Gehenna cards

I'm just going to put it out there.
I love Gehenna cards. I think they're awesome and make the game more interesting.

Even so, I feel that playing them is really hard unless you're playing Imbued or only splash in a minor gehenna module in a somewhat limited vampire deck (such as weenie dbr). And as soon as you start playing gehenna cards that isn't anthelios or the unmasking you start to paint a very large target on your forhead. Since many of the really interesting gehenna cards require you to have 2 gehenna cards in play...well...it gets hairy. And since you often lose hand size for a long time they can hinder you a lot as well..

Still, I've been wanting to build a gehenna deck without imbued (since it should be possible). There's plenty of interesting cards that trigger from gehenna cards (tapestry of blood, servitor of irad, al-something the avenger, beckett, afifa, etc...). But my efforts still hasn't really left me with something useable.

Something I did realize though was that Beckett + a lot of gehenna cards gives you a ridiculous hand size after a while. However if he gets torporized (which he will, because everyone hates you after the 5th gehenna card) you're dead...

So, gehenna cards. Help me figure out how to leverage them in the best way? Opinions about them? Are they even useable (in larger numbers) without falling into the imbued camp?

I played a Guillaume Giovanni massive handsize deck with a significant Gehenna module. The 'do not replace' clauses didn't matter because I had 30 cards in my hand anyway, and cards like Blood Weakens and Veil of Darkness didn't really effect me but did mess up everyone else on the table.
The deck didn't work overall for other reasons, but I think the idea is solid.
It also suffered from the same problem as your Beckett deck, and discarding 20+ cards at once is painful.

You can use all of the discpline hoser events if you play discplineless weenie deck or discplineless black hand deck for example.

wastaz wrote:

So, Gehenna cards. Help me figure out how to leverage them in the best way? Opinions about them? Are they even useable (in larger numbers) without falling into the imbued camp?

One Word: Afifa

First off: I loves me some Gehenna!

After building any normal deck, I always take a quick trip through all the Gehenna events to see which ones won't affect me, so I can safely add them in. If you find that you're only playing basic disciplines, add The Slow Withering. If you're playing no 11-caps, or you don't care about being older than other vamps, add Wormwood. Playing mostly Flight or disciplineless stuff or very few action modifiers/combat - Blood Weakens is for you. Sending people to torpor - try Torpid Blood.

I've tried Beckett + Afifa, it caused sweet wonderful chaos, but didn't have enough forward pressure to actually oust anything. And when Beckett goes to torpor, life sucks.

So, I'd suggest that you don't focus on playing Gehenna cards as THE strategy of your deck, but consider how a COUPLE Gehenna cards splashed into an otherwise-functional deck make that deck BETTER.

My all-time favorite deck (that I really really wish worked better) is full of Scobax and Gehenna events. www.secretlibrary.info/index.php?deck=view&id=6385

I like gehenna too. I don't think playing pile of them in same deck is the right way to go at all. Just think putting couple of them in deck. Simple Unmasking, Dragonbound and Anthelios don't need more talk. Everybody knows about them.

Underplayed gehenna card is especially Slow Withering. You don't want to play it in first turns and when nobody has ousted because it can slow table too much. But it is very good when vampires get low blood. There are many decks which can play good even with basic dicplines like nocturn, shambler, and nephandi decks (+anarch 3-way cards). Veil of Darkness I don't find so good. It is too random and you need to play no discplines at all (cancelling your own deflection will make you lose games). Blood Weakens you can play even when using some discplines.

Other good ones include. Thirst is usually good to include if deck has at least 2 other gehenna events. Rising is worth considering in DEM bleed deck with Sibyl's Tongues. Nightmares upon Nightmares can damage some breed and ally decks a lot. Other gehenna cards I don't like so much and they need more special deck.

Gehenna is good also when you have way to get cards from your ash heap. Sudario to get the Fourth Cycle or even Fall of the Camarilla card is strong. Anyway I don't think any deck should be focused around gehenna. They are good when splashed into a deck like Miasmat said.