Unnamed Barrenness by Lev Jasper

Creator: Lev Jasper (Berkeley, CA)
Debut: Alastor - San Jose Qualifier
Date: Saturday, December 17, 2011
Played by: Jeff Kuta
Prelims: 2 GW, 7 VPs, top seed
Finals: 0 VPs (though it was strong enough to win)

So, I have to tell everyone about this deck. IT IS FREAKING AMAZING. If only I had been able to play with it--at all--before this tournament, I think the result would have been better. It is so strong that I was able to gather 2 GWs and 7 VPs without having played the deck every before (though my friend Lev tuned it well).

Here's the deck I recently played (pardon the lame formatting):

UNNAMED BARRENNESS

Crypt (12)
4x The Unnamed
8x The Horde

Library (60)
Masters (21)
6x Ashur Tablets
5x Maleficia
2x Wider View
1x The Barrens
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Fragment of the Book of Nod
1x Jake Washington
1x Metro Underground
1x Pentex(tm) Subversion
1x Perfectionist
1x Secure Haven

Actions (17)
12x Barrenness (burn option)
3x Unleash Hell's Fury (burn option)
1x Homunculus
1x Veneficti (burn option)

Action Modifiers (17)
4x Lost in Crowds
4x Psalm of the Damned
3x Psychomachia
2x Elder Impersonation
2x Enkil Cog
1x Earth Control
1x Forgotten Labyrinth

Combo (4)
4x Evil Eye (burn option)

Event (1)
1x Scourge of the Enochians


I can't say enough about how good this deck is. How potentially broken it is.

The setup is pretty obvious. Get an Unnamed in play with Maleficia and either a Homunculus or Metro Underground, then wreck the table while gaining 4 pool every round trip. There are 20 (!!) burn option cards in this 60 card deck, *all of which are playable later after Ashur Tablets recursion*. This is crucial. You can pitch any Maleficia cards until you get Maleficia on a minion. Feel free to discard Barrenness (burn option), Unleash Hell's Fury (burn option), Evil Eye (so strong...burn option) and Psalm of the Damned (regular discard or Barrens/Fragment) until you're ready to setup.

Get Maleficia, or superior Maleficia and get to work. Barrenness provides a free untap, AT INFERIOR MALEFICIA. Make sure every other vampire on the table is smaller than 10-cap. Unleash Hell's Fury and your defense is complete. Evil Eye takes care of nasty actions, AND LEAVES THE ACTING VAMPIRE TAPPED!

The biggest weakness of this deck is against stealth bleed. I was ousted in the finals when the two other remaining players ganged up on me and bounced a stealth bleed for 7 followed by a stealth bleed for 6. That was coupled with the fact that I never got superior Maleficia in the entire game due by my own recklessness (I had discarded 2 early), plus *TWO* Sudden Reversals of the first 2 I tried to play.

Having played it, this deck needs either 1x Archon Investigation or 1x Lost in Translation to deal with heavy bleeds. AI is probably the better choice since this deck will (eventually) burn minions. I burned two Inner Circle members the first game I played and took that game 3 VPs to 2. In fact, the tournament winner, Michael Courtois, played that deck and won the whole thing in the finals, as my prey.

Good luck trying to be the first to win a tournament with this monstrosity, and congrats to whoever pulls off that feat.

To be sure to be able to use Psychomachia maybe ?

Yes, to either enable the Unnamed or defend against possible negative consequences of others cards.

Psychomachia on offense.
Banishment, Murmur of the False Will, inferior Redirection, Lost in Translation on defense.

It's also useful to limit voters who want to use Reins of Power, Ancient Influence, or Political Stranglehold. Bloat decks which rely on Voter Captivation are not as effective either. 2-capacity difference is HUGE.

It is easy for this deck to get 1x The Unnamed and 3x The Horde into play mid-game. The Unnamed gets 2x Maleficia and each of The Horde have 1x Maleficia. In the game where I burned two ICs, I took each of them down to 9-cap early on. Then after an Ashur Tablet reset, took 4x Barrenness actions (untap after inferior Maleficia, no need to pay Infernal!), and burned them with the Scourge. Very brutal.

It looks intriquing but not as strong as all that. One nit: Unleash Hell's Fury is burnable but it require Daimoinon, not Maleficia - so once you get a minion out, it's not really burnable. (Doubt it matters, but I'm just saying...) Without having played it or played against it, it appears vulnerable to bleed and maybe to rush combat (at least to some extent; limited to taking out Hordes, once the Secure Haven is in place). Granted, the hand-editing powers of the deck look awesome and the powers of some of the maleficia cards certainly rock. But I'd think it would falter against a predator with smaller minions that just plain did too much to stop. There are only four Evil Eyes and they don't work against cardless actions and once they're discarded, they can't be regenerated quickly. The UNF are likely a lot weaker if you're suffering table hate. (If I know you're the only guy who's likely to diablerize my minion or try to stop me from rescuing it, I'm not going to be as intimated by them. And nothing you hold, including Evil Eyes, will help you intercept a rescue except another Unleash Hell's Fury - which is unique.)

If you're allowed to get three Hordes and The unnamed on the table and not get messed with or bled a lot, I'd say you'd probably have a pretty strong chance of winning. But that's a big 'if' - especially once folks see the deck. I'd think it would attract a lot of table hate and that would be its demise in a lot of tournaments. But, you know, sometimes weeny bleed decks win tournaments in spite of the same thing.

fredsct wrote:

And nothing you hold, including Evil Eyes, will help you intercept a rescue except another Unleash Hell's Fury - which is unique.)

Not even that: UHF only blocks actions against you.