Due to the few expensive cards available in this starter, the Tzimisce starter deck used to be one of the more popular stater to buy - mostly because of the War Ghoul. Despite the competition from newer starters, this deck continues to be one of the most value for money starter where card value is concerned. Also, for anyone who's interested to play Tzimisce, this deck is a good place to start, it has some of the staple VICISSITUDE cards, and the deck is quite focused where playstyle is concerned. A good buy for anyone wanting to start Tzimisce.
How to Kill
This deck is a wall deck, means it blocks people, and then torpor those minions, depriving your prey/predator of any actions to do (and incidentally, any defense against you). This deck is very much combat in nature, but as a starter deck, there is still much to desire on the combat elements of the deck. But it works, to a certain degree.
The Vampires in the deck are quite fat, and there are not enough small Vampires to weenie bleed your prey, even if he has no Vampires to defend against you. The number of bleed enhancing cards are quite minimal, and they are not heavy enhancers, so bleeding is going to take a supportive role in this deck. You can try to use Fame to get off some pool of your prey. First, put Fame on one of his Vampires, preferably someone you're confident of getting rid of, attack him with Rumble, or block his actions, send him to torpor and your prey will lose 3 pool and subsequently everyone will lose 1 pool every turn (including you). Rescue his Vampire from torpor, make it spend the 2 blood (yes, you can do that), or spend it if you think you can afford it, and then block his hunt, or do something to it to torpor it again, making your prey lose 3 more pool everytime you do this. Not the most efficient way to kill for this deck, but hey, it's an option.
You also have the card Smiling Jack, the Anarch, as a support card to kill off your prey. This card, however, affects everybody, and you might draw some table interference this way. What it does is that it will make you commit one pool every turn, but everybody else loses blood and/or pool equals to the accumulated counters you put on the card. After a while, this card is quite painful to others. But it might be a problem for you too unless you can afford that loss of 1 pool to feed it every turn - I have seen Methuselahs die to their own Smiling Jacks before - so be prudent in its use. Also remember that it can be burnt, and people will want to burn it, so be prepared to defend it when you play it.
But this deck has a good defense, so I guess if you torpored everybody, you can probably ask them to concede, or just bleed them slowly to death after a while.
So you see, this deck is about blocking everything your prey does, (and your predator if he even look at your pool), punish his Vampires for trying to do them, and then do what you like to his pool since he has absolutely nobody to say no to you. To do that, you have to learn to use your intercepts, and fight with VICISSITUDE combat.
Combat
So obviously, combat is very important in this deck. The Tzimisce fight with their unique discipline of VICISSITUDE, and complement it with ANIMALISM. AUSPEX is for them to see what your enemies are doing, and react accordingly. VICISSITUDE combat, in a nutshell, is about aggravated damage and prolonged battle.
Aggravated damage is simple, just look at the opponent's vampire, and if you think he's unable to dodge or prevent the damage from your strike, use Body Arsenal or Breath of the Dragon to send it directly to torpor. Prolonged battle in this deck is a little tricky, as it lacks the sheer number of required combat cards to make it really consistent. But it has enough to show you the options you may want to look at in the future.
Horrid Form is one of the more common means of prolonged battle. What it does is it gives your Vampire a +1 Strength, as well as prevent 1 damage PER ROUND of combat. The only thing you need to do then is to supply your Vampire with presses to continue this combat round after round, until the opponent goes torpor while you prevent the damage that the opponent can dish out. This is very good if you play multiple Horrid Forms - meaning you get +multiple Strength, and prevents multiple points of damage. The blood cost is a problem for this deck, since every Horrid Form costs your Vampire 1 blood. You can use Inner Essence to help pay a little for this, but it hardly makes it viable here. Normally you use Path of Metamorphosis to circumvent the cost of blood, you might want to get a copy or 2 to add into this deck later.
Another mean of prolonged battle in this deck is with Bonecraft and then get into combat or block the minion to slowly whittle it's blood level down while not suffering any damage yourself. The deck's reliance on Starvation of Marena is again, not efficient, since the deck lacks good manuoever cards in quantity. If not, you can always use Drawing out the Beast, and then manouever to long and strike with Starvation, since the opponent cannot get back to short. Well, not really do-able in this deck at the moment.
On the other hand, you can recruit the War Ghoul, and get it to enter combat every round with some of your opponent's minion. The War Ghoul is a deadly ally, able to hit for 4, and prevents 1 damage per round - very few minions can stand up to it. Do remember that in order for it to come out, you must have a retainer or the Neighbourhood Watch Commander already in play, and is prepared to sacrifice it. (usually not an issue)
Defense
This deck can block rather well. Quite a good number of AUSPEX intercept cards are included. Remember to read them carefully, they're meant to be used differently. Enhanced Senses is a straight forward intercepe supply, but is able to give you a good +2 Intercept with one card. Spirit's Touch gives you an optional manuoever to use with your Starvation of Marena. Guard Dogs are similar, but can only be used when attempting to block a bleed. Be very prudent with your Eagle's Sight, it is the only card that allows you to ignore normal blocking protocol. Meaning that it allows you to block your prey (or anybody else you don't like) - for example, if your prey decided to committ a 1 blood Sha-Ennu to bleed his prey, and his prey will die from it, you can play Eagle's Sight, and block Sha-Ennu as if you're the prey. (Which, if you don't have Eagle's Sight, you can't do that) What this does is that, not only did you prevent him from killing his prey and hence making you do that extra work of bleeding another 6 in order to oust him, but also giving you a chance, (not to mention the surprise) to actually kill off one of his Vampires. Try not to use Eagle's Sight for that +1 Intercept, it is quite a waste, but don't hesistate to if it makes sense to you.
The Raven Spies and Revenant are good permanet intercepts that you should slap on your Vampire as soon as possible, these will save you many intercept cards, and in many ways, make your opponent think twice before doing anything at all.
Where you go from here
Oh, many possibilities. Tzimisce are mostly combat decks, so it is natural for you to look that way. To make the current deck feasible, you can consider making it into a Horrid Form deck. Get many more Horrid Forms, somemore Intercepts, maybe about 10 Chiropteran Marauder, most importantly, a few Path of Metamorphosis, and you're cool to go. You can then add in some Raven Spies and Revenant for permanent intercepts to reduce the need for Intercept cards. Support your deck with some ANIMALISM cards - Cat's Guidance for the untaps, Army of Rats for the damage, and even a couple of Drawing out the Beast for handling troublesome equipment. Always include 1-2 Canine Hordes for the inevitable service that they render.
If you're rich enough to consider an ally deck - the War Ghoul is a most attractive path to go. For this you'll need quite a few of them, maybe 8-10? Get a Charisma that I heard is included in the reprint of the Keepers of Tradition, replace your fat Vampires with smaller ones and you're good to go. You will also need some generic combat cards to make sure your War Ghouls can land their punches well - Fake Outs, for example.
Value for Money
Due to the few more sorted-after cards in this starter, it is a good deck to buy in terms of investment if you need those cards:
1 x War Ghoul
2 x Horrid Form
1 x Smiling Jack, the Anarch
1 x Club Zombie
1 x Breath of the Dragon
1 x Festivo dello Estinto
2 x Eagle's Sight
One thing's for sure, this is the most financially feasible deck to buy in the Third Edition.
(o.o)y
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