Combat as a strategy

There is a tournament in central ohio every 2 or 3 months. You could come to one if u think a 6 hour drive is worth it.

just let us know where and when since Columbus is only 5 hours away we may show up every once in a while. don't mind travel or mini vacations away from the Store.

Road trip.

Mewcat wrote:

Certain types of combat strategies can be toxic and I think that is elotars issue. Tupdogs and amaranth decks for example. For sure 1 v 1 combat is a good call.

Tupdogs are indeed extremely hard and frustrating to play against since they don't even have the drawback of actual vampires, they don't care about losing blood or going into torpor.
If you have any problems with mono-vampires decks playing amaranth tho, like Tariq, Muaziz, or other big caps ( I've seen Sha Ennu), I highly suggest to include a copy or two of Carlton in your decks. It's a good card overall and it completely shut down those decks.
If you're talking about weenie vampire agg poke+amarante yeah not much you can do, but this deck archetype is so bad that you should not come across it often.

Reading this subject for while now I'm starting to think. Issue is not combat itself but mainly tupdogs. In every post this deck comes as first example of abusive combat strategy. Maybe it's time to deal with it.

Tadori wrote:

Reading this subject for while now I'm starting to think. Issue is not combat itself but mainly tupdogs. In every post this deck comes as first example of abusive combat strategy. Maybe it's time to deal with it.

Almost anything looks abusive in the hands of great players.
Tupdogs don't seem so bad for the game. MMPA, weenie DBR, weenie ANI, Goratrix, Legacy of Pander, Stanislava, Clown-car, weenie dementation, and basically all top-tier decks can all be very frustrating.

And then you have fringe stuff like Madness Reversal, Turbo decks which are a bit hit-or-miss and volatile (and of course get the cards in perfect order when sitting next to you).

Or you can get ousted cross-table as part of a deal...

V:TES is a very frustrating game. For all its depth, it is difficult to enjoy if you can't deal with frustration.

Back on topic, I like combat. I feel like it is fine as is (the MRP of Pentex Subversion is a big buff to many combat decks; no need to further help them Enkidu, Ghede, etc... ).
Combat decks favor good strategy and deep knowledge of the other decks at the table (most higher-tier combat decks are kind-of weak to some kind of hit back) .
They give control, at the price of a sub-optimal ousting power.
They are often good counters to wall decks.
Only the best players can win big tournaments with them.

I saw that the EC day 2 final was given as an example of combat being too strong earlier in the present thread. Well, Orian and Ottso have been among the greatest for years, and Tomi is very very good too (probably the guy who impressed me the most of all the WoN+EC games ; his play and table understanding were absolutely flawless during the last round of day 1, and his social skills are nothing short from inspiring).

I agree with you. But looking at this discusion, most negative voices are saying that combat can change a player to a vegetable and drain all fun from the game. And when you ask about examples tupdogs are the first to go.

And I understand why, for example Otto's deck has some drawbacks, aggravated damage, fast weenie bleed decks. Tupdogs on other hand have very few problem compare to other combat decks, you are fast and don't care what happens to your minions you fail you go again and the amount of resources you invest in this is very small.

There is also a psychological aspect of tupdogs. Your badass old vamp is kicked in the nuts buy a 1 capacity gargoyles statue for someone that is into WoD and immersion its discouraging