Samedi Nuit Mort

Title (C) Terry Pratchett
(Actually, we tend to play VTES on Wednesday evenings...).
The library is always 90 cards in our group, so this is no exception. Cheese content: medium-high.

Bear in mind that the Summon Soul is used gain two blood at for regain, and when the Vampires have , to bring cards back from the ash heap to the library for re-use (which removes the action card from the game). This means the deck is slightly toolboxy and not-useful cards can be discarded early on to claim back later.

I'm not aware of nor could find any similar Samedi decks. Apologies if there are other implementations submitted.

How do you intend to oust?
This is the main problem with the deck. Jorge bleeds at +1 if the target Methuselah has a Sabbat Vampire, otherwise standard bleed. The Baron can bleed for two, but he'll comes out later. 2x Cameraphone in library to address this issue, but no increase bleed cards available. Considered "Force of Will", don't really want to send my tooled-up minions to torpor. Otherwise it's basically trying to pick off my prey/predator through combat.

How do you intend to keep from being ousted?
Intercept is an issue but I would hope to develop three minions: one in combat, one regaining blood (either maybe untapping using "Forced March"), and one standing guard. "On the Qui Vive" included for a surprise untap.

What do you want your ready region to look like (ie, how many guys are you planning on getting out)?
Hopefully get Jorge and Jack (either version) out first (cost 15 pool). Then tool up with armour if possible, otherwise launch into attack using "Concealed Weapon" and a gun (they all have ) - potentially 19-20 pool spent in first few rounds.

What do you want your average turn to look like?
One minion either bleeds or attacks depending on how the field looks. Early in the game the other equips. Play "Vessel" (expensive, but also used to kill off enemy "Blood Dolls" to hinder prey/predator pool gain) Also means can fully use Vampire capacity as I order untap blood gain from, for example, "Hougan") and still allows me to play normal Master cards. By mid-game one will be hunting (basic "Summon Soul", "Restoration", normal hunt action otherwise), the other attacking/bleeding. Hopefully dragging enough pool back to upgrade Jack and bring out another minion, such as The Baron, for a little say in Blood Hunt votes (if I don't have the card or blood for "Sacrificial Lamb" and have to diablerise).

In Combat, played "Olid Loa" and possibly "Rigor Mortis" if opponent has Celerity, then manoeuvre to LR using the ".44s" inbuilt ability/"Drums of Xipe Totec" (this is chiefly for The Baron as he has no celerity). Blur. For a little extra spice, if the minion hasn't Combat Ends, dodged, or matched the blur, final strike with the minion possessing it would be with the "Spike-thrower". Obviously ways around it, but a well-time spike can be useful.

Combat weaknesses: undodgeable aggravated attacks. "Destroy Weapon/Armour" ranged strikes (although hopefully can retrieve with "Summon Soul").

What's your metagame like? How do your opponents play?
Quite varied and creative. I've experimented with a Samedi-Thanatosis deck a few times recently, which have done well or we've drawn due to being evenly matched. Decks with Fortitude are common, though thinking about recent games... rather straight-forward Gangrel, !Gangrel, Ravnos, Ventrue, Toreador, Giovanni. There was a Setite deck that managed to fully execute "Spell of Life" last time we played. Metagame changes constantly, hence why this deck has been designed to be flexible through "Summon Soul". Generally there's The Rack every other game, hence why I haven't added it here.

What problems have you observed with the deck in play?
None yet - welcome any comments/experience from other players.

Sadly I only have 1x Genina, otherwise I can build this deck with my collection (maybe have to borrow a card or two from another deck though).

The deck
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 7 max: 9 average: 7.91667
3x Genina, The Red Poet (8) Samedi (group 3)
3x Jorge De La Muerte, The Agent (7) Samedi (group 2)
2x Baron, The (9) 2 votes Samedi (group 2)
2x Jack Dawson (8) Samedi (group 2)
2x Jack Dawson Adv (8) Samedi (group 2)


Library [90 cards]

Action [11]
2x Conceal
2x Harass
1x Restoration
1x Sacrificial Lamb
1x Sanguine Instruction
4x Summon Soul

Action Modifier [9]
2x Forced March
2x Forgotten Labyrinth
2x Hag's Wrinkles
3x Into Thin Air

Action/Combat [1]
1x Elemental Stoicism

Combat [30]
5x Blur
3x Disguised Weapon
8x Olid Loa
2x Rigor Mortis
4x Rolling with the Punches
2x Skin of Night
1x Skin of Rock
2x Taste of Vitae
3x Vampiric Speed

Equipment [12]
4x .44 Magnum
2x Camera Phone
1x Drum of Xipe Totec
2x Kevlar Vest
1x Spike-Thrower
2x Sport Bike

Master [18]
1x Arcanum Chapterhouse, Alexandria
2x Celerity
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Failsafe
2x Fame
2x Fortitude
2x Haven Uncovered
2x Houngan
2x Necromancy
3x Vessel

Reaction [9]
2x Hard Case
2x On the Qui Vive
5x Steadfastness

Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Sat Jan 10 14:47:27 2015]

And the results after playing it twice last night... terrible.

Only three of us so might perform better in a larger game. First play went well but took forever to find a gun. Gave it a good shuffle for the second game and ended up clumping weapons with no means of equipping (disguised weapons/other stealth).

Have made a few amends to the library and will play again at our next meet.

Belated mention of thanks to Jamesatzephyr for originally suggesting an Olid Loa/gun deck (even if he did warn me it wouldn't be great).

The two biggest issues look like:

- You want a gun but only have 4 of them in the deck, and not a lot else. Vast Wealth? Just more of them? With only 4 decent guns that you really want, plus one or two other cards like the Spike Thrower, your 3 copies of Disguised Weapon are very hard to coincide with.

- Lack of real forward momentum. Big Samedi, very few bleed options (Baron, Cameraphone), not very much multi-acting which can make things a little better. This is a soemwhat generic Samedi problem: some nice toys, but little generally applicable oomph. (The Turbo-Baron 'trick' deck is okay.)


And then some weird card choices. Arcanum Chapterhouse is largely terrible. Kevlar Vest isn't terrible, but you probably have better things to be doing in a combat-y deck with Fortitude available. 6 discipline cards is a _lot_ of master card space to give up that could be spent on better things.

Aye, I've added another .44, a Submachine Gun, and an ivory bow to replace the spike thrower (didn't find that copy originally in my spares).

Forced March worked well, need to add a few more in: probably replace a Kevlar Vest, need to have a good think about what else. 2R gun or one agg strikes are very common in the MK VTES group, so having one is always handy, even in Fortitude decks.

Chapterhouse: plan was that it'd annoy predator/prey and I could block/intercept when they tried to get rid of it. Didn't ever come out, Vast Wealth sounds like a better choice.

Master Discipline cards: most minions have and , and obviously need to reap the benefits of being a gun deck. Those that have Necromancy generally have too. Exception is The Baron, who has no Celerity, but . From play, would replace one Necromancy Master with Celerity and the the other with The Sargon Fragment .

I would agree that bleed is a big issue. Dominate isn't available (except for The Baron), not happy with playing Force of Will as puts too many equipped-up big caps at risk. Am currently thinking about a couple of Fata Morganas for Genina as the extra bleed and stealth would help (with Cameraphone, that's a bleed of three, isn't it?). Otherwise Spying Mission .

adding fata morgana that only one of your minons can use will further hamper the deck.
How 'bout some good old oldschool computer hacking and leverage to improve ousting power? Another camera phone might come in handy.
I would ditch the entire necromancy angle altogether, not sure it is doing you anything.