Weenies are young vampires generally of 4-cap or less, meaning that you can usually bring out 1 weenie per influence phase after the first turn of limited transfers. Weenies tech is a rather effective and usually deadly force on the table, mostly due to their speed to get to the table, and the large number that they usually comes in, resulting in a swarm of actions that few decks can hope to intercept totally. Of course, they come with their own set of problems as well.
By themselves, the weenie decks rely usually on speed and quantity to oust their preys, generally using only a few kinds of cards to achieve their purpose. But that similarity pretty much ends there. There are many different kinds of weenie decks in existence, and brilliant Vtes players had found almost every mean to use the weenies with their respective disciplines and abilities, and therefore you do see a myriad selection of all kinds of weenie decks.
The effectiveness of a weenies deck is based on several key points.
First, they are fast and cheap to influence. On a good turn, you might even see 4 weenies being slapped on the table in turn 1, especially if the Methuselah is the fourth player, and had Information Highway in play. That translate to a staggering 4 bleed in the next round, if you are not ready to defend against it. (And that's not easy by turn 2) Even without such beautiful alignment of the crypt and cards, most weenie decks can bring out at least 1, if not more vampires onto the table per turn, or at least one every 2 turns.
This speed of influence allows the Methuselah with the weenie deck, to take many actions every round, and every action potentially advances his position on the table, be it a bleed action, a bloat action, some referendums or even equip actions to prepare for the coming battle. Every round, the weenie deck is going to out-action you, and if not curb in time, will soon leave you far behind in the action-efficiency of the game.
This is sometimes compounded by the fact that these vampires are cheap to call out, allowing the weenie Methuselah to retain much pool. These savings can then be either used to call out other pool-costing resources (like allies or weapons), or simply use to defend against the predator's attacks. The low cost of the weenies also allow the Methuselah to shake off the losses incurred when one or even several of his weenies are sent to torpor. Most of the time, losing a couple of weenies will not impede the Methuselah's effort too much, definitely not in the range of what it will mean to other decks with mid or even fat vampires.
Secondly, weenie decks are usually efficient in what they do. True, most of them have few disciplines and mostly only at the inferior level. Because of that, almost every weenie decks play with a good number of Master Discipline cards to enhance the weenies, and/or play with cards that either do not require disciplines, or work pretty well even with the inferior effect of the discipline in question. Most weenie decks also compensate the loss of efficiency of the card actions with the vast number of actions that the deck can do - a DOM weenie might not Condition for 3 every time, but enough of the Conditioning you for 2 is not going to be something you can take for long.
Lastly, the cheap nature of the weenie decks, allows the Methuselahs to make more mistakes than most other kinds of decks. Losing a couple of minions, and/or failing in some of the actions is not a big deal to the weenie Methuselah, afterall, many more can try again. This psychological advantage is a double-edged sword though, leading to reckless behaviours sometimes.
The weenies do have their issues too.
They are small, and therefore lacking in capability to both power up actions that require blood, or endure punishment dished out by the opponents. Minus some dedicated combat weenies, many weenie decks cannot handle combat very well. If a predator/prey has the ability to get into combat with the weenies with any reasonable ability to fight, the weenie deck can lose vampires so quickly that the main advantage of multi-actions is neutralized by the losses.
With inferior discipline (and the lack of multi-disciplines), many weenies are not really effective in what they do until they learn the superior version of the discipline. Until then they're sitting ducks, or at least an inefficient minion in the deck. And not to forget that many low-cap weenies have random disadvantages, making them vulnerable to random effects here and there.
There are also many cards that can hurt or shut down weenies. Neonate Breach, Domain Challenge are all deadly to weenie Methuselahs.
There are several cards that are almost always linked to weenies - Information Highway, Effective Management, Tribute to the Master and so on. These cards are almost essential in weenie decks, to the degree that the moment somebody see you play one, they'll almost instantly assume that you're playing a weenie deck. This also means that countering those cards can be a problem for you.
Weenies are also effective as a supplement to no-weenie decks. They add actions, and most importantly, serve as insurance to help your other more precious vampires to survive or succeed. How many times have you yearned for a weenie to be around for rescue mission when your Enkidu was sent to torpor by a Rotschreck? The weenies can also go for the kill when your bigger vampire are done removing the defense of your prey, or jump in front of your star vampire when your predator Bum's Rush him. Even using a weenie as nothing more than a hunting pool recovery machine can be invaluable at the right time.
There are many weenie deck genre - for example, Nosferatu weenie votes rely on their stealth to call forth many Praxis Seizures and Justicars, and then vote your pool out - so many of them are acting that you can't expect to block all; DOM weenies are extremely deadly, as a single weenie can bleed you with Governed the Unaligned with Conditioning by turn 2, removing 5 pool from you straight away; combat weenies can go in repeatedly, and the attrition that they can afford will eventually kill off your minions (not to mention CEL gun weenies); AUS weenies are always there blocking, and so many of them are there that you can forget about doing anything during your turn; the famous Pander votes with Legacy of Panders is a prime example of how deadly a deck can be, even without coherent discipline spread.
Weenies are a pain, and they're pretty prominent especially in tournament play. Don't leave home without one in your deck. (unless you're playing Inner Circle Votes)
(o.o)
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