Most Interesting Decks to Play

I hate playing heavy intercept, because I feel like i'm stalling the table and not playing the game, in essence.

But my preference goes to voting, though I find bruise and bleed quite fun to play.

I generally find toolboxes and bruise bleed decks the most fun to play. Mainly because then you at least have a chance to beat what comes against you, whereas with say a stealth bleed deck, you can usually already see at the start of the game whether you are going to win or lose based on what decks are around you.

I find turbo deck interesting too, since while certainly boring for other players it's pretty hard to build and run the rudberg contraption correctly.

I assume you have actually tried playing Turbo and I'm *quite* interested how and why you think they are hard to build and/or pilot. Because these decks basically play themselves as their decision tree consists of exactly one branch. The deck isn't all that challenging to put together either, because card ratio´s are fixed and metagame decisions play no role in its construction. I'd rate them among the most mindnumbing and boring decks you can possibly play.

I concur that whomever came up with the original idea of using Arika / PS Berlin / Awe loops to sweep the table in a single turn was touched by a stroke of genius, but that doesn't make the decktype interesting.

Combo decks

What exactly is a combo deck? It's a well-established term in that other game and VTES' closest approximation of a combo deck is the aforementioned turbo deck. AFAIK VTES doesn't have other "combo" decks, unless you refer to specific combinations of cards being used to accomplish something cool in which case every deck is a combo deck. Maybe Taylor Twisters are somewhat combo-y but that's just another pissing-people-off deck and it's fairly easily thwarted as well.

I generally find toolboxes and bruise bleed decks the most fun to play. Mainly because then you at least have a chance to beat what comes against you,

This is an interesting perception, as both toolbox and B/B decks are inconsistent at what they do while creating the false sense of being able to deal with more different scenario's. This is simply false. Yes, occasionally your toolbox deck does its card-order magic and you find yourself sweeping a difficult table, but on average, however, your actual good deck will gather more VPs on every table.

whereas with say a stealth bleed deck, you can usually already see at the start of the game whether you are going to win or lose based on what decks are around you.

The solution to this is to just build better decks.

I hate playing heavy intercept, because I feel like i'm stalling the table and not playing the game, in essence.

Oh you're certainly on the mark here. "Intercept" is just not a playable VTES deck. It's a pile of cards that's supposed to piss 2 or more people off for 2 hours.

Toolbox. It´s fun to not know for certain what you´re gonna draw into. That´s why I also love limited formats.

If you like limited, you're playing the wrong game. VTES limited is *atrocious*.

I also like political decks. Politics is the most intriguing aspect of VTES. I would like more politics in future sets.

Ye, but it's sad that most politics on the table don't actually involve political cards. I mean, sure, you get the occasional table where you're selling KRC points for votes, but more often than not, it's just an undirected Govern with an upside.

In that regard, the original game did a way better job at politcs simply because there were (generally) a lot more titled vampires on the table.

Most boring is, IMHO, the one-trick-pony combo decks. Yet certain powers seem to want to influence game design in this direction (to attract numbercrunshers? MTG-players?)

Again, I don't think you have your definition of "combo" straight. Combo decks are decks that, once they assemble a certain set of cards or conditions, win the game ON THE SPOT without the possibility to interact with it.

If VTES ever gets combo decks it's probably over right there because of the multiplayer aspect, but generally speaking, combo decks are almost required for a for a CCG to thrive as it keeps "I don't die but I don't win in the next 4 hours either" decks (I suppose the VTES equivalent would be Wall decks) out of the competitive meta.

And, if VTES actually wants to attract players (which I don't believe is a high priority) it needs to make tournament performance less dependent on whether you chose the right deck for the metagame, more dependent on your actual deck/skill than that of whomever else is sitting at your table and, most of all, make games shorter.

All that said, I like playing pro-active decks that can actually oust preys while staying off of the beaten path of *yawn* Malk S/B, *yawn* Ventrue firms and *yawn* Animalism/Deep Song shennenigans.

I do like playing decks that have, like, 60% of the payload and delivery systems of benchmark decks like Grinders, Lawfirms and Malk decks and use the other 40% for a split between metagame choices and cool tricks.

Izaak wrote:

And, if VTES actually wants to attract players (which I don't believe is a high priority) it needs to make tournament performance less dependent on whether you chose the right deck for the metagame, more dependent on your actual deck/skill than that of whomever else is sitting at your table and, most of all, make games shorter.

I can see an argument for the opposite. V:TES already heavily rewards play skill and doesn't reward deck choice much. It's very possible that having deck choice matter more would attract more players, where I'm taking deck choice to include choosing more powerful decks over less powerful decks.

The history of CCGs has seen plenty of instances where the marketing of the game was at odds with making the game better. Promo cards, for instance, have often been bad for CCGs. Power ultrarares are to the detriment of a balanced game, yet there must be some reason companies have used them. Balanced and fun are not necessarily the key elements to CCG appeal based on what I've heard from industry people and what companies have done. Collectibility is a huge factor for sales, to the point where one CCG I played had virtually no playerbase but sold off the interest by fans of the book series. Though, to be fair, these aren't necessarily "players", but they might become players.

While Magic has changed philosophies from the idea of power cards for a smallish tier 1 to wider competitiveness of strategies, Magic, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh! are not CCGs I'd rate highly in terms of play skill over deck choice, yet they have ruled the CCG scene.

But, yes, speeding up the game would likely be more appealing, and I also don't see the game having made a huge effort to get more players.

Im kinda insulted that almost veryone elses statements were mocked, but not mine.

I forgot about this thread, honestly. But id like to add 2 more personal preferences here:
1. I HATE contesting a star vamp. Not because of the obvious problems with ever winning, but because MY idea gets trampled by SOMEONE ELSES idea. I play anson combat for dropoing multiple haven uncovered with fame and tension quickly, double blood dolls, etc, and some schmuck wants to play girls AAA and suddenly i have to use volker to block everything, or marcellous, and my bteam gets overworked.
Ive sometimes played decks at tournaments knowing i wouldnt contest. I like Roxanne, Anatole, Gotsdam, they are my favorites. I am glad they arwnt as popular as maryanne blair or owain.
I do, however, contest and yeild support vampires like neighbor john and zoe without much of a,grudge.
2. I like getting my moneys worth from vamps. I like them acting atleast once a turn, and i like them not dying to the first asshat with an ivorybow that blocks me. Thus, i tend to use fortitude as a crutch. I try not to. But every dexk i build has to not crumble to combat, so i lovr earthmeld if im not figjting, and love sideslip if i cant have fortitude.

Lastly, from now on, if i build an annoying deck, im using giants blood just so noone else can. Im sick of girls decks. The next agro deck i consider will use everything it can to wreck mmpa decks.

But, most interesting should never be consentually agreed upon by everyone. But we should all afree some thngs are boring.
Like in mtg, some archtypes, such as the shortlived mono blue Guile, are just 45 minutes of headache for the person aying it.

I love Assamite decks.
I love the clan, and the fact that you have to work hard to play to the strength and overcome the weaknesses.
My favorite is g4/5 black hand Assamite crypt, and i played it in any way possible: as vote deck, as wall deck, as combat deck, as stealth/bleed, as breed/boon... it is so versatile and diverse i can never get tired of it

Not best deck in the world, but always exciting and a challenge to play