Horriffic

Deck Name : Horrific
Author : Brandon Haas
Description :
Auspex for bounce/revelations, Presence for payload/reload, Protean for delivery/combat

This is the first version, so it's pretty rough. What do you think?

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 9 average: 6.66667

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4x Malabranca 9 AUS CEL PRE PRO obf archbishop !Toreador:4
2x Lucina 7 AUS PRE cel pro primogen Toreador:3
2x Redbone McCray 6 AUS PRE cel pro !Toreador:4
1x Bernard, the Scour 5 ani for pre pro Gangrel:4
1x Boss Callihan 5 PRE dom for pro Ventrue:3
1x Alessandro Garcia 4 pot pre pro !Brujah:4
1x L'Epuisette 4 aus cel pro !Toreador:4


Library [90 cards]

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Action [10]
5x Enchant Kindred
2x Entrancement
2x Eternal Vigilance
1x Revelations

Action Modifier [17]
5x Bewitching Oration
6x Horrific Countenance
1x Perfect Paragon
5x Voter Captivation

Combat [14]
14x Earth Meld

Equipment [2]
1x Agate Talisman
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Master [17]
1x Archon Investigation
4x Blood Doll
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Lilith's Blessing
1x Perfectionist
1x Powerbase: Madrid
1x Powerbase: Rome
1x Protean
1x Sudden Reversal
3x Wider View

Political Action [10]
2x Banishment
2x Conservative Agitation
1x Crusade: Toronto
4x Kine Resources Contested
1x Neonate Breach

Reaction [20]
2x Enhanced Senses
4x Eyes of Argus
4x On the Qui Vive
1x Precognition
1x Spirit's Touch
8x Telepathic Misdirection


Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Fri Mar 18 22:55:37 2011]

I like toreadors with protean! I have found that when I play with tores and pre/pro/aus I usually have to decide between blocking or acting more. I think the earth meld idea is fun. let us know how it works. My first assumption is you might have trouble doing all the acting you want and still be able to block all you want. (or vice versa) again, let us know how it works.

-Andy

brandonsantacruz wrote:

6x Horrific Countenance

One more thing. Horrific Countenance.......It seems so good to see "this action is unblockable", I know. However, 4 blood is prohibitive. (Voter cap or not!) I have always seen this card as gold until I actually play it. Something I picked up from Kevin M. is that you have to think how often you are going to draw a card and think, "I wish I had drawn something else, anything else!" If you will be thinking this too often then it is not good for your deck. I often have to actually play with the card to find this out. I have thought many a time about Kallista bleeding for 6 or 7 "unblockable...BOO-yah!" In reality, it goes like this...Scythe (or some other bloodsucker) bleeds for 3 at two stealth, I play On the Qui Vive, need to draw one out of 15 or 20 bounce or intercept cards, my draw....Horrific Countenance "Oh Snap!" The situation is not always this extreme, but the idea is that in my experience when I draw a card I too often wish it were something else than HC.

Don't get me wrong, I want the card to work and I like the idea of building a deck for it to be used effectively. I just have never been able to do it.

-Andy

Yeah, it does seem spread a little thin, doesn't it? If it was more wallish with carefully timed unblockable votes but mostly defensive, I think that might be more balanced. There are a few tricks I could play that would involve Heidelburg + Lilith's Blessing, scalpel tongue, storage annex, massive card cycling, etc. One of my favorite cycling methods with Auspex is Aura Reading. Get the cards you need, survive combat, then be ready for your next turn. I'll have to tinker some more.

Actual Toreador with actual PRO could be a lot of fun. Imagine Aching Beauty plus Form of Mist.... Hard to pull off in practice though, as the only Toreador who starts with PRO is Christopher Houghton, a 10-cap with no title and no +bleed. Chris has some neat combat- and blocking-related specials, but nothing to help him take threatening actions.

Easier to find Toreador with mini-pro and graft it on. My favorite is Marcellus, whose +1 bleed and prince title mean he comes with a wealth of threatening action options.

Along those lines, though, there might be some fun to be had with CEL Toreador + Aching Beauty + Torrent. Unlike Form of Mist, there's no limit to the number of Torrents you can play on one action either. It's costly, but there are ways around that - Retain the Quick Blood and Voter Captivation are the first that spring to mind. Or run Eugene / Muhandis / Madame Guil with Entrenching and/or Restoration and/or Forced March and/or Perfectionist. Or G1/2 princes and Anneke with Fifth Tradition, not to mention built-in +1 bleed. Or just save blood by mixing 50/50 Torrent and Change of Target.

... not that any of this relates that much to your deck. Which is fine, except that - as people have already mentioned - it really doesn't have the blood gain support to make Horrid Countenance work. I think it might also have some hand jam issues around those Earth Melds - if you get caught behind 2 or 3 of them in the off-turn, it's going to be hard to clear them out so you can get through to blocking, and if your predator has a quiet turn I can see you staring at 2x Earth Meld, 3x reaction cards during your minion phase and being forced to send Malabranca to use his "special".

I like Earth Meld with Gangrel, but Gangrel have Deep Song to combo with and the infinitely stacking permacept of Raven Spies. True, Aura Reading might help, as would a Barrens or maybe a Storage Annexe. (Not that you have space for those, as you're already running 14 non-trifle masters.... that might also be a bit of trouble, no?)

Yep, I did play CEL Toreadors with aching beauties and torrents for a while. I think I should actually put the deck together again and rethink it a bit... With two Archon, around 4 aching beauties and a mixture of Torrent, Majesty and Change of Target with G1-2 and Alexandra had a blast, I recall. It's a horrendous amount of blood they have to use, so it's pretty hard to balance with what to villein and what put to use, but it's a fun thing to play with.