I've always been a big fan of the Gargoyles. To me, they are the manifestation of all things Gothic, you know, those stone things perching on the top of cathedrals, guarding them and turning into flying monstrosity at the right time to terrorize whatever they need to terrorize. VtM made these niceties into vampires, and that is simply too cool. My Gargoyle Air Rock deck was the first deck that I used in a tournament, and it did well for me (during then), so I had a soft spot for all things Gargoyle.
I cannot express enough my excitement when I found out that there would be a Gargoyle starter in HttB. Of course, I have no qualms about all the cool things that the Gargoyles get in this expansion, and the starter is pretty worth it if you're a Gargoyle fan.
However, of all the 4 pre-cons, I think that the Gargoyles is the weakest one in terms of effectiveness.
In all essence this is a combat deck, with wall elements, supported by some bleed potential of the master clan. However, it tried to satisfy so many conditions that it probably cannot be either of them too well.
Crypt
There are only 6 Gargoyles, and 2 of each, giving you only a selection of a maximum of 3 different Gargoyles, of which only 2 are slaves, and one of them doesn't even have superior VIS. The slave element in this deck isn't that heavy, with only 2 cards that requires slave, so I guess it is quite ok. The master clans took up 6 slots, and you have 6 different Tremeres, all of them of reasonable capacity, but the jewel among them has to be Claus Wegner, followed By Mushin Samir, both of them have superior DOM, and one off-clan discipline that the Gargoyles used extensively - POT / FOR.
Due to the slave element of this deck, you'll need to have vampires of both kinds in order for it to perform to its maximum efficiency. That by itself is a big problem since you have very little control over what you have with this kind of crypt composition. You might end up with all slaves and no Tremeres, or all Tremeres and no Gargoyles, or a mix of them that is not very effective (like Rocia...)
Primary Path of Ousting
Has to be bruise bleed I guess, with combat being a close option. The Tremere's DOM will help with their Conditioning while the Gargoyles will fight it out with whoever that stands in the way. The Slave element allows the Tremeres to not bother with stealth and just threaten to put their slaves in front whenever they're blocked.
There is only 1 single Fame in the starter and therefore it is insufficient to compose as a combat ousting element. The block and kill path has never been too easy for the Gargoyles since they don't have anything similar to Eagle Sight.
Combat
This deck fights really well among the 4 starters. With the Gargoyles' VIS and POT combat they are very effective against most combatants. There are enough damage prevention cards in this starter to make even CEL/POT deck cry. Raking Talons make even the youngest Hatchling a problem for unprepared opponents, and once Razor Bats are in place the Gargoyles can slowly wither down FOR decks as well. Stone Dog is absolutely essential in this deck, giving the Gargoyles a permanent enter combat ability. They should recruit it whenever they can. The Rockcat is not a very efficient ally that cannot regain life, but it is invaluable especially when faced with weenies. It is afterall another permanent enter com
Combat is mostly POT based, with Flight and VIS strikes added in for variety. Pounce is a magnificent strike, removing additional strikes and has no need for superior disciplines to execute, allowing the young Hatchling to pose a dangerous threat once he had the time to learn to fly.
Without Roll the magnificent maneuverability of the Gargoyles will not shine here, with only the sub-par Slam involved in giving the Gargoyles the ability to go to close and execute their grapples. This may be a problem against maneuver decks.
Defense
Very good intercepts are present in this deck, now supplemented with the Gargoyles' Voice of the Castle to reduce bleeds. The Tremeres have Deflections in this starter as well, providing yet another defense against bleeds. Between the intercepts and Deflections you should have a much easier time against attacks when compared to the other pre-cons. This deck has a very good number of Wakes to help with blocking even after your vampires have taken their actions.
Pool Recovery
Pretty pathetic, and couple that with the intensive pool requirement of this deck, one will really feel the pain of even a single bleed.
Where you go from here
Gargoyles now have the option of either going non-slave with Hatchlings, or Slave with Create Gargoyle, making breed decks a very good option. With the new Flight card As the Crow the Gargoyles are much more efficient.
Either way you're going with this deck you'll need to tune the combat package to your likings, adding in either VIS, POT or FOR cards (not to forget some more excellent Flight combat cards, most notably Roll). If you want to go towards the intercept path then you'll need more intercepts, be it Razorbats, Intercept masters or VIS intercepts cards. More enter combat cards is needed, you can either still keep to Bum's Rushes and Ambushes, or use more Dive Bombs. More copies of Stone Dogs might help too.
Value for money
Good if you're going for Gargoyles, since you can get Hatchlings and Create Gargoyles. But this starter has the least overall value compared to all the others, having no sorted-after expensive cards. If did give you a good number of Deflections and one Antildeluvian Awakening though.
(o.o)
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