VTES is a hard game – hard on the details, hard on the players, and hard fought to win every single time. That is why it’s great to have local events and tournaments every once in a while when everyone just comes in with a new, janky thing, concentrates on the thing they do (most often forcing friendly bleeds of six down your throat) and decidedly just came to have a good time.
That is exactly what we had in store for us on the Dive into Mandess on 4th June in Joensuu, Finland. Thank you, Noora Hirvonen, for hosting, prizes and running the Archon!
I, like many of us, hadn’t been playing too much for the past spring. It’s a seasonal thing. At times you’re neck deep in the Eternal Struggle, and at times you just pop out at the weeklies out of habit and most of your energy goes into something else: work stuff, family, other games… But we know we always come back to the bleeding circle.
So I had literally no idea what to play. My usual VTES cycle goes like this:
- Have a tournament where I know what I’ll play
- Demolish all decks I have after the tournament
- Rebuild 3-4 decks with more or less new ideas
- Trial and error the decks on casuals
- Decide which deck to bring to the next tournament
Repeat from five to beginning. After I was done with Watenda’s Alastor shenanigans, I had a couple of casual decks for a Ministry anarch toolbox (which I gave a friend to play at the event), a G6 Victoria Ash and Banus gunslinger attempt, a stupid pile of Guido memes unfit for anything modern, and remnants of a few attempts at Camarilla Segregations. Nothing either worked or inspired me, and without a tournament down in a bit I hadn’t had my steps two and three in a while.
So, enter a panic switch step in place of number five: brainstorm a new thing a night before the event.
So after I gave thought to Toreador on Information Highway some time ago, I got to thinking about Brujah and their problems. After all, they share (and have always shared) similar problems to Toreador. Their overall discipline spread is a bit all over the place, even if Celerity and Potence make for pretty hefty combat prowess. So it boils down to what they can do with their clan cards.
New Carthage is actually a huge upgrade to their titled vampires. It’s a very powerful card. There are a few others that aren’t that bad at all, but Brujah Debate actually opens up a completely new playstyle for them. It’a very interestingly designed card that forces you to think about how your deck flows and how to make due with the setback of (much akin to Toreador Grand Ball) effectively losing a vampire.
I’m pretty hyped for BCP finally reprinting this card in their next clan booster kits. It pretty much redefines how your deck plays. You could think of it as a meld of Toreador Grand Ball (for losing a vampire for the effect and stacking), Palla Grande (for boosting your weenies and a wide board equally) and Gangrel Revel (giving all your wee dudes extra strength for combat).
So you can see a very clear emphasis on a Breed and Boon deck: spawn your Embraces and use Presence for Consanguineous Boon, much like you would do with a Palla Grande deck. Of course you’ll be losing on your Foundation Exhibits to have a really menacing political presence on the table, but you’ll have to make due with your vampires’ own Presence, and whatever presence you can muster in person by making deals to keep you in play. Just pray you aren’t preyed on by the only other political force.
Aline Gädeke, the Baroness of Mannheim, is on paper a prime candidate for this sort of deck. You’ll always get to lock her for the Debate, but with a bit of blood spent you’ll most likely get to act with her as well: just unlock her after any of your dozens of actions each turn succeeds.
As for the tournament, get ready for some spoilers: I manage to claw out a win in the finals after a lucky streak of 2GW+6VP from the initial three rounds. Without further ado, here is the list:
Deck Name: Debate Club for Aspiring Vampires
Crypt (12 cards, min=16 max=28 avg=5.83)
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4x Aline Gädeke 7 POT PRE cel baron Brujah:6
1x Chun Hei 7 CEL POT PRE Brujah:6
1x Valeriya Zinovieva 7 POT cel pre pro baron Brujah:6
1x Atiena 6 CEL obf pot pre baron Brujah:6
1x Leumeah 6 PRE cel for pot baron Brujah:6
1x Adelino Da Silva 5 cel pot pre tha Brujah:6
1x Siarhei Levchenko 5 CEL PRE pot Brujah:6
1x Elen Kamjian 4 CEL POT Brujah:6
1x Rayne 2 pot Brujah:6
Library (79 cards)
==================
Master (21; 7 trifle)
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1x Anarch Free Press, The
5x Brujah Debate
1x Carfax Abbey
1x Creepshow Casino
1x Direct Intervention
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Libertas
1x Line, The
1x Poacher's Hunting Ground
4x Vessel
2x Villein
1x Warzone Hunting Ground
1x Wider View
Action (16)
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1x Constant Revolution
8x Embrace, The
2x Entrancement
1x Field Training
2x Line Brawl
2x Open War
Ally (1)
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1x 47th Street Royals
Political Action (9)
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4x Consanguineous Boon
1x Eat the Rich
1x Neonate Breach
2x Reckless Agitation
1x Revolutionary Council
Retainer (1)
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1x Crypt's Sons
Action Modifier (8)
--------------------
2x Iron Glare
1x Monkey Wrench
3x Perfect Paragon
2x Voter Captivation
Action Modifier/Combat (1)
---------------------------
1x Force of Personality
Action Modifier/Reaction (2)
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2x Scalpel Tongue
Reaction (13)
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2x Bait and Switch
2x On the Qui Vive
8x Organized Resistance
1x Protection Racket
Combat (7)
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1x Disarm
4x Dust Up
1x Majesty
1x Thrown Sewer Lid
You’ll notice that it should resemble a traditional Palla Grande breed !Toreador quite a bit. That is intentional. It should play more or less like one, but instad of explosive bleed turns, you’ll get to control the table in a different manner. Your bleeds each action are only one instead of two, but there are quite a few decks that really can’t or won’t touch the Embraces once you’re one or two Debates deep.
But the rest is there: vote push, Con Boons, intercept and bounce.
Above you’ll see the final table with seating. I lost the highest seed to the Unnamed by a coin toss. Malkavian were first to go.
As the whole tournament, the final table went pretty much as expected: we had a Dementation bleeder preying on a very bounce heavy, but slightly slow Living Manse + London Museum deck. That left me with very little pressure. Unnamed had to deal with a ton of bounce from the Lasombra, who packed exactly what you’d expect: Dominate for days.
After everyone basically just played their own games, I think I happened to find the ideal place to sit, and after Malkavian had gotten their oust and duly getting ousted in return, my horde pressure forced Unnamed to drop the game and with a nicely drawn Open War the Lasombra had no chance to bleed me out from torpor.
It was an enjoyable and fun final table, that ended duly at 75 minutes or so! Not all finals time out, eh?
Here is the VEKN report.
So finally, I’d like to state that the deck itself is far from optimized. I think I managed to throw in the essentials, but that’s strictly the first draft of it. I got lucky and the meta was fast and furious this time. That’s not to say people played poorly or bad decks – far from it! The Joensuu meta is filled with accomplished and able players who know what they’re doing.
However, there are decks that I think this sort of deck might struggle against. Sniper Rifle walls and heavy voters with plenty of Ancilla Empowerment are very strong against these sorts of decks. I’m not too worried about Magnum decks exactly, since I have manouvers to spare, but combat that sets range is more difficult.
Against voters, titles of your own with a sprinkle of Scalpel Tongue can help, but if you’re really worried, Delaying Tactics is a classic. Sniper Rifles can be dealt in a couple of ways, but I opted for a single Thrown Sewer Lid (for the Press), and Revolutionary Council. The latter can also be used to kill off annoyingly powerful locations like British Museum in some combo decks, Monastery of Shadows in stealth-light vote decks and and different kinds of Hunting Grounds against Gangrel.
Personally I like playing smaller decks. In particular decks like these that don’t really play that many cards each turn (your static effects are what win you the games), I would’ve slimmed down to 70 or 66 cards if I had the time before the tournament. It’s crucial you’ll find your Open War and Con Boons, and even more importantly your blood gain and Hunting Grounds.
This deck is really starved for blood: your Embraces are expensive to churn out, Aline takes a lot of blood to get actions off with, and you’re still susceptible to hit-back in combat. You could run a fun set of British Museum, Pawn Shop and Leather Jackets to keep your guys healthy, but it’s a niche too meme for me at this stage. Anyway, whatever means for blood management you’ll think works for you, make use of them.
I would probably start the slimming process with:
-1 Wider View
-1 Villein
-2 Line Brawl
-1 Field Training
-1 Entrancement
-1 Crypt's Sons
-1 Perfect Paragon
-1 Iron Glare
-1 Voter Captivation
-1 Force of Personality
+3 Bait and SwitchFrom there, find a sure way to get your Open War on the table. It can be hard without practically any stealth. Maybe go even deeper into the multi act route, with more Majesty, Zephyr and Change of Target to bait blocks before ramming in the declaration of war?
All in all, this is a fun concept for an intersting, toolboxy deck that you’ll most likely have fun with! It has a solid, and reasonably varied oust plan (hordes are always decent), and some hard choices in deciding when to play your Debates, how to manage your pool and blood and vampires, and how to cheat a winning Open War or Constant Revolution (or even a Reckless Agitation) past your opponents’ defenses.
Please have a go at the deck, and let me know how you feel about Aline and Debates!
As for me, I’m pretty sure I’ll have to check when’s the next scheduled tournament is… Hopefully it’ll be before Ropecon – I wouldn’t want to attend without some proper warm up!
THE GAROU RIM GAZETTE 
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