Gangrel trouble

my preferred method of Gangrel combat (other than combat ends) is to use straight up animalism combos to dish out the damage. bats, crows, beasts. then go back to close range and use claws to FINISH HIM mortal kombat style. more often than not, 2 crows + 1 agg will be enough to burn.

claws have gotten worse in the metagame because fortitude prevent has become more common, probably thanks to !ventrue combat decks, but also because it counters Target Vitals. the underrated card Gangrel Revel has become a bit more useful here, giving +1 strength all around to break through casual prevents.

I'd like to agree with that approach, but what do you gain from burning them?
- If you torpor dunk them, you can benefit from Fame, Dragonbound, Carver, Path of Death...a whole bunch of stuff.
- If you burn/eat them with near full blood, you can at least fill up that vamp or all your vamps (ritual o' bitter rose).

I just don't see the benefit of burning somebody with no blood on them.

yesferatu wrote:

I just don't see the benefit of burning somebody with no blood on them.

Being real sure he is gone for good. Destroying people with blood on them is very hard and/or expensive, and with Lillith Blessing, Giant blood, and some other blood pump a torped vampire with 0 blood can still cause you headaches. It's situationnal, but worth it.

(not that claw usually allow that. Without +strength, you can only burn vampire that are on their way to torpor, meaning they were already at 1 blood maximum before)

yesferatu wrote:

I'd like to agree with that approach, but what do you gain from burning them?
- If you torpor dunk them, you can benefit from Fame, Dragonbound, Carver, Path of Death...a whole bunch of stuff.
- If you burn/eat them with near full blood, you can at least fill up that vamp or all your vamps (ritual o' bitter rose).

I just don't see the benefit of burning somebody with no blood on them.

because I'm tired of cross-table meddling that always happens after a 1-agg dunk.
"Can you rescue my justicar, good buddy? I'll even pay both blood"
"Why sure, good buddy, but I want your votes so I can parity shift the evil evil Gangrel combat deck"
"Anything for you, good buddy"

or alternatively, they play Golconda on their torped vampire and act like the whole thing never happened. Info Highway, Zillah's Valley, the same bigcap is back again. this has become pretty common.

if you want to Diablerize, that's good too. but I don't think Claws alone is a good combat strategy to go with Fame.

Have you tried lay Low?

Action Modifier/Combat Blood Cost: 1
Requires an anarch.
Only usable when a blood hunt referendum passes and would burn this anarch. Move this anarch to the uncontrolled region (breaking any temporary control effects). Any cards and counters on this vampire remain with him or her (but are out of play as long as the vampire remains uncontrolled).

I won some tables with a weenie/midcap pro rush pro deck i ran. That was a while ago mind you, but after the release of httb. Haven Uncovered and frontal asault are your friends

You can, but the anarch mechanic takes a while to set up.
My preference would be !Gangrel with conspiracies.
Even then, they can't bounce - don't bleed for very much - and there aren't a lot of them. It's like they're handicapped in every major game mechanic.