealth bleeds, this deck is a very good place to start. Throw out the Crusades, Palatial Estate, and all those cards that doesn't have "stealth" or "bleed" on it. Add in many more Kindred Spirits, add in more stealth cards and bleed enhancers. I'll leave you to figure out the right ratio to have, as well as the difference between good stealth cards and bad ones. (This deck is easy enough to learn these rather quickly, no need to spoil the fun)
At this point you have to decide on whether to go weenie stealth, or include a few fat Vampires. This has quite a profound impact on your card selections. If you use weenies, then combat defense might be a complete waste of time, and therefore you should have very little of them, and focus on getting Vampires out (Information Highway, Effective Management), some Master discipline cards to enhance the yield of these Vampires, and just bleed to heaven. If you rely on fat (or even medium-range) Vampires, you might need to consider some defense - a popular means is the Disguised Weapon + Flamethrower / Ivory Bow + Rotschreck combo that will torpor anyone that you block.
One of the most powerful combat card (ok, the only combat card) that the !Malkavians are known for, is Coma. This card will send the opposing Vampire straight to torpor. It is costly, as it costs 3 blood, but is rightly feared. You wouldn't need too many of these in your deck, 1-3 copies are the norm.
Value of the Pre-Constructed Deck
This deck is one of the most "not worth it" deck to buy, as it has very few cards of monetary value in the market.
1 x Blessing of Chaos
1 x Call, The
1 x Melange
2 x On the Qui Vive
1 x Deny
1 x Voice of Madness
So if you're looking for value for money, forget this deck. It is, however, the easiest deck to teach someone to play Vtes.
(o.o)y
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