Singing a New Tune - Army of Shadows - Post HttB

The problem with Lasombras nowadays is that they're kinda second choice for many things that they do pretty well actually. For example, with DOM and OBT, they are excellent stealth power bleeders, able to deal out incredible amount of damage with OBT providing reasonably good stealth to get through opponent's defenses. This advantage, however, is not pronounced enough since the mighty bluies Kiasyds do it even better than they can. With DOM POT again they're pretty good bruise bleeders too, but the Ventrues with FOR (and let's face it, so many Ventrues have fist on their cards, especially their Antitribu counterparts) can just about do it better as well.

But the one thing that continue to make them shine is their stealth vote potential. In many ways, they're perhaps still the most effective all-round stealth voters with many options opened to them that no other clans can challenge.

This Army of Shadows deck remains my only Lasombra deck (my Nocturn deck is a Nocturn deck, though it's also of Lasombra origin.) that continues to operate consistently in my games.

Primary Path of Ousting This deck is primarily a breed vote deck, but with enough titles in the crypt to be able to have a good chance to dominate votes in the early game. The KRCs are the primary attack of this deck, and with quite a few stealth cards around with OBT, it should usually get the vote to the podium. The Lasombra has a reasonably good depth of titled vampires, and many of them has great special abilities, like Gratiano, who will give me the 3 Pricus vote usually in the early game. In fact, he is usually the vampire of choice for me to bring out in the earliest opportunity.

The breeding aspect of this deck is important to get both the vote lock with Power Structure, as well as maximize gains with Consanguinous Boons, it also allows me to out-action my prey if necessary.

Secondary Path of Ousting

Though the Kaisyds can stealth powerbleed better than the Lasombras, it doesn't mean that the Lasombras are lousy in this department. In fact, between DOM and OBT, the Lasombras are quite deadly as a bleeder. Therefore, when all else fails, this deck can still bleed very well and switch to a DOM bleed/stealth bleed mode. It got me quite a few VPs that way, and sometimes allow me to hold off till I regain my vote lock and started throwing out KRCs again. The Creation Rites abound in this deck, giving me the minion superiority once in a while, and I can weenie bleed the opponent to death sometimes.

Crypt Gratiano is definitely the star of this deck. I'll always try to get him out asap. Antonio comes a close second, and if I do not need to fight a vote battle, I'll usually proceed to get a small cap Lasombra, preferably one with superior DOM to help bounce bleeds. Never get Ambrosio as your first vampire unless you have a ton of Creation Rites in hand, or you seriously has no other better vampires to bring out - his special abilities is absolutely useless when he's alone. Combat

Arms of the Abyss and Oubliette are usually enough to ward off skirmishes, but against dedicated combat, especially decks ready to handle combat ends, this deck will have to rely on Secure Haven and Zaire's River Ferry to defend it's vulnerable vampires. I took my only Entombment to the Kiasyds so this deck, unfortunately doesn't have that threat factor.

Defense

Bounce and bounce and that's pretty much it can do.

Pool Recovery Since Lasombras don't have PRE, Voter Caps are out of the question. This deck rely mainly on Consanguinous Boons and fast breeding to get those pool back. Pulling blood back from the vampires are not efficient in this deck since OBT burns blood like nothing, and this deck doesn't play with the one thing that Lasombras scream at the Kiasyd whenever somebody ask - Path of Night. (I can't really defend the Path beyond a round or 2, so it's rarely worth it to play with it in this deck) Surprise Element Not really needing one - DOM bleed plus vote is a scary proposition.

Known Weaknesses

Dedicated walls or combat decks will own this deck. Also, blood management on the vampires is almost always an issue come late game.

Playing the deck

A pretty simple and straight forward deck actually. It is usually good to use Govern the Unaligned to bring out more vampires and then stay low profile for a while building up troops of Creation Rites. Once Power Structure is in play very few decks can out-vote this one. The prey will usually not go my way if I negotiate an early truce - citing deadly predator pressure. But if the table has no combat, no votes, then this deck should have a reasonably good time.

Deck Name : Army of Shadow

Crypt [12 vampires]

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3x Gratiano

2x Antonio Delgado

1x Ambrosio Luis Moncada, Plenipotentiary

1x Angelica, The Canonicus

1x Francisco Domingo

1x Guido Lucciano

1x Ignacio, The Black Priest

1x Cameron

1x Aaron Duggan, Cameron's Toady

Library [90 cards]

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Action [16]

8x Creation Rites

8x Govern the Unaligned

Action Modifier [20]

2x Blanket of Night

2x Bonding

2x Conditioning

1x Foreshadowing Destruction

2x Seduction

5x Shadow Play

4x Shroud of Absence

2x Shroud of Night

Action Modifier/Reaction [2]

2x Murmur of the False Will

Combat [9]

3x Arms of the Abyss

6x Oubliette

Equipment [1]

1x Zaire River Ferry

Master [18]

2x Dominate

1x Dreams of the Sphinx

1x Elysian Fields

1x Giant's Blood

3x Information Highway

3x Obtenebration

1x Perfectionist

1x Political Hunting Ground

2x Power Structure

1x Powerbase: Madrid

1x Secure Haven

1x Visit from the Capuchin

Political Action [16]

1x Ancient Influence

1x Auto-da-fe

5x Consanguineous Boon

7x Kine Resources Contested

1x Reinforcements

1x Reins of Power

Reaction [8]

4x Deflection

4x On the Qui Vive

(o.o)