Tier 1 deck archetypes

Izaak wrote:

It's not like this Enkidu Psyche list is new or anything. Enkidu was printed in what, 3rd? The Earth Meld Psyche thing has been around since then since then. That's more than 5 years now and in that time it won *drumroll* 4 tournaments. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the new breakout "tier 1 that can't be meta'd against" deck on our hands! Be prepared for contest-fest at EC2013 in a few months!

!Ventrue Grinder was doable for how many years and how many did it take to finally bloom like it has?

You also don't understand the Enkidu deck, if you think it was really possible in its current incarnation when Enkidu was printed (back in KMW, btw). But that's quite OK, you have now repeatedly and very ably demonstrated that you really don't understand it or have encountered a well-played, well-tuned version, so I thank you for your contribution and will ignore you now wrt Enkidu rush deck.

Enkil Cog (KoT) made Enkidu Pursuit/Psyche!/Earth Meld viable.
Eyes of Argus (KoT) and a shift after Target Vitals (LotN) made !Ventrue grinder a good metagame choice.

Juggernaut1981 wrote:

Wall Decks
Characterised by being able to reliably block 2+ actions a turn and grinding down your prey (or the whole table) via permanents with actions built in.

• !Ventrue Stickman
• !Ventrue Teflon
• Animalism Wall
• No Secrets from Cesewayo
• Tzimsce Who See All and Block All

Is this where the Carna/Tremere deck fits? Also, what is !Ventrue Teflon? I've never heard that name for an archetype.

!Ven Teflon would be:
High Intercept, High Obedience, High Deflection and plenty of FOR combat. It's basically a precursor to a Stickman or Grinder deck but tends to have bleed or permableed as their oust module.

Juggernaut1981 wrote:

If I was listing Tier 1 Archetypes I'd be doing it be Ousting Method and then making "Families" under that. (I'm sure there are more than this smattering that appeared to mind)

Smattering? I'd say that half of the decks you list can't properly be considered Tier 1. The top tier can't hold that many decks.

!Ventrue Teflon seems suspiciously like a much better deck archetype that actually has won a fair number (10) of tournaments:

Tremere/!Tremere politics with Mirror Walk and Obedience anti-combat

Jeff,
Of course it can. Because it can contain historical Tier 1 Decks as well as Current Tier 1 decks, and since it is a set, it can also contain an infinite number of Future Tier 1 Decks.

Many of those decks are old, they don't see a lot of play now for a variety of reasons (some of them being that their tech has been superseded, others have had key tricks nerfed, others have just gone out of fashion). Some of them are new, some of them are particularly looming in the zeitgeist (for whatever reason). Some of them are enduring. Some not (like say Turbo Baron, Anarch Palla Grande Undue Influence, Assamite Death Star).

It all depends on what you want to define as "Tier 1" and if you intend to make it a "Currently considered to be in the decks which have most reliably won tournaments" list... or if you want to make it a broader term. I have always viewed the "Tier 1" as "Enduring, competitive, likely to come back in fashion particularly when a long-time player drags one out of mothballs deck".