Concerning lilith's blessing, ashur tablets and liquidation

That is what the "~most" was for. Presumably, your grandprey will be fighting to stay alive and is not a pushover either.

Shard wrote:

That is what the "~most" was for. Presumably, your grandprey will be fighting to stay alive and is not a pushover either.

I will say it another way.

A "combat" deck does not need more than any other deck to let its prey weaken its grandprey. It's a generic strategy, that you may or may not rely upon.

There are some prey you absolutely need to oust as fast as possible, and some other that it's better to let live, regardless of what kind of deck you play. extrala.blogspot.com/2011/11/its-bird-its-plane-its-windham.html is a good example of what your prey can do if you don't have good ousting power. And combat version of this can easily exist (Elimelech with a flamethrower e.g.)

So, if you have only fame and dragonbound to kill your prey you can be in deep trouble since it's not exactly a fast and reliable ousting method.

Combat ability is a tool for victory, but not a way to win. Like vote lock, it does not oust, and trying to put 3 or 5 cards as only way to oust is bad for the table.

ok, sure

extrala.blogspot.com/2011/11/its-bird-it...ane-its-windham.html is a good example of what your prey can do if you don't have good ousting power. And combat version of this can easily exist (Elimelech with a flamethrower e.g.)

a) No, a "combat version with Elimelech" of that cannot "easily' exist. These kind of decks can only exist with vampires that can play Freak Drive for free, which is basically Una, any Tremere with fortitude, Mata Hari and any vampire with fortitude and temporis.
b) There is exactly 0% chance of ousting such a deck even if your deck is Malk 94 before it sets up. It brings up Gerald and then takes a 30 minute turn playing 45 Freak Drives.

Combat ability is a tool for victory, but not a way to win. Like vote lock, it does not oust, and trying to put 3 or 5 cards as only way to oust is bad for the table.

The problem with using combat is that unlike vote push or stealth cards, torping minions doesn't oust your prey. All it does is make your grandprey play without a predator. And as we know, the guy without a predator wins.

Izaak wrote:

Yes, as much fun as the exact same damn thing vs big caps that didn't get out for free but just got Villein'd instead.

Why does everyone think that having 3 blood on a 9- or 10-cap is suddenly a huge weakness. People have had 3 blood on 10-caps forever and just killing them has never been hard.

You're still not winning.

Seriously, get this into your skull: Killing vampires DOES NOT make you win. It makes your prey lose and someone else win.

Yeah, like in this year's EC!

Uh, waidaminnit...