Ishtarri gunners

(Ankha got there first, let's see if I can cancel this message.)

Well I'll attempt to answer where you stated you are weak against, lack of defense against power bleeds. First I gotta ask, what type of power bleed? Is this chuck 5 down the pipe and everyone's bouncing it around, Is this stealth bleeds for 5, or is this someone over-stretching your wakes and pours down bleeds for 5?

Because each one has a finesse solution (Terra Incognita, Familial Bond, more wakes), but the best overall solution is adding more wakes. That and at least 2-3 copies of Archon Investigation (or Major Boon) should help immensely.

Your Ayes did confuse me, I admit. But if animalism hell (DotB) or Rotschrek is prevalent in your scene, 2-3 is not a bad call. Just be sure those are discretionary slots after the rest of the tight deck is made. If you have a Savannah Runner (+1 int for Laibon cel, or complicated wake), it might not be a bad supporting splash.

However focus on surviving power bleeds because that's what you are saying takes you out of the game most.

Edit: Apparently, the cancel button also submits the post...

Many times, advice given on the net is heavily influenced by the metagame of the players giving the advice. Don't get me wrong, all the advice so far have been nothing short of fantastic. Would be good to get a feel of your metagame, though.

After looking through your crypt selection, and based on the comments about how combat is prevalent and yet at the same time powerbleeding is commonplace, am I right if I say that your meta is heavy on slow decks and that games tends to take longer than 2hrs each?

I just feel that with Ayo's special and multi-acting from Freak Drives and Forced Marches, Enchant Kindred should have a place in there. If you can bring out vamps and pay for gunz without expanding pool, it will go a long way towards your much needed defence. If I am right about your meta, Enchant Kindred will also give you an edge over the other players who are busily setting up.

Might I also recommend Hidelburg Castle (to do gun tossing and some blood management if necessary), as well as dropping all the flash for 2-3 more Resist Earth's Grasp. Between the Castle, Concealed Weapon, Resist and Forced March, you should not have problems getting guns on your minions.

First of all, thx to all of you, your advices and critics have been very constructive anda helpful, even though finally they are not seen in this deck version, i evaluated every comment you made.

Some of the advices taken:

- Defense module: No secrets, Mr. Wintrop and KRCG instead of familial bond. Worked like a charm
- Procurers, out. I had them for the blood gain, but finally they were not that necessary.
- 1 more .44/concealed: really accelerated the gun availability.
- Archon investigation. No comments, worked as expected.

Here's the final list (version 2.0)

Deck Name : Ishtarri gunners 2.0
Author : Miketheknife
Description :
An Ishtarri B&B deck


Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 10 average: 8.25
3x Ayo Igoli (10) Ishtarri (group 4)
3x Undele (9) magaji Ishtarri (group 5)
2x Jibade el-Bahrawi (9) Ishtarri (group 4)
2x Ubende (7) magaji Ishtarri (group 4)
2x Elizabeth Conde (5) Ishtarri (group 4)


Library [90 cards]

Action [10]
2x Bum's Rush
2x Despiral
3x Fleetness
1x Harass
2x No Secrets From the Magaji

Action Modifier [8]
5x Forced March
3x Freak Drive

Action Modifier/Combat [2]
2x Resist Earth's Grasp

Action Modifier/Reaction [1]
1x Ishtarri Kholo

Combat [36]
5x Blur
6x Concealed Weapon
4x Flash
2x Majesty
7x Psyche!
3x Pursuit
2x Rolling with the Punches
2x Skin of Steel
5x Taste of Vitae

Equipment [8]
7x .44 Magnum
1x Kduva's Mask

Master [20]
1x Archon Investigation
2x Aye
1x Fame
2x Haven Uncovered
2x Ishtarri Warlord
1x KRCG News Radio
2x Mbare Market, Harare
2x Perfectionist
1x Port Hunting Ground
1x Powerbase: Luanda
3x Vessel
2x Villein

Reaction [2]
2x On the Qui Vive

Retainer [3]
2x Ilomba
1x Mr. Winthrop


Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Sun Oct 09 21:00:09 2011]


Some comments that came up during the testing:
- I really didn't get to give a real use for On the Qui Vive. I thought about take them out (i need some comments about this, plz)
- Undele: this guy really helped me after the first hour. The hand started to jam with guns and concealed, but he helped me fix my hand.
- Despiral + kduva's mask + fleetness: perfect oust strategy. Worked really well, along with fame.

I only tested the deck once, because i got really satisfied by how the deck behaved (i got to play 80 cards)
I got 1 vp (almost a 2nd, but my prey defended extraordinarily). I was predated by an anarch S&B (light bleed) and predating a Brujah trophy hunter (a really-REALLY strong deck)
I ousted the brujah bleeding with despiral+ fleetness (first i burned Dmitra thx to ilomba's strategy), and defended against bleed rushing backwards, blocking and "archon-ing".
Later my prey was a ravnos control deck, the anarch S&B got ousted and my predator came to be a Toreador! guns deck (w/ glasser rounds). I almost oust the ravnos, but first i got totally smacked by the toreador.
Anyway, the deck performance was good, it may still need some minor tweaking, but at least it's up to a competitive level in my metagame.

the1andonlime wrote:

Many times, advice given on the net is heavily influenced by the metagame of the players giving the advice. Don't get me wrong, all the advice so far have been nothing short of fantastic. Would be good to get a feel of your metagame, though.

After looking through your crypt selection, and based on the comments about how combat is prevalent and yet at the same time powerbleeding is commonplace, am I right if I say that your meta is heavy on slow decks and that games tends to take longer than 2hrs each?

I just feel that with Ayo's special and multi-acting from Freak Drives and Forced Marches, Enchant Kindred should have a place in there. If you can bring out vamps and pay for gunz without expanding pool, it will go a long way towards your much needed defence. If I am right about your meta, Enchant Kindred will also give you an edge over the other players who are busily setting up.

Might I also recommend Hidelburg Castle (to do gun tossing and some blood management if necessary), as well as dropping all the flash for 2-3 more Resist Earth's Grasp. Between the Castle, Concealed Weapon, Resist and Forced March, you should not have problems getting guns on your minions.

Really, my description about my metagame was not very accurate.

Our playgroup is really small, the largest tournament have 15 players. The regular number is nearly above 5 players.
In a 15 players tournament, you see:
- 4 to 7 control decks (lots of block, bounce, prevention). Predominant disciplines: Auspex, Fortitud, Dominate, Animalism (and sometimes protean). Often they have an aggresive combat module.
- 3 to 4 heavy combat decks (rush and burn). Predominant disciplines: Potence, Protean, Fortitude, Celerity.
- 0 to 5 bleeders. Normally, heavy bleeders with dominate, but the spectrum is really wide (from low caps dominate bleed w/block denial to large cap S&B and some S&B based decks with toolbox support)
- 0 to 2 Weenies. (normally none, but never more than 2)
- 0 to 2 vote decks. Presence based large cap votes. Lately, not seen often.
- Rarely an imbued shows up.

The ready zone always looks full of large vampires, almost always with votes. Lots of permanents too.
Because of this characteristic is that the weenies or smart bleeders that show up have a good chance of wining, or are beaten up early in the game (i'd say that their chance to win a game is about 70%, always depending on their prey-predator early hand). One of our players that shows up not to often plays a pander vote deck with events: he always make it to the final (with that deck).

I hope this description is more accurate ^.^

Cheers!