Deck Challenge - Girls will find I'm no pushover

Joscha wrote:

I think that combat decks are very difficult to play right. You need great mastery to make the right decisions. And even then you could miss the right point to swing the balance to your favour. That does not mean combat decks are weak. But if you want to be sure to score some VPs without great effort you'll take an easier deck.

In addition many players are scared by a combat deck so much that they often like it if it leaves the table.

I think these two points are reasons that so few combat decks win tournaments.

Well here is my experience: I played all kind of bleed and vote decks for 3-4 years, played 20+ finals with them and never won a single tournament. Then I switched to combat and won 5 tournaments within 1,5 years and had a game win at least at almost every single tournament.

Izaak is right, it depends what you consider a combat deck. I consider my Brujah Alastor a combat deck even though it has 7 Parity Shifts in it and can act more than often at 3 stealth.

I don't think combat is harder to play, it plays just in different way. Most people don't get this difference and play combat decks like any other deck, that's why it won't work well. Imo.

Mephistopheles wrote:

Well here is my experience: I played all kind of bleed and vote decks for 3-4 years, played 20+ finals with them and never won a single tournament. Then I switched to combat and won 5 tournaments within 1,5 years and had a game win at least at almost every single tournament.

Well, that's funny. I experienced the opposite. What I think is sad for me, as I like combat decks more and think they are cool .
For me combat deck means mostly rush. Regarding rush I often have the difficulty in deciding how hard I have to hit my predator before I can go after my prey. In more than some games I wrecked too much havoc on my pred. because he didn't stop to threat me. Sometimes I gave my prey too much time to weaken my grandprey until it was too late. And more often I got crosstable-pressure as the table wanted to see me out. I won a tournament with hard-hitting Euro-Brujah. But that deck again relied heavy on Second Trads and wasn't a rush-deck.

I admit that some sort of short-chain combat like your Alastor-Brujah do work good (although I think in your deck Dmitra Ilyanova is the main strength, closely followed by your good use of many cards that support two different purposes at once. Not only the big guns + Alastor + Seconds. I love that deck btw.). But I would rate such a deck more as a toolboxdeck.

At the end of the day all depends on how well you feel with your chosen deck. If you get the flow with combat decks thumbs up. I saw many players failing with those decks. Not because the decks were bad or VtES benefits other playstyles but because it was difficult for said players to make the right decisions.
If you can master those difficulties combat decks are strong weapons.

@Joscha: I am happy to hear you like my Brujah deck. I consider it a combat deck because from 9 out of 10 time I oust my current prey by Fame and/or Dragonbound and torprizing his vanmpires. I think rush only decks are quite weak, so I prefer to build decks that have alternatives and good pool gain in it. That is one of the strength of the Girls will Find combat version decks.

This deck has been pretty successful (GW's, tournament finals) and I think only rarely it didn't work at all. IIRC it has demolished some girls decks, even while those usually pack several Pentex, since it often burns minions in combat and because it's not centered solely around Enkidu.
This isn't the final decklist as I apparently haven't saved that one anywhere, I'm pretty sure the final version had LB's (well duh), and I'm not sure if it had those rush cards and whatnot. It should have more IG's since you can never afford to not torp your predator's minion and suffer some 6 pool damage for that.

Noah's Ark of Fighting

4x Enkidu, The Noah
4x Black Annis
1x Nails
2x Fergus Alexander
1x Bill Butler

16x Master
8x Villein
2x Golconda : Inner Peace
2x Fame
2x Information Highway
1x Tension in the Ranks
1x Giant's Blood

8x Action
1x J.S. Simmons
1x Tasha Morgan
2x Raven Spy
4x Bum's Rush

10x Action
4x Forced March
4x Swallowed By The Night
1x Enkil Cog
1x Freak Drive

56x Combat
10x Immortal Grapple
8x Torn Signpost
6x Undead Strength
8x Taste of Vitae
6x Claws of the Dead
8x Drawing Out The Beast
8x Flesh of Marble
2x Adaptability

Well, Izaak has already stated, that combat trumps Girls (even girls with aids).

But combat solely doesn't get you GW.

Girls deck is a master deck, and has master decks strengths and weaknesses. One weakness is, that a master deck can't play but one master card outside of it's turn.

When you consider Girls, you need to understand why it plays Aksinya: she allows deck to cycle master cards outside it's turn while defending it's pool.

This is what you need to understand. So, unless all players team up against Girls, you shouldn't redirect bleeds to it. Especially if you are it's predator. Don't redirect to girls prey either, if possible.

Otherwise, just go and play your game. Bleed at least twice during your turn, keep pressure against girls and try to convince your grand prey to help you.