Good luck getting any of these around here, as these are usually the fastest to fly away in a retail store, mainly because it packs many expensive and useful cards for the veteran and new players, and therefore is probably very high on the wish list for Vtes players around the world when Christmas is approaching. This starter will introduce (or at least attempts to) the player to vote decks, but it is a mediocre vote deck at best, though it performs reasonably well as a bleed deck.
How to Kill
Heavy on Referendum cards as it is, this deck is actually a pretty deadly bleeder. Due to the 5 Conditionings and other bleed enhancement options available to this deck, it can deliver a deadly barrage of bleed if you are given an opening. Use Seduction to remove potential blockers, fight if you're blocked, and Majesty to untap and do something else (such as calling a referendum), or Freak Drive after an action to attempt another one. On a good draw, this can be devastating. For example, you could have Hardestadt bleed with Seduction and enhance with Conditioning, and then untap with Freak Drive, attempt to burn a KRCG of the opponent with Dominate Kine, gets blocked and Majesty to untap, and then call a KRC to cause another 3 points of damage to your prey - if your prey is not ready for this, you'd have done 8 pool damage to your prey with a single Vampire at the cost of 3 blood. Not many decks can stand this kind of damage for long.
Your other option to kill will be with your referendums. Granted, this deck isn't too excited with it. You only have 6 KRCs to kill with, and that is just not enough to give you enough VPs. Moreover, there're only 1 Inner Circle, 2 Princes, and absolutely no cards to increase votes. Aura of Invincibility just isn't the kind of cards that is reliable enough to give you the vote superiority while Esgrima is almost a one use item that might take a while to come back to you, not to mention that it might actually keep you from voting through a referendum while it was controlled by an opponent. But if the environment allows, and you just happens to own the field with vote superiority, your issue will then be the stealth that is necessary to get the referendum to the podium in the first place. The Ventrue are notorius for NOT having enough stealth enhancement for any actions, and in this starter deck, the basic +1 stealth will have to suffice and you can only hope that your opponents either do not have the Intercept to deal with you, or you're able to seduce his Vampire before he even attempts it. All in all, calling votes in this deck isn't a very reliable way to kill, but it is a good supplement for your Vampire's bleed, giving your Freak Drived or Majestyed Vampires something else to do. The Vampire Gustav Breidenstein may be able to help you get the votes you need, but he's a 10-cap Prince and he can't do it to a referendum that he called himself, making this a most frustrating situation.
Combat and Defense
The Ventrue deck, when in combat, in this deck, relies on FORTITUDE to handle the mess. Hopefully, the Armor of Vitality and Soak will be able to absorb the damage that the opponent deals out while the +s in Strength of some of the Vampires here can deal enough damage to deter or even torpor the opposing minion. FORTITUDE is a difficult barrier to cross for decks that aren't able to handle it, and frankly, most decks can only rely on continuous attacks and hope that you run out of FORTITUDE cards since there are very few disciplines with the ability to bypass FORTITUDE damage prevention. This deck uses the inferior Haymaker to create some press and extra hand damage so to go on to the next round, not the best option but quite an interesting one, and when you have FORTITUDE cards in hand, it actually works.
Intercepts and untaps in this deck is provided by the Second Tradition. This is an excellent card that provides both a +2 Intercept and an untap which costs one blood. The problem with it in this deck (besides the low number), is that, only 2 of your Vampires can use it until you manage to both draw and call Praxis Seizures on some other of your Vampires. And given the temptation of often influencing Hardstadt, you most probably will not be using many of the Second Traditions. But when able, this card will be able to help you block most attacks.
The final defense against bleed will be your Murmur of the False Will. This card is the standard bounce card here, and also doubles as a bleed enhancement, which is a good deal. By using it at superior DOMINATE, you can redirect bleeds to someone else, usually your prey, and be dome with it, you can only do this to a younger bleeding Vampire, and the fact that you have no free untap cards is a problem, and you might resort to using Special Report to handle big bleeds.
Vampires
NOT ENOUGH votes is what you will find in your crypt of Vampires. The Princes are huge, Hardstadt is fatter, and there are no vote enhancement to help your younger Vampires to become Princes. That said, only the smallest Vampire in the deck does not have a full complement of superior discipline that you need to work with, making every Vampire that you influence ready to handle every card that you have in hand (you don't really need superior PRESENCE in this deck, it serves almost no feasible purpose)
If you're not too absorbed by the existence of the vote cards, and focus a little more on bleeds, the 2 Princes are usually better investment than Hardstadt, since they can use Second Tradition, and their abilities are more useful. Gustav can hopefully help another of your Vampire to call forth a referendum with his 5 votes boost, and Gotsdam has an in-built combat end.
Where you go from here
With the selection of Vampires, you can go towards a vote-heavy deck easily. The Ventrues excels at voting, with a good range of vote-support master cards such as Ventrue Headquarters. Add in multiples of vote-support cards such as Bewitching Oration or Perfect Paragon, and remember to add in a lot of Voter Capitation if you intend to maximize your votes to bloat your pool. Move out some Vampires and add in a few cheaper titled Vampires - Marie Ann is an excellent Justicar if you intend to use Hardstadt; there are cheap Princes like Mustafa and Victor, whom can add significantly to your crypt's speed and votes.
If you intend to go bleed heavy, then you might want to consider younger Vampires with DOMINATE. It is pretty easy to form a DOMINATE weenie bleed with Ventrues as they have a good number of 3-5 cap DOMINATE-abled Vampires. Throw in another few young Caitiffs and/or !Ventrue and you have it. Add in bleed enhancers like Bonding and Conditioning, throw in DOMINATE master disciplines and voila! Go Dominate somebody.
Value for Money
No need to think, if you intend to get the most out of the starters in KOT, grab every single Ventrue Starter you can spot - Freak Drives, Golconda, Powerbase Montreal, Second Tradition... the problem is that you usually cannot find one in the store nowadays.
(o.o)y
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