Ahrimane deck with Mark V

Hi !
I just won a small tournament in Paris using this Ahrimane deck.
It's pretty resilient as it is but...
What would you change to make it better ?

Here is the decklist

Ahrimane Assault V2

Crypte 12
3x Muricia
3x Effie Lowery
1x Gentha shale
1x Sahana
1x Stick
1x Aiyana, the wolfcatcher
2x Darlene Killian

Master 15
5x Blood doll
2x Smiling jack, the anarch
2x Fame
2x Blessing of the beast
1x Archon Investigation
1x Fear of Mekhet
1x Monster
1x Lilith's blessing (this card grossly trumps Similing jack by the way !)

Action 13
4x Nose of the hound
2x Vulture's buffet
2x Abbot
3x Legal Manipulations
1x Heart of the City
1x Visionquest

Retainers / Equipment 8
5x Raven spy
2x Mark V
1x Ivory bow (mainly to contest it)

Modifiers 4
2x Squirrel balance
2x Aire of elation

Combo 8
8x Swiftness of the stag (pure gold !)

Reaction 23
11x Speak with spirits
3x Falcon's eye
3x Ears of the hare (should swap one for another Falcon's eye)
2x Cat's guidance
2x On the qui vive
1x Wake with evening's freshness
1x Delaying tactics

Combat 16
8x Carrion crows
3x Leapfrog
3x Taste of Vitae
1x Chameleon's Colors
1x Orgy of blood

That's all folks. Comments welcome !

Dear Reyda,

First congrats for the tournament win, which I think is the second with an ahrimane deck.
Second I retooled your deck to a 76 card redux version. Please take a look:

Ahrimane Assault V3 (Dr.Mafrune´s Redux version)

Crypt

Would likely include at least Janey Pickman and probably others like Celeste or Fincher could also fit the bill.

Master 13
2x Vessel
2x Blood doll
1x Smiling jack, the anarch
1x Fame
1x Blessing of the beast or Wider View
1x Archon Investigation or Direct Intervention
1x Fear of Mekhet or Pentex Subversion or Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Lilith's blessing
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x The Rack
1x Direct Intervention or Dark Influence if you only include one

Reduced the ousting mechanism, but increased pool gain & defense.
If you see the need of more ousting power, you could change 1 direct for an extra fame or jack.

Action 8
3x Nose of the hound
1x Engling Fury
2x Abbot
2x Visionquest..... maybe to much but thinking of including a gangrel antitribu.One could be changed for an entrancement or an army of rats.

Retainers / Equipment 9
3x Raven spy
2x Mark V...... maybe could change one for a sniper rifle or ivory bow, but lastly there are one of deck´s trademarks and my image also has one, so keep both !!
1x Mr.Winthrop or Aranthebes, the Immortal
3x Camera Phone (or combined with Tasha & JS)

My personal experience and taste as Vtes player drives me to include bleed permanents rather than bleed actions on reduced decks with limited bleed modules.

Combo 10
10x Swiftness of the stag

You said it, there are gold.

Reaction 20
10x Speak with spirits
4x Falcon's eye
2x Ears of the hare
2x Cat's guidance
2x On the qui vive

To appease you included the forth falcon´s eye which could be easily swapped for a delaying or third ears of the hare.

Combat 15
7x Carrion crows
3x Leapfrog
3x Taste of Vitae
2x Terror frenzy

Is quite intelligent of your part to include combat ends.
Terror frenzy or canine horde are a must for animalism decks and
the former combines perfectly with Mark V strategy.

Hopefully like it !!!

Cheers,

Dr.Mafrune

thanks for the suggestions.
I'll try to comment them on the fly :

Crypt

Would likely include at least Janey Pickman and probably others like Celeste or Fincher could also fit the bill.

Not a bad idea, but I want to avoid to play big vampires, and want the deck to be an ahrimane deck... A single copy of Janey can be great though because her special is fearsome Plus she can still get spiritus and become a "second Sahana". Ok for her !


Master :
mixing BD and vessel is a very good idea to fluidify the deck and reduce master handjam. Good.
Removing a smiling jack and a fame is bad though, because it's my alternative ousting methods. I think this will seriously weaken the deck. Pentex would of course be a good addition, but I try to avoid playing it. I'll include it though since I can easily defend it. Heidelberg : costs too much for the effect provided in this deck. The rack and pb:montreal are making games much longer, can be contested... I'd rather steal them from other players I think it has more to do with personal preferences.

Action :
I prefer vulture's buffet over engling fury.
adding a second visionquest is a good idea, especially if I put Janey in the crypt.
Aranthebes is a very good suggestion.

Retainers / Equipment
changing a raven for a winthrop is nice. I decided to play full ravens because they cannot be contested. But in the end it is so uncommon that you are right, I should play good ol'winthrop.

Camera phones : can be good. I should put one or two in the deck for more pressure on my prey.
I'd keep the Heart of the city and the 2 aire of elation which granted me surprise ousting in the 3 rounds and the finals.

Combo
10x Swiftness of the stag

You said it, there are gold.

Yes, I will increase these to 9 or 10

Reaction : ok to raise the number of falcon's eye. I'd keep the delaying though.

Combat 15
7x Carrion crows
3x Leapfrog
3x Taste of Vitae
2x Terror frenzy

You don't like Orgy of blood ? Seems like a prayer card, but can really help my troops when confronted to a warghoul or renegade garou I think... Free blood is always nice !

But, yes, the chameleon's and one carrion can certainly become terror frenzy. They trump assault rifles and also can make a fortitude opponent have a hard time paying all his cards, including sticks and target vitals *grin*


Thanks for your input

If you don´t like pb: montreal or the rack, I would rather recommend to include powerbase: barranquilla; which you can easily afford to defend without much zeal.

Another card which I lastly "tasted" was atonement. Is a bit expensive, but also does quite the job.

You're right, the first version of the deck had Barranquilla in it. I removed it and can't recall why. I'll put it back, thanks !

seems pretty good as it is

an Owl Companion and Army of Rats would be valuable. I'd swap one Fame for Tension in the Ranks, it can scare away cross-table interference.

in wall decks I personally like having both Antediluvian Awakening and Millicent Smith. this way I can either speed up or slow down the table, whichever helps me more.

for my own local meta I would add more vote defense, it's gotten to the point where I need at least 2 delaying tactics in every deck. and I like having at least one ally just to counter Daring the Dawn / Kiss of Ra. both the Ahrimanes werewolves have a free maneuver to use the Mark V, which is nice! but Underbridge Strays can work too, since they're cheaper and more versatile.