Under the Reigns of Dracula

I agree the political route seems difficult, you can hardly expect to get vote lock with this deck; the opportunity to steal voters with Chameleon is small and one Inner Circle 9or even a 10-cap justicar) at the table will ruin the day if you rely on banishment. Maybe Brainwash to just slow them down as in the 419 decks?

Anyway I think Chameleon is pretty hard to pull off repeatedly, mostly because of the timing issue and the blood cost in addition to the stealth/unblockable cards that cost blood as well. Heidelberg is a good option to refill Vlad after stealing, but still you will probably not have it until midgame. So I would not rely on Chameleon as your main strategy to win, not to mention the table hate you will get if you steal vamps repeatedly - plenty of incentive to kill you cross table.

Anyway many midcap/weenie decks will still bring out new minions after the initial phase, so I think it is still nice to have 1-2 chameleons in a Vlad deck. Just stealing the extra midcap that your prey just brought out with Governed Sup., or even an Embrace, can already have a lot of impact on your ousting chances.

Anyway many midcap/weenie decks will still bring out new minions after the initial phase, so I think it is still nice to have 1-2 chameleons in a Vlad deck.

that's very interesting idea to explore in political Vlad deck which is already planning to play some banishments. I will try to find a space for 1-2 copies.

Some points:


-You don't need crypt accelerators, since people normally influence till they get 2-3 vamps. So when Vlad comes out he can just play his Chameleon.
-10 and 11-caps are only problematic in early game. If you take a look at my decklist, there are 2 Abombwe skills to make Vlad 12-cap. You can Mind Rape them and Banish with them if you feel like it.
-Again, if you check my decklist, there are 4 Heidelberg Castle in 60 cards, + other means of refilling him. Blood is not an issue (unless you get contested your HC, that's why i packed in a Dominate Kine).

Anyway, you're going to get all the hate in the world with this deck, I agree with that. They key to success is knowing which vampires you need to steal to survive. There are going to obviously be tables were you're not going to be able to do nothing (as it matters to happen with every deck).


PD: Brainwash is a good idea, the problem are the slots. Anyway, it's better that they influence, that they don't do it, because you need them to spend pool.

-You don't need crypt accelerators, since people normally influence till they get 2-3 vamps. So when Vlad comes out he can just play his Chameleon.

Right, normally they do, but playing against chameleon deck is not normal situation. That only works if they don't know what you're playing. If they know they will play around it. Influence vampires before you can play chameleon, then kicking your butt (as you said it's one of the biggest hate magnet in vtes) and influencing other vampires only when you're not able to steal them.
We were playing with chameleon deck in our local meta for a long time and crypt acceleration was single most important factor that was deciding for a success of the deck. I can't see any reason not to use it.

I can imagine the table hate if you run loads of Chameleon, better tool up before they come for you

Anyway, Vlad opens up a lot of new combinations to try.
Let's see if he is strong enough to make it to the TWDA this year

Given Vlad's abilities he can also play magic of the smith to get the Ankhara Citadel to offset some of the early chameleon use.
For votes all he can probably do is kindred manipulation and loki's gift. Lack of sup. Auspex lost him telepathic vote counting. Voting will be tricky. Another way could be to magic of the smith Lyndhurst estate, New York and agate talisman.