While watching Thirst and contemplating how it isn't very vampirey for a vampire movie, for some reason it suddenly occurred to me that I had been needlessly conflating "mono-Potence" with "weenie Potence," and that it wasn't necessary or desirable to do so. To this end, I started casting about for ideas that could use Potence as their primary engine but not rely upon weenie vampires, and I remembered reading something about Nikolaj Wendt building a deck that was all about princes who have Potence. I also recalled seeing Dave Pennington play a deck that seemed to be built around the same core concept, so I opened up ARDB and got to work.
This is the second entry in the NWWYP project, which will probably take me the rest of the year to complete, at the rate that I actually play V:TES these days.
Deck Name : The Only Study of a Prince
Author : John Eno
Description : "War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans."
-Niccolo Machiavelli
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 8 average: 5.5
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2x Selma the Repugnan 8 OBF POT ani for prince Nosferatu:1
2x Nikolaus Vermeulen 7 POT ani for obf prince Nosferatu:2
1x Donal O'Connor 8 CEL DOM POT prince Brujah:2
1x Murat 7 OBF POT ser prince Nosferatu:2
1x Calebros, The Mart 5 ANI obf pot prince Nosferatu:2
1x Volker, The Puppet 5 CEL pot prince Brujah:2
1x Hector Sosa 4 POT pre Brujah:1
1x Duck 3 obf pot Nosferatu:1
1x KoKo 2 pot Nosferatu:1
1x Lupo 2 pot Brujah:1
Group 4/5 was very tempting, featuring the awesome combo of Tara and Karen Suadela, but it doesn't have much in the way of other midcap princes with Potence, particularly at superior.
Since I've only got fairly good defense in the form of hurting people (don't want to do it as it wastes my resources), the threat of hurting people (doesn't usually work in my playgroup), and Second Tradition (good), I also need to include some bloat. Parity Shifts are good but risky, plus I only own three copies that have grown-up backs, so I'm going to use a bunch of Fourth Traditions to get vampires on the cheap. To that end, I've created a staggered chain of vampires so that, hopefully, I'll be able to continually bring out fresh vampires as the game continues.
I went with an all-Camarilla crypt even though a lot of the cheapest vampires with superior Potence are Sabbat, because I want to be able to play Judgment: Camarilla Segregation without hurting myself. This will be a deck that won't have a great deal of aggressive offense and will want to knock people off the table as quickly as possible, making J:CS is a good choice.
Nosferatu not only have good midcap princes with POT (and a good special, in Nikolaus's case), they've got access to some pretty good clan cards, so I focused much of the crypt around them.
Library [80 cards]
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Master [14]
5x Blood Doll
1x Creepshow Casino
2x Fame
1x Giant's Blood
2x Haven Uncovered
1x Labyrinth, The
1x Papillon
1x Warsaw Station
This should be largely self-explanatory. Some people might question the addition of the stealth locations in a fighty deck, but I've found that smart players know enough to block really evil actions (like Parity Shift or a rush targeting an Anathema'd vampire) even if it means that they'll lose their blocker. Having the option to add stealth to those actions is a good investment, as long as you don't have to leave the stealth card sitting in your hand until you need it.
There may be too many Blood Dolls and not enough bloodgain in here. A second Warsaw Station might also be nice, since the card is so boss, but this is a good starting point.
Action [12]
8x Fourth Tradition: The Accounting
1x Judgment: Camarilla Segregation
1x Rampage
1x SchreckNET
1x Third Tradition: Progeny
Mostly nuts and bolts stuff. Probably could use another two Segregations if I want to get serious about ousting people. Rampage often isn't great, but the ability to punch, say, the entire city of Chicago into rubble with a single action is too funny to pass up.
Combat [34]
10x Immortal Grapple
4x Taste of Vitae
4x Thrown Gate
2x Thrown Sewer Lid
9x Torn Signpost
5x Undead Strength
Again, nothing particularly thrilling here. I apparently traded away more Signposts than I'd realized or else there'd be a tenth one here instead of one of the Undead Strengths. Though I've not no way to play them without a little help from my friends, I like having a few Sewer Lids in any Potence deck just to have an answer for people who get all smarmy about out-maneuvering me. The Gates are less good for that, but can deliver a fair amount of damage while possibly keeping my minions safe from harm.
Political Action [12]
2x Anathema
2x Archon
5x Kine Resources Contested
3x Parity Shift
I don't have enough available actions or any vote push to justify playing any more votes. Realistically, this is probably already too much, since I've got no other means than getting out more princes to try to push votes, though many of these are sellable enough that I might be able to talk my way to passing them.
Reaction [8]
8x Second Tradition: Domain
Probably just enough defense, though the largish number of actions makes me wonder if a few more wouldn't help.
Cut Your Wins
2 weeks ago
I remember seeing a deck like this on the newsgroup, and I dig the concept. I'd consider adding 2 more grapple in lieu of a couple of those gates, but maybe that's just me.
ReplyDeleteI think the deck is cheating the core concept. While P/J is not a discipline, let's face it you taken the NWWYP concept and muddied the waters by adding cards that not all vampires can play.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Good point, Karl! I guess I'll shelve this deck until the project is done, then.
ReplyDeleteThat does raise an interesting question, though. I was planning on doing a Mata Hari and friends vote deck for mono-Chimerstry. Do you think that said deck elides the point of NWWYP by including cards that can only be enabled by Hari's presence?
I think you should only add cards that all vampires can play. If the crypt is Sabbat only, then Fiendish Tongue would be fine. I think the driving thrust should be, if I only have a single vampire in play from my crypt, can he play every single card in my deck? If the answer is no, then I think it violates NWWYP. At least for action cards, this should hold.
ReplyDeletePerhaps including a Master or two that only a few vampires can help with is not so detrimental. Of course, with Masters you can have other weird requirements, such as needing a younger vampire in the crypt, etc. I would not factor those requirements into whether or not the Master violates NWWYP.
So, aside from a Master or two, if it requires Mata Hari, I'd say don't use it.
By the way, it took me a minute to parse your last sentence, since Mata Hari has Presence (the discipline), but you were previously refering to the deck as mono-Chimerstry. Funny old language that English.
The plan was to use Mata Hari to enable me to play Ventrue HQ, Ferraille, Demonstration and/or Black Throne. Would those four cards get past the review board? Oh, and maybe a Waste Management Organization.
ReplyDeleteWhat's extra-confusing is that Mata Hari only has Presence in your mind...
Huh, then I must be thinking of another Ravnos with Presence. It happens when you don't play Ravnos that often.
ReplyDeleteI'd cut that list of Master requiring Mata Hari down to 2 or 3: Ventrue HQ, Ferraille and possibly WMO.
John,
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of my own Nos Princes Hate You All that I built a couple of years ago when the Sydney Scene went moderately combat and mostly non-vote. It shredded its way through 2Rs getting 7 or the 8VPs available (I had to speedbump my predator in the second game to survive, before taking out my prey and then the other guy). It's basically Nos G2/3 Princes using Archon, Anathema and Animalism (the Ugly People's AAA). Pick a suitable prey chump, let them know that the Ugly People don't like them (Anathema w/ stealth) then the Archons deal with them (Archon Rush + Animalism Air-Support and Mighty Grapples for spare presses and strikes for guys like Cock Robin...). Oops, did my prey lose a key vampire and I gained 8 pool? Whatever will I do? Oh, hey here's Calebros... KRC/Parity Shift.
I can send you a copy of the list if you'd like.