file My first real deck. Lasombra

21 Jun 2016 12:32 - 21 Jun 2016 18:57 #77245 by Tendoncutter
I've been trying to find a clan that can blend the stealthy bleeding of Malks with the versatile combat and equal sneakiness of the Nosferatus. Lasombra seem ideal, and as such, I've tried my hand at versatile deck that will bleed hard strategically, hit like a train and be stealthy enough to get both actions and bleeds in.
I've yet to test the current version, as games are hard to come by, and free time doubly so. I have no illusion about this being a consistent winner, but more a deck that at least won't get me embarrassed at organised play :)

All feedback is welcome, though keep in mind I don't really have the means to boost it with expensive cards(Cogs, Shroud of Absence, Villeins, etc.)

Deck Name: Lasombra BBB
Author:
Description:
A first attempt at a competitive Lasombra deck, meant to be a bruise bleed, with added stealth for uninterrupted Govern breeding. Finding it a bit difficult to strike a balance between fighting and ending combat. Thought is to get either Anton, Carolina or Conrad out first, and Govern Vauxhall and Badr out fast, combining it with standard transfer.

Crypt (Capacity min=3 max=9 avg=7.33; 12 cards)
==================================================

2x Antón de Concepción 9 aus ANI DOM OBT POT Lasombra:4
2x Badr, Shadow of Granada 7 DOM OBT POT Lasombra:5
2x Carolina Vález 9 aus DOM OBT POT PRE Lasombra:5
2x Conrad Adoula 8 ani cel DOM OBT POT Lasombra:4
1x Ermenegildo, The Rake 5 pot DOM OBT Lasombra:4
2x Lord Vauxhall 7 DOM OBT POT THA Lasombra:4
1x Lucy Markowitz 3 dom obt Lasombra:4

Library (90 cards)
=====================

Master (16 cards)
2x Blood Doll
1x Elder Library
2x Elysian Fields
1x Information Highway
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Papillon
3x Path of Night, The
1x Political Hunting Ground
1x Power Structure
2x Sudden Reversal
1x Vessel

Event (1 cards)
1x Uncoiling, The

Action (10 cards)
1x Black Metamorphosis
1x Descent into Darkness
6x Govern the Unaligned
2x Scouting Mission

Equipment (2 cards)
2x Zaire River Ferry

Action Modifier (20 cards)
2x Bonding
3x Conditioning
1x Seduction
6x Shadow Play
3x Shroud of Night
2x Tenebrous Form
3x Threats

Reaction (14 cards)
5x Deflection
3x Eyes of the Night
1xObedience
3x On the Qui Vive
2x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Combat (26 cards)
5x Arms of the Abyss
5x Dark Steel
2x Oubliette
1x Shadow Body
2x Shadow Step
3x Taste of Vitae
2x Thrown Sewer Lid
5x Torn Signpost
1x Undead Strength

Combo (1 cards)
1x Fae Contortion
Last edit: 21 Jun 2016 18:57 by Tendoncutter.

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21 Jun 2016 20:42 #77246 by brettscho
Interesting deck - the Lasombra are a very fun clan, and it's nice to have a bleed, stealth, and combat discipline. So nice choice of clan. As for my suggestions, I urge you to take everything I say with a grain of salt. Ok, so first, I'd try to cut down your deck. Decks almost always run better with fewer cards. Personally I try to get my decks down to 70-75 cards. You may find that you want more or less cards in your deck, but I think there is no reason to ever run 90 cards (except in very specific trick decks).

As for specific card choices, the first thing I notice is the sparsity of blood recursion (meaning cards like Blood Doll that return blood to your pool). I see that you have a few, but you're going to want several more. Say 6 blood dolls in 90 cards. This is especially true if you want to capitalize on your Potence combat and blood gain through Taste of Vitae. If you are looking for Master Cards to cut to make room for extra Blood Dolls, I would consider cutting the Paths of Night. I don't see that they are doing all that much for you in this deck.

A couple of other random thoughts: I would strongly consider replacing all Scouting Mission with Govern the Unaligned (and don't cut any of these if you do cut down your deck - you need to make sure you can oust), and all your Threats with Conditioning. 1 blood for 1 pool is always a good trade. I'd also look into Disarm, it works great with Arms of the Abyss (dodge, punch for 1, Disarm). The other combat card missing is Immortal Grapple, which stops the opponent from ending combat. Of course that doesn't work so well with Arms of the Abyss, so maybe you don't want many. Otherwise here is a list of cards that I'd consider cutting:

1x Elder Library
2x Elysian Fields
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Papillon (only 4 of your crypt are Archbishops, not sure that's enough for this card)
1x Power Structure
1x Black Metamorphosis
1x Descent into Darkness
2x Zaire River Ferry
1x Seduction
1x Obedience
2x Oubliette (Not sure you need to be packing Combat Ends... but maybe)

Just a few ideas. Good luck, and let us know how the deck works for you!

Brett

Check out my VTES blog: Gaming with BS

I also host a google doc which separates the TWDA into clans . That means I track how often clans win, which crypt groups get used, and how many people attend events. You can access all of that info here:
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22 Jun 2016 07:59 #77248 by Tendoncutter
Cheers for the feedback, Brett.

I've played some earlier builds, where I found myself getting low on blood, because I did not have path of night in the deck, nor Badr, which made the combined blood costs of DOM and OBT-card, too much to sustain. I've prioritized Shadow Play and Elysian, in order to minimize the number of stealth cards. Intercept locations and cards, are primarily in there to protect the permanents.

Keeping blood costs down are also the reason for using scounting missions and threats, though I may also be coloured by getting slapped with two Archons Inv. at my last playmeet, so I've tried to strike a balance where I would keep the bleed to 3, unless I'd have a Sudden in hand. I'll look into adjusting this, though, as I've struggled to get the crucial opening Govern, in order to get the 7's out in one turn.
I hear you on the papillon, will use it for a NOS royals i'm working on instead, and get more Dolls in. Are Vessels preferable to Dolls, or is that debate still open?

I actually hadn't considered the disarm advantage of Arms of the Abyss, I just though it a very solid card, and a means of avoiding Agg. dam. I guess that's the reason for the S:CE cards as well, getting out of unfortunate situations. I recently got hold of Black Metamorphosis, and figured it would work well with Badr. Is it incompatible with Arms of the Abyss, though?

I'll try and shave the deck in general, as the combat package may be a bit too extensive, with both dark steel, signposts and different strikes.

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22 Jun 2016 08:02 #77249 by Ankha
Replied by Ankha on topic My first real deck. Lasombra
Your average crypt is expensive with few ways to recoup their cost. If you don't have Villeins, try putting Minion Tap in it instead, or more Blood Dolls.
Otherwise, you risk a miserable time being ousted very quickly and having to wait for the game to end.

The crypt is not great, especially the two 9-cap. First, they cost 9 which means 3 turns of influence. Second, they can't Govern down on each other. Since you're not playing votes, you could use some 8 cap vampires instead such as :

Giangaleazzo, The Traitor
Clan: Lasombra (group 4)
Capacity: 8
Disciplines: OBT POT PRE dom
Camarilla Prince of Milan: Any Lasombra controlled by another Methuselah can enter combat with Giangaleazzo as a (D) action. During your discard phase, if there are any Gehenna cards in play, Giangaleazzo can burn a blood to untap.

Saul Meira
Clan: Lasombra (group 5)
Capacity: 8
Disciplines: CHI DOM OBT POT
Sabbat. Black Hand: Saul may burn a blood during your discard phase to untap another ready Black Hand vampire.

There is another good vampire with OBT POT:

Otieno
Clan: Lasombra (group 4)
Capacity: 6
Disciplines: OBT POT ani dom
Laibon: Otieno gets +1 bleed when bleeding a Methuselah who controls a ready Guruhi.

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Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director
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22 Jun 2016 11:14 - 22 Jun 2016 11:30 #77252 by Tendoncutter
Wouldn't I face the same issue with 8-caps, unless I get to go 4th or 5th?

I do have 2 copies of Giangaleazzo, and did use him earlier, though I found his basic dominate to be quite a nuisance, for the blood invested in him.
I also found his special to be rather useless, unless I'd use Gehanna cards, which I struggled to use, while the specials of both current 9-caps seem a lot more applicable.

I haven't been able to find any of the other vamps mentioned, though I've mostly tried to work with what I already have, and found Badr to be reason enough to move to the 4/5 range, excluding the black hands of 3, among others.
The Archies, as well as Power Structure, when meant to give at least some voting power/defense, but I do have a little bit of everything,
Last edit: 22 Jun 2016 11:30 by Tendoncutter. Reason: Typos

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22 Jun 2016 14:27 #77253 by brandonsantacruz
Right now your deck is too toolboxy and as Brett said it has too many cards. If you can slim down your combat to simply Arms of the Abyss + Disarm (roughly 8/3) or drop all of it and rely just on strike: combat ends, then you will have that many fewer cards choking your hand when what you really need to do is stealth bleed.

Regarding crypt choices- Group 2/3 Lasombra are almost always better than the other groups. Lots of titles, superior disciplines, +1 bleed and other abilities. Under Siege is another reason to go with group 2/3 if you want to block. In either case I would include some more Information Highway, Dreams of the Sphinx (if you have them) and Zillah's Valley in order to get out your early vampires faster. Vessel is too slow and generally a bad deal.

Consider Wider View if you run a lot of copies of the same crypt cards so that you can swap out duplicates and then trade WV in for pool when needed.

Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

brandonsantacruz.blogspot.com/

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