Menele's Magical Fists

This is meant to be a more social-type deck, but I did notice a VERY strong combat Metagame when I went to Melbourne for the Continental Championship (4 rush combat decks out of 26 players).

So I present Menele's Magical Fists

Deck Name : Menele's Magical Fists
Author : Juggernaut1981
Description :
POT THA AUS Rush/Wall featuring Menele as crypt acceleration and pool regain. Let Menele lose blood to getting new minions, then rush a nice full vampire (preferably of your prey's) to reclaim that blood via their face (Grapple + Blood Rage). I'm thinking that maybe there should be some Signposts in there, but the usual Catch-22 is... What do you take out?

Nose of the Hound is good because it is a stealth-rush with a maneuver. I've been tempted to put in more permanent +strength but I know I don't own the cards to facilitate that and I don't feel like sacrificing any firstborn-children to the God of EBay.

So, rush, tag them with Pot+Tha, bleed out them out behind with your numerous relatively cheap minions. Keep the pressure up with Smiling Jack and ensure you have a nice pile of pool with Powerbase, the Rack, Menele's Text and slurping off blood when and where you can.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 10 average: 7.08333

4x	Menele	(10)			Brujah	(group 3)
2x	Polly Kay Fisher	(8)		archbishop	Ventrue antitribu	(group 4)
2x	Muhsin Samir	(6)			Tremere	(group 4)
1x	Nickolai, The Survivor	(6)			Tremere antitribu	(group 4)
1x	Cohn Rose	(5)			Tremere	(group 3)
1x	Lectora	(3)			Tremere antitribu	(group 4)
1x	Martin Franckel	(3)			Tremere	(group 3)

Library [86 cards]

Action [18]
4x Blood of Sandman
4x Magic of the Smith
6x Nose of the Hound
4x Rutor's Hand

Combat [30]
6x Apportation
10x Blood Rage
6x Immortal Grapple
8x Taste of Vitae

Equipment [4]
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Hand of Conrad
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Veneficorum Artum Sanguis

Master [18]
4x Blood Doll
2x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
4x Villein
2x Wash

Reaction [16]
6x Eyes of Argus
4x On the Qui Vive
6x Telepathic Misdirection

I think that the Blood Rage's should be Blood Furies. At least Blood Fury x8, Blood Rage x2. As you said, you cannot find space for the damage-dealing Torn Signpost, so you should consider the next way to get damage.

If all goes well, Taste of Vitae will allow you to recuperate the blood you spend on Blood Fury. In the ideal case, you will neither gain nor lose more than with a Blood Rage, but you will will deal 50% more damage to the opposing minion. There is a big difference between 2 and 3 damage.

You don't really need all those IGs. If you're only going to do 2 damage, why bother with a grapple? I say go with more Torn Signposts instead, with fewer IGs. When you hit, you need to hit hard. I have Blood Fury deck starring Cassandra, Magus Prime, and I rarely care that I can't get past S:CE. That's really the case if you focus on blocking.

Since there are no bleed cards in the deck, you are relying on inherent bleed, attritiion and Smiling Jack to oust. Remove at least 3 Noses of the Hound. You also don't need 4 Bloods of Sandman. See, I'm already making room for your your Torn Signposts. I feel your deck is lacking enough combat cards.

The Hand of Conrad and Veneficorum Artum Sanguis take the place of skill cards, but are much more expensive: pool, MotS action card, 1 blood. Your smaller-cap vampires don't really need or , at least not at that cost. If you absolutely rely on getting the Bowl of Convergence and therefore need all those MotS, I suggest replacing those pieces of equipment with something like a Hawg, IR Goggles, Kevlar Vest, or .44 Magnum - in other words, equipment that helps with combat.

18 masters seems excessive for a combat deck. I would say reduce the number of Blood Dolls to 2.

You also need 5 Meneles. I think you should ditch at least one copy of Polly Kay Fisher and consider replacing Cohn Rose with a smaller capacity vampire.

You should have at least one Pentex Subversion in case you have to contest.

The discipline equipments aren't that good for you. palatial estates good on menele.

also, I think there's a 7 cap lasombra with POT THA DOM.

Menele and the Rack is a great combo, but you won't be blocking anything with 4 untap cards, a rutor's hand, and such anemic combat. Get serious about blocking, or drop all those masters in favor of a hunting ground or something.

You have only 3 vampires with , and Menele is not one of them. If you want bounce, play Deflection. If you want wakes, play disciplineless ones.

Perhaps not in this deck (and perhaps indeed yes), but I always found that Menele is nicely paired with Rebekka, since they share THA and PRE (and pot, which is relevant here), and her stealth is always welcomed.