Cat Blast Fever

A Black Cat/Beretta deck based on ideas from this discussion .

I tried building an Anarch version with Undue Influence, but all the Anarch tech fattened up the deck and got in the way of the trick, i.e.: Black Cat gets a metric butt-tonne of Berettas and Nods them to her pals. So I switched to weenie CEL.

Any suggestions for improvement would be welcome, particularly ways to cut the deck size. 16 Beretta/16 Concealed Weapon in 80 cards almost works, but if I could cut the deck to 70 (or smaller?), it would probably work way better. But what to drop? There are lots of permanents in there. I might like to try to find room for a Dragon's Breath Rounds or two, maybe some Taste of VItae.

How do you intend to oust?
Several bleeds for 2 or 3 per turn.

How do you intend to keep from being ousted?
Tributes, permanent intercept, back-rushing.

What do you want your ready region to look like?
Black Cat and three or more well-armed assistants.

What do you want your average turn to look like?
Early game: Black Cat picks a fight (bleeding, rushing or blocking) and loads up on Berettas. After she's passed them around to her friends, it's just a matter of keeping the pressure on.

What's your metagame like? How do your opponents play?
All kinds of stuff. People here seem to like to spend time tooling up before throwing down.

What problems have you observed with the deck in play?
No Black Cat in the opening crypt sucks. The trick is also dependent on a good draw. One game, my opening hand had a couple Berettas/CW, and I just kept top-decking more, so Black Cat had lots of guns to pass around when Nod came up (which it did right away). The game before, though: no guns for the first dozen or so cards. Hence the desire to trim the deck size.

Thanks in advance!

Deck Name: Cat Blast Fever

Crypt (Capacity min=3 max=5 avg=4.67; 12 cards)
==================================================
1x Abd al-Rashid 5 obf CEL QUI Assamite:2
4x Black Cat 5 pot pre CEL Brujah:1
1x Brachah 5 for CEL PRE Brujah:2
1x Dodd 5 dom pre CEL !Brujah:2
1x Jimmy Dunn 4 for CEL POT Pander:2
1x Rigby, Crusade Vanguard 5 aus pot CEL PRE !Brujah:2
1x Sarah Brando 3 CEL !Brujah:2
1x Victor Tolliver 4 pot CEL !Brujah:2
1x Volker, The Puppet Prince 5 pot CEL Brujah:2

Library (80 cards)
=====================
Master (16 cards)
1x Amusement Park Hunting Ground
1x Fame
1x Gang Territory
1x Haven Uncovered
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Mob Connections
4x Nod
4x Tribute to the Master
1x Warzone Hunting Ground
1x Waste Management Operation

Event (1 cards)
1x NRA PAC

Action (6 cards)
2x Atonement
2x Bum's Rush
2x Harass

Equipment (22 cards)
16x Beretta 9mm
1x Flak Jacket
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Kevlar Vest
1x Laptop Computer
1x Pier 13, Port of Baltimore
1x Sport Bike

Retainer (5 cards)
2x Ghoul Retainer
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Mr. Winthrop
1x Tasha Morgan

Reaction (3 cards)
3x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus

Combat (27 cards)
4x Blur
16x Concealed Weapon
4x Flash
3x Psyche!

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Sep 14, 2012 09:17:13)

I've tried berettas. I want to like them. Really I do. Even if you can get them for free, they take up card space (and the concealed weapon to go with it!)

Try adding another Black Cat. 5 copies in a 13 vampire crypt is ideal.

Consider using .44 Magnums. You can cut 16 cards (8 guns and 8 concealeds) at the cost of paying 1 pool for each. (if your deck is 90 cards, be lucky if you see 4 of them anyway.)

You could also consider using a mix of Saturday Night Specials and .44s and including Suppressing Fire.

From my experience a combination of hand size increasers like Dreams, Eldar Library or even Visit from the Capuchin are your friend to get the combo of. Also maybe Spezialization.

4 !Bru seems a bit prayerish for Gang Territory to work, maybe double 1 or 2 of those and use Wider View to get rid of addtl. Cats also.

Also IMO a bit low on rush, Frontal Assault?

Cheers
alf

Had a deck like this one... with vast wealth and more piers (you need the pier on black cat asap).

Didn't worked very well... you end up getting with all the deflected bleed on the table, and if you rush everyone you are just destroying the table...

Its fun, but you will be lucky if you get more than 1 vp...

And if you get a weenie dementation deck or something like that you won't get enough rush actions/pool to survive.

Berettas are a piece of crap... you need 2 to get one maneuver. Its better to pay 1 for a magnum.

4 rushes, 1 haven uncovered? How do you get them in combat?

Here's my version:

Deck Name: Beretrap
Author: floppyzedolfin
Description:
A tribute to Tom.

Crypt (14 cards; Capacity min=1 max=5 avg=3.29)
===============================================
1x Angel 2 cel Brujah:1
1x Antoinette DuChamp 1 cel pre Caitiff:2
5x Black Cat 5 pot pre CEL Brujah:1
1x Carter 2 cel !Toreador:2
1x Itzahk Levine 3 cel pre Ventrue:2
1x Kanya Akhtar 2 cel Assamite:2
1x Mariana Gilbert 4 cel PRE Toreador:1
1x Nik 1 cel Caitiff:1
1x Sarah Brando 3 CEL !Brujah:2
1x Uma Hatch 3 cel pre Brujah:1

Library (90 cards)
==================
Master (17)
2x Fame
2x Frontal Assault
3x Haven Uncovered
5x Nod
2x Tribute to the Master
3x Vessel

Event (1)
1x Dragonbound

Action (15)
10x Bum's Rush
5x Legal Manipulations

Equipment (15)
15x Beretta 9mm

Combat (42)
15x Concealed Weapon
10x Flash
3x Sideslip
4x Taste of Vitae
10x Trap

Created with Secret Library v0.9.3. (Sep 14, 2012 14:08:43)

Hum... other version:

Deck Name: Black Cats Rush
Created By:
Description:

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 15, Max: 20, Avg: 4,58)

---

1 Parmenides CEL qui 4 Assamite
1 Abd al-Rashid CEL obf QUI 5 Assamite
5 Black Cat CEL pot pre 5 Brujah
1 Brachah for CEL PRE 5 Brujah
1 Victor Tolliver CEL pot 4 Brujah Antitribu
1 Sarah Brando CEL 3 Brujah Antitribu
1 Dodd CEL dom pre 5 Brujah Antitribu
1 Jimmy Dunn CEL for POT 4 Pander

Library: (90 cards)

---

Master (17 cards)
1 Al`s Army Apparatus
1 Warzone Hunting Ground
1 Vast Wealth
3 Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1 Filchware`s Pawn Shop
1 Waste Management Operation
3 Blood Doll
3 Vessel
2 Fame
1 Pentex Subversion

Action (12 cards)
12 Bum`s Rush

Reaction (5 cards)
5 Wake with Evening`s Freshness

Combat (29 cards)
8 Pursuit
8 Psyche!
4 Sideslip
5 Infernal Pursuit
4 Taste of Vitae

Ally (2 cards)
1 Arms Dealer
1 Repo Man

Equipment (25 cards)
3 Laptop Computer
3 Leather Jacket
6 .44 Magnum
4 Pier 13, Port of Baltimore
3 Sport Bike
6 Kevlar Vest


All minions have CEL.

Black cat equips the stuff, the other minions fetch it either with heidelberg or by themselves (leather jacket to stay untapped at the end of the turn in that case).

Repo man goes for the bikes and is also a Daring the Dawn blocker. When he is done he can also grab a .44 and rush the weaker ones.

Laptop increases the base bleed.

Off course that putting a pier on Black cat early in the game is a must.

Vessels and blood dolls to keep the pool at an acceptable levels and infernal pursuits instead of dreams or visits.