Breeding is a special term in Vtes. It is a description of a strategy whereby you bring in mini Vampires via action cards instead of using the traditional means of influencing "named" unique Vampires. These "mini" Vampires are generally non unique, and usually young, meaning that they are almost always of 1 or 2 cap. What this strategy offer is a way to add in body counts for your deck without spending too much pool as these Vampires usually cost either blood from the acting Vampire, or are a lot cheaper than their cap would normally require. This strategy is also used for certain kinds of decks that would benefit greatly from body counts - for example, the Lasombra's Power Structure will give 1 vote to every ready Lasombra, and breeding quickly will give a Lasombra vote deck vote superiority quickly.
There are several ways to get these Vampires into play. The most famous one is probably the Embrace. This card is usually by any non-sterile Vampire and cost 2 blood, making it the most flexible of breed cards, and is generally used as a guideline to gauge how good a breed card is when compared to it. It's been out of print for a while and is becoming quite expensive to acquire, but finally I heard that the new base set Keepers of Tradition will reprint it. Its main advantage is that it is versatile - able to be utilised by any clan, any deck, as long as you have a Vampire with 2 blood and is non-sterile - which means, you'll never have it stucked in your hand the way any other breed card might. The Embrace however, is only a 1-cap Vampire, has no discipline of any kind, and must hunt immediately this turn, making it the weakest, and the most vulnerable goon you can put with a breeding card, therefore, it is usually used only in decks which need only benefit from the goon's "clan" identity (or they have no other choice). For example, the Daughters of Cacophony require only the goon to be a Daughter to make use of the Conductor or the Opera Houses, and they are deadly ammo for Ensemble. But these Vampires are lightning rods for enemy blockers - a single Vampire with No Secrets from the Magaji will single-handedly torpor every Embrace that you bring forth unless you have some means of adding stealth to their hunt.
Both the Sabbat and Camarilla have their "sect-specific" breed cards. The Camarilla has the Third Tradition : Progeny, and Sabbat - the Creation Rites. Both requires titled Vampires, but the Sabbat has a wider range for that requirement, since they can do it with Archbishops to Regent (even Pricus) but the Camarilla need to rely on only the Princes and Justicars. On the other hand, both are cheaper than the Embrace, cost only 1 blood, and once the goon is on the table, you can get a discipline card of your choice from ash heap or library or hand (which means that as long as you have one, you can put one) on the goon, and transfer up to 2 blood from the acting Vampire to the goon, which will save it the trouble of hunting. The goon cannot act this round though, so if you didn't manage to put any blood on it, it'll have to hunt next round. But these are actually useable Vampires since you'll probably be able to slap a discipline card on them (but frankly, these are not always the case and many are also used as an Embrace). The key difference of these 2 breed card seems to be their lower cost, and their prevalence in titled decks such as a Lasombra vote deck. But one cannot discount their ability to have blood on them upon hitting the table, meaning that they can immediately be used as a defender, and if they have discipline on them, can actually do some random things here and there. These fellas can also benefit from clan-specific bonus, and with the right discipline, they will become quite an addition to your arsenal instead of just "being there" like an Embrace. Take for example, a Third Tradition Brujah with 3 Brujah Debate on the table, is going to be quite a pain to deal with, especially if he has 1 level of POTENCE or CELERITY. The downside of these fellas is that titled Vampires, most of the time, are not very small, and therefore you can't have a 2-cap Vampire recruiting a Progeny by turn 2, unlike what you can do with the Embrace.
You'll then come to the clan-specific breed cards. Of these, 3 of the clans are more popular with their goons - the Settites, Ravnos and the Assamites. (I wonder why the Giovannis don't have any, but I guess they have all those Shambling fellas to play with already)
The Settites' Waters of Duat is a Creation Rites clone for the Settites of capacity above 4. Due to it's capacity requirement it faces the same problem about speed breeding, though it is somewhat alleviated by the Eternals of Sirius in getting fat Snakes into play rather early. Like the Progeny and Creation Rites, you can also slap discipline card on it, but it is however, forced to hunt the turn it came in since you cannot transfer blood from the acting Vampire to it, putting it in a vulnerable position and removing it's natural ability to block in that turn. For that, it is not as good as the sect breed cards. Well, at least you don't need any titles to get them.
The Ravnos' Tumnimos is a superior version of the Waters of Duat. It has the same restriction on the capacity required for using the card, but lack the superior influence Eternals of Sirius to bring out Ravnos as fast as the Settites could, so it's usually a little slower in getting out. But once it hits the table it is vastly superior to the Waters. First, it begins it's unlife with 2-cap and 1 level of CHIMERSTRY, making it as good as a Sasha Miklos that you need to influence in the first place (the vast majority of 2-cap crypt cards have only 1 level of a discipline), and if you happen to have a CHIMERSTRY master card in your hand you can immediately put in on, giving it superior CHIMERSTRY, which is a deadly Vampire in the hands of a good Ravnos deck as CHIMERSTRY is such a great toolboxy discipline. It must, however, hunt the turn it comes in, and will have no blood to start with, which is it's most vulnerable stage, and if blocked and torpored, would waste your 2 blood investment. Moreover, most CHIMERSTRY stealth cards cost blood, and it would be unable to use them unless a Path of Paradox is in play. An interesting point to note is that, if a Ravnos Carnival is in play (and it should be, as it benefits from the body count that Tumnimos provides), even a Ravnos with less than 2 blood can use the counter to recruit a Tumnimos. The value of Tumnimos is compounded by the card Week of Nightmares, and is a dangerous deck archtype - basically, Week of Nightmares give every Ravnos +1 Bleed and +1 Strength, and with numbers on their side, the Ravnos can be very dangerous.
The Assamites have the gem of the breed cards - the Web of Knives Recruit. This is a breed card that requires pool instead of blood, and is counter intensive. You have to put 3 training counters on it upon a successful play, and remove 1 counter every untap phase until it has none, and then it comes into play, it becomes an Assamite with 4 basic disciplines and 3 blood, fully ready to wreck havoc on your enemies. Though you cannot remove counters from more than 2 Webs, meaning you'll probably only be able to bring in 2 recruits every 3 turns - which is still a daunting speed for your prey. The Assamite already have some good cards that body counts would greatly benefit from, such as Heartblood of the Clan and Khabar : Community. Add in the diverse discipline of the Webs (they have POTENCE!) and you have the backbone of a very deadly swarm deck. The Webs basically add so much punch for that 1 pool that I think I can safely say that these are the best breed card you can get.
The bloodlines have a few breed cards of their own. One of the more powerful one is the Brother in Arms of the Salubri Antitribu. This is another breed card that costs pool, but you get so much less than the Web of Knives. However, it is available for blocking immediately, it has 1 level of VALEREN, which is quite difficult to get as a discipline, and you can move blood to it upon recruitment, eliminating the window of opportunity for your enemy to block him during the mandatory hunt action. It is susceptible to a weird restriction that you cannot have more Brother in Arms than you have unique Salubri Antitribu, which is an attempt to prevent swarming. But given the low cap of a typical Salubri Antitribu I hardly think this is never a problem unless your sword swinging Vampires are doing badly.
The Gargoyles have a great breed card, despite my initial disgust with it. It is actually a very powerful breed card if you look closely at it. First, it cost 2 blood instead of pool, which is not a serious problem if you take into account the Gargoyles' ability to use FORTITUDE to regain blood, and then untap with Freak Drive. Those 2 blood give you a 1-cap, NON-SLAVE Gargoyle with 1 level of VISCERATIKA, again, a rare discipline that is not easy to get, but is quite effective even at basic level. Moreover, this Hatchling gets 1 blood from the BLOOD BANK, and can burn 1 blood to get FLIGHT once a game, which is a good "discipline" for effects as there is no "superior" requirement to use it's ability. Though this Hatchling cannot act the turn it comes in, it is however, ready to block. And given the Gargoyles' ability to really shine in combat without the need for much more than what this Hatchling has, it is a most welcomed addition to most Gargoyle decks. For example, the Hatching can immediately block somebody, burn one blood to get FLIGHT and play Patrol to get the Intercept, get into combat, play Raking Talons, and then Rotschreck. (Or just beat the crap out of the enemy with Pounce and Swoop, and prevent the damage with Rockheart and Stonestrength) It's other advantage is that it is non-slave, but can be recruited by a slave Gargoyle - and any non-salve Gargoyle are great addition to a Gargoyle deck in terms of bleeding and offensive actions.
The Tremere and Tremere Antitribu can use a similar card called Create Gargoyle to make a Gargoyle goon. This is the most expensive breed card there is, costing 2 pool, and is quite difficult to use due to the discipline spread required in a deck that utilises both Tremere or !Tremere and the Gargoyle in-clan discipline. The Gargoyle created with this card is quite a powerhouse. It is 2-cap, comes with basic VISCERATIKA and FLIGHT, and you can still slap a discipline card on it the way you can a Creation Rites, it is a slave, and the acting Vampire can move up to 3 blood to it (not that many Vampire will want to block it). As a slave it can jump in immediately in the turn when some other master Vampire is blocked, so even though it cannot act, technically, it can immediately offer its fist (talons) to anyone interferring with your other Vampires.
The most efficient way of breeding is of course via trophy hunting, but it is a completely different tech, so I wouldn't go into details on it. Frankly, I've never successfully pulled off any trophy decks, so I'm at quite a loss on how this works at the moment. I am putting together a trophy deck at the moment, if it works, I'll let you guys know.
Back to breeding.
Body count is always good. And if you need little weenies, and need them quickly, and if the more you have the merrier, then breeding is normally your best choice. Daughters of Cacophony breed and use Conductor and Bastille Opera House for vote gains, once in a blue moon they pull off an Ensemble that really hurts. Lasombras generally use Creation Rites to create little babies and end up with a ridiculously large number of votes with Power Structure. Assamites' Web of Knives Recruits are the basis of a multi-rush contract deck, or a many Loss bleed deck with stealth. The !Toreador's Foundation Exhibit and Palla Grande is similar to the Ravnos' Week of Nightmares concept and the Brujahs have the Brujah Debate to make even little babies a painful adversary. Many other clan are able to make use of breeding tech, either because of their in-clan discipline or natural vote superiority (the Noseferatu Breed deck is one that I've seen) or due to some interesting card that capitalized on number of Vampires.
One thing that you should remember is that, the Vampire that you breed shares your clan, but not your sect or allegiance. So there is no way you can just Embrace and create an immediate Anarch or a Black Hand, you'd still need to go through the normal means of making that happen.
One key element in most breed deck is the vote card Consanguinous Boon, which allows the Methuselah to gain pool for every minion that you control. This is one way to bloat, and is quite an efficient way. Note that offensive vote such as Ancilla Empowerment are killer for breed decks as they can cause quite a lot of damage to your pool and can be a game ender for you if you're not too careful.
Breeding is the basis of any succssful weenie concept - from bleed to rush to vote, I've even seen a weenie with guns deck to much of my annoyance. The number of breed cards to include is an art, and it depends on your concept, but I've always keep to about 6-8, preferring to still put some reliance on good old influenced Vampires to do my bidding.
(o.o)y
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